Protecting Lyndley (2 page)

Ky

This was the tenth time my phone rang while I was working out. Apparently whoever it was couldn’t wait. I carefully set the weights down and wiped down my sweaty face and made my way out to the living room where my phone sat. Sure enough ten missed calls, and every single one of them from my boss. I quickly listened to each individual message, and then called him back.

“Took you long enough, Wakely. You’re being called up. It’s your turn to take one in.”

I shook my head in anger, “You’ve got to be kidding me? Tom, I didn’t sign up for this shit.”

“Well, actually you
did. When you decided to become a U.S. Marshal, that’s exactly what you agreed to.”

I let out an aggravated sigh before responding. This was one time I didn’t want my temper to get the best of me. “Alright, what’s the job?”

“It’s a girl in the city. The law firm that she has been working for is currently taking on the Nelson brothers’ case. She was the assistant attorney on the case and just witnessed her co-worker’s murder. She’s not privy to what exactly is going to happen with her, but we figured we should inform you first. There’s just one catch, Wakely.”

“Oh
, please do tell.” I said sarcastically.

“You’re going to have to go undercover and pretend to be her husband.”

My mouth fell open in shock. I had been lucky so far as a Marshal. I hadn’t had to take a witness into a safe house, and I sure as hell hadn’t had to pretend to be married to anyone. I was seriously starting to rethink my decision to accept the job. “Fantastic, Tom. Anything else you wanna tell me?”

“Actually, yeah. You both have to move to New York for a bit.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me right now. Tom, do you know what I’m dealing with right now? Fuck!”

“Need I remind you about the job that
you
decided to do? This is the job Wakely, so take it or leave it.”

“Fine. I’ll see you soon
.”

“
Talk to you then.”

I hung up
and chucked my cell phone across the couch. I had only recently moved to Chicago when I found out about my promotion, and now I was being forced to leave everything I was building for myself, to what, take care of some entitled princess because she can’t hack it in the big bad world?

I knew I was being a prick about the whole situation, but that’s just who I was these days. Since my fiancé walked out on me eleven weeks ago, I had b
ecome that bitter, asshole that wanted nothing to do with anybody. And I meant
anybody.

All I wanted to do was
hit the sack and leave this day behind me. Of course the bottle of Jack that I had consumed earlier in the day, was starting to wear off. Since Olivia left me, I found myself drowning my sorrows in whatever bottle of booze I fancied that day. I knew I had an issue, but the numbness that the alcohol brought me, far outweighed the negative consequences that could come along with my drinking.

I must’ve dozed off for a bit, because I woke up to my alarm blaring
in my ear louder than usual. I groaned loudly as I tried to lift my heavy as sin head. The hangovers were slowly starting to get worse as the days and nights passed by in a blur, but it never stopped me from repeating the process every night or day.

I silence
d my alarm and rolled off the couch grasping my pounding head between my two hands. I felt like shit and was in some serious need of food, but it would have to wait. I moseyed on into the bathroom turning the shower to scalding hot, and slipped in.

I let the billowing steam rush around me, engulfing me in a moist, comf
orting blanket of sorts. My head fell forward on my arm as I leaned against the cold tile wall, letting the steady stream of water rush over every inch of me. If I were lucky, maybe one day it would just wash away my sins. I thought back on my conversation with my boss and let out an exasperated sigh. I was not in the mood to deal with this shit tonight, or in this condition.

The water slowly began turning cold and that was my cue to get out. I washed up as quickly as I could
, knowing that the water went from lukewarm to ice cold in a matter of minutes. I rinsed off and jumped out of the shower just in time. I didn’t waste any time getting dressed and heading to the office. I knew if I was any later than I already was, Tom would have my ass.

As I parked in the lot, I quickly took an ibuprofen and downed a full sixteen-ounce bottle of water that I had stashed in my car, along with a water bottle of Vodka
. You never know when you might need a little pick me up. Just as I shut my truck door, I heard Tom’s voice calling out to me from a few parking spaces down.

“Rough night?
Or should I say day seeing as it is still night time and you look hungover as fuck.” I knew he was goading me, but if he pushed too hard right now, he wasn’t going to like the guy he got in return.

“Sure. It was only made worse when my boss told me I was going to have to up and move.” I
sneered at him as we both walked into the office together.

I stopped mid-stride as Tom jerked back on my elbow. “Look Wakely, I’ve given you your time to deal with whatever shit you need to deal with, but now I need to say something. This shit has got to stop, and now. I can’t put you on this case if you’re going to be drunk
the entire god damned time, and not be able to do your job. So you tell me right fucking now, can you do this?”

The broken part of me wanted to tell him no, that I couldn’t deal with this right now, but the Mars
hal in me decided to suck it up and show him what I’m worth. “I can do this, Tom. I swear I’ll get my shit together. I will keep the little princess safe, and then in a few weeks when you find her a permanent safe house, I’ll make sure I have all my shit in order for the next one. You can trust me.”

“God I fucking hope so. Let’s go, we got shit to do.”

I followed Tom inside, preparing myself for what came next. Little did I know that what came next, would practically break me.

Lyndley

About a million and one things ran through my mind as I watched every police officer in the Chicago area gawking at my best friend’s lifeless body. I couldn’t find it in myself to get out of my car. So here I sat, behind the steering wheel, watching a horrific nightmare play out in front of me. I could feel the tears stinging the back of my eyelids as I forced myself to not blink.

I practically jumped out of my skin a few seconds later, when a tall man tapped on my window. I reached for the door handle to open it, but found myself in a daze. The tips of my fingers grazed t
he cool metal, but still failed at the actual act of pulling on it.

“Miss, can you please open your door?” I could hear his voice in
the distance, but my brain wasn’t registering what he was saying to me. “Miss, I need you to open your door, now.”

I blinked my eyes a few times as my eyesig
ht became hazy due to the amount of tears falling down my face. I nodded my head at the man, and finally opened the door. I glanced up at his tall frame from underneath my tear soaked lashes, and lost all control of my emotions.

“Miss, it’s my underst
anding that you knew the victim. Is that correct?” His voice was less than empathetic, and I knew that my night was about to get worse than it already was.

“Yes.” I mumbled.

“I have a few questions for you. Do you have time to talk with me?”

“That depends, are you going to take the douche out of your tone?” I knew I was making this more difficult for myself, but I just watched my best friend get murdered.
What did these people expect from me?

“Miss, I would appreciate it if you didn’t talk to me like that.”

“Well, I would appreciate it if you treated this case with some compassion.” I gave him an aggravated look and slowly stood from my car.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Miss. I apo
logize if I’m a little abrasive. It comes with the territory. Can you tell me what happened?”

He pulled out a small notepad and stood there, pen poised, waiting for me to fill him in on all of the horrific details. “Well, my boss and I have been working on the Nelson brothers
’ case. Needless to say, all of us involved had a police tail for the last month or so while we got ready to take it to trial.”

“Was Mr. Walker involved in the case as well?”

He didn’t look up from his notepad, so I continued as if he hadn’t even asked me anything. I needed to get this out before I had a full on mental breakdown. “Mr. Cooper and I just had a meeting about two days ago with the FBI and the agents that have been watching us. Everything seemed fine. No one had heard anything about anyone coming after us, or whether or not the rest of the organization knew what we were up to.”

“I’m sorry to cut you off
Miss, but I have to know if Mr. Walker was involved with the case?”

I rolled my eyes in anger. “No, he wasn’t.
” I growled. “He was working on an entirely different case. Like I was saying, everything seemed fine. Tonight we both ended up working later than usual. Being new employees, we don’t really have set hours. When we got down to the lobby, I noticed that the detective assigned to me was nowhere to be seen.”

“And what is his or her name?”

“Detective Dawson. So I tried calling him, but his phone went straight to voicemail. I left a message and Reese waited with me in the lobby to see if he would call back. After twenty minutes, I asked Reese if he would walk me out to my car. Detective Dawson had been teaching me safety precautions, and Reese and I both made sure to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”

“So no one was in the lot from what you could tell?”

“No. No one was in the lot, just like I
just
told you. It was just Reese and I. We were saying good-bye, when a car alarm went off. We glanced around a few times, but still didn’t see anything. So I got in my car and Reese started walking towards his. That’s when…” My voice broke as I thought about Reese’s body crumbling to the ground.

“I’m sorry, Miss.”

“It’s Lyndley. My name is Lyndley.” I half shouted.

“Calm down, Miss. I mean, Lyndley. I need to know what happened next.”

“He got shot. He got shot and then he died. There, ya happy now?”

“Lyndley, I’m very sorry. I know this can’t be easy on you, but I just have a few more questions and then we can get you home. Now, did you see the person who shot Mr. Walker?”

That was the one question I so didn’t want to answer. So I simply nodded my head when I heard the man in front of me clear his throat. “Sorry, yes I saw him, but barely. He had on a black hoodie, a black pair of pants, and was carrying a forty-five. I know because he aimed it directly at me. I started my car to take off, but he ran as soon as a pair of headlights illuminated the parking garage. That’s all I know.”

“Thank you for your time, Lyndley. Here’s my card. If you ever need anything at all, or remember anything else, please don’t hesitate to call.
We will have someone take you to your house and explain where we go from here.”

He started to walk away when his words finally settled into my overly exhausted, traumatized brain. “WAIT! What do you mean, where we go from here?”

He slowly made his way back over to where I was standing next to my car. “Someone from the Marshal service will be coming by to talk to you tomorrow morning, or I guess I should say in a few hours. Have a good night, Lyndley.”

I was left standing there, flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe what was happening, and to top it all off, the asshole detective that interviewed me was now walking away like it was no big deal. What was wrong with everybody? This was someone’s li
fe that had been taken. And then it hit me; no one had called to tell Claire.

The tears came faster now and I found myself practically hyperventilating. I crouched down, wrapping my arms around my knees and rocking back and forth. If I had learned anything over the last eight years of having panic attacks, it was to rock myself like a baby. I could hear footsteps through my erratic breathing, and
I quickly turned to see who was approaching me.

Before I could respond, Detective Dawson was scooping me up in his bulging arms. I wanted to yell at him, to tell him how much I hated him at this very moment, but all I could do was silently sob into his shoulder as my arms wrapped securely around his neck. I wasn’t sure who called him, or what happened to him, but a
small part of me didn’t care at the moment. He was here and that’s what really mattered.

I slightly lifte
d my head from his shoulder so I could whisper in his ear. “Where were you?”

His lips came down right next to my ear, “Someone knocked me out from behind. I’m so sorry, Lyndley. This never would’ve happened if I had been watching my
own
back.”

I laid my head back
down on his comforting shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Dawson. It was inevitable.” The next thing I remember was waking up to a strong hand gently shaking me. When I opened my sleepy eyes, Dawson’s face came into view and I was surprisingly relieved to see a familiar face.

“Lyndley, the Marshal is going to be here any minute. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to get dressed or anything.”

I let a halfhearted smile form across my chapped lips. “Thank you, Dawson.” He held his hand out for me to take and I did. He led me down the hall to my room and tightly closed the door behind me. Day two of the worst day of my life, here we go.