Chapter Thirteen #2
He turned, pushing open the door, and he and Remi quickly made their way toward the front of the station so they could retrieve their weapons.
They’d been forced to leave them there before they’d given their statements, but Brody sure as hell didn’t want to step out unarmed.
It would be gutsy for Tarrant to try to kill them outside a police station, but Brody wouldn’t put it past him to do something so reckless.
They stepped outside, both of them glancing around to check for any threats. Brody didn’t see any, but he stayed vigilant as they hurried through the parking lot.
“We’re on our way to see Eloise, right?” Remi asked, the moment they were inside the cruiser.
Brody didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
The cops might not have any reason to bring Eloise in, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have answers. If her bodyguard had even the slightest connection to what had happened to his sons, he was going to find out.
“You know, Eloise might not let us in,” Remi pointed out.
Yeah, he did know that, and it ate away at him. “If necessary, I’ll lie and say I have Tarrant. That’ll get her to open the door.”
With that thought burning through him, Brody pulled out of the lot and started toward Eloise’s house. They were halfway there when his phone buzzed with a text. It was from Reese, and the message flashed on the dash monitor.
We got the warrant for the cabin and are sending in a CSI team now.
Good. Maybe they’d find something, because Brody knew that time was running out for his son.
When he reached the security gate at Eloise’s neighborhood, Brody braced himself for a fight, but when he flashed his badge, the guard barely hesitated before opening it.
“She’s letting us in without a fight,” Remi muttered.
Brody nodded but kept his thoughts to himself as he pulled up to the house. Eloise was unpredictable, and he wasn’t about to let his guard down.
When they reached the front steps, he was fully prepared for her to ignore their knock. But the heavy wooden door swung open almost immediately, and Eloise stood there, looking every bit as poised as always, though her eyes were clouded with concern.
She surprised him again by stepping aside. “Come in.”
Brody exchanged a glance with Remi before following Eloise inside. She led them into the sitting room, then turned to face them. “I assume this is about Zeke.”
“You assumed right,” Brody growled.
Her lips thinned, but she didn’t snap at him the way he expected. Instead, she sighed. “The police demanded he go to the station for questioning. Zeke told me they want to ask him about a dead nurse that was found at some clinic. I know what they’re thinking, but Zeke didn’t do anything wrong.”
Brody wasn’t so sure about that. He didn’t miss the way her fingers curled slightly, as if she was gripping something invisible to steady herself.
“The dead nurse, Lila Montgomery,” Brody spelled out. “She was his ex.”
Eloise took a deep breath, nodded. “I know.”
Brody did some more snapping. “And you didn’t think that was relevant?”
“Because it wasn’t,” she insisted. “I didn’t know the woman was dead, not until Zeke told me. And Zeke hasn’t been with Lila in years. Their relationship ended long before any of this. He moved on. He had nothing to do with whatever she was involved in.”
Brody wasn’t convinced, and apparently neither was Remi. “Maybe. Maybe not,” she remarked.
Eloise’s eyes narrowed. “You’re both wasting your time if you think Zeke is behind this.”
Brody got right in her face. “Convince me of that. Give me a good reason not to press the cops to arrest Zeke for a whole host of felonies, including murder.”
The woman stared long and hard at them, and for a moment Brody thought she was going to order them out. She didn’t. Instead, Eloise went to the sofa, sank down on it and gave a weary shake of her head.
“I know Lila,” she admitted after some snail-crawling moments. “And the woman is poison. Was poison,” Eloise amended in a mutter. “You want to know if I believe she could have assisted Tarrant with what he did a year ago, and the answer is yes. I believe Lila helped him.”
“What about with my sons?” Brody was quick to ask.
Eloise nodded. “Yes, Lila could have assisted with that, too, but not with Zeke’s help. He wouldn’t help her do anything like that. He knows what a viper she could be.”
“Explain that,” he demanded because he was getting the feeling that Eloise was holding back something important.
Brody crossed his arms, watching Eloise carefully. Every move, every word—he knew she was calculating. But there was something beneath her polished exterior today. A crack.
“Eight days ago Lila called me,” Eloise finally said.
Everything inside Brody went still. Eight days. That’s when his sons had been born.
“You want to tell me why Lila contacted you?” he demanded. And it wasn’t a suggestion. It was a cop’s order.
Eloise’s gaze flicked to him before she exhaled. “She wanted to make a deal. Nothing to do with your sons,” Eloise was quick to add. “She said she had information on Tarrant’s whereabouts. She wanted a million dollars in exchange for it.”
Brody let that settle, watching her reaction. She was playing it cool, but there was something else there. A hesitation. A tell.
“And you didn’t believe her,” he said.
“No,” Eloise admitted. “I thought it was a ruse. Maybe to draw me out so Tarrant could kill me. Or maybe just so I’d cough up money that she and Tarrant could split. Lila was reckless but not stupid. She’d have known that Tarrant would have slit her throat if she’d tried to betray him.”
Yeah, Tarrant would have done that. But it didn’t mean that Lila hadn’t reached some level of desperation that she’d been willing to risk Tarrant’s wrath. And that desperation could have come if she’d realized the twins she’d just helped into the world were the offspring of a cop.
A cop who’d do anything to get them back.
“I told Lila I wasn’t interested,” Eloise went on a moment later. “I didn’t meet with her.”
Brody didn’t buy that for a second. “You expect me to believe you just ignored a lead on the man who killed your son?”
Eloise lifted her chin. “I expect you to believe I don’t throw money at people who can’t deliver.”
Brody studied her, the pieces clicking together in his mind. “You didn’t meet with her,” he said slowly, “but Zeke did.”
Something flickered in her expression, but it was gone as fast as it came. “I never said that.”
Brody let the silence stretch. Eloise didn’t confirm it, but she didn’t deny it either. Which meant he was right.
“Zeke went to meet her,” Brody said, pushing further. “And he found her dead.”
Again, no reaction. No denial. Just a carefully guarded silence.
Brody clenched his jaw. “You want to tell me what happened next?”
“I already told you,” Eloise fired back. “Neither Zeke nor I arranged for your sons to be born as leverage. We did not do this.”
Brody wasn’t sure if he believed her. Maybe she hadn’t orchestrated it, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t taking advantage of the situation.
“If you want to know more about Lila,” Eloise said, smoothing a hand down her expensive blouse, “then you should talk to Christina.”
Remi frowned. “Why her?”
Eloise’s lips curled slightly, looking smug, like she was enjoying holding this over them. “Because I wasn’t the only person Lila contacted eight days ago.”
Brody’s stomach tightened. “Explain that.”
Eloise leaned back against the sofa, crossing one leg over the other. “When I told Lila I wasn’t going to pay her a cent, she said I should rethink that and pay up. Or she’d take the deal to Christina.”
Brody’s pulse kicked up a notch. “She tried to play the two of you against each other,” he said.
Eloise’s expression remained amused, but there was an edge to it. “And I have a strong suspicion that Christina did bite. If you want to know what went on at that clinic eight days ago, then you need to talk to Christina.”
Before the woman even finished speaking, Brody and Remi were heading for the door.