Rush of Innocence (Rush Series #1) (20 page)

She’d
been back to work for nearly two weeks and she’d nearly gotten to the point
where she could almost forget about Mace Lewis, her now constant
companion/bodyguard. Mace was quiet and he could stand for hours on end and not
speak at all. She barely even gave him a second thought anymore. At first,
she’d been so afraid of running into Rush at the museum, she’d refused to go
there her first week back at work, but now into her second week, she’d begun
the familiar trek. Mace never commented, he just drove and followed at a
discreet distance.

She
was sitting on ‘her’ bench in the atrium enjoying the quiet and the beauty when
her cellphone chirped notifying her of an incoming text message. She didn’t
recognize the number but clicked it anyway. The text prompted her to click on
one of two links, which she did.

She
didn’t understand at first what she was looking at, as the video’s angle was
odd. And it wasn’t until she heard her father’s voice that she realized who she
was looking at. Her father was sitting at his desk in his office at home. He
was having a heated discussion with someone, and after listening, she
recognized Alex Masters’ voice. She couldn’t see Alex, so he must have been
standing just beyond the camera’s range. She turned the link off and restarted
it and began to listen intently.

“I want to know what the hell is going
on here, Arthur!”

“Whatever do you mean?”

There
was a rustling of paper.
“I want to know
how this same picture, previously sent to you – threatening you – was then sent
to your daughter. What are you playing at?”

Her father sighed deeply. “I don’t
think it’s any of your concern. How I handle my daughter is my business.”

“This is bullshit, Arthur! I won’t be
a party to this!”

The
link ended abruptly. Her heart began to pound in her chest and her fingers
began to tremble. Her father had sent the picture of the hung, dead woman to
her? Why would he do that? Was he responsible for everything else as well? No,
she refused to believe that. Numbly, she pressed the second link.

As
before, Alex was apparently standing in her father’s office and her father was
sitting at his desk.

“Arthur, I don’t know what kind of
scam you’re trying to run on your daughter, but my crew and I will not be a
part of it.”

“A part of what, exactly?” her father
asked.

“Come on, Arthur! The minute she told
me about the lightning bolt tattoo, I knew it was Shane. He has now since been
fired. He told me how you paid him to ransack her room and destroy her
paintings. Our services with you are now terminated. We run a legitimate
business and do not want your kind of business.”

As
before, the link stopped abruptly. The blood rushed from her head and she was
forced to hang her head between her knees for fear of passing out. Her chest
burned as it worked double-time trying to suck oxygen into her body. Her father
had had her paintings destroyed. Did he not realize how that would hurt her
two-fold? First it scared her,
then
he’d taken something
she loved and mangled it.

Sweat
popped out on her forehead. She slapped a hand over her mouth and ran past Mace
into the ladies room. She’d barely made it to the bathroom stall before
everything she’d eaten came back up. She heaved and heaved until only
dry-heaves remained. She laid her forearms on the commode and began to sob.
He’d deliberately set out to scare her, but why? She couldn’t understand why he
would do such a thing. She’d always done everything he wanted. Her head snapped
up. Until recently when she’d begun to date Rush.

She
sat down heavily on the floor of the stall and wrapped her arms protectively
around her middle. She remembered all the times he’d told her to get rid of the
baby. Was her father responsible for the hit-and-run? She couldn’t give a
definitive answer to that question. Was he responsible for Rush breaking things
off with her? Both he and Rush had said no, but Rush was always so evasive and
seemed so torn.

She
scraped herself off the bathroom floor. She went to the sink and wet a paper
towel to try and repair her face. She scrubbed at the mascara streaked down her
cheeks. She pressed the coolness of the paper towel against her eyes, trying to
lessen their swollenness. She needed to know the truth… the real truth and not
the half-measures she’d been given so far. If it hadn’t been for the security
feed…
the security feed!
The feed
must have come from her father’s home office. She glanced quickly at her watch.
If she left now, she’d have enough time to search for other disks before her
father came home. All she needed was the period of time she was in the hospital
the first time. Things between her and Rush had been fine until then.

She
eased the door opened and saw Mace standing a few feet away. His back was to
her and he was apparently on the phone. She slipped her shoes off and silently
moved out of the room and into the hall. She padded quickly out of the museum
before stopping to put her shoes back on. She hailed a taxi and directed it to
her home.

She
punched in the code which turned the security alarm off and entered the house.
She called out as she entered. “Hello? Hello?” Not receiving an answer, she
moved swiftly to her father’s study. She searched quickly through every cabinet
and every drawer, but couldn’t find the security disks. She tried to determine
where the camera was in the room. She moved about the room until she arrived at
the spot which looked like the same view from her text. She looked above her
and over her shoulder to the bookcase behind. She eventually saw the small
blue, blinking light of the camera. Directly below it, was a wooden box. She
reached up quickly and pulled the box down and snapped open the lid. There were
dozens of silver disks in the box, all neatly labeled. She flipped through them
until she reached the disk with dates that fell within the period of time she’d
been in the hospital.

She
opened her father’s television cabinet and inserted the DVD into the player.
She grabbed the remote and turned on the TV and the player.
 
Skipping through the disk, she paused at the
same pictures she’d received on her phone with her father and Alex Masters. She
was close. She skipped and let it run quickly through hours filled with an
empty room.

She
slowed it again when she saw her father sitting at his desk with a brandy in
his hands. He was leaned back in his chair lost in contemplation. She heard a
knock on his door.

“Come in,”
he said loudly
.

While
she couldn’t see her, Trinity heard Ms. Gibbons’ voice.
“Mr. Drayton to see you, sir.”

Her
father rose and the back of Rush’s form filled the screen. She gasped at the
truth she’d always known.

“What are you doing here, Drayton?
Don’t you think you’ve done enough already?”

She
heard Rush’s humorless laugh.
“Me? What
have I done?”

“Well, as my daughter is lying in the
hospital, I think the answer is obvious.”

“My family had nothing to do with what
happened to Trinity. I don’t know how much longer I can keep my grandfather
reined in. He wants that information and he will stop at nothing to get it.”

Trinity
could see her father as he contemplated Rush.
“And what do you want?”

“Me?
The same as my
grandfather.
I want to know who put the hit on my father. The call came
from your office. Was it you?”

Her
father gave a small chuckle.
“No. And I
think you know that already.”

“You’re right. I do know that. So who
was it?”

“Even if I knew, what makes you think
I’d tell you anything?”
her
father asked derisively.

“Because, I happen to have a little
piece of evidence of my own,”
Rush answered.

Her father’s mouth twisted wryly. “Oh,
pray tell. What would that be?”

“
Tiko
Mars,”
Rush answered.

“Oh yes. You’ve mentioned him before.
I’m sorry but I don’t know who that is, I’m afraid.”

“But I know for a fact that you do.
Combine him with the information my father uncovered regarding you,
Tiko
Mars, and the Embassy Fund, and I’d call that the
winning trifecta.”

She
saw her father tense suddenly, but then tried to smooth his expression.

“Oh, yes.
Your
father and the investigation into the Embassy Fund.
That’s quite a blast
from the past. And not the good kind, either.”

“It took me some time, but I was able
to round up not only
Tiko
Mars, but all four of those
who helped perpetrate your heinous crime. Tell me. Was the whole point to kill
your wife?”

She
gasped at the same time she heard her father do the same.

“How dare you! I loved my wife. My
dealings with the Embassy Fund were legitimate. Your father never uncovered
anything about that because there was nothing to find!”
he declared.

“What about the connection between you
and former Judge Franklin?”
Rush asked.

“My daughter’s godfather and I go way
back. Of course there’s a connection.”

She
heard Rush’s chuckle filled with mirth.

“You know, my grandfather never could understand
why my father would turn his back on the family business to pursue a meager job
in the District Attorney’s office. But I will tell you one important thing I
learned from my father’s time there. He told me over and over… follow the
money, Rush, always follow the money. So I followed the money in your case, and
it was funny how that trail led me straight to you, Judge Franklin, and former
ADA Martin Lord. It seemed the only one in your office not involved was my
father.”

“What makes you think he wasn’t
involved?”
her
father asked.

“Ah, good question. Unlike the rest of
you vultures, my father didn’t need the money. We have plenty.”

She
saw her father study Rush intently, obviously tiring of the game.

“What do you want, Drayton?”

“What I said. The name of the man who
called the hit that took my father’s life.”

“And if I actually had that
information, what
would I
get in return?”
her father asked.

“Well, lets just say, your secrets
will remain your secrets,”
Rush
answered.

“What about my daughter?”

“What about her?”

“I want her off the table,”
her father said.

“She will be,”
Rush answered.

She
took a haggard breath. She saw her father give Rush a speculative glance.

“Did you pursue Trinity for the sole
purpose of obtaining this information?”
her father asked.

Exhaling
deeply, Rush answered, “
Trinity was
pursued to gain your attention.”

“Well, you certainly have my
attention. So what you’re saying is
,
I give you the
information you want and you will… what?”

“The connection between yourself,
Franklin, Lord, and the Embassy fund remains forever broken.”

“And what about Trinity?”
her father asked.

“What about her?”
Rush asked.

“If I give you what you want, I want
you out of her life… for good.”

Trinity
gasped. She’d been so stupid… so very stupid. She watched the back of Rush’s
head as he nodded.

“Okay,”
he answered softly.

“She won’t take it well. Are you sure
you’re up to it? You know she fancies herself in love with you,”
her father mocked.

Trinity
couldn’t stop the stain of shame which crept up her neck at her father’s
derisive statement.

“She’s young. She’ll move past it in
time.”

“You’ll guarantee her safety?”
her father asked.

“I will.”

Her
father stood.
“Come back tomorrow and
I’ll have the information you request.”

Trinity
hit the pause button, as she could not longer see the screen through her tears.
Rush had only pursued her to gain information from her father. It was never
about her at all. She’d given herself to him and he’d taken what she’d offered
and thrown it aside as if it were nothing. Was it his family that had her
attacked in the alley? His family who hired the hit-and-run driver? Pain as
she’d never felt before flooded her. She wanted to strike as she had been
stricken.

Moving
quickly, she withdrew the disk and gathered the whole box of disks. She
rummaged through her father’s desk until she found the keys to his SUV. She
grabbed them and hurried to her room. She grabbed her suitcase and began
slinging items into it. She packed all she could as she struggled to hold her
emotions back. She snatched up the case and moved speedily through the hall.
She stopped abruptly and turned back around. She set her case down and moved
swiftly back to her room to grab her mother’s picture and the box of disks. She
shoved them into her oversized bag. Retrieving her suitcase, she went out
through the garage and loaded her case into the SUV. She slipped into the front
seat and snapped the seatbelt securely over her.