Obsession (18 page)

Electricity! The possibility of a hot shower sent a thrill through her, followed by the delight that she would be able to do laundry before she completely depleted her limited supply of clean clothes.

“Charlie! Are you awake?”

Charlie shifted and rolled onto his back, but he didn’t open his eyes. “Hmmm.”

Kendra grinned down at him as she sat on the edge of the couch beside him and nudged his shoulder. “Wake up. The electricity’s back on!”

His eyes remained closed, but he shifted to make room for her, and his arm snaked around her waist to hold her in place.

“Charlie,” she repeated, her voice growing thick as an unexpected warmth seeped through her. “Wake up.”

Slowly, his eyes opened. Then he gave her a lazy smile, and his hand trailed up to stroke her back.

She didn’t realize that she’d leaned closer until her lips were on his. She didn’t think of anything except for the way Charlie’s lips felt pressed against hers and the unexpected sense of acceptance and belonging.

She pulled back, embarrassment cresting even as she stared down at him. Then he shifted to sit up and pinned her with his deep blue stare. Before she could find any words, he stroked a hand down her cheek and leaned forward, hesitating for the briefest moment before he kissed her again. His fingers crept up into her hair, tangling in it as the kiss lingered and another wave of sensations crashed over her.

When he pulled back, he stared at her with a combination of confusion and something else she couldn’t quite identify.

“You have an interesting way of waking a man up,” Charlie said with the beginnings of a smile. “Not that I’m complaining.”

A blush rose to her cheeks, and she scrambled to stand up. “I just wanted to tell you that the electricity is back on. I didn’t mean to . . .”

Her voice trailed off. She didn’t mean to what? Kiss him? Find that unexpected feeling of belonging in his arms?

Charlie stood as well and nodded at the hall. “Since we have electricity again, I’m going to go shave and grab a quick shower. Then I can go check if the road is clear yet.”

“I thought you would want to stay here now that the electricity is back on.”

He jerked a shoulder. “I could, but there’s too big of a chance that we’ll just get snowed in again.”

“Oak Creek Canyon isn’t much better than Pinewood.”

“Yeah, but the roads get plowed in the canyon. That doesn’t always happen here,” Charlie reminded her. “Come on. My boss’s cabin is supposed to be really nice. We can both get some work done, hang out, maybe even order a pizza.”

“What about my car? Do you think we’d be able to dig it out?”

Charlie looked at her skeptically and slowly shook his head. “I doubt it can make it out of here yet, at least not safely. You can just drive down with me, and we can come back for it as soon as the snow melts off a bit more.”

“At the rate the snow keeps coming down around here, I might not be able to drive my car again until spring.”

“Worst case, I can get a tow truck to come in and bring it down the mountain for you. Once it’s out on the freeway, we’d be able to drive it.”

“I guess that’s true.” Kendra nodded. “I’ll go ahead and get breakfast started.”

Charlie gave her an odd look. Then he nodded. “Sounds good.”

* * *

Charlie put the last of his clothes into his suitcase and zipped it closed. Then he took another look around his bedroom. He had already loaded his laptop and printer into his SUV, along with the groceries and supplies left over from his trip to the general store. He decided they’d need to stop by the store on their way out of town to do some snooping as to Jed Burgess’s whereabouts. But he had one thing he had to do first. He had to tell Kendra the truth. The whole truth.

He still wasn’t quite sure what had happened between them earlier. He had tried to rationalize that the only reason he had kissed Kendra was that he had been half asleep, but rationalizing that fact or the fact that she had kissed him first didn’t negate the spark that had flashed between them or the reality that he wanted to kiss her again. Soon.

Perhaps it was selfish of him to come clean now and risk her kicking him out of her life and ultimately refusing his protection, but he couldn’t keep pretending that he was someone he wasn’t. The simple fact was that he was falling for her, and he didn’t want to lie anymore.

And he couldn’t very well stop by the store without making sure that Kendra wouldn’t inadvertently mention that they were leaving or tell Mrs. Burgess where they were going.

He carried his suitcase outside and loaded it in his car. Then he trudged through the snow toward Kendra’s cabin. His stomach tightened into knots as he climbed the front steps and strode across the porch to knock.

“Hi.” Kendra waved him inside.

Charlie rubbed his arms against the chill in the room. The heater was going full blast, but Kendra hadn’t started a fire, presumably because they were getting ready to leave. “Are you all packed?”

“Almost.” Kendra took a step toward the hallway leading to her bedroom. “I’ll only be a few more minutes if you want to wait here.”

He reached for her hand and waited for her eyes to lift to meet his. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you first, if you don’t mind.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “Is something wrong?”

“Not exactly.” He led her to the couch and sat down beside her. Then he took a deep breath. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Okay,” she said cautiously.

“I know I let you believe that I came up here to get away from work for a while.” Charlie’s heart squeezed in his chest when she pulled her hand free of his and her expression became guarded. He took another deep breath and forced himself to continue. “Your grandfather actually sent me up here to make sure you were safe.”

“What?”

“He was worried about you after what happened at your concert,” Charlie rushed on. “Neither of us had any idea that the Malibu Stalker might be after you when he arranged for me to come.”

Kendra stood up and took a step back. “So all this time you’ve been lying to me?”

“Kendra . . .” Charlie’s voice trailed off as he stood as well. Before he could continue, a loud metallic bang sounded through the cabin.

Startled, her attention shifted away from him. “What was that?”

“I don’t know.” Charlie started toward the kitchen where the sound had originated, and now he could hear a loud hissing sound. He stepped past the kitchen counter to see a steady spray of water seeping out from under the sink. “It looks like a pipe busted. It probably froze while the power was out.”

“Great,” Kendra muttered. “What do we do now?”

Charlie pulled the cabinet open and searched futilely for a shutoff valve. “I can’t turn off the water from here. Do you know where the main water shutoff valve is?”

“Yeah.” she nodded and motioned toward the back door. “It’s out there under three feet of snow.”

Charlie sighed as he made his way down the hall. He grabbed a shovel from the mudroom, along with the wrench hanging on the wall that was clearly kept there for the purpose of turning on and off the cabin’s water supply. “Point me in the right direction.”

Kendra opened the door leading to the back porch and pointed at a tree on the edge of the property line. “It’s about three feet in front of that tree over there.”

He stepped out into the deep snow and turned back to face her. “You might want to throw a couple towels on the floor to soak up the water until I get it turned off.”

She didn’t speak, but she nodded before she turned and closed the door between them.

As soon as she disappeared back inside, Charlie trudged to the spot she had indicated and used the shovel to start clearing the snow away. He tried not to think about the look of betrayal on Kendra’s face or what she might say once she had time to let his confession sink in. He focused on the task at hand, steadily shoveling snow from one spot in the yard to another.

After several minutes of working in the frigid cold, the shovel finally struck metal. Lifting the heavy steel covering away took another minute, but he finally managed to shift it aside so he could access the main water valve. Then he used the wrench to turn the water off completely. He tucked the wrench into his pocket and turned toward the cabin just as he saw a pickup truck lumber into the driveway.

Possibilities raced through his mind of who might be in that truck—none of them good. He dropped the shovel and ran toward the back door. His already rapidly beating heart picked up speed as he heard the car door slam followed by hasty footsteps on the front steps. His hand trembled as he pulled his weapon from its holster and leaped onto the back porch.

Surely Kendra would know not to answer the door to anyone. She knew that her safety was at stake, that she couldn’t trust anyone right now. Then he heard voices, and his anxiety went into overdrive. What would he do if the Malibu Stalker had already found her?

He tried to focus on his training, on all the hostage scenarios he had studied while at the FBI Academy, but in the forefront of his thoughts was his concern about Kendra. He uttered a silent prayer, one he kept repeating over and over. She had to be okay. She just had to.

Cautiously but quickly, Charlie pushed the door open even as dread curled in his stomach. He made it down the hall in a few long strides, his weapon cold in his hand. When he saw Kendra calmly standing by the couch, a combination of relief and confusion pulsed through him. Then his focus shifted to the older man standing beside her, and his training took over.

“Hold it right there!” Charlie’s voice was clipped and commanding.

The older man held his hands out to his side as Kendra’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

Kendra stared at his weapon for several long seconds before she lifted her eyes to look at his face. Finally, she managed to ask, “What are you doing?”

Before Charlie could answer, the older man spoke. “If I show you my temple recommend, will you promise not to shoot me?”

“Who are you?” Charlie demanded, his eyes an icy blue as he kept his weapon trained on the new arrival.

“Put that gun away!” Kendra insisted. “This is my grandfather.”

Charlie’s posture relaxed slightly, and slowly, he lowered his weapon. “Your grandfather?”

“That’s right.” Kendra’s eyes were wide, her face pale. Then she shook her head in confusion. “Wait a minute. I thought you knew each other.”

“Not exactly,” Charlie started.

Her eyes narrowed, and she pointed at his weapon. “And what are you doing with that thing?”

Charlie glanced down at his gun briefly before he holstered it at the small of his back in a practiced move and tried to ignore the embarrassment that was quickly working its way to the surface. He didn’t answer Kendra, but instead addressed her grandfather. “Sorry. I saw you pull up, and I didn’t want to take any chances, not after everything that’s been going on with Kendra.”

“I can understand that.” He nodded and then extended his hand. “William Blake.”

“Charlie Whitmore.” Charlie shook the older man’s hand. Then he looked over at Kendra and saw that her mind was working through the fact that he and her grandfather clearly hadn’t ever met before. She’d lifted a hand to her heart as though trying to steady its rhythm, and Charlie wondered if her heart could possibly be racing as fast as his was.

Kendra clenched her teeth as though trying to settle her emotions. Then she looked at Charlie, her voice vibrating with fury when she asked, “Who are you?”

A sense of trepidation shot through him when he realized Kendra hadn’t completely understood what he’d tried to tell her a few minutes before. He sent Kendra an apologetic look, his eyes staying on hers as he said bluntly, “I’m FBI.”

“What?” Kendra’s mouth dropped open.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you—” Charlie began.

“You mean, all this time . . . I thought . . .” Kendra trailed off. She shook her head, and color rose to her cheeks. Her expression filled with righteous indignation when she finally managed to form a complete sentence. “You were here because someone
paid
you to watch over me?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Charlie said weakly, and he shook his head.

Her voice was both frigid and commanding as she held up a hand before he could continue. “Don’t.”

Charlie grasped for words, any words that might erase the look of betrayal on her face. “Kendra, I care about you. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Ken.” William laid a hand on her arm. “It’s not Charlie’s fault. He was under orders not to tell you who he was.”

“Which makes you as bad as him.” Kendra sent her grandfather a withering stare before turning back to face Charlie. “So the only reason you came here was that I was your latest assignment. You must have thought I was an idiot to believe that it was just some great coincidence that we were here at the same time.”

“That’s not what I thought.” Charlie could almost see the barriers Kendra was putting up between them, and a skittering sense of panic shot through him. “I didn’t want you to think of me as a bodyguard.”

Anger vibrated through her voice. “But that’s what you were, weren’t you?”

“Not exactly.” He raked his fingers through his hair in an impatient gesture. “Let me explain.”

“I don’t need you to explain.” Kendra’s chin lifted, and her eyes cooled.

“Kendra—” Charlie started to apologize, but Kendra stepped back and shook her head before he could cross to her.

Before he could say anything further, another engine sounded outside.

“The road gets cleared, and now it’s like Grand Central Station,” Charlie muttered and moved to the window. He motioned to the man behind the wheel of a late-model SUV pulling up outside. “Do you know this guy?”

William walked to the window, pulled the curtain aside, and looked out. “He looks familiar. I think he’s one of Sterling’s bodyguards.”

“Bruce?” Kendra started to move forward.

“Don’t let him see you,” Charlie warned.

Kendra sent him a withering stare, but she followed his advice and moved to the edge of the window, where she could peek out without being seen. She glanced over at her grandfather and shook her head. “It’s Alan Parsons. My dad must have sent him. Perfect,” Kendra muttered and then turned to face Charlie. “First I find out the FBI’s been spying on me, and now this.”