Chasing Shadows

TWO

Kris clutched her camera to her chest and used her booted heel to kick the person holding her. Please, Lord, save me! She whipped her head around, trying to loosen the grip over her mouth.

“Kristina! Stop!”

The harshly whispered command given in a familiar deep baritone registered. She went limp with relief. The arm around her waist held her for a moment before withdrawing. She sagged, using the brick building for support.

Taking deep, calming breaths, she allowed anger to replace her terror. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The moon bathed Gabe Burke’s hard expression in the muted light. He’d changed out of his suit into jeans and a dark leather bomber jacket. A knit beanie covered his honey-blond hair. “I’m doing my job. What are you doing?”

“Your job.” She pushed away from the wall. Anger warmed her face. Peering around the corner, she smacked the bricks with her palm. “He’s turning the corner.”

“You need to go home.”

“No way.” She darted forward. “We have to at least try to catch up.”

Gabe gritted his teeth. Short of hauling her over his shoulder and carrying her away, he had no choice but to follow. Frank was probably gone now, anyway. Gabe would let Kristina figure it out and then he’d escort her home. Though he’d like nothing better than to throw her in jail for doing something as idiotic and dangerous as following an ex-con.

After Kristina left the station, Gabe had done a little digging and found out that Frank hung out at the HogsHead Tavern. And sure enough, Frank had shown up. Gabe had intended to follow him when he’d seen someone else doing the same. It had taken less than ten seconds for him to recognize the lithe lines of Kristina Worthington. The fact that he could still do so didn’t say much about his ability to forget her.

He grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her out of the middle of the street and into the shadows where they would be less visible as they followed. Thankfully, this part of town quieted down at night. But in a few hours, when the bars closed, the story would be vastly different.

At the next corner, he pushed her behind him and looked down the street. The dim glow of the moon barely revealed Frank. Gabe debated for a second about lying to Kristina and saying Frank was gone, but lying never solved anything.

Besides, he had a strong hunch she would just do this again. And he may not be there to protect her.

Clutching her slender, cold hand, he pulled her around the corner and kept to the shadows. Ahead, Frank paused and whirled around.

Gabe reacted swiftly, pulling Kristina into his arms and angling his body to shield her from view. Gabe bent his head close, suspended inches from Kristina’s lips while keeping his gaze on Frank. He heard her sharp intake of breath.

The man either didn’t notice them or saw what Gabe had intended, a pair of lovers stealing a kiss in the moonlight. Frank continued on.

Gabe should have stepped back, far away from Kristina right then, but she was so soft and pliant in his arms. Her sweet breath fanned over his face causing a yearning to kiss her lips that gripped him in a tight vise. And suddenly he was back to those warm summer days when he’d been a rookie cop wild about a girl way out of his league, yet sure a future together wasn’t impossible. That maybe he’d found what his mother insisted existed.

But then reality had set in and he’d walked away.

And kissing Kristina now would only cause him more pain than he was willing to endure.

Using every ounce of self-control he possessed, he released her and stumbled back.

She blinked up at him with wide, confused eyes. “What was that?”

Refocusing on the situation, he put his finger to his lips. “Shh. We better hurry.”

Taking her hand again, they moved forward, keeping close to the buildings. Up ahead, Frank slipped down a side alley. Gabe and Kristina ran for cover behind a parked car where they had a clear view of the alley. They watched as a man stepped out of the deeper darkness. He was of medium height and build with short cropped hair and a goatee on his pointed chin.

Kristina raised her camera.

“Hey, be careful,” Gabe admonished softly.

“I will.” She snapped some shots.

In the alley, Frank was handing the man an envelope. The man ripped the envelope open and spilled the contents into his hand. From this distance, Gabe couldn’t see what had come out.

Just then, Frank spun in their direction, seeming to stare directly at them.

Gabe grabbed Kristina and pulled her into a crouch.

“I don’t think he saw me,” she whispered, her voice shaky.

Gabe clenched his jaw tight. He scrambled onto his belly and watched the two men from underneath the car. The two spoke for a moment more, then the man handed Frank something before Frank scurried down an adjacent alley while the other man disappeared back the way he’d come. Gabe listened hard, but he didn’t hear a car engine start. Which meant no plates to run. He shoved himself to his feet and brushed himself off.

“Aren’t you going to arrest him?” Kristina asked.

“For what? We don’t have any idea if he’s up to something illegal and I don’t want to spook him. Let’s see where he goes now.”

Cautiously they followed Frank back to his little car.

“I parked over there.” Kristina dug into her pocket for her keys.

Gabe took her hand. “We’ll take mine.”

He led her to his black 4x4. Once settled inside, he pulled out of his parking space and followed Frank’s car onto the tollway back to Miller’s Rest.

“Nice ride,” she commented, her tone bland.

Unsure if she was mocking him or not, he said, “I like it.”

“It suits you.”

“Meaning?”

“All of our choices in life reveal a little about us.”

She’d become philosophical in the past eight years. “And what does my rig say about me?”

“You like to be in control and have a lot of power. Black is the absence of light. It’s mysterious, serious and dramatic.”

He wasn’t sure exactly how to take that. “And you know this…how?”

She waved a hand. “Just one of the many things I learned in college.”

“Ah, yes.” She’d been enrolled at Boston University when they’d met. He couldn’t remember her major. “You a psychologist or something?”

“No. Just took some psych classes.”

“So what color car do you drive?”

She gave a small laugh. “Oh, my car won’t reveal anything about me. It’s my grandmother’s car.”

He glanced sideways, taking in Kristina’s profile, liking the straight line of her nose and the arch of her brows. Her cheekbones were high and her jawline strong yet feminine. She’d actually grown more beautiful over the years.

She’d taken off her black cap. Her long blond hair fell over her shoulders, the strands illuminated against her black clothing.

Gabe slowed the car as Frank parked at the retirement center and hurriedly entered the facility through a side entrance. “Investigation’s over tonight.” Unless Gabe wanted to break in and follow, which he didn’t. He made a U-turn and headed back the way they’d come.

“Did you find out anything about Carl and Lena?” Kris asked.

“Not yet.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “This isn’t some game, you know.”

“I’m not playing a game,” she said with a huff.

“You can’t go around sneaking through the night like some superhero looking for danger. Eventually you’ll find it, and then what?”

She batted her lashes at him. “I’ll call you.”

The mockery in her tone made his lips twitch but deep down he did want to be the one she turned to.

As she had today.

Pushing away that errant thought, he had to make her understand that putting herself needlessly in danger was not a good thing. “Listen, Kristina. I appreciate your loyalty to your grandmother and her friends, but you can’t go around sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“No one else will believe Grams,” she asserted defensively.

“It’s difficult to believe such accusations without concrete proof.”

“Well, that’s what I’m trying to do, find proof,” she shot back.

“But you could get hurt.”

“I didn’t.”

Gabe sighed.

She touched his arm, drawing his gaze. There was no mistaking the sincerity in her eyes. “God sent you to protect me.”

Gabe’s stomach sank. “That kind of thinking can get you killed.”

Through the slit in the curtains inside his apartment at the far end of the retirement center, Frank watched the dark vehicle’s taillights as it left the parking lot. His gut churned. What should he do?

After turning on every light, he grabbed the phone and punched in a number.

A few moments later a groggy voice answered. “Hello?”

“It’s me, Frank.”

“Do you know what time it is? What do you want?”

“I’ve got a problem. I think Sadie Arnold’s granddaughter followed me tonight. I think she saw me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know,” he whined. “She’s been at the center a lot lately. I don’t like the way she looks at me.”

“Have you been careless?”

He plopped down on the old blue couch that had come with the room. “No.” At least he hadn’t thought he’d been. “What should I do?”

“Stop worrying. She’ll be taken care of.”

“She will?” Frank breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t have to do anything. “Good. Okay, good.”

“Now, good night, Frank.”

He hung up and hugged his waist, trying to settle the gurgling in his stomach.

The headlights of Gabe’s SUV sliced through the dark to illuminate the road back into the city. Gabe glanced at Kristina’s pale hand still resting on the sleeve of his jacket. His words hung in the air. “He flicked a peek at her face and met her gaze.” With the faint bit of moonlight, he could see the stunned concern in her expression.

“How can you say that?” Kristina finally asked, tightening her hold on him.

He forced his gaze forward to the road. “You can’t count on God to send someone every time you get in trouble.”

“I trust He’ll provide what I need. Tonight, He provided you.” She tapped his arm before withdrawing her hand. “God takes care of those who love Him.”

He glanced her way. The earnestness in her expression made Gabe tighten his grip on the steering wheel. “You sound like my mother. She’s always saying things like that.”

“So I take it you don’t believe in God.”

Concentrating on the road ahead, he replied, “I don’t believe in anything I can’t see, touch, taste or smell.”

“What a Doubting Thomas you are. Don’t you put stock in gut feelings?”

He frowned. “Of course I do. I’ve had plenty and they’ve kept me alive. But that’s not God.”

“How do you know?” she challenged. “How can you be sure those feelings weren’t God warning you?”

“I just am.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Once his ex-partner, Brody McClain, had asked him the same question, right after they’d survived a shoot-out.

Gabe had felt something, an inner knowledge things were about to go bad, a feeling that had made him pull Brody back from the door just as the wood exploded in a spray of gunfire. The incident still puzzled him.

But God protecting him? No way. God hadn’t been there when Gabe had been a child and needed Him. Why would God suddenly take an interest in him as an adult?

“So after college…what?” he asked, needing to change the subject. He hadn’t divulged information about his childhood to her the first time around and he had no intention of doing so now.

“I’m a photographer and I love it.” She shifted toward him, her face animated in the moon’s glow. “I was fourteen when Grams gave me my first camera. I never went anywhere without that little Nikon.”

“I remember.” She’d carried the thing with her all the time. He hadn’t given it much thought then.

“Drove my family crazy because I was always snapping off shots.” She looked out the front window. “Every summer my parents sent me away to Camp Greenleaf. The only thing that made camp bearable every year was my camera and Meg McClain.”

“That’s how you two met?”

“Yep. She liked going there.”

“And you didn’t like camp.”

She plucked at a wayward strand of hair. “Not really. I wasn’t used to the rustic life, which earned me a lot of teasing.”

“I can imagine,” he murmured, thinking back to the days they’d spent together. She’d liked restaurants and the ballet. He’d preferred sidewalk vendors and baseball games.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged. “You’re a Worthington. Used to the good things in life.”

She sighed. “We’re back to that old argument?”

“No,” he stated firmly. He didn’t want to rehash the past. “I saw the picture in the paper of the new hospital wing named after your family. Nice.”

“Yeah, nice.”

The derision in her voice made him curious. “You don’t like hospitals?”

“I don’t like my family putting their name on a building. It’s too…”

“Pretentious?” he teased, expecting to ruffle her defensive feathers.

“Exactly.”

Interesting. This was a different side to the woman he’d known. He pulled up alongside her car. “You’ve changed.”

She titled her head, her hand on the knob. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

She laughed and stepped out. When she opened the door to her car, he called out, “I’ll follow you. Make sure you get home safely.”

“No need. I’ll be fine,” she said before slipping inside.

True to his word, Gabe followed her.

Kris thought that was sweet, really sweet. Her senses still struggled to accept how she’d reacted to his near-kiss earlier. One second they were following Frank and the next—wham. Gabe had been so close, she could breathe in his aftershave, could see the darkening stubble where his beard would grow in and his strong mouth drew her like a beacon on a stormy night.

And being held that close felt so…right.

Even more so than before. At age twenty, she’d been in awe of Gabe. He was older, handsome and the opposite of everything her parents expected for her.

In retrospect, his “unsuitability” had been part of Gabe’s appeal. He’d been exciting, dangerous and forbidden. And for three glorious months that summer, she’d felt alive.

Until her parents demanded to meet him.

Then everything fell apart and Gabe had walked away, taking her heart with him.

She’d nursed her wounds while she finished her education and then finally decided she had to get over Gabe. She’d dated several attractive, appropriate men and had even become engaged to a nice man whom her parents approved of.

But she’d broken it off because even thinking about spending the rest of her life with Tom Roberts had given her anxiety attacks. Tom had liked her family’s prestige and power too much and he hadn’t wanted Kris to continue with her photography once they were married.

She knew then that she was done looking for Mr. Right. God was going to have to bring the right man to her.

She parked in her usual spot and got out, just as Gabe halted beside her and rolled down his window.

“This is where you live?” His dubious expression was priceless.

With a sweeping gesture at the two-story warehouse converted to loft apartments, she said, “Home sweet home.”

“I’d have expected you to live in Beacon Hill near your parents.”

She gave him a tight smile. “This is what I can afford and it’s a safe neighborhood.”

He leaned an elbow on the window ledge. “What? Mommy and Daddy don’t pay?”

Anger swept through her. This was exactly why she went by Kris Worth for her professional work, because people like Gabe expected her to live off her parents. “No. They don’t. Everything I need is close at hand. I have easy access to downtown and the park is within walking distance. And I have lots of space for my business. The other residents are a good group of people. We’re very close-knit.”

“Interesting,” he commented with a bemused half smile.

Uncomfortable with the focus on her, she asked, “What are you going to do about Frank? And Carl and Lena?”

He shrugged. “Nothing tonight. I’ll look into the situation more tomorrow.”

At least he wasn’t blowing her off. “Good. Let me know what you find,” she said and hurried inside.

Before turning on her lights, she went to the front window of her living area. Gabe sat in his car, his gaze trained on the building. Probably waiting to see which floor was hers. If she didn’t turn on the light, would he come charging up to see if she was okay? The thought intrigued her and made her heart pound. What would she do if he did?

She reached over to the table lamp and flipped on the light.

Gabe drove away. Yep, he’d been waiting to make sure she got into her apartment safely. A pleased rush filled her. It was kind of nice having him worry about her like that. Of course, he was just doing his job, she reminded herself. Protecting people was what he did for a living. She was just one of those people.

She took her camera to the back half of the apartment, which had been converted to a photography studio. She’d had walls removed, the floor redone with hardwood and had lighting equipment mounted in strategic places. The remodel had used her entire savings, but the space worked well. And she loved her life here.

In one corner was her processing station. Gabe may not think there was anything more they could do tonight, but Kris knew otherwise. She hooked up the camera to the desktop computer and downloaded the pictures she’d taken.

Within a few minutes she was viewing the shots of Frank and the mysterious man in the alley. She had a clear shot of Frank handing an envelope to the man. Another of the man sliding the contents into his hand. She zoomed the picture in.

“Gotcha!” she stated to the photo. With satisfaction and anticipation, she grabbed the phone and called BPD and asked for Gabe, figuring he’d be back at his desk by now.

She was told he was off duty. So he’d been investigating on his own time. She liked that. She insisted the desk sergeant get a message to him as soon as possible. He couldn’t promise her anything.

Deciding she’d have to wait until morning to further the investigation, she readied herself for bed. Her sleeping area was cordoned off by a sliding divider. A four-poster bed, brought from her parent’s home, sat in the center of the room. A small vanity and chair sat beside the window that overlooked the courtyard behind the building. A flowered love seat with a fat tabby cat curled on a cushion took up the rest of the wall space. Just as Kris was crawling beneath the down comforter, the phone rang.

“Yes?”

“Kristina, it’s Gabe. I got a message you called. What’s wrong?”

Kris smiled at the concern in his voice. “Nothing’s wrong. But I have something to show you. Can I e-mail some pictures?”

“Can it wait until morning?”

Anxious to show him her find, she hesitated. “I suppose. It’s just you said we needed proof that Frank was doing something illegal before you would question him, right?”

“Right,” he replied cautiously.

“Well, I think I have the proof you need.”

“Kristina, listen to me. Don’t do anything or say anything about this until I get there in the morning.”

Her eyebrows rose. “You want to come here?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” A thrill of anticipation skipped over her skin. “First thing?”

“First thing. And, Kristina?”

“Yes?”

“Make sure you lock your doors.”

“I always do,” she answered before hanging up. But just to be sure, she double-checked. Sure enough, locked.

Back at her bed, she snuggled beneath the covers, convinced that tomorrow she’d be able to put Gram’s mind to rest.

Hopefully, with Gabe’s help.

THREE

The next morning, Gabe pulled his wool sport coat shut against the brisk air as he left his car and walked to Kristina’s apartment building. He still couldn’t believe she lived here.

He pushed the buzzer next to K. Worth. A moment later the door unlocked and he went inside. The large entryway was sparkling clean. The tiled floor shone with polish and the silver row of mailboxes looked brand-new. So much for slumming.

An elevator took him to the second floor. Kristina’s apartment was at the far end. A large wreath sporting a red bow hung around the peep hole. He knocked on the steel door.

The door slid open. She stood there with a smile on her face. “Hi.”

“Good morning,” he managed to say past the tightness in his throat.

He shouldn’t feel this pleased to see her. This was police business, not a social call. Yet he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He really should have just had her e-mail the pictures, but he’d been curious. He wanted to know more about the woman she’d become.

Her faded jeans rode low on her hips. A bright coral, formfitting, long-sleeved sweater accentuated her curves. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a strange-looking rope with multicolored beads hanging down at the end. Mascara darkened her lashes and her lips were glossy. Inviting. His mouth went dry as memories of last night’s escapade stormed through his mind. He should have kissed her and not worried about the consequences.

“Come in,” she said with a sweep of her hand.

Forcing himself to focus, he stepped into her apartment and realized he’d misjudged her. He’d expected a contemporary setting with high-end furniture and expensive decorations. His gaze cataloged the interior. The walled-in, small living room looked cozy with well-worn leather seating and a scarred coffee table strewn with photography magazines. In the corner stood a small Christmas tree, the lights twinkling.

A beautifully carved, yet beat-up armoire sat against one wall. Its opened doors revealed an older television, a stereo and lots of books. To his right was a small eating area and an even smaller kitchen. And he assumed the closed, sliding partition led to her bedroom and bath.

“This way.” Kristina walked toward a curtain, which she pushed aside and motioned him through.

The enormity of the loft-style photography studio surprised him. A large bay window dominated the far wall. Light stands and a stack of props took up one corner. A changing area and a workstation occupied the other two corners. The middle was open and a tripod with a camera sat at the ready.

Large photographs in minimalistic frames were stacked in a corner.

“Great space,” he commented. He walked over to the framed pictures. The one face-out was of what looked like an African village.

“Thank you. It took me a while to get it the way I wanted.”

“You did a good job.” He motioned to the photos. “Did you take these?”

She nodded, her expression a bit apprehensive, as if his opinion mattered.

Flustered by that thought, he flipped through the stack of images. More of Africa, others looked to be in an Eastern European setting, while a few were definitely South American. All third-world communities. Impressed by both the pictures and the fact that she’d gone to these places, he said, “These are great.”

“Thank you.”

Her pleased smile zinged through him, creating a wave of unexpected yearning that tightened his chest. He moved away from the photos and back to business. “So, what did you have to show me?”

Her eyes gleamed with excitement. She rushed to the workstation and picked up several pictures. “Check these out.”

Gabe studied the images. The first two were of Frank as he walked away from the camera toward the dark alleyway. The second showed the man in the shadows, his face unfortunately obscured by darkness. The third showed Frank handing over the envelope. The fourth was of the man emptying the contents into his hand. And the fifth was a zoomed-in shot of a dozen pills in various shapes and sizes.