Margaret Daley - Security Breach

After seeing Nicholas out the door and locking it last night, she’d trudged up the stairs, and in spite of being totally drained emotionally and physically, she’d lain awake for another hour until exhaustion must have finally taken over.

Still dressed in her sweatpants and T-shirt, she finger combed her hair—because she didn’t want to scare her neighbors—and headed downstairs to fetch her Washington Post . Her morning ritual always included savoring the newspaper with her coffee before she started her day. After she prepared the brew and it began to perk, she walked to the front door, opened it and nearly fell over Nicholas stretched out in a sleeping bag against the threshold to her home. She teetered over him.

He reached up and steadied her.

“What are you doing here?” She scanned the porch. “And where is Max?”

He rose, stretching and rolling his shoulders. “I’m making sure you’re safe. Max is at the back door guarding that entrance.”

“You didn’t say anything about that last night. I saw you walk to your SUV.”

“To get my sleeping bag.” He grinned, a dimple appearing in his cheek. “I did leave your house, but I couldn’t completely go. I would have never forgiven myself if the intruder had come back.”

She marched past him and snatched up the newspaper at the bottom of the stairs, then retraced her steps. Planting herself in the doorway, she blocked him. “You didn’t need to do that. I doubt the person would come back.”

“Have you noticed anything missing?”

“That’s what you really want to know. Admit it. That was the real reason you stayed.”

“Only one of the reasons. I am concerned about your safety.” He drew in a deep breath. “Ah, coffee. May I have some?”

She twisted her mouth into a frown, trying to be perturbed at the impossible man. But she couldn’t. “One cup. Then you’ll leave. I have a rare day off and want to...” What? Relax? Which had been her original plan until someone broke into her house. She glanced at her living room and knew that wouldn’t happen until she cleaned it up. The only way she got everything done was to be highly organized; she wouldn’t rest until this mess was taken care of.

“Could you use help putting this back the way it was?” Nicholas gestured toward the living room.

She opened her mouth to say no, then chuckled at how ridiculous that sounded. “My mama didn’t raise no fool.” Actually, her mother hardly raised her at all.

“I take that as a yes.”

She nodded. “Come in.”

Nicholas entered and shut the door. “I almost forgot. Mr. Lamb gave me the bill.” He dug into his pocket and pulled it out. “I didn’t want it to get lost in all this clutter.”

She’d forgotten all about the bill last night. She’d been too focused on Nicholas prowling her house while Mr. Lamb worked. “Thank you. He would have sent it to me.”

“You’re welcome.”

Pushing some clutter out of her way with her foot, she padded across the wooden floor to the kitchen and poured two mugs full of coffee. “Let’s have it outside on the patio. I won’t relax if I keep looking at all this. Besides, Max might want some water. There’s a bowl on the counter. Use that to give him some.”

“You’re certainly a take-charge kind of woman.”

At the back door, she peered at him. “It pays to be in my job since so much of it is planning various events for the president. He expects the best from his staff.”

Nicholas filled the bowl with water. “Yesterday really showcased your talents. Everyone I saw was having a great time. Even Margaret Meyer. I don’t think of her as having a sense of humor.”

“Speaking of the general, won’t she expect you at the White House this morning?”

Nicholas frowned. “I’ll let her know I’ll be in later. Dan can start looking at the security tapes.”

“Dan is helping you with my case?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you on it? I see Dan’s role.”

He averted his gaze for a long moment, then said, “Another office was broken into yesterday. There may be a connection.”

Her face drained of color. “General Meyer’s?”

He remained quiet.

“I heard there was a ruckus around her office. You know how rumors can fly around the White House. And you do work for her.” Her eyes widened. “If you think there might be a connection, it has to be over the Jeffries case.”

“No comment at this time.”

She opened the door and stopped. Max, much like Nicholas, was lying down across the entrance into the kitchen.

Nicholas stepped over his rottweiler and put the bowl down on the patio. “Drink.”

Selena watched Max saunter to the bowl and lap up the water. “You have to tell him to drink?”

“He waits for commands when we’re on the job. When he’s off duty, he does what he wants.”

On the job? She guessed she was a job to him, especially if he thought she knew where Erin was. She tried to dismiss the thought but she couldn’t. It hurt. “I wish I could get the people working under me that well trained,” Selena finally said when she realized Nicholas was peering at her with that sharp, assessing look. Her heartbeat accelerated, and she sat in one of the chairs at the glass table.

“That’s the result of months of training as well as continual refresher courses.” Nicholas took the seat across from Selena.

“He’s beautiful. I’ve never been around a rottweiler until you came to the White House. Does he live at your place when you two aren’t on duty?” She had to remember he was probably as distrusting as she was. Most people in law enforcement were.

“Yes. All the dogs in the Capitol K-9 Unit stay with their partners when off duty.”

“I’ve never had a pet even as a child. And now I work all the time, so it wouldn’t be fair to leave an animal alone so much.”

“I had any pet I wanted.”

There was a tone in his voice that indicated there was more to that statement than what he was saying. “So what did you have as a child?”

“A dog named Butch and a horse called Dynamite.”

“So you rode, too?”

“Yes, I lived on a farm in Maryland growing up. I’d go riding whenever I could and Butch always followed.”

His childhood was vastly different from hers. She’d grown up in Washington, DC, in the area that wasn’t technically slums but close. “What did your family grow on the farm?”

“Nothing. They had some horses and that was about it.”

“Some? How big was the farm?”

“Two hundred acres. In some people’s book it was more an estate than a farm, although Thoroughbred horses were raised there.”

“But not you?” Again she sensed an underlying tension in his voice and saw the stiffening of his shoulders.

“The house I grew up in was a mansion. A person could get lost in it. But to me it was only a place to sleep at night.” A touch of bitterness laced his words.

Definitely a far cry from where she’d lived as a child. The biggest apartment she ever lived in was three rooms, if you counted a bathroom she could barely turn around in. “You didn’t like your home?” she asked before she could snatch the question back. She had no business prying into his past. She told no one about hers.

“It wasn’t a home. My family’s business was a large import/export company. My parents were rarely there. Their work took them all over the world.”

When her mother had been gone, it was because she was drinking and would disappear for days. “You never got to travel with them?”

“No.” His mouth snapped closed, and he averted his face, staring at Max sniffing around the yard. “I noticed your flat-screen TV and laptop are still in the house, so what would someone be looking for? Do you have any other valuables?”