Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Brielle sat on the edge of the couch watching the people move around her.
The hotel manager, security, and the same plainclothes cops she had seen the night at the bar all huddled in the hall.
They spoke in hushed tones, but Brielle suspected she could understand them if she strained hard enough.
But she didn’t have to. The hardened scowl on Callum’s face said it all. They didn’t have a clue.
“Brielle,” Callum addressed her when he and a familiar policeman walked back in the room. “You remember Earl Diggs?”
She extended a hand to the dark-skinned man towering in front of her. “Good to see you again, sir.”
“It’s a shame it’s under these circumstances,” he said. “Callum says you’re holding up okay.”
She glanced at Callum. He’d thrown on a t-shirt of course, his gun resting in the waistband of his dress pants. “I’d be better if you told me you found who did this.”
“We have a few leads.”
“Then why are you talking to me?” she asked. “Why don’t you follow up on them?”
“That’s what we are doing, Miss Riley.”
The air was awkward. Diggs seemed to be eyeing her closely like he expected her to say something else, or maybe he wanted to.
But if she had to hear another speech about the dazzling sleuthing abilities of the Bonita Springs PD, she would scream.
“So what am I supposed to do now?” she asked the men.
“This guy is obviously following me. It’s not like he’s giving up. ”
“Let me ask you a question Miss Riley.” Officer Diggs folded his arms against himself and narrowed his eyes in a close study. “Is there anyone, like a boyfriend or a roommate that would have access to your room here. There was no forced entry. Nothing else was disturbed.”
“What are you asking?”
“Nothing,” Callum said quickly, with an edge of frustration she couldn’t explain. “Officer Diggs, here, is just a little baffled. So am I, actually. Who would know you were here?”
“Mr. Harrison and I were talking about your playing in the upcoming Citrus Tournament,” Diggs said. “Could it be this is an attempt to keep you out of it for some reason?”
The careful inflection of his voice made it sound like he was insinuating something. She wasn’t sure what, but she sure didn’t like the direction.
“Mr. Diggs, if you think for a minute I am backing down from that maniac, you are stupider than I thought. I’m playing.” She looked back at Callum making sure her eyes met his. “No one is going to stop me, got it?”
Callum ran his hand over his stubbed jaw. If the other men hadn’t been there, she would have surely gotten an earful from him. But instead, he just groaned. “Go pack up while I finish with these guys,” he told her. “We’ll head back to my house. It’s safer there.”
“Fine.”
Callum barely acknowledged her the whole ride back to the beach house.
No talking, no touching. Not even a comforting hand on her night-chilled knee.
It made her wonder if she was being clingy, but then the thought occurred to her, was he not talking for a reason?
Was there something he was keeping from her?
By the time they reached Callum’s front door, she was too exhausted to care.
She was dressed in just shorts and a t-shirt with a light jacket thrown over her shoulders.
The ocean breeze brought a mist, and she was downright freezing by the time she slid between the sheets in Callum’s bedroom.
The particulars of who slept where were unimportant. Just as long as the night ended.
“I’m sorry about what happened tonight,” Callum said, wearily undressing before sliding in beside her. He pulled her close, his lips pressed against the back of her neck. “I promise you everything is going to be all right.”
“Why was Officer Diggs being strange with the questions he was asking me tonight? It’s like he knew something he wasn’t telling me.”
When he didn’t respond she glanced at him over her shoulder. “Does he know something he’s not telling me?”
“Well…no,” Callum finally said. “But…I think he feels the same thing about you.”
She tensed and she was sure Callum felt it. But he didn’t say anything. No reaction at all.
“I’m playing in the Citrus,” she whispered, sticking to what was important. “You can’t take that away from me.”
“I don’t want anything from you unless you’re willing to give it, sweetheart. Speaking of which…” He slid his hand under the sheet and softly stroked the rise of her hip. “I wish you told me tonight was your first time. Does it still hurt?”
“A little.”
“I think I know what will make it feel better.”
Before she could protest, he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the edge of the pool. He tugged a few towels from the wardrobe beside it, then descended the steps into the waiting water.
The heat wrapped around them instantly. The tension her body held began to unravel, beginning in her extremities then spreading to her core.
She rested her head against his shoulder, breathing him in, letting the steady strength of him hold her up.
She nestled closer, and when she locked her legs around his waist, it wasn’t seduction this time.
It was instinct. A silent plea not to let her drift away.
Her eyes slid shut.
He’d been right. She did feel better.
His hands moved over her with patience. Down her back, through her damp hair. His touch wasn’t foreign anymore. It was intimate. Certain. The kind that was so deep and it meant being loved without condition. At least, that’s how she imagined it.
Something in her shifted.
“Callum…” Her voice came out softer than she intended, thinner, like it had to push through a wall of fear. “I have to tell you something.”
He angled his head, his chin against her forehead. “What is it, sweetheart?”
“I made an agreement with my father…” She swallowed hard, her fingers tightening on Callum’s shoulders as if she needed the strength from him to finish. “To throw that match.”
The words landed between them like a confession. The ugliest truth she’d ever carried.
She buried her head against him, her body deflating after expelling what had burdened her. His reaction was unimportant. She was still caught up in hers. She handed him the truth, and it was now up to him to do what he wanted with it.
“Wait a minute,” he said, his gentle voice now taking an edge. “You’re telling me you agreed to be injured and you accepted money on a bribe?”
“No, it wasn’t like that.” Swallowing hard, she carefully chose her words. “My father came to my hotel room in Tampa the night after I won the semi-final match. I should have known something was up. He never comes to my matches much less to where I’m staying.”
“What did he say to you?”
“He told me he had a great idea and he needed a favor. He had this big business deal in the works and I held the key to a lot of people’s happiness. Of course I wanted to know what he was talking about, so I asked and he told me.”
“And he said?” Callum prompted
“He asked me to throw the title match against Nila the next day. He’d never involved me in his business dealings before and I thought it was weird he was asking now. He made it sound like he really needed my help.”
She felt the tears pool in her eyes. She blinked, sending them down her cheeks. “I was afraid to say no, so I agreed.”
Callum kissed her forehead, his fingers kneading the back of her neck. “Then what happened?” he asked, his voice not as steady as it had been.
“When I woke up the next morning, I realized I couldn’t go through with it, and I called him and told him so. I was afraid because I’ve seen what he’s done to people who’ve crossed him…”
“Wait a minute,” Callum pulled back, holding her face between his hands to meet her eye. “Are you telling me you said no? That you didn’t accept money or anything?”
“No! But don’t you see? It can’t be just an incredible coincidence I was attacked the same day I refused to help my father.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“What would I tell them?” she asked. “I made a deal to take part in a crime and I didn’t like how it worked out? Besides, my father owns about half the cops in this town. It would get back to him if I talked.”
“Okay, but what if you’re wrong? What if your father has nothing to do with it?”
“If that were the case, why have the cops been dragging their feet? If there was someone else responsible, they should have found them by now.”
A chill from nowhere grazed her body. She shivered and his hands ran over her, bringing her back to him into the warm water.
“You’re going to tell my father I told you this, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Hey, I promised you I would protect you and I meant it.” It sounded more like a demand than a statement. He gently stroked her back. “Even if your dad is behind this, it doesn’t mean I am. You believe me, right?”
She nodded and wished she did. Closing her eyes she rested her head back on his shoulder. “So now that I told you all this, what should I do?”
“That’s up to you,” he said. “If you want to go to the authorities…”
“No!” Terror raced through her. It was enough she told him. Confiding in someone else was out of the question. It was like throwing a stone in a pond. The ripples were far reaching. Sooner or later, it would get to her father. He would find out she betrayed him.
“Please tell me I won’t regret telling you this.”
He looked at her like the thought offended him. “You have incredible instincts, Brielle,” he said quietly. “Do you really think I would ever hurt you?”
She answered with a kiss. Slow, lingering, more honest than any words could be. It wasn’t exactly yes or no. It was something in between. A request. A moment of borrowed faith.
But the sudden tightness in his body made her ease off him.
His eyes were pressed shut now, his cheekbones drawn tight, the faint flush in his face deepening like pain was wrestling for space. She recognized what was happening. “You’re getting a headache, aren’t you?”
He rested his forehead against hers. “How did you know?”