Unknown Enemy (Love Inspired Suspense) Read online

  She took another deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You’re right, but there are also more lives here to think about than only the people we see in front of us. This work could benefit so many people—an entire country and our knowledge of human history, for starters—so if someone wants it stopped, there must be something massive at stake. We need to look at all the angles.”

  Colin agreed with her, but right now not knowing the nature of that something was exactly the problem. “From here on out, no more assumptions. Every move we make has to be fully deliberate.” He opened the car door for her and waited as she climbed inside.

  “Do you think whoever is after my work will actually try something else at this point?” She leaned her head against the glass as Colin secured himself in the driver’s seat. “I mean, they have the physical tablets, so they may think they’ve done enough and leave me alone. Especially if I pull back from my work for a little while.”

  He heard the bitterness in her voice. “I’m not asking you to sabotage your future, Ginny. The thing is, in my experience these kinds of enemies don’t always think along sensible lines. After this attack, I have no doubt Chief Black will devote plenty of additional resources to investigating the incidents. I hate to say it, but that might put an even greater target on your back.”

  “But if we figure out what’s going on and what it is that’s valuable about my research?”

  “That’d help.”

  Ginny grew silent again as he drove. When he pulled into the motel parking lot, she sat upright and tapped on the car’s digital clock. “Colin, the second drop!”

  He’d hoped she might forget about that. “The police are going to monitor the drop site. I want you far away from there today. If you’re ready to go back tomorrow, fine, but like I said, think carefully about this.”

  He put the car in Park and jogged around to open the passenger side door for Ginny. A battle played out across her features. Hopefully she’d be able to rest today and gain some perspective for the days ahead. “Let me check the room before you head inside.” A quick sweep of the motel suite revealed nothing untoward.

  “Thanks. For taking care of me.” She paused in the doorway and turned to face him. “You’ve got to be exhausted, too. Maybe ask for several officers to spell you tonight, okay? I don’t want to wake up tomorrow to find you passed out in the car.”

  He smirked, though she wasn’t far off the mark. He could go full throttle for weeks under sleep deprivation thanks to training, but it was never ideal and always a risk. “Don’t worry about me. Rest up and I’ll keep you in the loop if any details come through, all right?”

  She nodded, about to close the door, when she stopped again. Her expression changed, softened. Colin’s heart did a strange flip as she regarded him under long, lacy eyelashes.

  “Also, I’m sorry for how I snapped at you earlier today. In the office. It wasn’t fair to you and it was rude of me not to give you the benefit of the doubt. Or a chance to defend yourself. I don’t know what came over me.”

  Colin swallowed hard. Someone could have knocked him over with a feather. “No apology necessary. We’re both under a lot of pressure.”

  “No, no. Don’t make my cruel remark less than it was. The thing is—” she took a deep breath before continuing “—I’ve had some bad experiences with relationships. Related to my appearance.”

  He had a sudden urge to find all those men and teach them a lesson or two about respecting women. “Ginny, you’re the most beautiful and capable woman I’ve ever met. I realize the, uh...your scar is a part of you and a part of your past, and I’m sorry you had to go through whatever put it there. Please know it was never my intention to make you feel unlovely or less than you are.” A light-headedness overcame him as the words he spoke brought to light a realization. He was falling for Virginia Anderson, against all logic, reason and experience.

  “I know, and I suppose my experiences have made me more sensitive and too quick to react.”

  “We all have scars, Ginny.” Why was he still speaking? Why couldn’t he just say good-night and walk away? “Every single one of us. Just because some of our scars aren’t visible on the outside doesn’t mean they’re not as painful or horrific or that we don’t also struggle to live with them each and every day. But you know what? The important thing, the most important thing in this life, is that we learn how to live with our scars. How to appreciate them and what they’ve taught us.”

  She regarded him thoughtfully, and though her eyes had grown red and wet with emotion, she still smiled. Soft and inviting. “And what God will teach us through them and because of them. Even though it hurts sometimes.”

  And then his hand was on her cheek. Touching her scarred skin. He pulled his hand away, suddenly so aware of her presence, her scent and the surprise in her eyes that had to reflect his own.

  “Colin—”

  But her words went no further because his mouth covered hers, banishing the distance between them. Sweet as honey and gentle as the autumn breeze, Colin felt Ginny relax into the kiss, the tension in her shoulders melting away as they claimed this moment as their own.

  Until she pressed her hands against Colin’s chest and pushed, severing the moment.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t.” She backed into the motel room and slammed the door.

  Colin’s heart nearly split in two. How had she wormed her way into his affections so deeply in only a few days? And why did he get the sense that the feeling was mutual...and that it terrified them both?

  ELEVEN

  Ginny endured a night of fitful sleep, unable to shake the look on Colin’s face when she’d pushed him away. But she’d had no choice. You’ll never find love, her mother’s voice echoed. Not with a face like that. An injured, scarred Ginny was no longer valuable to the world—or at least, the world her mother had expected her daughter to be a part of—which was why Ginny had turned to school and become a professor. If she’d amount to nothing without perfect looks, then she’d work by herself in dingy libraries and lonely classrooms where she could prove herself without being seen.

  Colin could never understand the repeated heartbreak she’d endured at the other side of the table from seemingly well-meaning suitors.

  On the other hand, Colin had touched her skin without flinching, seen both sides of her visage, and had kissed her anyway. It’s only a matter of time, her mother’s voice still scolded.

  Whether that was true or not, Colin was a good man. Brave, honorable and a physical marvel of strength. And attractiveness. He deserved someone better. She wasn’t good enough for him, and it took only one look at her ruined skin to know that to be the truth.

  He was wrong. Not everyone was scarred, because some people healed. Not her.

  The fifth time her snooze alarm blared, Ginny woke with sweat coating her body, her mind racing between the moment with Colin, the missing tablets and the image of Mrs. McCall lying facedown with blood matting the back of her skull. A knock came at the door and she slipped off the side of the lumpy motel mattress with a shout of alarm.

  “Ginny? Are you all right?” The pounding intensified as Colin’s voice brought her back to reality.

  “Just woke up,” she replied. “I’ll be out in fifteen.”

  Showered and dressed, she opened the door to find Colin leaning against the hood of her hatchback and sipping a large take-out cup of coffee. A second coffee sat on the roof on the passenger side. He waved to a police car across the street, which drove off after the officer behind the wheel returned the wave.

  “For me?” she asked, pointing at the coffee.

  His lopsided smile set her cheeks ablaze. “Of course it is. It’s one perk of making friends with the local PD. They can drop off breakfast on the way by.”

  “We should really go get your car back from outside my apartment.
”

  He shrugged. “If there’s time. It doesn’t make a big difference either way, since we should continue to travel together. I don’t want anyone targeting your vehicle while you’re alone inside it.”

  She took a sip from the takeaway cup and hissed as the liquid scalded her tongue. Colin climbed into the driver’s seat without another word and they headed over to the school. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that her little travel Bible—which she normally kept in the glove box—was now wedged between the front seats. Interesting.

  “Did you decide what you’re going to do about your work?”

  She didn’t miss the tension in his question, and he wasn’t going to like her answer. “I’m going to trust that you and the police can protect me while I do my work.” He didn’t respond, so she continued. “It’s not every day that a person who’s as low on the academic totem pole as me gets the opportunity to work with a consultant on a major project. Plus, despite my reservations about Dr. Hilden’s necessity to my work, the man did travel all the way here. And let’s not forget, these tablets I’ve been entrusted to keep safe for study do belong to his country.”

  “The ancient tablets that are, as of now, missing.”

  She winced at the verbal reminder. Certainly Dr. Hilden had been informed of the theft, but that wasn’t going to make facing him this afternoon at their meeting any easier. As they reached the college and she got to work, this grew even truer with each passing hour. The bright yellow police tape around Mrs. McCall’s desk didn’t help her to concentrate, nor did having the severe-faced Colin hovering so close after last night’s interrupted kiss.

  When it came time for Colin to escort her to the library, Ginny trembled with anxiety. As usual, Dr. Hilden was already waiting in the library meeting room when Ginny arrived. He sat with his back straight, hands folded on the table. He wore the same brown tweed suit he’d been wearing the day she met him, but without the Panama hat.

  “I’d begun to doubt if you were coming today, after yesterday’s cancellation,” he said in his inflected English. “When I didn’t receive a return call, I’d hoped that meant, as you say, no news is good news?”

  “I’m so sorry.” Ginny cleared her throat and set a folder down on the table. “I realize that without the tablets, it’s going to be harder to get work done, but I think we can manage.” Inside the folder were photographs of the tablets, which she spread across the table as Dr. Hilden leaned forward to study them. “Were you able to reach your contact in the Amaran government to explain the situation?”

  “So they have not been found?” Dr. Hilden’s tone turned dark. “You were entrusted with my peoples’ history and you lost it to the clutches of common criminals?”

  Blood rushed to her ears as she grasped for words. “I followed the lending agreement to the utmost detail.”

  “And you?” Dr. Hilden rounded on Colin. “What kind of a place are you running around here? Are the police so incompetent that they cannot figure out the simplest of crimes? Theft from an academic institution in broad daylight! How could you allow this to happen?”

  Dr. Hilden’s voice had risen to a yell, attracting the attention of students and staff walking past the meeting room. Ginny thought she might bring back up the scant coffee and doughnut she’d eaten today.

  To her relief, Colin responded with absolute calm. “I assure you that the authorities are doing everything they can to retrieve the tablets and locate the persons responsible.”

  “The people of Amar trusted this woman.”

  “And she adhered one hundred percent to the guidelines of your agreement.” Colin glanced at Ginny. She offered a grateful nod. He might be playing her protector, but he didn’t need to go to bat for her over protocol. It surprised her that he’d so vehemently stick up for her, especially after how she’d rejected his kiss. No, their kiss. She’d willingly participated until reality reared its ugly head.

  Dr. Hilden scowled at Colin as Ginny cleared her throat and tapped on the photos she’d set out on the table. “I think it might be best if we get working.” Any more tension in the air and something was bound to snap. “I was able to retrieve the archaeological dig report photos from an online archive.”

  Colin picked up a photo and squinted at it. “Why don’t you have better photos if these are so important?”

  Ginny shook her head, familiar with questions like that from students. “The photos were taken right after the tablets were found back in the 1950s, and since they’re part of a larger collection that’s just been sitting inside crates in the basement of the Ashmore Museum waiting to be studied, no one has bothered to take higher-quality photographs yet. It’s been unnecessary until now. Dr. Hilden and I were planning to take new ones in a professional environment so that I could have images accompanying my report. Though, we did take an initial set of condition photos back at the museum before the tablets were handed over.”

  “Like photographs of a rental car after you get it and before you turn it in,” Colin said. “I get that.”

  “But they’re focused on condition and not on the inscriptions themselves, so it’ll be a challenge to work with them. But we could retrieve the images from Curator Wehbe in a pinch.”

  Dr. Hilden grunted and tapped a photo. “Good. This image is terrible. The symbols are barely legible.”

  Ginny rotated the photo to look at it and raised her eyebrows at the image he’d selected. “Good thing we’ve already translated this one, then. The degradation in image quality is what happens when creating a digital archive. The dig report from the 1950s would have needed to be scanned in. Many of these archives were created with inferior copy-and-scan technology in the nineties.”

  Dr. Hilden gave a terse nod and folded his arms across his chest. “Yes, yes. Of course. I meant only for comparative purposes with the other tablets’ contents. Naturally.”

  Ginny gritted her teeth at the condescension in his tone. “Right. Except that...you know what, never mind. I think it’s more important that we start with—”

  Shelby, her student who worked part-time in the library, burst into the room with a look of alarm on her young face.

  “Mr. Tapping? There’s an urgent call for you to head back to the Criminology Department.”

  “What about?” Colin said with exasperation.

  Shelby glanced from Ginny to Dr. Hilden before responding. “It’s urgent and confidential, Professor. All I know is it has to do with the events of Tuesday night. They’ve found something.”

  * * *

  It pained Colin to see the panicked look in Ginny’s eyes. He knew how important this meeting was to her, and he’d already monopolized plenty of precious time with the consultant. However, leaving her alone—especially after yesterday’s near-fatal attack on the receptionist—would be far too great a risk.

  “We’ll come back afterward,” he reassured her. “Apologies, Doc. I’ll bring her back as fast as I can.”

  As they neared the building that housed the Criminology Department, he noticed with surprise that Ginny had begun shivering in the cool autumn air. She’d left her coat behind in the library in her rush to follow him.

  “Hang on. Stop for a sec.” He unbuttoned his long-sleeved shirt and slipped it off, holding it out to her. He’d be fine in his T-shirt for a few minutes outside, but she looked as if she needed warmth immediately. “Sorry again. I know this isn’t ideal for either of us.”

  Or for his heart, though it was getting more and more difficult to convince himself of the fact. Especially after last night.

  “It’s all right.” Ginny shivered but shook her head at his offered shirt. “I guess I want to know what they’ve found as much as you do. And I’ll be fine once we get inside. Put your shirt on before you catch cold.”

  The department head, Dr. Thompson, leaned out of his office to wave Colin inside as th
ey entered the Criminology Department.

  Colin slowed his steps to finish rebuttoning his shirt before Ginny followed him into the office. Thompson closed the door. Another man sat inside the office in a full army uniform, including combat boots and camouflage. He nodded at Colin as he entered.

  “What’s she doing here?” Thompson barked, seeing Ginny enter the room.

  “Professor Anderson is as much a part of the week’s events as I am, if not more,” Colin stated. “Either she stays or we all go down to the police station to do this where I can see her through glass to ensure her safety while we talk. After which I’ll fill her in the moment you leave the station. Your choice.”

  Dr. Thompson glowered but relented. “Fine. Know that I’m only letting you in on this, Tapping, due to your professional history. I know you’ve been working with the local police as well, and I’d like you to continue as an official liaison between the college and the police in this matter. I’m bringing this to you first for PR reasons.”

  Colin nodded and glanced back at Ginny, who sat quietly at the back of the room. “Go on.”

  The man in military uniform spoke up, a Southern Texas drawl underlying his stern and serious delivery. “As you’re aware, the stun grenade used on the property several nights ago has been confirmed as military issue, an M84. What we did not know until this morning was that the grenade’s origins were not off campus as originally believed.”

  Colin blinked at the two men. “Come again?”