Deception (Carrington Hill Investigations Book 1) (2 page)

Lexi grinned
. God, she missed her friends. “I never said he was smart.”

She pushed
Play
on her iPod and jogged down the steps. She got closer to the water before she started to run the five-mile stretch of terrain she knew like the back of her hand. The pounding music vibrated through her body as she lost herself in her own thoughts and her feet dug into the wet, packed sand. When she returned, the sun was dissolving behind the blue of the ocean. Grabbing a towel from the deck, she wiped away the beaded sweat from her face and neck as she watched the last retreating speck of rays disappear below the horizon. The sight infused her with a peaceful calm she hadn’t experienced in months.

Lexi paused with her hand on the doorknob
, noticing the visitors inside; her calm vanished just as quickly as it had come. It seemed Garrett had balls of steel. He had indeed come to crash their girls’ getaway and brought a friend no less. Her nostrils flared in irritation as she stalked inside. “I thought I told you, you weren’t invited.”

He looked up; the
flash of regret in his steely eyes was unmistakable. He shoved his hands into his pockets, unable to meet her gaze even as the frown deepened on his face. She’d seen this look before. She knew what it meant. She moved quickly into the room. “What’s wrong? Did they let him go?”

Lexi
’s body tensed while her mind frantically searched for answers. Her nerves prickled with an unfamiliar unease. She glanced up at the other man and then down at Sara, sitting on the couch. A tear escaped Sara’s lid and slid down her cheek. She sniffled as she stared blankly into the fireplace. Lexi dropped to her knees in front of Sara and took her hands, giving them a gentle squeeze. “What’s wrong, Sara? What happened?

Garrett
kneeled down next to her. “Catherine’s missing.”

Lexi shook her head
in denial. It was a mistake; it had to be. Lexi pushed to her feet. “No… No, she’s not.” She pointed a trembling finger toward Sara. “Sara talked to her. She was about to make an arrest.”

The unknown man
, whose presence she’d ignored until this point, spoke up. “They found blood in her apartment this morning. I’m sorry, Special Agent Carrington, but it’s true.”

Lexi’s
hand settled over her heart, rubbing to ward off the ache forming in her chest. It wasn’t possible. Catherine was a fighter; she could hold her own even against the strongest of opponents. No, she refused to believe their lies… and that’s what they were, some type of sick joke. Garrett took a step toward her with an extended arm. She took a step back, clenching her jaw, and spun on her heel to grab her cell phone from the bar. She speed dialed Catherine’s number.

“Who are you calling?”
Garrett asked in a sympathetic tone.

Lexi put her palm up
, ignoring him as she listened to the phone go straight to Catherine’s voicemail. “Cat, it’s Lexi. I need you to call me back.”

Garret
t’s face softened as if he understood her refusal to believe. “Don’t you think we tried that? We pinged her cell phone and found it on a homeless woman on the other side of town. That was the first thing we did.”

“Ms. Carrington…”

She held out her palm, not even acknowledging the intruder. She narrowed her eyes, fighting against the anger building inside her, anger that needed an outlet, and the unknown man who was witnessing her breakdown would do just fine. Lexi pointed accusingly to the intruder, never taking her eyes off Garrett. “Who the hell is he?”

Garrett
placed his palms on Lexi’s arms, rubbing them up and down. “This is Captain Morgan with the Sampson PD.”

Lexi stepped back with her fists balled at her side. She
felt the blood rushing to her face as her heart raced. “The local PD? She’s one of ours. Why aren’t we investigating?”

Garrett
motioned for her to sit on the couch. Lexi ground her teeth together and reluctantly sat down. She was an emotional rollercoaster. Denial had seeped in, followed by anger, and there was no way in hell she was moving on to acceptance. She grabbed Sara’s hand and held it in hers, squeezing as if it was her last lifeline. She needed something to ground her so she wouldn’t go flying off the couch to beat the two men until they told her this was all a big joke.

“She was undercover
. If we go in with guns raised, throwing our weight around, then everything she worked on was for naught. Whoever attacked her will have ample time to get rid of any of the evidence she’d found in the case. These people are rich and powerful, and we’d be held up by their high-priced attorneys and red tape. Lexi, you know how this works.” He lowered to his knees in front of her to look her in the eye in an attempt to drive his words into her muddled brain. He was right, and no matter how much she wanted to refuse to believe it, she couldn’t. “We’ll find her and catch the bastard who did this. We just have to be smart about it.”

A wave of nausea rolled through her stomach as her mind pondered all of the possibilities o
f what might have happened to Catherine. Everything she came up with served to do little more than deepen her resolve to crush whoever was involved. And she would crush the life out of whoever was responsible; squish him like a bug and grind him into the ground.

Sara pulled her hand from
Lexi’s, pushed to her feet, and walked over to the coffee pot. “I like Lexi’s idea better. I say we go in hot and take everyone out who’s in our way.”

That’s why she loved her friends. Sara had the same idea…but
, damn, Garrett was right. All of her training picked the most inopportune times to raise its ugly head. With a deep regret, Lexi moved to Sara’s side. “As much as I hate to admit it, Garrett’s right.” She leaned back against the counter. “We do this the right way and nail the bastard to the wall. He isn’t getting out on a technicality.”

Captain Morgan and
Garrett left forty-five minutes later, after breaking the news. Lexi and Sara weren’t given all of the details they’d hoped for. Having to wait on forensics was going to kill her. Lexi plopped down on the couch next to Sara, sipping water from the bottle in her hand as she tried to make any sense out of what she’d been told.

Sara leaned forward and let her head drop
as another tear rolled down her cheek. “What are we going to do?”

Lexi rubbed Sara’s back. “We do what we’re good
by finding her and nail whoever’s responsible.”

Sara rose from the couch and swiped at her tear
-stained face. “You’re right. We need answers.” She moved to the breakfast counter, sat down, and pulled a pad of paper and pen toward her. She glanced over her shoulder. “What do we know?”

Lexi paced the living room, trying to work out her confusion
. “We know she was undercover in Sampson.” Lexi chewed on her bottom lip. “Did she say what she was working on?”

Sara shook her head. “No. The last thing
s she told me was she was about to make an arrest and she’d met a man she was interested in.”

Lexi nodded toward the paper. “Then that’s where we start. We figure out what she was working on and find the guy.” Lexi started walking down the h
all to her room with renewed determination. Catherine needed her, and she was damn sure going to do everything in her power to help her.

“Where are you going?”

“To change and grab my bag.” She stopped and turned. “We need to know what she was working on, and there’s only one person who has that answer.” Lexi crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m going to see your dad.”

Sara set the pen down and turned in her seat. “
He’s not going to let us help in the investigation. We’re too emotionally close to the situation.”

Lexi dropped her arms and raised her brow. “
That’s exactly why they’re going to let us help. Who knows Catherine better than you and I do? We’re the obvious choices.” She leaned against the wall, crossing one foot over the other. “They may have a possible killer on the loose, but they also have an investigation that never got finished. I don’t know about you, but I plan to find her and finish what she started.”

Sara nodded as she hopped off the stool and walked with purposeful strides toward Lexi. “You’re going to need my help. Let’s face it
. I’m a better negotiator, and together we can convince anyone that we deserve to do this, including my father.”

Sara’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. There was
a sadness in them that Lexi felt deep in her heart. They needed to do this. “You say negotiator… I say manipulator.”

Sara raised
a brow. “Whatever works. Besides, Daddy could never tell me no, and if he tries, then I’ll turn on the waterworks. He’ll be putty in my hands. I haven’t had a good cry in front of him since I was a teenager. It works every time.”

Lexi turned the corner into her room. “I’m glad you’re in my corner. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Sara leaned against the doorway. “Good lord willing, you’ll never find out. As long as there’s a breath left in me, I’ll always have your back.”

Lexi pulled
Sara into a tight hug. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m grateful you’re my friend.”

Sara’s smile reached her eyes this time as she hugged her back.
“Two peas in a pod. We should’ve been sisters.”

Lexi chuckled and walked to her suitcase. “We are s
isters, just not the blood kind, and Catherine is too. That’s why we’re going to do whatever it takes to find her.”

Sara tapped the doorway as she turned. “Why don’t you take a shower and then we’ll head out
?”

G
rabbing some of her clothes, Lexi disappeared into her bathroom. Gently closing the door behind her, she leaned against it for support. With her back pressed against the door, She slid down and landed on her butt, clenching the clothes against her tightening chest as her own tears started to free-fall down her face. Her heart ached, and her body shook as she let the realization set in on what the possible outcome might be. She covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her sobs. The emotion ripped from her chest as her lips trembled. The walls of her chest felt as though they were caving in.

Deep down
, all she felt was an unfamiliar, intense fear, fear for Catherine’s life. She’d cried the night her parents were killed. She’d cried at their funeral, and she’d never thought that she’d experience the same type of pain again…until now. Always holding people at arm’s length was the way she coped until she’d met Catherine and Sara. They’d pushed their way into her life and had come to be her new family, the most important people she had left. Lexi hid her face in her palms, releasing the emotions pent up inside, vowing that this would be the only time she’d be vulnerable until the case was solved.  
    When her tears ran dry, she felt broken inside. She pushed herself up on unsteady legs. Whoever had done this to her friend deserved the punishment she was ready to deliver. She just had to find a way to get the director to agree to let them work the case; if he didn’t, she would do it unofficially on her own time. This was now Lexi’s case, and she wasn’t about to back down. This would be the reason why she got out of bed every morning; this would be the reason why she breathed each day. They all deserved answers, and even if it killed her, she planned on figuring out where the hell her best friend was and why the hell it had happened.

She made quick work in the shower and was packing her car thirty minutes later.
The Director would be gone from the office this late at night. There was no sense talking to him until morning. Her wet hair hung down her back, soaking her shirt as she hugged Sara goodbye, promising to meet at her father’s office in the morning. Lexi was good at planning, and that’s what she needed to do. She needed to do something, anything to make her feel in control of the craziness that surrounded her.

She hit the
Bluetooth on her phone and dialed the only other person in the world she trusted. It only rang once.

“Carrington Residence.”
The familiar voice brought a renewed smile to her lips.

“Hey
, old man.”

“Ms. Alexandria, is that you?”

“Now, Jonathan, does anyone but me call you old man?

He cleared his throat. “No one but you would dare,
Alexandria.”

Her heart lifted
. “What did I tell you about calling me that? The name’s Lexi, or has it been so long you’ve forgotten?”

“It has indeed been a long time since you’ve been home
. You can’t blame an old man for forgetting.”

Lexi pulled out onto the highway
, headed back to the same apartment she’d left. “You’re anything but old, Jonathan. I’ll be driving in on Wednesday night and will be there around ten. I need you to call Marco and get him to round up his team.” Marco Hill was the best shot they had at finding Catherine, well… other than the FBI. It wouldn’t hurt to bring in her partner in her private investigator business, who just happened to be ex-mercenary. He was the obvious choice, the best choice, her choice. If anyone could get her answers, it was him. He didn’t care about red tape and knew more of the seedy people in town. He could get her what she was looking for before the FBI was even on the right trail.

“Shortcake, what have you gotten yourself into?” His tone indicat
ed his curiosity and disapproval at the same time, something only he could pull off. His term of endearment was something that he only used when he was worried.

“I’ll explain when I get there.”

“Alexandria.” His stern voice brought back memories of her childhood. He sounded as disapproving as a father whose daughter has been caught with a hand in the cookie jar or had brought home a bad grade from school. She was now old enough to consider it endearing, even if it was aggravating at the same time.

“I’ll see you
on Wednesday, and I’m only staying the night, so there isn’t a need to inform the rest of the staff. I’ll be out of your hair by Thursday morning.”

After
a pregnant pause, his voice softened. “This is your home, Lexi. I have never understood why you turned your back on it.”

Her heart lurched as she swallowed around her constricting throat
, which was always the same response she had when she thought of the life she’d given up. “I know, Jonathan. No matter how hard I try to forget, something or someone always reminds me. I’ll see you in a few days.” Hitting the end button on her cell, she tossed her phone into the passenger seat.

For years, she’d been sent the prospectus
es and reports from the board of directors of her father’s company, and for years she’d approved of and followed the successful decisions they made without her presence. It was, after all,
her
multimillion-dollar company, and the men and women on the board afforded her the opportunity to follow her own dreams and her own path, but that didn’t mean she didn’t stay abreast to what was going on. She did it from afar, just the way she liked it. There were no men who wanted her for her money, and she didn’t have fake friends. Everyone at the bureau knew she’d worked hard for every ounce of respect she’d received and that her daddy’s company hadn’t influenced her superior’s decisions. She’d earned every bruise, scar, and achievement she’d received, and no one could take that away from her.