Cole

 

Well, I’d give her this. She had balls.

Seriously, I’d butted heads with more than my share of people, and the diva certainly did a damn fine job of putting me in my place. Part of me was actually proud of her.

And part of me still wanted to strangle her.

I couldn’t believe I’d actually let my guard down and didn’t even think to check the damn box of muffins. Nothing should be left unchecked, and at this point, everyone was a suspect.

It wasn’t until I was down in the lobby that I actually allowed myself to breathe. I couldn’t slack off on this case—or any case, for that matter—but particularly this one. The sooner I got things figured out, the sooner I’d be out of here.

And away from Evangeline.

Even thinking her name had me shaking my head. It was ridiculous. Although it was kind of fun twisting it around and watching her get all pissy about it. I chuckled at the thought and realized it was the only kind of distraction I could allow myself. I was not here to play nice or socialize.

And I certainly wasn’t here to get up close and personal with a client.

No matter how badly my body was saying otherwise.

“Fuck,” I muttered and pulled out my phone. We had a lab in DC that we used for cases like this. There was no way I could leave and bring it to them, and I knew they would give me shit about having to make the drive to Baltimore to pick it up.

Too bad. They got paid a lot of money to handle things like this, and I was not in the mood to play courier.

Fifteen minutes later, arrangements were made. I had gotten a kit from the trunk of my car so I could bag this stuff up and keep it protected until their guy arrived. That was one thing off my list. Now to check with the doorman. I knew Evangeline said those muffins were a normal occurrence, but I needed to know how they arrived, who delivered them, and then get with Malcolm and have him hit the bakery and question the people there.

It was a long shot, and I knew it. Chances were whoever put the mouse in there did it after the box left the bakery, but still, I had to check every angle and question every person I possibly could.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I actually liked talking to people.

But I didn’t.

Most people are idiots.

A fact that was confirmed once I was done with the doorman. He was completely useless. He couldn’t give me an accurate description of who dropped the box off and played it off as “being busy.”

Bullshit.

I realized those muffins came all the time, but Evangeline hadn’t been here in this location for long, so this guy should have been paying more attention. It was an average delivery for Evangeline, not so much for the doorman. I promised the guy I was going to be talking to his boss and his boss’s boss. He didn’t really seem to care, but it made me feel better to issue the threat.

I was better than this.

I knew I was better than this, and on most cases, I would be much further along in figuring out what the hell was going on. Why couldn’t I do this? Why couldn’t I get a handle on where this threat was coming from? Looking at my watch, I saw I had already been away from Evangeline for almost forty-five minutes. And that was much longer than I should have allowed. Shaking my head, I walked over to the elevator and headed back up.

Once back at her apartment, I let myself in. She was nowhere in sight, and I actually breathed a sigh of relief. With her out of the way—even temporarily—I could finish making my calls. The first call was to Malcolm. I shared the morning’s events with him and was glad he seemed just as perplexed as I was. With explicit directions, I sent him on his way to do some investigating on his own.

With still no sign of Evangeline, I took a minute to call Levi and chuckled at how exhausted he sounded. “What’s the matter? Not getting any sleep?” I asked.

A loud yawn was the initial response followed by, “I cannot believe how much one baby can mess you up. I mean, Harper just keeps telling me he’s got his days and nights mixed up, but how the hell do you fix that?”

“So were you sleeping right now?”

“I wish.” Another yawn. “I doubt you’re calling to check on my sleeping habits, so what’s up? I thought we had a conference call planned for tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said with my own weariness. “It’s just… I don’t know, man. I can’t read this case, and it’s starting to piss me off.” I gave him a rundown of what I’d seen, heard, and observed and then waited for his input.

“Seems to me a large part of the issue is that there are so many possibilities. There’s no obvious string of suspects because Evangeline’s in such a high-profile position. Honestly, this person might not even be in Baltimore.”

“No,” I said adamantly. “The mouse in the muffin box says otherwise.”

“Or he has an accomplice.”

“Don’t even say that. If I can’t get a handle on one of them, how the hell am I supposed to track down two of them?”

“It’s still early in the case, Cole. I know you want out of there, and I think that’s part of what’s messing with you. Stop thinking about the end of the case, and get your head in the here and now.” He yawned loudly, and in the background I could hear the baby cry. “Listen, we’ll talk again tomorrow. You’re free to talk around seven in the morning, right?”

“Why don’t you tell me what this is all about and save the call?”

There was a minute of hesitation. “It’s really something we all need to talk about. Seb’s even calling in from vacation.”

“That sounds pretty serious, Levi. Come on. What’s going on?”

He sighed. “I got a call yesterday. From Washington. It seems that the inquiry into what happened the day Gavin died is over.”

Shit.

“The only reason I received the call is because someone majorly broke protocol to tell me. I just thought…” He cleared his throat. “I figured we’d all discuss it now because we’ll probably all be either called or summoned to the capital to talk about it.”

“No fucking way. I’m not going.”

“Cole…”

“No, I’m serious, man. I did my time, and I’m out. No one has any hold on me or any power over me. It’s over, it’s done, and I’m not talking about it ever again.” I was pissed by the catch in my voice. “I can’t go there again, Levi. I just can’t.”

“We’re all feeling the same way,” Levi said quietly. “Believe me, I’d like nothing more than to just move on from the whole thing. But we owe it to Gavin—and to ourselves—to see it through to the end.”

“The end already fucking came! Gavin’s dead! No inquiry or meeting or report is going to change that! Why are we still having to talk about it?”

In the background, the cries grew louder, and I heard Harper call out for Levi. “Look, Cole, I’ve got to go. Call in the morning. Please.”

I told him I would, but I was still on the fence and leaning heavily toward not. But he had enough on his plate without dealing with me and my hang-ups and issues. I hung up and rested my elbows on the counter, my head in my hands.

“Are you okay?”

Great. I looked up and saw Evangeline standing beside me, concern written all over her face.

“Yeah. Why?” I asked, hating how defensive I sounded.

“I… I overheard…” She motioned toward my phone.

“Yeah, well… just… just forget that you did.” I stalked away and went in search of something to drink. She stayed rooted to the spot, watching me. I wasn’t really thirsty, but I needed to keep moving. I couldn’t have her looking at me like that—with pity. With compassion.

“Who was Gavin?” she asked softly.

I should have put up more of a fight. I should have told her to go away.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I walked over to the sofa and sat down, staring at my hands that were clasped in front of me. Before I knew it, she was sitting beside me quietly and listening intently as I pretty much bared my soul to her.

“Gavin was… my best friend. He was this amazing guy—the kind of guy who was always there for you and would do anything for you.” I raked a hand through my hair. “He had the knack of looking at you and seeing you for who you really were and not… not the way everyone else did.”

“He sounds like a great guy,” she said quietly.

I nodded. “He was. I met him in basic training. He had joined the Marines willingly, and I sort of went as a last resort. A way to escape.”

“Escape what?”

“My life.” I looked over at her, and her expression hadn’t really changed much. She seemed genuinely interested in what I was saying. I shrugged. “My father was the town drunk, and my mother died when I was eight. We were piss-poor, and I did what I had to do in order to survive.” I was expecting to shock her, but still she didn’t react. “I’ve stolen food, clothes, money… cars. I was into drugs while I was in high school and did my best to stay away from home. I would sometimes sleep in the alley rather than go home.”

“Why?”

“Because I was the old man’s punching bag when I was there. I wasn’t always this big. And I used to be afraid to fight back.” I gave a mirthless laugh. “I was lucky that I sort of had an overnight growth spurt. I came home one day, and the sight of me kind of took him by surprise. He punched… and I punched back.”

“What did he do?”

I met her gaze and held it. “He pulled a knife on me.”

“Oh my God!”

“Yeah, he pretty much was completely out of his mind—the alcohol always made him mean. He had the knife at my throat and was telling me what a worthless piece of shit I was.” I shrugged again. “It wasn’t new information, and he wasn’t the only person in town with that opinion of me. He went on and on about what a disappointment I was, and all the while, he kept pressing the knife into my skin.”

“What did you do?” she asked, leaning forward slightly.

“He may have had the knife, but his reflexes were shit. He was so busy ranting and raving and listening to the sound of his own voice that he was taken by surprise when I moved. I swung my arm out and had him on the ground with the blade at his throat. I beat him until he was unconscious.”

“What happened to him?”

“At the time? I have no idea. I took the knife and all the booze in the house—along with the few belongings I had—and left.” I straightened and took a deep breath. “I walked thirty miles to the next county and enlisted. I heard he died a year later.”

“Oh, Cole… That’s horrible.”

“Why? He was a drunk. A bully. A bastard. You know how he died? He was walking the streets, drunk as a skunk, and wandered onto the train tracks. He probably never saw the damn thing coming.”

Evangeline gasped.

I stood. “Believe me, no one misses him, and the world is a better place without him.”

She sat silently for a long minute. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“What did you do when you found out he’d died?”

“Not a thing. The military made sure I was notified, but I was deployed overseas. There was nothing to go home for or to do.”

“Did you go back after you were discharged?”

I nodded.

“But… why?”

“I had no place else to go. I found out the house was left to me, so I planned on just going back and cleaning up whatever mess the old man’d left behind and leave. It wasn’t that simple because… well, I was injured and…”

“What happened to you?”

I explained to her about the explosion that had killed Gavin, my voice devoid of emotion. “Half my body was ripped apart from flying shrapnel and debris. I had broken bones. I was fairly mobile by the time I was released from the hospital, but I was far from healed. I thought I’d make a quiet reentry back into civilian life. I’d seen stories of guys like me getting a hero’s welcome when they came home. Not me. All I got was a bunch of judgmental old bitches who couldn’t wait to remind me of my past.”

“That’s not fair!” she cried.

“Yeah, I know. But it is what it is. Closed-minded people rarely change. I couldn’t help my circumstances when I was a kid. Maybe if someone had bothered to pay attention to the fact that my mother was dead and my father was beating me, I wouldn’t have had to steal. I might not have gotten involved with drugs. But instead, they all wanted to act as if I was just being rebellious for the sake of rebelling.”

“I’m so sorry… I… I can’t even imagine how that must make you feel.” She reached out and took one of my hands in hers. Her skin was so soft, and when she looked up at me, her eyes were huge and filled with tears.

“Don’t…” I began almost angrily. “Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s over. I’ve moved on.”

“Have you? Because it doesn’t seem like it. It seems like you’re punishing everyone for the actions of a few people.”

I tried to pull my hand away, but she held on. “I’m not a moron. I can see how people look at me.”

“Do you? Do you really?”

“How do you see me, princess? The first time you looked at me, you looked your pretty little nose down at me. You looked disgusted, repulsed.”

“That’s not fair. You didn’t give me a chance to react at all before you came out fighting. If you don’t give people a chance to know you and only show them this harsh side of you, then of course they’re going to look at you with disgust.”

“Yeah. That’s a good theory.”

She looked down, and then up, and her expression had changed, as if she wasn’t quite as real as she’d been the minute before. “I know this may seem like a weird question but… would you mind if I asked you some more questions about your upbringing? You know, for my character in the movie?”

If she had kicked me in the gut, it would have been less of a shock. Here I was telling her my life story and believing she’s actually interested—interested in getting to know me—and it was all for the sake of her role in a movie?

Unable to control myself, I reached out and hauled her to her feet. Her body slammed against mine, and I got a perverse thrill from watching her wince in pain. “As a matter of fact, I do mind. Do you think this is a fucking joke? That what I just told you was for your entertainment?”

“What? No!” she cried. “I just… I thought…”

I shoved her away with disgust.

“We’re done here,” I muttered and walked away, not stopping until I had stormed out of the suite and slammed the door behind me.

***

By the following Friday I was ready to pull my hair out of my head.

Things had been quiet on the set—no more dead rodents or letters had arrived. I felt like a damn rent-a-cop with nothing better to do than stand around and wait.

And watch.

As much as I hated to admit it, Evangeline had some serious talent. The woman who I had essentially manhandled the previous weekend had managed to seriously impress me. She wasn’t quite the diva I had originally imagined. She showed up on the set each morning without a stitch of makeup on and still managed to look beautiful.

Then she’d walk around—always with either myself or Malcolm close by—and take direction and do her scenes, and I have to tell you, some of this shit was brutal. This wasn’t a glamorous role for her, and she didn’t seem intimidated at all by the fact that her looks were being played down.

Maybe I had been quick to judge.

Maybe.

“She really is something, isn’t she?” a quiet voice said from beside me.

I turned and saw the mousy chick, Janelle, and some guy standing next to me. I hadn’t seen him before. “Hey,” I said. “I’m Cole. And you are?”

“Oh, I’m Matt. Janelle and I work together. I was out with the flu for a couple of days, and today’s my first day back. You’re the security guy, right?”

He was the male version of Janelle. Kind of geeky, kind of mousy. The kind of guy who would blend into the background. Hmm…

“It’s good to meet you, Matt,” I forced myself to say. “Just know that Malcolm and I are working hard to make sure Evangeline’s safe. We’ll be checking on everything you bring to her on the set.”

The kid nodded and then went back to watching the scene that was being shot. And when I turned to do the same, I could understand why the two of them were so mesmerized. Evangeline had a lot of dialogue in this scene, and the sound of her voice was actually kind of nice.

We hadn’t talked much since I stormed out of her place last weekend. The only time we did was when we were forced to and I needed to ask about her schedule or about anything or anyone that seemed out of place.

She answered in one word most of the time.

Yeah, I’d screwed up. I handled the situation like a jackass, but in my own defense, she seriously pissed me off.

Not that it was anything new, but I knew I was going to catch shit for it the next time she talked to Sebastian.

And that was another thing that had me on edge this week. I’d called in for the conference call and basically, sometime in the near future, we were all going to be called to DC to wrap up the report.

The conversation was oddly quiet. Levi talked but seemed distracted, and none of us had much to say. I knew why— They all blamed me. What else was there to say? We were going to go listen to some official reading of a report, and although no charges were likely to be filed, it was going to be out there—voiced loud and clear—my poor judgment cost Gavin his life.

Like I needed anyone to tell that to me.

I looked down at my watch and saw that it was almost seven. The shooting was going late today, but according to the schedule I was given, they were expected to finish up around nine. They had some scenes in the alley that required being shot at night. After that, Evangeline wasn’t going to be needed on the set for about four days.

Only… no one else knew that. I had talked to Pete, the director, and a fake schedule had been handed out to the rest of the cast and crew. We were going to try to see if we could catch anyone off guard. So Malcolm and his guys were going to come here and follow the same routine they had every day since filming began, and I was taking Evangeline out of town for a few days.

The plan was to secretly whisk her away but keep a decoy car and crew hanging out here to keep an eye on things.

With any luck, our stalker would make a move. Or a mistake.

And I’d be able to wrap this case up by the end of next week.