AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mr. Cruz?” she prompted.
Mr. Cruz. He’d told her a million times to use his first name, but she wouldn’t. For any of them. “Yes, please.”
“Even your lunch with Ms. Richards?”
He noticed Rhianne’s pacing stilled, just for a second, before she continued. “Could you please ask Ian if he’ll take that? Thanks.” Mia Richards, executive director of Heart of Love jewelers, liked having former SEALs escort the models who wore “her” overpriced gemstones to events. Well, Ian could take this planning meeting with her…and fend off her massively unsubtle advances this time. He’d probably just pull out his phone and show off pictures of how his girlfriend’s pregnancy was progressing until Mia got the hint that he was very firmly off the market.
“Can I bring you and Ms. Carlson coffee?” Rosa asked.
Eric shot a quick look at “Ms. Carlson.” She looked wired enough not to need more caffeine for the next decade or so. “We’re fine, thanks,” he replied to their receptionist and disconnected.
“Rhianne?” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk, then sat and brought his computer to life. “Are you… I mean, should we dive right in? Or do you need a minute?”
“Can we just…” Rhianne waved at his computer. “I feel like every second counts, you know?”
“Of course, you’re right.” Eric launched into questions that needed answering for the work-up to a missing person case. He hadn’t known Rhianne had a sister ten years younger, but then how could he? They hadn’t exactly shared confidences that one time they’d worked together. So he started with the basics—name, age, address, and what reason Rhianne had to think the girl was missing.
“So you arranged to meet two days ago, but she never showed up? And you don’t know where she was supposed to be going or what she was doing earlier in the day?” he queried, his fingers pausing over the keyboard.
“No.” Rhianne pulled a strand of hair from her tight ponytail and wound it around her forefinger. “As I said, I don’t live with her and Mom. All I know is when we were working out what time to meet to go see a movie, Robyn mentioned she had plans for earlier in the day. She said she didn’t know how long they’d take, but that she was sure she’d be through in time to meet me at three o’clock.”
“Have you spoken to any of her friends to see who saw her last?”
“No.” Rhianne flushed, her cheeks taking on a pink tinge that made her eyes look even more blue. “I thought about it, but I don’t have any of their numbers. She had them all stored in her phone.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Eric said. “We can track them down some other way. Maybe her school would be willing to help.”
“I do have this.” Rhianne eased open her purse and slid out the laptop she’d picked up from her mom’s place on the way over. “It’s Robyn’s.”
She didn’t meet his eye as she said that, telling Eric three things. One, that she’d taken it without permission. Two, that made her uncomfortable. And three, she’d do whatever it took to get the job done. He admired that.
“You did what you had to.”
She looked up as he told her that, her eyes startled. “But I don’t know her password,” she confessed. “I tried to guess it too many times and got locked out.”
She was looking at him as if he was her last hope. Her eyes, so full of worry and desperation, caught at his heart. He thought back to the first time he’d seen her. She was a commanding presence, tall and fit with white-blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that dared you to look away. She was a knockout, but her lack of warmth had kept him at a distance. He had thought her too cool and detached to ever really care about anyone. Clearly, he’d been wrong. Her devotion to her sister, and her worry for the girl, was written all over her face. It baffled him, and not just because he hadn’t expected it from her. Family dynamics always confused him. Growing up the way he had, he’d never really gotten to see them in action. The closest thing he had was his relationship with his fellow SEALs.
“Is something wrong?”
Her question recalled him to the here and now and what he should be doing instead of getting lost in his thoughts—helping her.
“No.” Eric half-coughed to clear his throat and opened the lid of the laptop. He’d focus on the case at hand. “Just wondering what made you leave the Coast Guard?” It wasn’t a lie—he really was curious about that. It had been clear that she’d loved that life. Had seemed made for it.
Rhianne stiffened, and Eric wanted to facepalm. He hadn’t heard of any missions gone awry, but he knew from his own service that there could be a hundred reasons that made someone rethink their choice.
“Sorry,” he started, raking his fingers through his hair. “That was—”
“I didn’t re-enlist when my contract came up because my mother and sister needed me.” Rhianne’s answer came jerkily, and her shoulders were up almost around her ears, telling Eric this wasn’t an easy topic.
He knew he should probably let it go, but the questions bubbled out, almost in spite of himself. “Why did they need you to come home so badly? Couldn’t you have taken some leave to visit, or sent money back, or something?”
That he’d crossed a line was made clear when Rhianne stood, her chair legs scraping on the floor from the brusque movement, and said, “I need to go get a drink of water.”
“Oh, here.” Annoyed with himself for not offering her one already, Eric pulled a couple of small bottles from his under-desk mini fridge and set them down. Before he could ask if she needed a glass, she had the top twisted off one, the crack loud, and was taking a drink, her head thrown back and the slim column of her throat working as she swallowed. Eric’s eyes followed the movement.
She set the bottle down with a thud. “Robyn had problems. She got worse—I mean, they got worse the further she got into her teens.” In as few words as possible, she made it clear that Robyn, at age fifteen, had needed more help than Rhianne had thought she could give while still in the Coast Guard. But none of it addressed the real sticking point for him.
“You shouldn’t feel responsible for parenting your sister,” he said.
