For Love & Bourbon (25 page)

“Maybe she didn’t have the chance,” Adam guessed, attempting a look at their mother. He gritted his teeth. “I hope they caught the bastard. I’m gonna gut him alive.”

Ava gently pushed him away so she could stand, needing to see if her mother would wake up. “Mama? Can you hear me?”

She ran her hand over her mother’s dampened forehead, brushing aside strands of hair. Sandra’s eyelids fluttered as her lips parted, and Ava nearly burst into tears again.

“Oh, please wake up. You’re okay now. We’re here.” Ava squeezed her hand once more, a bolt of hope shooting through her as her mother’s eyes opened. They stared unseeing for a moment, then slowly blinked and shifted to meet Ava’s.

“My babies,” she whispered, so weak Ava could barely hear it.

“Yes, Mama. We’re both here.”

Adam crammed up beside Ava, stroking his mother’s face. “How’re you feelin’?”

Sandra’s eyes closed as she fought for breath, shaking her head. Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly for a moment before she spoke again. “Da warned me not to marry him. But love him I did. Lord, forgive me.”

Ava faltered, taken aback by the foreign lilt of Ireland in her mother’s voice. She caught Adam’s eyes and he looked equally as confused.

Turning back to their mother, Ava frowned. “What was that, Mama?”

Sandra’s eyes flew open, her hand reaching into the air, searching for something to grab onto. It latched onto Ava’s wrist and held on weakly. “He’s evil. Got the Devil in him, he does.”

The monitors sounded an alarm as her heart rate skyrocketed, her blood pressure mounting to dangerous levels. Panic rose in Ava’s throat like a geyser. “Get the nurse!”

Adam tore out of the room. Ava held her mother’s hand tightly in hers and struggled to calm her down. “Just rest now. You’re safe.”

“No. No.” Sandra groaned, looking feverish. Her eyes were manic and wet with tears as she stared at Ava. “Your father. Stay away from him. He’s coming for you.”

“What?” Ava asked, dumbfounded. Then her mother’s eyes rolled back and her head fell against the pillows. Her body began to tremble and jolt and seconds later a nurse was rushing into the room, nudging Ava aside. Adam was with her, pulling her out of the way as the monitors shrilled and other nurses raced in to answer the call.

It took only a minute for the heartbeat to flat line, and another two minutes to attempt CPR. Ava watched in numb horror as moments later they pronounced her mother dead.

She thought she remembered screaming. Or maybe it was simply the roaring rage of grief thundering in her head, blinding her to reason. She couldn’t possibly be dead. Images of mother just that morning cooking breakfast with flour on her apron and the sun in her hair shuddered through her, surreal and stunningly painful.

Clinging to her brother as the nurses gave them space to grieve, Ava felt her legs give out and collapsed with him onto the cold linoleum floor. She sobbed into his shoulder, her fingers digging at the fabric of his shirt.

A voice broke through the haze, a shout that brought a sick feeling to her gut. Her father rushed past them and into the room that held his wife, his hands in his hair and his face wrought with pain.

“No.” Ty gasped, falling before Sandra’s bedside and staring at her in disbelief.

Ava tilted her head to stare at her father, fresh tears slipping down her cheeks. In that moment, her mother’s delirious words of warning fled her mind. As she watched her father mourn their loss, the sight of it ground her shattered heart to dust.

C
ooper stared at the computer screen, reading the words over and over again.

I know she’s with you.

He played with a metal slinky he’d found in Ty’s desk, letting the metal rings fall from left to right as he moved his hands. His eyes narrowed as he thought over everything he knew about Ned and Ty Brannon, and what the meaning of the mysterious email could be.

Though it was entirely possible that it meant nothing or was unrelated to their case, he couldn’t let it go. Something told him it was much more important than he realized. And since he had literally nothing else to go on at the moment to move the case forward, he was stuck analyzing the few bits of evidence they’d already found.

“Hey, crack the code yet?” Marco asked, leaning into the room. He sipped noisily on a soda, his lips puckered around the straw.

“Nope. It’s important, though, I can feel it,” Cooper replied. He stretched his arms over his head and yawned, wanting nothing more than a hot shower and a beer. “You hear from Horvath yet?”

“Not yet. Looks like were stuck twiddling our thumbs for now.”

Cooper frowned. “All this inaction is killing me.”

“I look at it like an extended vacation,” Marco decided with a grin. He motioned around the office. “Granted, this isn’t exactly the place I’d vacation to, but hey, it beats desk work back in D.C.”

Setting the slinky aside, Cooper shut the laptop and rose to his feet. “Do you miss it? The city?”

“Hell yeah. These small towns close in on you after a while.” Marco led the way out into the main office, where the late afternoon sunlight was filtering in through the windows. “I swear, if I have to run into that asshole sheriff again, I’ll—”

A brisk knock at the door interrupted his sentence. Cooper looked out the window and spotted Beau standing outside.

He snorted and glanced back to Marco. “Here’s your chance to tell him exactly what you’ll do.”

Opening the door, he offered Beau a grin. “Hey, Sheriff. What can I do for you?”

Beau’s face was solemn and unamused, setting off instant alarm bells in Cooper’s brain.

“It’s Sandra Brannon. She’s been taken to the hospital. I just thought you should know.”

“Christ, is she all right?” Cooper asked, stepping back to invite Beau in.

Beau raised a hand to decline, preferring to stay outside. His face tightened with anger and grief. “I just got word from Ava that she didn’t make it.”

Cooper’s heart sank, stunned by the news. Marco hovered beside him, just as shocked.

“What happened to her?” Marco asked.

Beau adjusted his belt. “She was gunned down by the market. Looks like a robbery attempt. Her purse is missin’ and witnesses reported seeing a man in black assaultin’ her as she got out of her car. He got away on foot before anybody could catch up with him. I have a team out searchin’ right now.”

Cooper’s brow creased. “A robbery? That’s unusual, isn’t it?”

“First armed robbery since I’ve been Sheriff,” Beau confirmed. “Don’t think there were too many under my father, either. Fox Hills is a safe town.”

“So that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Cooper continued, leaning against the doorframe. “You suspect it isn’t just your typical robbery.”

“Given the high profile nature of the Brannons and your current investigation, I’d reckon there’s somethin’ more at work here,” Beau replied. His eyes darted between the two agents. “Do y’all want to tell me what’s really goin’ on? If the Brannons are in danger, I need to know about it. I can’t protect my town if I’m in the dark.”

Cooper shared a look of dread with Marco, a lump forming in his throat. “The email.”

“I know
she’s
with you,” Marco recalled, stunned. “Shit, how did we miss that?”

“I don’t know.” Cooper rubbed his face with his hands. They’d never once assumed Ned could be talking about Sandra Brannon in his email. Now it seemed so pathetically obvious. He turned back to Beau. “I’ll let Agent D’Amico fill you in, Sheriff. I’ve got to go check on the Brannons.”

He got the name of the hospital from Beau and took off for Louisville. He hated thinking about Ava suffering under the weight of this monstrous tragedy, especially since he knew it had to be the work of Ned Brannon.

Worst of all, this meant that Ava herself could be in grave danger.

ADAM NEVER
once left her side. Despite everything that had come between them, he didn’t abandon her when she needed him most. That had to count for something, Ava knew. Something that, no matter what he’d done, was worth all the forgiveness in the world.

Their father had left shortly after seeing their mother’s body. He hadn’t even bothered to speak to them. Instead he had run, clearly desperate to be alone. Ava couldn’t understand the urge. The last thing she wanted was to sit in silence with her own tormented thoughts, not when they were filled with images of her mother right before her last breath. She needed to keep moving, keep busy, attend to what needed to be handled and take back as much control of the situation as she could. Thankfully, Adam seemed to understand that, and together they would deal with their father later.

As she signed paperwork and spoke numbly with doctors and nurses and receptionists, she did her best not to break into a rage again. It bubbled just beneath the surface, a single word or thought away from exploding out of her. She couldn’t let it, wouldn’t allow herself to dissolve into helplessness. She had to be strong, if not for Adam, then for herself.

While awaiting one last round of paperwork, Ava fell back into a chair in the waiting room. Adam sat beside her, wrapping an arm protectively over her shoulders.

He kissed the top of her head. “I don’t want to be your enemy, darlin’.”

Ava exhaled, her eyes closing as she curled into him. Fresh tears sprang into her eyes. “I don’t either. Mama didn’t want us to fight.”

His breath hitched on a sob. When he spoke, she could hear the raging grief that mirrored her own in his voice. “I should’ve told her I loved her every damn day. She was so special. Why didn’t I ever say it?”

“I know.” Ava faced him, cupping his cheek in her hand. “I may not be able to tell her, but I still have you. I love you, Adam. I love you so damn much.”

“I love you too.” He pulled her in for a hug, then slowly released her. “I’ll always stick by you. We came into this world together. Odds are we’ll leave it together, too.”

She nodded, wiping under her nose with the back of her hand. A weary laugh escaped her throat. “You better not die before me. I can’t handle going through this again.”

“I ain’t goin’ nowhere.” His eyes fell to the floor as he sank back into his chair. “I’m surprised Grandpa’s not here.”

“I’m sure he’s dealing with Daddy. There’s nothing more to see here, anyway.”

As if her grandfather could be walking in at any second, she looked toward the entrance of the waiting area. Instead she watched Cooper come through the doors. Her heart lurched and tumbled and without hesitating she jumped from her seat and ran to him.

He caught her midstride and held her close. She buried her face in his neck, releasing a shuddering breath. “Thank God you’re here.”

He pulled away and gripped her shoulders. Determination blended with the sympathy in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Ava.”

She nodded, glancing over her shoulder at Adam. He was busy talking on his cell phone, likely to Brandy. Turning back to Cooper, she led him to a secluded area of the waiting room.

“I didn’t want to think about it before, but now might be the time to start,” she began, brushing away a stray tear. She met his eyes and let the easier emotion of anger take over. “This kinda thing might be commonplace where you come from, but not in Fox Hills. People don’t just get robbed and gunned down on Main Street this way.”