COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) (26 page)

At the Compound

“We have visitors.”

Ash walked over to David’s workstation and watched the car pull up to the front gate. He recognized Mr. Thompson the moment he leaned out the window to speak into the intercom.

“Hello?” they heard him say over the computer speakers. “Anyone there?”

David glanced at Ash, his eyebrow raised in question.

“Let him. I was going to head over to his house later, anyway.”

David just nodded, punching some button on the keyboard. Immediately, the gate began to swing back, making room for the compact Mercedes to slide through it. We watched on the screen as he drove down the drive, taking the subtle curves slowly.

The front door opened and Donovan came strolling in with Kate at his side. They weren’t touching, but a blind man could see that something had changed between them. Ash felt his spine stiffen. He was beginning to regret not taking Donovan off the case the moment he told him that this client was personal to him. He’d thought that by the way Kate reacted to him in the hospital and the way he responded that Donovan finally had put his past behind him. But now…if he’d known about the romantic aspect of his relationship with Kate Thompson in the past, he never would have let this go forward.

Donovan was his brother just as much as David was. He didn’t want to see him hurt. He’d been through enough already.

Ash strolled over casually, a fresh cup of coffee in his hands.

“Your father’s here.”

Kate looked up, surprise widening her hazel eyes. “My dad?”

Ash nodded. “Must have heard about the chaos at your house during the night.”

A thoughtful look crossed her face. “Yeah. One of my neighbors might have called him.”

Donovan moved up behind her and whispered something close to her ear. She nodded, and he stepped away, but not before Ash saw his hand linger on the small of her back.

Shit! Donovan…

Donovan headed off toward David’s workstation. Normally Ash would follow him, but he chose to remain with Kate instead. He gestured for her to take a seat on a low loveseat that as right there to her left.

“I know last night was pretty crazy.”

She nodded. “Definitely not something I thought I’d be doing on a Wednesday night.”

“This whole thing is pretty disorienting for most people. Takes them out of their comfort zone and thrusts them into a place that is uncomfortable and sometimes frightening.”

She focused on him, understanding spreading from those deep eyes to the slight frown of her full lips.

“For you, this is a temporary situation. Eventually, the person doing this to you will be found and incarcerated. Then you will be able to go back to your everyday life.” He paused, his eyes searching hers. “For Donovan, this is his everyday life.”

Her eyes fell to the floor. He thought, for a moment, that she was processing what he’d said, perhaps coming to an understanding. But when she looked up again, her eyes fixed on his, he could see that same stubborn determination that he’d met in her hospital room.

“I get that you care about him. I even get that you probably know our history and you might even think that my opinion of Donovan is off or skewed in some way. But, to be perfectly honest, this is our business. Donovan’s a big boy. He knows what he’s getting into with me, probably better than you do.”

“I just want to make sure one or both of you don’t get hurt when this is all said and done.”

She nodded as she placed her hand on his knee. “We’re both grownups. We can watch out for ourselves.”

It seemed like an ironic thing to say, considering the nature of her relationship with Gray Wolf Security at the moment. However, Ash couldn’t help but admire her hutzpah. It would likely get her through whatever was yet to come.

“Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are here,” Rose called from her desk, gesturing to the front door.

Ash stood and went to greet them. Mr. Thompson’s expression was tight, but Mrs. Thompson was more interested in checking out the house and the people populating it than in consoling her clearly upset husband.

“Mr. Thompson,” Ash said, offering his hand. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“What the hell is going on, Grayson?” Mr. Thompson said. “I get a phone call from a friend telling me that cops were all over my daughter’s house all morning.”

“I wanted to wait until we had all the information before we called you.”

Mr. Thompson opened his mouth to argue when Kate came around Ash.

“Daddy.”

He hugged her as if he’d not seen her in twenty years. Ash watched, touched by this clear example of familial affection. He remembered those kinds of hugs with his mother and father. He might not seem like the kind of guy who was close to his parents, but he adored them and believed that they adored him. And he missed them every minute of every day, especially at times like this.

He glanced over at David and caught him watching. However, the moment had a different impact on him. David expression tightened and his eyes darkened. And when Ash made the mistake of catching his eye, he immediately turned away.

There was that guilt. Ash had worked for more than a year to ease his guilt, to make him see that the accident was not his fault. But once David made up his mind about something, his mind was made up. There was no changing it.

“Daniel,” Donovan said, offering his hand to Mr. Thompson as he finally released his daughter.

“What’s going on, Donny?”

Donovan gestured for Mr. Thompson to follow him back to the same loveseat Ash and Kate had just abandoned. The five of them took a seat in the small sitting area—after Mr. Thompson called to his wife several times to get her to pay attention to them—and Donovan quickly explained how the program David had designed notified him of a possible intruder and how he got Kate out of the house as quickly and safely as he could.

“We have reason to believe that whoever killed the security guard at your daughter’s bank is after Kate,” Ash said, watching alarm burst across Mr. Thompson’s face at the same time Kate looked down at her hands, resignation clearly written on the curves of her face. “We are working closely with the Santa Monica Police Department to identify this person as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we will be keeping Kate in a safe house we own in downtown Santa Monica.”

Kate’s eyebrows rose. So did Donovan’s.

Normally, in a case where there was some thought that the safe house had been compromised, the target would be housed at the compound. But Ash didn’t want Donovan and Kate to have the opportunity to spend too much time alone. Although they’d be physically alone in a safe house, all the safe houses were wired with cameras, so they were never truly alone. It’d be safer for Donovan. Then, when the case was over, if he wanted to pursue something, Ash couldn’t do anything about it.

“Our safe houses are as secure as this compound,” he assured everyone. “There is no reason to believe that there will be a repeat of what happened last night.”

“What progress are the police making?” Mr. Thompson asked.

“Our liaison with the Los Angeles Police Department, Detective Warren, will be here momentarily to update you,” Ash said.

“You got any coffee?” Mrs. Thompson suddenly asked, gesturing to the cup Ash still held, unconsciously, in his hands.

“Of course.”

Ash stood and made his way to the kitchen, digging a mug out of the cupboards and pouring coffee for her and refreshing his own. He turned to take the mugs back to the living room only to discover Mrs. Thompson had followed him. She was standing practically in his face, only inches from him, a warm smile on her lips.

“You sure are a looker,” she said softly, her eyes moving slowly over the length of him. “Are you married?”

Ash could normally handle himself with women, but this one was about as far from typical as any woman he’d ever met. He stepped back, but there wasn’t much he could do to protect himself, not with two coffee mugs in his hands.

“Veronica?”

She didn’t turn even as Donovan came up behind her.

“What do you say we go back to the couch? I think Daniel and Kate could really use your support right now.”

“Daniel can take care of himself,” Mrs. Thompson said, not taking her eyes off of Ash. “And Kate never liked me. She thinks I’m some sort of gold digger or something.”

“Yes, well,” Donovan began, clearly at a loss. “Sometimes even tough guys need a little comfort.”

Mrs. Thompson sighed heavily. “Oh, alright,” she said, her eyes raking over Ash one last time. “But you and I should have a conversation sometime.”

She took the mug of coffee Ash was holding for her, her fingers purposely scraping against his as she did.

Donovan and Ash both watched her walk away, settling beside her husband and making a great show of offering him a little hug.

“That one’s trouble.”

“Did we do a background check on her when we took the case?” Donovan asked.

Ash shrugged. “Don’t know.”

“Seems to me she would have reason to get Kate out of the way.”

Ash focused on Donovan, his eyebrows raised. “You think she’s smart enough to pull off some of the things this perp has done?”

“She wasn’t terribly smart, shooting the security guard in the middle of a fairly busy street, even if it was late at night. And she would have known about the security measures we placed at Kate’s house. I’m sure Daniel would have told her. Maybe she was just testing it the other night, trying to see what we’d do next.”

“Maybe.”

“Should check her out.”

“Yeah. I’ll get David on it.”

“There’s something else,” Donovan said. “Kate mentioned that her car was broken into two weeks prior to the security guard’s death. On a Monday, just like the night of the attack.”

“Might be connected. Might not.”

Donovan nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.”

“I’ll talk to Emily about it.”

Detective Warren arrived a few minutes later. Ash and Donovan returned to the party and listened as she laid out the evidence they’d gathered thus far, which wasn’t much.

“We believe the perp was trying to place some sort of wire inside the window. We don’t know what the purpose was. It could have been for some sort of camera. Or it could have been for something else.”

Ash saw Donovan take Kate’s hand and squeeze it. He was the explosives expert. He knew what the wire was most likely for.

“We were unable to get fingerprints. The perp was apparently wearing gloves. And we still don’t know what scared him off.”

“In other words, you have no idea what’s going on,” Mr. Thompson announced, clearly and understandably frustrated.

“This is the way it generally goes with these kinds of cases, Mr. Thompson,” Detective Warren said, leaning forward and studying him with an earnest expression. “We are doing the best we can.”

“And what? My daughter remains some sort of target until you figure it out?”

“We’ll keep her in the safe house, safe from whoever this is, until we have a break in the case.”

“Wait a minute,” Kate said, suddenly straightening in her seat. “I have a business party tomorrow night. Ash said I could attend it.”

Detective Warren shot Ash a dark look. “Is that right?”

“That was before the wire was placed on her house.”

“Well, we can’t allow that to happen, Miss Thompson.”

“You don’t understand,” Kate said. “This is important for my career. I’ve already missed several days of work this week. If I miss the party, too, I could miss out on a promotion that they’re supposed to hand down at the end of the month.”

“There are more important things than your career,” Mr. Thompson said.

“But my career is important to me. And I’m going to go back to a normal life when this is all over, right? I deserve this promotion.”

“Kate…” Mr. Thompson said, warning in his tone.

“We can make it work,” Donovan said.

Everyone stared at him. It wasn’t like Donovan to override something a superior said.

“I can attend the party with her. David can hack the security system at the hotel where it’s being held. And Ash, you could be outside.”

“There are too many people, too many unknowns,” Ash said.

“There were too many unknowns before, but you were okay with it,” Kate said.

“And Emily,” Donovan said, speaking as though no one else had spoken, “you could talk Jack into sending an undercover team. It’s possible the perp might come out of the woodwork if he knows she’s going to be there. He might reveal himself.”

Detective Warren studied his face, hers a sudden mask of thoughtfulness. “It’s possible.”

“But you can’t keep her safe,” Mr. Thompson announced, clearly astonished that they were even considering the idea. “This is my daughter, my only surviving child. You can’t possibly be thinking about making her bait now!”

“It might be the safest, quickest way we can resolve this,” Donovan said gently.