Page 63 of Cold Silence
“And you?”
“I’m a mom. I don’t sleep through anything.” She laughed.
Claire had forgotten that Eryn was a mother. “I’m sorry about taking you away from your child.”
“Bekah loves it when I go out of town. My mom takes care of her and spoils her rotten.”
Gage had told them that Eryn’s husband had died, and she was raising their daughter on her own. Took a strong woman to be a successful single parent, and Claire admired Eryn even though she didn’t know her.
Claire would ask more about Bekah later, right now she wanted to talk about Warren’s guilt. She couldn’t wait to look him in the eye. To read him the riot act. Such betrayal. From one of the people closest to her at work. The one in charge of security. The one she’d trusted to keep her pet project safe.
Grr.She was vibrating with anger.
Claire shook her head and kept shaking it. “I still can’t believe it could be Warren, but then it makes sense as he knows a lot about my private life and could invade my home. But what about Mike and those pictures?”
“Looks like he might just be your garden variety stalker with a romantic interest in you,” Eryn said.
“Interest!” Travis grunted. “That goes beyond interest to obsession. And he’ll need to be called to account for the hidden camera.”
“We have to prove it was him first,” Eryn said. “I can look at the camera in the morning. See how he was getting his feed.”
Travis nodded. “So what say those of us who are turning in do so? We’ll start tomorrow by going to the hotel for Claire’s appointment then get to the office and prove that Robb was stalking her and Warren White is the guy behind the thefts. Then we’ll raid his hotel room and hold him for the police to haul off to jail.”
A big day. A very big day. And Claire would be right there. No matter what Travis said. Oh, he would argue the point all right. But she would prevail. Sleep or no sleep tonight, she would be ready to let Warren have it and watch with satisfaction as he was hauled off to jail in the back seat of a police car.
15
Why had Travis agreed to this hotel visit? Just a thirty-minute detour, but it stopped them from getting to the network. Still, he promised to take her if it was safe to do so, and he was a man of his word.
He got out of the punishing sunshine and slid behind Eryn in the cool vehicle she’d rented at the airport. Travis wasn’t sure about her driving with a bum hand, but Gage vouched for her. And the big bonus was if their suspect was lying in wait, he wouldn’t have seen her vehicle or associated a woman with Claire’s protection team.
“Approaching the hotel loading dock now,” Eryn said.
She parked, and Gage, Jackson, and Coop soon joined them to escort Claire safely inside. They took watch at the doors, and Travis kept Claire by his side as he waited in the small ballroom for the event coordinator to get there. Eric and Julie had arrived several minutes before to stroll off arm-in-arm to look at the room, and as Eric had said, “Assess the acoustics.”
Claire had watched them, the longing in her eyes unmistakable. Despite her comments about a relationship, he knew she really did want someone in her life, though he doubted she’d accepted that yet.
She shivered violently and ran her hands over her arms.
“I’d have thought after growing up in the north that the frigid temperatures they keep this place would seem like beach weather to you,” he teased.
She cast him a playful grin. “That was before I moved to Orlando and acclimated to the sweltering summer temperatures. Now I get cold when it drops to the sixties.”
“Lightweight.” He pulled her under his arm for warmth.
Yeah, right. For warmth.
She rested her head on his chest. His heart thundered. She was the only woman who’d brought such life to his day. But did she reciprocate or was she just letting her jealousy over Julie and Eric get to her?
Michelle, a slight redhead with hair pulled up and wearing a professional navy suit, entered the room. She carried a clipboard and wore an intensity on her face that Travis appreciated. Much more intense today and less of yesterday’s flirty behavior.
Claire slipped free, her all-business expression leaving no doubt that she’d moved on from the special moment with him. Maybe only special to him.
The coordinator approached, a large padded envelope resting on her clipboard. “You people really do take your security seriously.”
“Military protocol,” Travis said, trying to play it down.
“Well, I can assure you that we will abide by your request to have you screen arriving guests and our workers as they deliver food and drinks.”
