Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,24

and then he said, “Catherine Jane.”

“Oh, good Lord! Don’t start that again,” she snapped with irritation.

“It seems to me I should get to know the woman who is going to guard my body,” he responded lightly.

“Not necessary,” she assured him as she pushed the front door of the station open and paused to glance around, looking for cars in the parking lot, or anyone who might be watching. She didn’t see anyone, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone there.

“Keep your head down so no one can see your face,” she instructed as she started forward again, allowing him out of the building.

“You must really hate your names,” Mac commented as he followed her to the car.

CJ looked over her shoulder to be sure he had his head down, but didn’t acknowledge his words. She merely took his elbow to hurry him along to the car. She hit the button on her key fob to unlock it as they approached, and then opened the front passenger door, scanned the empty parking lot as she waited for him to get in, and then closed it for him once he was seated before hurrying around to the driver’s side.

“Well, this is strange,” Mac commented as she slid behind the wheel and pulled her own door closed.

“What is?” she asked absently, her eyes dancing around the parking lot as she buckled up and started the engine.

“You seeing me into the car,” he explained. “I am usually the one who does that when with a lady.”

“I’m not a lady. I’m your bodyguard,” CJ reminded him grimly as she shifted gears and backed out of the parking spot. “Do up your seat belt and keep your head down.”

He did as instructed, and then remained silent as she steered them out of the parking lot and onto the road. Much to her surprise, he stayed silent even after that as she divided her attention between driving and watching the rearview mirror for anyone who might be following them. This late at night, or early in the morning as the case may be, there weren’t a lot of people out driving around, and no one seemed to be following them. Still, CJ drove twice around the block where the bed-and-breakfast was to make sure they didn’t have a tail before pulling into the driveway and steering her car around to the small parking area behind the old Victorian house.

“I feel bad about having to wake up Millie at this hour to rent a room,” Mac murmured as they got out and headed for the back door of the house.

“Yeah,” CJ breathed, a frown taking over her face. Millie Vesper was a widow in her late sixties whose children had grown up and moved to the city, leaving her alone in the town where she’d grown up, married, and raised her own family. Apparently, her children had wanted to sell her house and move her to a seniors’ home in the city to be close to them, but Millie had refused and had turned her home into a bed-and-breakfast instead. CJ suspected the woman had done it for company rather than out of any need for money. The woman had chatted away nonstop to her every chance she’d got. CJ had only arrived a couple of hours before she’d headed to the station and had spent most of that time listening to the chatty, but dear, lady tell her about the town of Sandford and its inhabitants. CJ now had the lowdown on who was sleeping with whom, and who wasn’t getting along in their marriage. At least she knew the names of the troubled and misbehaving individuals, but since she didn’t know anyone in this town, she didn’t have faces to put with them.

CJ had listened with polite interest to what had amounted to a soap opera of the goings-on in town, but it wasn’t until she was driving to her appointment at the police station that she’d considered that she should maybe ask Mrs. Vesper about the people there, and Jefferson in particular. CJ suspected the woman would have an earful to tell her, but wasn’t sure if that would be a good thing or not. She was supposed to investigate objectively, and she worried Mrs. Vesper’s bias might influence her.

“A light just came on inside.”

CJ followed Mac’s gaze to a window at the back of the house, and noted the light now shining through the curtains. The sound of the car engine must have woken