Читать книгу The Defender's Duty - Shirlee McCoy - Страница 12

Jude eased around the corner of the restaurant, the dark alleyway offering him perfect cover as he peered into the parking lot. The car he’d spotted through the window of the restaurant was still parked beside Lacey’s. Black. Four-door. Honda. It matched the one that had pulled up in front of his house and the one that had run him down in New York.

He needed to get closer.

A soft sound came from behind him. A rustle of fabric. A sigh of breath. Spring rain and wildflowers carried on the cold night air. Lacey.

Of course.

“I told you you were going to be fired if you didn’t stay where you were.”

“Do you know how many times someone has threatened to fire me?”

“Based on what I’ve seen so far, a lot.”

“Some of my clients fire me ten or twenty times a day.”

“Then I guess I’ve got a ways to go.” Jude reached back and grabbed her hand, pulling her up beside him.

“Is the car still there?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me see.” She squeezed in closer, her hair brushing his chin as she jockeyed for a better position.

Jude pulled her up short, her wrist warm beneath his hand. For a moment he was back in the restaurant, Lacey’s creamy skin peeking out from under her dark sweater, white scars crisscrossing the tender flesh. She’d shoved her sleeve down too quickly for him to get a good look, but the glimpse he’d gotten was enough. There was a lot more to Lacey then met the eye. A lot she hid behind a quick smile and a quicker wit. She’d been hurt before, and he wouldn’t let it happen again. No way was he going to drag her into danger. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever. As soon as they got back to the house, he was going to do exactly what he’d threatened—fire her.

“It’s not the car.” She said it with such authority that Jude stepped from the shadows and took a closer look.

“Why do you say that?”

“The one back at the house had tinted glass. Really dark. This one, you can see in the back window. Looks like there is a couple sitting in the front seat. Unless you’ve got two people after you, I don’t think that’s the same car.”

She was right.

Of course she was.

Jude could see inside the car, too, see the couple in the front seats. If he’d been thinking with his head instead of acting on the anger that had been simmering in his gut for months, he would have seen those things long before now. “You’d make a good detective, Lacey.”

“You think so? Maybe I should make a career change. Give up home-care work for something more dangerous and exciting.” She laughed as she pulled away from his hold and stepped out into the parking lot, but there was tension in her shoulders and in the air. As if she sensed the danger that had been stalking Jude, felt it as clearly as Jude did.

“I’m not sure being a detective is as dangerous or as exciting as people think. Most days it’s a lot of running into brick walls. Backing up, trying a new direction.” He led Lacey across the parking lot, his body still humming with adrenaline.

“That sounds like life to me. Running into brick walls, backing up and trying new directions.”

“True, but in my job the brick walls happen every other day. In life, they’re usually not as frequent.” He waited while she got into her car, then closed the door, glancing in the black sedan as he walked past. An elderly woman smiled and waved at him, and Jude waved back, still irritated with himself for the mistake he’d made.

Now that he was closer, it was obvious the two cars he’d seen weren’t the same. The one at his place had been sleeker and a little more sporty. Which proved that when a person wanted to see something badly enough, he did.

“That wasn’t much of a meal for you. Sorry to cut things short for a false alarm.” He glanced at Lacey as he got in the Mustang and was surprised that her hand was shaking as she shoved the key in the ignition.

He put a hand on her forearm. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.”

“For someone who is fine, your hands sure are shaking hard.”

“How about we chalk it up to fatigue?”

“How about you admit you were scared?”

“Were? I still am.” She started the car, and Jude let his hand fall away from her arm.

“You don’t have to be. We’re safe. For now.”

“It’s the ‘for now’ part that’s got me worried. Who’s trying to kill you, Jude? Why?”

“If I had the answers to those questions, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it.”

“You don’t even have a suspect?”

“Lacey, I’ve got a dozen suspects. More. Every wife who’s ever watched me cart her husband off to jail. Every son who’s ever seen me put handcuffs on his dad. Every family member or friend who’s sat through a murder trial and watched his or her loved one be convicted because of the evidence I put together.”

“Have you made a list?

“I’ve made a hundred lists. None of them have done me any good. Until the person responsible comes calling again, I’ve got no evidence, no clues and no way to link anyone to the hit-and-run.”

“Maybe he won’t come calling again. Maybe the hit-and-run was an accident, and maybe the sedan we saw outside your house was just someone who got lost and ended up in the wrong place.” She sounded like she really wanted to believe it.

He should let her, he thought. That was what he’d done with his family. Let them believe the hit-and-run was a fluke thing that had happened and was over. He’d done it to keep them safe. He’d do the opposite to keep Lacey from getting hurt.

“Have you ever walked outside at night?”

“Sure. Who hasn’t?”

“Then you know how it feels to be at ease in the darkness. To feel like everything is just the way it should be.”

“I guess. I’ve never really thought much about it.”

“Imagine that you are outside, walking around, feeling like you have every other time. Next thing you know, your hair stands on end, your pulse starts racing and you realize you’re being watched. You can’t see the person, but you know he’s there. And you know that as soon as you run, he’s going to chase you down.”

She stiffened, and Jude knew he had gotten through to her.

“That’s what’s going on with me, Lacey. That’s how I know I’m in danger. I feel it.”

“I can understand that.” She sighed and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Then you’ll also understand that as long as I’m in danger, anyone who’s near me is in danger, too. That’s why you need to grab your suitcase and leave as soon as we get back to the house.”

“I don’t think so.”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t think so’?”

“I mean, I’ve never left a job before my contract was up.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

“This won’t be it.”

“It will if you’re carried out of here in a body bag.”

“I don’t think that is going to happen. The way I see it, God gave me this job for a reason. Until He tells me something different, I plan to keep it.”

“God wouldn’t want you to put yourself in danger to help me out.”

“God expects us to do whatever job He gives us to the best of our abilities. That’s what I plan to do.”

“Sticking around is a bad idea.”

“I don’t think so.”

“But you can’t know.”

“Sure I can. I feel it. The same way you feel danger breathing down your neck.”

“Unfortunately for you, all the ‘feeling’ about it in the world isn’t going to keep you working for me. I told you before that I was going to fire you. I wasn’t kidding.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m working for your brother.”

“You’re working for Grayson for now. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.”

“Tomorrow is going to bring the sunrise. Just like it always does. As for anything else, I prefer to concentrate on today rather than worrying about what hasn’t happened yet.” She pulled out onto the road, her hands at precisely ten and two o’clock, her eyes trained on the road, tendrils of pale hair escaping her ponytail and sliding down her back. Delicate and pretty, Lacey wasn’t the kind of woman Jude had ever paid much attention to. He preferred tall, athletic women. The kind who wouldn’t hesitate to hike mountain trails or climb rock faces. The most strenuous thing he could imagine Lacey doing was sipping tea in a flower garden.

Despite that, or maybe because of it, he couldn’t seem to pull his attention away from her.

That wasn’t good.

Not when there were other, more important things he needed to focus on.

Like staying alive.

“There won’t be a tomorrow if the guy who’s after me decides two for one isn’t a bad deal and takes you out at the same time.”

“Why would he?”