Brutal Obsession (The Safeguard Series, Book One) (9 page)

“I’ll meet you and Mr. Sanderson at your apartment in thirty minutes. I’d like to bring some equipment I’ll need into your apartment. This perp had a view of you in your office, as well as the front door. What he did not have is any audio or visual for the remaining space that we know of.”

“But you think he might have had some,” Ashlyn responded, slowly sitting down in her desk chair. Keane wanted to reassure her that she was safe from harm, but he couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t lie. There was no telling what lengths this individual would go to in order to be with her, as Coulter so clearly explained. “You also think it’s a man instead of a woman and that he may have done this before.”

“Yes.”

“And you’re suggesting it might be someone I work with here in the office?”

“I’m not ruling anyone out,” Coulter said before he shifted his focus to Keane. “Thirty minutes. I want to be gone before Mr. Wright brings in his technician.”

“Wait,” Ashlyn objected, holding up a hand to halt the conversation. “You think Victor is—”

“I’m saying that I want to keep everything above board. Victor Wright is the head of your cyber division and it’s only natural that your colleagues would want to assist you. It’s not my intention to make anyone uncomfortable, but I will be having my fellow agent in the cyber unit monitoring your system. I highly doubt this suspect is going to just vanish after all the time and trouble he’s taken to garner your attention. Just so you’re aware, I’ve set up interviews with your staff through your assistant. I’ll be conducting those discussions tomorrow morning.”

“We’ll be there in thirty minutes,” Keane informed him, deliberately bringing this meeting to a close. He and Ashlyn had personal things to discuss before leaving this office and now it appeared they had a time constraint.

There was literally no sound as the FBI agent left. Keane turned his focus to Ashlyn, who was still looking at the door Coulter had just closed. She rested her French manicured nails on the hard surface in front of her and he wondered just how long she would allow time to pass before
actually
acknowledging him.

Keane didn’t alter his expression when Ashlyn’s blue eyes finally turned to him, as if his try in the barrel had arrived. She regarded him with what appeared to be caution as he paused a moment to think through what he was going to say. He had to remind himself to keep this professional, but the chance of that was nearing zero at the moment. She would always be personal to him.

“Townes Calvert thought it best if I took this case due to our previous involvement,” Keane offered rather directly, not willing to prolong the awkward nature of this initial meeting. He stood and walked toward the window where she had her blinds open. He reached for the long string but didn’t immediately pull the slats closed. He observed the disarray of the city street below, watching the traffic and pedestrians battle for the right of way as darkness finally descended. “Calvert assumed we have an established trust that will make this situation a bit easier, but you let me know if that isn’t the case. I’m sure a replacement can be up here by tomorrow morning, and I can find better things to do. No problem.”

Keane tried not to let it bother him when Ashlyn didn’t reply right away, telling him she was actually considering the out he’d given her. He looked across the street, noticing the building and the easy access any number of people could gain to its upper floors and where she could be observed from that particular location should someone have the right equipment. He made a mental note to run that by Calvert and see if there was any cross-decking between these two municipal buildings. The one he was staring at was part of Judiciary Square and held the Juvenile Probation Office, among other things.

“I’m surprised you even agreed to come up here and take this meeting,” Ashlyn said softly after clearing her throat. She’d certainly deflected answering the question nicely, but then again, she was rather proficient at that considering her profession. “The way things ended for us…”

Keane pulled the crisp nylon string, instantly enclosing them inside the office with a resounding snap of the blinds. The light inside took on an artificial and bland cast, matching the moods of those inside their own little bubble of gloom. The overhead illumination appeared stark now, reminding him to shed some of that light on their current, rather grim situation.

“You should know me well enough that I’ve always seen through any assignment given to me. That hasn’t changed.”

“
You’ve
changed.”

“You haven’t.”

Keane didn’t mean that as an insult, but rather a compliment; however, the comment had come so rapidly on the heels of her observations that it created a report as if a rifle had been fired. Ashlyn was just as beautiful now as she’d been five years ago, and he hated to see her wince at the crack. He sighed as he accepted that she wasn’t going to take the out he’d given her to bail. Sometimes life wasn’t fair for the home team. He’d have to suck it up and play.

“I can’t afford to allow this to interfere with the case I’m currently prosecuting,” Ashlyn said resolutely, nicely detouring away from their confrontation. She reached for the silver pen that had been lying on a folder. It was the same Mont Blanc Meisterstuck she’d used back when they’d been together. It had been her father’s before hers. “Closing arguments will most likely take place at the end of the week. I need to prepare post haste.”

“And you can,” Keane assured her, not wanting to make her daily grind any harder than it had already become. The lines at the edge of her eyes betrayed the long hours she’d expended pursuing her dream. “I’m sure that Agent Coulter is more than capable of handling details of the case, and I’ll be here to oversee your personal protection. Now is the time to tell me if there’s anything I need to know that you might have kept to yourself out of some polite notion of embarrassment. Have you noticed anything unusual, especially recently? Was there any past liaisons that ended badly or a gentleman who propositioned you who you may have dismissed out of hand? Are there any high-profile cases that you prosecuted in the past few months that you feel could have something to do with this? Had anyone approached you in a threatening manner or that you found oddly casual for someone you didn’t recognize?”

Keane would have added in a request for the names of men Ashlyn had ended intimate relationships with recently, but she might have taken that the wrong way. And according to what she’d just revealed to Coulter, she hadn’t partaken in any extracurricular activities recently. He assumed that meant serious versus casual, and he personally understood her definition on both. He’d eventually have to clarify her statement to be sure.

Keane had the entire plane ride to digest the fact that he’d been put in an awkward situation. She’d had roughly ten minutes. He would give her time to catch her breath, and then he would ask the questions that would allow him to perform his job more effectively. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t investigating who was causing her problems. He was only here to provide her protection.

“I’m sure you’ve already reviewed my caseload, as well as been given the names of people I see on a daily basis,” Ashlyn countered evenly, watching Keane closely as he slowly crossed back across the room to take a seat in the chair that he’d just vacated in front of her desk. Her right brow was arched in the same manner as when she was questioning a defendant in court. “I assume you were given that list?”

“Yes, I was briefed.”

“Then why inquire about things you already know the answers to?”

“You and I both know how this works. Information on paper gives a one-sided perspective of the situation in hand. I need your perspective of the ground.”

“There have been no cases recently that would have warranted this kind of response, nor was there a defendant who assumed a casual manner with me,” Ashlyn conceded, twirling the silver pen in her fingers as she looked down at the multiple files on her desk. Her lashes came close to touching her flushed cheeks as she then tapped the end of the writing utensil against the folders. “Before that, I spent eight months on a corporate healthcare fraud case that’s taken up most of the media’s time for the past year—of which I’m sure you are aware.”

Ashlyn didn’t need to spell it out for him. She’d sunk the majority of her time into prosecuting the defendants, leaving little to no personal hours to herself or anyone else. She’d always put one hundred and ten percent into everything she had to offer toward her profession. Again, proving his point that she hadn’t changed her spots.

“How is this going to work between the two of us?” Ashlyn inquired softly, lifting her lashes to meet his narrowed gaze. Her blue eyes didn’t blink as she waited for his answer.

“You’re going to pack up what files you’ll need for this evening,” Keane responded, providing Ashlyn what she wanted. They’d each given their tremulous past the cursory words needed for the moment and now it was business only for the foreseeable future. He received the message loud and clear. He stood and adjusted his suit jacket, fastening the button to prevent the casual display of his concealed firearm in its black leather holster. “You’re going to introduce me to your team of paralegals just before we walk out to the town car I hired for the duration of your protection detail. The driver has been vetted by my agency and is actually an old friend of Townes Calvert. We’re going to start varying your routine and route to make it difficult to pinpoint your location at any given time.”

“I have to prepare for closing arguments,” Ashlyn warned, almost daring him to say that he was going to disrupt her efforts to do her job. She gently set down her pen and made no effort to choose which files she needed to go through this evening. “I’m not trying to make your task of protecting me harder, but I refuse to allow this man to get in the way of justice for the people our government represents.”

Ashlyn stood and the small movement at the corners of her eyes indicated her injury was still sore. She reached hesitantly down toward her briefcase, not surprisingly the same one she’d used for many years, even before their time together. It wasn’t a brand name or something flashy one might expect from a high-powered attorney like herself. It was a worn, brown leather case that was also her father’s, given to her upon his retirement from the bench.

“You concentrate on doing your job and let me do mine,” Keane reiterated as he looked over to the large round clock with Roman numerals. They were running a few minutes behind and he still needed to meet her staff. “We should be going ASAP.”

Keane waited patiently while Ashlyn chose what files she would need. It was a wonder she could carry the briefcase by the time she was done piling them into the satchel. She’d been quiet and concentrating on the task at hand when she stopped just shy of clasping the flap.

“I’ll understand if you want to call for someone else.”

Ashlyn had spoken so softly that Keane had to strain to hear her. She hadn’t addressed him in regret of what had happened, but more so in that she didn’t want to cause him any more pain. Had this situation been presented to him three or four years ago, then maybe his anger for how she’d handled the end of their relationship would have factored into his decision. Now? He’d grown personally, most likely as she had, and he wouldn’t allow past mistakes to get in the way of guarding her against a threat. That was his job. Besides, he’d already accepted he was to blame for their failed relationship as well. They both were guilty of neglect and ignoring the truth.

“There’s no need. Not anymore.” Keane reached for the briefcase, still unfastened. He made an effort to not to touch her as he secured the flap and then hoisted the bag off of the desk. It was then he chose to meet her questioning gaze. “We’re both professionals, Ashlyn. Neither of us will make the mistake of crossing that line again.”

‡

A
shlyn stopped in
the middle of several cubicles, clearing her throat to capture the attention of her team of paralegals. It wasn’t as if she’d needed to, considering that all of their eyes had been on the door to her office anyway. All four of them were well aware she’d been on the receiving end of someone’s attention. Their body language dripped with anticipation. They were about to find out just how serious the problem had become and each would react as expected in such a situation.

The beige walls of their cubicles were waist high, allowing them to converse to one another without any impediments. There were thick volumes of transcripts, books, and various research means scattered on their desks—folders of every kind and color. The long table in the back held even more material, reminding her that they all had a lot of work ahead of them on a number of pending cases.

All Ashlyn wanted to do right now was a five-minute briefing. Her style of leadership fostered a free exchange of ideas, and she tried to keep the entire team up to speed on the latest developments whenever possible. The day she’d spent in court hadn’t gone as she’d thought it would, with the judge issuing a presumptive ruling dismissing a vital piece of evidence based on the fact that the search of one of the defendant’s computers hadn’t been done legally according to the scope of the warrant.