by Tobin, Val
Dani pulled away, again saying something and shaking her head. When the guy put his arm around her, Cope was off his barstool and at her side before Dani or Creepy Guy could make any other move.
“Is this guy bothering you, Miss Grayson?” Cope had to shout to be heard. His voice must have reached Dani loud and clear, because she threw Cope a relieved glance and nodded.
“You need to back off,” Cope shouted, and he glared daggers at the arm around Dani.
Creepy Guy scowled and looked at Dani, who stepped away and moved closer to Cope. Cope put his arm around both Dani and Liz and drew them away from the dance floor, Creepy Guy glaring after them.
“You okay?” Cope looked from Dani to Liz.
They both nodded and smiled at him.
“Ready to leave?” He guided them toward the exit as he talked.
Dani checked the time and glanced at Liz. “Just after midnight. I don’t mind packing it in.”
Liz agreed, and Dani looked at Cope again. “Thanks for your help. Liz is coming to my place, so we can go straight there.”
The women wanted to hit the bathroom first, so Cope waited for them, spending the time scanning the club for Creepy Guy. He huddled with two of his buddies on the other side of the dance floor. They threw Cope a glance or two and returned to their huddle.
Might be trouble, Cope thought, and regretted he wasn’t licensed for concealed carry though he had a black belt in Judo. Impatient, he checked the hallway leading to the restrooms. It puzzled him how much time women could spend in there. The longer they hung out here, the greater the odds Creepy Guy figured Cope had robbed him of a sure thing. Not true, of course—Dani had rejected the guy, but he’d refused to recognize the signals.
Relieved to see Dani and Liz approaching, Cope waited for them to catch up to him. When they reached him, he linked arms with them and stepped outside. He insisted Dani and Liz wait by the entrance, near club security, while he went for the car.
Cope went around to the back of the building into the parking lot and found his path blocked by Creepy Guy and his two odious hangers on. One guy had a scar across his cheek, and all three were broader than Cope though not taller. The last guy looked pasty and more nervous than Creepy Guy and Scarface.
Cope scanned the area. No one in sight. Hard to believe the bastard wanted to mix it up, but he probably saw the limo driver as an easy target since they outnumbered him. They didn’t outmatch him though, and they weren’t sober. For Cope, it would be like kicking rabid hamsters. Cope shook his head. “You don’t want to fight me.”
“You think you’re tough? There’re three of us.”
“I’m not interested in a fight. Go home. I’m on duty.”
Creepy Guy sneered, and the three brutes braced as if to spring. Scarface was the biggest one, so Cope lunged at him first. No sense in waiting to let them decide when it would start. He smashed the heel of his hand into Scarface’s nose, and the guy dropped like a stone. Cope dodged, avoiding Creepy Guy and his pasty friend, then twisted, kicked, and sent the two assholes to the pavement.
All three looked stunned. Cope loomed over them. “Go the fuck home or I’ll call the cops and have your sorry asses up on assault charges.”
Creepy Guy was a tenacious little fuck—he actually argued about it. “We’re the ones on the ground. You jumped first.”
“Look up. The security cameras will show everything, including you guys greeting me in such a friendly way.”
“What happened here?” Daniella.
Annoyed that the women hadn’t waited by security as he’d instructed, Cope turned to Dani and waved her and Liz toward the limo. “Get in the car, ladies. These gentlemen came to see us off.” Cope, who hadn’t even broken a sweat, watched while the three thugs struggled to their feet and dusted off.
Dani and Liz picked their way across the cement to the limo, and Cope opened the passenger door for them. The women climbed into the car, and he slammed shut the door. He spared the three thugs cursory glances while he jumped into the vehicle and pulled out of the parking spot.
The limo arrived in front of Dani’s apartment before one, and Cope, leaving his four-ways flashing, let the women out in front of the building. No one was around, but he walked them through the lobby to the elevator anyway. While they waited for the elevator doors to open, Dani turned to Cope.
“I’m sorry for the trouble you had. Thank you for coming to our rescue.”
“No problem, Miss Grayson. In future, I’d appreciate it if you’d remain by security. It could have been worse.”
“Yes. They could have hurt you. When you didn’t return right away, we went to check on you.” Her chin rose, and her eyes narrowed.
“I handled it. Next time you want to check on me, send security. I don’t want you taking risks. Fans or reporters might have swarmed you.” He sounded brusque even to his own ears, but the thought of the chance she’d taken angered him.
Dani frowned and averted her eyes. “Okay. I’m sorry. Thank you for helping us.” She looked up and smiled at him, something that always lit up his insides. Gorgeous though the rest of her was, that smile, Cope thought, was her crowning glory. He was helpless before it, and all he wanted to do when she turned it on him was kiss her.
To Cope’s relief, Liz spoke then, breaking the spell. “Yes, thank you. Who knows what would’ve happened if you weren’t there? One jerky guy is annoying, but three of them is scary.”
“It’s my job, ma’am.” As soon as the words left his lips, he wanted to kick himself. Ma’am? It’s my job, paired up with ma’am? Am I a middle-aged cop on an old detective show? Jesus. Cope wanted to bang his head against the wall. He could take down three guys without getting winded, but Daniella Grayson made him lose his shit.
When the women were safely behind the closed doors of the elevator, he watched the numbers tick off until the count stopped at the penthouse. Done for the night, Cope headed outside to the limo to return it to the station and clock out.
Chapter 5
Dani opened her eyes, glanced at the clock, and was relieved to see it was still early. No headache. She hadn’t overindulged the night before. Liz was still asleep in the guest room—she’d had more to drink than Dani, who’d only had two drinks the whole night. See, John? No problem.
But she wouldn’t tell him she’d had even that much—why go there? She had it under control. It felt good to wake without a hangover. Next week, she’d be expected to participate in meetings and attend photo shoots and fittings. Best to get the hard partying out of her system by then.
The prospect of starting a new project excited her even if it meant working with Greg Henderson. She looked forward to sliding into the skin of a character, and Felicity Sanderson in Injury was one of her favorites.
Dani rose, showered, dressed, and went into the room she used as an office. She synced her phone with the calendar on her computer and called Luanne, her assistant.
Luanne had worked for Dani for the past two years. At first, it had been weird to have an older woman working for her. After a few weeks of letting her organize everything, Dani didn’t know how she’d managed before.
When Luanne answered, Dani asked her to book a flight to Toronto for the next morning. She wanted to see her mother before shooting started. With that out of the way, Dani strolled to the kitchen to get coffee going.
The aroma of fresh ground Kona coffee wafting through the air brought Liz stumbling from the guest room. Mouth opened wide in a yawn, Liz perched on a barstool at the island in the kitchen and propped her chin on her hand.
“Protein shake?” Dani said.
“Sure. Chocolate, please.” Liz glanced at the clock. “Oh, my God. It’s dawn. How are you up so early?”
“It’s not dawn,” Dani replied. “It’s already eight o’clock.”
The blender sat on the counter by the fridge, and Dani plugged it in and prepared the shakes. She set Liz’s in front of her and prepared a vegan berry shake for herself. The phone
rang as Dani sat down at the kitchen table. The two women locked gazes.
“You going to get that?” Liz said when Dani made no move toward the phone.
“I’m screening.” If the calls started up again, she’d have to disconnect the phones.
The voice-mail message ended, the beep sounded, and a male voice spoke: “Miss Grayson, this is Detective Aaron Vega of the Sharon County Police Department in Ontario. I’d like to speak with you about your mother. Please call me back—”
Dani skidded into the living room and snatched up the phone. “I’m here, Detective Vega.”
“Oh, Good morning. Sorry to bother you, Miss Grayson.” He gave Dani a badge number, which penetrated the numbness flooding her, but floated from her mind by the time he stopped speaking.
“Do you have a few minutes?”
“Yes.” Dani sank onto the couch, posture rigid. Behind her, she heard the kitchen chair shift and the patter of Liz’s footsteps heading toward the spare room.
“This call is being recorded. Sorry about your father. I’d like to talk to you about what you remember from that night.”
“Not much. All these years I’d believed what Lilli had told me—that he’d left us.” Not for the first time since she’d heard the news, Dani tried to recall everything that had happened that night.
“Miss Grayson, it would be better if we could speak in person. Are you planning to visit Toronto anytime soon?”
“I’m flying out tomorrow.”
“Great. I’d like to meet with you and get the details—whatever you remember.”
When she agreed, Vega gave her his phone number, and Dani entered it into her cell phone. She told him she’d have her assistant get in touch to set up the meeting, ended the call, and hurried to the spare room. Liz sat on the bed, chin resting on the top of her bent knees. “Are you okay?”
Dani nodded. “It was a cop asking about Lilli.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No. I want to go out.”
Liz climbed from the bed and walked to Dani’s side, putting her arms around her friend. “Are you sure? If you want to just hang here, I’m okay with that.”
“I’m not interested in hanging. Let’s get the hell out of here. I don’t want to dwell, Liz. There’ll be plenty of time for that in Toronto.”
“Okay. Lend me some clothes? I only have what I wore last night.”
Dani grinned, grabbed Liz by the hand, and led her to the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. “Help yourself.”
Liz squealed and scurried into the closet, which was the size of a small bedroom, trailing her hands over the racks of clothes.
They spent the next hour getting ready to go out, Dani’s stomach in a constant knot at the prospect of facing her mother soon.
Chapter 6
Dani stared through the glass divider at her mother. “Why did you kill Daddy and then blame me for his disappearance?”
Lilli averted her gaze, but kept the phone clutched to her ear. “I haven’t seen you in a long time, baby. Thank you for sending money all that time.”
“I don’t want to discuss much with you, Lilli. Answer my question.”
“Because of you. I couldn’t handle you, and he was a lousy provider. You two, so cozy together. Was there funny business? I thought there was funny business.”
Dani gaped, puzzled, until she realized what Lilli implied. “Paul Grayson was the best dad any little girl could have. He never hurt or hit me. You did that. All you ever did was belittle him. I don’t know why you married him. You acted like you hated him.”
Lilli swept a lock of mousey-blonde hair away from the side of her face, then pressed the phone back to her ear. “We married when I got pregnant with you. Our parents were against it. I was sixteen. He was seventeen. We ran away from home and went from one shitty basement apartment to another.”
“I only remember the house in Sharon. Answer my question, Lilli. Why did you kill my dad and then tell me he left us?”
“What did you expect me to say? Do you think I’d tell a five-year-old kid I killed her father?”
“You didn’t mind telling a five-year-old kid her father abandoned her.”
At the sound of Dani’s raised voice, the guard standing by the door glanced over.
Dani turned her back on him and continued to call out her mother. “You owe me an explanation.”
“We argued about money. He couldn’t support us, the useless bastard. He wanted to leave, and he threatened me with a gun and said he’d take you, too. I grabbed it, we fought, it went off, and the bullet got him.” Lilli paused and stared at her hand resting on the table in front of her. She looked up at Dani again and resumed her story. “He wanted to kill me. It was him.” Lilli sounded defensive.
Dani kept her expression neutral, but inside, she seethed. She glared at her mother and said, “Why didn’t you let him take me away? I never felt like you loved me, so why keep me there?”
Lilli gave Dani a perplexed look as though she didn’t understand the question. “Why, Dani, you were mine. He couldn’t take what was mine.”
“I need to leave.” Dani stood, but before she hung up the phone, she said, “Don’t expect any more money from me. I wish Daddy had taken me away with him. We’d all have been better off.”
The guard looked up as Dani breezed past and walked out.
An hour later, in Sharon, a town north of Toronto, Dani had her driver park in front of the property where her family had lived when Dani was five. The house, a bungalow set on ten acres, sat neglected and boarded up, waiting to be demolished. She walked around back, past strands of police tape littering the lawn behind the house.
Dani strode across the backyard, glad she’d changed into flat-heeled boots before coming out here. The ground was soft and mucky and the air damp. Wind blew hair in her face, forcing her to constantly swipe at it. Attempts to tame it by tucking it behind her ears failed. Dani shivered, underdressed for the sharp chill air of an Ontario April day.
She approached the well, heart pounding. Dad’s body had lain discarded at the bottom for twenty years. Tears threatened, and she swallowed to suppress them. The police still had her father’s remains.
Remains. The word horrified her. Bones, she supposed. The flesh would have been gone. Tears sprang to her eyes. In life, Lilli had treated Paul Grayson like garbage and had disposed of him with that same attitude. Now Dani would get whatever was left.
Dani had arranged to have him cremated and shipped out to LA when the police were done. There’d be no funeral. Who would she invite? The man had disappeared for twenty years, and no one had cared enough to wonder why he never called.
A makeshift fence prevented her from getting near the well, and that was okay. Dani wasn’t sure why she’d come here, except that it might provide closure. The police tape, the fence, and the signs of activity around the well made it real and final.
On the way back to the car, she noticed a board missing from one of the windows. Guilt made Dani glance around to verify no one was watching. The nearest house was so far down the road she couldn’t see it. The fields surrounding the house, once rented out to farmers, now sat unused, overrun by dead weeds and grasses poking up green again after the long winter.
Dani crept to the window and looked inside what used to be her bedroom. Empty of furniture, wallpaper torn, carpeting so filthy it was impossible to tell the color, but in her head, she saw it the way it used to be. She’d had a small, white dresser across from the window. Her bed had stuck out into the middle of the room, halfway between the window and the far wall.
She’d had a toy box with blocks and dolls next to a small bookcase holding a meager collection of children’s books. An area rug had covered the hardwood floor beside her bed. The pale pink walls had been smudged and scuffed.
Her gaze wandering to the closet, Dani sucked in her breath. The door stood cracked open, and her heart raced at the sight of it. She jerked her face away from the window, her m
ind flashing back to her mother screaming at her, dragging her into … Dani felt a pain in her head and the memory dissolved. A migraine coming on. She’d better get back to the car and go to the Sharon Police Station before it paralyzed her.
Dani turned from her childhood home and walked away.
***
Detective Aaron Vega greeted Dani outside his office, clasping the hand she offered him in both of his, while giving his coworkers the stink eye when they looked in her direction. “Thank you for coming, Miss Grayson. Please, come with me.”
Dani followed Vega down the hall and into a room obviously designed to soothe. A soft, padded couch and two armchairs in neutral tones surrounded a wood coffee table. The room was painted in pale blue. Two end tables held potted plants. The scent of fresh-brewed coffee made Dani’s mouth water.
“Please, have a seat, Miss Grayson.”
“Thank you.” Dani sat on the couch, back straight, hands folded in her lap.
“May I fix you a coffee?” Vega strode to a table holding everything you’d need to make coffee or tea. “I’m having one myself.” He set his briefcase on the floor, removed his jacket, and draped it over the back of a chair.
“Yes, please.” She beamed a smile at him. “Black.” Dani hoped it wasn’t swill. Maybe it would help stave off the looming migraine.
She studied Vega while he poured coffee and exchanged pleasantries with her.
Tidy and composed, he wore a white shirt buttoned up to the neck, tie snugged tight against the collar. His shirt cuffs skimmed his wrists. No rolling up the sleeves for this guy. Dani guessed he was in his early forties, the tinge of gray in his military-short hair giving him a distinguished air. He had a sturdy, square jaw and classic nose though a small scar above his left eye gave him an air of danger.
A glance at his ring finger showed he was married. A shame. When she’d walked behind him, she’d noted the nicely formed butt and toned thighs that his dress pants didn’t quite conceal. He had some fine lines, and his muscles pressed against his shirt when he moved.