Dangerous Secrets (2 page)

The soft sound of the door latch catching spun
Mallory around, her heart thundering in her chest.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said. Moving toward Mallory,
she held out a hand. “I’m Robyn Matthews, the M in C&M.” She smiled.

Shaking her hand, Mallory smiled in return.
“Mallory Thompson.
”.

“Please, sit.” Robyn waved a hand toward a little
sitting area instead of the two chairs by the desk. “Can I get you something?
Water, juice, tea, maybe some coffee?” she asked.

Easing down into the chair, she thought about it. “
A water
would be good.” It would give her something to hang
onto and fiddle with. Which, with as nervous as she was, would not be a bad
idea.

Robyn left her for a minute and then returned,
passing over the bottle of water.

“Thank you,” Mallory said, twisting the top off and
taking a sip.

“Of course.” the woman smiled at her as she sat
down. “I should let you know that Granger sent over a copy of the police
report. Nothing confidential of course, just some details to give me a heads
up. I gave it
a
once-over just so I was familiar, but
I’d like to hear it from you in your own words. No rush, take it at your own
pace.”

Yeah, ‘cause she really wanted to relive it, again.

“I’d just gotten off shift at the restaurant I cook
at. I’d walked partway home with a friend who lives not far from me. At the
park we parted ways. She went hers and I went mine. We never walked in the park,
but on the streets where it was well lit.” Lifting the bottle, Mallory took a
sip and a shaky breath as she put the cap back on.

“You’re doing great,” Robyn said softly.

“I was almost to my apartment when a guy came up
out of the park and stopped on the sidewalk in front of me. I couldn’t really
see his face, he was too far away, and the hoodie he had on made it even
harder. Every instinct in me said to run but I kept walking. Slower of course,
but I kept walking. He knew my name, said it and then said that he wanted the
drive. If I gave it up he wouldn’t hurt me.”

Her hands were shaking hard, so she squeezed the
bottle a little. “I told him flat out he’d obviously made a mistake and I
didn’t know what he was talking about. He started toward me, and before I
realized I’d done it, I was walking backward. My head said not to look away,
but to keep distance between us.”

“It’s the protective part of the brain, the
primitive part of fight or flight. Some call it a sixth sense. I personally
call it common sense in a dangerous situation,” Robyn said with a shrug.

Mallory smiled slightly at that. She liked this
woman, a lot. “He said my name again, said the name of the restaurant I worked
at, my address and the names of my few family members. He knew exactly who I
was. He said that he knew I was lying, and he’d get that drive no matter what
it took. That’s when I ran, straight into the park. I guess I was hoping I
could lose him in the dark. I know the park really well, in the daylight.” She
let out another breath.

“Everything’s different at night, though.”

Mallory nodded. “Yeah, it is. I had a vague idea of
where I was, but I honestly don’t think I had a clue where I was going. I could
hear the water and figured if I could get closer to the lake I’d be able to
reorient myself. As I got to one of the paths, he tackled me. I’m pretty sure I
blacked out because the next thing I knew, he was slapping me awake and then
rolled me into the water. The drop wasn’t huge, but enough that I figured it
had to be from one of the docks. I came up in shock from the cold water, and
that’s when he grabbed my hair.”

Robyn moved in front of her, taking the bottle and
gripping Mallory’s hand tight. “Slow your breathing, sweetie. You’re going to
hyperventilate at this rate. Take a breath in and hold it then let it out nice
and easy. Better,” she said with a smile. “Now take another couple and then
continue.”

The woman didn’t let Mallory’s hand go even as she
eased up to sit on the coffee table.

“He said that since I didn’t want to do it the easy
way, he’d make me tell him,” she continued finally. Her grip on Robyn’s hand
was tight and she knew she had to be hurting the woman, but Mallory just
couldn’t let go.

“He pushed me down into the water and held me there
as I struggled. I fought him, but it was so hard
The
water was cold and my clothes made movement difficult. He tugged me up just
when I started to black out and shook me.
Asked again.
I couldn’t talk, I was too busy sucking in air,
then
he
pushed me under again. He did it several more times until finally, I don’t
know, I think I’d had enough and just yelled at him the same thing I told him
before. That I didn’t know what it was he wanted and definitely didn’t have it.
He slapped me then and I started to claw at his arm.”

“Good for you,” Robyn nodded firmly. “You fought
back. I’m guessing this is when you got away from him?”

“Yeah,” Mallory said. “He let go and I did the
first thing that came to mind. I swam out into the lake where it was dark and
hoped he wouldn’t see me. I have no idea what kind of progress I made, but then
he started shooting. He missed me the first time. The second bullet slammed
into my shoulder. Again, I have no idea why I did it, but I sucked in a big
breath and slid under the water after a bit of floundering around. I stayed
under as long as I could before floating back up in what I hoped was a dead
body sort of way. I floated for a while without another shot so I got myself
upright. He was gone.”

Robyn nodded. “He likely cleared out as soon as he
was sure he hit you and you did your act. He may have even taken off as soon as
he fired the second shot. Gunshots are pretty loud, and at night, he likely
would have attracted more attention had he stayed.”

“Maybe.”
But what did she
know about the actions of a crazed lunatic? “I did a half-assed back paddle
toward land and eventually got there. Once I was onshore, I know I passed
out,
I was so damned tired and cold. When I woke, I was in
the hospital and then all hell broke loose.
Cops, doctors,
nurses, too many people talking all at once and over one another.
They
told me I’d gone through surgery, that I was lucky, and a whole bunch of other
things before finally going away.”

“Yeah, they tend to make you want to either kill
them or slip back into that nice drug-induced haze as fast as possible. I don’t
know why they do that shit. It’s not like you’re on the ball and thinking
clearly as soon as you wake up. Hell, I don’t start fully functioning until at
least my fourth cup of coffee,” Robyn said.

“More or less how I was feeling at that
moment.
Once they left, though, it all sort of sank in. A Detective Granger
came to see me the next day to get my statement. I told him the same I’ve just
told you. I let him know about the threats to my family and that he knew where
I lived. The detective went to my place, with my permission and came back to
tell me that it had been tossed, badly.”

“I can imagine,” Robyn said, squeezing her hand.
“Do you have any idea what this guy meant by a drive?”

“The only thing I could think of was a hard drive,
like in a computer. But the only one I have is my three year old laptop that I
barely use, and when I do it’s for social media and address searches or event
searches. I honestly have no idea why he thinks I would have the drive he’s
looking for.”

“Okay, good,” she nodded. “This guy is still out
there. We are going to operate under the belief that he knows you are alive.
You were in the hospital and unless the police managed to get you under a false
identity, there’s a real possibility he found you. We’ve done the same over the
years when looking for people. Hospitals are hard to get info out of, but if
you have a name at least you can confirm that person is there. After that, all
it is needed is some patience. Since you’re now out of the hospital it has to
be assumed that he’s going to be watching you again. We can’t say for sure he
will be, or if someone else might be, but we always think about worst case
scenario. He, and perhaps someone else, thinks you have this drive or know
where the drive is. They are going to try to get it, and according to what
you’ve said, you’re their best lead.”

Nodding, Mallory rubbed her palm over her leg and
held onto Robyn’s hand tighter with her other hand. “What does that mean?”

“That means we need to protect you. The police have
limited resources, which is why Granger insisted you come see us as quickly as
he did. They will have to pull the police presence from your building and
neighborhood soon, which leaves you unprotected. We’re going to assign one of
our guys to stay with you. To keep them from realizing you’re under our
protection, we’ll use a little subterfuge. The guy I’m sending will be your boyfriend.
He was out of town during the attack, just got back, and will be rushing over
to see you as soon as he can because he just found out.”

“Uh, okay,” she said with a frown. “But won’t they
know I came to see you?” she asked.

“Doubtful, we had a few of our guys tailing you on your
taxi ride here to ensure you hadn’t picked up any watchers,” Robyn said. “And
we’ll have them do the same thing when you return home. I’d recommend, though,
that you get your taxi to stop at a market near your place if you can and go
in, pick up a few things and then walk. I say close because you’re not in any
condition for a long hike.”

“I can do that,” Mallory told her. “Why?”

“Extra level of precaution,” Robyn explained. “We
want to see if you do have any watchers. And a guy walking up the street
listening to tunes is a lot less obvious than a car parked across from your
building for days on end.”

Mallory thought it made sense, but she knew nothing
about this sort of thing. She was a chef. What she knew about covert tactics and
sneakiness came from watching Bond films or cop shows.
Which
all boiled down to not a hell of a lot.

“
I’m trusting
you on that
one since I’ve got no opinion one way or another,” she finally said.

Robyn grinned and shook her head. “It’s all good.
Now, let me find a photo of your soon to be “boyfriend” so you don’t wig out
when he shows up at your door.”

She gave Mallory’s hand another squeeze before
getting up and moving over to her desk. When she came back Mallory took the
iPad from her and blinked in surprise at the photo on display. Short, dark
hair, deep tan, blue eyes, slightly crooked nose all in a face that screamed
masculinity.

“His name is Trent
McDonald,
he’s a former Marine so he can occasionally come off a little gruff and
grumbly. Just smack
him
with a rolled-up paper and
you’ll be fine,” Robyn told her. “He’ll keep you safe. Now, I’d recommend you
don’t return to work for a while.”

“Not a problem,” Mallory said. “My boss insisted I
take as much time as needed. He knows I’ll need rehab for the shoulder. Likely
a lot before I’ll be able to fling around pans and lift the slabs of stone he
calls plates.”

“Good. But I need to ask, just for my own piece of
mind, that won’t strain you financially will it?” Robyn asked.

Chuckling, she shook her head slightly. “No. My
parents left me a reasonable amount of money when they passed away. It sat in
some sort of fancy account gaining interest. I’m comfortably off between that
and the obscene amount of money that I get paid for my cooking. So yes, I’m
good and I can pay the bill for whatever this,” she waved a hand around, “costs
me.”

Robyn just waved her away. “Don’t even worry about
it. I talked my partner into taking your case pro-bono. The only thing you may
have to fork any dough out for would be supplies, should it be necessary. That
and whatever Trent eats in a day. Trust
me, that
could
well bankrupt you right there. He can really pack a meal away.”

Right, she might just have to pick up something at
the market then.

“Well, I think that’s it,” Robyn said, standing up.
She went to her desk and came back with a clipboard of papers. “If you’d like
to review this contract, we can get it signed and you can get out of here.”

Robyn sat next to Mallory and handed the clipboard
over. “Top one is basic information, and anything we need to be made aware of,
like health issues, beyond your recent injury. The second is emergency contact
information. The last is the contract for our services. You’ll notice that
there is no dollar amount included, for good reason obviously. Take a minute,
read it through, and ask any questions you have.”

Mallory took the clipboard from the other woman.
Pulling the pen from where it was hooked on the top sheet, she began to fill
out the pages. It only took her a couple of minutes. The contract had her
hesitating for a moment. Mallory didn’t like the idea of being beholden to
anyone. While she didn’t have a bank full of money to call her own, she wasn’t
destitute. With the pen hovering over the page, she chewed her inner cheek
before scratching her signature on the bottom line and dated the sheet.

Robyn took it all from her, flipped through the
pages and smiled. “I do believe we are all done here.” She stood so Mallory did
as well.