Texas Takedown. Heather Woodhaven
him,” Matt shouted, but over the noise, he doubted anyone heard him. The creep didn’t even glance back before he slipped between two buildings and disappeared.
Isabelle’s hands held her stomach. Matt dropped to his knees. He looked past the tree and yelled for help at a group passing by. He reached for Isabelle. How badly had she been stabbed?
She coughed. “He’s getting away.”
He couldn’t call for an ambulance without his phone, which still resided in the inner pocket of his suit jacket. He reached for her and prepared himself for the worst as his eyes focused on the rip in his suit, where she’d been stabbed. He pulled back the jacket slowly, inwardly cringing at what he might find.
Instead of blood he saw only fabric. His eyes lifted to her face.
She pressed her hand on her stomach. “It didn’t pierce me. The force of it just hurt. Your jacket... Was there something in the pocket?” Her frown cleared as she pulled out his phone and wallet. Cracks radiated across the screen. In the center of the phone he could see the point of impact. If the blade had hit flesh... He gulped.
Her right hand reached for his wrist.
“Isabelle, you could’ve been—”
“But I wasn’t. You saved my life,” she whispered. Her eyes filled. “He got away with everything. My phone, my wallet, my tablet... It’s all gone.”
He squeezed her hand. “All replaceable.” Unlike her.
Two policemen ran up to the tree. One took a knee. “Ma’am, do you need an ambulance?”
Twenty minutes passed before the officers were finished with their questions. Matt half listened to their reassurances to Isabelle that if she came to the police station for the report, she would likely still be able to fly home without an ID.
One officer stepped away while he listened to his radio. He approached again. “Ma’am, you said you were pursued earlier today by two men? Was this attack made by one of the same men?”
“No.” She frowned. “I’m positive.”
“Were there any witnesses to the earlier event?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Just Matt.”
The officer gave him a long glance. “And you were the only witness to this altercation, as well?”
Matt leaned back on his heels. Was the officer implying they were making the incidents up? “We were surrounded by witnesses. Surely someone saw something.” He waved behind him to the sidewalk.
“If they did, they didn’t stick around to tell their story.” The other officer narrowed his eyes.
Matt threw his hands up in the air. “This can’t be a coincidence.”
The officer ignored him and addressed Isabelle. “I assure you it’s very unusual for one of our tourists to be a victim of so much crime in one day, ma’am. Were you carrying anything valuable that would draw attention?”
Isabelle grabbed her sparkling necklace. The temptation to ask who gave her that welled up in Matt again. “Only the usual conference-attendee stuff,” she said. “Wallet, tablet, phone—you know, basically my whole world.” She smiled weakly.
Matt recalled the way she’d begged for him to put her laptop in the hotel safe. She had been carrying it in her messenger bag. What if the people who tore up her room were looking for the information that was on her laptop?
The memory of the man shoving the knife into Isabelle made him flinch. If he’d been after the laptop and thought he’d grabbed it, then why stab her? His blood ran cold. Did someone want her out of the picture?
The police officers repeated their safety advice to her and walked away.
Matt met her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell them about the laptop?”
She looked uneasy. “It wasn’t pertinent.”
“Wasn’t it?” He crossed his arms across his chest. “I think it’s time you told me more about these underwater drones.”
The light emphasized Matt’s dark eyes. How many times had she dragged out conversations with him just for an excuse to keep looking into his eyes? Her cheeks heated at the thought, and she moved her gaze to the cobblestone beneath her feet.
She wasn’t a teenager anymore. She had better things to think of, more practical things. They’d changed. It was just the memory of a childhood crush. That was all. She’d get over it. She had to.
“Isabelle?” Matt repeated.
“Okay. Basically my life was thrown into chaos a couple weeks ago. I had a theory, and when I proved it, Hank used all his connections, and probably all his money, and got me a spot at the conference not only as an attendee but also as a presenter. It was very rushed.”
“That algorithm you were trying to tell me about?”
“Yes. It’s not the easiest thing to explain if I don’t want to put you to sleep.” She studied his expression so she’d have a baseline to reference if she started to lose him. “Nothing that’s been applied, but there’s the potential.”
“Of underwater drones?”
“Not exactly.” She waved at the river next to them as they walked closer to the stairs that would lead them back to the city streets. “Imagine there was a way to track fish and currents. That it could also be so undetectable that it wouldn’t disturb wildlife. To do that, we’d need the research to enable the drones to mimic the wildlife, right? Swarms of these drones could be for tracking and reconnaissance, not so much for attacking...although I admit, there could be the potential.”
His brow furrowed.
She tried again. “Okay. How about this? Imagine something that could even change currents if you needed it to. Wouldn’t the US Navy find that useful?”
His eyes widened. “Your research could do that?”
She shrugged. “Technology has missed some vital pieces to make it work. Namely the research.”
“And you’ve got the missing pieces.”
“I have at least one piece, but I believe it will lead me to the other pieces.”
“With the funding you’re trying to get this week.” He offered his arm as they ascended the stairs, and she took it. Matt kept looking over his shoulder. She knew he wanted to stay alert and keep her safe, but the constant checking unnerved her. “I’m still upset at the cops’ insinuation this was random crime,” he said. “The ransacked room combined with the attack is too much.”
“I know.” She really hoped he would stop talking about it so her heart rate could return to normal. “But from the police’s point of view, it’s been different people. I don’t even know if my research is connected with it.”
They crossed the street to the hotel entrance. He jolted to a stop at the automatic doors. His eyes widened. “What if someone wants it to look like random crimes?”
Her gut twisted. She could accept that if the man hadn’t tried to stab her. The thought that someone wanted to kill her... Well, her mind wouldn’t let her dwell on that possibility. “We’re jumping to conclusions that I don’t want to explore, Matt.” Or she’d never be able to sleep.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. Listen, I’ll do whatever I can to help keep you safe.”
She looked down at her empty hands. All her personal information was on her tablet and phone, as if her life was spread open for that knife-wielding stranger to see. Assuming he could get past her passwords.
Matt had already done