Читать книгу That Perfect Moment - Carmen Green - Страница 11

When was the last time a man had made Kim feel incompetent and unable to take care of a situation?

Zach pushed on the first-floor window in the sunroom, finding it unlocked. He frowned as he’d done a thousand times since they’d arrived at the house. He didn’t like anything. Not her house, or the fact that it was a two-story and not a three-story. He made it clear that he thought her security system was inadequate and that she needed upgrades, including a dog, and he’d asked her more than once why was she single. As if she hadn’t asked herself that a thousand times over the years until finally accepting the answer. She was meant to be alone.

Zachary Hood couldn’t be made happy about anything. Kim had stopped trying. His expectations were too high. They’d slid into hour three of his interrogation fifty-nine minutes ago, and as hour four ticked away, she took a mental moment to figure out why her frustration level matched his. She had been happy with her life… Until she’d met him.

Kim wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it wasn’t a judgmental man. She’d expected him to be more conciliatory. Someone who…well, acquiesced to her position as a judge. Someone who was at least nice.

Releasing the biggest sigh of the day, her tension eased a bit. It was the truth. It had been so long since anyone besides Clark told her she was wrong about something, and he was so gentle about it. Zach was trampling all over her tender feelings.

Kim slid her hand through her hair as they entered the keeping room, her mother’s favorite room in the house she and Kim’s father had owned before their deaths. This was the only room Kim had not changed when she’d had the house renovated a year ago. The curtains were still thick velvet brocade, and hung from heavy fourteen-foot rods, protecting stained-glass windows that dated back to the early nineteen hundreds, when the house had first been built.

The windows had been treated and re-stained, but that was all she’d had updated in the room.

“Wow, this is a throwback to the past,” Zach murmured, more to himself than to her. His words weren’t a criticism or snide, just a statement about the overall state of the room. It was mausoleum-like with the heavy dark furniture and the real Persian rugs. Kim knew that at some point she’d have to deal with the room and renovate. She’d have to deal with her feelings for her mother, too. Perhaps that was why the room was still in its untouched state, even after eight years.

Zach was ten feet into the room before he spoke. “Turn on the lights, please.”

The lights were on a dimmer switch, and Kim tried to see the room as he did. The portrait that hung over the fireplace of her and her mother came into view as the lights grew brighter. Zach drew closer and studied her mom. “She was beautiful. You look just like her.”

When more words didn’t come, Kim became embarrassed.

“Thank you.” The unexpected compliment had caught her off guard. Her heart hammered. She’d been called beautiful before, but she wanted to be respected by Zach.

She looked at her mother and her heart ached for the closeness they had lacked. For all that they hadn’t been.

The sadness in the room overwhelmed her. “Are you almost finished? I can meet you in the library.”

Zach had moved on, even as she walked toward the door, her heart beginning to race again. Anxiety from being in her mother’s space was beginning to get to her. So many unshed tears. So many words unspoken.

“Come here,” he said.

From above the fireplace, beautiful brown eyes gazed down at her and she looked away from Kay Thurman. Kim crossed the room to Zach, her jaw clenched. “Yes, Mr. Hood?”

“Were these windows ever fitted with security sensors?”

“No. The prickly bushes outside are so close to the house, I didn’t think a criminal would ever wade into them to get inside. They’d get sliced up.”

Zach held back the thick curtain, and Kim waved dust out of her face. Then she saw what Zach was referring to. The beautiful stained-glass panes had been removed, leaving the window wedged open by six-inch blocks, waiting for whomever to return and finish the job of breaking into her house. They’d obviously wanted the expensive glass, because it was gone, but they wanted access, too. This was no smash and grab crime. This was methodical and thought out. There was no mistaking it. She was being targeted.

Her heart raced out of fear and stupidity. “Oh, my God. I didn’t know.” She reached out to snatch the blocks, and Zach caught her hand. Roughness met pampered softness.

“Get them out,” she ordered. Panic hit her in the chest. “There was always a moment when I thought I was overreacting. I thought, they’re not following me, are they? The attack on me was random. But this…this was meant for me. To get me.”

“Kim, it’s not the time to lose your head. If you needed confirmation, well, here’s more proof. We’re leaving the blocks in. We want him to think he’s getting away with something. The truth is that the two incidents aren’t related. There are two groups or people targeting you.”

“What? How do you know?” As badly as she wanted to leave the room, Zach knew more than the chief of police or his deputies had told her in all her conversations with them.

“Anyone who leaves something on your gate can’t get in. The note was intended to intimidate you. They want to show you their power, but they’re showing their limitations. The person who got into this window could have gotten into the house, but something stopped them.”

Fearful but curious, Kim had to ask all the questions racing through her mind. “Fear or something else?” She voiced her hope rather than her fear.

“Time and greed. He wants the glass, too,” he said, feeding a fear so deep inside her she wanted to run. But nothing, not death or threats, had made her run in the past. She wouldn’t run now.

“So they’re still after me?”

“I believe whoever did this will try again. No one leaves a window open and doesn’t return. They probably realized this glass is worth a lot of money, and they got sidetracked. They want it all. This is personal and potentially the most dangerous. I’m not quite sure yet.”

“What are they doing with the glass? Keeping it as a trophy?”

Zach pursed his lips and shook his head confidently. He worked a piece free and slipped it into a plastic evidence bag. “No. The value is too high and too many are gone. They’re selling it. It’s heavy, so he could only carry a few at a time without being noticed. He’s playing the law of averages. He’ll be back, but he didn’t count on you having better security. We will get this bastard. This one may have a smudge of blood on it.”

“How soon will we know?” she asked, excited for the first time that day.

“A day or two.” Zach remained hopeful. “How much was this glass?”

“They were ordered in bulk, but six hundred a piece. There about.”

Zach grunted. “Stealing one is a felony. And he got six.”

“Maybe he won’t be back.”

“Baby, you’re a judge. He’s gone undetected and he got away. This is an easy score for him. There are bragging rights for him right about now. He’ll be back. There are two groups. I’m convinced of that.”

Kim didn’t know whether to believe Zach anymore. He’d been in her life for a few hours and she was so full of anxiety, she wasn’t sure she trusted even her own judgment anymore. “I went from nobody believing me to having not one but two groups targeting me.”

“Life’s a bitch, ain’t it?” Zach said, not looking at her, studying her alarm control panel. “You’re just too close to it and you’re the victim. I don’t expect you to see things the way I do. No, wait.” He smiled at her. “Yes, I do.”

He disarmed her with that quick smile in the face of all this serious talk about her life. The thing was, she did believe him. And now, she was more afraid than ever.

“Why didn’t the chief of police believe me?”

“Because he sent his best people to protect you, and if they investigated and said you were out of danger, then he would take their word over yours.”

“What about Clark’s arm and that attempted kidnapping? Surely that can’t be swept under the rug?”

“No, it can’t. I’ll have my people follow up on that. I’ll have answers for you, Kim. You never told me who has keys to your house.”

His quick shift in conversation was a tactic used in trials to redirect witnesses, but Kim wasn’t that easily distracted. She couldn’t look away from the blocks wedging the window open. Who would do this?

It was well past nine, and the sun was finally fading for the evening, but a few rays still managed to reflect off the beautiful stained glass. Kim’s heart ached for the mother who had neglected to love her. Zach was still waiting and Kim turned away from the glass to find his questioning gaze on her. “Lieutenant Jerome from the marshals has a key to the house. Clark, of course, and Flora, my housekeeper. Giuseppe, the grocery delivery man, and Paul, my next-door neighbor.” She reached out again and Zach guided her away from the window. She finally met his gaze, unable to look away. “People are really trying to hurt me.”

She was stuck, like a truck in the red Georgia clay after a hard rain. She wanted to ask Zach who would do this, but she couldn’t. He didn’t know any more than she.

“Five keys, huh? Why not leave a key in the mailbox with a note?” He tromped all over her already bruised feelings.

“I have no appreciation for sarcasm.”

“I was kidding.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“You’re right. You’re a judge, and you should have used better judgment. You’ve practically waved a flag at the satellites in space and said, ‘notify all attackers, I’m waiting to be a victim.’ How many doors open with that key that everyone has?”

Kim didn’t really want to answer because he was right, of course. And since they had the key, they had the alarm code, too. It crossed her mind that she’d doled out her house key like French fries, and lots of keys could have been made. But why would those people betray her?

She braced for the onslaught of words her reply would bring. “All of the doors open with the same key.” She knew he heard her barely audible words. She’d conceivably invited the perpetrator into her home.

“This house is how old?” he asked, saying nothing further, scrutinizing the glass on the window leading to the second floor.

“Ninety years old. It’s been renovated twice. In the forties, and then a year ago. I have a bit of a defense for myself, Zach. When I’m home, I try to live a normal life. I didn’t know I’d made myself so vulnerable.”

“I don’t really blame you, Kim. Your security team should be fired for not knowing about this. Then again, who knows when this happened? But this is how innocent people die.”

“I’ve never had any trouble, and I’ve lived here for quite some time.”

“You grew up in this house,” he stated. How did he know? He’d only been in her house a few hours.

She thought about lying, but it would be useless. “How did you know?”

“The picture over the fireplace. I recognize the window behind the chair your mother is sitting in.”

His astute observation was correct. The artist had captured only the side portion of the window, but Zach’s attention to detail was uncanny. Men didn’t usually notice much past her breast size and the fact that she was in a position of power.

“All my life, I went to boarding schools, and I visited here. After my parents died, I came back for good.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”

Zach sounded so sincere, Kim wished she hadn’t brought it up. She never talked about her family or their less-than-close home life. She didn’t need sympathy. She offered empathy only to those who genuinely needed it.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. This neighborhood was all but ignored by the young urban professionals who were buying up the land in the late nineties. Most of us second generation owners renovated and refurbished our family homes. We got lucky to have such nice property in the right zip code.”

Zach gave her a wise, knowing look. “These houses are worth millions because of that zip code.”

“The status associated with these is almost ridiculous.” She waved nonchalantly.

“Why not leave if it makes you feel that way?”

“What way?” Kim crossed her arms and leaned away from him.

“Cold and detached.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’ve touched a nerve. We don’t have to talk about it. Let’s move on.”

He had more than touched a nerve. He’d run his six-foot-four self all over her central nervous system. Accepting the house had been a final thank-you for all of the years of boarding school, holidays alone and lonely nights. She’d taken it with bitter acceptance from their attorney at their graveside funeral. She, the child of spies, had hardly seen them.

Now she was living in their home, her home now, and being stalked as they used to stalk others for information. Kim shook off the ghosts of her parents, and needed coffee. Instead, she bit her nails; her one vice. At the door of the keeping room, Kim went ahead and walked out, hoping Zach would get the hint, but he ignored her.

“Why didn’t you just sell?”

“I couldn’t. As much as I disagreed with my folks, in their own way they loved me. I never told them how much they hurt me by not being home to care for me, but that hardly seemed the point when you’re summoned to a hospital in the middle of the night to hear your mother’s final words.”

Zach didn’t look at her. He simply stared at the floor and nodded. “I—understand. You’re very lucky.”

Kim hardly expected this. For Zach to become all maudlin and shake her unwavering opinion of her parents was unnerving. “I hardly feel that way.”

“Sure, she was able to tell you how she really feels. It’s so much better than getting that phone call and finding out she died alone.”

You’ve been a wonderful daughter. Well done. Then she’d slipped away.

“What do I do now?” Kim rubbed her neck, ready to shut the door for another two years.

“We change everything. Locks, doors, bushes and windows. Why don’t you have a dog?”

Kim felt herself frowning. “I’m never home, and a dog needs love.”

An impertinent smirk crossed Zach’s face, and Kim wanted to retract her answer. “No, they don’t,” he said. “They need food and commands on who and what to bite.”

His phone buzzed and he walked out of the keeping room, into the library, ordering items for the house as if he were at a fast-food restaurant. Apparently, she needed a lot of number fours. Kim closed the door, hoping he’d shut the window. She had no plans to go in there again.

“Kim!”

Halfway to the kitchen, her chin hit her chest and she rolled her eyes. “I need coffee,” she complained.

“Be strong,” Zach told her from behind. “Set the alarm and come outside,” he commanded, and waited for her on the outside steps.

Heading outside, Kim hurried up the cobbled walkway leading to the driveway.

“How many windows on the ground level?” Zach asked.

“Ten.”

He relayed the information, then hung up. “This is going to be expensive to put bars up to the windows, but they are tasteful and will blend into the decor of the windows already on your home.”

Shaking her head, Kim stopped walking. “No, I refuse to be imprisoned in my own home.”

They walked the entire property, from the electric gate to the garage. Zach set and reset her sprinkler system. “Why are you doing that?” She was exhausted and hot. Knowing she’d contributed to people trying to hurt her made her sick. She just wanted to be left alone. “Zach?”

“The sprinkler is set to go on at four in the morning, but it’s better to go on at nine in the evening.”

“Why’s that?”

He winked at her. “Easier to collect evidence at nine.”

She shook her head. “You’re lying to me.”

He nodded, pointing to her bushes. “Yes, ma’am, I am. These flowers bloom between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. If someone comes into the house and have stepped on these flowers, they leave quite a nice evidence trail. Though it’s better when it’s a dry trail. If it’s wet, we can work with it, but it’s harder to get out of the carpet.”

Kim’s eyebrow arched. “Oh.”

Zach was proving to be far more than she’d expected. She shook her shoulders to lose her attitude. But bars up to the windows? The last thing she needed was to lower the property value of the neighborhood.

“Zach, I just can’t have bars on my windows. It would make the wrong statement to the neighbors.”

He nodded and guided her around by her elbow. “I understand. It’s hot. Let’s go inside.”

The sprinkler system went off and Zach tried to dart out of the way, but still got soaked. Kim hurried to the front door and pushed it open to be greeted by a stranger with a gun in his hand.

She screamed and Zach shoved her into the house.

“Welcome home,” the man said.

Shocked, Kim’s mouth hung open. He was a Hood, she could tell, but he’d still scared the mess out of her. She was holding her heart, but Zach had his hand on the small of her back.

“My alarm should be going off.” The words seemed inept, especially since everything was completely silent. Then the long beep sound started and Kim quickly disarmed it.

“Ben Hood,” the stranger said. “Don’t be afraid of me.” He took her hand and rubbed it. Kim was actually embarrassed.

“Did you have to do a show and tell? I’m not a difficult learner,” she said angrily. “I follow directions very well. You didn’t need the visual effects. Are we finished? I’ve had a long day and I would like to relax.”

“Not by a long shot,” Ben continued. “Your alarm was active, but your motion detectors only work in certain rooms and only within a certain range. Did you know there’s an anomaly with this particular system?”

Kim played with the gold cross around her neck. Could the day get any worse? she wondered. “What is it?”

“There can be movement in your home for up to five seconds and the alarm not activate.”

“What?” she said in disbelief.

“This company is based out of California. They factored this feature in because of earthquakes. The average is just a few seconds long, so…”

Kim understood the logic, but didn’t agree with it. “They didn’t want the police to respond to false alarms, so they built in this five second rule.” She shrugged as she stood there talking to who could have been her burglar. “If criminals only knew.”

Ben gave her a knowing look. “Some do. But they’re not fast, so they pick another house.”

“I feel lucky,” she said sarcastically. “How much are these updates and changes?”

Zach opened the front door again. “I will ignore your sarcasm. Look across the street.” A man was waving from inside the neighbor’s house. No one should have been there. The Sugarbakers had been on vacation in Spain for a month. “The height of your bushes allows a limited view of their home and them yours. If you need help, no one can come to your aid.”

Even with his brother there, Zach was still by her side. “You’ve made your point. They’re selfish neighbors for not inviting me to Spain while we get robbed, and my alarm company sucks, therefore they’re fired.”

Zach laughed and winked at her. “Smart lady.” He dialed his phone and walked off, while the man who’d been in the Sugarbakers’ house crossed the street and entered her house.

Kim extended her hand. “You’re a Hood, too.”

“Hugh Hood. Nice to meet you. It’ll be expensive. About ten thousand dollars. You can do them for less, but you get less. The bars will blend with your current windows. The doors are pricier, but you want them to match your current motif. You don’t have a homeowners’ association, per se, but you don’t want to stick out like Fort Knox and upset your neighbors by making upgrades they don’t agree with. I’d say do the windows, doors and alarm first. Then do the bushes. The neighbors will think you got new windows. The doors will surprise them, but you need them.”

“Can I keep my bushes, but trim them back?”

“Let’s see,” Hugh said.

Hugh and Kim walked outside, with Zach trailing. Hugh nodded. “You can. But we need to get that done today.”

“What’s the rush?”

“We’ve discovered a couple people we want you to take a look at.”

“That’s good.” Kim turned to look at Zach, whose attention was on the sky.

“Come inside,” he said. “That helicopter has flown by three times. I don’t like it.”

Kim did as she was told, flustered and unnerved by the seriousness of the Hood team.