CHAPTER EIGHT
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Townes paused in front of Shailyn’s bedroom door, contemplating waking her. Roughly a day and a half had passed since his brief exchange with Moss. He’d spent nearly half his time at the crime scene where the body was discovered in the middle of some godforsaken woods, overgrown with pine trees and scrub brush.
The cabin had been where Catherine Marinovic’s body had been unearthed accidently a short distance from a hiking trail. The woods around this area of Florida were thick with ticks, chiggers, and what he thought of as the state bird—mosquitoes. God knows why the hikers decided to dig their fire pit at the exact spot, but the skull they’d uncovered had sure made an impression. Of that he was sure.
The exhaustion of the extensive site search had finally caught up with him, and yet he couldn’t share with her anything she probably didn’t already know.
Everything pointed toward Moss taking his own life a short distance from the very place his killing desires had emerged. Unfortunately, no changes would be made to their current investigation without verification. Shailyn Doyle would remain dead to the rest of the world until forensics confirmed it was Shepherd Moss’ body who lay in the ashes of the ruined cabin.
He quietly entered his own room. The adjacent private bathroom offered him the luxury of a quick shower. He didn’t linger under the hot spray of water, nor did he bother grabbing a pair of briefs as he passed through his dressing room. He preferred to sleep in the nude, anyway.
He wasn’t ashamed of the multitude of scars crisscrossing his body. He looked upon life as a battle. Wounds were merely the result of joining the fight.
He finally brought his hand down over the light switch before entering his suite. Sleep was only a few steps away.
“Was it Moss?”
Townes instinctively made sure the towel around his waist was secured. Shailyn had caught him off guard, and he chalked up his surprise due to his level of exhaustion.
She stood next to the window where she’d apparently raised the security shutter to look outside. Brody mentioned she had a penchant for doing so when they debriefed.
Shailyn was dressed as if she were ready to start her day in a long-sleeved, thin black top and matching scarf. The material appeared smooth by the looks of it. A pair of white jeans were complemented by her dark socks, though she wasn’t wearing any shoes. She had her arms wrapped around her waist as she stared out over the pond at the back of the property.
“I’m sure Brody already explained to you that we’ll need to wait for confirmation from the DNA samples taken at the crime scene by the State Forensics Lab technicians. The FBI took samples, as well. I’m sure one of them will have some results in a couple days.” Townes glanced over at his dresser before settling his gaze on her once more. She must have turned on his bedside lamp when he’d been in the shower. The wattage was low, but the golden hue was enough to make out her beautiful features. “Why don’t you turn in for the night? There’s nothing any of us can do at the moment.”
“I didn’t get to tell you in Portland, but I should have made it clear that my father had no right to turn you away. It wasn’t your fault.” Shailyn tilted her head back as if she could scream in frustration, but she composed herself enough that she was able to face him with a small smile of regret. “It would have been nice if you’d been by my side throughout the ordeal of the trial.”
“I was by your side.”
Townes didn’t want to rehash past events. Nothing they said or did could ever change the paths they’d taken since the night that she’d gone missing.
“You know that’s not what I meant,” Shailyn murmured, her soft sigh somehow reverberating off the walls. “Would you have—”
“Don’t.” Townes lived with a lot of regret. He wouldn’t stand here and have either one of them play the what if game. “The only thing that matters is the outcome of the DNA analysis.”
“You and I both know that the results will change nothing for me.” Shailyn slowly shook her head at the impossible situation she still faced. “You could have just as easily left me in Maine. The U.S. Marshals Service could have explained the plan you put into place, left me to my anonymity, and the events that have followed would have still unfolded in the same manner. Why am I here, Townes?”
He ran a hand through his damp strands in an attempt to curb his frustration. Every single thing she said rang true, with the exception of him making sure of her security.
This fortress he’d built had been constructed with her safety in mind. The outer perimeter had antipersonnel movement sensors and cameras. They were laid out in overlapping grids to provide redundancy in the system. GPS-enabled sensor suites were strewn throughout the property so that any movement could be pinpointed to the inch, which included IR sensors that could detect a human heartbeat within twenty-five yards.
Brody had designed the relational position resolution algorithms, leaving him the ability to locate the exact position of an intruder approaching the house in real time as they ran within one meter anywhere on the grounds.
The security system on the surrounding property was nothing compared to the integrated systems managed by specifically designed software that safeguarded this house.
All outside access doors were made with steel casements stuck into the thick log walls. The doors themselves were either steel-plated with bulletproof glass or solid core. The shutters over all the windows could resist automatic .30 caliber rifle fire.
The alarm systems had two hardline connections and dual cell backups with an emergency satellite connection. The compound was manned by twenty heavily armed sentries, though no one on the outside would ever notice their presence.
Every building on the property had an emergency generator backup power and dedicated circuits for their security systems. All the air management units had active carbon filters and secured clean air intakes to guard against gas attacks. The water was drawn from an underground cistern and ran through an ionizer to burn off any foreign contaminants before being purified with an RO filter structure. All the overlapping security systems were firewalled and monitored onsite as well as recorded twenty-four-seven.
And he’d done all this for her.
Townes refused to stand here and answer her question, because that would mean revealing just how selfish a man he really was. He’d always wanted to see her one more time. No, he had needed to see her with his own two eyes so that he could reassure himself that they’d made all the right decisions so many years ago.
“Shailyn, your safety is my first and only priority.” Townes walked across the room to where his dresser was against the far wall. He opened to the top drawer and removed a pair of black briefs. She wouldn’t appreciate being treated with kid gloves, so he purposefully dropped the towel before stepping into them and pulling up the elastic waistband. He leaned down to pick up the towel before tossing it on the end of the bed. He retraced his steps back across the room to secure the security shutter before providing his answer. “Moss can’t reach you while you’re on this property. I’ve made sure of that. As to your earlier declaration, his death would give you choices, but they are few and far between.”
“There are only two choices of which I know are laid out for me, but neither one are too appealing.” The proximity of Shailyn’s voice told him that she was closer than she’d been before. “I can go back into WITSEC, or I can reclaim my life and risk attack by his followers. Both have more cons than pros, in my opinion. I’d rather die in the light than disappear into the dark.”
Townes removed the towel from the bed and hung it up in the bathroom. He walked back into the room and opened the lower drawer of the dresser, retrieving a pair of jeans. He wasn’t ready to fully discuss her options. There was still quite a bit that needed to take place before deciding on an outcome.
“I wouldn’t stress over a decision that might not need to be made should we discover that Moss is still kicking.” Townes pulled the jeans up to his waist, leaving the button unfastened. He figured he’d be shedding the denim soon enough after she’d left his room. He needed to get some sleep before he said or did something he couldn’t take back. “I wouldn’t put it past him to have created this diversion just to spite us. He could very well be watching the reactions of the media, the feds, and SSI. The best thing you can do right now is rest. Take it a day at a time and watch as the information rolls in.”
Shailyn hadn’t crossed the room to the door as he’d assumed she would, but instead made her way to the end of the bed. He still held the waist of his jeans with a hand on his hip. He was at a loss as to what she expected of him at this hour of the night.
“You’re evading my question.”
“Yes,” Townes answered truthfully. She wasn’t ready to hear why he’d brought her here, just as he wasn’t ready to reveal his genuine motives. “I am.”
Shailyn regarded him with those emerald green eyes of hers that held no fire the way they once did. When was the last time she’d truly smiled? Did she ever laugh anymore? The slight blemishes underneath her lower lashes were a telltale sign that she didn’t get enough sleep. The urge to take care of her was overwhelming.
“How many hours of sleep do you get a night?”
Townes didn’t expect her to respond right away. Her pride had always gotten the best of her. She refused to admit defeat. It was the reason she was alive.
Shailyn glanced toward the door, but there was something in her expression that made him believe she didn’t want to be alone. Honestly, he was surprised given that it was something she was most likely used to in the years she’d been in the WITSEC program. Her file gave no indication she’d made any friends or even new acquaintances.
As a gentleman, he shouldn’t even be contemplating what was going through his mind, but that didn’t stop him from brushing past her. The warmth of her skin was like a strong enticement that he would have to ignore for now. He tossed his hands in the air with more force than necessary, but the small exaggerated movement allowed him time to rein himself in before he said something he’d rather not. She had to know that he was frustrated.
Townes had taken off his holster upon entering his bedroom and set it on his nightstand, but he took the time to sling the leather strap over the corner of the headboard. It made for an easy draw in the middle of the night, if necessary. He then pulled the dark brown comforter down to reveal luxury ivory French linen custom printed sheets he’d had shipped from D. Porthault in Paris. The material resembled the emerald green herringbone pattern of a palm frond. The extremely fine thread count made for an exceptionally comfortable night’s sleep, which they both desperately needed.
“What are you doing?”
“Catching what sleep I can before all hell breaks loose in a few hours.” Townes settled back against his pillow, only to realize that he’d forgotten his hair tie. He realized that the rebellion against cutting his hair had something to do with rejoining civilian life, but he didn’t bother to psychoanalyze all that crap to death. There was no changing who he was after all these years. “You’re more than welcome to join me if you want to sleep.”
Townes reached for the black tie he used to pull his hair back with and quickly made use of the elastic band. He lifted his arms up and linked his fingers behind his head before once again closing his eyes. He’d managed to catch Shailyn’s parted lips in her disbelief that he was all but ending this conversation. She didn’t seem to comprehend that nothing they said or did given the current situation could rush the results of the DNA tests or press the discovery of Moss’ current predicament.
“A few hours of sleep, Shailyn,” Townes muttered, listening closely for any sign that she was walking toward the door. “Nothing more.”
He would have easily said that three to four minutes had passed before he heard the rustling of her clothes as she walked. She wasn’t taking them off, by any means, but she was making her way closer to the bed. The mattress dipped slightly, though it was hard to register seeing as she didn’t weigh all that much. He couldn’t say that he wasn’t surprised by her decision to stay. Hell, she’d already dressed for the day as it was.
“Don’t. Please.”
Townes had been in the process of reaching for the bedside lamp when her directive stopped him cold. He recalled reading in the Marshal’s daily reports over the last four months that she left the majority of the lights on in her house during the evening hours. The details didn’t include specific rooms, though he was now considering narrowing the scope of those reports. It would have been beneficial to know she slept with the lights on.
“Come here.”
“Maybe I should—”
Townes didn’t wait for her to finish that sentence. She looked damned uncomfortable with her ankles crossed, her body stiff as a board, and her arms crossed over her middle. He couldn’t take it, and he sure as hell couldn’t sleep knowing that she was running over scenarios in her mind as if it were a race. He wrapped his hand around her wrist and drew her close.
“Close your eyes, freckles.” Townes winced when he let her nickname slip past his lips. That was nothing compared to when her soft cheek rested against his chest. The difference in temperatures was striking. She’d been cold to the touch on the airplane, but he was coming to think it was a constant thing. “Get some rest.”
Townes lifted his left arm up behind his head, not wanting to crowd her as she struggled with her decision to stay. Every muscle in her body was taut with her flight response. He rested his right hand lightly on her hip so that his touch barely registered.
Would she stay?
Five minutes, ten minutes, and then twenty minutes passed until she finally tucked her hand underneath her chin. Little by little, she relaxed against him. The last time he’d held her this close had been after they’d made love the night before she’d been taken and they’d gotten into one hell of an argument. That foolish battle of pride had led her to join her friends at the nightclub where both of their lives had changed course forever.
Townes wanted nothing more than to stroke the silken strands of her hair that had fallen over his arm. He would have liked nothing better than to shift so that he was above her, kissing her and making love to her the way she deserved, as they had once taken for granted. Yet he was well aware of how truly blessed he was to have her by his side at this very moment.
Another thirty minutes passed when her breathing evened out, telling him that she’d fallen into a light sleep. He didn’t move. He stayed exactly where he was so that he didn’t disturb her rest. It seemed that he would have to go without, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.