Protection Duty by Shirlee McCoy

Author:Shirlee McCoy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-10-05T15:50:19+00:00

TWO

“You’re wrong,” Lana stated firmly. She struggled to sit up in the hospital bed.

Feeling the need to offer help, Adam adjusted the pillow behind her back. She flinched. A flash of fear lit her dark eyes. Startled by her skittishness, he drew back, his hands up, palms facing out. Ace, however, must have read his intentions of help as acceptance. The dog stretched until his nose could nudge her hand.

“Heel,” Adam commanded. Ace complied immediately.

Lana kept her gaze on the dog. “The break-in had nothing to do with me or my sister. The man wanted the arrow. I wasn’t even supposed to be working last night.”

Adam wasn’t convinced the two incidents weren’t related. There had to be a connection. One sister murdered and then a random attack on the other? Not likely. “Who did know you’d be at the museum after hours?”

She shrugged. “I suppose a few of the staff members. We’ve been so busy preparing the museum gala. I’d fallen behind on some of the details. I usually take my work home with me but with the rain and all, I decided to stay.”

“Then it’s feasible that someone took advantage of your decision to stay after hours and used the excuse of a theft to attack you.”

A visible tremor worked through her. “None of them would have any reason to hurt me.”

She may want him to believe her answer but the uncertainty wavering in her voice said otherwise. There had to be a connection they weren’t seeing. He made a mental note to check into the background of all the museum’s employees. “Even if that is true, someone knew you’d be there. One of the staff members could have inadvertently let it slip you were working late.”

She blew out a breath. “I suppose.”

“Did you know less than twenty-four hours after your sister’s death Congressman Jeffries’s son was murdered? And the congressman was shot, as well?” Adam watched the woman lying in the bed, searching her face for...he wasn’t sure what. Guilt?

Dark circles rimmed her worried eyes. Her long dark hair spilled over the white pillowcase, the stark contrast unsettling. The white bandage on her head was a reminder of the assault she’d suffered. The sudden urge to hurt whoever had injured her gripped him by the throat.

The strong reaction was so uncharacteristic of him that he took a step back as if somehow distancing himself from Lana would temper his response to her situation. Ace rose, sensing his tension.

She chewed on her bottom lip. “I’d heard that on the news, too. Did you find his killer?”

Interesting that she’d ask about Jeffries’s killer, but not her sister’s.

Did she know something? Had she been involved in her sister’s murder? She’d had an alibi for the time of death, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have arranged the whole thing.

However, he had looked into her finances at the time and there had been no large sums of money leaving her accounts or anything to suggest she’d paid out for a hit on her sister.

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