Her Holiday Protector

“He’s been here before but only once.”

“Okay, then, let’s go. Either you tell me where to take you or...you can spend the night in jail.”

“You can’t do that—force me into jail.”

“I can if it’s for your own good.”

He didn’t like playing bad cop with her, but the woman was too stubborn to see that someone was after her. And a nasty ex-boyfriend would be a prime suspect. Surely she wasn’t one of those women who kept forgiving over and over until it was too late.

Blain would find out everything about her before this was over, but right now he wanted to get her out of here. They were too exposed at this location now.

She finally nodded. “I need to get my things.”

After he escorted her to her room, he put her in his car and turned to stare at her. “Where to, princess?”

She swallowed, dropped her head and stared at her hands in her lap. “The Bay Road.”

Bay Road? Blain whistled. Real estate out there was way over his pay-scale. “Okay, then.”

Pricey estates out there. A scenic highway surrounding where the big bay met up with Millbrook Lake.

When they were underway and out past the city, he turned off and followed the dark water. “Which address?”

She finally looked over at him, a solid defiance in her voice. “2200 First Bay Lane.”

Blain blinked, thinking he hadn’t heard right. “Hey, that’s—”

“The Alvanetti estate,” she finished for him. “Sonia Alvanetti is my mother.”

Blain held tightly to the steering wheel as realization settled around him. “And...Franco Alvanetti is your father.”

“Yes.” She nodded and looked out the window.

And suddenly, Blain understood so much more about what was going on with Rikki Allen. No wonder she’d been so closemouthed and evasive. No wonder he couldn’t trust her.

She was an Alvanetti.

FOUR (#ulink_0950d6ec-6b4e-5864-aa66-0186b9e33b20)

Old Florida.

A wrought-iron gate swung open after Rikki gave him a security code to punch in on the big electronic switch pad.

Blain eased the unmarked police sedan along the winding lane and took in his surroundings as the first rays of the sun shone like a spotlight through the trees.

Swaying palm trees and palmetto bushes, massive live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Scattered orange and lemon trees that would be lush with fruit come next summer. Winter-white camellias blooming on deeply rooted bushes. Wild magnolia trees shooting up through the oaks, their fat, waxy leaves hanging heavy and dark green along the winding garden paths on either side of the private gravel-and-shell-covered drive.

And what looked like a big white barn and stables surrounded by a white board fence off in the distance.

The wild abandonment of this tropical landscape didn’t fool Blain. This kind of exotic display spoke of money as old as the camellia bushes. Dirty money.

The sparkling sunrise brought the light of dawn peeking through the heavy foliage like a diamond hidden in the forest. And then, the stark stucco mansion came into view, all creamy planes and angles and glass against rich brown teakwood trim aged with a shimmering patina that shone in the early morning light.

Blain pulled the sedan up to the six-car garage and turned off the engine. Still in shock, he pivoted in his seat toward Rikki. “Why did you lie to me?”

“I didn’t lie,” she said, her gaze slamming him with an unapologetic attitude. “I...I don’t associate with my family very much since I left. I only keep in touch with my mother.”

“You could have told me that.” He studied the house. “Or at least who your mother really is.”

“And you would have immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

She was correct there. He would have jumped to the only conclusion and it wasn’t a good one. “I want the truth,” he snapped. “Now I doubt I’ll ever get it from you.”

“I gave you the truth,” she retorted. “I told you everything I knew, even about my ex-boyfriend. I was so afraid he’d done this I couldn’t bring myself to mention him at first. But I should have. If it’s him, I have to get out of here.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I don’t know. Could he be the one? I can’t let him get away with killing my best friend.”

Blain could see the fear and concern in her dark eyes. He understood how abused women could spin a situation to justify why they always returned but he couldn’t understand why she hadn’t leveled with him to begin with since her best friend had been murdered. There was no returning to that.

He’d have to think this one through but right now, he had to make sure Rikki was safe. Keeping her alive meant he had to deal with the entire situation, whether he liked it or not.

Blain lifted his hand in the air. “He can’t hurt anyone inside the gates to this compound. I saw the cameras and I spotted an armed guard with a dog, too.”

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “If Chad shows up here, they’ll probably kill him and then I’ll have that death on my hands, too.”

Blain grabbed her wrist. “What do you mean, too? Do you think your family killed Tessa?”

“No.” She gave him an imploring stare. “I was married once when I was around twenty. His last name was Allen. Drake Allen. But he died six months after we eloped.”

Blain let that tidbit of information sink in. That explained the last name she used. “How did he die?”

“An accident.” Lowering her head, she added, “Up on the road.”

“But you think your family took care of him?”

“I didn’t say that.” She opened the door and got out of the car, her attitude like a solid wall against him. She might have cut all ties to her powerful family, but blood always ran thicker than water. She wouldn’t rat anybody out.

Blain got out of the car and came around to meet her, some of his justified anger simmering into a slow boil. She didn’t have to say what had happened to her husband. He could see it all over her face. “So you blame yourself?”

“Yes.” She whirled and opened the back car door to get her stuff. “But my mother is innocent. She thinks Drake died in a car crash and he did. I’ve never been able to prove otherwise.”

Shoving one of the bags at him, she said, “So if you insist on going inside with me, you’d better keep quiet about what I just told you. As far as I know, over the last few years, my father has changed. He’s not the same man he used to be. He’s legitimate now.”

“Yeah, because he’s turned things over to your brothers.”

“I can’t speak to that since I don’t keep up with them. One is here, running the business and the other one in Europe. I told you I walked away a long time ago. I only came here to get away from Chad for a while and to be with my mother.” She stared up at the massive glass doors of the house where two evergreen wreaths hung side by side. “It is Christmas, after all.”

Blain couldn’t force her to tell him everything. Not yet, anyway. But now that he knew who she really was, things had taken on a whole new meaning. “I’ll get you safely inside to see your mother, but I strongly suggest you stay here. Don’t go anywhere, understand? I have to do some digging on Chad Presley and I want to go back over the details of your friend’s death. That means I might be back to ask you some more questions.”

“I’ll be right here,” she said. “I do have a few clients to meet with this week but I can do video conferences for now and change those appointments to later.”