Harlequin Romantic Suspense: January 2023 Box Set by Beth Cornelison

Author:Beth Cornelison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Benjamin Reeves clicked off his cell, his hands shaking.

His little sister, Charlotte, was dead.

Her whole family was dead.

Two years ago at Christmas was the last time he’d seen them. Charlotte insisted that he spend the holiday with them. It was the first time he’d seen their new house, and Charlotte had been so excited to give him a tour.

He remembered being happy for his sister but perplexed, asking, “How can you guys afford this?” But Charlotte had just smiled and praised how brilliant her husband was.

He’d wanted to believe her, but the guy supposedly worked an IT job. As far as he knew, IT jobs weren’t paying a mint to tinker with computers remotely.

Charlotte had pointedly returned that Benjamin could barely operate his smartphone, so he couldn’t possibly understand how vital Roger’s job was.

Fair point, he figured, and let it go. No sense in ruining Christmas, but that didn’t mean his misgivings hadn’t remained. And now? Those misgivings were front and center again. Somehow, this tragedy had to be Roger’s fault.

He’d never been a fan of Roger’s. It wasn’t anything he could put his finger on specifically, more of a gut feeling that Roger was trying to be more than he was.

Like the kid who couldn’t stand himself, so he was always trying to be someone else.

Then, when they’d moved into that giant house, Roger had all but bragged about his wealth, which had rubbed Benjamin the wrong way.

He wasn’t envious—as a medically retired marine, he did all right on his pension—but it felt like Roger was compensating for insecurity.

And in his experience, insecure men often made rash decisions that rebounded in some way or another. He’d seen it enough in the military to know the signs.

Charlotte had defended her husband, saying Roger had a right to be proud of his accomplishments, and what could Benjamin say to that aside from, “Yeah, of course,” and drop it?

Benjamin ground the tears leaking from his eyes. He should’ve pressed harder into Roger’s business affairs, followed his gut. He winced as he rubbed the cramp from his bad knee. Maybe Charlotte and her family would still be alive if he hadn’t capitulated to the social pressure to keep the peace.

The thing was, with Charlotte, he’d always felt compelled to tiptoe around her feelings because of his guilt for leaving her alone with their dad all those years ago when he shipped out to the Marines.

Sure, the past was the past, but he couldn’t help but think that it was his fault she ended up with Roger in the first place. Maybe if he’d stuck around, he could’ve been there to make sure a weaselly guy like Roger hadn’t had a chance to woo his vulnerable sister.

A whole lot of maybes.

Didn’t much matter now, he supposed.

Another tear leaked down his cheek to splash on his jeaned leg.

What could he do now? Benjamin suffered a wave of grief that overwhelmed him. The helplessness of the situation triggered his rage. He needed answers. Sitting here crying wasn’t going to help anything.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.