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Sadness pulled at the corners of her eyes. “Tom.”
“Who’s that?”
“The security guard.” She tucked her long hair behind her ear. “Okay, so they know it’s not me. What are they saying about the explosion and its cause now?”
This was not where Liam wanted the conversation to go. “They’re just asking some questions. Fishing. It doesn’t matter.”
She ripped off a long length of paper from around the bottle. “In other words, they’re blaming me.”
This is what happened when a guy dealt with a brainy woman. She had this angelic face and kissable mouth, but that didn’t hide the fact she was smarter than every adult around her by the time she hit the fourth grade. She didn’t miss a damn thing.
“That’s the new working theory,” he said.
“I didn’t.”
He wasn’t sure what to say to that since he still didn’t know what happened in that building, or what was going on in her head. “Okay.”
“And there’s one more thing you should know.”
“What’s that?”
“My boss isn’t dead.” She took a long drink. “But when I get my hands on him, he might be.”
Chapter Three (#ulink_40993077-a3ad-5b7f-8b42-4a11b4bd6b9c)
A bottle of water and two painkillers later, Maura sat on Liam’s couch with him perched on the coffee table directly across from her. He hadn’t really moved since they switched rooms and he crowded in, barely giving her room to breathe. He just sat there with his elbows resting on his knees and a disbelieving frown plastered across his mouth.
“One more time.” His deep, husky voice broke the silence.
She forgot how potent he was up close. Dark brown hair cropped in style, and shoulders wide enough to block her view of the front door. Even in jeans and a boring shirt, danger vibrated off him. He was strong, determined and clever. Everything she needed right now. The same guy she’d avoided for years despite his friendship with Dan.
Liam’s eyebrow lifted. “Maura?”
Back to reality. “The police are looking in the wrong place.”
He tapped his fingertips together. “You think Dr. Hammer was kidnapped.”
She wanted to believe it because the idea was better than the alternative where her boss had something to do with the fireball that consumed the lab, and nearly took her along with it. “Possibly.”
“Did you recognize the people who took Dr. Hammer?”
“I saw him get into a car.”
Liam sat up straighter as the gold flecks in his green eyes brightened. “I notice you’re answering different questions from the ones I’m asking.”
She hoped he might miss that part. Fooling him would be hard, impossible even. But until she figured out who she could trust and how to keep everyone she cared about safe, she had to be careful. “It might be smart if you stayed ignorant about some things.”
He opened his arms and gestured around the room. “It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”
He wasn’t wrong. Sprawled on the grass with her lungs burning from the flames, she’d needed a safe house and immediately thought of him. A former undercover police officer and current corporate security expert, he was the logical choice. She depended on his sense of duty and a rock-hard loyalty to her brother to gain his cooperation.
Problem was she dragged him into her mess even though she could never hope to control him. Rather than fight, she gave him something in return for his help—information. “I heard someone in the building right before the explosion. I saw Dr. Hammer hustle out of there while I was trying not to catch on fire.”
Liam shifted on the table. “So, you’re saying you did see the kidnappers.”
“No.”
“Maura.”
“I’m saying Dr. Hammer wasn’t kidnapped.”
Liam’s face twisted in disbelief. “How do you know?”
“I just do.” When Liam continued frowning, she tried again. “I have a theory and I’ll find proof.”
“Of what, exactly?”
She wasn’t ready to give the details. “With your help.”
“We’re still having two different conversations.”
Her mind raced ahead. She needed the documents she hid under the deck in Liam’s back patio. She needed the laptop from her apartment. She needed to stay hidden while she worked out where Dr. Hammer went and why.
“We’re talking about evidence,” she said.
“I still don’t know what we’re proving.”
For her investigation to work she needed to be mobile. Being interrogated could ruin everything. “No police. I’m supposed to be dead, so I’ll be dead.”
“Hey!” Liam clapped his hands together. “I can see your mind spinning. Stop thinking for a second and talk to me.”
“How do I stop thinking?”
“I’m serious.”
From the way his jaw locked, she could tell he was. To calm him back down, she slipped her palm over his hand. “Liam, I have to do this my way.”
“I can’t help if I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“I need you.” She’d said those same words to him nine years before. She was a kid then and he’d ignored her. Now she came to him as a woman with a problem.
He slipped his fingers through hers. “Maura …”
“You know what it took for me to ask you for anything.”
He broke eye contact but stayed quiet.
“How hard it was for me to turn to you,” she added.
He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “That happened a long time ago.”
“But it’s always between us.”
“Doesn’t have to be.”
Her mind refused to go there. She couldn’t afford to get sidetracked by her emotions. “Are you going to help me?”
“I still don’t understand any of this.”
She recognized a man on the verge of defeat. Saw the signs in his slumped shoulders and the hard lines of his face. “But you’re not turning me down.”
For a few seconds he just sat there. Didn’t say a word. Finally he spoke. “Not this time.”
LIAM STOOD IN A DARK ALLEY with his back pressed against a wall and a supposed dead woman at his side. It was a lot to take in at one in the morning. If he weren’t so confused, he’d mind the crisp air. Good thing he had his frustration to keep him toasty warm.
That would teach him to let Maura set the evening agenda. He suggested she stay at the house while he made a run for whatever she needed. She could hide and he would take the risk. Since no one was looking for him, the chance of trouble was minimal. A quick and efficient strategy.
She had overruled him. Carried on about it being her life and then started talking in half sentences again. He gave in to gain a second of quiet. Now he was stuck in the middle of some sort of covert raid. The whole thing struck him as overly dramatic and unnecessary.
He followed her gaze to the third floor. “Tell me again why we’re here.”
“I need some of my things.”
“From in there?” He pointed up at the corner window to make sure he was looking at the right place.
She nodded, her gaze never leaving her target. “It’s my condo.”
No lights. No movement. Ten more minutes of staring at nothing and his mind would go numb. “I think it’s safe.”
“The police could be in there.”
“You do know I’m former police, right?”
She actually crouched down as if that would better hide her from the imaginary officers she thought were hiding in the bushes. “So?”
Liam took in her stiff shoulders and flat mouth. Determination. He couldn’t argue common sense against that. “Never mind.”
“I have to get my computer.”
“I can buy you another one.”
She glanced up at him. “This isn’t about money.”
“Care to clue me in on what it is about, because I still don’t know.”
“My hard drive. My papers.” She cupped his elbow and started dragging him out into the open. “Let’s go.”
He had no idea what had changed and made it safe in her mind, but he wasn’t about to argue. If she was ready to move, he’d lead the way.
One slide of the security key and they were in the building’s downstairs glass double doors. Dead quiet greeted them. Not a surprise due to the weekday hour, but still unsettling. He expected creaks and residual condo noise. All he got was the sound of his breath whooshing in and out of his chest.
He led with a hand on his gun and her palm against his back. They stalked up the steps in an unspoken agreement not to talk. Shoes hit the stairs sending a thumping sound bouncing off the emergency stairwell walls. By the time they reached her front door, her breathing had increased. From the look of her toned body, he guessed excitement rather than exertion was the cause.
“Keys?” He held out his hand.
“What? Uh, sure.” She fumbled in her pocket. Before he could stop her, she shoved the key in the lock and pushed the door open without applying any pressure.
“You don’t use a bolt or anything?” he asked.
“Of course I do.”
His readiness level switched to maximum. Adrenaline pumped through his veins. He breathed in deep, opening his senses to the sounds and smells of the place in the search for clues.
“Stay here.” When she didn’t move, he pressed her farther down the hall and away from the door. “Not one step.”
Her eyes grew to the size of plates as she whispered back to him. “Okay.”
He pushed the door open with his foot and went in with his gun raised. Glass crunched under him with each step. In the shadows, he saw broken furniture and scattered papers. Keeping his back to the door and not venturing far from Maura in case she needed him, he wandered through the two-room place, ending with the small bathroom off the family room.
Nothing there but chaos and more questions.
He slipped his gun into his belt and rushed back to the entrance. He motioned for Maura to join him inside. With the door shut behind her, he turned on one small light, the one farthest away form the windows.
She came charging in, head down as if lost in thought. When her head popped up, she stopped in the dead center of the room as if she’d run into a rock wall. “What the—”
“You’ve been robbed.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You mean searched.”
“Yeah.” He stood with his hands on his hips and surveyed the damage. Every drawer stood open and clothing littered the floor. He knew from experience this wasn’t about a burglary. Someone had come looking for something specific. Whether they found it was the question.
What they would have done had Maura been home sent a shot of cold air ricocheting around his chest.
She circled a pile of wood on the floor that looked as if it was once a desk. “My computer is gone.”
A churning started deep in his stomach. A warning of danger screamed through every pore. “We need to go.”
She stopped mumbling and pacing around the disheveled room and stared at him. “Why?”
He couldn’t describe the feeling. It was a sense of unease that started around his gut and rumbled up to his throat. “We just do.”
Something about the look on his face must have convinced her because she dropped the paper she was holding and stepped over a pile of discarded pillows to get to him. “I’ll trust you on this.”
She brushed past him in her rush to get out of the room. He grabbed her arm thinking to reassure her everything was going to be okay when he heard it. The screech of sneakers against the hallway tile.
Liam touched a finger to his lips and motioned for her to move back into the kitchen. When the doorknob turned, he slid into the darkened space against the wall and next to the door. If someone came storming through, they would have to run or shoot right through him.
A second later the door pushed open, nice and slow. It never broke contact with the doorjamb, so Liam couldn’t peek outside. The person didn’t say anything. Didn’t jerk or make any fast moves. Didn’t slide his gun inside or fire off shots. He, whoever he was, was smooth. Moved without a sound.
