“Should we come back later?”
Alex slammed her eyes shut at the sound of Rhett’s voice behind her. The table shifted as John Cabelly let his foot fall to the floor.
“No. She’s all yours.”
Sensing him moving closer, Alex opened her eyes as the sheriff leaned in to speak softly in her ear.
“In case you ever start to wonder, I’d never turn down a deputy on my department with your skill and experience.”
Alex met his gaze as he pulled back, hesitated a heartbeat, and then walked out of her line of sight. She stayed where she was as she listened to the sound of his booted footsteps slowly fade only to be replaced by ones that grew louder as Rhett and Drake came closer.
“Are you okay?”
Alex met Rhett’s gaze and felt herself start to drown in the compassion and love in his eyes. No, she wasn’t okay. She felt as if she were caught in a whirlwind of uncertainty and doubt. She’d been here before, but she’d held onto the ropes she’d tied to her dreams and climbed them with everything she had no matter what it had cost her.
As she shifted her attention from Rhett’s eyes to Drake’s, she wondered how she could hold on so firmly again when everything inside her felt as if it was caught in a magnetic pull that would keep her here on Silver Island.
“I’m fine.” The lie came too easily as she hopped off the table and forced the case back to the forefront of her mind. “Except that I don’t believe Chad Divine or Michaela Gleason is our killer, so now we’re back at step one.”
* * * *
Rhett could feel the waves of tension and frustration pumping off Alex as she hopped off the table and stood in front of the dry-erase board with her back to them. She wasn’t okay and he seriously doubted her irritation had anything to do with the case. He and Drake had obviously walked in on something between her and the sheriff. He wasn’t stupid enough to think they had interrupted anything sexually intimate, but conversationally was a possibility. They certainly hadn’t been discussing the case.
He glanced at Drake, saw the man give him an almost imperceptible shake of his head, and let the questions forming on his tongue die. Now wasn’t the time to grill her about anything, even though there was so much he wanted to ask. Why had she crawled out of their bed when she thought they were still sleeping? Was she regretting last night that badly? Had last night with them planted the seed in her mind that she might want to stay?
Figuring, no matter how desperately he didn’t want it to be, that that last question was his own wishful thinking, he squashed it and focused his attention on the case. “What changed your mind about Chad and Michaela?”
She heaved a heavy, audible sigh, but didn’t turn to look at him. “The call I got this morning from Cameron Stone. He’s showed Michaela’s picture around and, so far, hasn’t come up with anyone that has seen her at Castaways or anywhere near Lynette Cross since Lynette left the island. I also called the agent in Gulf Shores. No one there connected with Kelli Darcy has ever seen Lynette Cross or Michaela Gleason.”
“And Chad?” Drake asked.
Alex shrugged. “Everything Chad has told us has checked out. We haven’t found anything concrete to offset his story.” She rotated her head on her shoulders as if her neck ached as she turned to face them. “Hell, we haven’t even found anything non-concrete to offset his story.”
“Yet you still can’t shake the feeling that one or both of them is behind the murders in some way?” Drake caught her arm, pulled her closer, and turned her back to him. “Stay.” The firmness in his tone stopped her when she started to move back out of his reach. Obviously satisfied she was going to listen, he moved his hands to her shoulders and started to massage. “Let’s go over what we know.”
They’d been over everything a thousand times, but Rhett knew they would do it a thousand more until they got it right. As they took turns reciting each bit of information they had uncovered about Lynette Cross, Kelli Darcy, Chad Divine, and Michaela Gleason, Rhett saw the tension in Alex’s neck and shoulders slowly ease under Drake’s pressured kneading.
“Chad confessed to having a weakness for redheads and strawberry blondes,” Alex commented after they ran out of bullet points to cover. “Other than Michaela, how many women have you seen him with on the island?”
Rhett exchanged a look with Drake before answering. “None that I can recall.”
“So he’s not a player. Unless he does his playing when he takes his trips to the mainland.”
“I don’t think he’s a player on or off the island. If someone were to put together a list of the sexiest men on Silver Island, he’d likely be tagged as number one.” He snorted when his comment earned him mirroring amused looks from Alex and Drake. “Really, you two. No, I don’t think he’s sexy, but come on. Women trip over their damn feet when they get a look at the guy.”
Alex stepped away from Drake, flexing her shoulders as she turned to face him. “Thanks. That feels much better. And Rhett has a point. Chad is pretty hot.” Her lips trembled in an obvious attempt to hold back a smile at the look Rhett knew was probably on his face. He figured it was about the same half-jealous and half-don’t-even-think-about-it expression Drake had on his face. “Even Michaela said most of the women that walk in Divine Playthings flock to him if he’s around.”
“All right. The guy’s hot.” Rhett nearly cracked up at the derision in Drake’s tone. “How is that going to help us?”
Rhett pulled a page out of Alex’s book and started to pace as the pieces began to fit together. “Chad was one of the first residents to settle on the island. He’s dated, for a lack of a better word, two women other than Michaela since he’s been here and they’ve both ended up dead.”
“Which would lead us to believe either he killed them or Michaela did.” Out of the corner of his eye, Rhett saw Drake shake his head. “And we’ve already ruled both of them out.”
“What if Michaela isn’t the one that got jealous?” Rhett pivoted in time to see a slow smile spread on Alex’s angelic face. “What if someone else on the island wants Chad and she, or hell, even he, is killing off the women Chad gets close to?”
Alex’s smile was nearly ear-to-ear by the time he finished. “Now you’re catching on.”
“So you two are thinking jealousy is still the motive, but it’s not Michaela that’s going off the deep end?” Drake didn’t sound convinced.
“It’s someone on the island.” Alex started to pace and slapped Rhett on the shoulder when he got in her way. “Pacing is my gig and you’re taking over my space.”
Rhett chuckled and got out of her way. “It would have to be. Otherwise, how would the killer know when Chad sets his eyes on someone else?”
Alex pointed a finger at him. “Exactly. And I’m leaning more toward a female than a male, even though the brutality of Lynette Cross’s and Kelli Darcy’s murders generally suggest differently. Most women make clean kills, much like the ones of the three coastal victims. Lynette’s and Kelli’s murders were vicious and bloody.”
“A male wouldn’t need to subdue his victim with Silver Lining before slitting her throat.”
Alex pivoted and beamed at Drake. “And now we have Deputy Palmer on board. Welcome, everyone.”
Rhett made a bad attempt to cover a chuckle with a cough.
Drake shot him a look. “Check out who’s decided to be Miss Comic Relief all of sudden.”
It wasn’t sudden. It was the old Alex, the one they’d worked with on the New Orleans PD, and the one that had set both of them on the fast track to falling in love. For all her professionalism and stony concentration, when the woman got on a roll, her excitement had always started to fly.
“I hate to be the party crasher here, but the number of women on this island is well into the double digits and that’s before we even start to count regular visitors,” Rhett pointed out.
Alexandria made a face. “There are regular visitors that don’t live here? As in, they come often enough they would stil
l be able to keep tabs on an islander and his date life?”
Rhett nodded. “Quite a few of them.”
She bit the insides of her lips together thoughtfully. “That does make it a bit more difficult to pin down our killer, but not impossible. I’m assuming you can get a list of those women.”
Rhett nodded again. “I’ll have Kimberly compile one at the Welcome Center.”
Alex shifted her attention to Drake. “While he does that, you and I will run background checks on all the single female residents on the island, see if anyone has any priors, and that sort of thing.”
“Kenneth and Marcus run background checks on everyone who decides to settle on the island,” Drake informed her. “It’s a precaution to keep criminals from hiding out here like you suggested yesterday.”
Alex glared at Drake. “You didn’t mention that yesterday when I suggested Chad Divine could be hiding out here.”
Drake shrugged. “You dismissed your own suggestion, so I didn’t see the need to point it out.”
She huffed a breath, paced a couple of steps, and then paced back. “We’ll run the checks anyway, dig deeper than the preliminaries. And one of us will have to talk to Chad again. Maybe he knows someone on the island has the hots for him, but he’s made it clear he isn’t interested.”
Drake scowled. “I don’t like it, but it’s obvious you should be the one to talk to him.”
“Drake’s right,” Rhett agreed. “He’s supposed to be friends with us, but he confessed more to you in ten minutes than he told us in a fucking week.”
Alex giggled. “Really, guys? You’re going to give me shit because Divine finds me attractive?”
“Sweetheart, you’re not attractive.” Rhett pointedly raked his gaze from her head to her feet. “You’re a gorgeous, sexy, strawberry blonde.”
“Which is exactly the kind of woman Chad digs,” Drake chimed in sourly.
Alex gasped. “That’s it! I know how to catch her. We’ll make her think Chad and I are dating.”
“No.” Rhett said the word before he even realized it was about to leave his mouth.
Drake echoed it in his own way. “Hell fucking no. You are not putting yourself out there as bait, Alex.”
She fisted her hands on her hips and stared both of them down. “Do either of you have a better way to draw this woman out?”
“Yeah, we’ll compile the lists and run the background checks like you suggested,” Drake answered tightly. “We’ll question every damn female on this island, whether they’re single or taken, search their boats if they own one and their cottage and anything else we can find.”
“She’s had well over a week to clean up after killing Lynette, if Lynette was ever even on her boat or in her cottage. She’s had more than a year to hide her tracks to Kelli Darcy. All that searching is likely to turn up nothing, Drake.”
“And you tossing yourself out there is likely to put your pretty neck beneath her damn knife,” Drake fired back.
“Or it will put you alone with Chad, who still may be our killer even though we have absolutely no evidence to tag on him.” Rhett’s calmer tone didn’t do him any good. Alex whirled on him, disbelieving laughter rolling from her lips.
“You were damn near adamant Chad Divine isn’t our killer yesterday and now you’re trying to claim he might be?”
“I’m just acknowledging the possibility that I’m wrong and I don’t want to put your life on the line to prove it.”
“Well I do. It’s my life, Rhett, and, if I want to put it on the line to catch this killer, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Just like you’ve always done, right?” Rhett fired back.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she demanded.
“You’ve never let anything stop you from doing what you want with your life no matter who you hurt. Why change that now?” The instant the words left his mouth, he wished he could take them back. The expression that washed over her face was so full of shock and pain that if anyone new had walked into the room they would’ve thought he’d physical struck her. “Oh, God, Alex.” He reached for her and wasn’t the least surprised when she stepped back out of his reach. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean that.”
“Yeah, you did,” Drake said quietly. “And you had every right to say it, so don’t apologize.”
* * * *
Rhett’s words hit Alex like a crushing blow. Hearing them from Drake wouldn’t have surprised her as much. But listening as they flew out of Rhett’s mouth, the words laced with so much pain and anger that each one hit her like a physical punch to the face, drained every ounce of fight she had in her. What could she say to that? He was right. She had done what she wanted even though she’d known she would hurt them, but, God, she’d torn herself apart in the process.
Frozen where she stood, she stared at both of them, silently willing away the tears that burned the back of her eyes. “If either of you think it was easy for me to leave the way I did, then neither of you know me at all.”
“It looked like it was pretty easy for you to us,” Drake said. “You packed up, left without a word, and never looked back. We wouldn’t be staring at you now if it wasn’t for this killer on the loose.”
“Why didn’t you tell us good-bye, Alex?” Rhett asked. “Why didn’t you at least answer the phone when we called or call us back or, hell, even send a damn note, anything?”
Her mouth trembled, making it hard to speak. “I couldn’t.”
“Because you suddenly came down with a case of laryngitis, lost your phone so you couldn’t even text, and didn’t know your way to the nearest post office?” Drake’s tone was heavy with sarcasm.
“Because I knew if I talked to either of you, I would go running back.” Determined to hold herself together, she turned her back on them and struggled to regain her composure. She nearly lost it anyway when a large hand closed over her shoulder. “Don’t.” She spun around, not surprised to see it was Rhett that had touched her. Drake hadn’t moved. “You both want answers, I’ll give them to you, but I can’t get it out when you’re touching me.”
“What we want is the truth, Alex,” Drake said.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Would that be in elaborate explanation form this time, because a single sentence isn’t going to cut it?”
“I deserved that,” he acknowledged with a nod. “Yes, please. Feel free to elaborate all you want.”
She didn’t want to elaborate at all. She didn’t want to have this conversation because every word of it was making her feel exposed, frightened, and lost. Yet, deep down, she knew they deserved the truth.
“Both of you were so intent on convincing me to stay that neither of you left me much room to think. It got harder as the end of that month got closer. I left when I did, the way I did, because I had to get out while I could still think about leaving.”
“If you’re trying to make a joke, it’s not funny, Alex,” Drake said.
“It wasn’t meant to be. The longer I stayed with the two of you, the more I didn’t want to think.”
“The more you didn’t want to leave,” Rhett said.
Alex nodded and repeated his statement. “The more I didn’t want to leave.”
“But staying would’ve meant giving up your dreams,” Drake concluded.
“I couldn’t ask either of you to follow me to Quantico and, even if I could have, the three of us could’ve never had a public relationship together.” She focused on Drake. “You needed to be there for your mother and your sister.” The guilt she saw in his eyes tore at her heart. “You didn’t fail her, Drake. You did everything you could, including damn near putting your life on hold to protect her from your father.”
“Thank you.” His tone told her he didn’t believe that. “But that conversation doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
“It does, for the reason I just stated.” She let that drop and turned her attention to Rhett. “You might have chosen to follow me, but you
and I wouldn’t have been the same. Part of my heart belonged to Drake. You would’ve known that and, in time, you probably would’ve started to resent that.”
“I might have,” Rhett admitted.
“What you did was make a decision for both of us instead of talking to us and telling us how you felt,” Drake told her.
“I did what I thought I had to do for all of us.”
“Well, what you did was wrong.” Drake obviously wasn’t going to hold back any punches, but he softened the statement by closing the distance between them and pulling her into his arms. “You told me yesterday morning when I kissed you that you’re still scared. Was that your way of telling me it’s happening all over again?”
“It started the second I walked through that door and saw the two of you,” she confessed. “We might be in a different time and a different place, but the feelings, the confusion, and the fears are the same as before.”
“With several differences you aren’t taking into account.” Rhett came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist just above Drake’s. “The first of which is that we can have a public relationship here, but that would mean you would have to stay on the island.”
“The second of which,” Drake chimed in before she had a chance to speak, “is that we’re both willing to leave our jobs here and follow you to the end of the universe if that’s where you lead us, but that would mean we may or may not be able to have a public relationship.”
“Either way it goes, the choice is yours, Alex.” Rhett took over the conversational ball. “We want you.”
“We love you,” Drake said.
“And we don’t want to let you go again,” Rhett finished.
Safe and Deputized with Ecstasy [The Heroes of Silver Island 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 15
