Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: To Honor and To Protect\Cornered\Untraceable (45 page)

Chapter Twelve

Evan pulled Juliet to his side—she had her fist clutched against her stomach again—and grabbed the phone. It was a link to an email she'd received as Lisa Sinclair, and that had been forwarded to her phone.

Are you thinking about me as much as I'm thinking about you? It's so hard for us to be apart, isn't it? Soon, sweetheart.

There was no signature line or name. Nothing to give away the identity of the sender.

The questions flew through Evan's mind almost faster than he could ask them. “Juliet, what the hell is this? How long has it been happening? Why didn't you tell anybody about it?”

Juliet shrugged. “I was trying to handle it myself. I don't know who it's from—and believe me, I've tried every resource Omega has to figure that out. It's someone with advanced hacking and cloaking skills sending those messages.”

“How many have there been?”

“Dozens. Escalating in the past few months. Here, I'll show you.” She led him back to the room that contained her computer.

Juliet opened the file with the emails and got up from the chair so Evan could sit there. Rage pooled in his stomach as he read.

It's hard to be alone, isn't it? Soon we'll be together, sweetheart.

I'd never let anything so horrible happen to you. Don't worry sweetheart, I know you'll want me.

I'm much better for you than that no-good husband of yours, sweetheart. We'll get rid of him so we can be together.

The only tears I'd ever make you cry are ones of pleasure, sweetheart.

Don't worry, sweetheart. When we're together you'll never think of your past again.

Soon, sweetheart, soon. Be patient. I'm coming for you.

Thirty or so more, all like that. All with the same sick use of the word
sweetheart
, and many with intimate, graphic descriptions of Juliet's rape a year and a half ago. The blood pounded in Evan's ears, his desire to put a fist through the closest wall almost overwhelming.

He closed his eyes, tried to focus on the task at hand.

“They're all addressed to Lisa Sinclair, with no link to you or anything with Omega?” He spun the chair around to face Juliet.

She sat on the couch, clutching the pillow to her chest. “No. I don't think it's someone who knew Lisa Sinclair was just my undercover persona. It's someone who thinks she's real. That I'm really her.”

Evan leaned back in the chair. “Have you had any indication of anyone following you? Is it possible that your association with Omega has been compromised?”

“No, I've never seen anyone. And believe me, I've looked. I don't think it's someone who knows me as Juliet Branson, but...”

“But it's someone who has details he shouldn't have about your attack,” Evan finished.

Juliet nodded.

She had never made the extent of her attack public knowledge at Omega. All details had been struck from her file. Most people knew she had been hurt—she'd been in the hospital too long for that to go unnoticed—but none of them would have the sick details present in these emails.

“It has to be someone who was there.” Juliet's voice was barely more than a whisper.

The Avilo brothers had taken her in the middle of the night, while she was sleeping. Knocked her unconscious, then dragged her out to the nearby boat shed. Evan and Juliet had been undercover as Bob and Lisa, staying at a local weapons dealer's mansion, for buys that were occurring all weekend. There had been multiple third parties around, including the buyers who had become so upset at Bob and Lisa's success.

Evan had been playing poker with the men, trying to wring any information he could from them, and Juliet had been back in their locked room alone.

A single lock hadn't kept out her attackers, which probably explained her need for a half dozen on her door now.

When Evan had gotten back to their room and found it empty, he had immediately begun looking for her. Juliet would not have left it in the middle of the night without giving him any notification, unless it was under duress.

It was under the worst possible duress.

Finding her haunted Evan's dreams even now. She'd been mostly naked and tied to a post, with a broken leg, cracked ribs from brutal kicks, covered in bruises and blood. Moaning, barely coherent.

Both her eyes had been swollen shut from punches, and she hadn't known it was Evan when he'd first approached her. She had tried to scream, but it had come out a broken croak, barely audible.

Evan had reassured her the best he could, untied her and wrapped her in his shirt, screaming for an ambulance. At that moment, he couldn't have cared less that they were undercover. He'd just wanted Juliet to get the medical attention she needed. Although no one had figured out they were undercover, anyway.

Juliet had been too traumatized to talk then, but two days later, when he found out the extent of what had happened, and who was responsible—Robert and Marco Avilo—Evan had made sure they had gone down. One was dead, the other in prison.

But had he missed someone?

“Was a third person there that night, Juliet?” Evan asked in the gentlest tone he could muster. He knew she didn't like talking about it.

“No. I've gone over it in my head, believe me. The Avilo brothers were only the two people involved. One who held me down and the other—” Juliet put the pillow aside and stood up.

“The messages started almost a year ago. Honestly, at first I didn't know what to think. Maybe that it was some twisted joke from someone inside Omega. And then...” Juliet was pacing now.

“And then what?” Evan finally asked.

“Remember when I took those personal days about ten months ago?”

He nodded. They'd all been relieved that she was going to spend a few days down in Florida with some girlfriends at the beach. It had seemed a step in the direction of healing.

“Well, actually, I went down to the federal penitentiary in Louisiana to talk to the warden.”

Evan instantly put together what she saying. “You went to see if Robert Avilo, the surviving brother, was the one sending you the emails.”

Juliet stopped her pacing. “Robert Avilo wasn't the one who actually raped me, but he was there. He has the knowledge of the sick stuff in those emails. I had to know if it was him, Evan.”

Evan didn't blame her. “What did you find out?”

“That it couldn't have been him. That he had no access to any computers, nor had he sent or received any correspondence since he'd been in prison. Evidently, his brother Marco was the only family he had.”

“Robert didn't strike me as someone who could've hacked an IP address, anyway. Marco always seemed to be the brains of their little ring. Robert took orders from Marco.”

Evan could see Juliet grinding her teeth from where he sat. She sank back down on the couch. “That was my thought, too.” She shook her head. “I know you told me Marco had been killed while resisting arrest, and I wanted that to be true with every fiber of my being.”

“But?” Evan could hear the
but
as clear as day.

“But I had to be sure.”

He was afraid he knew where she was going with this. His shoulders slumped. “What did you do, Juliet?”

“I got a court order and had the body exhumed. I checked it for DNA.”

“And?”

“And it was Marco Avilo. You were right. He had died of a bullet wound taken after he resisted arrest and shot at some officers.”

Juliet shrugged. “So that left me back at ground zero. Marco was dead and Robert had no access to any computer or any visitors. I just thought if I ignored the emails long enough, whoever was sending them would give up. I never responded. But it's gotten so much worse in the last three months. There have been so many more emails.” She looked around as if seeing the shambles her house was in for the first time. “I should've said something.”

Evan couldn't stand to hear the smallness of Juliet's voice. She shouldn't have tried to go through this alone, but she had nothing to be ashamed of.

He went to sit next to her on the couch, then picked her up and settled her on his lap, his arms around her. She drew in a startled breath, but didn't pull away.

“Yes, you should've said something.” Evan put his lips against her temple. “But because this threat is real and anyone in this situation would need support, not because you're weak.”

“I didn't want to bother anyone. You all had your own cases, your own problems. I didn't want to be a burden.”

Evan didn't know whether to shake her or never let her out of his arms again. “Nothing about you could ever be a burden to me, Jules.”

“I was afraid I was losing my mind.” Juliet actually cuddled in closer to him. “Look at this place, Evan. It's not healthy. I knew that, but I couldn't seem to do anything about it.”

“Well, you don't have to try to go through any of this alone anymore. That's the first step.” He rubbed small circles on her back. “And we need to get some more people working on this email issue. Omega takes stalking seriously, regardless of the circumstances.”

Juliet nodded. “I know. But once we tell Sawyer, Cam and Dylan, they're going to go crazy with the overprotectiveness. They're bad enough as it is.”

Reluctantly, Evan shifted her from his lap. “Yeah, I should call them right now. We can let them know about this while we start working on a different plan for the case with Cady.”

“Why do we need a different plan for Cady?”

“Juliet,” Evan said softly, gently. “I was wrong to force you to go back undercover. You don't have to do it. We'll find another way.”

She shot off the couch, turned and glared at him. “You didn't
force
me to go back under, Evan. I agreed to do it because it was the right thing, and because if those drone codes get out there, a lot of people are going to die.”

Evan looked around at the shambles of her house. “Jules—”

“Okay, I'll admit I've been having problems. Here, alone at night, my demons come out and obviously I haven't been terribly successful at battling them. But that doesn't change the situation with Cady. Bob and Lisa Sinclair
as a couple
is the only good option for getting the codes out before they're sold to someone else on the black market.”

What Juliet said was true, but the thought of doing any further damage to her psyche tore at Evan. He wanted to protect her more than anything else.

Juliet was looking at him with something akin to pleading in her eyes. “Evan, is what you said in the park today true? Do you really feel like I have it in me to be a successful agent, to get the job done at Cady's?”

Was he making her beg to do something she didn't even really want to do?

“Juliet, wait—”

“Because I don't want to get either of us hurt or killed. And I'm scared. But I'm more scared of the drones being used on innocent people. I couldn't live with myself if I had a chance to stop it, but was too much of a coward.”

Evan couldn't take any more. He rose and went to her. He gripped her biceps gently, running his thumbs along the smooth skin of her arms. “Yes, I believe all those things I said. Nothing has changed that—even though you're now the one with the bachelor death pad.”

Evan kissed her softly, briefly. But he knew this wasn't the time for anything more, so he pulled away. “You can do anything you set your mind to. I've never doubted that for a moment.”

“I'm afraid I'll screw up.”

“I'm afraid I'll screw up, too. But we won't. We'll just work together and do what we do best,” Evan said with a wink. “Catch some bad guys and save the world.”

Chapter Thirteen

Something released inside Juliet. A weight lifted off her shoulders now that the truth about the sweetheart emails, as they decided to call them, was out in the open. They took her computer to Omega to be examined. She explained to Evan that she'd tried using Omega resources before, but agreed the sheer volume of emails she'd received over the past few weeks warranted a second look. Maybe there'd be some clue about who was sending them.

Evan also helped Juliet make a dent in cleaning up her house. It wasn't actually dirty—she hadn't left food out or anything that had attracted any sort of bugs, and none of it was garbage. Instead, the clutter consisted mostly of old reports, files, books, maps, mail.

Almost as if her subconscious had attempted to build a fortress of paper around her.

When Evan opened the drapes covering her windows, Juliet watched, blinking rapidly as her eyes attempted to adjust. It had been months since this much light had been let into this house. Letting light in being a fitting metaphor.

They didn't spend all day in the house, knowing there was too much other pressing business from the case. Juliet packed a bag so she could stay at Evan's place for a few days. It would be better, just in case they were ever followed, if they seemed to live in the same house.

Juliet knew that tomorrow they would need to move into full agent mode, including infiltrating and scoping out Cady's house as much as possible tomorrow night. Any information they had before going in on Wednesday would only help them. Plus it would give Juliet a chance to reacclimate herself with clandestine incursion tactics.

Surprisingly, she felt equal parts ready and scared to death.

Dinner was nice, just the two of them at Evan's town house. But afterward, while discussing the case and the details of Vince Cady's residence, Juliet heard the dreaded chirp from her phone, the sound she had assigned to signify the receipt of another sweetheart email.

She didn't realize how relaxed she'd become in Evan's presence until the tension flooded back through her.

This was the third email she'd received that day. The frequency of the messages was definitely escalating, particularly today.

“You okay?” he asked, reaching for her hand.

“I won't lie, I don't like getting these. And three in one day?” She chewed at her bottom lip, but then forced herself to stop. “But I'm glad you know, Evan.” She grasped his outstretched hand. Even through the fear she could feel little sparks of attraction where their palms touched. She wondered if it was the same for him.

“I'm glad you don't have to go through this alone anymore. Nobody should have to.” Evan squeezed her hand.

“I just hope receiving these emails won't interfere with the case. I don't want to just ignore them in case the perp slips up and says something useful that'll help us catch him.”

Evan nodded. “How about if we look at them together from now on when you get one. Keep everything in perspective and on an even keel.”

“That would be great.” Juliet kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you, Evan. I know today hasn't been easy on you, either.”

“We'll just take it as it comes. But no more hiding stuff.”

“Deal.” She smiled, and for the first time in a long while, it wasn't forced.

Evan stood. “I'm going to go shower and get ready for bed. I left a towel and stuff out for you in the guest bathroom.”

“Okay, thanks.”

He turned as he was heading out of the living room. “And Jules, I was thinking...” He seemed uncharacteristically at a loss for words. “At your house you showed me the couch and the pallet in the closet where you said you've slept since the attack. That you haven't been back in a bed?”

Juliet sighed inwardly. It must have seemed ludicrous to him, her blankets on the closet floor. “Do you think I'm crazy?”

“Not at all.” His smile was gentle. “You did what you had to do to get by. Nobody would think that's crazy. But once we get to Vince Cady's house, you can't sleep on the floor.”

She hadn't really thought of that. “Right, yeah.”

“And we'll probably be under surveillance, so I wanted to address that now. You can't be all tense and nervous getting into bed with me there.”

“Right, yeah.” Juliet felt like a parrot.

“So, it would probably be a good idea for both of us to sleep together in my bed tonight. So you're more used to being in a bed...”

“And being with
you
in a bed.”

Evan grinned. “I promise to stay on my side, if that's any consolation.”

The thing was, Juliet wasn't sure if it was or not. And she wondered what Evan would do if she told him that.

She needed to remember that this intimacy, the heat she could feel between them, was just because of his undercover skills, not because of any real attraction. At least on his part.

But she'd like to see some more of his “undercover” skills.

The thought popped into her head before she could stop it. Shocked, Juliet brought both hands up to cover her mouth, just in case the words came shooting out. And she giggled.

She didn't know who was more surprised by the sound, Evan or her.

“What's going on in that head of yours?” he asked, still grinning.

“Nothing.” Juliet tried to pull herself together. “Got it. Bed, together, for the case. No problem. I'm going to take a shower, too. Um, in the guest shower, I mean. I'll see you in a few minutes.”

She was still snickering as she fled the scene of the crime.

Undercover.

* * *

S
HAKING
HIS
HEAD
,
Evan watched Juliet
all but run down the hallway. What the heck had just happened? He had no idea.

But if it made her smile and giggle like that, he'd take it no matter what it was.

Since the information about the sweetheart emails had come to light, Juliet had been more relaxed, freer, than Evan could remember seeing her since the attack. And she didn't cringe from his touch. At least not as much. And sometimes even initiated a touch herself.

Evan found it difficult to believe how happy it made him when Juliet touched him of her own accord. Even something as simple as a brush of her hand on his arm meant more to him than entire embraces from other women.

He was feeling better about this operation than he had since Juliet showed up at the warehouse yesterday morning. He'd lost faith for a little while when he'd seen the state of her house, but now, understanding the reason, he could even understand that.

And she had just giggled and run out of the room.

And they were about to sleep together in his bed.

The thought of it thrilled Evan in ways he never would have thought. And it wasn't about sex. Obviously, Juliet wasn't agreeing to have sex with him, so he could just push that thought right out of his mind. Which, surprisingly, didn't upset him one bit.

Just the thought of being in bed next to her was more than enough. Able to help her if she needed him, or just knowing she was sleeping peacefully even if he didn't.

In the dark, lying with her after their respective showers, he could feel Juliet's discomfort. At first she fidgeted, tossed and turned. Obviously, being back in a bed reminded her of the attack. He wasn't sure what he could do, if anything, to help.

“I'll be okay. I just need to get used to it.” She answered his thoughts before he could even voice them.

“I'm never going to let something like that happen again,” Evan told her softly, reaching out to touch her back.

Juliet slid a little closer. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her all the way over to his chest.

“Right now just try to get some sleep,” he murmured.

It was as if her body needed a haven, a place where her mind felt safe, and Juliet was almost instantly asleep.

Long after he could hear her even breathing, Evan stayed awake, appreciating having Juliet in his arms. What he'd said to her was true. He would die before he let anything like the attack happen to her again. While they were undercover he didn't plan to let her out of his sight. But for now he just held her gently while she slept, and eventually fell asleep himself.

Evan awoke a few hours later to a knocking on his door. The sun was already up, but Juliet was still asleep. He glanced over at the clock: 6:30 a.m. Later than he had been sleeping, for sure, but still too early for someone to be knocking.

Evan reached for the Glock on his bedside table, easing away from Juliet's sleeping form. His phone buzzed with a message.

At your door. Hurry up, sleeping beauty.

Sawyer. Evan was tempted to ignore Juliet's brother's message, but knew he'd just start knocking louder. Evan slid out of the bed, slipped on a T-shirt with his pajama pants and went to open the door.

Sawyer and Cameron. Great. But at least they had doughnuts.

“Why the hell are you two here at this ungodly hour in the morning?”

Cameron dropped the doughnut box on the table. Sawyer, quite familiar with Evan's house, began making coffee.

“We had an idea. Wanted to run it by you first before talking to Juliet,” Sawyer told him.

“Do I need coffee before hearing this grand plan?” Evan wondered if he should mention that Juliet was asleep upstairs.

“It's not a grand plan so much as a safety precaution for Juliet,” Cameron said. “We were talking to one of the geeks in the tech department...”

“Excuse you, I happen to sleep with the head geek from the tech department every night,” Sawyer said, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the pot before it was even finished brewing.

“Okay, so you guys were talking to Megan, and she told you what?” Evan asked. Megan was Sawyer's genius fiancée, who had recently come to work for Omega.

“Tech has developed a short-range tracker/emergency response initiator that is virtually undetectable, even with a scanner, or someone monitoring frequencies,” Cameron replied, pushing Sawyer out of the way so he could get his own coffee.

“And you want Juliet to have it.”

“Yes.” Both men said it at the same time.

“An added safety measure for everybody. Plus, it would probably make her feel better about the entire operation,” Cameron stated.

Evan nodded. Even though he had no plans to let Juliet out of his sight the entire time they were on Cady's property, a backup safety measure was never a bad idea.

“She's going to do fine. Although she's been getting a string of emails from some sick secret-admirer-type bastard. So this distress mechanism Megan designed might help Juliet more than you even thought.”

“What the hell emails are you talking about?” Sawyer demanded. Both his and Cameron's posture stiffened.

“They're not actually coming to Juliet, they're addressed to Lisa Sinclair. Creepy stuff that mentions specific details about her attack last year. I'll show you.” Evan got out Juliet's laptop and showed her brothers what she'd been dealing with for nearly a year.

Sawyer dropped into a chair. “Why didn't she tell us about all this?”

Evan shook his head. “She said she didn't want to put a burden on anyone. That we had ‘real' cases we were working on.”

Sawyer's expletive was ugly. “That's the most asinine thing I've ever heard. This stalker thing is obviously escalating. Look at how many more there have been in the last three months. And that ratio quadrupled in the last couple of days.”

“I know.” Evan gave a long exhalation. “I don't like it. As soon as we get the drone codes situation under control with Cady, I'm going to make this top of my priority list.”

Cameron had been leaning against the counter, silent since Evan had shown them the emails. He spoke up softly now. “She shouldn't have had to go through this alone. Not after what she's been through. I'm going over to her house right now to talk to her.”

Evan put out an arm to stop him. “Cam, that won't work.”

“I'm her brother. She'll let me in. I just want her to know she's not alone in this.”

Evan sighed. “She's not at her house.”

“Where the hell is she?” Sawyer asked. “Is she back at Omega again? She spends too much time there.”

“No,” Evan said, and cleared his throat. “She's upstairs. Asleep. In my bed.”

Evan watched as the two men he had been friends with for over fifteen years looked at him as though he was an adversary. Sawyer stood next to Cameron, both glaring at Evan.

“What do you mean, she's up there in your bed?” They studied his clothes. Obviously, Evan had also been sleeping when they had gotten there a half hour ago. It didn't take them longer than the average three-year-old to put the details together.

“What the hell are you doing, Evan?” Sawyer's words were quiet, making them all the more menacing.

“Did she want to go to bed with you or did you push it?” Cameron's voice wasn't as quiet.

Evan's whole body tensed. “You two are my best friends in the world, but you better watch what you say right now. I would never put Juliet in a situation like you're suggesting.”

Sawyer's breath flew out in a huff, and he relaxed against the counter. “Damn it, we know that, Evan. It's just, first the undercover work, then those emails, and now you tell us she's sleeping with you.”

“It's too much, too soon,” Cameron agreed.

“She wasn't
sleeping
sleeping with me. You both know she and I can't go under at Vince Cady's house with her cringing every time I touch her. So we've been spending as much time as possible together in the last thirty-six hours.”

Evan thought mentioning her house and the shape it had been in probably wouldn't help the situation overall. Her brothers would feel the same way she had at first. As if there was no way she could handle the case.