Читать книгу Secret Protector - Ann Peterson Voss - Страница 8

The barista raised a brow, the silver hoop skewering her flesh glinting in the coffee shop’s warm lighting. “Why’re you asking about Wade? He’s harmless.”

Gray didn’t know about that. As soon as he’d left Natalie in the parking garage, he’d walked over to the coffee shop to get some information about the man who’d been following her. “Do you know his last name?”

She switched on the milk steamer and for a moment Gray couldn’t make out a single word over the loud whirring and slurping sound of the machine.

Finally she set his cappuccino on the counter. “Will that be all?”

“Wade’s last name?”

She rolled her eyes. “I said I didn’t remember it. I’m not a damn directory.”

“He followed a woman from this shop tonight. I want to determine if this could be a problem.”

“Oh, her. Yeah, I saw that. He’s been watching her for a couple weeks now. Every time they’re in here together. Coffee shops are the new pickup spots, you know.”

“You think he’s trying to ask her out?”

She tossed him a shrug. “She often comes in after work, and he’s here. Like he’s waiting for her but can’t get up the nerve to say hello. Like I said, he’s harmless.”

She might be right. He’d seemed nervous in the parking ramp earlier tonight, but there wasn’t anything overtly threatening about him. Still he had to wonder about a guy who would follow a woman through the deserted downtown streets at night. If he wasn’t trying to intimidate her, then he must be the most insensitive and clueless man on the planet. And that was saying something.

The bleat of his cell phone interrupted his next thought. He looked down at the display. Devin Kendall. Gray glanced up at the barista. “Thanks.” He grabbed his cappuccino and held the phone to his ear. “Yes?”

“Jolie just called.” The CEO’s voice sounded curt and authoritative, as always. “They’re getting ready to leave the bridal shop.”

“Okay. I’m on my way back.” He was about to end the call when Devin spoke again.

“What did you find out about the creep you said was following my sister tonight?”

He’d filled Devin in as soon as he’d seen Natalie safely inside the bridal shop. “A first name. Wade. Not much else. He could be just some aspiring Romeo.”

“In Natalie’s case, that’s reason to worry.”

Gray was curious about the statement, especially since he’d like to cast himself as that Romeo, but he resisted the urge to ask for the story behind the comment. Everything he knew about Devin Kendall suggested he was an overprotective big brother. Gray doubted he’d be eager to share stories about his sister’s love life, especially with a hired bodyguard. “Don’t worry, I have it under control. I’m heading back to the bridal shop now.”

“Good. Don’t let her see you this time.”

“I think I’ve figured out a way to deal with that problem.”

“Does this have something to do with wanting me to say I’ve hired you on as the new alarm system wunderkind on Kendall’s security team?”

“That’s part of it.” Gray had decided to tell Devin all of his plan when he’d talked to him the first time. Now he wasn’t sure he wanted to mention the rest in light of Devin’s comments about Natalie and Romeos. At least not yet.

“Fine. Whatever your plan is, just make sure it works. I don’t want to have to explain why I hired a bodyguard behind her back. She would be less than understanding.” Devin hung up.

Gray stuffed his phone in his pocket. He had a short hike back to his car. He’d better hurry.

“I thought that was you.”

He recognized her voice immediately. How could he not? Her words the day of her husband’s funeral echoed in the back of his mind every night when he closed his eyes and every morning when he opened them. “Sherry.” He turned around.

Her eyes glinted hard like shards of black glass and on her finger sparkled the ring she’d gotten from Jimbo, the man he always thought of as his brother. “You have a lot of nerve, coming back to St. Louis, Grayson.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. She was probably right. But as out of place as he now felt here, he didn’t feel comfortable anywhere else, either. He couldn’t spend his life running away. “It’s my home, Sherry. Just like it’s yours.”

“And Jimbo’s.”

He nodded, his chest aching at the bitter edge in her voice. “Yes. And Jimbo’s,” he said in a quiet voice.

She blinked as if fighting tears and shook her short, dark hair. “I hear you got yourself a job as a bodyguard. What a laugh. Does your client know that you aren’t the type to lay down his life for anyone?”

He stood straight as if taking a drill sergeant’s abuse and met her eyes full on. “You’re wrong.”

“Wrong? No. If I was wrong, Jimbo would be here right now instead of at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. I wish I was wrong about you. I wish it every day.”

The pain aching in her voice stole his breath. “I miss him, too, Sherry.”

“Yeah, right.”

He opened his mouth to protest, then shut it without speaking. Whatever he said wouldn’t change how Sherry felt about him, what she thought she knew. He wasn’t sure how she’d found him, but he could tell it wasn’t an accident. She’d come looking for him. And she looked prepared to take a pound of flesh.

He blew out a breath, and it condensed into a cloud in the cold air. Truth was, he couldn’t blame her. Whatever cruel words she wanted to hurl, he deserved them. He’d said worse to the reflection in his mirror. The bottom line was that one of the best men Gray had ever known had died and Gray hadn’t. And if Jimbo’s wife couldn’t forgive him for that fact, she wasn’t alone.

Gray couldn’t forgive himself, either. “I’m so sorry, Sherry, but I have to go.”

“Don’t want to face the truth?”

He shook his head. He felt for Sherry. And he missed Jimbo, his friend, his brother. If he could change things, he would. But right now, the best thing he could do was steer clear and focus on his job. He had to get back to the bridal shop before Natalie left. He couldn’t change the past, but he could shape the future. His future. His redemption.

And it all started with keeping Natalie Kendall safe.

NATALIE WAS RELIEVED when she finally pulled her car through the gate surrounding the Kendall Estate, the iron scrollwork closing securely behind her. It used to be that her aunt and uncle often didn’t bother to close the gate. They just left it open, the quiet upscale neighborhood giving them little reason to worry about security. But with all the trouble the family had been having, that practice had changed.

She looked up at the traditional gray stone mansion and let out a long, relieved breath. Maybe it was the strange run-in with the guy who’d followed her from the coffee shop, or maybe it was Jolie’s mistrust of Gray, but she could have sworn a car had followed her home from the bridal shop.

She let her car idle in the driveway and eyed the street through the tall fence. The street was quiet. No headlights. No car creeping past, slowing down to see where she’d turned. Nothing.

Maybe she was losing her mind.

She shifted her sports car into gear and continued past the main house where her aunt and uncle lived. She’d grown up in the Kendall mansion, and living inside its walls still made her feel like a child. That was why, after she’d returned from college, she’d moved into the guest cottage in the rear of the estate. It was easier to deal with the memories if she wasn’t living them every day.

Of course, all that had happened the past two months had brought those memories out, front and center. And even her little house among the gardens couldn’t hide her from them.

She followed the winding drive past the pool house and rose garden and cove of evergreens until she reached her cottage, nestled among tall oaks. On the verge of shedding their leaves, the trees reached twisted limbs into the night sky. A scene that reminded Natalie far too much of Halloween horrors.

Or much worse, the real kind.

She parked in her little garage and let herself into the house. She loved her cottage. With only two bedrooms, one she’d transformed into an art studio, the place was cozy, warm on nights like these, and safe. At least it always had felt that way.

Now every part of her life felt uneasy.

She switched on the light and stepped into the kitchen. The window over the sink stared at her like an unblinking eye. She pulled the blinds, crossed her arms over her chest and tried to rub warmth through the jacket sleeves.

She was being ridiculous, freaking herself out this way. And over nothing. Sleep. That’s what she needed. A good night’s sleep and the morning light would make the world look much different. Tomorrow she would be able to put everything back into perspective. The man who’d followed her … Gray … Jolie’s nerves … she just needed sleep.

She passed through the dinette and the living area, turned down the hall to the bedrooms and shivered, despite herself. A draft seemed to be moving in this part of the little house. She switched on the hall light. The flow of air seemed to be coming from her studio. Strange. And the door stood open.

A door she always kept locked.

Her heartbeat launched into double time. She reached out a hand and pushed the door open farther. Curling her arm around the doorjamb, she felt for the light switch and flicked it on.

At first she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Shreds of canvas hung from her work easel. Red paint pooled on the floor. The glow of the moon sparkled on shattered glass.

A gasp caught in her throat, and she turned to run.