“Please don’t stop. I don’t want you to stop.”
Chapter 14
Nora pulled her rental car off the road along the winding route that led up the hillside to Dominic’s residence. Lucky for her, a neighbor farther down the road was having a party, and the street was lined with cars. Hers would not stand out. She got out of the car and stared up at the hill.
There was still some distance between her and Dominic’s house and it wouldn’t be an easy hike, but she couldn’t risk getting any closer. She knew that patrol cars still passed the house a few times a night, and she didn’t want to do anything that would alert them.
Rather than stick to the road, she headed into the under-growth, which would provide cover, and made her way through the trees and bushes. The climb wasn’t so steep that she couldn’t handle it, but by the time she reached his house she was winded.
Taking a minute to catch her breath, she decided that it had been too long since she’d been to the gym. She was starting to become one of those out-of-shape computer nerds whose only exercise was manipulating a mouse.
“As soon as I get back,” she promised herself. Her breath restored she made her way to the enclosed pool.
She studied the sliding glass door that led from the patio into the pool area. The catch lock was simple and easily handled. No doubt the house was wired for security, which meant she was only going to have a few seconds to get inside and deactivate it. She reached for the small tool kit she’d tucked away in the fanny pack attached to her waist. She slid a slim flat-end screwdriver in between where the door met the glass wall and flicked up the latch.
As soon as she did she could hear the alarm inside begin its insistent chirping counting down the time she had to turn it off.
Moving quickly she circled the pool, slid another glass door aside, this one luckily unlocked, and entered Dominic’s study. The alarm box was on the wall behind his desk. Instantly she removed the plastic covering that protected the system, and went to work on it with a small pair of wire cutters. She sliced first one and then a second connecting wire, which killed the battery and cut off the signal to trigger the alarm.
The alarm stopped mid chirp.
“Like taking candy from a baby,” Nora muttered and made another mental note to tell Dominic that he needed to upgrade his security system.
Besides the kit, she removed a small flashlight from her belt and twisted it until a thin beam blinked on. She flicked it around the room, but quickly realized that the moonlight shining through the glass gave her more than enough light to work by. Dominic’s desk was empty except for the monitor.
Mark had unexpectedly dropped by her hotel that morning. She’d been hoping for news on Dominic. The fact that he was still in hiding worried her. If he got it into his head to run, then there would be no coming back from that. As long as Caroline had stayed, she had hope that he would return for her. She didn’t care how long they had known each other. If Dominic married her, then he planned to stay committed to her. For life. It was the nature of the beast.
But Caroline had bolted and there was still no word from Dominic. And Mark’s report had only been to say they had found nothing on Dominic’s home or office computers-which, of course, they wouldn’t because what she hid, she hid very well-and had returned both of them to his place.
Only they weren’t here.
Thinking maybe the cops had left them upstairs, Nora headed for the steps leading up to the next level of the house. When she didn’t instantly see anything, she cursed.
A soft noise followed her curse and instantly she froze. Lifting her head slowly she spotted a dark form moving toward her from the foyer.
“Dominic?” she whispered hopefully.
No answer.
As she went back to reach for her weapon, the figure charged. Instantly she felt an arm wrap around her waist dragging to her to the ground. Reacting quickly, she wedged a knee between her attacker’s legs and drove it up fast and high.
She heard a woof of air, a groan and then suddenly the person was rolling off her and with very good reason. She’d correctly identified the mystery figure as a man. Moving quickly, she straddled his chest and pushed her knees solidly against two biceps, pinning his arms to the ground.
“Who are you?” she asked as she reached behind her back for her weapon.
“Agent Shortcake, I’m offended. You don’t recognize my moves?”
“Goddamn it, Hernandez,” Nora cursed. His features were just visible in the dark, but his smile and the flash of white teeth were unmistakable.
“You know I’ve had fantasies about us in this position, but in them you were wearing a lot less clothes.”
Disgusted, Nora crawled off his body and stood up. “What the hell are you doing here?”
He regained his feet and laughed. “That’s a joke, right?”
Then she understood what had happened. The police wouldn’t have returned Dominic’s computers even if they hadn’t found a damn thing on them. Stupid. Stupid. If she hadn’t been so fixated on what she needed to do, she would have realized that.
“This was a setup. You told me the police returned his property to the house because you knew I would come here.”
He shook his right leg a few times as if making sure all his parts still worked. “First things first. I let you win that fight on purpose.”
“In your dreams,” she muttered.
“Second, you can’t pick up a tail to save your life. I was, like, half an inch off of your bumper the whole way up here.”
“I was distracted,” she said. Annoyed with herself, she made her way back to the living room and sat down on the couch. She figured he was going to want some answers and there was no point in not being comfortable.
Mark hit a few of the switches on the wall panel and watched the house light up. He made his way into the living room, stopping to admire the view of the ocean in the distance. “Man, I would love to have a place like this.”
“It’s a nice house. Are you going to tell me why you set me up?”
He turned back to her, his normally easy smile gone. He was all business.
“Are you going to tell me why you fell for it?”
Because she was a chump, Nora thought. The truth was, she wasn’t really all that experienced as a field agent. It wasn’t as if solving murders and breaking into houses and wrestling with cops was her terrain. She spent her days at the Bureau behind a wide-screen monitor.
Still, giving herself a little pat on the back, she’d handled two out of three okay.
“I have a buddy in the Justice Department,” Mark began. “I called him a few days ago. He called his buddy over at FBI and confirmed that you worked there in the lab as a computer geek-”
“Lady,” she insisted.
“Computer lady,” Mark repeated. He sat next to her on the couch, the two of them staring straight ahead toward the windowed wall. “You’re not a field agent and probably the last person the FBI would send even if they would have sent anyone. Which I pretty much figured from the very first. My instincts are gold. Anyway, I called, got the switchboard, asked for you and was informed that you were on vacation for the next two weeks and was there anyone else that could help me. I considered asking for your boss. Thought maybe he could tell me why you went rogue, but I decided to ask you instead.”
“So now you know.”
“I don’t know shit. I know you don’t want this guy to be guilty. Who is he? Your lover? And please say no.”
“No.” She laughed harshly.
