Defending the Duchess. Rachelle McCalla
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understood. “Precisely. I handled the case. It was very straightforward. We settled out of court. Fletcher Pendleton turned over all his design materials to Seattle Electronics. Motormech stepped away from the deal. Seattle Electronics retained ownership of the design and the car went into limited production as the SE323. That was after I was involved. I’ve only been practicing law for two years, but since then I’ve been busy with other cases and I didn’t pay any attention to what Seattle Electronics was doing.”
“What was Seattle Electronics doing?” he asked in a whisper when she fell silent.
“Making cars. But there was a flaw in the design. The SE323 malfunctioned and overheated at high speeds. There were accidents—people were injured, and a couple of Seattle Electronics’s employees died testing a car. Seattle Electronics was sued by several different parties.” As she stated the simple facts, she looked around at the elegantly decorated parlor, anywhere but at Linus and the injuries he’d received from helping her. His eyes were too kind, his face too ruggedly handsome. She was afraid she might start staring.
“Did you handle any of those cases?”
“No. But since I’d handled the original case, I paid attention whenever I saw their names in the news. Last I heard, Seattle Electronics had filed for bankruptcy protection.”
“And Fletcher Pendleton?”
Julia felt an uneasy swirl in her stomach at the mention of the man’s name. “That’s the strange part. I worked with him briefly when I represented the case. Didn’t hear from him for nearly two years after that. Then out of the blue I got an email from him asking if he could meet me somewhere.”
“Somewhere?”
“He didn’t want to come to the office. He wanted to meet me in private.”
Concern swept across Linus’s features. “Did you?”
“No. His request struck me wrong. I hardly knew him, and he refused to meet in a public place. He’s a rather big guy.” Pulled in by Linus’s concern, Julia found she couldn’t force herself to look away from him any longer. His brown eyes simmered with concern for her safety, reminding her all too clearly of how she’d felt when he’d carried her back along the beach. His strong arms had enveloped her securely, keeping her attacker and her fear at bay.
“How big?”
Julia struggled to think. “Over six feet tall.”
“Six-two, one-eighty?” Linus echoed the specs he’d stated earlier.
Julia froze. She stared into Linus’s eyes as though she could find the answer there. But all she saw was an earnest desire to help, and determination to uncover the truth.
Linus waited before asking in a patient tone, “Could the engineer have been your attacker?”
Julia hated to impugn a man who might be innocent. And yet, the circumstances all pointed in the same direction. Someone had fought with Linus on the beach. Someone had tried to carry her off. Though she hadn’t heard him speaking enough to recognize his voice, neither could she rule him out. Reluctantly she admitted, “It’s possible.”
“Do you have any other information about him? Contact info?”
“I have his phone numbers, his address, his email address, along with all the emails he ever sent me. I never delete anything—I’m a lawyer. We understand the importance of an evidence trail.”
“Good girl.” Linus began to smile, but then his eyes narrowed. “All the emails? How many did he send you?”
“When I represented Seattle Electronics, he was forthcoming with everything. I got the impression he wanted to cooperate. Maybe he even felt bad for letting negotiations with Motormech go so far.”
“Or he wanted you to think he felt bad,” Linus surmised.
“Maybe.” She sighed regretfully. “Anyway, he sent me a few scattered emails and text messages over the past couple months asking me to meet with him. Not harassing, necessarily, but enough that it creeped me out—that, and his insistence on meeting me in private.” It was too much to look at Linus without remembering the feel of his arms around her. She wished she could reach for him and feel his strong shoulder against her cheek again, but she couldn’t make such a request after all he’d done for her that evening. So instead she leaned her head back against the pillows and closed her eyes. She felt exhausted by all that had happened and irked by the nagging feeling that she’d forgotten some important detail. But what?
“I’m glad you didn’t go,” Linus told her, his voice gentle, even caring. “If you get a chance, can you forward me those emails and texts?”
“Sure.” She kept her eyes closed, wishing she could block out all memory of what happened on the beach. Rather than trying to remember the details, she wished she could forget.
* * *
Linus absorbed the information Julia had given him. He wanted to ask her more questions, but the duchess looked exhausted, and he almost thought she’d fallen asleep. She ought to be tucked securely into her suite before she turned in for the night, but he didn’t want to disturb her, not when the fear had finally begun to fade from her features.
For his part, he wouldn’t be able to rest any time soon. Not until he’d learned everything he could about this Fletcher Pendleton—including whether he’d recently traveled to Lydia. If the man was currently on Lydian soil, Linus wanted to catch him before he left again.
But then, if the man was after Julia, he probably wouldn’t leave the country. Not yet, not until he’d gotten what he’d come for. If anything, he’d try something more aggressive the next time. But what did he want?
Linus didn’t understand why the man would be after Julia. Did he resent her involvement in his case, or blame her for the role she’d played in ending the deal he’d nearly made? Perhaps he’d watched her on the televised coverage of Queen Monica’s coronation and wedding vow renewal ceremonies. Maybe he thought he could somehow tap into her fifteen minutes of fame.
If Fletcher Pendleton was their man, he already had several advantages over them, including a motive they had yet to understand. Linus was going to have his work cut out for him if he intended to catch Fletcher before the man tried to hurt Julia again. And he feared Pendleton would, indeed, try to hurt Julia again.
Linus took a step toward the door and the floor creaked beneath him.
Julia’s eyes snapped open. “Linus?”
He was back at her side in an instant. “Yes?”
“One other thing. It might be important.” She made a face. “Yes, it’s probably important.” She met his eyes and her lower lip trembled.
Linus returned her gaze without wavering and tried to communicate trust, reassurance, safety. She had to feel safe enough to share her fears. At the same time, he wished he could erase the worry that had clouded her features.
“The man who attacked me tonight said something.” She pinched her eyes shut.
In spite of his frustration that she hadn’t mentioned it earlier, Linus tried to be encouraging. “What did he say?”
“He said—” her voice squeaked as she quoted “—I don’t want to have to hurt you. I just need your file.”
“Your file?” Linus repeated.
“I think that’s what he said. That’s what it sounded like.”
“Any idea what he meant by that?”
“I don’t know.” She paused and wriggled her lips a bit more, clearly fighting back waves of emotions that threatened to leak out with her words. “Well, maybe there is something. It’s probably nothing. Even the police seemed skeptical.”
“The police?” Linus felt a jolt of alarm snap through him. Though it confirmed his hunch that she’d