Unauthorized Obsession (Unauthorized Series Book 3) (11 page)

Kara walked in to work the next day, having just pulled herself out of bed an hour before. As soon as she entered the receiving area the desk sergeant caught her attention. “The AC wants to see you.”

“Which one?”

“Foley.”

Kara stopped short for a second. Assistant Chief Hunter Foley was in charge of operations, not personnel, so she didn’t know why she was supposed to see him. She didn’t mind though. He had been her Field Training Officer when she was a brand-new police officer. She liked him and respected him as a good guy, as someone who always had the officer’s back, not one to bow down to the bureaucracy.

She turned around and headed to the elevators, riding them to the third floor, then heading straight to Assistant Chief Foley's secretary. “The Chief wanted to see me?”

His secretary nodded. “You can go right in, he’s expecting you.”

Kara passed the secretary’s desk, pushing open the door to the office. She’d never been in this office before. It was roomy and full of dark wood and leather chairs. Assistant Chief Foley sat behind his desk on the phone. His words carried out to her as she pushed the door open. “I love you too,” he said, his voice soft and mushier than she’d ever heard it. She raised an eyebrow at him. He was involved with someone? His face colored immediately and she almost laughed. She’d never seen Hunter Foley blush before. He hung up the phone quickly and shuffled some papers on his desk.

“My, uh, mom.”

Kara bit back a grin. There was no way that had been his mother. She knew he loved his mother, but she also knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t be blushing if that were true. But that was none of her business. He was the assistant chief now and she could get herself in a lot of trouble for even thinking of teasing him.

He motioned for her to sit down and cleared his throat. His face became solemn, the blush fleeing. “I had a visit from Sgt. Gale yesterday. She’s been briefing me, Chief Powell, and Assistant Chief McCormick on your case since she got it. We tried to pull you off the road yesterday, but apparently they couldn’t spare you. I hope you don't mind that we had a patrol car watching your house all night.”

Kara felt fear and indignation spike equally through the center of her. “What? Why?”

“Because we weren’t able to talk to you yesterday. Sgt. Gale said you left the meeting with the criminal profiler before you got one important piece of information. The profiler is worried about these pictures.” Chief Foley pulled a batch of pictures out from under a pile of paper on his desk. Kara saw herself sleeping and her mind swirled dangerously. How many cops were going to have to see that picture of her bare ass before this was over? Now
her
cheeks were the ones coloring.

“The profiler said that he showed his hand by letting you know he was able to watch you through your phone - and that means either he has another way to watch you or he’s planning something big soon. Some sort of contact with you.”

Kara shuddered.
Great.

“We want to send a team to your house to sweep it for bugs and devices.”

Kara felt her heart sink. Just one more indignity. When would this be over? “When?”

“I can send them over there right now if you can go with them.”

“I start work in ten minutes.”

“It won’t take more than twenty once they get there. You can clock in but tell dispatch you are unavailable until they are done.” He considered briefly. “Also, what kind of locks do you have?”

She waved a hand at him. “Normal locks.”

“You should stop at a hardware store and get some door braces, make it hard for someone to get in while you’re there at least. Or maybe you should just go stay with someone until this is all over?”

Kara leaned back in her chair, unable to believe this was happening to her. She rolled her eyes to the ceiling and tried to calm her nervous system. “I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to hide.”

Chief Foley sighed. “I didn’t think you would, but I had to suggest it. There’s no shame in it.”

Kara didn’t bother to answer. Of course there was shame in it.

Chief Foley leaned forward and looked at her piercingly, waiting until she returned his gaze. “So how are you, Kara? This has got to be hard on you.”

Kara nodded and felt a lump in her throat. It must’ve shown on her face because Chief Foley rounded the desk immediately and pulled her into a hug. Kara felt tears form in her eyes and she tried hard to blink them away. There was no crying at the police department.

Chief Foley held her at arm’s length and looked her right in the face. “Kara, it’s me, Hunter. You can put away my Chief title for a bit. This is why I asked to be the one to talk to you. Because I know you – you hold everything in for way too long. You put on your strong face and don't let anyone see your weakness. But I know what this has to be doing to you. And I know that you will make it through and be fine, but for once in your life, just let someone comfort you.”

He pulled her in to a hug again and Kara felt something break inside of her. She cried ugly, sloppy, mostly-silent tears, because she couldn’t stand the thought of the secretary hearing her. Finally, when her shaking had subsided, Hunter held her at arm’s length again and looked at her closely. “Better?”

Kara nodded and he handed her some tissues. He sat back down at his desk and Kara sank back into her chair. “Sgt. Gale has been worried about you.”

Kara stifled a laugh. “She hates me.”

Hunter cocked his head like he was confused. “I don't get that feeling from her at all. In fact, I thought she was quite fond of you.”

This time Kara did laugh. “Are we talking about the same Sgt. Gale?”

Hunter continue to look puzzled. “We are. I’m telling you, she likes you. She spoke very highly of you. She called you ‘very put together’ and ‘hard-working’.”

Kara shook her head, not believing what she was hearing. “She always seems so angry at me.”

Hunter leaned back in his chair. “Well, I think she’s got something going on right now. It doesn’t have anything to do with you, but something is bothering her. Something personal. She’s not ready to share it, but take my word for it, she likes you.”

Kara couldn’t think of anything to say. So she sidestepped it. Since she was here, she suddenly remembered that she had something to ask the brass. She switched Hunter back to assistant chief in her mind. “Chief Foley, I’ve been meaning to ask you. I don't want to sound nit-picky but I always get a female recruit, and this time I’ve got a guy …”

Chief Foley nodded. “I noticed that too. I asked Chief Powell and he said the order came from above.”

“Above? Who’s above Chief Powell?”

“Lots of people. The mayor, the police commissioners, the civil defense commander. I’m not sure exactly who he meant by above when he said it though. He’s got a lot going on right now and I could tell it wasn’t high on his priorities.”

Kara nodded distractedly, mulling this over. Could this be personal?

Chief Foley stood up and looked at the clock on the wall. “I’ve got to meet with someone else in two minutes, but you be careful, and let me know if you need anything. And stop by if you need to talk, got it?”

Kara knew when she was being dismissed. “Got it.” She pulled the door open and stepped out of it, then leaned back in. “Thanks, Chief.”

“Anytime. You know that.”

***

Kara raced downstairs, already late. She found Seth, grabbed a radio and some keys, and told dispatch what she was doing, then raced to a car so she could try to beat the tech team to her home.

Within ten minutes, she was at her own front door, unlocking it for the two tech officers. Duke ran out immediately, licking everyone’s hands and whipping them all with his tail. The officers got down to business immediately, checking all the rooms in her house for bugs or cameras.

Duke ran past her to the patrol car, where Seth was sitting in the passenger seat with his door open. She could see his face through the window. She frowned at the expression on his face. He looked quite nervous as Duke approached. Duke sniffed him once, then stepped backwards and ran back into the house.

“I-I-is that your dog?” Seth asked.

“Yeah, his name is Duke. He’s a sweetheart.”

The look on Seth's face clearly said he didn't think the words dog and sweetheart should be used in the same sentence.

“Don't you like dogs?” Kara asked.

“Uh, yeah, th-they’re alright.”

Kara decided to let it go. “Sorry I had to drag you over here, would you like to come in for something to drink?”

Seth nodded and looked at the grass beside her feet. Kara took him inside and sat him down at the dining room table, then opened the fridge for some ice tea. Duke shot into the room, almost getting his head into the fridge. Kara wrestled him away and took the iced tea to Seth, who was watching Duke closely. She could hear the two officers talking and joking in her bedroom, and she wondered if she had any underwear or bras laying out in the open. She bit the inside of her lip. It was too late to tidy up now.

The radio on her belt kept up a steady patter of background noise, giving her something to focus on. She heard Ivy’s voice, clearing a call and immediately being sent to another one. Ivy and Joe had been just as busy as she and Seth were yesterday, and she hadn’t had a chance to talk to either of them.

The two tech officers tromped down her hallway, the younger and shorter one walking right to her. “The house is clean.”

“Really? Are you sure?” Kara asked.

The other officer nodded. “As a whistle. There are no cameras or listening devices anywhere.”

Kara didn’t know if that was bad news or good news, especially since the profiler had said it meant
he
was planning something big. And it was going to come soon. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind, for now, and thanked the two officers. They both scratched Duke’s floppy ears in turn, and clumped outside.

Kara put the two glasses in the sink, said goodbye to Duke, and headed outside after double-checking the lock. Seth had already slipped out the front door and was waiting for her in the car.

Kara called them in service and concentrated hard on doing her little mental flip trick where she put her own issues aside so that she was able to give one-hundred percent to the job. Officers who got distracted got killed. She didn’t want to disappoint her stalker by going and getting herself killed because she wasn’t paying attention. He had games to play with her. Kara shook her head at her bitter humor and concentrated harder.

Kara woke up the next morning to the sound of her alarm blaring. She blinked her eyes and tried to rub the sleep out of them. She would’ve loved to have slept for another hour but she needed to head to the hardware store and pick up the door braces the chief had told her to get. She looked around at the empty room and said a small prayer of thanks for another incident-free night. She was trying very hard not to feel a sense of impending doom, and she did alright when she was at work, but when she came home and was all alone (except for Duke of course), and had to sleep, she had to admit that she did feel nervous.

Duke was curled nose to tail on the floor next to her bed and she reached down to pet him. She wondered what Duke would do if someone did try to break into her house. She put the thought out of her mind and hurried to get dressed. She
would
feel better when she had an extra measure of security in the form of door braces. Or maybe this jerk could just make his move already, and they would see who came out on top.

Kara dressed and ate breakfast quickly, then drove to the hardware store. She picked out several braces, one for the front door, one for the back door, and one for her bedroom door, hating every moment of it. She didn’t want to have to live like this.

Kara took the items back home and then drove to work, feeling strangely better and worse at the same time. The night before had been unnaturally busy again and she had barely had time to think, much less eat or take any breaks. Seth’s behavior had been exemplary. She hadn’t seen one flash of anger or irritation in him. Apparently he had taken their talk to heart. Oh, and his stutter was getting way better.

She hadn’t thought of Zane once. Never thought of the fact that she hadn’t called him to warn him yet, or the fact that she hadn’t checked her email in days, or the fact that she hadn’t given him her new phone number, or even the fact that she hadn’t asked him what he had been arrested for. She hadn’t even read the arrest report. She was doing a very good job of not thinking of him.

As she walked in the station, not thinking of Zane, the desk sergeant caught her attention. “Price, check your box. There’s a message for you,” he growled at her.

Of course there is,
Kara thought, for a moment certain that it would be from her stalker.

But when she got to her box, the note was from Zane. Zane who she’d been very good at avoiding for the last three days.

Thinking of you and hoping you’re okay. Call me or message me when you get a chance.

Kara let her non-thoughts about him shoot to the surface and suddenly decided it was time to read his arrest report. She found an empty computer and typed in Rowe, then pulled up the entry marked Zane Michael. She skimmed through it, holding her breath. When she reached the bottom, she let out the breath in a shaky sigh. Zane had caught Kensi in the act of cheating on him, and he had hauled the guy off of her and thrown him on the ground, then hit him in the face until Kensi stepped between them. Zane had insisted he thought the guy was raping Kensi, and the arresting officer had believed him, but had still been forced to make the arrest when the other guy had wanted to press charges.

Kara didn’t know if the judge had believed Zane or not but in her heart she had already pardoned him. He had probably been telling the truth, and even if he wasn’t, she didn’t blame him for hitting the guy in the face. She tried to imagine catching someone cheating on her and shook with indignation just at the
thought
.

One of the boulders that had been pressing onto her heart for the last few days rolled off.

***

Kara found Seth and told him what vehicle number they would be in. She had one item to deal with before she met him out there. She pulled a piece of paper out of her wallet and input Zane’s number into her new phone. Then she sent him a text.

Hey, it’s Kara. This is my new phone. Sorry you haven’t heard from me. I’ve been busy. Can we get together soon? We need to talk.

She looked at that last sentence and didn’t like the way it sounded. She didn’t want him to think that she didn’t want to see him again, but she didn’t want to tell him over the phone about her stalker either. She added one more line.
It’s nothing bad.

Kara waited a beat, hoping to get a message back immediately, but when nothing came after a few minutes she stuffed the phone in her pocket and walked outside. He was probably busy. She whistled as she walked, feeling light and happy for the first time in a few days.

She climbed into the patrol car and asked Seth if he was ready to go. He was, but she was momentarily distracted by the large, boxy, bomb-squad truck driving past her. She turned on the radio quickly to see where the bomb threat was. Normal radio traffic met her ears so she called them in service and slowly reversed out of the parking stall.

Joe came running out of the building to catch her, Ivy behind him looking worried. Kara smiled at both of them, happy to see their faces.

Joe skidded to a stop and crouched down to see in her window. He didn’t even say hi. “There’s a bomb at Rowe Construction,” he told her, panting a little.

Kara’s good feelings evaporated in an instant.
Zane!

“I’m heading over there,” she said, slipping the car into gear.

“Go quickly. It’s busy, we’re already assigned something,” Joe called out, backing up from the window and pulling Ivy with him.

Kara threw him a thankful smile, then drove through the parking lot and reached the street before realizing she had no idea where Rowe Construction was. “Get me an address on Rowe Construction,” she told Seth.

His fingers flew over the computer between them, and he had an address for her before the clicking noises even stopped. “432 Pearl Street.”

Kara turned right quickly and floored the accelerator. She could be there in less than ten minutes. Horrible scenarios played over in her mind. But it was good that the bomb squad was heading out, that meant that the bomb hadn’t exploded yet. She hoped. Unless there was more than one bomb. She gritted her teeth and drove faster.

As she approached Pearl Street, she saw a large, bold sign announcing Rowe Construction on the right side of the road. On the other side of a chain-link fence that bordered the lot she could see the bomb squad truck and two other squad cars. She called off at the scene knowing that dispatch could call her away at any moment, but hoping she at least would have a chance to see if Zane was okay.

“I'll be right back,” she told Seth. “I just need to make sure a friend is okay.”

His gaze met hers for an unusual instant. She jumped out of the car and started walking towards the knot of people standing on one side of the large lot. On the other side was a building that had several cars parked out front. She saw Zane's truck immediately, but she didn’t see Zane.

As she moved farther into the center of the lot, she could see two bomb squad technicians, heavily padded, working just outside the door of Zane’s truck. Kara's stomach fell and her heart did a funny skip in her chest. Now she felt frantic to find Zane. Oh God, what if he was in the truck?

There were at least thirty people milling around by the fence, watching the scene at Zane’s truck. Most of them were heavily-tanned, deeply-muscled, hard-looking men, obviously construction workers. A few of them smiled at her but she didn’t feel like smiling back. Then she saw him, looking heart-stoppingly handsome and heart-achingly unhurt. She ran the last few steps, unable to hold herself back. She grasped his arm and he looked down at her, his face breaking into a wide grin.

“Hey beautiful, I wish I would’ve thought of calling 911 to get you to come by earlier.” Kara choked out a laugh and hugged him.

He hugged her back, and whispered in her ear, “Can I kiss you, or is that not allowed?”

Kara felt her flood of good feelings come back. Zane was okay, everything was going to be okay.

“No kissing in uniform,” she whispered back. “You can kiss me later.”

“Can I do anything else to you later?” he asked her throatily, his breath hot on her ear. Kara could feel her heartbeat in her throat and a warm rush of desire flush through her body.
How did he do that?

“Maybe,” she replied, placing a hand on her hip and pulling back to grin at him challengingly. “Depends on how I’m feeling.”

Zane looked at the sky and laughed, then shook his head. He was about to continue their banter, but Kara had had enough for now. She cut him off. “Zane, what happened?”

He glanced across the parking lot at his truck. “There was a bomb under my seat.”

Guilt flashed through Kara like a wildfire, erasing the desire she had felt a moment ago. She was supposed to tell him that he was in danger but she never had! If he had been injured or killed, it would have been her fault. Her mind flew over her motives for not speaking to him all week, and her excuses came up lacking. She’d done a very stupid thing, and Zane had almost paid the price for it.

“Oh God,” she finally sputtered out. “How did you find it?”

A flickering of something passed over his face, something Kara almost called guilt, but eventually classified as unease. Then he started talking. “You know my, uh, habit?” He patted his right front pocket three times. Kara nodded. “Well I have another one. This one is straight from Iraq too. You remember I told you I drove trucks there? Well I never got in a truck without checking it from front to back. I always checked the engine, all the fluids, and all the equipment it was supposed to carry, even if I had driven it the day before. I still do it when I’m at work. So when I flipped the seat up to check that all of the tools were under there, I saw the bomb. It was pressure sensitive. If I would’ve sat down on it, I would’ve been blown to bits.”

This time guilt tore through Kara, almost doubling her over. She placed her arms over her stomach and moaned softly. Zane grabbed her arm. “Are you okay?” He asked her, concern showing on his face.

“Yeah, I’m okay, hold on – I need to make a phone call.” Kara took a few steps away and called Sgt. Gale. When she answered, Kara told her to come down to 432 Pearl St., there had been an attempt on Zane’s life.

“Be there in five,” Sgt. Gale said without pretense.

She turned back to Zane and looked him in the eyes. “Zane, we need to get together soon to talk about something. It has to do with this.” She flapped her hand at Zane’s truck.

Zane half smiled, showing his dimple. “As long as it wasn’t you who put the bomb under my seat,” he said.

“It wasn’t me,” Kara said, unable to joke.

“Okay, have dinner with me tonight.”

Kara shook her head. “I’m working all night.”

“Tomorrow night then.”

Kara looked around, past the people around them, to the police officers standing in a separate knot and then past them to the bomb squad officers. Nothing seemed to have changed in the few minutes she’d been talking to Zane. “Could we make it lunch?” She wanted to get this all out in the open as soon as possible. She probably was going to have to tell him the abbreviated version before she left here today, but she wanted to tell him the full version as soon as possible. Plus she wanted to ask him about his version of his arrest and why he hadn’t told her. She and Seth were off for the next two days before they started a seven day stretch. The department did that once a month so that everybody had a chance to have a full weekend off, like she had the weekend before.

“Lunch would be great,” he said. “Any preferences where you’d like to go?”

“Somewhere private.”

“Why don't I cook for you at my house?”

“You cook?” Kara said, finally smiling.

“Of course I do. Don't all handsome, eligible bachelors cook?”

Kara laughed at his boldness. “Who told you that you were handsome?”

Zane leaned down to whisper in her ear again. “You did. I can see it in your eyes when you look at me. At least I hope that’s what I’m seeing.” As he spoke, his lips brushed the cup of her ear and she shivered. She considered for a second. Should she teasingly cut him down a notch? Or admit she found him handsome? Then the absurdity of the situation struck her and she did neither. They were standing in a parking lot, waiting for a bomb squad to dismantle a bomb that could have killed him.

She shook her head and pushed at his chest until he stood straight and looked at her. “Be serious,” she hissed at him.

“Okay,” he said simply. He looked over her head and his eyes narrowed suspiciously. She turned around to look and saw Sgt. Gale striding purposefully towards the throng of people they were a part of.

“That woman was here yesterday asking questions about me,” he said. “She a friend of yours?” he asked, cocking an almost-accusing eyebrow at her.

“Oh God,” Kara groaned, and pushed Zane backwards, ducking behind a small, white, portable building, pulling him with her. “Look, I didn’t want to have to tell you like this, in fact I didn’t want to have to tell you about this at all, but this is my fault. Some guy is stalking me and he’s the one who put the bomb in your truck. You have to watch out for him. He’s dangerous.”

Zane’s eyes narrowed again. “He stalking you but bombing me?”

“He’s done it before. Something about taking out the competition.”