the move.’
The reply sounded in his earpiece. ‘Roger that—moving to primary.’
As they approached the main entrance Tyler tuned out of the conversation and went on alert. There had been a small gathering of parents outside when they arrived, but, taking into consideration how long they’d been there, the numbers might have grown. When the group in front of him stopped in the foyer he headed for the doors to check it out. What he discovered made him twice as determined to stay focused. He had to hand it to her: whatever else she might be, the woman was a crowd-puller.
When she said her goodbyes, shook hands and headed his way he stepped outside, his eyes on the crowd as he walked a few feet in front of her. What he was looking for as she approached the people yelling for attention was someone who stood out, whose actions and demeanor were different from everyone else’s. While she waved and stopped to shake hands on the approach to Officer Rand at the waiting Suburban, Tyler took dozens of mental snapshots. A couple of minutes and an alarm bell went off in his head.
He went back over the last faces he’d seen while she talked to a young woman who followed her on Twitter.
At the back of the crowd there was a man who wasn’t smiling or yelling. He was pale and ordinary looking, the kind of guy who normally faded into the background. Dark hair, approximately five feet eight, glasses, baseball cap with a faded lion logo—nothing unusual there. What made him stand out was how he was fixated on Miranda as if she was the only thing he could see.
Suddenly Tyler was aware of every hand reaching out for her, the weight of bodies pressed against the barricade close to where she stood and the flapping greeting banners that could obscure any of the danger behind them.
Adrenaline sped through his veins while his gaze flickered to face after face. With a sickening sense of inevitability heads moved in the crowd and he saw the one face he would never forget. Dull, lifeless eyes filled with accusation stared at him from a face streaked with blood.
It didn’t matter that the man at the back of the crowd hadn’t moved. He couldn’t take a chance.
Stepping towards Miranda, he laid a palm on the inward curve of her spine and leaned close to her ear. ‘You need to go now.’
Her body stiffened as she looked into his eyes. ‘Why?’
‘Just do it.’ He added pressure to her spine to move her along.
To her credit she dealt with the situation a lot better than he did, smiling brightly and waving goodbye as he ushered her to safety. If he had time to stop and think about it Tyler might have realized he respected her for that. But since he was too busy getting her the hell out of there he jerked his chin at Rand, who opened the rear door and looked around.
‘Problem?’ he asked when Miranda was inside.
‘Guy on my six at the back of the crowd.’
Rand looked over his shoulder. ‘Which one?’
‘Pale complexion, glasses, baseball cap.’
‘Don’t see him.’
Turning ninety degrees and zeroing in on the position, Tyler frowned when he discovered the man wasn’t there.
‘Let’s go.’
‘What’s wrong?’ Miranda asked when he opened the driver’s door and got behind the wheel.
He watched Rand through the windscreen as he walked around the front of the vehicle to the jump seat. ‘Nothing you need to worry about.’
‘Nice try.’ To his surprise her voice softened. ‘I saw your face, Tyler, and—’
‘We have a schedule to stick to,’ he said tightly as the passenger door opened. When their gazes met in the mirror something resembling understanding passed silently between them before she glanced at Rand.
She shook her head. ‘You’re more obsessed with my schedule than Grace.’
It wasn’t the first time she’d followed his lead. But that she hadn’t pushed on the subject in front of his fellow officer made it feel as if she was protecting him, which was not a pleasant sensation for Tyler. Pulling away from the kerb, he headed them back to Manhattan and took deep, even breaths. That his heart rate still hadn’t returned to normal by the time they got to the Brooklyn Bridge wasn’t unusual—he’d been in plenty of situations where adrenalin continued to course through his body long after the event.
But this time felt different.
He just wasn’t sure he wanted to know why.
EIGHT
As someone who’d been looking forwards to a little