Page 58 of Night Prey
He stood to thank her. “We’ve already canvassed your neighbors, but you have my card in case anyone remembers seeing anything. Or if you noticed anything unusual in the area.”
“Of course. I’ll call right away.” She walked him to the door but stopped shy of opening it all the way. “Can you tell me what was in the package?”
“I’m afraid not, but it was personal, so you shouldn’t have any problems.”
She opened the door the rest of the way and nodded across the street. “Looks like Malone’s leaving.”
“Thanks again for your help.” He jogged across the street in time to catch her before the brothers took off. “I’ll meet you at the Center. I have something I want you to look at.”
“I’ll wait for you in the lobby.” She twisted her hands in her lap.
He shook his head. “Not safe with all the windows out front.”
“We’ll take you in through the secured parking ramp,” Clay said, then looked at Ian. “I’ll wait and open the gate for you, and you can follow us up.”
“Great. Thanks.”
He followed them to Veritas, his gaze searching for anyone tailing them. Clay fulfilled his promise of opening the gate. Once beyond it, Ian idled his vehicle to allow Clay to climb in.
“Drive all the way to the top,” Clay said. “That level has the best access to the skybridge. Then you can go to the condos or the lab from there. But your first stop will be the lobby to get a visitor pass. You have to wear it at all times when you’re outside the condo. And you need one of us to escort you while you’re in the building.”
Ian shook his head. “I knew you had tight security for the lab, but not the condos.”
“The lab needs to protect evidence and samples,” he said. “Sure, the doors all lock and require fingerprint readers to get in, but the Veritas partners stake their reputations on being able to maintain chain-of-custody. We all aim to help them keep it.”
“Sounds reasonable.” Ian reached the top level.
“Park close to the door.”
Ian found a spot and swung his car into it. Ian followed Clay as he made quick work of getting Ian’s pass from the security guard in the lobby. Ian had hoped to catch up with Malone, but she either didn’t come down for a pass or she’d already gone to Reed’s condo.
Ian hung the lanyard around his neck, and Clay took him to the fifth floor condo. Ian knocked.
Reed opened the door, his expression stony. “I’ve handed off my current investigation, and before anything else happens, I want a full update on finding whoever threatened my wife and child. They won’t get away with it. Not while I’m still alive and breathing.”
Malone stood beneath the pounding spray of the shower in Reed and Sierra’s guest room, letting the water refresh her. She’d felt bad leaving Ian to fend for himself with Reed and Sierra the moment he arrived, but Malone needed a shower. She had to remove an internal coating of slime left from the box, and a shower symbolized that for her.
Reed, Sierra, and Asher were all the family she had, and she couldn’t abide them being in danger because of her. If she had to back down and not testify to make it go away, she might just do that. And what would that make her? A coward or a wise woman?
She finally understood to a degree why many of the battered women she worked with wouldn’t bring charges and testify against their spouses. They were setting priorities, and they prioritized their children or their own lives. She was prioritizing her family.
Malone turned off the shower, towel dried, and swiped her hand across the steamy mirror to look at herself. “Those women weren’t letting a killer go. You would be.”
Argh.What do I do? Will Olivo ever leave us alone even if he’s arrested for his crimes and imprisoned?
Her days as a federal prosecutor told her that many drug kingpins continued to run their organizations from prison and called the shots. If Olivo wanted her family dead, he would find a way from prison to have them murdered. They could all go into witness protection, but she didn’t want that. She couldn’t be responsible for her brother and sister-in-law having to give up jobs they loved, because once you entered the program, you were forbidden to do anything remotely connected to your prior profession. It made you too easy to trace.
Help us. Please. Please. Please. Help us.
Still frustrated, she stomped to the bedroom and dressed in comfy yoga pants and a warm baby blue fleece top that surrounded her in coziness.
She ran a comb through her hair and fired a confident look at herself in the mirror. She was already putting her family in danger, and no way would she add showing them her angst. She would have to fake how she felt. Same with Ian. Still, they were all perceptive and might pick up on her worry. She would have to double her effort to hide it.
She left the bedroom and came to a stop. She hadn’t expected to see the scene in front of her. Sierra was in the kitchen doing dishes. Reed was sitting at the dining room table flipping through the file Ian had brought with him. That was all normal, but Ian? He sat on the plush couch holding baby Asher, who was a little over five months old. Ian made funny faces at the baby. Asher grinned and giggled, drool running from his mouth.
Ian grinned, too, his eyes alight with joy and affection.
He looked up and caught her watching him. He smiled broadly, one side of his mouth quirking up higher than the other. Her heart melted, just like that, into a big old blob of honey. He seemed like a natural with the baby, and yet this was the man who thought he couldn’t get married. If he changed his mind, did he even want children? Did she?
