Why hadn’t she seen that?
She’d been so taken in by what he’d appeared to be. She’d thought he was intelligent, caring, and she’d liked being around him. Gradually that changed, but she hadn’t seen the verbal and emotional abuse for what it was. How could she have been so blind?
That wasn’t what mattered right now. Gregory could be in trouble… Or he could be dead.
She turned to Landon again. “Do you think any of my friends could be in danger? If they somehow got my address off my laptop…although it is password protected.”
“How easy is your password to break?” he asked.
She thought about how carefully she’d selected her password. “It’s a complicated one using lower and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols.”
“Good.” Landon nodded. “They’re probably fine.”
“Unless Gregory gives them up.” Her voice sounded anxious, even to herself.
Landon didn’t respond. What could he say? For now what he needed to do was concentrate on keeping Tori safe.
It was his job to assure a witness that she or he would be protected. This time he had to force himself to tell Tori all would be fine. He didn’t like it—he wanted to tell her she needed to get out of town and go far, far away.
People who witnessed crimes by the Jimenez Cartel never lived to testify against them.
Landon’s gut twisted. He didn’t need to go there mentally. It would only make things harder when it came to reassuring Tori.
He frowned to himself as he thought about Tori’s parents and her boyfriend, then focused his gaze on the two-lane highway that ran through part of the town.
As he drove he couldn’t help but think about how beautiful Tori was. It wasn’t the appropriate time to find himself attracted to any woman, much less a witness. Not to mention she had a boyfriend.
He attempted to pull his thoughts away from his attraction to Tori as he guided his vehicle onto School Terrace Road.
They passed Bisbee High School and Tori stared at the school and the fields that were illuminated. “It hasn’t changed a lot since I went to school there.” She glanced at Landon. “Go, Pumas.”
They headed up a rise to a shaded street with good entry and exit points and nondescript homes. Landon turned into the driveway of a home mostly hidden behind a line of mature Cyprus trees, and pulled up to the detached garage.
Tori looked over the white house with fading forest-green trim and glanced at the low maintenance landscaping that was illuminated by his headlights. “Is this the safe house?”
“Yep.” He left the engine running. “We’ll wait for your guard detail before we go in.”
He checked in with the agents via his cell phone, and was told they were turning onto the street as they spoke.
Moments later, the black SUV pulled up next to Landon’s vehicle in front of the garage. He kept the engine running and buzzed down his window as Johnson and O’Donnell got out and approached Landon’s SUV.
O’Donnell was a fair redhead with brown eyes and a muscular build. Johnson’s eyes were dark, his head shaved. He had skin the color of polished mahogany and his size was equal to O’Donnell’s.
“We’ll clear the place.” O’Donnell nodded in the direction of the house. “Hang tight.”
Johnson and O’Donnell kept their weapons concealed as they went inside the single story ranch-style home and turned on the lights inside. It wasn’t too long before the two agents returned to Landon and Tori.
O’Donnell walked up to Landon’s window. “Clear.”
Johnson’s gaze constantly monitored their surroundings.
Landon buzzed up the window, killed the engine, and looked at Tori. “Wait until I come around to your side and I’ll open the door. When you’re out, we’ll escort you into the house.”
Tori gripped her hands in her lap but nodded.
Once Landon had Tori out of the SUV, the three men surrounded her as they walked up to the front door of the safe house.
O’Donnell and Johnson had left the door open and the lights on. Landon walked inside, his gaze sweeping the room even though it had been cleared. Tori came in behind him, followed by the agents. Landon locked the door behind them.
The blinds were all closed and the house was furnished with only the basics. Couch, overstuffed chair, end table, coffee table, a lamp, and a TV. The kitchen would be minimally stocked with canned fruits and vegetables, dried pasta and canned sauce, and other easy-to-make food items in the pantry.
Tori took in her surroundings and Landon couldn’t read her expression. She glanced at him. “So this is what a safe house looks like.”
“It’s not much,” Landon said. “But you’ll be safe here.”
She walked around and ran her finger along the dusty TV. “Doesn’t look like it’s been used for a while.”
“We have several safe houses around the county.” Landon walked with Tori toward the kitchen. “I’m not sure when this one was last used.”
“I’ve got TV duty.” O’Donnell grinned as he turned on the TV and changed the channel to watch a baseball game. He sat on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.
Landon turned to Johnson. “I’ll be in the kitchen with Tori, looking for something we can fix to eat.”
Johnson nodded. “I’ll take a look around the house again and make sure everything is locked tight.”
When Tori and Landon were in the kitchen, Landon caught her by the shoulders and brought her around to face him. The cop in him wanted to tell her to testify but the man in him wanted to tell her she had the right to refuse.
He paused before telling her, “If you don’t want to testify against the cartel, just say the word.”
She looked at him with surprise in her eyes. “Just like that?”
He held her gaze. “Just like that.”
She looked away for a long moment before bringing her gaze back to his. “Someone has to pay for killing Miguel and all the other bad things a cartel does. Someone needs to help bring the cartel to justice.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “Looks like that someone is me.”
“You’re positive?” Landon studied her, drinking in the beautiful woman who was in more danger than she could possibly imagine.
“Yes.” She straightened. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“I’ll make dinner.” He inclined his head to the kitchen. “You’ll probably want to cancel your credit cards and report your driver’s license stolen.”
“My bank accounts could be cleared out by now.” She shook her head, clearly in dismay. “But you won’t let me use my phone and I don’t have my laptop.”
“You can use my tablet to handle anything you need online and use my phone.” He rested one hand on the counter. “I’ll send one of the other agents get the tablet out of my vehicle. Will that do?”
“Yes, the tablet should do.” She rubbed her palm on her thigh. “Thank you.”
Moments later, Johnson had retrieved a case from Landon’s SUV and handed it to him. Landon thanked the agent and gave his tablet and phone to Tori to use.
Landon gestured to the table. “Have a seat and take care of whatever you need to.”
She took it from him as she slid into a chair at the kitchen table. “Thank you.”
He grabbed bottles of water from the fridge, cracked one open, and handed it to her. “You could probably use one of these.”
“I think what I really need is a glass of wine.” She gave him a small smile before she took a long drink. She hadn’t realized she was so thirsty. “I should be helping with dinner.”
He peeked into the pantry and pulled out a couple of packages of pasta. “You can fix breakfast.”
She set the water bottle on the kitchen table. “Deal.”
“Spaghetti all right with you? I think there’s enough for all four of us.” He looked through cabinets as he spoke. He retrieved a stockpot that had seen better days from a cabinet, before he set it beside the stovetop.
She slipped out of his shirt and hung it on the back of her chair, then took off the ball cap and set it beside her. “Spaghetti is more than all right.”
As Landon started to make dinner, the first thing Tori did was contact her bank and credit card companies. She was pleased to find out that none of her cards had unauthorized charges and none of her bank accounts had been emptied. By the time she was done, she’d finished her bottle of water. She felt drained, the jitteriness gone. It had been a long, horrific day.
She shut off the tablet’s screen, set the electronic device aside, and gave Landon his cell phone, which he holstered.
The scene of the man being murdered, and then the chase, kept playing over and over in her mind, no matter how hard she tried to think about other things. Seeing a man shot and killed wasn’t easy to get over, and she didn’t know if she ever would.
While Landon was finishing up dinner, his phone buzzed and he pulled it out of its holster. “Agent Walker,” he answered.
Tori couldn’t read his expression as he listened to whoever was speaking to him. “No sign of breaking and entering?” Landon asked and she straightened in her seat. He listened a little longer. “Thank you.” He ended the call then holstered his phone.
“You probably guessed that was the Tucson Police Department.” He leaned back against the counter. “No one was at your townhouse when the officers stopped by. They knocked and rang the doorbell, but no answer. They searched around the outside of the premises and found no sign of forced entry.”
“That could mean anything.” Tori swallowed. “But it’s so strange that Gregory didn’t return my call when I left your number. I was sure he would jump at the chance to talk to me.”
And berate me for getting myself into trouble, even though it wasn’t my fault,
she thought. For some reason she felt like she should explain. “I just left him and he wants me back,” she told Landon. “I avoided his calls earlier today, but he did get a hold of me once when he called from a number I didn’t recognize.”
Landon had heated the canned spaghetti sauce while she’d been taking care of her credit cards and bank accounts. A thought slipped through her mind that she’d love to have made homemade pasta and a special sauce for him.
She almost beat her head against the table. She must really be falling over the edge to have thoughts like that at a time like this. Maybe her mind was just grasping onto the thought of something normal in the midst of all the chaos.
He served up four plates of spaghetti and sauce. He gave her one then took plates to the agents in the living room. When he returned, he sat across from her at the table with a plate for himself.
She took a bite and chewed. “It’s wonderful.” The warm meal was already making her feel better.
Over his water bottle, he looked at her as she ate. He took a swig then set the bottle down. “It’s not gourmet, but it hits the spot.”
“Right now it’s better than gourmet.” She twirled her fork in her spaghetti. “I feel better now.”
Landon and Tori ate in silence for a moment. She stared at her plate, seeming lost in her thoughts, while swirling spaghetti around her fork. Even with the worry lines on her forehead and her concerned expression, she had a natural beauty that could never be hidden. Her short black hair shone beneath the kitchen lights. She had looked cute in his shirt, but now that she had it off, he noticed again the full swells of her breasts that would fill his palms. A slice of her flat belly was showing beneath her crop top, and he thought about the tattoo at the small of her back.
He nearly groaned and reminded himself of all the reasons why thinking about Tori in that way was a bad idea.
Conversation might get her mind off of what had clearly been a traumatic day for her. And it would get his mind off of her body.
“Where did you learn to run like that?” he asked.
She blinked at him, as if drawing herself back to reality. “I ran track in high school, mostly distance. I still run a few days a week, but it’s all flat, nothing like Bisbee’s hills.”
Her gaze clouded and he figured she was probably thinking of
why
she’d been running. His might have been an inappropriate question because it had probably brought up the memory. He changed the subject. “What do you do for a living?”
She looked up from her spaghetti. “I teach, compose, play clarinet with the Tucson Symphony, and bass clarinet in a woodwind ensemble. I have the summer off and I’d planned to thoroughly enjoy the break.” She raised the fork with the spaghetti wrapped around it. “I sure didn’t plan to spend it this way.”
“You’re a busy lady.” He watched her chew then swallow the pasta. “Where did you go to school?”
Before answering, she patted her mouth with a paper towel that he’d folded into a square to use as a napkin. “My B.M. in Jazz Performance and my M.M. in Clarinet Performance were from Arizona State.” She brushed a stray hair away from her face. “Indiana University is where I received my D.M. in Woodwind Pedagogy with a history minor and a higher education administration minor.”
The corner of his mouth tipped. “So I should be calling you Dr. Cox.”
She waved him away with a smile. “Don’t you dare.”
He took a bite of spaghetti, chewed, and swallowed. “I saw your tattoo. Not something I would expect to see on a doctor.”
“
Klarinette
is the German spelling.” She shrugged. “When I had the tat done in college, it was in vogue to tattoo the name of your instrument with the original spelling from the country where it was supposedly invented. I was young and wanted a tattoo, so that’s what I did.” She set her fork on her plate. “What about you?”
He gave her a little smile. “No tats.”
She returned his smile. “I meant your education and your career.”
“My B.S. in Criminal Justice is from the University of Arizona.” He twirled his fork in his spaghetti. “I worked for the DEA prior to DHS and ICE.”
She studied him. “You must have an exciting job.”
He turned her statement over in his thoughts. “You could say there are very few dull moments.” He wanted the attention off himself and on her. “Do you have family other than your parents?”
“Cousins, aunts and uncles.” She played with her fork and pasta. “They all live in other states and have big families with lots of children, unlike my parents and me.”
“No brothers or sisters, I take it?” Landon asked.