Terri Reed - Duty Bound Guardian

“What happened in California that brought your sister to DC?”

His refusal to answer her question sent irritation flooding her system while his question pounded at her heart. She shook her head, then stopped as the motion set off another set of fireworks screaming through her brain. She waited a heartbeat for the pain to subside enough for her to talk. “After my parents’ death, she kind of went a little—”

She sought a polite, kind word. “Nuts. She had expected to take over my parents’ restaurant when they retired—”

Pain pierced Lana deep in her heart. She missed her parents so much. “But then the fire happened. An accidental grease fire, the arson investigator said. Our parents perished in the blaze and the restaurant was destroyed. My parents had let the restaurant’s insurance lapse—”

To pay her college tuition. Guilt twisted her insides into a pretzel. “After all the debts were paid from their life insurance there was nothing left. Not even our childhood home. I invited Rosa to come live with my husband and me. She came out to DC, but only stayed a few days. I don’t know where she went after that. We lost touch until she showed up on my doorstep three years ago.”

Right around the time Lana had filed for divorce and had moved out of the apartment she’d shared with Mark. Lana would never forget the chaos of those days. The pain and humiliation.

“She stayed with me for a couple weeks, then she found her own place. The day she moved out was the last time I spoke with her.” The hurtful things her sister had said cut so deep and were never far from Lana’s mind. “I didn’t know she was working for Congressman Jeffries until I heard it on the news.”

She hadn’t known about Juan, either. There was so much about her sister she hadn’t known.

“What caused the rift between you?”

She bristled as a tidal wave of guilt swamped her. “That has nothing to do with anything that’s happening now.”

“Let me be the judge of that. It seems a little too coincidental that your sister meets an untimely death and then a month later there’s a break-in at your place of employment where you’re attacked, struck over the head and left for dead.”

She shivered as his words sank in. “You believe my sister was murdered, don’t you?”

He didn’t need to say a word. She could read the confirmation in the way his jaw hardened and his eyebrows twitched.

Her hand pressed against her heart. “And now you think whoever killed my sister is after me?”

TWO

“You’re wrong,” Lana stated firmly. She struggled to sit up in the hospital bed.

Feeling the need to offer help, Adam adjusted the pillow behind her back. She flinched. A flash of fear lit her dark eyes. Startled by her skittishness, he drew back, his hands up, palms facing out. Ace, however, must have read his intentions of help as acceptance. The dog stretched until his nose could nudge her hand.

“Heel,” Adam commanded. Ace complied immediately.

Lana kept her gaze on the dog. “The break-in had nothing to do with me or my sister. The man wanted the arrow. I wasn’t even supposed to be working last night.”

Adam wasn’t convinced the two incidents weren’t related. There had to be a connection. One sister murdered and then a random attack on the other? Not likely. “Who did know you’d be at the museum after hours?”

She shrugged. “I suppose a few of the staff members. We’ve been so busy preparing the museum gala. I’d fallen behind on some of the details. I usually take my work home with me but with the rain and all, I decided to stay.”

“Then it’s feasible that someone took advantage of your decision to stay after hours and used the excuse of a theft to attack you.”

A visible tremor worked through her. “None of them would have any reason to hurt me.”

She may want him to believe her answer but the uncertainty wavering in her voice said otherwise. There had to be a connection they weren’t seeing. He made a mental note to check into the background of all the museum’s employees. “Even if that is true, someone knew you’d be there. One of the staff members could have inadvertently let it slip you were working late.”

She blew out a breath. “I suppose.”

“Did you know less than twenty-four hours after your sister’s death Congressman Jeffries’s son was murdered? And the congressman was shot, as well?” Adam watched the woman lying in the bed, searching her face for...he wasn’t sure what. Guilt?

Dark circles rimmed her worried eyes. Her long dark hair spilled over the white pillowcase, the stark contrast unsettling. The white bandage on her head was a reminder of the assault she’d suffered. The sudden urge to hurt whoever had injured her gripped him by the throat.

The strong reaction was so uncharacteristic of him that he took a step back as if somehow distancing himself from Lana would temper his response to her situation. Ace rose, sensing his tension.

She chewed on her bottom lip. “I’d heard that on the news, too. Did you find his killer?”

Interesting that she’d ask about Jeffries’s killer, but not her sister’s.

Did she know something? Had she been involved in her sister’s murder? She’d had an alibi for the time of death, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have arranged the whole thing.

However, he had looked into her finances at the time and there had been no large sums of money leaving her accounts or anything to suggest she’d paid out for a hit on her sister.

Yet, he couldn’t shake the nagging suspicion there was something going on with her, something she didn’t want him to know.

“Did you know Michael Jeffries?” Her sister had worked for the congressman’s family for nearly three years. Adam didn’t buy that Lana hadn’t known where her sister worked.

She moved her head to give a negative shake but then stopped, winced and said, “No.”

At least she was consistent. “You’ve never met Congressman Jeffries or his son?”

Anger flashed in her dark eyes. “Not Michael. I met the congressman when I came to the hospital to talk to Miss Danvers about Juan. Until then I’d never spoken to Congressman Jeffries before. I didn’t know Rosa worked for him until after her death. Why won’t you believe me?”

“I find it hard to imagine two sisters not talking to each for such a long period of time.”

He couldn’t go more than a day or two without talking to his older brother. Sure, there’d been years growing up where they’d fought like two caged animals.

But, family was family. Joe and his wife, Ruth, and their two girls lived on the other side of the Potomac. Close enough to visit often.

Adam enjoyed living near to them and would miss the Sunday night dinners and babysitting the girls so Joe and Ruth could have a date night if—when—his transfer to the Colorado Springs K-9 unit went through as Adam had requested. It would be hard leaving the elite K-9 team. They worked well together and he respected every member of the unit. And leaving Ace behind would tear his heart apart but his parents were getting on in years now and Adam felt the need to return home. To put down roots of his own.

“It’s not that strange. Families become estranged from one another all the time. Just because we shared the same blood didn’t make us friends.”

“True enough.” Though, personally, he wouldn’t let anything come between him and his brother. But it wasn’t his place to judge. “Do you know Erin Eagleton?”

“We’ve spoken on the phone regarding the Eagleton Foundation. They give generous donations to the museum. And we talked about the Golden Arrow. She was as excited by the artifact as I was, but I’ve never met her in person.” Her eyebrows dipped together. “Has she been found? I’d heard she was missing.”