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Tessa, who knew all of Rikki’s secrets. A good friend—her college roommate—who’d taken Rikki under her wing after Drake had died and made her feel as if she wasn’t going to lose her mind, after all.
Dear Lord, what happened to her? Help me understand. Help me to accept that she’s in heaven with You now.
Blain had told her they’d notify Tessa’s next of kin, but Tessa didn’t have anyone close here in America since her parents had both passed away over recent years. Her one brother lived somewhere in Europe and Rikki didn’t have any way to contact him. Tessa hadn’t talked about her older brother a lot.
No one to mourn her. Except me.
Rikki had two big brothers, one married and one divorced, depending on which brother and which day, and several nieces and nephews, and a whole slew of aunts and uncles. A network of people who loved her in spite of how she’d abandoned all of them.
Santo and his family lived here and he ran the business now. He’d be all over her about this. Victor was somewhere in Europe. He’d turned his back completely on the family but he didn’t mind using the family funds to party all over the world.
Rikki didn’t want any of the mighty Alvanetti money.
She’d stayed long enough to appease her father and to reassure her mother, and then she’d left a few weeks after Drake’s death. Forever, she’d thought. But she loved her mother and they’d kept in touch over the years. Sonia had always maintained that Drake’s wreck was a tragedy. That no one has caused it.
Even so, when she got reports of her mother being taken ill while on a cruise overseas this summer, Rikki had kept in constant touch. But Sonia had not improved, and had had a heart attack as well, so she knew she had to come back. The doctors had verified that the vibrant Sonia Alvanetti had several other health complications and an onset of dementia, but with bed rest and a better diet and several prescriptions, she could improve. Maybe.
In other words, her mother could snap out of this or she could die in a few years. She could be giving up because she missed her one son who had left for good and she missed her daughter who kept promising to come and see her. Rikki’s brother Victor didn’t care that their mother had taken ill in Europe and he didn’t care now. Rikki had come home to help her mother recover.
Rikki had been thinking of coming home since she’d noticed her mother didn’t remember things and constantly repeated herself. Sometimes, she’d talk about her husband, the powerful Franco Alvanetti, as if she hated him. Which surprised Rikki. Her parents had always been so in love with each other that they oftentimes managed to shut out the rest of the world. Or ignore it, at least.
The kind of in-love that Rikki had given up on.
Rikki wished now that she’d come back sooner. But then, tonight she wished a lot of things could have been different.
She missed Tessa already. If she’d come home a few minutes earlier, she might have been able to save her friend.
This, with her mother so sick and her ex-boyfriend harassing her. It was just too much. Chad Presley didn’t like being dumped. He’d threatened Rikki one time too many and he had powerful friends all over the state. But then, so did her father.
And using that angle had been her saving grace.
“If you don’t leave me alone, Chad, I’ll have to tell my father and my brothers. You won’t like it when they come after you.”
The bluff had worked long enough for her to regroup and come home. But maybe Chad wasn’t afraid of her family. She should have told the detective the whole story but fear had gripped her, choking her with an intense power. Fear that Chad would make good on his promises and fear that her family would get involved if he did.
A chill moved through her at the thought of Chad finding her here. Would he think to send someone to spy on her? Or had he followed through on one of his threats and found her himself?
Maybe he’d killed Tessa to prove a point. He’d stalked Rikki time and time again but things had never become physical. What if he’d thought he’d found her there on the patio? Chad could be the kind to shoot first and run away like a coward.
Please, no.
Rikki called the night nurse at her parents’ estate, just to hear someone’s voice and to check on her mom. “How’s she doing tonight, Peggy?”
“Sleeping, suga’. But you know Miss Sonia. She has the sweetest attitude.”
“Yes, that’s Mother. Always positive. Even when she’s in pain.”
“I’ve got her all tucked in and I’ll be right here on the sofa in her bedroom.”
“Thank you, Peggy.” Rikki swallowed the emotion roiling through her. “What about Papa?”
“He’s in his office. He stays in there, most days.”
Rikki closed her eyes to that image. Her dad was getting old, too. “I’ll try to check on him.”
“You gonna come by in the morning, honey?”
“I hope to.” Rikki didn’t want her mother to hear anything about what had happened, but Peggy kept the television off most of the time, anyway. She liked to read her romance novels while the surround sound played Mother’s favorite classical music and show tunes. A paradox of a combination but that was Sonia Alvanetti.
But her father always watched the local news. She’d have to explain this to him so he wouldn’t get involved. Of course, one of his bodyguards had probably already informed him of what had happened. His people kept their ears to the ground.
“Give her a kiss for me,” Rikki said. “I’ll be by bright and early tomorrow morning.” And she’d try to explain things to her mother. Of course, once her brothers got wind of this...
Rikki put that scene out of her mind. Her two brothers would hunt down anyone who tried to harm her. Even when they both disapproved of her every move.
“I’ll see you before you turn things over to the day nurse,” she promised Peggy.
“Okay, sweetie pie.” Peggy said good-night and Rikki went back to the dark silence of her room.
Thinking about the horror of seeing her best friend dead, Rikki closed her eyes but opened them wide again, the shadows of the spacious room chasing each other into dark corners. She checked the door. Locked and bolted. She looked at the heavy curtains. Closed tight. She listened for footsteps and remembered a cruiser was supposed to be parked outside her hotel room door. But each shift of the wind caused her to panic and recheck the locked door.
Then because she couldn’t sleep, she thought about Detective Blain Kent. Tall, dark and dangerous. But on the good side of the law. Well, that was different at least. The man knew his job, no doubt about that. He’d done his best to get information out of Rikki and she’d given him what he needed and kept the rest to herself.
While her heart hurt for her friend and she’d mourn that loss of the rest of her life, Rikki took comfort in knowing if anyone could figure this out Blain Kent would be the man. He struck her as the honest, determined type.
And what if he figures out who you are?
At this point, she didn’t really care if the detective with the midnight-blue eyes and clipped black hair found out she was an Alvanetti. She had been married once, to Drake Allen. A good, simple name and a good simple man. No, a boy, really. A boy who’d loved her in spite of her name. He’d been willing to fight for her and that had been a tragic mistake.
He’d died too young and her heart had not recovered.
He’d died at the hands of her family, something she could never prove. Something they’d denied. But she knew. Drake had been in a horrible accident not too far from the Alvanetti estate. A foggy night, a slick road. And alcohol. But Drake didn’t drink.
No one had wanted to hear her shouting that at the top of her lungs. No one cared enough to investigate. And she surely would never recover from that, either.
But once she’d been strong enough to come up with a plan, she’d walked away from her father’s rules as soon as she could escape. Walked away and tried to stay away. Except her beautiful, stubborn, scatterbrained mother always called her back. Sonia Alvanetti had a heart so big Rikki wondered how she’d become so frail. Had often wondered how her sweet mother could not see the truth regarding the family “import-export” business. Rikki had always believed her mother would live forever since Sonia loved everyone in such an unconditional way. She couldn’t imagine her mother not being there. Rikki had got her strong faith from her mother, thankfully.
That faith would get her through this long night.
Now Rikki had to wonder about what Blain Kent had pointed out to her earlier. She and Tessa did look a lot alike.
Which made Rikki wonder if her worst fears and the detective’s not-so-subtle hints were correct. Had that bullet been meant for her?
* * *
Blain’s phone buzzed a rude alert. He sat up in bed and watched his phone dancing across the nightstand. Then he jerked it to his ear. “Kent.”
“I...I need your help again.”
“Rikki?”
“Yes.”
She sounded muffled, scared.
Blain shot out of the bed and started grabbing clothes with one hand, the cell phone tucked between his ear and his collar bone. “What is it?”
“Someone came to my room.”
Blain’s pulse bumped into overdrive. “Are you still in the room?”
“No. I shouted that I was calling 911 and then I started screaming and banging on the walls. Then I called the front desk. The security guard apparently came out and scared away the intruder. I don’t know where the patrol officer is.”
Blain hopped on one foot trying to get his boots on. “Okay, where are you now?”
“In the lobby bathroom. I didn’t know who else to call.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes. Do not leave the hotel lobby area.”
“I won’t.”
“Stay on the phone with me,” Blain said. “I’m leaving right now.” He glanced around and saw Pebble the cat staring at him from the end of his bed. He’d found the cat by the back door of her place, meowing and scared. The mostly black-and-white long-haired calico did look like a pile of pebbles.
So now he had custody of a cat. He’d worry about Pebble later. He hurried out the door of his apartment and hoped Rikki Alvanetti would stay put until he could get to her.
She did as he asked and by the time Blain made it to the hotel, he’d gotten more information out of her. She’d been awake, unable to sleep, when she’d heard someone outside her door. Then the door handle had jiggled. She’d screamed out and threatened to call 911.
But she’d called him instead. Blain radioed in while he kept her on the phone. When he pulled up, two units were parked in the drive-through in front of the bright lobby. But he didn’t see the other cruiser or Rikki, either.
“I’m here,” he said into his cell. “Come out of the bathroom, Rikki.”
“Okay.”
He ended the call, furious that someone had tried to get to her in spite of their efforts. But this attack supported his suspicions. Someone was after Rikki Allen.
“Where’s our man?” he asked one of the uniformed officers as he slammed out of his unmarked sedan.
“He was knocked out in the bushes but on his way to the ER right now,” one of the patrolmen said. “He’ll be okay.”
The man they’d put on Rikki had gotten out of his patrol car to stretch his legs and chat with the pretty front-desk clerk. When he’d returned to his car, he’d been hit on the head and knocked out. Another officer had taken him to the hospital in his patrol car.
Sometimes, small-town police officers did things in a backward kind of way but Blain knew his fellow officers were all hardworking men. He was just glad everyone was okay.
Especially the woman emerging pale and sleep-tousled out of the bathroom. She looked at Blain and walked straight toward him, wearing a dark red zipped jacket and matching pants that his mother would call lounge wear.
He called it nice-looking wear right now but he kept his mind focused on the task and not the way that combo fit Rikki. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yes.” She glanced around, not looking so okay. “Did you find anyone out there?”
“Not yet. My men are searching every nook. We’ll double-check the area around your door, but I’m guessing whoever found you knew to wear gloves and not leave any clues.”
She nodded and pushed at all that tumbling hair. “Now we know, Detective.”
“Know what?” He didn’t like the gleam of acceptance in her eyes.
“That they were after me.”
“Yes, I believe you’re right on that,” Blain replied. “But they could have been after both of you.” At the look of horror on her face, he said, “Listen, you’re gonna have to tell me where your mother lives. You can’t stay here alone.”
“I can’t have them in her house, either.”
“But you’ll be with someone and...I’ll make sure no one bothers either of you.”
“And what are you, a one-man type of superhero?”
“No, but I think I can patrol a home and keep intruders out.”
“He’s a former marine, ma’am,” a passing officer said in a matter-of-fact tone. “He can take care of you.”
She quirked a dark eyebrow and took a calming breath. “A marine? So that should make me feel safe, I suppose.”
“One of the best,” the young patrolman said before Blain could reply. “An MP at that. Only, he don’t like to brag.”
Blain shook his head. “Look, I can watch over you tonight.”
She stared at him with a new regard, her dark gaze sweeping over him and making him squirm. “I don’t want to go to my mother’s house.”
Blain took her by the arm and tugged her off to the side where no one could hear him. “Your place isn’t safe. This hotel isn’t safe even though we had a uniformed patrol on site. I can’t take you to my place. Unless you have somewhere you can go that you can assure me is okay, then you’d better tell me the truth, Miss Allen. All of it. Or I’ll have to take you to the station and put you in a cell just to make sure you are safe until morning.”
“I don’t know the truth,” she said, her voice weakening. “I’ve told you everything I can.” Then she shook her head. “I keep thinking of Chad—my ex. But he couldn’t be this stupid. He’s threatened me but...I can’t believe he’d do this. He has too much at stake.”
Blain held his lips tightly together to keep from shouting at her. “And it never occurred to you to give me these details when you mentioned him earlier?”
“I didn’t think he’d find me at the town house. I never told him that my family—that I own it.”
“Well, maybe he followed you and...tried to kill you.” Blain pulled out his notebook. “What’s his address?”
She hesitated and then gave him Chad’s workplace and home addresses.
“And when did you last see Chad Presley?”
“About a week ago, down in Miami.”
Blain got a description of Chad and his vehicle and put out a BOLO over the radio that would go statewide. Be On the Lookout for a possible killer.
“There. We’ll see what that turns up. Does this Chad know where your mother lives?”
She thought about last spring when she’d brought him here for a wedding. That hadn’t gone over very well.
