Blindsided (11 page)

Is there real danger
?

As she got out of the car, Jesse walked up and the width of his shoulders and his height were reassuring, but then again, she just wasn’t sure what was going on and the whole hidden enemy part of the equation was daunting.

She was back to it. To the trepidation and fear.

But at least she wasn’t alone.

“If you’ll disarm the alarm, I’ll go in first.” He said the words in a calm, unaffected tone. “Just in case.”

The temptation to let him just take over was there, no doubt about it. On the other hand, she didn’t want anything to happen to him because of her, and besides, she’d been independent a long time and making decisions was a strong part of her job and her life. Kerin shook her head. “
I’ll
go in first. I’ve been gone over a week. If whoever it was that left the device wanted in, they’ve had plenty of time. I’m more likely to notice if something is off.”

“Ah, the take charge doctor is back, I see.” He grinned.

The man was just too good-looking with all that dark tousled hair and that boyish, compelling smile. She reluctantly smiled back. “You getting hurt on my behalf isn’t part of the plan. And let’s not forget nothing has really happened in particular in a physical way. It’s all so vague.”

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“Not so vague if someone has broken into your house. Just let me go in first, Kerin. Bow to my male ego, if nothing else.”

The garage was heated but it was cold just standing there with the door open, so she finally nodded and went to the door. One button closed the door in a low grind of the mechanism and she punched in the code and heard the latch click.

Jesse stepped past her and she followed, aware of how tense every muscle in her body was at the moment she entered the darkened interior. Had she been doing this alone…well, she wasn’t sure she could.

All was quiet, dark due to the gloomy January sky, and on first glance, seemed undisturbed. She quickly moved to flick on the light on the table in the hall.

“Nice place.” Jesse looked around with obvious interest, taking in the hardwood floors and vaulted ceilings. “I expected something like this.”

“Like what?” Kerin felt a measure of relief to see there was no menacing sign of anything amiss in the great room or entryway. She moved around and began to switch on more lamps.

“Elegant yet understated. Warm and comfortable but not lived in.”

“I live here.” There was a slight defensive edge to her tone.

“Do you?” He looked amused as he prowled into the room and looked around. “You already said you spend most of your time at the office or the hospital.”

“I’m a doctor. It’s a lifestyle choice.”

He stopped and turned, a glimmer in his dark eyes. “Is that a warning?”

Maybe it was. With everything so upside down, how could she tell? She set down her bag and walked into the kitchen, unwilling to deal with thoughts of the future when the present was so tenuous and unsettled. If someone had told her before this all started that she’d be petrified, on the run, and would eventually invite back to her house a man she’d known only a week for an undetermined amount of time,
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she’d have referred them directly to a psychiatrist.

The marble counters gleamed, clean and shining, and the faint musty disused smell was the only indication she’d decamped without notice. “We’re going to have to order out tonight,” she said, avoiding the question.

“Fine.” Jesse followed her, folding his arms across his chest and leaning a hip against a cabinet. “Whatever you want.”

He wasn’t just talking about dinner and she knew it. “Everything in the fridge is likely to be spoiled. I just…left.”

“We’ll deal with it.”

That once again there was a double meaning to his words made her hesitate. Finally, she nodded. “I think so, too.”

“That’s a start. Shall I really look around?”

“Help yourself.” The shrug she gave was feigned nonchalance. If she wasn’t shaken before, having Jesse McCutcheon in her home did the trick.

It was all too easy to imagine him there all the time.

While he prowled around the house, she sorted through over a week’s worth of mail, checked her messages, most of which were from her mother who she’d already called on her way home from Wisconsin, and went to the French doors leading onto the back deck.

The new bowl was there, untouched this time, but the water was frozen and there was still the same amount of food as when she’d left.

She hadn’t particularly wanted a cat, but she’d become accustomed to the morning feeding ritual, and last summer when she did grab a few minutes to sit out on the back deck, he’d been a nice companion.

How come she’d never realized she was a little lonely? It seemed impossible, since she was around people all day long, but it was true.

Her life lacked something. Artemis had at least shared in a small way her private side, the personal space separate from her busy professional one.

Maybe Jesse was right and the cat wandered off in the same way
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he wandered in. If the bowl hadn’t been destroyed, she would be more hopeful. It felt like a message.

“Looks all quiet.” Jesse came up behind her and touched her shoulder, then feathered his fingers down her arm. Through the material of her sweater the gesture felt reassuring. “If someone’s been in here, I can’t tell it.”

“Thanks for looking.” She stood there, staring out at the tufts of brown grass peeking through the light covering of snow.

“What do you say we order a pizza or get some Chinese and watch a movie? Just relax. We had a pretty long drive and tomorrow you said you want to be at the office by seven o’clock.”

Finally she turned, and was pretty sure her smile was on the wan side. “Sounds good to me.”

* * * *

Jesse pushed the button on the remote and the television went silent. Next to him Kerin was half-asleep, one arm curled around his waist, her silky hair spilled over his chest. She said, “Hmm…”

He loved it when her voice took on that throaty tone. He skimmed his fingertips down her spine, the bare skin like satin. “You’re tired.

Go to sleep.”

“I like you in my bed.”

The words were said very low, and he knew why. Even though she’d made him check every inch of the room, he knew she didn’t trust no one was listening in. Making love tonight didn’t seem to be an option, besides, he knew she was exhausted.

He bent and put his mouth to her ear. “I like being here.”

“I think we’re both crazy.”

It wasn’t as if he could argue the point. “In a good way, right?”

Her lashes drifted down a little more. He predicted she’d be out in seconds.

When her breathing was soft and regular, Jesse eased away from
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her enticing warmth, cursed his unruly erection, and pulled on his jeans. He grabbed a sweatshirt, tugged it over his head, and picked up the case holding his laptop.

He went quietly downstairs, the house silent as a ghost around him. Other than slamming his shin into an ottoman in the living room, he managed to navigate the unfamiliar surroundings pretty well, flicking the light on in the kitchen and settling into the breakfast nook.

She had wireless internet service and he took advantage of it, powering up his computer.

The next hour was spent building a file that included the names of her colleagues and whatever information he could find on them. It might be futile to look to a group of doctors as likely suspects in the type of activity Kerin had described, but then again she spent most of her time involved in some kind of contact with them and it seemed like a good place to start. Then he did a swift run through of his e-mails, sent a detailed message to his secretary about his change in location and the possibility of needing some extra time away, and then he logged off.

A glance at the glowing numbers on the sleek stove showed it was past midnight, but he thought he’d take a chance. He took out his cell phone and flipped it open, scanned the directory and hit call.

It took four rings, but the voice that answered sounded alert enough. “Hey, Jess. You still freezing your ass off up in tundra country?”

“Like Chicago is much better,” he countered.

“True enough. We got eight inches of snow coming our way tomorrow.”

“As long as it doesn’t hit Indianapolis, I won’t see it. It’s practically balmy here at twenty-five degrees.”

“What the hell are you doing in Indy?”

He could picture Lucas Young in his usual baggy jeans with his boxers hanging out, a rumpled tee-shirt with a few scattered stains on it here and there in all probability, a thin straggle of a bread across his
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chin. The girls in the office tended to hang all over him when he was called in, and Jesse found it funny, wondering if he was really showing his age by shaking his head over the dirty rock band boy look. But, whatever his less than professional appearance might suggest, the kid—he was only about twenty—was a genius. If it had wires and circuits, he could fix it.

Jesse grinned. “I guess you could say I met a girl. I’m at her place.”

“Shacking up, eh? You work pretty fast. You’ve only been gone what…two weeks? By the way, that fancy phone system you put in is a fucking pain in the butt. It went down again last week. Took me three hours to find the problem.”

Since it would have taken anyone else probably a lot longer, Jesse merely said, “Thanks. Look, Lucas, I have a couple of questions. I thought maybe you could help me out.”

“Sure.”

“How hard is it to switch off a home alarm system and then manage to switch it back on without the owner ever knowing it?”

“What brand?”

“That I don’t know.”

“We talking about the chick’s house where you’re staying?”

“Yes.”

“Go check. It’ll be on the box.”

That made sense. Jesse went over to the front door and looked.

Sure enough it was there and he supplied it.

“That’s a pretty top grade system. I’d say on a scale of one to ten, it’s about an eight to make one of those go down. She have a break in?”

“Sort of. What about her computer? How hard is it to access her files without her password?”

“Give me a break. If you know what you’re doing, it’s so easy it’s funny.”

“How well do you have to know what you’re doing?”

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“Depends a little on the computer and the program, but I’d say you have to be pretty good at it.”

In other words, the impression he’d gotten when listening to Kerin’s story was fairly accurate. If her suspicions were correct, the person or persons responsible for making her so nervous weren’t just someone right off the street in all likelihood.

Shit. It bothered him. A lot.

“Thanks, Lucas.”

“Sure, man. Hey, tell me about Miss Indianapolis. She hot?”

That was a question he could answer easily enough. “Hopefully you’ll get to judge for yourself sometime.”

“Uh-oh. Sounds serious.” A low whistle sounded.

Yes, it did, he mused after he ended the call. It
felt
serious, too.

If they could only figure out what the hell was going on maybe he could think a little more about how this relationship would proceed.

At the moment though, he was just damned glad he was there.

In the morning he was going to tail her himself to work to see there were any other interested parties. Then he was going to do a little research on just how a person could detect monitoring devices, and maybe even he’d talk to the police. It was all he could think of to do other than be there if something happened.

For the first time in his life he wished he were a private detective.

* * * *

The fallout at lunch was predictable.

Still, Kerin had to smile.

“Whoa, look at what walked into the waiting room and asked for you.” Sylvia, the office manager, quirked a brow.

Jesse
.

She glanced up from the chart in her hand. Through the open window used for checking in patients, she could see him there, dressed in the usual flannel shirt and worn jeans. He’d settled into one
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of the chairs in the waiting room and was leafing through a magazine, a slight frown on his good looking face. Kerin murmured, “Not bad, huh?”

“Are you kidding me? Where did you find him? Hollywood?”

Sylvia’s eyes held a speculative gleam. She inclined her head just a little in his direction. “If that’s why you suddenly needed some time off, I can’t say I blame you.”

The staff had been great about not mentioning her abrupt disappearance with little to no notice, and Kerin was grateful to not have to explain. With studied neutrality, she said, “Not the reason, but a nice result. I’m going to step out for lunch. I’ll be back at one.”

“You have fun.” Sylvia accepted the chart from her hand.

There was something about receiving a heart-stopping smile as she walked out that made even the hectic morning fade. Jesse got to his feet in an athletic movement and set the magazine back in the rack, quirking a brow. “We still on?”

“I’ve got about forty-five minutes.”

“We can do that. Let’s go.”

His truck was parked fairly close to the entrance and Kerin directed him to a sandwich shop just a block or so away. It was crowded, but not so much they couldn’t take their order to one of the small tables.

She picked up her grilled chicken sandwich and took a small bite, just waiting.

Jesse shook his dark head. “If you were followed this morning, I couldn’t tell. Then again, it was snowing just enough to make it difficult to see and I had to pay attention to make sure I didn’t plow into anyone either. The streets were pretty damn slick.”

It had been nasty out, a mixture of snow and sleet coating the streets. No particular accumulation expected, but just the kind of Midwestern soup that caused accidents. Kerin swallowed and then took a sip of iced tea. “That’s a relief, actually.”

He’d ordered some sort of sub piled with cold cuts and cheese,
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