Dangerous Secrets (5 page)

Slowly, her eyelids drifted down and she took a
deep breath. Her hand tightened on his and he knew she was grounding herself in
the moment with that grip. He didn’t say anything more, just held tight to her
smaller hand and kept rubbing her back.

“His feet were apart, about shoulder width,” she
finally said. “His hands were at his sides. He was shaking them and then
clenching them into fists and relaxing them.
Over and over.”

“What was he wearing on his feet? Runners, boots,
dress shoes, what?”

“Boots of some sort.
Black, sort of looked like combat boots. His pants were tucked into the
top, bagging over them a bit, but more on the left than the right. The
shoelaces on the left were shorter, only done up to the ankle, not all the way
to the top.”

“Were they shiny or scuffed up?”

“Scuffed up.
Especially on the toes, really ragged looking,” she said. Opening her
eyes again, she stared at him. “How?” she asked in a whisper.

He knew what she was asking, but he had her going
and he didn’t want to lose the momentum. “What kind of pants was he wearing?”

“I thought they were jeans, but they aren’t. They
have pockets up the left leg, one at the calf and a few at the thigh. The right
side has a big pocket at the thigh with something inside, it’s drooping a little,”
she said. She looked stunned.

“Good, close your eyes, keep looking at him. What
color are the pants?” he asked her. Sliding his hand up to her neck, he gently rubbed
at the tension he found there.

“Dark blue I think,” she whispered.

“Okay, scuffed up combat boots and dark blue cargo
pants. Keep your eyes moving up to his shirt and jacket, describe them to me.”

She chewed on her lower lip and just about ruined
his concentration. Sucking in a breath, Trent forced his eyes up from her mouth
as his cock jerked in his pants. He was on the job and that job was to protect
Mallory, not think about her in
that
way.

“White button-up, not tucked in all the way. The
right side is hanging up a bit,” she told him. “He’s got a dark hoodie on
underneath the jacket, black I think. His jacket is black, leather for
sure,
I remember that from when I was clawing at him. He’s
got gloves on his hands, leather too.”

Her breathing was becoming erratic again. “Focus,
Mallory. You’re safe in your apartment. Right next to me, where he can’t touch
you,” he said, squeezing her neck gently. “Do you see any jewelry, a necklace
or anything like that?”

She frowned and slowly shook her head. “No,
nothing,” she whispered.

“Okay, that’s good. How tall do you think he is? What’s
his build? Tall and skinny, fat and short, round, thin, bulky like me?”

“No, not bulky.
He’s tall, not as tall as you,” she said. “Taller than me, though. He
was fairly thin, but not scrawny. He definitely had a bit of muscle, but
nothing really obvious.”

“All right,” he said. “You did
good
.
We have a lot more information now.”

Looking to him, she nodded and gave him a small
smile. Then her face clouded and she frowned. “He wore cologne.
Strong and spicy.
It made my nose itch and I remember
feeling the need to sneeze before...” She paused and swallowed hard.

Before he’d knocked her out.
Squeezing her neck, he nodded. “That’s all good stuff. See, I told you that
you could do it.”

“How?” she asked again.

This time he answered her. “The mind catalogues a
lot of things. Everything we see is logged into the memory. Of course, unless
it’s something unusual or something specific we’re looking for, it gets
relegated to the subconscious realm, never to be heard from again. It’s where a
lot of feelings of déjà vu originate from. We’ll walk past a place and the mind
will catalogue it, but because we’re not really focused on it we don’t
see
it
per se.
If we happen to go past again, later, and we get that
sensation of being there before or seeing something before.
It’s just
one of those things.”

Squeezing her fingers, he tipped his head to see
her face better. “All I did was get your mind focused on the moments you were
still safe and then had you pick apart a moment of time. Like a picture, you
let the mind survey it from an observer's standpoint instead of a victim. It lets
you process all that you’ve seen in a safe manner.”

“Well, that’s one hell of a trick,” she said.

“No trick,” he told her. Sliding his hand down her
back, he looked to the clock she had above the TV. “It’s getting late and
you’re still recovering from a gunshot. You should grab a hot bath or shower
and then try and get some sleep.”

Nodding, she scraped her thumbnail lightly over his
skin, chills raced up his arm. “What about you?”

“I’m going to do a bit of work and figure out what
I need from the tech guys to make your apartment more secure and give you a
greater sense of security. We’re going to wire your place with a security
system and, with the management’s permission, wire the building with cameras.
Since we don’t know who this guy is yet, we want as much warning as possible if
he comes for you again.”

“If he doesn’t think I’m dead,” she murmured.

He thought about it for a while and then decided to
just say it. “There was a piece about you in the paper. You weren’t named. The
cops kept that out, but the details were enough that he’ll know he missed. He
may not come back, though if he’s working with someone or for someone, they most
likely will. That’s what I’m going to keep you safe from. I don’t want to scare
you, Mallory. I happen to believe you deserve to know what’s going on and the
potential threats.”

“Thank you,” she said looking to him.
“For being honest and not sugar-coating this.”

“Yeah, I’m not big into sugar-coating,” he said
with a chuckle. “Go, have a hot bath and get some sleep. You are safe and, if
you need me, I’m right here and will be until this guy and anyone else is
stopped.”

For a while, Mallory just looked at him before
nodding. Squeezing his hand she got up, took her mug, and went into the kitchen.
A few minutes later she came out and paused in the hallway.

“Good night, Trent,” she said with a half-smile.

“Night, Mallory.”

Chapter Five

Sliding into the hot water of her bubble bath,
Mallory let out a sigh. She could hear Trent’s voice in the living room, the
low rumble surprisingly soothing and reassuring.

Except for college, she’d never had a roommate. She
really didn’t like sharing her personal space with others. But she found that
she honestly didn’t mind having him there. He definitely wasn’t what she’d
expected.

After her meeting with Robyn, Mallory had thought
she’d end up with a G.I. Joe sort that snapped out orders and expected to be
obeyed. But that wasn’t Trent. He listened, he watched, and he seemed to
actually care.

She had a feeling though, that if the situation
arose, he could bark out orders like nobody’s business. Smiling, she sank
deeper into her soaker tub and sighed again.

Something else she hadn’t expected was the visceral
reaction she had to him. She knew when he was close. Well, her body did. A low
hum seemed to thrum through her belly when he was near, and when he was
touching her, it turned into a throb. She’d been embarrassed when she’d slid
her panties off for the bath to find them soaked through.

She wasn’t sure he felt anything for her. At least,
he hadn’t given any signals one way or another. But she had a feeling that she
was going to have a hell of a time living with the man for even a few hours,
let alone days or weeks.

Groaning, Mallory slid further into the water,
until her chin was brushing the surface. Thank goodness she had a few toys in
her dresser to help her tend to the sexual needs of her body. It had been a
damned long time since she’d had the time or inclination for a boyfriend.

College actually, now that she thought about it.
She’d had a couple in high
school
, but they’d been
more the sort to mess around with, first and second base stuff. College had
been the full gauntlet of the dating scene.

Ryan had been her
first,
and only “real” boyfriend. He’d been an English major and funny as hell. They’d
always had something to talk about, whether it was their discussions about
books, movies or TV shows or their playful arguments about politics. They’d
never run out of topics.

The sex had been good, too.
For
the most part.
Ryan had always ensured she found her pleasure, even if
it had been after he’d finished. He never left her wanting. But he’d never been
very adventurous. While they’d talked about a few more daring things to do in
the bedroom, they’d never actually done anything of the sort.

“It is fine to talk about it, Mallory, but doing is
a whole other kettle of fish.” He used to say that to her every time she’d
brought up the topic of trying something new sexually.

While she’d cared for him, when she’d been accepted
into culinary school it hadn’t been that hard to leave him behind. Not that
he’d seemed overly broken-hearted. He’d wished her the best, kissed her on the
lips and then waved with a happy smile as she’d driven off in her taxi for the
airport.

Obviously it wasn’t meant to be, not with him.

She’d done a little bit of random dating when she’d
started the culinary academy. But then school, studies, and the need to soak it
all up and in had taken her focus off men. From that point on, she’d picked up
a few toys from the adult stores and made do.

She just hadn’t found the right someone who could
distract her from her first love, cooking and creating new, and interesting
foods. Until Trent’s arrival, she’d honestly feared that would never happen.

Now that it had, her body was letting her know that
the rubberized cocks she used just weren’t cutting it. Unfortunately, her body
didn’t get a vote any time soon. Not with Trent there to do a job. Besides, she
reminded herself, he might have a girlfriend or wife.

Feeling horrid at the idea she was taking him away
from family, she pulled the plug on the tub and stepped out onto the mat.
Drying off as quickly as she could, Mallory tugged on her terrycloth robe and
moved to the living room.

She found him sitting on the floor in front of the
sofa, his laptop open before him, his phone tucked between his ear and shoulder,
and he was frowning as he tapped on the keys.

He glanced up just as she was considering turning
around. “Hold on a sec,” he muttered into the phone before pressing it to his
chest. “Is everything okay, Mallory?” he asked.

Nodding, she smiled at his concern.
“Yeah.
I just had a question. It’s personal and nosey and
you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I’ll understand if you don’t,
really. I just.” She stopped and huffed out a breath.

He was grinning at her. “What’s the question?”

“I was just wondering how your girlfriend or wife took
the fact that you were moving into an assignment’s place,” she said. Damn, that
sounded even dumber out loud than it had in her head.

“No girlfriend and I’ve never been married. So, you
don’t have to worry. No jealous female will be pounding on the door,” he said,
a smirk curling his lips.

Rolling her eyes, she glared at him. “Good to know.
I was just worried that you had other responsibilities is all.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” he said. And he clearly wasn’t
buying it.

Feeling the urge to growl at him, Mallory sniffed
instead. “Good night,” she muttered before spinning on her heel to march to her
bedroom.

“Sweet dreams, darling,” he called after her.

Shutting her door she huffed out a breath. “Men,”
she grumbled. The man was pompous, arrogant, and too damned sexy for his own
good. Tossing her robe aside, she grabbed the long and oversized t-shirt she
preferred to sleep in and slipped it over her head.

She climbed into bed and yanked the covers up high
under her chin. Wrinkling up her nose, Mallory closed her eyes and let the
aggression toward him slide away. Soon enough she felt the need to sleep
tugging at her as she relaxed more and more.

****

“What do you mean, she has a boyfriend?” The man
slammed a hand to his desk, stunned and upset at this unexpected wrinkle.

“The girl, Thompson, has a boyfriend.”

“Are you sure he’s her boyfriend?” he asked pinning
the other man with a look.

“We did a full check as soon as we spotted him
going into her building. Dave got a glimpse of him when he went into her place
and he hasn’t seen the guy come out.”

“Shit. What do we know about him?”

“Trent McDonald, ex-Marine, served ten
years before an honorable discharge.
He ended up getting
in with a buddy and is now a military contractor. He was overseas when we went
at her the first time and just flew back in. From the info we got from the
airport, his flight landed and he headed straight to her place.”