Chapter Fourteen
Thirty minutes after the discovery of the box, Lauren stood in Royce’s kitchen, staring at the twenty newspaper clippings from her various trials, all spread out on the table.
“Is there anything in all of this that rings a bell?” Royce asked. “There’s a message here. We need to try to understand what it is.”
Lauren sank down into a chair and pressed her hands to the side of her face. “Other than he’s been watching me for a long time and wants me to know, no. Nothing else comes to mind. They’re random trials over the course of years.”
“Are they all after the Sheridan trial?” Luke asked.
“Sheridan was one of my first cases,” she said. “So yes. These are all after Sheridan. As you can see, I’ve put plenty of people behind bars that probably hate me. Heck, if I get through this, there could easily be another.”
“Which is why we aren’t going to the police,” Royce said. “They won’t be much help and we don’t want to give anyone else the idea of lashing out at you.”
“Maybe this was to confuse us,” Luke said. “To give us a lot of suspects.”
“I’ve never questioned why I do what I do,” Lauren said. “Not until now. Now... I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. How do I live like this?” She laughed without humor. “This is the payment I get for putting criminals behind bars? Stalked and threatened and twisted in knots? What if I had kids or siblings or a husband? I’d be terrified they’d be in danger. Maybe my father is right. Maybe this is fool’s work.”
Royce squatted down beside her. “You're one of the brave and caring people who try to make a difference in this world. There is nothing foolish about that.”
Luke cleared his throat. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
Lauren looked at him. “Thank you for everything you are doing, Luke. I mean that. You don’t have to help me, but you are.”
He gave her a bow. “My pleasure. And for the record, I’m with Royce. You’re brave. Stay that way. Don’t give into the monsters or they’ll take over.”
“Oh, God. Julie. What if he targets Julie?”
“I already thought of that,” Luke said. “I have her being watched.”
Lauren sighed. “Oh, thank you, Luke.”
He gave her a salute and headed out of the kitchen.
“I’m going to make you something to eat,” Royce said. “Then you’re going to take a pain pill and sleep.”
“I’m too tired to be hungry.”
“You need to eat a little something.” He kissed the tip of her nose. The phone on the wall rang and he smiled. “Some of us still use our house phones.”
“I plan to rip mine out of the wall.” The phone kept ringing. “Are you going to answer it?”
“I have a machine.” He pushed to his feet. ”And feeding you is more important. I have sandwiches and not much else though, I’m afraid.” The machine beeped. “Royce, call your mother. Why don’t you ever answer your phone?” He backed up and grabbed the receiver, before saying, “I told you I never answer this phone. You have to call my cell.”
Lauren smiled weakly, feeling a punch in her gut, a bit of envy. What she wouldn’t do to have her mother alive right now. She turned back to the table, pulling one of the clippings forward, and started reading before moving to the next.
Before she knew what was happening, Royce was sitting down next to her and there were plates on the table. “I didn’t even know when you got off the phone.”
“Or when I asked you if ham and Swiss was okay,” he commented.
“I just kept reading and thinking I’d find something in one of the clippings that would set off a light bulb.” She took a bite of the sandwich and then reached for the soda Royce had apparently set in front of her as well.
“And while you’re thinking about that, you aren’t thinking about your current case.”
“So you think it’s about my current case?”
“In my experience, the obvious usually is the right choice. The rest is a distraction.”
“So what do I do?”
“You go to sleep tonight and you wake up fresh and you win this case. I’ll take you to work and I’ll have people watching you while Luke and I dig into ending this once and for all. Luke was right, Lauren. You can’t let this monster, or any for that matter, win. You do your thing, sweetheart, and I’ll do mine. We’ll get our man and you’ll get your conviction.”
Lauren felt her eyes prickle and tears well by her lashes.
“Wow,” Royce said, pulling her into his lap and thumbing away her tears. “What just happened?”
“I don’t know. I’m tired. I’m not even a crier. You and your family are so close, and so good to me.” She pressed her hand to his cheek. “No one but my mother and Julie has ever told me to fight for what I believe in and they’d fight with me. Never.”
“And never has a woman made me want to be there for her like you do, Lauren.” He kissed her, tasted her tears and her fears, and her passion, and admitted what he’d known from that first night with her. He was falling in love.
He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, burying her face in his neck as he carried her to his bedroom. His bedroom. He laid her down on the bed and stripped her naked, kissing her, touching her, taking his time to properly make love to her. And when he finally entered her, when their eyes locked, he knew that not only was he going to fight by her side, he was going to fight to make her his woman.