Smokescreen, page 9
“Quinn, I don’t even know who is doing all of this. How can I defend against something when I don’t even know what it is?” Taylor asked, shifting back enough that she could look up at him. Her eyes were moist, and Quinn could see the turmoil of emotions swimming in them. “Every place I go, something happens, and I have no idea why.”
“You’re safe now,” Quinn promised, stroking one hand up and down her back. “We’ll get you moved into your new place, install a security system if we need to. One way or another we’re going to figure this out.”
Her eyes still bright with tears, Taylor stared up at him for a minute, and then she turned to nod at the couch. “Do you mind if I lay down out here? I don’t want to be in that room by myself.”
Quinn nodded. He took her hand and led her to the couch, grabbing the afghan off of the back and spreading it over her after she lay down.
“Thanks, Quinn.”
Again Quinn nodded. He sat down on the chair beside her, warmed by the smile she gave him as she reached out and took his hand in hers. Slowly, Quinn rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand, listening to the quiet of the house and to Taylor’s breathing as it slowed into a steady rhythm.
For a moment he was transported back in time. He shook his head free of the image of Emily lying on the couch beside him, her hand in his. Instead, he stared down at Taylor as she gave into sleep and wondered just what he was doing here. Logically, he knew that he would have offered to help any of his or Tristan’s friends in a similar situation. He also knew that his concern for Taylor went beyond friendship. How far beyond, he wasn’t sure. Nor was he sure he wanted to know.
Quinn leaned back in the chair and let his eyes droop closed. He listened to the rhythm of Taylor breathing, still alert to anything out of the ordinary. When footsteps approached twenty minutes later, his eyes opened instantly and focused on Tristan coming down the hall. Tristan motioned for Quinn to join him in the kitchen and then led the way there.
“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked in a hushed tone.
“Seth just called.” Tristan’s voice was grave. “He caught an intruder in my place. The guy was in Taylor’s room.”
Quinn’s eyes widened. “What? Do we know who?”
“The cops haven’t identified him yet.” Tristan clenched his teeth before continuing. “And I’m afraid Seth wasn’t able to ask him any questions.”
“Then I gather he was armed.”
Tristan nodded. “Yeah, but Seth didn’t find that out until after he died. He fell from the balcony when he tried to get away.”
“Taylor’s going to freak when she hears about this.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t tell her quite yet,” he suggested. “At least until we know more about who this guy is.”
“What about Riley?”
Tristan shook his head. “She won’t be able to keep something like that from Taylor. Besides, I was going to wait a few days before taking her back to our place anyway. We’ll stay here until we’re sure the condo is safe.”
“Maybe we should hold off on letting Taylor move into her new apartment.”
“She isn’t going to go for that unless you tell her why.” Tristan ran a hand over his face. “The fact that the guy at my place was in Taylor’s room reinforces the fact that whoever he is, he was after something she has. Otherwise when he saw she wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have stuck around.”
“Or he was after something he thinks she has,” Quinn said. “We have to figure out who’s behind all of this.”
“Maybe once we identify the intruder, we’ll be able to narrow it down.”
“In the meantime, we need to set up security at Taylor’s new apartment, and I’m going to see if Brent will let us start investigating. Or at least bring in NCIS.”
“Taylor isn’t navy. NCIS won’t be able to help,” Tristan said.
“But her dad is retired navy, and that was your place that was broken into today,” Quinn reminded him.
“That’s true. I guess it’s worth a try.” Tristan nodded. Then he waved at the living room. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep? I’ll stand watch for a while.”
Quinn nodded. He crossed back into the living room, slowing as he passed the couch where Taylor was sleeping. Then he lowered himself into the chair beside her, took her hand in his, and forced himself to close his eyes and fall asleep.
14
Quinn rolled the stiffness out of his shoulders as he pushed away from the kitchen table. Riley had insisted on fixing everyone breakfast before they started moving Taylor into her new apartment. With the exception of an overnight bag Taylor had brought inside, all of her belongings were still locked in her parents’ van. Tristan had offered to go pick up the furniture she had ordered, and Riley was making noise about doing some shopping with Taylor as soon as they dropped off her luggage.
By unspoken agreement, Tristan and Quinn had already determined that they weren’t going to let Taylor or Riley go anywhere alone today. Quinn watched Taylor pick at the muffin in front of her for a few minutes. Then she finally picked up her plate and took it to the counter.
“Taylor, if you’re ready, I can go with you and unload the van at your place,” Quinn suggested.
Tristan chimed in immediately. “That’s a good idea.” He turned to look at Riley. “How about you come with me to pick up her furniture, and then we can meet them over at Taylor’s apartment?”
Riley nodded her assent, but a hint of suspicion sparked in her eyes. “If that’s what you want.”
Taylor wrapped up the leftover muffin in plastic wrap and turned to face Quinn. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
“Let’s go then.” Quinn picked up Taylor’s overnight bag as she grabbed her purse and keys.
Together they stepped out into the crisp morning air. The sky was cloudless, contrasting against the mature trees in the Palmettas’ front yard that were starting to hint at fall.
They climbed into the van, and Taylor began the drive toward her new place. She was silent for several minutes before she finally said, “You know, I was thinking . . .”
“About?” Quinn prompted.
“Maybe that guy you chased off yesterday didn’t have anything to do with me.” Her shoulders lifted slightly. “I mean, if I had two guys in uniform yelling at me, I’d probably take off too.”
“You think Tristan and I are really that scary looking?”
Taylor rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I mean.”
Quinn was torn. He understood her need to find some explanation for recent events, some way to feel safe again. He also knew that after the incident with Seth earlier that morning, Taylor wasn’t safe. “Taylor, there’s no way to be sure if that guy was there because of you or if it was just coincidence that I kept seeing him around. Either way, he had to be into something he wasn’t supposed to for him to run away from us.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
Quinn’s eyebrows lifted. “He had a getaway driver.”
“Okay, I admit that was weird.”
“Everything has been weird lately,” Quinn muttered. Then he shifted in the passenger seat as Taylor pulled into a parking lot. “This is where you’re moving?”
“Yeah,” Taylor nodded. “Isn’t this a great location?”
Before Quinn could respond, Taylor climbed out of the van and moved to open the back.
“Exactly how did you find this place?” Quinn asked as he stepped beside her and tried to decide if he should be annoyed or amused.
“Actually, Tristan and Riley both told me to check it out.” Taylor pulled a box of art supplies from the back of the van and balanced it on her hip as she looked at Quinn. “You know, it was kind of weird that they both suggested this place.”
“You could say that.” Quinn shook his head and smothered a laugh as amusement won out. He unloaded two suitcases, put them on the ground, and then closed the back of the van before lifting them again. “You’d better lock the van.”
Taylor shifted the box she held and hit the lock button.
“What apartment are you in?”
“208.”
“Of course,” Quinn said, and this time his laughter escaped him.
“What’s so funny?”
Before Quinn could answer, Max stepped out of his apartment and waved at them. “Hey, Quinn.”
“Max.”
“I see you met your new neighbor.”
Quinn recognized the confused expression on Taylor’s face. “You could say that.”
“I’m heading out to run a few errands, but I’ll be back by noon,” Max said, directing his comment to Taylor. “Let me know if you need anything.”
Taylor simply nodded and watched as he pulled a bicycle out of the bike rack in the parking lot and then headed down the street. With a shake of her head, she turned to face Quinn more fully. “Wait a minute. You live here?”
Quinn grinned at her. “Hi, neighbor.”
“Unbelievable.” Taylor shook her head, caught between laughter and exasperation. “You said you lived a few blocks away. It never dawned on me that Tristan and Riley were trying to get me to move into your complex.”
Quinn started for the stairs, his mind still trying to wrap around this new development. “I’m starting to think that they’re trying to set us up.”
“You think?” Taylor asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice. She followed him to her front door, dug the key out of her pocket, and unlocked it. As soon as they walked inside and set everything down in the living room, she turned to face him again. “So which apartment is yours?”
“That one,” Quinn said, pointing to the left. “207.”
Taylor’s eyes widened. “Next door?”
Quinn nodded. Then he motioned to the door. “Come on. Let’s finish unloading, and then we’ll figure out some way to get back at Tristan and your sister.”
“That’s easy,” Taylor said. Her voice was casual, but there was vulnerability in her eyes. “Tell them you’re dating someone else. That’ll throw them off.”
Quinn stared down at her, realizing that Taylor was fishing for information. She needed to know how he felt, and whether he was ready to admit it or not, he knew his feelings for Taylor were even stronger now than they had been when he had dated her the first time. He shook his head and managed a smile. “Like they’d believe I’m that stupid. I want to make them suffer, not me.”
Now Taylor’s eyebrows lifted with amusement. “Oh really?”
“Yeah, really.” Quinn took a step closer and put his hands on her shoulders. He grinned down at her, and humor sparked in his eyes. “Don’t worry. We’ll think of something.”
Taylor followed Quinn back out to the van and unlocked it once more. She lifted another box of art supplies and looked at him with a glint of mischief. “Isn’t Tristan afraid of spiders?”
“Maybe I should just thank him for setting this up instead of getting back at him. I have a feeling once you get started, we may have a war on our hands.” Quinn laughed. “Then again . . .”
* * *
“Hey, Tristan!” Taylor called as she stepped out of the bathroom into the hallway. “Can you come here for a minute?”
“Yeah, hold on,” Tristan called from the bedroom where he and Quinn were putting together her new dresser. “What do you need?”
“I need you to kill the spider in the bathtub.” Taylor looked up at him with innocent brown eyes. “You know how much I hate spiders. And this one is huge.” She held two fingers wide apart to demonstrate.
Tristan looked at her for a minute and then turned back to the bedroom. “Quinn!”
Quinn’s voice echoed out into the hallway. “Don’t look at me. I already killed the one in the kitchen. Besides, she’s your sister-in-law.”
“And she’s your girlfriend,” Tristan countered.
“Nice try.” Quinn sauntered out into the hall. “Family trumps boyfriend. Ask anyone.”
Taylor tried not to goggle at Quinn. Did he really did think of her as his girlfriend? She felt a bubble of hope rise inside her, along with a sense of anticipation. What would it be like to feel secure in her relationship with Quinn? Even more, what would it be like to be allowed to hope for a future together?
Reminding herself that she had a role to play, she shook her head and stepped into the bathroom. Taylor leaned down and picked something up. Then she turned and tossed the prickly black object toward Tristan, only to see him jump out of the way.
“Hey!”
Quinn leaned down and picked up the rubber tarantula. Then he grinned at Taylor. “You were right. He’s still afraid of them.”
Tristan shook his head, half annoyed, half amused. “Very funny.”
Taylor nodded and stepped forward. “Yeah, just like convincing me to move in next door to Quinn without me knowing about it.”
“In my defense, I didn’t know you were going to move into the apartment next door to him,” Tristan said. Then he grinned. “That was just good luck.”
Riley walked into the hallway and shook her head as she grinned at her husband. “You never should have let her know that you don’t like spiders.”
“Yeah,” Tristan agreed. “Momentary lapse in judgment.”
“While you guys finish putting the furniture together, I thought I could take Taylor out to get some groceries and pick up some lunch,” Riley said.
“We’re almost done here,” Tristan said quickly. “Why don’t you wait a minute, and we’ll all go?”
Riley’s eyes narrowed. “Since when do you want to go grocery shopping?”
“It’s not like I’ve never seen the inside of a grocery store.” Tristan shrugged. “Besides, I thought we could all go out for lunch before heading to the store.”
Taylor looked from her sister to her brother-in-law suspiciously. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Tristan insisted.
Taylor looked past Tristan now and focused on Quinn. “Quinn?”
Quinn shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “We just don’t want you to be alone, okay?”
“I won’t be alone. I’ll be with Riley,” Taylor said. Then she noticed the concern flare in Tristan’s eyes. “You don’t want Riley alone with me either.”
Tristan shook his head. “I know we’re probably being overprotective, but just humor us. Okay?”
Taylor looked from Tristan to Quinn, not sure how to feel about the fact that they didn’t believe she would be safe if she went somewhere on her own. She understood their concerns, but she ached for a sense of normalcy and the knowledge that she could find it soon. Taylor let out a sigh. “Okay. If you want to go grocery shopping with us, I won’t stop you.” Then the corners of her mouth lifted. “But you’re buying lunch.”
15
Quinn stood next to Tristan’s truck in the parking lot, alternating between watching the door to Taylor’s apartment and checking out the road. He gave a sideways glance to Tristan and asked, “Did Seth tell you anything about the guy from last night?”
“All I know is that he didn’t survive the fall,” Tristan told him. Then he pointed at the little black coupe headed toward them. “There’s Seth now.”
The car turned the corner into the parking lot with a sassy squeal of the tires and then came to a screeching halt next to Tristan’s truck. A moment later, both doors opened. Vanessa nimbly climbed out from behind the wheel as Seth somehow managed to unfold his six-foot-seven frame from the passenger side.
Seth glared over the top of the car at his wife. “Why did I agree to let you drive?”
Vanessa gave him an innocent shrug and suppressed a smile. “Probably because you didn’t have enough adventure in your life.”
“Right.” Seth shook his head and turned to look at Quinn and Tristan.
Before he could offer any information, Quinn asked, “What did the cops say?”
“Not much, but it’s in NCIS’s hands now anyway. Our old friend Larry Steinert is in charge of the case,” Seth told them, referring to the NCIS special agent who had been involved in a case with them a few months earlier. “He asked me to have you both meet him at Tristan’s place.”
“Now?” Tristan asked, glancing up at Taylor’s apartment.
Seth nodded. “I thought Vanessa could stay here with Riley and Taylor while we meet with him.”
Vanessa rounded her car and stepped next to Seth. She seemed to sense Tristan’s and Quinn’s hesitation because she gave them a not-so-subtle look of challenge. “Would you feel better if I told you that I’m carrying?”
Quinn and Tristan looked at each other. Both men nodded. They understood her terminology perfectly. She was telling them that she was armed.
“Good,” Vanessa said and patted her purse. “Then you should feel better.”
Tristan’s posture relaxed slightly. “Riley and Taylor don’t know about what happened last night.”
“Why not?”
“Taylor is already having a hard enough time with the idea that someone is following her,” Quinn told her. “She doesn’t need to know about this until we can give her some answers.”
“Are you sure she doesn’t know anything about why someone’s following her?” Vanessa asked skeptically. “These kinds of things don’t happen without a reason.”
Quinn shook his head. “The only thing we know is that someone seems extremely interested in her paintings.”
“But we don’t have any idea why,” Tristan added.
“I’ll see if I can get any more information out of her,” Vanessa offered. “Maybe I can put some of my CIA training to good use.”
“I really don’t think she’s holding anything back from us,” Quinn insisted.
“You’re probably right,” Vanessa conceded. “But I’ll bet she knows more than she realizes. She just doesn’t know what details are important.”
“Good luck,” Tristan told her. “At this point, we’ll take all the help we can get.”
Seth leaned down and kissed Vanessa good-bye. “Be careful.”
“I will.” Vanessa stepped away from the truck as all three men climbed in. “Call me when you’re done so I know when to expect you.”
