Page 25 of The Agent
“I place more confidence in you and Pam,” she said.
He smiled in a way that flooded her with heat because it wasn’t just an “I will protect you because that’s my job” smile. It was an “I will protect you because I lust after you” smile. That worked even better to chase away her terror.
He released her hand but kept his eyes on her face. “Don’t freak out but I’m going to take my gun out of its safe. As a precaution. Nothing more.”
She nodded and he pressed his thumb to a square set into the console, where a lid lifted and folded down. He reached into the opening and extracted a dull black handgun, pulling back the slide and checking something before he set it back in the safe, leaving the lid open.
“That makes it seem scarier,” Natalie said. The gun added a third presence in the car.
“I don’t expect to need it,” Tully said, bringing the engine to life with a rumble. “It’s just a habit from my FBI days.”
As he deftly maneuvered the big SUV onto the street, Natalie tried to wrap her mind around the strangeness of her life. Her car broken into, a broken mirror left as a threat, a loaded gun stowed within a few inches of her hand. How the hell had this happened?
Her hands began to tremble, so she fisted them around the straps of her handbag. “I don’t want to live this way,” she said. “We have to find him and stop him.”
“We will.” Tully’s tone was grim but steely. “Trust me.” A muscle ticked in his jaw.
She did trust him, but she felt like the shards of broken glass in her car were slicing through her, leaving an open wound of fear. It was a different intensity from the daily grinding trepidation of living with Matt. What wasn’t different was the strain of never knowing when the next shock would occur. The constant tension wound her shoulders and neck into a knot of nerves.
“Have you had any luck tracking Regina Van Houten? I’m a little worried about her.”
“We found a used-car dealer in Pennsylvania who sold her a junker for cash several days ago but nothing after that. She’s done a good job of disappearing.”
Natalie had helped with that, cutting Regina’s long, thick blonde hair into a nondescript style and dying it an unremarkable brown. What was hard to disguise was her height since she stood close to six feet tall. She’d practiced slouching while she stayed with Natalie.
“I wonder if she has friends in Nebraska who she might go to,” Natalie said.
“That’s a long drive. You really changed her appearance, by the way. The only reason the car dealer remembered her was because she had the same kind of designer handbag his wife wanted for her birthday.”
“Damn! I told her not to use that Gucci bag but she wouldn’t leave it behind,” Natalie said. “She said it was the first piece of designer anything she’d ever owned. But I feel better hearing your pro can’t find her. That means she’s safe from her husband.”
He threw her a sharp look. “Don’t assume that. Her husband knows far more about her than we do. He may have a better idea of where to look. How bad was he to her?”
“Awful. I offered her my guest room when I saw bruises on her wrists, but she didn’t take me up on it for a couple of months. She left when Dobs dragged her to the top of the stairs and threatened to throw her down them and then claim she’d fallen. He said no one would question his version of the story.” Natalie grimaced. “He kept her isolated, only socializing with his little circle of friends, so she figured he might get away with it.”
His knuckles went white as he gripped the steering wheel. “I hate domestic abuse. It’s hard to prove even when you know damn well it’s happening.”
Natalie looked down at the tense shape her hands had twisted into. It was even worse when you didn’t realize you were being abused until it was almost too late.
“Sorry,” Tully said, glancing down at her pretzeled fingers. “I didn’t mean to hit so close to home.”
“No apology necessary. That’s behind me.” But it never was. She still questioned her judgment. Including about Tully.
He swung the car into her driveway and stopped. “Let me have your keys so I can check the house.”
She unhooked the keys from the ring in her purse and handed them to him. “The alarm code is 2-5-9-5-8.”
Then Tully did something that sent a shock through her. He took the gun out of the safe.
Chapter 9
As soon as Tully exited the car, the locks clicked shut with a beep. Natalie watched him tuck the terrifying gun into the back of his jeans and stride past the front porch steps, his head swiveling as he scanned the surroundings. Watching him do his job with such expert intensity, she felt that familiar deep, primitive pull low in her belly. It twined with the fear, leaving her slightly breathless.
When he disappeared around the corner, she surveyed her house too. There was no stark rectangle of white paper visible on the porch, so she breathed more easily. Of course, now the stalker was leaving objects, so his latest gift might be on the back patio or tucked behind the screen door. But Tully would find it first and that would lessen the shock for her.
He came around the garage and mouthed, “All good,” before he walked onto the porch, his jeans stretching tight over the muscles of his thighs as he climbed the steps. He examined the porch thoroughly before he pulled her keys out of his pocket and disappeared inside the house.
She felt exposed and vulnerable in the car, despite the locked doors. She was almost afraid to look around for fear the stalker would loom up at one of the windows.
