Protector's Instinct. Janie Crouch
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easy, light with Caroline. It had been weird, so different than what had always transpired between them. But for Caroline he’d been willing to do it. To do anything.
But it had all just seemed to make her upset. Sad, even.
Every time he’d let her win an argument, every time she’d poked him in the chest with that little finger and he’d just pulled her in for a hug, it had just made her more sad.
Finally, Zane realized that being around him at all made her sad. So he’d given her the only thing he’d had left to give: his absence. He’d quit the department, moved to the outskirts of town, made it so they never ran into each other.
And it had absolutely gutted him. His entire life became empty.
But for his Caro he’d been willing to pay that price.
And after his behavior two nights ago, obviously he needed to continue keeping himself away from her. The thought that he could’ve hurt her, scared her, brought back memories of her attack ripped a hole in him.
He started the day doing paperwork—owning your own charter flight company was perhaps the only business in the world that created more paperwork than law enforcement—but soon found he needed the release of some sort of physical activity. He decided yard work was in order. If his mother came by and saw the bushes and grass looking the way they did now, he would never hear the end of it.
And at least the hard, physical work of cutting and trimming allowed him to force the thoughts of kissing a stunning brunette—and how very good it had been before turning so bad—to the back of his mind.
He was going to have to see her in a couple of weeks from now for Jon Hatton and Sherry Mitchell’s wedding in Colorado, since Caroline was one of Sherry’s best friends and in the wedding. But Zane would be damn sure to keep his distance.
He’d kept his distance for nearly two years. He’d keep on doing it now.
When his phone rang, Zane wiped the sweat from his head before removing his glove and grabbing the device. Speak of the devil; it was Jon Hatton.
Zane hit the receive button. “Hey, Jon, I was just thinking about you.”
There was a short pause. “Well, I hope you weren’t in the shower, because that would be weird.”
Zane laughed. “No, just tackling some yard work that has been a particular pain in the ass.”
Zane had met the Omega Sector agent here in Corpus Christi when the local police had needed help with the serial rapist case. He and Jon had solved the case, but too late for Caroline.
Jon had tried multiple times to get Zane back into law enforcement since Zane had quit, even talking to him about working for Omega Sector, but Zane hadn’t budged. Although he had helped Jon with a couple of cases that had brought the man back to Texas.
“If you’re calling to get me to help you pick out china patterns, I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline.”
“As scary as that thought is, no, I’m not calling with anything about the wedding. We’ve got a problem, Zane.”
Zane knew the other man well enough to know that if Jon was calling him with “a problem” it was something serious.
“What’s going on?”
“Can you get to your email right now?” Jon asked.
“Let me go inside.” Zane grabbed the nearest dish towel from the kitchen and wiped as much sweat and dirt off his face and arms as he could before heading into his office.
“All right, I’m at my computer.”
“I’m sending a picture of a Damien Freihof.”
“I’ve never heard of him.”
“He went to jail five years ago because he was about to blow up a bank full of people in Phoenix.”
“Okay.” Zane had no idea what this had to do with him.
“He escaped last year. Nearly killed Brandon Han and his fiancée, Andrea.”
Zane knew Brandon; the man had helped figure out who the rapist was. But he didn’t know about this Freihof guy or that he almost killed Brandon.
“That time—” it would’ve been right after Caroline’s rape “—it’s pretty fuzzy for me, Jon.”
“Sure, man, I understand and don’t expect you to know any of this.”
“Okay.”
“Freihof went to ground after he attacked Brandon and Andrea. He was injured in his own explosion. He resurfaced last week.”
Zane still had no idea what this had to do with him. “Okay.”
“I just sent you a picture of him.”
Zane opened his email. “Okay, I got it.” He studied the mug shot of Damien Freihof from five years ago. “I don’t recognize him at all.”
“I’m sending you another picture.”
The second picture was a totally different man, roughly the same height and build but different jaw, eyes, hair.
“Okay, who’s that?”
“That is also Damien Freihof.”
“Damn.” Zane whistled through his teeth. “He’s good.”
“Yeah, he is.” Jon’s tone held grudging respect. “Good enough to beat all our facial scanning software and to avoid the statewide warrant for his arrest.”
“Do you think he’s moved on to Texas?” If he had, it wasn’t like Zane could do anything about it.
“Two days ago, Freihof masterminded a pretty elaborate plan. A bomb that killed one of our junior agents and put another agent in a coma. Looks like Freihof wants to make Omega Sector pay for putting him in prison. Plus, he nearly killed a mother and her toddler daughter in the process.”
Zane’s expletive wasn’t pretty. “Sounds like this bastard doesn’t care about collateral damage.”
“Exactly. He wants as much collateral damage as possible. We’ve already been given that message. He’s coming after people with ties to Omega. He’s trying to hurt civilians we care about in order to split Omega’s focus. I’m sending you one more picture.”
The picture Zane received was of some sort of wall with a staggering amount of information on it: newspaper clippings, photos, drawings, police reports, Google search printouts, fingerprints.
“What the hell is that?” Zane couldn’t make any sense of it at all.
“That’s the wall of clues Freihof left for us. A very complicated puzzle that points out Freihof’s next intended victims.”
“How the hell were you able to make any sense of it?”
“It took us a long time, believe me.” Jon paused for a second. “It looks like you and Caroline are on his intended victims’ list, Zane.”
“What?”
“There were very specific clues referring to you by name on the wall of clues. We think he might be coming after you soon, if he’s not there already.”
Zane’s expletive this time was even uglier. “Caroline’s off on her own.”
“What?”
“She’s on some damfool hiking trip in Big Bend State Park. Alone. Do you think this Freihof character might be aware of this?”
“Honestly, Jon, the man is a genius. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
“Thanks for the heads-up, Jon. I’ve got to go. I’ll keep you posted.” Zane disconnected the call and was running for his bedroom, grabbing his go-bag. He would call Captain Harris on the way