Chance Encounter (35 page)

“I never gave any thought to what his family endured, the innocents who were hurt.”

Now it was Brennan’s turn to snort, and it wasn’t nearly as polite. “It wasn’t your place to care about that bastard’s family. He’s the one who destroyed their lives, just like he tried to destroy yours.”

“I feel empty…and so incredibly sad for her. She was a sick, twisted little girl.”

“Who would’ve done everything within her power to kill you.” Maybe it was his hardened heart, but he couldn’t find it anywhere inside him to feel the least bit sorry that the woman was dead.
 

“How the hell did she get away with it?” Brennan asked.

“Apparently, she had plenty of money to do what she wanted.”

“We dug deep into the family. How—”

Kacie squeezed his hand. “Her family hid what was going on with her. She’d been in and out of mental hospitals since she was an early teen. Tried to kill herself twice before.” A sad smile stretched across her mouth. “I think when she realized who I was, that gave her something to live for.”

“Torturing and killing you.”

“Looks like. I can’t believe it’s really over.”

“Fill me in on everything she told you.”

So relieved to hear him so coherent, with that commanding tone back in his voice, Kacie had to clear her throat before she could continue. She had been so very scared.

“She admitted everything. The break-ins, sending the emails, planting the photographs, uploading the video. She cloned my computer, so it was easy to make it seem that it had come from my laptop. She told me she was set to send the video to every news outlet in the world. And she spoke the truth. Riley went through her laptop and found the link. With one click, my dirty little secret would have been known by everyone.”

Brennan had to stop her there. “First, it’s not your
dirty little secret
. It was a disgusting crime perpetrated by a perverted piece of scum upon an innocent young woman. Even if the entire world knew about it, there’s not a sane person alive who wouldn’t see it for what it was. Got that?”

She smiled, appreciating his defense. But she had been giving a lot of thought to what would have happened if the whole world had discovered her identity and knew what had happened. It was something she planned to think about much more when she wasn’t so tired and her head was clearer.

“What about Dr. Curtis?” Brennan asked. “Molly was a physically strong woman, but I don’t see how she could have choked another person to death.”

“She told me she hired someone to break into the doctor’s records room. She hadn’t intended for Dr. Curtis to be killed, but apparently, the guy got caught and felt he had no choice.”

It saddened and hurt Kacie that the doctor who’d been so kind to her had died because of her. And unless Molly left some kind of clue somewhere about the person she’d hired, that man would go unpunished. Sometime soon, Kacie planned to reach out to the doctor’s family and offer them what she could.

 
“What about those street thugs? Did she admit to that, too?”

“We never got around to talking about that, but I’m sure it was.”

“And the press? What’s being reported?”

Kacie shrugged. “I see no reason to drag the family of Molly, whose real name is Sally, by the way, back into the mud and spotlight. They’ve endured enough. The press is reporting it as a suicide, nothing more. Tragic but nothing more dramatic than that. Hopefully, that’ll satisfy the vultures.”

“I need to apologize to Tara.”

“I’ve apologized for both of us, several times. However, Tara, being Tara, said there was no need. She’s just glad we’re okay.”

“Did you know about her mother having dementia?”

“I had no idea. When I hired her, all Tara would tell me was she had been homesick and decided to leave school. Now that I know what she’s been dealing with, I’m going to see what I can do to ease her burdens.”

“I’m glad.” He frowned. “How’d Molly get into your apartment to plant those photos? The security cameras in the lobby should have—”

Kacie shook her head. “Remember Billy Barton?”

“The kid at the security desk in your apartment building?”

“Yes. He’s admitted to looking the other way when she came by, showed her where the blind spots on the camera were so she wouldn’t get filmed. Apparently, she slipped him a few extra bucks. The police are questioning him and will probably charge him.”

“How’d Molly know your security code? Get a key to your apartment?”

She blushed guiltily. Even though she’d told herself she had no reason to have suspected any of her employees, she still couldn’t believe she’d been so careless.

“I made the mistake of leaving my purse out where, apparently, Molly helped herself to my password book and made a putty mold of my key.”

“Guess it’s too late for me to lecture you about keeping your password book at home, not in your purse?”

She grinned. “Lesson learned.”

Brennan’s eyes began to glaze over again, and though she didn’t want to stop talking with him, Kacie knew he needed his rest. There would be plenty of time to talk when they were both a little less traumatized.

Standing again, she pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. “Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

She wanted him healthy as soon as possible, because if there was one thing she had learned from all of this, it was that she wanted Brennan Sinclair in her life forever. She just had to work up the courage to tell him.

“What do you think she meant?” Brennan asked.

Justin and Riley were sitting in chairs on either side of the bed. Though they hadn’t said so, Brennan got the distinct impression that they’d had an argument. Anger seethed beneath the surface, causing a heaviness in the atmosphere. That, along with the fact that they’d yet to look at each other, even when talking to each other, made him sure of it.

“What who meant?” Justin asked.

“Before Molly jumped out the window, she said it wasn’t over, that she was just getting started.”

“She obviously intended to continue to hurt Kacie,” Riley said.

“Then why kill herself?”

“Maybe she thought when it was revealed who Molly really was, Kendra Carson would be exposed, too,” Riley said.

“Or it could be that you’re trying to apply logic to a woman who had none,” Justin said. “She was delusional on top of being insane.”

“And you’re certain, other than the kid at the security desk, no one else was in on this with her? Her family? They might all feel they have an ax to grind if they know who Kacie really is.”

“We’re sure her family knew nothing about this.” Justin finally looked over at Riley. “Wouldn’t you agree, Ingram?”

As if agreeing with her partner went against her better judgment, she simply said, “Molly’s family doesn’t know about Kacie. They don’t know why she was in the building and have no idea that the office window she jumped from belonged to the Kacie Dane Foundation.”

“You’re sure?” Brennan said. “Maybe I should talk to the oldest brother.”

“If you do,” Justin said, “you’ll stir up suspicions he doesn’t have. The police have been extraordinarily cooperative because they don’t want a media frenzy any more than Kacie does.

“Molly, Sally, or whatever the hell she wanted to call herself, is dead by her own hand. Everyone in the room saw it happen. No one wants to have to explain how a handcuffed woman threw herself out a window and killed herself.”

He could see where that would cause some problems. And maybe it was his own paranoia at work. He’d been worried for Kacie night and day for weeks. It was hard to let go of the idea that she wasn’t completely safe.

And it would be a million times harder to let go of Kacie. But let her go, he must.

Chapter Thirty-five

It was a scene set for seduction. Her very first. Brennan had left early this morning to meet with the police. Noah had arrived to smooth out the rough edges from last week’s bizarre event. She had offered to meet with them, too, but Brennan had assured her it was more of a diplomacy meeting than anything else.
 

So with a day to herself and no appointments, what was a girl to do but get ready to seduce her man? She’d spent a couple of hours at the spa, getting a much-needed facial, all-over body scrub, and a mani-pedi. She was now polished from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

While she had been gone, the apartment was cleaned, thanks to her wonderful cleaning service. And since premade salads, Greek yogurt, or PB&J sandwiches—her repertoire in the kitchen—didn’t say sexy in any language, she’d ordered a delicious meal to be delivered from one of her favorite restaurants.

Candles were glowing, the wine was opened and breathing, and Kacie was wearing one of her favorite summer dresses. Off-white, with lace shoulder straps, the dress landed about three inches above her knees, showing off her still-glowing tan to perfection. Finishing off the ensemble were delicate-looking sandals that highlighted her perfectly painted toenails.
 

She’d washed her hair this morning, blow-drying it till it was poker straight, but before applying her makeup, used a curling iron to create sexy, soft waves. Her makeup was light, her perfume subtle, her jewelry understated and classy.

Everything was perfect, everything was set. She was missing only one other ingredient for her perfect night, the most important one. Where was her man?

Brennan sat across from the LCR leader. They’d walked out of the police station with everything tied up as neatly as something like this could be tied up. Outside the station, Justin had slapped him on the back and told him he’d see him soon. Riley had given him one of her grave smiles and said good-bye. They’d walked away, presumably to handle another case.

McCall had nodded toward a bar in the distance and invited him for a drink. Hard to believe a hard-edged man like Noah McCall could soothe ruffled feathers and indignant feelings, but that’s exactly what he’d done. Brennan was still new enough to LCR to be unfamiliar with its protocol when it came to local authorities, but McCall seemed to have a good relationship with the NYC Police Department. The LCR leader’s diplomacy skills would do a US ambassador proud. After an explanation about the circumstances, including the need for privacy for one of their own, the case was now closed.

Molly/Sally’s body had been claimed by her older brother and laid to rest. According to McCall, the family had drifted apart, and Sally had suffered the most. In and out of mental hospitals since she was fifteen, she’d tried suicide twice. The last time they’d heard from her, she was working as a veterinarian technician in Jacksonville, Florida. But none of them had made any real attempt to see her in a couple of years. Maybe that was another reason why the young woman was screwed up. No one seemed to really give a damn.

“So you’ve completed your first LCR operation and did a damn good job.”

Brennan grimaced. “Not exactly a smooth op. Accused the wrong person, while the real perp almost succeeded in killing the primary. And instead of being able to put the criminal away, I let her commit suicide.

“And the one guy we can pin something on is so pitiful looking that even my less-than-compassionate heart has issues with putting the kid away.”

Poor Billy Barton had been a pawn in Molly’s sick game. He swore he hadn’t known what Molly was up to, or even that Kacie was Molly’s intended target. She’d given him extra money, which he’d sorely needed for a band he was trying to put together, and that was that. When he’d learned exactly what was going on, the kid had broken down and blubbered like an infant.

“I’m just damn lucky it turned out as well as it did,” Brennan said.

“I’ve never expected perfection from my people. Both Justin and Riley thought the same thing you did, that Tara was Kacie’s stalker. And while Molly’s death is regrettable, she made that decision herself. Something I learned a long time ago is that you can’t force someone to be evil—it’s innate. She showed that, and while a lost life is always regrettable, she made her choice.

“Protecting Kacie was your primary goal, and you did an admirable job.”

Brennan gave a nod. While he appreciated McCall letting him off the hook, he wasn’t feeling quite so stellar about his job performance. Not only had Kacie been locked up with a lunatic, Brennan had slept with the woman he was protecting. As first jobs went, he couldn’t say he was all that impressed with himself.

McCall’s mouth tilted a little, as if he was aware of Brennan’s thoughts. His words confirmed it. “I talked with Kacie a few days ago. Not only did she insist that you were an excellent bodyguard, she wanted me to know the relationship you two developed has had an amazing effect on her self-confidence. She said you’ve helped her heal.”

Before Brennan could scramble with an appropriate response, McCall leaned forward and added, “You’re human, Sinclair. And Kacie is a vibrant, beautiful woman. However, I do not want her hurt, so let me ask you this—how do you feel about her?”

Of all the conversations he thought he might be having with McCall, talking about his feelings for Kacie wasn’t one of them. In his world, a guy didn’t share things like that with another man. Especially one who was his boss.