Hidden Threat (27 page)

“Because you don’t,” was his immediate reply. She waited, and he realized he needed to give her more than that. Instead of answering her question in more depth, he asked, “Why didn’t you call me after lunch and tell me about Rachael inviting you to the club? Why did I have to hear it from Lisa when I called at four-thirty to get your schedule for Monday?“

Cali stilled for a minute and felt a moment of guilt for accusing Lisa of going behind her back and calling him. Matthew shifted slightly, but it was enough to get her attention, and she refocused on what he’d asked. Why hadn’t she called him? It was a good question, and one she didn’t have an answer to.

“I don’t know,” she said in defeat. Cali saw him cross his arms and knew he wanted more than that. She sighed, and rubbed a hand across her forehead. “I just…I guess it’s been a while since I’ve had to justify my actions to someone else.”

This seemed to ease him a little. “So why didn’t you just say that?” 

She shrugged and took a deep breath. “By the time we got home, I knew you were upset.” He snorted, but she ignored it. “Like I said, I’m not used to justifying myself to anyone. And well…You got my feathers up so to speak.” 

He watched her for a few minutes. Cali was a highly independent woman. She took control of her life and wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. Challenges were just that to her, challenges. She met them head on. Matthew realized that he’d set a challenge before her earlier when he’d disregarded her friend. Cali was loyal to her friends and family. The fact that she’d dropped everything to come and help her father was proof of that.

Fingers brushed lightly on his leg, and he met her eyes. “I do trust you.” Matthew moved his hand down to cover hers. “I’m sorry I got your feathers up.” He smirked.

Cali’s mouth turned up into a small answering smile. “I’m sorry, too. You’re right. I should have called you.”

They were silent for a while, and Cali enjoyed how much lighter she felt. With the anxiety gone, sleep began to pull Cali into its grasp. Her eyes closed for several seconds, and when she opened them again, they were heavy with sleep.

Sliding back down into the bed, Matthew tugged on her arm and pulled her to him. Cali didn’t offer any resistance as he moved the blanket out of the way for her. Facing each other with their fingers laced together, Matthew’s other arm brought her closer, erasing the distance between them. She snuggled in. It felt so good to be close to him again. There was nowhere else she’d rather be.

Matthew sat at his desk Wednesday morning reviewing the previous night’s security tapes when he heard a knock on his door. It was the mail clerk with today’s mail. After instructing the young man to leave it on the corner of the desk, he went back to what he’d been doing.

There’d been no other sightings of the mystery woman in the garage. It wasn’t surprising, considering the tape had been altered. What it did prove was that person hadn’t had time to replace the tape with a dummy, only to manipulate it enough to not be identified.

He’d gone over the security tapes from the elevators the night the mystery woman was in the parking garage. He’d also reviewed the ones for the night Cali had been hit, and the ones for the following morning when the tapes had most likely been switched. Matthew checked to see if there was one person caught on tape for all three incidents. They weren’t.

The number of people in the building during the time frame in question wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either. Although the list for the night Cali was hit was shorter, there were still too many to narrow it down for his comfort. As for the morning after, that had been useless. IT changed shifts at six in the morning, leaving both the night and day shifts plenty of time to accomplish the end goal.

Half the executive secretaries and many of the executives themselves came in at or before seven. And that didn’t even account several dozen production, maintenance, and security staff. He just couldn’t seem to catch a break there.

Letting his thoughts drift, they landed on the new unknown in the mix.
Rachael Michaels
. He’d done every type of search he could think of and still came up with nothing.

There was something about her that rubbed him the wrong way, and he couldn’t put his finger on it. Cali, although not coming out and saying it, hinted that he might be jealous. He’d thought about that but came to the conclusion that he wasn’t.

Rachael’s stunt on Saturday hadn’t helped his mood in the slightest either. They’d just been about to leave to visit Cali’s father when she showed up on their doorstep, unannounced. Thankfully, Cali was quick on her feet and explained Matthew’s presence by simply saying that as he had business to discuss with her father, had offered to drive her. It sounded lame to him, but Rachael seemed to buy it, and that was what mattered.

The day was awkward to say the least. Matthew and Cali had to keep their distance while in the presence of others, which after their fight the day before was difficult. It was the weekend, and their time together in the car was supposed to be without prying eyes. Rachael’s presence complicated things. His fingers tingled, wanting to hold Cali’s hand while he drove.

Rachael stuck to Cali like glue the entire day. And when they arrived back at the mansion, she invited herself in. It put them in a precarious situation, as they couldn’t let her know he was living there. So he’d asked to use her bathroom, snuck up the back stairs to his room, and grabbed the GPS device from the previous night along with a panic button.

Thankfully Cali caught on to what he was doing, offering to walk him out. Angling himself to block the view from the house, he tried to place the tracker in her bra again and explain the new device, but she protested. That was until he looked at her with all the emotion and concern he could muster and asked, “Please.” She relented.

It’d been a long night. Rachael stayed until just after midnight, and Matthew and Cali’s day together had been lost.

***

Sunday wasn’t much better with his brother and Lisa showing up unannounced at noon. Jason brought his usual armful of goodies, ready for the game. The last thing Matthew wanted was to spend another day of his weekend around people and keep his hands to himself. Thankfully, Lisa had to go home after the first game.

As soon as Jason’s car pulled out of the driveway, they quietly made their way upstairs and didn’t come down for the rest of the night.

Monday came, and it was back to the routine they’d set the previous week.

***

Ironically, they ended up spending more time together their first two days back at the office than they had over the weekend. Although he’d only known her for a month, he couldn’t imagine his life without her, and it terrified and amazed him at the same time. He didn’t have forever with her, only weeks.

His phone beeped, reminding him to check in on Cali. With the push of two buttons, her face came up on the small screen of his phone. She was sitting at her desk talking on the phone. Her hair was up in a messy bun with little tendrils falling around her face. The yearning to free it and run his fingers through her curls gave him the determination to get his work done quickly so he could go up and have lunch with her today. Placing the phone down on his desk, he turned his attention back to the tapes.

Two hours later, Matthew clicked the last screen closed. Everything was clean.

The tapes didn’t capture any suspicious activities last night, but he wasn’t naïve enough to believe that meant much of anything at this point—not until he’d found his mole. Turning, he reached over to grab the next thing on his to-do list for the day, the mail.

He’d started having Cali’s mail diverted to his desk first after she’d shown him the anonymous pictures and messages she had received. Matthew hadn’t been able to trace them. They were gathering dust along with the other things that didn’t add up.

The mailroom separated his mail from Cali’s by placing a rubber band around her correspondence. As usual, his pile was small today. There was a resume from a local college graduate looking to get into corporate security; no experience from what he could see, but one never knew. The rest consisted of companies trying to sell him things. Tossing everything aside, he moved on to Cali’s stack.

Her pile was larger than his. There was an invitation from the Chicago Museum of Art to a fundraiser next month. He had no idea if she’d feel it necessary to attend, but it was something he made a note to ask her about. Flipping through a few more nondescript envelopes, his fingers fell on what he knew he’d been looking for.

Just like the others, it was a plain white envelope, almost an inch thick with a Chicago postmark. He didn’t need to open it to know it contained more pictures.

An empty feeling settled in the pit of his stomach as he reached for his letter opener.

***

By the time lunch rolled around, Cali was more than ready for a break. Her phone had been ringing off the hook. There’d been a board meeting yesterday, and a few of the members were not happy that shipments were still in danger. The knowledge that all but a few had been saved from hijacking didn’t seem to ease tensions much, and it seemed today those same members decided to reiterate their displeasure on a personal level via the telephone.

So, when a knock sounded at her door around noon, she sighed; but when Matthew stepped through the door, she couldn’t help the smile that broke out on her face. “Hi.”

“Hello,” he said closing the door behind him.

Instead of coming to her as he usually did, he walked to the conference table and laid out their lunch. She knew immediately something wasn’t right. Walking over to the table, she took her seat but didn’t reach for the food he set in front of her.

“What’s wrong?”

Matthew stopped with his sandwich inches from his mouth. He didn’t look at her when he spoke. “You got more pictures today.”

“Oh,” she said, swallowing. Reaching for her food, she took a minute to gather her thoughts. “Can you tell when they were taken?’

He didn’t answer right away, and Cali looked up. Matthew’s eyes were on his sandwich, the table, anywhere but her. “Yes,” he finally answered in a flat voice.

A little taken aback by his emotionless response, she decided it best to keep things neutral. Something was obviously bothering him. It may not have anything to do with the pictures. Cali knew she wasn’t the only thing he had to worry about. “Well that’s a good thing, right? I mean at least that’s something.”

“Yeah, it’s something,” he muttered. He almost sounded sarcastic.

Okay she wasn’t about to just sit here and take this. Even though she knew she should just let it go, she couldn’t. Her hand reached out and halted his arm from its upward motion. He looked up at her, meeting her eyes for the first time since walking through the door. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

He didn’t answer right away, just watched her. “The pictures were taken Friday, at the club.” Matthew set down his sandwich and placed his hands flat on the table.

“They were there, Cali. Inside. With you.”

Cali paled. “I didn’t see anyone.”

Matthew snorted. “I seriously doubt you’d see them unless they wanted to be seen.”

She watched him closely, noticing how he kept looking away from her. Her mind raced. Was there something else in the envelope? Another message maybe? “Is that all?” He looked up at her then. “I mean…,” she started and then sighed, picking up her discarded straw paper and twirling it absently around her finger.

“You seem…I don’t know…distant. Was there a letter, too? Did it say something I should be concerned about?”

His eyes began searching hers. He seemed to be looking for something from her, but she wasn’t sure what. After what seemed like forever, he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “There were several pictures. All were taken inside the club. Most of them were taken of you…and a man…dancing.” The way he paused before he said dancing made her stop. The acid he poured into the word was clear.

Cali sat back in her own seat. She hadn’t thought about Lance since that night. It was a memory she’d prefer to forget. Glancing up at Matthew, she saw the conflict in his eyes. Did he think she’d cheated on him? Was he jealous? They’d never talked about boundaries or other people, but she wouldn’t do that to him.

He didn’t know that, though.

As she continued to look at him, she realized her mistake. It wasn’t that she’d danced with someone else; it was that she hadn’t told him. His face didn’t hold anger; it held hurt.

She decided to rectify that. Now. “His name was Lance. We danced. He got…well, he took a few liberties, and I took care of it.” Cali made sure she looked him in the eye when she said the next part. “It was an experience I’d rather forget, which is why I didn’t say anything. I’m sorry.”

Matthew shifted in his seat. “You don’t owe me anything, Cali,” he said softly.

It was as if he’d slapped her, pain stabbing her in the chest, and it hurt. “How can you say that?” she asked quietly.

He sat up then and just shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it does! Matthew I…” She wanted to tell him she loved him, but she couldn’t get the words out. She had no idea how he felt about her. Did he really think it didn’t matter, they didn’t matter, she didn’t matter? “I care about you. You have to know that.”

His eyes came up again, and when they met hers, they were softer, more like what she was used to from him. “I care about you, too.” Matthew intertwined his fingers with hers. He gave a gentle squeeze and smiled.

They sat there for a few minutes, enjoying the moment, when they heard a throat clear. Both their heads snapped up to find Lisa standing only a few feet away with a small smirk on her lips. Their secret was out.

Matthew and Cali stared at Lisa for one, very long minute, not moving. Their fingers were still linked, but the easy comfort that was present moments before was gone.

Matthew contemplated how to react. He could, of course, play it off and pretend as if he was just showing Cali something, but that thought didn’t sit well with him.