“I keep digging. You keep out of sight. We get to the bottom of this.”
She inclined her head again, but then a frown settled over her face. “My time here is almost up. I have appointments scheduled for Monday.”
Instantly his muscles tightened. His lungs constricted. His mood soured. It was the oddest damn thing. His immediate, visceral reaction to her leaving was resistance.
Strong resistance.
“Can you call your boss? Take more time off.” He fought to keep the scowl from his face.
She chuckled softly. “I am the boss. The practice is mine. But I hate canceling on my patients again. Some of them are struggling and need that weekly trusted ear.”
She owned her own psychiatric practice? Adam had claimed that she’d drifted through school, work, and life on sexual favors and good timing. But owning her own practice didn’t jive with that. To go into business for herself indicated she’d been driven. There would have been tests to pass, licenses to get, client lists to build.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Becca said before he had a chance to ask the hoard of questions hovering on his tongue. “Harold didn’t just leave me the desk. He left me a boatload of money too. I wonder if he felt guilty about forcing Hilde to turn away from me? I wonder if he changed his mind about Mom’s suicide at some point between when he talked to Hilde and his death?”
Rio’s eyebrows rose. “How much money did he leave you?”
“Five hundred thousand.” She frowned a bit harder and cocked her head as though she were thinking. “But it’s not just that five hundred grand. It’s all the money he sent me through the years to cover tuition, books, and living expenses while I was at school. He paid for everything. I wonder if his generosity was guilt induced?”
That news caught Rio by surprise. Adam had claimed their father had paid her expenses and had grown increasingly frustrated by her financial and sexual excesses.
“Your dad didn’t pay for your college?”
Becca shrugged, clearly hearing the surprise in his voice. “I’m sure he would have. But I didn’t need his money. He sent a couple of checks in the beginning, which I mailed back. He quit sending them after a while.”
She’d refused her dad’s assistance? The parasite, who lived for sex and money, according to Adam, had returned a small fortune because she didn’t need it?
Why would she lie about that? He studied the absent thoughtfulness on her face. She wasn’t lying. He was sure of it.
Which meant Adam had lied.
What else had he lied about?
Tram and Tag continued to insist that he talk to Becca about the night he’d caught her in the arms of another man. They were certain there was more to that story than what he’d been told. If they were right, if something had happened, maybe that incident, along with her history, had influenced her career choice.
“What made you go into counseling?” he asked, easing into the questioning carefully.
“Cyndi, my roommate.” She smiled slightly, her expression affectionate. “I had… difficulty…” Her face darkened for a moment before she seemed to shrug the somber mood off. “…adjusting to college life. Cyndi was a junior, majoring in psychology. She saw I was having trouble and convinced me to see the campus counselor.” She waved a dismissive hand and stepped away from the counter as the preheating buzzer went off. “As they say, the rest was history.”
After shoving the casserole dish into the oven and setting the timer, Rio followed her into the living room. She’d taken off for college immediately after that party. How soon afterward, he wasn’t sure. But it must have been within days. Her first letter to him, which had arrived a week later, had been postmarked from Seattle. Had the difficulty she mentioned been related to what had happened at the party? Or what had happened between him and her?
For the first time, he questioned her flight from the only home she’d known since her mother’s death. She’d never been back, according to Lena, Adam, and Adele. To totally break from her only support system like that, to abandon the only home she’d had available, to avoid returning to her family during breaks and summers… yeah, something must have happened.
He waited for her to settle onto the couch before taking a seat beside her. He could tell from the way she froze and caught her breath that she hadn’t expected him to sit so close.
“Becca.” His voice emerged more somber than he’d planned. He shifted until his back was against the armrest and he had a good view of her face. Or what he could see of it, which was her profile. “Look at me.” He waited until her cautious eyes met his. “While you were in the emergency room, you said that you’d been drugged. At that party. That night before I shipped out. You said you’d been drugged. Is that true?”
His gut churned. Jesus, he hoped not.
He watched her face seize and go still. Completely blank. His scalp tightened and tingled as the sour churn in his gut climbed his chest. He could tell from the empty look on her face that his buddies had been right. Something had happened. Something bad.
“Who told you that?”
“Tag and Tram. You told them. That night in the ER.”
“I did?” she whispered, a frown wrinkling her forehead. Her eyes darkened, going distant, as though she were thinking back. “I don’t remember.”
“They said you were pretty out of it.” When she didn’t respond, he leaned toward her. “It’s true, isn’t it? You were drugged?”
He could hear his tight breathing in the tense silence that surrounded them. And then she nodded. His heart skipped a couple of beats. When it started up again, it was too heavy, too hard. Too raw.
She’d been in Kenny Pickering’s arms when he’d arrived at the party. What had that bastard done to her? Rage kindled, heating his muscles.
You walked away. You left her there.
The rage turned inward. He gritted his teeth against a wave of horror. He’d investigated far too many sexual assaults that had started with doctored drinks.
“What happened?” He forced the question out.
She took a deep breath and lifted her head, flinching as her gaze fell on his face. Her eyes widened. “Adam put something in my Diet Pepsi and handed it off to Adele. She gave it to me. Made sure I drank it. I don’t remember much after that. The whole night’s blank. The next thing I remember is waking up the next morning.”
Rio’s throat was so tight it hurt to speak. “You were with Kenny. Kenny Pickering.”
Her exhale shuddered. “I know. Adam took pictures. But I don’t remember anything. What I do know came from Adele. She asked Kenny to come to the party and hook up with me.”
Tension cinched every muscle in Rio’s body tight. Fury shortened his breath. Unable to sit still, he jolted to his feet.
“No, no.” Her voice rose as she sputtered the denial out. “You don’t understand. Adele asked Kenny to come because she knew I’d be safe with him. That he wouldn’t take advantage of me. That he’d protect me from anyone who was… well… less chivalrous.”
Rio’s muscles loosened as her words sank in. She hadn’t been sexually assaulted. The tension in his chest eased, and his next breath came easier.
“Let me get this straight.” Another breath, still too damn shallow and tight. “Adam put something in your drink, but Adele handed you off to her friend Kenny, and he kept the other guys off you?”
“Yeah, I guess. Adam took a bunch of pictures of me in Kenny’s arms, you came and—” She coughed, rushing the next word out “—left. And Adele and Kenny took me home and put me to bed.”
The red haze drained from Rio’s mind, allowing him to think again. From Becca’s account, Adam and Adele had planned the drugging. Hell, Adam had arranged the party. He’d been the one to insist Rio come over. He’d claimed the party was in Rio’s honor and that their friends wanted to send him off on deployment properly. Plus Adam had promised that Becca wouldn’t be there. He’d known that Rio wouldn’t show up to the party if Becca was there—n
ot after she’d tossed his ring in his face. So, Adam had lied to get him into that house. Fuck, he’d lied about everything.
That entire night had been premeditated.
What the fuck had they been thinking?
“What did they hope to accomplish?” he asked tightly.
“They wanted to make sure we stayed broken up. Lena had been pushing Adele to make a play for you. Your grandmother and Lena were hell-bent on you two getting married and giving them a bunch of shared grandbabies.”
Rio scowled. Of course he’d recognized the conspiracy brewing between his grandmother and Lena. The two women had continually thrown him and Adele together. Even after he’d started dating Becca, the nudging had continued, along with the constant bad-mouthing of the girl he’d chosen to share his leave with.
But why had Adam taken part that night?
His onetime buddy had ignored his mother’s wishes more often than not. He’d also been a lazy, selfish bastard. He wouldn’t have gone to the trouble to break Rio and Becca up to help Adele out. No, there must have been something in it for him.
Sure, the guy had been fun to hang with, and they’d shared similar interests. They’d been friends since kindergarten, and their parents had been tight. But he’d known, even back then, that Adam would throw him under the bus in a hot minute if it suited his needs.
“Do you know why Adam drugged you?”
“I don’t know. He was determined to break us up. I mean look at all those tall tales about me he used to pass on to you. But I don’t think it was because his mom wanted you for Adele. It was more like he didn’t want me to have anyone who cared about me, anyone who was on my side.” Becca paused, hesitated, and then closed her mouth.
“What?” When she hesitated again, he swore beneath his breath. “I’m listening this time. Don’t hold back.”
She studied his face, before offering a slight nod.
“Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but I think he hated me. He was mean to Adele. Played some nasty jokes on her, but that was just him being a bully. There wasn’t anything personal in his behavior toward her. But… his actions toward me… they felt different. More personal. Like he carried a grudge and a lot of hatred when it came to me.”
Rio thought that over. “What did he do that makes you think he hated you?”
True, Adam had been a bit of a bully, although he’d stopped that behavior as soon as Rio had stood up for one of his victims. Or maybe he’d just stopped bullying the other kids in front of Rio.
“He did lots of things.” She shuddered. Her face haunted. “But the worst was when he picked the bathroom lock and took a video of me showering. He uploaded the video to the internet and sent the link to a bunch of my classmates, who shared it and shared it and shared it until the entire school was snickering and pointing at me.” She paused, took a deep breath. “I told Dad, but Adam denied doing it.”
“Jesus.” Rio shook his head, his skin crawling. “When was that?”
“When I was fifteen. Dad had dead bolts installed on my bedroom and bathroom after that. At least he believed me.” Her face twisted for a moment before smoothing out. “It was pretty awful there for a while. It didn’t get better until Dad enrolled me in a different school.”
Ah hell, no wonder she’d had such a mercurial personality. The trauma had just kept coming. He’d known she’d gone to a different school than Adele, but Adam had claimed she’d insisted on staying with her old school, no matter what a pain in the ass it had been to get her there and back.
If she’d been fifteen, Rio would have been nineteen, which put him months deep in his first deployment aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. Adam had been sent home on a dishonorable discharge the year before, leaving him free to terrorize his newly arrived, traumatized half sister.
The timing also put Adam in town when Rachel Blaine had died. He buckled that realization down for later assessment.
“Hell, Becca. Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
She snorted, rolling her eyes. “I tried to. You never believed me.”
Rio sucked in a breath, the pressure of regret and guilt sitting on his lungs.
“You never told me about the video.” He would have broken a couple of faces and arms over that piece of shit.
“Seriously?” She shot him a get-real look. “You think I was going to bring that up and chance another run on the video? Particularly when you wouldn’t have believed me anyway? Adam would have convinced you that I took and uploaded the video myself. So, nope—not a chance I was opening that discussion.”
Rio flinched, shame heating his face. Fuck, if she thought so little of him, why had she gone out with him in the first place? Although, he couldn’t blame her for her lack of trust. He had listened to Adam far too often back then. Not all the time, of course. He’d been aware Adam had resented her.
Which got him thinking… what if Adam’s feelings had gone deeper than resentment? What if he had hated Becca, as she suspected? Hatred was a primal motivator when it came to murder or attempted murder.
Adam had made it through boot camp, so he knew his way around a rifle. He’d been dishonorably discharged after he’d failed his second drug test—not even his father had been able to make that one go away—so he wasn’t exactly reliable. The abandoned cartridges came to mind. He could picture Adam leaving them behind.
If Lena knew Becca was in town and where she was staying, chances were Adam knew too. He could have waited outside Becca’s hotel and followed her to Wilbanks’s office.
He could have been in that truck… or on the roof… or both.
Except, according to Adele and the flight manifest, the bastard had flown to Miami the day before the attack. And according to the key card log, he’d left his hotel room an hour before someone had shot Becca and reentered the room three hours later—three hours after the shots had rang out. Plus there were witnesses who’d seen him at the board meetings.
If the electronic tagging from the key card was accurate and the witnesses could be believed, Adam couldn’t have taken that shot. He wouldn’t have had time. Best-case scenario, it took five hours to fly from Miami to San Diego and another five hours to fly back. Ten hours travel time, plus the trip to and from the airport.
Adam’s key card showed a three-hour absence—a quarter of the time he would have needed to take that shot himself.
Of course, someone else could have been using his key card. Plus he had the means to hire someone to take Becca out. He wouldn’t need to be in town for the hit to go down.
If that was the case, it would be almost impossible to track the assassin down without Adam’s cooperation… and fuck… he couldn’t see the bastard cooperating anytime soon.
Chapter Eleven
The casserole Emma had left for dinner was delicious. A cheesy, crunchy noodle thing with creamy chicken and spinach. Replete, Becca set her fork down and leaned back in her chair. Her stomach was stuffed, but her taste buds insisted on one more helping.
“Relax, I’ll take care of the dishes.” Rio shoved back his chair.
Becca pushed her chair away from the table too and picked up her plate, carrying it to the sink. While the sling handicapped her in some respects, she could still help clear the table even if it was one plate, dish, or glass at a time.
“What are you going to do with the money Harold left you?” Rio asked as he loaded the dishwasher.
A good question and one Becca had been mulling over since the bequest had been wired to her bank account. Picking up the dishrag, she squeezed out the excess water and wiped down the table.
“I’ll keep some of it. It will be nice to have an emergency fund. But I’ll split the rest between Paws for Veterans and Eagle’s Nest Ranch. Veterans make up a solid portion of my practice, and some of my clients have benefited from therapy dogs. Paws for Veterans trains shelter dogs that were facing euthanasia, so the program benefits abandoned animals too. Eagle’s Nest Ranch is an equine therapy program for troubled kids.” Sh
e returned to the sink with the washcloth. “What?” she asked as a strange look spread across his face.
He propped a hip against the counter and studied her, warmth softening his eyes. “You’re giving the inheritance away?”
“Not all of it. I’m keeping some.” She shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze.
“So you said.” He shook his head in apparent disbelief. “An emergency fund.”
“It’s the right thing to do.” Why in the world did she feel compelled to defend the decision? It was none of his business. But that didn’t stop the words from tumbling out. “I’m sure Harold never intended for me to hoard all that money. Besides, think of Cuddles. Emma saved her from being euthanized. Paws for Veterans saves dogs like Cuddles. Gives them another chance at life with someone who needs them. Both organizations can do a lot more good with that money than I can.”
He raised his hands, palms out. “I’m not arguing. Both charities sound worthy.” He paused to shrug. “You’ve got a good heart, Becs.”
Becs?
He hadn’t called her that since the night she’d thrown his ring at his face. A sunburst of warmth heated her chest. She wasn’t sure if it was because of his return to the nickname or the compliment—or a combination of the two.
Uncomfortable with this newfound ease between them, Becca retreated to the living room. It was easier to keep her distance when he didn’t like her… when he actively disliked her… when everything he did and said shoved distance between them. She settled onto the couch, with her injured shoulder tucked against the armrest. It was still early. Barely six p.m., way too soon for bed. They needed a distraction.
“Emma has Netflix,” Becca said, her voice rising as he followed her over to the couch and settled in beside her. She choked to a stop, wiggled farther into the corner, and tried again. “We could stream something.”
“Sure.” He spread his legs and leaned back against the cushions, frowning.
She froze beside him as her body started to heat and her skin started to tingle. She felt like a deer caught in headlights—hypnotized. Danger, Will Robinson… danger.
Loyalty Under Fire (Operation: Hot Spot Book 3) Page 12