Page 68 of Only Her (K2 Team)
There was no way of knowing until someone talked to Mrs.Ziegler, and since she had a full afternoon ahead, Riley shelved her questions. Just as she put her hand on the doorknob to enter the exam room, a ping sounded that she had a text, and she paused to read it.
I’m missing us darlin’.
So was she. How long was she going to hold on to her hurt feelings? It was time to trust her heart, and tonight when they got home, she was ready to have that talk. She texted him back.
I’m missing us too.
A heart and a smiley face appeared, and she grinned as she dropped her phone back into her pocket.
With a smile on her face, and a new bounce in her step, she entered exam room one. She glanced at the new patient form for the owner’s name. “Mrs.Napier, I’m Dr.Austin.” A tall, thin-as-a-rail, somewhat disheveled woman turned from the cat carrier she was leaning over.
Riley gasped. “Mrs.Decker?”
“So you remember me?”
“Of course, I do. How-how are you?” Riley was taken aback by the malice in the woman’s eyes. She shouldn’t be surprised, though, since Mrs.Decker blamed her for Reed’s death. Why was she here?
A plaintive wail sounded from the carrier, and Riley froze. She knew that meow. “Pelli?” she whispered. The odor of urine and feces coming from the carrier reached her nose, and she rushed over, opening the door. Pelli sprang out, right into her arms. As a thinner Pelli snuggled against her neck, Riley turned, intending to give Reed’s mother a piece of her mind. The words died at the sight of a gun pointed at her chest.
“Stupid cat cries all the time,” Mrs.Decker said. “Here’s how this is going to go.” She tossed a canvas tote onto the exam table. “You’re going to put on a wig and glasses, and then we’re leaving by the back door.”
“I’m so sorry about Reed, but I’m not going anywhere with you.” It had not once occurred to her to suspect Reed’s mother, and it now seemed stupid not to have considered her. But she’d tried so hard to bury her past, leaving any thoughts of him and his family behind.
“Now, Riley.”
She shook her head. If they left through the back, the K2 guy would never know she was missing until it was too late. With a gun pointed at her, though, did she have a choice?
“I have no problem with shooting you right here.” She swept her arm across the counter next to her, knocking things to the floor, causing Riley to jump. “You took everything away from me. Reed was going to make it to the pros and give us a better life. After our son died, Larry got depressed, lost his damn job. He worked odd jobs here and there, but we fell behind on the mortgage, and the bank foreclosed on our house. Six months ago he sat in our car in the garage with the motor running. You took everything away from me.” Spittle flew from her mouth as she yelled the last part.
Riley had never seen so much hate in another person’s eyes, and she backed up a step. Because she’d made a point of not keeping tabs on the Deckers, she hadn’t known that Reed’s father was dead, which was another reason she hadn’t considered Mrs.Decker when she’d read that damn profile report. As far as Riley had known, Mr.and Mrs.Decker were alive and well at their home in Gainesville.
Mrs.Decker waved the gun. “Put the damn wig on.”
Although she’d always heard you should do anything possible to keep from going anywhere with your abductor, she wasn’t willing to take the risk. If she tried to stall and Brooke came in to see why things were taking so long, what would happen? She could be taken hostage, too, or worse, be shot.
As much as she didn’t want to put Pelli back into the nasty carrier, she did so. He would be safe left behind. Brooke or someone would find him soon. His pitiful cries tore at her heart, but it was for his own good. She just wished he understood that. The wig was a shorthaired, red one, and once she had it on, she put on the oversized glasses.
“Take off the lab coat.”
“I can’t. I don’t have anything on under it.” Not true, she had a T-shirt on, but her phone was in the lab coat, and she might have a chance to call for help at some point.
“No matter. If anyone sees us leaving, I’ll just shoot them.”
The woman had always been high-strung, but now she was acting deranged, which made her frightening. “You have a chance to walk away before you do something you can’t take back. What you’re considering won’t bring them back.” Even though Mrs.Decker had never shown her any affection, Riley felt sorry for her. She’d lost so much, and Riley had played a part in that happening. “I’m so sorry. I loved Reed, too, and I’d give anything to bring him back.” As soon as she said it, she knew she’d made a mistake.
“Shut up! You’re not worthy of saying his name. I never should have allowed you in my house. What my son saw in you, I’ll never understand.” She sneered. “It was probably because you put out when the nice girls didn’t. He didn’t love you. It was lust, nothing more.”
If Riley knew nothing else, it was that Reed had loved her until the day he loved his drugs more. But the words still hurt. She’d often wondered why Reed, one of the most popular boys at school, had chosen her. But all that was history, and she loved another man now. She almost chuckled. It took having a gun pointed at her and facing death for her to admit the truth. She loved Cody, deeply, truly, and irrevocably, and she’d spent the last two days shutting him out. If she didn’t make it through this, that would be her big regret.
Mrs.Decker gestured toward the door, using the gun. “Time to go. You so much as step wrong, I’ll turn this place into a shooting gallery, starting with you.”
Riley believed her, and she had no choice but to obey.
Cody was happy. Tom had agreed that he could handle going back to active duty. Cody knew his issues hadn’t evaporated into thin air. He still had a lot of work to do, and he would keep his appointments with his head doc. But remembering the rest of his dream had been the breakthrough he’d needed to move forward. The nightmare hadn’t returned either. It seemed he had only needed to remember the rest for it to go away.
The guilt was still there for his part in what had happened, but as Tom said, “It was war, man. Instant decisions are made based on what is known at the time, and your intention was to protect the family. You didn’t go to the Taliban and tell them Asra was feeding you intel. It was her decision to do that. She had to know the risks. How they found out, you’ll probably never know, but you’re going to have to forgive yourself and let it go.”
He was going to damn well work on that. And if a successful therapy session wasn’t enough, Riley had answered his text. On top of that, Wizard had e-mailed, saying that the lead on Layla was a strong one. Life was looking pretty damn good.
