RunningScaredBN (17 page)

Pulling on his shorts and shirt, he padded barefoot to the bathroom and pushed the door open. Wrapped in a thick white robe, she was sitting on the edge of the tub, her face in her hands.

“Want some coffee?”

She raised her head and stared at him as if he were crazy. “I just tried to kill you, and you’re offering me coffee?”

“Well, technically, it’s your coffee. But I’ll make it.”

She shook her head. “You need to leave.”

“No, I don’t. I need coffee. So do you.”

She stood and headed toward the door. “I’ll make coffee, and then you need to leave.”

He grabbed her arm as she tried to pass him.

“Don’t, Kelly. Just don’t.”

“Not going to happen. Call me Justin. Call me Kelly. Call me asshole. I don’t care. I’m not leaving until we get this settled.”

“Get what settled? I can’t even sleep beside a man without trying to kill him. What’s to settle?”

“Hey.” He pulled her against his chest, but she remained stiff and unrelenting. At least she wasn’t pulling away or fighting him. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “This was a first for us. It’s not going to be without a few bumps along the way.”

“Bumps are finding out my coffee tastes like mud or your feet smell like Limburger cheese. It’s not waking up beside a lunatic holding a gun to your head.”

He shook her shoulders gently. “Some bumps are bigger than others. We’re complex people with dangerous jobs. We’re bound to have big-assed bumps.

She gave him a strained smile. “You’re right. I’ll go make coffee.”

He let her go, hoping some of what he’d said stuck with her. Last night had opened a door for both of them. He wasn’t about to let it close again.
 

Riley worked on automatic as she made coffee. Justin hadn’t followed her into the kitchen. She wouldn’t blame him if he just left without saying anything else. But she knew he wouldn’t do that.

Her mind refused to dwell on what had happened or Justin’s reassuring words. There would be plenty of time to think on these things once he left. There were truths she had to face whether she wanted to or not. She had lived in fantasyland once before, and it had almost destroyed her. She refused to believe in fairy tales ever again.

“Smells good.”

She pulled two coffee mugs from a cabinet and filled both with the steaming brew. Turning, she handed one to Justin and took a sip of her own.

Justin took a long swallow. “Doesn’t taste like mud. So does that mean my feet don’t smell like Limburger cheese?”

She wanted to smile, joke with him. He was trying to alleviate the tension, assure her what had happened wasn’t that big of a deal. He had no idea how wrong he was.

Since it was what he wanted and it would be easier, she gave him a teasing look. “Maybe not Limburger. Cheddar. Very sharp cheddar.”

He grinned. “I like cheddar.”

“Me, too, but I don’t think I’ll be nibbling on your toes anytime soon.”

He took her cup from her and set it on the counter along with his. Pulling her into his arms, he gave her a hug. “We’re going to be all right, Ingram. I promise. We’ll get these assholes in jail where they belong, and then we’ll concentrate on us.”

Unable to get into a long, complicated discussion of why there could be no
us
, she nodded and said, “Guess I’d better get ready. Noah wanted me to come in this morning to talk about a few things.”

“You want me to come with you?”

“No, that’s okay. You need to go home and get ready, too. I’ll see you at the briefing this afternoon.”

He pulled away to look down at her. She’d been pretending for most of her adult life. Playing a role was what she did best. So she put on her best
everything is fine
expression and smiled up at him.

Only, Justin now knew the real Riley Ingram. His eyes dark with concern, he whispered, “I promise you it will all work out, Riley.”

Instead of giving him more words he probably wouldn’t believe, she pulled his head down to hers and kissed him with all the feeling and fervor in her heart. If this was their last kiss, she wanted the memory to be one she could take out on long, lonely days. He tasted like coffee, toothpaste, and Justin. Perfect in every way.

Finally, he pulled away from her. “That should last me until tonight.” He dropped another quick kiss on her lips and turned around. “See you soon.”

She waited until the door closed behind him to say, “No, that’s a kiss that will have to last a lifetime.”

Even after Dimitri and the people who’d claimed to be her parents were in prison, who she was or what had happened to her wouldn’t change. She was damaged beyond all hope. Justin deserved a whole person, not the small pieces of humanity she’d managed to mend together to create Riley Ingram. And he certainly didn’t deserve the Riley Ingram who’d pointed a gun at his head after he’d shown her such love and tenderness. It was better for both of them if they went ahead and faced that fact.
 

Chapter Fifteen

Last Chance Rescue Headquarters

Noah stood at the front of the large conference room. When he’d moved LCR headquarters to the States a few years back, he hadn’t anticipated needing a lot of space. Much of LCR’s mission planning took place in their satellite offices. If more space was needed, the Paris office, run by LCR operatives Eden St. Claire and Jordan Montgomery, was used. This was different. Not only would they be running two ops, possibly simultaneously, they were involving more than LCR operatives. Both Samara and Anna were here, not only to help in planning but as moral support for Riley.
 

Since space was limited, all seats were taken. At some point, he might need to call in more operatives, but for right now, the people sitting around the table would be the primary agents.

His gaze moved around the room. Some of the brightest and best of LCR were here, every one of them focused on the mission. Though they had risked life and limb on numerous operations over the years, the knowledge that this mission involved one of their own made the stakes even higher. There wasn’t a person here whom he didn’t trust with his life.

The conference table was long and narrow. On the right side sat Samara and Anna, along with Sabrina, Aidan, Justin, and Riley. The left side held Eden, Jordan, Angela, Jake, and McKenna Sloane. They were some of his most experienced people, but he had additional reasons for bringing Eden and McKenna in on the mission. Their considerable experience would be important for the op, but it was the trauma they had both endured that might be of more use to Riley.

“We all have varying degrees of knowledge about this case. I’m going to start at the beginning so we’re all on the same page.”
 

He glanced over at Riley. They’d discussed this a few hours earlier. Nothing would be held back that was pertinent to the case. The specifics of her imprisonment and what had been done to her were, in his opinion, not pertinent. If she wanted to share any of those details, that was her choice. Still, certain facts were going to be uncomfortable for her. He had every faith that she would tough it out and be fine.

“A couple of days ago, I met with a prospective client. He indicated his daughter was missing. Had been missing awhile. He said he and his wife were close to giving up hope. As with many of our cases, he said he believed Last Chance Rescue was his last hope.

“I talked to him on the phone and got a strange vibe. The minute I met him, I knew something was off. He said all the right things, but it was practiced, staged. I believed he was looking for someone, perhaps even his daughter, but the more I listened, the more I realized that her well-being wasn’t his primary concern. When he showed me a photograph of his daughter, my suspicions were confirmed. The photograph was of Ingram.

“I got as much information as I could, assuring him we would do all we could to find his daughter.”

Noah shifted his gaze to Riley again. Though she was paler than normal, her mouth was set in a firm line. She would see this through.

“I’ve asked Ingram to fill us in on as much as she feels comfortable sharing. If I feel additional information should be revealed, I’ll do so.”

He felt rather than saw Riley take a deep breath, and then she began to speak, her voice matter-of-fact, as if she were discussing a stranger.
 

“I was raised in Atlanta as Jessica King. I thought we were a normal family. My father was a strict man but not harsh, my mother seemingly kind. I was homeschooled. I never questioned why I didn’t have friends. My parents kept me occupied. I believed my father was a consultant. Although I can’t recall what he might have consulted anyone about, he wasn’t at home but a few days a week.
 

“I wasn’t deprived of anything other than social contacts. I had an aptitude for music, and my father paid for piano teachers and voice coaches. Looking back on it now, I realize their sole concentration was on me. I thought it was because they loved me. On my eighteenth birthday, I discovered they had been preparing me.”

When she stopped, no one said a word. Was it shock that kept them silent? Riley didn’t want to know. She glanced up at Noah. They had an agreement. If she gave him a certain look, he would continue her story. She was giving him that look now.

As if he’d intended to continue all along, he said, “Riley was taken to a hotel room and introduced to a man named Dimitri. She believes he was approximately forty-five to fifty-five. Her parents left her with him. She hasn’t seen them since.”

Odd, but it sounded less shocking when Noah told it that way. No need to tell them the other details. Like, she’d thought her parents were having some sort of surprise party for her. Which, looking back, would have been extremely weird, since she’d had no friends to attend a party. And no one but Dimitri knew that after they left, she had tugged and pulled on that damned locked door, screaming to be let out. Crying for her parents, immersed in an unimaginable hurt. Her bewilderment at her abandonment was so immense, the terror of her situation didn’t hit her until it was too late.

With the prick of a needle, she’d fallen into the arms of a monster, a sadist whose only source of enjoyment was the agony he inflicted on her.

A large hand grabbed hold of hers. She looked down to see it was Justin’s. Another hand, smaller and softer, took her other hand. Anna.

Emotion clogged her throat. She hadn’t had friends then, but she had them now. Her determination renewed, she nodded at Noah and said, “I woke up in a mansion. Needless to say, my stay was not a pleasant one. He held me prisoner for three years. I escaped on my twenty-first birthday.”

“How?”

The question came from McKenna. Though there were no tears in the other operative’s eyes, Riley saw the compassion and the understanding. It hit her then, perhaps more than ever before. Every person in this room had been through their own version of hell. She was no different. What an odd thing to find comfort in, but she did. She wasn’t alone anymore. She hadn’t been alone since Noah rescued her.

“Dimitri held a dinner party. After it was over, he told me to leave the room. The servants left, too. They were distracted for a moment and didn’t see me hide under a food cart that was covered by a cloth. They pushed the cart into the kitchen. It was late, and the staff decided to wait until the next day to clean up. The instant they left, I got out and followed them. I knew how to be small and silent. There were at least a half dozen of them. They never noticed me following them. They went through an outside door. I caught it before it could close, waited a few seconds, and then walked out.”

She gave a wan smile. “Seems unbelievable now. It was so damn easy.”
 

She didn’t add the obvious. Couldn’t verbalize it. Had it been that easy all along, and she just hadn’t tried, timid, beaten-down mouse that she was? She hadn’t tried to escape simply because she’d been too afraid. She had accepted that the abuse was her lot in life. Then Dimitri had made that one announcement—so profound and frightening it had woken her up, jerked her out of her frozen, mindless acceptance. She had realized she had no choice. Leaving had become her only option. If she had been caught, he might have killed her. Death had been preferable to what her future held if she had stayed.

“That was a very brave thing to do.”

This came from Eden St. Claire. One of the strongest, bravest women she knew.

“Not really. It was done out of necessity and fear.”

“That’s what being brave is about, Riley.”

She managed a strained smile and then glanced back up to Noah for him to continue.

“Here’s what we know about William Larson. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Loretta. We believe Loretta is the same woman Ingram knew as Lorraine King.
 

“We haven’t seen her, but discreet questioning of the neighbors has confirmed they have a teenage daughter named Keira. They stick to themselves. No friends or relatives visit them.”

“How’d you get this info so fast?” Aidan asked.

“The minute Larson walked out of the hotel, he had a tail. I rarely meet a prospective client without having an LCR operative standing by. I don’t usually need one, but in this case, I did.” He shrugged. “Mia and Jared Livingston followed Larson to the airport. Jared purchased a plane ticket and flew to LA on the same flight that William took. Jared watched him hail a taxi at LAX and followed him to his home in Lakewood.