Natalie was going to say that she didn’t want a kiss from him, and Drake didn’t know how he was going to handle it. Sure, he didn’t want to get involved in anything long-term, but he sure wanted to kiss her.
She stepped off the treadmill and inched closer. “Please. I want to kiss you too.”
His mouth almost dropped open, but he caught himself and swooped in before she changed her mind. Her lips were warm and insistent, as if she’d been wanting this kiss for some time. He didn’t know when he first thought about kissing her, but it didn’t matter. It was all he wanted right now.
He circled his arms around her back and drew her closer. He couldn’t get carried away, but he did deepen the kiss. She matched his passion, clinging to his neck and sliding her fingers into his hair. Holding his head fast.
He was vaguely aware of his phone buzzing in his pocket but ignored it. Nothing was more important than her right now. The buzzing stopped. Then started again.
Okay, it had to be critical.
He broke off the kiss and took a long breath. “My phone. It’s ringing.”
She backed away with such speed it was as if she was embarrassed at her response. At the kiss. He sure wasn’t, not in the least. He liked her. A lot. She was everything he could want in a woman. So what if she wasn’t the outdoorsy type? But man, she brought up emotions in him that he hadn’t known existed.
She brushed a hand over her hair that he now knew was as soft as it looked as he grabbed his phone.
An alarm squealed from the back door just feet away from him. Gentry. Was Gentry trying to break in? To get to Natalie.
They were sitting ducks with a glass wall facing the hallway. The closet. He had to get her in the closet behind closed doors.
Now!
“What is it? What’s happening?” she cried out.
“A breach at the back door. Come on.” Drake grabbed her hand and tugged her into the storage closet. He joined her to call Pete to see if he’d seen an intruder on the security cameras and noted the missed calls were from him.
“We’ve had an attempted break-in,” Pete said, sounding out of breath. “But he didn’t breach the door. The building is still secure.”
“Where is he now?” he asked Pete.
“Gone. I saw him on the monitor messing with the fingerprint reader. I asked for him to identify himself over the intercom and scared him off. I couldn’t leave the front door unprotected so I couldn’t pursue him, but caught him on another camera taking off in his car.”
“Describe him.”
“He wore a Spider-Man mask, so all I can give you is his build. I’d say five-eleven about one-ninety. Caught a glimpse of his hands. Caucasian.”
“Fits Gentry’s build. Maybe he knew Natalie was here, and he was trying to get to her.” Drake didn’t like to think that was possible, but it was the most logical explanation. “Did you call it in?”
“Yeah. Got his plates. Vehicle’s a white Toyota Camry.”
“Can you get Nick to check out the print reader?” Nick was the Veritas Center’s computer expert.
“Already on his way down. So are Piper, Reed, and Hunter. Figured we could do with some extra eyes down here.”
Drake had never been more thankful for all the law enforcement officers living in the building. Piper, an FBI agent, was married to Nick, and Hunter, also an agent, was married to Maya, the toxicology and substances expert.
“I’m in the gym with Natalie. Will stay put until they clear the building, but I want security camera footage to review ASAP.”
“I’ll email it to you.”
“Thanks, Pete. And thanks for acting before this guy made his way inside.” Drake ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket.
He turned to find Natalie with her arms wrapped around her stomach. He brought her up to speed on the situation, wishing he didn’t have to tell her and could just whisk her upstairs to safety.
Her face paled. “Do you think it was Kirk?”
“He’d have to have connected you to us. Only way is through Malone, and if he discovered the connection to her, he could’ve been coming for her. In any event, if he knows about me, he could know about the cabin.” Drake dug out his phone. “We need to find an alternate safe site with zero ties to any of us. Then move the kids.”
“You really think moving them is necessary?”
“Better to be cautious and wrong than blow this off and someone gets hurt.” He worked hard not to grimace. “I hate to split our focus right now, but I also need to protect my extended family. Everyone, including my brothers’ significant others could be in danger.”
She grabbed his hands. “Your whole family?”
“You know Gentry. Do you think he’s the sort of guy who’d take one of them hostage if he thought he could get them to talk?”
“Yes. You’re right. I’m sorry to bring this mess to your family.”
“We can handle it,” Drake said, trying to sound like he believed it.
But honestly, if Gentry made the connection to them, Drake wasn’t sure they could protect everyone from a man who’d successfully escaped arrest after committing several heinous murders.
He dialed Aiden and instructed him to move everyone as soon as possible.
“Okay, we’re out of here.” Aiden remained calm.
“Make sure Mom rides with the kids. She’ll keep them calm and know what to do if one of them freaks out at the quick departure.”
“Got it.”
“And don’t call me back on this phone. I’ll contact you via email.”
“Roger that.”
Drake hung up and looked at Natalie.
Her eyes were dark with worry. “Can Aiden get them out of there on time?”
He wanted to say yes. Of course. His brothers could do anything, but they weren’t invincible. No one was. “We’ll just have to pray that he does.”
In the morning, Drake let the water from the shower beat down on his back, the sharp hot beads pinging against knots formed in solid ridges. He’d gotten very little sleep again, what with spending time emailing with his brothers as they found a new safe house. Natalie slept in his bedroom, and he’d taken the couch, a comfy piece of furniture and one he’d fallen asleep on dozens of times. Not last night. But then he hadn’t had a woman in the other room who he couldn’t get out of his brain. A woman he’d kissed. And a woman who was in danger. Serious danger.
He slammed a fist against the gray tiles. Thankfully, Hunter guarded the hallway. Probably not necessary, but Drake would rather be safe than sorry, and he didn’t want to pull anyone off the kids’ detail. They were compromised until they were moved. His brothers had found a place and were getting everyone ready to go now.
He shut off the shower and dried off to get ready for the day. By the time he got into the kitchen, Natalie was there, and the nutty scent of coffee filled the air. She’d put on her suit and heels again for the interviews. It really wasn’t necessary, but she’d told him she felt more in charge when she was dressed right. He guessed it was a lingering feeling from her childhood, but he couldn’t be sure.
She looked up from pouring the rich brown liquid into a mug. “Want some? I tried to make it strong.”
“Please.” He grabbed a mug and held it out. “You sleep okay?”
She tipped the pot over his cup. “I was surprised that I did, and I’m pumped about interviewing Faye. Maybe she’ll turn out to be a good lead for us.”
Drake nodded then blew on his coffee and took a sip. “Good.”
She nodded. “Guess we’re coffee compatible.”
“Well, then. What else is there?” He laughed, loving how it felt to have her in his home first thing in the morning, no matter the circumstances. He glanced at his watch. “We have time for breakfast. I could rustle up some eggs and toast.”
“That would be great.” She slid onto a counter stool.
He scrambled the eggs, and they talked about the Gentry kids, the weather, his interest in sports, and anything other than Gentry. He liked it. Liked it a lot. Usually, he grabbed a large cup of coffee and a protein bar and ate it on the way to the office. Or to an op. But preparing a real breakfast settled his hyper ways. He actually felt calm even with the threat of danger lingering outside his door.
They finished breakfast and took off for the morning interview with Faye. The drive was made with companionable silence and bursts of small talk like a long-dating couple might experience. He was stoked over their compatibility even if it could lead nowhere.
They turned onto Faye’s street, and Natalie faced him. “I’ve been thinking about what might stand in our way of finding Kirk.”
“And did you come to a conclusion?” he asked though he’d much rather go back to small talk.
“I think the hardest thing is that he’ll blend in with others, and it takes time before you know something’s off about him. Even then, you can’t name anything specific. It’s just a gut feeling.”
“Which is why he could get close enough to these women to kill and then interact in society where no one suspected him.”
She crossed her legs. “Of course, once you know he’s a serial killer, it all makes more sense.”
“I really wish you’d never met him. That you didn’t have to meet the people you do on a regular basis.” He took her hand. “I’ve never felt this way before, but I want to protect you from everything bad in this world and make up for the rough things you faced in your childhood.”
She blinked a few times, opened her mouth then closed it.
“That’s okay. You don’t have to say anything,” he said. “I know you don’t want a relationship. And honestly, I don’t either. But if I did…” He shrugged.
“Yeah, me too,” she said. “And don’t worry about making up for the way I grew up. I know God has a plan, and I am who I am today as a result of it.”
“Then His plan was flawless because you’re an amazing woman.” Drake kept his focus pinned to her and was likely transmitting all the crazy unexplained feelings he was having for her in one look.
She blushed, the red starting at her neck rushing over her face, and she gently eased her hand free. “We should stick to finding Kirk.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I know his kids are better off without him, but I hate the thought of them being split up.” That was as close to work as he wanted to go with all these emotions swimming in his gut.
“Unfortunately, that’s probably what’s going to happen.”
Her matter-of-fact response made him mad. “No. I won’t let them be split up. I’ll find a way to stop it.”
“How on earth are you going to do that?”
“I don’t know, but I promise I will.” He clamped his mouth closed before he promised something else he couldn’t deliver. But something about this woman made him want to promise her the moon and sun and stars and everything in between.
Outside Faye’s place, Natalie unbuckled her seat belt and looked at Drake who was drawing his weapon to pop out the thing that held the bullets and looked at it for a long moment.
“You like guns?” she asked, trying not to let him know how uneasy she was around weapons.
“My passion, you might say.”
“Do you always carry a gun?”
“I do.” He locked gazes. “Does that bother you?”
“I don’t know anything about them, but I wonder how I might feel if I were married and had children.” There she went talking children again. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. Of course he’d notice. It wasn’t like he was particularly skilled at observation or anything.
“You’ve been mentioning children a lot lately,” he said.
Yep. He didn’t miss a thing.
“I guess having responsibility for the kids is making me more conscious of what it would be like to have them in my life.” And maybe my growing feelings for you is making me wonder what having your child might be like.
“I can see that. I’ve kind of been thinking the same thing.”
She had to work hard not to gape at his response, and she didn’t know how to reply so she quickly returned to the safe topic of guns. “So, what would you do with your guns if you had children?”
“Hmm.” He stowed the gun in his holster. “I’d have to really think about that. I not only carry, but I keep one in the pipe at all times, and living alone, I don’t use a gun safe for my every day carry.”
“What does that mean exactly?” She listened to the birds chirping in nearby trees as she waited for him to answer.
“A bullet in the chamber. So in the event of an emergency, I’m locked and loaded. I mean, if you’re going to carry a weapon, you gotta carry hot. Makes no sense to carry when the gun’s not ready to go.”
“Sounds like some people don’t do that.”
“A lot of them don’t. They’re afraid the gun’s going to go off. But it won’t, not in the holster.”
She believed him but… “No accidental discharge then.”
“Oh, that happens but not with the gun resting in its holster.” His expression and tone grew animated. “Think about a gun like a TV remote control. A remote does nothing lying on your table. You have to do something to make it work. Same thing with a gun. So if you’re uncomfortable with carrying one in the pipe, that means you’ve just got to train more.”
“Makes sense, but then I’ve never even touched one, so you could tell me anything about guns, and I’d believe it.”
“Maybe we need to change that. Get you out to a shooting range.”
She didn’t even need to think about that while the children remained in danger. She shook her head. “I’d fall under the uncomfortable group.”
“Not after I gave you the right training. I promise you’d change your mind.” He watched her for a long moment. “I hope never to use my gun, but we need to be sure we can protect our clients. Especially when they’re being stalked by a crazy person.”
“Like when you protected the skier, Harper Young. She had a stalker.”
He flashed her a look, his eyes wide. “You heard about that?”
“You’re not the only ones who can do some research.”
“Touché.” He grinned then opened his door.
Natalie joined him, and they made their way to the high-rise apartment building where Faye Babcock lived on the first floor. The building was sleek with an all glass exterior and the sun glistened from the glass. Still, the place looked cold to Natalie, but she didn’t comment as they approached the door and knocked.
When the door opened and the scent of buttery popcorn drifted out, Natalie explained the purpose for their visit.
Faye peered out at them and scratched a thick head of inky black hair. “I told you before. I didn’t really know Laura all that well.”
“Please.” Natalie firmed her stance. “We really need to talk to you.”
“I don’t know.” Faye ran a hand over her face. “I told you everything I know last time I talked to you, and I’m kinda beat. Was a tough shift.”
“It’ll just take a minute.” Natalie tried her hardest not to sound like she was desperate, but if she had to beg to find her sister’s killer then she would.
“Okay. But just for a minute.” She stepped back, and her purple clogs squeaked on the tiled floor.
Natalie hurried past Faye into the small living room before the woman changed her mind. Drake’s footfalls sounded right behind her. The door banged closed, and Faye joined them.
“Go ahead and take a seat.” Faye rubbed her shoulder, wrinkling the blue patterned uniform top. Faye was very down to earth. Very Oregonian in her appearance. Hair natural. Clean skin. No makeup. Earthy.
Natalie settled on the soft beige couch, and Drake sat next to her.
Faye kicked off her clogs, dropped to the carpeted floor and drew her legs in to lean on the bright blue uniform pants. The coffee table next to her held a large bowl of popcorn that looked like it was going to serve as her breakfast.
“You were the one who found Laura,” Natalie stated, hoping to get the conversation started.
“Yeah.” Faye clenched her hands and tipped her head to the left. “Bedroom’s over there. She didn’t get up for work that day. I wondered what was wrong, so I knocked on her door. She didn’t answer. Normally I didn’t bug her ’cause we weren’t friends or anything, but something told me to check on her. Found her on the bed. Blood everywhere. Multiple stab wounds to the chest.”
Natalie cast Faye a sympathetic look. “That must’ve been hard.”
“I work in the ER, so I’ve seen worse.”
“Where did Laura work?” Drake asked.
“She’d just started as a makeup consultant at a department store. Not sure which one.” Faye shook her head. “It’s weird that she worked at all. Her family’s loaded. They’re the Zimmer behind the Zimmer Corp. Ever heard of them?”
“Real estate mogul, right?” Drake asked. “The one who bought nearly a ton of coastal properties and rents them out for a fortune.”
Faye nodded.
“Maybe they didn’t support her,” Drake said.
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. She paid the rent on time, and that was all I cared about.”
“How long did you live together?” Natalie asked.
“Only three months.”
“Do you have any idea who might’ve wanted to kill her?” Drake asked.
Faye shook her head. “Like I said, I didn’t know much about her. We lived together but didn’t socialize at all. Neither of us was looking for a friend. Just shared accommodations. Plus we worked opposite shifts. She’d be heading to work when I got home.”
Natalie glanced at the door. “Wasn’t it hard to stay here after she was murdered?”
“A little bit. But I have a lease, and the landlord said he wouldn’t be able to rent it out so I was on the hook for the money for the rest of the lease. I don’t have that kind of extra cash. Plus he offered me half price rent if I would stay. Said it was better than leaving the place empty.” She picked at a hangnail on her finger. “So I agreed and just pretend that room doesn’t exist.”
“And you’re not afraid this killer will come back?” Natalie asked.
“The police said they usually didn’t return to the same place, and that the crime was so violent it was likely personally motivated.”
“Did Laura’s family pick up her things?” Drake asked.
Faye shook her head. “They said to get rid of it. But I figured they might change their minds so I boxed it all up and left it in the room.”
“Can we take a look at it?” Drake asked.
“I suppose.” She jumped up, grabbed up a handful of popcorn, and padded in her stocking feet to the bedroom door, tossing kernels in her mouth as she moved. She paused for a moment and made the sign of a cross over her chest, the first indicator that Laura’s death might have impacted her.
She pushed the door open and swallowed her bite before stepping in. “I got rid of the bloody mattress.”
A queen-sized box spring sat in the middle of the room on a steel frame without a headboard. A small white nightstand that looked like an inexpensive flatpack piece of furniture sat next to the bed. It held a silver lamp with a gray shade. Faye had put three cardboard boxes on the box spring and stacked the bedding next to it.
“As you can see, she didn’t have much.” Faye swept her arm out to encompass the room. “Something else I found odd when she came from money.”
“Maybe the police took some of it for evidence,” Drake suggested.
“They took her phone and computer. The only electronics they left were a webcam and microphone, but I don’t remember them taking much else.”
“Can we look in the boxes?” Drake asked.
“Sure.” Faye opened the top box. “This one is mostly makeup. Cosmetics and clothing were the only things she spent money on.”
Natalie looked into the box. “Wow, she really did like makeup.”
“She was always perfectly put together. Makeup, hair, and clothes. A fashion icon at all times. I met her family once. They’re very pretentious. Figured she got that from them, though she seemed a little bit more down to earth than they did.”
Natalie pointed at a lipstick tube. “Dion Holistic. That’s a pretty pricey brand.”
“You’re familiar with it?” Faye asked. “Laura was always getting packages from them so I asked about it. She said it was an invitation only makeup club of some sort and only members could buy their products.”
“My sister used Dion too,” Natalie said, thinking of all the money her sister threw away on the latest and greatest makeup products when they came out from the many cosmetic companies.
“A waste of time and money as far as I’m concerned,” Faye said. “So opposite of me. Never touch the stuff. Give me an all-natural shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant, and I’m good to go. Either a guy likes me for who I am or he doesn’t. Guess since I’m still single at my age, they don’t.” Faye huffed a laugh and set the makeup box aside to open the next one. “The last few boxes are all clothing. Designer and pricey. I saw a lot of Nordstrom and Macy’s bags come in the door.”
“How could she afford these items on a sales associate salary?” Drake asked.
“Family money, maybe,” Faye said.
Natalie gave that some thought. “If they were supporting her, I wonder if they expected her to work.”
“Yeah, I never understood what was going on there, and she never talked about it.”
“You discussed makeup but not her job,” Drake said, mimicking Natalie’s thoughts.
“I handed her a package from Dion on the way out to work one day. She offered the info. I didn’t ask.”
Natalie still didn’t understand their relationship, but Faye acted sincere so Natalie let it go. “When you met the family, did they seem to get along or was the relationship strained?”
“Hmm, well.” She tapped her chin. “I didn’t pick up on any tension, and she seemed close with her mother.”
“Do you have their phone number or address?” Natalie asked. “I’d like to get their take on things.”
“Let me get it.” Faye rushed from the room as if glad to be leaving.
Natalie looked at Drake. “What do you make of all of this?”
“It’s all very odd,” he said. “Laura lived in a modest apartment with a roommate. Worked in a department store. Yet, had access to money for designer clothes and pricey makeup. Raises all kinds of red flags for me, but I don’t know what they are. Good idea, talking to the parents.”
They stepped from the room in time to find Faye leaving her kitchen with a bright pink sticky note. “Here’s their info. I hope you or the police find the guy who did this.”
“We will,” Natalie said at the front door, trying to sound confident. “You can be sure of that.”