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She wondered if they were talking about the same guy. The Detective Willoughby who talked to her had rapid-fired questions until Ben made him stop. “I’ll trust you on that one.”
“And for the record—” a smile spread across Connor’s face as he talked “—we’re stepping in because you’re dating Ben. That makes your safety our concern.”
“A major one,” Ben mumbled under his breath.
“They’re dating?” Davis’s eyes widened. He glanced around, as if checking to see if anyone else overheard. “That’s a definite thing?”
Before they could get carried away and totally lose focus, she tried to rein them in. “Date, as in singular.”
Ben shrugged. “I thought it went well.”
Wiping her hands over her face, she pushed her hair back off her shoulders and bit back a groan of frustration. “I can’t even think right now.”
“Put a bag together.” Davis hitched a thumb in the general direction of her bedroom. “My wife will be happy for some female company in the house.”
“I’m coming, too,” Ben said.
Davis nodded. “Fine, but you get the couch.”
Ben held up his hands as if in surrender. “So long as I’m in the building.”
Speaking of trampling, they went off on a tangent and left her behind. Never mind they were talking about her life. Maybe that was what happened with the savior types. They tried to control everything. Not her favorite male trait.
“Gentlemen?” They kept talking and the arguments turned into a haze of mumbling she decided to ignore. To keep from knocking their heads together, she looked around the room, at all the men standing around and the few trying to act as if they weren’t listening in.
Then she saw the blood puddle on her once-fluffy beige carpet and the body bag next to it. Reality punched her right in the stomach as she realized life had changed on her again. “I don’t get a say, do I?”
Ben stopped talking to his team long enough to look at her. “No.”
Chapter Three
Jocelyn liked Lara Bart-Weeks immediately. She had shoulder-length brown hair with perfect blond highlights and a warm smile. Pretty and trim, and she practically glowed when she looked at Davis. Even now she made up the guest bed while keeping up a constant stream of welcoming chatter.
The place was as inviting as she was. The brick two-story town house sat on a tree-lined street just off the historic center of Annapolis. The inside had been gutted and renovated, a project that was ongoing by the look of the dismantled kitchen downstairs. But this room, with the blue walls and stacks of pillows piled on the high bed, screamed comfortable.
Lara stood on the opposite side of the mattress with a pillow hanging loosely from her hand. “Hey, you okay?”
“Not really.” A thousand different emotions bombarded her, but Jocelyn couldn’t seem to hang on to any of them long enough to find a steady center. But one thing she knew for sure—she was not okay.
Lara’s smile turned sad. “It’s all going to work out.”
Rather than pretend to be fine or wave off the concern, Jocelyn slumped down on the end of the bed. She held out her hands and turned them over, stunned at the constant movement. “I can’t stop shaking.”
“That’s normal.”
“I don’t feel normal.”
Lara sat down next to her with a pillow tucked on her lap. “It’s aftermath. Nerves bouncing around as you come down from the dramatic episode. Once the adrenaline is gone, the memories of the horror come rushing back. This is the hard part, but it will get easier. I promise.”
Jocelyn still battled the need to double over and saw blood pooling on her carpet whenever she closed her eyes. Still, something in Lara’s tone caught her attention. “Sounds like you talk from experience.”
“Unfortunately.” Lara sighed. “A time not that long ago, a man hunted me down and tried to kill me. When that didn’t work, more men came.”
Her comment touched off a new round of trembling. Scenes of the night tumbled through Jocelyn’s mind as she glanced at Lara. “What are you talking about?”
“I had this job performing security-clearance checks for government agencies. I’d go in, ask questions, do the investigations.” She tossed the pillow on the bed behind them. “One job went wild and ended up with this mess in the NCIS.”
Memories clicked together. The news, the shooting, slim facts and a sense there was a piece of the story the public didn’t know. Jocelyn knew about the scandal because anyone not buried underground knew. Between the headlines and cries of corruption, the NCIS story a few months back had been hard to miss.
