Chapter 15

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

Tori frowned. It wasn't like her friend to skip work or to not answer his calls.

She prayed Landon was okay. But a bad feeling lingered inside her.

She told the receptionist thank you. Then she and Kai slipped back out to the car where Gage waited. They climbed inside and gave him the update.

Gage's gaze darkened before he asked, "You have his address?"

"I'm finding it now." Kai typed a few more things into his phone before nodding. "Got it. Let's go. I'll call out directions as you drive."

They left the doctor's office, making several turns until they reached an upscale suburb with two-story houses surrounded by immaculate lawns. A few moments later, they found Landon's house—a well-kept, gray-brick transitional style home.

Kai stared at it before looking back at Tori. "I should go alone. Just in case."

Just in case? She didn't like the sound of that.

Resolve hardened in her, and she grabbed the door handle. "That won't be necessary. I'm going with you."

Landon was her friend. Tori needed to be the one to talk to him.

Kai opened his mouth, as if about argue, but then he shut it. A second later, he said, "Let me take the lead, at least."

"Fine by me."

They climbed from the SUV and approached Landon's place.

Tori could picture her friend living here. She was so proud of all the good work he'd done.

He'd come from humble beginnings and had to fight each step of the way to get his education. Not only that, but he hadn't gone into medicine for the money or prestige. He'd gone into it because he truly wanted to help others. That had been proven true in the years she'd known him.

He'd constantly put the needs of others above his own, going as far as to volunteer at local low-income clinics while in school, even when he should have been studying.

They climbed the steps to the small portico and knocked on his front door.

There was no answer.

Tori had seen Landon's car in the garage. She'd peered inside the small windows on the top of the doors when she walked by.

Not answering his phone? Not showing up for work? Not answering his door?

"Something's wrong," she murmured. "I'm certain of it."

"Let's check around the outside of the house," Kai said.

Together, they walked around the perimeter, looking for signs of anything that didn't seem right. Reaching the back, they climbed the steps to the expansive deck and peered in the bay windows of his kitchen area.

Tori gasped.

Landon lay on the floor. Based on the blood pooled around his head, he was already dead.

As Kai stared at the body on the floor, he sensed Tori's distress.

The man had to be Dr. Landon Jean-Pierre.

Kai had looked the man up earlier. This guy fit the description.

Kai only had a split second to decide what to do.

He could leave and anonymously call 911, assuming the man was dead. That was the easiest solution. That way he didn't have to talk to the police. Didn't have as many opportunities for these guys who were chasing them to find them again.

Or Kai could break inside and make sure that the man was dead while also calling 911. But then he and Tori would need to stick around.

Security cameras were perched on the outside of the house. Even if he decided to take off, the police would see he and Tori's images anyway and come looking for them.

"Kai . . ." Tori looked at him, tears in her gaze.

Decision made.

He grabbed an iron chair from the deck and used it to smash the window in the back door. Carefully, he reached in and unlocked it.

Then he stepped inside, his shoes crunching on the glass against the tile floor.

"Careful," he muttered to Tori.

As if she hadn't heard him, she rushed toward her friend, who lay beside the kitchen table. She knelt next to him and put her finger to his neck.

Kai knew he was gone, though. Blood pooled around his head, and a hole pierced his forehead.

Almost as if a trained professional killer had pulled the trigger.

He didn't say that aloud, however.

Kai pulled out his phone and called 911. As he did, his gaze skimmed the rest of the room, and he spotted the blood spatter on the opposite wall. A better picture of exactly what happened here formed in his mind.

He could imagine the doctor being taken by surprise. Probably before he could even plead for his life, the killer had pulled the trigger—and pulled it with precision.

The doctor would have died instantly.

Then the killer had left as quickly and quietly as he'd come, not leaving a single clue behind.

Kai wished he could spare Tori the sight of the grim scene, but he couldn't. He had to wonder, however, about their past relationship. Had the two of them just been friends? Or had there been more between them?

He supposed it didn't matter. So why was he so curious?

Before he finished the call, Tori looked up at him with grim eyes. "He didn't make it."

Kai slid his phone back into his pocket and stood on the other side of Landon's body. "I'm sorry, Tori."

He had the strange desire to hug her—and he wasn't even a hugger. But he could feel her grief and wanted more than anything to comfort her.

He reminded himself, however, to keep his boundaries in place.

"It's not a coincidence he's dead." Tori's voice cracked. "That he was shot. This wasn't some random break-in."

Kai didn't argue with her.

Most likely, her friend had been murdered because of his association with her and Nathan.

The truth was hard to swallow, but there was no need to deny it.

Somebody—most likely the person behind Nathan's murder—was getting nervous he might be discovered. Dr. Jean-Pierre could have seen something when he examined Nathan that could be used as evidence.

But why wouldn't Tori's friend have told her that? Why keep it a secret?

Unless . . . someone had leveraged something against the doctor to keep his silence.

This person could have panicked and killed Landon in order to protect that secret.

A single tear trickled down Tori's cheek, and past her jaw. "He didn't deserve this."

Again, Kai wanted to reach for her, to offer her some kind of comfort. But he didn't. It took everything inside him to keep his distance.

"You're right," Kai murmured. "Your friend didn't deserve this."

Tori quickly wiped her cheek and drew in a shaky breath as if trying to pull herself together.

She swallowed hard before asking, "Did you see any signs that someone broke in?"

"No, I didn't. There are security cameras. Maybe they picked up on something." However, if someone highly trained did this—as Kai suspected—then there would be no evidence. He guessed that was what police would find.

Just then, sirens began wailing in the distance.

Kai needed to tell Gage what was going on. Then he needed to prepare himself to answer the inevitable questions from first responders. He and Tori needed to get their story straight.