Secrets and Lies (8 page)

“No! I will not calm down.” She started to pace the floor. “That’s my mother and they won’t tarnish her good name. And you…you believe them.”

“I don’t,” he stated calmly.

She stopped pacing. “But you just said you were going to check out the docks.” She watched him, sitting there calmly eating his blueberry muffin. How could he be so calm?

“I’m checking it out to see if, on the off chance—”

“They’re right,” she interrupted him. “You’re checking it out to see if that bitch is right.” She placed her hand over her mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she shook her head. “I shouldn’t have said that.” She didn’t curse; it wasn’t lady-like, or so she had been told.

He shrugged. “I’m checking it out to see if maybe somebody is paying them to get rid of the body. I doubt it, but it wouldn’t be a full investigation if I left any stone unturned.” He looked at the flush in her cheeks. “Now, what I want you to do is go to work, try to focus on what you need to do today, and let me handle this. Do not,” he stressed, “do not go down to the docks.”

“I…”

He held up his hand. She shook her head. How could he know she was considering going down there? Was she that transparent? She wanted answers. She wanted to walk right up to those guys and ask them if they had her mother’s body. She didn’t care if they took it she just wanted it back. If the cops weren’t willing to work her mother’s case they could at least let her put her to rest next to her father’s body.

She was so angry. There was no way anybody had said those things about her mother. She had met the doctors her mother had worked with. Doctor Livingston came to the house often, and then there was Doctor Taylor, Doctor Baker, Doctor Hancock. They all raved about her mother. They all said how much potential she had to be the best in her field. They all vouched for her. All of them had written the glowing recommendations that had secured that great new job for her mother—a job within the hospital that would allow her more stability in her schedule. She was going to work under one of the best surgeons in the state. She was going to have the dream job she had been working so hard for. But she never got a chance to start it. She never got a chance to live the rest of her life. She wouldn’t let the cops ruin her mother’s good name.

“I mean it, Thena. Do not, go down to those docks. Do you hear me?”

“I hear you,” she said, but she wasn’t going to agree. She wanted answers and those men down at the docks could give them to her. She worked around men most of her life; she could handle the docks with no problem…at least she saw it that way anyway.

“Come on,” he stood, taking his plate to the sink and rinsing it before loading it into the dishwasher. “I’ll take you to work.”

“”I wash dishes by hand,” she said absently.

“What?”

She shook the fog from her mind. “I’m sorry…I just meant to say that I need to wash those two dishes before we go. It won’t take long. Just a few minutes, okay?”

He nodded. “Hey,” he placed a steady hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. Trust me to figure this out for you.”

She nodded. She did trust him. She just wasn’t sure she had a whole lot of time left for him to figure it out.

He had told her not to go. He had warned her of the dangers involved in snooping around in what most people considered the worst part of town. He didn’t think her going would be a problem, at least not today. He had taken her to work. She didn’t have a car so he didn’t think she was a flight risk. He should have known with the emotional state she was in she would disobey his direct order and go put herself in harms way. She might not have had a car, but there was still the option to take a taxi, an option she chose to utilize.

He had been sitting near the docks himself, trying to blend in while he watched what was going on. There was a high level of security, and not the legal kind. He saw at least three men with concealed weapons bulging underneath their shirts. From the outline he could see they looked like nine mils. Walking up to their corner of activity wasn’t going to be easy. He had made a brief call to Thena. For some reason he was worried about her. The way he had left her this morning, dropping a literal emotional bomb on her and then leaving her at work, he was worried. He just needed to know she was surviving the day without crying a river in her office.

The moment he called her office and the receptionist told him she was out on a personal errand he knew she was doing something stupid, something like snooping around in an area where the dead bodies weren’t usually recovered. He tried to tell himself she was smarter than that. He tried to tell himself that she wouldn’t, by any means, defy him on this, but then the hairs on the back of his neck went on edge and the goose bumps rising on his arms told him she would do something that stupid.

He decided to get a little closer, see if she were already there somewhere. It was a risk, but he had to take it. He couldn’t risk staying at a distance only to find out later that she had indeed defied his order to stay away from the docks and gotten herself killed because of it.

When he saw her running he knew trouble was right behind her.  The moment she got close enough he wrapped one big hand around her mouth and snaked the other arm around her waist, pulling her into a hidden recess and securing her to him. The woman was going to drive him crazy…if she didn’t get him, or herself, killed first.

Thena felt the vice-like grip before she had a chance to process what was happening. How had they gotten in front of her? Why hadn’t she listened to Thomas? She reached her stiletto healed boot back and kicked. She made contact, evident by the harsh growl that followed. She was ready to try again when she heard his voice. The first word was a muffled curse, one she didn’t fully understand in word, but clearly understood in tone. He was not happy with her reaction to him.

“It’s me. Stop moving around,” he hissed near her ear. She stopped moving immediately, allowing herself to be held flush against his body. He released his hand from covering her mouth and allowed it to settle on her neck. Any other man and the movement would have scared her, but with Thomas it hadn’t. In fact it had the complete opposite effect.

Her breathing went from jagged with fear to caught with arousal. The way one hand settled on her belly, holding her flush against his body, and the other settled on her neck while his thumb stroked a smooth line up and down her skin, was intoxicatingly arousing. Why did this man have that effect on her every time she was near him? She was in danger and still she wanted to sink into his embrace and lose herself there.

She heard footsteps running past their location, heard the muffled chatter that they’d lost the “woman.” Thomas kept her secure until he felt it was safe for them to move on, and then he caught her arm in a death grip and tugged her to his car that was parked just a few blocks away.

He didn’t speak to her, not even after he pulled away from the curb. His jaw was locked tight, as if he were biting it to keep from cursing her out. When he pulled off to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere she knew she was in for trouble. He was going to castigate her for her actions, and there was nothing she could say to calm his anger.

“I told you not to go there. And you did it anyway. You could have gotten yourself killed. Is that what you’re trying to do?”

“No…”

“Don’t,” he yelled, “ever do that again or I swear to God I will…” He growled gripped the steering will hard as if fighting for control.

“You don’t understand,” she tried to explain.

“I don’t understand what? That you’re a fool woman if you think you can deal with this on your own? I just guess I thought you were smarter than that.”

She started to cry, the action seemed to settle him at least a little. “You don’t understand, Thomas. I needed to know. I had to go. They lied on my mom. I know they lied about her and I needed to know why.”

“These aren’t the kind of men you just walk up to and ask for the truth, Thena. They kill people who pose a threat to them, it’s what they do.”

“You don’t understand what it was like, Thomas. When my mom vanished my dad…he hung on for me, but he was never the same.” She wiped away a tear. “We were never the same.” Her voice lowered to a near whisper. “And I won’t let the memory of her be tarnished with lies.”

“Thena,” he caught her chin in his hand and turned her head to face him. “I promise you we’ll get answers, but you have to let me do this my way. I can’t get those answers if I’m worried you’re off putting yourself in danger.” He brushed his fingers across her cheek. “Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

“Yes,” she nodded. Maybe it had been a dumb move. She had taken a cab, which meant she didn’t even have a quick means of escape. Had Thomas not turned up she could have been captured…or killed.

“I’ll drop you off at your office and I’ll pick you up when you’re through with work.”

“I—”

He held up his hand and she knew that meant he wanted her to shut up. “I’m picking you up.”

“Got it,” she nodded. “I am sorry, Thomas. I guess I just let emotion outweigh intelligence this time.”

“Don’t let that happen again. It could get you killed.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I’ll try not to…”

“Don’t try; just do it.” He put the car back in gear and merged back onto the road.

Trying to keep an eye on Thena was starting to inhibit his ability to do his investigation. He could have done the surveillance he wanted to do that morning and still make it to talk with the former detective who had worked the case to begin with, but instead he found himself wrapped up in trying to keep Thena out of trouble. He sighed, now he was picking her up and taking her home. He had turned into a chauffer on this case. That wasn’t her fault at all. She had assured him several times that she could find a ride without him, but he hadn’t wanted her to. He hadn’t wanted her to spend more time with this Kyle guy, because he was sure that’s who she had in mind when she said a “friend” could give her a ride to and from work with no problem at all.

He snorted. As if he wanted that to happen. So instead of letting her get chummier with a “friend,” he decided to play chauffer. “What’s gotten into you, McGregor?” He mumbled under his breath as he stepped off the elevator.

He saw the masked man trying to drag Thena down the hall toward the fire escape. “Hey!” He sprinted toward them, knowing he needed to get to them before the man could get her through the backdoor. The man pushed her to the ground and bolted out the door, opting to save himself rather than keep trying to pull a woman who was going kicking and screaming out the door with him. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” she said quickly.

“Stay here.” He went after him, but he wasn’t fast enough. He reached the downstairs exit with just enough time to see a black Toyota speeding away. The license plate was muddy and all he could make out was a ZX in the middle. That wasn’t going to make it easy for him, but he was determined to find out who that car belonged to.

He went back up to where Thena had been waiting for him. She was dusting herself off, straightening her clothes from where she had messed them up during the struggle.

“That’s it,” he approached her. “I’m going to pick up a few clothes from my office and I’m staying with you, at least for tonight.” Maybe he would stay longer. Or maybe he would eventually need to break his own rule about having women at his house and take her there. He wasn’t going to leave her alone. He kept a change of clothes at his office for those times when he worked all night. He had put the shower in off from his office for those nights when his case didn’t allow him to return home for the night. Usually those cases meant he had been in his car doing surveillance all night, but this time he would be at her place, pulling protection duty. This was third attempt on her life. The first had been a near hit and run, the second was the bullets fired outside his office, and now this. But why hadn’t the guy just killed her in the office? It would have been easier to take her out there instead of trying to drag her out to a car. Unless somebody needed information from her. She had been poking her head into this case a lot more than she should have. Maybe somebody had seen her down on the docks earlier that morning. Maybe somebody knew she wasn’t going to let this go.

He shook the questioning thoughts from his mind. No matter what the reason was behind these attacks he needed to get to the bottom of it if he planed to keep her alive, and safe. He was going to be chuffer, bodyguard, private detective and anything else he needed to be for this case. After he dropped her off tomorrow morning he would make arrangements so that over the weekend he could make the drive he hadn’t been able to make today. If he knew anything about Thena, he might want to make arrangements to take her with him or she might just go out there and get herself in trouble again—and this time he wouldn’t be there to help her. Tomorrow he was going to have to formulate a new plan of attack, but tonight, tonight he was going to only focus on her safety.

Chapter Five

T
hena stepped inside the dusty old precinct. Somebody should have told the city old buildings kept their charm when people actually took care of them. She shook her head. The unkempt condition was not her concern; her mother’s missing body was. Somebody there was going to explain to her how they let a body vanish from their morgue; and more importantly, why they weren’t doing anything about it. Thomas had told her to stay out of trouble and not to ever go back down to the docks. She had kept her word. She wasn’t at the docks. And there was no way she could get in any trouble at the police station. She had taken a taxi there and she could take one back to the office without getting in trouble—and more importantly, she could do it without Thomas ever finding out. Even though this wasn’t the docks, she wasn’t sure he would be at all happy with her decision to visit the precinct. She wondered, briefly, if she should turn back, but since she was already there it didn’t make sense to waste cab fare.