She’d had a right to be angry.
She hadn’t had the right to hit him. Or to call him the things she had.
He hadn’t meant to squeeze her mouth as hard as he had. To cut off her air. He’d just wanted to cut off the viperous words she’d been hurling at him before some of her neighbors heard through her thing apartment walls, even while her hands had been reaching for him.
He’d just squeezed too hard. Too long.
And he hadn’t been able to revive her. If he had, there would have been obvious brain damage.
He’d stopped trying to revive her after that.
Wallace had sat by her naked body and cried. For hours. Until he’d gotten ahold of himself.
He hadn’t meant to do it again. To kill another woman he had cared about. It had just happened. He’d sat there until he’d convinced himself of that.
And then he had had to get to work.
He knew enough about DNA to know he had to do something to erase his presence from her body completely.
It would take water. Bleach. And lots of it.
Now he had her wrapped in a blanket that had been in his trunk. For those times they’d been together in his SUV. That blanket would have to be completely destroyed.
He’d liked the excitement of it all.
But he would have to vacuum it out. And he had to get rid of her body somehow.
He thought about burying her somewhere, like he had Miranda in Pennsylvania all those years ago. He could drop her in a cave somewhere in Barratt County. There were many such caves in the northern part of that county.
But that would require knowing where to find one that wouldn’t be accessible to anyone easily. He didn’t have time for that. He had to act soon.
The idea that Connie’s family and friends—she wasn’t extremely well liked at Barratt County, but she’d worked there for three years and she’d be missed—would never find her remains didn’t sit well with him.
They deserved to bury their dead.
And Connie deserved that dignity, as well.
He’d enjoyed her. He truly had.
It had been an accident. He’d just held her down too hard.
There were scratches on the inside of his wrist where she’d clawed at him. He should have backed away then.
He had tried that once. But she had kept yelling.
And then she’d threatened to report him to the police. For a minute there, he’d jolted back in time. To Miranda.
To what the cost would be if that every came to light.
His hand had tightened on Connie again.
Just to teach her a lesson. That had been all. It had been an accident.
He drove around for several hours, her body bundled up tightly in the back of his SUV, wrapped securely in the entire roll of trash bags he’d found beneath her kitchen sink.
Wallace just kept driving.
Until he could see the flooded waters of the Value Reservoir in the distance.
63
WALLACE STARED AT NIKKIE Jean Netorre as she and Allen walked toward him, deep in conversation around noon the next day. Allen had his hand on her shoulder. Comforting her.
The news he’d received from one of the gossiping nurses just a few minutes ago had flat-out floored him.
Nikkie Jean was pregnant.
Just like Connie had claimed to be.
Wallace bit back the anger again. She hadn’t been pregnant. He’d had a vasectomy fourteen years ago when Jennifer turned forty.
If she had been pregnant, the fetus hadn’t been his.
He tried to fight back the feeling of betrayal.
Connie had cheated on him. And had been looking for him to take care of her and her baby.
Had she thought he was an easy mark?
Someone had fathered Nikkie Jean’s baby, as well. He somehow doubted a resident who was barely thirty and career-driven like Dr. Netorre would have visited a sperm bank. No. She’d gotten close to some man, close enough to have sex with him.
Even as skittish as she was.
He wondered who it was.
It could have been Jacobson.
The two were certainly together quite a bit, and Jacobson had a habit of dating women in the hospital openly. He had been integral in getting the no-fraternization policy of the hospital changed from absolutely not tolerated to permissible with a waiver from human resources. He’d argued people should be free to be involved with whomever they wanted, whether they worked together or not. It had been a reasonable argument.
If Jacobson hadn’t pushed for that while acting as the assistant COM with Daniels, then Holden-Deane and his little redhead wouldn’t have been allowed to remain working together now.
Nikkie Jean wasn’t as skittish with Virat Patel, either. But that surgeon was involved heavily with Finley Coulter. Dr. Coulter was a good friend of Nikkie Jean’s. No, he doubted they’d be as friendly if Dr. Patel was the father. Cage Ralstone—he was friendly with Nikkie Jean.
As was Rafael Holden-Deane.
But he doubted that man would look away from his redheaded nurse long enough to see another woman. At least not yet.
It could be Ralstone’s, he supposed.
This job was a high-pressured one. Wallace certainly wouldn’t blame a man for looking for a little excitement—or a way to blow off steam.
He just hoped Nikkie Jean hadn’t seen him with Connie last night.
If she had…
Once it became known that Connie was dead—and he wasn’t an idiot, it would come out eventually—people would start to talk.
If Nikkie Jean put it together, she could pose a very real problem. All he could hope was that Nikkie Jean hadn’t seen enough to identify Connie.
It had been low light. And Nikkie Jean had vision issues, after all. Wallace could be making mountains when molehills didn’t actually exist.
He hoped.
Nikkie Jean could become a bigger problem than he was ready to face just yet. Wallace would just have to watch and see what happened. Then he’d make a decision about Nikkie Jean. If that girl ever figured out just what it was she had seen, Wallace could be in even deeper trouble than he imagined.
If she ever spoke with her father about Pennsylvania that trouble would just compound.
Miranda had worked as Jordan’s assistant, after all. She and Jordan Carrington’s wife had been extremely close friends.
If Jordan remembered…if Nikkie Jean put it together…if Holden-Deane’s audit revealed more than Wallace wanted…if Alvaro’s did…If any of them put any of it together, even just small parts, all Wallace had worked toward would fall completely apart.
Wallace’s hands shook.
He didn’t know if he was going to be able to make it nine more days. He didn’t even know if he was going to make it to tomorrow.
64
SHE HADN’T PLANNED on going with a man. She’d been asked to handle the guest book for Ariella and the governor’s quickly planned wedding, and she’d been honored to say yes. Allen had said that was fine when he’d told her she had to be his plus-one at the wedding as payment for her latest little prank.
She’d countered with the fact that it had been Lacy’s idea.
He’d absolved their friend from culpability far too easily. And then he’d told her the truth—he didn’t want to go around Ariella and the governor’s families alone. Not after what had happened before. And he wanted a friend to go with him.
Lacy had privately told her that the people in his social circle outside of the hospital had practically dumped Allen after everything that had happened with the man’s former friends.
She had had to say yes. She couldn’t let him face those people alone.
Not that Ariella and Marcus Deane were monsters. Far from it.
Besides, no one wanted to go to a wedding alone.
Now she stood next to a tall, handsome man and was not looking forward to going inside.
Her baby’s family was in there. And she had no idea what
the people in the church were going to think.
They knew just exactly who the father of her baby was, after all. Maybe they’d think she was just an interloper now. It was never too late for them to reject her, after all.
“Nervous?” Allen asked.
“I shouldn’t be. I mean, they are just his family. That’s all. And I was friends with some of them first. Hopefully they won’t forget that. And I don’t think he’ll be here. Way too soon for that. I think.”
Allen shot her a confused look. “Excuse me?”
Heat hit her cheeks. Her friends from W4HAV may know who the father of her baby was, but that didn’t mean FCGH did. “You don’t know, do you?”
“No.”
“Caine Alvaro, Rafe’s twin. I really don’t want to see him today. So I’m hoping I won’t.”
“He’s Jelly Bean’s father?”
She closed her eyes. “How did you know?”
Once it got out, it was going to blaze up and down the halls of FCGH that the father of Nikkie Jean’s baby ran the smaller hospital nearby—and was the identical twin brother of the COM. Talk about soap opera.
She was about to be the star of the show.
“The way the man looked when he spoke of you. Just for a moment. I know when a man wants a woman. And he wants you. Badly.”
“Well, he’s not going to get me. That’s for sure. No-doctors rule for a reason.” Although, she wasn’t just seeing him as a doctor any longer. He was Caine and would always be. Even if he drove a garbage truck for a living instead of ran a hospital. He would be Caine.
The man who understood what it was like to be as hurting as she was.
For the most insane moment, she half hoped he would be inside today.
She’d never had hour-long text conversations with a man before. Not like she’d had with him two nights ago while he sat up rocking a sick toddler at one a.m.
She’d wanted to just drive over there and cuddle the both of them.
That was what had her completely terrified right now, thank you very much. Getting deeper into him than he got to her.
Like her mother had said, Nikkie Jean ran the men in her life off eventually. It would no doubt happen with Caine, too.
“Well, there goes all my dreams.”
Nikkie Jean shot him a quick look. His smile told her he was just teasing, but the look in his eyes…now she wasn’t so sure. “Allen…”
“I’ll be here, anytime you—or Jelly Bean—need me. Friends. Consider me a pseudo big brother. Shelby says I’m pretty good at it. Most of the time. And I’m more than willing to be an uncle. Kid can never have too much family.”
Nikkie Jean surprised herself when she hugged him.
She seemed to hug Allen a lot lately.
“I would like that very, very much.”
“So…should we get in there?”
“Probably. Lacy told me to be here an hour early with the rest of the wedding party.”
“I’ll find a quiet place to wait for you.” He smiled down at her.
“I’ll need to find a seat at the back once everything is about to start,” Nikkie Jean told him. She hadn’t had a date for Jillian and Rafe’s wedding. Just Annie and Izzie. The three of them had sat together and sighed over how beautiful Jillian had looked and how absolutely perfect Rafe had been in his tuxedo. He hadn’t been scowling that day.
But tonight, she had a beautiful man right next to her. And no matter that it was Caine’s family who’d be surrounding her, Nikkie Jean was going to enjoy herself.
A friend had found happiness. Nikkie Jean was going to celebrate that. No matter what.
Caine did not want to be there. But his uncle had been the one to find the invitation to the governor’s wedding in the mail. Henry had been beyond excited. And when Caine had explained just how the governor was related to Rafe, and who the governor’s fiancée—who the media absolutely loved—actually was, Henry had insisted that Caine and the children attend.
The invitation had had three smaller invitations included for the children individually from their new cousins—who would be having a party at the Barratt after the main reception.
Caine wanted connections for his children, Henry had pointed out. Now was his chance to start making them.
The children had been excited, especially Keller.
She’d spoken frequently of the aunt she’d met and had asked when they were going to meet again. And if Keller could visit her sometimes.
Caine had felt the ropes tightening around him with every question. He was going to be meeting these people. Whether he was ready or not. Now was the time.
He would meet them, and then he would find the woman he wanted in the crowd. And she would be there; he had no doubt of that. He wasn’t about to let her escape again.
The wedding chapel was bound to be a large one; they would just find a place near the back.
“Daddy, look! There’s the church!” Keller yelled, more excited than he’d seen her in a long time. She had been a terror from the moment the invitation had been opened. It had taken an emergency trip to the Finley Creek Circle Mall to find the perfect dress to help settle her down.
Keller had never before cared what she wore. And never had she cried and begged him for a pretty dress. Caine had felt completely out of his element. It had taken two hours of the mall before he’d found what she wanted. He’d tried to get Henry to take her, but his uncle knew even less about little girl dresses than he did. His daughter was a very beautiful girl, and he wanted her to know that.
He didn’t know how he was going to survive puberty. And it was just around the corner. “I see it. You don’t need to yell.”
“Do you think Aunt Ari will like my dress?”
He doubted Ariella would even notice the niece she’d only met once. “I’m sure she will. But she’s going to be very busy today.”
“I know. But…” She pouted for a moment. “She’s so beautiful. And she looks just like me.”
“That she does. But I think you are prettier.” His daughter was quiet, shy, and a little bit self-conscious. He’d never figured out why. Maybe it was growing up in an all-male household. Or maybe it was something that had happened with her mother—both the twins were well old enough to remember when Caine had been deployed and April was the primary caregiver.
All he knew was that Everett had told him that sometimes Mommy was mean to Keller. Caine had never figured out exactly how. Or why.
He wished he had. He wished he could help his little girl see the beautiful being that she was. Somehow, he got the car parked and all three kids inside out of the rain. Keller was worrying about her hair and dress getting wet. Six months ago she hadn’t cared about her appearance at all. Now…it was all she thought about. Being as pretty as the other girls.
She was going to drive him insane someday. Once they stepped inside the church, the twins went quiet.
“There are a lot of people in there,” Everett said.
“Are we supposed to go in here?” Keller asked.
Caine followed the sign with his eyes. “That way. Avery/Deane wedding.”
He shifted Dalton on his hip and pointed. Everett clutched the diaper bag closer like a shield. None of his kids really liked large crowds.
Hell, neither did Caine. Only Keller seemed happy to be here today.
Caine was just waiting for Dalton to start screaming in the midst of the ceremony and disrupt everything. That would be one way to get Nikkie Jean’s attention—and drive her running toward the nearest hills. “Let’s go. Find a seat.”
She was just speaking with one of the ushers—Ariella’s brother-in-law—when she heard them come in. Everything echoed in the old church, especially the sounds of a babbling toddler. She smiled at the elderly woman who had just asked her how old she was now and when she’d graduate—high school—and turned to the next set of guests.
Her breath backed up in her throat. A squeak escaped.
The usher, Mick, looked down at her.
He was just as big as Caine and Rafe. Just as handsome with warm-brown hair and blue eyes. He was married to Ariella’s older sister, and they’d met before at Jillian’s wedding. “Are you ok?”
“I just…was not prepared to see him today for some reason.”
Mick looked toward the man who had just entered. Caine hadn’t seen her yet. She half thought about slipping behind Mick and hiding. “Any particular reason why? I know why I’m not too keen on seeing him.”
“Let’s just say…that…” Well, it was going to get out there sooner or later. She lowered her voice. “Caine and I…made a baby together, due in seven months or so. But that’s still on the down low. I just really don’t want to see him right now.”
“Congratulations, I’ve been told I make a great uncle. And too late. He’s noticed you and heading your way.”
“Do me a favor? Arrest me or something. Book me for the…next eight months or so? That might give me time to come up with a plan.”
“The FBI doesn’t quite work that way.” Mick gave an almost feral grin. “I’ll introduce myself. That should handle your problem.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it. You have the hero thing down pat, right?”
“I’ve been working on it. Welcome to the family.”
He stepped in front of her.
There was a man in a tux, equally as big as Caine, blocking his path to the guest book. Rather, the guest-book attendant. The man held out his hand—to Keller. He gave a little bow to Caine’s daughter and smiled. “Right this way, miss. I’ll show you to your seat.”
“We’re on the bri—”
“I know. I’m married to your younger sister, Paige. She’s inside with our sons.”
Caine turned his attention more fully on the other man. “Caine Alvaro. These are my children, Everett, Keller, and Dalton.”
“So are you our uncle then?” Everett asked. “Like Uncle Henry is our dad’s uncle?”
“That’s it exactly. I’m married to your father’s sister. Our sons are your cousins.”
“Cool.”
Lost in the Wind Page 24
