Chapter 8

“Would you like something to drink?”

Ellie blinked herself out of a daze and glanced up at the young woman standing in the doorway. Blonde, mid-to-late twenties, and a figure with curves most men probably went nuts for, Hannah Murphy had been introduced to her earlier as the office manager for Eagle’s Nest Securities.

And she’s still waiting for an answer to her question.

Problem was, Ellie had no idea what that question had been.

“I’m sorry.” Her cheeks grew heated. “What did you say?”

Hannah’s kind smile deepened a set of twin dimples, giving her major girl-next-door vibes. “I was asking if you’d like something to drink. I have coffee, tea, bottled water, soda…”

Right on cue, Ellie’s mouth stretched with a perfectly timed yawn. Waiting for it to pass, she offered the kind young woman a chagrined smile. “Coffee would be amazing.”

“I’m guessing the stronger the better?” Hannah grinned.

“Can you put it into an IV drip?”

The other woman’s shoulders shook with a chuckle. “You know, I think just used my last IV bag on another client, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Ellie laughed, offering her thanks once more before Hannah spun on her heels and exited the security firm’s small meeting room. Settling back into her black leather chair, she was more than ready for the morning’s second round of coffee.

She’d drank her first cup before she and Lucky ever left her apartment, but her throat had still been bone dry all morning. Her non-medical brain said it was probably just nerves. It made sense, seeing as how she’d been on edge since Lucky had told her about the early-morning meeting with his team.

Me in a room full of former Navy SEALs who now all seem to act like my surrogate big brothers? What could possibly go wrong?

She’d asked Lucky about the purpose of the meeting, but the usually chatty man had just mumbled something about going over updates and seeing where everyone was with their part of the investigation.

When Ellie had attempted to push for more, he’d chosen that moment to make a so-called “important call”. Even the drive over had been quiet, which only served to put Ellie even more on edge than before.

Deep down, she knew the meeting wasn’t the root of her anxiety. It was the sudden shift in Lucky’s behavior.

Fun-loving. Playful. Annoying. Aggravating as hell.

That was the Lucky she was used to. But this quiet, almost stoic version of Lucky…

He scares me.

Ellie wasn’t afraid of him. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. She knew with every fiber of her being that the mouthwatering security specialist would never physically hurt her.

No, this new sense of dread that had been slowly making its way to every cell in her body stemmed from whatever—or whoever—had a man like Lucky feeling scared. Because the fear was definitely there, swirling around in that incredible blue stare of his.

Fear. Anger. Determination.

All three had come together, creating the perfect, emotional storm. One so powerful, she worried there may not be an escape.

“You’re still here.” Lucky’s voice pulled Ellie’s focus back to the room’s open doorway. “I half-expected you to make a run for it.”

The hard thump of her heart was as familiar as the man himself. It should be. The damn thing always seemed to kick the inside of her ribs whenever he appeared.

Sitting up straighter, she rested her elbows atop the small, rectangular conference table and flashed him a tight grin of her own. “The thought did cross my mind,” she half-joked.

A crooked grin lifted the left corner of his delectable mouth, despite the man’s earlier mood. The move exposed the shallow dimple that slashed into his cheek, the sight sending Ellie’s pulse racing through her veins.

“What made you stay?” Lucky asked as he made his way to the table.

You.

The internal response was so immediate…so unexpected…Ellie nearly physical recoiled from the thought alone.

He wasn’t the reason she’d stayed. No, no. She’d come here—had spent the last ten minutes waiting alone in this room—so she could find out what Lucky’s team had uncovered in regard to the shooting. That was it.

Nothing more.

You just keep telling yourself that, counselor.

With a shrug, she told him, “I figured, if I took off, you and the others would just show up back at my place, anyway.”

Ellie sat stalk still and waited, doing everything in her power to ignore the way the denim covering his strong legs stretched across his thighs as he moved. The dips and grooves of his muscular frame were evident even beneath the man’s black polo shirt. Thanks to a few rounds of backyard football at the last cookout Cassie had invited her to, Ellie knew exactly what Lucky’s bare upper body looked like…

Tight.

Cut.

Perfect.

The guy could seriously be a freaking model, which only added to her frustrations when it came to the former SEAL. But this wasn’t Cass and Archer’s back yard, and Lucky’s muscles weren’t what kept pulling at her attention.

It was the look in his eyes as he strolled casually toward her.

At first glance, he appeared to be…Lucky again. His face was no longer tight. His movements were easy and free. But despite his efforts to hide it, Ellie could still see a sliver of the same emotional turmoil rolling through his deep blue gaze.

“Something wrong?” Lucky’s brows dipped slightly as he reached for wheeled chair positioned across from where she sat. He pulled it back toward him, settled down onto its cushion, and scooted himself up to the table.

“You tell me.” She gestured toward him. “You’re the one who called this meeting and has since refused to tell me what it’s about.”

“I didn’t refuse.” He placed the laptop he’d been carrying down onto the smooth surface, along with a small, black remote. “I said I’d tell you everything, and I will. I just wanted to wait until everyone’s here, so I don’t have to repeat myself.”

“I’m assuming whatever it is you found, it’s not good.”

Before Lucky could respond, the room began to fill with the rest of the Eagle’s Nest team. Chase Boyer was the first to join them.

Though they didn’t affect her the way Lucky’s did, Chase had a set of gorgeous blue eyes. Like the entire Eagle’s Nest team, the hotshot sniper was also taller, more fit, and far better looking than the average male.

Must be a SEAL thing.

“Hey, Ellie.” Chase sent a genuine smile her way. “How’s the head?”

“Hi, Chase.” Ellie smiled, lifting a hand to the small strips still covering the cut on her forehead. “It’s better today, thanks.”

Brown hair filled with what appeared to be natural highlights hung a few inches longer on top than on the sides and in the back. The beard covering his long jaw and upper lip was always neatly trimmed, and the blue in his pretty eyes was almost as entrancing as Lucky’s.

Almost.

“That’s good.” He plopped into the chair to Lucky’s left. “Glad it wasn’t worse.”

Ellie scoffed. “You and me both.”

“Don’t worry, El.” Archer was the next to appear. “We’ll find the bastard responsible.”

“Whether it’s Harvey or someone else,” Logan added as he followed closely behind.

As Logan took the seat to Lucky’s right, Donovan “Van” Braddock walked through the door.

Now there was a man Ellie didn’t quite know how to read.

Dressed in dark jeans, a black t-shirt, and a black leather jacket, Van served as the team’s medic. According to what Cassie had told her when Ellie had first met Archer and the guys, Van’s main job was to provide emergency medical care should the need arise while they were working “in the field”.

Like the others filling the seats around her, the intimidating man was a genuine American hero. To Ellie, however, Van’s dark eyes and perpetually stone-cold expression made him look more like a villain.

“Hey,” Van’s deep murmur was barely audible as he made his way to a chair near one of the table’s ends.

Ellie greeted him with a nod and small wave.

“Now that everyone’s here…” Lucky flipped open his laptop and typed something into his computer. He then picked up the remote and powering up the small flatscreen mounted on the wall to Ellie’s left.

She watched and waited, her mind racing to figure out what she was about to see. Seconds later, the screen became filled with several images. Stills from yesterday’s press conference.

Or, more specifically, yesterday’s shooting.

Her chest immediately grew tight, and Ellie slid her hands from the table to her lap to conceal the slight tremor she knew was coming on.

“I was up all night last night going over the security footage from every courthouse camera facing the area where the press conference was held,” Lucky explained, his focus on the flatscreen and, thankfully, not her. “I watched each one, start to finish, then I went back and took them all frame by frame.” He pressed the remote again, and all but one of the images vanished. “This was seconds before the first shot rang out,” he explained.

Ellie studied the image closely. In it, she could see herself standing between her former mentor and Mayor Oswald as Special Agent Strauss addressed the crowd of reporters and citizens.

“Am I…missing something?”

Because she wasn’t seeing anything that looked out of the ordinary.

“Just watch.” Lucky pressed another button and the still turned into a full-blown video.

Though she’d tried to prepare for it, Ellie’s entire body jolted when the sound of a gunshot filled the T.V.’s speakers.

Don’t let them see it, El. Do not show these guys your fear.

Schooling her expression—and keeping her trembling hands out of the others’ line of sight—Ellie remained unmoving as Lucky stopped the video and started it again, from the beginning. This time, however, he took it frame-by-frame, just as he’d said he’d done while she’d been lost in sleep.

Had he really spent the entire night going over the security footage?

No wonder he was uncharacteristically quiet this morning. The man has to be utterly exhausted.

Feeling silly for spending so much of her own time contemplating the man’s odd mood, Ellie returned her hands to the table and forced them to remain still. For the next several minutes, and the others watched silently as Lucky explained in great detail what he’d learned from studying the recordings.

Pulling the original stills back up onto the screen, he was surprisingly meticulous in his descriptions of the events as they’d taken place. Lucky pointed out positions and angles. He talked about the wind’s directions and speed as they had been the day before.

Ellie’s years in the courtroom had trained her well in the art of listening. Countless hours of her life had already been spent listening to expert witnesses recite detail after mundane detail.

That same training came in handy now, as she sat there, soaking in every single word the sexy man was saying. Of course, it didn’t hurt that this expert came in a very nice, very good-looking package.

That package turned and faced the table once again. When Lucky spoke, it was clear he was addressing the entire room. But those damn eyes of his remained solely locked with hers.

And if she wasn’t mistaken, the tiny slivers of fear and anger she’d seen hidden there when he’d first walked into the room were no longer tiny. In fact, they were as clear to see as the bulging muscle in his strong, square jaw.

“I also accessed the security footage from the other buildings nearby,” he went on. “But between the cameras’ positioning and the crowd that had gathered, there wasn’t anything useful on any of those.”

“So we still don’t know what the shooter looks like,” she concluded.

“Unfortunately, no. But we will,” he vowed. Lucky’s gaze bore into hers a full two seconds longer before he blinked and returned his focus to the others. “Thanks to the courthouse footage, we do now have a pretty good idea of who the shooter was aiming at.”

Ellie’s lungs threatened to revolt, and her heat felt as if it were lodging in the base of her throat. Because yeah…she had a pretty good idea of the shooter’s target, too.

“It was me,” she announced woodenly. Her gaze moved from the stills on the screen to the man standing in their way. “I was the target.”

The proof in that conclusion was right there. In the videos. In Lucky’s expert assessment of the bullets’ trajectories.

“That first bullet missed you by centimeters.” Archer’s solemn stare met hers. “If you hadn’t tripped when you did—”

“The second shot would have hit you square in the chest.”

All eyes turned to Van, who didn’t even try to look sorry for the blunt comment. Ellie appreciated his candor. Sugar-coating the situation wouldn’t do any of them any good.

“If that one didn’t do the trick”—Chase chimed in—“the third bullet would have.”

While she took a moment to process, well, everything, Lucky and the other men of Eagle’s Nest began discussing it all aloud.

“Okay,” Archer started. “So a serial killer Ellie helps to convict escapes, and while she’s at a press conference to discuss that whole situation, someone tries to shoot her.”

“George Ray Harvey?” Chase posed the question to the room. “I mean, it stands to reason, the guy would hold a hefty grudge against the woman who prosecuted him.”

Ellie’s lips parted to argue against that fact, but Logan spoke before she got the chance.

“The guy’s obviously not above taking an innocent life,” the team’s leader pointed out. “So yeah, I’d say he’s definitely at the top of the list.”

“Cassie said Harvey was the reason you left the D.A.’s office,” Archer announced. “That it was after his trial when you decided to switch teams and become a full-time defense attorney.”

Mental note…remind Cassie that not everything has to be shared with her soon-to-be-husband.

“I left for several reasons,” she avoided giving a direct answer. “But—”

“Was it because he’s a serial killer?” Chase’s interruption was filled with genuine curiosity. “Or was it because of what happened in the courtroom that day? Not that I’d blame you, either way.” The well-intended man had rushed to add that last part. “That guy’s one sick fuck.”

The sickest.

“There were a lot of factors that went into my decision to leave Pierce County five years ago,” she kept her answer vague.

“But Harvey was one of them,” Archer stated.

From the look on the man’s face, Ellie suspected he already knew the truth. Part of it, anyway. The part that had made the news.

But no one knew the whole story. No one but her, a serial killer…and whoever had helped him after his conviction.

If they don’t know already, they’re going to find out sooner or later. May as well get this part out of the way now.

Knowing her inner voice was right, Ellie straightened her spine and prepared herself for what she had to do. It had been years since she’d discussed this part of the story. But Lucky’s findings had been clear…

Someone wanted her dead. And in order for the men in this room to keep that from happening, they needed to know it all.

Nerves danced inside her belly, and the trembling in her hands returned. Not because she was afraid of Harvey, but because she feared what the men in the room would think of her once they knew.

Her gaze lifted to Lucky who, along with the others, was patiently waiting for her to respond. It was in that moment Ellie realized she didn’t care what the others thought about her. The only opinion that mattered was his.

“I’m sure you all know what happened the last day of Harvey’s trial.” Still, she went for a very short recap, just in case. “I gave my closing arguments, Harvey’s attorney did the same, and just as the judge was finishing everything up, all hell broke loose.”

“Is it true that Harvey killed his attorney with the man’s own ink pen?”

A flash of a memory filled her vision, but Ellie shook it off and forced herself to remain focused. “Yeah,” she answered Chase’s next question. And…shit. Had her voice just cracked? Giving it a good clearing, she sat herself up a little straighter. “He, uh…he grabbed his lawyer’s pen and stabbed him in the side of the neck. Then he and the guard who was supposed to escort him fought. Harvey managed to get the man’s gun and turn it on him and then the judge.” Her lungs felt tight when she tried pulling in a deep breath. “All three died before help could arrive.”

Several low curses filled the room as the men around her shook their heads in disgust.

“Harvey attacked you, too, didn’t he?”

Ellie’s eyes flew to Lucky’s, the answer evident in his intelligent stare. That part of the story had been in the papers, too. The papers. The news. Social media. It was everywhere. For a while, her face was plastered everywhere.

Just made it that much easier for him to find me.

“Why ask the question if you already know the answer?” she challenged back.

But Lucky simply arched a cocky brow and shrugged. “We can’t protect you if you keep stuff from us.”

“I’m not—” she stopped the lie short.

For five years, she’d lied. Mostly by omission, but still. Very few people knew the whole truth about what happened after that day in court. Even Cassie didn’t know everything.

But Lucky was right. Regardless of who’d tried to kill her yesterday, the fact was someone had. And if there was anything she’d learned in the several months, it was that the men in this room were the best at what they did.

You know you can trust them. You know you can.

“You’re right.” Ellie looked to Lucky and then the others. “There’s more. But before I go into everything, I’d like to reiterate that, regardless of what I’m about to tell you, I stand by my opinion that George Ray Harvey is not the one who tried to shoot me.”

“Duly noted.” Lucky crossed his arms at his chest and dipped his chin.

Apparently, that was her cue to start talking.

She scooted herself closer to the table. With her hands linked together in front of her, she drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and—for the first time in five years—she shared the entirety of what she’d been forced to endure.

“After Harvey killed his attorney, the guard, and the judge, he came after me. I used my briefcase to knock the gun from his hand, but he tackled me and tried choking me to death.”

Ellie paused to swallow, resisting the urge to bring her fingers to her throat. Even now, after all this time, she could almost feel his hands as they’d damn near squeezed the life from her body.

“Thankfully, he was taken back into custody and hauled away before that could happen,” she continued. “That’s, uh…that’s the part that made the news.”

“What else did that bastard do to you?” Lucky growled.

When Ellie looked back at him, her breath nearly caught inside her chest. His arms were still crossed at his chest, and the man wasn’t even bothering to hide his anger toward Harvey, now.

“He stalked me. Or rather, he had someone else do the stalking for him since, until recently, he’s been in prison.”

“Stalked you how?” Van rumbled low.

She met the man’s dark stare. “I’d find notes on my car or my mailbox. Ones almost identical to those Harvey left for the four women he murdered.” A shiver raced down her spine from the memory.

“What did the notes say?” Logan asked next.

“The usual threats. He’d tell me he’s been watching me. He’d comment on something I’d worn the day before. Then he’d leave a picture of me in that same outfit, just so I’d know whoever had taken it was close by.” She huffed out a humorless breath. “Asshole even slashed my tires…twice. And then, the phone calls started shortly after. The caller never said anything. They’d just sit there in silence.”

“The prison let that son of a bitch call you?” Lucky dropped his fisted hands to his sides and scowled. “How the hell is something like that even allowed?”

“It wasn’t Harvey.” She shook her head at the decidedly angry man. “Phone calls to and from inmates are always monitored and recorded. And even if he paid off one of the guards, the phone calls came at all hours of the day. So unless he had the entire prison staff in his pocket—”

“Then it stands to reason the person stalking you was the same one making the calls,” Chase finished the thought.

“Psychological terror,” Van murmured.

Ellie looked at him and nodded. “Exactly.”

“Jesus.” Lucky ran a hand over his jaw. “And the cops?” He swung his focus back to her. “They ever catch the stalker?”

“No.” Yet another shake of her head. “They assigned a protection detail to follow me around for a few days, but that was it.”

“Only a few days?” Archer frowned. “Why not longer?”

Her shoulder lifted and fell with a shrug. “Low manpower, not enough money in the budget…they got bored…take your pick. But here’s the thing…” She leaned forward just a tad. “Even after the police presence vanished, the stalker never came back.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the letters and pictures…the harassing phone calls…it all just…stopped.”

That hadn’t kept her from looking over her shoulder everywhere she went for a while. Even now, Ellie still got nervous every time she sorted through her mail.

“That isn’t all that surprising,” Van pointed out. “Perp probably got spooked by the cops always hanging around, and decided to split before he landed behind bars, too.”

“Agreed.” Ellie nodded. “But by then, the damage had already been done.”

Chase frowned. “Damage?”

“The nightmares. Constant paranoia. Mistrusting those I came into contact with.” She glanced down at her hands, only then realizing she’d been wringing them tightly together. Shoving them back down onto her lap, she cleared her throat and brought her big reveal to an end. “I couldn’t even date like a normal person, because the entire time I’d be out to dinner or drinks, I’d find myself sitting there, wondering if the man I’d agreed to go out with was really just a pawn in Harvey’s sick game.”

That was why she was still single. Why she only agreed to no-strings and casual.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to settle down and start a family. Or that she didn’t dream of finding a love like the one Cassie and Archer had found.

The truth was, Ellie wanted all those things and more. But as long as George Ray Harvey’s heart was still beating, she couldn’t risk letting her guard down enough to chase those dreams.

“That’s why you left the D.A.’s office,” Logan surmised. “Why you moved from Tacoma to Seattle.”

Sitting back in her chair, Ellie blew out a breath before responding the man’s statements.

“Yes,” she confirmed Logan’s assumptions. “I needed a fresh start, and Seattle is a large enough city, I figured it was as good a place as any.”

“And the switch to defense attorney?” Archer asked.

“Running my own practice, I can pick and choose my clients,” she explained. “Aside from Cassie’s, I only take on small cases, and I don’t represent anyone charged with a violent crime.”

Cass had been the one and only exception, but that was only because Ellie knew, without a doubt, that her friend was innocent.

“The lesser crimes, the less chance of having to deal with shitheads like Harvey.” Chase shot her an appreciative grin. “Makes sense.”

She’d certainly thought so.

“So where do we go from here?” she asked no one in particular.

“We’ll continue monitoring the FBI’s progress in locating Harvey,” Logan spoke up next. When Ellie opened her mouth to, once again, rebut the notion that Harvey was the shooter, he cut her off by adding, “Lucky’s already familiar with the layout of your apartment, so he’s agreed to stay on as your bodyguard. He’ll drive you to and from work, the grocery store…anywhere you need to go, he’ll take you.”

Seriously?

“Is that really necessary?”

“It is if you want to stay alive,” Lucky answered for the other man.

His response was blunt and to the point. Something she appreciated.

“Alive is definitely preferrable,” she muttered.

From the non-smiling expression on Lucky’s face, it seemed as if her attempt to be light-hearted had failed.

“Hannah’s getting the paperwork together now,” Logan told her. “It’s all standard stuff. Once that’s taken care of, Lucky can drive you home.”

“I need to work,” she countered. “I can’t let my clients suffer just because some idiot with a gun decided I’d make a good target.”

Having a constant shadow was one thing, but she couldn’t—she wouldn’t—let Harvey or anyone else, for that matter—send her running scared again.

No more running. Not ever again.

“I’ll take you to your office, instead,” Lucky agreed.

After fine-tuning their plan up to that point, Archer, Logan, Chase, and even Van said their goodbyes. She and Lucky let the room, as well, and the two began walking down the long hallway toward the security firm’s reception area.

As they headed for Hannah’s desk, Ellie couldn’t help but ask, “Do you really think you’ll catch the person who wants me dead?”

Lucky glanced down at her, his expression as serious as she’d ever seen it. And in that sexy, deep voice of his, the surprising man promised her, “I won’t stop until I do.”