Page 24 of The Agent
“Because I don’t want to.” However, he gave her bottom a squeeze and slid his hands off her. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that.”
“How long?” she fished.
“Let’s just say that six months of wedding planning have had their bonuses.”
“So all those meetings with the wedding party weren’t only to get the logistics worked out?” More heat poured through her veins at the revelation of his long-standing attraction.
He lifted an eyebrow. “I work at one of the world’s top consulting firms. We could have organized that wedding in twenty-four hours flat. Well, maybe not the dress stuff.”
She laughed.
He took her wrist to pull her against his side and hold her there before he grabbed her laptop. “Let’s head out the back. I want to take another look at those french-door locks.”
“That’s what got me hot and bothered the first time,” she said, enjoying the power of his arm around her waist as they walked toward the kitchen. “You’re sexy when you go into security mode.”
His grip tightened fractionally. “I’ll keep that in mind.” His voice held the edge of a rasp.
He released her long enough to let her set the alarm and lock the kitchen dead bolt behind them. But his arm went back around her for the short walk to her car, giving her the double buzz of his protectiveness and his hard-muscled body moving against hers.
She hit the unlock button on her key and turned to stand on her tiptoes for a quick kiss to tide her over for the drive home. Even that brief contact zinged into her private places.
When she opened the door and leaned in to sling her bag across to the passenger seat, she hissed in a breath.
A hand mirror just like the lavender-framed ones she used in her salon lay on the driver’s seat. The reflective glass was webbed with cracks and a few of the smaller fragments lay on the leather seat.
“Did you leave that there?” Tully asked, his voice harsh from behind her.
“No!” she said as fear clawed at her chest. “How did he get into my car?” She swung around to look at Tully. “We were in the salon the whole time. Why didn’t we hear the car alarm?”
He took her by the shoulders and gently shifted her away from the open door before he inspected the lock. “First, are you sure you locked the car?”
“I always lock it.” But it was so automatic, she didn’t remember doing it this time in particular. “Pam was here, so she would have noticed if I hadn’t.”
“Did you use your key fob to lock it?”
“Yes, of course. How else would I do it?”
Tully leaned into the car and snapped some photos with his phone. “He probably had a code reader and picked up your code when you pressed the button on your fob.”
“It’s that easy? Why do we bother to have locks?” Her stalker had been inside her car. A shudder ran through her at the violation.
“If you lock the car manually, they can’t steal the code.” He straightened. “There won’t be any prints, but I’m going to call one of my investigators to double-check. He had to touch more than one surface to plant the mirror there.” He used his elbow to close the door. “Go ahead and lock it again.”
She hit the button on the fob and the car beeped at her.
“Let’s get you out of here,” he said, putting his arm around her and guiding her to his hulking black SUV.
He held her hand to help her up the high step into the car. It was hard to let go of him once she slid onto the black leather seat. After he closed the door, the silence in the car seemed thick and ominous. Yet when he opened the driver’s door, the normal, everyday sounds of cars and birds and rustling leaves made her sense of being trapped in a bad dream even worse.
He must have felt her tension, because he turned to her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she lied. “I just hate the idea that the stalker wasinmy car. It gives me the willies.”
He reached across the console to squeeze her hand where it clutched her purse. “He knows that. Our car becomes an extension of our bodies, so he’s deliberately invaded your personal space.”
“He’s also made a mockery of my idea that locks will keep him away.” There. She’d said it. She felt helpless in the face of her tormenter.
“Car locks are easy,” Tully said, his fingers still wrapped around hers. “He can’t get past your home and salon security systems like that.”
