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Josh had no shyness. “Hi. I’m Josh, the fiancé.” His smile and quirky tone were as false as the next words that spilled from his lips. “You must be Riggs,” he thrust out his hand as he started in Riggs’ direction. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Endlessly, in fact,” he added as an aside, looking over his shoulder and smiling at everyone else in the room.
Georgie saw the looks on the faces of the people present. Russell appeared confused, and Naomie angry. Riggs sought Georgie’s gaze, and she could almost hear him. “What the hell, Georgie?”
She couldn’t even meet his eyes. She looked at the floor. Josh grabbed Riggs’ hand and pumped it enthusiastically. “I’ve never shaken hands with a hero before. Much less a hero with one leg.”
“Foot,” Riggs said.
“Pardon?”
“One foot.”
“Oh, well, I stand corrected,” Josh’s arrogant sarcasm brought an uncomfortable silence to the room.
Georgie spotted something on the nightstand. Riggs’ cell phone. “Can I say hello to Robby?”
“You know you don’t have to ask permission,” Riggs said at the same time Josh decreed. “I do not give you permission for that.”
“Nor do I need it,” she shot back at him and hurried over to where Riggs sat. His position allowed her to put one hand behind him, on the nightstand, and the other on the arm of his chair so that she had support when she leaned over and kissed Robby on the forehead.
“Why did you bring him?” Riggs asked in a hushed tone.
“Can I use your restroom?” Georgie blurted and straightened, sliding Riggs’ cell phone off the nightstand and turning to hide the view of her hand.
“Sure.”
She saw the looks she received and understood the confusion. Recognizing and acting on the information wasn’t a blend for her right now. She hurried into the restroom, locked the door, and put the phone on the sink. Then she took out her phone and selected the recording she made on the drive to the hospital. Everything Josh told her was on the video. She quickly added it to the Take out the Trash file, then accessed the messenger app and sent the video to a cloud server she shared with Naomie. Finally, she hid the video and all texts to Naomie or Riggs from being seen.
Finally, Georgie texted Naomie with Riggs’ phone.This is it. The scenario you don’t like. I now know what to do. Josh is a killer, Naomie, and he will kill Riggs if we don’t stop him. It’s all in a file titled Take Out the Trash on our shared cloud drive. I’ll contact you when I can. If all else fails, locate the chip you put in me. I love you.
When she walked out of the restroom, everyone was looking at her. “You’re going away with Josh?” Naomie asked.
Georgie looked from her to Riggs, and he added. “Are you?”
She looked around. “Could Riggs and I have the room, please?”
“I’ll stay,” Josh said.
“No, you’ll go,” Russell countered, took Josh’s arm, and led him to the door.
Once she, Riggs, and Robby were the only ones in the room, she pulled a chair close to him. “Do you remember what you said when I asked why you jumped off that bridge?”
“No, and what does that have to do—”
“You said his mother screamed for you to save her baby. It was a cry for help. You had to try to save them.”
“Your point?”
“You knew you had to try.”
“And that’s what’s happening here?”
“It is.”
“And just who are you going to save, Georgie?”
“Someone I love.”
“Josh?”