Unexpected Trouble (The Unexpected Series Book 3) Page 7

  I shoved another bite into my mouth and was about to close my laptop so I could put it in my bag, but I stopped and stared at the photo again. I clicked on the picture, saved it, then brought it up and sent it to the printer.

  In between bites, I collected all my work off my desk and tucked it all into my briefcase. On the way back from the locker room where I stored my go-bag, I passed the printer, grabbed the photo, and slipped it into my briefcase.

  One last bite and I wadded the paper and tossed it into the trash can as I gathered my two bags and headed toward the door. Alice pushed a folder toward me as I reached the reception desk, “Thanks. See ya when I see ya, Alice.”

  “Bye, Greg. Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do.” She gave me a finger wave as I laughed. I was pretty sure that Alice would do just about anything she wanted. It was one of the things that I liked about her. She was outgoing and didn’t let you get away with shit.

  Maggie wasn’t letting me get away with shit either. I frowned as I thought that and hit the stairs. I needed to stop comparing Alice and Maggie. There wasn’t a reason to, and I wouldn’t be getting involved with either of them, so it was a moot point.

  When I got through security at the airport, I found Jake pacing like he usually did while he spoke on the phone. Even in his office, he was restless when he talked. The man was so damn high-strung that after being in his presence for a few hours, you were exhausted. It was like he used all of his energy and then fed off you to get more. I sure hoped that this meeting went quickly, I was already exhausted, and we haven’t even left yet.

  After he hung up, he came to stand next to me as I surveyed the crowd. “Took you long enough.”

  “I’m here, relax already.”

  “What happened with that incident this morning?”

  “Two subjects robbed the jewelry store on Market; for some reason instead of fleeing the area, they came into the coffee shop and decided to take hostages.”

  “I heard one got away.”

  “Yeah, but Maggie gave them a good description.”

  “Who is Maggie?”

  “She was in there with me. I knew her in high school, dated her back then. Haven’t seen her in nineteen years.”

  He chuckled slightly. “Small world.”

  “Yeah, it is.”

  A few minutes later, we were boarding the plane, and luckily Jake hated flying commercial. He was tall and couldn’t stand the cramped seats. Because of that, we were going first class. It was one of the benefits of traveling with the boss.

  We discussed things on our way down and devised a plan of attack, along with the essential points to make them aware of the security and loss risks. Our meeting was supposed to have been this evening, but it got moved to the morning. That’s what Jake had been dealing with when I arrived at the airport. He was on the phone with Alice making sure we had hotel reservations and a car to pick us up.

  The flight was quick, and our ride was waiting for us near the luggage pickup. Sixty-five minutes after we landed, we were walking into the lobby of our hotel, and Jake checked us in and gave me my key.

  “We aren’t sharing a room, are we?” I asked him as we approached the elevator.

  “Oh, hell no. I haven’t shared a room with anyone since my last deployment five years ago.”

  I was glad to hear that. The last thing I wanted was to deal with his hyper ass all night long.

  “I have a few calls to make. I’ll meet you in the lounge at seven, and we can grab dinner,” he said as we got off the elevator.

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Inside my room, I set my duffel down, tossed my computer back on the bed, and then kicked off my shoes. I got settled on the bed and dug into my computer bag, pulling out everything, including the photo I had printed before I left. I carefully folded the paper around the picture to give it sharp creases and slowly tore away the excess paper. When it was complete, I pulled the small notebook out of my pants pocket and dug around in the back pocket. Behind my license, a credit card and my retired military credentials was Maggie’s junior year high school picture.

  It was tattered and dog-eared, but in decent shape for all the miles it had on it. I held the two pictures side by side. Maggie had been so pretty in high school, and her beauty had done nothing but grow over the years. I stared at them for a long moment before I folded the printed picture in half and put them both back into my little notebook.

  I didn’t know why I did that, but for some reason, it felt right. Putting Maggie out of my mind, I focused on my work and spent an hour catching up on emails before I went to meet Jake for dinner.

  Every once in a while, her image would come to mind, and I’d wave it away again. I didn’t need a distraction. My job was too critical, and if I let myself be, I could totally be distracted by Maggie.

  Part of me almost wished that I hadn’t run into her again, but then there was that other part of me that told me that I would be a complete idiot not to take advantage of this second chance.

  I was used to war in the world, but I hated being at war with myself.

  Chapter Ten

  Maggie

  I was in my room, digging through a box I’d pulled from the attic when my mother wandered into my room. “What are you doing, sweetheart?”

  “Oh, hi, Mom. How was your day?” I asked, happy to see she was lucid and smiling today. Over the last week, she had been a little more confused than usual, and fretful. As if she knew she was confused and not sure why. I hated this disease. Hated that it robbed her of her life and memories, and hated that it stole my strong-willed, active mother.

  “It was a pleasant day. How was yours?”

  For all of two seconds, I considered telling her about my day, but I didn’t want to waste good moments with her by sharing horrible things. Instead, I grinned at her. “It was a great day. I ran into an old friend.”

  “You did? Did I know them?”

  I dug around inside the box and grinned as I pulled out the photo album dedicated to one, Gregory Blaire. “Yep, you sure did.”

  She blinked at the album I held out for her to see. “Oh, I remember that. You were madly in love with him in high school. He was a nice boy, and then he went away someplace, and he broke your heart. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes,” I replied as I moved the box and took a seat on the bed, patting the space next to me to invite her to join me. “He joined the military and went to war.”

  She sat beside me, and I opened the album to the first page. I hadn’t looked at this in at least sixteen years, and the sight of us together on the front page stole my breath away.

  “My, he is handsome, what was his name?”

  “Gregory Blaire.”

  My mother smiled at our photo. “Is this who you ran into today?”

  “Yes, I ran into him while I was getting coffee today.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Tell me everything. Was Greg happy to see you? Is he still as handsome as he was? Did he give you butterflies in your stomach? I seemed to recall that he used to give you butterflies.”

  I blinked back the tears that threatened to explode into my eyes. My mother could remember how Greg used to make me feel. To be able to share that with her again was a real gift.

  “He did give me butterflies, and he is even more handsome now. He seemed taller, but not much, and his shoulders were wider. He has a beard now, not a heavy one, but one of those sexy scruffy ones.”

  My mother put her hand on my arm. “Oh, I remember when your father would let his beard grow in; it was so sexy.” She lifted her eyes to mine. “Until it wasn’t.”

  We both laughed at the memory of my father refusing to shave for six months and looking like a grizzly old man.

  “So how is Greg? Was he visiting his parents? How are they?”

  “No, Greg lives around here now. He retired from the military and came home to live here. He works in security or something, but I’m not too sure of the details. We didn’t get much of a chance to ta
lk.”

  She stared at me for a moment. “And his parents?”

  “They passed, Mom. His mother had breast cancer many years ago, and his father passed a couple of years ago.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. I think I remember them being nice people.” My mother had met them a couple of times when we were dating.

  “They were nice people,” I echoed.

  “Are you going to see him again?” She frowned. “Did you break up with him, or did he break up with you? I don’t recall the details.”

  “He was going overseas and not sure how long he would be gone. He didn’t want me to wait for him or be tied down either.”

  “Is he married now?”

  I shook my head as I turned the page. “No, he’s never been married, and I don’t think he ever will be either.”

  “Such a shame,” my mother said as she looked over the page with me. For a few minutes, we laughed about a couple of the pictures, and then as if someone had flipped a switch, my mother changed as I went to a new page of the album.

  “Look at me in this picture; I was so thin back then, and my hair was so blond.” She pointed at one of the shots, but the image wasn’t her, it was me. I was in my bathing suit, and Gregory was holding me in his arms, getting ready to toss me in the pool at my friend’s house. I was clinging to his neck and laughing. I remember saying if I go in, you go too, and he had.

  I swallowed the immediate lump that lodged in my throat. “Yes, it was.” I knew better than to say that it wasn’t her. We looked enough alike at that age that she was easily confused. If I tried to convince her that it was me and not her, it would only upset her.

  For the next few minutes, we looked over the photos, and I treasured the memories that expanded in my mind with each photograph. When we were done, my mother made mention of the time and said that she needed to get dinner ready because Dad would be home soon.

  As she rushed out of my bedroom door to head downstairs, I knew I needed to follow her. She would either get to the kitchen and forget what she had wanted to do, or she’d start cooking and leave the pans on the stove.

  I sighed as I stared at the last page of the album. It was a picture of Gregory and me the day he graduated from boot camp. His parents had brought me with them to see it, and I’d never been so proud of him. I also hadn’t thought that he could ever get more handsome, but he had. Man—had he!

  As I set the album down and went to find my mother and prevent a disaster, I wondered what Greg would have done if I had kissed him goodbye. I had been very tempted to do so, and the only thing that stopped me was knowing that one kiss with that man and I would be opening myself back up to heartbreak. He had told me straight out that he would never be available for anything more, and I had to accept that.

  I helped my mother get dinner ready and somehow managed to get Greg out of my mind as we ate and cleaned up. After dinner, Mom and I went out to the front porch like we did many nights. While she sat on the porch swing, I weeded the flower garden while she talked about memories that she had. Of course, those memories she thought were brand new and would jump from year to year in a matter of minutes. Sometimes it was rather enlightening; other times, it was depressing. Tonight, it kept reminding me how short life could be and as I finally got my mom settled for the night, I curled up in bed with the photo album and took another trip down memory lane.

  I was at work the next day when I received a phone call from Detective Highmore on my office line.

  “Ms. Valor, we know who the other man is now.”

  “You do? Do you have him in custody?”

  “No, we don’t have him in custody yet, but we now have a good lead.”

  “Okay, that’s good to hear. I appreciate you letting me know. What is his name?”

  “Jefferson Lenard Bunker. Um, I tried to call Mr. Blaire but got his voicemail. Will you be talking to him today?”

  “Uh, I don’t think so.”

  “Oh, I got the impression that you two were a couple. Alright, I will try to get ahold of Mr. Blaire later then. I will let you know if we hear anything else.”

  “Alright, thank you, Detective.”

  “You’re welcome; also, you can come by later today and get your phone.”

  “Great, thank you. I’ll be by soon to get it.”

  Now, wasn’t it funny that he had thought Greg and I were a couple, and Len had even suggested that we had known each other too? Why did people automatically believe that we were together?

  My desk phone rang, and I set that line of questioning aside to answer it.

  “Who was the hottie in the picture with you yesterday?” my friend Heather said as soon as I answered.

  “You saw that, huh?”

  “Um, yeah! Was he like your personal savior or something?”

  “No, an old friend.”

  “Friend? Is that why you didn’t make it to the speed dating last night?”

  I slapped my palm to my forehead. “Holy crap! I’m so sorry, Heather. I completely forgot about it! After yesterday’s drama and spending a few hours at the police station, it slipped my mind.”

  “Yeah, I figured as much. I tried to text you like a dozen times. Then I thought you’d already had your speed dating while you were on lockdown in Cocoa’s.”

  “No, definitely not.” I chuckled. “It was a long day, and it slipped my mind, and as for my cellphone, the police still have it. I can get it back later today.”

  “Well, you didn’t miss too much. I mean, there were a couple of interesting people there, but no one that grabbed my heartstrings and tugged.”

  “Glad I didn’t miss much. When do they do it again?”

  “They have it there every Monday night, so if you want to try and not get kidnapped next Monday, I will give it another try with you.”

  “That sounds like a plan, but remind me tomorrow after I get my phone back to put it on my calendar. I’m lost without my phone right now.” We both laughed, and I told her I’d talk to her later.

  Jeff called me into his office as soon as I was off the phone, and I was dreading getting into it with him again. When I had arrived this morning, the first thing I had done was to check my stats for my column. This series of articles was already higher than any of my last publications in the previous month, and we are only on day two of ten. I didn’t have a chance to read all the comments yet, but people seemed to be enjoying the sincere advice that was sprinkled with a little bit of sarcasm. I just hoped my boss appreciated it too.

  “Hey, Jeff, you wanted to see me?”

  “Yeah, close the door.”

  I closed it and took a seat in front of his desk as he shuffled papers around and then leaned back and stared at me for three full seconds. “So, I talked to Hobart.”

  He paused, and I waited. Talking to his boss, Hobart, I assumed was a daily thing; why was he making such a big deal out of it? When he didn’t continue, I spoke. “And what was that conversation about?”

  “You.”

  Again, I waited—and nothing. “What about me?”

  “I asked Hobart if he would consider giving you some front-page space for your story from yesterday.”

  As the words came out of his mouth, my hopes started to soar. A moment later, those hopes took a nosedive like a parachutist without a parachute.

  Greg had told me that I shouldn’t talk about it, and the police had also reiterated that fact during the interview.

  “That’s great, Jeff. When I’m allowed to speak about it, I’ll be happy to share every detail.”

  “What do you mean, when you are allowed to speak about it?”

  “I can’t talk about it right now, Jeff. It is an active investigation, and I can’t discuss what I saw until after the men are prosecuted.”

  “Yes, you can. You have the freedom of speech behind you.”

  “And if I spoke, it could affect the outcome of the trial.”

  “If you don’t talk, it could affect your job.”

 
I startled back. “What are you talking about, Jeff? You’d fire me for not doing the article?”

  “No, I wouldn’t fire you, but any hope you had of getting out of romance advice would be cut short.”

  “That’s not fair, Jeff! You know that I’m a damn good reporter. If they have room on the news floor, you know I should be there. I’m too damn good to be writing a stupid romance column.”

  “Then maybe you should have stayed in Atlanta since you were such an up-and-coming big-shot reporter.”

  “And you know that I came home to be near my mother so I could care for her.”

  “That was a sacrifice that you were willing to make, Maggie. I didn’t make it for you. You have to decide how important your career is.”

  “Excuse me?” I hissed out. “You know that my career is important to me, Jeff. I work my ass off, and I deserve to be on the news desk.”

  “Yeah, well, if you want a shot, then write the article.”

  “I can’t. I told you that. Not until after the trial. We can cover it, and my memories of it could be a great closing piece for it.”

  “And not one person will give a shit, Maggie. It’s now or never. Your choice, but if you don’t write the article by midnight, don’t expect another chance for a long time.” His phone began to ring, and he dismissed me without another word as he answered and started talking to someone.

  I left the room, feeling a mixture of numbness and anger. I didn’t want to lose this chance, but how could I write the article and not affect the criminal case?

  Chapter Eleven

  Gregory

  I sure didn’t expect our meeting to get pushed again, or for it to only last ten whole minutes when we were finally given an audience. This committee was willing to authorize over a million dollars’ worth of medical supplies to be sent into a war-torn countryside but wanted to remain negligent of protecting it. They didn’t have enough of a substantial threat to warrant a military escort at this time, hence the reason they had hired private security. Now that we had drawn up plans and gone over them in great detail, they wanted to hang us out to dry on the contract. They thought that civilian contractors currently working in the medical facility could handle the situation.