But now he might lose all of that.
“Nate.” Matthew jabbed him in the side.
He blinked and saw that Rylla’s brother, Elliot, was standing holding the door open, waiting for them to enter.
He had to focus.
If they were going to find Rylla then he had to keep it together. If he let his emotions get the best of him, the price to pay could be Rylla’s life. And he would not allow that to happen.
“Do you want to go back to the hospital with Sam, Naomi, and the baby? I’ll keep you updated,” Matthew offered.
“No. I want to be here.” Heneededto be here. He wasn't sitting on the sidelines while the cops worked this case.
Matthew nodded once, and they both followed Elliot inside. Mila’s children had been dropped off at their uncle’s house two days ago shortly after her body had been found and the family notified. Beau had come by briefly around dinner time before leaving again, and no one had heard from him since.
“Did you think it was odd that you never heard from Beau after he left the kids here? I mean, they’d just been told their mother had been murdered, and he just left them.” Nate couldn’t imagine hurting the mother of his child. Even after everything Rachel had put him through he would never do anything that would hurt her, hurting her would be hurting Andrew, and he would never hurt his son.
“I tried calling him several times,” Elliot replied as he led them into a fancy lounge room full of furniture that looked like it cost more than Nate made in a year. “He wouldn’t answer. The kids were upset, they needed their father. Mac slept on the floor at the end of our bed both nights, and Emmy had nightmares, and hasn’t been eating.”
“Do they know?” Matthew asked.
“About their father and what he did?” Elliot asked, his green eyes blazed just like Rylla’s when she was angry. “No, they don’t. Are you positive it was him that killed my sister?”
“Yes, I'm sorry. Rylla’s friend Naomi was there when she was abducted, she positively identified him,” Nate informed him.
“Isn't Naomi pregnant? Did Beau hurt her?”
“Yes she is, and yes he did, he shot her, but thankfully she and the baby are okay and recovering in the hospital,” Nate replied.
Elliot shook his head like the whole thing was one big unbelievable mess. Nate knew the feeling. “I still can't imagine why Beau would start killing women.”
“Rylla didn't like Beau. What did you think of him?” Matthew asked.
“He wasn't my favorite person, and not who I would have chosen to marry my little sister. I was pleased that Mila was divorcing him and hoping that he didn't wind up with custody of the kids. He’s never been particularly interested in them, I'm not even sure why he was fighting for full custody. I guess it was just because he didn't want Mila to have what he thought of as part of his property.”
“He wasn't a hands-on dad?” Matthew asked.
“No, quite the opposite. He wasn't even there for the births of either kid. Mila is close with my wife Stacey, and that was who was her birthing partner. After Emmy came along, he and Mila started drifting apart. She wanted to do all the family things that came with having children, but Beau wanted none of it. He wanted to keep living as though he were a single guy.”
“How did he treat Mila?” Nate asked.
“He expected her to cater to his every whim. In his mind it was his job to earn a living and bring home the money, it was Mila’s job to do everything else. But Mila worked too. She had a full-time job, she did all the cooking and cleaning and laundry, and she did everything for the kids.”
“Did Mila love him?” Matthew asked.
“I think she did at first, then she felt like she should stay with him for the kids, but when she finally realized that having their parents stuck in an unhappy marriage wasn't helping them, she filed for divorce.”
“Was she afraid of Beau? Did he ever hurt her or the kids?” Matthew asked.
“If he ever laid a hand on those kids she would have walked straight out the door. As far as I know he never hurt her. Physically at least.”
“Yet she was after full custody of the children,” Nate said.
“When Mila told Beau it was over between them and she was leaving, he lost it. He was so angry, I think that was when she started to become afraid of the kids being alone with him. He just got angrier, threw things, when she tried to call the cops, he took her phone and stomped on it. He started following her around, kept threatening her that she couldn’t leave him and get away with it. He would beg her to come back. Saying he wanted to stay married and that it was all Mila’s fault that their marriage had problems.”
“Why didn't she file for a restraining order?” Nate asked.
“I think she thought it would all just die down. That once Beau got used to the idea, he would accept that she wasn't coming back and move on. Rylla told her that she should do something about it, that she should play it safe, but Mila didn't think it was any big deal. She didn't believe that Beau was a threat to her.”