by Addison Fox
“Do you miss it?”
“Not in the least. Maybe that was colored by Steven. It’d be silly to think it had no impact. But what Vi, Cassidy and I do? It’s fulfilling on a different level. A deeper one. We create memories for someone that they will carry their whole lives. It’s special. And it’s a special thing to be a part of.”
They sat in silence for the moment, as cocooned as she’d imagined. For a few brief seconds, Lilah allowed herself to forget the rubies. Forget about the secrets that had lain hidden in the shop. She even allowed herself to forget the pain of her past.
In that moment, she wanted to enjoy the company of an attractive, vibrant man. One who listened to her and seemed genuinely interested in what she had to say.
One who challenged her.
He had recognized from the start that she had a skittish air, yet he’d pushed and poked and prodded his way beneath her defenses.
It was humbling.
And exhilarating.
“Ms. Castle?” A large man in a chef’s apron interrupted the moment. “I’m Wilhelm Brown. It’s lovely to meet you.”
Lilah thought the use of address needlessly formal—almost subservient—but smiled up at the pastry chef, his address likely engineered by Steven. “So lovely to meet you, Wilhelm. But please, it’s Lilah. Are you responsible for this evening’s trio?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The small trio of desserts had been laid out with their coffee service and she’d enjoyed tastes of each. “The coconut crème is exquisite.”
“Thank you.” The man nodded, his smile broad.
“The coconut is not exquisite. Not by a long shot.”
Yep, she thought. Could have clocked it with an egg timer.
Lilah watched the smile fade from the pastry chef’s face and knew the man wasn’t long for Steven DeWinter’s world. He’d likely be gone as soon as Restaurant Week was over.
She’d recently heard wind of an opening at one of the large hotels downtown. With a quick mental note to shoot Wilhelm’s name over to the hiring manager, she focused her attention on Steven. And worked on providing Reed with the opening he needed to probe into Steven’s recent activities.
“Nonsense, Steven. The coconut is divine. You never were a very good judge of sweet things.”
She smiled once more at Wilhelm, giving him an opportunity to exit their ridiculous power play. “Thank you for sharing your creation this evening. It’s divine.”
Steven’s distaste was more than evident but, furthering the image in her mind of a play, he said nothing until his pastry chef had departed for another table. “I expect the best in my kitchen. Anything less than that is an insult. To my guests and to me.”
“Yes, well, bygones.” She shot a brief glance at Reed before shifting gears. “Speaking of times past, I have some sad news to share. Did you hear about Robert and Charlie?”
“Who?”
Although Steven made a good show of it, his face scrunching up, a finger to his chin in thought, Lilah saw the flash of awareness in his gaze before it was quickly banked.
“Cassidy’s brother-in-law, Charlie McCallum. And her former fiancé, Robert Barrington.”
“They never married?”
“No.” Lilah shook her head, her eyes downcast before she lasered them straight back to Steven. “Some people know how to cut their losses before the marriage.”
“I never knew them well beyond our relationship. I haven’t kept up with either in some time.”
“Still, it’s a shame. Both passing and within a few days of each other.”
“Hmm.”
Lilah didn’t dare look at Reed, but she sensed action before he spoke. “Both murdered, as a matter of fact. I can’t believe you haven’t heard the news.”
“I’ve been busy. This is one of our biggest weeks of the year.”
Reed reached for her hand once more, toying with her fingers. “Well, consider it a triumph. The food was exquisite.”
Although his gaze could have cut glass, Steven had never been immune to praise of any kind. He nodded, his bow practically courtly, before he stepped away from the table. “I’ll leave you both for the evening.”
Lilah waited to speak until Steven was out of earshot but closed her mouth at Reed’s subtle head shake. With a broad smile, he tightened their fingers. “A superb meal. I’ve so enjoyed this evening, darling.”
“Did you enjoy the duck?”
“You mean the one on my plate?”
At his wink, she nodded, then made small talk until he’d finished the bill.
* * *
“You pegged it.” Reed dropped into the driver’s seat after walking Lilah to her side. “Every step of the way, you had him down cold.”
“He’s an ass.”
“One you’re well rid of.”
Her dark gaze was inscrutable across the small width of the car, but her words were impossible to mistake. “Thank you. For tonight. For being there with me. I never could have done that without you.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself.”
“No. I mean it. I didn’t want to be there, but I never felt in danger.” She laid a hand on his arm. “Thank you for making me feel safe.”
He grinned at her, more pleased than he could have ever described at her words. “It’s all part of the job, ma’am.”
“You take serving and protecting awfully seriously.”
“I do.”
Reed knew her words were meant as a lighthearted riposte, but he quickly understood his answer held something more.
“I love what I do. What it means to right other’s wrongs. To find justice. It took me a long time to understand what drove that or why it matters to me. But it does matter to me.”
As you do, Lilah Castle.
The thought was wholly unexpected, but as he let the words—and more important, their meaning—drift through his mind as he pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, he knew them to be true.
“Did you get what you needed tonight?”
“I think so. But give me your impressions first.”
“Where do I start?” She let out a small laugh. “Okay. First of all, he pretended not to know who I was talking about when I mentioned Robert and Charlie. Total bs and a dead giveaway.”
“Yes.” Reed added his agreement as he took the on-ramp to the highway. “Amateur move.”
“Steven may be a lot of things, but he’s not an amateur. So I’d say that was his first major mistake. And then his complete lack of reaction at the fact they were murdered. He missed the mark. It’s one thing to pretend not to remember them. But it’s a whole different matter to have absolutely no reaction to hearing they were murdered.”
“Give you the detective’s star, Castle. You’ve read my mind on both counts.”
“He’s scared.”
Reed was intrigued at the diagnosis and pressed her. “Elaborate. What made you think that?”
“He’s an arrogant ass, so it wasn’t a shock that he tried to bluff his way through the discussion, pretending how busy he is. But I saw fear behind his gaze. Real fear. It’s something I’ve never seen before.”
“So how do you know what it is?”
“Because I saw it more than enough times in my own eyes. Night after night, I’d find some time to steal away to the bathroom, desperate to figure out what I’d done. Where I’d missed the mark. How I’d gotten myself involved with someone who had such a disregard for me. Such disdain. Was it something I’d done? Something I deserved?”
She stopped, the now-silent car full of the words and emotions and the years of pain she’d endured at the hands of that bastard.
Hands tight on the steering wheel, Reed fought his own rash of nerves and anger and upset. They’d had a good nigh
t—a productive night—and turning the car around to beat the hell out of Steven DeWinter wasn’t a smart move.
But oh, how he wanted to.
He hadn’t lied to Lilah. He took his job and his role as a protector of the city seriously. But there was little he wouldn’t give for two minutes alone with Steven DeWinter.
One-on-one.
Red taillights lit up in the distance and he refocused on the road, the heavy traffic yet another example of the continued population growth of their fair city. He’d lived here all his life, and it was amazing to see how industry and prosperity had driven a boatload of new residents to Dallas.
So here they were, nine o’clock at night with a line of traffic waiting to get into downtown.
The light tap on his brakes did nothing to reduce his speed and Reed pressed his foot again, a spark of concern racing up his spine when he still felt no change in the car’s velocity.
What?
He tapped again—harder this time—and still, his speed never wavered. And the red brake lights before them kept getting closer and closer.
Concern morphed into full-on panic as he ran through the images in his mirrors.
Left.
Center.
Right.
Damn, they were locked in, traffic on all sides. With a slam on the dashboard, he hit his flashers, willing the small symbol to give those around him some sense of his distress.
“Reed?” Lilah’s voice matched the sudden racing of his heart. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t think we have any brakes.”
“Oh my—” She broke off on a light cry as he narrowly swerved around a slowing car on their right.
“I need you to take my phone. Call a number for me.” Reed gritted his teeth as he kept his foot firmly off the brake and worked on navigating himself toward the far right across the five-lane highway. Their only hope was to hit an upcoming off-ramp with his foot off the gas, then find something hard to break their stop.
“Where is it?”
“Here. My pocket.”
He felt her hand snake into his coat pocket, digging for the small device as he swerved around another car. Heavy honking filled the night and he immediately splayed his forearm across Lilah’s shoulders as he took a hard right. “Hang on.”
Another resounding round of horns let out, but whoever was on their right sensed some problem and slowed enough to let them over.
“I’ll be damned,” Lilah breathed on a strangled giggle. “No one ever gives an inch in this town.”
“They sure as hell don’t.”
The exit sign was only a quarter mile away. The lack of pressure on the gas had slowed them some, but not nearly enough to miss the cars that had already slowed to the overwhelming traffic.
“What’s the plan?”
“That ramp. The one before downtown. I want to coast up the exit and then we’re going to have to take the wall.”
“No! It’s on your side.”
“Which is why you need to call 911. Now.”
He kept his focus solely on the road, swerving once again and bracing against the impact when he nicked a rear bumper on a slowing car in front of them. The heavy thud only reinforced the speed they were still going, but it slowed them slightly and cleared him for the exit ramp that was his goal.
Lilah maintained her calm, dialing Emergency Services and speaking immediately once they came on the line. She frantically whipped out instructions to their location and what had happened to them. He heard the 911 dispatcher’s garbled voice through the phone, one string of words loud and clear.
We’ve got backup on the way.
Reed cleared the ramp, the slight incline slowing them even further, but one glance at the odometer and he knew it wasn’t enough. One additional glance at the cars stopped in front of them at the off-ramp intersection and he knew he could no longer wait it out.
The back of his forearm still on Lilah’s chest, Reed braced himself for impact and made a hard left turn into the highway retaining wall.
Chapter 8
Lilah fought the overwhelming urge to scream and instead focused on getting to Reed now that the air bags had deployed. The screech of metal had been unbearable—the entire crash happening as if in slow motion—and the subsequent explosion of the safety bags had only added to the sense of unreality.
With fumbling fingers, she managed to find the gearshift and slammed the car into Park. She had no idea if it mattered at this point but figured it couldn’t hurt.
“Reed.” When she got no answer, she tried once more. “Reed!”
“Hmm? Wh—” A hard moan accompanied his half-slurred question and she pushed at the heap of exploded nylon in their laps.
“Are you okay?”
With his head resting against the headrest, Reed turned toward her. His eyes had a dazed, unfocused look and Lilah could only send up a silent prayer when she heard the distinct sounds of sirens. “You okay?”
“I asked you first.”
A bit of the haze dissipated from his eyes and his brows narrowed in hard lines. “You could have been killed.”
“I think that was the whole idea.”
Before either of them could say anything more, blue-and-red flashing lights were upon them and there were professionals dragging open her car door hollering in strong tones to gain her attention.
In the continued unreality of shouting and motion and action, she couldn’t stop one lone thought from resounding over and over in her mind like a gong.
Reed had taken the wall for her.
* * *
Lilah heard them before she saw them. Two sets of frantic voices, followed by the calming presence of two deeper male baritones.
“Where is she?”
“We’re here for Lilah Castle—”
The two demands wove over top of each other as Cassidy and Violet practically attacked the night-nurse station in their rush to see her.
She heard the murmured calm of the nurse and the directions to her bay.
And then Cassidy and Violet were there, flinging back the curtain and rushing to the side of her bed and both talking at once and crying like babies.
Lilah thought she was strong. She’d held it together from the moment Reed had realized something was wrong, all through the ride to the hospital and the poking and prodding of the doctors.
She’d even stayed calm as she asked after Reed, questioning everyone who came to see her for an update on how he was doing.
But at the sight of her two best friends, tears she hadn’t even realized she held back opened with the force of a dam breaking.
“Oh. Oh no. It’s okay.” Cassidy had her first, pulling her close in a tight hug. Violet sat on the other side of the bed and Lilah felt herself pulled into a tight melding of arms and heads and murmured assurances that all would be well.
The three of them rode out the storm and a few minutes later it was Tucker’s warm voice that penetrated their sodden circle.
He leaned over Cassidy and pressed a kiss to Lilah’s head. “How are you doing, Champ?”
“If that’s a Rocky reference, I’d say it’s apt. I feel like I went about ten rounds with Apollo Creed.”
“Air bag?” Max asked, his supportive wince suggesting he’d done a tango or two of his own with an air bag.
“I never expected they’d hit so hard. Like a ginormous fist slamming into me all at once everywhere.” Lilah could still feel the moment of impact, the odd juxtaposition of the air bag’s power along with its ability to cushion the blow.
“What happened?” Violet’s soft touch smoothed several strands of hair behind her ear before she went into general mode. “And how?”
“Did you get any information on Reed?”
“Nothin
g yet,” Max said. “Let me go make a few inquiries.”
Tucker dropped a lingering kiss on Cassidy’s head. “I’ll go give Max a hand. I think the three of you need a few more minutes.”
They watched the men go before Violet shifted straight into inquisition mode. “Seriously, Lilah. What happened? Was it drunk driving?”
Lilah shook her head and tried to figure out where to start. She’d given the nursing staff her friends’ numbers to come get her, but she knew the details hadn’t been shared. “I was on a date with Reed. At Portia.”
At the mention of Steven’s restaurant, Cassidy squeezed her hand. “Why did you go back there?”
But it was Violet who honed in on the matter at hand. “A date?”
“A pretend date.” Lilah gave her a pointed stare before shifting toward Cassidy. “And we went to Portia because I had to. Steven played the gallant host with a free bottle of wine for our table, but Reed didn’t drink a drop. He was on the clock.”
“So it was just an accident?” Violet pressed.
Lilah hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. The past week had taken a toll on all of them and what was a danger to one was a danger to all.
“Lilah?” Violet pressed once more.
“Reed’s brake lines were cut.”
Violet and Cassidy went still, their gentle stares frozen in place.
“We obviously need to find out more, but Reed didn’t realize it at first and it was only once we were on Central and he needed to slow down that he realized he couldn’t.”
“Who does something like this?” Cassidy spoke first, disbelief layered beneath each word. “To you? And to a cop? Who does this?”
“Someone who wants me out of the way.”
* * *
Reed pushed one arm through his shirt, wincing hard at the stiffness in his body. Every muscle ached and he felt as if he’d gone up against a gorilla.
A gorilla with iron fists.
He’d checked out okay, with the instruction to mainline aspirin for the next few days and to come back immediately if he felt dizziness or any shortness of breath.
