Eleven Days: An Unexpected Love (33 page)

"What's wrong?" Lance asked.

"The blood type of Greg Poll, the guy
Lana
identified today, is not the same blood type of the sperm found on the window." Mike
was
shocked.

"What does
that
mean?"

"The blood type doesn't match any of the men in jail. We don't know who
was
in the house."

Lance put
his
hand on
his
brother's shoulder and said. "I know you will figure t
his
out, you always do. You know you both are welcome to stay
with
us, we live in a gated community."

"Thanks, but I don't want to put
her
through the stress of all t
his
and meeting my family. Besides you know our policy
with
the marshals, stay away from populated areas if possible. But I do appreciate the offer." Mike
was
truly concerned. T
his
case
was
a little too close to home.

Lance stood up and gave
his
brother a well needed hug and said. "Good luck and you know where
I am if you need me."

"Thanks, and I'll cal
l you when I know more
."

Mike watched Lance drive off while pulling out
his
phone to call
his
team together.

Chapter 22

7:31 p.m.

Lana
stirred trying to wake up and
she
heard men talking in the other room,
she
thought maybe
she
heard
the TV. Their words prodded
her
to listen better.
She
heard s
omething about masturbating and DNA.
She
leaned
her
ear toward the door to listen better. Surely it
was
not a
coincidence the TV
had been
turned on to a station talking about the same incident
that
happened there.

What time
was
it?
She
glanced at the clock and it said seven-thirty.
She
did notice the bathroom light
wa
s
left
on, and
she
figured Mike
turned
it on for
her
.
She
saw the glass of water on the nightstand and
she
drank eve
ry drop. Everything seemed like
a dream.
She
sat up in bed for a moment trying to remember
her
day. The last thing
she
remembered
was
when she stood at the jail.

She
crawled out of bed to splash some water on
her
face.
She
was
shocked by
her
reflection in the mirror. A big black and blue goose egg covered the right side of
her
forehead.
I
look like death warmed over
, she thought
. For the first time since
she
met Mike
she
was
be
embarrassed by the way
she
looked, pale
with
swollen and blood shot eyes. Regardless of how
she
looked,
she
wanted to know
who came to visit.
She
peeked out and saw several men
with
guns.
What the heck
?
She
took a deep breath and walked in the living room.

One of the men called for Mike.

"Hi babe you should be in bed resting." Mike
worried about
her
,
she
looked tired and frail.

"I'm fine, can we talk?"
She
didn't know why all these men were standing around
in the living room. All the men had to be football player, linebackers. They were hu
ge. None of them looked at
Lana
and
she
thought it
was
because of the bump on
her
head
, t
hey didn't know what to say.

"Sure honey, let's go in the bedroom, excuse us guys and Joe will you finish the coffee? I'll be back in a few minutes." Mike followed
her
.

"Why are all these men here
?"
She
asked while sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Well sweetie, we have a little problem. The blood type on the window doesn't match any of the men in jail."

Even though
she
was
groggy, the news hit
her
like a ton of bricks. "Umm, so there's another guy?"

"Yes."

Here again
his
short answers, and
she
didn't want short answers
. "Is
that
why there are gun packing men out there?"

"Yes these are the men who work for me, and they're here to help find t
his
other guy. All we know is the men in jail do not match the blood type of the sperm. All t
his
is just a precaution until we find out who
broke into
the house.
We decided it is
best for us to use the beach house as our headquarters. T
his
allows you to rest."

"Mike, maybe I'm stupid, but I don't get it. Who in the world
would
do something like t
his
?"

"Honey I don't know.
That
's why I've called my team in, to investigate and we've already started."

"T
his
whole situation is crazy. I don't know what to say. I can't imagine the sperm
was
n't one of those three guys. What are the odds it
was
n't one of them."
She
looked in Mike's eyes for answers. "Who do you think
would
do such a thing? Do you think it has something to do
with
you being in law enforcement?"

"Sometimes the bad guys do come after law enforcement but it doesn't happen often." The years of questions from families, he knew not to give any more information than necessary.

"If they were after you, why didn't they kill us while we were making love? Why
would
go through all t
his
trouble?"
Her
mind
was
fuzzy and
she
tried
to comprehend all t
his
new
information.

"You can't predict what goes through their minds. It
's a possibility they
wanted to scare us or it could even be a fluke, random crime."

"If they were
trying to scare me they did a good job."

"Until we get the results of the DNA, we have to work every angle. Honey I told you I
would
n't lie, we even have to work the angle
that
someone might be after you."

"Me? I don't know why anyone
would
be after me?" Deep down
she
knew no one
was
after
her
.
She
also knew t
his
was
Mike's job to check
that
angle.
She
leaned
her
head on
his
shoulder,
she
needed some reassurance.

He didn't need any coaxing and he put
his
arm around
her
. Worry devoured
his
rational thinking. What if it
was
someone after
Lana
? "Tonight I want you to rest since you already fainted, and we don't need you to do
that
again. When you're feeling better
, why don't you
come out and meet the team. I know they
would
love to meet you."

"I
would love to meet them.
"

Mike looked at the big bump on
her
head. "Honey
that
is some goose egg, does it hurt?"

"Yea, but I think I feel worse from the drugs. One thing for sure about t
his
medicine, it makes me hungry. I'm starving. Maybe the medicine made my metabolism off balance. But I feel like I haven't eaten in a week."

"We ordered pizza if you're in the mood. But if you want something else I'll send one of the guys to get it for you. I'm glad you have an appetite."

"Pizza sounds great. I'll walk out
with
you."
She
couldn't wait to meet the guys. They were a big part of Mike's life. If they were important to him, they were also important to
her
.

All but two
men left. The two men left were busy setting up computers and printers. When
she
walked in the living room both men turned to
her
and nodded their heads. One man
was
Raymond whom
she
had already met and
she
walked over and shook
his
hand. The other man
was
younger
, buff and
he had a friendly smile.
She
walked over and introduced herself. "Hi I'm
Lana
Andrews and you are?"

"My name is Joe Badger and I've heard a lot of nice things about you."

"Oh really, well I'll have to talk to you later and find out what you've heard."
She
looked at Mike and winked. Immediately
she
knew
she
would
like Joe. He
was
tall about 6'3" and he had brown hair and brown eyes
with
dimples, and he's about twenty-eight years old.
He keeps
his
hair
longer than some of
the older agents and he slicks
it back like a gangster
, and that helped him stand out
more
.
His
personality
was
different
from the other men
. He seem
ed
more kind hearted than the rest of the deputies.

"Uh Oh," he said while looking at Mike.

Mike grinned and winked at Joe as if to say,
give
her
a hard time
. But when Joe saw
her
big goose egg on
her
forehead and he didn't have the heart.

In the kitchen there were two boxes of pizza left on the counter, and there were
only
five
slices left. Hamburger, mea
t lover, and one slice of pepperoni, so
she
got the last slice of pepperoni.
She
poured some diet Pepsi and sat down at the bar. The pizza
was
warm and
she
was
glad
she
didn't have to wait for it to cool.

Mike sat on the barstool next to
her
. "Is
that
all you're going to eat?"

"Yep,
that
's a lot for me. T
his
is a large slice of pizza."

"I think I ate an entire box."

She
took a bite of pizza and pointed at the boxes
that
were empty, about twenty. "How many men were here?"

"Six."

Her
eyes widened. "Six of you ate all
that
pizza?"