folks?”
She gave him another aspirin for good measure, and since she
had no brandy, she gave him a diet Dr Pepper.
“Close,” he said and downed a huge drink.
They both froze when there was a knock on the front door.
Then they heard the front door slam open, voices low and muffled.
Becca grabbed her Coonan and crept toward the kitchen door.
“Stay put, Adam. I don’t want you to get hurt again.”
“Becca, I’ll be all right. Just hold it a second.” Adam was right on
her heels, his voice low, his hand on her gun arm.
“Who is it?” he called out.
A man yelled out, “You guys all right? This door looks like an
army tried to shoot its way in.”
“I don’t know who it is,” Adam said. “Do you recognize his
voice?”
She shook her head.
“Who the hell is out there? What are your damned names? Tell
me or I’ll blow your heads off. We’re a bit on the cautious side
here.”
“I’m Savich.”
“I’m Sherlock. Thomas sent us. Said we needed to meet Adam
and Becca, talk to them, get all the facts straight and together. Then
maybe we can nail this stalker.”
“I told him not to,” Adam said and slipped his gun back onto the
kitchen table and walked out into the hallway. A big man stood
there, a 9mm SIG pistol held snug in his hand. A woman stood just
behind him, as if shoved there for protection. She stepped around
the man and said, “Don’t be alarmed. We’re the good guys. As Dillon
said,Thomas sent us. I’m Sherlock and this is my husband, Dillon
Savich. We’re FBI.”
It was the man Thomas wanted to save his daughter’s butt. His
friend’s son, the computer hotshot at the Bureau. Adam didn’t like
it, any of it. He stood there frowning at the two of them. A man
brought his wife to a possible dangerous situation? What kind of an
idiot was he?
Becca stepped forward. “You’ve got a neat name, Sherlock.
You’re Mr. Savich? Hello. Now, I don’t know who this Thomas is,
but he’s probably Adam’s boss, only Adam refuses to tell me anything
about who hired him and why. I’m Becca Matlock. The man
who’s been stalking me and shot the governor, he was just here. He
called me and then he tried to kill us. I hit him, I know it. Adam
found some blood, but he’s gone, covered his trail, and I had to
bandage Adam up and so–”
“Now we understand everything,” Sherlock said and smiled at
the young woman facing her. Sherlock thought she was pretty, but
she looked like she’d been ground under for a long time now. She’d
been pushed over the line. She said to the big man, Adam, who was
standing beside Becca, “Dillon here is great with wounds. Do you
want to have him look at your arm?”
Adam was pissed and he felt like a jerk for feeling pissed. If the
guy really was a genius with computer tracking programs, or whatever
it was he did, maybe it could help. He shook his head. “No,
I’m fine. I hope to heaven the sheriff doesn’t show up here, what
with all that gunfire.”
“This place is set way back from its neighbors,” Savich said.
“And all those thick trees, it’s doubtful anyone heard the shots unless
he was real close.”
Becca blinked up at him, then said, “I hope you’re right. This is
Adam Carruthers. He’s here as my cousin. He’s here to help clean
up this mess, and to protect me. As I said, I guess he works for this
Thomas character. I told the guy down the street that he’s gay because
I’m afraid he’s jealous of Adam, but he’s really not.”
Sherlock said, “He’s really not jealous?”
“No, Adam really isn’t gay.”
Savich, that big guy who’d been standing very still until this instant,
looking solemn and mean, began to laugh. And laugh.
The woman with the beautiful bright red curly hair looked up
at her husband, cocked her head to one side, sending all that hair to
bouncing around her head, and began laughing herself.