by Jeannie Moon
“Thanks, but I’m fine. I just have to be careful.”
“You don’t have to be sarcastic,” he growled.
“No? You sure about that?”
The woman was infuriating.
“Jesus Christ,” he said, heading down the stairs. “I’m trying to help.”
“Bye, Jack. See you around.” The sound of the heavy door slamming shut behind him confirmed exactly how tough it was going to be to keep her safe.
Chapter Three
“Miller, what are you doing here?”
Looking up from the desk he’d commandeered while he was assigned to the Long Island Field Office, Jack saw the Special Agent in Charge hanging over the low partition of his cubicle. Mick Donovan was as old school of a cop as anyone would ever find. Rough around the edges, his manner hid the brilliant criminal analyst beneath. The man could break down a situation into tiny workable parts, and find out the who, the when, the where, and the why like no one he’d ever worked with.
But Mick was a by-the-book company guy. He also had some very strong opinions about women. He would always be a gentleman, but progressive he was not. What that all meant to Jack was that Mick would shut him down if he thought the Bureau didn’t have any jurisdiction over Lilly’s case.
So Jack resolved to do something he never thought he’d do. He was going to lie to his superior. It would only be for a day or so—until he could get more information. It was a risk, but if it meant getting to the bottom of what had really happened to Lilly, he was all in.
“I’m doing a little digging into the Gio Graham case.” He checked his watch. “I have a couple of calls to make, but it’s only about eight in California.”
“You’ll probably just have to have a conversation with the girl. I mean, she’ll stay in line once we pay her a visit.”
The girl. In his head, Jack replayed his visit with Lilly. Intimidated was not a word he would use to describe her reaction, but it was exactly what Mick was going for.
That wasn’t how he was going to play it. He had no doubt there was a story behind the story. A guy like Graham would have left a trail of women.
In his mid-thirties, Gio was a superstar. He was landing one big role after another, from rom-coms to action flicks. The guy had some talent, too. He’d been nominated for a couple of Oscars, and there was some buzz that the film that was coming out in a couple of months would win it for him.
But no matter how talented he was, or what the image doctors had done for him, nice guys didn’t hit women. Not even once.
Chances were there were others like Lilly. Women he’d manipulated and abused. He just needed to find one who would talk. Then he’d have to find a way to bust Gio’s sorry ass.
That could be harder.
Keeping the dirtbag away from Lilly was his single most important job.
Her reactions during their conversation yesterday ate at him. So much so, he’d gone home and researched the hell out of all the women Gio had dated over the past ten years. Lilly was his last serious girlfriend. Since her, he’d been seen with slew of different women on the red carpet and at A-list events.
He needed to see if there was a pattern. Changes in appearance, timing, something he hadn’t even thought of yet. There were always patterns. It was his job to find them.
But then he thought about Lilly retreating behind a wall of anger and attitude. His mind raced, remembering what he’d read in the file. The pictures he saw.
The bruises.
The red welts.
He wasn’t getting those images out of his head.
“You think her story is legit?” Mick wasn’t likely to believe her, but he didn’t know Lilly like Jack did. Another thing he’d be keeping from his boss.
“The injuries were legit.” Jack shook his head. “They indicated violence.”
Finger-mark bruises. For fuck’s sake, how didn’t he take it seriously?
“Graham said it was rough sex. You never know what women will put up with to sleep with a celebrity.”
Jack took a breath so he didn’t let loose at Mick. Calm was his friend right now. “Well, like I told you, I’m not going to be the one that lets this slip through the cracks if she is on the level. Do you want that?”
Mick shrugged. “No skin off my teeth. You’re extra manpower. If you want to waste your time on this, be my guest.”
The decision to withhold information was completely justified in Jack’s mind. This was the kind of attitude that kept women silent.
When Jack was in the Army, he’d spent a lot of time embedded in countries where women lacked even the most basic rights. It wasn’t always religious, like so many thought, but cultural. And it all started with attitudes like Mick’s.
His boss left him alone, and he went to work on his computer. It didn’t take much to find information. A tabloid article on Gio gave him a lot of dirt about his serial dating.
One thing he did notice was that Lilly was the longest relationship Graham had ever had. They were together for fourteen months. Which meant either he hadn’t done anything to hurt her early on, or she endured the violence longer than anyone else.
The man had at least half a dozen serious exes but there were three Jack zeroed in on, because they were all on the east coast. Two of them lived in New York City, an actress and a jewelry designer, and another was a chef in Boston. He’d like to hear what they had to say. Then, if he needed more information, he’d hop on a flight to L.A. and interview a few of the others.
Before he could do any more research, his phone rang. Wasn’t that always the way? The caller ID let him know he was in trouble.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Jack. My darling boy. Imagine my surprise when I arrived home from the airport this morning to find my kitchen had been left a mess.”
Shit. He forgot to clean up before he’d left. His mother had been in Vancouver when he moved back into his old room in their house on the family estate. “Right, ah…”
“I was going to call the police, but then I saw the chocolate chips and corn flakes and knew it could only be you.”
“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I wasn’t scared so much as wondering why a burglar would raid my pantry and not my jewelry. But for a guy who catches criminals, you’d make a terrible one. All that evidence.”
His mother. No one could take you down a peg or two in a nicer way. The woman was formidable. A patient advocate at Harbor Hospital, his mom had raised him and his three siblings with a compassionate and firm hand, and after his father passed away when he was a kid, his mother had been his rock.
He’d been lucky in that way. His mom had always worked, even though his family was one of the wealthiest in town. She said it gave her a sense of purpose. For a long time, she worked with kids through Child Protective Services, and it was because of her that Jack’s concept of justice had evolved the way it did. Linda Miller taught all her kids not to take their good fortune for granted. Jack never did.
The money thing wasn’t a boast, just a fact. The Miller family was stupid rich. It gave him ridiculous privilege, from access to the best schools to financial security. He was not unaware of this, and it was one of the things that made Jack choose public service over a cushy corporate job when he graduated from college.
Whatever he’d done, wherever he’d traveled, the money didn’t matter. It was always about the work. About doing better than you had the day before.
He’d majored in psychology and international relations, with his eye on law school. That made perfect sense to him at eighteen, when he left for Philadelphia ready to conquer the world. But over time, he felt the pull of something bigger than a corner office. So, he joined the campus ROTC program and never looked back. On graduation day, he received his degree and his commission.
Mom cried when she pinned on his bars. He didn’t know if she was happy or sad, but she was proud of him.
His academic background and his innate understanding of people
made Jack a perfect fit in intelligence, and later, law enforcement. He understood what made people tick, and how there were a thousand ways to get to the same destination.
“Sorry, Mom. I’ll clean up next time.”
“How long are you staying around, Blue Eyes? You know your brother is getting married soon.”
All of his siblings had blue eyes, but Jack was the only one who’d garnered the nickname. “Is he? I hadn’t heard?”
“Smartass,” she shot back.
“I learned from the best.”
He heard his mother chuckle, forcing Jack to let his guard down for a minute. “I’ll be home around five. Want me to throw some steaks on the barbeque? You can interrogate me over dinner.”
“You’re on. See you later.”
*
Monday was Lilly’s errand day. She went to the market, did the laundry, and cleaned her apartment, but it was so hot, she didn’t feel like doing anything after putting away her groceries. So, when Jordan Velsor, one of her oldest friends, called and invited her for lunch on the deck of her brand-new house on the water, Lilly didn’t say no. Anywhere near the bay was more appealing than vacuuming her living room or scrubbing the bathroom.
Driving her car down Cove Road, she admired the different homes that lined the street. Some were large, others were cottages, but all added to the particular charm of Compass Cove. She passed the Rinaldis’ property, which included the cottage where Jordan was living when she met her brand-new husband, Nick, who was Lina and Angelo Rinaldi’s grandson.
Turning left into the driveway, Lilly inhaled the salt air. Being out of her normal routine was just what she’d needed, especially after reality slapped her in the face.
Lilly threw the car into park and picked up the bag on the seat next to her. She’d made a cold pasta salad for their lunch, and she was looking forward to sitting outside with her friend and soaking up the summer day.
Jordan waved to her from the porch, her growing baby bump clearly visible from the driveway. Just married, the pregnancy looked good on her, and so did happiness.
“You look amazing! You popped!” Lilly charged up the front porch and laid her hand on her friend’s growing tummy. “It’s only been a week, and all of a sudden you look like a preggo!”
“I’m starting to feel like a preggo!” Jordan’s smile was as bright as the sun. She was always gorgeous—tall and blonde with bright blue eyes, she was striking. But now, with her pregnancy, and her brand new doting husband, Jordan’s beauty was brought to a new level.
“I wish my dad could see.” Her eyes, wistful and a little sad, settled on her bump. That was the only shadow in Jordan’s life. She was still grieving her father, who had died just a few months ago.
“He sees, and he’s going to be watching over his grandbaby like a hawk. An angel hawk. Is that a thing?”
“It sounds like my dad.” Jordan touched her belly, conscious of her father’s presence. There was sadness, but there was also joy because he’d instilled in her an appreciation of the small gifts life gave every single day.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Jordan said. “Yay for a day off.” Her friend opened the door, and Lilly stepped inside the newly remodeled kitchen. The renovation had held up their moving in, but now that it was done, and everything was put away, it was spectacular.
“Wow.” Lilly was struck dumb. “This is… wow.”
“I know, right? I think this means Lina is transferring Sunday dinner to me.”
The Rinaldis were a very large Italian family, and Sunday dinner was both raucous and sacred. There could be as many as thirty people spread all over the house, but never less than ten. It was mayhem. But for Jordan, now an only child without both of her parents, her newly found family was everything she needed. It was a perfect fit.
And she was well equipped to handle it. The kitchen was a showpiece with a professional stove, an additional double oven, and a gigantic refrigerator, with an equally gigantic freezer. The countertops were granite, and the cabinets a warm cherry. No doubt, Jordan could cook for an army if she was so inclined, but there was also an intimacy about the space. This was a room where people would gather around the large island to drink, laugh, and share about their day. The farmhouse table was a place for family meals.
A tingle hit Lilly’s belly, a sting, that made her acutely aware that she was a little envious. Jordan and Mia were both starting new lives, building families… and it was possible Lilly’s crappy taste in men, and her bad judgement, would keep her from ever finding anyone.
Glancing around, the kitchen was so much more than a kitchen. It was a symbol of the life she would never have.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she lied. “Taking it all in.”
As Jordan unpacked the bag, she discovered that Lilly had brought more than just pasta salad. “Oh, my God. You made brownies. It’s a thousand degrees outside, why did you bake?”
Lilly shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad. And the baby needs brownies.” She wasn’t lying. At three o’clock in the morning, it was only about 70 degrees outside. With the air conditioner on, she’d actually been a little chilly. But she couldn’t tell Jordan that otherwise she’d have to explain why she wasn’t sleeping. How Jack’s visit had totally freaked her out.
Nope, she was not going there. “The air conditioner in my place runs so cold. The oven actually helped.”
“Well I, and the baby, thank you very much, Auntie Lilly. My waistline doesn’t, but whatever.”
Lilly heard the familiar crunch of tires on the driveway and turned her head to see a pretty white Mercedes convertible pull in next to her Jeep. It took a second for her eyes to settle on the driver. Short dark hair, big sunglasses.
Turning to Jordan, Lilly pointed out the big window. “Seriously? Where did you find her?”
“She called me.”
Popping out of the car, looking more like a pixie than adult human, was one of their oldest friends, Natalie Miller—Jack’s younger sister, and the Miller least likely to be found on this side of the pond. Natalie had spent the last two years flitting back and forth between art galleries in London and Hong Kong. She was planning on being home for Mia and Adam’s wedding, but that was still a couple of weeks away.
The last time she was home was for Christmas, nine months ago, which was eons in Millerland. Even Jack, and his brother Doug, who was in the Marines, were around more than Natalie.
Grabbing a large straw bag from the back seat, Natalie bounced up to the house. In cutoffs and a T-shirt, she looked more chic in her throwaways than Lilly did done up for the red carpet. Lilly guessed it had to do with Natalie’s unwavering confidence. This was a woman who was totally comfortable in her own skin. Lilly loved that about her. And she hated it. Because it was that complete disconnect, the sense of self, that focus on the life Natalie was building, that kept her away.
Pulling open the door, she entered before either of them could move to do it for her. It seemed the room exploded around her.
“Ahhhh! Mah girls!” she squealed. “I missed you both!” Dropping her bag with a thunk, she lunged at Jordan and Lilly, grabbing each of them with one arm. “It’s so good to see you!”
Lilly leaned into the hug, and of course, Nat smelled exotic, a mix of summer sweat, jasmine, and the sand. “Already hit the beach?”
Nat leaned back and smiled wide. “It was the ass crack of dawn when I got to my mom’s, but it was so gorgeous out, I dropped my stuff and went down to the beach. A little yoga, some meditation, best thing ever.”
Having seen Nat bend herself into a pretzel was impressive. And terrifying. She was doing yoga before it was a thing. Back in high school, everyone loved Natalie, but their classmates thought she was a little flaky. Lilly wasn’t ever one of them, and Nat had never let her down… until she started disappearing.
When Lilly was in California, her friend would buzz through once in a while when she was flying back to New York from Asia. But the visits became les
s frequent. And when Lilly was in the throes of her troubles with Gio, she couldn’t even get Natalie on the phone.
It hurt then. Sometimes it still did.
But at that moment, she was glad they were all together.
“Damn, Jordan. This is some house. How many kids are in that tummy?”
“Just one. And she’s a kicker.”
Lilly stood back and put her hand to her heart. “She? A little girl? When did you find out?”
“This morning. Nick is over the moon. He wants to start painting the nursery.”
Natalie hopped up and down. “This is so exciting! Gosh, it will be so much fun spoiling her!” Launching herself at Jordan, she squeezed her tight. “I’m so happy for you. I can’t wait to see you become a mommy.”
“I hope you do see it. We miss you, Nat.” Jordan said what Lilly was thinking. All Natalie’s excitement meant nothing if she wasn’t going to make an effort to visit once in a while.
Walking around the kitchen, Nat looked over her shoulder and grinned. Never one to stand on ceremony, she opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a fizzy, flavored water. She popped it open and took a long pull on the bottle. “About that. I moved home.”
If she’d announced she’d married a duke, Lilly wouldn’t have been more surprised. “You what?”
“I’m home. I got fired.”
Now Lilly was even more confused. Natalie loved her job and the dealers and clients at her gallery loved her. She was brilliant, funny, and could convince the snootiest collector that a collage made of macaroni, glitter, and buttons was art.
Parking herself on one of stools at the island, she shrugged and took another sip of water. “Too bad this isn’t wine. I haven’t told my family yet.”
“I’m sorry, Nat. What happened?” Lilly knew how it felt to be displaced, and she could see behind Natalie’s smile was loss.
Natalie shook her head. “Funny story, really. I think it is, anyway. I kind of decked a client.”
