Guarded (15 page)

The thumb drive was empty. She ejected it and plugged it in again. No change.

Her stomach squeezed north into her throat, clogging her airway. She searched the hard drive for the notes she’d written last night. But no matter where she looked, the answer remained the same.

No results
.

Every last file was gone.

H
OW CAN EVERYTHING
be gone?
Shelley’s headache, which had settled to a dull throb, roared to full-on agony. Her blood pressure shot up and, frack it all, tears stung her eyes.

She glanced across the open living room to see Dev still speaking into his cell on the porch. He paced back and forth, grim-faced, seemingly unaware of Shelley watching him.

Panic rose in her throat. She wanted to call out to him but held back. Her vision blurred as thoughts of the last six months of work, the animals that had disappeared, and Miah’s mournful roar clamored in her mind.

If she didn’t find those files, she’d be letting down all the creatures that had come to rely on her. And Miah. That poor tigress was lost without her babies. Shelley couldn’t break her promise to the Bengal.

There had to be something on her computer. Files didn’t just vanish. Not without crashing. And everything had been there last night when she’d hit save and shut down.

The sliding glass door shushed open. Crashing waves, the cry of seagulls, and the comforting scent of salt air filtered down the hall before the door slid closed again.

Dev made his way slowly through the living room. The phone still pressed to his ear. He spared her a quick glance, then did a double take.

Shelley quickly schooled her features. She needed to be strong. Smart. She needed to find a solution, not weep like a child. Forcing her lips to turn up at the corners, she gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

Dev cocked his head sideways and slowly arched a single blond brow.

Rising from her barstool, Shelley gave him her full attention and blocked her laptop at the same time. It was foolish. He was going to find out in a few minutes anyway. But he looked so intense on the phone, the last thing she wanted to do was distract him. She wanted his undivided attention, so she’d wait to tell him about the missing files. She ratcheted her smile up another two notches.

That did the trick. Dev’s brow lowered and he gave her his back, saying into the phone, “I hear you, partner. We’ll discuss it at the station. I thought the meeting was at eleven. No, I can’t break away yet.”

He paused, long enough for Shelley to wonder what he intended to break away from. Was he planning to leave her sitting here while he went to work? What about her case? Well, now that the files were gone, there wasn’t much to go on. But Dev didn’t know that, yet.

“Got it,” Dev added, turning to shrug apologetically in her direction. “I’ll be there in two hours, provided I can get off the phone.” Another pause, this one ended with Dev exhaling a burst of laughter. “Not a problem.”

Dev clicked off the phone and pocketed it. “Sorry about that.”

“Is everything okay? Do you need to be someplace?”

Dev snapped the fingers on both hands, then clapped his hand over his fist several times in a row. “Yes, everything is fine. What I need is some breakfast. I checked the fridge while you were upstairs. I forgot I hadn’t gone to the grocery store this week, so it’s pretty bare. How about we grab a bite to eat and discuss the case downtown? There’s a great place down on Twenty-third Street open for breakfast called Doc Taylor’s.”

Shelley automatically checked her watch. The pink breast-cancer-awareness ribbon pointed at quarter to ten. The simple act of glancing down sent the pain in her head thundering past her ears.

Two hands gripped her elbows and she found herself nose to neck with Dev. His fresh clean scent both fired her hormones and seemed to ebb the tide of pain lacerating her skull from the inside out.

“Whoa, Shells. You’re not going to faint on me, are you?” His gray eyes, filled with worry, traced the contours of her face as if searching for something. As if caressing her skin with his gaze.

“N-no.” Shelley swallowed, her throat inexplicably dry. Slowly, she shook her head. “No, I’m better now.”

With him holding her this close, it would be so easy to press her nose against his soft cotton shirt and breathe him in and see where this attraction might take them. If, that is, her files weren’t missing. If the animals didn’t need her. If her life weren’t in absolute turmoil.

She stepped away and bumped into the barstool.

Catching it before it crashed sideways to the floor, Dev righted it, then frowned at the
No Records Found
blinking on Shelley’s laptop.

“I’m sorry. I woke with a massive migraine. Normally, one dose of my migraine meds knocks it out. I thought my nap in the car was a sign it was going away, but that didn’t fix it. I should have put something more in my stomach than coffee. I guess my blood sugar’s low, and the headache’s coming back.”

“I’ve got some ibuprofen, if that’ll help. But we do need to go out for food. Or I can go out and you can lie down until I return.”

“Thank you, but I’m sure I’ll feel better once I’ve had a meal.” She rolled her shoulders and admitted, “I could really go for a burger.”

“Let’s go to Doc Taylor’s then. They serve the best in Tidewater.”

“Except I’m vegetarian. I don’t know why I’m craving it. Maybe I need the protein?”

Dev frowned. “When did you go vegetarian? In college, weren’t you the one who argued with the professor that animals eating one another was part of the cycle of life? That if tigers and lions were given a choice between grass or gazelles, they’d pick fresh meat.”

She snorted, which only made her head ache more. “I can’t believe you remember that. You really have an incredible mind, Monk. I became a vegetarian about two years ago after Cam went on a mission to help families in Puerto Rico affected by a hurricane. The stories he told me about what some of the poorest islanders ate after the disaster convinced us both to drop all meat from our diets.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had actual beef. I’ve been living off tofu or garbanzo beans for so long, I’m not sure my body would react well at first. It’s safer to stay meatless this morning.”

“You know, Shells,” Dev said, scratching his cheek with one finger. “We seriously need to talk about what went down with you and Cam.”

Oh, frack no!

The panic must have shown on her face because Dev quickly added, “Later. This morning we’ll get food. Bring your laptop.”

She glanced over her shoulder to see the vile words still blinking on her screen. “That might be pointless. I’m not sure what happened, but every file on my computer is gone.”

Dev bristled. Shelley would have stepped back, but had nowhere to go. Literally, the man seemed to both widen at the shoulders and grow taller. But it was the way his steely gaze bore into hers, then around her body to frown at the useless computer that was disconcerting.

“
Every
file is gone? Are you certain?” Dev’s frown melted away and was replaced by an inscrutable expression that probably served him well on the force. When he interviewed criminals. “How long have you known the files were gone? Did you accidentally wipe them?”

“Yes, Dev. That’s exactly what I did.” She let the sarcasm drip from her voice. Crossing her arms over her chest, she reined in her temper and explained, “I just discovered they were missing when I came downstairs. I looked at the files last night. I walked to my car and got the thumb drive and added yesterday’s notes before I ate dinner. There should be two sets of notes from yesterday. The notes I wrote when I didn’t have the thumb drive, I saved to my hard drive, but they’re gone too. I don’t know how I could have erased them.”

“Do you have them saved anywhere else? In a cloud?”

Shelley shook her head then remembered. “Wait. Tomás has a copy of the files too. I e-mail them to him for safekeeping after I update each file. I’ve been doing it for months, ever since he told me that the zoo files disappeared along with the animals. Frack! I can’t remember if I e-mailed last night’s notes to him. But he’ll have something. There’s enough in there to help you get started.”

“So he keeps your notes on the zoo’s computer network?”

She shrugged. “I don’t think so. They’re probably on his home unit.”

Without waiting for Dev to respond, Shelley dug her cell out of her pocket and dialed Tomás. After the fourth ring, it went to voice mail. Frustrated, but not completely surprised—it was feeding time at the zoo after all—she left a message. “Hey, Tomás, it’s Dr. Morgan. Do you still have the files I e-mailed you last week? I really need to see yours. I lost my copies. I’ll explain when you call. Thanks, I’ll talk to you soon. Please let Beau know I’m thinking of him.”

She clicked off and stuffed her phone back in her jeans pocket only to dig it out again and set the ringer to loud. Glancing at Dev as she pocketed it again, she explained, “I usually have the ringer turned off. I hate to be interrupted when I’m working.”

Dev smiled, his gray eyes sparkling. “I know the feeling.”

“I’ll bet you do.” She couldn’t help returning his smile. There was something peaceful and yet undeniably exciting about being around him again. It made her want to believe in all those things she had believed in as a child. Before her first mother died. But she wasn’t a child anymore. And if she didn’t find those files, those animals could be lost forever.

Her smile faded.

His expression also sobered. “Look, let’s get some breakfast. Forgive me for saying so, but you look worn out.”

“Thanks so much.”

He backpedaled. “That came out wrong. You look like you feel much better than when I picked you up this morning, but you still look rundown.”

Shelley closed her laptop and thought about it. “I am still pretty wiped. I guess yesterday took its toll on me. You know, I don’t actually remember going to sleep last night?”

“Is that unusual?” Dev’s tone was light, but his gaze had sharpened.

“Yeah, very. I remember taking Lucy for a walk, calling Kenny about the car, working on my notes for the zoo, but not going to bed. Heck, I don’t even remember putting my laptop away. Guess yesterday was a bigger strain than I’d realized. Then again, I can do all sorts of things when I have a migraine and not remember. It comes from pushing too hard. But when there’s only me to do the job, I have to work, headache or not. So, I guess it isn’t all
that
strange. I did have the start of this migraine yesterday. Plus, I had some wine on top of it.”

“Hmmm . . .” he said vaguely. An odd expression crossed his face. He slipped her pink laptop covered in Save Ferrets stickers from her hands and headed down the hall toward the front door. His loafers hardly made a sound on the slate floor. “Got your purse?”

“I don’t carry one as a rule. Just my keys, wallet, and cell. They all fit in my pockets.” Shelley narrowed her eyes at him, teasingly. “So Mr. Monk doesn’t notice all? You’re losing your touch, Dev. Back in college, you’d never have had to ask me that question after spending more than fifteen minutes with me.”

He froze midstep and gaped at her. There was no other way to describe it. His jaw went slack and his sexy gray eyes, normally set at half-mast bedroom-style, were wide.

“What?” She tried to move past him, but he kept her still, placing one hand on her shoulder.

“You didn’t call me Monk. You said Mr. Monk? As in that old television show with the crazy private detective who got kicked off the police force?” His voice cracked as the words kicked off.

“Y-yes.” Shelley scratched the back of her neck. “I started calling you that, ever since you helped Professor Gose solve the mystery of his disappearing laser pointer from our Economics class. The way you walked into the room, glanced around, picked up and touched almost every object on his desk, then turned and told him, ‘I know what happened’ reminded me of the character Adrian.”

Dev’s wide-eyed stare faded. He started to chuckle. The chuckle transformed into a laugh. A laugh that shook him so hard, he leaned his head on his arm against the doorjamb.

Afraid he might drop her computer, Shelley tried to reclaim it, but Dev straightened, still chuckling and shaking his head. “Oh, damn. That’s the best laugh I’ve had in a while. For years, whenever I heard you call me Monk, I thought you were referring to . . . But you really meant the TV show . . .” His words trailed off as he laughed again.

He thought
what
? “Want to send up a clue or a signal or a semaphore flag or something?”

Dev shook his head, still chuckling. “Nah, I’ll tell you later. Let’s go eat.”

He opened the door and waited for her to exit through it. As she moved past him she could have sworn he muttered, “Thank you, sweet baby Jesus.”

*   *   *

D
OC
T
AYLOR
’
S
WAS
just Dev’s style. A quiet little restaurant on a side street that had the best food in the city. A fresh-faced waitress in a white shirt and black pants approached.

“What’s good?” Shelley asked Dev, setting aside her menu and spreading a linen napkin in her lap. Her laptop and cell phone sat closed on the table.

“My favorite is Eggs Benedict a la Graz. They make the best Hollandaise sauce here that you’ll ever taste.”

“Sounds delicious.” She beamed at him, then turned to the server. “I’ll have that, but no meat, please. And a glass of sweet tea.”