Executive Protection(16)

As in murder. That didn’t sit well with Thad. Domestic violence usually escalated in men like this.

He flipped through the printed pages until he found what he was looking for and put it back in front of Thad. “Lucy met this piece of work online a little over a week ago.”

“What are you onto?” Darcy asked, looking at the page. When nothing there clued him in, he met Thad’s gaze. A few seconds later he caught on.

“Kate was shot around then.”

“But not killed.” Thad pointed to the page.

Darcy looked down and read the part about Cam having a military background. Gunnery sergeant.

“He was a sniper,” Thad said. “According to this, he has an NRA membership. Gun permit. And I’ll bet if we got a search warrant, we’d find all kinds of weapons in his house.”

“Guys like that feel big and powerful if they own a bunch of automatic weapons and a few Rambo-style hunting knives,” Darcy added. “Do you really think this could be the gunman who shot your mother?”

“I’m not saying anything, but let’s not leave any stone unturned.”

“He drives a Honda.” Darcy chuckled cynically.

“Smoke screen.”

“His favorite movie is probably some gory slasher film.”

Thad nodded along with Darcy’s dark humor and checked his watch.

“Going somewhere?” Darcy asked.

“I’m on my way to pick up Lucy.”

“Lucy?” Darcy cued in on that. “You have a date?”

“It’s not a date.” Some might argue that it was...like Darcy...and his mother.

“Where are you taking her?”

“Not dinner.” He headed for the door. “Thanks, Darcy.”

“Where are you taking her?” Darcy called after him.


Thad just looked back with a grin. Out in the hall, he didn’t escape Chief Thomas. Like the rest of them, he worked too much.

“Hey, Winston,” Wade shouted from across the room of desks, wiggling his finger and not looking happy. He stood in the doorway of his office.

Thad looked back at Darcy, who’d stepped out of the conference room carrying a folder with the photos inside. “Good luck,” he mouthed.

Reluctantly, Thad started toward Wade’s office. Once he reached it, Wade let him in and then closed the door.

“What’s with the background on Cameo Harmon?” Wade asked.

He had found out. Thad stopped before Wade’s desk as the chief of police walked around to his chair. “How—”

“Don’t ask me how I know.” Wade sat down. “Answer the damn question.”

Thad knew he’d have no choice, given the sound of his tone. He explained about Lucy and her date Cam, leaving out his hunch that Cam may be connected to his mother’s shooting.

Wade scrutinized him like the hardened chief he was. “Is she your girlfriend or something?”

“No.” Why did everyone keep making references to that?

“Who is she to you?”

“My mother’s nurse. She’s an acquaintance.”

Thad suffered more scrutiny. “Why are you involving yourself in her affairs? She’s an adult. Nothing’s been reported yet. If she decides to report something about this man she met, she can do so on her own.”

“I can’t stand aside and do nothing. The man nearly assaulted her in the hospital parking lot.”

“Then let her report it.”

There was no reasoning with him, so Thad stopped trying.

“Taking matters into your own hands?” Wade asked.

“No, sir.”

After another lengthy scrutiny, Wade pointed his finger at Thad. “I don’t like how sneaky you’ve been lately.”

“It’s not intentional. It’s a personal matter. My mother’s been shot and her nurse was attacked. I want to protect them, that’s all.”

Wade seemed marginally placated by that.

“Maybe I should take a leave of absence,” Thad offered. “My mother is going to be released from the hospital soon and I’d like to be home with her while she recovers.”

Wade didn’t believe him. He thought Thad would run his own investigation on his mother’s shooter. He was, but that didn’t have to be confessed.

“I need you here,” Wade said.

Where he could keep an eye on him. “I need to be with my mother. She’s got a long recovery ahead of her. She needs me.”

He watched Wade consider it. Would he really stop him from being with his mother—especially when she was almost murdered? Employees were entitled to take time off. Wade could find a way to get rid of him for it, cover up the true reason with other documented infractions, but Thad didn’t think he’d take on that fight. And fight Thad would.

“You have one month. You start snooping around on the Kate Winston investigation, I’ll find out about it.”

Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t. Thad decided it didn’t matter. The only thing that did matter was putting the shooter behind bars.

* * *

Thad picked Lucy up five minutes early. Punctual. Lucy liked that. She liked too many things about him, a man who didn’t agree with marriage. Not that she meant to set out to marry him. He was disqualified from the start. And that’s what ruined all of the fun. Cam had looked good on paper but in person he’d done nothing for her. Thad was different. He’d probably look good on paper and he definitely did something for her in person.