Authors: Jennifer Morey
“Why did you keep seeing him?” Autumn asked.
Rylie shrugged. “He’s a powerful man. I guess I was flattered he desired me, and a stupid part of me believed I could have him. But all he was doing was living out a fantasy, getting some sneaky strange on the side.” She screwed up her mouth with self-disgust.
At least she had the decency to admit her actions were immoral and wrong. Autumn despised women who betrayed other women, whether they knew them or not, by sleeping with their husbands.
“I wouldn’t wish to see him killed, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him brought to his knees if he’s blackmailing Nash Ralston again.”
A few stunned moments passed. “Again?” both she and Raith asked.
Rylie looked from him to her. “Oh, yeah. He and Nash go way back. They’ve hated each other for years, long before either of them worked for NV or DT.”
A woman sitting at the table on the other side of the fig trees turned to look at them. Her blue eyes were wide with what Autumn had to assume was shock. She stood and walked around the trees. Tall and blonde with dark red lipstick, she was a stunning woman. She was dressed in a black formfitting dress that revealed a good portion of her large breasts; her hips flared and dipped into a tiny waist.
“Holy hell,” Rylie declared as she saw her.
“So it was you,” the blonde hissed. “How could you?”
“India, I...” Rylie was appalled and flustered. “I...”
“Don’t even try to explain anything.”
“I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you. It just sorta happened. I—I didn’t plan it and I—I’m not the kind of woman who normally does that sort of thing.”
India scoffed, disgusted and enraged. “I bet that’s what you all say. But the truth is, tramps like you thrive on the wrongness of it. You get off knowing he’s going home to another woman who has no idea that you’re spreading your legs for her husband.”
“No, I—I swear. It wasn’t like that. He pursued me.”
“Now you’re blameless?”
“No. I’m sorry, I...” Rylie began to cry.
“My husband loves me. If he pursued you it was for the exact reason you yourself said. He was living out a fantasy. You aren’t the real thing. I am.” India ran her revolted gaze up and down Rylie’s torso. “Whatever made you think you could get a man like Kai, much less hold on to him?”
Rylie stood from her chair, sniffling, tears running down her face. “I’m so sorry. I am.” She turned to Raith and Autumn. “I’ve got to go.” And then she hurried from the coffee shop.
India Whittaker watched her disappear through the door, a subtle shudder wracking her shoulders and her fingers trembling as she adjusted her purse.
“You’re the one who’s helping Kai?” she said to Raith.
She’d heard plenty of their conversation with Rylie. “Yes.”
India’s distraught state lingered. She adjusted her purse again, an anxious action. “The chief financial officer’s wife and I are close friends. She told me she heard Rylie talking to Kai’s assistant yesterday. I saw you walk over here with her and so I followed. I figured the least amount of damage I’d come away with would be the cost of two cups of coffee before I went to see Kai, and saw her with you. I didn’t want to believe...”
Tears had begun to pool in India’s eyes. Autumn stood and put a comforting hand on the woman’s back.
She regained composure and asked Raith, “Was it Nash who sent that shooter to our house?”
“It might appear that way. We’re still investigating.”
Autumn appreciated that he’d included her. She couldn’t pinpoint why. Partnering up with him? Or maybe she liked investigative work. It was almost as exciting as traveling.
India nodded, looking numb and at a loss for words. She seemed torn over caring whether her husband was killed and anger over his betrayal. Either way, she was in the early stages of devastating pain.
“Well,” she managed to say. “Thank you.” She stepped out of reach of Autumn. “Thank you.” The words were forced and insincere. She started for the exit.
“Mrs. Whittaker,” Raith called after her.
She stopped and looked back.
“I’m sorry for what you heard today.”
Her lower lip quivered as she nodded once, this time a sincere thank-you.
After India left, Autumn looked at the table where the woman had sat. There were two cups there, forgotten now.
Chapter 12
O
n his way home from work late that night, Kai noticed a car following him. He wasn’t sure if he was being paranoid. Letting Raith go might have been rash. The man was smart and tenacious. And dangerous. Kai should have taken that into consideration when he’d hired him.
Turning onto his street, he watched through the rearview mirror. When the other car passed by, he breathed a sigh of relief. Moments later, he was in his garage and heading into the house. India’s car wasn’t here. She was never out this late.
Inside, he called her phone. She didn’t answer.
He searched the house for a note and found none. He tried her phone again. Where the hell was she?
Leaning on the table, he looked through the back patio door, wondering if he should call the police. What if whoever sent that shooter had taken her? A movement in the yard caught his eye.
Alarmed, he went to the door and flipped on the outdoor lights. A figure ran from the yard.
Who was that? The figure stopped. Realizing it was a deer, he chided himself for once again being paranoid.
Hearing the garage door open, he went to the hall.
She entered the house, looking beautiful in a sexy black dress. Except there was something wrong. Her eye makeup was smudged.
“India?” He walked toward her.
She said nothing as she put her purse down and avoided his attempt to embrace her. She walked into the living room and straight to the wet bar and poured herself a scotch.
India never drank like that.
“India, what’s the matter?” He went to her.
When he put his hand on her shoulder, she flinched and stepped away. Walking to the wall of windows that offered a view of Houston, she sipped her drink.
Kai began to fear what this was about. “India?”
Still, nothing.
“Where have you been all night?”
“Not here.”
He heard the edge in her voice. She may have had a little to drink before coming home.
“I thought you had our driver take you today. You said you were coming by the office but you never did. What happened?”
“I did go to the office. But then I asked the driver to take me back home. I drove the Jaguar to a friend’s house.”
“What friend?”
“Lynn’s.”
His chief financial officer’s wife. The two women had become close lately.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
India finished her scotch and then went back to the wet bar. Before she could pour more into her glass, Kai stopped her. He took the glass from her and then the decanter, setting both down and searching her sad eyes.
“India...” He couldn’t stand to see her like this.
“I know all about Rylie.”
The shock wave that announcement brought caught him unprepared. He’d hoped she’d never find out, but now that she had, he was almost relieved. Now they could talk about it. They could work past it and get on with their lives, one he very much intended to live with her. How he handled this would determine whether that was possible.
He put up his hands. “Okay. First of all, I regret what I did. I don’t even know why I did, either. I think it was some kind of weird midlife thing. She made me feel young again, the way she flirted with me.”
“She said you pursued her.”
“Maybe I did, after I saw that she was interested. I had no intention of acting on what was happening, the flirting. It started out innocently. People flirt sometimes at work.”
“Do they?”
India hadn’t worked much in her life. Kai had protected her from that.
“It was innocent at first. And then...” He’d always promised himself that he’d be honest with her if she ever found out, but now he was tempted to lie just so he could keep her.
“Don’t lie to me, Kai. I know you better than anyone. Tell me everything.”
He met her dejected gaze and yearned to make her happy again. Telling her this would only cause hurt.
“What happened to make it go from innocent flirting to more?”
“I took her out to lunch.” He sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. “And then the next week I took her again, and that turned into more than once a week. And after a few weeks of that, we had dinner and I took her to a hotel.”
“All those late-night meetings.” India’s eyes teared up. “I was so stupid.”
“No.” He moved toward her.
She stuck up her hand to stop him. “How many times did you take her to the hotel?”
“I...”
“Tell me.”
“I rented a penthouse suite after that.”
“Oh.” She nodded slowly, her face growing paler. “You were seeing her a long time.”
“A few months.” He inwardly winced. The amount of months didn’t matter. He’d slept with Rylie many times. “It was a phase, India. I got through it and I realized what a mistake it was. I love you. I woke up one morning and realized that, how much I love you. Being with Rylie was a mistake.”
“Maybe it was one you needed to make. Would you have realized you loved me without sleeping with her?”
“I...” What did she mean?
“Why did it take cheating on me to realize that, Kai?”
“I don’t know. After a while, she wasn’t you, and it’s you I’ve always loved. Being with her had nothing to do with love. It had to do with going through a life change. Rylie meant nothing to me. She was more of a...tool.”
“Well. At least I know how you’ll handle your next life change.” India picked up the bottle of scotch and poured more into her glass. Taking the glass, she stormed off.
Kai followed. “How did you find out about her? Did Lynn tell you?”
“I overheard her talking to your mercenary.”
Raith? “Why was he talking to Rylie about my affair with her?”
“That wasn’t why he was talking to her. They were talking about Singapore.”
Kai stopped following her, recalling everything Rylie knew. He had to do something before she ruined everything...or Raith did.
Chapter 13
A
few days had passed since the encounter with India. This time when they went to meet Raith’s dad, they arranged it so he wouldn’t have to travel anywhere. There was a café across from the motel where he was staying. The condition of it gave Raith a sick feeling. The café was a mom-and-pop-type place, clean with home-style charm.
His dad smiled when he saw him, a big, joyous smile that lifted Raith’s mood slightly.
“Don’t get up,” he told him when he started to stand.
He shook his dad’s hand and then sat across from him, Autumn taking a seat beside him.
“Thanks for meeting me,” his dad said.
“Stop thanking me. Why are you staying in a motel?”
“Don’t worry yourself with my finances, Raith. That’s not why I came to see you. I haven’t done very well with money, but I’ve managed to get by. I sold car insurance after I sobered up. Earned a decent wage. Had health insurance and something of a retirement. Things were starting to look up for me. I even met a woman. But then...”
Raith stopped himself from throwing money at a father who hadn’t been a father to him. He still wasn’t sure he was here out of obligation or the possibility of reconnecting.
Had the woman left after she learned he was dying of cancer? She must have, and his father couldn’t say it. He had to stop himself yet again. Why did he care? He was still confused and not sure he could forgive so easily.
“You never remarried?” Autumn asked.
Leonardo turned to her. “I take it Raith has told you about his mother.”
“Somewhat.”
“No, I never remarried.” Now he looked at Raith. “When I met your mother, I fell in love with her by the end of our first date. We were starry-eyed twenty-two-year-olds back then.” He smiled with the memory, his face lighting up, erasing traces of his illness, if only temporarily. “She had plans to go to college and teach kindergarten. I was a carpenter, building houses. We didn’t have two nickels to rub together but we were happy. She got pregnant and we had to get married quick. It would have happened, anyway. She had to put off going to college. I felt bad for that. She was upset about it, but we both wouldn’t have traded Malcolm for anything. Life happened after that. You came along, I kept working construction and she stayed home with you two. We’d come home and have a drink or two, and after a few years of that, it turned into more. We should have stopped it.”
Raith remembered those days. He was a young boy and his parents would drink before dinner. It seemed normal until his dad’s addiction got out of control. He turned into a raging drunk. From there, Raith watched his mother fade away. And then there was the affair.
“After she died, I lost myself in grief. I drowned it even more than I was drowning my life before that. Malcolm left, and then you. It wasn’t until I was fired five years later that I began to realize what I had done. I’d drunk my life into ruin. Alcohol took the woman I loved and my children away from me. I betrayed my wife with a woman I didn’t even care about. She was just another drunk in a bar that I took home one night. I was gone all night. The next morning, I could see what it did to your mother. I tried to apologize and explain, but it did no good. Her trust was gone. I destroyed her love for me. I destroyed her.”
The pain in Leonardo’s eyes penetrated Raith’s indifference. He kept his empathy at bay and let his dad continue.
“The worst part was that I blamed her. I blamed her for not seeing that the other woman meant nothing. I was angry that she withdrew, that she denied me her love. We both were drinking a lot then. And then she got sick and died.” He fell into a sorrowful pause. “That erased my anger. Then the guilt finally settled in. It took her dying for me to realize that I didn’t try hard enough to earn her forgiveness. It took even longer to realize that it was the alcohol that caused all of my grief.”
“How did you overcome your addiction?” Autumn asked.
Raith was glad she was here. He doubted he’d have asked any questions. He was too mixed up inside.
“I checked myself into a facility. I was there for two months, and then I joined a group and went to meetings weekly and then monthly. I still go every once in a while...or I did.” He turned away with the reminder that he was dying. It no longer mattered if he went to his meetings.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were getting treatment?” Raith asked. He could have sent a letter or had one of the counselors call him and Malcolm.
“I didn’t feel I deserved to.”
He’d been so riddled with guilt that he hadn’t called for the support of his kids.
“I began to finally grieve for my wife’s death during my treatment. The counselors helped me, but even afterward, I couldn’t forgive myself. I still haven’t forgiven myself, not completely. Enough to move on with my life, and I had begun to do that when I was diagnosed.”
“Did you ever think about contacting me or Malcolm?”
“Every day. Every sober day of my life. But I was too ashamed to call you. Until now. Now it hardly matters how I feel. What’s important to me is that you aren’t burdened with the way I raised you, that you can let it go. You don’t have to forgive me. As long as you’re happy that’s all I care about. Don’t make the same mistakes I made.” He looked at Autumn. “Which I can see that you haven’t.” He turned back to Raith. “The only area that has me concerned is your profession.”
“My profession?” How did he know anything about it?
“Malcolm told me what little he knew of it. He said you were secretive, that once you dropped out of the military, you went underground. He called you a modern-day Rambo.”
“I’m legitimate.” On his own terms.
“I believe that. But why did you go underground?”
“I got tired of politics slowing down progress.”
“You got tired of following rules. You lived in a dysfunctional home. You’re more comfortable in dysfunction. It’s time you stopped, Raith. You can have stability.” He glanced at Autumn briefly. “But only if you offer it.”
“Did you have this same speech prepared for Malcolm?”
“Malcolm is happily married and has kids who are doing well in school. He doesn’t drink and he has a successful job. He’s not a millionaire, but he’s doing well for himself and his family. He overcame his upbringing. Probably because he got out sooner than you did, and he was older when your mother died.”
“Well, good for him. I don’t need fixing, but thanks for your concern. I overcame, too.” Realizing he sounded defensive, Raith looked away.
“You rebelled,” his father said.
Catching agreement in Autumn’s eyes, Raith squashed the anger that reared up. What if his dad was right?
“Your mother died. Your brother abandoned you and I wasn’t there for you. You rebelled because of that.”
He did harbor some resentment toward his brother for not taking care of him, just leaving him at home with a drunk.
“Are you doing what you really want to do with your life?” his father asked.
Raith had always thought he was. But hearing his dad’s repentance had shifted something inside of him, something he wasn’t ready to accept.
“We should get going,” he said. “We’ll talk again.”
His dad nodded. “I’m flying home tomorrow.”
“When we’re finished here, we’ll stop by.”
“I’d like that.”
* * *
Outside, Raith watched his dad slowly make his way across the street as he and Autumn headed for the rental, which he’d parked in the motel parking lot. As they neared, he noticed a man standing in a gravel alley off the small parking area behind the café. He leaned against the aging red-brick wall of the business next to the café, smoking a cigarette and looking right at him. He wore a dark blue hoodie and holey, faded jeans. Recognition came along with a rush of foreboding. He stopped Autumn to assess the situation. There was no one else in the alley. He surveyed the rental. Something hung down underneath the driver’s side. They were just ten feet from the car.
Acting on instinct, he put his arm around Autumn and began to turn her away when an explosion erupted. The rental blew up. Raith saw the burst of flames and felt the powerful repercussion, the boom deafening. Shrapnel sprayed him as the force of the explosion threw him and Autumn. Raith’s back came against the side of a Dumpster, his head slamming back and disorienting him for a few seconds. He regained coherency fairly soon. Sitting against the Dumpster, he searched for Autumn. She lay sprawled with her back on the ground, the corner of the Dumpster keeping her hip up. She must have hit her head on the corner.
“Autumn!” He crawled to her, his head swimming.
Her eyes were closed and a pool of blood began to spread from underneath her head. Raith leaned down and felt her warm breath. That gave him marginal relief. Removing his shirt, he gently felt her head until he found the gash. It was big. Careful not to move her much, he slipped the shirt under her and wrapped it around her head, tying it tightly.
Glancing back, he saw the rental car in a ball of flames and no sign of the man. Garvin. He’d watched the explosion.
“I called 911.”
Raith looked up to see his breathless and pale father and a few other people who’d gathered.
“I heard the explosion,” his dad said. He must have still been outside, in front of the motel when the explosion detonated.
All Raith could think about was Autumn. Was she going to be all right?
The sound of sirens was welcome for a change. When the ambulance arrived, he moved back to let the EMTs work on her, sick to his stomach as he watched them stabilize her neck and position an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. Next, they put her on a gurney and rolled her in a hurry to the ambulance.
He raced after her. A paramedic blocked his path and he put an arm out to move him, not brutally, just to get him out of the way. No one stopped him. They all knew he’d been with her when the explosion occurred.
Before climbing into the ambulance, he searched for his dad. He stood behind some emergency personnel and called, “I’ll take a cab to the hospital.”
Raith nodded and sat beside the gurney.
“Autumn.” He took her hand, a heavy dread descending upon him. She didn’t regain consciousness all the way to the hospital.
When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, she was taken into the E.R. A clerk behind an enclosed desk waved him over.
“What’s your relation to the patient?”
“He’s her boyfriend,” his dad said, appearing beside him. He handed the woman a card. Only then did Raith realize that his father had picked up Autumn’s purse and brought it with him. He’d thought to look for an insurance card.
He was being a dad.
Raith struggled with how that made him feel. Gratitude. Chastisement for not thinking to do it himself. But he’d been so concerned with the danger Autumn was in that he hadn’t. They finished checking Autumn in.
“Have a seat. The doctor will be out as soon as she’s stabilized.”
Raith stepped back from the desk. He was no good at waiting. He was a doer not a waiter.
Hospital personnel walked by. Two security officers talked, bored on a slow night. Only one woman sat in the waiting room, face glowing from the light of her laptop. A TV played a national news program. Too normal for the chaos taking place inside of him.
“Raith.” A frail hand touched his arm.
His dad stood by him and draped a light jacket over his shoulders. The jacket his easily chilled dad had worn in the late-fall Houston day.
“All we can do is wait,” his dad said.
For the first time in his life, he was grateful his dad was here. Slipping his arms through the jacket, Raith left it unzipped and sat next to his father on one of two chairs beneath a TV hanging on the wall. Raith wasn’t interested in passing time by watching TV. If he could be in the E.R. with Autumn, he would.
“Why did your car explode?” his dad asked.
Raith lowered his head, only then realizing he’d tipped it back. “Apparently we’re getting too close.”
“To what?” Almost immediately after asking, Leonardo said, “Never mind. I know you can’t tell me any details. Just answer me one question.”
That depended on the question.
“Was it special?”
“Was what special?”
“The night you spent with her?”
Raith could only stare at his dad.
“Your personal assistant told me when I called your home phone.”
Desi. Raith was going to ring his scrawny neck.
His dad didn’t press the issue. Instead, he began talking about some memories he had of his mother, about how it had been in the early years when Malcolm was a toddler. The drinking had been normal back then, not every day and not in excess.
“I wish we could have stayed that way,” he finished by saying.
Raith rested his head back against the wall behind him as his dad talked. The stories relaxed him and took his mind off how worried he was for Autumn.
All of that fled when he saw a doctor heading toward them. Back came the anxiety and a deep-seated fear of losing a woman he cared for, maybe more than he could handle.
Raith stood, his father slower in doing so.
“Raith De Matteis?” the doctor queried.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Autumn is resting comfortably now.”
Relief rushed over him before the doctor continued.
“She had quite a blow to her head. It took thirty stitches to patch her up. Fortunately, she didn’t suffer any fractures to her skull. I think she’ll recover just fine, however, the potential for brain trauma from a blast like this can’t be dismissed.” The doctor lifted his hands, palms out. “A car bomb like this one delivers two punches. First, you have the shock wave, and then you have the wind from the blast. The wind shakes your head violently and very quickly.” He moved his hands to illustrate. “It’s the amount of energy released in that short period of time that does the damage.”
“Are you saying she’s going to have brain damage?”
“Not at all. I’m saying if she does, it will be minimal. But given that she’s never had any type of blow to the head or any concussion before this, I think her chances are good she’ll skate right through this. She’s got a pretty good concussion and a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise she’s fine. Doing very well.”