“Colt, what brings you to Hidden Creek?” she asked, her eyes scanning his face.
“Work,” he answered quickly.
“Oh, are you looking for a job too?”
“No, I have one. One that takes me all over.” He hadn’t really been prepared to answer any questions but figured he would follow the plan he had in place when things took a turn during a job.
“Oh? What do you do?” Jess asked, hanging onto his every word.
“Security,” he said, knowing it was best to keep his answers vague.
“Oh.” She tilted her head, and he understood she was waiting for more details.
“Private security. Was that your husband earlier?” He figured to turn the questions onto her. After all, asking questions and getting answers was the baseline of his work.
“Yes.” Jess smiled and gave him a look that said she understood the game he was playing.
“And son?” he asked. She nodded. “Do you own the shop?” He glanced around and tried not to look over to where Tara was now watching them from behind the counter.
“Sort of,” Jess answered. “What kind of security? My brothers-in-law have a private security company. They mainly work with online clients.”
“Oh?” He was interested now.
“They co-own Kincaid Investigations. Mike started it, but Ethan joined the business less than a year later.”
“Kincaid?” he asked, very interested now. “I’ve heard of them. They just earned the contract for Fanatics.” Anyone and everyone in the private sector had heard the news. Fanatics was a large online temp job site that had popped up in the past few years.
“Yes,” Jess said, and then she relaxed back against the booth, as if she’d been testing his knowledge. “Something tells me your type of security isn’t just the cyber kind.” Her eyes ran over him.
He knew what she and everyone else saw when he walked into a room. He was built like a linebacker. He had four years in special ops and hours and hours of downtime in the past few years that he’d spent lifting weights.
“I’m not really good with computers,” he admitted.
“So…” She leaned onto the table and glanced around. “Who in Hidden Creek needs protection?”
He smiled. “Let’s just say I’m very particular about keeping my clients’ private affairs… private.”
Jess glanced quickly over at Tara and then back at him, a gleam in her eyes. “For now, I’ll let you keep your secrets.” His eyebrows shot up in question. She spoke as if she already knew that he was there because of the pretty blonde behind the counter.
She stood up and sighed moments before a pair of teenagers walked through the door. “Enjoy your stay in Hidden Creek,” she added as she walked back over to take the teens’ orders.
He sat in the coffee shop until it grew too crowded and then made his way back out to his truck. Since it didn’t appear that Tara was leaving the coffee shop any time soon, he made his way over to the hotel and got a room, showered, and changed into clean clothes. Then he headed back to the coffee shop to watch and wait, which, he had to admit, was what he did the majority of the time he worked.
In the past month, she’d given him the slip a few times before, so he was determined to keep his eyes on her this time.
Since Jess had shown such great interest in him and who his client was, he knew she was the type of woman that would look out for one of her workers, even a temporary one.
He didn’t want to come across as a stalker, which meant he couldn’t sit right in front of the coffee shop. Since it was a small town, he parked his truck down the street, just out of sight of the large windows of the shop.
A few hours later, at two in the afternoon, he watched Jess turn off the open sign in the window. A few moments later, the two women walked out together, chatting. Jess handed Tara a piece of paper, then quickly walked over to a small sedan and drove off. Tara stood in the parking lot, looking around the town.
He held his breath; afraid she would spot him parked down the street. But his windows were tinted very dark, and he relaxed when she climbed into her van. She probably didn’t know what kind of car he drove. Plus, he doubted she had given him any more attention than she had anyone else. After all, she’d only seen him twice now.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for the money, he would have lost interest in the job already. The pretty blonde was an anomaly. She didn’t stay at hotels like most women he’d known would have done. Instead, she just parked the old white conversion van on the side of the road whenever she got tired. It had been one of the reasons it had been very difficult for him to find her.
He’d figured that when she needed money, she stopped somewhere and worked, usually at a coffee shop or a diner.
In the past month, she’d held four such jobs, each usually lasting only a few days, which is why it had been almost impossible to catch up to her. He figured she was working for gas and food money.
The question that kept running through his mind was why she was constantly on the move. Did she know he was tailing her?
Where was she heading to? What was the purpose? Why not stay in one place? Who was she running from?
His client hadn’t given him much information on Tara. Only a grainy picture of the blonde, the make and model of her van, and where she’d been a little over a month ago. When he’d arrived, he’d missed her by three days, and he’d been following her breadcrumbs ever since.
He wasn’t sure why someone was paying him to watch her in the first place. She didn’t seem special in any way. Sure, she was pretty. Her long blonde hair helped her stand out from the crowd, that and her sea green eyes. Especially now that he’d seen them up close instead of through the zoom lens on his camera. Up close, he’d gotten the full effect of the sexy color.
She was taller than most women at five-ten. Since he’d seen her in shorts earlier that day, he knew most of that height was sexy, toned, tan legs that seemed to go on forever.
The other thing that made her stand out was how skinny she was. It was obvious that she’d skipped a few meals. Meals, he thought, that she couldn’t afford to miss.
No matter the reason that someone wanted Tara Dawson, he believed she was a good person. Which is more than he could say for the last dozen or so people he’d tailed.
Most of his jobs were catching cheating spouses or tracking down insurance fraud. This job had been out of his normal spectrum. Still, when he’d been offered triple his normal fee, he’d jumped at the chance.
After all, it wasn’t as if he was going to kidnap the woman. All he had to do was watch her for a while and then convince her to meet with his client. If she refused, he was to update his client on her whereabouts so that they could come to her.
Now, as he followed her van down a bumpy lane, he started to wonder if she was just looking for a place to park for the evening or if she was actually heading somewhere.
When she pulled into a very long driveway, he parked across the street and waited. She stopped her van next to a police cruiser and sat in the car, waiting.
The house had obviously been the centerpiece for a plantation back in the day. It was a massive three-story white building and was bigger than any home he’d seen in town so far. The yard was well maintained, with a row of huge oak trees lining the long driveway. There wasn’t a blade of grass out of order. Even in the fall weather, the flowers in front of the wide porch were still in full bloom.