In Her Sights (29 page)

I don’t know what you expect. I don’t run a fucking
doctor’s office, able to schedule contracts that fit my time. The target is
coming through on a fishing trip during this timeline. Deserted location; it’s
the best option available.

She counted to three and pulled in several breaths.
I can’t
leave my home unprotected right now with all the stuff I have hidden in here.
Do you want to risk the place burning to the ground while I’m gone, and have
all these weapons revealed? The sooner I have information on Janet Parker, the
quicker I can wrap this up and take care of that for you.

What do you want, then?

She rubbed her forehead, dreading her upcoming schedule
already.
Janet Parker. Get me what you can on that name. She’s involved
somehow.

I’ll get it as fast as I can. Any details to help narrow
her down?

Start with someone in the state or a connection to Arnold
Pritchard.

I’ll get what I can.

A note popped up, saying he’d closed his message box. She x’d
out as well and rubbed her temples. Business was taken care of, so that just
left the bracelet. Lexie propped her head against her fist and caught sight of
the dagger. She walked over and picked it up, flipping it in her hands.

“What’s so special about you?”

It didn’t answer, not that she expected it too.

She removed the dagger from the case and turned it over in
her hands.

The cool handle fit her palm with a tight grasp and had a
nice balance. The detail in the silver was just exquisite. The gold around the
handle carved like rope. Exactly like Mom’s bracelet.

Maybe she had dreamed it all up. Started imagining things in
what she saw as clues to some answers.

She sheathed the dagger, put it back on the floor, and went
in search of Julia. It was time to put this mystery bracelet to bed.

Julia was downstairs, watching TV. Lexie leaned on the back
of the couch next to her. “When Mom died, was she wearing a silver bracelet
with a flat piece on it for an engraving?”

Julia started and covered her heart. “Lexie, how many times
do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me?”

She winced. “Sorry. I don’t do it on purpose. Do you
remember it?”

Julia stood again. “A bracelet like that doesn’t sound
familiar, but I’d have to look to be sure.”

“I don’t remember a bracelet either, but,” she shrugged, “I
don’t know.” She wasn’t explaining the weird thing with the punching bag.

Julia clicked off the TV and stood. “I have all those things
together for when you’re ready. Let me run to your parents’ room and see.”

“Thank you.” Yeah, she could have looked herself, but Lexie
didn’t like looking through her mother’s things. Even in the safe, her mother’s
things were tucked in a box in a back corner. A few items remained in her
parents’ bedroom, and she for sure wasn’t going in there. She walked around the
den, arms over her chest, and waited.

Seconds ticked. Then minutes. She took another walk through
the room, then moved toward the stairs, finding Julia coming down them.

Julia just shrugged. “I searched through the safe and their
things in their room. I didn’t see a bracelet at all like you described.
Nothing with an engraving.” Julia shrugged again. “Sorry, honey.”

Lexie clutched the banister as she slouched with the
disappointment. “Thanks. I’ll be on my balcony for the rest of the afternoon.
Have my supper sent up when it’s ready. Something light.”

She climbed the stairs, beat tired and falling more and more
in love with the idea of sleeping in that hammock in the shade on her balcony.
She’d rested at Clayton’s, but now those few hours were feeling more like a nap
and less like solid sleep.

As she neared the balcony, she feared sleep was the last
thing she’d get. As if that was new.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Clayton sat back in his seat. If he didn’t know any better,
he’d swear someone was taking a hammer to his forehead. “No, I don’t know when
I’ll get the dagger. I don’t know if I’ll get it at all.”

Shane, his former father-in-law, sighed into the phone. “I
need that dagger.”

“Apparently so does everyone. I don’t know what you’ve
gotten me mixed in, but it’s complicated. I’m going to be honest here: if I get
my hands on it, I’m returning it to the family it belongs to. Direct.”

“But—”

“No buts.”

Shane cursed. “I need the collection money off the dagger.”

“Why?” But he already knew why. To buy his next bottle of
whiskey. Or whatever he happened to have been drinking these days. Which was Clayton’s
fault. The man had gone from the best in the investigation business to a drunk
when his daughter and granddaughter burned to death.

“I need to make my rent. It’s been hard, and I’m behind.”

Clayton sighed. “I won’t give you the dagger, but if you
send me your renter’s information, I’ll catch you up there. That’s the best I
can do.”

“I don’t want your charity.”

“Then sleep on the street.” Clayton disconnected and clipped
the phone back to his belt.

He knew exactly what he would be doing if he paid Shane’s
rent. Starting a never-ending circle. But he just…what else could he do?

He stepped out of his truck onto Lexie’s driveway. In the
few hours since he’d dropped her off, he’ debated back and forth whether
visiting her later would be a good idea. As he stood in front of her house, he
was still thinking not, but he wanted to. Most likely, she already knew he was
here.

He waited at the door, not quite sure what to do. Before, he
wouldn’t have thought twice about heading upstairs to find her, but now…now,
things were different. And he didn’t know what he was doing. Crossing the line
from the legal system into taking matters in his own hands was a step that left
him fumbling.

He didn’t get the chance to figure it out because the door
opened. Julia stood there, smiling. “Mr. Addison. What a surprise.”

He returned her smile. “Does Lexie have a minute?”

Her smile only warmed as she backed up and encouraged him
in. “She’s upstairs in her hammock, resting.”

He nodded. “I’ll see myself up.”

“Mr. Addison?” She clasped her hands in front of her. “She’s
not a bad person.”

He smiled at her. “I know.”

He eased up the stairs and down the hallway to her room. Her
bedroom door was parted, and he stepped in. Her balcony doors were wide open.
The breeze lifted and dropped the sheer white curtains. Beyond them, he could
see her in the hammock. He moved through the room until he stood over her. Her
eyes were closed, and she looked happy. As happy as she had while in
his bed. He knew that because while she’d slept, he’d checked on her a few
times. Not to see if she’d left or worry over what she was doing, but just to
see her sleep. There was nothing complicated about her when she was asleep.

“Are you going to just stand there or sit with me?”

He started. “How do you do that?” Her mouth opened, but he
put his hand up, stopping her. “Never mind. I’m not sure I want to know.”

That brought a bigger smile out of her. “My bedroom door
slightly creaks for reason.”

He sat on a tan lounge chair a good four to five feet from
her. “So far nothing on Janet Parker. Thought you’d want to know.”

She rolled to her side and plucked at the white netting of
the hammock. The wind picked up and lifted the short hairs around her face. “I
have a contact looking for her, too. Since the law isn’t an issue there, maybe
we can dig up more information.”

“I guess you’ll let me know what you find.”

She nodded.

He rubbed the top of his head. “What a mess.”

She moved over on the hammock and patted the space next to
her. He eased on, taking one move at a time since his entire body ached. Careful
not to flip them, he stretched out on his back. She put her head on his chest
and her arm across his stomach.

He gave in and wrapped his arm around her back. She sighed
and as he lay there, the breezed slightly rocked them. She was silent, but her
fingers stroked along his side. He still didn’t get it exactly, how she could live with it. He got why she did it. Just not how she
lived with it. “Do you walk around paranoid all day?”

“In the beginning, yeah. The least little thing would nearly
give me a heart attack, but I eased into it. I’m not saying I don’t get scared
anymore, because I do. Every time I go out, it’s a risk. One slip, one stumble,
and my life is over.”

“But you still do it.”

“Because the results are still worth it to me.”

“Do you think one day they won’t be?”

She was silent for a moment. “I don’t know.”

“What about when you have kids?” She stilled, and he wished
he could take the question back. He fumbled around for an excuse, but couldn’t
think of one. He swallowed, pushing the pain back, but let the words he never
spoke out. “I’m just saying, they change things.”

“You know this because?”

Her tone wasn’t humorous, but questioning. He wasn’t certain
she breathed as she waited for confirmation, or clarification. Unfortunately,
there was only confirmation. “Because I’ve been there.”

“How old?” Her hand slid up his side and rested over his
chest. Over his heart. “When it happened?”

“She was four. How did you know?”

“I didn’t, but I wondered about the way you looked at Nate’s
triplets and just during other moments. How did it happen?”

“Arson. They were both lost when fire was set to our home. I
had been away at the time.”

“They?”

God it still hurt. Hurt so damn much. “Kate, my late wife,
was home alone with Audrey.”

“Why?”

He took a deep breath, trying to decide what to say and what
not to say. He knew he’d rather not talk about it. “You don’t know this
already?”

She frowned. “You haven’t told me.”

He just stared at her.

Her gaze dropped. “I didn’t look you up. I wanted to know
about you from you.”

She really amazed him sometimes. Really just made his chest
expand. “We lived in Georgia. I was a police officer. I found something I
shouldn’t have, and wouldn’t let it go. They paid for it.”

Her thumb stroked his chest. “What were they like?”

The smile hit him hard with a bittersweet punch. “Audrey was
smart. Already reading. Kate had loved reading, and so she read to her a lot. Audrey
had wild imaginations.” His throat was tight. “When I’d walk in the door every
evening, she would run to me, jump in my arms, and tell me about the crocodiles
and dragons she’d slayed earlier that day.”

Lexie tipped her head up. “She wasn’t the princess in the
tower?”

He chuckled. “No. She had the sword and the cape. Kate would
buy her costumes of knights, ninjas, rangers, anything. You even showed Audrey
a princess outfit and she would turn her nose up and say
that’s for
girrrrllsss
. Kate didn’t want her sitting around, waiting to be rescued all
the time.”

“She sounds like a smart woman.”

The corner of his mouth pulled. “She was. Crafty too.” He
laughed. “Not arts and crafts. She couldn’t cook, and you never asked her to
help paint or fix anything. But if she needed me to do something, she knew how
to push all my buttons to get it done.”

“How’d you meet?”

“High school. We were from a smaller town. Didn’t date until
after we graduated. One day, we just looked at each other and it clicked.”

“What about the rest of your family?”

He dropped her gaze. “I have a sister. She’s married. Two
kids. Mom and dad. They all live in Georgia. I don’t see them often.” Or at
all.

“Why not?”

“After they burned my house down, the cops I questioned made
it clear I should get out of town. That I still had more family to burn through
if they needed to.”

“So you left.”

Had to. He turned his back on them and left them all. Didn’t
know what else to do, but he knew he couldn’t stomach losing any more of his
loved ones. “I left. Reid has family here. We came here. My father-in-law was a
private investigator. I already knew the basics of how it worked. Reid and I
started. We worked out of a small apartment until we could afford more. One day,
the business just took off to where we are now.”

“Your family never comes to see you?”

He closed his eyes. “I asked them not to. I think they
believe it’s just too hard for me to see them. I miss them, though.”

“I’m surprised you never tried flushing these dirty cops out
again.”

God, he thought about that all the time. “I can’t risk more
of my family.”

She asked nothing further, and he said nothing else. He was
afraid to know what was going through her mind. And he wasn’t sure he could
bring himself to tell her no. Of all things he’d wanted the most since that
night he drove home to find his house on fire was to see those cops get their
due. She was likely thinking about it right now. She had the resources to
handle it, too.

Chapter Thirty

Lexie stretched and sat before her computer. She’d lain with
Clayton in that hammock until well after dark. Not another word had been spoken
about his lost family…or anything else. They had simply laid there, in each other’s
arms.

She’d thought long and hard. One thing she discovered: she
knew having Clayton in her life was a good thing. When he said he understood
why she was motivated to do her work, she believed him now. Another thing she’d
discovered: she had grown to care for him very much.

Lying in his arms, her eyes had misted while hearing his
voice catch and hitch as he spoke the few words of the tragedy. She heard a lot
of sob stories in her life and they didn’t get to her anymore. In a way, she’d
grown used to hearing them. It wasn’t that way Clayton and she knew then she’d look
into the story.