Page 90 of Always Red (Chasing Red 2)

“Is the PI any good?” he asked.

“Uncle Harry recommended him.”

Ben nodded, satisfied. Uncle Harry was a retired private investigator and an old friend of our grandfather.

“Keep me updated,” Ben said.

“I will. What is it?” I asked.

Ben had propped his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together and resting them on his lips. His sharp gray eyes narrowed in thought.

“If you’d told me Beatrice-Rose was capable of this three weeks ago, I would have been skeptical and very likely stunned.”

“What do you mean?”

Ben took a deep breath, his eyes looking solemn. “I know how much she loves you. Remember, I watched the two of you grow up. I’m not defending her,” he hurried to say before I could interrupt and say I didn’t give a rat’s ass.

Beatrice-Rose’s love was poison. If you could even call it love.

“I’m just trying to make sense of the situation,” Ben explained.

I nodded. Ben always analyzed a situation from all angles. That was what made him an astute businessman and a good brother. When I was an angry teenager, he’d told me that when you were too close to the situation, it was hard to see the big picture, and that had always stayed with me.

“I told you I was in Paris for business—about three weeks ago. I ran into Beatrice-Rose outside the restaurant I was just leaving after my meeting.”

I frowned. Beatrice-Rose was in Paris? Three weeks ago…

“When I saw her that day, I could tell she wasn’t well. She was walking by herself, looking lost.”

Three weeks ago, so were Red and I. “I don’t care—”

“Cal, listen to me.” The grim tone in his voice caught my attention. “She looked ill, like she’d been suffering from a cold for a month. She was pale, withdrawn, and thinner than I’ve ever seen her. So I took her to dinner. It was…disturbing.”

Ben leaned back in his seat, his eyes bleak. “There was a manic quality to her. She’d be perfectly polite and calm for ten minutes, and then she’d scratch her arms until they bled. She kept muttering about her dad and her bunny rabbit. Then out of the blue, she’d be calm again. So I told her I’d take her to the hospital. She must have realized I wasn’t going to let her go because she told me she was already staying in a clinic.”

“A clinic?” I asked, perplexed.

Ben turned his head to look outside for a moment, as if contemplating something, before he shifted his serious gray eyes back to mine.

“It was a mental facility, Cal.”

“What?” I could only stare at him, shocked.

“I couldn’t believe it either. She told me she’s been getting therapy there for years. It started when her dad got sick. She had been doing better, but when she went back this time, she’d gotten worse.”

God. I had no idea.

That was around the time Red and I broke up, and that was also when I had scorned Beatrice-Rose. She must have checked herself into the clinic after that.

Guilt churned in my stomach, making me feel sick. I knew Beatrice-Rose wasn’t dealing well with her dad’s condition, but had I pushed her to the brink?

“That was when…Red and I broke up. I talked to Beatrice-Rose and told her to stay away from me. I was really angry. I said a lot of harsh words to her.”

Ben studied me for a moment. “It’s not your fault.”

Maybe not. But I had added to it.

I stared at my hands, balling them into fists. “Maybe she wasn’t faking her panic attacks.”

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