Chapter Twenty-Six
Charlie immediately wentover to Riley. Josh was afraid his heart would break the minute she got on that plane the next day. He leaned against the porch rail and swung his gaze from Riley to Liza and back to Riley. It gutted him to see her beautiful face marred with black eyes. After their epic kiss, she’d told Josh that the bald man, Bart, had pushed her out of the elevator. It was all Josh could do to restrain himself from hunting the man down. But Bart would get what was due to him in prison.
The soothing sound of the waves ebbing and flowing behind him did nothing to calm the butterflies in Josh’s stomach. Despite her black eyes, Riley was still gorgeous. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and her long, smooth neck was on display. Josh puffed out his cheeks for no other reason than to calm his body down, but that was impossible.
He swept his gaze down to her cute painted toes that were peeking through a pair of sandals. He itched to rub her feet. Some people weren’t into feet, but Josh was. That was the one physical attribute he noticed first if a woman was wearing sandals like Riley.
But before he got Riley alone, which was on his list considering she was leaving tomorrow, Josh had to get in all the kisses and make-out sessions he could.
First though, he had questions for his cousin, who appeared tired with dark circles beneath her eyes. On one hand, Josh wanted to yell at her, and on the other, he knew she’d done what she thought was right. If he were being honest, he would’ve done the same as her and hid until he could come up with a plan.
Liza sighed. “I’ll start since I know, cousin, your curiosity is killing you.”
She knew Josh well.
He crossed his arms over his chest and settled in. Charlie lay at Riley’s feet, and Riley held one of her nails hostage between her teeth.
“Shortly before the raid on Moretti’s company last year, I found several photos and documents on the company’s server,” Liza began. “I’d been searching for a folder with some old fashion designs and just happened to click on a folder that was titled ‘Milan.’ My predecessor had organized a fashion show in Milan, so I thought I could get ideas from old designs and turn them into current trends. Only the folder had photos of—”
“Bart killing someone,” Josh said.
Both Riley’s and Liza’s noses scrunched.
He ground his teeth together. “I saw everything on that drive.”
Liza shuddered. “Don’t say that too loud. Anyway, the folder had a ton of incriminating evidence, and it bothered me for weeks. I thought of quitting well before the raid. I thought of sending all the information to the police, but I didn’t want to end up dead. Then, three days before the raid, I overheard Stefano talking to one of his men about the feds and how they might be paying them a visit. Stefano ordered his man to wipe the computers clean. I should’ve just left and not looked back. Instead, I copied that folder onto a thumb drive.”
She glanced out at the ocean. “I considered giving the drive to Agent Wallace the day of the raid when he questioned me. But I wasn’t ready to deal with running for the rest of my life. Then Stefano was arrested recently. I thought maybe it was time I hand over the evidence to Agent Wallace. That way, Stefano would go to prison for a very long time. I called Agent Wallace, but I never heard back. Then out of the blue, Haley called me. She’d been working late one night and saw Bart killing a man in the warehouse. She knew she couldn’t go to the cops. She knew they would kill her, and she didn’t know who to turn to.”
“So she came out here. Why?” Josh asked. “I get that she’s your friend, but you couldn’t protect her.” But he understood Haley wanting to get out of town.
“I told her to track down Agent Wallace, which was another reason I called him. But then she showed up in my office the day Riley flew in, the same day Bart and Leo stopped by too. I had to help her. At that point, I didn’t have time to do much else. I even forgot to grab the thumb drive from my office. I did plan on meeting Riley that day, but then Bart and Leo were following me. I called Taylor and without going into detail asked if I could lay low at one of her family’s abandoned wineries. I told her to keep her phone handy, and I shut mine off since Leo kept calling me.”
“How did they know you had it?” Josh asked.
“Mr. Gansett,” Riley said. “He told me he overheard Liza talking about it on the phone.”
Liza picked at a nail. “I’m still miffed that I missed the connection between Mr. Gansett and the Moretti family. He was always kind to me. He was a good boss. But thinking back to when I interviewed with him, he was the only one not to care about my former employer. I guess that should’ve been a neon sign.”
“They wanted to keep an eye on you,” Riley mumbled.
“Need I say you should’ve gotten me involved?” Josh said more than asked.
“I tried to keep everyone out of danger. That didn’t work, of course.” She frowned at Riley then looked at Josh. “I definitely didn’t want the mafia to storm into Redwood Cove Inn. Neither you nor your dad needed that kind of trouble. Besides”—she smiled—“you would’ve gone all Navy SEAL on them.”
Josh smirked. “That would’ve been okay. I miss the heck out of my days as a SEAL.”
Liza came over to him and pressed a hand to his chest. “Josh, I love you to death. You’ve been through enough.” She gave him a hug. “Now it’s time you get the girl,” she whispered in his ear. Then she pulled away. “Riley is talking about buying that bridal shop down the street. Maybe you can convince her to move out here.” She and Riley exchanged an unspoken message. Then she went over to the door. “Charlie, come on. Let’s go see Drake.”
Charlie popped up and disappeared with Liza inside the inn.
Josh’s tongue was tied, or maybe Riley had him under one of her spells with the way she was looking at him as though he were her world. Man, he wanted to be her everything. “Is that true?”
She shied away. “Maybe.”
“You do owe me a date.”
“And you owe me another heart-stopping kiss. I think that might convince me,” she teased.
Whether she was teasing or not, Josh didn’t think; he only reacted.
He helped her to her feet and peppered kisses along her neck until their lips were fused together. Then he kissed her like a man possessed.
Dad had predicted Josh and Riley would be married within two years, and whether or not they would, Josh knew he would marry Riley Lewis one day.
