Touch & Go (Tessa Leoni, #2)(117)

“But?”

He shrugged, appearing once again self-conscious. “She started calling me. Said she needed someone to talk to. Her parents were both shut down, it’s not like her friends understood and given that I already knew everything that had happened. I don’t know. She’d talk. I’d listen. She was just so…angry. I mean, she’d really idolized her parents. Both of them. To have them do something so…human. It messed with her. It’s like if they weren’t perfect, then the whole world must not be perfect. She was kind of freaking out.”

Tessa simply stared at him.

He flushed again. “So, uh…yeah. She came over one day, after school. Bad day, had gotten in a fight with her best friend. Started to cry. So of course, I put my arms around her. Next thing I knew, she was kissing me. I don’t…”

He stopped talking, dropping his gaze to the bedcovers. “I didn’t seduce her, if that’s what you’re thinking. I don’t expect you to believe me. But as strange as it sounds, she was the one using me. She was really pissed at Justin, remember? And what better way to get back at her father who’d slept with a younger woman than to be the daughter sleeping with an older man?”

“This is what you tell yourself?” Tessa stated flatly. “This is how you sleep through the night?”

Lopez’s head shot up. “I’ve been regrouting the bath, remember? Who the f*ck says I’ve been sleeping?”

“So when did she tell you she was pregnant?”

“What pregnancy? I’m not kidding, I have no f*cking clue what you’re talking about!”

“She miscarried, you know. While your goons had her locked up in prison. Interesting, too, because I would’ve thought a gentleman such as yourself would’ve requested no harm come to ladies. Justin, on the other hand…”

“Not my goons! Not my instructions! And what do you mean she miscarried while in prison? What the hell is going on?”

Tessa paused. She eyed him thoughtfully. Wyatt had been right in the beginning; the Denbe Construction management team was full of liars. Anita Bennett. Chris Lopez. And yet, they were both incredible actors as well, or they truly didn’t know everything.

“Ransom,” she stated.

“I heard there’d been contact. No one has told us anything else.”

“The insurance company paid the money.” She continued to watch him.

He sat up straighter. “So they’ve been released? Are they home? Christ.” Lopez ran a hand through his hair, appearing to be simultaneously agitated and relieved. “How is Libby?”

“Seriously? You’re sleeping with the daughter but you’re still in love with the mom?”

“Told you I was a douche bag.”

Tessa played one last card. “Well, you’d better be a douche bag with a valid passport, because Justin knows you’re the one who got his baby girl pregnant. She might have miscarried, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be gunning for your head.”

Lopez paled. Abruptly, his shoulders came down, his chin up. “I’ll see him myself. First thing in the morning. Head right over. My fault. I did the crime. I’ll serve the time.”

“Goddammit!”

Tessa shot off the bed. She twirled violently, disrupting the sleeping dog and causing Lopez to gape at her. She jammed her pistol back into her shoulder holster. If she’d been extremely angry before, she was extraordinarily frustrated and furious now.

“Justin Denbe’s dead.”

“What?”

“Kidnappers planned a double-cross after the ransom had been paid. He died, saving Libby and Ashlyn.”

Lopez, completely slack-jawed now. “But you said…”

“I lied. Mostly to test if you were a liar. But you honestly have no idea what happened shortly after three P.M. yesterday, do you?”

“Lady, I’m so confused right now, the only thing I have is a headache. Are Libby and Ashlyn all right?”

“Relative scale, yes. But Ashlyn did miscarry, and Libby knows you were the father.”

If the threat of Justin’s rage scared him, then to judge by Lopez’s face, the thought of Libby’s hurt shamed him.

“Oh,” Lopez said, then seemed to lose all further words.

Tessa perched in a nearby chair. The old Lab whined nervously again. She stroked one of his ears in comfort as her mind whirled around and around.

“I don’t get it,” she said at last.

Lopez still wasn’t talking.

“Whoever did this knew Justin, Libby and Ashlyn. He or she also had the kind of contacts necessary to hire three mercenaries. Most likely, the same person has been embezzling funds from Denbe Construction for the past fifteen to twenty years—”

“I haven’t even worked there that long,” Lopez interjected with a frown.

“Which is why we started by suspecting Anita Bennett.”

“She wouldn’t steal from the company. It’s her one true love. Besides, she wouldn’t hurt Justin like that. He’s nearly a fourth son to her. The fact that her youngest may or may not be his half brother seems to actually make her feel closer to the family. I’m not saying that’s logical, but that’s the way things are.”

“Then who? We’re talking an employee who’s been around for nearly two decades, knows the Denbes’ home inside and out, is familiar with the company’s financials as well as understands the inner workings of a recently built New Hampshire prison. Who would know, have that kind of access…”