by Addison Fox
They had kissed. And spent time together. And even had this evening together.
And she mattered.
In the end, wasn’t that really at the heart of it all?
“I hate to leave that wine behind.” Evangeline glanced at the almost half-full bottle still perched at the edge of the table. “But two glasses are my limit.”
“And one for me since I’m driving.” He eyed the bottle, as well, before smiling. “Though to be honest, I’m not sure Antonio will mind. I’ve seen the wine cellar in this place and our leftover half a bottle isn’t making a dent.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
They stood, gathering up their things. In his own inimitable fashion, Antonio had already dispensed with the bill, ensuring Melissa’s desire for an evening out was honored. Nor did Troy miss the satisfied smile from across the room where Antonio caught his eye, but he did nothing more than wave goodbye as an acknowledgment. Troy appreciated the dinner, but if Melissa had any inkling how close she’d come to playing matchmaker this evening, he’d never hear the end of it. A sure step in avoiding that was ensuring he didn’t tip off her fiancé.
They walked back out and Troy kept his gaze trained on their surroundings. Although he didn’t want to let his guard down, he knew the sort of security Antonio ran at the hotel and could at least breathe easy as their car was pulled around to the valet stand with prompt efficiency.
Troy opened the door for Evangeline, helping her slip into the car. His gaze caught hers as he took her hand and something deep and sharp and painful sliced through his midsection.
Did he honestly think he could stay immune to this woman?
She settled into the seat, their gazes lingering, and Troy had to pull away and force himself to walk back around to his side of the car.
Drive her home, Colton. Then get back into the car and drive your lovesick ass home. Look at crime scene photos if you have to, but get her out of your mind and certainly out of your blood.
All very solid direction, Troy thought, as he opened his own door and swung in.
Ridiculously solid, he lamented, as he put the car into Drive and headed for the exit of the hotel.
He’d barely turned out of the parking lot when he heard the sharp intake of breath followed by a piercing scream.
Slamming on the brakes, he turned to stare at Evangeline. Light from the overhead streetlamps at the edge of the hotel property flooded the car and in the glow he could see she’d gone a ghostly shade of white.
Terror glossed her eyes, rapidly transmitting toward him as his gaze tore over her face and upper body.
Was she hurt?
In pain?
“Evangeline!” Her name tore from his lips as he tried to get through the agonizing shrieks.
It was only when that terrified scream fell into a throaty whimper that he saw her gaze actually had a destination.
As his own gaze shifted course, he saw it. The balled-up white shirt on the floor of the passenger seat, streaks of blood soaked into the material.
Chapter 15
“What in the ever-loving hell is going on here?” Antonio Ruiz paced his office from one end to the other. “My valets are trained and they know the penalty for allowing anyone access to a car in our garage.”
“We’re getting to the bottom of it.” Melissa tried to reassure her fiancé but it was obvious she wasn’t getting through. The pacing had ratcheted up to stalking a hole into the carpet as he moved back and forth in front of his desk. It had taken Melissa’s quiet yet firm order to keep him near his desk and stop him from rushing down to the crime scene in the garage.
Troy could hardly blame Antonio, since he wanted to be down there, as well. But knowing Brett and Ember were there gave him some peace of mind as he kept close to Evangeline and they all waited for news in the office.
She still looked deathly pale, a state that hadn’t changed, even with both hands wrapped around a warm mug of tea one of Antonio’s assistants had brought in for her.
Her grisly discovery in the car had momentarily stunned him but he’d finally gotten his wits when another patron departing the hotel behind him laid on their horn. Whipping back around into the parking lot, he’d already speed-dialed Melissa to tell her what happened. He’d pulled up in front of the hotel and barked out orders to the valet station to find him a spot to set up in the garage.
The team had complied, the fact they already knew him going a long way toward their cooperation, even before he had his badge out.
Melissa had arrived shortly after, Brett and Ember on her heels.
“What happened?” Brett’s question was out before he’d even cleared his car.
“The shirt,” Troy had told him. “We got back into the car after dinner and Evangeline found it at her feet on the floor on the passenger side.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“I know. This is too close.” Troy stared at the shirt, still visible on the floor of his car. Too damn close.
“Which is concerning all on its own. But worse knowing that shirt’s been in play for a few days now.” Brett shook his head. “So where’s the body?”
The crime scene techs had arrived and were getting set up. Troy was grateful to see Jillian in the mix. She’d do right by the evidence, which meant she’d do right by Evangeline.
Brett had gone to work then, too. He set Ember up with the scent from the shirt and then began the repeated motions, working their way from the car outward, looking for a scent.
Troy had wanted to stay but Melissa’s orders, barked at Antonio through her phone to stay put in his office with Evangeline, had sent him running back into the hotel.
Yet even as he ran toward her, determined to shield her as best as he could, Brett’s last question rang over and over in his mind.
Where was the body?
When it was just an investigation into a disappearing crime, Troy had been able to keep that thought at bay. They’d reviewed open files for any missing women in the area, but when no one turned up that fit Evangeline’s description, they’d moved on.
But now? With the evidence some crime had been committed? It was challenging not to follow it all the way through to its natural conclusion.
There was a dead woman undiscovered and unaccounted for somewhere in Grave Gulch.
Pushing that grisly image aside until they had the details from the CSI team and whatever Ember could suss out in the garage, Troy turned his attention back to Evangeline. Her gaze followed Antonio as he criss-crossed his office, but other than her polite thank-you to the man’s assistant for the tea, she’d said nothing else.
Which made her next words that much more of a surprise. Her voice was steady and strong as she leveled a question at Antonio.
“Who has access to your garage?”
Antonio stopped and turned at the question. “The valet staff. Hotel staff. Laundry deliveries, too. Big deliveries go through the loading dock but laundry is in the garage as the entrance goes straight to housekeeping.”
“Is a badge required?”
“Yes.”
“Cameras?”
“Of course.”
Antonio nodded before Melissa jumped in. “Ellie’s on it and already working with the IT office. If there’s something to find she’ll find it quickly. There was a limited window of time when someone could get to Troy’s car.”
Just like the comfort he took knowing Brett and Ember had the garage and Jillian had the forensics on the shirt, he was pleased Ellie was running point on the tech.
And he still hated sitting in the office, away from it all. He knew Melissa felt the same and figured she’d finally give in and let Antonio come with her for no other reason than she wanted to be down in the garage. He’d nearly said as much when Jillian came racing into the office.
“Mel!” Jillian came to a halt when she s
aw the assembled group. “Even better. You’re all here.”
“You found something?” Melissa asked.
“The blood. On the shirt.”
Troy felt Evangeline stiffen beside him. Before he could ask for more details, Jillian was already excitedly revealing her discovery. “It’s not human.”
“What?”
The question went up as a collective, all of them talking at once.
“It’s a fake.” Jillian waved the phone in her hand, tapping the face to pull up a photo. “Look at it.”
She set the phone down on Antonio’s desk and they all gathered around.
“It’s not a person’s blood?” Evangeline said, her excitement palpable as she stared at the phone.
Troy heard the distinct notes of hope in her voice and hoped like hell Jillian was right. He didn’t doubt his cousin, but after all Evangeline had been through, they couldn’t afford to make any missteps here.
“I secured the evidence from the car and was going to take it directly to the lab. I still will, but there was something about the spatter pattern that bothered me.”
Troy gave his cousin her due, listening patiently to her overview of blood spatter and the seemingly random nature of what was on the shirt. “But the kicker was when I realized what was missing.”
Evangeline’s harsh intake of breath had Jillian smiling and nodding, all at once.
“No bullet holes.” Evangeline’s breath flew out on a hard whoosh. She eyed the phone again before turning her attention fully back to Jillian. “You can see it even in the photo.”
“So whose blood is it?” Melissa demanded, snatching the phone off the desk to expand the image of the shirt.
“It’s synthetic. Someone wanted this to look pretty damn scary, but the blood isn’t human. I’ll run full tests on it and log it in evidence, but I’m pretty sure that is not human blood. And based on the integrity of the fabric, no one was shot wearing it, either. The blood spattered like it came out of an exploding capsule. The sort they use in TV shows to fake an accident.”
“I don’t understand.” Evangeline ran her hand through her hair, her gaze steady on Jillian. “I mean, I’m happy no one was shot. Relieved, really. But what is this all about?”
“It’s a joke.” Melissa’s gaze was dark as she set the phone back on the desk. “A nasty one. On you and on all the good cops trying to get to the bottom of this.”
Throughout his life, he’d had plenty of experience with seeing Melissa mad. From family squabbles to workplace blowups, her threshold for anger was something Troy wasn’t ignorant of. She was levelheaded and calm and didn’t cross that line often, but she was human, too. Add on the high-stress job and she’d been known to lash out a time or two.
But never, in all his life, had he seen the sheer fury that now painted her face. Her crystal-blue eyes had gone dark with it, her slim frame fixed in hard, tense lines. She gripped one of the guest chairs in front of Antonio’s desk, her knuckles going white.
It was only after she’d stared at each one of them, Evangeline the longest, that Troy saw that fury channel itself into action. “We’re going to find whoever did this and take him down. And if I find out this has anything to do with Len Davison or Randall Bowe, there is no rock either one of them can hide under that I won’t pull them out from.”
Troy moved close, laying a hand over hers and squeezing tight. “That makes two of us.”
* * *
Evangeline yawned as Troy turned into the parking lot of her condo. She’d believed getting back into his car would be difficult but she’d been so exhausted by the time they finally reached the parking garage that her fear never took root.
It doesn’t hurt, knowing the blood wasn’t human.
Which was entirely true, even if she couldn’t deny the sheer menace of the situation. Yes, it was creepy to know someone had done such a malicious prank. But it was still a wild relief to know a human being hadn’t been harmed in the process.
The various GGPD teams had finally wrapped up in the parking garage about two hours after Jillian’s revelation in Antonio’s office. And while it had buoyed Evangeline’s spirits to know a person was unharmed, those same spirits had taken a second hit when Ellie had come in about an hour later and confirmed she hadn’t been successful in finding anything on video.
Antonio’s outburst had sent him marching off toward the hotel’s IT office, leaving her and Troy behind. She’d encouraged him to go down with the rest of the GGPD but he’d insisted on staying with her.
A kindness she appreciated, even as she warned herself not to get too comfortable with the attention.
While it wasn’t definitive proof, whatever she witnessed in the alley seemingly wasn’t a murder. A crime of some sort, yes, but not something that had resulted in murder. Melissa had vowed the GGPD would get to the bottom of things, but Evangeline knew the decreased likelihood of a murder meant the already-stretched staff would double down on its efforts to find Len Davison and Randall Bowe.
A move Evangeline not only agreed with but insisted upon. Police resources had to be prioritized where they were most needed and a serial killer at large needed to be everyone’s focus.
Even though it meant she’d see far less of Troy.
“I’d like to stay one more night.” Troy turned off the car and turned to her. The parking lot lamp was still out but the light she’d left on over her front door gave some illumination to the car.
“You don’t have to. I know a lot happened tonight. And I know the shirt thing is creepy and we have to get to the bottom of it all, but I can’t tell you how relieved I am that no one was murdered.”
“We don’t know that.”
“No, we don’t. But we’re a lot closer to thinking someone’s playing a nasty, disgusting prank than anything else.”
He still didn’t look convinced and Evangeline reached out to lay a hand on his forearm. “You’ve been so good to me this week. But the GGPD needs you. Totally focused on finding and securing Len Davison.” She paused, well aware she’d had a part in that. “I know that better than anyone.”
“You don’t still blame yourself for that?”
“I do.”
“Randall Bowe is responsible for it.”
They could go round and round but it wouldn’t change anything.
Troy’s support of her was sweet and oh-so-caring, but she owned her role in all that had happened. In all the challenges the town of Grave Gulch currently faced. And in the questions the community now rightly asked of its public servants.
He looked ready to argue with her but only nodded. “Let me at least come in and check everything out.”
What had seemed insensitive and rote earlier left a new sensation in her chest now. It felt good to be cared for.
Wonderful, actually.
With no small measure of shock—and an amazing shot of clarity—Evangeline realized that she hadn’t had that in a long time.
Maybe ever?
Her mother was warm and caring, but so much of Evangeline’s childhood was overshadowed by the behavior of her father that those quiet moments with her mother weren’t as fixed in her memory.
She’d dated off and on since college, a few of the relationships moving to something steadier and more serious, but she’d always held those men at arm’s length. Almost as if the distance could protect her should they turn, their personalities morphing with the same sort of anger and rage as her father had.
It was only now, faced with the innate kindness, warmth and true decency that was Troy Colton that Evangeline recognized all she’d missed.
Or never had to begin with.
And with that realization came one she hadn’t expected. Yet now that she recognized it, she couldn’t deny it.
She wanted him.
It would be so easy to chalk it up to the stress of the past
few days, piled onto the distress of the past few months. A need that could assuage the strain and anxiety and provide a pleasurable reprieve from all she was living with.
But even as she rolled that thought through her mind, Evangeline knew it was an excuse.
The current situation had given her proximity to Troy in a way she’d never had before. And with it, she’d had the opportunity to see all the qualities she’d believed he possessed but hadn’t known for sure.
The first time they’d crossed paths in the Grave Gulch County courthouse, she’d seen an attractive man with a strong jaw and sexy smile. As she’d deposed him for cases, she’d seen a man who cared about justice and wanted the best for each and every one of their citizens.
It was only now that she could acknowledge how surface attraction had turned to deep-seated interest. How the knowledge of his professional commitment could make him even more appealing on a deeply personal level. And how attraction, always left on simmer up to now, could leap up and grab you by the throat with sharp, needy claws.
“I’d appreciate that.” She took a deep breath and wondered if she could press for more. “Thank you for making sure I’m safe.”
He carried the protection even further, asking her to remain in the car until he could come around and get the door for her. It was sweet and chivalrous and the insistent need that had begun thrumming in her bloodstream at the thought of intimacy with Troy began to beat.
His grip was firm as he held her hand, helping her out of the elevated seat of the SUV. She felt her heels hit the concrete and, even with her balance steady, she held tight to Troy at the sudden trembling in her knees.
Did she dare pursue this?
And could she live with herself if she didn’t try?
In the span of a few short minutes, they were inside her condo, no external threat detected during the short walk from the car or the time it took to unlock her front door.
Unwilling to stand there twiddling her thumbs, she went to the kitchen while Troy did his check of the house. Surprised to see her hand trembling, she dug out a bottle of water from the fridge. She’d just unscrewed the cap and lifted the bottle to her lips when Troy walked back into the kitchen.
