A Profiler's Case for Seduction(38)
She stepped back from him and stumbled against the sofa, dropping as though she’d been hit with a stun gun. “But, who...why?” She looked up at him with her beautiful gray eyes.
“That’s something we need to figure out,” he replied. He sat down on the sofa next to her, trying to maintain a professionalism when all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and carry her away from any danger. He wanted to take the simmering fear out of those beautiful eyes. “Do you have any idea who might want to hurt you?”
She shook her head, softly at first and then more vehemently. “No, I can’t imagine. I mean, I’m just a student here. I mind my own business, go to classes and work in the bookstore. I don’t make any close friends, but I also don’t make enemies, I just focus on my studies and my job.”
He knew that would be her answer because he already knew that about her. He was the anomaly in her quiet, orderly life. He was the friend, the wannabe lover, the only man she’d allowed to get close to her in some time.
“What about your ex-husbands?”
“Oh, Mark, I haven’t seen or heard from either of them in years. Billy and I parted ways when I was twenty and Jimmy and I divorced over eight years ago. That can’t be the answer. There would be absolutely no reason for either of them to want to hurt me after all these years.”
The doorbell rang and she jumped nearly a foot off the sofa. “That will be members of my team.” He got up to open the door, and Richard, Donald and Joseph came in. Mark quickly made the introductions and filled in his fellow agents on what had happened.
“Joseph, I’d like you to sit on this house for the rest of the night,” Mark said. “I don’t think this creep will return, but we can’t be sure and I don’t want to take any chances.” He turned his attention to Richard and Donald. “We need to see if we can find the bullets he fired or anything else he might have dropped while he was running from me.”
Dora got up from the sofa as Mark and the other agents prepared to leave. Mark grabbed her by the hand. “You’ll be safe for the night. Joseph will be right outside and nobody is going to come near this place.”
She leaned toward him, as if needing his arms around her, and he couldn’t deny himself or her. He pulled her against him and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “It’s going to be okay, Dora,” he said as he finally released her. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
With these words Mark left the house with Richard and Donald trailing just behind him. “Getting pretty cozy with the bookstore lady,” Donald observed.
“She’s a nice woman,” Mark replied, and hoped that particular topic was dropped.
“She’s a nice woman who looked pretty much at-home in your arms,” Richard said, ignoring Mark’s sigh.
“I like her, okay? I like her a lot. She’s been a piece of sanity in this whole mess of a case, a person to talk to when I need to unwind and just enjoy somebody’s company.”
They moved to the window where Mark had first stopped the potential intruder. Richard flipped on a high-power flashlight and together they scanned the area for anything the perp might have dropped or left behind. “I’ll print the window,” Richard said.
“You won’t find anything. He was dressed all in black, like a ninja warrior. I’m sure he was smart enough to wear gloves. Besides, when I saw him he wasn’t trying to get inside, he was just crouched down by the side of the house.”
“I’ll dust for prints anyway and then catch up with the two of you on campus,” Richard replied.
“Who would want to hurt a nice bookstore lady?” Donald asked as he and Mark headed toward the area of the campus where the shots had occurred.
“She has no idea. I have no idea, but I can tell you that the gun had a silencer. Whoever it was meant serious business.” Mark’s gut clenched as he realized how close it had been. The man could have gotten in through the window and waited for Dora in the darkness of a bedroom. Nobody would have ever known until it was too late.
“This is all we need,” Donald muttered beneath his breath. “With Troy Young in jail I’ve been counting the hours until I can get back to Dallas and my own place.”
“If the case is built that Troy Young is guilty, then we’re still on our way out of here. Stalking issues are not our problems,” Mark said, less enthused about getting out of town without everything being tied into a nice neat knot. “The locals will take over the kidnapping of Professor Grayson and this stalking case.”