LITMIR.BIZ

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missed Tessa already. If she’d come home a few minutes earlier, she might have been able to save her friend.

      This, with her mother so sick and her ex-boyfriend harassing her. It was just too much. Chad Presley didn’t like being dumped. He’d threatened Rikki one time too many and he had powerful friends all over the state. But then, so did her father.

      And using that angle had been her saving grace.

      “If you don’t leave me alone, Chad, I’ll have to tell my father and my brothers. You won’t like it when they come after you.”

      The bluff had worked long enough for her to regroup and come home. But maybe Chad wasn’t afraid of her family. She should have told the detective the whole story but fear had gripped her, choking her with an intense power. Fear that Chad would make good on his promises and fear that her family would get involved if he did.

      A chill moved through her at the thought of Chad finding her here. Would he think to send someone to spy on her? Or had he followed through on one of his threats and found her himself?

      Maybe he’d killed Tessa to prove a point. He’d stalked Rikki time and time again but things had never become physical. What if he’d thought he’d found her there on the patio? Chad could be the kind to shoot first and run away like a coward.

       Please, no.

      Rikki called the night nurse at her parents’ estate, just to hear someone’s voice and to check on her mom. “How’s she doing tonight, Peggy?”

      “Sleeping, suga’. But you know Miss Sonia. She has the sweetest attitude.”

      “Yes, that’s Mother. Always positive. Even when she’s in pain.”

      “I’ve got her all tucked in and I’ll be right here on the sofa in her bedroom.”

      “Thank you, Peggy.” Rikki swallowed the emotion roiling through her. “What about Papa?”

      “He’s in his office. He stays in there, most days.”

      Rikki closed her eyes to that image. Her dad was getting old, too. “I’ll try to check on him.”

      “You gonna come by in the morning, honey?”

      “I hope to.” Rikki didn’t want her mother to hear anything about what had happened, but Peggy kept the television off most of the time, anyway. She liked to read her romance novels while the surround sound played Mother’s favorite classical music and show tunes. A paradox of a combination but that was Sonia Alvanetti.

      But her father always watched the local news. She’d have to explain this to him so he wouldn’t get involved. Of course, one of his bodyguards had probably already informed him of what had happened. His people kept their ears to the ground.

      “Give her a kiss for me,” Rikki said. “I’ll be by bright and early tomorrow morning.” And she’d try to explain things to her mother. Of course, once her brothers got wind of this...

      Rikki put that scene out of her mind. Her two brothers would hunt down anyone who tried to harm her. Even when they both disapproved of her every move.

      “I’ll see you before you turn things over to the day nurse,” she promised Peggy.

      “Okay, sweetie pie.” Peggy said good-night and Rikki went back to the dark silence of her room.

      Thinking about the horror of seeing her best friend dead, Rikki closed her eyes but opened them wide again, the shadows of the spacious room chasing each other into dark corners. She checked the door. Locked and bolted. She looked at the heavy curtains. Closed tight. She listened for footsteps and remembered a cruiser was supposed to be parked outside her hotel room door. But each shift of the wind caused her to panic and recheck the locked door.

      Then because she couldn’t sleep, she thought about Detective Blain Kent. Tall, dark and dangerous. But on the good side of the law. Well, that was different at least. The man knew his job, no doubt about that. He’d done his best to get information out of Rikki and she’d given him what he needed and kept the rest to herself.

      While her heart hurt for her friend and she’d mourn that loss of the rest of her life, Rikki took comfort in knowing if anyone could figure this out Blain Kent would be the man. He struck her as the honest, determined type.

       And what if he figures out who you are?

      At this point, she didn’t really care if the detective with the midnight-blue eyes and clipped black hair found out she was an Alvanetti. She had been married once, to Drake Allen. A good, simple name and a good simple man. No, a boy, really. A boy who’d loved her in spite of her name. He’d been willing to fight for her and that had been a tragic mistake.

      He’d died too young and her heart had not recovered.

      He’d died at the hands of her family, something she could never prove. Something they’d denied. But she knew. Drake had been in a horrible accident not too far from the Alvanetti estate. A foggy night, a slick road. And alcohol. But Drake didn’t drink.

      No one had wanted to hear her shouting that at the top of her lungs. No one cared enough to investigate. And she surely would never recover from that, either.

      But once she’d been strong enough to come up with a plan, she’d walked away from her father’s rules as soon as she could escape. Walked away and tried to stay away. Except her beautiful, stubborn, scatterbrained mother always called her back. Sonia Alvanetti had a heart so big Rikki wondered how she’d become so frail. Had often wondered how her sweet mother could not see the truth regarding the family “import-export” business. Rikki had always believed her mother would live forever since Sonia loved everyone in such an unconditional way. She couldn’t imagine her mother not being there. Rikki had got her strong faith from her mother, thankfully.

      That faith would get her through this long night.

      Now Rikki had to wonder about what Blain Kent had pointed out to her earlier. She and Tessa did look a lot alike.

      Which made Rikki wonder if her worst fears and the detective’s not-so-subtle hints were correct. Had that bullet been meant for her?

      * * *

      Blain’s phone buzzed a rude alert. He sat up in bed and watched his phone dancing across the nightstand. Then he jerked it to his ear. “Kent.”

      “I...I need your help again.”

      “Rikki?”

      “Yes.”

      She sounded muffled, scared.

      Blain shot out of the bed and started grabbing clothes with one hand, the cell phone tucked between his ear and his collar bone. “What is it?”

      “Someone came to my room.”

      Blain’s pulse bumped into overdrive. “Are you still in the room?”

      “No. I shouted that I was calling 911 and then I started screaming and banging on the walls. Then I called the front desk. The security guard apparently came out and scared away the intruder. I don’t know where the patrol officer is.”

      Blain hopped on one foot trying to get his boots on. “Okay, where are you now?”

      “In the lobby bathroom. I didn’t know who else to call.”

      “I’ll be there in five minutes. Do not leave the hotel lobby area.”

      “I won’t.”

      “Stay on the phone with me,” Blain said. “I’m leaving right now.” He glanced around and saw Pebble the cat staring at him from the end of his bed. He’d found the cat by the back door of her place, meowing and scared. The mostly black-and-white long-haired calico did look like a pile of pebbles.

      So now he had custody of a cat. He’d worry about Pebble later. He hurried out the door of his apartment and hoped Rikki Alvanetti would stay put until he could get to her.

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