Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Devon’s sister answered his video call. Her face loomed on the screen, way too close to the camera.
“Finally!” Ruby was her usual self—perfectly groomed, plucked, and styled. “What in the world is going on? Chase shows up at our house, claiming that we’re all in danger, except he can’t explain why. And then he says you’re mixed up in it.”
“Are you with Chase right now?” Devon had thought Chase was in some luxury penthouse of Bennett’s. “Where are you?”
“Oh no, you don’t get to ask questions. I want to know why I had to pack our mother and my baby up in five minutes and flee for reasons nobody has yet explained.”
He gave her the short version: that he was on a bodyguard detail, protecting an important crime witness.
Ruby sat back. She looked like she was in a hotel room, with a plush headboard and fancy wallpaper behind her. The baby must’ve been asleep in a different room because she didn’t bother to keep her voice down.
“You were supposed to be taking some days off. And instead, you’re on bodyguard duty? That sounds really demanding.”
“I’m sorry, I really don’t mean to worry you and mom. This assignment wasn’t supposed to be quite so—”
“You think I’m worried about me and mom?
Okay, mom has been completely freaking out.
She’ll be plenty relieved to know you’re all right.
As am I, even though I still don’t feel like you’ve told me what’s really going on.
But I’m a lot more worried about you. You’ve been working yourself to the bone.
You’re exhausted. Just look at you.” She gestured at the screen. “You look like shit.”
“Gee, thank you.”
His sister huffed. “Part of me wants to call up that boss of yours and tell him to quit working you like this. It isn’t right.”
He was worried she would do it. Ruby was just as stubborn as he was, and a whole lot louder.
“It isn’t Mr. Bennett’s fault. This case blew up in a way that none of us expected.
I’ve been taking on extra shifts because that’s what our family needs right now.
It’s been hard, but I know it won’t be that much longer until I have the money for Mom’s down payment, and—”
“See, there you go about the down payment again. Devon, I’ve told you that isn’t your responsibility.”
“Then whose responsibility is it?” He said this matter-of-factly. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She hadn’t asked to get accidentally pregnant, or for her boyfriend to desert her. But they all had to be realistic.
Devon had been there when his niece was born.
He stood by Ruby in the delivery room, squeezing her hand, talking her through the contractions.
He was the first person in their family to hold Haley.
The nurses had handed her to him, and he’d brought that tiny bundle over to his sister in a hospital bed.
That very day, he had promised he would do whatever he could to support them.
He wanted Haley to have every opportunity.
He wanted his niece to have her mom around.
“I’ve been looking at job opportunities,” Ruby said. “There’s a salon on Ocean Lane, really high end. I’ve already had an interview. They loved my portfolio.”
Devon was shaking his head. “But you said you wanted to be home with Haley. If you want to go back to work, then of course I’ll try to make that happen. But with the daycare costs, I thought we decided that it just didn’t make sense.”
They both knew their mother would want to take care of Haley all the time, but the arthritis in her hands simply made that impossible.
“No, Devon, you decided. But I never did. I never agreed that the cost of me staying home would be you completely burning yourself out. I’m not even talking about your job being dangerous. So don’t even go there with me. Forget about whatever guilt trip Mom has put you on since Kellen died.”
Devon tried to cut in, but his sister wouldn’t let him.
“Do you want to be a bodyguard?”
“For the long term? I…don’t know. I like some things about it. I’m not bored anymore. But I can’t—”
“Dev, if you want to be a bodyguard, that’s fine.
If you even want to re-enlist, I sure as hell would miss you, but I’d be happy for you.
What I can’t stand is to see you sacrificing everything you need, all your ambitions or dreams, based on this idea that you have to provide for me and mom.
I’m going back to work, and I’m going to figure out some way to afford Haley’s daycare.
But I’m not going to let you do this to yourself anymore. ”
He hardly knew what to say. That had all come out of nowhere. Ruby slumped back on the bed, like she’d just relieved herself of a burden.
He’d just wanted to do the right thing by his sister. But when had doing the “right” thing become the wrong one?
“We can talk about this more later,” Devon said. “After I get home.”
“And when will that be? You can’t protect anybody if you haven’t been taking care of yourself.”
“I’m going to get some rest now, Ruby. Okay?”
“All right, Devon. Goodbye.”
After he finished talking to his sister, Devon got back to work.
He found Sylvie and Aurora chatting around the dining table.
They quieted as he walked through, doing his usual checks of their perimeter.
Everything was calm, just as it had been since they’d arrived.
He wasn’t about to let his guard down, of course, but they’d managed to keep a tight lid on Aurora’s new location. They really seemed to be safe here.
He went back into the bedroom, and he heard the women laughing about something. He wasn’t sure what that was about, but they seemed to be going over video footage. So Devon figured he should make himself useful as well.
He logged onto Bennett Security’s secure server and accessed the camera footage from Aurora’s building. Max and Sylvie had already been reviewing these images for clues about the men who’d come after Aurora. Along with Devon, they’d reconstructed the chain of events.
For the tenth time, Devon traced through the attack, minute by minute, hoping to spot some clue they’d missed.
A van had pulled up to the building’s service entrance around five p.m., sporting the logo of a plumbing company. The garage security guy stopped them, asking about an appointment.
Meanwhile, men on foot approached the squad cars at the front and back of the building. Devon had seen one of them on the camera feed, leaning into the window and chatting with a police officer. Apparently, he’d been posing as a concerned citizen who’d just witnessed a mugging.
At exactly 5:05, a device inside the plumbing van set off a small electromagnetic surge, just enough to overload the building’s electricity. The men chatting with the police officers had struck, pulling guns on both the police officers and the security guy inside the parking garage.
That was when Devon had seen the camera feed cut out, and the lights had flickered.
Within minutes, Crane’s men had swarmed out of the plumbing van and into the stairwells of the building. It was an extremely sophisticated attack. Thank goodness no police, building staff, or residents had been killed.
But Devon was sure there was something else he’d missed. Someone casing the building. An unexpected delivery person, an uninvited guest. Crane’s men had gone after Aurora so quickly. They’d come so close to finding her. Hurting her. Devon was pissed at himself for not stopping them sooner.
What did I miss? he asked himself. And how am I going to spot these assholes the next time they come around?