Catching Summer (17 page)

“What’s this favor?” I inquired curiously.

He sighed. “You really want to know?”

I nodded in reply.

“I asked him to dig up some information on your doctor.”

I gasped. “Why?”

“I know you probably think I’m just a jealous ass, but that’s not it. There’s something not right with him. Even Grayson admitted that something was off. I know you don’t want to think the guy’s got issues, but he does. You weren’t there when I confronted him. He said you loved it when he kissed you.”

Mouth gaping open, I sat there in shock. “That’s so not true.”

“Exactly.”

“But why would he lie? It doesn’t sound like Philip.”

Evan brushed the hair off my face and held my cheek. “Because he wants to tear us apart. You can’t trust him anymore, sunshine. I have Jason looking into him to make sure he’s not a bigger threat. Until then, stay away from him.”

I felt sick to my stomach, betrayed. How could Philip do that to me? I’d trusted him and now he’d deceived me. Evan looked into my eyes and I nodded, knowing what I had to do. “I will. I promise.”

O
NE WEEK LATER

This past weekend we’d won our game, but we’d all secretly hoped Derek would show up. We were only a couple steps away from the playoffs and we needed him. Hell, I needed a lot of things. Unanswered questions seemed to be all I was getting nowadays. “How’s the baby?” I asked, glancing over at Cooper. He collapsed onto a bench and closed his eyes. Practice was over and we were all exhausted, especially him.

“He’s sleeping all of three hours each night. His days and nights are switched.”

“So that’s why you’re dragging ass,” I said, laughing.

Cooper sat up and ran a hand over his face. “Yeah, it’s been an adjustment. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. One day you’ll find out.”

“I’m sure I will.”

Sliding on his shirt, Cooper looked at me seriously. “Have the cops figured out who bribed Milner?”

I snorted. “Not yet. Apparently, he doesn’t even know who he talked to. The phone call couldn’t be traced. It’s all dead ends.”

“This person’s good, then,” he said.

I agreed with a nod. “And very smart.”

The other players had dispersed and it was time to call it a day. I got in my truck, but before I could leave the parking lot, my phone rang. It was Jason. “Hey,” I answered.

“Want to go on a road trip?”

“Where to?”

“Greensboro.”

“Why are we going there?” I asked.

“We’re going to see Parker’s ex-wife. She’s agreed to talk to us. I found out something about him that brought up red flags.”

I held the phone closer to my ear. “What?”

“About five years ago, when he lived in Atlanta, he had a patient who went missing. She was later found murdered, strangled to death. After the investigation, all evidence pointed to her boyfriend.”

“Is he in prison?”

“He was, but he found a way to hang himself. I researched the case this week, and something’s not sitting well with me. Dr. Parker testified against the boyfriend, which basically sealed the deal. I’m hoping his ex can give us some details. Do you want to come? I’ll pick you up.”

I pulled my truck back into a parking space and shut it off. “I’m at the stadium. I just need to call Summer.”

“Be there in ten,” he said, hanging up the phone.

I clicked on Summer’s name and waited for her to pick up. “Hey, sexy,” she murmured.

“In your office?”

“You know it. I have payroll and bookkeeping. Not exactly the most fun part of my job.”

“How long will you be there tonight?”

“Probably a little later than normal, and then I need to run by my house and grab more of my stuff. I’ve been putting it off for way too long. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to tell you that I might be running a little late tonight. Jason called and wants me to ride to Greensboro with him.”

“What for?”

Taking a deep breath, I blew it out fast. “To visit Philip’s ex-wife. Did you know that he had a patient who was murdered?”

She gasped. “No, I didn’t. What happened?”

“She was supposedly strangled by her boyfriend. Jason seems to think otherwise. With all these dead ends, we’d be stupid not to check out every avenue. It was Philip’s testimony that put the boyfriend behind bars.”

“Oh my God, that’s insane. Go with Jason and be careful. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Philip hasn’t tried to call you, has he?”

“No, he must still be out of town. He said he was leaving.”

“Good. And if he does, ignore it. I don’t want him anywhere near you.”

“You have nothing to worry about. I have Grayson here with me. I can get him to follow me home tonight if that makes you feel better.”

“That’d be great. I love you.”

“Love you, too.” I felt a lot better about leaving, knowing she wouldn’t be alone. Hopefully, today was the day for answers.

Traffic through Charlotte at five o’clock was a bitch, so it ended up taking over two hours to get to Greensboro. “What’s his ex-wife’s name?” I asked as we pulled into the driveway. Her home was lavish and in a gated community.

Jason shut off his car, and we got out. “Gina White. She married another man two years ago and had a daughter with him.”

“Is he here?”

We stopped at the door and he shook his head. “No, he’s out of town, which is why she agreed to see us. Apparently they don’t talk about Philip.”

Jason rang the doorbell and an older woman, probably midsixties, with white hair and wearing an apron, answered the door. “You must be Mr. Avery,” she greeted, extending her hand to Jason.

He stepped forward and shook it. “Yes, ma’am, and this is my partner, Mr. Townsend. Do you mind if we come in?”

Opening the door wider, she waved for us to enter. “Yes, of course. Gina’s waiting for you in the study. I’ll take you there.”

We followed her inside and into a room where a woman sat at a desk with a pile of papers in front of her. She had long, dark brown hair and overly tanned skin. “Thank you, Roberta. Please shut the door on your way out.” When the door was closed, she stood and held out her hand. “I’m Gina White. Thanks for coming out here to talk to me. It made things a lot easier.”

We both shook her hand and sat down. “You’re welcome, but I have to thank you for seeing us,” Jason responded.

Gina sat down and cleared her throat. “I’ve been curious about this meeting. Did the Wheelers send you here to talk to me?”

Jason shook his head. “No, we’re here on other matters. Have they been bothering you since you moved?” Furrowing my brows, I glanced over at him, but he shook his head discreetly.

“No, thank goodness. That’s one of the reasons my husband refuses to bring up Philip’s name. It was hard on us all there for a time.”

“Excuse me,” I said. “I’m new on this case. Do you mind telling me what happened?”

She took a deep breath. “It happened a few years ago, but one of Philip’s patients was murdered by her boyfriend; he was actually her fiancé. His name was Aiden Wheeler. When it came time for court, Philip testified about how Emery was afraid of Aiden when he’d drink and so forth—that he was violent when intoxicated. After he was indicted, his family started harassing us, saying that Philip had lied. It got to be too much and it drove a wedge between us. We got divorced about a year later. It wasn’t until I moved up here that the harassment stopped. Unfortunately, Philip moved to North Carolina, too.”

“How is your relationship with him now?” Jason asked. “Do you ever talk to him?”

She chuckled. “Goodness, no. I’ve heard from some of my friends how he blames the divorce on me and says that I left him for a younger man. My husband may be younger than me, but only by two years. I guess he’s just looking for pity.”

“Have you ever wondered if he lied during his testimony?” I asked her. “That maybe there was something else going on?”

She shrugged. “Philip and I grew distant way before any of that ever took place. There was a time I thought he was cheating on me. He would come home from work and just be distant. It all started because we couldn’t have kids. We tried for years, and then when it never happened it was like he gave up on me.” She glanced down at a picture of a little girl on the desk who looked just like her. “Turns out the failure wasn’t on my end. Anyway,” she said, refocusing on us, “he was distraught after Emery died. He was more upset about her passing than he was about his own mother six years ago.”

“What would you say his and Emery’s relationship was like?” Jason inquired.

“They were close, maybe a little too close. He talked about her all the time. They met outside the office and such for lunch. She was younger, so I didn’t think too much of it as far as him having an affair. I considered it more of a fatherly, protective type of relationship.”

“What was the age gap?” I asked, glancing back and forth between them.

Gina fumbled through the papers in front of her and pulled out a newspaper clipping. “Ten years. He was thirty-three and she was twenty-three. After she died, Philip kept a box with all of the newspaper clippings in it. This is her,” she said, holding out the paper.

Jason grabbed it first, and when he focused on it his eyes went wide. I turned in my seat. “What is it?”

He handed it to me, and my stomach clenched. Emery was a beautiful girl with golden blond hair, blue eyes, and a wide smile. “Do you see what I’m seeing?” I said, keeping my focus on the girl.

Jason sighed. “I do and it’s not good. It could be a coincidence.”

“What could be?” Gina asked.

I held up the paper. “Emery looks exactly like my girlfriend, Summer. She’s been a patient of Philip’s for two years. He’s made it known that he wants her.”

She gasped, closing a hand over her mouth. “Oh, no, I’m sorry.”

Jason sat forward in his chair. “Mrs. White, is there anything you can tell us about Philip that no one knows? I’m asking because I’m investigating some recent events with assailants paid large sums of money. One of these events happened to cost a girl her life. We want to know if Philip could be capable of orchestrating this.”

“Anyone could be capable of it. He has the funds to do it. To this day, he still pays me alimony even though I don’t want it. It goes into my personal account so that Charles doesn’t see it. I want it to stop, but I don’t want to go to court. I want my daughter as far away from this mess as possible.”

Jason’s brows furrowed. “How much money does he give you a month?”

“Five thousand. I don’t even know where it’s coming from. It’s from a bank somewhere far off.”

“Like where? Switzerland?”

She stared at Jason, her lips pursed in concentration. “I’m not really sure. Let me pull up my account and you can take a look.” Typing away on her computer, she sat back and turned the screen toward us. “Here it is. Do you know where that’s from?”

Jason and I both looked at the screen. “Holy fuck.”

“I’m going to stop by our house when I leave here,” I announced, coming up behind Lara.

She twirled around, grinning. “I don’t think you can call it ‘our house’ anymore. It’s basically mine now.”

I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, I’m going to get the rest of my stuff and take it to Evan’s. Will you be home tonight?”

“No, I’ll be at Grayson’s. After we leave here, we’re going to watch a late movie and go back to his house.”

“Which is what I was going to come talk to you about,” Grayson added, strolling down the hall. “Since it’s not busy, I thought maybe Lara and I could split early?”

They had been working loads of overtime. It was the least I could do. “Sure, go ahead. I have a ton of things I need to finish up.”

Squealing, Lara hugged me tight. “Thanks, sis. It’ll be nice to have a night off.”

“It might not be a bad idea to close down for a couple of days like other restaurant owners do,” Grayson suggested. “I don’t want to get burnt out working all these hours.” Lara agreed, nodding.

“If that’s what you both want, we can do it. Our sales have tripled in the last month, and even before that we were doing great.”

“So we’ll cut back?” Grayson asked.

I pushed them toward the back door. “Yes, we’ll cut back. Now get out of here and have some fun.”

After they left, I circulated through the restaurant and said my goodbyes to everyone finishing their meals. Once the place cleared out, I told the rest of the staff to head home as soon as everything was cleaned up. With the doors locked, I turned on the radio behind the bar and poured myself a glass of wine. There was still some work left to be done in my office.

I sat down in my chair and took a sip of my wine, glancing at my cellphone out of the corner of my eye. Groaning, I snatched it up; it was dead. What the hell? No wonder I hadn’t heard from Evan. The music blared from the bar, but it didn’t mute the sound of footsteps coming down the hall.

“Grayson?” I called. Getting up from my desk, I opened the door and peered out. Nobody was there. I walked into the dining area and all around the restaurant. It was empty, or at least I hoped it was. To be on the safe side, I shut off the music and held my breath; there were no sounds of movement. It was most likely paranoia over recent events.

In my office, I sat down and drank the rest of my wine, feeling its warmth as it pooled in my belly. Most of the time, wine helped me work better, but this time it wasn’t my friend. My vision started to blur and my heart raced in my chest. What was going on? Everything began to get really heavy, including my arms and my head. All I wanted to do was crawl on top of my desk and pass out. The light faded and darkness began to creep in. Before I passed out onto the floor, I heard a voice shout my name and a set of strong arms lift me up in the air. That was the last thing I remembered.

Eyes closed, I could feel the bed beneath me and it was familiar. The smells reminded me of a place I hadn’t been in a while. It was home, or, rather, the place that used to be my home before I took the plunge and moved in with Evan. Opening my eyes, I snuggled into my pillow and sighed. I’d missed my bed. Maybe Evan would let me put it in one of his guest bedrooms.

“Evan?” I called. Sitting up in bed, I noticed I still had my dress on from earlier, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten home. I remembered working in my office and that was it. “Evan, are you here?” I started to get up but then heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. I smiled, thinking Evan was going to be the one to greet me, but it wasn’t—it was Philip. “What are you doing here?”

Dressed in a pair of jeans and a dark T-shirt, he lifted his hands in the air. “I’m just here to help you. You passed out at the restaurant.”

“Then why didn’t you take me to the hospital?” I inquired cautiously, gripping the sheets.

He approached slowly. “Because you told me not to. Don’t you remember?”

Closing my eyes, I rubbed my forehead, willing the memories to surface. They were gone. “No. What I want to know is how you got into the restaurant. The doors were locked.”

“The front one was, but the back one wasn’t. I told you I would come see you when I got back into town. I wanted to apologize again, face to face.”

“For what? What you said to Evan? Apparently, you told him I’d wanted you to kiss me. Why did you lie?”

Sighing, he sat down on the edge of the bed, and my fight-or-flight response flared to life. I wanted to get up and run, but I had to make sure I could get away. “It was a mistake, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that to him, but he came to
my
house threatening
me.
I wanted to shake him up a bit.”

“Are you sure that’s it?”

He moved closer. “Yes, I promise.” Looking into his eyes, I knew without a doubt that he was lying. Something had changed in him, and it made my skin crawl.

“I’m thirsty,” I blurted. “I think I need to get something to drink.”

I started to get up, but he put a hand on my leg. “I’ll get it. Stay here and rest. If you feel like you need to go to the hospital, I can take you.”

The last thing I needed to do was get in a car with him again. There was no telling where he’d take me. Lying back down, I forced a smile and said, “Thanks. No ice, please.”

As soon as he disappeared downstairs, I rushed out of bed and searched my room. My phone was nowhere to be found, and the house phone had been removed. What the fuck? I could hear him in the kitchen so I tiptoed down the stairs as quietly as I could. Peeking around the corner, I spied Philip fixing me a glass of iced tea. Everything looked normal until he reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe filled with clear liquid. He expelled some into my tea and then got out another syringe and stuck that one in his arm, hissing as the contents were pushed into his veins.
Holy fuck.

He was blocking the kitchen door, which meant I couldn’t escape through there. I didn’t have the keys to get out the front one. Goddammit, what was I going to do? My purse was nowhere to be seen and neither were my keys. Tiptoeing back up the stairs, I searched as fast as I could for anything I could use as a weapon. There was nothing except one of Austin’s guns locked in my safe, but I couldn’t remember the combination without the cheat sheet. I rushed to my room and did the only thing I could think of. Philip’s footsteps pounded against the steps and my heart raced. I jumped into bed and made sure my wastebasket was hidden beside my nightstand before closing my eyes, hoping like hell I could calm my breathing. I knew how this was going to work. I was afraid that if he suspected I wanted to flee, he’d use force.

Philip smiled as he entered my room with my glass of tea in his hands. I was curious to know what he’d put into it, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to drink it and find out. “Here you go,” he said, handing me the cold glass. He sat down on my bed as if it were normal and watched me with wolfish eyes. “Drink up. You’re dehydrated.”

Bringing the glass to my lips, I tilted it back and pretended to drink. There was no way I could do that without him getting suspicious when the tea never got any lower. Across the room, I spotted my favorite blanket draped over my loveseat. Shivering, I nodded toward it. “Do you mind getting me that? I’m freezing.”

He looked back at it and got up. As soon as his back was turned, I dumped the tea in the wastebasket that I’d set beside the bed. Philip grabbed the blanket and right when he turned around, I held the glass up and moaned, pretending that I’d drunk the entire glass. “Do you want more?” he asked, covering me with the blanket.

“I’m good, thanks.”

Taking the glass from me, he rested it on my nightstand and smiled. “That should take the edge off. It won’t be long now.”

I laid my head down. “For what?”

He leaned over me and traced his finger over my arm. “Don’t worry, my love. I’ll take good care of you tonight. Just close your eyes. I know you want to.” Then it all hit me. Whatever he’d put in my tea was probably what he’d slipped into my wine at the restaurant when I left my office.
Sly bastard
.

“I don’t want to close my eyes,” I said, letting my eyelids drop.

“You don’t have a choice.” Closing my eyes, I couldn’t stop my mind from running ninety miles an hour. What the hell was I going to do? There was no way I could pretend to be asleep and let him do things to me. I’d have to fight my way out. His fingers caressed my cheek and it took all I had to lie there motionless. “I’ve waited a long time for you, Summer. After tonight, you’ll never be able to get rid of me.”

His weight left the bed and I almost breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he was going to leave, but I was wrong. The sound of his jeans thumping to the floor made my stomach clench. Then when his weight came back onto the bed, I wanted to scream. He traced my lips and cupped my cheek with his fingers. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured. His breath fanned across my lips, and I knew he was getting closer. Holding me in place with his hands on my face, he kissed me gently and then sucked on my bottom lip, moaning. He pressed his arousal into my leg and rubbed it against me.

“Once you’re pregnant with my child and Evan’s out of the way, we’ll finally be a family. You’ll see that I’m what you’ve needed all along.” Planting a hand on my thigh, he slid it up under my dress and traced the outline of my underwear. With both hands, he pulled them down my legs and settled his body between them. The closer he got, the more scared I became. He started to lift my dress, but a banging on the door stopped him.

Chuckling darkly, he lowered my dress and kissed me. “Just in time. It’s a shame you won’t be able to say goodbye.” My eyes started to burn, and luckily he got off the bed before the tears fell down the sides of my face. I opened them slightly and watched him put on his clothes. He pulled out a syringe and smiled before putting it back in his pocket. Whatever was in it couldn’t be anything good.