Shelby's Secret (Once a Marine, Always a Marine Book 4) (3 page)

The white, button-up, long-sleeve shirt just made his skin look darker and his shoulders wider. His hair was raven black and contrasted with hazel eyes that were a true hazel and changed color with his mood.

He wasn’t a conventionally handsome man. His features were too rough for what society deemed good looking, plus his nose had clearly been broken a couple of times. But what he did as he gave her a quick once-over should’ve been illegal. Those eyes had started out a lighter green, but the longer they stayed on her, the darker they got.

And when he made love—they’d turn emerald.

She knew from experience.

“Shelby Lynn,” he said in the sudden silence.

His tone was faintly mocking and his face seemed made of stone, but only she heard the thread of humor. He’d been the one to suggest using her first and middle name only as her stage name. That had been more than fifteen years ago. When they’d been teenagers.

“Mike.” Not Michael, and if anyone called him Mikey, they got their arm broken. Just Mike. Simple and plain. Unlike the man, who was anything but simple. Or plain.

“Glad you remembered,” he said. Then he took up a position in the corner, back to the wall, facing the door, keeping everyone in view.

Three pairs of eyes focused on her, and she was glad she’d stopped blushing years ago. Madge’s eyebrows were up in her hairline, and Shelby could tell she wanted to know what the hell had just happened, but would wait until they were alone. Small reprieve. The Mayor and the Chief merely looked quizzical.

“You know each other?” This question was from the Mayor.

“Ancient history,” Mike answered.

Shelby couldn’t help the small stab that comment, and the dispassionate tone, caused. But she smiled at the Mayor, turned up the wattage, and said, “A lifetime ago.”

The Chief cleared his throat and stuck out his hand to introduce himself while the Mayor took a seat. “Thank you for coming in, Ms. Collins. I can imagine your schedule is very busy, but we appreciate any light you can shed on this tragedy. Sergeant Mike Hanson is my lead homicide detective on the case. I’m sure he’ll have some questions as well.”

“He can question us both,” Madge said. Her arms were crossed but she’d moved to stand directly behind Shelby’s chair. “I saw the email as well.” She threw a folded section of the newspaper on the gleaming conference table, all of them watching it slide toward Mike. “That story is what made Shelby determined to come in and talk about the email she received.”

“We want to help,” Shelby said, quietly. Madge was a mother hen in action.

“Tell me about the email,” Mike said.

His gaze caught and held her. Something in her chest squeezed tight, because she hadn’t really ever expected to see him again. He was right—they were ancient history, and she needed to act like it. So she made her tone brisk as she described what happened two days prior. The email with the song, the dead woman in the swing, and the parallel to her very first video. She described what she could remember.

Madge filled in the details.

Shelby was proud of the fact her voice stayed even. She couldn’t be completely unemotional, because she wasn’t; it was too sad and too scary to pretend otherwise.

“Why did you wait two days to report this?”

Shelby looked up at her manager.

“She wanted to call that morning.” Madge answered. “I sent her to bed because she hadn’t slept, and I went to look at the email again, to make sure it was what we thought it was.” She sighed and finally took a seat next to Shelby. “But it was gone.”

“What do you mean it was gone?” Mike asked.

“Just what I said. The email just wasn’t there. I have a friend who works I.T., and he said the email probably came with a sub-program that erased it within minutes of viewing.”

“So you decided not to call police.”

Shelby piped up. “I made that decision when Madge told me what happened.” She shrugged. “If Madge hadn’t seen it herself, I would have thought I’d just imagined it. I’d been without sleep for more than twenty-four hours at that point. My mind could have been playing tricks on me.”

“Besides,” her manager said, “it’s not the first time, or the last time, someone will email or send something weird to Shelby. She’s an international superstar. It could have been a sick prank. Why waste your time?”

Shelby glanced at Mike’s expression, but he wasn’t giving much away. They’d all heard the pride in Madge’s voice.

“I’m sure you felt you did the right thing,” the Mayor said.

The Chief stayed quiet—merely listening.

Shelby fought the urge to squirm or chatter because the she felt awkward. She should have pushed for this meeting after the email, she knew it. But she hadn’t. “When I read the paper this morning, I could no longer convince myself it was just a sick prank. I’m so sorry if I’ve messed up the investigation.” She made eye contact with all three men─two nodded and one cocked his head to the side.

“What else happened?” Mike asked.

How the hell did he know? He couldn’t read her the way he used to. Could he? Too much time had passed, and she certainly couldn’t read anything in his enigmatic face. That pissed her off a little.

She crossed her arms. It wasn’t a defensive move, there was a chill in the room. After all, she was there trying to help.
 

“How could you possibly know there’s something else?”

That question was from Madge, but Shelby couldn’t shake the feeling Mike knew her secrets. Which was silly. No one did.
 

She nodded at Madge who pulled a large plastic bag out of her purse. Sealed within was a folded letter.

“I’m afraid I touched it before I realized what it was,” Shelby said.

“I’ll need your prints to match them up with the ones on the letter.” Mike never moved to touch the package himself. “Tell me what it says.”

“They’re song lyrics,” she said. He was so business-like that it made her feel awkward. As if she were in trouble.
 

“From a new song that Shelby has been working on,” Madge added.

Shelby nodded. “No one has heard it but Madge.” She uncrossed her arms, resisting running her hands through her hair. It was a nervous tick and one she’d worked long and hard to eradicate because she was a public figure. The gesture didn’t look good in front of her fans or the paparazzi because it betrayed the fact that she was less than composed. “The last time I even worked on it was at my home in Tennessee.”

“So you think this is a stalker?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know what to think. I’ve dealt with everything from hate mail to having both male and female stalkers before, but the letters and appearances have been virtually harmless. Nothing like this has ever happened.”

“How was it delivered?”

This time Shelby couldn’t stop the small shiver. It was scary to think how close to home it was. “The envelope was slipped into my hairdresser’s purse while she was shopping.” Mike never shifted his gaze from her. She hugged her arms, unnerved.
 

“And where was she shopping, Shelby?”

“Three miles from the home we rented.”

“You can rest assured, Ms. Collins, we
will
find who did this and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” The Chief said.

His tone was firm and confident, and Shelby turned to smile at him, relieved to break the intense eye contact with Mike. “I appreciate that, very much. As does my staff.”

“Why don’t I take Ms. Collins down and scan her prints?” Mike said, as he moved away from the wall.

Madge started to stand, but Shelby put her hand on her thigh under the table to stop her. She wanted a moment alone with the man now standing in front of her. Madge shot her a look, which Shelby ignored, but stayed in her seat.

“Good idea,” the Mayor said enthusiastically. “I’ll have to be off before you get back, Ms. Collins, but if either of you need anything, please call my office.”

She nodded and followed Mike out into the hallway. The walk to the elevator was silent and continued that way to the basement. She found herself in a small room with a new machine that was waist high and looked a bit like a futuristic scanner. The days of an ink pad and roller were apparently over at the Phoenix Police Department. She turned to say something to the big quiet man behind her, but the glittering look in his eyes stopped her. He’d lost the poker face and what she saw was anger. The slow-build kind that lashed out from his expression.

“You left without ever saying goodbye,” he said.
 

His voice was soft, but she still flinched. “I didn’t think there was anything more to say,” Shelby replied. Her heart accelerated, like a small animal in the presence of a hunter. “We wanted different things, and neither of us was willing to bend.”

“I might have compromised. Eventually.”

Shelby shook her head. “Not back then. You had a path laid out and come hell or high water, you were following it. I had that same determination. What could I have said that would’ve changed your mind?”

“I guess there wasn’t anything. But I deserved more than an empty room and no note.” He reached for her and spanned his hands around her much-smaller waist. “You didn’t even kiss me goodbye.”

And then his lips were on hers.

Chapter 3

Mike had meant the kiss to punish. To somehow prove that he’d gotten over her fifteen years ago when she’d walked out on him. But the moment his lips touched her soft pink ones, he couldn’t be that guy. Couldn’t use what they had to hurt her that way.

He’d walked into that conference room and been blindsided. Those cobalt blue eyes were the same, never done justice in her videos. The over-the-top curly ash blond hair that refused to straighten no matter what she did was the same. It was a little longer and highlighted, but still baby soft.

He’d felt her presence like a punch in the gut. That he’d been able to speak at all was a miracle, much less carry on an intelligent conversation. As it was, he probably sounded like the surly thug he knew he looked like.

All that faded as she responded slowly to his kiss. Her hands slid up his arms but stayed on his biceps. He’d crushed her body against his much-harder one, and she still fit perfectly against him. As if she was made for him. But she wasn’t just for him.

And that truth was like a cold splash of water.

The heat of the moment faded, and he pulled back. Her lips were shiny and kiss swollen, but her make-up and hair remained perfect. Like her life away from him. “Well, I’ve had my goodbye kiss. Now let’s get your fingerprints taken,” he muttered.

He gave Shelby a lot of credit. She never reacted to anything the way he thought she would, and that kiss was no different. No yelling, no recriminations, no cutting words flung at him for stealing something that millions of men the world over fantasized about.

“You certainly haven’t lost your touch. Guess the Marine Corps didn’t change everything.”

If she was bitter, her light chuckle didn’t show it. “That was unprofessional. I won’t apologize.”

This time her laugh was genuine and hearty. “You never have before, why start now?”

He put the kiss and their past behind him, where it should have stayed and slipped back into cop mode—better than left-behind-former-lover. That was a role he’d never be in again. Shelby had made sure of that. Contrary to what just happened, he was a professional. “Do you have any idea who might want to hurt you?” He asked it while he began setting up the machine for her prints.
 

She seemed to accept the change in atmosphere as if nothing had happened. “I really don’t. In the past, I’ve had to get a couple of restraining orders. One against an overzealous fan club president and the other against a band roadie, but those were pretty mild cases of stalking. Like Madge said, I’ve had hate mail and crazy threats, but no one around me seems likely, and they’ve all had thorough background checks.”

“Sounds like your manager is very competent. I assume you have a security detail?”

Shelby nodded and looked up at him.
 

He didn’t want to touch her again, even to take her prints. He was honest enough with himself to know he might not stay detached. But he gritted his teeth and reached for her hand, placing it firmly on the scanner.

“It’s a three-man team from a company that came highly recommended in Nashville. They’ve worked with other singers in similar situations.”

“Since I haven’t heard of any other singers who’ve inspired this kind of rage, make sure your team leader gets into contact with me. There are some things they should watch for.”

She was quiet for a while as he scanned both hands, her head was down so he couldn’t see her face. He wished he could see her expression. Was she terrified, or was this just normal for her business? And he didn’t like that he couldn’t stay objective. He was about to ask something else about her security but she spoke first.

“Did you ever get married?”

The question was out of the blue. Or maybe it wasn’t. Her life as a tabloid princess was there for everyone to see. She’d gotten engaged once, about five years ago, but for whatever reason the wedding hadn’t happened. “No.”