Brutal Obsession (The Safeguard Series, Book One) (13 page)

It was bad enough to believe someone had hacked into her security feeds and laptop computer camera, but it was something else entirely to realize she’d been observed every minute of every day for at least the last month or more. What if this man had been watching her longer than that? Had he been coming and going from her apartment every day without her realizing it? Her stomach rolled with nausea and all she could do was nod her head.

“I’ve given a team member from SSI the IP address of your router and the administrator password. He’ll be keeping a close eye for anyone who tries to break into the system. He’ll also be watching all network traffic with an Enterprise Network Monitor.” Keane was still wearing his suit, sans the jacket. It was apparent he’d been running his hands through his hair from the way the waves were disrupted and Ashlyn wondered if there was something he was keeping from her. She wanted nothing more than to ignore what was happening so she could bury herself in her work. “I understand why you’re resistant to Special Agent Coulter’s suggestion regarding staying elsewhere for the time being, but you’ll have no other option should something else occur that would place your life in danger.”

Ashlyn leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, not comfortable with any of this. How could she be? This guy was prying into her life with a jackhammer.

“Do you still have a headache?”

“How did you know I had a headache?” Ashlyn asked, lifting her lashes to see Keane hadn’t moved from the doorway.

Keane was still watching her closely and it made her antsy, causing her to rethink the way she was dressed. She’d changed into her favorite pair of sweatpants she’d had since her law school days, her beloved warm fuzzy socks, along with a long-sleeved black shirt that was made of the smooth material she loved. She’d gone without a bra for comfort’s sake, but was second-guessing that decision now. Her nipples had to imprint clearly through the soft material and she suspected that her breasts moved just enough to garner his attention. She kept an arm on the desk in a manner that it laid in front of her, blocking his view. She decided it would be better if she went to her bedroom to put on a bra.

“You had a bottle of ibuprofen out on your desk at the office. You also haven’t eaten dinner, so your electrolytes are running low and your blood pressure will be up.”

The thought of eating had Ashlyn’s stomach lurching once again, so she slowly shook her head in response. She’d removed her hair clip but had piled her hair loosely on top of her head in a band. It tightened with her movements and she curbed a wince. She still had hours of work ahead of her and had yet to even open her email to go over the notes Mia, Aiden, Parker, and Reed had sent over. All four of them had put in a late night, which wasn’t unusual, but she would normally have gone over their material by this time and provided some relevant feedback. At the rate she was going, she would have to pull another all-nighter.

“I’m fine,” Ashlyn replied with her standard answer with a not too convincing smile. She reached forward for her pen and opened another folder, this one containing interviews of the men who’d paid for the services the defendant had offered. Her headache became worse at the testimony she was about to review. “Thank you for handling the security system and the support people while I continued to work.”

“It’s what I’m here for,” Keane replied, although she was certain there was sarcasm lacing his tone. Ashlyn hadn’t meant for her gratitude to sound dismissive. “Paul was able to update your computer network via remote access through the router, but he disabled the video camera connected to the security system as a precaution. I’ll be in the living room should you need anything.”

Ashlyn glanced over at her laptop monitor where a small yellow sticky note was currently covering the lens, but Keane was gone before she could tell him she’d taken her own extra precautions. She sighed in resignation of just how out of control her life had become in a span of forty-eight hours. Yes, it had been much longer than that, but she’d still been in control of how she did things daily. Now? She had no idea what to feel or how to act, so she did what she did best. She withdrew into herself and concentrated solely on the case in front of her.

Ashlyn glanced at her office phone, wishing it wasn’t going on midnight. Her father was usually the first person she called when things went sideways, but she’d already called him once today about what was taking place. She assured him everything was under control now with the FBI hot on the trail and a full-time personal security guard. He and her mother were currently in Italy for their thirtieth wedding anniversary and there was no need to worry them needlessly, yet he’d informed her that he was going to make a few calls back home. Things were being taken care of and there wasn’t anything further that either of her parents could do, other than hover. She ignored the impulse of calling them and forced herself to focus on the work at hand.

The next two hours passed slowly, but Ashlyn had been able to finally get a substantial start to her closing arguments, which she would need rather quickly if the defense rested after her motion was heard and ruled on. The defendant was currently taking the stand and questioning would resume tomorrow, but she highly doubted he would say anything to incriminate himself, having been prepped so well by his attorney. She honestly hadn’t thought of anything else beyond listing the facts of the case to convey to the jury there was only one decision that made sense and justice needed to be served to protect the weakest of society. She recognized that her ability to do so was due to Keane’s presence and the cocoon of security he was providing.

Ashlyn pushed him from her thoughts, trying to find the rhythm she’d been writing to, but finally admitted that it was gone. Once the genie had escaped the bottle, trapping the elusive miscreant was next to impossible. Maybe Keane’s presence wasn’t such a good thing. She rubbed her eyes and willed herself to concentrate by focusing on the evidence that had been ruled as admissible and that she could include in her summary. After rewriting the same sentence three times, she gave up.

It was then that Ashlyn realized the silence had become rather deafening. She could literally hear the grandfather clock from the other side of her apartment. Had Keane fallen asleep on her couch? He’d traveled from Florida and then hit the ground running, so she could only imagine how exhausted he must be. She’d converted the spare bedroom into her office, so the only place he had to camp out was her sofa. She winced at how uncomfortable that must be, considering she hadn’t been the one to pick it out. It was purely for looks.

Months of living and breathing work hadn’t given Ashlyn a lot of time to focus on her apartment, until one day Gina had stopped by with some files Ashlyn had forgotten at the office. She’d looked aghast at the empty space filled with unpacked boxes and it wasn’t two days later that Ashlyn’s home had been unpacked, filled with furniture, and designed to someone else’s specifications. The thing of it was, she didn’t mind it because she was rarely here. She also never socialized here. The only room she’d taken time to do herself had been her bedroom, and only because she hadn’t been able to sleep with the white walls, modern art, and a lamp that resembled something from a sci-fi movie. Design by accident had been her comment at the time. Her loss of sleep lately had nothing to do with décor.

Ashlyn strained to hear any sounds of Keane inside of her apartment when it dawned on her that she hadn’t seen him bring up a suitcase of any kind. Did he even have clothes to change into? A toothbrush? It wasn’t her place to worry about what he had or didn’t have, but she couldn’t prevent herself from wheeling her chair back and crossing the hardwood floor to look out over the living room. He hadn’t closed the door after checking on her earlier, so she quietly crossed the threshold. The lights were still on in the apartment.

“Everything okay?”

Ashlyn jumped at the rich sound of his voice, immediately finding him sitting on the leather couch. He was leaning forward and working on a laptop, although all his attention was on her at the moment. She really needed to go and put on that bra. Several things dawned on her at once. He’d changed into more comfortable clothes, he was still wearing his shoulder holster, the laptop wasn’t one of hers—she had a couple of spares available at the office had she’d known he needed one—and he was wide awake.

“Yes,” Ashlyn answered before veering off into the kitchen. She reached for the carafe of coffee, noticing it had been freshly brewed. Had he done that for her or was he drinking a cup? A quick glance over her shoulder showed her that he didn’t have a cup near him. “Do you want some coffee? I didn’t hear you leave the apartment.”

“I didn’t. And no, thank you,” Keane responded, still studying her intently. Ashlyn turned back and concentrated on pouring herself some coffee, ignoring the fact that she’d left her other mug back in her office. “Jack brought my things up around an hour ago. Although you should know, a couple members of my team should be arriving first thing in the morning. The depth to which this perp is willing to go has altered the way your protection needs to be handled overall.”

“I don’t understand. What’s changed?” Ashlyn asked rather cautiously, not wanting to make any additional changes in the way things were being handled. She hadn’t received any emails, letters, gifts, or texts since her apartment had been cleared and her security systems upgraded. Granted, she was talking about a span of five hours, but it still felt significant to her knowing that his intrusion had been stunted. She walked back around the counter to get a better grasp on why Keane would believe reinforcements were needed. “Has something else happened?”

“No. I would have informed you if I’d received any further information.” It was apparent Keane didn’t appreciate that she would think he would hold back vital news, but there was no other reason for an entire team of professionals to keep an eye on her…unless he didn’t want to be the one protecting her twenty-four seven. A small ache started to throb in Ashlyn’s chest at the thought he harbored that much resentment toward her and she decided that maybe she didn’t want to know his real motivations. “Ash, it’s just a reasonable precaution.”

Ashlyn’s breath caught in her throat at Keane’s use of the nickname he used to call her when they’d have sex. He’d said it in reference to her burning as hot as ash underneath his hands when he made love to her. He was the only man to have ever called her that and she hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed the intimacy of a simple nickname. She ignored the slight, as it was apparent he hadn’t even realized he’d done so when he continued to explain his reasoning.

“Coen Flynn will be renting the apartment across the hallway to monitor traffic in and out of your apartment door,” Keane explained as he closed the lid to his laptop and stood. It was then she realized he was wearing jeans with a black T-shirt, instead of his preferred khakis and a pullover. “Sawyer Madison will be joining him, although he’ll usually be our tail-end-Charlie. Coulter was right when he said this perp is only going to become more agitated and unpredictable. We’ve taken what access he had to you and completely cut it off. He’d taken the time to strategize and execute a surveillance plan and we removed it. There’s no telling how he is going to react to that loss. As your hired protection detail lead, it’s my responsibility to ensure we have all our bases covered.”

Keane stopped close enough in front of her that she had to tilt her head up to meet his gaze. The gold flecks within his brown eyes were lighter than they usually were, reminding her of a time long ago when that had represented something entirely different. Now? He hadn’t done one thing except maintain his professionalism. She reminded herself that she needed to do the same.

“I appreciate—”

The shrilling sound of the alarm system being set off cut through the stillness of the apartment, causing Ashlyn to literally jump while Keane had his weapon drawn and down by his side before her bare feet touched the ground. There was really only one access point and they were both currently looking at it. That didn’t mean the intruder hadn’t figured out a way in through the sealed windows, regardless that they were multiple stories off of the ground. Keane’s strong grip had her turning back, motioning for her to go to her office. She would have much preferred to go to her bedroom where her Berretta was currently stowed in her nightstand, but he wasn’t giving her much of a choice at the moment.

“Go,” Keane barked, already moving toward the windows while maintaining an eye on the front door. “Now!”

Ashlyn backed away until she finally turned on her bare feet and ran down the short hallway, quickly making her way to her desk. She hastily reached for her desk phone, even though she knew the alarm company would have already called the authorities, only to stop mid-motion when the shrieking suddenly stopped. She listened carefully for any sign of Keane when she heard him call her name, telling her the apartment was clear. She was about to make her way out of the office when she heard her cell phone vibrate.

Call it intuition, or maybe Ashlyn was starting to think the worst of things, but she truly believed it was
him
on the other line. He’d done this. He’d triggered the alarm somehow. She wasn’t sure how with all the upgrades or the fact that the FBI was most likely monitoring the system…but
he
had to be responsible for this.

Ashlyn moved some folders out of the way in search of her cell phone, finding it instantly. The display was lit with an incoming text message.

“Get your things,” Keane instructed, appearing in the doorway. He abruptly stopped upon seeing her expression of fear. Ashlyn couldn’t help but allow the grip of terror to take hold. This wasn’t an ordinary individual. This was a determined soul bent on having her—one way or another. “Ash?”

She swallowed down the bile that had risen in her throat. With an unsteady finger, she swiped across the screen to see what he’d sent.

You should know that nothing nor no one could keep me from you.