Harlequin Romantic Suspense July 2021 Box Set Read online

  “We were just planning on leaving home. We were ready to get away, but we never really talked about where we were going. If you want me to tell you where Leo is right now, I can’t. You can beat me and everything, and I wouldn’t be able to tell you. I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing.” Jared frowned thoughtfully. “Sometimes he was kinda secretive, even with me.”

  “You know, it’s possible I could get the authorities to allow you a little access to your phone for playing your games if you could think of anything that might help us find Leo,” Brad said.

  “Agent Howard, don’t try to make deals with my client,” Albright said.

  “I just want to do something to help you, Jared,” Brad continued, pointedly ignoring Albright. “Eventually Leo will be caught and I truly believe he’s going to try to pin everything on you, Jared. He’s going to throw you under the bus and I’d hate to see that happen to you. You’ve had enough people in your life who have let you down. I want to do right by you, Jared. I like you and I think you deserve a break. I just want you to think about things, and no matter if it’s day or night, if you think of something that might help us and help yourself, let me know.”

  Jared’s eyes were troubled. “I’m not a snitch.”

  “I don’t think about it as you being a snitch. I think about it as you being smart,” Brad replied. “And I know you’re an intelligent guy, Jared.”

  Jared snorted. “Yeah, go tell my old man that.”

  Brad pushed back from the table. “I think we’re done for now. Remember, if you think of anything that might be important, or you decide you want to come clean about everything, don’t hesitate to contact your lawyer and I’ll be available to you.” There really wasn’t much more he could say without coming off as a big phony, and that was the last thing he wanted Jared to think of him. Hopefully he’d built something with the kid, something that would pay off.

  Minutes later Jared was led away by the jailer and Albright left the room. Brad could only wait and see if this short interview yielded anything.

  There was no way Brad believed that the two teenagers hadn’t talked about where they would go to hide out after the police were onto them for the murders. He believed Jared knew much more than he was telling.

  Along with Leo, Jared had killed four men and Brad wished he would just confess to the murders. He could only hope the chat today had convinced Jared to come clean. Only time would tell.

  It was possible Jared could be rehabilitated and eventually, at some point after serving years, he could get out of prison. Brad knew once Leo was captured, Jared’s chances for that happening diminished. A judge might look more favorably on Jared if he confessed now and was truly remorseful for his actions.

  Brad returned to his office, where he fielded some phone calls, coordinated with the officers working the case, and then when a lull occurred, he found himself thinking about his own father.

  Certainly while Brad had never doubted his father’s love for him, after the murder of Brad’s mother, Brad had found himself having to take on the role of parent to his grieving father.

  Before Brad’s mother’s death, Hank Howard had always appeared to be the strong one in the marriage, but Brad realized soon after his mother’s death that Hank had depended on his wife a lot.

  He’d had no idea about finances or how to shop or cook. He appeared helpless in the little things that held a family together. Brad had to step up and become the one who held his father together, who made sure things got done so they could function.

  He hadn’t minded, and not a day went by when his father didn’t thank Brad for his strength. Not a day went by that his father didn’t tell Brad that he was his hero.

  Hank had never dated or thought about another relationship. He had loved his wife and had mourned for her all the rest of the days of his life. When he finally passed, Brad was happy only in the thought that his parents were united once again.

  A knock fell on his door and Russ stuck his head into the office. “Simone Colton is here to see you,” he said.

  Brad frowned. What was she doing here? “Send her in,” Brad said and ignored the googly eyes Russ made just before he closed the door.

  A moment later the door opened and Simone stepped inside. She looked like a hot little firecracker in a red skirt and a red, white and blue blouse.

  “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here today,” he said as he got to his feet.

  She smiled. “I stayed up last night and worked on a new profile for both Jared and Leo.” She held out a sheath of papers, fastened together with a large blue paper clip. Her cheeks were dusted a charming shade of pink. “I hope you don’t mind, but this was something I wanted to do and I hope you find it all useful.”

  “Thanks, Simone.” He took the paperwork from her and laid it on his desk. “I’ll be sure to read through it. How are you doing?”

  “I’m good...just anxious for this all to come to an end,” she replied.

  “That makes two of us.”

  An awkward silence ensued, and then they both began speaking at the same time. They laughed and she took a step backward. “I know you’re busy, so I’ll get out of your hair now,” she said. “I just wanted to drop off that paperwork. I don’t know, but maybe it will help.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate it.” He would have liked it if she lingered for a few minutes. But there was no reason for that to happen, and he needed to gain some distance from her.

  He opened the door and she stepped out into the hallway. At the same time somebody yelled from the opposite end of the hall.

  “Hey, stop. You have no right to barge in here,” Russ’s voice yelled.

  “I’ll barge in whenever I damned want to.” At that moment Rob Garner appeared, barreling forward with Russ close behind him.

  Garner’s eyes widened and then narrowed at the sight of Simone. Oh, no, this was the last thing Brad wanted...another confrontation that put Simone in Rob’s head.

  “You,” he snarled and pointed a finger at Simone. His hands balled into fists at his sides. “What in the hell are you doing here?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Was it your idea for my boy to be questioned without my presence? I warned you, lady. I warned you to keep your nose out of this. You’re going to be damned sorry.”

  “I’m not going to stand here and listen to you threaten somebody,” Brad said with a rising anger of his own. “If you want to speak with me, then have a seat in my office.”

  He turned to Simone. “Agent Dodd will see you out.”

  “This way, Miss Colton.” Russ put himself between Simone and Garner. Garner stepped into Brad’s office at the same time Russ disappeared down the hallway with Simone.

  Brad remained in the hallway for several moments, tamping down the anger that threatened to consume him. Dammit, this was the very last thing he had needed. He’d seen the rage that had blackened Rob Garner’s eyes as he’d confronted Simone. It was a rage that definitely concerned Brad for Simone’s safety.

  What was Garner really capable of? If he truly believed that Simone was somehow helping to put his son away, then how dangerous might he be to Simone?

  Unfortunately, Brad didn’t have the answer to that. Drawing a deep breath, he turned to go into his office to face Rob’s wrath.

  * * *

  Simone added the finishing touches to her dining room table and then sank down to wait for her sisters and one of her cousins to arrive. It was rare that all three of them had a day off at the same time, but today they did and so she’d invited them all to lunch.

  She’d ordered in chef salads and a light pasta salad as well. The food had already arrived, the table was set and she was eager to check in with Tatum and January. She’d also invited their cousin Carly and Simone was pleased that she was able to make it, too. The four girls had grown up together and Simone considered Carly like another sister. />
  It had been two days since she’d encountered Rob Garner at the police station. The more she saw of the man, the more she thought about what it must have been like for Jared to grow up with such a brutal man as a father.

  She could feel sorry for the kid, but that certainly didn’t excuse the choices he’d made, horrible choices that had resulted in four men being brutally murdered. When she thought about never seeing her father again, whatever Jared might have suffered as a kid didn’t matter to her. He had still chosen to become a killer.

  There was no question in her mind that Leo had been the dominant one in their friendship, that Leo had been the mastermind behind the murders. Leo was definitely a sociopath and he’d found the perfect partner in a boy who wanted to please and feel accepted by him.

  A knock on the door pulled her out of her seat and out of her thoughts about Rob and Jared Garner. When she opened the door, Carly greeted her with a big hug.

  “Come on in,” Simone said. “You’re the first to get here.” She led Carly to the sofa, where they both sat. “How’s work?” Simone asked.

  “Good, but busy as usual.” Carly was a pediatric nurse at Chicago University Hospital. “What about you?” Her bright blue eyes sparkled with interest.

  “I’ve got a lecture tonight and then I’m finally all finished for the semester,” Simone replied. “And how is Micha?”

  Carly’s eyes sparkled even brighter. “He’s great.”

  Carly reached up and twirled a strand of her light blond hair. “Things are finally going really well and I couldn’t be happier.”

  Carly had been engaged to Micha Harrison, a special forces army lieutenant. On his last mission he had been taken prisoner by a terrorist group out of Baghdad and Carly had gotten word that he was dead.

  She had mourned long and deep for him and then a couple of months ago he’d walked back into her life. Scarred and having suffered a broken back, he’d decided it was better for him to let go of Carly so she could find another man to love, but he hadn’t been able to stay away from her.

  “I’m just glad Micha and I got a second chance together,” Carly said.

  Simone smiled. “And I’m so happy for both of you.” Before she could say anything else, another knock sounded. It was Tatum and January.

  Greetings and hugs were exchanged all around and then they all got seated at the table and began to catch up with each other. “I have a little confession to make,” Tatum said. “I’ve started working on a cookbook.”

  “That’s awesome,” January exclaimed. “Are you going to publish it yourself? You know you could sell a lot of copies just by having it available in the restaurant.”

  “That’s true, but I’d really like to find a publisher who could get me better distribution than just selling it out of the restaurant. So, keep your fingers crossed for me because I’ve been sending out some queries,” Tatum replied.

  She turned and looked at Simone. “What I really want to know from you is when Special Agent Howard became Brad.” She raised an eyebrow and both January and Carly looked at Simone quizzically.

  “Oh, please, do tell,” January said.

  Simone’s cheeks warmed. “Look, she’s blushing,” Carly exclaimed. “Simone, I swear, I have never seen you blush like that before.”

  “I’m not really blushing and there’s nothing much to tell,” Simone replied. “I... We... I’ve just been working with him a little bit.”

  “According to my staff, you looked pretty cozy at the restaurant before all hell broke loose,” Tatum said.

  “What happened? What hell broke loose?” January asked, looking first at Tatum and then at Simone.

  Simone explained about approaching the Garners that night in the restaurant and how Rob had come at her. “He’s a horrid man and he should have never become a father.”

  “Simone, you have to stay away from this,” Tatum said. “I know you’re just trying to help, but you just said yourself that Rob Garner is a horrid man. Who knows what he might be capable of?”

  January reached out and took one of Simone’s hands in hers. “The last thing we want is for anything to happen to you, Simone. In fact, we’ve been a little worried about you.”

  “Worried about me? Why?” Simone asked in surprise.

  “You don’t seem to be moving on,” Tatum said softly. “It’s been almost seven months now and you just seem completely obsessed.”

  “We don’t want you anywhere near anything that might put you in danger.”

  “I know.” Simone gave her sister’s hand a squeeze and then released it. “In any case, that man would be a fool to come after me, especially now that he’s threatened me in public twice.”

  “Twice?” Carly stared at her. “When did he threaten you the second time?”

  Simone sighed. She hadn’t intended to tell them about running into Rob at the police station, but inadvertently she had just busted herself. She told them about what had happened two days ago and listened to all three of them voice their concerns for her all over again.

  “Don’t worry. I don’t expect to run into him again, and in any case, I think he’s just a blowhard bully.” What she didn’t tell them was for the past two days as she’d run errands around town and in the neighborhood, she’d felt as if somehow somebody was following her...watching her, but she’d chalked it up to her own silly paranoia.

  From that the conversation turned to how their mothers were doing and grilling Carly about what was happening with her two brothers.

  The lunch lasted about an hour and a half. There was plenty of laughter, and by the time the others left, Simone was in a much better mood than she had been before they arrived.

  Thank God she had her family. She wasn’t sure how she would have survived this ordeal of loss without them. As she cleaned up the kitchen, thoughts of her father once again played through her mind.

  She had definitely been a daddy’s girl. Not only had he soothed her through stormy weather, he’d also been the one who had told her that the boy she’d liked in eighth grade was a jerk for not liking her back. He had taught her how to dance and how to drive a car. He’d also told her when her dress was too short and how to respect herself as a woman.

  He had been the one man who had encouraged her drive and her thirst for knowledge. He’d been proud of who she had become and she’d loved to sit and talk to him for hours on end.

  And now he was gone forever. The rock concert of grief suddenly screamed in her head. She hoped Brad was right and in time her grief would only be a whisper of a lullaby that occasionally played in her head.

  Brad. The man was spending far too much time in her head. Of all the men in Chicago, why did it have to be a handsome FBI agent from Washington, DC, who drew her in?

  She enjoyed watching the ever-changing colors of his hazel eyes...from green to gold to goldish brown. Why did his broad shoulders and strong arms beckon her to fall into them and just be for a moment? Why did she enjoy talking to him more than she had to any other man?

  It was wrong...all wrong, and she knew it. He had a job to do here, and once that job was over, he’d return to whatever life he had in DC. Besides, he was probably just being kind to her because she was the daughter of a victim and because she’d pretty much been in his face for the last week or two.

  Or maybe she was just thinking about him so much because he was a distraction from her grief. Certainly it was easier for her to think about the handsome FBI agent than to think about her father’s forever absence from her life.

  She just had to stop thinking about him altogether now. He would contact her and the rest of her family if anything changed with the case. She’d done what she could to help and now there was no reason for her to spend any time alone again with Brad.

  After the kitchen was once again clean, she sat down at the table with her notes for the night’s lecture befor
e her and read through them. She’d been there for only about a half an hour when rain began to patter against the window.

  She got up and turned on her television in an effort to catch the weather report for the evening. The forecast wasn’t great. It was supposed to rain all night and through tomorrow. There was no way she’d be walking to the college tonight. She definitely wasn’t into walking in the rain no matter how big the umbrella she carried.

  By six thirty she was in her car and headed to the campus. The rain had continued to come down steadily throughout the afternoon and it had turned unusually cool.

  As much as she loved the students she would be teaching tonight, she was eager to get back to her condo, change into her nightgown and cuddle down beneath a soft, warm blanket.

  She parked in the staff parking lot, opened her umbrella and grabbed her computer case and then hurried toward the lecture hall for the last time until next fall. Once again, she had that odd feeling of somebody watching her. She threw a glance over her shoulder but saw nobody anywhere near her.

  Still, she breathed a small sigh of relief as she entered the building. She closed the umbrella and smiled at the security guard who stood just inside the door. “It’s a wet one out there tonight, Eddie,” she said.

  Eddie Judd had worked security for as long as she could remember. He was a really nice older guy who had retired from the police department and then had picked up the job working security.

  “Supposed to be wet for the next week or so,” Eddie replied. “Have a good evening, Professor Colton.”

  “Thanks, Eddie. You do the same.” She hurried down the carpeted hallway toward the lecture room that held two hundred students, although the class tonight wasn’t that big.

  Once inside, she went to the lectern, prepared her notes, connected her computer to the audio/video system and then greeted the students as they began to trickle in. Once seven o’clock came, the hall was three-quarters of the way full and she began her lecture, complete with an elaborate PowerPoint presentation.