Beauty from Ashes: A Christian Romance (BlackThorpe Security Book 5) Read online

  She really wanted to find that house that could be her home.

  Though normally she would have waited to look at the links on her laptop, she didn’t feel like it this time. The first one she looked at, the pictures didn’t do anything for her. The backyard was small. The kitchen was laid out in a weird way. And the master bath didn’t have a tub like she wanted. She closed out the browser window for that one and clicked on the next one.

  As she scrolled through the pictures for the second link, Adrianne found her interest piqued. She liked the look of the house from the outside, and the backyard was large with lots of trees. She couldn’t tell how well it was landscaped since it was covered with snow, but that would be something she could take care of herself in the spring. All in all, the second house made her actually want to go look at it.

  She didn’t have quite as strong a reaction to the third one, but she liked it well enough that she typed out a quick response to Patsy to let her know she’d be interested in looking at the two houses. After sending the message, Adrianne went back to look at the pictures from the second link. She swiped through them slowly, zooming in on certain pictures to see things a bit more clearly. Nothing she saw took away from the excitement she had initially felt when looking at the pictures of that listing.

  After the stress of the day and the tumult of emotions that never seemed to end, Adrianne was relieved to have something else to focus on. And maybe, just maybe, she had found her home.

  ~*~

  Connor tried to participate in the discussion that was going on around the table, but he found it difficult when his gaze kept being drawn to Adrianne. It was clear that she had tuned out the conversation, and he could hardly blame her for that. No doubt she was still trying to recover from what had happened earlier that day.

  Alex was saying something about what the detective had told him shortly before he left, but Connor was way more interested in the way Adrianne’s face had lit up because of something she’d seen on her phone. He watched as she caught her lower lip between her teeth and swiped her finger over the screen. Connor wished he knew what was causing that reaction. It was obviously something good, something more worthwhile to focus on than the sad events of the day.

  Though he would never, ever say that what Jonathan Jaeger had done was right, in the posts he’d read by the man in different forums and in the blog he’d set up, Connor had felt his pain. It had started with his efforts to get his brother into the BlackThorpe program. He’d been a man on a mission, trying to take care of his little brother. All he’d wanted was to take away his brother’s pain. When he hadn’t been able to help Stefan and had lost him so horrifically, he’d needed someone to blame, and BlackThorpe had been as good a place as any to start. One positive in all of it—if there was such a thing—was that he had chosen to come to the main office instead of going to the Wellness Center.

  The damage that he could’ve done there, not just to those who worked there but also to the residents, would’ve been considerable. The trauma he would’ve inflicted on some of those men who were already suffering from PTSD would have been enormous. Connor certainly wasn’t glad that there had been two injuries at the office, but it probably ended up being the lesser of two evils. There had been people at the BlackThorpe office capable of dealing with a gunman which may not have been the case at the Wellness Center.

  As he watched Adrianne across the table from him, he couldn’t help but recall how it had felt to be so close to her. But that wasn’t the only memory coming to him. When she chewed on her lower lip as she looked at her phone, Connor remembered how she’d used to do that when concentrating on the project they were working on. When she glanced up, looking through her long lashes, he thought of how she’d given him a similar look after explaining something to him about the project as if checking to make sure he understood.

  She hadn’t been beautiful by teenage standards—or the world’s standards—but there had been something about her that had made Connor wish that he could’ve been strong enough to be with her. But instead, he’d been weak, and the price he paid for that was to watch the light fade from her soft blue eyes as he spat horrible words at her. Pain sliced through him at the memory. Another price he paid for his words—the inability to escape the memory of the pain in Adrianne’s eyes.

  Since re-entering her life, he’d seen that light in her eyes again, but never when she looked at him. Never when she said anything to him. Her smiles and laughter were reserved for people who hadn’t hurt her the way he had.

  Though he had convinced himself and others that the reason he was single was because of his job, the reality he’d been forced to accept over the past few years was that—job aside—he didn’t really feel that he was entitled to a relationship after what he’d done to Adrianne. He had dated off and on, but each time he’d known pretty quickly that there would be nothing beyond a handful of dates. He had just never been able to get past the fact that he had hurt someone who he had actually had feelings for all because he’d been weak.

  When he’d first heard from Rebecca about her relationship with Alex, Connor had really hoped that he would arrive in Minneapolis to find that Adrianne was happily married to a man who doted on her and had children who adored her. It hurt him to see her still single and struggling so much in that area of her life. The irony was that the boys he’d been trying to impress by showing them his rejection of Adrianne had even commented on how harsh he’d been. In the end, he’d lost the respect of some of his teammates, and he’d lost Adrianne.

  If he thought there was something he could do to fix things for Adrianne, Connor would do it in a heartbeat. But there didn’t seem to be anything he could do to right the wrong of their past. Not even protecting her from a mad gunman.

  14

  This is my home.

  As soon as Adrianne had walked into the house early the next evening, she had known that it was the one. As she’d wandered through the living room into the kitchen and dining room and finally the master bedroom, she had been able to picture herself living there. And more than just living there, she saw herself sharing her life in that home with her family and friends. It was what she’d been looking for and had almost given up all hope of finding.

  And any time her visualizations included a tall, dark-haired man with a short beard and piercing blue eyes, she resolutely pushed those aside and imagined something else.

  “So do you think you’d like to make an offer on the house?” Patsy asked after they’d spent time going through every room in the house for the second time.

  Adrianne knew her mother would likely say that it was too much space for just one person and wouldn’t she like to live there with Connor? After they were married, of course. And yes, it probably was a lot of space for just her, but that didn’t matter to Adrianne. She had saved up her money. She knew she could afford it, and it was her home. Simple as that.

  She and Patty left the house and headed for a nearby restaurant to talk a little bit more about the property and what Adrianne wanted to offer. Away from the house, Adrianne felt a twinge of alarm, wondering if she was moving too quickly on this. But then she remembered the feeling she’d had as she’d stepped through the front door. She didn’t need to see any more houses. She didn’t need to think it over any further.

  Patsy seemed to understand the connection she’d had to the house and answered all the questions Adrianne had about it. She offered some advice on closing dates and such, and by the time they left the restaurant, Patsy had an offer to give the owners.

  Now it would just be a waiting game.

  Adrianne returned home, excited and eager to share her news. It had been a relief to have something positive to focus on after everything that had happened the day before. Alex had encouraged people to work from home that day as there was still clean up needed in the office area. Adrianne had been all too happy to agree to that. And now she had something positive to focus on in the days ahead, hopefully enough to keep the memories at b
ay.

  As she pulled her car to a stop outside the garage, Adrianne noticed the lights were on in the apartment. Likely that meant that Connor was there instead of being in the house.

  That was a good thing, she reminded herself, even though there was that traitorous part of her that was disappointed at not being able to see him. Adrianne let herself in the front door of the house and stomped her boots to shake free any snow before taking them off and putting them in the closet.

  The main floor was quiet, so there was no one to hear her exciting news. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going when she’d left, so no one was waiting to hear how things had gone. Though it would’ve been nice to talk to someone about it, Adrianne wasn’t totally disappointed as she climbed the stairs to her rooms. No doubt there would’ve been questions about how quickly she was moving on the house and if it was really what she wanted to do, and she didn’t really want that negativity weighing her down just yet. She wanted to be able to think about that house and how she felt as she’d toured it.

  So she took some time getting changed into the large T-shirt she favored for sleeping in and climbed into bed, snuggling down under her blanket with her tablet. It didn’t take her long to pull up the pictures of the house again and she swiped through them several times, already planning where she would put the furniture she currently had and what more she’d need to buy to fill the large home.

  ~*~

  When Connor exited the elevator on Friday morning, he was surprised to see Adrianne seated behind the reception desk. She looked up as he approached the desk and, for the first time that he could remember, greeted him with what appeared to be a genuine smile.

  “Hey, Adrianne,” Connor said. “Did Kelsey not make it in today?”

  Adrianne shook her head. “She’s still pretty distraught over what happened on Tuesday. Somehow she feels responsible because the man used her gun. I talked with her a little bit earlier, and she hopes to be back in the office next week. But in the meantime, I’m spending a little time here to check for phone messages and anything else that needs to be dealt with.”

  Connor was glad to see that Adrianne didn’t seem to be suffering any lingering effects from the shooting. The dark circles he’d seen under her eyes the day after the shooting were gone, as was the tension. She wore a deep cranberry colored fitted suit jacket over a cream blouse that was very flattering on her.

  “You look very lovely today,” Connor said before he could stop himself. As a rule, he didn’t tend to compliment women on their appearances. Sometimes women thought he was flirting with them, which would lead to an awkward situation, but mainly it was because for some women it apparently implied that any other time he’d seen them and not complimented them on their appearance that they hadn’t looked nice.

  Adrianne stared at him for a moment as pink tinged her cheeks. Connor braced himself for her reaction, but instead she just said, “Thank you. This is one of my favorite outfits.”

  He couldn’t believe that they were actually having a normal conversation. Would it be too much to hope that they would be able to finally put the past firmly where it belonged and forge, at the very least, a friendship?

  “I just stopped in to have a chat with Alex,” Connor said, not wanting the silence between them to turn awkward. “Do you happen to know if he’s available?”

  “No one has stopped by to meet with him, so if he is tied up, it’s just with one of the guys.”

  Connor shifted his laptop bag from one hand to the other. “I guess I’ll just take my chances.”

  After giving Adrianne a quick smile, he headed down the hallway that had recently been repaired and restored to its original condition. Even though he was used to dealing with events like what had happened on Tuesday, he was surprised at the images that flashed through his mind as he made his way to Alex’s office.

  Alex’s door stood open, so Connor stepped into the doorway and knocked on the frame. Alex turned from his computer and smiled, motioning him into the office.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Alex asked as he leaned back in his chair. He still wore his tie and a long-sleeved button-down shirt, but his suit coat was on a hanger on a hook in the corner of the office.

  “I’ve been doing some more digging, checking into some online sites that have been useful in the past. I’ve stumbled across a few things that you might find of interest with regards not only to what happened here on Tuesday but also in your previous attacks.”

  Alex sat forward, his expression intense as he stared at him. “You have more information than what we talked about the other night?”

  Trying to ignore the similarity of Alex’s blue eyes to Adrianne’s, Connor nodded. “It all started with the blog post that I found that had been written by Jonathan Jaeger. I began to read through everything that he had posted on his blog and found that there was a pattern of people who regularly commented on what he wrote. I found one person in particular who seemed more than happy to join him in bashing BlackThorpe. After the first handful of times this person commented on his blog, Jaeger began to reply to the comments. As it got closer and closer to the date of the attack, the blog comments were ramped up as the author of the comments told Jonathan that if he were in his shoes, he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from making BlackThorpe pay.”

  “Were you able to track the person behind the comments?” Alex asked.

  Connor shook his head, wishing he had that information for Alex. “He’s too smart to trip up over something like that, but I’m thinking whoever is behind it all definitely made contact with Jaeger in the months leading up to Tuesday. What I’m missing, however, is the link between Jaeger and however he got the information that Kelsey carried a concealed weapon. It seems unlikely that the man was just here to deliver flowers and was willing to do that indefinitely, just waiting for the perfect opportunity. My gut tells me that somehow he knew that Kelsey had a weapon.”

  Alex nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face. “That same thought has occurred to me, especially after our talk Tuesday night where we realized that this man had an actual connection to BlackThorpe.”

  Connor hesitated before moving on to his next line of thinking. “I know that you vet all your employees very well, but is there any chance that there’s someone within the company who could’ve passed on that knowledge to someone else?”

  Alex sighed and leaned back in his seat once again. “It’s a theory that we have considered often with regards to the attacks, but have never been able to draw a straight line between anyone in the company and any of the attacks. I will say that I don’t believe Kelsey was at all involved in what happened on Tuesday.”

  Having seen how distraught the young woman had been after the shooting, Connor was inclined to agree with him. That still left them with the mystery of how someone outside of the company had knowledge of something that wasn’t exactly well-known.

  “Do you have anyone in your IT department that monitors the web for chatter on BlackThorpe?” Conner asked. “If not, I would highly recommend having someone do that. Both the Internet and the dark net. It can be time-consuming combing through the data, but once you’re experienced enough to know what to look for, patterns can lead you to where you need to go.”

  “Maybe one of the first things I should have you consult on is helping to train someone to do the monitoring that you’re suggesting. Unless that’s a job you would like to do yourself. You’ve more than proven to me in the past four days how effective you are at doing that, and how necessary it is if we want to find out who’s behind everything.”

  Connor was surprised that his first instinct wasn’t to turn down the offer of a job. He’d always enjoyed the cyber side of the work he’d done, and maybe this would allow him to do something he enjoyed without having to leave home all the time. “I’d be happy to do it, but I’m also more than willing to train someone to do it.”

  “How about you come on board to help us deal with this particular issue. Once it�
�s resolved—hopefully sooner rather than later—we can talk about having you train someone to work alongside you or, if you really do want to stay retired, take over for you.”

  Connor felt a frisson of excitement at the thought of diving back into something like the attacks on BlackThorpe. He hadn’t really planned out how to spend his retirement, but the idea of sitting around doing nothing held little appeal. Though he had initially planned to do some traveling, sticking close to home—and Rebecca and Jordan—was definitely a better idea.

  And if it meant he got to be around Adrianne a little more, then so be it. He certainly wouldn’t be complaining.

  ~*~

  Adrianne clutched her phone tightly and grinned. The phone call from Patsy had woken her up, but it had been with the best possible news. After going back and forth a few times on price and possession date, her final offer had been accepted. She had a home!

  She glanced at her clock, not too surprised to see that it was after ten. She’d gone to bed late the night before after spending the evening with Janet. So far, she and Jeff were the only ones that knew of her plan to buy the house, but now she wanted to share it with someone else.

  Flinging back the covers on her bed, Adrianne got to her feet. It didn’t take long to change from pajamas into a pair of comfy sweats and a sweatshirt. She took a minute to wash her face and brush her teeth then smoothed her hair back into a ponytail before leaving her rooms.

  The house was once again silent as she headed toward the kitchen, but Adrianne quickly realized she wasn’t alone. Leaning against the counter in a pair of faded jeans and dark blue sweatshirt, with his head bent over his phone and a cup of coffee in his other hand stood Connor. She must’ve made some noise because he glanced up as she walked into the room.