Deadly Desire (Carrington-Hill Investigations Book 2) (9 page)

Maureen spun around with fire in her eyes. There was no hint of embarrassment or apology staring back at
Sara. Maureen stomped out of the room without another word and slammed the door behind her.

Chapter 10

Turning on the television, Sara slid into the bed in Collin’s room after retrieving her gun from
her purse next door. She wouldn’t be caught off guard again, not after Maureen’s little striptease and whatever that was with the senator and his creepy thugs. Just went to prove what she’d been saying all along. Collin Martin had the ability to throw her off her game and it was a fact she could no longer ignore. When she gets back to town, she is going to need a one on one with Marco so she could explain. Every bone in her body was exhausted. The tension in her shoulders was strung tight. Explaining what happened to Marco, much less to Collin, was going to be a bit embarrassing, but they both needed to know about the incidents. She wasn’t looking forward to describing in detail how the piranha had slipped into the room, gotten the drop on her and surprised her in the shower. How Collin reacted and dealt with the news was going to be interesting to watch. The man didn’t even realize Maureen was still in love with him. Figuring out just how far Maureen was willing to go was Sara’s biggest task, just another missing piece of the puzzle that kept Sara from forming a whole picture of the situation. She let her thoughts lull her into a sound sleep, unable to fight the fatigue from the last few days any longer.

Sara’s eyes shot open
at the sound of banging coming from the door that connected Collin’s room to hers.

“Sara, open up
,” she heard Collin shout as the banging intensified.

Sara glanced at the bedside clock. The red numbers indicated six in the morning.
Sliding out of bed, she grabbed her gun, hurried to the separating door, and yanked it open, thinking that Collin was possibly in trouble. His brows dipped before he pulled her into his warm embrace. “Thank God.”

Sara leaned
back in his arms, speculatively eyeing his body up and down, looking for signs that he was hurt or in trouble because he damn sure better be the way he’d jolted her awake. “What is wrong with you? Are you hurt?”

Collin released her
as though she were infected with the plague. “What’s wrong with me! What’s wrong with you!” he demanded. “I walked into your room to find the place torn to pieces, and I’d thought something happened to you.”

Sara’s eyes widened as she pushed pas
t him and stood in the doorway to her hotel room. Clothes were strewn all over the bed and on the floor. She walked over to where her purse lay open in the middle of the bed and sifted through the contents. Her jewelry and money were still there. She glanced around the room, noting that none of the furniture was out of place, and that’s when she noticed the calling card left behind. Her driver’s license was crammed at the top of the mirror, being held in place by the frame. Written in Fire Engine Red lipstick (and she should know since it was hers) and scrawled across the mirror was the message,
You’re Number 3
.

Sara threw her arms up. A war of emotions raged within her.
It seemed anyone could get a damn key to Collin’s and her room. The hotel manager was going to be a dead man by the time she got through with him. “What the hell is wrong with this hotel? First Maureen and now this.”

She picked up the phone and dialed Marco’s number.

“What do you mean first Maureen?” Collin asked with a confused look on his face. Sara hadn’t wanted to tell him like this but, under the circumstances, he needed to know and he needed to hear it from her. She held up a finger as she turned back around and spoke into the phone, explaining to Marco about the room and that she wanted a forensics team pronto to dust for prints. She nodded once and hung up.

“Explain.”

She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back into the secure room where he’d slept last night. She shut the door and flicked the lock before setting her gun down on the dresser. “You might want to sit down for this.”

Standing by the bed, he crossed his arms over his chest and scowled.

“Or not, suit yourself.”

She proceeded to tell him what
had happened, how Maureen had shown up in his room, about their confrontation, and the way things ended. By the end of the story, Collin had plopped down on the bed and had his elbows resting on his knees as he ran a hand through his hair and squeezed his neck.

He reached for the phone. “She went too far this time.” He hit four buttons on the phone and waited with the receiver pressed to his ear. “I told you what would happen if you pulled another stunt like that again
. I’m sorry, Maureen, but you’re fired.”

The rest of the conversation
was drowned out. Her mind was stuck on that one word he’d said.
Again.
As if it had happened before. Not that it was her business, but she wondered if Maureen had gotten her way last time.
Again
.  The woman obviously hadn’t moved past whatever type of relationship they’d had.
Again
.  Could her determination be chalked up to something a stalker would do, or was it merely that of a woman trying to win the heart of a man she loved? The secrets he was keeping from her were compounding. She took a deep breath and released it, but even that didn’t calm her down. 

Her stomach rolled
, and her throat constricted as she tormented herself with
what if
scenarios. What if she’d given into Collin and slept with him in her room? What if the stalker had found them together asleep and unaware? She cringed thinking she might have gotten them both killed.

Her cell phone beeped in her hand. She glanced down at the incoming text message from Marco that assured her the forensic team was on the way and for them to stay put and not to shoot room service when it arrived.
Only Marco would think that she’d be able to eat at a time like this. The thought of food wasn’t high on her list of priorities.  Coffee, now that was another story altogether.

There was no way in hell she was going to tell
Collin about the implied threats from the senator. Threats that she had no doubt the powerful man would make good on. No, for now, that was for Marco and her to worry about. Her stomach started to settle, as she remembered that she’d hidden the memory stick and pictures the senator was after in a safe place. Just like Lexi and Catherine, she also had her own little hiding place that the others knew about if anything happened to her. With Lexi, it was her bras. With Catherine, it would be hidden in the soles of her shoes, but for Sara, it was in a secret hiding spot. Only Lexi and Catherine would know to look under the false bottom in the can of her favorite imported coffee. 

****

“Well, that went well,” Collin said as he hung up the phone. He’d always been a sucker for a woman crying, but not this time. He’d fired her, and he meant it. His heart had hammered in his chest when he walked into Sara’s room to find it tossed with the message on the mirror. He’d been sick to his stomach as he pounded on the door. Every minute that had ticked by seemed like an eternity while he waited for her to answer. He almost fell to his knees when she did. He’d questioned his judgment that maybe Maureen had been right. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought another woman in as a target. Marco had suggested Sara, pretending to be his girlfriend, was the best way to handle his situation, but now he wasn’t so sure, doubting not only himself but her as well.

“Sara…” He turned to find her staring
, lost in her own thoughts. He wanted to plead with her, hoping that maybe she’d come to her senses and decide that his case was too dangerous. “I think this was a bad idea.”

She shook her head. “This is exactly what we wanted.” She glanced back at the closed door. “We wanted an attack
, and we got one. Now let’s just hope we can stay focused, lift some prints, and catch this bitch before anyone else gets hurt.”

Sara could be so aggravating at times
, and it wasn’t just because she’d turned down his offer to sleep with him. She was headstrong and things were getting a little too close for comfort. A knock sounded on the door before he could reply. She held up her finger and gestured for him to stay put as she moved swiftly to the door with her gun in her grip. She peeked out the peephole before shoving her gun in the back of her PJ’s and pulling the door open. A man walked in, pushing a steel cart filled with covered plates. The bellboy glanced around the room but didn’t say a word as he entered and scurried out just as quickly.

“Help yourself.” Sara gestured to
ward the food. “Marco doesn’t want us leaving the room, so he ordered us breakfast. For your safety, we’ll be escorted back by another team.”

****

The trip back hadn’t taken long, especially since they weren’t flying commercially. Sara walked into the pool house, expecting to find everything how she had left it. She’d been wrong. Someone had been able to slip by the security detail. Furniture was overturned, and the clothes from her closet were now scattered around the room. Sara pulled her weapon and moved on silent feet throughout the rest of the house. When she knew the premises were secure, she went straight to her coffee can and grimaced to find the coffee dumped on the counter and all of the food on the floor. She reached into the coffee can and removed the false bottom. She slid the pictures and the memory stick from their hiding spot and made her way back to the main house. This hadn’t been done by the stalker. No, this had the senator’s name and his thugs written all over it.

Sara left Collin in good hands with Lexi and Catherine and a whole team of security around his house. She informed her friends on the status of the pool house and that she needed to go see Marco. The fact the
stalker had gotten so close to her at the hotel, and now an intruder had broken in while they were gone, worried her. No, it did more than that; it pissed her off. She was a damn good agent, and she hadn’t heard the commotion coming from her hotel room. It should have been her going to check on Collin, but he’d come to check on her. He could have walked in while the stalker was still there and the ramifications of that shook her to the core.

Pushing Marco’s door closed, Sara plopped down in one of the empty seats across from him and tossed the negatives on his desk. “Those are the negatives of the
senator; you might want to keep them some place safe. I believe the senator has already been looking for them.”

She explained about the vandalized pool house.

“Maybe I should pull you from Collin’s detail. You’re bringing more threats to his doorstep than he initially had.”

Sara frowned
. She hadn’t really thought about it that way. But it was true, even though she wasn’t ready to give up her detail. She’d never been pulled from an assignment in her whole career. “If you remove me from the case, the stalker is going to think that the reason I’m no longer around is because she ran me off. She’s not going to be interested in taking me out of the equation any longer if she no longer sees me as a threat.” She shrugged. “I’ll just have to be more vigilant where the senator is concerned.”

He sat in silence but eventually nodded. “I’ll stick a team on him so we won’t have any more surprises.”

That eased her mind, but only somewhat. She had a feeling the senator wasn’t going to stop until he got what he wanted. “Tell me the team found prints at the hotel room. Give me something to work with.”

He shook his head
, even as he clicked at the computer. “No prints. But we’ve tapped into the hotel’s surveillance video.” He tapped a few more times at the keys. “Come take a look and tell me what you see.”

Rounding the desk, Sara stood next to Marco and watched the screen. The hall in the hotel was dimly lit
, the video only partially static. Only a few people lingered by the camera, including a man and a woman dressed in a ball gown, groping each other like teenagers as they made their way into a room. Several minutes had played by when she noticed the next man. A man stopped and knocked on Regina’s door. He glanced up at the camera before Regina opened the door. Sara recognized the handsome face immediately. He had the same smile and stature as Collin, and he was fidgeting as though he was nervous, glancing up and down the hall.
Drew Martin
. Regina grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him into her room and out of sight.

Well
, that’s interesting
. 

She continued to scrutinize the video
, every sound, every moment, anything to give them a lead. Marco didn’t even ask about who’d just entered Regina’s room. He must have known as well as she had who the night visitor was. Marco fast forwarded, and the time on the video now read two hours later when another figure appeared on the screen. A female with black curly hair poking out beneath a black hoodie pulled over her head. She was wearing black pants with gloves covering her small hands as she sauntered down the hall. This woman was smarter, avoiding a face shot toward the camera’s lens. She grabbed the handle to Sara’s room and slid in what looked like a key card, keeping her head down. Marco froze the frame and pointed an accusing finger at the figure breaking into Sara’s room. “There’s your stalker. What does this tell you about her?”

Sara crossed her arms over her chest as she studied the still figure. “She’s smart, almost professional. Not o
nce did she let her face be caught by the camera. Those aren’t the actions of a psychotic woman. She’s cool and calculating, and she’s going to be harder to catch than I thought.”