For Lily's sake. For all their sakes.
Standing shoulder to shoulder, she and her sister-in-law watched the handsome FBI agent exit the building.
They had been completely silent, just staring at each other for a long moment after he'd departed, before they moved, almost in unison, to the large tinted window overlooking the parking lot. And it wasn't until he was in his car, driving away-hopefully never to return-that she finally broke the silence. "You lied."
A shrug. "So did you."
Well, of course. There'd been no other choice. Not lying would have brought a damned murder investigation down on them. Reputations could be destroyed, all they'd worked for torn apart, the family crucified in the press.
And what happened to the family happened to the practice.
"Do you think he believed either one of us?"
"Probably not. But let's not panic just yet."
"Why now?" she murmured, torn between fear and resentment. "Why, after all this time, and why that one recording? What can it possibly prove?"
With a frown, the other woman replied, "I have no idea. But one thing is sure: We can't let this go any further. Do we have anyone in the family with FBI contacts? Somebody who can nip this thing in the bud, get rid of that tape?"
Good point; she should have thought of it herself "I'll work on that." Lowering her voice to a thick whisper, she added, "Do you believe it? That he was involved, somehow, with stealing the car? Stalking those children?"
A bitter laugh was her only response.
Yes. Her sister-in-law believed. God help them, they both did. Because there had been other signs, other children. And they were all damned for having known about it and yet doing nothing.
"We have got to get this under control. To make sure that agent never gets near Father."
She shuddered at the very thought, rubbing a shaking hand over her eyes. "This could destroy us all. Child molestation. Murder/' Then, not sure she even wanted the answer, she asked flat out. "I thought it was under control. That he'd been scared off after whatever happened last summer with that Web site he was so obsessed with."
The other surgeon, so brilliant, so charmed, sneered in response. "Only a fool would think he could resist those baser urges for long."
She shuddered, hating to even imagine it. Had he always been that way? Had the rest of them just been too blind to see? Was she herself one of the fools?
"If he did it, he certainly timed it well, knowing how busy the rest of us would be with the conference, while he would be assumed to be there, as well. Though we both know he made himself scarce that weekend and was hardly around."
"Almost as if he had planned it that way," her hated sister-in-law replied.
Perhaps he had. It hurt to think about someone she had once so loved. But perhaps he had.
They each turned from the window, walking toward the office door, saying nothing else. They were allies now, though neither of them liked it-or each other. But they had no choice. The family had to be protected; Dr. Alfred Underwood's legacy and the practice's reputation could not be tarnished by any hint of a scandal.
And a pedophilia/murder investigation would make for quite a scandal. It could bring down every single one of them. So for now, the two of them were trapped, helpless, and forced to shield each other. She and her sister-in-law would remain silent conspirators.
Together, they would have to make sure that the entire family wasn't headed for total destruction because of the actions of one sick, unbalanced member of it.
Chapter 9
"Come on, you can do better than that. Hurt me. Take me out the very moment I come at you."
Lily blew out the side of her mouth at an errant strand of sweaty hair that clung to the side of her face. Her head down, she backed up and forced her body to relax, bouncing a little on her bare toes on the exercise mat beneath her feet. Sarge, aka Sergeant Wally Devlin, U.S. Army, Ret., stood a few feet away, his big body clad in desert camo, his head down as he studied her from under bushy brows. Any second now, he would come at her, giving her no warning as to which move he intended to use, where he might grab her, if he'd lunge or kick or dive.
And she would fight back.
"Don't think," he snapped. "Don't plan. And for God's sake, don't dwell on what you might have done to change what happened in the past. Just do it now."
What she might have done to change the past? Considering she'd been shot a few times within milliseconds of seeing her attacker's hand-and his weapon-come around the side of the surveillance van door, she didn't chide herself for not doing more.
Getting involved in the Lovesprettyboys investigation to begin with? Well, that was another story. High kicks and fast punches might not have stopped her from getting shot. But minding her own business, doing her own job, and not lying to her boss about what was going on probably would have.
"Come on, Lily, get-"
He lunged without warning, midsentence. Went left. Her body reacted instinctively. She swung right, curled her left leg for a Crescent Kick, then immediately spun farther and hit him with a Double Side Piercing Kick.
"Good girl!" he chortled as he fell to the mat.
She stepped back into a waiting position, not even winded. "You okay?"
He rolled onto his knees and looked up at her. "That's the kind of response I was looking for. Instinct kicks in. You don't overanalyze-your body tells you what to do."
The sarge was powerfully built, stubborn, and tough, but he was also a sixty-year-old man. She'd put him on the mat pretty hard, and it hadn't been the first time today. They'd been at it for an hour, enjoying the afternoon session outdoors on the patio to savor the warmth of the September day. She extended a hand to help him up.
He stared at it, rolled his eyes, then ignored her help and rose with a grunt. "Don't go getting cocky, girlie."
She grinned. At first, the man had seemed like a grizzly bear. He'd pushed her hard when she hadn't believed she was ready to be pushed. He'd made her strong and made her want to be even stronger. But she'd come to recognize him as more teddy than grizzly. She didn't remember her father very well, since she'd been five when her parents had died. But she hoped he would have been at least a little bit like this man.
Reaching for a towel on the nearby table, he wiped his brow, then grabbed a water bottle and downed half its contents. Lily wasn't fooled by his weary demeanor or his heavy breathing. The man had set her up on more than one occasion. She looked for a tiny twitch of his mouth, or the shift of his eyes as he studied her position, something that would indicate a surprise assault.
"Want some?" he asked, lifting a second water bottle.
Still prepared, she nodded once, and extended her hand.
He grabbed it, tugged her forward, tried to twist her around. She responded with two quick jabs and a kick that dropped him to his knees on the mat.
'Excellent!"
"Wow, remind me to never offer you a bottle of water," a voice said.
Lily tensed, the way she hadn't when preparing for Sarge's next move. Because she recognized the voice.
A small part of her, the part that was still Lily Fletcher, who couldn't seem to get through a day without doing something klutzy, reacted with pleasure. Pure happiness at the thought of seeing a friend poured through her before she could stop it.
But the rest of her responded only with wariness, wondering what Brandon Cole was doing here, and what the visit meant.
"Brandon," she said, nodding at the spiky-haired blond who stood in the open doorway leading from the kitchen. He'd once been her friend, someone who'd somehow been able to make her smile, even on days when she thought she'd never smile again.