Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Dana Mentink (novels to improve english txt) 📗

the narrowest of margins, to scare off Leonard and Kenny. Five minutes later and where would she have wound up? “I’m sorry the guests were upset.”

Beckett leaned closer to the phone. Laney noticed a series of scratches and scrapes fanning out along his neck. What had happened between him and Kenny after she ran for help? The memory of the vast darkness and the terror it concealed made her pulse skitter.

“I’m sorry I called you so early, Doc,” Beckett said into the phone. “I appreciate your help to understand all those test results the doctor was throwing out.”

Again, the unexpected note of humility in his voice caught her attention as he continued.

“You said you saw the guests this morning?”

“Yes. They were in the breakfast room when I stopped for coffee.”

Beckett frowned. “Who exactly?”

“A family and two teen boys who looked bored out of their gourds. Willow was there too.”

“And Rita Brown?”

“Who?”

“A guest.” He paused. “Long hair in a braid whenever I’ve seen her. She’s staying in 205.”

“I didn’t see anyone like that. Why do you ask about her?”

“She says she’s a journalist, doing a story on me. She’s from the same town as Pauline.”

They could hear Irene’s gasp. “That cannot be a coincidence, can it? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. She asked to stay in Pauline’s room.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone. “From Pauline’s town and staying in the same room? Why?”

“We don’t know,” Laney put in, “but be careful, okay? Tell us if you hear anything.”

Irene agreed. “Let’s move up our Monday appointment to Saturday. That will ease your mind, won’t it?”

Laney nodded, relief so strong it felt like a warm blanket.

Irene ended the call with promises to check on Admiral and give him a snack.

After they disconnected, Laney breathed slowly, trying to take inventory of the aches and pains. She settled deeper into the pillows, wishing the pounding behind her temples would ease.

Beckett walked around the room, distracted and brooding.

“How did you get here?” she asked suddenly. “To Las Vegas, I mean.”

“Levi took me back to the hotel to get my truck and I drove here. Would have just taken the van. It’s still drivable, but I didn’t want to take the time to change the tire.”

“And you stayed here all night?”

He nodded.

“No wonder you look exhausted. Have you eaten?”

A slight smile curved his mouth. “Aren’t you the one in the hospital bed?”

She scanned the sheets tucked neatly around her. “I don’t even remember being admitted, or the helicopter ride or anything.”

“You were…real upset. I think maybe you don’t want to remember it. I tried to go in the helicopter with you, but they don’t allow it. I did everything I could to convince the flight nurse.” His gaze drifted down to her stomach and a look of pain tightened his features.

“What is it?” she said.

“Nothing.”

“It’s something.”

“Naw,” he said. “Nothing worth talking about.”

An ache behind her temples flared up. Suddenly it all seemed too wearying and her patience thinned to the breaking point. “Haven’t we been through enough that you don’t have to put on the tough-guy persona?”

He stared, surprised. “I’m not. You’re in the hospital.”

He seemed to feel this was adequate explanation. She rolled her eyes. “That is a fact—I am indeed in the hospital, so I’ve got plenty of time to hear how you’re feeling.”

“You don’t need to be burdened.”

She straightened on the pillow. “Beckett,” she said, “stop trying to decide what I need. We were partners once, and even then you kept things from me.”

He looked dumbfounded. “What things?”

“Your feelings.”

He quirked a brow. “But those aren’t worth anything.”

She would have pinched his ear if she could have reached. “Those are worth everything,” she managed to say without raising her voice or adding you dolt.

He raised his palms. “I don’t know what you want me to say. What have I kept from you?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were meeting Pauline the day she was killed?” The question appeared to have surprised him as much as it had her. Why had she aired it? Why now? “You said you didn’t want to wake me, but that wasn’t all of it.”

He was silent for a moment. “I don’t see why it’s important anymore.”

She folded her arms and stared him down until the silence became like a live thing between them.

He cleared his throat. “She was acting odd, urgent, like she had something life-and-death to tell me. But she was always one of those dramatic types, so the note she left fit right in. She’d…uh…contacted me once or twice a while back after her divorce, before you and I got together.”

She knew him well enough to wait out the pause.

“Laney…” He pulled in a breath. “Our life was good, perfect, and everything from my high school days ended so badly. I didn’t want any part of that to touch what we had. I was going to tell her I couldn’t help her, to ask her to leave…but she was already dead.”

“You should have told me before you met her.”

“Yes, I should. Like I said, she was from a time when I was…someone else, who wasn’t worth much.”

“Beckett… There aren’t two of you. What you’ve been through made you who you are.”

He was quiet. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You hurt someone, accidentally. You aren’t a monster.”

“That’s what the town called me then. They still do.”

“You let them tell you who you were.” The regret in his eyes almost stopped her breath. “God doesn’t condemn you for what happened in high school, Beckett. Don’t you think you should follow His lead?”

“It’s too late. I wrecked what we had too. I ruined us.”

She forced herself to look at him. “Yes, you did, but you’re a free man. You still have a life to live.”

His voice came from far away, a murmur of profound pain. “Not anymore. Everything good in my life is right here in this bed. All I can do is to make sure you and the baby are going to be okay.”

It seemed unbearable