“Who?” Victoria asked, gently, sitting down in one of the other chairs and crossing her long legs, her eyes pinned on him. “Tell me.”
Barrett shook his head. “No. It can’t be right.”
“The more you don’t want to believe it, the more likely that it’s true,” Victoria said. “People can shock us. Disappoint us. Betray us. Who is it, Barrett?”
She almost never called him by his first name, and the fact that she did now meant that she was reaching out to him. Asking him to trust her.
Or she was good at persuading witnesses to give up information.
Or both.
Barrett dragged a hand over his hair and turned his head, staring at the painting of the green dragon for a long time before speaking. “The only face that came to mind was my father’s.”
“Okay,” Victoria said, keeping her voice even and calm. “Tell me about that. Why do you think that is?”
“Why do I think that is?” Barrett asked, leaning his head back against the couch. “Wow. I’m not even sure that I know what I mean by that. I have always looked up to my dad. I think most young boys do. I always knew that it would be my job to take over his job someday, and I took that seriously from a young age. But ...”
Victoria nodded, not interrupting him but quietly encouraging him to continue.
“But there was always something that kept us from being totally comfortable around each other,” Barrett said, slowly. “Something that prevented us from being a dad and a kid, just hanging out.”
“Something more than the burden of family responsibility?” Victoria asked. “After all, you didn’t have a choice except to follow in his footsteps. Maybe that strained your relationship.”
He shook his head. “No, I never saw it like that. Taking over the agency is an honor. I couldn’t wait to do it. I’ve literally been waiting my whole life to do exactly what I was doing, and now it’s all being taken away by something.”
“If not that, then what was between you and your father?” Victoria asked, deftly keeping him on track. It was obvious that she was using her interrogation training and gently leading him along, but he didn’t resist it.
“I don’t know,” he said, honestly. “I wish that I did, but I’ve never really even acknowledged it before and neither has he. At least not that I know of.”
“What about your mother?” Victoria asked. “You haven’t mentioned her.”
“My mother is a good woman,” Barrett said, “but, to be honest, she kind of checked out a long time ago.”
“She’s a shifter?”
“She is,” he said, nodding. “But she didn’t grow up in this area. Rockwell’s often will go out and find a partner from another dragon shifter clan to keep solidarity and to make sure that they’re marrying within the species but not marrying too much within the clan. That gets complicated.”
“So, she moved here to be with your father, and he led the ...agency.”
Barrett nodded again. “Yes. That’s right. I love my mother, and she loves me. We have a good relationship. Her face didn’t come to mind when I thought of people I might not trust.”
“But your father ...”
“Yeah.”
“There’s probably something to that then, wouldn’t you think?”
“I just can’t imagine that he would actually be sabotaging me,” Barrett said. “That makes no sense to me—like no sense at all. I’m his only son. I’m his way of leaving a legacy. I’m doing what Rockwell’s do.”
“But he’s been put in charge at the agency again, right?” Victoria asked. “Maybe that was his goal all along. He could be power hungry. Or jealous. Or he could think that you’re ruining his legacy.”
Barrett thought about that, staring out the window into the darkening sky. “I suppose it’s possible, but it doesn’t match with what I know about him.”
“What about a family secret?” Victoria asked. “Important families with strong internal ties often have secrets they’re hiding, right? Have you ever heard anything about a Rockwell family secret?”
It was a good question, and Barrett paused to consider it. It would make sense that there would be something in the past because they had been around for so many generations, and it was true that they were quite powerful within their own sphere. As he considered it, though, he couldn’t really think of any Rockwell skeletons in the closet. He had never realized it before, but it was almost suspicious just how non-suspicious their family was. “I haven’t,” he finally said. “But ...hmm.” He paused, biting down on his thumbnail. “My grandfather would know. His name is Norman. He and I have always been incredibly close. I met with him earlier today, actually, and he’s working on his end to try to figure out some answers. But I haven’t heard from him since.”
“You don’t suspect him?”
“Not at all,” Barrett said, firmly. “No. There’s no way.”
“Are your dad and your grandfather close?”
“Sort of the same as me and my dad,” he said. “They’re not …not close.”
Victoria nodded. “So …you and your grandfather are fine with each other, but your dad seems to be the odd man out. That’s a place to start, Barrett.”
Just the suggestion of suspecting his father made his stomach turn. Of all the things that had happened that day—finding a body in his house, coming to terms with the fact that someone had died because of him, deciding to reveal his deepest secret in the hopes of it paying off in his favor, and more—voicing out loud the possibility that someone he knew and loved might be behind the whole thing was too much.
“I need a drink,” Barrett said, standing up and walking into the kitchen. He pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a stiff drink, then refilled his own glass and poured another for Victoria. He took both glasses back out to the living room and offered her the second one. “Join me?”
She shook her head. “I shouldn’t. I’m still working.”
“So am I,” Barrett said, putting the drink in her hand, anyway. “But I think we’ve both earned a drink tonight, don’t you?”
Victoria lifted her glass to him and then took a sip of it. “That’s good stuff.”
“Some of the best,” he said, sitting down again and taking a substantial swallow of his own drink. “Do you mind if we talk about you for a while? I need something to take my mind off all of this. I’ve been obsessed with what’s happening with my life for too long, and I just …want to talk about something else.”
Victoria looked hesitant for a moment, but then she nodded. “Okay … What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about you,” he said, waving a hand in the air. “Whatever that means.”
“Well,” Victoria said, crossing her long legs and leaning back in her chair. “I grew up with two parents who believed in a hands-off method, but I was a child who craved rules and structure. We never really saw eye-to-eye, me and my parents, although, obviously, I love them. I sometimes wonder if my brief, wild phase in high school was a way to try to show them what they were letting happen—just to see if they would put their foot down with me. It didn’t work, but I got Olivia out of it, so I don’t regret it.”
Barrett noted the way that her eyes and voice always softened when she said her daughter’s name, and it gave him a sort of sense of peace—the kind he was looking for at the moment. It was strange to think that just a few hours earlier, this woman had been his nemesis, and now they were sitting in his living room, drinking together and sharing about themselves. It felt natural, though, and she must have felt the same, because she kept talking.
“Olivia’s dad was a friend of mine. Not a bad guy—not really. We went to a party one night, and well …” She shrugged and took another sip of her drink. “Things happened.”
“Was that your first time?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. I’d had a boyfriend during the summer before my junior year, and then through the fall of junior year. We thought we were going to get married and all of
that—you know how it goes.”
He didn’t, because life wasn’t like that for a shifter, but he nodded anyway.
“Then, just before winter break of our junior year, he cheated on me with a girl from his debate team. They went on a trip for a competition, and they ended up sharing a hotel room …unbeknownst to the supervisor with them.” Victoria shook her head and smiled. “It seems so trite now, but at the time it was absolutely devastating. I decided to sow my wild oats as it were. Spring semester of my junior year, I started going to parties. Started drinking for the first time. Skipped a few days of school. Then a lot of school. No matter what I did, my parents never came down on me.” She shook her head. “They wanted me to find myself through my own mistakes, when really I needed someone to pull rank with me and show me some discipline.”
“That’s probably a hard balance to keep in parenting,” Barrett said. “Knowing when to come down hard on a kid and when not to.”
“I probably don’t do it perfectly,” Victoria said, taking another sip of her drink. “I like to think that Olivia and I are close and have a good relationship, and that I strike a good balance between fostering her trust and giving her hard-and-fast guidelines. But what parent doesn’t want to think that?”
“Well, for what it’s worth, it looks to me like you’re doing a great job,” Barrett said, meaning it sincerely. “She seems like a great kid, and you’re a very dedicated and honest mother. That’s all that anyone can hope for, right?”
Victoria gave him a slight smile, and their eyes met and held for a long moment. The second whiskey was starting to seep into Barrett, warming him from the inside out and unfurling some of the tension that had been pulsing in his body all day. He found himself allowing his gaze to linger on the curve of her lips and sink into the warm green glow of her eyes.
“Michael wasn’t interested in being a father,” Victoria said, speaking to fill the silence that he had let fall between them. “He wasn’t a bad guy, but he was young, and he had plans. It was my choice to keep Olivia, and I didn’t hold him accountable for my choice. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I got my act together and started training to be a police officer. It was what I’d always wanted to do, and I knew it would be harder doing it as a single mom, but that wasn’t going to stop me. And here I am, sixteen years later, and I still love my job.”
“But you’re risking it,” he said, bringing them abruptly back to the situation at hand. “For me.”
“For my gut,” she said, taking another drink—a more substantial one this time, as though she needed the liquid courage.
“Your gut,” he said. “What does your gut say?”
“My gut says that justice requires bending some rules here,” Victoria said, resting her glass on her knee, as she swung her leg back and forth, her bare toes skimming against the rug. “I became a cop because I love justice, and I love rules. It was a hard lesson learning that sometimes those two things don’t go together. In my experience, they mostly do go together. But I’ve learned that when they don’t, you value justice more than rules.”
“But you didn’t like me,” he said. “In fact, you actively disliked me.”
Victoria nodded. “Yes. Because I thought you weren’t following the rules.” She hesitated. “Well, I guess you weren’t following the rules, so I had that right. But …I have a feeling, based on what I know now, that my rules don’t create justice in your world.”
Barrett knocked back the rest of his whiskey, then set the glass down on the coffee table. He patted the couch next to him. “Come sit with me.”
Victoria’s eyebrows shot up. “Why would I do that?”
He reached a hand out to her. “Come here. Please?”
She looked at him for a long moment, her eyes slightly narrowed. But then she stood up and set her own glass down, walked over to him, and perched on the edge of the couch. “What?”
Barrett took her hand in his and turned it over so that her palm was facing up. With his other hand, he traced a pattern against the sensitive skin of her palm. When she started to pull away, he held her hand there, watching his own fingers on her skin. “Do you see what I’m doing?”
“Yes …”
“An old, old friend of mine taught me this. She was a healer. I’m not a healer, so I don’t have the same power,” he said, “but she said that the motion itself had power. It heals people of the ache they carry, and it rewards them with blessings in measure of the blessings they give others. And I think you bless others, Victoria. Thank you for giving me a chance.”
Chapter 16
Victoria
The touch of his fingertips against her palm sent electric shocks of pleasure traveling up her arm and through her body. Victoria sucked in a soft breath as he murmured his kind words to her, and when she did, his eyes lifted to hers and held there.
He was such an incredibly beautiful man. Up close, his eyes had golden flecks in them, and his hair fell just perfectly over his forehead. His lips looked soft, like they would melt against hers, taking her mouth in a slow, sensuous kiss.
Her pale skin flushed red at the thought, and she saw awareness register on his face. He knew what she was thinking, and his hand tightened around hers. Victoria’s heart was pounding, and she knew that she should break the spell of the moment, but she didn’t seem to be able to pull herself away from his captivating gaze or the warmth of his touch. He had a hold over her, and she instantly longed for more contact—more closeness—more of him.
It was Barrett that leaned away, releasing her hand with a sigh. “You’re a very beautiful woman. I noticed it the first time I saw you, poured into that uniform.”
Victoria flushed further, her eyes darting away from his. She was a very confident woman in many aspects of her life, but over the years she’d had very little experience with men, preferring to spend her free time with her daughter instead.
He smiled. “I would really, really like to kiss you right now, but I’m not going to.”
She glanced back at him again, unsure whether she was relieved or disappointed. It made her heart leap to hear that he wanted to kiss her, and she didn’t know how to feel about the fact that he wasn’t going to.
Instead, Barrett reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “It wouldn’t be right. We need to stay focused on what we have to do, and I don’t want to push your time limit or take advantage of the help you’ve offered. I can’t very well get lost in you when there’s a body waiting for justice in my garage freezer, now can I?”
When he put it like that, it did kill the mood. Victoria took a deep breath and leaned back as well. “Of course not. It would be very unprofessional of us.”
“Did you want me to kiss you, Victoria?”
She looked at him, shifting awkwardly at the question. “That’s neither here nor there, is it?”
“I think it’s important.”
“No,” she said, hoping she sounded assured of herself. “Of course not. I’m not saying that you wouldn’t be a pleasant kisser—I’m sure you are. But under the circumstances, no. Definitely not.”
He chuckled slightly. “A pleasant kisser?”
“Well, you know what I mean.”
“Yes, I do,” Barrett said, sitting up again and cupping his hand around the back of her neck as he leaned forward. He moved closer towards her so swiftly that Victoria didn’t have time to process what he was doing. She only reacted instinctively, holding her breath as her lips parted in anticipation of his mouth taking hers.
But instead, he brushed his lips along the length of her cheekbone and smoothed his hand through her hair, his face lingering at her ear for just the briefest of moments before he sat back.
“Well, Detective Crenshaw,” he said, smiling slightly at the dazed look on her face and the small frown of disappointment that she could feel settling over her lips. “Now that we have gotten to know each other and shared a moment, where do you suppose we go from here?”
Victoria pull
ed herself together quickly and sharply. He had thrown her for a loop, and she didn’t want to show him just how much that light brush of his lips against her cheek had affected her. And she needed to focus on her job if she was going to actually do what she had come here to do.
“I think that I would very much like to meet with your parents,” she said, returning to a fully businesslike demeanor. “Tonight.”
“Tonight,” Barrett said, his eyebrows lifting. “It’s getting a bit late, isn’t it? It’s after 8:00.”
She smiled, wryly. “Do you think that police work operates only during business hours?” she asked. “Is that how you investigate at your agency?”
“It isn’t,” he said. “I think I’m just worried about how this meeting might go.”
“Well, hiding from it won’t exactly make it go away,” she said. “I’m going to have to meet with them sooner rather than later, and I would think that you would value my impressions of, for instance, your father.”
Barrett nodded. “Yes, I would.”
“Well then?”
“Well then, I’ll give them a call,” he said, standing up and going for his phone. “It’ll take them a little while to get out here. In the meantime, maybe we should figure out a slightly more respectful way to handle Annie.”
“Do they know about Annie?” Victoria asked, going along with his assumption that Annie was the woman in the freezer, even though they weren’t certain that was true.
“I’m sure that my grandfather told them.”
Victoria pursed her lips. “Strange, then, that they’re not over here making sure you’re okay.”
Barrett looked up at her as he held his phone in his hand. He nodded briefly. “Yes. I suppose it is.”
“Strange,” she said, leaning back on the couch.
Not responding, Barrett placed a call to his father, walking out of the room and talking quietly enough that she couldn’t hear him. His absence gave her a moment to reflect upon what had just happened between them, and even that reflection got her heart hammering again. She could just imagine what it would be like to have him wrap his big arms around her, lifting her as though she was weightless. She could practically feel what it would be like for him to pull her into his lap, as his lips roamed over her skin and his big, strong hands explored her body.
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