by Tara Thomas
A few minutes later when they arrived at Benedict House, Knox wasn’t any closer to figuring out what could possibly be going on.
“I told Keaton and Tilly that you both were safe but to go out for lunch,” Kipling said. “I thought you might like to decompress in silence for a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Knox said. “You want to hit the shower first?” he asked Bea.
Kipling rolled his eyes. “There is more than one bathroom, you know.”
“Not connected to my bedroom.”
“Should I take this to mean that Lena shouldn’t bother making up the guest room?”
“Yes, that’s what it means.” Knox stared his brother down as if daring him to say something.
But Kipling simply nodded at Bea. “Make yourself at home, Bea.”
“Thank you.” She looked at Knox, obviously wanting him to follow her.
He told Kipling he’d be back soon and accompanied Bea to his bedroom. “If you want to take a nap when you get out of the shower, go ahead and do so. We can hold off on talking to the police.” He kissed her forehead. “I’ll be downstairs with Kip.”
She nodded and slipped into the bathroom. He hoped she felt better after a shower and that it would bring some color back to her face. She still looked too pale.
He waited until he heard the water running before heading back downstairs to bring his brother up to speed. He found Kipling in the library pouring two shots of bourbon, and gladly took one.
They’d both taken a sip and were getting ready to sit down when the doorbell rang.
Kipling sighed. “I’ll get it. I gave Lena the day off.”
Lena had been their housekeeper since they were kids and though she could have retired years ago, she refused. She was, however, still recuperating from injuries sustained during the recent attack on Tilly. Knox was surprised, but glad she’d agreed to a day off.
Knox waited in the library until he heard who was at the door.
“Officer Alyssa Adams,” Kipling said. “To what do we owe the honor of your presence?”
“Knock it off, Benedict,” the police officer said. “I’m no more thrilled than you are that I’m here.”
“And here I thought I was your favorite.” Kipling clutched his heart, but was smiling. “You injure me.”
“You’ll get over it,” she said in a deadpan voice, but Knox didn’t miss the way her eyes sparkled.
Before his brother could say anything else, Knox stepped into the foyer. “What can we do for you, Officer?”
“Mr. Knox Benedict,” she said. “Just the man I came to see.”
“Yes.” Kipling patted his chest. “Like an arrow. Right here.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Officially, I’m here to question you on either the murder or attempted murder of Bea Jacobs.”
Knox almost dropped his glass, it was the most ludicrous thing he’d ever heard. “What the fuck?”
Even Kipling sobered up. “You can’t be serious.”
Alyssa held up her hand. “I said officially.” She leveled her gaze and said quietly, “It’s time, Knox.”
He nodded. He’d known that. It was actually past time for him to come clean with his family. “Bea’s taking a shower.” He wasn’t going to do it without her knowing first and he wanted her by his side when the truth came out.
“Alyssa?”
Knox turned at the sound of his wife’s voice and watched as she came down the stairs. Her hair was wet, so he knew she’d taken a shower. She moved gracefully, one hand on the rail, looking almost regal in her descent, even wearing yoga pants and a T-shirt.
“Welcome back from the dead, Bea,” Alyssa said.
“Thanks, Alyssa,” Bea said, and Knox saw that she’d gotten some of her color back. “Why do I have the feeling that I’m missing something?”
Knox put his arm around her shoulder. “We need to tell our families the truth about us. If you’re okay with it, that is.” After all, it had been her choice to keep it a secret. It had to be hers to let it out.
Bea took his hand and faced Kipling. “Your brother asked me to marry him four months ago. I agreed and we went to Vegas that weekend.”
Knox wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his older brother look so shocked. “Kip?” he finally asked.
“You’re married?” he asked. “For four months and you didn’t say anything?”
Bea stepped forward. “Don’t get mad at him. I asked him if we could keep it secret.”
“Why?” Kipling poured himself another drink.
“Mostly my father. He’s not supportive and he thinks the worst of the Benedicts. I was afraid of what he’d do to Knox.”
Instead of saying anything to that, he turned to Alyssa. “And you knew?”
She nodded. “I discovered it after Bea’s assault.”
Since Kipling appeared to be thinking everything over, Knox took the opportunity to ask Alyssa, “Why do people think I blew up Bea’s father’s house?”
“Your car was found not far from the house. There were canisters of gas in the back.”
“Right,” Knox said. “Because the logical thing to do after blowing up a house is to abandon my car with the evidence neatly displayed.”
“I’ll admit, I’m not comfortable with the direction the department is taking this as a whole, especially with how they’ve treated this investigation and the one with Tilly. I want to get to the bottom of this.”
“That’s what we all want,” Knox said, coming up behind Bea and putting his arms around her. “Let’s go sit down. We’ll tell you everything we know.”
It was an hour and a half before Alyssa left and though it was a productive meeting, Knox could tell Bea was completely zapped. Once Alyssa left, he gathered her in his arms and carried her up to his bed, ignoring her protests that she was fine to walk.
He hadn’t thought he was tired, but once he lay down, he discovered he was. Bea was already asleep, so he curled himself around her and joined her.
CHAPTER 4
Bea woke slowly to the sound of Knox lightly snoring. Content, she took a few minutes to simply enjoy waking up with him. This is how it should be.
She frowned as it hit her that had she not insisted on keeping their marriage a secret, she would have been waking up to him for a while. The loss of that time together was painful.
His eyes slowly opened and he stroked her shoulder with a soft caress. “Why the frown?”
“I was realizing that if I hadn’t wanted everything between us being a secret, I could be waking up to you every morning.”
“That’s okay. You’re going to be doing it from now on.” He stretched. “What time is it?”
She peered over his shoulder to look at the clock. “Just after six in the evening.”
He buried his head in the pillow. “Ugh. We should probably be social and have dinner with the family. I’m sure Keaton and Tilly are back now.”
“Is Kipling really mad, do you think?”
“Mad, no.” Knox sat up. “Probably more shocked than anything.”
Bea got out of bed and put on the clothes she’d laid out after her shower. “How do you think Keaton will react?”
“I think he knows.”
“Why?”
“Well, he knows I’m with someone. Though it’ll probably come as a surprise that I’m married. We were walking a month or so ago and he guessed. Still don’t know how he figured it all out. And I’m sure by now Kipling’s told him the rest.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t tell him, but Kip is a horrible gossip. He’s worse than an old woman.”
She had a hard time picturing that. “He likes Alyssa, doesn’t he?”
“That obvious, is it?”
“Either that or he wants to be in her pants.”
Knox smiled. “Probably both. But if I know Kip, he won’t do anything about it.”
“Why? Because she’s a police officer and not in the same social circles?”
“No. H
e might come off as a snob, but he’s really not. You have to get to know him before he drops that mask around you. But when he does, you’ll never find a better man.”
“So why won’t he hook up with Alyssa?”
It didn’t make any sense. She didn’t know Kipling that well, but she believed what Knox told her about him. As for Alyssa, it was about time she found a good man. Especially after that last one she dated. She shivered, remembering how sick she’d been when she heard the news. Bea couldn’t imagine what Alyssa had gone through when she learned that not only was the man she was dating involved in several kidnappings and possibly murder, but that he’d attempted to kill her best friend.
When Knox sat down, she knew he was going to tell her something important.
“When Kip was in college, he fell madly in love. He was a freshman, and she was a junior. He claimed it was love at first sight. He brought her home for Christmas. Apparently, she had no family. He couldn’t see anything wrong with it, but we could tell something was off. She was all smiles and goo-goo eyes around Kip, but that changed when he wasn’t around.”
Bea raised her eyebrow. She had seen the brothers in action, and couldn’t help but wonder if they had ganged up on the poor girl.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Knox said. “Believe me, she wasn’t interested in him. It was all about the money.”
“How did you know?”
“For one.” Knox leaned back and crossed one leg over the any. “She was always looking under the china and silver, trying to find the name.”
Bea wrinkled her nose. “That’s just tacky.”
“Right?” Knox asked. “But Kip didn’t see anything wrong with it. He shrugged it off, and said it was because she didn’t have much growing up.”
“What happened next?”
“They went back to school in January. Everything was quiet for a while. Then I think she started asking for money. Just little at first. For rent. Or some bill she couldn’t pay. Eventually he started telling her no, or at least he did when the requests became outrageous. She told him if he loved her, he would give her the money.”
“Nothing good ever comes from a sentence that starts If you love me, you would.”
“Exactly. I think Kip started to realize that, so he broke it off with her. She didn’t take it well.”
“What happened?”
“She talked trash to everyone about him. Just junk mostly. He tried to take it all in stride, ignore her. He never told anyone how much, but we could all tell it was getting to him.”
Knowing what she did of Kipling, Bea was willing to bet that he didn’t want to do anything or take any action.
“Dad finally called Kip into his office one day. Derrick was there and he and Dad discussed filing a libel suit. Derrick ended up sending her a letter and everything stopped after that.”
“But he never looked at women the same, did he?”
“Can you blame him?”
“No, but surely he knows not all women are like that.”
“I think his head knows that, but going through that experience changed him. He rarely dates the same woman twice for fear of getting his heart broken.” He stood up. “I’m going to shower. Are you up for a family dinner when I get out?”
“Sure,” she said. She needed to call her father again. She’d called him and left a message as soon as she’d arrived at Benedict House, but he had yet to call her back.
She tried to reason why he wouldn’t have called. He was at a retreat, so it was possible he didn’t have his phone with him. If that were the case, he might not have heard that his house no longer existed. Or he could be driving back and she knew he had a very strict “no phone while behind the wheel” policy.
It was sad she came up with so many reasons why her dad hadn’t called, when the cold hard facts were he just didn’t care. Would he express any concern for her? So far she hadn’t told him about the threats she’d received. Would that move him at all? She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to give into the tears that seemed so close to the surface lately.
She didn’t know why her father’s silence surprised her so much. He’d always been closed off emotionally. He’d always been that way and he was never going to change. She needed to admit it to herself.
She put her phone away and decided to change for dinner. Maybe she’d call him later. Maybe not. If she was going to run in the next election, which was in two years, she had to get busy. Lately, she had to admit, running for Congress didn’t have the same appeal it once did. She’d been thinking about seeing if Keaton and Tilly could use her for pro bono work at the Benedict Charity division they recently started. She couldn’t help but believe she could get more accomplished without the red tape she knew she’d find in Washington.
When she entered the dining room with Knox fifteen minutes later, the rest of the family had already gathered. Keaton and Tilly were back. She gave Tilly a big smile.
“Hey, Tilly,” she said as Knox pulled out her seat.
The younger woman’s eyes danced with mischief. “You know, if you wanted to get married first, you could have just said so. You didn’t have to go all secret ceremony.”
“You sly dog.” Keaton punched his brother on the shoulder. “Were you two already married that day I realized you were dating someone?”
But Knox wasn’t ready to give up all his secrets. “I might have been.”
Keaton just laughed and shook his head. “Dig in. Lena made pot roast before taking the day off.”
They all ate in silence for a few minutes. Silence. That struck Bea as odd. Shouldn’t there be reporters calling and knocking on doors and such? Any time a Benedict made the news, the estate would normally be swarming with the press.
“I’m surprised it’s so quiet,” Bea said to no one in particular. “I’d have thought the press would be trying to take over.”
Kipling loaded up his plate with mashed potatoes. “They probably would be if they could get past the security guards. Speaking of which, Tom’s been released by the medics.”
Bea stopped eating. “He’s okay then?” She hated that he’d been hurt while watching her.
“Yes, I am,” Tom said, appearing in the doorway.
Kipling cocked an eyebrow at him. “I thought you were supposed to resting?”
Tom looked at bit paler than normal. “Yes, sir, and I will. I just wanted to come by and apologize to Ms. Bea and Mr. Knox for not keeping them safe. I feel horrible.”
Bea smiled at him. “Tom, seriously. You knocked out. It’s certainly not your fault.”
“Beg your pardon, ma’am, I still feel responsible.”
“Did you see anything at all suspicious?” Knox asked.
“No, sir.” Tom shook his head. “They came up behind me. I didn’t see a thing.”
Knox started to say something else, but Bea interrupted him. “It’s okay, Tom. Go take the rest of the night off. You look like you’re about to fall asleep on your feet.”
No one said anything until he left.
“I’m so sorry to hear about your father’s house,” Tilly said. “Let me know if I can do anything for you.”
“Actually, you know what? You can help me with something. I believe the attacks on me and Knox are somehow related to your father.” Bea looked over at Knox, who just nodded for her to keep going. “You wouldn’t happen to have any old paperwork or anything I could take a look at, do you? I think your father was set up.”
It was a long shot, but on the off chance Tilly had something, she had to ask.
Tilly’s eyes grew wide with excitement. “I do have some stuff. Keaton and I were going through some boxes my mom had in storage. There were a few with some old things of Dad’s. Mostly legal stuff. It’d be wonderful for you to look over them since you’ll be able to understand them. I keep trying, but I’m not getting very far. I can bring them here.”
“Yes, that would be wonderful!”
“They’re at my apartment.” Tilly looked at
Keaton. “Can we go pick them up tonight?”
“Sure,” Keaton said. He looked to Bea. “Do you want to come pick up the boxes with us?”
Before she could formulate a response, Knox answered for her. “No,” he said sharply. “She’s not going anywhere.” To her, he said, “Someone tried to blow you up today. You’re safe here. I really don’t want you out in public at the moment.”
She supposed she should be irritated that not only did Knox answer for her, but he basically just told her she wasn’t to leave the house. Yet somehow, she couldn’t feel that way. His words made her feel protected and safe. And really, she didn’t want to leave the house. She felt as if she were residing in a bubble, one she had no intention of leaving anytime soon.
“I’ll stay here,” she told Tilly and Keaton.
“We’ll leave right after dinner,” Keaton said. “We shouldn’t be gone long.”
True to his word, they left as soon as they finished and returned less than an hour later. Knox directed them to put the boxes in the library.
He stood beside Bea as Keaton brought in two banker’s boxes. Tilly followed behind.
“I haven’t had a chance to go through them really good yet,” she said. “Chances are they’re nothing. Because otherwise, wouldn’t someone have already gone through them?”
“Not if they didn’t know they existed.” Bea didn’t know why, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that Tilly might have what she needed to prove that Mr. Brock was somehow related to the threats on her and Knox.
Maybe. Just maybe they’d find a clue in one of the boxes.
“I’m going to take Tilly out of here,” Keaton said, putting an arm around her. “She’s been through enough lately and I don’t want her upset by what you find or don’t find in those boxes.”
Tilly spun around and put her hands on her hips. “I can handle what’s in those boxes just fine.”
Keaton took her hand and led her from the room. “We’ll talk about it upstairs.”
Bea raised her eyebrow at Knox.
“Keaton told me earlier today that Tilly had nightmares for weeks following the shooting incident. He’s trying to protect her.” He went over to the first box and opened it. “You want to do this tonight or wait until morning?”