Page 3 of Enigma (Pros and Cons Mysteries #6)
T he next twenty minutes passed in a blur of controlled chaos.
Paramedics arrived first—two men who immediately took over Lloyd’s care, checking his vitals and preparing him for transport.
Olive had stepped back to give them room but stayed close enough to answer their questions.
A detective arrived as the paramedics loaded Lloyd onto a stretcher. Santos was his name. He had the weathered look of someone who spent too much time doing stakeouts and not enough time sleeping, his white dress shirt already showing damp patches despite the early hour.
Right away, Olive showed him the puncture wound she’d found, and he frowned before making note of it.
Then he began to question her.
“What’s your relationship to Mr. Stewart?” Detective Santos’s pen was poised over his notepad as he waited for her answer.
Olive hesitated.
How did she explain that Lloyd was the father of her former boyfriend and that she’d come here without telling said former boyfriend because she suspected his father might have information about her family’s murder?
Easy—she didn’t.
“I’m a family friend,” she said finally. “I was in town and stopped by for a visit. When he didn’t answer the door, I became concerned—I saw his car was outside. That’s when I found the sliding door open.”
Santos seemed satisfied with the explanation and continued taking notes.
As he did, Olive watched out the window as paramedics loaded Lloyd into the ambulance. The vehicle’s red and white lights cut through the late morning sunshine.
Only after the ambulance pulled away, sirens wailing, did she feel like she could breathe again.
Detective Santos took her contact information and promised to follow up if he had more questions. He remained inside checking for prints and other evidence as Olive returned to her rental car.
She sat in the driver’s seat, leaving the door open to let out the heat that had built up while she was inside Lloyd’s house. Her hands shook slightly—adrenaline, she told herself.
The normal aftermath of finding someone in crisis.
But it was more than that.
She was about to make a phone call that could change everything between her and Jason. There would be no going back from this moment, no way to undo her decision to come to Florida without telling him.
The truth was she had wrestled with whether it was fair to judge Jason for his father’s actions. But she was also terrified of being conned by someone she cared about. She was so afraid of this potential discovery that she’d avoided being completely honest with him about her suspicions.
Which had led her to this point.
She pulled out her phone and scrolled to Jason’s contact. His photo smiled back at her—a candid shot she’d taken with him when they were out to eat once at a rooftop restaurant in Indianapolis. She looked so happy in the picture with a wide, almost goofy grin stretched across her face.
Her gaze shifted to Jason’s image.
He had the kind of presence that made the world tilt just a little when he walked into a room. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a hulking frame that spoke of strength and quiet power, he carried himself with an ease that only made him more magnetic.
His face was all sharp angles and masculine lines, softened only by the warm brown eyes that seemed to hold secrets—and linger on Olive a little longer than necessary.
His short, dark hair emphasized the clean cut of his jaw, while the shadow of a tattoo beneath his shirt hinted at a rougher, more dangerous edge.
His deep, rumbling voice had a way of wrapping around her, stirring something achingly familiar, while the woodsy scent of his cologne made her want to lean a little closer.
Whether he wore a perfectly fitted black suit, a rugged flannel with worn jeans, or a simple white shirt that revealed the outline of his tattoo, Jason managed to look devastatingly handsome without even trying.
There was something about him—protective, steady, enticing—that drew Olive in, heart first, before she could even think about resisting.
He’d been her first love and someone she never thought she’d see again. But then they’d run into each other on a case she was working, and she’d realized her feelings for him had never died.
He’d since taken a job at Aegis and was currently working a case south of Atlanta. Only four days ago, they’d wrapped up an investigation in West Virginia where they’d had to pose as a married couple.
Things had ended with uncertainty between them and still weren’t resolved. She’d been relieved when Jason had been assigned another case because she knew that would give her time to think.
But now this . . .
With a deep breath, she pressed his number.
The phone rang once. Twice.
On the third ring, Jason’s familiar voice came through, warm and relaxed. “Olive? What a nice surprise. How’s your time off going? I wasn’t sure when I’d hear from you again.”
The casual affection in his voice made her chest tighten with guilt.
“Jason.” Her voice came out smaller than she’d intended. “I’m in Florida.”
A pause. “Florida? What are you doing in Florida?”
She closed her eyes. “I came here to see your father. And Jason . . . I don’t know how to tell you this. But I found him on the floor of his home. He’s on his way to the hospital.”
The silence on the other end of the phone stretched so long that Olive wondered if the call had dropped. She heard Jason breathing, could almost feel him processing her words.
“What do you mean you found him on the floor of his home?” His voice had changed completely—gone cold and flat in a way that made her stomach clench.
“I found him unconscious in his house.” Olive spoke faster now, as if getting the words out quickly would somehow make them less devastating. “Someone drugged him, Jason. I think this drug was intended to make it look like he had a heart attack. If I hadn’t found him when I did . . .”
More silence stretched as he clearly tried to let that sink in.
“How is he now?” he finally asked.
“He’s alive, but . . . that’s all I know. I’m not family, so of course they won’t tell me much.”
“We’re going to need to continue this talk.” His voice remained hard—hurt. “But right now, I’m heading down there. Which hospital did they take him to?”
“Clearwater General.”
“I should be there in about six hours.”
“Jason—”
But the line had already gone dead.
Olive stared at her phone. Then she let her head fall back against the car’s headrest. Through the windshield, she saw a neighbor peering out from behind curtains, probably wondering about all the emergency vehicles that had been at Lloyd’s house.
Olive had come to Florida looking for answers about her father’s past. Instead, she might have just destroyed her future.