Guilty as Sin (45 page)

“I’m sorry,” Tommy said, feeling about two inches big. “I don’t even know where that came from.” He reached out and pulled her stiff body into his arms, relieved when, after
a few breaths, she melted into him once again. “We’ll keep it on the down low as long as you want.”

Kate smiled up at him. “Fourteen years later and here we are sneaking around again.” Then her smile faded, shadows of painful memories darkening her blue eyes.

“Something tells me it’s going to work out better this time around.”

Fifteen minutes later Tommy dropped her off at her townhouse, refusing to leave until he’d done a thorough search, set the alarm, and heard the dead bolt
thunk
into place behind him. He was heading back to his truck when a female voice called his name.

He didn’t need to turn around to know it was the reporter who seemed to have it in for Kate. Tommy didn’t even bother to turn around when she called his name again.

“Please, Mr. Ibarra, I know you’ve been helping on Tricia Fuller’s kidnapping, that you were part of the search party who found her.”

Tommy paused, his truck door halfway open as he looked at the woman. She was accompanied by a scruffy-looking guy with a camera on his shoulder. “I can’t comment, but I’m sure Sheriff Kovac will be happy to answer your questions at the next press conference.”

“What about your relationship with Kate Beckett? Can you comment on that?”

Shit.
Tommy schooled his face into an expressionless mask. “Kate and I have collaborated with the local authorities to find Tricia.”

He started to get in his truck.

“Please, you can’t think your sexual relationship with her has remained a secret.”

Tommy’s fingers tightened around the door frame and he cursed himself for engaging with this bitch in the first
place. “Whether or not I’m having sex with Kate Beckett has no bearing on Tricia’s disappearance and rescue. Kate has been an invaluable resource and a comfort to the family. You should be focusing on that.”

“But you can’t deny that she seems to make a habit of getting involved with men she’s working with on these high-profile cases.”

“I’d hardly call two a habit,” he muttered before he could stop himself. His stomach sank as a hard light came into Walsh’s eyes. It was a look he knew all too well. The look of a predator going in for the kill.

After Tommy left, Kate showered, dressed, and headed over to the hospital to check on Tricia. Though she was cleared to drive, she opted to walk to the hospital. The weather was beautiful, in the low eighties, the sky the kind of crazy azure blue shade you could only see in the mountains. Not to mention the walk would help her work some of the kinks out of her sore hip as well as all the newly rediscovered muscles that had gotten such a vigorous workout the night before.

Kate felt her mouth stretch into a grin at the thought. She knew she’d better wipe the goofy look off her face before she got to the hospital or she’d have no hope of hiding the fact that she’d spent most of last night rolling around in Tommy’s massive bed.

It wasn’t just the sex that had her smiling like a fool at nothing in particular. It was the fact that despite all the time and all the battle scars between them, despite the desperate circumstances that had brought them back together, the connection between them was as deep and undeniable as it
had ever been. And now, if what Tommy said was true, it looked like they were both ready to stop fighting it and see if, finally, they could find the happiness their bond had once promised.

The sight of the reporters crowded around the entrance to the hospital sobered her up. No matter how amazing it felt to have Tommy back in her life, she knew if the press got wind of it, they’d turn it into something ugly and dirty.

Eventually, if she wanted to be with Tommy—and she did—she knew she’d have to deal with some fallout, but hopefully by the time they went public, there would be enough distance from Tricia’s case to soften the impact.

She gave a polite “no comment” to the reporters who peppered her with questions. She noticed with relief that Maura Walsh wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

The door to Tricia’s room was ajar, and when Kate pushed it open, she found Brooke curled up next to Tricia on the bed, a magazine spread out between them while Jackson dozed in a chair next to the bed. Though her eyes were heavy with fatigue and there were bruises visible on her cheeks, Tricia otherwise seemed well on her way to recovery, laughing as Brooke whispered something Kate couldn’t hear.

There was a pinching sensation in her chest as Kate watched the sisters. She and Lauren used to sit like that, heads bent close, having quiet conversations about things they’d never share with anyone else.

They would never have that kind of bond again. While at times like this she felt the ache of missing her sister like a brick to her chest, today it was softened by the fact that this time, with this case, things had ended much differently. And if this start was anything to go by, instead of tearing them apart, this near tragedy was going to pull the Fullers closer together.

She cleared her throat to get their attention. Brooke
looked up, her mouth stretching into a wide smile as she recognized Kate. “Dad, wake up.” She gave Jackson a little nudge with her bare foot. “Kate’s here.”

Jackson stirred and opened his eyes as Kate came forward to introduce herself to Tricia. “It’s nice to officially meet you.”

Tricia started to smile but it was interrupted by a yawn. “Sorry,” she said. “I don’t know why I’m still so tired. I think I slept for at least two days straight.”

“It’s because that asshole drugged you,” Brooke said, an unmistakable edge to her voice.

“Brooke,” Jackson admonished, “watch your language.”

Brooke cocked her eyebrow at her father. “Dad, the guy kidnapped Tricia and hurt her. I can think of a lot worse things to call him.”

“But you don’t have to say them in front of visitors,” he said, inclining his head in Kate’s direction.

“Trust me, I’ve heard a lot worse,” she said, flashing a grin at Brooke. Her smile softened as it landed once again on Tricia. “CJ says you never got a good look at the man who took you?”

Tricia shook her head, her mouth tight with frustration. “He always wore a hoodie, even though it was hotter than a sauna in there. He always had it pulled up around his face, and he made sure I never saw his face in the light. I keep thinking maybe it’s back there and I’m just blocking it or something.”

“It’s okay. You’ve been through a serious trauma. Sometimes it takes awhile for all the circuits to start firing again.”

Tricia nodded glumly. “I just want the police to catch him. It’s scary, knowing he’s still out there. What if he comes after me again?”

“I’ll put a bullet in his head,” Jackson said, in a voice so
hard it sent a shiver down Kate’s spine. “But you don’t need to worry about it.” He reached out and squeezed Tricia’s hand. “I won’t let anyone near you.”

“Me neither,” Brooke said. “Never again.”

“The best you can do is share anything you can remember, even if you think it’s silly. Every detail helps. Other than that, you focus on getting better.”

To that end, Kate had pulled together a list of therapists both local to Sandpoint and close to the Fullers’ new home in California.

Jackson bristled, a reaction Kate had long since become accustomed to. She was quietly, firmly explaining why having the three of them go, both separately and together, was necessary for them to deal with the aftermath of this latest trauma when they were interrupted by one of the nurses.

“Sorry to bother you,” she said, seemingly oblivious to the tension between Kate and Jackson. “But somehow this got separated from the rest of your things”—she held out her hand to Tricia, revealing a gold chain dangling from it—“and I wanted to make sure it got back to you.”

Tricia’s eyes widened in unmistakable horror, and she tried to scramble away from the nurse’s outstretched hand.

“What’s wrong?” Brooke asked at the same moment the nurse, confused, said, “Don’t you want your necklace back?”

“Get it away from me! It’s not mine!
He
put it on me. Get it away from me!”

Jackson was on the phone immediately to CJ. Kate wrapped her own hand in a tissue—no doubt a futile gesture at this point, but at least there would be one less set of prints for the lab to sift through, and held her hand out to the nurse. “I’ll give it to Sheriff Kovac when he gets here.”

The nurse nodded, her distress evident on her face. “I’m so sorry—I had no idea it would upset her so much. On the news they said she was wearing a necklace when she disappeared. I just assumed that was it.”

“It was a locket.” Tricia sobbed. “A locket my mom gave me. And he took it and put that, that stupid flower thing on me instead.”

Instinctively Kate looked down at the necklace nestled in her palm. Her breath froze in her throat, her body going hot then icy cold as her gaze locked on the gold charm attached to the fine gold chain. It was a flower, leaves of gold fanned out to mimic the shape of a lily. In the center a one-carat diamond threw off the sunlight streaming through the window.

She heard someone talking to her but it was muffled, like she was underwater. A hand waved in her face and she looked up at Brooke, her brows knitted in concern. “Kate? Are you okay? You look kind of pale.”

For a few seconds Kate’s mouth moved, no sound coming out as she struggled to process what was happening, struggled to come up with an explanation less horrible than the truth staring her in the face. “This necklace,” she finally managed. “I recognize it. It was my grandmother’s. I haven’t seen it since the night my brother was kidnapped.”

When Tommy arrived at the sheriff’s station late that afternoon, he found Kate in CJ’s office, huddled in one of the guest chairs. She looked shell shocked, so pale and off kilter it sent his protective instincts into overdrive until it was all he could do not to gather her in his arms.

But with her need to keep their relationship under wraps,
he knew that would only add to her stress. As for telling her that the cat might already be out of the bag, based on his encounter with that barracuda of a reporter?

Out of the question. The discovery of the necklace had already knocked Kate for enough of a loop. Right now they needed to figure out what the hell was going on and whether Tricia’s kidnapper was in any way involved with what had happened to Kate’s brother.

“This—this doesn’t make any sense,” CJ said, shaking his head as he studied the open file spread out in front of him. “It was an open-and-shut case. Emerson Flannery’s truck was seen fleeing the scene, and for God’s sake, the man left a suicide note apologizing for what he’d done. I don’t see how the two can be related.”

“Maybe we were wrong, and Emerson didn’t do it. How else can we explain how my necklace—which went missing the night Michael was killed—ended up on Tricia?” Kate said, her voice higher than usual, her body tight with stress.

CJ shook his head. “You don’t know that for sure. Think about how hectic the days were after Michael died. Isn’t it possible that you lost it then? It could have easily transferred hands several times between then and now. Maybe Tricia’s kidnapper picked it up in a pawn shop somewhere.”

“Come on, CJ, you know how far-fetched that is,” Tommy said.

“No more far-fetched than thinking someone else killed Michael and pinned it on Emerson before killing him too,” CJ shot back.