“Of course not. You were a kid.”
“And I was angry with my dad. Furious. I spent most of my time with my mom, so I saw how all his cheating tore her apart. I’d never put up with that. I don’t know why she did for so many years.”
Axel nodded. She shouldn’t have to. No woman should. “Do you think she was depressed?”
“Absolutely. She took medication for it. I’ve asked myself over and over if her depression contributed to her death. But I don’t think she committed suicide.”
“I suppose she could fall off a cliff by herself, but she didn’t leave a note or give any indication she was ending it. In fact, hadn’t she contacted a divorce lawyer earlier that week?”
Mystery nodded. “She planned to divorce Dad and take him for half of everything. When she told him, he blew a gasket. That fight was epic. I remember hearing them in their bedroom have a shake-the-walls screamfest. They said some incredibly ugly things.” Mystery gave a hollow laugh. “My mom reminded him that he’d fucked most anyone in Hollywood who wore a skirt in the last nine years. He didn’t really have a reply, except to say she’d made mistakes, too. But she was totally serious about leaving. She’d even contacted a real estate agent about some property back in Kansas. My mom was making plans for a new life, not ending it.”
Axel agreed. Some of that had been public knowledge—even her terrible fights with her husband. Circumstantial evidence made Marshall Mullins look like the prime suspect. After all, that divorce would have cost him about ten million dollars. But Axel didn’t see the famous director as the murderous type. Granted, he might have hired someone . . . But there were holes in that theory, too, like the lack of a money trail.
“Why was your mother in Angeles National Forest that day?” he asked. If he wanted to get to the bottom of Mystery’s kidnapping, he’d have to start here.
“She called it her Zen place. Her dad had apparently taken her there as a kid on a camping trip, and she fell in love. Whenever she was upset or needed to clear her head, she’d drive out there. Sometimes, she’d take me, too. I was in school that day, so she didn’t.”
“Did you know she’d planned to drive to that spot?”
Mystery shook her head. “My mother was often very solitary. She liked being alone, especially when she felt off-kilter. She would pack up the car and disappear for a few hours. Sometimes more.”
How would Marshall Mullins have known exactly where in the forest his wife would be and when? Yes, he could have hired someone to follow her, and there had been lots of speculation that a thug from the Asian mafia he’d hired as a consultant for an upcoming film might have been persuaded to do some wet work for the famous director. But the criminal had wound up facedown in the Pacific a few days later, slaughtered by a rival, so they’d never really know. The only facts in evidence: Marshall and Julia Mullins had come to horrific blows over his cheating one morning, and she had threatened to divorce him. Less than six hours later, she’d been dead. He’d benefitted most from her untimely demise. And somehow, this involved their daughter.
“I know what you’re thinking.” She looked down at the hands she wrung in her lap, then raised big hazel eyes to him. “My dad didn’t do this. He might make a lot of movies about warriors and gritty cops, even that one about the serial killer, but he’s a pacifist at heart.”
Axel frowned. The man who’d sat across a table from him and watched as he and the squad had planned Mystery’s rescue had been all for blood if it brought her home. Axel didn’t burst her bubble. But he also didn’t believe Marshall Mullins had hired someone to kill his wife.
He shrugged. “We’ll figure it out. It’s time we put your mother to rest and gave you back your safety. Getting there might get bumpy, though.”
“I just don’t understand why the photo says I’d be safe in England.”
“I don’t know that we’re meant to understand a lot of things about this right now. Once we unravel everything, it will make sense.”
A sudden knock behind them made Axel tense. He whirled around in his seat, blocking Mystery from the door with his body. He fully expected to see Heath, ready to brawl now that he’d heard her in pleasure with another man. Bring it. Axel itched for a fight.
Instead, he found Zeb, one of his fellow Dominants and Dungeon Monitors, standing in the doorway, looking deeply concerned. “We’ve got a . . . situation. You need to check this out pronto.”
Chapter Twelve
AXEL’S chattiness evaporated in an instant. “Go back to your room and lock the door. You should be safe. I’ll find out what’s going on and come back for you.”
He didn’t give her a chance to argue or the opportunity to follow. Before Mystery even rose from her chair, he’d left the room.
With a frown, she looked into the open doorway, then sighed as she jogged back down the hall. If someone had broken into the club and was wreaking havoc, wouldn’t alarms have gone off or something?
As she reached the main hallway leading from the back door to the club’s main floor, Mystery didn’t see anything out of place. She resisted ducking into her room and locking herself in. If something dangerous was happening, how would she know it and escape?
For a few minutes, she paced the hallway, torn between following Axel’s demands and tiptoeing around to see what the devil was going on. She didn’t like the jerky beat of her heart and the sick worry knotting her belly. What was taking Axel so long? Had he been hurt defending her? They’d been so careful putting out a cover story that she was leaving the country, both to the hotel staff and Twitter. So how the hell could anyone have found her here?
She was still wringing her hands in indecision when Heath came storming toward her, wearing a furious scowl that made her cringe inside.
When he spotted her, his frown deepened to a full glower of disapproval. He grabbed her arm. “What did that man do to you?”
She didn’t play dumb or pretend she didn’t know what he meant. “You heard us.”
“How could I possibly avoid it?” he drilled sharply. “You haven’t seen him in forever, and suddenly you decide to—”
“Heath, I appreciate your concern, but it’s really none of your business. My father sent you along to keep me safe, not to guard my chastity. I’m not having this argument with you.”
He paused, worked his jaw, looking as if he waded through his words carefully. But he didn’t let up or let go of her arm. “Did it ever occur to you that you might not be able to trust him? That someone you can trust is standing right in front of you?”
Mystery reared back. Was he talking strictly about her safety or had he drifted into romantic territory? Heath had never given her a reason to think of him as anything other than a protective uncle . . . who just happened to be a badass. Had she misread the situation all along?
“What are you saying?”
“You’ve seen your ‘hero’ at his best and built him up in your mind. Mystery, you’ve just given him every part of you, especially your trust. And your body.” And he looked as if that disturbed him. “But you’ve never seen him as just a man with all the other flaws you’re terribly familiar with.”
“Meaning?” she snapped. “He’d never hurt me.”
Heath cursed and looked upward, seemingly for divine intervention. Then he shook his head at her. “You can be the most bloody stubborn woman . . . Come with me.”
He dragged her down the hall toward Thorpe’s office. He held his finger over his lips to signal her silence.
As they reached the threshold, Heath held out a hand to stop her, and pointed to the far side of the room. Thinking that he must be losing his mind, Mystery shrugged and peeked around the corner. What she saw made her heart stop completely.