Page 41 of I’ll Be Watching You

“You don’t always approve of what I do.”

“Honey, that’s not true. I worry about you, especially after what happened in September. Your family takes risks that I’m not comfortable with. But I will always support you.”

Thank you, she mouthed, because she felt like she was going to cry.

“Put your papers and thoughts in order, and I’ll talk to Nate about how I can improve our security. Then we can have dinner and discuss these reports.”

He rubbed her arms, then crossed the room. “Tell me where the holes are and how to plug them,” Gabriel said to Nate as they walked out of the room.

Tess was relieved. She had been worried . . . clearly for no reason.

Now she could focus on her research without the dark cloud of Gabriel’s possible reaction hanging over her.

Chapter Fourteen

Margo Angelhart

We took Mom’s Escalade to San Diego for two reasons: It was more comfortable than either my Jeep or Luisa’s two-seater pickup, and if we got tired driving back to Phoenix, we could pull over and recline the cushy leather seats for a catnap.

But I was used to minimal sleep.

On the drive west, I was behind the wheel and Luisa was on her keyboard. She narrowed Nadine Pierce to two possibilities: a VA doctor in Austin, Texas, or a psychiatrist with a private practice in New York City. The number Dad had called had a San Francisco area code—415—and there were no Nadine Pierces listed in the greater San Francisco area. That didn’t mean anything in the twenty-first century when people could take their cell phone number with them.

I called before we even left, but the voice mail was a generic computer message with no name attached. I left a simple message—my name and number, nothing else. No one had called back, but I’d give her a day.

Angelhart wasn’t a common name. Whoever got the message would likely assume I was related to Cooper Angelhart, if they knew my dad.

Mostly, though, we were silent, listening to classic rock at a low volume. I didn’t mind the quiet, but Luisa had something on her mind. I considered not pushing, figuring that on our way back to Phoenix I’d get her to talk.

We arrived at Georgia Rollins’s small Ocean Beach home at six thirty, a little later than I planned since we’d hit traffic in San Diego. We quickly determined she wasn’t home. Mom had given us the address where she worked, but I doubted she was still there, and if she were, I didn’t know if we could easily get past security. I didn’t care how late she was, I had no intention of going home without speaking to her.

We walked back to the car, which we’d parked half a block away with a clear visual of Georgia’s house. We’d be able to see any vehicle that approached.

Ten minutes of silence and I couldn’t wait until the ride home to ask Luisa what was bugging her. “What’s on your mind?”

Silence.

“Wow,” I said dryly. “That’s a lot.”

“I’m playing catchup,” Lu finally said.

“How so?”

“I left the Marines sixteen months ago. I wasn’t here when Dr. Klein was murdered. I missed Dad’s confession, your falling-out with Mom, and the birth of Angelhart Investigations. Everyone treats me like an outsider. Which isn’t new. I’ve always been the outsider. You, Jack, Tess, Nico—you were all close growing up. Then I came along seven years after Nico. The whoops baby. I felt like an only child, except I wasn’t. And when everything fell apart, I wasn’t here. Again. I was just . . . an afterthought.”

Her voice was calm, but the pain in her tone stopped me. I saw her clearly now, maybe for the first time. She was right. When she was born, we just folded her in and kept going.

She was much younger. She hadn’t been included in a lot of what we did growing up. I just hadn’t realized how much it hurt her.

“I don’t think Mom and Dad saw you as a whoops baby.”

I shouldn’t have said that, but it was all I could think of.

Luisa sighed, staring out the window.

“No one meant to exclude you,” I added.

“No one told me about Dad until he was already in prison,” she said flatly. “Yeah, I was overseas, but I could’ve gotten leave. I could’ve seen him before he surrendered.”