by Elle Kennedy
“From what he says, he was just an investor, but he also flew out to perform a couple of surgeries and provide medical assistance when needed.” Tate grimaced. “He claims that the girls are drugged during their captivity because it’s easier to transport them to the buyers that way. One girl had a bad reaction to the drugs and Moreno was called in to treat her. But other than the occasional medical emergency, Felix was really just reaping the profits from the venture.”
Chloe was horrified. She couldn’t believe her husband was involved in something so despicable, yet a part of her wasn’t surprised to hear it. Felix Moreno was a sociopath, a psychopath and a power-hungry narcissist with a God complex. Knowing him, he’d gotten off from the thought of powerless girls at the mercy of sick, wealthy men.
Anger bubbled in her stomach as she pictured Felix counting his big stash of money, turning the other cheek while innocent girls—children—were being victimized and sold like cattle in the sex trade.
“So what now?” she asked tightly.
“Now we charge your husband with every damn count we can make stick, and the bastard goes to prison.”
“In that case, you should question him about Jim Maloney.” She fought a wave of sadness. “Jim was a friend of mine in L.A.”
“Chloe believes Felix killed him,” Derek said quietly.
“Contact Detective Patty Burgess at the LAPD,” Chloe suggested. “She was in charge of the investigation, so she’ll know more. But there’s no doubt in my mind that Felix had my friend killed, Tate.”
Derek’s brother nodded. “I’ll do that. Thanks.”
“Did Felix confess to breaking into Chloe’s apartment and leaving those gifts?” Derek spoke up.
“No, he continues to deny it. But he’s not convincing anyone of his innocence, considering…”
“Considering what?” Derek asked sharply.
Tate hesitated. “He’s made several death threats against Chloe already, which is another reason the prosecutor is going to argue against bail during the bail hearing.”
Chloe’s breath caught, but before she could say anything, Tate’s cell phone rang.
He brought it to his ear and answered with a quick “Colton.”
While Tate took the call, Derek reached out and squeezed Chloe’s hand. “I won’t let Felix hurt you,” he murmured. “His threats mean nothing.”
She swallowed, wanting very badly to believe that.
Across the table, Tate’s handsome face took on a hard edge. “I’ll be right there,” he barked into the phone, then hung up.
“Everything okay?” Derek asked.
Taking a last sip of coffee, Tate got to his feet. “That was Villanueva. Our informant came through on a location. I’m going in tonight.”
Chloe frowned. “Going in where?”
“Tate is posing as a buyer,” Derek said grimly. “He’s allowed to inspect the girls before he ‘buys’ one.”
She gasped. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack,” Tate confirmed. He took a step to the door. “I’ll keep you guys posted if I can.”
After Tate left, Chloe gripped her coffee cup, unable to comprehend everything she’d just heard. “I can’t believe I was married to that man for twelve years,” she mumbled. “Clearly I never knew a damn thing about Felix.”
Derek reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “Moreno is an accomplished liar. He fooled a lot of people.”
“I guess.” She hesitated for a beat but couldn’t stop her next words from spilling out. “Knowing the kind of man he really is makes me all the more grateful that I have someone like you in my life now.”
She didn’t miss the way Derek shifted in discomfort.
Releasing a resigned breath, she met his deep brown eyes and said, “What’s going on here, Derek?”
* * *
Derek knew exactly what Chloe was asking him, yet he still felt the need to stall. “What do you mean?” he asked, playing dumb.
She sighed. “You know what I mean, Derek. What happens now? With us?”
“Now you file for divorce, just like you were planning to do. And you can stay in Eden Falls, just like you wanted.”
“And?”
He fidgeted with his hands. “And what?”
“I’ll keep working at the clinic with you?”
“Of course.”
“And the rest of it? You and me, sleeping together…?”
“I was hoping we could keep doing that, too.”
She smiled faintly, but it faded fast. “Are we in a relationship, Derek?”
He gulped. “Sure.”
Another sigh slipped out of her throat. “Wow. That sounded so incredibly enthusiastic.”
Derek stifled a frustrated groan. He knew he’d hurt her with that lackluster declaration, but this sudden interrogation made him nervous. He had to wonder—what did he want from Chloe? Now that Felix was out of the picture, she was free. This strong, beautiful woman was his for the taking—all he had to do was reach out and grab her.
So why couldn’t he seem to take that final step? Look into her hazel eyes, open his mouth and tell her how he felt about her?
“I get it,” she said when his silence dragged on too long. She staggered off the chair and carried their empty mugs to the sink. Then she headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” he asked, battling a spark of alarm.
“To pack my things.”
Derek was on his feet in an instant, sprinting after her. He noticed the rigid set of her shoulders, the stiffness of her legs as she marched toward the bedroom.
Choking down a lump of panic, he caught up to her in the hall, latched his hand onto her arm and met her sorrow-filled eyes. “You don’t have to go, Chloe.”
“Yes, I do.” Her lips tightened. “Now that Felix is gone, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I don’t need your protection any longer, and you can play the savior for someone else now.”
Derek bristled.
She raised a brow. “What? I’m wrong? I’m not just the latest person you felt the need to save?”
What?
“No,” he retorted, frustration seizing his throat. “It’s more than that and you know it.”
“I don’t know anything,” she shot back. “That’s the problem, Derek! You haven’t once told me how you feel about me.” Her tone softened. “I know it’s hard for you. But do you think it’s easy for me? We both had really crappy marriages. We both have some serious baggage. But the time we’ve spent together has taught me so much.”
He was floored by the sheer emotion on her face.
“I realized that not all men are like Felix. You showed me that some men are gentle. Loving. You helped me recover my own strength.” She let out a breath. “I want more than a professional relationship with you. I want more than sex. I…I’m in love with you, Derek.”
Derek felt like someone had punched him in the gut. Shock, pleasure and distress clamored for his attention.
“I need to know how you feel about me,” Chloe said softly. “I need to know that this thing between us is about more than you rescuing me the way you rescue everyone else.”
Derek’s palms went damp. He wanted so desperately to tell her he felt the same way, but something stopped the words from leaving his mouth.
His silence stretched on for much longer than he’d intended, prompting Chloe to shake her head in disappointment. “I need to pack. I’ll move back into my apartment this evening.”
She spun on her heel, moving toward the bedroom.
“Chloe, wait.”
She stopped, slowly turning to face him again.
“Don’t go,” he said hoarsely.
“Why not?” When he didn’t answer, she crossed her arms. �
��Give me a reason to stay.”
Drawing a deep breath, Derek opened his mouth—only to be interrupted by his ringing cell phone.
“I have to get this,” he said hoarsely. “I’m on call.”
Resignation flickered in her eyes. “I know.”
Ignoring the deep ache in his heart, Derek answered the phone and heard the frantic voice of Burt Watson, the husband of one of his patients. “Doc, you’ve gotta come quick!” Burt’s loud exclamation nearly shattered Derek’s eardrum. “Cindy went into premature labor!”
“Have you called an ambulance?” Derek inquired briskly.
“Yeah, but I don’t think they’ll make it in time. It happened so fast! One second her water broke, the next, she started pushing. I can see the head, Doc. You need to get here now. Jesus, I can’t do this alone.”
“I’m on my way.” Disconnecting the call, Derek turned to Chloe, his brain snapping into professional mode.
“I have to go,” he said without delay, already marching down the corridor. He shot a quick glance over his shoulder. “Don’t go, Chloe.”
“Derek—”
“Please,” he pleaded, “can you just wait until I get back so we can finish this?”
She nodded, but as he hightailed it out of the house, he could have sworn he heard her murmur, “But it’s already finished.”
* * *
Chloe spent the next half hour packing her stuff, knowing without needing to talk to Derek that it was time to leave his house. She’d move back to her apartment in town, but how long she’d stay there, she didn’t know.
God, she longed to stay in Eden Falls. To spend her days working with Derek and her nights in bed with him. But if he couldn’t admit how he felt about her, then what was the point? She’d already spent twelve years with one emotionally unavailable man and she didn’t need another one.
She carted her duffel bag to the front hall, her legs feeling like they were made of lead. She kept picturing the devastated look on Derek’s face when she’d announced that she was leaving. Deep down, she knew he cared about her. Perhaps he even loved her. Or hell, maybe he didn’t. Maybe he truly wasn’t over his wife’s death and never would be.
Either way, she didn’t want to play guess-what-Derek’s-feeling anymore.
When the cordless phone on the hall credenza began to ring, Chloe was eager for a respite from her unhappy thoughts. She grabbed the phone as if it was a life preserver and she was drowning at sea. “Hello?” she blurted out.
An unfamiliar female voice greeted her. “Amelia?”
Chloe frowned. “Yes…”
“This is Dr. Greenleigh from Philly General.”
She relaxed. “Dr. Greenleigh, hi.”
“I spoke to Dr. Colton and he asked me to give you a call and relay the news I just gave him. He couldn’t call himself because he was on the way to the hospital with a patient, but he said you’d want to know this sooner rather than later.”
Chloe wrinkled her forehead. “Okay.”
“The Danford results came in. Rachel signed a form allowing me to release the results to Dr. Colton and yourself.” The oncologist paused. “The mass we removed from Rachel’s breast was a fibroadenoma, which as you probably know is benign. I’m recommending against removal due to its small size and because it isn’t causing her any discomfort, but we’ll keep monitoring it.”
Relief shuddered through her. “That’s wonderful news.”
“Yes. Dr. Colton said you’d be happy to hear that. So was I. In my field, I’ll take all the good news I can get.”
Chloe was smiling as she hung up the phone. Rachel and Jacob would be thrilled by the news, and she made a mental note to pay a visit to the couple’s farm when she had a chance. For a second she considered calling, then rolled her eyes to herself as she remembered the Amish couple didn’t have a phone. Besides, a visit would be nice. Seeing a happily married couple might boost her spirits.
She sighed, feeling like a total fool and more than a little embarrassed as she thought about that awkward conversation with Derek. She’d told the man she’d loved him, and he’d just stood there, wide-eyed and mute.
The sigh transformed into a groan. Okay, she needed to get out of this house. She fully planned on keeping her promise to Derek and sticking around until they finished their “discussion,” but she decided some fresh air might do her some good. Maybe she’d take a drive in the meantime, attempt to clear her head before Derek returned from the hospital.
On the porch, she hesitated, remembering Derek’s insistence that she not go anywhere alone. But now that Felix was in police custody, what did she really have to fear? Felix couldn’t hurt her anymore.
No, only Derek could do that now, if he continued to keep her at a distance.
Putting on her gloves, Chloe descended the porch steps, her boots crunching in the thin layer of snow covering the front yard. She slid into her Toyota and started the engine, and as she waited for the car to warm up, she wondered where to go.
A visit to town might be nice. She could window shop, maybe find some holiday gifts for Sawyer and Piper. And Derek, though she had no clue what present she could possibly buy him. She’d already given him her heart, and he’d run away like a frightened animal.
As heat blasted out of the car’s vents, Chloe drove away from the ranch and headed for the main road. She flicked the radio on, but the crooning country ballad that floated from the speakers only depressed her further. Shutting off the music, she welcomed the silence, focusing on the road ahead.
At the last minute, she decided to keep driving right through Main Street toward the outskirts of town, realizing she had no desire to be around other people. No, what she wanted was peace and quiet.
It was pure, unconscious instinct that brought her to Eden Falls Bridge. She followed the river, then pulled onto the road shoulder and parked in the same place she had the last time she’d been here. Hopping out of the car, she gazed at the snow-covered trees to her left. If she strained her ears, she could hear the muffled rush of water from Eden Falls. Her safe place. The place where Derek had shown her the sensual side he’d been hiding since the day they’d met. The place where the barriers between them had come crashing down.
She took a step toward the snowy slope, then stopped, her hand sliding into her pocket to grab her cell phone. She suddenly realized that she’d neglected to leave a note for Derek telling him where she was going. Knowing he’d worry if he came home and found her gone, she dialed his number, deciding a call was in order.
She got his voicemail, as she’d figured she would.
“Hey, it’s me,” she said after the automated prompt. “If I’m not at the house when you get back, don’t freak out. I went for a drive. I needed a quiet place to think. Oh, and Dr. Greenleigh called with the news about Rachel’s biopsy. Thanks for having her notify me.”
The purr of an engine caught her attention. Chloe turned, frowning when she noticed a black SUV with tinted windows slowing down as it approached.
“Uh, sorry, lost my train of thought,” she muttered into the phone. “Anyway, I’ll be home soon and…” To her shock, the SUV came to a stop directly behind her car. “So yeah, I’ll talk to you when…”
The SUV’s driver door opened.
Chloe gasped. “Oh, God.”
The cell phone fell from her hands and clattered onto the wet slush at her feet.
Her jaw went slack, eyes widening as she watched Bianca Moreno striding toward her.
No, that couldn’t be Bianca. Those were someone else’s catlike green eyes, someone else’s dark curly hair and designer coat.
Someone else’s face-lift? a voice taunted.
Chloe stared at the familiar Botox’d mouth, the plasticlike olive skin and unnatural tightness of flesh. She blinked rapidly, wondering if she’d of
ficially gone off the deep end. Clearly this was a figment of her imagination. A hallucination. It had to be.
But then the figment of Chloe’s imagination opened her mouth, which was pulled as tight as Chloe remembered. “Hello, darling. It’s been far too long, hasn’t it, Chloe?”
She gaped at her mother-in-law. Before she could even try to make sense of Bianca’s presence here, the woman lifted one manicured hand, revealing the small silver pistol in her grasp.
With a smirk, Bianca raised the gun and gestured at the trees. “Start walking.”
CHAPTER 13
Chloe couldn’t contain her shock as she stumbled through the woods. The barrel of Bianca’s gun dug into her back, and the one time she’d tried looking over her shoulder to stare at the woman, she’d been rewarded by a sharp jab in the tailbone.
A low-lying branch scraped Chloe’s cheek and stung her flesh, making her wince. Her breath came out in white puffs, her feet aching inside the high-heeled leather boots that were not meant for a trek through the forest. And the entire time she walked, her bewilderment remained at an all-time high. What the hell was Bianca doing here? Had Felix phoned his mother from jail and informed her that his wife was still alive?
This isn’t over.
Felix’s menacing words buzzed in the forefront of her brain. Was Bianca exacting Felix’s revenge for him?
She sucked in a deep breath, ducking to avoid another low branch. “Bianca,” she started.
“Shut up,” her mother-in-law snapped. “You don’t get to talk until I say you can. Now keep walking.”
Chloe kept walking.
Several minutes later, they neared the waterfall, but she didn’t feel an ounce of the serenity she’d experienced when she’d come here with Derek. She staggered onto the rocky bank, scanning the ground at her feet for anything she could use as a weapon. That jagged rock the size of a grapefruit had potential, but the long stick near the pool at the base of the waterfall looked even more promising.
Chloe edged toward it, only to halt when Bianca said, “Don’t move.”
That throaty voice shouldn’t belong to a woman in her seventies. Hell, that face didn’t belong to a woman in her seventies. Bianca Moreno had had no qualms about using her son’s expertise to combat her own aging process. She looked twenty-five years younger than she was, her statuesque form oozing wealth and status.