AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Will do.” Brock nodded at her, then headed for the side door.
“Wait up,” Steele called. “Let’s cover Harper as we leave.”
Being in a police station should be safe enough, but she didn’t protest as the two men protected her until she was situated in the passenger seat of Rhy’s SUV. Steele said something briefly to Brock, then slid in behind the wheel.
The ride to her apartment was unusually silent. She looked out the window, searching for the brown SUV, until she remembered it had been found abandoned not far from the American Lodge.
Steele hadn’t mentioned recovering evidence from the vehicle. Maybe it was too soon to expect that. This wasn’t TV. DNA and other testing took time.
Time she might not have.
The sobering thought hit hard. She pushed the fear away, focusing on deep breathing and other relaxation techniques. Maybe there wasn’t anything she could do to change the minds of the ATF agents about her innocence, but she could do a better job of caring for her baby.
When Steele drove up to the front of her brick apartment building, she was struck by how run-down it looked. The peeling paint and occasional missing brick hadn’t bothered her before. She’d been grateful to find a place she could afford.
Yet she did her best to ignore the shabby structure. When Steele shifted the gear shift into park, she reached for the door handle.
“Wait for me,” he said. “I’ll cover you.”
She could see there were two men standing just inside the front door. Steele came around, opened her door, and covered her as she slid out. Then he scanned the area as they headed up the sidewalk.
Steve Banner opened the door for her. She managed a smile. “Thank you.”
Perkins headed up the stairs to the second floor first, leaving her and the others to follow. She’d left her purse at Steele’s house, so she didn’t have a key. But somehow, Perkins had one and unlocked the door.
“Your manager,” he said by way of explanation as he crossed the threshold.
She vaguely wondered if this was how Tommy Grotto’s men had gotten inside to plant the tracking devices. Security obviously wasn’t a high priority.
“Please stay out of the way,” Banner said.
“She needs to sit in a chair,” Steele said. He stepped into the kitchen, grabbed one, and brought it over to the small entryway near the cheap table she’d used to display the blue vase Ellis had given her. The plastic flowers she’d placed in the vase drooped to one side.
She sat, mostly because her knees felt weak. She’d never expected to be in a situation like this.
Watching the ATF agents go through her cupboards and drawers made her feel sick to her stomach. They searched methodically, obviously used to it. They flipped her sofa cushions on the floor, rifled through the small stack of library books on her end table, then went as far as to lift the sofa up on one end to look underneath.
When they moved into her bedroom, she closed her eyes, not wanting to imagine them going through her personal things. Her underwear, her bathroom toiletries. Nothing would be off limits.
“Delaney?” Steve Banner called. “You’re going to want to see this.”
See what? She shot to her feet, following Steele into her bedroom. Her cheeks flushed as she saw her underwear tossed to the floor in a haphazard pile.
Her blood ran cold when she saw the gun sitting beside her lacy bra. No, it couldn’t be. She didn’t own a gun. Had never even touched one.
Yet as Perkins’s accusing gaze locked on hers, she knew protesting would be useless. Whoever had come into her apartment to place those tracking devices had also planted this gun.
She swallowed hard, wondering if she was destined to have her baby in prison.
* * *
“It’s a SIG Sauer,”Banner said, as if he couldn’t figure that out for himself.
Steele scowled. “Using her underwear drawer is predictable, don’t you think? Grotto’s men could have stashed it here when they planted those trackers.”
“Maybe,” Banner agreed. “Then again, maybe not.”
He didn’t for one second believe that weapon was Harper’s. But he was careful to maintain a professional demeanor in front of the ATF agents. “I’m only pointing out the obvious, exactly the way a good defense attorney would.”
