Deadly Disclosure. Meghan Carver

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СКАЧАТЬ lot, where a couple of cruisers, lights flashing, had pulled in. “Help has arrived.”

      Reid stepped forward to the officers, but Derek turned back to Hannah. “You’ll have to talk to the officers and tell them what happened. Are you all right? Can you do that?”

      She nodded, a look of trepidation spreading across her face. “Will you stay with me?” Her hands still shook as she brushed a lock of hair off her forehead. Being shot at was not terribly new to Derek, but it must have been terrifying for her.

      “I’m not going anywhere.” Derek suppressed a sigh as the adrenaline faded from his system. He longed to gulp deep breaths of oxygen to refuel, but he wanted to appear calm and steady for Hannah’s sake. He forced a grin and lightly touched the back of her arm to turn her toward the officers. “Let’s get this done.”

      A half hour later, the officers were clued into everything that had just transpired and had a copy of the photo Hannah had snapped of the truck. Now, the hardest part of his assignment had arrived. “Time to talk?” he asked her.

      She checked her wristwatch and shuffled her purse again with trembling hands. “Sure.” Hesitating all of a sudden, she peered around Derek and out the front door. “He’s gone for certain now, though, isn’t he?”

      “With all this law enforcement? Definitely.” At least, he should be if he was as clever a villain as the FBI suspected.

      She turned toward the bank of elevators and nodded for him to follow, her steps short as if she didn’t want to get too far away from his protection.

      Derek caught up in a couple of long strides and resisted the urge to cup her elbow. “So you’re more than halfway through law school and now have a summer internship? Your parents must be proud.” His head pounded at the memory of her father, Mr. Willford McClarnon, shoe-manufacturing mogul and commander in chief of the McClarnon family.

      She tossed a quizzical glance his way as they entered the elevator. He pushed the button for the third floor. “You never met them, did you? Father has a business reputation to uphold, and Mother has endless garden club meetings. There’s no place for a daughter to be a lawyer in their world. If Michael had attended law school, it would have been perfect. He would be the perfect son. But the lines are clearly drawn between what’s appropriate for a girl and what’s appropriate for a boy. Lines that haven’t changed since the 1950s.” She inhaled a deep but ragged breath and shook her head slightly as if she’d said too much. “No. They’re not proud. They didn’t want me to go to law school.”

      Derek gripped the handrail. He wasn’t surprised. Rather, a powerful wave of sympathy rocked through him. “Your father ought to embrace your ambition and bring you on as a corporate lawyer. Surely with a company that large he has need of many lawyers.”

      “He hires all he needs.” The elevator doors opened, and after a quick scan of the elevator well, Derek let Hannah step out first. “The society my parents circulate in is very old-fashioned. Women are expected to volunteer and have hair appointments and gossip over chicken-salad sandwiches for lunch at the country club. Women don’t work, let alone in a profession where men wear the suits.”

      Pausing outside the law offices, he flashed her a wry grin. “So you’re the family rebel.” He’d known she had some independent tendencies given their history together, but he hadn’t figured it would go this far, to buck her parents’ expectations.

      “My father is part of an old-boys network that works for his business. He’s not enough of a rebel to start a new trend. Everyone has to make their choices. This seems to be God’s will for me, and I choose His ways.”

      At least she had parents who cared about her. Derek pulled the door open for her and watched her heels make footprints in the carpet as she strode into the reception area. She hadn’t been forced to finish her teen years with an aunt and uncle who thought she was an imposition.

      God’s will. Had that been God’s will for him, his parents’ deaths when he was just a young teen? What a struggle of faith that had brought about over the years. And yet, here, right in front of him, was the reason he knew God had blessed him. The very woman who had helped his faith grow into something bigger and better. Despite his struggles, he knew the blessings had been plentiful, first with a position at the Heartwood Hill Police Department, then with a good friend like Reid Palmer, and now with a new position with the FBI with plenty of hope and possibility.

      But first, he needed to get through this first assignment with his former love at his side. Those old feelings of inadequacy surfaced from wherever he had squashed them years ago and threatened to choke him. He tamped them down with a hard swallow and followed Hannah into the office. Despite all the time he had spent preparing for this moment, he still had no idea how to break the news. News that, most likely, would rip her world apart.

       TWO

      Could there be any further surprises today?

      Hannah shook out her ruffled turquoise skirt and tugged at the hem of her black cardigan with trembling hands as she turned down the hallway and headed toward her desk. A nervous perspiration stuck to her like humidity on a muggy August day, but there was nothing she could do about it.

      Maybe she should apply for a gun permit. Her brother had one, and her father certainly kept firearms in his safe room at their home. But a McClarnon woman with a little pink pistol in her purse? Then again, after heading off to law school, would a concealed-carry permit really be that shocking to her father?

      Hannah drew in a shuddery breath, still trying to process the fact that she’d almost been killed today. If it wasn’t for Derek Chambers, of all people, who’d jumped into the fray on her behalf, who knew what might have happened. It was a blessing that he’d made an appointment to see her, though she still had no clue why. She never thought she’d see him again, especially considering the way he’d ditched her almost ten years ago.

      She sighed, desperately wishing she could dash out for a few minutes alone and collect her thoughts, but the expectation to appear professional and get through whatever it was he needed to tell her weighed on her.

      Before she could reach her desk, Mallory stepped out of her office and enveloped her in a warm hug. “Reid told me to stay here but I was desperate to come down and see if you were okay. Are you all right?”

      “I’m fine. A little shaky, but unharmed.”

      “What a relief! No ambulance arrived, so I figured no one was hurt, but I still couldn’t help worrying.” She glanced behind Hannah.

      Hannah turned to include Derek in the conversation. “This is Derek Chambers, FBI. Derek, this is my employer, Mallory Callahan. Apparently, he’s our six-o’clock appointment?”

      “Yes. The timing of your appointment seems to have been rather fortuitous. I’m glad you were there for her, Derek. Thank you.” Mallory motioned to her office. “Shall we get started?”

      “I think I ought to talk to Hannah first, and then we’ll proceed from there.”

      “Fine. Take all the time you need.” A quizzical look crossed her boss’s face, but then she smiled warmly and returned to her office.

      Hannah continued to lead Derek down the hall. She spotted his reflection in the glass of a framed print on the wall, and couldn’t help noticing how fine he looked СКАЧАТЬ