“Whoa. Back up. I suddenly have a bad feeling about this.”
Simone rounded the corner of the house before he could stop her. The stench was stronger in the backyard. A cat darted from behind a tree and disappeared around the side of the house. Her eyes widened when she saw the body, feet sticking out of rhododendron bushes near the back stoop.
She swallowed, hard. “So do I.”
“Oh, hell.” Mitch stepped in front of her, blocking her view.
Ryan’s mother, Angela, tucked her auburn hair over her shoulder and laughed, flashing a wide smile. Candlelight from the dinner table flickered across her face. “So, Mitch is belaying at the top of the cliff, and Ryan slips.”
Ryan watched Kate’s brow shoot up across the table. Her apprehension at having to meet his parents had slowly diminished as the evening wore on. They were all seated around his dining room table, empty dishes in front of them, his mother telling embarrassing stories from his youth. In any other situation, he’d have put an end to it, but Kate looked thoroughly interested, and after her afternoon with Kari Adams, he figured she needed a few minutes of peace.
Even if it was at his expense.
Shifting Julia on his lap, Ryan shook his head. “Dumbo didn’t close the system.”
“What does that mean?” Kate asked with genuine curiosity.
Kathy Mathews rounded the table with a pot of coffee, refilling cups. “It means Mitch didn’t tie a keeper knot in the figure-eight knot, and the end of the rope passed right through the belay device.”
“You see,” Angela went on, “Ryan had never climbed outdoors before. He’d only ever climbed indoors with Mitch, so when this happened—”
“Scared the crap right out of me,” he said with all seriousness.
Everyone laughed but Kate.
“What did you do?” Her eyes locked on his, and he read the concern in those green depths. His heart bumped.
“There was a huge crack about shoulder level, so I jammed my arm in, elbow first, and dug the toes of my boots into the rock to brace myself. Found I could rest almost all my weight on that arm, though it hurt like hell. Then I shouted every profanity I’d ever learned up at Mitch.”
“So that’s where my boy learned those words,” Kathy said, laughing.
“You could have been killed.” Kate stared at him with wide eyes.
Whenever she looked at him with those soft, emotion-filled eyes, he wanted to wrap his arms around her and lose himself in her sweetness. Since both their parents—and their kids—were sitting around the table, he decided it probably wasn’t the best time to do that. He’d have to save it for later, when they were alone. When he could drag her into his bedroom, lock the door, and show her just how much having her in his house meant to him.
“Yeah, tell that to Mitch,” he said, trying to dampen the fantasy. “He about bust a gut when I finally got to the top. Thought it was the funniest thing ever.”
Roger Mathews leaned an elbow on the table and sipped his coffee. “If you listen to Mitch tell it, the cliff wasn’t all that high. Ryan would only have broken a leg, maybe two in the fall.”
“Thanks a lot,” Ryan shot at him.
Laughter resonated around the table. The phone rang, and Julia scrambled off Ryan’s lap to answer it.
“I think,” Ryan’s father, Michael, said, running a hand down Reed’s little back as he slept against his chest, “that was the last time you went rock climbing with Mitch.”
“What do you mean, ‘with Mitch’?” Ryan crossed his arms over his chest. “It was the last time I went period.”
Angela leaned over and kissed her son’s cheek. “I prefer both your feet on the ground anyway, sweetie.”
“Dad?” Julia walked back into the dining room with the cordless phone. “It’s Uncle Mitch.”
“Speak of the devil,” Ryan muttered, tossing his napkin on the table and rising.
Conversation continued behind him. “Hey,” Ryan said into the phone. “Where are you?”
“Simone and I are in Vancouver.”
Ryan clenched his jaw, looked over at Kate, then turned back toward the kitchen. He rounded the corner toward his office and shut the door. “I thought I told her not to go up there.”
“Ryan, she barely listens to anything I tell her. What makes you think she’ll listen to you?”
As he sank into the chair behind his desk, he heard Simone’s voice in the background and Mitch’s sharp intake of breath. “Tell her to quit hitting on you so you can explain why you’re there.”
They exchanged muffled words, and Mitch’s voice came back stronger. “We found Walter Alexander. Medical examiner thinks he’s been dead about three days.”
“Son of a bitch.” This was all Ryan needed to hear. He glanced up sharply when the office doors opened.
Kate stepped in, closing the double doors at her back. “Put him on speaker phone.”
Shit. He didn’t want her hearing this right now. She was just starting to lose that haunted look. When he only let out a breath, she walked toward him and reached for the phone.
Reluctantly, he pushed the button. “Mitch, I’m putting you on speaker. Katie’s here.”
“What’s going on?” She leaned back against Ryan’s desk.
“We found Walter Alexander,” Mitch said again.
“And?”
“And he’s dead.”
Her eyes darkened. The color drained from her face.
Ryan squeezed her thigh. “Cops have any idea what happened?”
“No.” Mitch said. “Looks like he was whacked over the head with something, but they haven’t said what cause of death is yet. Autopsy won’t be until tomorrow.”
Kate dropped her head in her hands.
“Also looks like he’d only been in Vancouver a few days. Suitcase was still packed, passport showed he went through customs not long ago.” Mitch paused. “Ryan, he had a copy of a Seattle newspaper with a picture from your press conference on the front page.”
“Shit,” Ryan muttered.
“He also had some papers about a pharmaceutical company here in Canada. Gray-something or other. Simone’s trying to con the detectives into sharing some of their info with her. The woman is a bloodhound.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Ryan fought back the frustration. And the fear. “I want you guys out of Vancouver.”
“We should be on a flight home tonight. Police have a few more questions for us, but I wanted to give you a heads up.”
“Thanks,” Ryan said. “Stay safe coming back.”
“Will do. I’ll call you when we know more.”
The line clicked dead. Without waiting for a response, Ryan stood and drew Kate into his arms. Tension radiated from her body. Her face pressed into his chest, her hands against his biceps. His skin tingled under her touch, and he itched to take away all her worries.
He knew he couldn’t.
Resting his chin on the top of her head, he closed his eyes. How could he explain any of this to her when he still didn’t know what was really happening? When he didn’t know yet who was behind it? If she knew what he suspected, he was afraid she’d bolt. And he couldn’t let her do that. Not until he knew how she felt about him.
They were growing closer. She felt something for him. Something he hoped was love. He needed to tell her what he knew—soon—but he couldn’t risk it yet. And he wanted to find some answers first.
“I don’t want to know anymore.”
Her muffled voice tore at him. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
She pushed out of his arms. “I never liked him. Walter was never nice to Reed. I didn’t understand why. Now I know it’s because he knew Reed wasn’t his grandson. But even knowing he was somehow involved in all of this, I wouldn’t want him dead.” Her voice broke. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”