Blindsided (12 page)

dripping with just about everything imaginable in the way of condiments, but then again, with his lean build, he could afford the calorie hit. His dark eyes were grave as he picked it up, but he didn’t eat. “Yeah, maybe, but there was a car like the one you described sitting in the parking lot when you got to work. With a guy sitting in it. It strikes me it’s kind of cold to sit out in your car. I cruised around behind him and took down the license number. It can’t hurt.”

“No, I suppose not.”

Jesse somehow managed to take a bite of the conglomeration in his hands without the entire thing falling apart, which had to be some kind of special skill honed by years of experience. Kerin stifled a laugh and ate her own sandwich, realizing this was the first time she’d left the office to go out at noon since she come to the conclusion something was going on. She’d never subscribed to the old it’s-good-to-have-a-man-around theory, but at the moment, she was a believer.

He just looked comforting and competent and absurdly normal, eating his huge sandwich with usual male appreciation in about half the time it took her to get through part of hers.

When they finished lunch, he took her back to work and they parted on a very nice, but brief kiss once he saw her all the way inside.

“I’ll be back to follow you home,” he told her.

They stood just inside her office but the door was still open. Kerin wanted to argue, but didn’t. Dealing with the situation all by herself had made her finally snap and impulsively leave the state. She nodded. “I’ll call before I see my last patient. That way if I get behind you won’t have to wait.”

His mouth lifted in a teasing smile. “I’ll be lurking in the parking lot like a bad James Bond on the lookout for suspicious characters.”

“It sounds so stupid, doesn’t it?” Kerin made a small helpless gesture with her hand. “This could all be my imagination.”

It wasn’t, she was convinced of it still, but from anyone else’s point of view…

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“The listening device was not your imagination.”

Good point. Jesse McCutcheon, secret agent, was infinitely better than jumping at shadows all alone.

“I’ll call,” she said.

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Jesse hunched his shoulders and finished pumping the gas, the drift of an icy breeze brushing his cheek. At least the sleet had stopped, but it was still blustery and he was grateful for his winter jacket, the collar turned up to ward off the insidious cold. There was no choice but to stand in a puddle of dirty water and the steel gray sky overhead didn’t offer much of a promise of better weather.

He turned and set the pump back in the slot, waiting for his receipt to print.

“If you so much as turn your head, it could be one of the last things you do.”

At first he wasn’t sure he heard right, and yes, he started to turn his head.

“Don’t.”

Something in the quality of the warning stopped him. A coldness.

Which was appropriate to the moment because a gust of wind whipped against his face, slapping him with considerable force. He stood stock still, his hand outstretched to take the piece of paper as it rolled from the slot of the gas pump, aware someone stood just on the other side of the pump just to his right.

Out of the corner of his eye he could make out a leather jacket, collar up like his, and a baseball hat. “Can I take my receipt?” he asked as conversationally as possible.

“Go ahead and then unlock the passenger door. I’m coming for a ride with you. We need to have a little talk.”

Now that sounded like an exceedingly bad idea. “Why in the hell would I agree to that?”

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“An exchange of information. I’m armed by the way, just in case you’re interested.”

Jesse took the piece of paper and slipped it into the pocket of his jacket, thinking furiously. This was hardly a random mugging.

“Move it. There could be someone tailing you by now.”

He did. The keys were in his pocket and he took them out and unlocked the passenger door as instructed. As he walked around the truck, he considered sprinting off across the parking lot to the convenience store, but discarded the idea. There was no reason on this earth he could think of for anyone to approach him unless it had something to do with whatever was going on in Kerin’s life and he was damned curious.

The oblique threat didn’t make him very happy, but then again, he didn’t believe it. People with guns only forced other people into cars in the movies or thriller novels. It didn’t happen in real life, he told himself as he slid into the driver’s seat and started the vehicle. The man clambered in, slammed the door and said tersely, “Head north.

Take 465. I’ll tell you what exit to use.”

Jesse risked one swift assessing glance but the profile of his unwanted passenger didn’t tell him much between the shield of the collar and a winter cap pulled low. He pulled out onto the slushy street and did what he was told, reaching over to switch off the CD

player.

For whatever reason, he wondered if he hadn’t seen this guy before. Even without a clear view of his face, he seemed familiar.

His gaze fastened on the road, he asked, “Okay, I’m listening.”

“When we get there.” The man reached over and switched the radio back on.

It took twenty minutes, and quite a lot of lane switching that brought his joking James Bond comment to mind. Only this time he really didn’t think it was all that funny because the tension in his companion was a palpable thing and he wasn’t feeling all that relaxed himself. He followed the terse instructions and finally pulled into the
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parking lot of a chain restaurant. With the lunch rush over, it was fairly empty inside. The hostess led them to a booth in corner, requested by Jesse’s mysterious friend, and they sat down. A television suspended in the corner showed a golf tournament being played in a climate in an entirely different latitude, with brilliant blue skies and green grass.

The man across the table pulled off his hat and looked at him.

“You a Fed?”

Statement, not a question. Jesse stared, nonplussed, realizing with a bit of shock just why he thought he might know him. No, he’d never seen him before but the shape of his nose, the clean line of the jaw—a little more square but familiar—the pure blue color of his eyes, yes, those he knew. Even the hair, not worn in a smooth honey curve past his shoulders but tousled and cut short, was the right shade. He was a good-looking guy, just as his sister was a beautiful woman.

Kerin had told him her brother’s name, hadn’t she?

“No, I’m anything but a Fed” Jesse said with slow emphasis. “But I can guess who you are. Rob, right?”

One nod, curt and business-like. For an accountant, Rob Burke looked both muscular and tough. He hadn’t removed his leather jacket but underneath it his shoulders looked wide and his mouth was set.

“The last time I talked to her she didn’t say anything about a live-in boyfriend.”

“I’m new.” Jesse leaned back and smiled blandly as a waitress came up. He’d just eaten lunch, so all he ordered was an iced tea.

Kerin’s brother asked for a light beer. “I’m staying because she’s a little on the edge over a few recent events.”

Her brother rubbed his jaw. “No matter how smooth they think they are, it doesn’t surprise me she’d notice. Too smart for her own good sometimes.”

“Notice what? And while you explain that, mind telling me who the ominous ‘they’ might be.”

“I need to talk to her. Can you take a message?”

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The evasion wasn’t exactly promising. Jesse cocked a brow. “I’m not sure,” he said with deliberate cool criticism in his tone. “Look, she thinks people have broken into her house, put listening devices in her bedroom, tampered with her alarm system and computer. I believe it’s all true. Now more than ever. Mind telling me why?”

“Yeah, I do mind.”

The beer and tea arrived before Jesse could retort and he waited, feeling both irritated and concerned. They measured each other across the bland expansive of the table, eye to eye, a sort of male to male assessment that went on for a few minutes as Jesse stayed stubbornly silent and Robert Burke didn’t say a word either.

Finally, Jesse commented, “You said you wanted to exchange information. Fine, you want me to take a message, I will. You’re her brother. But you’d better give me a good reason why. She’s flipped out already, wondering why anyone wants to spy on her. If you’re in trouble, and it seems to me that might just be what’s going on, I’m not dragging her into more without something of an explanation. It’s not happening.”

Burke picked up his glass but didn’t drink, just holding it. Over the rim his gaze was direct. “My trust level is pretty low right now.”

“If you’re talking about me, it seems like you were the one to initiate this meeting. Why is an accountant following me around anyway, and if you want to talk to Kerin, why not walk into her office or call her house or cell phone?”

“I’m still wondering where you fit into this.”

“That makes two of us. I met your sister when she was stranded on a road in the middle of nowhere in northern Wisconsin. Why a normally intelligent woman would put herself in that kind of situation puzzled me at the time, but now I think I’m beginning to see the light.” Jesse took a sip of tea he didn’t even want. “If the cloak and dagger approach at the gas station is any indication, you’re actually the one in trouble.”

“That’s where she went? Why the hell go to northern Wisconsin?”

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The man was a master at not answering direct questions. Jesse felt both irritated and confused. “I don’t know. Because it’s far from here and all the stuff going on was starting to scare the shit of her? Look, I—”

“I need money. They knew I’d need it eventually.”

Well, fuck, that certainly didn’t sound good. And Kerin, his sister the doctor, probably had money.

Rob Burke spread his hands a little. They shook. Not much, but just enough to belie the expressionless set of his face. “When I got into town, I couldn’t believe she was gone, but on the other hand, getting a hold of her was going to be a problem anyway. I think they don’t know what to make of you anymore than I did. I decided to take a chance. If Kerin trusts you enough to let you stay over, well, she’s always had pretty good judgment.”

“They?” He’d asked before and was really getting tired of the song and dance of the constant non-answer.

“I’m not exactly an accountant.”

“No kidding.” Jesse smiled and shook his head at the waitress as she sidled up to ask if they wanted to order more than just drinks.

After she departed, he remarked sardonically, “That doesn’t really surprise me, I guess. No has ever used the term “Fed” in my presence.

I thought it was some television euphemism invented by underpaid script writers.”

“Quantico is in Virginia.”

My brother is an accountant who lives in Virginia…

“So I understand. Never been there.” Jesse contrived to look bland when inside he was wondering just exactly how a simple businessman who liked to contract projects to construct buildings found himself having such a nonsensical conversation. Stranded sexy doctors in blizzards and runaway FBI agents?

No, not his usual ordinary life.

“I work there,” Rob Burke said heavily as he ran a finger down the condensation on the side of his glass. “But it doesn’t look like I
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can go back.”

* * * *

Kerin finished up the report and set aside the patient file. Her coat hung on a brass hook set into the back of the door and she retrieved it.

Slipping it on, she hesitated a moment and hit the lights, closing the door to her office. The waiting room sat empty and most of the nurses were gone, the receptionist just shutting down her computer.

“Good night, Dr. Burke.”

She smiled automatically. “Good night. Drive safely. It’s supposed to be slick.”

Keys in pocket. Cell phone on. Purse in hand. Kerin went out into the hall to find Jesse was already there, leaning against the wall. It wasn’t really what they’d agreed on and she looked at him in some surprise.

“I thought you were going to follow me home.”

“Change in plans.” There was a tight look around his mouth. He caught her arm. “There are several exits from the building as far as I can tell. How do we take the stairs to the north one?”

“Jesse—”

“We’re going to talk, don’t worry, but not here and now. Show me.”

Usually she didn’t sanction being dragged off without an explanation, but her life wasn’t exactly following the normal plan lately and there was something grim in those gorgeous dark eyes that made her not offer a protest. The stairs were discreetly tucked into a corner and she motioned the direction they should go, letting him guide her there. He opened the door but instead of his usual polite behavior, he stepped in first, looking around.

At that moment, she felt a frisson of foreboding that chilled her more than any arctic clipper slamming down from the Canadian border. “What’s happened?”

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“I have every intention of explaining, believe me. But first let’s leave this building as carefully as possible.”

That had an ominous sound to it.

Well, if she didn’t trust him, she would never have accepted his offer to come back with her in the first place, not to mention the uncharacteristic way she’d fallen into bed with him that first night.

He was special, she’d known it from that first moment she stood in the foyer of his cabin and he’d smiled at her. Maybe she’d even known it when he stopped and rapped on the window of her car to offer aid to a perfect stranger.

Without argument she took his proffered hand and followed.

One story down, a sidle through the now deserted secondary hallway because most people used the main lobby and doors and almost all of the offices were closed, and they stepped out into the cold, gloomy evening. Their breath moved in gusty puffs. It was full dark at a little past six and the parking lot had emptied to only a few cars here and there.