Cedric didn’t look inside. “You know I did a breathalyzer analysis at the scene.”
“Um, you did?”
“You know I did.”
Joel was just watching, with his arms crossed and his shoulder propped up against the doorframe.
The lawyer frowned as she watched the byplay between Chloe and Cedric. Frowned, but didn’t interrupt.
“He hadn’t been drinking,” Cedric finally said.
Reese’s jaw dropped. Then he hurriedly snapped it shut. “Damn straight. Chloe told me to try going sober, so I—” She put her hand on his chest. He got the message. Reese stopped talking. Man, his heart was still beating so crazy hard. Too hard.
And the room was just getting hotter.
Once more, he wondered…was he having a heart attack? It sure felt that way.
“Why don’t you open the file, Cedric?” Chloe prompted.
His stare didn’t waver from her. “You already know what’s inside.”
“I do.”
“’Cause you read the report?”
“Because I trust my brother and only one explanation makes sense here.”
Despite feeling like absolute shit, Reese’s shoulders straightened. Chloe trusted him. He was somebody. Not dirt to be tossed away and locked up. Forgotten. Chloe was his family. Thicker than blood. She would always come to help him.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kept her at his side. “I love you,” he told her and damn if he didn’t get a little teary.
Cedric lifted his brows. “Would’ve bet money he was drunk,” he muttered. He opened the file.
“You would have lost the bet,” Chloe told him. “Joel? What do you think Cedric is discovering right now?”
Joel edged closer. Reese couldn’t help but tense and pull Chloe a little closer. While he trusted Chloe with all of his being, he still wasn’t sure how he felt about Joel. The doctor was…intense. Dangerous.
Chloe had always been drawn to danger.
“Do you have any memory of last night?” Joel asked.
“Seriously?” The lawyer tossed her hands into the air. “What part of ‘do not say another word’ did everyone miss?”
Miserably, Reese shook his head. “I had my virgin drink, then I woke up in a weird bed with guns pointed at me.”
“Rohypnol,” Joel and Cedric both said at the same time.
Reese narrowed his eyes because he knew that term. “The date rape drug? I thought that shit was illegal.”
“Setting a man up for murder is also illegal,” Chloe confided in him. “I don’t think the perpetrator that we are after cares a whole lot about legality issues.” She pursed her lips. “Perpetrators,” she corrected.
His stomach couldn’t knot more.
“Drug and urine analyses confirms it.” Cedric flipped the file closed. “Your brother had some of the highest concentrations of the drug in his system that I’ve ever seen.”
He’d been drugged?
“Where were you when you got that beverage?” Chloe asked him.
The lawyer shook her head.
“The Serpent,” Cedric replied before Reese could say anything. “He already told me that.”
Because he was watching his sister so closely, Reese caught the faint narrowing of her eyes. Chloe didn’t like that answer.
But her voice was still clear and cool as she said, “In light of this evidence, don’t you think my brother should be released?”
Cedric hesitated. “There’s a B and E charge…”
“He was incapacitated last night. That means someone had to carry him to Lucia’s home. Someone else broke into the house and left him in her bed. We should ask around at the Serpent and see who remembers what happened there.”
“Oh, we should.” Cedric’s mouth tightened. “We all know how cooperative King likes to be. I’m sure he’ll welcome my team with open arms.”
“I want my brother to come home.” Now she focused on the lawyer. “What do we need to do in order to make this happen?”
EG nodded and straightened her shoulders. “My client is a victim. He was drugged and kidnapped. He needs to be released immediately…”
Ignoring the lawyer, Cedric asked Chloe, “Why the hell would someone drag Reese into this mess? Why leave him at Lucia’s?”
“I do have a few ideas on that…” Chloe murmured.
***
“Chloe, stop!”
Chloe stilled at Cedric’s booming voice. She and Joel had headed back into the station’s bullpen while the lawyer hashed things out with the cops—and with the chief, who’d also been called in because obviously, the case was a nightmare.
Two bodies. A drugged—and kidnapped—victim. Plenty of blood and gore. The Press was going to become insane when they learned the full details of this story.
She and Joel both turned to face Cedric. Even though it was heading late into the evening, his shirt was still perfectly pressed. She wondered how he managed that. How did he always look so unruffled and controlled? Except…his shoes were wrong. Scruffy sneakers that looked too small when he normally favored his expensive loafers.
“I want to know what you aren’t telling me,” Cedric demanded.
Chloe dismissed the matter of his shoes. “What makes you think I’m not—”
“You think Ruben didn’t tell me about your early morning visit? Come on, Chloe. He tells me everything.”
She’d rather suspected that he did.
“The number of cuts on the vic was significant.” He waved toward Joel. “Just like what happened to you, am I right?”
“Not exactly what happened.” Joel’s voice was grim. “But damn close.”
“And now your brother is pulled into whatever the hell is happening.” Cedric took a step closer to Chloe and lowered his voice. “How much danger are you in?” Cedric asked her.
She didn’t know. That was one of the things that worried her. “Reese isn’t some lightweight. It would have taken at least two people to move him. He didn’t just disappear from the Serpent. Someone saw him leave.” And she was…angry. Angry because she’d gone to Kingston, and he hadn’t mentioned a word about her brother.
But maybe I’m supposed to be angry at him. Maybe that’s why my brother was taken from the Serpent. Another nail in Kingston’s coffin…
“I talked to Lucia’s friends,” he revealed. “They said she hated her stepfather. Never told them why. But when I dug deeper, I found out that she attempted suicide when she was fifteen years old. The year after her mom died. She was sent into a treatment facility, but I can’t learn what the hell she talked about with her counselors. You know how that stuff is kept confidential.”
Yes, she did.
“There have been whispers—never anything solid—that Towers liked the women young.” Cedric’s gaze was hard. “Abuse? Is that what we’re dealing with here? Talk straight with me. I can’t help if I don’t know what’s happening.”
“It’s hard to know for sure what happened to her,” Chloe replied carefully. “Since Lucia is dead, she can’t really tell us—directly—what might have been done to her.”