Perilous Pursuit. Kathleen Tailer

      “No worries,” Jake reassured her. “That’s a common sign of stress. You were just held at gunpoint by two thugs. I’d say you’re doing amazingly well.” He took a seat across from her. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

      She scooted back a bit on the cushion and then looked him in the eye again. She had always had a toughness to her, and he was pleased to see she hadn’t been reduced to tears or hysterics. Dealing with emotional victims was part of his job, but he was glad that Mackenzie was strong and able to talk to him coherently, despite what she’d just been through.

      “I was trying to find the key to my door, but my hands were full. I ended up dropping some of my groceries, and when I bent down to pick them up, the bullets hit the door frame above me. Then the man in the blue jeans grabbed me and pulled me into the apartment.”

      “Did you recognize either of them?”

      “No. I’ve never seen them before.”

      “Okay. Then what happened?”

      “The guy in jeans held me, and the hairy one put a gun under my chin and said he wanted to know where I kept my movies.”

      “Your movies?”

      “Yes. I’m a videographer. I make documentaries, commercials, training videos—that kind of thing.”

      That surprised him, but he couldn’t really remember much about Mackenzie’s plans when she had been in high school, and they had barely talked at Jonathan’s funeral. “Did he say which of your movies he was interested in?”

      “No. We didn’t get that far. He started going through my desk, but I don’t know if he took anything except my laptop. He grabbed that on the way out.”

      Jake put his hands on his hips. “Did you have anything important on that laptop?”

      “I do some work on it, but most of the footage and movies are stored on portable hard drives. That seems to be what they were looking for. I guess they figured I had the files on my laptop.” She paused, and Jake could see that her hands were still trembling. “I can’t figure this out. I don’t understand what they wanted. Nothing I’ve worked on has ever been controversial.”

      Jake heard the distant sound of sirens and knew local law enforcement would be there soon. This case probably wouldn’t fall under the local US Marshals unit’s jurisdiction, but it intrigued him nonetheless, especially since he knew the victim. One of the criminals also looked like an escaped fugitive he had been hunting recently, and he hoped he could get Mackenzie to come down to the office to check out some mug shots, just in case the perpetrator was his man after all.

      He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. He was relieved he’d gotten there just in time and realized he had probably saved her life. The two criminals had meant business, but since he had interrupted them, he doubted they had gotten what they were looking for. Once thing was certain in his mind—sooner or later, they would be back.

      “Look, I don’t think it’s safe for you to stay here tonight. Once the local law enforcement team interviews you, you’ll need to find a new place for a few days, at least until we have more information. Do you have friends you can stay with until this is over?”

      Mackenzie shrugged. “I guess so, but if these men didn’t get what they wanted, won’t they just come after me again and put my friends in danger, too, when they return? I don’t want anybody else’s life disrupted because of me.”

      She had a point. Normally he would leave it to the local police to sort this out, but he couldn’t just drive away. Just then two local detectives arrived and started interviewing both Jake and Mackenzie. The entire time they were asking questions, Jake tried to tell himself it was the connection to his fugitive that had garnered his interest in this case, and by the end of the interviews, he almost believed it himself. Almost. After Jake and Mackenzie answered all the questions, Jake pulled aside the detective in charge.

      “Look, she’s afraid to go stay with friends and she can’t stay here. How about I take her to a local hotel and then bring her in to the local US Marshals office tomorrow so she can sit with our sketch artist? I’ll share any leads she gives.”

      The man raised an eyebrow. “You trying to take this case away from us, Riley?”

      Jake held up his hands and smiled, his slow Southern drawl salting his words. “No way. You can have the case and the paperwork. One of the perps seems an awful lot like one of my fugitives. That’s all. I just think there might be some connections here, and if we share intel, we can help each other.” He pulled a business card out from his wallet and handed it to the officer. “Cooperation between agencies is one of our mandates. I won’t leave you out in the dark.”

      The detective seemed to be weighing his words, but in the end he agreed. Jake had always done his best to keep a positive, friendly relationship with the other law enforcement agencies in Tallahassee, and tonight his efforts were paying off. Although he didn’t know this officer personally, he and his team had an excellent reputation with the local agencies. The way he figured it, law enforcement personnel were all on the same team—even though they served different functions. He went to Mackenzie’s side. “Go ahead and pack a bag. I’ll take you somewhere safe until we can figure out what’s going on here.”

      She raised an eyebrow but then did as she was told, returning to the living room a few minutes later with a small rolling suitcase. She also grabbed a portfolio from her desk and added several papers and a couple of files from the filing cabinet. The fear was still radiating in her eyes, but he could see that she was determined to push forward and put this incident behind her as best she could. His admiration for her went up a notch. She really was tough. He liked that. It had been a long time since anyone outside of law enforcement had impressed him on any level. He was used to dealing with the dregs of society, and Mackenzie’s strength was a welcome ripple in a sea of viciousness he dealt with on a constant basis.

      He started leading her out to his car. “So here’s the plan. I’ll take you to a hotel for the evening, one that our office uses a lot. We know we can trust the folks that run it. Then tomorrow morning, I’ll pick you up around eight a.m. and bring you to my workplace so you can describe those two men to our sketch artist and maybe look at some mug books. Will that work for you?”

      She nodded. “That will do nicely. I actually already have a meeting scheduled there tomorrow anyway. I can do both in one fell swoop.”

      Jake raised his eyebrows, surprised. “Really? Anything you care to share?”

      “My new video project is about the working of the local US Marshals office. I’ve been hired to do a documentary for them. I was already scheduled to meet with Chief Deputy US Marshal J.T. Austin. He runs the unit I’ve been assigned to work with. Do you know him?”

      Her words stopped Jake cold. He froze and turned slowly to meet her eyes. “J.T. Austin is my boss.” He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. “You’re doing a movie about our office?” He could tell the gruffness of his voice shocked her, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. Surely she was mistaken. His boss wouldn’t really sanction this type of project, would he? A documentary would put his life and the lives of others who worked with him at risk. They didn’t need the exposure, and they didn’t certainly need to be worrying about the safety of someone who was following them around while they were doing a very dangerous job. Jake also had a full caseload and a heap of work on his desk. He didn’t have the time to push all of that aside to help with something as extraneous as a public service video.

      “Yes, it’s all been arranged. They didn’t tell you I was coming?”

      “No, they neglected to mention that.” Again, his voice was frosty, even to his own ears. “I’m sure we can sort it out tomorrow, though. There’s no way you’re making a documentary of my unit. That’s just not gonna happen.” He’d make sure of that. He’d set Mackenzie Weaver up with the mug shot books and then meet with J.T. and voice his concerns. Jake Riley wasn’t going to have any documentary made