“Well, she was right about that.”
“Good. Cuz that makes it easier to love you even though I never met you.” She giggled, then stepped forward to wrap her slender arms around his neck. Colton hugged her back and tried to get a grip on his roller-coastering emotions. The transparency of a child. What you saw was what you got. If only everyone could be that way, unfettered by appearances and what people thought of them.
Holding his daughter next to his heart, there was one thing he did recognize. Now that he knew about Meg, there was no way he wasn’t going to be a part of the rest of her life. He lasered a look toward Jillian. She had her lips pressed together to keep them from trembling. A few stray tears streaked her cheeks.
She nodded. “I know, Colton.”
Colton looked at Blake and the security surrounding them. One man had tears in his eyes. Colton stood and cleared his throat, a tad embarrassed at the display. “Okay, let’s get out of here.” He thanked those who’d acted as his daughter’s bodyguards. “Appreciate the extra measure.”
“No problem . . . Sure thing,” came the replies.
Colton’s phone rang. A glance at the screen told him he wanted to take this one. “Hey, Dominic, can you give me ten minutes?”
“Yeah.”
Colton, with Blake’s help, ushered Jillian and Meg toward the waiting vehicle. They’d parked in police parking just outside.
He looked at Blake. “Keep your eyes open for anything. I doubt we’ve anything to worry about until we get on the highway, but just in case . . .”
Blake nodded and moved closer to Jillian. Colton had moved in front, keeping Meg between him and Jillian.
The airport was active, but not terribly busy. He glanced to the right, then left. Then right again.
“Clear.”
He opened the rear door and helped Meg into the car. Jillian slid in next, her hand already reaching for the seatbelt to help Meg fasten it. Colton rounded the car toward the driver’s side.
Blake pulled open the front passenger door and leaned in. “I’ll follow you—” He stiffened and swiveled his head to the left.
Then Colton heard it.
A roaring engine, growing louder under the cover of the waiting area.
He hollered, “Get in!” as he jumped into the driver’s seat.
Blake dove into the front seat and slammed the door. “Get down, Jillian! Cover Meg!”
In the rearview mirror, Colton saw Jillian act. He pressed the gas pedal and shot from the parking space. Already security was in action.
“It’s a motorcycle, Blake.”
The bike blasted past and came to a stop at the curb. Security followed. The driver of the bike pulled his helmet off and grinned at the woman beelining toward him.
“Idiot,” Colton muttered under his breath but some of the tension left him as he pulled the car over to let Blake get out.
“What was that all about?” Jillian asked.
“Just a guy showing off for his girlfriend. Security’s blasting him.”
His phone buzzed in answer to the next question on his mind. Dominic said, “Just got off the phone with the team going through Darwin’s home. Nothing yet, but I’ll keep you posted. You have Jillian and Meg?”
“I’ve got them.” He could still feel Meg’s sweet arms around his neck.
“Stay safe, Colton.”
“Yeah.” He knew he sounded short; he was just too full of emotions to talk right now and he needed to keep his wits about him in order to obey Dominic’s order to keep Meg and Jillian safe.
“Right.”
“Hey, sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me.”
“How’s your dad?”
“We’ve said our goodbyes.”
Colton winced. “Stay in touch.”
“You know it.”
Jillian held on to Meg as they pulled into the hotel parking lot. The child had been quiet, as though sensing the tension running through the car. She’d only had a small backpack with her and Jillian knew Blake’s mother had acted quickly. She just prayed the woman would stay in hiding for a little while longer. At least until she received word from Blake that this was all over.
Oh please let it be over soon, she prayed.
Blake and Colton ushered them into the hotel while Jillian hovered over Meg, determined that if someone was going to take a shot at them, Meg wouldn’t be the target.
She noticed Colton covering her back.
Inside the lobby, she breathed a sigh of relief. Meg kept her hand snug inside Jillian’s, no doubt still feeling some of the tension. Colton didn’t say much on the short ride up to the room, but Jillian caught him shooting glances at Meg.
Blake opened the door and Meg stepped inside. “Wow, nice place you got here.”
Jillian smiled. “Thanks.” She pointed to her bedroom. “You’re in there with me.” She looked up in time to see Blake nod at Colton and slip out the door.
Meg bounced across to the room and pushed open the bedroom door. She tossed her backpack onto the bed, then spun around. “I’m hungry. What’s a girl got to do to get some food around here?” She grinned and planted her hands on her hips.
“I’ll call room service,” Colton said. “What do you like?” Jillian noticed his jaw tighten as he waited for Meg’s answer. He didn’t like that he had to ask that last question.
Meg said, “I like anything. Eggs and bacon mostly. With toast. And orange juice. And those little hash brown potato things if they have them. And a hot chocolate. And—”
“Okay,” Jillian broke in. “I think we can stop at the hash browns.”
Meg gave a small pout, then grinned. “Never hurts to try.” She spun back into the room and attacked her backpack with that energy Jillian always envied. Meg pulled out a blue-and-black one-piece swimsuit. “So, when are we going swimming?”
Colton couldn’t seem to take his eyes from the girl. Jillian figured she’d give him some room to process everything. “We’ll be right back, okay?”
He nodded. “Sure. Yeah.”
She crossed into the bedroom and shut the door. “Meg, honey, why did you bring your swimsuit?”
Her daughter shrugged. “Grandma Jo said we were staying in a hotel, so I figured, why not?”
Jillian rushed over to gather the girl in a tight squeeze. “I’ve missed you.”
Meg tightened her arms. “Not as much as I’ve missed you.”
Jillian ignored the knot in her throat. “Well, we can’t go swimming yet, I’m afraid.”
Meg pouted. “Why not?”
How much should she tell her? Jillian didn’t want to scare the child to death, but she wanted her to be on guard nevertheless. “Because there are some really bad people after me and I have to be very careful where I go right now.”
Meg frowned. “Why is someone after you?”
“Because I saw something and these people don’t like that I saw it.”
“So they want to take you out so you can’t testify?”
Jillian rocked back. “What? Where on earth did you learn that kind of talk?”
She shrugged. “Grandma Jo likes NCIS, you know that.”
She did know that. She just didn’t know Grandma Jo, Blake’s mother, was allowing her impressionable daughter to watch it. “I’m going to have to talk to Grandma Jo. In the meantime, I need you to keep your head down and stay with an adult at all times.”
“Can one of those other adults take me swimming? Like my dad?” She chewed on her lip. “He’s really my dad, isn’t he? For real?”
Jillian’s heart thudded. “Yes. For real.”
Meg cocked her head and studied Jillian. “I’m glad.” She picked up the swimsuit and shook it at her mother. “I still want to go swimming.”
Colton backed from the door where he’d been shamelessly eavesdropping. It sounded like Jillian was a good mother. Not that he really had any doubts. She and Meg shared a strong bond in spite of the circumstances of her birth.
/> He glanced at his watch and wondered how his uncle was doing. He hated being out of the loop, but for now his priority was keeping his girls safe.
His girls. A tremor raced through him. He liked the sound of that.
Colton pulled his phone from his pocket as he headed back to the couch. He dialed Hunter’s number.
“Hey,” Hunter answered.
“Hey. You got anything newsworthy?”
“I’ve been meaning to call you, just haven’t had a chance. I’ve been working this other case that dropped in my lap earlier this morning and it’s taken up a lot of my time.”
Colton winced. He had managed to delegate most of the cases sitting on his desk, but not all of them. His captain was a good one, not a micromanager as long as he was kept in the loop. But even Captain Murdoch had his limit and would have to tell Colton to get busy on his other cases. Colton was running out of time. “So what is it?”
“We got a search warrant for Darwin’s home. So far he hasn’t turned up. Wasn’t in your uncle’s hospital room either. We’ve got someone on the house. We’ll get him if he comes home.”
“Good.”
“One interesting thing. We did find a shirt in the neighbor’s trash that looked like it had the same pattern as the scrap of material found at Serena’s. Be glad trash pickup isn’t until Monday.”
Satisfaction zipped through him. “About time we had a break.”
“I know.” He paused. “Rick’s working on the boat.”
Something in Hunter’s tone clued Colton in. “What did he find?”
“A line-throwing device.”
“That tells me nothing. What’s that?”
Hunter snorted. “It’s a shotgun with a device that goes into the barrel. It has a large soft pad on the end and a rope attached. It’s used at sea to ‘toss’ a line between vessels over long distances. Distances that are farther than can be thrown by hand.”
“So all this guy had to do was replace the pad with the explosive device and—”
“And boom. It had the same chemicals on it that were found in Serena’s house.”
He got the idea. “That’s the device used to launch the bomb into Serena’s house.”
“Exactly.”
“Smart. So where is this guy?”
“We’re still working on that.”
“Keep an eye on my uncle’s hospital room. He might show up there.”
“Will do. When you have some time, Serena said she had something to show us.”
Colton looked at his watch. “Can she bring it over here?”
“I’ll ask her.”
37
Jillian distracted Meg with one of her favorite Disney shows on the television in the bedroom. She walked into the main living area in time to see Colton hang up the phone. She held back, unsure of her welcome anymore.
He looked at her. “It’s going to take some time.”
Jillian swallowed hard. “I know.”
“I’m angry. And hurt. And . . .” He shook his head. “I don’t even know what else.”
“I understand.”
“And . . .”
She tensed. “What?”
“After hearing all you’ve been through, seeing the attempts on your life with my own eyes . . .” He paused and rose to stand in front of her. “I can’t deny you had a very good reason for doing what you did. I just wish—”
“I shouldn’t have done it. I should have told you.” Tears leaked and slid down her cheeks. “I wish I’d done it all different, but I . . . I was eighteen and scared and . . .” She couldn’t form the words.
“We can’t go back and change it. And if we could, I don’t know that it would be the best move.”
She sniffed. “What?”
“You kept her alive. You kept both of you alive. Back then, we were kids. Young and probably more stupid than we remember. My gut tells me if you hadn’t run, you’d be dead.”
Relief at his ability to look at things objectively, even when his emotions had to be running crazy, slid through her. “Our guts agree then,” she whispered.
“There’s just no way to tell.” He drew in a deep breath. “I have a decision to make.”
“About what?”
“Whether to hold on to my bitterness and anger at missing out on the first ten years of Meg’s life . . .”
“Or?” Hope blossomed.
“Or let it go and grab on to what I have now with both hands.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “I know what I want you to do.”
He pulled her into a sudden hug, then leaned down to capture her lips. Emotion swelled and she kissed him back with everything in her. When he pulled away, he leaned his forehead on hers. “I’ve never stopped loving you, Jillian.”
Her throat clogged on her response. She managed a nod and a smile.
He gave her another tender kiss. “I want to see what we can have together. The three of us.”
“Me too.” All she could do was whisper.
“So does this mean y’all are getting back together?”
They both jumped at Meg’s impish question.
Because Jillian still hadn’t found her voice, Colton answered, “Time will tell, Meg.”
“Well, just want you to know, it’s okay with me if you do.” She fingered her necklace. “I’m tired of wearing you around my neck and just hearing stories about you. I want to be able to give you hugs every day.”
A quiet sob escaped Jillian and she thought she saw a sheen of tears in Colton’s green eyes. He nodded and held out a hand to his daughter. Meg joined them and Jillian sucked a breath in at the small circle they made.
Finally, there was a chance they could be a family.
“So will I ever get to go swimming?” Meg asked.
A knock on the door disrupted the little reunion before she or Colton could answer her question.
Colton pulled away and stepped to check the peephole. “It’s Serena.”
He let her in.
Serena took one look at Jillian and asked, “Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
Serena’s gaze bounced from Meg to Colton to Jillian. “Really?”
“Really.” Jillian placed her hands on Meg’s shoulders and said, “Meg, I want you to meet one of my very best friends. This is Serena Hopkins.”
“Hello, Ms. Hopkins.” Meg held her hand out for a shake. “You’re pretty and tall. Are you a model?”
Serena grinned. “I like this girl,” she said to Jillian. To Meg, she said, “I’m a medical examiner.”
“Oh cool!”
“Thanks.”
Jillian steered her child back to the bedroom. “Finish your show, hon, okay?”
“Sure, sure. Send the kid to the bedroom so y’all can do your grown-up talk. I get it.”
Jillian smothered a smile. Her baby could always make her smile. “Thanks.”
Meg quirked a brow at her, looking so much like Colton it took her breath away. Meg turned back. “I’ll stay out of your hair, but you owe me.”
“Add it to my tab.”
“Of course.” Meg disappeared into the room and shut the door.
When Jillian turned back, Serena had a piece of paper in her hand. Blake came from the other bedroom and the four of them sat.
Serena said, “This is a copy. The original was buried with the governor.”
Jillian gasped. Colton grunted. Blake looked interested. “What is it?”
“A letter. Now sit back and listen.” She took a deep breath and read, “‘If you are reading this, then you’ve exhumed Harrison’s body because you’ve found something amiss in his death. You are right. He did not die in the staged car accident that burned the majority of his body. He died from a gunshot wound to the back. The small caliber bullet that caused the wound was right to left, back to front, and downward and diagonally piercing the heart and lodging in the lower 10th floating left rib.’”
Colton leaned forward as Serena continued. “‘The body cam
e to me. I was in the process of doing the autopsy when I received an anonymous phone call telling me to falsify the autopsy report or my family would die. If I agreed to falsify the report, I would receive the money needed to pay the hospital and my daughter would receive the kidney she couldn’t live without. The caller demanded an answer at that moment. He described my wife and two youngest children, noting what each one was wearing. He also knew that my oldest daughter, Tracy, was at the hospital getting dialysis. He went on to say that if I did not agree to falsify the report, they wouldn’t make it home from the movie. It went against everything I believed in, but I agreed. I would receive instructions on where to pick up the cash and how to make it look like a loan from my in-laws and my daughter would receive her kidney. As I write this, I don’t know if this will come to pass, I just know I have to protect my family at this moment. I don’t know who the caller was. I don’t know the details of why these people wanted the shooting covered up. I just know that my good friend is dead and I’ve done him a horrible injustice by calling his death an accident. I’ve prayed for the Lord to forgive me and I pray that one day the murderer will be brought to justice. Sincerely, Gerald Benjamin, M.D.’”
Colton blew out a breath when Serena stopped reading. “Well, guess we know why the man was so agitated the last few weeks of his life.”
“What a choice,” Jillian muttered. “I don’t know that I wouldn’t have done the same thing given the circumstances. Still . . . couldn’t he have gone to the authorities after the fact?”
Colton shrugged. “He probably had no proof. He’d still done something illegal . . . I don’t know what would have happened. But from what his wife said, it sounds like he was overcome with guilt and was going to tell.”
“And they knew it,” Jillian said. “They were watching him and knew it.”
“So they killed him.”
“Who could set something like that up?” Serena asked.
Colton rubbed a hand over his face. “My guess is this person after Jillian has military training. The bomb at Serena’s, getting into the lake house with the tranquilizer gun—everything is very professional, precise.”
“And I’m still alive.” She looked at Serena. “We all are. Any more attempts to get to you?”
When a Secret Kills Page 23