Chapter Thirty-Four
His first stop was the office. Hoover wanted Ethan to revisit his old case files. He’d be going stir-crazy without something to do anyway, so he figured it was a good idea.
And there was always a chance the detective was right.
Maybe the sniper had nothing to do with the threatening notes or Delilah Larsen’s murder or Val or any of the other models.
Maybe someone wanted revenge for something Ethan had done and that person had just been waiting for him to get back to Seattle.
Maybe the shooting and the murder were nothing but coincidence.
It was possible. Too bad Ethan didn’t believe in coincidence.
Turning another corner, he checked his rearview mirror for the dozenth time. The sky had grown even darker and the light rain had turned into a steady downpour that sloshed against the windshield wipers and puddled on the street.
Though it wasn’t likely the shooter had stayed in the area once the police had arrived, he took a long, circuitous route to his office to be sure he wasn’t being followed.
He had no idea how the sniper had found them, but after Delilah’s murder, photos of Val’s home, surrounded by a boatload of media, had been all over the news.
It wasn’t much of a secret that he had been staying with her.
Before they’d left her apartment, he had checked to be sure there was no GPS attached to the Jeep, nothing in Val’s purse or in their luggage. He had also removed the batteries from both their cell phones.
“I’ll be using the disposable,” Ethan told her. “Dirk’ll have a few at his place.” Along with a small arsenal of weapons, should they be needed. He didn’t say that to her. “He’ll have one there you can use.”
“But no one will be able to reach me,” Val grumbled. “What about my mom and dad? What about Meg?”
“You can call them when we get there, give them the throwaway number.”
She leaned back in her seat, released a slow breath. “I never realized how hard it was to hide from someone.”
“You got that right. Cameras everywhere. GPS tracking. It’s tough to stay off the grid.”
“I hate this.”
“I know, baby.” He didn’t say more. He didn’t like it either, but until he got another lead, there wasn’t much he could do.
Once they reached the office, he shoved through the door, guiding Val in front of him. Seated behind a desk across the open room, Luke shot to his feet.
“Jesus Christ, where the hell have you been? Valentine, are you okay? E, why didn’t you call me?”
“So I guess you heard about the shooting,” Ethan said mildly.
“Nick called. I’ve been phoning your cell every few minutes, but the calls go straight to voice mail.”
“Your brother’s been worried,” Ian said diplomatically as he and Sadie came down the stairs. “He figured he should be helping you fend off the bad guys.”
“I took the battery out of my phone so the bad guys couldn’t track us.”
Luke raked his fingers through his sun-streaked brown hair. “That’s what Ian said. I just . . . man, a sniper. That is so not good.”
“No, it isn’t. Even worse news is we don’t know for sure if the guy’s target was me or if it was Val.”
Luke’s blue eyes widened. “The hell you say.”
“I’m here for my old case files. Lieutenant Hoover thinks the shooter might be someone from my past, someone I pissed off enough to want me dead.”
“What do you think?” Ian asked.
“Too soon to say. Once we get settled, I’ve got some phone calls to make.
The most important goes to Jack Morrell.
He’s DEA in Miami. I’m hoping he’ll be able to help me figure a few things out.
But my gut says this has nothing to do with an old case and everything to do with what’s going on in South America. ”
Luke whistled. “South America. So now you’re pissing off some drug cartel?”
“Could be.”
Sadie ambled up to Val, lifted the sleeve of her sweatshirt, and looked at the wide white bandage on her arm. “Never say Ethan doesn’t know how to show a lady a good time.”
“Very funny,” Ethan said.
“How are you feeling?” Sadie asked Val. “You okay?”
“I took a pain pill, so at the moment I’m fine.”
“She’s okay for now, but I need to get her settled in somewhere.”
“You got that covered?” Ian asked.
“Yeah.”
Ian tipped his head toward the back of the office. “Let’s go into the conference room and you can fill us in.”
Setting a hand at Val’s waist, Ethan guided her toward the door to the conference room.
Val sat quietly as Ethan talked to Luke, Ian, and Sadie, going over the events of the day. As the story unfolded, with Ethan dramatizing Val’s bravery in protecting his daughter and embarrassing her, Sadie kept tossing her glances.
Their gazes met, and the look in the older woman’s eyes softened. Apparently, Val’s rating had moved up on her women-suitable-for-her-favorite-men’s list.
“So you’re staying at Dirk’s,” Luke said with a nod of approval. “It’s private. Good access in and out in both directions. He’s got Wi-Fi, and he keeps plenty of hardware there.”
“Hardware?” Val asked, wondering why they might need maintenance tools.
The question seemed to amuse the men. Ethan gave her an indulgent smile. “He means weapons, honey. Dirk’s got a gun safe. He could outfit a small army with what he keeps inside.”
“Oh. Right.” Dirk and his toys. But then, guns and ammunition were hardly toys. A shiver ran through her.
Sadie leaned over and squeezed her hand. “You need anything, you call me. Women have different needs from men. You call, I’ll make sure you get whatever it is.”
Val smiled. “Thank you, Sadie.” She yawned. The pain pill was making her groggy and it was hard to concentrate.
“So that’s it,” Luke said. “You need to leave the house, you call and I’ll come stay with Val. You or your boys need backup, you call. Yeah?”
“All right.” Ethan smiled. “Thanks for the worry, little brother.”
“You’re welcome, pain-in-my-ass big brother.”
Ethan chuckled. “I’ve got to get those files.” He rose and the conversation came to an end. In minutes, Val was back in the Jeep and Ethan was heading for the safety of Dirk’s house.
Val just prayed the place would actually be safe.
Dirk’s ranch-style home sat on a road in an area south of Bellevue off Lakehurst Lane. Ethan glanced at Val, who sat next to him in the passenger seat as they drove through the heavily treed area toward their destination. The rain continued, pounding against the hood as the Jeep rolled along.
“So will Dirk be home while we’re there?”
Val hadn’t said much since they’d left his office.
The pain pill was making her sleepy. Ethan figured the ache in her injured arm was probably coming back—if it had ever actually gone away—and a trickle of guilt slid through him.
He was supposed to protect her. But damn, this whole thing made absolutely no sense.
Or, more likely, it made complete sense and he just hadn’t figured it out yet.
“Dirk left town for a couple of days. I think he needed a break.” He turned down a narrow lane, into a neighborhood of homes on large, tree-covered lots, the properties so overgrown he could barely see the houses through the dense, leafy foliage.
“Doesn’t look like Dirk’s kind of neighborhood,” Val said, surveying the nondescript family homes in the area.
“For years in his spare time, Dirk’s been buying foreclosures and turning them for a profit.
He got this house in an estate sale about a year ago; an old woman who died without any kids.
It came with all her furniture and it’s only a few blocks from the lake.
Dirk’s got a boat, so he decided to keep it, at least for a while.
He’s got a one-bedroom apartment in Bellevue.
He stays there most of the time. It’s closer to the action. ”
“Dirk seems like a restless kind of guy, someone who’d get bored fairly quickly. I think that’s one of the things Meg was worried about.”
Ethan’s gaze swung to hers. “Meg thought Dirk would get bored with her?”
She shrugged. “She says he’s a chick magnet—that’s what she called him. She doesn’t think a guy like Dirk could be faithful to one woman. I have to say, he seems like kind of a tumbleweed.”
He scoffed. “My brother, Luke, now he’s a tumbleweed. Dirk, not so much. Like I said, besides doing his job, he buys and sells property. It takes hard work and brains to make money at that, and it doesn’t happen overnight.”
She looked up, clearly reconsidering her original impression. “He never said anything.”
“It isn’t his way.”
Val fell silent as Ethan turned into the gravel driveway, pulled up, and got out to retrieve the spare garage door opener Dirk kept in the mailbox along one wall. He climbed back in, opened the double car garage, and drove the Jeep inside. A dirt bike sat in the second car parking space.
“I thought he rode a Harley.”
“He does. His Viper’s in the shop, and he’s off on the Harley.” Ethan grinned. “The dirt bike’s mine.”
She studied the knobby tires and racy design. “I guess Dirk’s not the only one who likes his toys.”
Ethan chuckled. “It’s an off-road machine. It isn’t meant to be ridden on the freeway. It’s more about getting out of the city and into the woods.”
Val smiled. “I used to like camping. I used to go on the weekends with Mom and Pops. We’d pitch a tent and Pops would fish. Mom and I would hike or sunbathe or just loaf around in the forest all day.”
“You like to fish?” Ethan asked, trying to imagine her in rubber waders instead of a skimpy bikini. Good luck with that.
“I used to fish with Pops. I haven’t done it since I got out of high school.”
“Maybe we could go out on Dirk’s boat sometime.” At the same instant, both of them realized how unlikely that sounded.
“Maybe” was all she said.