She could hold on to the fact that it was going to be okay. Cressida would focus on her work for the rest of the time, and Detective Sanders would investigate what happened and return her things.
As the adrenaline faded, her aches and pains from the battle with the attacker reminded her that she’d planned to take a shower and wash away the grime of salty ocean and sand.Thenshe could read through her notes again. She set the journal on the desk, then thought better of it and instead stuck it under her pillow. She’d never felt the need to hide it before.
The long, hot shower turned into a short shower. She couldn’t shake off the captain’s warning—twice now—and then the attack. She towel-dried her hair and moved back into the main room, which included the bedroom and a kitchenette. A big window to view the ocean and a wood stove.
She’d love to stay here at another time without the weirdness of today weighing on her. On the floor, she found the note from Malloy had fallen out of the journal, and she picked it up to look at it again.Remember what I told you...
“Watch your back.”
And she hadn’t taken him seriously. Hadn’t known he meant it in the way he’d said it.
Since that warning, someone had taken the bag she’d carried with herandher laptop from another location. Oh yeah, and she couldn’t forget, drowned her—or so they thought.
What did Malloy know about this?
Could someone have been after her journal in the bag, or was she reading too much into it? Jumping to unfounded conclusions. But if that was true and the attacker had been after her journal, did that also mean once he discovered he didn’t have it, that he would come back for it?
And kill me again, only this timemake sure I stay dead?
6
At his small Forestview apartment, Braden exchanged his Ducati for his county-issued cruiser and drove back to the sheriff’s office—though it would take him a good forty-five minutes away from Cressida—but he needed to speak with Sheriff Thatcher about the precarious investigation that now included a protective detail. But Thatcher wasn’t in, so Braden settled into his small corner cubicle. His day off was officially over the moment he’d turned to follow Trent onto that beach.
In the county offices, a few deputies and personnel focused on their tasks and left him to his. Reports and paperwork were unfortunately the bulk of his job.
He needed to contact Octavia at some point today. If only he could cut all ties with her and live his life. If only he didn’t owe her anything. Owe her everything. As if to emphasize that truth, his cell dinged.
Caller ID revealed the call was from his sister.
His neck tensed as he answered. “Lauren. Is everything okay?”
An incredulous chuckle met his ears. “Relax. I can call you just to say hi, can’t I? Everything isn’t an emergency.”
Wasn’t it? He released a slow breath as his shoulders slowly relaxed. “I know. I’m sorry. How are you? How’s Elise?” Elise, his deathly ill ten-year-old niece.
“She’s ... okay.”
He heard the hint of a lie in her voice. But he understood—“okay” was relative. It was personal. Okay for Elise was someone else’s worst day. “I wish I could be there with you. I wish I could do more.”
“Are you kidding? Without your help, Elise would...” Lauren choked up and couldn’t finish the sentence. Her next words were breathless and tear-filled. “I can’t thank you enough, Braden. But what has this cost you?”
“The cost doesn’t matter.”
Didn’t she understand that he would pay any price to save Elise?
Any.
Price.
He’d wanted to be the hero and spare his sister the truth, but he had no alternative explanation for leaving her alone to go through this with Elise. Again. Alone. Her husband had died in a work accident. Then Elise had fallen ill, and Braden had been on the other side of the world in the middle of a high-risk mission involving multiple US and foreign diplomats—a mission that had gone very wrong. He instinctively touched the old scar along his jaw, hidden beneath his stubble.
He hadn’t been there for Lauren and Elise. The loss of that job after covering for someone else and taking the blame might have gutted him at first, but in the end, he counted it a blessing. He was then able to stand by Lauren’s side, holding her up and being both uncle and father figure to Elise. So he’d had to tell Lauren that Octavia requiredthis of him—to secure a chance at survival with an experimental drug.
“It matters, Braden. It matters tome.”
“You don’t need to worry about it. You just be there for your daughter. You take care of my niece. She’s precious to me too.”
Lauren had resigned from her job as an up-and-coming attorney to be with Elise. And with Rick’s life insurance policy, they had a nest egg, but that wouldn’t last forever.
