Three Rivers (A Gateway to Love Novel)

by Barlow, Chloe T.

  He cursed, knowing the chance of her hearing his messages before she walked right into danger were slim to none.

  Griffen hurried to his suitcase in the closet, unzipped the inside pocket and grabbed his gun case and knife.

  Griffen had done a lot of things he wasn't proud of on his investigations over the years but today he knew he'd do whatever it took to protect Althea.

  He'd do it over and over again and be proud of it.

  He may have failed Jack when he was alive and then doubted him in death, but he wouldn't — couldn't — fail Althea. Jack would've died for her and so would he. Griffen would rescue her for Jack, for Johnny, for the girls and goddammit for himself, too.

  He strapped the knife to his ankle and fitted the gun in his back waistband.

  With his weapons secured, he ran out of his room.

  "Althea! What're you doing here?" David asked in shock as she walked in the door. He turned abruptly, his hands behind his back.

  "Good morning to you, too, David. I do live here, you know," she laughed.

  "I know that. I just mean why aren't you at work? Is everything okay?"

  He was standing near the basement door and seemed nervous, but Althea was too overwhelmed to care. She needed to sort through all that Griffen had told her and then she would call him. That was the right thing to do. Talk through it after she had her feelings under control.

  "I had a morning appointment, so I came back here to get ready. What do you need? Are you looking for something?"

  "I thought I left something in the basement during Johnny's party."

  "In the basement?"

  "Yeah, there were those trays you needed remember?"

  "Not really, sorry. What did you leave? Maybe I saw it."

  "Nothing important. Just something work related."

  "Oh no, that sucks, was it research or something?"

  "Yeah...or something."

  "I'm sorry — haven't seen anything and I don't think I can help you look. I've had the worst morning. I'll look for it later, okay? I don't mean to be rude, but..."

  "Are you leaving for work soon?"

  "I don't know. I may take a nap. Why?"

  "Oh, so you aren't leaving?"

  David's eyes kept darting around the room and he was making her very nervous.

  "David. Are you okay?"

  "Okay? Uh, yeah. Since you're here and not leaving, maybe we can catch up." He seemed far less casual than his words. "Were you with that Griffen guy?"

  "David, it's not really any of your business." His eyes were wild and her response made him look frantic. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

  "Yeah, just wondering what's up with that guy is all. He was on campus asking about Jack yesterday. Do you know anything about that?" His eyes kept glancing around the room, still apparently looking for something.

  "Well, I guess that makes sense. He was looking into Jack's last couple weeks."

  "Did he have any thoughts? You know, about Jack?"

  "I don't want to talk about it. I'm seriously tired."

  "Oh. Okay. Uh, here, let me get you some coffee."

  She plopped down in the living room, hearing the distant hiss and hum of her Keurig. She was frustrated he wouldn't leave, but barring her being flat out rude to David, he seemed intent on staying and finding the work material he'd lost.

  David returned a minute later and handed her a cup. Althea thought it odd that his hand was trembling, but figured it was just her own nerves making her see things that weren't there.

  "Thanks David." He stood in front of her as she drank it. "Aren't you having any?"

  "No. I'm good, thanks," he said softly, looking at his watch.

  Griffen hurried to the front of the hotel and jumped into his car, practically knocking over the valet as he stepped out of it. Feeling desperate, Griffen called Althea yet again.

  No answer.

  Desperate, he dialed Jenna's number.

  Another no answer. Shit!

  His mind tormented him as he gripped the steering wheel so tight his hands ached. Everything was a mess. All he could think about was getting her away from David in one piece, but he was helpless if he couldn't get in touch with her.

  Each moment that passed was another second she was in danger. She could already be injured for all he knew. Griffen had to force his brain to relax as he changed lanes quickly, cutting off a slow car to his right.

  With the Boulevard of the Allies suddenly opening in front of him with a series of green lights Griffen breathed a little more easily and pressed the accelerator hard as he hurried toward the Liberty Bridge to cross the Monongahela River to Althea's home.

  His heart eased a little when he saw Jenna returning his call.

  Several minutes had passed since Althea politely drank the coffee David had given her, yet he was still making no move to leave. Instead, he was simply staring at her in a completely unnerving way.

  "David I don't want to be pushy, but I need to get a move on. I have to go to work and now I'm more tired than ever, so I really think I need to take a nap. Can you come back and look for whatever it is you need later?"

  "I understand. Uh, sure. Do you want to take your nap now?"

  "David, no. I really think you should leave."

  "Okay, but first maybe you should talk about this Griffen thing. Do you know anything about what he found about Jack? It must've upset you right?"

  "It did upset me and I don't really want to talk about it." Her head was swimming and simply talking to David was making her more agitated by the fog in her brain.

  "Tea, Jack worked for me. It's important I know if he did something that will hurt the university. What does Griffen think Jack did? Had he talked to anyone?" His words were logical but he was edgy and it made her nervous.

  "I guess you're right, it really does affect the department." She sat down in a nearby chair to ease the heaviness in her limbs. "He thought Jack stole something, he's probably going to the authorities about it."

  "Oh God," David whispered. He tugged at his hair and spun around, leaning over the dining room table, eyes wild. "Oh God."

  "I know it's awful to think about it, but I didn't know. How could you have?"

  "How could I know?" he asked himself quietly.

  "Seriously, what is wrong, David?"

  He choked out a mirthless laugh and looked at her with red-rimmed distraught eyes.

  "Everything's wrong, Tea." He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, leaning back in complete torment. David dropped his hands and stared at her. "How tired are you Tea?"

  A wave of exhaustion hit her and she couldn't deny the swimming of her eyes. David appeared before her, kneeling in front of her face, holding her upright by her arms.

  "You're pretty tired I think, Tea. Good," he whispered. "Before you doze off, please tell me where to find Jack's things? I was going to wait until you went to sleep but it's too urgent. I can't wait a second!"

  "Why, what do you need?"

  "A flash drive. And I need it now. Please."

  "A flash drive? Of Jack's?" She squirmed away as the connections between what Griffen told her and David's mania came together in her mind. "Please let me go."

  "Please, Tea, don't fight me. I need you to answer me."

  "No! David, why do you need a flash drive? What did you do?"

  He suddenly squeezed her upper arms tightly.

  "Dammit, Tea. I don't want to hurt you. Just tell me if you've seen it."

  "I don't know what you're talking about David," she lied.

  His eyes were so wild when he looked down at her that her breath caught in her throat. He was a stranger to her. There was no semblance of the gentle man who'd helped her through years of grief. There was only the strained face of a madman.

  "Look, Tea," he breathed. "I've torn apart one of your houses before. I can do it again. Everything will be easier if you just tell me."

&n
bsp; "What? You robbed my house?" He lifted her off the chair and pulled her body to his. She tried to fight him, pulling away for a moment, but he only grabbed her more tightly, pulling her back to his front.

  She felt so lightheaded. The fear, the confusion, was all combining to overwhelm her with panic. She wanted to fight but her muscles were feeling more and more weak.

  He leaned his head on her neck and breathed deeply in such an intimate way she felt almost nauseated. With each movement of hers, he simply pulled her closer, whispering in her ear, "Jack told me he made a flash drive that night I found him on my computer. He knew what I'd done. I had to find it."

  "What had you done David?" Althea asked, but she had a horrifying suspicion she already knew.

  He breathed her in again, shuddering against her. "When I couldn't find the flash drive in your old place I just stuck close to you. At first I just needed to keep an eye on you, see if you knew anything." He turned her around to look in her eyes and she hoped the movement would allow her a chance to get free, but he just pulled her in more tightly. Her head was fuzzy and she didn't know why, she only knew she needed to get away from him. "But I fell in love with you Tea. I love you so much. I've waited for you. Please help me." He stroked her face but she jerked away with as much strength as her quickly weakening body would allow.

  "You're not making any sense, David. Just let me go."

  "I was so in love with you, am still so in love with you. I don't want to hurt you. If you won't help me, I need you to just go to sleep, okay?"

  "Please stop, David. You're scaring me. Let me go."

  She finally managed to break free and ran for the door, but her legs were so heavy that it took all her strength to make it to her phone.

  "Don't do that Tea, please," David begged as she squeezed her only lifeline.

  She could feel herself getting hysterical as she fumbled with her phone. Before she knew it, he had her immobilized again from behind.

  He was reaching around her body for the phone. She managed to enter a "9" before he eased away from her back for a moment.

  "Why won't you just go to sleep, Tea. Dammit!"

  She stumbled at the newfound hope of freedom, but instead felt a swift hard pressure on the back of her head.

  Then, there was nothing.

  "Jenna, thank God! Have you spoken to Althea?"

  "Hey Griffen. Yeah. I gotta say she's pretty worked up."

  Griffen made his way onto Liberty Bridge and came to a dead stop as the cars merged slowly into one tight lane.

  Fucking Pittsburgh! Hundreds of bridges and half of them are under construction.

  He could only hope Althea's car was stuck in this mess, too.

  "Where is she? Please tell me she's still in the car."

  "No. She should've just made it home.”

  Dammit, and I'm stuck!

  Impotent rage coursed through his veins as he honked and changed lanes, desperate to get across this river that was keeping him from saving his woman.

  "With David? Shit. I need to get to her. Listen to me Jenna, David's dangerous. I'm pretty sure he killed Jack."

  "Oh my God! Did you call the police?"

  "I did, they said they're on their way."

  "I'll call Carol. She's got all kinds of connections with the cops, and fire department, too. I bet she can get someone there faster. And I'll call my guys with the paramedics, in case..."

  Griffen couldn't let her finish that sentence. "Yeah. Thanks Jenna," he interrupted.

  "Of course."

  Griffen hung up and honked and waved his arm out of the window with all his might, his stomach flipping over itself with each inch he made it closer to Althea.

  He could only hope David's apparent obsession with Althea would keep the bastard from hurting her.

  Althea opened her heavy eyes, struggling to make them focus. She couldn't see David but could hear him tearing around in the study. She jumped in her seat, suddenly realizing her hands were tied behind the chair. Panic was rising in her throat and her head was throbbing so hard that she was having a hard time focusing on any thought or image in front of her. She scanned the room as she slowly wiggled her hands against her bindings. They were tight but she felt like there was enough slack that she could get one hand free — if she could only get her brain and muscles to cooperate.

  Her eyes widened when she saw how trashed her first floor was. The sofa was sliced apart, papers were everywhere. Althea's brain was slow but it was processing just how desperate, crazed...and dangerous David really was. She saw the rope he'd used on the dining room table, disgusted to recognize that it had come from her own utility closet.

  She started fumbling more frantically with her ropes, trying to keep her sobs in her throat, but every part of her was wrapped in terror. Just when she thought she might make some progress on her right hand's ties, her wristwatch clumsily knocked the back of the chair in such a way that the thud reverberated through the room.

  She stopped moving immediately, praying it was just her fear that made it seem so loud to her, but all sounds and movement from the study stopped. David emerged and walked to her with that slight limp in his left leg that he got whenever he was really tired or stressed — another residual torment from his car accident of seven years before.

  "You're up.” He walked to her and knelt down with an agonized look on his face as he slowly reached a trembling hand to her cheek. She jerked away as much as her aching head and secured arms would let her.

  "I'm so sorry Tea. I didn't want to do that. I never wanted to hurt you, but I couldn't let you leave. You weren't supposed to be here.” He was rambling and his eyes kept darting around the room.

  "What are you doing David? Why am I tied up?" she whispered as he stood and slumped down on the destroyed couch.

  "I couldn't have you calling the police. You know that, Althea.” His eyes were unfocused and crazed. "Why can't I just find Jack's flash drive?"

  He stared at her, making nausea roll over her in waves, but she wouldn't look away. She wracked her brain to remember all her tips from the self-defense classes she'd taken.

  The one that kept coming to the forefront of her mind was: Keep him talking. Don't let the conversation stop.

  Griffen had finally made it across the river and broke about every traffic law he could think of as he sped up Mt. Washington to Althea's home.

  No need to worry about stoplights or speed limits now. In fact, being followed by a cop would've been a good thing. Unfortunately, he made it there with no police escort.

  The streets were quiet with everyone at work. All he could hope was he wasn't too late.

  He felt sick at the time that had passed, imagining all the things David could have done to her. He pulled up to park a block down from Althea's home. There were still two cars in front of her half of the duplex and he chose to believe it was a good sign as he walked quietly closer.

  "Maybe if you tell me what's on the flash drive I can think of where Jack put it," Althea choked out.

  "Military information."

  "Were you stealing information from the department? Why?" she slurred.

  "I needed money so badly. That accident ruined my life. Even now, I still have so much pain.” He stared at her miserably as he spoke. "I was totally broke, depressed, gambling. I lost everything. I couldn't research well anymore. I, uh, borrowed some of Jack's ideas."

  "Oh David."

  "But then we got those military contracts. And they contacted me. They knew everything — the gambling, the drugs, the idea theft. They were going to leak it to the university. I would have nothing. Or I could take their offer and be rich. It was too easy to decide."

  "Who were 'they' David?"

  "Chinese black market dealers, I think. Wasn't really my place to ask.” He looked lost as he rose and started to absently pour out the contents of each of the drawers in her dining room onto the ground.

  "Why would you do i
t? You're so respected. You would always have a job at any university."

  "No I wouldn't. Not when they found out.” He started looking around again, but with more hopelessness. "The pain from my accident never went away. I still need the pills, Tea, even now. Oh God, but now...what am I going to do?"

  "Jack wasn't helping you, was he?” The question tore at her heart, the thought of it killing her.

  "Jack?” he laughed. "Never. But he did find that someone had taken the military information off the server. I had been so careful, had encrypted messages, blocked senders and receivers of messages, anything showing I had access and was making the deal. I'd worked so hard to cover my tracks, not even letting us work on the project. He just fell on it while repairing the glitches I put on there to hide my work. God, he was so smart.”

  "Someone would've found out, anyway, right?” she asked quietly.

  "Not before I was long gone. Jack had come to me with what he was finding. He didn’t know it was me, so I blew him off — told him to tell me if he found more and that I'd take it to the authorities. I had it all figured out — I'd be gone and they'd see money going to Jack and calls from China to our office line, I figured they would think it was him. I just needed more time. But he figured out someone was setting him up..."

  "But he loved you, David," Althea whispered.

  "I never wanted to hurt Jack. It all got so fucked up. I was just lucky no one looked into Jack's death. The Chinese took what little materials I'd given them and I got a small payout. Not enough for me to leave, though. I was stuck and so scared all these years.” David covered his face with his hands in frustration.

  "David, what do you mean, look into Jack's death... He was..."

  "In the car by himself? When I saw him in my office I drugged his coffee like I did yours.” Althea groaned painfully as her foggy brain suddenly made a lot more sense to her.

  "I was waiting for Jack to pass out. I figured I could destroy whatever he'd found linking the Chinese to me after he passed out. Discredit him with evidence of payouts, blame him for it all and leave in time to collect my money. But he found me in the building. Confronted me. He knew everything. I was too late. Oh God, and then he told me he had a flash drive hidden somewhere safe. He refused to tell me where. I had no choice, I swear!"