The Defender

Sure. Fine. What she needed was a barrel of gummy bears. Sugar right now would be excellent.

The two men walked to the back of the garage to the solid wood door—no windows to be broken by would-be intruders.

Ten minutes later, in the suffocating heat of the closed garage, the back door opened and Brent stepped through. He whirled his finger at her. “We’re good. Perimeter is clear.”

“Where’s Russ?”

A loud sucking noise came from the opposite corner of the garage and she spun backward. What’s that? Russ stood in the doorway kicking at the weather stripping—terrorized by weather stripping?—on the bottom of the door leading to the house. She slapped her hand over her chest.

“Scared the hell out of me, Russell!”

He snapped his head up and jiggled keys at her. “I went in the back door. We’re all set in here.”

Penny marched up the three wooden steps and swung by Russ into a mudroom the size of a small office. “How far out is Elizabeth?”

“Twenty minutes.”

Russ waved her through the second door into the sunny yellow kitchen and its cozy breakfast nook. Cute, but the real deal was straight ahead, where hand-carved walnut floors led to an open living room and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the lake. Penny wandered the room, running her fingers over stuffed pillows and shelves holding clay pitchers and bowls. She imagined snuggling up on the huge sofa. And if a sexy FBI agent wanted to join her, that wouldn’t be a problem.

Gummy bears. Think about the gummy bears.

She glanced back at said agent. “This place looks like a Pottery Barn catalog. You feds know how to treat a witness.”

“We seized it last year. Stockbroker turned Ponzi schemer.”

She’d hit that one right. Russ flipped a switch on the wall and sent the drapes sliding closed. No. The man was killing her fantasy of the two of them curled up, watching the afternoon sun skitter across the lake.

“Can we leave those open? The view is amazing.”

“If we can see out, people can see in. They shouldn’t have been open in the first place.”

Point there. So much for fantasies. Penny sighed.

“Now my life is complete,” Russ said.

“How’s that?”

“You being...wistful.”

“Wistful?”

Please.

But he stared right at her, those dark eyes devouring hers. So-oh-oh sexy.

“I liked it. The softer side of Penny Hennings. Another facet to a fascinating package.”

As if she believed that. “You think I’m fascinating? The FBI agent who hates defense attorneys.”

He propped a hip on the arm of the sofa and crossed his arms. Casual, but guarded. “I don’t hate defense attorneys.”

“You said—”

“I hate that defense attorneys get criminals off. I don’t hate you. In truth, I rather enjoy you.”

Hello, fantasy. If he kept this up, she’d have those curtains open in the next ninety seconds. There they’d be, the most unlikely pair the justice system ever saw, sprawled across that sofa, doing things she hadn’t done in a very—very—long time.

“Russell—”

The hum of a motor—garage door going up—sounded and Russ turned. Don’t kill this moment. Except Brent appeared, his hulking body filling the kitchen doorway.

“Elizabeth Brooks and her son are here. Kid’s going nuts over the lake.” He glanced at Penny. “Kids are tough. Always wandering. I’m going to check the upstairs again before they come in.”

Brent disappeared upstairs and Russ waved Penny to the couch. “Have a seat. Want something?”

Oh, she wanted something. For a brief second, the room went silent, not a breath to be heard while Russ stared at her and she stared back, the two of them charging the current streaming in the room. Her stomach clenched. Maybe other things clenched, too. At this point, Brent and the entourage that had just pulled up were about to get booted for ten minutes.

Whew. Hot in here.

“Penny?”

“Caffeine. Anything with caffeine. And some white gummy bears. I love gummy bears.”

Not that her system needed any more activity, but she still mourned the latte she never got at Erin’s.

“Gummy bears will have to wait. I’ll see what else we’ve got.”

Russ came back with two cans of cola—one diet, one regular. Smart man to not assume she’d want the diet.

She took the diet. It wasn’t a double-shot latte, but it would do. Another marshal—this one not as big—came through the mudroom, followed by Elizabeth and her son, Sam. The boy’s eyes were big and round and dark like his father’s had been—at least from the pictures Penny had seen. In those eyes there was sadness no twelve-year old should know.

And just seconds ago, Penny had been entertaining wicked thoughts about Russ. How awful could she be? She had clients to care for and she was acting like a high-school twit.

She leaped off the couch, went to Elizabeth and, setting the lawyer persona aside for a second, hugged her. They’d given the woman a rushed explanation and thirty minutes to pack. She probably needed a friend as well as an attorney right now. “I’m sorry for the short notice.”

“It’s okay. If it came from you, I knew it was necessary.”

Penny backed away, spotted Brent on the stairs. He gave a thumbs-up. She set a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Hey, pal. My guess is there are a few bedrooms up those stairs. How about you and your mom go up and pick a room?”

“Really?”

“Yep. You’re going to have a little vacation here.”

One in which you will barely be allowed outside. She wouldn’t say that, though. Certain things were better left unsaid.

Penny turned to Brent. “They can go up, right?”

“All clear. We’ll be outside. Everyone stays inside. Holler if you need anything.”