LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Five

      Rachel paced across the living room of the ranch house, each time checking out the huge bay window as she walked past it. There was no sign of Egan or her father yet, but according to Egan’s last text, they should be here any minute.

      Maybe then she could get answers.

      Answers that she certainly hadn’t gotten the night before, when her father had called her. He’d sounded disoriented, maybe even drunk, but she’d never witnessed him having more than a beer or two. Certainly not enough alcohol to make him forget where he was. Or if he’d had something to do with the attacks.

      She heard Griff’s footsteps, but even before she could see him, he grumbled out a warning. Probably because he heard her footsteps, too. “The pacing won’t help. They’ll get here just as fast if you’re sitting.”

      Yes, but there was no way she could sit with all this restless energy inside her.

      Griff came from the direction of the kitchen, carrying two mugs. She could tell from the smell that one was the strong coffee he favored. The other was her usual tea, which he handed to her.

      “Ruby fixed it,” Griff added, “so it should be good.”

      Rachel had a sip, nodded. It was exactly the way she liked it, and she made a mental note to thank Ruby the next time the woman came in to check on her. Which would no doubt be very soon. Ruby had been making those checks ever since Griff and she had arrived at the ranch the night before, and the frequency had increased in the past hour, since Egan’s text.

      “I talked to Court a couple of minutes ago,” Griff said. “Your father is more lucid this morning.”

      “But?” Rachel definitely heard the uncertainty in his voice.

      “But he has some memory gaps about last night. In other words, don’t expect him to be able to tell us a lot more than we already know.”

      She shook her head. “He has to tell us more. I need to know why he was in that alley.”

      Griff made a sound of agreement and sipped his coffee. He didn’t sit, but instead joined her at the bay window. At first she thought that was because he was anxious to see Egan and Warren, too, but he gently took hold of her arm and moved her back. Only then did she remember that it probably wasn’t safe to stand in plain view like that, because there could be a sniper in the area.

      She silently cursed. She hated that she had to be cautioned about that kind of threat in a place where she’d once felt so safe.

      “I just assumed if the doctor released Dad from the hospital, it meant his memory had fully returned,” Rachel grumbled.

      She didn’t really expect Griff to have an answer to that, because he’d already told her the details of his conversations with both her brothers. Her father had had an overnight stay because the doctor had wanted to run tests on him to see why he was so disoriented. The tests had been inconclusive, but all the results weren’t in yet. She was hoping when they had those results back, they’d have answers to go along with them.

      Rachel got up and went to the window again when she heard the sound of an approaching vehicle, and spotted Egan’s cruiser as he pulled to a stop in front of the house. She’d thought she had steeled herself enough to see her father. She hadn’t. When he got out of the car, he looked frail and old. It seemed as if he’d aged a decade in the past month.

      Griff went to the front door and opened it after he disarmed the security system, then he helped Egan get Warren up the steps. Her father was short of breath by the time he made it inside.

      “Rachel.” His gaze immediately connected with hers, but he didn’t come toward her. Probably because he didn’t want to risk her turning away from him.

      She nodded a greeting, and because she suddenly felt a little unsteady, sank down onto one of the chairs in the family room. Griff led her father in there, too, and had him sit across from her.

      “Nothing yet on the rest of the test results,” Egan volunteered. “The doctor wants Dad to take it easy for a day or two.”

      “I don’t want to take it easy,” Warren immediately protested. “I want to find the person who tried to kill Griff and Rachel. Because I’m betting that’s the same person who did this to me. He must have drugged me. My guess is it was some kind of barbiturate, since I’ve got memory loss.”