“Look, anything you can tell me that would help me find your attacker will help to keep you safe, and also possibly retrieve what he took.”
“I’m here for research so I can finish my father’s book. He was a maritime historian. I chartered a boat, and the captain dropped me off here.”Cutting our trip short. He told me to watch my back. But why?“I took a walk on the beach while waiting on my ride.” She shrugged, fighting the swell of unshed tears.
“You mentioned that you’re a journalist.”
“I was an investigative journalist.”Until my own mother sunk my career.He’d learn soon enough anyway, if he pulled additional background information. “I spent the last many months researching and traveling the world, making notes of my own. If I’m going to write his book, I need to experience what he experienced. And then I arrived here, and thisis the first trouble I’ve—” She stopped herself. “Now I just sound plain bitter.”
Well, she was.
Bitter that all her hard work could have been destroyed.
“Ms. Valentine. Please. Take a deep breath. You’ve been through something terrible. Is there anyone I can call for you?”
“No ... I...” She sagged. She hadn’t meant to offer up more than the required information, but she was exhausted and just needed to say the words. “My father died. I’m finishing his book.” She was repeating herself.
“You need to talk to someone. A therapist, someone to help you through these traumatic events. In the meantime, I’m here to help in any way I can.”
“Like find who did this? Get my things back?”
“Yes, of course. Who dropped you off here?”
“Captain Everett Malloy, goes by the name Salty. His trawler is called theMariner’s Gambit. He cut our excursion short after a near run-in with a possible speedboat just off Hidden Bay, but theKrakenchased them away. He told me it wasn’t safe here and to watch my back.”
At the look he gave her she added, “I know it sounds nonsensical.”
“Watch your back.”
Footsteps behind her. Her face in the cold, saltywater. Death so close.
Cressida squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered.
She had to escape!
4
Braden had meant to be completely hands-off. Instead, he was all-hands-on-deck, holding Cressida tightly. She’d jumped from the chair as if to run, and he caught her. He hadn’t even hesitated when she’d started shaking through the memory. Her shudders left him unsettled.
He regretted having to ask her to relive those moments. But getting answers would always be part of his job—at least this county detective job. His position with DSS had included threat-assessment analysis, protective detail, and ... keeping secrets.
While he hadn’t known what to expect when he’d come to Washington, with the arrival of Octavia’s daughter, he now understood—Octavia wanted protection for Cressida. But from what? From whom? He didn’t know. And why here? Why now? Why hadn’t Cressida needed protection before she got to Hidden Bay?
Octavia had some explaining to do.
Cressida calmed and slid out of his arms. “I apologize for letting my emotions get the best of me. I don’t know what to say.”
As if frozen in place, he kept his arms out. This wasn’t awkward at all. “No need to say anything or apologize.”
He turned off the recorder. There was more to her story. He could see it in her eyes, but he also knew that she wouldn’t share until she was ready. He wouldn’t press her, at least not now.
“You’re not asking more questions?” Tears hung in her eyelashes as she blinked up at him.
“You’ve had a rough day. I’ll take you to the lodge now, if you’re ready to go.” He raked a hand through his hair and looked out the window and remembered his ride. This wasn’t going to work.
“You’re on a motorcycle, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I’ll make other arrangements.” He called Trent and confirmed the ride for her.
Was that disappointment flitting across her gaze? Not likely, given what happened today, but if she did ever want a ride on his bike, he was more than willing to oblige.
