Vulnerable: (McIntyre Security Bodyguard Series - Book 1) (8 page)

Shane walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Want something?”

“Yes. Beer,” Tyler said.

Shane tossed a bottle of beer to Tyler and grabbed a sports drink for himself.

Jake and Liam walked into the kitchen.

“The IT report on the library PC just came through,” Jake said, handing a sheet of paper to Shane.

Shane skimmed the report quickly, his expression grim.

“Let me see that,” Tyler said, grabbing it from Shane. Tyler scanned the report and blanched. “God damn it,” he said, looking a little pale. “He’s really looking for her.”

Tyler handed the report back to Shane. “I was hoping he’d forgotten about Beth. He’s a pedophile, and she’s not a kid any longer.”

“Yeah, but she’s the one that got away,” Shane said, hating the words as soon as they came out of his mouth. “He probably blames her for the past 18 years he spent locked away.”

“What can we do?” Tyler said, dropping onto of the barstools. He took a long pull on his beer. As the reality of the situation hit him, he seemed a little lost.

“I have covert surveillance on her 24/7,” Shane said. “But I want to escalate that to close personal protection.”

Tyler shook his head. “No close bodyguards, Shane,” he said. “I don’t want to scare her.”

“She should be scared, Tyler!” Shane said, slamming his fist on the counter. He took a deep breath. Fighting with Tyler right now wouldn’t help Beth. “Kline is a free man, and he’s looking for Beth. She needs to know that.”

“No,” Tyler said, coming off the barstool. He began to pace. “Shane, you don’t realize what this would do to her!”

Shane wished he could take Tyler Jamison into the ring for a few rounds. Tyler was lean and muscular, probably pretty damn tough, but Shane didn’t think he was used to the kind of intense hand-to-hand combat that he and his brothers preferred.

“What about the roommate?” Shane said, thinking of the redhead. “Are you going to brief her?”

Tyler nodded. “Yes. I’ll update Gabrielle. She needs to be fully aware of the situation. It’ll make her more vigilant.”

“Aren’t you afraid the roommate will spill the beans to Beth?” Jake said.

“No,” Tyler said. “Gabrielle won’t tell her. She won’t want to scare Beth.”

“That’s an awful lot of pressure on the roommate,” Liam said. “If your sister finds out what’s been going on behind the scenes, she’s going to be pissed, at both you and Gabrielle.”

“I’ll deal with that if and when the time comes. Right now, I just want Beth to live a normal life. I don’t want her to feel like she’s under a microscope.”

“At least let me get someone inside the library,” Shane said. “Miguel can get into the library, but he doesn’t have any visibility into the Special Collections room where Beth works. I want someone in there with her, Tyler.”

The detective mulled it over, then shook his head. “She’s perfectly safe in there,” he said. “She works in a secured area, and she has a co-worker in there with her. The threat’s not inside the library, Shane. It’s outside where she’s vulnerable.”

“She spends eight hours a day in there,” Shane said. “That’s eight hours when we have absolutely no visibility on her. I don’t like it.”

“No,” Tyler said. “I don’t want to risk it.”

Shane watched Tyler pace. The guy obviously loved his sister, and he just wanted to keep her safe. Hell, they all wanted her safe. But Tyler was wrong to hide this from Beth. And now Shane was caught in the middle. He’d gone against Tyler’s wishes by making contact with Beth in the bookstore. When Tyler found out – and eventually he would – he’d want Shane’s head.

And he will find out, Shane thought. The sooner the better, as far as Shane was concerned.

Chapter 7

Monday morning brought pouring rain, so Beth drove her electric blue Mini Cooper to work. The Mini was her treat to herself after finishing graduate school and getting her first professional job. It was a bare-bones model, but she loved it nonetheless.

She arrived just as another employee was leaving, and she happily scored a spot close to the library’s main entrance. Huddled beneath her black-and-white polka dot umbrella, she raced into the building dodging water puddles.

“Hi, Beth!” Devany Roth waved eagerly from the reception desk.

“Hi, Devany,” Beth said, trying to catch her breath. She shook the raindrops off her umbrella and folded it up. “How’re you?”

“Not bad for a rainy Monday,” Devany said. “But I guess that’s not saying much, is it?”

“No, it isn’t,” Beth said, chuckling.

“Do you want to grab lunch today?”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Beth said. “I’ll come get you at noon.”

Beth sat at her desk staring blindly at her computer screen. She’d been trying to make sense of the same e-mail for the past ten minutes, but hadn’t made any progress. Her encounter over the weekend with Shane McIntyre kept replaying in her mind like an animated GIF, looping endlessly, over and over. She didn’t know what to make of him. But after the way she’d run out on him, he probably hadn’t given her a second thought. She’d missed her chance.

“Beth? Honey, are you okay?”

She glanced up to at her co-worker, Mary Reynolds, who had walked up to her desk. Mary was petite, with short gray hair cut in a pixie style that seemed very appropriate for her elfin face and large hazel eyes.

“I’m fine,” Beth said, trying for a convincing smile.

“You seem preoccupied this morning,” Mary said.

Beth shrugged. “I had a busy weekend. I guess I’m just tired.”

The phone on Beth’s desk rang, and Mary wandered back to her own desk as Beth answered it. It was Devany.

“Hi, Beth. There’s a student asking to come into the Special Collections room. He doesn’t have an appointment – do you have time to fit him in? He asked for you specifically.”

“Sure, I can fit him in,” Beth said. Her next student appointment wasn’t for another hour yet. “Send him up.”

Beth stayed at her desk until she heard the knock on the Special Collections door. She opened the door and saw a familiar face. First-year student Andrew Morton stood at the door.

“Hi, Beth,” Andrew said as he came into the room.

“Hi, Andrew.” Beth stepped out of his way, trying to mask her surprise. Andrew was starting to become a regular.

“Thanks for seeing me on short notice.” Andrew laid his backpack on one of the study tables in the room and pulled out a sheet of paper, which he handed to Beth. “I need these books,” he said.

She quickly scanned the list. “Have a seat, and I’ll get your books,” she said, heading for the stacks.

“How was your weekend?”

Beth jumped when she heard Andrew’s voice directly behind her, causing the tiny hairs on the nape of her neck to stand up.

“It was fine,” she said, taking a steadying breath. It was an innocent enough question; there was no need to overreact. Still, he made her nervous.  She stopped when she reached the shelf she was looking for, and he careened into her.

“Sorry,” he said, grabbing her shoulders as if to steady her. His hands clasped onto her far longer than necessary, and she had to shrug out of his hold. His cologne was overpowering, and she was finding it a little difficult to breathe. Much more of this and she’d need her inhaler.

Beth pulled away from Andrew and took a book off the shelf. When she turned, Andrew was standing so close she had to step back to avoid bumping into him. Apparently, he was not well versed on the concept of personal space.

“I’ll put this on your study table,” she told him, sidestepping him and heading back. “You can get started on your research while I locate the rest of the books on your list.”

Andrew followed Beth back to the study table.

Beth noticed Mary watching them through the glass walls of their office.

“Have a seat, Andrew,” Beth said, pointing at a chair.

He sat reluctantly, and Beth went to retrieve the other books on his list. She laid them on his table and told him to call for her if he needed anything else. When she returned to her desk, Mary was waiting for her.

“That boy has a crush on you, Beth,” Mary said, her eyes on Andrew as he cracked open one of the books. “This is probably the fourth time he’s been in here this month. I thought I was going to have to peel him off you. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just having a little trouble breathing, that’s all. He went a little overboard on the cologne.”

Beth could feel the signs of an impending asthma attack. Her chest tightened and it became harder to catch her breath. Her anxiety levels began to spike, and she felt flushed. When she started coughing, she retrieved her inhaler from her purse, shook it, and administered the medication.

Mary gently rubbed Beth’s back. “Are you okay?”

Beth nodded, not yet able to speak.

“In the future, if Andrew needs anything, I’ll deal with him,” Mary said.

Beth took a tentative breath. “Thanks,” she said. “He gives me the creeps.”

* * *

The week progressed as usual for Beth. Every day that passed was a day she didn’t call Shane. She’d programmed his cell number into her phone, but she had yet to push the send button. She just couldn’t do it. Every time she’d tried to get with someone, she ended up having an ugly, all-out panic attack, and she just didn’t want Shane to see her like that.

Andrew showed up at the Special Collections room once more Wednesday afternoon, again without an appointment. This time Mary offered to help him, while Beth hid out in the packing room.

“Beth, I’m afraid you have an unwelcome admirer,” Mary said a few minutes later, as she walked into the back room. “He made his excuses and left as soon as he realized I would be the one helping him today.”

Beth looked up from the box of periodicals she was unpacking.

“He was very unhappy,” Mary said, looking concerned. “He seemed... agitated.”

“Maybe if I avoid him for a while, he’ll get tired of stopping by.”

“Maybe,” Mary said. But she didn’t seem convinced.

That night Beth had a dream that she was in the Special Collections room long after the library had closed. The lights were dimmed, and she was in the stacks, wandering aimlessly. Suddenly someone was there with her, right behind her. She could feel hot breath on the back of her neck.

“Mary?” she said, turning. But deep in her heart she knew it wasn’t Mary.

“Hi, Beth.”

Andrew.

“Do you have an appointment, Andrew?”

He shook his head, his tousled blond hair sweeping across his forehead. “No.” He smiled at her.

“Then you shouldn’t be here.”

“I don’t need an appointment to see you.” He reached out to touch her face. She backed away, and he pressed forward. She kept backing away, until her back hit the wall. He advanced on her, an arrogant grin on his handsome face. The lights went out suddenly and it was pitch black in the room. Strong, rough hands grabbed her wrists, squeezing them as he pinned her to the wall.

“Andrew, stop it!” she cried. “You’re hurting me!”

The temperature dropped precipitously, and her skin shivered from the cold as he began to tear the clothes from her body as if they were made of wet tissue paper. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t get free. Then he pushed her down to the floor. He crouched over her, and she could feel his foul, hot breath on her face.

“You can’t hide from me, little bitch. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

That gravelly voice was unmistakable. That wasn’t Andrew!

She took a deep breath and screamed as loud as she could.

“Wake up, Beth!”

Beth’s eyes shot open, and she was blinded by the light hanging over her bed. Gabrielle stood beside her bed in her PJs.

“Gabrielle!” Beth gasped, sitting up in bed. She struggled to catch her breath, her heart pounding.

“Are you okay?” Gabrielle said.

“It was Andrew. He... it was like the other time, but it was
Andrew
. And then it wasn’t Andrew; it was Kline.”

Beth lay back in her bed, gasping as she willed her heart and respiration rates to slow.

Gabrielle switched off the ceiling light and climbed into Beth’s bed. “Go back to sleep, Beth. It’s okay.”

* * *

“You can’t keep this up, Shane,” Liam said, walking into Shane’s office Thursday morning.

Shane glared at his youngest brother. “Don’t you ever knock?”

He’d been operating on about four hours a sleep each day all week, and it was starting to take its toll. Diane had managed to avoid him completely for the past two days, resorting to e-mails and voice messages to communicate with him. He’d started to notice people going out of their way to avoid him in the hallways and gym. Even his own brothers had made themselves scarce the past couple of days.

But it wasn’t the lack of sleep that was making him so damned irritable. It was Thursday, and Beth hadn’t called. He’d finally accepted the fact that she wasn’t going to. If he wanted to see her again – and he sure as hell did – then he’d have to arrange it himself. She wasn’t going to make it easy for him.

The problem was, he didn’t know
why
she wasn’t calling. Was she simply not interested? If that was the case, he’d leave her the hell alone. He wasn’t a stalker. But if she was just too shy to call – or worse yet, too afraid – then he wasn’t giving up on her. He’d do whatever it took to get past her fears.

Liam dropped into one of the chairs in front of his desk. “We all know what kind of hours you’ve been keeping this week, bro,” he said, crossing one leg over the other.

“Liam, go away.” Shane looked up from the report he’d been reading and glared at his brother’s smug face. “Isn’t there something you should be doing? If not, I can fix that.”

“What the hell’s gotten into you? Jake told me you made contact with the Jamison girl last week. Is that true?”