Unexpected Secrets Read online

A smile crossed my face as I thought about the look in Mackenzie’s eyes when she saw this massive man standing next to Fran. It was a good thing Fran was average height with a kind smile; otherwise, Mackenzie probably would have turned tail and run, fast, in the opposite direction.

  There was a knock on my office door. “Come in.”

  Thea opened the door and stopped short when she saw Cox, looking questioningly at Gabriel.

  “Come in and close the door behind you, Thea. There’s someone I want you to meet—he’s with Fran, and you’ll meet Fran after Mackenzie’s Tai Chi lesson.”

  Thea closed the door and seemed to draw herself up to her full five-foot-nine inches as she strode forward, extending her hand confidently toward Nelson. “Hello, I’m Athena Brady.”

  There was a slight flicker in Cox’s eyes—respect, I wondered?

  “Hello, Athena, I’m Cox Nelson. I’m with SOS Security,” he offered as he took a step forward, shaking her hand firmly.

  Thea immediately turned toward Gabriel, her eyes filled with questions.

  “Please sit down, Thea, and I’ll answer all those questions and fill you in on why Fran and Cox are here.”

  Thea grabbed the chair closest to her, and Cox took the other one, both seated across from me, a coffee table between us.

  I looked at Thea. “Before Mackenzie interrupted us this morning, I had begun to tell you that I invited a few members of the SOS Security team to come here during my absence.” To her credit, Thea remained silent, and I could see she was processing the information as quickly as I doled it out. “In the past, I’ve had a small security detail keep their eye on Mackenzie, and this all started after my wife’s death. Although as of late, most of this has been done via tech and security cameras.”

  A flicker of anger crossed through Thea’s eyes, but she remained silent.

  “The security firm raised some concerns that it’s possible someone may be following Mackenzie, which I learned just yesterday. They immediately sent agents here—Fran and Cox—to help determine if there’s cause for concern, or not.” I waited for a response, but Thea sat stoically in her chair. “Fran and Cox will be nearby during my absence, although you probably won’t see them apart from Fran’s daily visit to the house for Mackenzie’s lessons.”

  Thea stood in one swift move, and placed her hands on the back of her chair, leaning forward, her focus on me. “And why am I just learning about this now?” she asked, her eyes seething.

  “Which part?” I asked.

  Her eyes narrowed. You could cut the tension with a knife.

  “Let’s start with the fact that there appear to be security cameras in this house that I was unaware of before this moment. From there, let’s move on to the fact that there are details I clearly should have been made aware of regarding your wife’s death if you hired a security firm to follow Mackenzie and there were concerns about her safety—if not prior to my employment, certainly immediately following my hire.” Her eyes never wavered from mine.

  I could feel Cox’s eyes looking back and forth between Thea and me; he appeared to be enjoying the exchange, his eyebrow arched, like he was eagerly awaiting my reply.

  “Please, sit down, Thea.”

  “Don’t patronize me.” Anger dripped into her voice.

  “Fair enough. I’ll start with the security cameras. They are predominantly focused on the grounds outside, and apart from that, there are only two others in the public areas of the house, focused on entrances and exits.”

  “How dare you keep this information from me.” She pushed away abruptly from her chair and paced toward the bookcase, then reversed her steps, coming back to stand in front of me. “Continue.”

  Feisty. “Regarding my wife’s death, many of those details are classified, and it wasn’t information I would have divulged to you prior to your employment.”

  “What about after my employment? I’ve been here more than a week now.”

  “Honestly, Thea, I didn’t think there was any reason to give you those details. There had been nothing to suggest that any of the events that precipitated Allessandra’s death would be an issue here in Yarmouth. I would have told you at some point, but ideally, that would have come down the road.”

  “How much danger is she in?”

  My heart jumped. Despite her justified anger, her first concern was for Mackenzie. “It could be that she isn’t in any danger at all, but we don’t know that for certain, and that’s why Fran and Cox are here. Cox is the CIO of SOS and is one of the best at intelligence there is. Fran reports to him, and they are both highly skilled at self-defense and protective detail.”

  “What exactly happened to raise suspicion?” She took a deep breath and sat down in the chair.

  “SOS saw activity they considered suspicious—as though someone was potentially tailing you.”

  “Gabriel—I realized this morning I needed to tell you this before you leave.” She licked her lips before continuing. “When I picked Zee up from school on Friday, I felt something… It was that sense you have when someone is watching you.”

  Both Cox and I moved forward in our seats.

  Thea shivered. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I forgot about it after we got home, and then you arrived, and well, the rest is history. At the time I looked around to see if there was anything out of place or anyone, but to be honest, everything looked normal. I rushed Mackenzie into the car and we came straight home.”

  “Did you notice anyone tailing you?” Cox asked, his eyes focused on Thea’s.

  She turned toward him. “I didn’t. I—I’m sorry. I didn’t even think to look for that.”

  “Tell me what you normally see when you pick Mackenzie up,” he directed. “What’s your routine, and what was different this time?”

  “Well, I drive to the school.”

  “Back up. I want to hear step-by-step what you do from the moment you get into the car and don’t leave any detail out.”

  She took a deep breath, worry creasing her brow, and slowly exhaled. “It depends on where I am when I leave to pick her up. Often I leave directly from the library, and I tend to grab a parking space toward the back of the lot.” She gestured to the Fitbit she was wearing on her wrist. “I typically go for a run at some point during the day, and have an aggressive goal for the number of steps I want to take in a day, so I typically park as far away from a store or destination as I can in order to get more steps—that is unless I’m with Mackenzie. Then I park as close as possible.”

  She turned back toward me, clenching her hands, but she couldn’t hide the slight tremor and seemed desperate not to show the fear radiating in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her waist, bit her lower lip, and took a shaky breath. She looked lost in thought as if she was reliving something from the past.

  I watched Cox’s eyes roam Thea’s body. She was obviously lithe and fit, without an ounce of excess fat, and I felt jealousy spike as admiration shone in Cox’s eyes. Cox looked at me and raised his eyebrow—there was a brief standoff and then the focus shifted back to Thea.

  “Thea?” I prompted.

  She shot up out of her chair. “I need to hit the ladies’ room. I’ll be right back,” she said, already halfway to the door, closing it swiftly behind her.

  I looked at Cox.

  “You did a thorough background check on her, right? I don’t remember seeing a file on her at our office,” Cox hinted.

  “I had Hugh run her through a background check, and the FBI pulled some additional information and details. She was squeaky clean.” I hesitated for a second.

  “But?” Cox suggested.

  “But, I did find an over-the-counter bottle of migraine medicine in her room, and there was nothing in the exhaustive medical history to even hint that she had an issue with migraines.”

  “You can never know everything about a person until you meet them,” Cox offered, “and even then, as you and I both know, there are always surprises.”

  “Are
you concerned about her?” I asked Cox.

  “No—no, I’m not suggesting anything apart from making the observation that paper can only tell us so much, and we fill the rest in with personal experience. I think we need to call her back in and question her, though, because she reacted strongly to the idea that she or Mackenzie could be in danger from someone following them. She was shaking. Is there anything in her personal history to suggest that she has ever been stalked or threatened?”

  “Nothing that I found.”

  10

  TEN

  Back in my room, I paced. My body was shaking uncontrollably, and try though I might, I couldn’t make it stop.

  I walked over to the window in my bedroom and opened it a crack. I needed fresh air.

  I shook out my hands and walked back to my bed, sitting down on the edge. I needed to get a grip. There had to be a logical solution for this.

  Fear clawed through my body, every inch of it. What if I was to blame for this? What if it had to do with my work, or worse yet…

  I shivered, resisting the urge to roll up into a ball. I was stronger than this, and fear would not control me. Not ever again.

  I squared my shoulders and walked back downstairs. I knew I needed to tell Gabriel and Cox about her experiences at Penn even though I didn’t believe they had anything to do with this situation.

  When I reached the bottom of the stairs, rather than going straight to Gabriel’s office, I walked out to the backyard where Mackenzie and Fran were practicing.

  “Okay, Mackenzie, practice those moves a few more times. I’m going to talk to Athena for a minute.”

  “We call her Thea,” the little girl insisted.

  Fran smiled and turned to walk over to Athena.

  “Hi, I’m Fran.” She extended her hand.

  “I’m Athena—they call me Thea, as it seems you’ve already been told.”

  “She’s quite something isn’t she?” Fran chuckled. “How’s it going?” I asked, wrapping my arms tightly around my body.

  “She’s doing really well,” Fran assured. “She’ll need you to be strong, Thea. Don’t let what we’re unsure of get to you.”

  “I know.” I took a shaky breath. “I need to talk with Gabriel and Cox about some things. Do you think you can keep her busy for a bit longer?”

  Fran’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. If there’s something they need to know, something that could endanger Mackenzie, you’d better let them know now.”

  “That’s just it—I’m not sure, but I’ll let them decide if it matters or not.”

  Fran visibly relaxed. “I’ll keep her busy until I see you or Gabriel come out to get her.” Fran turned back and walked toward Mackenzie, who twirled as she approached.

  She’s the sweetest little one. Please let her be safe, I breathed as I walked back inside through the sliders and made my way to Gabriel’s office.

  I heard voices murmuring through the door, and it was ajar. I was certain I’d closed it when I left, but maybe they’d come looking for me.

  I took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Both men were standing with their backs to me, the bookcase appeared to have shifted to the right and I saw a wall of screens. The security system.

  Cox turned, and then Gabriel. I closed the door behind me and walked into the room. “I need to talk to you.” I clasped my hands together, my eyes moving from one man to the other.

  Gabriel’s eyes followed my hands, and then he moved toward me, putting his hand on the small of my back and directing me to the couch and chairs at the other end of his office. I breathed a sigh of relief, somehow this felt less threatening.

  “That’s your security system?” I asked.

  He nodded, and Cox moved to join them. I stood, uncertain, but Gabriel and Cox simply waited for me to make a choice. I decided to take a chair. Gabriel moved to the other chair, nestled close to mine, and Cox moved to the center of the couch, facing us both with a low coffee table between us.

  I felt the tremors starting, so I grasped the arms of the chair, desperate to find a way to quell it before it got out of control. Under normal circumstances, you’d think one of them would try to comfort me, but these were not normal circumstances, and these were not normal men. They watched me with the intensity of a hawk as though they could read my mind. My hand pressed against my stomach and I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried not to throw up.

  Gabriel’s eyes were cold, assessing. But Cox’s seemed neutral.

  I looked down at my hands. “When I was at Penn…” I bit my lower lip. “There was a situation.” I looked up, first at Gabriel, whose eyes burned into mine, and then at Cox, who nodded. I gave him an appreciative smile in thanks and took a deep breath.

  “There was a guy—an annoying guy that I had no interest in—he would often come up to me at the library to sit near me, and he was in one of the psych classes I took. It all started with him asking me to study with him, meet him for coffee—simple things, but I always said no. He persisted. I thought it was nothing.” I starred off into space, my voice quiet.

  “I started to notice him at different places, and at first I thought it was simply because I knew who he was now, but then it started to get creepy, and he went out of his way to sit behind me in class, and my gut told me it wasn’t a coincidence.”

  I looked over at Gabriel, whose eyes now showed concern, and that was all I needed to continue. I couldn’t bear to think he was angry with me—or that anything I’d done could cause harm to Mackenzie.

  I paused for several seconds, trying to will the tears to stay at bay, afraid I would lose it if I said another word.

  “What happened, Thea?” Gabriel encouraged.

  I crossed my arms, each hand grabbing the opposite bicep tightly, and pushed my elbows into my core, willing the shaking to stop. Could they see it? “I went to the admissions office and told them what was going on. They thought nothing of it and brushed me off, so I knew I needed to take matters into my own hands.”

  Cox and Gabriel exchanged glances.

  “Go on,” Gabriel said quietly.

  I stood, my arms still hugging my core tightly as I moved to the far windows in Gabriel’s office.

  “I confronted him.” The memory made me shudder. “I told him I was uncomfortable with the way he was behaving toward me, and that I didn’t appreciate him continuing to ask me out when I’d already told him the answer was no. I told him it would always be no. I was focused on my studies and that was it.”

  I turned back toward the men, feeling the anger all over again and took a deep breath.

  “But he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He smiled at me.” I licked my lips. “But it wasn’t a normal smile—it was more like a sneer. He was probably three or four inches taller than I am. I was holding books in my hands, and he grabbed my face, hard, and then he started to kiss me.”

  I grimaced, closing my eyes and shook my head to push the memory away. It had been a wet, disgusting, invasive kiss. “I’m sorry—you probably don’t need all these details. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the feeling I had when he was stalking me—that’s the feeling I had on Friday afternoon. You don’t… you don’t think he could have followed me here, do you?” Desperation threatened to overcome me, and my brow creased with worry all over again as I walked back toward the men, grasping the back of my chair for support.

  Cox looked at Gabriel, then turned to Thea. “The details do matter, Thea, even though they may be difficult for you to recount. It helps Gabriel and me to understand if this person could be a threat to Mackenzie—or to you if indeed he could potentially have followed you here, and I’m not saying that he did. Gabriel is a specialist in human behavior, and every detail you remember may help immensely.”

  Gabriel cast a grateful look toward Cox. “I do need all the details of what you went through, Thea. I want you to be as comfortable and open with us as you possibly can.”

  “Tell us what happened after you confronted him, and he kissed
you,” Cox encouraged.

  I shook my head, letting a long, slow breath out through my lips. I walked back to the windows.

  “Well, I brought my knee up into his crotch, where it would hurt most. He doubled over, and I turned and ran. When I got to the end of the library, I looked back, and he was just standing there staring at me—he looked furious—evil, even.”

  I shook out my hands. “I will never forget the look in his eyes.” I paused for several seconds and began to pace, using my hands as I talked because it helped to calm me.

  “Later that day I decided to go for a run like I usually did. I had this feeling I shouldn’t go.” I lifted my hands and linked them together, feeling my eyes narrow. “But it didn’t make any sense.” I turned back to the guys, looking for reassurance of some sort. But nada, so I continued.

  “It was a beautiful day, I needed to run off some steam and stress from the encounter with him, but I ignored my gut.” I looked pointedly at both of them, hands on my hips. “I put on my running shoes, grabbed my iPhone, earbuds, and proceeded to my usual running route across the South Street Bridge. It was quiet as was typical for that time of day. I always ran with only one earbud in my ear, and I heard a car slow down behind me. I assumed they were stopping to look at something but then I realized that the car was following me. I turned to look at it, and that was when I realized it was him.”

  I took a deep breath and turned back toward the window, my hands wrapped tightly around my middle. “I kept running, but I froze inside. I tried to quickly process the best course of action. There was no one around. So I just kept running at the same pace and ignored him. He pulled his car up just ahead of me and off to the side. His car door opened, and he walked toward me.” I turned back to the guys. “I realize now he was probably a sociopath—that look in his eyes—I’ve never seen anything like it.” I shook my head as the familiar wave of fear rush through my stomach, and I shuddered.

  “He lunged for me—he was faster and stronger—but I was equally determined that he would not get me into his car. I fought—hard, but he was so strong…” One solitary tear began to make its way down my cheek and I angrily brushed it away. I couldn’t look at Gabriel or Cox—I’d never bared my soul like this to people I barely knew but I forged forward because this time it wasn’t just about me, it was about Mackenzie, too.