Breaking Out (Military Romantic Suspense) (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 6)

by Teresa Reasor

  “You also can take the high road and suffer the consequences of his harassment. That’s up to you.”

  He was probably a very good defense attorney. His mind certainly worked well in that vein.

  “Are you sure David was telling the truth about putting the money in my car? Couldn’t he have spent it on drugs or partying and just told Acosta he gave it to me to pawn off the trouble it would cause? We’d just broken up.”

  “There’s always the possibility he lied, but he never changed his story with me or with the prosecutor. And he was under a great deal of pressure to tell the truth. Otherwise, the plea deal we arranged would have fallen though, and he’d spend more time in prison.”

  She rested her head in her hand and massaged her temples. She had a choice. She could believe David as Detective Lester had, or she could go on burying her head in the sand. “What reason did he give for giving me the money?”

  “He said you agreed to hold it for him, and he was going to give you a cut. That you must have decided to keep it and refused to give it to Acosta.”

  So he had placed the blame for her father’s death on her as well.

  “He was protected at home. Acosta couldn’t get to him. Why do you think he called him to tell him I had the money?”

  “I can’t speak to my client’s thoughts, Dr. Bertinelli. But this is just an observation I made at the time. David is very good at deflecting blame for things. He put the money in your vehicle to make sure you reaped the consequences of having it.”

  After a brief pause, the attorney added, “One more thing, Dr. Bertinelli. If you didn’t get the money, someone who had access to the car did. You need to think about who it might have been, and start asking questions. Because they left you holding the bag, literally, and unleashed a shitstorm of trouble for you.”

  She’d thought about that many times over the years. The most likely suspects were people who were supposed to love her. Why would anyone take the money and leave her at Lester’s mercy? When they took it, they also signed her father’s death warrant. And the blame for it had lain at her feet ever since.

  And because she dated David, the catalyst who caused everything that followed, she accepted the burden. Her own feelings of guilt had demanded it. But not any longer. She couldn’t live like this anymore. She brushed at the scraps of hair hanging on either side of her face.

  Brittain’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Are you still there?”

  “Yes.”

  “It just so happens I may know a few lawyers who might possibly have had run-ins with Detective Lester. I’ll ask around.”

  “You’re not my lawyer, you don’t have to do it.”

  “No, I don’t. But we all have a part to play in the system. We all have a framework we have to operate within. Apparently Lester doesn’t believe those boundaries apply to him. Otherwise IA wouldn’t have come down on him, and you wouldn’t have won the suit. If he’s done it to you, he’s done it to other people. Possibly some of my own clients. Some of them possibly as innocent as youare.”

  “How do you know I’m innocent, Mr. Brittain?”

  “I saw your testimony in court, Dr. Bertinelli.”

  She’d seen his picture online when she researched him, but didn’t remember seeing him in court. But she’d been under siege during her testimony and hanging on by her fingernails.

  “The defense hammered at you for nearly an hour and a half. You were upset, crying, in pain, but your story about the money never changed. The prosecution couldn’t rattle you, because you were telling the truth. Look to the people who had access to the car. The answer will be there.”

  Which was what she was afraid of. “Thank you for your help.”

  “Hey, if you ever need a defense attorney, you have my number.”

  She hoped and prayed the day would never come. She hung up the phone and took out her cell to call Zach, paused, and keyed in Jake Brittain’s number and saved it, just in case.

  She’d needed to know if what she was about to do to her family was the right course of action. At least now she was certain it was.

  Chapter 31

  ‡

  There were always leaders in a clan. Since Piper’s father was dead, Zach tried to figure out who had stepped into his shoes.

  The Bertinellis were used to serving strangers at the restaurant, but clearly having one invade their family Sunday luncheon was different. Not knowing why they had been called together might possibly have something to do with it.

  They were outwardly polite, but wary. Were they waiting for him to whip out a bag of cocaine, or what?

  Piper tried to warn him, but he hadn’t been prepared for the open enmity they demonstrated toward her. They truly blamed her for everything that had happened.

  “How long have you lived in San Diego?” Teresa, Piper’s sister, asked.

  Her face was thinner, and her eyes a darker shade of brown than Piper’s, but the bone structure of her cheekbones and the shape of her eyes were similar, and marked their shared heritage. Her bare head was covered by a scarf, and she had no eyebrows or lashes, the result of recently undergoing chemo. For a moment Zach flashed back to some of the renaissance paintings he’d seen in Italy.

  “I’ve lived here almost eight years. I came out and worked for two years chartering fishing trips while I took some college classes and trained to try for the SEALs. I enlisted, and right after boot camp I was transferred back out here, but sent back as soon as I applied for SEAL training.” Which seemed like a million years in the past.

  “So you’re a SEAL?” Lorenzo said.

  “Yeah.” He toyed with the salad with grilled shrimp on his plate. Whatever else Piper’s family did, they knew how to cook. He stabbed one of the hors ’d oeuvres of thinly slice prosciutto wrapped around bites of mozzarella and served with pesto and cherry tomatoes. Olives were the least fancy thing on the table, and even they complimented the cheese and bruschetta wedges.

  “Seems like you’re going a completely opposite direction, aren’t you, Piper?” Lorenzo commented.

  “How would you know, Lorenzo? You never visited me in San Francisco to learn anything about my life there.”

  Zach suppressed a smile at the dig. She’d remained silent in response to several already aimed at her. It seemed the lot of them were only waiting for an opportunity to draw blood.

  His muscles remained taut, waiting to see if someone at the table would succeed. He’d have to control his reaction. Otherwise he’d be tempted to punch whoever did it and draw the real thing.

  “How’s the vet business treating you Piper?” Tom, Teresa’s husband, asked, guiding the conversation in a different direction.

  In the group of olive-skinned, dark-haired Italians, Zach thought the guy’s pale blond hair and fair skin probably stood out as much as his own freckles and red hair.

  Piper’s smile revealed nervous relief. “We’re slowly building a clientele. We’re getting busier by the day.”

  “That’s good. I’m glad to hear it.”

  “I’m trying to start a fostering program for animals who are brought to us for adoption.”

  “I thought that’s what the shelters are for,” Teresa said.

  “In the poorer areas of town, a lot of them are kill shelters, and I’d rather see the animals go to foster homes until we can place them, instead of being stuck in in cages waiting to be euphemized. Some of the shelters don’t have access to a full-time vet, or the funds to pay for medications, and if the animals contract any kind of problem, they’re put down. I repaired a hernia on a sweet little kitten a few days ago. Had she gone to the shelter, they’d have put her to sleep for a condition that took ten minutes to repair.”

  “Did you find someone to foster her?” Tom asked.

  “Yes, and the foster family thinks they’ve found her a home.”

  “That’s good.”

  “You’re so passionate about saving their lives, Piper.” Teresa’s tone held a bite that was unmistakable
. “To bad you don’t have the same drive when it comes to humans.”

  A beat of silence was followed by, “Teresa!” Tom’s voice blended with her mother’s.

  The stricken look on Piper’s face had Zach’s heart thundering. He slipped an arm along the back of her chair and his gaze swept the table. The rest of the men at the table concentrated on their food and remained silent.

  Tom jumped up from his seat and threw his napkin down, his cheeks bright red and his anger unmistakable. He left the table and a door slammed somewhere at the back of the house. Teresa followed him.

  “Her illness has been stressful, Piper,” her mother said.

  “Don’t make excuses for her, mama,” Piper’s voice was soft, but betrayed a note of weariness. Carlotta subsided.

  Alana, Armando’s very pregnant wife, rose from her seat, removed the tray to the highchair at the end of the table, and hiked little Armando onto her hip. “I’m going to check on the other children.” Her cheeks were flushed and she was fighting tears. “I’m sorry, Piper.”

  “It isn’t your fault, Alana.”

  Zach tensed to rise, but Piper placed a hand on his thigh.

  “Just a few more minutes,” she murmured.

  He had never felt more helpless in his life, so he did the only thing he could at the moment. He gripped the hand that rested on his leg.

  Armando, Piper’s oldest brother, started a conversation about the Dodgers vs. the Padres, as though nothing had happened. It was telling when they ignored their youngest sister’s pain.

  Tom and Teresa returned to the table. Both seemed to be pushing their food around on their plate rather than eating it.

  The brothers batted team statistics back and forth until their mother rose to clear the table.

  As they got to their feet, Piper gripped Zach’s arm “I’ll be ready to go in just a few minutes. I just want a minute alone with my mother.”

  She had yet to look at him. “Okay,” Zach automatically began to clear the table.

  “You don’t have to do that, Ensign O’Connor,” Carlotta said.

  “I don’t mind, Mrs. Bertinelli. I’ve done my share of KP at home and on post.” He sure as hell didn’t want to spend time with anyone in Piper’s family right now, since he wanted very badly to punch one or all of them.

  *

  Piper led the way up the stairs. Piper looked for the spindle the nine-year-old Lorenzo broke when he slid down the stairs on a cardboard box. A new banister had replaced the old, and the spindle was gone. The scratches and notches from the boys’ baseball cleats were now covered by an oatmeal-colored carpet which had been installed while she was away at vet school.

  The carpet extended along the hall, and she paused before the door to the room she’d shared with her older sister. She opened it and stepped inside. The oatmeal carpet had been laid here, too, and the room painted a pale moss green. The double bed she’d slept in alone once Teresa left for college was still there. The flowered comforter flowed over the mattress like a watercolor painting, the shams and bed skirt adding an accent of solid color darker than the walls. Everything had been changed, and there were no remnants of her life left in the room.

  It seemed appropriate that things should end here.

  She drifted to the window and looked out at Alana playing ball with Little Armando. His hair curled around his head like Dante’s, but his features were Armando’s in miniature. His short two-year-old legs toddled across the freshly mown grass while he chased after the plastic ball that rolled between his feet. He hadn’t even been a thought when she left for school up north, and she’d only gotten news of his birth ten days after the fact. She’d never held her nephew. Never babysat him. She hadn’t had the nerve to try and visit Armando and Alana for fear of being turned away. Not after Teresa refused to allow her to visit her children.

  Her family was lost to her. She had to face it and accept it.

  Her mother’s voice interrupted her reverie. “What is it, Piper?”

  She felt tired as she turned from the scene below.

  “I want to ask you some questions about that last day David came to see me here.”

  “It was a long time ago, Piper.”

  “I know, but I can’t stop playing it over and over in my head. I keep wondering why he came. I’d broken it off. He knew it was over. That I didn’t want to ever see him again.”

  “What is it?”

  “Who answered the door?”

  “I was in the kitchen with Teresa making ravioli, and Lorenzo called out that he would get it. By the time I got to the door, Lorenzo was at the top of the stairs calling for you, and Benito was trying to force David back outside. Then Armando showed up, and he and David were about to come to blows, but Benito and Lorenzo held him back. David got in his car and left.”

  “Did David have anything with him when he arrived, a gym bag or anything?”

  “There wasn’t anything in the foyer. I’d have noticed it, because I’d been after the boys to put their shoes on the bench down there after I tripped over them when I came in with the groceries. Lorenzo kicked them out of the way and went out and got the rest of the groceries. Someone picked them up and put them in the basket on the bench.”

  Her mother took a step farther into the room and sat down on the bed. “Why are you asking?”

  “It was the last time I saw David, Momma. The only time he could have given me money. But you were there when he came. He didn’t give me anything. You saw it. Armando, Lorenzo, Benito, and Teresa saw it. He wouldn’t have given me anything, because he knew I was finished with him.”

  “I know he didn’t give you anything.”

  Piper eased down on the bed beside her. “I would have given Acosta anything he wanted, Momma.”

  “I know, tessoro.” Tears rolled down her mother’s face. “I know you would have.”

  “I can’t come back here anymore, Momma. I can’t sit at the table and be punished for something I couldn’t prevent. I won’t be the target of everyone’s unjustified rage anymore.” Shouldn’t she feel grief or at least anger? All she felt was a numbing weariness.

  Carlotta’s arms came around Piper and she held her tight. “I thought once you came home we could be a family again.”

  Piper clung to her, trying to offer her mother what comfort she could. Her mother’s pain brought the tears she had yet to shed. “They don’t want me, Momma. And I won’t ask forgiveness for something I didn’t do.”

  “I want you, Piper. You’re my baby. I love you.”

  For a time it had been enough. It had given her hope to cling to. But not anymore. Not now Lester knew she was back.

  *

  Lorenzo vacated his seat and sat on the couch next to his brother to make room for Zach. It had taken a few minutes for Zach to tell him and his brother, Benito, apart. They looked enough alike to be twins, with the same warm brown hair as Piper and her mother, and similar sherry brown eyes.

  “How did you and Piper meet?” Lorenzo asked.

  “I hit a dog and took it in. She had to do surgery to save it. When I went back in to check on the dog, I asked her out.”

  “How long have you been seeing each other?”

  “Just a short time.” After everything that had gone down since they’d met, it seemed longer than two weeks. He waited to see if her brothers were going to warn him off like Detective Lester.

  Lorenzo’s gazed probed Zach’s. “You must be pretty important to her if she invited you here.”

  “I asked her to bring me along because I wanted to meet her family.”

  “I bet you’re regretting it, too,” Dante said. His eyes narrowed and his mouth clamped into a thin line.

  “Shut up, Dante,” Armando said from between gritted teeth.

  “Fuck you, Mando.”

  “Her last boyfriend had red hair, too.” Benito said, a frown crimping his brows.

  “You mean David?”

  “She told you about David?” Lorenzo’s tone sharpene
d with surprise.

  “Yeah.” But not that he had red hair. Uneasiness tightened the muscles at the back of his neck.

  “You don’t look like David. And you’re nothing like him,” Dante said, his tone flat. His dark hair had a curl to it and his eyes were hazel. He shot a look around the room at each of his brothers. “Don’t let them try to make trouble between you.”

  The man’s words relaxed Zach’s momentary uneasiness. Maybe, just maybe, he was a source of support for Piper.

  “David was a snake oil salesman,” Dante continued. “He poured on the charm to sell himself to people. He became whatever each person needed so they’d like him. For a time he even had Mom fooled, just as he fooled Piper.”

  “How do you know I’m nothing like him?”

  “Because you don’t give a shit whether we like you or not.”

  Zach gave him a level look. “No, I don’t.” He didn’t like them very much, and didn’t care if they knew it.

  He leaned forward in his seat. “Piper told me about everything. Your dad, Acosta, the money and Detective Lester.”

  “Most guys would have run for the hills after hearing about the kind of trouble she attracts,” Armando commented.

  Zach raised a brow. “I’m used to running toward trouble, not away.”

  Armando eyed him, his jaw working. “She brought that fucker into our parents’ house. Because of her, our father’s dead.”

  “Because of that fucker, your father’s dead. Only a cold-blooded bitch would have sacrificed her father for money. Piper isn’t cold-blooded. If anything, she’s been traumatized more than any of you. After all, she deliberately drew Detective Lester’s heat away from you by staying away, didn’t she?”

  The uneasiness he read in their faces gave him some satisfaction. “She couldn’t give up the money, because she didn’t know where it was. I knew it the moment she told me what happened.”

  Complete silence like an indrawn breath reigned for several moments, until Tom broke it with, “I helped her and the other vets set up their partnership and write the proposal for their business. I don’t believe there ever was any money. And Piper certainly never had it if there was.”