Chapter Nine

Ezra

Fuck, it had been three days, and Jude was no better. He kept insisting he'd seen Rissa. If I ever discovered who was doing this, I'd kill them with my bare fucking hands. No one, absolutely no one, fucked with our family.

Gina brought a carafe of coffee and began refilling Caspian's cup. Our conversation stopped while we waited for her to finish. Gina was always as quiet as a mouse and blushed when we spoke to her.

Our other full-time maid, Cindy, always grinned when Jude spoke to her. Cindy? Was that her name? Yeah, she didn't look twice at me. I wondered why. Gina moved to my side of the table.

"Just leave the coffee," I told her.

She didn't hesitate but put it within my reach. She even scurried away like a little mouse.

"You scare them," Caspian said as he buttered a slice of toast.

"What?"

"You scare the staff. You're too gruff."

I frowned. Caspian glanced my way.

"And you scowl—a lot."

I cocked an eyebrow. "You think I should smile more?" I bared my teeth.

Caspian chuckled. "Certainly not like that. You'd terrify them."

When Jude came in, we both looked at him. He was a little pale but otherwise seemed fine—on the outside. I knew both my brothers well. Call it a gut instinct, but something was still off with Jude.

"Morning," he said as he took his seat. He barely glanced at us.

Cindy came in. Jude looked up, then smiled, and she responded. Yep, there was that smile reserved just for Jude. Our little brother had a unique way of dealing with women. Not that he'd gotten serious with anyone since the accident. No, I was afraid Rissa would always have his heart.

"Mindy, I'll just have eggs and sausage this morning. Maybe one slice of toast and orange juice, but coffee first."

Cindy, Mindy, I was close.

"Yes, sir and the cook bought some of the peach preserves at the Farmers Market yesterday. The ones you love so much."

"That would be wonderful, too."

She poured his coffee, then left again.

"How the hell does she know what jelly you like?"

Jude looked my way. "Because I talk to the staff."

"I talk to them," I grumbled.

"You scare the hell out of them," he informed me.

I opened my mouth, then snapped it closed. "They shouldn't be so sensitive," I finally said.

Jude and Caspian both laughed.

Even though they were laughing at me, it felt like old times—how we used to cut up with each other.

"What are your plans for today?" Caspian casually asked.

Jude looked up. "Afraid I'll go off the deep end?"

"Just asking a question."

Mindy brought in his breakfast, then quietly hurried away when she glanced my way. Maybe my brothers were right. No matter. It wasn't important now.

"I saw a woman at the fundraiser who looked a lot like Rissa. She even did that thing with her hair that Rissa used to do. For a moment, I wished so hard that it was her. Do I still miss her? Yeah, I do, and I know both of you do, too, but she's gone, and she's never coming back." He shifted in his chair. "Every woman since her has been lacking something. I know I'm always comparing them to her. I can't seem to stop. I keep praying that someday, a woman will come along who can make me forget Rissa. I'm not sure that will ever happen."

"What are your plans for today?" Caspian asked again.

Jude drew in a breath. "I'm going to the new exhibit that's opening. Ancient Egyptian artifacts. I thought it looked interesting. It'll be good to get out of the house for a while. I'll be fine. And you?"

"Business in the city. Let's meet for lunch.

"I'd like that." He turned to me. "And you, Ezra?"

"I have work to do here, but I might meet the two of you for lunch—say, around one? We could go to that new Italian restaurant that just opened. I've heard it's pretty good."

"Yeah, we'll meet there." Caspian took a drink of coffee and then set his cup back down.

Jude went back to eating his breakfast. As much as I covertly studied him, I couldn't detect anything wrong. I silently breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the nonsense with Rissa was over and done. I could understand how he felt, though. Sometimes I missed her so much it would start a deep ache inside me. I always felt empty afterward.

Caspian said I tried to outrun my thoughts by going for the adrenaline rush. I liked jumping out of airplanes or base-jumping off cliffs. I felt like I was flying. I often wondered what Rissa felt when she flew to Heaven. She always wanted to go flying with me. That's what she called parachuting—flying with the birds, except now she flew with angels.

Jude glanced at his watch. "I'm running late, and I still need to shower." He gulped down the rest of his coffee, then hurried out of the room.

"He seemed better," I said.

"He's still on the edge. Forget about whatever work you need to do this morning and follow him. I'm still not sure it wasn't a setup. We have a lot of enemies."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I didn't want Jude to think I don't trust him."

"It's not him I don't trust."

I knew exactly what he meant.

Jude left about an hour later. I kept my distance. I don't think he realized I was tailing him. I had to admit, I was good at what I did. Our father made sure we each had a unique set of skills that would carry us into adulthood. Caspian was more the brains of the family. He was damned smart. It came naturally to him.

Jude was no angel and had some crazy pheromones working for him. People trusted him, and not just women. He closed some of our deals and worked the books.

Me, I guess you could say I was the muscle. I didn't take crap off anyone. Rissa used to call me her daredevil because I liked taking sports to the extreme. I'd do just about anything for an adrenaline rush. Then there was the other—I liked to fight. One cross word about my family could put a man in the hospital. I never lost a fight.

If someone was setting us up, I wouldn't hesitate to take them out. No one fucked with the Morelli brothers.

I followed at a distance as Jude went inside the museum. How anyone could be interested in a bunch of old, musty stuff, that had nothing to do with living in the present, was beyond me, but Jude ate this shit up.

We'd been wandering around for about an hour, and I was bored to death and we were only on the fifth floor. There weren't many people there, and none of them looked as if they might try something. Jude turned the corner, and I lost sight of him for a moment. I hurried to catch up, but when I rounded the corner, he wasn't there.

Fuck!

I quickly scanned the area and spotted the stairs he was running up. There was a flash of white from a dress as it went around the corner. My blood ran cold.

"Jude!"

It was as if he hadn't heard me. I took off at a run, then took the stairs two at a time. He wasn't on that floor. It looked like offices. There was a door at the end of the room. I hurried toward it.

Another door opened before I got there, and an older woman stepped out. "Sir, you can't be on this floor," a woman said.

I didn't even slow down as I headed for the door at the end.

"That only goes to the rooftop. There's nothing up there."

My heart began to pound. No, dammit! I wouldn't let anything happen to him. I flung the door open, rushed up the short flight of stairs, and stopped in my tracks.

"Jude, come to me," Rissa said. She stood on the edge of the building.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe. Rissa—our Rissa—was wearing all white, and there almost seemed to be a glow of light surrounding her. I took a step toward her before coming back to my senses.

"Don't do it, Jude," I said.

He turned my way. "I told you I saw her. She wants me to come with her."

I kept telling myself this wasn't Rissa, but my mind didn't seem to be working. She looked too much like her not to be our Rissa.

She held out her hands. "I've missed you both so much. We can be together again. Prove to me that you love me." A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and slid down her face.

Jude moved forward.

I snapped out of my daze.

"I do love you. I always have," he said.

That was close enough. I wasn't sure what was happening, but not on my watch. I rushed forward and tackled Jude. When I looked up, I saw the fury in her eyes.

"I knew you didn't love me. He was right about all of you." She turned and went over the side of the building.

"Nooooooo," Jude screamed, reaching a hand toward her, but she was already gone.

I jumped to my feet and hurried to the edge of the building. I expected to see a body on the pavement below, but there was nothing there. Had we just seen a ghost? But I didn't believe in ghosts. I scanned the area as Jude came up beside me.

"I could've gone with her!" he accused.

Then I spotted her. "Would an angel wear a parachute?" I pointed.

He followed my gaze, then stumbled back. Whoever the woman was, she glided expertly between buildings until she went out of sight.

His forehead wrinkled. "But how? Who? I'd swear it was her. Before you came up, she mentioned something only Rissa would know. I don't understand."

"I don't either, but I'm damn well going to find out what the hell is going on." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and hit the speed dial for Caspian. As soon as he answered, I began to talk. "We need to meet—now."

It was an hour's drive to return to the house, so we met at the Italian restaurant. Caspian was already there, sitting in a small alcove that would give us plenty of privacy. He looked up as soon as we came inside. He didn't look happy.

"What happened?"

We barely had time to sit down. I didn't want to keep him in suspense, so I related everything that took place at the museum. "She wanted us to follow her off the roof," I said.

"It was Rissa," Jude interjected. "How else would she be able to tell me about when we were twelve and I…I kissed her?" His face turned a dark shade of red, then he turned serious. "But why would she want to try to kill me?"

"It's not Rissa," Caspian said. "She's dead."

"Burned beyond recognition. Except for the necklace, we would never know if it was her or not." Fuck! I rubbed my eyes, feeling defeated. "If it was her on the rooftop, and I'm not saying it was or wasn't, where has she been for the last five years, because that wasn't an angel or a ghost, or whatever the hell it was who tried to get Jude to walk off?"

Caspian leaned forward. "Do you think it was her?"

I met Caspian's gaze. "I don't know what to think anymore. If I met her on the street, I would say yes, but this isn't the Rissa we knew. She was attempting to lure us off the roof. She had murder in her eyes."

Our lunch came, but we barely touched it.

"Let's get out of here. But we're all riding in the same car. I'll send someone to collect your vehicles. I'm not taking any chances. We need to figure this out and plan what we need to do.

"I wonder…" Jude began.

"What do you wonder?" I asked.

He looked at me with sad eyes. "If it was Rissa, who made her want to kill us? What has she gone through the last five years to have changed so much?"

I shuddered to think of what might have happened to her, if that had even been her. I had my doubts.