“Mention what? You can’t stop now.” She gripped the phone tighter.
“The Bilton Foundation.”
“Why are you asking that? We all know about Mount Isabel’s main benefactor.”
“Do we? Really?”
“Of course, we do.” But even as she spoke them, her own words unsettled her. Other than its name, she knew nothing about the foundation that had funded so many local improvements.
“Is that what all of this is about? Bilton Holdings? The fires? The embezzlement questions?”
“Never mind. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“But you did.” Her chest tightened. What wasn’t he telling her? She considered for a few seconds and then asked, “Does this have to do with ‘It is not death, but dying which is terrible’?”
“How do you—” He coughed a few more times before starting again. “What are you talking about?”
“Clearly, you’re not surprised by those words.” She sighed and added, “It’s one of those quotes from your emails.”
“How do you even know about—”
“I figured out your email password.”
“Youbrokeinto my email account?” His voice cracked on “broke” like it might have when he was twelve.
“It wasn’t exactly breaking in when you were so uncreative with your password.”
“You had no right to dig into my stuff.”
She shifted against the counter, tying the belt on her robe again. “Like I said, I was looking for information that might help you. And you wouldn’t have given it to me if I asked. All I found were a bunch of strange, threatening quotes.”
“Those werewarnings. Don’t you get that? Those and the fires.”
His voice had become a deep growl that made her shiver. He didn’t sound like her mild-mannered brother. Riley was angry. And defiant. And scared.
“I need you to hear me. Stop digging for answers. About anything. Not my stuff at work. Not Dad’s death. It was all a long time ago. Some things are better off buried.”
“I don’t understand,” she squeezed in when her brother paused. What he was saying didn’t make sense. This wasn’t some event far in the past. Their father hadn’t even been buried a year.
“You don’t know who you’re messing with,” he continued. “I should’ve listened to the warnings. Now my career is destroyed. My reputation. Mylife. Firefighting is the only job I’ve ever wanted.”
Riley gasped into the phone as though finally taking a breath.
“What worse things will they do toyouto make you mind your own business?”
At her brother’s ominous words, Rachel’s heart pounded, and the white SUV appeared in her thoughts. That driver had offered a warning of his own from behind tinted glass. No way she could tell Riley about that now.
“But I have to dosomething. You’d do the same for me.”
“There you go, justifying everything you do. But sometimes it isn’t about you. I have enough to deal with in here without having to worry if you and the girls are safe. You don’t know—” He stopped himself and didn’t say more. “Just stay out of it. Please? For me?”
“Okay,” she said with a sigh.
Riley let the pause between them stretch too long. He’d always been able to tell when she was lying.
“Hey, I’ve got to go,” he said. “I have to get to group now.”
“Wait.” She didn’t want him to end the call. Not like this. “What about visitors’ day? I know you have to put me on a list so that I’m allowed to come, and you didn’t do it before, but could you this week?”
