by Shayla Black
“Keep going,” Axel encouraged. “Tell me everything else that happened.”
“I left the set and picked Mystery up. I called the police, but of course there was nothing they could do for twenty-four hours. I couldn’t wait that long, so I came home and started looking through Julia’s things to see if I could find any clues. I called her friends, her sister, even her yoga studio. All I could see was that most of her belongings were packed. She’d bought two plane tickets to Kansas City, departing the next day, and she and some of her personal effects were gone.”
Mystery remembered that day—the panic, the fear, the uncertainty. She’d gone to bed knowing deep in her heart that the worst had happened. Her mother would never have abandoned her, and her heart went out to Axel. Yes, they’d both lost mothers, but hers had been taken. His had just walked out as if he didn’t matter. Yet despite the fact that Mystery had left him last night, he sat beside her, comforting her.
He’d proven it the day they’d met and he kept proving it all over again—Axel was a man of strength, integrity, conviction. It hadn’t been fair to assume he had the same roving eye as her father and accuse him. Thank goodness he understood that she had difficulty with trust and had given her a great deal of patience.
“Personal items?” Axel asked.
“Her purse, her car, her laptop.”
Beside her, Axel stiffened, then turned to Heath, who suddenly scrambled to scroll through his tablet. She leaned over to read whatever he acted so desperate to retrieve. What the hell was going on?
The police report, she realized a moment later. They had an electronic copy of it.
They intended to do everything possible to figure out this cold case, and Mystery didn’t have any illusions why. They were doing it to save her.
Even as the realization humbled her, warmth spread to every corner of her body. She was beyond lucky to have them both in her corner. She felt even luckier that Axel cared enough to forgive all her stupid, rash actions over the past eighteen hours. And Heath . . . Mystery hated to think of a man as strong and wonderful, who’d already survived such shock and grief, not finding a happy ending for himself.
“Where did you get that police report?” she asked the pair of them.
“The sheriff’s department,” Axel answered grimly, then he addressed Heath. “Do you see it? Anywhere?”
He scrolled up, then back down, his dark eyes and big fingers moving over the screen. “I don’t.”
Mystery didn’t understand at all. “What? What are you two all agitated about?”
“Did you find something?” her dad asked over the line.
“Your wife’s laptop,” Axel finally answered. “The police found her car and her purse, both intact. There’s no record of them recovering a laptop at the scene. For that matter, why did she take it way out there? There wasn’t an electrical outlet for dozens of miles.”
“At that time, the battery life on those machines was next to nothing,” her father added. “I never thought about it. With so much else going on and the investigation, my grief, Mystery’s upset . . . I never pursued that.”
“What did your wife keep on that laptop?” Heath asked.
“I don’t really know.” He sighed, and Mystery heard her dad’s strain. “She asked for one. She almost never asked me for anything for herself, so I had an assistant find the best money could buy at the time and . . .”
He’d hoped it would make him feel less guilty. Mystery could hear that subtext in his unfinished sentence. “You never saw her type on it? She never told you about anything she was working on?”
“She e-mailed. She’d joined one of those sites where you kept up with your old classmates. We didn’t talk much about it.”
Mystery would bet they hadn’t talked about a lot of things, and that’s how their marriage had fallen apart. Her father hadn’t felt connected enough to his bride to be faithful, and she’d been unable to truly express her sadness and resentment until she’d had enough.
“I remember asking her once what she did with the laptop,” Mystery added. “She said she was keeping a journal.”
“Like a diary?” Axel asked, frowning.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “That’s how she described it.”
“Did she know something that could have gotten her killed?” Heath asked.
“Well . . .” Her father hesitated.
Trepidation iced through Mystery’s veins. Had her mom stumbled across dangerous information that had provoked someone to silence her for good? But what? Mom’s past hadn’t been shady. She hadn’t worked on films anymore or rubbed elbows with politicians.
“If Julia knew as much about all my affairs as she did the one she confronted me about, then she knew about my relationship with the wife of a powerful, dangerous man,” her father admitted. “Actually, it’s possible she knew a lot of secrets. I can’t say more than that. I’m heading into a conference call. Kiddo, stay near Heath and Axel. The fact they’re with you is the only reason I haven’t boarded a plane and rushed to the States myself. I love you. Be careful where you dig. Stay safe.”
Then her father hung up.
As if sensing her distress, Axel curled his arm around her. Mystery melted into his side. What wouldn’t her dad admit? Was he keeping quiet because he worried it would get her killed if he told her?
“Breakfast, anyone? I’m starving. I’ll cook,” Heath offered into the sudden silence.
She appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood but suspected it had far more to do with distracting her so she didn’t ask tough questions about her mother’s murder. With new information coming to light, she wished she’d jumped in with both feet and solved the woman’s killing sooner, rather than following her father’s advice and moving on, tucking all those terrible memories away in a box marked “painful” and letting it gather dust.
This trip to the States had been about more than experiencing Axel so she could get him out of her system. Instead, she felt as if she’d finally come into her own and figured out what she wanted. Now she just had to execute it.
“He knows something he’s not telling us,” she murmured.
Axel and Heath exchanged glances. They didn’t really know or like each other, yet they had some silent communication. Mystery didn’t comprehend precisely what that look said, but she got the gist.
That she was right.
“I’ll try talking to him in a bit,” Heath offered. “You know, man to man. He may have felt as if he’d already said too much in front of his little girl.”
By discussing all the sleazy bimbos in his life willing to cash in on their morals to either sleep with someone famous or land a role? Too bad. “Give me your phone. I’ll talk to him.”
“Princess.” Axel turned her to face him. “You’re the one he’s protecting. He loves you. He’s not going to divulge more to you. Seriously. Let us handle it.”
As much as she hated it, Mystery suspected they were right. It pissed her off again to be left out of the big-boy penis club or whatever the hell they had going on. “Fine. I’ll have my hands on the items my mother saved for me this afternoon. Maybe I’ll find something helpful there.”
“Don’t be upset. We’re in this together,” Axel assured.
In her head, she knew that. In her heart . . . emotion tangled up. Disappointment that she hadn’t spent more of her adulthood solving this tragedy in her life, impatience to get started now that she’d seen the error of her ways, frustration that the man she loved was sheltering her more than she wanted—even if she knew he meant well.
“I’ll make breakfast,” she offered. “You two keep trying to figure out what we’re missing in this crazy puzzle.”
Mystery whipped up pancake batter and heated a pan of bacon, humming and swaying her hips to a chipper little tune. She could feel both men staring at her.
“Stop looking at her ass,” Axel grumbled.
“I’m her bodyguard. I’m guarding her body.” Heath bristled.
“You’re full of shit.”
“And I can hear you both. Shut up.” Mystery shook her head. “Don’t we have enough drama going on?”
Thankfully, that quieted them. She set warm plates in front of everyone a few minutes later, the smells of warm syrup and fried bacon filling the air.
Everyone ate in silence, scarfing down their breakfast. Mystery let her thoughts drift away to the coming day and whatever personal effects her mother might have left here in Kansas for her. Why hadn’t her aunt simply mailed them? Or left them with her father? Why so much secrecy? Asking Axel and Heath would be pointless; they knew nothing. Likely, that was true of her dad, too. She’d just have to be patient a bit longer.
Once everyone finished shoveling away their food, she stacked the dishes in the sink. Then her aunt drove up with a big bundle of clothes hanging in plastic wrap. With the hangers, the garments were taller than her, and she had to hold them high above her head not to drag them across the dirt road.
Axel jumped to his feet and ran outside to help the woman. She smiled. Being from Tennessee, he had that southern gentleman thing down. Or maybe he was just that sort of man.
Heath rose and darted across the kitchen, cupping her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
Was her life perfect? No, but she was doing all right at the moment. Maybe better than all right since she and Axel might have some sort of future—provided they could figure out who wanted to end hers. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You were upset when we left Dallas.”
“Axel explained that. It’s fine.” She had to believe that he cared enough about her to tell her the truth.
He nodded slowly, not as if he agreed but like he gathered his words carefully. “The conversation we had before breakfast can’t have been easy. All the talk of your father’s adultery must have unnerved you, too.”
“Damn it.” She turned and glared at him. “I don’t need you trying to stir up my insecurities.”
He held up both hands to ward off her tirade. “I understand. I just want to ensure you’re thinking properly.”
“I’m not stupid.”
Heath swept his fingertips down her cheek. “No, you’re vulnerable. And I don’t want him to take advantage of you.”
Mystery didn’t want to open her mouth, didn’t want to court trouble, but after years of ignoring her mother’s murder, she knew better than to hope her problems would simply vanish. “Are you in love with me?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
She closed her eyes. “Heath, I . . .”
“Don’t say it.” He shook his head, his dark eyes looking so damn sad. “I already know. I simply want you to be sure before you give him your heart.”
It was too late for that, but she didn’t want to dig the knife any deeper into his. “I appreciate your concern.”
“I’ll be here as long as you need me. And if you ever want more than my friendship . . .” He cupped her other shoulder and brushed a kiss against her ear before he whispered, “It’s yours.”
Chapter Sixteen
AS Axel entered the kitchen with the bundle from the dry cleaners, Heath stepped away from Mystery. Something had passed between them—and Axel didn’t like it one bit.
“Don’t.” He shook his head at the Brit in warning.
“We’ve talked. It’s up to her.” Heath held up his hands. “I haven’t touched her.”
This was the source of Axel’s mistrust—Mystery herself. Heath would keep her safe. And if she ever decided that she wanted a different man in her life, he’d be there waiting.
The crowbar of insecurity split open Axel’s composure. He forced himself to put a mental bandage on it. She’d said she loved him. She’d given him not just her body, but her trust. Her surrender.
Axel forced himself to breathe out and hung the dry cleaning in the closet near the front door before he returned to the kitchen. “Keep it that way.”
Her aunt bustled in, carrying a little package and glancing at her watch. “I called the attorney’s office. He confirmed that he’ll see us at three today. Can you be ready?”
“Attorney?” Mystery asked.
“You didn’t know?” Aunt Gail frowned, then rushed to the stove to make a cup of tea. “The effects your mother left behind are with an attorney she hired in Emporia. He was instructed to keep them safe until you turned eighteen or you retrieved them.”
Those words clearly confused Mystery. They stumped Axel, too.
“So she didn’t just leave some jewelry or photos here with you?”
“Some, yes. And I’ve gathered them all for you and put them in your room. It’s not much, but the bulk of what she left, she gave to this attorney to hold in trust. I was supposed to give you this before you saw him.” The older woman held out the package.
With a frown, Mystery opened it, then sent her aunt a puzzled stare. “A key?”
That’s exactly what it was, and it looked as if it belonged to a safe-deposit box. Axel didn’t like any of this.
The woman shrugged. “I only did what she asked me to. Frankly, that last visit you two made over spring break, just before her death . . . It was a flurry of confusing activity. Every time I asked her why she left something with me or wanted to keep items with an attorney, she simply said she was leaving you the gift she couldn’t give you as a child. At the time, I had no idea what my sister meant.”
“Ma’am, did you think she had any idea someone would murder her?” Axel asked.
“Murder?” The woman reared back, her faded blue eyes startled. She pressed a veiny hand to her chest. “Oh, dear. I didn’t . . . I thought she fell. I always imagined she had some premonition of her death and left me these items for you because of it. But you think she was intentionally killed?”
The older woman looked near tears, and Axel could imagine how difficult it would be to hear that a beloved sibling hadn’t simply had a tragic accident, but someone had snuffed out their life. “I’m sorry if you didn’t know. The police never officially ruled it a homicide, but we have every reason to believe it was.” He explained the positioning of Julia Mullins’s body at the bottom of the cliff. “We can also place someone at the crime scene with her less than an hour before her death.” He whipped out his phone and showed her the picture. “How close were you and your sister before her death? Do you recognize this man?”
Gail blinked and stared in openmouthed shock. “I . . . Oh, goodness. This is all so much.” She fanned her face with a delicate hand. “I’d steeled myself to visit her attorney and see the items she’d left with him. That’s already like suffering her death again. But this news is terrible.”
“I know.” Mystery hugged her aunt. “Do you have any idea who the man in the picture is?”
“Well, no. I hadn’t been out to California since I gave up on my silly Hollywood dreams and moved home. Your mother stayed behind to marry your father and—” She sighed. “I’m afraid I didn’t know everyone in her life. We weren’t terribly close after I moved home.”
“So this man is not familiar?” Axel directed her back to the photo.
“No. And she didn’t confide much to me about who or what was in her life before she died. The only thing I know is that she’d been discussing leaving your father and moving home. I applauded her decision. I know you love your father, but he was hardly a faithful husband.”
“He wasn’t,” she agreed. “And I know how much that hurt her.”
“Of course. She loved that man, and he devastated her over and over. I was helping her find a home here. We’d planned to enroll you in school here before the fall term started. Honestly, those last few weeks of Julia’s life were the most I’d talked to her in ten years.”
“You mentioned confusing activity when she was here last,” Axel reminded her. “Can you tell me more specifically what you mean?”
“Well, Julia was quite secretive. She didn’t say a lot to me, really. During the day, we’d take Mystery on day trips and look around the c
ountryside for potential places she could move. At night, after she’d tucked Mystery in, she’d drag out that dratted laptop and tap away. I asked her what she was working on, but . . . she didn’t tell me much.”
A shock wave zipped through Axel. That laptop of hers, the missing one. Whatever Julia Mullins was typing on it could well be
