Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
“She’s an interior designer that remodeled our offices five years ago,” Reese says. “Miller Designs. Her name is Debbie Miller.”
“How bad did the stalking get?” Royce asks.
“Gifts on my desk she shouldn’t have been able to get to. Showing up at restaurants where I had meetings. Infesting my favorite coffee shop to the point that I stopped going. I could go on.”
“Behavior that indicates this isn’t a coincidence or to be dismissed,” Royce says, then turns his attention to Cat. “The fact that she was watching you bothers me the most. You need to wait for me, or one of my men, to escort you everywhere right now. Even to the bathroom.”
Cat nods. “Yes. Okay. What about protecting Reese?”
“We’ll be with him at all times as well,” Royce assures her before running down a few other safety measures with us and then leaves us alone. I step to Cat and settle my hands on her shoulders. “It’s probably nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” she says, her hands settling on my chest. “I’m worried about her trying to shoot you or something.”
“She’s not going to shoot me.”
“That stuff happens,” she says. “It happens.” She presses her hands to her stomach. “I’m sick.” She twists away from me and sits down, pressing her hands to her face.
I kneel beside her. “Sweetheart.”
She looks up at me, tears in her eyes that are very out of character. “Talk to me.”
“I’m just—I’m sick and it’s bad timing to be this kind of sick. This isn’t how I wanted this to go for us.”
“How you wanted what to go?”
She presses her hand to my cheek. “Go win this case, but damn it, stay alive. I can’t live without you.”
I kiss her hand. “I’m not going anywhere. Do you need a doctor?”
“I’m going in the morning.”
“I’m worried about you, Cat.”
“Which is exactly what I didn’t want.” She grabs my lapels. “Go win, damn it.”
I hesitate, but I cup her head and kiss her. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she says, and I force myself to walk to the door, but exiting the room and leaving her behind about kills me.
Chapter fifty-one
Reese
Cat is rattled and my wife doesn’t get rattled often, but something still isn’t right with her. Not that I would expect her to be anything but rattled. I just told her I had a crazy person in my life, that is now potentially in our lives. Which I won’t let happen. Life is too damn good with Cat for me to let anyone ruin that and no one will ever hurt her. I will hurt them first.
I return to the room where Dana’s boyfriend Reginald is waiting and stop beside the guard. “Anything I need to know?”
“He’s calm and quiet.”
“Reese.”
I look up to find Savage, a big bear of a man with a goatee, who works for Royce coming my way. “I’m your back up, man.” He stops beside me. “I can go in or stay out.”
“You’re intimidating as hell, Savage,” I say. “The idea isn’t to scare the man.”
“If you say so,” he murmurs, grinning. “If you change your mind, I’m right here.” He steps to the side of the door.
I knock and enter to find Reginald sitting behind a basic wooden desk. He stands up, his tall, but lanky build, bending over the desk, as he presses his fingers to the surface. “She has to know I wouldn’t release that call. I love her.”
He looks older than his forty years in this moment, the lines of his face, around his eyes, exaggerated. “Who else could have?” I ask.
“I didn’t record that call. Unless Dana did, someone tapped our phones.”
I have no idea why the suggestion that Dana released her own call bothers me, but it does.
“I’d say it was her father, but obviously that’s not possible.” He scrubs a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe she thinks I did this. Fuck. I didn’t do it. Why would I do that to her?”
I could go at him. I could tell him he benefits from inheriting the money, too, if he marries Dana, but I don’t. I can’t turn him on her. I can’t warn him. “Whoever killed her father obviously wanted to set her up. They most likely had that recording before they killed him and released it before trial to ensure the jury heard it.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Understand that she’s scared and her placing blame right now is just a product of a million emotions she’s fighting. She melted down when she heard you were here. Obviously, the idea of you betraying her rocked her.”
“And me. The idea that she believes that guts me.”
“Just—try to put yourself in her shoes, sitting on trial, and having the world cover it, on top of losing her father. Even when you hate a parent, having them die, shakes your world.”