Bittersweet Chocolate (46 page)

“I can’t. The thought of not having Marissa in my life, no, I wouldn’t be able to sleep. If you don’t mind, I’ll stay.”

Tristan nodded and turned to his housekeeper. “Kate, have you thought of anything else about the other day? Something Rissa said when she came home.”

“That’s just it. She appeared to be a combination of surprised, angry, agitated, and distracted, hardly aware of me,” Kate remarked. “She asked if I needed help, seemed to ignore my response, and said she’d skip dinner, had a big lunch, and needed to catch up on her sleep.”

After two hours of discussion, Tristan couldn’t think any more. Threading his fingers through his hair, he stood, and stretched. “I’m going to bed. Vi, you can sleep on the daybed in the nursery, if you want to stay.”

“I’ll take Vi home,” Christopher interjected before Vi could respond.

Tristan watched color infuse Vi’s cheeks, before he turned and regarded his brother. How odd. Considered a loner, the family thought Christopher married to his job. Tristan shook off his errant thoughts. If he weren’t so worried about his wife, he would have pursued Christopher’s solicitous attitude to a stranger. He’d give Vi and Christopher his undivided attention, once he had Marissa home safely.

She would be home. He refused to consider any other possibilities.

Four hours later, Tristan woke, showered and dressed, then checked on the twins before going downstairs. Except for Stephen and Christopher, the rest of the family was in the kitchen, and Kate had breakfast ready. “Where’s Stephen?”

“Said he had more calls to make. He’s still trying to locate Joel, and we told him we could help. He said his contacts would be quicker.” Anthony raised a quizzical eyebrow. “What do you really know about Stephen—never mind.”

Stephen walked into the kitchen, and he wasn’t a happy man. He seemed to have aged.

“Any luck?” Tristan asked.

“Yes and no. My contacts say Joel’s last place of residence was Camden, New Jersey, living with some woman. I asked them to check it out and get back to me as soon as possible. It’s the best I can do for now.”

“I think we know Joel’s location, and Marissa is with him,” Anthony stated.

“Where’s Chris?” Daniel looked at his sons. Anthony and Tristan smiled, but neither replied. “Maybe I don’t want to know.”

Everyone jumped when the phone rang. Kate picked up. Tristan tensed.

“It’s Megan, Marissa’s secretary,” Kate said. “She sounds upset.”

Tristan took the phone from Kate. “Hello, Megan, this is Tristan. Can I help you?”

“I need to talk to Marissa,” she insisted.

“Megan, calm down, what’s the problem?” he asked. “Marissa isn’t here, but I can give her a message, if that will help.”

“She told me to call her, if I had any problems with Matthew...” Megan’s voice faded to a whisper.

One hip resting against the counter, Tristan listened, his patience diminishing. He had a more pressing problem, and he couldn’t make any sense of what Megan was saying, her words barely coherent. “Megan, take it slow. Start over.”

“The other day, Marissa came by the office to take me to lunch. She stopped Matthew from raping—”

“Megan, wait!” Tristan cut her off, coming to attention. “What did you just say?”

“He tried to rape—”

“No, about Marissa. She came to the office?” Megan had his undivided attention and he had everyone else’s. His family stood around him, trying to hear Megan’s conversation. Stephen went into the family room and picked up the extension.

“Yes.” She shyly explained what occurred the other day. “I don’t know what else happened. She sent me out of the room. Afterward, she met me at her car and she was extremely upset,” she finished.

“Megan, is Matthew there today?”

“No. He called in sick again,” she mumbled, her voice degenerating into a childish whimper. “He made snide remarks to me about being ready for him when he came back.” Voice rising an octave, she insisted, “Marissa said she would take care of him!”

Tristan forced himself to remain calm. “Megan, do you know where Matthew lives?”

“No, but I can find out. Why?”

“I think you’ve just made everything right. I’m on my way to your office. Can you get his address for me?”

“I’m not sure I should.”

“Damn it, Megan, listen to me. Matthew may have kidnapped Marissa. She’s disappeared.”

Without further hesitation, her voice firm and business like, Megan stated, “I’ll get that address for you.”

Her words galvanized everyone to action. Tristan hung up the phone, Anthony left the room, saying he needed to retrieve his gun, and Stephen returned to the kitchen. They were about to leave the house when Christopher and Vi arrived.

“Is it Marissa?” Christopher asked.

Tristan explained what had happened. “Let’s go visit Mister Miller,” he said. “Stephen, I think you and Dad should stay here. We don’t want to pin all our hopes on Matthew and have it turn out to be Joel, after all.”

“Of course,” Stephen replied. “I need to wait for a call about Joel. Besides, Marissa is your responsibility, your job to see her safe.”

“Yeah, and a piss-poor job I’ve done, so far,” he grumbled. “Something I plan to remedy.”

Tristan and Anthony had started out the door when Christopher came into the hall, strapping on his shoulder holster. Tristan stared, dumbfounded. From the little he knew about the line of work his brothers were in, Anthony was the hothead, always ready to use his weapon with little provocation. Christopher, the arbitrator, rarely drew his.

Mystified by this turn of events...first Vi, now Marissa, clearly these two women had come to mean a lot to his big brother. Tristan walked over to Christopher, gave him a brief hug, then turned and walked out to the garage.

“Tristan, I think we should take the dogs,” Christopher called after him.

Tristan took the whistle from his pocket and put it to his lips. The two dogs appeared and rushed toward the car.

Vi came to the door with the rest of the family. “Tristan, don’t worry about the twins. There are enough of us to protect them.”

Tristan nodded, opened the station wagon tailgate, and the dogs leapt into the back. He closed the door, slipped into the car, backed out of the garage, and drove off. Anthony and Christopher, riding together, followed in their car. They reached Marissa’s office and Megan waited in the doorway with the address in hand. The townhomes where Matthew lived were in a gate-guarded community near his office.

Tristan insisted on going with his brothers to talk to the complex manager, then to Matthew’s place, arguing with Christopher until he realized they were wasting time.

“Okay, fifteen minutes,” he growled. “After that, I take the dogs in.”

Christopher and Anthony concurred and walked off toward the manager’s office. Alone in the car with the Dobies, Tristan talked to them, his voice calm and soothing. Just as his patience ran out, his brothers returned. “It’s about time,” he snapped.

“Chris had to convince the manager of the seriousness of the situation, and to what lengths he’d go to gain entry,” Anthony commented. “Once we reached the townhouse, our knock went unanswered. We had to go get the manager and his master key to open the door.”

“Is he there?” His brothers hesitated, and Tristan’s heart tripped, but he remained quiet, afraid to repeat his question.

“No one is there, Tristan. The house is empty,” Christopher replied.

“What do you mean, empty?” Tristan shouted.

“Hey, calm down. There’s no furniture, and no signs of anyone having lived there recently.”

Tristan stared at Christopher, his thoughts jumbled, unable grasp what he’d heard. If Matthew wasn’t living there, were they wrong. Was it really Joel or Rick? Was there someone they hadn’t considered?

“Maybe it’s the wrong address,” Tristan’s voice exploded out of him.

“Chris, it could still be him,” Anthony reasoned. “He knew he couldn’t stay here if he became a suspect, and he’s had plenty of time to clear out.”

“You’re right, but Tristan said he’s new in town. He’s from the East Coast, and I checked, he has no known relatives in California. So where would he take her?

“We’ll have to split up. Check the hotels around here. Let’s go back to the house and get Dad and Stephen to help. Maybe Vi and Kate have thought of something,” Christopher said. “It’s a long shot, but maybe he never brought her here. If he’s our perpetrator, he’s been stalking her for a while, could have had another place prearranged. We need to run a more in depth check on Mister Miller.”

Tristan remained silent and walked back to his car in a trance.

“See, they say it’s survival of the fittest, but you and I really know it’s survival of the most heavily armed.”

―Lia Habel,
Dearly Departed

The brothers returned to the house and rejoined the family. A hush came over the kitchen as all faces turned toward them expectantly. Noting Marissa’s conspicuous absence, Clarisse broke down. Stephen was the first to break the silence.

“I received a call from back east. Joel Raines is living in Camden, New Jersey with a woman, maybe a wife, three children, and never has been to the West Coast.”

“Damn it, it has to be Matthew!” Tristan slammed his fist down on the counter. “Where the hell has he taken her?”

“Relax, Tristan, think.” Daniel patted his son’s shoulder. “What, if anything, has Marissa ever told you about this man? Inconsequential as it seemed at the time, it could help.”

“She never said much about him before he became her boss. I met him, and didn’t like him. He seemed too interested in her, but she hadn’t seen the man since she was fifteen years old,” he asserted. “She said the relationship ended on a bad note, but she never went into detail...” His voice trailed off and he turned to look at his father-in-law. “Stephen, didn’t you know him?”

Stephen grimaced. “Tristan, you have to understand something about Marissa, and I guess it’s going to sound odd, no matter how I say it. Marissa had more boyfriends than I could keep track of, but the relationships never lasted—wait a minute!” He frowned. “Matthew Miller, the old one I didn’t like. That son of a bitch, I’ll...” He stopped. “Vi might know something about him.”

Tristan turned to Kate. “Is Vi still here?”

“Yes, upstairs in the nursery.”

Tristan rushed from the room, taking the stairs two at a time. He entered the nursery and found Vi asleep on the daybed. “Vi,” he whispered, gently shook her, and she opened her eyes.

“Did you find her?”

“No, we didn’t, but I need you to try and remember everything, anything Marissa ever told you about Matthew.”

Vi sat up. Groggy from sleep, she stretched and yawned. “There’s not much to tell. She dated him for a few months, if I remember correctly.” She yawned again. “He put forth a major effort to entice her into having sex. She didn’t fall for it, but she did string him along.

“Once he realized she intended to stand firm with her no sex resolution, he was so pissed he slapped the crap out of her. Can you imagine the Marissa of those days...” Her voice stuttered to a stop when she looked up at Tristan. She tried to move away, but wasn’t fast enough.

He grabbed her shoulders and yanked her off the bed. “He did what?” he growled.

“Let her go, Tristan,” Christopher stated from the doorway. “Vi’s trying to help, and doesn’t warrant your abuse.”

Tristan snatched his hands away. “Oh God, Vi, I’m sorry.” He roughly pulled her into his arms. “Honey, you know I’d never hurt you.”

“It’s all right, Tristan, I know you wouldn’t. There’s no need to apologize. But what did I say to upset you?”

“He hit her.”

“You didn’t know?”

“Damn her. She never told me he hit her.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “And this time, she kept him from raping Megan.”

Christopher strode into the room, came to a standstill in front of Vi, and gently lifted her chin. He scanned her features, then his steely gray gaze held Tristan’s, but he spoke to Vi. “Are you okay? You’ll have to excuse my baby brother. He’s a little crazy right now.”

“Chris, what? Hell, I apologized,” he retorted. “It has to be him. It has to be.” His fingertips massaged the furrow between his brows. “Where the hell is he keeping her?” He looked at Vi. “What did Marissa do when he hit her?”

“Her first thought had been retaliation, instead, she told him to stay out of her neighborhood. Said it might be unsafe for him, and hinted her friends would be upset if they found out what he’d done.”

“How did he respond to that threat?” Christopher asked.

“He told her to watch her back. She informed him she had plenty of friends to watch her back. That was the last time she’d seen him, until recently.”

“Yeah, with him as her boss, she had reason to watch her back.” Christopher shook his head.

“Why didn’t she tell me? That lowlife son of a bitch,” Tristan snarled, anger mounting. “He hit a fifteen-year-old child.”

One of the babies whimpered and Christopher touched his arm. “Let’s get out of here before you wake the twins.”

Tristan reined in his temper when reminded of the twins’ presence. He checked the babies and left the nursery with Vi and Christopher. They were heading for the stairs when Vi spoke again.

“You know, I just had a thought. If it’s Matthew, he must have been in California long before he started working with Marissa.”

Both brothers stopped walking and turned to her. “And?” Christopher queried.

“Well, I’m not sure this means anything.”

“What, Vi?” the brothers spoke in unison.

“The old house, Tristan. It started at your old house. He must have known where you used to live. Who brought your old...”

Tristan and Christopher sprinted down the stairs, leaving Vi standing at the top. They passed through the kitchen, Christopher shouted to Anthony to follow them, and continued through the garage out to their cars.

“What’s up?” Anthony asked when he caught up with them.

“The old house. He stalked Marissa at our old house.” Retrieving his whistle, Tristan placed it to his lips. The dogs appeared and leapt into the station wagon.