Chapter 14
14
T heresa stretched her back, raised her arms in the air, and tried to release the tension in her shoulders.
She reached forward, grabbed her cup of coffee, and sipped—only to wrinkle her nose when she realized the cup was cold.
She looked over at Marco’s cup. It was nearly empty.
She had dug in and started doing some real estate investigation. He drank and worked at the same time.
She stood and reached for her cup.
Marco turned and looked at her.
Man, she could look at him all day. He was such a handsome man.
"Do you want more coffee?"
He grinned. "Yes, thank you. I appreciate that. You didn’t drink yours. You don’t like it?"
She chuckled. "Nah, I was just noticing the difference between us. You can sip on your coffee and work at the same time. I get engrossed in my work and forget to drink my coffee. It was merely that I got involved. That’s it. I’m gonna get myself a cup now."
She reached forward, grabbed his cup, and sauntered to the coffee pot. She poured her cold brew down the drain, rinsed the sink, and then poured them each a fresh cup.
She turned and looked back at him. "I’m sorry, I didn’t notice—cream and sugar?"
"Just cream for me."
She chuckled. "Me too."
She poured their cups and brought them back to the table.
She had just sat down when an email popped up from Carley.
She looked at the time on her computer.
Three forty-five in the morning.
"My god, Carley just emailed me at three forty-five. What do you suppose she’s doing up?"
He chuckled. "Well, they have a puppy."
"Yeah, but isn’t—" She paused. "Isn’t that puppy almost a year old now?"
"About nine months, I guess."
"Oh, I suppose."
She opened the email and read Carley’s reply.
Off the top of my head, I can give you the names of three new businesses in town. I didn’t have a lot to do with any of them as far as the sales process goes. Two of them are just renting the buildings they’re in—they didn’t have a need for a realtor. The third one bought a small building but was very, very coy about what they were putting in it. They just said it was for the future growth of a business, but that’s all they would say.
Theresa quickly typed out her response.
Thank you so much for that. Why are you up this early in the morning?
She sent her email.
Almost immediately, a reply popped up.
I have a nine-month-old puppy who counter-surfed last night and got a hold of some chicken. Needless to say, we’ve been going to the bathroom a lot. Like every hour. I’d love nothing more than to be snuggled in next to my husband, but—puppy.
Theresa read the response to Marco, and they chuckled.
"Yeah, the joys of owning a puppy," he said.
"Right."
He stopped and looked at her. "Did you have a dog growing up?"
"No. How about you?"
"We always had dogs. My brothers loved dogs. My sister wanted the dogs. We always had one or two running around."
"I’m jealous. I would have loved to have had a dog growing up, but my parents didn’t want that."
"Yeah, it’s nice having a dog. My parents always said it developed our sense of responsibility. We each took turns —every week it was somebody else’s turn to feed and water the dogs. And if we didn’t remember—oh, we got an ass-beating."
Theresa chuckled. "Yeah, I’ve heard about families like that."
Marco’s head cocked to the side. "You’re an only child?"
"Yeah, I’m an only child. It was lonely, though. I used to envy my friends and their big families, but Mom couldn’t have any more children after me, so I didn’t get siblings."
He chuckled. "Having siblings was nice. Sometimes it was a pain in the butt—especially a little sister. And my little sister is a little beauty. So needless to say, as my friends and I all got to be around sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old, I didn’t bring them to the house much anymore. They spent more time staring at her than they did kicking around with me."
She chuckled. "Yeah. Boys, right?"
"Yeah. Boys."
"Anyway—so did she name the three businesses?"
"Oh, yes."
She scrolled back to the first email.
"She has them listed down here at the bottom. One is a small brokerage agency. They’re renting their building. One is a law office. That one’s also being rented. And the last one is the one that was bought. They said it was for future business, and there’s no business name for it. But the name on the file is Bradford Bennett LLC."
"Okay, so let’s look into those businesses, shall we?"
"Okay. I’m thinking maybe—" He hesitated. "I’m thinking I’m going to be visiting at least two businesses. See what they look like inside."
The thought of going on a covert mission, so to speak, sent a bolt of excitement through her body. "I’ll go with you."
"No, you won’t. You have to stay here. We don’t want them to see you, right?"
"Right. Maybe I could wear a disguise."
"No. Again, I think you need to stay here."
"Am I a prisoner here?"
"No, you’re not a prisoner, but I do want to keep you safe. And you have to be smart about this. Don’t put yourself out there in the open."
His phone rang.
She saw him take a deep breath before picking it up. He looked at the readout on the screen. He said, "Mitch."
He tapped the button, then the speaker icon.
"Good morning, Mitch. I’m sitting here with Theresa. We are doing some investigating."
"Right. Well—her house burned down. It’s on fire right now."
Theresa’s stomach twisted.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
"Oh my god. Oh my god."
Mitch continued. "I decided to test them and see how far they’d be willing to go. So I sent one of my employees into the house. They drove Theresa’s car to the driveway, went into the house, and then slipped out the back door and through the back area to Hospital Drive. They circled around. I was sitting at the end of the street with my lights off, watching it all. I saw somebody come running through the woods and throw a Molotov into the window, and the place caught on fire. My employee ran and got Theresa’s car out of the way. I don’t know if they stayed to watch or not, but I hope she had all of her stuff out of there. And I’ll say this—more than ever, she needs to stay hidden. They’re beginning to get bold in their scare tactics. If that’s all this was."
Marco stared into her eyes as he replied. "They wouldn’t kill her until they had the files they wanted. I’m reasonably sure of that."
Mitch commented, "But of course, we can never be too sure. So, I think this was a way to flush her out and really scare her. Maybe hoping that she’s going to leave town so they can catch her on the road. So that’s what we’re gonna let them do."
Marco’s jaw clenched.
She stared between him and his phone as if she were hearing a foreign language.
She finally said, "What?"
Her heart pounded so fast she didn’t even know if she could breathe. He was going to send her out there?
Mitch continued, "I think what we’re gonna do is have my employee put that long wig back on and drive your car out of town. We’re gonna make a few trips around town first, so they see you—wherever they’re watching from—and then start to head out of town. And we’re gonna be following. Maybe we can flesh out who’s actually watching and how they’re following you."
She placed her right hand over her stomach and took in a few deep breaths.
"Oh my god. Oh my god."
Marco’s hand reached over to hold hers.
He squeezed gently to comfort her.
And she was grateful for that. But what comforted her more was his strong steady presence and the way she felt sitting next to him. She was incredibly grateful for that. He made her feel more secure than anyone she'd ever had in her life. Oddly, she felt safer now, with a cartel on her tail, than she had ever felt in her life.