Serena nodded, but stayed quiet. It seemed her instincts were good, too.
Jake did a perimeter sweep, moving cautiously and in complete silence. He checked behind every car in the small lot. He was meticulous, glancing inside every single one before stopping in front of Serena’s Audi. It had just come back from the shop that morning, and she’d been so happy. Adam had convinced Jake to take it out. He hadn’t been able to convince Jake to let Serena drive. Jake pulled the keys out of his pocket and opened the trunk. He shut it and then looked in the windows. Finally he gave the all clear.
“We’re good?” Serena asked. It sounded as though she’d been holding her breath.
Adam gave her a little squeeze. “We’re good. It’s all right. We’re just being a little paranoid.”
Her hand was shaky when he reached for it. He held his weapon to his side, hoping that if she couldn’t see it, she might forget that she needed an armed guard. He wouldn’t. His blood practically boiled. He had to find this asshole so he never had to stand in a fucking parking lot worried about someone trying to kill his girl again. He checked his anger. Serena needed calm. She needed to know they were in control.
“Why don’t you get in the back with her?” Jake phrased it as a question, but Adam knew an order when he heard it. And he agreed. If anything happened, he could cover her with his body. “I’ll call Ian from the road and tell him to pay his maintenance company better. Those lights should be working.”
Jake pushed the button and unlocked the door. Adam opened the back and moved to allow Serena to get in. She was almost through the door when he heard it. A hard rattle came from the backseat, the sound menacing, deadly. Without a second thought, he pulled Serena back, jerking her by her elbow. She hit the ground behind him with a thud and a little shriek, but Adam couldn’t help her. He had to deal with the goddamn fucking snake that was rearing up in the backseat.
“Is that what I think it is?” Jake asked.
Adam couldn’t answer. The snake reared, and Adam took his shot. The sound boomed through the night, but his shot had proven true. The snake’s head was gone, and Serena’s car would have to go right back to the shop.
And the stalker had just gotten more dangerous.
Chapter Thirteen
Serena shivered despite the warmth of the conference room.
“Here, sweetheart, drink this.” Adam put a cup of coffee in front of her. Since the minute he’d killed the snake, he’d been all over her. Adam had carried her back into the club, though she’d protested that he’d already killed the snake and there probably weren’t more in the parking lot. He’d sat with her, his arms around her shoulder, as Jake had called the police. Ian Taggart had shown up and started issuing orders to the staff, who had the lobby looking perfectly vanilla in under five minutes.
It was a good thing, too, since the police had shown up ten minutes later.
Someone had put a rattlesnake in her car. Someone had tried to kill her.
Edward Chitwood walked in, notepad in hand. He was dressed in a suit, but his partner looked like he’d been called away from home. He had his badge around his neck, but he was in sweatpants and a hoodie. He didn’t seem happy to be here.
“Sorry to have to see you again like this, Ms. Brooks.” Chitwood had been nothing if not ridiculously polite. He had an air of superiority, but he was always scrupulously courteous with her. And he kind of gave her the creeps. “It’s a bad situation.”
“Yes, it is,” Hernandez agreed. “And it seems to be getting worse. This is twice in one day. We barely got the call about the books someone sent you and then this. Someone seems to have it in for you.”
He placed obvious emphasis on the word “someone,” all the while pointedly looking at her.
Serena pushed the coffee away. She felt sick to her stomach. Just an hour before, she’d been in Jake’s arms and the world had seemed a warm and happy place. Now she was reminded of its brutality.
“Did you check for prints on the car?” Adam asked.
The door swung open again and Jake entered, followed by Ian Taggart. Jake sat down on the other side of her while Ian Taggart loomed over the proceedings like a large predator waiting to decide who to eat for dinner.
“Of course we’ll check for prints.” Hernandez leaned forward, looking right at her. “Do you have any idea who called the press? There’s a news van sitting right outside this place.”
No wonder Ian looked ready to kill. Damn it. Ian Taggart seemed to be a man who enjoyed his privacy. He wouldn’t like news crews lining up in front of his underground sex club. She was causing him an enormous amount of trouble. Would he drop her as a client? Would Jake and Adam hang around if no one was paying them to? How could they? She would need to leave town. She might have to change her name.
“Serena.” Jake’s harsh tone pulled her out. He gave her a faint smile and then turned back to the cops. “She does this thing where she kind of checks out when she’s panicked. I think it’s an author thing. They asked you a question, sweetheart.”
Question. Yes, they had asked about the press. She wiped her eyes. The last thing she wanted was her trouble to be splashed across the papers. “I don’t know. I certainly didn’t call anyone.”
Adam leaned forward. “She hasn’t called a damn person. She’s been in shock. I’ve been with her the whole time.”
Chitwood waved him off. “Calm down, Mr. Miles. We’re not accusing her of anything. Now, let me give you an update. We can print the car, but I don’t know what it’s going to tell us. The car came out of the shop earlier today, right?”
She nodded. “So anyone in the shop could have touched it.”
Chitwood tapped his pen on the face of his notepad. “Yes. I hate to tell you this, Ms. Brooks, but it’s going to be very hard to figure out who should or shouldn’t have left a print on your car. The car has also been sitting in a parking lot in the middle of the city. That makes things harder than if it had been in your garage the whole time. I’m a bit confused, though. Did you say the car was locked?”
Jake sighed. “I went over this. I opened the car. I opened the trunk first, and then I unlocked the doors. Adam opened the back passenger side, and that’s when we found the snake.”
It seemed surreal. A snake. She’d never seen a snake up close where there hadn’t been glass in between them. But someone had handled it. Someone had risked being bitten because it was more important to hurt her than to be safe. She felt so distant. She knew they were talking, but it seemed to come from far away.