Lynette Eason - Protective Custody

But then he thought about the nights they’d sat up talking, the three of them; Carly, Mason and himself. A friendship had formed. Since then, he and Mason had gotten together for the occasional game of racquetball or met up at the high school football stadium to watch the local teams go at it.

He hadn’t seen Carly since they’d found out the threats had been a hoax. But that hadn’t kept him from keeping up with her.

Through Mason, and frequent chats with Ian, Carly’s brother and Nick’s former college roommate, Nick had gotten snatches of what her life had been like over the last two years.

He also knew that she blamed him for something he’d had no control over. He’d let a killer go. The one who’d ended up murdering Hank, a good friend of hers. His stomach twisted itself in knots every time he thought about it. He didn’t have to wonder what she thought of him.

He could read the wariness in her eyes. The borderline contempt she tried to hide.

And yet, because he knew the kind of person she was, he had no doubt she would do her job to the death for him if it came to it.

He vowed it wouldn’t.

Lord, let me get a chance to explain why I had to let that man go. Please. And let her understand.

“Why did you move from the house at the beach?”

Her question seemed to come out of left field as he shook off his thoughts. “Because we all needed a change.” He pictured the large, sprawling estate and felt a pang of nostalgia. “I loved that house, but I built it for my wife. When she and my sister were killed…” He shrugged and sighed. “Plus the children had to ride past the accident site every day on their way to school.”

“How did they even know where it happened?”

“Lindsey was having nightmares about it. The therapist suggested taking her to the site and placing a memorial there. We built a little cross and put her mother’s name on it, and I let her pound it into the ground. She seemed to get a little better almost overnight.”

“But?”

“As time passed, it continued to affect them. Especially Lindsey. She’d do better, then worse, constantly back and forth. If there’d been another route to the school, I would have taken it, but there wasn’t. I suggested changing schools, and Lindsey completely freaked at the idea, so…” He shrugged again. “Then Mom left for California…” A deep breath. “When my buddy Wayne encouraged me to come back to Spartanburg so we’d have some support, it seemed like the right thing to do. With my sister gone, I became an only child and didn’t have any close family around, so we moved.” He turned the tables on her. “Why do you do this?”

She shot him a startled look. “What? My job?”

“Yes.”

She blinked then focused back on the road. “Because I like it.”

“I know a lot of your family is in law enforcement. But why did you choose it?”

A faint smile curved her lips, and he wondered what they’d feel like. The thought came out of nowhere, and he quickly put on the mental brakes.

Someone was threatening him.

It was Carly’s job to protect him.

End of story.

“I don’t know. I never had any major catastrophe in my life or anything that pushed me toward this kind of career. But I grew up with it. It’s what I know. I suppose it was a natural choice with Ian being in the army and my dad being a cop. He was just so satisfied every time he put a bad guy in jail. It was literally the highlight of his day. That really influenced me.” She smiled at him. “He retired a couple of years ago.”

“Ah, so that’s why.”

She shrugged. “It probably had a lot to do with it. But I just really like the job.”

“Then why don’t you want to do it?”

Carly nearly swerved off the road. Instead, she took a moment to gather her composure and said, “Why would you say that?”

“I get the feeling that you don’t want to be here. With me.”

She bit her lip. How to explain? Should she even bother explaining? And how had he picked up on that, anyway? Had she gotten that bad at hiding her feelings?

But he was trained to read people. And he’d read her like a first-grade primer.

Squaring her jaw, she shot him a look. “Your feelings are wrong.” Sort of. Actually, they were dead-on. “I want to do my job. I will do my job, no matter what it takes, got it?”

He remained silent for a moment, his eyes searching for things she’d rather keep hidden. “Do your feelings have anything to do with the fact that I let Richie Hardin go and he killed your friend Hank?”

Bingo.

She blinked and did her best to cover her initial impulse to blurt out “yes!” Instead, she took a deep breath and said in a low voice. “That’s irrelevant to what I have to do here with you. I don’t want to talk about Hank’s death or the cause of it.”

“Sooner or later, we’re going to have to, I think.”

“I don’t know why. It has nothing to do with my ability to do my job. I’ll do mine, you do yours. Put the bad guys away instead of letting them walk, and everyone wins.”

“Carly…” He sighed, and she saw him struggle with whatever it was he wanted to say. “Fine. But we will discuss it. Soon. Just don’t let your negative feelings for me or my judicial decisions put my family in danger.”

His words sent a shaft of pain through her. Did he really think she would be that unprofessional and allow that to happen? For a moment, she couldn’t speak. She just pulled into the gated drive and waited for Mason to pull in behind her in Nicholas’s car and use the remote to open the gate.

Soon the iron gates began their inward swing. Carly stepped on the gas and wound her way up the drive to the front of the house and parked behind the brown sedan that belonged to the two marshals inside. Instead of opening her door, she swallowed hard and turned to look at Nicholas.

He unhooked his seat belt and caught her gaze. When she was certain she had his full attention, she said, “I’m a professional. I’ll do my job regardless of my feelings. If it comes down to it, I’ll die for you or those children. Are we clear?”

He lifted a brow, then gave a slow nod. “Crystal. In fact, now you’ve got me a little worried. I don’t want you to die for me, Carly.”

She gave him a tight smile. “I don’t want to, either. But I will if it comes down to it. That’s all you have to know.”

End of discussion.

Carly climbed from the car and swept the grounds with a practiced eye. Everything seemed quiet. She drew in a deep breath of air and got her bearings. She could do this. It’s what she’d trained for, lived for…and would someday probably die for.

But right now, Nicholas and the children were counting on her.

Then the front door opened and two marshals stepped outside. She recognized them as a team she’d worked with on a number of occasions. “Grady. Maria.”

Mason shook hands with them. Grady, a tall, trim man with salt-and-pepper hair, spoke. “Everything’s quiet. One of us has done a perimeter sweep every fifteen minutes. The dogs have been calm, and nothing has set off any alarms.”

Carly motioned for Nicholas to go into the house, worried about him standing out in the open. She might have a problem respecting him, but she sure didn’t want him dead.

He nodded and moved to stand inside the doorway, off to the left. Out of sight of anyone watching the house, but not out of earshot. She knew he wanted to hear every word the four marshals might exchange.

Maria came from a long line of cops. Stocky and short, she was light on her feet in spite of her build. Maria was good at her job and didn’t let anything get in the way of her goal: to keep her assignment alive.

“The kids are good kids,” Maria said. “Better watch that girl, though. I have a feeling she might be a handful. We’ll be back tomorrow. Let us know if you need anything before then.”