Brutal Obsession (The Safeguard Series, Book One) by Kennedy Layne Read Free Book Online Page A

kind of federal agent as well, not missing the mark by very much. He didn’t bother to correct her assumption. Conjectures could be very helpful in his business of working on limited information and extracting the truth from those who didn’t wish to give it. He’d rather not have to explain who he was just yet, and quite honestly, why burst her bubble of self-assured indulgence?
    Keane, to be quite honest, wasn’t so sure Ashlyn would actually see him if Gina revealed his identity.

CHAPTER FIVE
    ‡
    “H ow could you possibly believe that I would go along with this?” Ashlyn asked, shrugging off her suit jacket in what came down to annoyance rather than rage. She defaulted to simple irritation because she still believed in her heart of hearts that this blunder could be rectified. She didn’t like when other people made decisions for her, thinking they were acting in her best interest, and she certainly didn’t appreciate it when the results affected her personal life. She’d uncharacteristically asked for two favors out of an abundance of interoffice diplomacy. Both of them were well-deserved, but Jarod Garner did not have the right to bring in an outside firm when her case had already been assigned to the FBI as per protocol. It hadn’t been his place to do so without discussing the appearance of impropriety with her and she wasn’t going to stand still for his lording over her. “You should have consulted with me, first and foremost.”
    “It’s a necessary measure and you know that to be true. This now has national media coverage and we have no concept of how this individual is going to react to what appears to be your rejection of him.”
    Rejection? Ashlyn shook her head at Jarod’s insinuation that she’d somehow been the one to seek out the unwanted attention she’d been receiving from this individual. She was forced to remind herself that this wasn’t Jarod’s doing and that he was only trying to help resolve a difficult situation.
    “Call Mr. Calvert back and inform him we won’t be needing his services in the foreseeable future,” Ashlyn instructed, scanning her desk as she walked past it to the small closet in the corner. She pulled out a hanger and slid the ends of the red cherry wood and chromed steel construction through the sleeves of her jacket. “These Machiavellian machinations that have been perpetrated upon myself through no fault of my own are officially in the hands of the FBI and I want this investigation to stay that way. I’m sure Special Agent Coulter wouldn’t appreciate the interference of an up-gunned personal security firm.”
    Ashlyn had been out of her office for most of the morning and afternoon dealing with spurious defense motions and a senior citizen hard-nosed Jackie Onassis wannabe court clerk with illusions of grandeur. Gina had held down the fort, but there were several messages in the middle of her desk marked urgent that were currently waiting for her immediate response. They would have to wait a little longer until she’d taken some ibuprofen for the headache she’d been fighting all day. She silently closed the closet door, wishing she could just as easily shut away all of her fears and frustrations. It was just like the surf on the beach—relentlessly pounding the shores of her perception.
    Per her instructions this morning, Parker had sent detailed text messages throughout the day updating her on what the IT technician had discovered while combing through the log files on her desktop computer. Apparently, Paul had installed additional vertical and horizontal firewalls for her protection under the orders of his department’s supervisor and an Agent Freeman with the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Division, who had verified that her work system had not been tampered with in any manner. That was all good news, as far as Ashlyn was concerned.
    Most of the files she worked with were archived here on her desktop and on the department’s main server. If any of her