Prestige, page 17
“Sometimes,” he agreed. “Are you mad at me?”
“No,” she quickly insisted. “Are you mad at me?”
He laughed softly. “No. I was a little peeved at first, but once I thought about your position, I knew you did the right thing.”
“You look like hell.”
Dragging his hand over his hair, he let out a long breath. “I feel like hell.”
She gestured behind her. “You should shower and get some rest. The master bedroom is at the end of the hall. There are towels and—”
He took a big step and cupped the back of her head. Yanking her to him, he covered her mouth with his. Though his face was covered with sharp bristles, she melted into him and parted her lips. She’d been so worried that he’d hate her or blame her for what he’d been through that they’d never recover.
That concern had nagged her more as she and Logan had eagerly waited for his return. So she’d accept the prick of his beard on her skin as part of her comeuppance. If this was the price, she’d pay it.
Clinging to him, she deepened the kiss even more.
Finally, he leaned back and rested his forehead to hers as he caught his breath.
“Where’s this shower you speak of?” he asked. “I definitely need it.”
“Get your things.”
He grabbed his bag, and she led him deeper into the house. The place was small, but the master bedroom had an attached bathroom with an amazing shower. She guided him inside the room, intending to leave him to do a little self-care, but he closed the door behind him and dropped his bag on the bed.
“It’s Randall,” he said as he unzipped his bag. “I have no doubt about that now. Do you?”
Meri watched him dig inside and pull out fresh clothes, a can of shaving cream, and a razor. “I think the money Ana—or whatever her name really is—was for the deed he did. She got the money, and then they got married so it wasn’t tied to him. He killed them,” Troy said and shook his head. “I mean, I knew that, but now I know that. And knowing it is blowing my mind.” He looked at her and grinned lazily. “Pretend that made sense. I’m too tired to think before speaking.”
“It made perfect sense.”
With his clothes and toiletries in one hand, he slid his other arm around her waist, pulled her against him, and kissed her again.
“I can’t decide what I should do first. Sleep, shower, or make love to you.”
Contentment filled Meri as she dragged her hands over his arms and around his shoulders. “Sleep. Then shower. Because I want you rested—and clean-shaven—before you make love to me.”
“Yeah, but see, we have someone watching Logan right now, and she promised to stay as long as needed for us to work this out. Seems like a waste to not take advantage of that.”
Meri couldn’t argue with that. One thing she had learned over the last week was that when they got a chance to be alone, they really needed to enjoy that time. She untangled from him and walked into the bathroom. Though the room was small, there was enough room for her to slowly lift his T-shirt over his head and toss it aside. As she focused on releasing the button of his jeans, Troy kissed her head.
“I was so worried about you,” he whispered. “If anything had happened to you—”
“I can take care of myself.” She eased his zipper down before looking up to meet his eyes. “And anyone else who needs me.”
“I know.” Holding her face, he kissed her lightly. “But I was still worried. I can’t lose you again.”
“You won’t,” she whispered.
Dipping his face down, he tasted her lips. “Promise?”
“Come on, Troy,” she said, pushing his pants over his hips. “You know we can’t make promises like that in our line of work.”
“Promise anyway.”
Creasing her brow, she stopped removing his pants and focused on his face.
He wasn’t telling her something.
“What’s this about?” she asked. “What happened?”
Draping his arms over her shoulders, he exhaled heavily. “I found out…Sarah was watching you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know why,” he said. “But all I’ve been able to think about was how close she could have been to hurting you because of me.”
Meri shook her head. “Honey, I don’t think she meant to hurt me. I think she was hoping to find something to make you change your mind about me.”
Brushing his hand over her hair, he exhaled loudly. “That would never happen.”
Meri smiled. “I know.” Pushing his jeans over his thighs, she kneeled down to remove them and toss them aside. She smirked as goose bumps rose on Troy’s skin as she lightly trailed her fingertips up his thighs, hips, and sides as she regained her footing.
Sinking her teeth into his bottom lip, she suckled it for a moment before releasing it and laughing.
“Are you sure you have the energy to shower?”
“No. But we’re going to anyway. I missed you more than I missed sleep.”
She smiled as she rested his head against hers. She’d always known they would be good together—perfect together—and they were. In every way.
“I love you,” she whispered.
He smiled at her in the mirror. “I love you.” Wrapping his arms around her waist, he kissed her shoulder much more gently than he had before. “If I don’t shower now, I’m going to pass out.”
Meri waited outside the bathroom as he showered. After he dried and put on clean clothes, he collapsed on the bed. By the time she picked up the clothes he’d carelessly dropped, he was snoring. She could have stood there all day watching him sleep but decided she should relieve Joanie from babysitter duty and, she guessed, put Logan’s mind at ease. He’d been so eager to see Troy, he would be disappointed that he was asleep already.
However, when she left a sleeping Troy and stopped at Logan’s doorway, she found he had dozed as well. He’d been so excited to see Troy that he hadn’t gone back to sleep after they’d been woken by a call in the middle of the night.
Joanie was putting his books back on the shelf as he lay curled in a little ball on his side. Easing into the room, Meri tucked the blanket up. She had learned that if he got the least bit chilled, he would wake, seeking comfort from her or Troy. It didn’t take much to pull him from sleep.
She brushed his hair from his forehead and lightly laughed at the way he heaved a big breath. Despite everything that he was going through, he looked so at peace while he was sleeping. That gave her hope that he could fully recover one day.
When she turned, she spotted Joanie standing there with that annoying know-it-all smirk on her face.
“I knew it,” Joanie whispered.
“What?”
“Under all those hard glares and sarcastic retorts, you really are a big mama bear.”
The words made Meri’s heart ache inexplicably. She looked at Logan one more time before leaving him to his nap. Sitting at the little table, she raked her fingers through her hair and sank low in her chair.
“What’s wrong?” Joanie pressed.
“I’m worried about him. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him. He has seen so much darkness in his short life. That can cause a lot of long-term damage.”
“He’ll need to talk to someone,” Joanie agreed, sitting next to her.
Meri couldn’t quite understand the gloom that was settling over her. As soon as the director found concrete evidence against Randall, he would be arrested, and this would all end. Now that he was actually looking into Randall, that wouldn’t take long. Then Logan could stop running.
She should be thrilled, but she was even more terrified for him now. “He counts on Troy so much to feel safe.”
“He counts on you, too. He thinks you’re the bee’s knees,” she said lightly.
Meri laughed, but the ache in her heart grew. “I don’t know if he has any other family to take him in, or if… What if he ends up in the system?”
Joanie put her hand on Meri’s arm as if to comfort her. “He’ll be okay. Lochlin won’t let him slip through the cracks after all this. He’s going to be taken care of.”
“I certainly hope so. He’s going to need a lot of care and attention to move forward.” She glanced at Joanie when she didn’t respond. The look on her face was almost as distraught as what Meri was feeling. “What’s wrong?”
“Lynn said she was afraid you were going to go back to New York when this case ended. You are, aren’t you?”
She opened her mouth but couldn’t find the words.
“You and Troy worked everything out?”
“Yeah.”
“And he’s been cleared of all charges.”
Meri nodded.
“So he’ll leave. And Logan will leave. And you’ll leave.” Tears filled her eyes.
“Don’t do that,” Meri insisted. She heaved a sigh. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. To any of us.”
Joanie pouted, but before she could make Meri feel worse, her phone rang. She stood and put it to her ear. “This is Joanie.” She listened for a moment before turning and looking wide-eyed at Meri. “I’ll let them know,” she said after a minute. As soon as she hung up, her mouth gaped open like a fish several times before she found her words. “That was Lynn.”
“What’s wrong?”
“She got a call from Justin. Someone reported a disturbance at Randall’s house.”
“And?”
Joanie looked shocked. “They’re dead. Randall and Ana are dead. It looks like Randall shot her and then took his own life.”
Meri sank back in her chair. “Oh my God.”
“He must have learned that Troy was released and realized the walls were closing in on him,” Joanie said, retaking her seat at the table.
“It’s over, then,” Meri said. “It’s really over.”
Joanie nodded. Both seemed to share the same mixed emotions.
Meri looked down the hallway. “Poor Troy. He just fell asleep, but he’d want to know this right away.”
“Go. Tell him.”
Meri pushed herself to stand. “I told Lynn, and I’m telling you. No matter what happens next, we’re family, and we’ll always be family.”
“Even if you leave?”
“Yeah. Even if I leave.”
Joanie smiled, but Meri could see the shimmer of tears in her eyes.
“Go get Troy. Wrap up this case so you can…so you can go home.”
Now that Troy wasn’t concerned with getting arrested for kidnapping Logan, he was able to show up at Randall’s rental home without being arrested. He was pissed as hell when Meri told him what had happened. Randall had gone to great lengths to frame Troy, and the prick wasn’t going to pay a damn bit of the consequences for that.
Some might say death was enough punishment for his bad deeds, but to Troy, that felt like he’d taken the easy way out. Coward.
“What do you have?” Troy asked when Justin approached him to give him access to the scene. He didn’t know if Justin was the officer in charge, but he had met Lynn’s friend, so he wasn’t too concerned if he was stepping on someone else’s toes. He trusted Justin to talk to him.
“Welcome back,” Justin said, shaking Troy’s hand. “Looks like a classic murder-suicide. Randall shot his wife, then himself.”
“Was there a note or anything?”
“No, but follow me.” He led Troy into a small bedroom and handed him a glove as he gestured to the desk.
Troy snapped the glove into place as he stood over the desk. He flipped several pages of notes in Randall’s messy handwriting. The man had definitely been thorough in detailing all the reasons why he thought Troy was responsible for the Bantams’ murders.
The one thing Randall had circled over numerous times was a question: How did Troy get into the house unnoticed when Deon and Powell were on duty?
Troy stared at the scribbled note—the one hole in Randall’s theory—and realized that was a question he hadn’t answered either. There were supposed to always have been two guards on site. That night, the two were the newbies—Deon and Powell. They were green, but they were smart and careful.
How had a murderer gotten by two guards to torture and kill clients? The killer hadn’t snuck in, popped the Bantams, and disappeared. They had been tortured. That took time.
Where were Deon and Powell?
Troy hadn’t stuck around the scene long enough to question them about what they’d seen or heard. He hadn’t stuck around long enough to ask anyone anything other than where Logan was. But Randall was right. How did the murderer get in and do what he had done without being noticed?
Pulling his phone from his pocket—his real phone, not the flip phone Brian Donnelly had been using—he called the director. He continued skimming Randall’s notes as he updated Director Bruce on where he was and why.
“What the hell is happening, Troy?” the director asked.
Troy stopped sorting through Randall’s papers. “Who questioned Deon and Powell after the Bantam murders?”
“Hang on,” the director muttered. He must have been checking his files because Troy could hear him clicking away on his keyboard. A few minutes later, he said, “Hank questioned the other teammates. By then, they realized you and Logan were gone and Randall was trying to locate you.”
“Did they explain why they didn’t see or hear anything?”
“They were checking the outside perimeter.”
“At the same time?” Troy said. “That doesn’t read right, sir. They knew better. One of them should have been indoors with the family at all times.”
“They were new—”
“They still knew better,” Troy insisted. “Call them all in. Deon, Powell, and Hank. I want to have a conference call with them now that I can question them myself.”
“I’ll call you when they’re here,” the director said.
Troy had barely hung up when a man came into the room. The nervous energy radiating from him was more than Troy, in his overly exhausted state, was prepared to handle. The guy must have had an entire pot of coffee all on his own.
“Justin,” he said excitedly, “you’re going to want to see this.”
Justin turned to face him. “Hey, Shawn, this is Troy Buchanan.”
Shawn creased his brow. “Meri’s Troy?”
Troy grinned. He’d been called worse things. “You must be Casey’s Shawn.”
“Yeah, nice to meet you. I mean…maybe not given the circumstances, but… Hey, at least you’re not in jail anymore, right?”
“What’s up, Shawn?” Justin asked, putting an end to the man’s fast rambling.
“I don’t think this is as cut and dry as we initially thought. Come on.” He disappeared from the office, leaving Troy with a confused look as he stared at Justin.
“He’s brilliant despite being fairly socially awkward and slightly hyperactive,” Justin said. “Casey thinks it’s cute.”
Troy chuckled as he followed Justin from the room to where Shawn had squatted next to Randall.
Shawn pushed his glasses up and smiled. “Here.” He pointed with a gloved finger at Randall’s wound. “Most self-inflicted gunshot wounds are made at contact.” He put his finger to his own head, pressing against his temple as if he were holding a gun to his head. “Like so. Having the barrel against the skin would send the bullet straight through. But look at the angle on his wound.” Shawn left his finger pointed but tilted his head to the side. “The bullet entered when he was leaning away. If he was having reservations about killing himself, he probably would have lowered his hand like so”—he mimicked the motion—“not pulled away from the gun.”
“Maybe he was moving the gun and accidentally fired.”
Shawn shook his head. “I considered that, but look at this,” he said, clearly excited by his findings. He lifted Randall’s right hand. “Those are defensive wounds, and they are fresh. He fought back. He punched whoever was trying to kill him, at least once, maybe twice.”
Troy creased his brow. He agreed with Shawn’s logic, but he was at a loss as to who would kill Randall.
“Search for security cams in the area,” Justin called. “This might be a homicide.”
Just like that, the already busy crime scene started buzzing with activity. While other officers looked for cameras, Shawn went back to reevaluate Ana’s body. She’d been killed with one bullet to the head while she’d sat at the table. A half-eaten sandwich still sat on the plate in front of her body. She hadn’t had a chance to react before being killed.
Shawn examined her wound and pointed. “Whoever shot her was standing about right there.”
Troy stepped to where Shawn was pointing. He was directly in front of her body. She would have been looking right at whoever shot her. There was no way that she had been ambushed.
“Could she have been moved?” Troy asked.
Shawn nodded. “Possibly, but the angle of her entry wound implies she was sitting or someone extremely tall shot her.”
Troy blew out a long breath. “If Randall didn’t kill her, then it was someone she was comfortable with,” he said. “She wouldn’t be sitting at the table eating lunch if there was a known threat in her home.”
“I’ll get some officers together to question the neighbors,” Justin offered. “If they had company, maybe someone can get us a description.”
“See how far back the footage goes on any security cameras found at any of the neighboring properties,” Troy said. “Also, we need to ask the landlord when they moved in. They couldn’t have been here more than a few weeks. Randall was on active duty not that long ago.”
Justin walked away and started delegating the things Troy had said. Troy didn’t pay attention to whom Justin was assigning tasks. That didn’t matter. What mattered was the nagging feeling in his gut that everything about this scene was wrong.
He lifted his arm as if holding a gun and aimed it at Ana. Then he looked to where Randall’s body was on the floor between the front door and where he stood. The only way someone could have gotten into the house, by Randall, and to the table to shoot Ana straight on was if they had been welcomed into their home.
