“I think that’s the only time we’re not fighting,” Abigail whispered. “When we’re having—”
“Sex?”
She smiled. “Not that I mind. You were my supervisor not too long ago, and some people would say this is wrong. But I want you to know that I don’t care what other people think. I never have.”
“Abigail, you should care.” Ryan tipped her chin. “I’m not saying that people are right in passing judgment, but not everyone is as accepting as you are.”
“What do you mean?”
A breath of air escaped his nostrils. “Some hotels have very strict rules about dating coworkers. But don’t worry. Because even if by some miracle I manage to talk my way back into my job, I’d never tell anyone our secret.” He planted a kiss against the bridge of her nose.
Abigail rested her head against his shoulder. Lying quietly on top of him, the oddest thought struck her. “Is that what happened to you at the Red Fox Hotel? You were fired for having an inter-office relationship?”
Ryan’s jaw clenched.
“Is there some sort of connection between your old job and what’s going on here at Washington Valley?” When he didn’t answer, she shot up like a bolt of lightning and said, “Someone threatened you, didn’t they? Ryan, if that’s true you need to tell me—these men murdered my father!”
“No, Abigail!”
She shook her head. “You think you can handle this one your own? Ryan, this is dangerous! Whatever those men have on you, you can’t take them on alone.”
“Abigail!” He clasped her shoulders. “For the last time. Now, you’re going to listen to me and you’re going to listen good. No more playing Nancy Drew and no more sneaking around at midnight. I understand, probably better than anyone what this means to you, but that’s exactly why I need you to stay out of it. I want you to stick to your job and keep your head down. Or else.”
“Or else…what?”
He was thoughtful a long moment. “Or else, I’ll tell the managers everything. About your sneaking around, attempting to steal paperwork from the filing cabinets. Coming here to the old wing when you were supposed to be working. Becoming sexually involved with me when I was your supervisor. That’s what.”
Abigail swallowed the enormous lump in her throat. Ryan was bluffing. He couldn’t possibly mean what he was saying. But the fact that he wanted her to believe he did, and that he was pushing her away for the second time after they’d made love was just too cruel for words.
She got to her feet. “I understand,” she said, sliding into her under things, picking up her wrinkled uniform. She began putting it on quickly.
“Oh, Abigail. Abigail, for the love of God, come on—”
“No, Ryan, you come on! If you can’t or won’t confide in me then it’s over. No more sweet-talking, no more”—she waved a hand over the bed—“whatever this is.”
He clasped her wrist. “I’m asking you not to leave like this.”
“All right.” She tugged free. “Then tell me the truth. The deeper truth you’re holding back—whatever really happened to you at the Red Fox Hotel and why you’re so guarded about everything under the sun.”
Ryan opened his mouth. He hesitated a long moment.
Realizing he wasn’t going to answer her, that he still wasn’t going to answer her, Abigail felt the familiar chunks rise up in her throat. She’d known from the beginning that Ryan Newberry was keeping a dangerous secret. But she’d exonerated him in her mind.
He didn’t know it, but she had given him her heart. Ryan—a man who’d built a wall around himself that was so strong, no one could possibly penetrate it. She’d managed to surmise a small bit of the truth on her own. But it was the deeper truth he kept inside of him that would forever keep them apart.
“Good-bye, Ryan,” she said as she opened the door. Coming into the all-too-familiar dark hallway, Abigail slammed it hard behind her.
* * * *
Kimberly reached down to pull the blanket over her shoulder. She should have felt wonderful, lying beside the man she’d just made love to. But he was a million miles away, and he wasn’t holding her close like he usually did.
“I’m cold,” she said, kissing his neck. “I think I need to be warmed up.”
“Lay off, Kim,” he said, giving her shoulder a shove.
Kim clasped her upper arm. He’d hit her pretty hard just now, but the bruise to her insides stung even worse. “I went out with Ryan the other night,” she said.
Her partner’s face darkened.
“He won’t even consider getting back together with me. I hurt him so badly with this, with you. He might not know who you are, but I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for what I’ve done to him.”
“Come here, baby. I’ll make you forget all about that loser.”
They made love a second time. And when her partner released her, Kim felt even worse than she had before. She hadn’t even come that second time. And Ryan didn’t love her anymore. Maybe he never had. As for her new partner, he might have gotten her a higher paying job than the one she’d had before, but there were things about him she wasn’t entirely sure about. Like he’d gone ballistic on her later that day she’d had lunch with Ryan at the café. Romantic as it had all seemed when he approached her that night at Valley Tavern, her new beau was really starting to scare her.
He partner’s phone buzzed on the nightstand and he snatched it up. He barked at the person on the other end, saying something about a task that couldn’t be screwed up. She planted a kiss against his chest. He shoved her off abruptly.
When he hung up the phone, he got to his feet, throwing on his shirt and pants.
Kim wrapped the covers around her body. “Where are you going? Don’t I get to know, when you’re just leaving me like this?”
“It isn’t your concern.”
Without so much as a kiss good-bye, he walked out the door, leaving her alone in her apartment.
Chapter 24
Ryan smacked his gloves against a punching bag at the gym. Anger rising inside him, he gave the bag a whack, causing it to smack against the cement wall behind it.
Everything was a disaster. And as much as he wished he could blame Abigail for his troubles, he knew that wasn’t fair. He was the one who’d been screwing things up from the moment he began his employment with the hotel industry. If he’d stood up to his father years ago, told him he was going to medical school with or without his blessing, he’d never have taken that job at the Red Fox. That was where everything had come to blows, and ever since then he’d done nothing but fight to regain control of his own life.
Ryan channeled his aggression into punching the bag, not quite causing it to hit the wall a second time, but coming very close. The truth was he had lost control of things long before any of that had occurred. On the surface he’d blamed his deadbeat dad for his problems, but he had always felt deep down that his sister’s death was his fault. He’d come very close to telling Abigail about it, when she confided in him about her own father. But apparently she was a lot more comfortable talking about those sorts of matters than he was. And whereas Rachel’s death was in no way connected to what was going on at the hotels, it was almost a guarantee that what had happened to Abigail’s father was.
As if Ryan hadn’t already felt that the Washington Valley Hotel was a dangerous place for Abigail to be working, this latest revelation had cemented his opinion in stone. Whether her father had been some sort of criminal himself, or whether he’d simply gotten in their way, it wasn’t a coincidence that Christopher Barrows, local bar owner and the only man to see Abigail’s father die besides the killer himself, had been the first murder victim.
It was no mystery to Ryan why Abigail wanted to know what had happened. But the truth was she was just too close to all of this. Sweet, innocent Abigail MacKenzie, who under any other circumstances might have been the best thing to ever come walking into his life. All she’d ever wanted from him was the truth. And as much as he w
anted to give it to her, he couldn’t keep hurting her, or taking risks with her life.
Ryan had googled the digits of Kimberly’s mystery caller. Apparently “225” was the area code for Baton Rouge. As Louisiana was the new home, and also the original home, of his past supervisor, he had to acknowledge the distinct possibility that the man Kimberly had slept with was Brent Lombardi, just as he’d always thought. It certainly wasn’t hard for him to believe that the bastard could be tied to the hotel murders. Though Ryan found it difficult to understand how he could have a hand in something from so far away. And his Internet research had verified Brent Lombardi had long since left North Conway.
“What’s wrong?” Alec asked. Setting down the weight bar he held, he said, “You ought to go easier on that bag. You could pull a muscle and tear the tissue in your abdomen.”
“So what, now you think you’re a doctor because you’ve completed like two and a half semesters of medical school? Back off, Alec!”
“Where did that come from?” Alec asked as he stood.
“Nowhere.” Ryan shook his head. “I’m going to hit the showers.”
Later, after they’d changed back into their work clothes, Ryan and Alec took a long walk through the parking lot to their cars. Breaking the awkward silence, Alec said, “Something’s eating at you. What is it?”
Ryan grunted as they approached Alec’s Mercedes.
“You said something about school,” Alec offered.
“It’s not about school. Well, it isn’t all about school.” Turning toward his friend, Ryan asked, “Why was it that you decided to go to medical school? I’m not sure you’ve ever told me why that was.”
Alec came back a step. Glancing at a car as it drove past them, he shrugged and said, “I think the real question is why did you decide to go to medical school?”
“I’m not sure,” Ryan answered honestly. “When Rachel died I guess I thought that something more could have been done for her. I think I more or less threw myself into the idea of being some sort of hero.”
“You lost your sister. No one could blame you for feeling powerless.”
Ryan stared at the mountains in the distance. Rachel had always loved this time of year. She’d been the first one up in the morning, and the first one wanting to hit the hiking trails. She was always so full of life and spirit, more so than anyone else he’d known. Her death hadn’t just made him feel powerless. It had destroyed him inside.
If he’d been a better brother to her, maybe her accident wouldn’t have occurred. If he hadn’t given her such a hard time about not growing up too fast, maybe she wouldn’t have gone to that party and gotten into that car with her stupid, drunken friends. But there was nothing he could do about it now. And no matter how hard he wished it, her death was something that he could never, never make right.
Bringing himself back to the present moment, he turned to Alec. “The truth is I’ve come to really enjoy what I’m doing. Studying medicine, thinking about all of the things I’ll be able to do once I’m a doctor. Every day will be a battle for sure, but I’m confident that in some way, I’m going to improve people’s lives.”
“I feel the same way,” Alec said. “So then, why all the anger?”
“For starters”—Ryan blew out a breath—“the recorder you gave me broke the night I was supposed to use it over at the hotel.”
“Why didn’t you call me? Or try to tape the conversation on your phone? The sound wouldn’t be as good, but at least you might have gotten something.”
“I fixed the recorder myself. But not before I lost the opportunity to tape the conversation. Or before Abigail showed up.”
“Abigail? What was she doing there? And more importantly”—Alec raised his eyebrows—“what happened after she showed up?”
“Back off, Alec.”
Alec tossed up his hands. “Whatever you say. But if you want my advice about this, you might want to let me in on whatever you and our favorite blonde pool buddy saw that night.”
“Abigail saw more than she should have, that’s for sure. This is probably going to sound crazy, but I think there’s a good chance that her own father’s death is connected to all of this. Apparently John MacKenzie was shot six years ago outside of his restaurant. The first victim, the man discovered dead in the old wing of the Washington Valley Hotel, was the same man who witnessed Mackenzie’s shooting.”
“Holy crap.” Alec emitted a low whistle. “So, you have nothing? No physical proof that these bastards are doing more than hiring attractive housekeepers?”
“There’s the ledger,” Ryan said.
“Which contains numbers that rival those of Westwood Industries’. And, which, you only showed me a couple pages of.”
“Well, there’s a lot more to them. Numbers which only seem to get larger, a very complicated pie graph, and the symbol.”
“Symbol?”
“Their symbol, I guess. Some sort of an animal. A tiger maybe, or a mountain lion.”
Alec’s unshaven face looked pale. He turned around, disarming the alarm on his car. “I actually have an exam first thing in the morning. Sorry to cut out like this, but I’ve really gotta run. I’ll see ya later, man.”
Ryan watched as Alec drove down Main Street. It wasn’t like his party-boy friend to be so short with him, especially over a test. Something had occurred to Alec just now. And unfortunately, this wasn’t the time to be figuring out whatever it was.
Looking across the street at the Washington Valley Hotel, Ryan told himself that first thing was first.
* * * *
Abigail misspelled her own name as she typed it into the front desk computer. She forced her fingers still as she attempted to type it a second time. She needed to make sure she got the credit for working her shift, but she didn’t want to stay there a moment longer than she had to.
Ready to take over after Abigail left, wearing a low-cut top and a pair of pink, knee-high boots, was Kimberly. She flashed her pearly white teeth at the guest she’d just helped—a man, naturally, whom Abigail would have pegged for being in his thirties. He was attractive, as all of the men who seemed to cross Kim’s path were. Ryan Newberry seemed to be at the top of that list.
As the man walked away, Kim reached her arm back in an awkward position and rubbed her right shoulder. Abigail had watched her do this several times since she’d gotten to work and she was half tempted to ask her if she wanted her to stick around for a few minutes while she went and put some ice on it. But in the past of couple of months, she’d come to determine that Kimberly was a notorious faker. And Abigail really didn’t feel like getting her head bitten off by her a third time.
“Excuse me, Miss.” The man Kim had just waited on approached the counter. “This key doesn’t seem to be opening the room. I thought I’d seen you code it, but I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Oh, yes. So sorry about that, sir.” Kimberly took the card from the man’s hand. She walked to the back counter and lifted her arm to code the card. She winced, clutching her shoulder.
“I’ve got it,” Abigail said. She coded the card and handed it to the customer.
Kim’s head was turned down when Abigail turned around. There were tears in her eyes and she was chewing her bottom lip.
“Are you all right?” Abigail asked when they were alone.
Kim shook her head.
Getting a closer look at the bruise on Kim’s shoulder, Abigail’s eyes went wide. She told her she would cover the desk for her if she wanted to go to the hospital to have it checked out.
An hour later, Kim returned. After checking out her shoulder, the doctor had diagnosed her as having a severe bruise. He’d given her an ice compression, which she’d apparently been undyingly grateful to have. Her shoulder was wrapped and she had bottle of pain pills in her hand. She insisted that Abigail let her work the shift she was supposed to.
“Abigail?” Kimberly said as Abigail went to the coatrack to grab her jacket.
“Yes?
”
“I want to apologize for what I said to you about Ryan. It was awful of me to say what I said to you and, frankly, I only did it because I saw the way you two looked at each other. Ryan and I were together a long time. The truth is, he never once looked at me the way he looks at you.”
“Like…what?” Abigail asked, letting herself completely forget about who she was talking to.
“Like he’s head over heels crazy about you.”
“Oh.” Not that those weren’t the greatest words she’d ever heard spoken, but even if Kim had made a sudden epiphany, Abigail knew better than to believe what she’d said to be the truth. “Actually, Ryan and I are just friends.”
“Because of me?” Kimberly seemed surprised.
“No. Because that’s all we ever were. Hey, how is your shoulder feeling?”
Kim clutched her bandaged arm as Shane emerged from the back hallway, saying, “And how is everyone doing on this lovely evening?”
Taking the outgoing mail in her good arm, Kim walked to the postage machine.
“It looks like the weather held out,” Shane said to Abigail after giving Kimberly’s bandage a glance. “I thought they’d said a storm was coming.”
As soon as the words left his lips, the front door swung open. A gust of wind followed then a crack of lightning. As the door was slammed shut, Ryan, wearing his hotel uniform, approached the front desk.
“Abigail, call security,” Shane said.
“I don’t think so.” Ryan stepped behind the desk. Leaning over the assistant manager, looking as though he was about to smash his skull in, he said, “I want to see Mark Becker.”
Shane looked from Abigail to Ryan. “Are you for real? You waltz in here like you’re the king of the universe and you think you can start throwing demands? You’re lucky I don’t call the cops, you crazy son of a bitch.”
“I could say the same,” Ryan said evenly, “except that you have a lot more to lose.”
Dangerous Secret [The Pinnacles of Power Prequel] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 21