THIRTY-ONE
VOICES BY THE door had been mumbling to each other for a while. She heard the occasional word as tempers frayed.
“Stop with the squabbling.”
“Mast should be on a plane,” someone said.
Brant.
She’d barely looked at him before another voice rose.
“No.”
A single word from the man half in shadow in the corner.
That authority could only belong to one man. “Breck?” For the first time she looked at them all in turn. “Caber,” she knew. The two beside each other with the thick biceps had to be, “Acre. Axon.” A nod. “Ward, Tripp, Troy. Brant,” were familiar as well. The next boy got a smile. “Astor. Dougie,” and not to be left out, “my favorite Breckenridge, Buoy.”
“Still can’t reach the top shelf.”
The croak from the bed brought everyone’s attention round fast; her and Alice shot to their feet.
“Darroch, my sweet boy.”
By rote, he answered, “I’m fine, Mom.” Though when he ventured to crack an eye, his inspection turned to a frown. “Am I fine?”
“Brant, get the doctor,” Benedict said.
“Baby…?”
“You stood me up, Gentleman.” Her heart leaped. Darroch’s eyes closed, but his heavy arm tried to rise. Helping him out, she immediately pressed his hand to her cheek. “You scared me.”
“Cherry—”
“What happened?” That stern male voice again. “Darroch?”
“I don’t know.”
“There are drugs in your system,” Tripp said. “Serious drugs. GHB. How did that happen?”
“I don’t remember.”
“They found you passed out with a skull fracture. When you wouldn’t wake up in the ER, they drew your blood.”
“Sweetheart,” Alice said, laying a hand on his shoulder. “What is the last thing you remember?”
“I was at the office. On my way to meet Sav.” He forced his eyes open a sliver. “I never made it?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, baby, I—”
“Shush,” she said, a tear skittering from her lashes to meet his hand. “You can spend the rest of your life making it up to me.”
“Everyone heard that, it’s a promise.”
“Please don’t joke,” she said, reaching to kiss him again.
When she tried to stand, he caught the back of her head to pull her back. She didn’t resist when his tongue touched hers. The whole family might be there, but she’d give Darroch whatever he needed. Anything.
“Geez, man, have some class.”
Tripp again, just like before.
Darroch’s grasp relaxed and she slipped free, though he was quick to snatch her hand. The interruption was funny. Or so she thought. Darroch’s face said something different.
When he tried to sit straighter, the whole posse advanced in one loud, “whoa.”
“He’s staying put,” Benedict said when a pair of doctors came in with Brant. “Do you need to assess him?”
“Yes.”
“No one’s assessing squat,” Darroch said, eyes closed again. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t know that,” Alice said. “Let these people do their jobs.”
The brothers filtered out as the doctors got closer. She tried to let go of his hand, but he tightened his grip and yanked her down.
“I’m sorry about dinner, baby.”
“Forget dinner and cooperate with the doctors.”
“What do I get?”
“You just stuck your tongue down my throat in front of your mother.”
Yet somehow, the elation at seeing his eyes again erased all inhibitions.
“You saying I get to do that again?” His arm snaked around her, his hand trailed up the back of her thigh, in between them and—
“Hey!” she objected, catching those wandering digits to free herself. “At least pull the curtain.”
“Go for it.”
She laughed. “This is frisky, even for you.”
“The drugs lower sexual inhibition,” the younger of the doctors said.
“Think it’s you being in the room that does it, doc,” Tripp said, swaggering a few steps closer, putting a blush in the doctor’s cheeks. “I’m coming down with a case myself.”
“Oh, Tripp,” Alice said, taking her son’s arm, “let the woman alone.”
Darroch squeezed her hand. “If you don’t walk back through that door with the rest of the family, I’ll come find you. Skull or no skull.”
Okay, he’d find it pretty hard to do anything without a skull, but she got what he meant.
“I’ll come back,” she said and kissed him again.
A good few seconds passed before he let go of her hand. His parents were by the door and ushered her out before closing it.
The mass of Breckenridges clogged the hall.
“Take the boys home to bed,” Alice said to the big biceped Breckenridges. “We’ll wait to see what the doctors say.”
“Carver will take them. We have to talk to Darroch, find out if he was targeted.”
That possibility startled her as much as Alice. “Do you think…? No, it has to be random.”
“Maybe. But that won’t be the only avenue investigated.” This Breckenridge brother was no nonsense, which was good, the night didn’t call for it. She followed his eyeline up to a couple of unknown guys loitering further up the hall. Plainclothes cops? Maybe they’d heard Darroch was awake too. “We have to look at this from every angle.”
“If someone is hurting Breckenridges,” Savanna said, “neither of you should be anywhere near it.”
Unfortunately, the potential cop nearest her made eye contact. That was enough to bring both of them through the other Breckenridges to her side.
“Mr. and Mrs. Breckenridge,” the blonde cop said. “Ax.” So they knew the bicep Breckenridges. “And you are…?”
Wow, not so subtle.
“This is Savanna,” Alice said, twining their arms. “Darroch’s girlfriend.”
And weren’t partners always the first suspects?
“Girlfriend, huh? Where were you tonight?”
“Sitting in a restaurant, waiting for Darroch to show up.”
“So you had plans? You knew where he’d be?”
“Actually no, I didn’t know where he was coming from. We were meeting there.”
“Is that typical for you?”
“Savanna is not a suspect,” Alice said. “She would never hurt Darroch.”
“Alice,” Benedict said, putting an arm around her waist. “This is their job.”
“I don’t mind answering questions, I have nothing to hide. No, Darroch usually picks me up.”
“Why was today different?
“I don’t know. I just told him to meet me there.”
“Because…?”
With his whole family watching, she didn’t want to go into minute detail. “There was a thing, we had a thing.”
“What does that mean?”
“Mom,” Ax said and side nodded.
Benedict got it and eased his wife away.
Great, just great, the Breckenridges moved away in a flock. Their intention would be to give them privacy. They wouldn’t suspect her of anything… would they?
“A thing?” the cop prompted.
“Darroch was at my place a couple of nights ago. My ex called and we fell out about it.”
“This ex still a feature?”
“No.”
“He and Darroch know each other?”
“No.”
“Could this ex be pissed you’re with another guy?” Honestly pissed? Like because he still cared about her? No, not Jeremy. She was beginning to wonder if he’d ever cared about her at all. “Is he the jealous type?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. But he wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t hurt anyone. He knows I’m seeing someone else, he doesn’t know who that someone is. There would be no way for him to know it’s Darroch.”
“A Breckenridge isn’t hard to identify.”
“Yes, but Darroch and I, we’re—” God, it seemed so stupid now. “Our relationship is—”
“Open?”
Was it open? Maybe. No. They had kind of called exclusivity.
“No.”
“It’s strained?”
“No. We were meeting for dinner. I didn’t know where he’d spent his day. I still don’t. No one in my life would know we’re together. I haven’t told my colleagues, my friends.”
“Why not? Because of this ex?”
“No, because I work for Breckenridge.”
And that shame pulled her limbs in tight. Did he have to look so disapproving?
“At BHQ?”
“No. In the intimates department.”
“In the store?” She nodded. “That how you met?”
“No,” she said, cupping her elbows, holding them close. “Do we have to get into all that? I know you want to find whoever’s responsible, but—”
“That’ll happen faster if we have the full picture.”
Why would someone hurt Darroch? He couldn’t have enemies, the Breckenridges were too good to have anyone pulling against them.