Authors: Valerie Douglas
“So,” he said, his gut clenching, “they were warning you off.”
Taking a breath, Ariel said, “Something like that. It looks like I’m involved whether I want to be or not.”
Something had been bothering her and now she wanted the answer.
“How did you know I was in trouble?” she asked.
He shifted a little, uncomfortably and then looked at her. “I’ve been watching you. Since I thought I got you into this mess.”
It seemed now that he might not have.
Smiling a little, she said, “Once or twice I thought I felt eyes on me and thought it might be you.”
Ariel considered it. In an odd way, it was comforting. Even with his suspicions and concerns about his friend’s death and the risks he’d been taking, he’d still been watching over her.
“So you want to find out what it was that got Bill killed?” Ariel asked, quietly.
It would mean her job if anyone found out. One of those definite ethical no-nos. But this was one of those times you had to make a decision. Even before she’d found those men beating him she’d had questions.
If they’d killed someone…?
Matt looked at her. “Ariel, that’s not why I made love to you.”
He wanted, needed her to know that.
That thought hadn’t even crossed Ariel’s mind, to tell the truth.
She smiled. “I know, you just found out. If you’d seen the look on your face a moment ago, you’d know that. Now that was priceless.”
He smiled back and then the smile faded. The stooges had been taken down but not out. They could come after her again. It wasn’t safe for her at Marathon any more.
“You can’t go back there,” he said.
“Matthew, I have to, it’s my job. It’s all I have, I can’t quit for no reason,” she said, sensibly. She knew she was falling in love with him but who knew what would happen once this was all over? If he left? “I don’t know whether or not those men had anything to do with Bill’s death or not but if I don’t show up on Monday, I don’t have a job. Maybe they’ll think the warning was enough. You made someone nervous, everything started after you showed up. They might be afraid of whatever I might see there but I don’t think they want any of it to be connected to Marathon.”
Frowning, Matt looked at her. “Why not? What do you mean everything started after I showed up?”
“None of this started until Fort Lauderdale. If they work for Marathon they could have taken me at any time. The first night I’m in an office, I do the installation of the software. I’m alone for hours. They could have taken me easily. All they have to do is wait until Monday if they wanted to but the one place they’ve never come after me is Marathon. If for nothing else perhaps only because if anything happened to me it would link to there.”
That made sense, especially after Bill’s death. They wouldn’t want another death connected to Marathon, especially since they knew he was watching them.
Something she’d said earlier also bothered him.
“Wait,” he said, “Go back. This isn’t the first time something happened, here in New Orleans?”
Ariel shook her head slowly. It was obvious Matt hadn’t known. If he’d been watching her, following her, he hadn’t been following her that closely.
“No.”
Matt felt a chill.
“What happened?” he asked.
Her eyebrows drew down a little, a half a frown. “At first, they just watched. The first time I noticed them that’s all they did. I was in the parking garage in Tampa. Nothing happened, they simply watched but they didn’t try to hide that they were doing it. It was as if they wanted me to know they were there.”
“Jesus,” he said, closing his eyes.
He hadn’t known or noticed. She must have been terrified.
“What did you do? Did you tell anyone?”
She shook her head and made a face, her mouth twisting wryly.
“No. I was working in a strange office, in a strange city. Who was I going to tell? I couldn’t call the police. What was I going to say? Some men are staring at me? It wasn’t as if they did anything. All they did was watch. It was unnerving but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I thought it might stop when I went to the next city but it didn’t. It wasn’t as bad in Birmingham, since there were no parking garages or parking lots where they could lurk. There was a man in the bar, though and maybe across the street.”
That close. He was glad he’d watched her until she went inside the hotel but he now realized they could’ve taken her any time, as they’d tried to here. A chill went through him at the thought. He slid an arm around her waist to draw her close.
“You said, at first?” he prompted.
Ariel hesitated a moment, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, remembering that night at the hotel on the highway. How scared she’d been and how close they’d come.
“They came after me on the way here.”
He cupped her face, tilted it to look at him. “What do you mean, came after you?”
Ariel stilled, looking into his eyes. “Some men tried to grab me in the parking lot of the hotel I stayed at on the way.”
Closing his eyes, Matt thought of watching her get in the car in Birmingham and thinking that at least she was leaving, she was safe. So close.
“You didn’t know, Matthew. It’s not your fault,” she said, quietly. “And I got away.”
It would have felt like his fault if they’d found her dead somewhere. If they ever found her, if he would have even known. There was a lot of empty space between Birmingham and New Orleans, a lot of places to dump or hide a body where only hunters, hikers, or kids would have found her. Eventually. He would have lost her and never even known it. He could have lost this, the sweet pleasure of making love to her, holding her.
“Yes, you did.”
For a minute, he pulled her closer, cradling her head. His heart ached. Brushing his cheek against her soft hair, he thought it had been too close a call. It hadn’t happened, no thanks to him. That was the second time he’d misjudged them and how far they were willing to go.
Sitting back, Ariel looked at him.
“My point is, though, they’ve had nearly two weeks, certainly all of last week, when they could have taken me if they wanted. I work alone in the computer room for long stretches of time, certainly the first night I’m in any office. If Marathon really suspected me of anything they could have held us both that day you were at the Birmingham office.”
Now that he thought about it even his own encounters with the stooges had been away from Marathon property, unless he was actually caught in one.
“Someone has been after me as well. What is it they don’t want you to be nosy about? Is there another player in this game?” Matt asked.
Ariel shook her head. “I don’t know the answers either. Is it something here they’re afraid I’ll see? Or are they discouraging me in general? And from what?”
“They’ve been watching me but it’s as if they’re unsure of me,” she continued, “I always go in the day of the install to be sure everything that needs to be done beforehand is so when I do the installation that night I have fewer problems. Matthew, if it looks bad I can always leave. They won’t dare do anything during the day, there would be too many witnesses. The employees will notice if they try to make a move there. They have to know that.”
Could he put her at that much risk? Did he dare not to? She was his only and best chance at finding answers. If it wasn’t for Bill… If they did this, there was the risk Ariel might end up like Bill. If they didn’t, someone else might. He knew something was going on there, something big, something someone didn’t want anyone to see.
Ariel felt him tense. She could almost see the wheels turn in his mind. She reached up to comb her fingers through his hair.
“I’m volunteering.”
Matt looked at her, looked deep into those beautiful blue eyes in that lovely elfin face and shook his head.
“I can’t let you do it,” he said, “I can’t let you take that chance.”
He couldn’t. He was starting to care about her. More than he’d cared about anyone except for his mother, Darrin…and Bill. It all came back to that.
She looked at him steadily. “I don’t believe you asked. Knowing what I know now, I could go looking myself.”
Alone? The thought sent chills up his spine.
“And have you end up the way Bill did? Are you insane? No, Ariel,” Matt said, taking her by the shoulders. “That’s what got Bill in trouble. Don’t even try it. Besides, would you even know what you were seeing? Bill was pretty certain I would but I don’t know what he was looking at. It’s too bad you can’t get me in.”
The last was said in frustration as he ran his own hand through his hair.
“Why not?” she asked. “I could bring you in as my associate. The people here wouldn’t know. I don’t carry any other identification than my business cards and they’ve never even asked for that.”
Frowning, Matt shook his head. “No. Someone has given them a description of me or a picture. Something. They recognized me in Birmingham, that’s what put them onto me.”
With a sigh, Ariel thought about it, thought about her routine….
“I have to kick everyone out of the system before I can start, so I’m usually the only one there after five or five thirty,” Ariel suggested. “The building will be empty, then.”
Shaking his head, he said, “It won’t work,” and explained about the watch on the elevators.
Now she grinned, mischievously. “Then we can get you in. Computer rooms are always kept dry and cold, it’s better for the equipment. It’s thirsty work, though. So security is warned that I’ll be going down to the vending machines – which are almost always in the basement for some reason. They’ve never checked. They know I’ll go down, so if you can get into the building, you can come up with me. Or I can let you in, if there’s a door down there.”
Simple.
Matt stared at her. It was a hell of a risk to take but at least she wouldn’t be alone when she was the most vulnerable. He would be with her. That would relieve one worry.
Finally, at long last, he might be able to find out why Bill had been killed. With the why, he could discover the who. What was it Bill had found that was important enough someone had to kill him? To do that, though, he’d have to put Ariel in more danger. This wasn’t the same thing as the stooges coming after her. If she went into that building again, it would be for him and for Bill.
A small hand slid into his, as Ariel tilted her head to look at him.
“Are you going to tell me about it?” she asked. “He was your friend.”
Slowly, Matt shook his head. “No, he was more than that. The brother I never had. A stand-up guy. He stuck by me when a lot of other people didn’t.”
It was a different kind of chance to take, to tell her what he was about to tell her but it was the only way she would understand just what Bill had meant to him. She had a right to know. Not only about that but she needed to know what kind of man, he was. It was hard, though. He didn’t talk about it much, he’d learned his lesson on that. Jeannine had been horrified at first and then thrown it up at him in their arguments.
It took a major act of courage to come right out and say it. When he did, he was blunt and to the point.
“When I was a teenager I was accused of killing someone. Manslaughter.”
Ariel looked at him, frowned a little and then shook her head. That wasn’t the man she was coming to know.
“What happened?”
Matt waited. Those amazing eyes were still, watching him. Just listening. She hadn’t pulled away. Her hand was still in his. It was enough, it had to be enough.
“We were kids. Bill and I went to a party at a friend’s house. The parents weren’t home. Word got around about the party pretty fast. It was only supposed to be beer but some others brought the hard stuff – tequila, some scotch, vodka. Most of us were under age. There were drugs. A fight broke out between a couple of the guys. The kid who started it was hopped up on something. He was known for it and there was bad blood between us. Whatever he’d taken had made him a lot stronger, he was really wired. He was going to kill Toby if someone didn’t stop him. I tried to restrain him and he died. It was stupid, I was a little drunk and I shouldn’t have been.”
Memories of that night were a nightmare vision of blue and red lights skewed by the tequila and beer he’d drunk. Girls had screamed as the fight had gotten ugly, someone shouted, there were questions from the police and the dead kid, Art, lay on the lawn. When the results of the drug tests had come in, it had shown Art had taken PCP. His own blood alcohol level had been a little too high, enough to impair his judgment. The guilt and the doubt still ate at him sometimes.