Unshakeable Pursuit (Christian Romantic Suspense)

Chapter 2a

Somehow Maylin felt safer now that the clinic had closed and was empty of everyone except herself, Geoffrey, and the night security guard. She stared out through the slits in the blinds in Geoffrey's office at the deserted parking lot. The summer sunlight was finally fading, and shadows cast long fingers across the asphalt. It would be more obvious if someone arrived who wasn't supposed to be there, especially since the parking lot wrapped around two sides of the building, while the other two sides were surrounded by grassy play areas.

A car's headlights cut through the dusk as it turned from the main road into the parking lot.

"That'll be Monica." Geoffrey got up from his desk.

"No, I think it's the janitor," Maylin said. "It's a white pickup truck."

"Yeah, that sounds like John's truck."

"Wait, there's another car. A blue SUV?"

"That's Monica. She just bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee."

"She got here pretty quick," Maylin said.

"She doesn't live far from the clinic."

Maylin followed Geoffrey to the glass front doors of the clinic, where a woman with dark hair waving around her face headed toward them. Geoffrey went to the nurses' station, a small area with a counter and computers on desks, and disengaged the clinic's silent alarm system. He waved to Monica to let her know the alarm was off.

She waved back as she opened the front doors with her own key, but paused to chat with the janitor, John, who had come up behind her.

"See you later, John," Monica said as the two of them entered the clinic. The janitor nodded to them all in a friendly fashion as he headed through the main doors to the supply closet off the main hallway.

"Hang on, let me reengage the alarm." Geoffrey tapped the code into the alarm panel.

Maylin had a chance to study her boss. Monica dressed more casually than Maylin would have expected of the director of the clinic. She couldn't help comparing Monica's jeans and silk shirt to her sister, a CFO, who always dressed in a power suit even on a visit to her company after hours. And her sister certainly wouldn't know the janitor's name. Maylin had to remind herself that not everyone was as conscious of image as her own family. Still, she smoothed her wrinkled scrubs with one hand as Monica gave Geoffrey a hug.

"Thanks for doing this for me," he said as he released her.

"No problem, cuz." She grinned at him, and then her eyes slid to Maylin. "Maylin Kinley, right? I remember your interview a few months ago."

"Really? I mean, um ... thanks." Maylin's face was on fire. She wished she were as confident and elegant as Monica. As any normal woman, really. She was tired of being such a misfit.

Instead of looking at her strangely, Monica simply smiled at her, a genuine smile that accepted her for who she was.

Maylin felt warm. In a good way. There was just something about Monica that was so different from anyone else she'd ever met. Maylin hadn't really seen it in her interview with Monica, but she could sense it now. It was elusive, something she couldn't quite pin down.

Monica turned to Geoffrey. "So explain to me what you couldn't talk about over the phone. I heard about the police coming to the clinic this afternoon."

Before answering her, Geoffrey surprised Maylin by looking to her first, as if wanting her approval. She nodded to him.

Geoffrey started with the girl who had approached him with her warning. He then told Monica about the two fake FBI agents. "I thought there was something wrong when I saw them. I've met a couple FBI agents, and they didn't carry themselves the way these two men did. These two guys stood like ... gangsters."