Before the Rain Breaks Read online

  When he disconnected, he smiled at her again. “I called Dom. He’s a friend of mine. Vince’s son. Have you met him?”

  She nodded. “He was here with Vince one day. You don’t have to do that. Detective Kimball is handling the case.”

  “Maybe so, but Dom owes me a favor. Let me cash it in.”

  He was used to taking charge. That was obvious. Most surgeons were. For a moment, Fin wanted to let him. But she’d made herself a vow thirteen years ago to stand on her own two feet. No matter what. “Then I’ll owe you one.”

  Dom Acardi arrived a few minutes later. Virat had led her to his own car, and they’d waited out of the rain. He’d sat in the driver’s seat and quietly talked to her. She’d known what he was doing—he was trying to keep her mind off what had happened.

  This was the first time there had ever been a gift along with the note.

  She knew enough about stalkers to see the escalation. To be even more terrified than she was to begin with.

  Virat came around the front of his car and pulled the door open for her.

  He stayed at her side, all strong and protective.

  Dom Acardi was a few inches shorter than Virat, but built just as strong. He shook Virat’s hand and then looked at her.

  There was compassion in his brown eyes.

  More so than had been Det. Kimball’s the first time she’d taken the letter to the TSP.

  He’d smirked when she’d taken the second to him.

  And been impatient with the third.

  “Can you tell me what’s happened?” Detective Acardi asked.

  “This was on my windshield, along with the rose. We left the rose after Virat read the letter.” She outlined all the details, and he took notes. The questions he asked were a lot different than the ones Detective Kimball had asked. Insinuated.

  When he left, she felt reasonably reassured that someone would actually do something about the man doing this. Maybe.

  There wasn’t much he could do until the stalker did something physical to reveal himself.

  Not something she wanted to think about.

  Chapter 4

  Ray fought back the rage. Rage was what had gotten him arrested and convicted before. He forced himself to lean away from the security cameras. He was supposed to be patrolling parking lots B and C, but he’d offered to cover lunch for the two second-shift guards, Freeman and Brown, in the security office. It was cooler in there, and he’d needed to use the computer to write another letter to Fin. It had been a few days, and he didn’t want her to think he had lost interest. He couldn’t do that to her.

  She wasn’t always as confident as she appeared sometimes.

  He knew how uncertain relationships could make people. Especially sensitive people like her.

  But there was no damned reason Dr. Patel should be reading his letter now. It was for Fin.

  Not Patel.

  Ray bit back the rage again.

  He forced himself to stay in his seat for the next forty-five minutes, as that damned Dr. Patel called the TSP.

  As they reported him for stalking her.

  Sweat pooled at the back of his neck when he thought about what that would mean.

  It was just a matter of time until they figured it out. He already had a conviction for stalking and assault on his record. Yeah, his aunt had helped him get it hidden, but someone with the TSP would be able to find it.

  Fin...Fin shouldn’t have done that to him.

  Chapter 5

  Virat kept one hand on Fin’s elbow and tried to use his and Dom’s larger bodies to block the breaking rain from her. The suit she wore was thin and clung to her curves as it grew wetter. Not that Fin had many curves: she was small all over. Small, delicate, sweet as cotton candy.

  And more afraid than she would admit.

  After Dom took the letter and sealed it in evidence, asking Virat to come to the station in the morning to take elimination prints, he nodded at Virat and left.

  The rain was picking up. His companion was almost soaked. She looked like a little drowned mouse.

  Virat turned to her. He didn’t like the idea of her going off alone. Not tonight. “Have you eaten dinner, Fin? I’ll buy. We’ll hit Mamaw’s Place. Forget all about this guy for a little while.”

  She looked at him and blinked through the rain. “I can’t. I’m supposed to be at the Barratts in three hours for a charity event. Margo was going to go with me, but she was called to Austin.”

  “Maybe another time?”

  He just didn’t want to let her out of his sight tonight. Something was telling him not to.

  Chapter 6

  It was the rain that did it. Maybe. Or the rose. Something made the next words come out of her mouth. “If you’re not busy tonight, I... would you like to go with me? I have an extra ticket, and it’s for a good cause.”

  She didn’t want to be alone tonight. Not yet, anyway.

  He stared at her for a moment as the rain fell even harder. “I’d like that.”

  “Good. Rafe and Jillian and probably Lacy and Travis will be there, too.”

  “Great. I’ll dance with both of them and drive their husbands nuts with jealousy.” He grinned at her again. “Why don’t I follow you home? Then I’ll head to my place and get into my tux. I make a great penguin.”

  “That sounds like a plan.”

  She hurried into her car, feeling far more awkward than she had in a long, long time.

  She had never asked a man on anything resembling a date before. She didn’t live like a nun or a puritan, but after what had happened to her when she’d been seventeen, trusting a man required a lot of energy she just didn’t have much time to expend.

  The dates she’d been on in the last ten years had been ones she’d been asked on. Not ones she’d instigated.

  But this...this wasn’t a date.

  This was just her attending a charity event, with an extremely handsome, successful, and unbelievably kind man.

  She could so deal with that.

  Margo called as she was getting ready. Fin spilled everything—except about the note and rose. Margo had met Virat and she had a lot to say about him.

  Most of it good.

  She thought Fin would be remarkably stupid if she let this opportunity to turn just friends into something more pass her by.

  But they weren’t really friends yet, either. They were colleagues.

  They’d pass each other at the nurses’ station or in the cafeteria or staff meetings with the surgical department, but that was about it.

  She’d been one of the ones totally convinced he’d had a thing for Lacy. And when Logan Lanning had shot Lacy, everyone had seen how Virat had felt.

  Fin’s heart had broken for him.

  No, there wasn’t anything there except just friends.

  That was all Fin was going to let it be.

  Chapter 7

  The dress she’d laid out was a custom, one-of-a-kind order. Thanks to her family’s good fortune, back when her great-great-grandmother had been a Barratt and started several property developments under the guise of a male business name, Fin had more money than she would ever know what to do with.

  Nights like tonight were her obligations to her ancestress’s legacy. It wasn’t W4HAV that Mel was pushing tonight, but another charity based out of St. Louis that was designed to help victims of human trafficking.

  She shivered. The things people chose to do to each other sickened and disheartened her on so many levels.

  Virat was early. By a few minutes. She had already finished prepping her hair and makeup and when the butler, who was far too old to be doing the job but still insisted since he’d been around since she’d been in diapers, showed him in she almost forgot to breathe.

  Viril Virat suited him.

  The black of his tux made his shoulders look even broader. He’d trimmed up the beard a little and had his hair combed in a style he didn’t normally favor.

  He looked...delectable. Perfect.r />
  Fin felt like a tongue-tied idiot. “You’re here.”

  He held something out to her, and she took it. It was a daisy. Where had he found a daisy so quickly? “Thank you.”

  It had been a long time since anyone had given her anything like this simple flower.

  Other than the cliched white rose left on her car this afternoon, anyway.

  “Shall we? Are we headed to the Barratt or to the—how does Jillian put it?—the Fortress of Ostentatiousness?”

  “The fortress.”

  “Then, shall we? I have an umbrella by your door.”

  Chapter 8

  Mel and Houghton—the wealthiest couple in Texas, and one of the most well-liked—lived just south of Finley Creek near Barrattville in one of the largest and most ostentatious places Fin had ever seen.

  She’d been to a few family reunions at the Barratt Ranch in Barrattville, but Houghton had built this place about a decade ago.

  It was modern and clunky and filled with marble. Everywhere.

  Mel had started redecorating, at least. It was becoming more of a home and less of a showplace.

  Fin had been there several times, with Lacy and Jillian—Mel’s younger sister—and at several charity events.

  She and Houghton were third or fourth cousins or something like that. She’d never fully traced the family lineage.

  The party was already starting when they arrived.

  Fin waited for him to round the front of his Mercedes—not what he drove to work every day—and open the door for her.

  The drive over had been filled with easy conversation. Virat wasn’t a huge talker; she’d noticed that about him before. He was extremely intelligent and had a sly sense of humor—but he didn’t dominate the conversation.

  Fin had a tendency to overtalk sometimes. But not with him.

  The conversation was easy—from the very beginning.

  The dinner was better than rubber chicken. Thank goodness. Fin was starving.

  She and Virat ended up at a table with Rafe and Jillian, making it easy for her to relax. To enjoy the night.

  It was easy to see that Rafe and Virat were good friends. Easy with each other. No competition or one-upmanship. Lacy and her husband came by and joined them after the dinner and before the dancing.

  She teased Virat, and he teased back. Then he, Rafe, and Travis fell into an easy conversation about horses while she, Jillian, and Lacy headed to the restroom.

  Lacy snickered at her once they were inside the restroom that was practically bigger than the entire NICU wing of the hospital. Maybe that was only a slight exaggeration. Maybe. “You and Virat been together long?”

  “Just friends, Lace. He had the evening free, and Margo cancelled on me.”

  “Sure. And the fact that the man looks almost as good as Travis in his tux?”

  “Better. He looks better. Sorry. Date loyalty trumps Travis.”

  “Whatever. I saw the way the two of you were looking at each other. And I’m fully on board with you and Virat. I say...take him home and see what’s under that tux.”

  Lacy had a tendency to say things designed to get a rise out of her. But Fin was more controlled than that. She just smiled lightly. “Even if I did. I wouldn’t tell you. You’d just go blabbering.”

  “Uh-huh. Right to the Finley Creek Gossip Line.” Both women rolled their eyes, while Jillian laughed.

  They’d all three been victims of the grapevine. Not something Fin wanted to repeat.

  Chapter 9

  He knew Rafe had questions, but Virat didn’t bother satisfying the other man’s curiosity. It was just friends tonight, after all. Never mind that he had never imagined Finley Coulter going from sweet, kid-sister-type cotton candy to sex in a red dress—slightly on a miniature scale.

  She’d done something with her hair that made it curl. Made a man’s hands curl just as much—with the urge to touch that hair, and other places.

  And the dress was cut almost to her navel.

  He was a physician; he’d seen a lot of human bodies. A lot.

  But this?

  This had him ready to drool.

  And he didn’t think she had a clue.

  The music cued up, and he looked around. The rest of the evening would no doubt be filled with the dancing portion of the entertainment—and the schmoozing.

  Money never exchanged hands. But promises did.

  He’d never seen this kind of thing until he’d graduated med school and joined one of the premier surgical departments in the United States. His middle-class background hadn’t prepared him for this world. Virat was more the backyard-barbecue type. Not the diamonds and caviar.

  He held his own now. But when it came time to take his date into his arms on the dance floor, he knew the schmoozing angle was well worth the price to get his hands on the first woman he’d been seriously and suddenly attracted to in a long, long time.

  Since the first time Lacy had smiled at him, anyway.

  He knew people thought he’d been in love with his colleague, and he had been attracted. He loved Lacy, most definitely. But that caring had grown from proximity and friendship. And it would stay the love of friendship; he would never have been the man to make Lacy happy, and he’d always known that.

  But this sudden attraction to another blond woman he worked with...

  This had practically blindsided him.

  Chapter 10

  He was such a tall man she’d have to stand closer to him than she normally did a dance partner. Normally, that didn’t bother her at these kinds of functions. As long as she didn’t say anything to make someone think it was anything more than a dance, it was usually fine.

  There was nothing usual about dancing with Virat. His hands scorched her skin where he touched her. The silk of her dress revealed more flesh than she normally showed. It was still relatively modest compared to some of the other formal gowns the women were wearing.

  But she felt the brush of his hand as he touched her back. She shivered.

  He leaned down. “You cold?”

  She shook her head. “Not really, just a quick chill.”

  He pulled her closer.

  The scent of his cologne surrounded her. Her chest pressed against his. His strong arms tightened around her slightly when the crowd pushed closer.

  What was she doing? This was crazy.

  This was Virat.

  Not a friend, exactly. But not anyone she’d ever considered...not that she ever considered the men she worked with as romantic partners...but...

  Fin was so confused.

  “You ok? Enjoying yourself?”

  She nodded. “It could be worse, but with Jillian and Rafe and Lacy and Travis...and you...I am enjoying myself.”

  She looked up in time to catch his smile. “Good.”

  “Thank you for coming with me tonight. If you hadn’t...well, there are quite a few piranhas in this fish bowl.”

  “I’m always happy to do guard-dog duty. Any time you need a...friend, Fin, I’m happy to be right here.”

  But there was something in the way he tightened his hands on her that made her think maybe he wasn’t exactly thinking friends at the moment.

  Her skin tightened, and heat pooled in her entire body.

  Maybe, just maybe, Fin wouldn’t mind that, either.

  Chapter 11

  She was quiet as he drove her home. Virat understood. They’d both put in a long, at-least-ten-hour day at the hospital, followed by tonight. “You have tomorrow off?”

  Most of the time they kept to the standard Monday through Friday. His department rotated having a surgeon in the department at all hours, especially on weekends. Virat usually had a twelve-to-eight shift that worked well for him.

  Fin was on the nine-to-five rotation, assisting Holden-Deane with most of those hours.

  “Yes. I have until Monday. I think I’m just going to stay home tomorrow. I haven’t had an at-home day in quite some time. Seems like there is always something lately.”<
br />
  “If anything happens, you call me. I’m just staying home doing laundry. Watching baseball on the TV. I can be there in two minutes. Even walking.”

  She nodded. “Thanks. I don’t want to need a knight in shining armor, but I’m glad you were in the parking lot tonight.”

  “Me, too.”

  He turned off into her driveway. It wound through the landscaping, giving the illusion her property was bigger than it actually was.

  The house was at least four stories and the size of a city block.

  It was a huge house just for her. And the butler, who’d referred to her as little missy more than once in Virat’s hearing. He hadn’t realized Fin was quite as alone as she was.

  Virat knew exactly how that had felt.

  He hadn’t seen in his family in quite a while. His parents were proud of him—he thought—but they weren’t an exceptionally close family.

  He was closest to his youngest sister, but he suspected that was mostly her husband’s doing. If they hadn’t been friends, Virat didn’t know that he’d be as involved with Adhira as he was.

  He pulled up in front of her front entryway and killed the engine.

  Virat’s mother had raised him as a gentleman, and he walked his date to the door, offering her his arm as she maneuvered around a pooling puddle.

  The porch light was on. No doubt the butler’s doing.

  She reached for the door. Then stopped. Gasped.

  “What is it?” He shifted where he could see a bit better.

  The door had been gouged. Heavy toolmarks that most definitely not been there when he’d arrived that evening scarred the wood. “Stay here.”

  The butler was inside.

  “No. I’m going inside. Thomason, he’s inside. He has a suite on the first floor. What if they hurt him?”

  “Honey, I don’t think they got in.” The scarring was around the lock, but the door was still secured. She unlocked it quickly.