Chapter Five
Jack wanted to curse. Even though he probably should, he didn’t regret kissing Caroline. But now he was going to have to listen to Kellan tell him why a kissing regret should be at the top of his list.
And Kellan would be right.
Caroline didn’t look so much regretful as she did embarrassed. Nervous, too. That was likely because of the distrust she had for not only Kellan but all the other cops in the building.
“I’ll find the medic,” she muttered, moving past both Jack and Kellan to hurry away.
Kellan immediately motioned toward Sherry McNeil, one of the deputies at a desk in the squad room. “Keep an eye on her,” Kellan said to Sherry, tipping his head in the direction of both Caroline and the ladies’ room.
Jack just lifted an eyebrow.
“Caroline lied to you. She waited three days to tell you she’d gotten her memory back,” Kellan said, as if that excused the tail he’d just put on her.
“She lied because she doesn’t trust me. Not yet.”
Kellan made a sound of disagreement. “She looked pretty trusting to me when she was kissing you.”
“That was the attraction. It’s always been intense between us.”
He wouldn’t tell his brother that Caroline and he had gone all night their first time together.
As if they’d been starved for each other.
Hell, they were still starved for each other.
If the door had been locked and Kellan hadn’t walked in, Jack might have backed Caroline against the wall and taken her then and there.
And she would have let him.
He’d felt that. The way her body had hummed against his.
His own body had hummed plenty, too, and Jack knew it wasn’t going to be easy to rein in that kind of heat.
And he doubted he would be able to count on an interruption to give him the willpower to resist a woman he’d never been able to resist.
“I don’t have to tell you this, but I will,” Kellan went on a moment later. “Sex could cause you to lose focus.”
This was obviously going to be one of the big topics of conversation today. “Lack of sex can do that, too. I haven’t been with another woman since Caroline.” Jack looked at Kellan then but didn’t see even one raised eyebrow. “You don’t seem surprised.”
“I’m not just a cop, I’m also your big brother. I know you fell hard for her, but she’s not the same woman she was a year ago.”
“Of course, she’s not,” Jack snapped. “She was nearly murdered by a serial killer and had amnesia. Hard to come back from that. But Caroline’s there. Underneath the tangled mess of memories in her head, she’s there.”
The sound that Kellan made was still edged with suspicion. “Personally, I like her. There’s plenty of toughness beneath that delicate-looking exterior.”
Yes, there was, and it was one of the things that had first attracted Jack to her. But her toughness had some fractures in it now. Thanks to Eric. This latest attack sure wasn’t going to help, either.
Jack scrubbed his hand over his face. “I need to figure out how the location of the WITSEC house was breached, and I have to look into those things that Caroline heard the night Dad was killed.”
Kellan’s jaw tightened. “The police radio transmissions. The mention of this office. The dispatch codes.” He glanced around the squad room.
“I’ll help with that. I trust every person who works for me, but I won’t blow off what Caroline told you.
That’s why I sent Sherry to keep an eye on her.
Caroline said the voice on that call to Eric was male, so she should be okay with Sherry watching after her. ”
Jack sent his brother a silent look of thanks for that.
“The call Caroline heard could have been part of the sick game that Eric was playing,” Kellan added after a pause. “Something to throw her off the accomplice who was actually helping him.”
That wasn’t just possible. It was likely. The trouble would be to convince Caroline of that, and his best shot at doing it was to figure out how Eric could have faked a call like that.
When Jack heard someone clear their throat, he looked to the doorway and saw Tatum Carson, the medic. “Neither of the women has any injuries,” Tatum told them, “but if you want me to take them into the hospital for tests, I will.”
“No,” Lucille and Caroline said in unison. They were behind the medic, and Sherry and Gunnar stood behind them.
Jack looked at both Lucille and Caroline and knew there’d be no other tests. “Thanks. You can go,” he said to Tatum.
With a suit-yourself shrug, the medic gathered his things and headed out.
“Lucille wants to go to her sister’s in San Antonio,” Gunnar said, stepping up. “I got her statement and her contact info. Her sister doesn’t have a car, so Lucille will need a ride. Is it okay for her to go?”
This was touchy jurisdictional territory.
The shooting hadn’t happened at the WITSEC safe house, which meant technically this was Kellan’s case.
Jack didn’t want to cross any gray lines—when he managed to make an arrest, he needed to have dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s to get a conviction.
He also didn’t want to step on his brother’s toes, so he looked at Kellan, wanting him to respond to Gunnar’s question.
“Any chance this shooter will go after Lucille?” Kellan asked Jack.
“Slim to none.” Caroline was the target. Jack was certain of that. “But San Antonio PD should be alerted just in case something comes up. That way, they can make sure Lucille is protected.”
“She can leave,” Kellan said, apparently satisfied with what Jack had just told him. “I can’t send Gunnar with her, though, because he’s got to testify in court in about an hour. He won’t make it back here in time. Sherry, will you drive Lucille and contact SAPD on the way there?”
Sherry nodded, and, as the medic had done, the deputy started to gather her things, too. However, Lucille didn’t budge. Instead, she caught onto Caroline’s shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes.
“Remember what I taught you,” Lucille said.
Caroline nodded. “Open-hand strike to the nose, followed by a hard kick to the groin.”
Jack winced, but Lucille smiled, clearly proud of her student. She brushed a kiss on Caroline’s cheek, whispered a goodbye and headed out with the deputy.
“Should I take Caroline’s statement now?” Gunnar asked.
This was another t-crossing and i-dotting moment. Since Jack had also been on the receiving end of that attack, he couldn’t question her. Heck, he shouldn’t even be in the room with her during the interview. That meant Caroline was about to be questioned by a male cop whom she maybe didn’t trust.
Jack was still mulling over the best way to handle that when he realized the interview and his own mulling were going to have to wait. That was because he saw a now familiar face had stepped into the squad room.
Kingston walked in, and he was wearing the same clothes he’d had on in the security footage. What the footage hadn’t captured was the cocky look on his face. It appeared to be a permanent expression.
“Caroline,” Kingston purred, his attention going straight to her. “So you’re still alive. Too bad that you won’t be that way for long.”
CAROLINE PULLED BACK her shoulders. Considering Kingston had been friends with a serial killer, she hadn’t expected him to look, well, normal, but she also hadn’t believed he’d come waltzing into a sheriff’s office to dole out what sounded like a threat.
“I’m Kingston Morris,” he greeted as if this were a social call. He thrust out his hand for Jack to shake. “And you’re Marshal Slater. Good to meet you.”
Jack didn’t exchange handshakes, but he gave Kingston a look that could have frozen Hades. He caught onto Kingston, whirled him around and, despite the man’s howl of protest, frisked him. No weapon.
“So you’re still alive. Too bad that you won’t be that way for long,” Jack growled, repeating word for word what Kingston had just said. “Along with some other things, you’ll want to explain that now.”
Kingston was wise enough to drop the cocky smile and the protest over the pat down, but he didn’t appear as concerned as he should be, considering that Jack looked ready to tear him limb from limb.
“I said that because of the attack.” There wasn’t much concern in Kingston’s voice, either. Unflappable was the word that came to Caroline’s mind. “Lots of gossip about it, and from what people are saying, someone wanted to kill Caroline and you.”
Now Kingston turned to her, their gazes connecting, and Caroline forced herself not to take a step back.
Too bad that he spurred the old memories, and she got a burst of the flashbacks before she could stop them.
The pain and the fear. She’d thought she was going to die, and the swarm of emotions that had come with that belief hit her now.
Jack must have noticed or else guessed about the flashbacks, because he moved closer to her, his arm brushing against her.
It was surprising and unnerving how just a simple touch from him could soothe her.
But Caroline would take it. She definitely didn’t want to collapse into a puddle from a panic attack when she needed to confront Kingston.
“You tried to kill Jack and me?” Caroline came out and asked, and she made sure she held eye contact with Kingston.
“No, of course not.” It sounded more mocking than genuine, but at least the man started to show some concern when Jack turned on a recorder and began to read him his rights.
“You’re arresting me?” Kingston demanded several times while he was Mirandized.
“Any reason I shouldn’t?” Jack countered after he’d finished. “You were at Caroline’s not long before she was attacked.”
Jack didn’t add more to that explanation, and Caroline thought she knew why. He was giving Kingston a chance to lie by denying it. If so, that would add weight to his arrest.
However, Kingston shrugged. “Yes, I was there,” he readily admitted. “I got a text, giving me the address and saying I should go there.”