they drove onto the university campus, Shelby stared at her reflection in the side mirror. She did look a little like her grandmother and a lot like the pictures of the younger Kate Winston.
Campus looked the same as it did the day she’d entered the library to research information for her paper. The sun was just as bright, the trees weren’t much different and the buildings were all still there.
The only thing that had changed was her. Two weeks ago, the most important thing in her life was getting a good education.
Her grandfather had done everything in his power to give her all the opportunities to improve her life. Despite his argument earlier that day about not needing an education to be a bartender, he’d been the first one to kick her butt and remind her of how important it was to get a degree that would provide a livable income. He’d drilled it into her head that she had to be able to support herself and anyone else who might come along. That anyone else being any children she might bring into the world.
Her grandfather worried that she wouldn’t be able to support herself when he was gone. He’d admitted he’d spoiled her mother and she’d been less than responsible when she’d been growing up, as evidenced by her pregnancy at age eighteen.
He’d raised Shelby to be more responsible. She’d helped out at the grill from a young age, earning her own spending money. Nothing was free in life, he’d told her. And she alone was responsible for her own actions.
She didn’t mind working, and she loved her grandfather more than anyone in the world because deep inside she knew he loved her, too. And she’d almost lost him. Or rather, they’d almost lost each other. With her life back in her own hands, she vowed never to be so vulnerable again.
She pointed to a brick structure, “Pull up beside that building. I’ll just run in and see if my professor is there.”
When she reached for the door handle, his hand snaked out and grabbed her arm. “We will go inside the building together.”
His unrelenting grip on her arm left her no choice.
“Seriously? Look around you. There are students everywhere, and faculty and staff. I can make it to my professor’s office and back with no problem.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather go with you.”
“It’s not all the same to me. I don’t need a bodyguard to lead me around on a leash.” Shelby yanked her arm free and pushed the door open, jumping out. She set off at a good pace, hoping to reach the building and duck inside before he could catch up.
She hadn’t gone five steps before Daniel was out of the car and at her side, matching her pace. Students passed on each side of her.
Each time one walked by, Daniel glared and moved closer to Shelby.
Finally Shelby stopped and faced him. “You can’t do this. You’re scaring the other students.”
“Do you realize how close they are getting? Anyone that close could jam a knife into you and you wouldn’t see it coming.”
“They’re students, damn it, not terrorists.” Shelby stomped away from him and pushed through the door into the building.
Once inside, she mounted the stairs in the stairwell to the third floor and hurried toward her professor’s office.
Daniel dogged her footsteps, never more than a few steps behind, his limp more pronounced after climbing the stairs.
When they reached the office, Shelby faced Daniel. “I’m going inside. Alone.”
He frowned. “I’d rather check it out before you go in.”
“Too bad. I’ll take my chances. You’re staying out here.”
“But—”
She poked a finger into his chest. “Stay.”
His frown deepened. “I’m not a dog.”
“I know. A dog would have a much more obedient disposition.” Shelby slipped through the wood-paneled door into the professor’s office and closed it behind her. She waited on the other side, fully expecting Daniel to jerk the door open and follow her inside. When he didn’t, she was almost disappointed, then she shook her head and turned.
The professor wasn’t in, but his teaching assistant was.
Shelby wrote down all the assignments and promised the assistant she’d email the professor with her excuse.
She was sure most professors had heard every excuse in the books, but being kidnapped and held for two weeks had to be new, ranking right up there with being taken by aliens. And they might not believe her, since Kate’s team had kept the abduction below the radar from news and media sources.
Once she had a list of the assigned work, she braced herself for her next encounter with Daniel.
When she stepped out into the hallway, Daniel stood surrounded by several young, college coeds. And the jerk was smiling at them.
One batted her eyes and took his hand, penning her phone number on his palm. When she’d replaced her pen in her purse, she lifted her thumb to her ear and her pinky to her mouth and mouthed the words call me.
Shelby’s fingers curled into tight fists, her fingernails digging into her skin. She walked away without looking back. It wasn’t as if he was her boyfriend. She was the job to him.
So what if he’d seen her naked? As a Secret Service agent he’d probably seen lots of naked women. A girl on every job, like James Bond.
She heard him behind her say, “Sorry, ladies, I have to go.”
He had a job to do.
Her.
Shelby’s teeth ground together. As she passed the elevator the doors were closing. She ducked in before they closed all the way. Daniel ran the last couple steps, but didn’t make it in time to jam his hand between the doors and stop its progress.
Thankfully, the elevator was going down. But it stopped at the second floor. Damn.
If she gauged it right, Daniel would assume she would get off on the ground floor. What he didn’t realize was that there was a walkway across to the next building on campus from the second floor. And the entrances to that building led to the parking lot where she’d left her car.
Her grandfather had left it there, more worried about her return than bringing her car home. She kept a spare key in a magnetic box on the undercarriage of the vehicle. If she could get there before Daniel, she would take herself to the Outer Banks and collect her own clothing. Maybe she could help her grandfather out for a few hours at O’Hara’s Bar and Grill.
She stepped off the elevator and crossed the glassed-in walkway to the next building and took the stairs to the exit, all the while glancing over her shoulder for Daniel. Once outside the building, she hurried toward her car, sitting where it had been the night she’d been attacked.
The closer she got to the car, the faster her heart beat. She told herself there was nothing to worry about. The sun shone down on her, there were other people in the
