Page 14 of Defending Love

Chapter Thirteen

Dani

T he way Eli’s green gaze shimmered reminded me that there was life beyond my current prison, stuck within the bubble of despair and fear. That shimmer was a flicker of light in a dark world, and I intended to hold on with both hands.

“I’m glad you’re here,” I offered honestly. “I was upset when I first saw you at the cemetery, but…” I wasn’t certain how to end that sentence.

“But…?”

“I feel safe with you.” I looked around the first floor. “I want to be involved in this investigation, not just protected, if there’s any chance I can help find who killed my father…”

He came closer. “From the first time I met you, you impressed me with your knowledge. The few days I spent with you at Sinclair in R&D, I was blown away.” He gave me half a smile.

“A lot of my assignments lean toward the self-absorbed. They don’t spend their days working on ways to make the population healthier. ”

“Dad cared about the people. He wasn’t only in the business for the money.”

Eli reached for my face, his warm palm cupping my cheek. “I didn’t really know your father. I’m sorry about that.”

The realization of my smile caught me off guard. “I can smile while thinking about him.” I shrugged. “In ten minutes, I could be crying.”

“That’s the way grief works.”

I stood straight, wondering if Eli knew that from experience.

Who had he lost?

“I know virtually nothing about you.” I hadn’t had the benefit of researching Elijah Rhodes before our first meeting. “Are your parents alive? Do you have siblings?” I looked down at his left hand and that ring. “Were you once married?”

“No, yes, and never.”

I tried to recall the order of my questions. Before I could respond, Eli spoke. “That’s more than I usually share. I don’t want to lie to you, Dani. I never want to do that. However, there are questions I can’t answer.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Both.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. “I’m still glad you’re here. When it comes to your personal life, I can wait for you to share. When it comes to my father’s case and your assignment—me—I want answers.”

“Deal.”

Kicking off my shoes, I lifted the beach bag from the floor.

Eli gave me one last glance before disappearing through the door we’d entered back into the garage.

Before I could decide if I wanted to learn the answers in this bag, he returned with both of our suitcases, my satchel, and the takeout bag.

As I watched him place the food on the kitchen counter, I asked, “Do you have any more gloves in that Mary Poppins pocket of yours?”

Reaching in his suit coat pocket, he handed me a pair. “Since it’s not actually magical, I’ll need to replenish my stock.” He tilted his sharp chin toward the food. “Are you hungry?”

Tugging on my lip, I stared at the beach bag before meeting his gaze. “Should we eat first? What if something in this bag we find ruins our appetite?”

“I need to go upstairs and check out the computer setup Guardian made for me. You could eat now, or we could put the food in the refrigerator and settle in first.”

Settling in sounded appealing.

“I want to go through Dad’s things, but” —I shivered— “I’m nervous.”

“I can do it.”

I shook my head. “No. This is like what I just said. I need to be involved. I’ll take your support, but I must learn what he felt the need to protect.”

“Will you wait for me?”

One quick nod and I tossed the gloves to the table. Looking down, I inspected the slacks and blouse I’d worn since we left Indianapolis. “I think I’d like to change. I’ll check my emails, and then when you’re ready, we can eat and then learn what secrets my dad had.”

“Okay,” he said, lifting the suitcases and heading toward the staircase. At the base of the stairs, he paused. “Are you headed up?”

I reached for my leather satchel, purse, and shoes and walked a few steps ahead of him.

As it had been downstairs, every light was on as we entered the upstairs hallway.

All the doors were opened, as if Guardian wanted to reassure us that everything was ready and safe.

Outside the room with the large bed, I peeked inside.

“Do you want me to do a sweep?” Eli asked with a grin.

“No.” I felt warmth gather in my cheeks. “However, that’s not my way of barring you from the room.”

He nodded. “Good to know.”

I changed the subject. “I want to see the other rooms. What kind of high-tech setup did Guardian give you?”

After leaving my suitcase on my bed, Eli took his luggage to the bedroom across the hallway. I walked a step behind him as we entered the third bedroom. My eyes opened wide. “Jeez, Guardian doesn’t skimp.”

“You can see now why we wanted a home base instead of hotel rooms.”

The room no longer contained beds, dressers, bedside stands, or any furniture that would suggest it was a room where one was to sleep.

The window was covered with a dark blanket over the blinds.

Long desks lined three of the walls. Each desk contained at least two large monitors and multiple keyboards.

There were two tall chairs on wheels and black boxes, I didn’t recognize.

“What are those?”

“Scramblers.” He shrugged as he removed his suit coat, revealing the holster strapped to his shoulder. “That’s not their technical name, but it describes what they do. They make it more difficult for anyone to hack into our system or to have the ability to track our online movements.”

I nodded. “EMI.”

“In conjunction with interference technology. If,” Eli continued, “the perp or even the police realize what we have going here, they could try to get access to our data.”

“Like what happened with my parents’ doorbell?”

“Yes and no.” He removed his tie and opened his collar.

“With your parents’ doorbell, whoever took the boxes of journals stopped the doorbell from recognizing movement, thus stopping recording and notifications.

In the case of anyone discovering our location, their goal would be to intercept our transmissions, searches, and data.

We don’t intend to share our information until we can prove who’s guilty. ”

One of the screens caught my attention. I walked closer. “Is that the street camera from near the restaurant where Dad was shot?” It was as if a continuous slideshow of still pictures was playing.

Eli came closer and pointed to the corner of the screen where the time stamp continued to change. “Yes. We’ve gone back to three months before the shooting all the way to present. This program is searching for repeat license plates, makes of cars, anything that recurs.”

“It’s a popular location. I’m sure even Mom and Dad went there multiple times in that period of time.”

“Once the program has the database of recurring items, it analyzes each one individually. Our working theory is that the shooter disappeared into someone’s car during the chaos.

Witnesses have been questioned and currently, no one claims to have seen him.

However, given the time of day, there’s no other reasonable explanation for his disappearance. ”

“That disputes your lone-wolf theory.”

“Only if the person was planted and not also a victim.”

My gaze went back to the screen. “Can you cross-reference the recurring cars or people with those people who have a connection to Sinclair Pharmaceuticals?”

Eli’s green stare met mine. “We’d like to. Larry is working with your brother for that information. We need that database.” His eyes widened. “Can you get it?”

“Johnathon and Ella are working on that right now. My theory is that the shooter could be a disgruntled employee or consumer of Sinclair products.”

Eli nodded. “We’ve had the same thought.

The employee connection is easier to explore.

Finding everyone who has ever taken a Sinclair -produced pharmaceutical is a huge undertaking.

” He pointed at the screen. “Often perpetrators do at least one dry run. There’s a good chance that the shooter was at this location one or multiple times before encountering your father. ”

“He was carrying a sign, as if panhandling.”

“Your mother can’t recall exactly what the sign said. Jack didn’t see it. And coincidentally, panhandling is illegal in the Villages,” Eli said.

“I didn’t know that.”

“It’s not illegal in the state of Florida, but it is within the community. Pretending to be a panhandler was a bold move. The shooter risked law enforcement intervention.”

My forehead furrowed. “Then why do it?”

“Jack thinks it was to hide his weapon.”

I pointed to Eli’s holster. “There are other ways to hide a weapon.”

“It’s a working theory.”

“Could the police have the sign?” I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t started asking these questions earlier. I could have asked the same things of Melinda. If I were to analyze the conundrum, I’d say I was in too much shock and buried in grief to look at the shooting from an objective point of view.

“No, they don’t. It’s disappeared with the suspect.” Eli looked down at his watch. “It’s getting late. You wanted to change clothes?”

“How long will you need to work up here?”

“Most of the night.”

I sighed. “Okay. Do you have time to meet me downstairs in ten minutes for dinner and going through Dad’s stuff?”

He pressed his firm lips together and nodded.

Back in my room, I quickly pulled a few things from my suitcase and made my way to the attached bathroom.

While I hadn’t planned to shower, the large glass enclosure was too inviting.

I stripped out of my clothes and stepped under the warm spray.

By the time ten minutes had passed, I combed out my wet hair and donned a pair of soft shorts and a tank top.

I covered the tank with an oversized soft sweatshirt when I noticed the way my nipples tented the tank from the air conditioning.

That was definitely the cause—the cold air. My hardened nipples had nothing to do with the man down the hallway who I’d basically admitted to wanting to fuck.

Right.

I wasn’t thinking about that at all.

My laptop remained in my satchel. My emails would need to wait. I’d at least called Damien and left a message that Eli and I were settled in a villa. I told him it was nice, and he and Ella could use it later in the month.

As I made my way down the steps, I found Eli in the kitchen.

He was still wearing his suit pants and button-up shirt.

The only change was the way his sleeves were now rolled to his elbows, showing artistic tattoos on his muscular forearms, and the absence of his holster.

His gun was lying on the kitchen counter.

I looked around. “Where’s the beach bag? ”