Paula Graves - Operation Nanny

“Pie,” she said in a tone of approval.

Damn it, Lacey thought. Great body, adorable dimples—and he cooked?

Even Mary Poppins couldn’t touch that.

“Should I save you a plate? Or will you be eating out?”

“I was planning on grabbing something while I was out, but you’re making this potpie sound tempting.”

He slanted a smiling look at her. “Don’t get too excited. We’re talking about canned vegetables and crumbled-cracker topping here.”

She really needed to get out of here before he tempted her to change her plans and stay. “Save me a plate. If I don’t eat it tonight, I’ll eat it tomorrow.”

She grabbed her purse from one of the hooks in the small mudroom off the kitchen. “Don’t start calling the police and hospitals until after ten,” she said, keeping her tone light, even though she knew her safety wasn’t really a laughing matter.

But she couldn’t afford to live in fear. She had to find a killer before he struck again. She had to do it for Marianne and Toby. For her orphaned niece.

For herself.

Outside, night had fallen completely, and the first grains of sleet peppered her windshield as she started Marianne’s Chevrolet Impala. With Katie still small enough to fit easily into a car seat buckled to the sedan’s backseat, Marianne and Toby hadn’t yet seen the need to upgrade to an SUV or minivan. But it wouldn’t be long before Lacey would have to start thinking about getting a more family friendly vehicle.

Stopping at the end of the long driveway, Lacey rubbed her temples, where the first signs of a headache were beginning to throb. How was she supposed to be Katie’s mother? Katie had had a good mother. A great mother. A mother Lacey didn’t have a hope of emulating. Marianne had been a natural. Chock-full of maternal instincts and glowing with the joy of motherhood.

And now she was gone, and all Katie had left were memories that would fade with time and an aunt who had no idea how to be a mother.

“Stop,” she said aloud, gripping the steering wheel tightly in her clenched fists. “You’ll learn what you need to know. You’ll do your best.”

And you’ll start with finding the son of a bitch who killed Marianne and Toby.

A call had come early that morning from Ken Calvert, a source in the State Department, an analyst in the department’s South and Central Asia division. She’d dealt with Calvert several times following up on the stateside elements of her investigative report on the rejuvenation of al Adar. Calvert claimed to have new information about a possible domestic al Adar connection, but he didn’t feel comfortable telling her about it over the phone. He wanted to meet her at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at seven.

Maybe she was crazy to go out there alone. But she needed to know if it was possible that al Adar had put out a hit on her here in the United States. At least the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was a public place. It might not draw hordes of tourists on a snowy night in January, but Lacey had never been to the sleek reflective memorial wall when there weren’t plenty of visitors around. She should be safe enough.

She went east on River Road, heading for the highway that would take her into the capital. It was an hour’s drive from Cherry Grove to DC. She hoped Ken Calvert really had come across something useful for her. She didn’t look forward to driving home in the snow.

For the first third of the drive, traffic was moderate and, at times, light. But the closer she got to DC, the heavier it got. Headlights gleamed in her rearview mirror like long strands of Christmas lights stretching out along the highway behind her.

Any one of those vehicles could be carrying the man who had attacked her in Frederick, she thought. Or whoever had set the bomb in her car.

The thought that she might be sharing the road with a killer made her stomach tighten. She forced herself to take deep breaths past the sudden constriction in her chest.

Stay focused, she told herself. Keep your eyes on the goal.

It was a relief when she reached the outskirts of Dulles, Virginia, and the relentless darkness of the highway gave way to well-lit civilization. The endless stream of lights behind her became vehicles she could recognize—eighteen-wheeler trucks, expensive sports cars, sturdy SUVs and the occasional pickup truck.

Including a familiar-looking blue pickup just a few cars behind her.

Her heart skipping a beat, she checked her rearview mirror again to be certain.

It was the same truck she’d seen following her on the highway into Frederick yesterday.

She didn’t like using her cell phone when she was driving. But she found herself reaching for the phone anyway. She shoved it into the dashboard holder and pulled up the farmhouse number on her contacts list. The phone rang twice before Jim Mercer answered, his deep voice instantly reassuring. “Hello?”

“Jim, it’s Lacey Miles.” She glanced at her mirror and saw the blue pickup keeping pace with her, staying a couple of vehicles back. Swallowing her fear, she forced the words past her lips. “I think I’m being followed.”

Chapter Four

The fear in Lacey’s voice caught Jim by surprise. She normally seemed so composed and competent that her shivery words made his chest tighten with alarm. “Tell me what’s happening. What makes you think you’re being followed?”

“The other day, before I got to the employment agency, I thought I saw a blue pickup truck following me. I left the highway early, and it passed on by, so I didn’t think about it again. But the same truck is behind me right now.”

“Are you sure it’s the same truck?”

There was a brief pause. “I think it is.” Her voice took on a sheepish tone. “I guess I’m not sure. It’s dark out. Maybe I’m wrong about the color. I’m sorry. I’m probably overreacting.”

“Where are you?”

“I just passed the exit to Dulles.”

Dulles? She was nearly to DC. “I don’t suppose you could cancel whatever you had going on tonight and come back here?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, and Jim realized the question was entirely inappropriate coming from a nanny she’d just hired that day on a probationary basis.

“I’m sure I’m overreacting,” she repeated. “I shouldn’t have called.” She hung up without saying anything further.

Jim pressed his head against the wall, feeling stupid. He had to remember why she’d hired him. She was expecting him to take care of Katie, not protect her from whoever was trying to kill her. He couldn’t come across as overprotective of her.

Katie looked up at him from her seat on the floor, where she was playing with brightly colored letter blocks. “Wacey?” she asked.

“Yeah, that was your aunt Lacey,” he answered, settling himself on the floor in front of Katie, trying to decide what to do next. If he called Lacey back, she’d be suspicious. But what if that blue pickup really was following her? And why was she going to DC in the first place? A date? A meeting with the network?

Or had she been lured into a trap?

He bit back a curse, pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Lacey’s number.

She answered on the first ring. “What?” she asked, her voice tight. He couldn’t tell if she was worried or impatient. Maybe both.

“Look, I know you think you’re overreacting, but at least stay on the phone with me until you get where you’re going safely.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. For a moment, he thought she’d hung up on him, but then she said, “The truck’s still back there.”

“Has it gotten any closer?”

“No. It hasn’t turned off or fallen back, either.”

“Wacey?” Katie queried, looking up at him with troubled gray eyes.