Dangerous Secrets (11 page)

Trying hard not to wake Izzy, he gently lifted her from the couch and walked her to her room. “Izzy?”

She stirred in his arms as he laid her onto the bed. “What?” she mumbled as she shifted against one of the pillows.

“Do you want to sleep in your dress?”

“Uh uh.”

After slipping her dress off, he pulled the sheet and comforter back and over her before getting in next to her. He wrapped his arm around her as she positioned her back against his stomach and chest. Twenty minutes later, as he was staring at the ceiling, Izzy surprised him.

“You awake?” she asked.

“Yeah.” His response was a whisper.

“Me too.”

“Something on your mind?”

She was silent for a long beat and he wasn’t sure she’d answer. Finally she spoke. “I’m sorry about what happened to you growing up.”

His first instinct was to shut down the conversation but he resisted. It wasn’t pity he heard in her voice. “It’s okay.”

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

“I’m listening,” he murmured into her hair.

She shifted and turned over so that they faced each other. He propped up on one elbow.

Her hair spilled out onto the sheets and over her chest as she lay against the pillow. “The reason I was kidnapped…was because of my family. You said you’re going to be helping your brother with his security business, right?”

His throat refused to move so he nodded.

“Have you heard of Ballantine Industries?”

At the moment, he wanted the world to open up and swallow him whole. He loathed lying to her like this. “Yes.”

“Edward Ballantine is my father.”

His eyebrows rose in shock. It was feigned, but thankfully she didn’t seem to notice. Talking about her father was the last thing he wanted to do.

“When I was fourteen, two of the gardeners grabbed me after school one day. I struggled, which is how I got the scar. They took me to a rundown house and locked me in a closet for days.”

“Damn.” He reached under the covers and grasped her waist, pulling her closer to him. That hadn’t been in her father’s report.

She shook her head. “For days one of the men talked about all the…things he was going to do to me. His partner wouldn’t let him touch me until they had the money. They never planned to let me go either. Something they reveled in reminding me.”

Everything around him funneled out but her delicate face. “Izzy, you don’t have to tell me any of this.”

“I want to. I was rescued before he could follow through with his plans, but I still have an aversion to small spaces.” She slid an inch closer and wrapped a leg around him.

“I can understand why.” He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.

“My father is really overprotective. Sometimes he crosses the line into ridiculously overbearing territory and I know the kidnapping is part of the reason.”

“I’m sure it’s because he loves you.”

“I know it is. Part of the reason I moved here was to get away from him, but now…” When it was obvious she wasn’t going to continue, he lay back against the pillow and pulled her with him. Her head rested on his chest as he stroked up and down her spine. Why had she told him all of this?

As if she read his mind, she spoke again. “I’ve never told anyone about that. I don’t know why I told you now.”

Adam sighed and his grip increased around her. “You’re the first person I told about my scars.”

Not even the first girl he thought he’d loved. Maybe it was subconscious, but he’d never opened up to Amanda. He’d only let her see what she wanted. The quintessential bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks. She might have known where he came from, but he’d never let her into his world.

Izzy was different though. She wasn’t a spoiled teenager using him for anything. He took a deep breath and steeled himself for a rejection. What he had to say next he might loathe himself for later, but he had to do it just the same.

“Come back to Savannah with me, Izzy.” His words sucked all the air out of the room.

She lifted her head and stared at him. The seconds that ticked by felt like an eternity. Their breathing was the only sound in the room.

Her dark eyes narrowed. “What?”

“I leave in less than two weeks. I don’t want to go back without you.” He wanted her back home to keep her safe but he also wanted her to come with him because he loved her. He was going to tell her father the deal was off as soon as the guy after Izzy was caught. Eventually he’d have to tell her about the stupid deal he’d made with her father but his main priority was keeping her safe right now. If he admitted what he’d done and she kicked him out of her life, she’d be exposed to a maniac. He couldn’t risk that.

She chewed on her bottom lip and he could practically see a war waging in that pretty head of hers. Finally she spoke. “Why are you working here? In Coconut Bay?”

He swallowed down the bile. Now came more lies and half truths. “To get away from my family.”
A lie.
“My brother and I started our own security company. We’ve been working our asses off for four years.”
The truth.
“I wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life so my brother told me to take a couple months off and figure things out.”
Another lie.
The words tasted bitter in his mouth. As soon as she was safe back home and he’d called things off with her father, he’d come clean. He had to. The lying would kill him otherwise. And he wanted something real, something long-term with her. He couldn’t start it based on bullshit.

“You sound like me.” A small smile played at the corner of her mouth and he wanted to kick his own ass.

When she laid her head back down he silently prayed she wouldn’t ask any more personal questions. A few minutes later, her steady breathing told him she was asleep. She hadn’t answered his question, but at least she hadn’t said no.

Jack took a sip of his coffee, then cringed as he put it back in the cup holder. “This coffee sucks.”

“Next time I’m buying,” Andrew muttered without looking up from his notepad.

Jack shook his head and looked out the windshield. From where they sat across the parking lot of the Motel 8, they had a perfect view of room 103. So far, there hadn’t been any movement. The motel owner swore he’d rented a room to the man in the sketch they’d sent out. If this was where their guy was staying, they were going to catch him this time. He could feel it in his bones. They were so damn close.

“Hey, Maria Martinez’s father is Cuban right?” Andrew asked, cutting into his thoughts.

“Yeah, why?”

“Just listen for a sec. The first victim, Sasha Sorrentino, what’s your guess on her ethnicity?”

Turning, he frowned at his partner, wondering where this was headed. He had all the victims’ faces memorized. Dark hair, pale skin, sharp, exotic features. “Possibly Spanish and European descent.”

Andrew slid out a piece of paper from one of the manila folders and handed it to him. “Correct. Spanish father and Russian mother.”

“So what’s your point? The second victim is Ann Meyers. She looks like the all-American girl next door.”

“She might not look like it, but her mother is Ecuadorian.”

Jack frowned as he took the second paper his partner handed him.

His partner continued. “The fourth victim is African American and Cuban. And I don’t know for sure, but Andrea Barclay, the woman he
tried
to kidnap, looks like she might have Native American roots. I’m guessing on her mother’s side considering her last name.”

“That’s my guess too.” Jack nodded as his partner jotted something down. “So our guy is targeting what, women of mixed ethnicity? Don’t you think that’s kind of a stretch? There’s got to be something else linking them together.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Instead of just using government databases I’ve been running his ‘calling card’ in the computer, and this is what I’ve come up with. It didn’t make sense until now, and yes, it might be a stretch, but it’s all we’ve got to go on.” Andrew handed him a printout Jack hadn’t seen before.

The attacker’s
calling card,
as they’d come to refer to it, was the strange symbol he cut into his victim’s backs. Except for their boss, they hadn’t told anyone else about it. Not even the civilians on staff knew about it.

The two half moons he inflicted on his victims were positioned back to back. They weren’t deep enough to scar the women permanently, but they certainly made them bleed.

“What
is
this?” He handed the paper back to his partner.

“It’s an old alchemical symbol used in botany. It represents plants that are the result of crossbreeding.”

“Crossbreeding? So you really do think this guy is targeting his victims based on race?” Jack asked.

Andrew’s shoulders lifted slightly. “I’ve heard of crazier reasons.”

“So why is he harassing Isabelle Ballantine then?”

“She interrupted him. You’ve got to think that this guy puts a lot of time and effort into stalking his victims and—”

“And she interrupted him.”

“Exactly.”

Jack shook his head and took another sip of the nasty coffee for the sugar rush. “If this is true, then we’re going to need to start cross-referencing…Hey, look at that.”

His partner averted his gaze across the parking lot, toward the building. “Is that a light?”

It was muted, but a dull glow was coming from room 103. Like it was coming from the bathroom.

“Shit.” Jack shoved the coffee cup back into the holder. Some of the liquid sloshed over but he ignored it. He pulled his gun from his shoulder holster.

Andrew did the same and nodded at him as he opened the passenger door. Jack followed suit and opened his own door.

Their boots crunched over the gravel as they half-crouched, half-ran across the parking lot. He kept his eyes trained on the curtains—which hadn’t moved—until they sat behind an old Cadillac.

“You go in front. I’m going around back. Wait ten seconds before knocking,” Andrew whispered.

Jack nodded and glanced at his watch. His partner scanned the area before sprinting down the side of the building, then disappearing around the corner. Looking around, Jack was relieved to see the parking lot devoid of people. There were quite a few cars, but hopefully everyone was in for the night.

A quick look at his watch told him it was time to move. Keeping his gun out in front of him, he stayed low until his back was against the stone wall of the motel.

He knocked once, but stayed out of the way of the door. “Police. Open up.”

Silence.

He knocked again, this time louder. “Police.”

This time he heard movement, but still no answer. He lifted his foot, ready to kick the door in, when he heard a shot. “Shit.”

There wasn’t enough time to run around back. Kicking in doors was television bullshit. He shot the doorknob off. The door swung open. Using caution, he swept the room with his gun. Empty.

The back window was open, and the dingy curtain fluttered in the breeze. His radio buzzed. “Jack, where the hell are you?”

Keeping his weapon ready, he answered with his free hand. “I’m in the room. Did you hear that shot?”

“Yeah I heard it. Bastard clipped me,” he groaned before the radio cut off.

His partner’s words sprung him into action, but before he charged through the back window, he needed to know his head wasn’t getting blown off. “Do you have a visual?”

“He ran into the woods back here.”

Jack stepped onto the small wooden table underneath the window and hoisted himself through. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he buzzed the station. “Officer down. I need backup now. Repeat. Officer down.”

Squatting, he checked his partner’s pulse.

Andrew swatted his hand away. “I’m fine, man. Just get me out of here. We’re like sitting ducks.”

He hated moving him, but his friend was right. Behind the motel, thick woods stretched for about a mile and other than the lights from some of the rooms, there was limited visibility. As he talked to the dispatcher he continued talking to his partner. “Can you walk?”

Still leaning against the wall, Andrew pushed against it. “I think so.”

Unwilling to put his weapon up, Jack used one arm to lift him and together they hobbled back around the building. Sirens sounded in the distance.

As Jack helped him to lean against one of the cars in the parking lot, he inspected the wound. “Looks like it went all the way through.” He ripped his jacket off, then took off his shirt. “I’m going to wrap this around the wound to control some of the bleeding.”

Andrew groaned as Jack tightened the shirt. “Hurts like a son of a bitch, but I’ll live…Listen, I know who shot me.”

Jack froze as ice flooded his veins. “What?”

“I don’t
know
him, but it was the same guy from the sketch. Damn it, this hurts.” He clutched his shoulder but thankfully didn’t lose consciousness.

An ambulance, a fire-truck and two squad cars rumbled into the parking lot, one behind the other. “Sit tight.”

Jack ran into the middle of the lot and waved them over. When he was back by his partner’s side, he continued. “Are you sure about who you saw?”

He nodded. “Yes. It’s him.” He fell forward and grasped his forehead. “Feel…dizzy.”

“Don’t say anything else. Save your strength.”

Jack helped steady his partner as the EMTs rolled a gurney over to them. One of the EMTs strapped an oxygen mask over his partner’s face as they hoisted him into the back of the waiting vehicle.

As the ambulance pulled out of the parking lot, Jack cursed to himself. This guy had just shot a cop. He was already escalating his attacks but this was different. Jack jogged over to one of the idling squad cars. They needed to put out an APB on this guy and fast. After he made the call he headed back to the motel room. This guy had left in a hurry which meant he might have gotten sloppy.

Izzy opened her eyes and shot straight up in bed. Her heart pounded erratically against her ribcage as she looked at the indentation in the bed next to her. Light streamed underneath her bedroom door. The sight immediately soothed her.

With everything going on, she’d been extra jumpy the past couple days and couldn’t seem to shake that feeling that she was constantly being watched. In her head she knew it was because of the creepy phone call and the guy who’d tried to run her off the road, but being near Adam was the only thing that seemed to calm her.

A quick glance at the digital clock on her nightstand told her it was six. She’d be getting up in an hour or two anyway. Might as well get out of bed now. She picked up a discarded T-shirt from the floor and slipped it over her head. Her bedroom door squeaked when she opened it. She walked the few feet down the short hallway to the living room.

Adam looked over from the couch as she stepped into the room. His features immediately softened when they made eye contact. “What are you doing up?” His words were almost a whisper.

She shrugged as she walked over to the couch and sat next to him. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“Me neither. Check this out.” He pointed toward the television screen with the remote control.

The Asian reporter’s voice grew louder as Adam increased the volume. “
Deputies are investigating a series of attacks in the Coconut Bay area. The wanted man’s identity is still unknown, but police have issued a composite sketch…
”

She leaned forward on the couch, as if she could somehow hear better. When Adam shifted, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I put on coffee a while ago. You want some?”

“That’d be great.” She gave him a brief smile then returned her attention to the screen. She couldn’t believe they’d used her drawing. Maybe that meant they were closing in on the maniac. After five minutes of listening to the same thing over and over, she switched to another news channel, hoping they’d have something more recent.

The male reporter on this channel had much more interesting things to say. “
It hasn’t been confirmed, but a source inside Coconut Bay Hospital tells us a police officer has been wounded and is currently in intensive care…
”

“Adam, get in here.”

A few moments later he walked in carrying two steaming mugs. “Here.” He handed her one as he sat next to her.

“Thanks.” She held on to her drink and shifted so that she was snuggled up against his side.

“This is probably the biggest thing to happen here in decades,” Adam said.

“I know, right.”

After ten minutes of listening to the same report, it was obvious they weren’t going to release the name of the injured officer. They probably didn’t have the name in the first place. The department wouldn’t release it until the family was notified. Izzy sneaked a glance at Adam’s face only to find him looking at her.

“What?” she asked.

His expression was hooded. “Nothing.”

She bit her bottom lip and broke his gaze. She continued to stare at the screen, but only saw blurry shapes and figures. His heated stare was so potent, she could feel her face warming up.

“Izzy.” Adam’s deep voice broke into her thoughts.

She turned to look at him again. “Yeah?”

“Do you want to talk about what I asked last night?” His face revealed nothing as he spoke.

Izzy cleared her throat. Did she want to talk about him asking her to move to Savannah? No. Definitely not. But she knew they had to. “What exactly do you want from me?”

“I think that much should be obvious.” His voice was dry.

She nudged him with her elbow. “I’m serious. I know we just started…this.” She spread out her hands in a helpless gesture. “Whatever
this
is. I guess I want to know what you want from me.”

“Everything.” His answer was automatic.

“You want…everything?”
What did that even mean?

“I want to see your face when I wake up every morning and that scares the hell out of me, Izzy. I don’t know where this is headed, but I know I’ve never felt about anyone what I feel for you and I want to give this a chance to go somewhere.” His deep voice and words enveloped her.

She searched for the right words. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone either, but…do you need an answer right this instant?”

Something flared in his eyes. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but for a brief moment, he had this vulnerable, puppy dog look in his green eyes. Then it was gone so fast she wasn’t sure if maybe she imagined it.

“No.” He broke eye contact and picked up his coffee mug. “I’m going to hit the shower.” Her heart dropped at the abrupt dismissal until he turned around with a primal, almost hungry expression. “You can join me if you like.” The words were hoarse and totally unexpected.

She nodded. “I’ll be there in a sec.” When he disappeared into her room, she pressed a hand to her stomach and pushed down the fear and old memories that threatened to surface.

When she and Adam had first met, he hadn’t even known who she was. And when he found out who her father was, he hadn’t been impressed. Surprised, yes, but not impressed. In her experience, that was unusual.

She wanted so much to believe his words that he wanted her to move back to Savannah, but couldn’t help but wonder if there was an ulterior motive. Her gut told her she could trust him. He was definitely attracted to her. She didn’t have much experience with men, but unless he was an accomplished actor, that much was very real. And while she might not have experience, she knew how to read people.

The sound of running water pulled her back to reality. She shook her head and stood up. It was time to start trusting people. And she might as well start with the sexy man waiting for her. She took off her shirt and panties and tossed them in the laundry on her way to join Adam.

“That water better be hot,” she said as she pulled back the shower curtain.

“Took you long enough.” He tugged her by the hips so that she stood under the cascading water with him.