The Reckoning (17 page)

Abby interrupted. “That’s took much information, Doc.”

Elizabeth
smiled. “Anyway, as I was saying, Mike doesn’t love me. I’m just a favor he’s doing for my father. He’s protecting me from the professor out of loyalty. The chemistry has been building for two years, and we acted on it. Nothing more, nothing less. When this is over, so are we.”

Abby raised her brow. “It’s like that?”

Elizabeth
nodded. “Yep, it’s like that.”

Abby chuckled. “For someone so smart, you sure have a thing or two to learn about my brother.”

Elizabeth
closed her eyes and leaned her head back. “Abby, I don’t want to talk about him anymore. Just wake me when we get there.”

Abby surprisingly remained quiet for the rest of the ride, well, at least from discussing Mike. She reached over and hit the radio button and was singing at the top of her lungs, making
Elizabeth
grin.

CHAPTER 14

Mike arrived at the station with his mind on other things besides work. Images of the feisty brunette danced in his head; her naked body sprawled beneath his. The way she looked in nothing but his shirt while cooking breakfast and the way her mood had soured so quickly made Mike pause. Mike shook his head and mumbled, “Women,” as he entered his office.

He needed to focus and find out what the hell was going on with the professor. He needed to do his damn job, and that meant only protecting
Elizabeth
, not sleeping with her. Mike plopped down in his leather chair and pulled out the file he’d started on Winters. His own personal file. He felt as though he was missing something. He picked up the phone and called the one man who knew more about the bastard than he did.

“Thompson,” the male answered on the first ring.

“Rick, are you near my office?”

Mike could hear Thompson turning down the radio; no doubt he was in his car. “I’m just about to pull in. I need to give you an update on the professor.”

“Good, see you in a few.”

Mike disconnected the call. He needed something to distract him from the crazy thoughts he’d been having about
Elizabeth
. White picket fences and diamond rings weren’t for him.

A knock on his doorframe pulled him from the foreign thoughts. Ted, Abby’s coworker, stood there, leaning on the doorframe.

“Come on in, Ted. What can I do for you?”

Ted lumbered to one of the chairs with another file in hand and sunk down into the leather seat. The last time Ted had come to see him, he’d found out he had a half-sister. The fact that he was holding yet another file made Mike’s stomach drop. He was already dealing with so much.

“What did you find now?” Mike hadn’t wanted to ask but figured there was no way around finding out what the IT genius had in store for him. “Another relative we know nothing about?”

Ted glanced at the file in his hand. “It’s worse than I thought.”

Mike raised a brow, not sure he could handle any more problems.  “What is?”

Ted held out the file to Mike. “I’ve found more information on
Lydia
, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

Mike took the file from Ted’s hands. “I’m not sure I can handle worse. I’m neck deep with the professor and trying to protect
Elizabeth
.” Mike let out a sigh and flipped the file open, studying the picture of
Lydia
before he said a word. The picture depicted his redheaded sister in an alley. Two men were on the hoods of cars, her arms held out in front of her. The windshield of the car was cracked all over, as if they’d been thrown into it. The other man on the ground was wearing a military uniform. He looked up at Ted. “Shit. Has anyone else seen this?”

Ted kept his gaze. “I don’t know... that’s why I brought it to you.”

Thompson walked in, and Mike quickly shut the file. “Am I interrupting? Do I need to come back?”

Ted stood and walked to the door. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

Mike nodded.

Thompson watched the nerd walk down the hall. “What was all of that about?”

Mike shook his head. “I’ll fill you in later.” Mike gestured toward the chair. “Have a seat and tell me what you found out from the professor.”

Mike picked up the stress ball and started squeezing it. His life had just become more complicated, and telling his sisters wasn’t even the half of it.

“There’s been a complication.”

Mike squeezed the ball harder in his palm. “What kind of complication? Did you get the information you needed on Winters?”

Thompson grinned. “Oh yeah. We still don’t have a picture, but we know where he’ll be next, not to mention we have his account information that he’s been using to wire the professor funds.”

Mike let the tension in his palm ease. “Then what’s the problem?”

Thompson’s smile fell. “We can’t find him.”

Mike squeezed the ball again. “I thought you just said you had his schedule.”

Thompson shook his head. “I’m not talking about Winters. You’re never going to believe where he’s going to be on Saturday.”

Mike almost hated to ask. The way that Thompson said it left a bad taste in Mike’s mouth. “Where?”

“Claire’s hospital fundraiser.”

Like hell. Mike jumped to his feet and threw the stress ball against the wall, making white dust explode from its casing. “You better keep that asshole away from my family.”

Thompson held out his palms. “Just calm down, Bennett. We’ll keep everyone safe. My team has already started strategizing about how to take him down before he even steps foot into the party.”

Mike sat back down but narrowed his eyes at his old friend. “Go ahead and warn your team that I’m going to be a part of it.”

Thompson shook his head. “Oh no you’re not. You’re too emotionally involved in the situation.”

Mike leaned forward, propping his elbows on his desk. “That’s exactly why I am.”

Thompson nodded once, a professional courtesy Mike was sure.

Mike leaned back in the plush leather chair. “Okay, I’ll bite. If you weren’t talking about Winters, then who can’t you find?”

“The professor slipped through our fingers.”

“How the hell did that happen?” Mike could feel his blood pressure rising. The need to hit something increased. He balled his fist.

Mike watched Thompson swallow. “We had to let him go. It was part of the deal, but I wasn’t stupid enough not to leave a tail on him.”

Mike released his fist. “Then what’s the problem? Call your guy and tell me where the hell he is.”

“He gave him the slip. I don’t know how he did it, but he did, which leads me to believe this guy is either more slippery than I originally thought or he had help.”

Mike’s head started throbbing. Mike reached up and rubbed his temples. He should have never gotten out of bed this morning. “Damn it.” Mike reached for the phone on his hip. “Where did he lose him?”

“At the hotel. My guy never saw him leave, and when he went to check the room, he was nowhere to be found.”

Mike hit speed dial and relayed the message to Abby. He’d tasked her with keeping an eye on
Elizabeth
and now Abby needed to be on her toes at least until he had
Elizabeth
in his sight again. Mike asked Abby to tell the guys so they could all be prepared in the event the psycho professor showed up.

Mike stood after stashing the new file that Ted had given him in his desk. He grabbed his keys. “I’ve got to go get
Elizabeth
.”

****

Elizabeth
glanced around the room at each of the women. All of them were her friends except for one.
Elizabeth
let her eyes take in all of
Lydia
’s features. Her petite stature and manicured nails reminded her of Claire.
Lydia
paced like Mike. She was hardheaded like Abby, and the way
Lydia
studied everyone around her, trying to make everyone comfortable, definitely Emma.
Lydia
carried the same traits as her half-sisters, and
Elizabeth
wondered if anyone else recognized it.

There were so many unanswered questions, but in time they’d come together and take
Lydia
under their wing, just as they had
Elizabeth
.

Elizabeth
walked to the coffee pot and filled another cup before taking her seat at the table.

“
Lydia
, I’m a friend of the family so I’m an outsider here.”

Abby grinned at
Elizabeth
and gestured her way. “No you’re not; she’s going to be marrying our brother, Mike.”

Lydia
nodded. “I saw him at the police station when I saw you, Abby. That was the first time I realized you all were real.”

Claire squeezed her hand. “That must have been difficult for you.”

Lydia
slowly pulled her hand from Claire’s and placed it in her lap.
Lydia
slowly lifted her gaze to Claire. “I’m assuming all of you are like me. We each have a special gene we inherited from our father.”

Claire nodded.

“What about
Elizabeth
? Does she know?”

Abby crossed her arms over her chest. “She knows more about us than you do.”

Claire glared at Abby and turned back to
Lydia
. “She knows.  She was testing my ability when I found out about you. It seems our brother was withholding information.”

Abby leaned back in her chair, studying the redhead. “How did you know we’d be at the café? It couldn’t have been coincidence.”

Lydia
’s lips tilted up at the corner. “I guess you could say I have the gift of foresight.”

Abby dropped her arms. “You can see into the future?”

“Among other things. I knew you were meeting to discuss me, but I couldn’t see the outcome. That’s how it works.”

“Well, that bites.” Abby said, taking a sip of her coffee.

“Tell me about it.”

Emma waived her hands in the air. “Just great, she gets the fortune teller gift, and I get PMS. How fair is that?”

Abby grinned. “At least you can see dead people.”

Emma narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Just Momma Mae, and where has she been all week? Hmm.”

Lydia
glanced between the two. “Damn, PMS and dead people.”

Elizabeth
stood and started pacing. Why
Lydia
couldn’t see the outcome with her gift of foresight made perfect sense. She’d learned about it in school. “I’m sure it’s because we each make choices that could alter the outcome. I believe that a certain path is set in place for us. What we do with it is completely up to us and the decisions we make.”

Emma stared at
Elizabeth
, her mouth hanging slightly open.

“What?”
Elizabeth
lifted her chin. “I minored in philosophy.”

Abby threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, of course you did. Mike is going to love this.”

Abby wiped the tear from her cheek. “What else can you do?”

Lydia
lowered her head. “My gifts have been acting up lately. I first noticed my gifts when I was little. There was a bully at my school that would try to throw things at me and hit me. One day, I imagined it flying back at him, protecting me from the threat, and it’s history from there. The bully never touched me again. Somehow I made the rock fly back at him, just by concentrating on it.”

“Seriously?”
Elizabeth
asked. Scientifically it didn’t make sense, but with her minor in philosophy. It was something that she could believe, just like she believed the sisters.

“I’m afraid so.”

Abby sat her coffee cup down. “That’s kind of cool.”

Lydia
looked down at her lap and then up to Claire. “Do you have any pictures of our father? I only have this one.”

Lydia
pulled a picture from her purse and slid it across the table to Claire.
Elizabeth
reached for it halfway in transit and picked it up. “What the hell? What is your dad doing with Dr. Jennings?”

Claire slid the picture from
Elizabeth
’s fingers. “They were friends a long time ago. I’m not sure what happened back then, but one day they just quit talking.”

Elizabeth
shook her head; this didn’t make sense. Why would a good man like Mr. Bennett be friends with that creep? There was something about the doctor that just didn’t add up. Unless he use to be a nice guy a long time ago and changed in someway.
Elizabeth
doubted Mr. Bennett would have brought that man around his children.