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“Really? Seems like I should be a part of that discussion. Turn that back on. I want another look at the boy you had up there.”
“Keith—”
Keith’s eyes narrowed. “What are you hiding from me? You might as well tell me. You know I’ll find out.”
“How long are you home for?” Simon asked.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Keith worked as a creative director for a national hotel chain. Simon wasn’t sure of everything the young man was responsible for, but apparently he was very good at his job and it paid well enough to let him lead a very comfortable lifestyle—in addition to the family money, of course. Or what was left of it.
Simon exchanged a look with Christopher and heaved a sigh. “Come in and sit down. We have some planning to do.”
CHAPTER
THREE
Monday afternoon, Raina walked across the parking lot to the hospital gym, even while the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She paused at the double glass doors and looked back, unable to prevent the shiver that skimmed up her spine.
Someone was watching her.
She’d felt it before. Not every day and not often, but enough times over the past couple of months that the thought of running was never very far from her mind.
Seeing nothing that should cause her alarm, she yanked open the door and stepped into the gym.
“Hey, Raina.”
“Hey, Terry.” She passed him her member card. He swiped it and returned it to her with a little salute. Terry manned the front desk like the drill sergeant he’d been before retiring from the Army.
“Have a good workout.”
“Thanks.” She hurried to the locker room to stash her duffel bag, then tucked her phone into her side pocket and walked out to find the free weights.
Whenever she had a day off, she enjoyed a good workout. So when RJ, her favorite trainer, was available, they ran through a series of self-defense moves that had become second nature for her over the past ten years. She’d done them over and over and over. Determined to never be anyone’s punching bag ever again.
She shoved aside the memories that tried to invade her thoughts when she unintentionally lowered her defenses—or something battered them.
And that child on television had knocked her off her axis. He looked way too much like the man who’d put her in the hospital for that to be a coincidence. Kevin Anderson was the stuff of nightmares. At leasthernightmares. And if she noticed the very strong resemblance, it was highly possiblehenoticed if he saw the clip. Which all meant that the boy’s family had to be warned. So, she’d made a phone call to the one person who had the connections to help. It had been long enough that contacting him was a minor risk. But she’d called six times and she still hadn’t heard from him.
She was half afraid she was going to have to hop on an airplane or get Penny to fly her across the country to find him.
With a muffled groan, she eased into her routine, her eyes scanning the other patrons. Many were familiar faces. Two were not. She watched them with her peripheral vision until she decided they weren’t a threat. Yet.
She sighed and pushed through fifteen more reps, curling the twenty-pound weight, hating that her paranoia had returned full force. Not that some of her watchfulness wasn’t valid, but...
“Raina?”
She flinched, almost dropping her weights, and turned, hoping RJ hadn’t noticed the reaction. She forced a smile.Relax.“Hey, glad you made it.”
His eyes narrowed. “You okay? You look stressed.”
She raised a brow. “You do know what I do for a living, right?”
He laughed. “Right. Wanna put those weights down and do some hand to hand?”
“Sure.”
For the next thirty minutes, they sparred, with him getting in way more hits than he usually would. He finally dropped his hands. “What’s going on with you?”
Raina swiped the back of her arm across her sweaty forehead. “I’m distracted,” she finally admitted.
