Thanksgiving Target Page 11

  He’d been bold to risk shooting at them now. Did he know the police were looking for him? Was this his last chance to exact his revenge on Tara?

  Max ushered Tara and Beau to his rental car. “What do you want to do about Beau? I checked with the hotel while you were giving your statement to the police and they won’t allow pets.”

  “I think we’d better take him to Mrs. Henderson’s house,” Tara murmured. “Although I’m afraid my stalker will know to look for him there.”

  “He shot at you, Tara, not your dog. Poisoning Beau was just a means to an end, because he wanted to get inside your house to plant the bomb. I don’t think Beau is the one in danger here.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” Her expression didn’t look convincing.

  “I can look for a pet-friendly hotel,” Max offered, even though he really wanted to get in touch with his commanding officer. And search for a place called Under the Beam.

  Gary’s trail was already growing cold.

  “No, Mrs. Henderson’s is fine.”

  After dropping off the dog and watching Tara’s tearful goodbye, Max headed for the hotel. No matter what Tara said, she was clearly shaken by what had happened.

  She deserved a little peace and quiet.

  As he drove, he glanced at her. She seemed lost in her thoughts, barely noticing where he was taking her. When they reached the hotel, he walked with her up to their rooms.

  “Get some rest,” he advised, pausing outside her door. “I need to make a few phone calls, since I haven’t heard back from my commanding officer, yet. I promise I won’t leave without letting you know.”

  Tara looked in his eyes. “I’m scared,” she admitted.

  “Please don’t be afraid.” Max gently smoothed her hair away from her cheek. She looked so shattered that he wanted nothing more than to put her at ease. “You’re safe here with me.”

  He wanted very badly to kiss her. To take her into his arms and protect her forever. The knowledge shook him to the core.

  Even after what happened with Clare, he’d gone ahead and made the same mistake again.

  He was falling in love with Tara.

  Tara stared deep into Max’s eyes, longing for something she couldn’t name. Hastily, she stepped away from him, breaking the tension shimmering between them. She needed to pull herself together.

  God was watching over her. She had no reason to be afraid.

  “I think I will rest for a while,” she said, taking her plastic room key from her purse. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  Max gazed at her with an inscrutable expression clouding his eyes. She summoned a small smile and let herself into her hotel room.

  Tossing her key and purse on the bed, she took a deep, cleansing breath. She’d been so happy earlier that morning, after attending the chapel service with Max. And picking up Beau, seeing her puppy alive and well had lifted her spirits immensely.

  But those moments Max knocked her to the ground replayed over and over in her head. Listening to his terse voice telling her to stay down. She couldn’t fail to notice how he’d stayed protectively in front of her, until the police arrived.

  There was no doubt in her mind he would have given up his life to protect her. The humbling thought weakened her knees.

  She was beginning to care for him too much. He was her mission, nothing more. A friend helping another in need.

  He’d be back in Iraq soon enough, anyway.

  Yet the longing in her heart wouldn’t be ignored. Her emotions were in complete turmoil. She wasn’t sure what to do. Having a little distance from Max should have helped put everything in perspective, but she could hear him moving about the room next door.

  She longed to go to him—to stay in the safe haven of his arms.

  Knowing such thoughts betrayed her love for Ted, she closed her eyes and tried to rest. But ended up praying instead.

  “Thank you for keeping us safe. I’ve accepted Max as my mission, Lord, but please help me stay true to Ted. I promised to love him forever.” There was a tiny catch in her voice as her eyes filled with tears. “Don’t let me forget Ted.”

  She must have fallen asleep after all, because the next time she opened her eyes, the room was dim. The sun sat low on the horizon.

  Walking over to the connecting door, she pressed her ear to the smooth surface. She couldn’t hear anything. Had Max left? No, he’d promised not to leave without telling her.

  She sensed Max was a man of his word.

  Tentatively, she knocked. “Max? Are you in there?”

  There was a scraping noise and then Max’s reassuring voice. “I’m here. How are you feeling?”

  “Hungry,” she said, rubbing her stomach. They hadn’t eaten all day.

  “Meet me in the hall,” Max said. “We’ll eat, and I’ll update you on what I discovered.”

  She took the time to quickly rebraid her hair and then met him in the hallway. His gaze swept over her. “Are you really doing all right?”

  “I’m fine.” She didn’t want to rehash her troubled thoughts. “Tell me what you found.”

  Max placed a hand in the small of her back as they walked down to the lobby. She was hyperaware of his warm fingers through her sweater and the heady scent of his aftershave.

  “I finally got a hold of my commanding officer. He confirmed that Billy, Garth Williams, did get out of prison early.” Apparently he negotiated a shorter sentence in return for providing evidence against another soldier—someone they’d suspected in another crime.”

  She sucked in a quick breath at the news. “So Gary could be Garth Williams.”

  “As much as I hate to admit it, yes.” Down in the lobby, Max hesitated. “Would you mind if we went to the hospital cafeteria instead? I haven’t seen Lissa since this morning.”

  Because of her. She suppressed a wave of guilt. She hadn’t asked for the stalker to shoot at her. “Of course not.”

  Soon they were seated in the noisy and surprisingly crowded cafeteria.

  “I also found Under the Beam,” Max said. She had to lean forward in order to hear him. “It’s a tavern, located in East St. Louis.”

  East St. Louis was the shady side of town.

  “I think you should take this information to the police,” Tara said. “I mean, really, they should be the ones looking for Gary, not you.”

  Max stared at her for a moment, clearly not thrilled with the idea. “I’m not sure I should tell them about Garth Williams,” he argued. “We don’t have solid proof he’s Gary.”

  “What are the odds that two men have the same, disfiguring scar running down from the corner of their mouth?” she asked in exasperation. “Tell them. At least then they’ll have something to go on.”

  “You’re right,” Max muttered, lifting a hand in surrender. “Okay, I’ll tell them.”

  Satisfied with his concession, she relaxed back against the chair, gazing around the cafeteria. There were a group of nurses she recognized as working in the ICU. She hoped Melissa was continuing to improve since her surgery.

  She was about to ask Max if he’d talked to the nurses when a flash of blue caught her eye. Glancing over toward the side of the cafeteria closest to the door, she saw a man dressed in a navy blue jacket and a blue baseball cap on his head. His face was shadowed, but he seemed to be looking directly at her.

  Her stalker? Here?

  “Max, look. See the guy in the blue baseball cap? That’s him!”

  The guy must have sensed they saw him, because he abruptly stood and headed for the doorway.

  “Let’s go,” Max jumped to his feet, leaving their dirty dishes on the table, dashing toward the cafeteria exit.

  Tara followed apprehensively, thinking they should be calling the police rather than chasing him down themselves. But she needn’t have worried, since when the got to the doorway, the man was gone.

  “Lobby,” Max said urgently. “We’ll catch him there.”

  They raced to the lobby but didn’t see any
sign of him. Not in the lobby, the surrounding area or in the visitor parking structure. Max’s expression was darkly frustrated as they returned downstairs to the cafeteria.

  “We were so close. We should have had him,” he said.

  “Maybe we should call Detective Graham?” she suggested. “Don’t you think it’s a little odd that he showed up here, the same day he shot at us?”

  Max stopped and stared at her. “Yeah, actually I do. I can buy the fact he’d guessed where we’d taken Beau. I can see how he’d staked out the veterinary hospital waiting for us to return. But how on earth would he have known to come here to the hospital? It makes no sense that he’d be here.”

  “I suppose he could have followed us today,” Tara said. “He’s seen your rental car more than once. It might not be as far-fetched as we thought.”

  “Maybe.” Max didn’t sound convinced. “But he would have had to follow us to the hotel first and then here. And even then, why would he just sit in the cafeteria? It’s almost as if he’s getting bolder or more reckless. Does he want us to see him?”

  “I don’t know.” She bit her lip. “Steve Jasper might hold a grudge against me, but this does seem like odd behavior, even for him. The whole time we were following him, I tried to get a glimpse of his face, but I couldn’t. I think he had brown hair, like Steve Jasper, but I can’t even say that with one hundred percent certainty.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Max said, taking her arm.

  “What about Melissa?” Tara protested. She grabbed their trays and carried them to the tray line, glancing back at Max. “We came here to check on her.”

  “You’re right,” he relented. “It’s not likely he can follow you inside the ICU.”

  “He’s long gone from here I’m sure,” she said reassuringly. “He might be trying to find new ways of taunting me, but he’s not going to stick around to get caught.”

  “I still don’t like it that he was here at all,” Max grumbled as they headed toward the elevator.

  She didn’t, either—especially because once again her problems were interfering with his attempts to find Gary. She knew very well Max had stayed at the hotel as promised, just to keep an eye on her.

  Max was tense, pacing the length of Melissa’s room during their visit. She’d hoped he might pray with her, but he stood in the doorway, waiting for the nurse to come over.

  “Hi, my name is Marietta. May I help you with something?” A young Hispanic woman asked.

  “Are you my sister’s nurse?” Max asked.

  “Yes. I’m sure you’d like an update on her condition. Melissa has been stable most of the day. She had one episode of high intracranial pressures but that responded well to some medication. Doctor Kappel is pleased with her progress.”

  “Has anyone else been in to see her?” Max wanted to know.

  Tara spun around to stare at him in surprise. Did he think her stalker would try to come up here? Or was he suddenly concerned that Gary/Garth/Billy might try to get in?

  “No, there haven’t been any other visitors,” Marietta said, perplexed. “Only the two of you have been in to see her since her admission. Not counting the police officer who calls daily to see if she’s woken up yet.”

  He clenched his jaw and nodded. “Okay, thanks.”

  “Max?” Tara crossed over to him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” He brushed off her concern, but she could still see something was bothering him. He turned and stared for a long moment at his sister. “Let’s go. There’s nothing more we can do for her here.”

  She didn’t necessarily agree but wasn’t sure what to make of Max in this new mood. She sensed arguing wasn’t going to help. The nurse, Marietta, was already looking at them strangely.

  “I’m ready when you are,” she said.

  Max was silent on the way back down to the main lobby, but he remained alert, as if he were still on the lookout for her stalker.

  “You know we’re going to have to move into a new hotel,” Max informed her.

  “And you’re upset about that?” She was still trying to figure out what was wrong. He seemed so angry, ever since they’d caught that glimpse of her stalker in the cafeteria.

  “Yes, I’m upset. This guy is getting closer and closer to you, no matter what precautions I take. He almost killed you today.” Bitterness laced his tone.

  “You saved my life,” she stressed.

  “Yeah. But he followed us here, anyway. At the moment, I’m doing a lousy job of protecting you and a lousy job of finding Gary.”

  ELEVEN

  And that was the crux of the matter, Tara guessed. Max wanted to be out tracking down Gary, instead of babysitting her. Not that his honorable soul would allow him to back off on trying to protect her. Especially after their close call outside the veterinary hospital.

  Still, she didn’t want to be his responsibility.

  What could she say to make him feel better? He wouldn’t leave her alone, even if she asked him to. And since her stalker had to have followed them to show up at the hospital, they did need to move to a new hotel.

  For right now, all she could do was to try to make things as easy as possible for him.

  An hour later, they’d packed their bags and had checked out of the hotel. She was surprised when Max flagged down a taxi.

  “What about the rental car?” she asked, climbing into the taxi.

  “I need to exchange it for a different one,” Max said, his tone abrupt, as if he wasn’t in the mood to talk.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for a moment. Her stalker probably had recognized the car. Not only were they going to find a hotel farther away from the hospital but now he’d need to go through the hassle of trading his rental in for a new one.

  All because of her.

  “We shouldn’t stay in a place far from the hospital,” she tried to point out as the taxi sped away from the curb. “We need to be close. Melissa needs you.”

  “I know.” He barely spared her a glance, leaning forward to talk to the taxi driver. “Take us to Thirty-fifth and Wallenbach Street,” he instructed.

  Thirty-fifth and Wallenbach? She had no idea where that was. East St. Louis, maybe, but it certainly didn’t sound like they were heading for another hotel within a reasonable distance from the hospital.

  Sure enough, when the taxi pulled over a good twenty minutes later, she realized what was at Thirty-fifth and Wallenbach.

  Under the Beam.

  The place was rather decrepit, peeling paint on the woodwork around the door frame, a side window with boards nailed over it. Worn brick lined the walls, and a broken neon sign hung above the door. From the outside, it looked like any other corner bar, although there was a small sign in the large picture window declaring they served food. The lights inside were dim, but through the one window not boarded up, she could see a few people seated at the bar.

  “Wait here,” Max said as he opened his door.

  “I’ll come with you,” she said quickly, not at all comfortable with the idea of him going inside alone.

  “This isn’t your kind of place, Tara,” he said impatiently. “Besides, there aren’t many people inside. This won’t take long, I’m sure.”

  “The meter’s running,” the taxi driver said.

  “I know. I won’t be long,” Max repeated as he climbed from the car and slammed the door. He walked inside, and Tara sat huddled in the backseat of the taxi, peering through the window, tracking his progress.

  True to his word, he was back in a few minutes, his facial expression grim. “No sign of Gary?” she asked.

  “No. And no one claims to know him, either.” His tone suggested he didn’t believe they were being truthful. “The place isn’t very busy, probably because it’s a Sunday night. I’ll come back tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have better luck then.”

  “I’m scheduled to work tomorrow,” she reminded him.

  He cast a sideways glance. “I don’t think that’s a
good idea. I’m sure your stalker knows to find you there.”

  She’d thought of that, too. “I can’t take off indefinitely. My clients need me.”

  “Don’t you have any vacation time?” Max asked. “Or maybe you can call in sick, at least for a couple of days. If Jasper is our guy, and he shows up at his parole office, the police will grab him. This could be all over for you by tomorrow afternoon.”

  She rubbed her aching temple. Calling in sick wouldn’t be right, since technically she wasn’t ill. But considering her house blew up just two days ago, she was fairly sure her supervisor would grant her a personal day.

  “One day,” she agreed. “But I am going back to work on Tuesday, no matter what.”

  Max looked as if he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. Smart man.

  “Since we’ve decided I’m taking the day off tomorrow, I’m going to come back here with you. Maybe these guys will talk to a woman more easily than a man.” A brilliant idea occurred to her. “I’ll pretend I’m your sister, Melissa, explaining I need to talk to my boyfriend.”

  “No. Absolutely not.” Max swiveled in his seat to stare at her incredulously. “Are you crazy? What if Gary’s in there? He’s going to know right away you’re not Lissa. Besides, I already told you it’s not your kind of place. I don’t need your help on this, Tara. In fact, I refuse to allow it.”

  “Refuse?” There was nothing that got her riled up faster than being dictated to. “Now wait just a minute. I thought we were partners?”

  “Not anymore,” Max said with a note of finality. He leaned forward and gave the cabbie a new address, a hotel located not far from where they were originally staying.

  Tara stared at Max, wondering what had happened. Wasn’t it just yesterday at lunch that he’d told her how thankful he was that she was working with him to find Gary?

  Clearly his feelings had changed.

  She bit her lip and stared down at her hands. Or maybe the closeness she’d felt had been nothing more than her imagination.

  Max sensed he’d hurt Tara’s feelings, but there was no help for it. She’d be better off without him anyway. He was doing a lousy job of protecting her. He’d led her stalker straight to their hotel.