Touch & Go (Tessa Leoni, #2)(116)

I told the agents we were all set. I let them graciously out the front door, then promptly activated our security system, listening to various dead bolts fire home.

Ashlyn was still standing in the foyer, looking at the spot where I had vomited. Just three days, but already a lifetime ago.

“Can I sleep in your room?” my fifteen-year-old daughter asked.

“Yes.”

“I want a gun.”

“Me, too.”

“I want it loaded, underneath my pillow.”

“Everything we learned not to do in firearms safety,” I observed.

“Exactly.”

“Loaded clip next to the unloaded firearm, in the top drawer of the bedside table,” I countered.

“Okay.”

“Ashlyn… I’m proud of you.”

My daughter didn’t look at me, but stared at the vomit stain. She said, “I’ve been sleeping with Chris Lopez. He likes you, he’s always liked you. But he can’t have you, so he settled for me instead. And I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t care. You and Dad…you just seemed so far away, and I wanted someone to make me feel special again.”

I opened my mouth. I closed my mouth. “Oh, honey.”

“I just want it to go away now, okay? Don’t tell anyone. Don’t do anything. Just…make it all go away.”

“Did you tell the police?”

“Of course not! I just want it to be over. Please, can’t it all be over? I can’t stop seeing his face, Mom. Dad and the blood, and that knife! He died for us. He died because of me!”

Ashlyn collapsed. Hunched over on the bottom step, her arms over her head, as if that would block the terrible images. And I understood what she meant, because I had the same visions stuck in my own head. As well as way too many unwanted revelations. Chris Lopez, Justin’s most trusted second in command, sleeping with our teenage daughter. Is this why Tessa Leoni had asked about him specifically? Because she already suspected him in my family’s kidnapping? After all, he’d meddled in my marriage, then seduced my fifteen-year-old daughter.

Why, if Justin were still alive…

Then, all of a sudden, so many things finally made sense. Including why my husband, my modern-day caveman, had to die.

I went to my daughter. “It’s okay, Ashlyn. We’ve come this far. We’re going to get through this.” I was unconsciously repeating her words from the sheriff’s office. I gave her a bolstering hug. Then, I got on the phone and dialed Tessa Leoni.





Chapter 41


CHRIS LOPEZ WOKE UP to the barrel of a gun, dug into his right temple.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t move,” Tessa said. She sat beside him, on the edge of his mattress. She hadn’t bothered with any lights, using the glow of a penlight to jimmy his rear window, then creep through his house, up the main stairs. She’d found the elderly Lab, Zeus, sleeping in the hallway. He’d lifted his head once, seen it was her, then gone back to sleep with a sigh.

All in all, she was feeling very comfortable with her nighttime adventure. Which was good, as she was extremely pissed off.

Now she offered up conversationally: “When did Ashlyn first tell you she was pregnant?”

“What?”

Lopez tried to sit up. She used her left fist to whomp him hard in the middle of his sternum.

Lopez collapsed back down against the mattress, gasping for air.

“Fifteen-year-old girl? The daughter of your boss? A child you swore you thought of like your own daughter? You f*cking pervert!”

Lopez, moaning now. “I know, I know. I’m a total douche bag. Just pull the goddamn trigger. I deserve it.”

His self-pity made her angrier. She hit him again. “Hey, I’ll do the threatening around here!”

“I don’t know… I never should’ve… I am a pervert. What the hell was I thinking!” Lopez sounded as if he was crying. Jesus Christ. Tessa reached over and snapped on the bedside lamp.

Yep, Lopez had worked himself into quite a state.

“Start at the beginning,” she instructed sternly. “Tell me everything. Maybe I won’t shoot you.”

“There was no beginning. I mean, it’s not like I planned it.” Lopez seemed to pull himself together. He dragged himself up to sitting; this time, she didn’t try to stop him. At least he was partially clothed in a threadbare white T-shirt and gray boxers.

The ruckus had awoken the dog again. Zeus padded in, then went to Tessa’s side and whined softly. She patted his head and he settled, curling up at her feet.

“Look, Ashlyn found out about Justin’s affair. I’m not sure how. Probably eavesdropped on her parents’ fighting, hell if I know. But she also figured out the other woman was my niece, Kate. I heard a story she even confronted Kate in the lobby, and Anita had to run her off. All I know is my niece called me one night to say the crazy girl was back, standing outside her house, and wouldn’t go away. What was I supposed to do? I headed on over to handle things best I could.”

“Best you could?” Tessa’s tone was dry.

Lopez flushed. “I took Ashlyn to a nearby coffee shop and tried to talk some sense into her. I gave her my whole spiel—Katie was just a stupid girl, I knew for a fact Justin had ended things, and her parents really were trying to work things out. She needed to just give everyone some space and time. Ashlyn seemed to finally calm down. I drove her home. Figured that would be that.”