Part 26 (1/2)
He glanced over his shoulder and caught Angel and the nurse exchanging a look he'd seen before.
”They said you should see your doctor every couple of days,” Angel said. ”Then there's respiratory therapy, and you have to build your strength back up. I'm gonna see you do that.”
Cronan looked up at his partner. He wanted to give her a heaping dose of smart a.s.s, but when he saw the concern on her face, he kept his mouth shut.
”Thanks, for everything,” he said. ”It meant a lot that you were here.”
He hated that they weren't alone, but he had to say what was on his mind, even though his throat was still sore from the day he spent on a breathing tube. His voice sounded like a rolling cement truck.
”You saved my life, Gabriel. You took a bullet meant for me.” She reached for his hand and laced her fingers in his.
Cronan hadn't missed the fact that Angel now called him Gabriel, after their harrowing experience. He liked it. It was as if they'd both turned a page to a new story between them. After they got to the entrance of the ER and Claire helped him into Angel's vehicle, the woman stared at him for a long moment before she kissed him on the cheek.
”It was an honor taking care of you, young man.” The nurse smiled and shut the door, leaving Cronan stunned as she waved from the curb.
”d.a.m.n,” he muttered. ”I didn't know she had teeth.”
Angel only sighed as she drove through the parking lot and headed for the freeway-and home.
On the drive back to Chicago, Cronan had to know what happened during the days he was in the hospital. When it looked like he'd recover, Angel reported back to work to question Rachel Blevins and tie up the case before word got out about the Lake Zurich shootout being linked to the Davenport murder, and the publicist had a chance to flee. Although there was still much to be done before they closed the case file, Angel helped him piece things together.
”Rachel Blevins had plenty to say after I forced her to tell me the truth,” Angel said as she drove. ”I threatened her with accomplice charges on Olivia's death if she didn't tell me what really happened. As it was, she'd been the reason we almost got killed at McFarland's lake house.”
Angel explained that Rachel tracked Ethan's GPS and got Joaquin involved. She thought she had the whole story on Bryce, but she'd only poked a sleeping grizzly when she called Joaquin. The guy had his own motive and a taste for killing.
”Poor Olivia,” he said. ”She probably thought Bryce's hara.s.sment would stop after she took that video.”
”Yeah, but after Bryce went to Rachel, everything got worse for her,” Angel said. ”What Olivia did was really wrong, but I can understand her outrage. She had to feel helpless and angry after being raped, especially since she didn't feel that she could go to the police.”
”She picked the wrong guy to mess with. Did Bryce tell Rachel the truth...about both a.s.saults and how this all started?” he asked.
”No. Apparently he lied to her like he did with us. He wasn't about to tell her what really happened, but that didn't matter. Rachel had her own scheme when it came to Ethan. She would've done anything to get Olivia out of the way, so she could have him to herself.”
Angel had only gotten started on what she thought of Rachel Blevins. Once she got going, she couldn't stop.
”I can see Rachel blowing things up,” she said. ”After Olivia was dead and couldn't defend her reputation, Rachel painted a dark picture of her s.e.x life and made her out to be a time bomb of scandal, ready to go off. The woman's a real conniver, and she had Bryce wrapped around her finger.”
Angel told him that Rachel admitted to getting Bryce to plant the BDSM gear in Olivia's home to embarra.s.s her in death. She'd even contrived the stalker letters. That's why she never filed a police complaint, but after the last letter came in and seemed legit, she couldn't blame them on Olivia. That meant she had another person to accuse, a mysterious stalker that would always cast the shadow of doubt on who had really killed Olivia.
”Rachel just didn't know all the facts about what went on between Olivia, Bryce, and Joaquin. Too bad for her,” he said.
Cronan felt exhaustion creeping up on him. His eyes became heavy as the pain meds kicked in.
”Who do you think Olivia had s.e.x with before she was killed?” Angel asked.
”With Joaquin and Bryce dead, I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure. No DNA. Since she had zero tolerance for Bryce, my money is on Joaquin. He had to be the mystery texter, too. I can see him enticing her with s.e.x, to lure her to Oz Park to kill her.”
Cronan had good reason to believe Joaquin had a special connection to Olivia Davenport. Yesterday, when his throat felt better and he was able to talk, he called Simone Moreau on his cell from the hospital. He told Angel that he had to know the truth about the people Simone had chosen to protect for the sake of her business enterprise. The French woman filled in the gaps on how Olivia met Joaquin at Chez Moreau, now that he was dead and no longer a client.
The s.e.xual chemistry between Olivia and Joaquin had been palpable. Simone said he had a way with women. He made them feel desired and beautiful. He became a dangerous affair for Olivia, a man she thought she could control with s.e.x, but Joaquin had no intention of trusting her with his freedom. After he saw her recording what he did to Bryce, that sealed her fate.
”Rachel was up to her neck in guilt when it came to Tim McFarland's staged suicide,” Angel said. ”I got her to cop to being an accomplice to his killing after I threatened to link her to Olivia's murder through Joaquin. She confessed that Bryce killed the neighbor and made it look like a suicide. She said the idiot kept the front door key. That p.i.s.sed her off. Her words, not mine. But she cursed your name when she found out that you were like a pit bull when it came to that missing key.”
”I guess Bryce worried her. He was the c.h.i.n.k in her armor.”
”To be exact, she called him *the screw up that would eventually get her nailed.' She might've been right about that, but the bonehead move was hers when she called Joaquin.”
Rachel had told Angel that Joaquin had pulled her aside on the evening of Ethan's concert and offered his help, discreetly of course. She'd become so desperate to get rid of Bryce that she eventually offered to pay Joaquin to kill the guy so McFarland's front door key would be found on his body. That would make it easy to a.s.sume he'd killed the neighbor and Olivia. Bryce had history with both of them. Her plan would've worked. He would've been an easy mark. Bryce looked like a fanatical and overzealous friend to Ethan who'd gone too far to protect him. Since there was no evidence linked to Joaquin, Rachel might've walked away clean if her hired killer hadn't gotten shot to death.
The burner phone had been planted on McFarland in an attempt to link him to Olivia's death. When that didn't work, because of Gabe's eye for detail and McFarland's missing key, Rachel had to scramble for another plan.
”So the one thing we did right was stay alive. That must've p.i.s.sed her off.” Cronan kept his half-lidded eyes on the road ahead, fighting the need to sleep, but he pictured Rachel's face in his mind. He imagined what she looked like when Angel got her confession.
Score one for the good guys.
Cronan shut his eyes and quit talking. When the road noise nudged him toward sleep, he gave in and let it happen.
Angel opened Gabe's front door and watched his reaction as he walked in. Before he came home, she'd made changes to his place to make it easier for him to get around in his condition. It would take time for him to be back at full strength. She'd moved his bed from the loft upstairs to the lower level. His bed, with fresh linens, dominated the room now-and her thoughts. When she'd made the bed, she ran a hand over his pillow and imagined him naked under the covers. Even now, she pictured him there, and her heart beat faster. It was just the two of them, alone for the first time at his home.
Gabriel stood at the door and looked around. His expression was hard to read, and he hadn't said a word.
”You did this?” he said as he turned toward her.
”Yeah. I thought...” She stopped when he finally smiled and pulled her into his arms.
”Thank you. Exactly what I needed.” He grinned. ”You even put food and water down for Jack.”
”Yeah, remind me to tell you how we met. I had to bribe him with treats so he'd let me stay.”
”Jack thinks we're married.”
”You could do worse.”
Gabriel ran a hand through her hair and kissed her, sweet and gentle. Angel could have stayed wrapped in his arms forever. She loved the way his lips felt on hers. As his partner before she met Manny, she'd stared at his lips before and wondered what they would taste like, what he would be like as a lover.
After she told him how she felt-dared to say the words that she loved him-she knew what the next step would be. He'd become the fantasy lover in her sleep. Staring into his eyes now, she knew the fantasy was about to turn real. She'd wondered when it would happen. After being shot, she didn't know how he'd feel.
Gabriel didn't say a word. He nuzzled her neck and slowly unb.u.t.toned her blouse, touching her body with a tenderness she hadn't expected.