Page 3 of The Agent
Damn, she was cute up there on the ladder, her blond ponytail swishing back and forth as she worked. When he’d taken the case, he’d seen pictures of Marley, sure, but seeing her in person was a different story altogether. It had been a week since he’d hunkered down next door to her, and already he’d memorized every detail of her face—her golden-brown eyes set over a pair of unbelievably high cheekbones, her cute upturned nose, her full sensual lips. God, those lips. She had a mouth made for sin. Not to mention a body that could cause a man to forget his own name.
For seven days now he’d wondered what she looked like naked. But they only had clearance to install cameras outside the house. And she always closed her drapes when she undressed, forcing his imagination to run wild as he stared at her enticing silhouette removing various undergarments.
His cell phone began to ring, a much-needed distraction from the woman next door.
Sighing, he snatched the phone from its perch near the computer keyboard and pressed the talk button. “Ford,” he said. His voice came out hoarse, and he had to clear his throat before speaking again.
“I’m at the Starbucks around the corner,” came AJ Callaghan’s southern drawl. “Want some coffee?”
Caleb tore his gaze away from the monitor. “Hell, yes,” he told his partner.
“Huh. You sound cranky. Ms. Kincaid doing yoga again?”
“Nope, cleaning the rain gutters.”
“Darn. I won’t hurry then. But call me if she starts up with the yoga.” AJ’s tone revealed the man was no doubt sporting a huge grin. “You know,” AJ added, “I can’t see Grier staying away from her for much longer. We already know he was infatuated with Nurse Hottie, and seriously, with that bod, who could blame the guy?”
Oh, Caleb couldn’t blame Patrick Grier for craving Marley’s extremely delectable body, either. Thanks to all the cameras Caleb and AJ had set up around the perimeter of Marley’s house providing visuals of the kitchen, living room and bedroom, Caleb had firsthand experience with Kincaid’s assets. And he was doing a little bit of craving himself.
Fortunately, all it took was one swift glance at the picture taped to the side of his computer monitor, and the need for vengeance replaced his desire.
As Caleb hung up the phone, he stared at Patrick Grier’s grainy features. What pissed him off the most was how normal Grier looked. Brown hair, brown eyes, handsome in a preppy sort of way. That was drug-dealing murderers for you—they rarely ever looked like the scum they were.
If it were any other scumbag dealer, Caleb might have handed the case over to a junior agent and focused on the bigger fish swimming around in the drug pond. But this particular scumbag had murdered Caleb’s best friend, and he wasn’t going to rest until Patrick Grier was behind bars.
He looked back at the monitor and grinned when he noticed Marley leaning to the side, one slender arm stretched out as she attempted to tackle a clump of leaves that refused to dislodge. The grin faded, however, when something caught his eye. One of the rungs on the ladder looked…wrong. He leaned closer, squinting at the screen.
“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath.
Sure enough, the rung he’d noticed was sagging on one side. He couldn’t see much more than that, but he suspected it was cracked. The thing would probably break the second she stepped on it.
Fortunately Marley’s feet were on the rung below the broken one, but the way she was reaching her arms out, it wouldn’t be long before she needed some more height to connect with her target.
Crap. What should he do in this situation? Sit around and wait for her to fall?
Caleb gritted his teeth. He couldn’t go over there and warn her. Making contact with the person you were watching defeated the entire point of a stakeout. And he wouldn’t risk the possibility of losing Grier. In his gut, he knew the other man was bound to show up here. When they’d raided the office Grier had been using for his web design company, they’d found more than a dozen pictures of Marley taped on the walls. Grier was obsessed with her, and Caleb knew he’d come for her.
He felt it deep in his gut, a certainty his supervisor, unfortunately, didn’t quite agree with. But at least Agent Stevens had green-lighted this stakeout. How long he’d let it go on, Calebwasn’t sure, but for now, he could sit tight and see if his hunch played out. The local cops were already watching Marley at the hospital, but Caleb knew Grier wouldn’t make a move there. Too many witnesses around. Here, though… Marley lived alone, didn’t have many visitors and her house sat at the end of a cul-de-sac with a large park right behind it. This was the perfect place for Grier to make an appearance.
On the screen, Marley was looking up at the roof in dismay. An ominous feeling crept along Caleb’s spine. He watched as she lifted one foot. His chest tightened with sickly anticipation.
“Don’t do it,” he mumbled at her, though of course she couldn’t hear him. “Look down first.”
But she didn’t, and it was like seeing the chain of events that led up to a disaster, in slow motion, unable to do a damn thing about it.
She climbed up onto the next rung of the ladder, and he could practically hear the wood splintering beneath her feet. He couldn’t see her face, but he could imagine the look of terror filling her pretty features as the rung gave way. She lost her footing, and the ladder swiftly toppled onto the grass down below.
Caleb shot to his feet, adrenaline pumping through his veins. A faint flicker of admiration lit his chest as he saw her arms whip up like an acrobat’s, grabbing at the white-painted eave.
Relief flooded through him. She hadn’t fallen. Instead, she dangled ten feet off the ground like a really crappy cat burglar attempting to scale a building. Caleb couldn’t help but grin at the thought, but his mouth hardened when Marley twisted her neck, glancing down at the grass as if contemplating whether she could land the jump.
Sure you can, sweetheart, except you’ll probably break your ankle. Or your neck.
Letting out a sigh, Caleb took one last look at the screen, then tore out of the room.
He ran out the front door of the house the agency had rented from a pair of retired teachers who were traveling for the summer. The afternoon sun nearly blinded him, making him realize he hadn’t been outside in a week. It felt weird after being cooped up indoors for so long.
He crossed the perfectly kept lawn toward the side of the house. Only a couple of yards separated the two homes, and when he approached, Marley still hung from the eaves, cursing to herself under her breath.
