Page 7

“ O h, hell no.”

Reese rose and rounded the couch, putting it between her and both men. Her rudeness didn’t seem to bother them. “There’s a hotel on the next block. He’ll be plenty close there.”

“Proximity is the first guardrail in protection. Moreland stays until we get a handle on Thorne’s whereabouts.

Something tells me you’re not willing to be a captive in your own home.

He’ll accompany you wherever you need to go.

Interviews and whatnot.” Raiker waved at the piles of papers that covered every flat surface in the space.

Papers he probably assumed were part of the book Gordon had his mind set on.

But they were contents of files about Ben’s care kept in her aunt’s safe.

The source for the questions the woman had scribbled in margins on documents and sticky notes that were still awaiting answers.

Anxiety thrummed through her, and she damned the timing. She needed to delve into gathering the information her aunt had sought, and doing so with a babysitter was about as welcome as attaching a boat anchor as adornment.

“It may only be a matter of days.”

“ May be .” She repeated Moreland’s words sardonically.

“Enough.” With a return to his usual brusqueness, Adam speared her with a look.

“Unless you have a death wish, having protection is a no-brainer. And if you do have a death wish, there’s an even greater need for his presence.

” He picked up his briefcase. “Hayes will keep you informed of developments in Thorne’s recapture.

Until then, he stays.” He strode toward the door. Through it.

The door closing slowly behind him seemed to represent her defeat. Without looking at Moreland, Reese busied herself by stacking the piles of papers she’d sorted. “I’ve kind of taken over most of the space, including both bedrooms. Give me a few minutes to gather my things.”

He set the bags down, starting toward her. “I can help.”

“No.” Her voice was far too sharp, so she made an effort to modulate it. “There’s a system to my madness. You sit there.” She indicated the chair Raiker had vacated. “This won’t take long.”

It would have gone faster without her awareness of that enigmatic gray gaze watching her every move.

Most people would have pulled out a phone and busied themselves online.

But not Moreland. She carried the work she’d started into Julia’s old bedroom and set it in a corner.

It’d become an office of sorts in the last couple of weeks, so her unwanted guest would have to use her bedroom and the guest bath.

Which meant she had to vacate both. The prospect had her mentally cursing.

Reese was unused to company. Even Julia had been an infrequent companion once she’d assured herself that Reese was on the mend. And she was as close-mouthed as her niece. Julia had never mentioned a word about the notes she’d compiled in that file in her safe.

She headed back to the living room and bypassed her unwanted guest without a glance to head to her bedroom.

After grabbing enough clothes to last her a few days, she retraced her steps to dump them on Julia’s bed, then went to the narrow white wardrobe standing outside the bathroom.

Withdrawing fresh sheets and pillowcases, she turned and then reared back abruptly. She hadn’t heard the man move.

“Let me make myself useful.”

She thrust the linens toward him, more to wedge some distance between them than for assistance.

But he took the sheets and turned silently to go into her bedroom.

She watched for a few seconds as he stripped the bed efficiently, something surreal about the sight.

Reese couldn’t recall the last time she’d brought a man here.

Her sex partners were dispatched well before they could intrude into her personal life.

Reese would have happily welcomed back any of them if it meant replacing the man who shrank the size of the apartment with his presence.

Hayes Moreland. Now, she had a name to go with the memory.

He glanced up, catching her eyes on him.

Cheeks burning, she turned toward the guest bathroom and started retrieving personal items she’d switch to the master bath.

Although his voice still lingered in the corners of her mind, he was the last man in the world she wanted in a protective role.

His was the face of the rescue team. He’d snatched her from certain death, a witness to her agony.

If she’d had her way, she would gladly never have seen him again. “A few days” already felt like an eternity.

“Where are we going?” Hayes closed the book in his hands and got up from the couch. Reese glanced at the cover, expecting that he’d helped himself to one of the overflowing bookcases she hadn’t gotten to yet. But she didn’t recognize the title. He must have brought it with him.

“I have an appointment.”

“I’ll drive.”

“I’m perfectly capable?—”

“Of course you are,” he said easily, as he slipped his cell from the back pocket of his black trousers. “All part of the service. What’s the address?”

Because she’d already resigned herself to this part, she reeled it off, and he added it to a GPS app on his phone. “When do you need to be there?”

“One thirty.” She’d left plenty of time to arrive punctually. Traffic in the city could be uncertain. So could parking. If Reese was lucky, Moreland would have to drop her off while he searched for a space.

“Give me a moment.” He went into her bedroom and soon returned wearing a light jacket, carrying what looked like a laptop backpack over one shoulder and two compact black boxes with handles stacked under the other arm.

She picked up her oversized bag from the end table she’d cleared off earlier and turned for the door. Moreland cut her off before she could reach for the doorknob.

“Here’s how this works. I go through doors first. You follow when I signal it’s okay. You’ll stay on the inside of sidewalks, I walk streetside. If I tell you to do something—wait, stop, run—you do it. Immediately.”

Strange how his even tone scraped her nerves raw. “You take your duties too seriously.”

“My duty is keep to you alive if there’s a threat. It’s impossible to take that too seriously.”

But her focus had already shifted to the entry beyond him. “What’s that on the door?”

“A contact sensor. There’s one on the hallway side, too. And the other entry. They’re tamper-proof.”

Disbelieving, Reese swung her gaze to the sliding glass doors that opened to the small balcony. Sure enough, a similar small device was attached near the top of it.

“This unit already has a security system.” It took effort to keep temper from sounding in her voice.

“And now it has two.”

“One to keep me in, as well as intruders out.”

“Reese.” For the first time, his tone wasn’t completely expressionless.

“You’re intelligent. Resourceful. You had to be to establish your reputation as a journalist. And in your career, you managed to get yourself into several dicey situations while following a story.

You can object to the lengths I go to keep you safe, but they’re nonnegotiable. ”

“I do object. Strenuously.” Already, the walls of the apartment seemed to press in on her, a prison without bars.

“So noted.” He turned, and she restrained an urge to throw a punch at those broad shoulders. When he opened the door, the alert was loud enough to fill the apartment. Seething silently, she waited like an obedient puppy until he stepped into the hallway and held the door open for her.

Forget the vague “few days” Raiker had mentioned. Reese would be counting the minutes until Hayes Moreland was out of her life.

As promised, he cleared every doorway, including the elevator before she entered it.

When they arrived at the attached parking structure, he held out his hand silently and she dug in her bag to retrieve her keys.

Slapping them into his waiting palm, she waited for him to ask where she was parked. Maybe what kind of vehicle she drove.

But he walked unerringly toward her mid-sized white SUV before halting.

“We wait here a minute.” He stopped, set down his things, and swiftly unzipped the backpack to withdraw a laptop.

While he tapped a few keys, she craned her neck to see around him.

The screen showed an outline of a vehicle shaped suspiciously like hers.

He handed her the computer. “Hold this.” Hayes reached into the pack and took out what looked like a small TV remote with a screen on one end.

He held it up, aimed at her Hyundai. Tiny blue lasers emanated from it as he moved in a large perimeter around the SUV, always maintaining several yards between him and the vehicle.

He hadn’t given her further instructions, but Reese kept her gaze trained on the laptop.

Nothing had changed on it by the time he returned and took it from her. “All clear.”

“Great to know that no one has broken into the parking garage, tracked down my car, and hidden a bomb in it.”

If he caught the sarcasm in her words, he ignored it.

Just took the laptop from her, powered it down, and tucked it and the remote back in the bag.

Then, he took out another small black box with two antennae.

“Turn off your phone for a minute.” With his free hand, he withdrew his cell and did the same.

Glancing over to make sure she’d obeyed, he neared the SUV, pointed the new remote at it, and slowly walked around it, occasionally pausing in place and moving the device closer before resuming.

The whole situation was beginning to seem a bit surreal. The thought that Thorne would have the intellectual capacity to wire a vehicle strained credulity. But Raiker was apparently taking no chances.