by Lisa Childs
Maybe that was why he was here. Not just to welcome the newlyweds back but to get insight into the woman who confused and fascinated and aggravated Forrest.
He’d nearly kissed her that morning. His skin heated and his pulse quickened just thinking about it, about how close his mouth had come to hers—so close that he’d nearly tasted her minty breath.
He wished he’d tasted her mouth, wished that he’d given in to temptation and kissed her, even though he knew that would have been wrong. Or at the very least unprofessional.
Not that he considered her a murder suspect. But he had found a body in her backyard. And he had a feeling she knew more than she was admitting, that there was something she was keeping from him. And that was why she seemed so damn scared.
Not that she didn’t have reason to be, though. There was a killer on the loose in Whisperwood.
Forrest had to find him.
“I guess we bored him into a stupor,” Bellamy remarked with a giggle.
Donovan snorted. “Forrest usually gets like this when he’s working a case, so single-minded that solving it is all he can think about.”
He did get that way—until now, until this case. Now he kept thinking about Rae Lemmon instead of the case. His mind was totally focused on her. And how the hell was he going to catch a killer like that?
Unless she knew who the killer was. Was that why she’d been so anxious to get rid of him that morning? Was she trying to protect someone?
“And he’s not working one case but two.” Donovan continued to talk about Forrest as if he wasn’t even there.
“Two?” Bellamy asked and then nodded. “You mean the chief’s sister and the body found in the parking lot. Of course with so many years between the deaths, it’s unlikely the murders would be related.”
Forrest wasn’t so sure about that, but he wasn’t about to share his suspicions with Bellamy when she obviously didn’t have all of the facts yet. They had just returned from their honeymoon and were currently in the kitchen of Bellamy’s house, unpacking groceries they must have just picked up from the store.
Forrest had called Donovan and informed him of the body he’d found in Rae’s backyard, but obviously he hadn’t shared that news with his bride yet. And apparently she hadn’t learned about the body from anyone else either.
Like Rae.
Why was she so damn stubbornly independent that she refused to reach out even to her friends? Why was she so determined to do everything on her own?
“What?” Bellamy asked as she looked from him to Donovan and back. “Has something else happened?”
“I didn’t want to upset you,” Donovan began, “especially now.”
“I’m pregnant,” Bellamy said, “not fragile. I can handle getting upset, which is lucky for you since I’m getting pretty upset right now.”
“Uh, maybe I should go,” Forrest murmured as he started to rise from the chair he’d taken at the kitchen table.
But Bellamy shoved him back into his seat. “What’s going on?” she asked him.
He looked to his brother, who just nodded at him. “I found another body.”
She shuddered. “Oh, no.”
That wasn’t the worst part of it, and she needed to know, so he added, “In Rae’s backyard.”
She turned back to her husband. “And you didn’t tell me?”
Not wanting any trouble between the newlyweds, Forrest jumped in to explain, “It just happened yesterday.”
“You weren’t feeling well,” Donovan reminded her.
“I was tired,” she said. Then she touched her belly, which had swelled. She was showing now. “We were tired.”
Donovan slipped his arm around her and kissed her forehead. “I was going to tell you but then this guy showed up.” His brother focused on him again. “Why did you show up? I’m not thinking that it was just to welcome us back and hear about the amazing time we had.”
“I did want to make sure you had a good time,” Forrest said. His brother and Bellamy certainly deserved their happiness.
“But...” Donovan prodded him. “What else?”
Forrest turned toward his new sister-in-law again. “I wanted to ask you about Rae.”
“She’s my best friend.”
“So there’s no one who knows her better?”
She shook her head. “We grew up together. We’ve been friends since kindergarten. But I think we grew up even more later in life, when we had to deal with ailing parents. Rae’s dad took off when her mom was diagnosed with cancer, leaving her holding the bag to take care of her. Georgia Lemmon was tough, though. She survived that time.”
“But it came back,” Forrest guessed.
She nodded.
“What about her deadbeat dad?”
She shook her head.
No wonder Rae had decided that she didn’t need a husband to have a family. Not after the example her father had given her.
But that propensity to take off on a sick mate wasn’t exclusive to male partners. While Forrest had been working with physical therapists so that he would be able to walk again, his fiancée had taken off. He’d gotten a text.
Sorry, I didn’t sign up for this.
Newly engaged, they hadn’t worked on their vows yet, but it was clear that she wouldn’t have included “in sickness and in health” in hers. And apparently Rae’s dad hadn’t in his either.
“Could it be her father?” Bellamy asked. “Could his be the body you found in the backyard? Maybe he didn’t take off after all.”
Forrest shook his head. “This body was like the chief’s sister—female and looks as though someone tried to preserve her, too.”
Bellamy shuddered again.
Donovan tightened his arm around his wife and assured her, “Forrest will find the sick bastard who did it.”
His brother had more faith in him than Forrest probably deserved. He didn’t even have a clue right now—just those weird metallic things he’d found and had sent off to the lab.
“I’m worried about Rae,” Bellamy said with concern darkening her dark eyes even more. “How is she?”
“Stubborn,” Forrest automatically replied.
Bellamy’s lips curved into a slight smile. “You’re getting to know my best friend well.”
Not well enough.
Not as well as he would have liked. He wished again that he’d kissed her. But that was a line he could not cross—for both their sakes.
He could not be distracted right now, not when he had a case—or cases—to solve.
“I don’t know her at all,” Forrest said. “And she won’t talk to me. She won’t answer my questions.” Like what was going on with her, and why she was scared.
She had seemed afraid of him, but she had no reason to fear him...unless she was hiding something from him. Like the killer.
Bellamy tensed and pulled away from Donovan. “What questions could you have for Rae? You can’t suspect her. You can’t think that she has anything to do with the murders.”
“Of course he doesn’t think that,” Donovan answered for him.
Forrest frowned at his brother. “I don’t want to think that, but I can tell she’s holding something back.” Or at least that was the way he’d felt that morning when she’d been so anxious to get rid of him.
Maybe she’d just been busy getting ready for work and all. But Forrest had sensed something else—something that had to do with him or at least with the investigation.
“It’s hard for Rae to trust people,” Bellamy said. “It’s hard for her to let anyone in.”
“Sounds like someone else I know,” Donovan said with a grin at his brother. “This guy has a problem trusting people, too.”
“I guess that would come with the territory of being a detective,” Bellamy mused.
Donovan shook his he
ad. “That’s not the only reason.”
Shannon was one of the reasons. Donovan knew that Forrest had lost more than his job when he’d been shot. He must have shared that with his bride, because she sighed and murmured, “Of course.” Then she reached out and grabbed Forrest’s hand. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” he said, and for maybe the first time since he’d received that text, he meant it. “Better I find out before we were married.” And losing her hadn’t upset him nearly as much as it should have, if he’d truly loved her like their brother Dallas had loved his late wife. His loss was really a loss. Ivy had been awesome. Shannon, on the other hand, hadn’t been whom he’d thought she was.
Bellamy sighed again but nodded in agreement.
“You’re better off without her,” Donovan heartily agreed. “She was selfish. You deserve someone better, someone like Bellamy.”
She smiled and leaned back against her husband. “Or like Rae,” she added as she arched her dark brows.
Forrest snorted. “She’s made it clear she has no interest in me.”
But for a second there this morning he’d thought she’d been staring at his mouth as intently as he’d been staring at hers. That she’d leaned forward as he’d leaned down.
That she’d been as attracted to him as he was to her. But then she’d jerked back. And that look on her beautiful face had been so fearful.
Of what?
Him?
* * *
Donovan’s heart rate quickened as the door closed behind his brother. “Are you mad at me?” he anxiously asked his bride.
“You shouldn’t have kept that news from me,” Bellamy said. “You should have told me about Forrest finding the body in Rae’s backyard.”
“Yes,” he agreed. Yet the pang that struck his heart wasn’t of regret but of concern when he remembered how tired she’d been the past couple of days. He’d been so damn worried about her and the baby.
And that sense of helplessness that had gripped him then gripped him again. He wanted to be able to help her through this pregnancy, but the only thing he could do was try to protect her, to protect them. He closed his arms around her—around them both—and held her tightly.
She sighed and leaned against his chest. They were so close that she must have sensed his protectiveness. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m tough. You know that.”
“Yes, I do,” he agreed with a ragged sigh. “I just didn’t want you worrying about Rae.”
“I always worry about Rae,” Bellamy said with a ragged sigh of her own.
“She’s tough, too,” Donovan reminded her.
“I know. She’s been through so much already, though, and that body turning up in her backyard...” She tensed in his arms. “What if it had been out there as long as the chief’s sister was missing? Rae and I used to play in that yard...” She shivered despite the warmth of the day.
Donovan rubbed his hands down her back, trying to warm away her chill. But he suspected the only thing that would put them all at ease would be catching this killer. It was a damn good thing he’d come back.
“Do you think Forrest could be right?” he asked her. “Do you think Rae could know more than she’s admitting?”
Bellamy pushed her palms against his chest and pulled away from his embrace. “Absolutely not. Rae can’t have anything to do with those murders.”
“But could she have some idea who might have committed them?”
“If she did, she would tell Forrest or the chief,” Bellamy insisted. “She’s going to law school because she wants to help stop some of the crime going on in Whisperwood. She would never protect a killer.”
“Not even if that person was a friend?” he asked. “Or a relative?”
“The only person Rae would break the law to protect would be Connor,” Bellamy said, “and that sweet baby has nothing to do with any of this.”
Donovan smiled. “Of course not.”
“And neither does Rae.”
Bellamy had known the other woman since kindergarten, so she knew her well. But Donovan knew his brother very well. Usually Forrest’s instincts about a case were right—not so much when it came to women, though.
So which was it? Was he seeing Rae Lemmon as a suspect or as a romantic interest?
No matter which, after what Forrest had been through with that flaky fiancée of his, he was unlikely ever to trust her. And Rae didn’t trust any man.
Yeah, it was good that he and Bellamy had come home—if only to keep the peace between Bellamy’s best friend and his brother.
* * *
Dropping Connor at day care that morning had been harder for Rae than it usually was. And it was usually very hard. But letting him out of her sight after what had happened last night had been especially difficult.
And spending all of these hours away from him, stuck at her desk in a windowless room at the law firm, had made her physically ill. Her stomach churned with anxiety and fear. She just wanted to be with her son, to make sure that he was safe. She knew that she didn’t need to worry, though.
The day care was very well staffed with maternal types who were even more overprotective than she was, including the male owner, Bob McCauley, who was a former football player. Nobody would be able to get one of the babies past him without one hell of a fight. But even knowing that...
She couldn’t shake her fear for her son. Had she put him in danger that morning, talking to Forrest Colton? She never should have opened the door to him.
Would her note writer punish her for disregarding his warning?
She wanted to be with Connor, but maybe he was safer at the day care than he would be with her. Bob would protect him more effectively than she could. Maybe that was why she was still at work this late.
Sure, she’d had piles of research for a pending case for one of the partners. She could have gotten through it faster, though, if she hadn’t been so distracted.
She had been so distracted that she hadn’t even realized what time it was...until she noticed the digital numbers on the corner of her computer monitor. She gasped and then sucked in a breath as the sound echoed eerily in her small office. No other noise drifted beneath the door like it usually did.
Everybody else must have already left for the day. And she should have, too. Bob wouldn’t be worried; the day care center had a second shift for parents who worked later or had classes after work, like she did a couple of nights a week. But now that she knew what time it was, she was anxious to leave the office.
Especially since it felt so forebodingly empty.
She shut down her computer and gathered up her stuff, shoving it inside the purse with the note and lock of hair she’d sealed in a plastic bag, like evidence.
Should she have given it to Forrest?
The thought lifted goose bumps on her skin, though, as a chill rushed through her blood. She couldn’t risk it—no matter how much she wanted the person who’d threatened her son to be caught.
And the killer.
Were they the same?
They must have been or why the threat? Only the killer would want Forrest out of the way. Well, she and the killer. Even if she hadn’t received the threat, she wouldn’t want Forrest Colton around her. She had too much going on—she was way too busy to deal with him and that annoying attraction she felt for him. And that was all it was: an annoyance.
That annoyance surged through her now as she threw her purse over her shoulder and stepped out of her office into the dark hallway. Like her office, it had no windows, and someone had shut off the lights already.
Hadn’t they noticed the light under her door? Hadn’t they realized that she was still at work? Or had that been the reason for shutting off the lights? To spook her even more?
Goose bumps rose on her skin as that chill chased through her again. But would the person who’
d broken into her house know where she worked, as well?
Whisperwood was a small enough town and so gossipy that everybody knew everybody else’s business. It would be easy enough for anyone to track her down at home and at work.
She hurried down the hall toward the elevators, rushing past the closed doors of other offices along the way. A loud thump emanated from beneath one of those closed doors, and she gasped in shock at hearing the sound. Then a giggle followed her gasp, and her fear eased.
Apparently she wasn’t the only one working late...although the thump and the giggling didn’t sound much like work.
The doorknob to the closest office rattled as the door opened slightly. Kenneth Dawson peered out through the crack, his thin blond hair slightly mussed. “Oh, Rae, I didn’t realize you were still here.”
Which explained why the lights had been shut off. With her office farther down the hall than his, he wouldn’t have noticed the light under her door.
“I’m leaving now,” she assured him.
“Worked late like I am,” he said.
His flushed face made it look like he had been working out—physically and not mentally.
“My wife brought me dinner,” he added with a smile.
Rae smiled and nodded. “Oh, that was very sweet of her.”
“Yes,” he agreed, but he didn’t open his door any farther and offer to introduce his wife to Rae, which was odd since he’d once invited her to join them for dinner at his house.
Of course Rae was always in a hurry to leave and get Connor from day care, so he probably didn’t expect her to want to linger. And she didn’t.
“Enjoy your dinner,” she said. “Good night.” And she rushed off toward the elevators again. An elevator car came quickly—since everybody else had probably already left the building for the night. She stepped inside and as the doors began to close, that giggle rang out again.