by Lisa Harris
Conroy turned to her. “Are you doing okay? Do you need to get checked out at the hospital?”
She shook her head, but Will could see pain in the lines around her eyes. “I’m good going with Will.”
He said, “If anything happens, I’ll make sure she gets help.”
Conroy clearly wanted to say something. Will lifted his chin, but inside he was just exhausted. Conroy was really going to keep making him prove himself? Even after everything that had happened, and all the ways Will had pitched in around town?
He knew it was futile to expect that one day he would be free of the constant battle to show everyone he was good, and capable. That he could get the job done. This was a fight that would last for the rest of his life.
Still, he could imagine. It would feel like a level of freedom he’d never experienced, not even once.
The kind of feeling he got when Hollis leaned in, and he could wrap his arms around her. Keep her safe.
Conroy motioned with the phone. “I’ll let you know first what Ted finds on here. Okay?”
“Thanks.” Will was trusting them in a serious way. If Conroy was a particular kind of police chief, then he should be seriously worried. As it was, Will settled on mildly concerned—which meant he’d be contacting Eric and explaining it all to him.
Will turned and led Hollis toward his car. “Are you really all right?”
She slid her good arm in his, wrapping her fingers around his bicep to hold onto it as they walked. He slowed his pace a fraction. She squeezed his arm, hard. “Do you really think he’d go so far as to protect Mia’s father if Rich has done something wrong?”
“I don’t know.” He hoped not. They stopped by the passenger door. “What do you need, Hollis?”
“I feel like I was put in the dryer on spin. Just without the heat.”
Will winced. He got her tucked in the front seat and trotted around to the driver’s side. When he was belted in, he turned to her. “I’m sorry about everything. If I’d known how hard this would be, I’d have thought twice about bringing you here. I’d have warned you so you weren’t so blindsided.”
In none of that had he said he wouldn’t have brought her. Something he knew she picked up on.
“You’re just doing your job,” she said. “And when it comes to my mother, I’ve learned to roll with the punches. Especially since usually they’re flying toward my face.”
“She hit you?”
“More like slaps. But not many times.”
Will clenched his abs while he pressed his lips together. If he lost it, she would know. Then she’d think he was pitying her, as she had when they were inside the house.
“Didn’t you say the back of your head was flat, your father having slapped you upside it so many times?”
Will nodded. “That doesn’t make it right.” He said, “On the other hand, why do women do that?”
“What?”
“With a guy, you duke it out. After that, there are no hard feelings, because it’s been settled.”
“By fighting.”
He shrugged. “Women can be…vicious.”
“Abuse can go both ways. It’s not just women who are victims of domestic violence.”
He said, “I’ve seen it. It’s a sad fact. But when there’s a child involved, one who can’t or doesn’t know how to defend themselves?” He didn’t finish.
“I can hold my own.”
“Because you’re strong?” he said. “Or because she forced you to learn how to survive?”
“Does it matter? It kept me alive, right?” She nudged his shoulder with her good hand. “And strong enough to face you when you arrested me.”
A little levity to break the tension? That was a good thing as far as he was concerned. “I really thought you were West. I didn’t want you to be, but I was really sure.”
“Because of my mother.”
Will talked as he drove. “Do you think she was behind convincing you that Frankie had been kidnapped?”
“I want to believe she wasn’t. But to be honest, the fact they’re cooperating with each other? That they’re now on the run with each other? That’s far more unbelievable to me than a fabricated kidnapping story meant to convince me his life is in danger.” She sighed. “Though, why would she need me to leave evidence at the diner that points to me and criminal conspiracy?”
“To distract me?”
Truth was, he’d totally fallen for it. West had delivered Hollis to him on a silver platter, and Will carelessly swallowed it all down, whole.
“But someone was working against her,” he said. “Because, while it might not have been as much as a surprise to the criminal element in town that I’m an FBI agent—someone outed me—they did burn down the diner.”
“And why would they do that when I was supposed to leave evidence there?”
He nodded. “Then, when I leave with you to take you in—which is what your mother ostensibly wanted—we’re run off the road and nearly killed by the same guys from the diner.”
“So, she’s on one side of it, trying to get me arrested. Someone else—maybe West?—is on the other side, trying to stop you.”
“Which means she’s not West, and if she knows who is, then she might actually be at odds with him,” Will said. “And I might be able to get her to agree to testify.”
Hollis nodded a few times, slowly.
Will reached over and squeezed her knee, not really sure what to say. He parked by the fence behind Rich Tathers’s lake house. In the spot where he’d heard that the police chief’s patrol car exploded a few months ago, when Rich was still a lieutenant and his now lieutenant, Mia, wasn’t a cop here in town yet. Before Conroy and Mia fell in love with each other and took down Ed Summers.
Will had been right there through all that, playing his part of rough-biker-guy working for hire.
It felt like years had passed since then.
And he still wasn’t finished.
Will climbed out. Hollis walked beside him, around the house to the front door that faced the lake. Above the door was a balcony and garden furniture. On the lawn in front of the door, someone had constructed an arbor. For Conroy and Mia’s wedding?
The door opened. Rich lifted his brows. “Hollis.”
“This is Will Briar.”
“Ah.” Rich said, “The FBI agent Conroy mentioned.”
“Among other things,” Will said. “Can we talk to you?”
“Let’s go inside.”
He led them to the living room. The whole place had a “mountain cabin” feel to it. Woven rugs and log furniture that hadn’t been changed in years.
Rich lowered himself into a chair that seemed to envelop him. Hollis took a seat on the couch, and Will stood over by the wood burning stove.
“I’m not gonna like this, am I?”
Hollis said, “It’s not good, I’m sorry to say. It has to do with my mother, and a note we found in her closet.” She paused, then said, slowly and somewhat dramatically, “I’ll tell everyone what you did.”
Rich shut his eyes. Then he ran his hands down his face and let out a long exhale. “I’ve done things I’m not proud of. Had…dalliances, and cut corners in my business.”
Will said, “And she found out?”
“Tried to bribe me. Get me to take a job for next to nothing.”
“What job?”
Rich said, “Building the diner.”
Hollis sat quietly. Will didn’t like it, but they still needed answers. “Was she working alone, or did she take orders from someone?”
Rich glanced at Hollis. “I’m just… I’m sorry for all this.” To Will he said, “Sharleen is an enforcer. When she wants to be.”
“She works for West?”
Rich shrugged. “Pretty sure she works for whoever she feels like working for.”
Hollis nodded, a knowing look on her face. That sat right with Will also, so he didn’t press hard on that subject. Rich’s information could be old. The truth, different now, or the sam
e.
“Do you know who West is?”
Rich glanced at him. “You think if I did, I wouldn’t have told my daughter or the chief of police?”
“Fair enough.” Though, some people in his situation might have kept the information to themselves.
Before Will could ask another question, Rich looked at Hollis. “I’m sorry.”
She kept her expression steady. Resolved. Will didn’t like that she felt the need to be so strong. She said, “For what?”
“Meena. Your mother. A lot of things.”
Rich’s youngest daughter, Meena, had worked for Ed Summers while Will had been undercover with them. That couldn’t be what Rich referred to.
“It was high school.” Hollis said, “Meena is…Meena.”
Will agreed with that. Much like Sharleen, Meena was a law unto herself. No one could pin her down. Especially not since she’d left town months ago. Will hadn’t thought she belonged in that life, but if there was a connection with Sharleen, perhaps she’d been drawn in somehow.
“As with my mother,” Hollis said, “we both know I have no sway there.”
Will asked, “Do you have any idea where Sharleen and Frankie might go if they were to hide, somewhere they could lay low?”
Rich blinked. “Do I even want to know why they’re together?”
Hollis shrugged.
Will said, “I’m hoping to find out.”
Because it would lead them to West, right? And in the meantime, he would continue to keep Hollis safe. Not like at the house. There would be no more gunfire, if he could help it.
Rich stood, groaning as he moved. “I’ll write down a couple of addresses, places they might go that are under the radar. But I don’t want anyone knowing it came from me. Not anyone.”
Will nodded. So many secrets in this town, and he had to figure out the truth. There had to be a way to solve this case and protect Hollis at the same time. There had to be. And Will was going to find it.
Just like he was going to find West.
Chapter Seventeen
Rich handed her the paper he’d written on. Hollis didn’t want to know who he’d noted, or where he thought her mom would go with Frankie to hide. Part of her wanted to tear up the paper and leave town anyway. Let them have their drama. Make them clean up their own mess.
But would the woman she was trying to become—the one desperate to start a better life—become someone she actually wanted to be around?
Hollis had only ever had one thing that was hers, and that was herself. She was who she decided to be. She made the decisions she wanted to make. Cared about the people she wanted to care about. The honor intrinsic to those decisions was in part the reason she’d stuck around for so long, trying to do good in Last Chance.
If her final act here was leaving Sharleen and Frankie behind and in danger, when there might be something she could do to stop it, she wasn’t sure she could live with herself. Especially if they didn’t make it out okay.
“I…” Rich hesitated. “I guess I’m just sorry. That’s all.”
Hollis didn’t have the mental energy to get into a lengthy discussion about regrets. Still, she didn’t want to leave him feeling bad. She touched the outside of his arm with her good hand, and said, “Aren’t we all.”
She gave his arm a squeeze and let her expression shift to something she hoped looked a whole lot easier going than she felt. “I feel like I’ve been apologizing my whole life. Mostly for my mother’s behavior. Now she goes and…what? Fakes Frankie’s kidnapping? Now they’re on the run and dealing with who knows what else? Something I obviously have no idea about.”
Except that it was part of a plan to single out Hollis as being West.
Will had fallen for the ploy to make her out to be West, and she hadn’t even had to put the files on her computer. It seemed like the minute Ted had seen the files, it had been obvious to him they were fakes. Maybe she should take comfort in that. It was a poor attempt to frame her.
Knowing that didn’t make any of this less confusing. Hollis had long since given up hope she’d ever be able to think the best of her mom—or even remotely less disappointed. But it still stung. Every. Time.
She was aware of Will behind her. Hollis refused to be distracted by that right now. She was sure she looked like she was daydreaming. She had wondered what he thought of her life, but what did it matter when she planned to walk away from her life anyway? The moment she could do it without feeling regret, she would be gone.
“The cavalry is here.”
She turned to find out what Will meant. The front door opened. “Ah.”
The police chief, wearing his suit, walked in, followed by Mia—Rich’s daughter. Neither looked happy.
“Conroy. Mia.” Hollis used her “waitress” smile, the one she pasted on when she had to work, even when she didn’t feel good. She also tucked the paper into her purse.
Will touched her back, between her shoulder blades. “We were just leaving.”
“Right.” She headed for the door with Will right behind her.
Conroy said nothing about the now-obvious fact there was something they’d neglected to tell him. He looked mad, but Hollis didn’t think it was directed at them. Not much of it, at least. Seemed more like the brunt of it was aimed at his future father-in-law. Mia didn’t look much happier.
Before stepping outside, Hollis glanced back at Rich Tathers. But when she couldn’t think of what to say, she yielded to Will’s nudging and walked out. She felt bad for Rich. Who wouldn’t? He’d obviously been cornered by Sharleen and the leverage she had over him. Another victim of her mother’s selfishness. Kind of like how Hollis had been. Discarded when she wasn’t useful, used when it was advantageous to Sharleen.
“You okay?”
Hollis shrugged. They rounded the house, and she saw Conroy’s work vehicle parked behind their car.
Will’s fingers touched hers. He wound them through hers, holding her hand, stepping closer in the process, so their bodies touched as they walked. Not for the first time, it struck Hollis that even as tall and stocky as she was, Will was bigger. Enough that she felt almost…dainty beside him. A feeling she’d never experienced before.
Safe. Secure. Protected.
Usually she felt like she didn’t fit, and not just because of her size. Or her body image issues. Who didn’t have those with the constant bombardment of the media’s idea of perfection, which was fake anyway?
She figured it was at least in part because of how her mom had treated her in regards to her appearance, versus the truth of her stature in comparison to others. Compared to her mom, she was huge. Compared with regular folks with their normal lives, Hollis was…nothing special. Plenty of people were taller than her. Plenty were bigger, or heavier, than her. She was healthy. What exactly did she have to complain about?
People in Last Chance were nice, for the most part. Probably like any other small town and not some anonymous big city. They weren’t the reason she was leaving. Hollis had to face the fact it was her mom she was trying to get away from. Not the rest of the town residents. She also liked her job, even with the constraints. Every job had frustrations and challenges. But she still liked it.
“Where to?”
Hollis buckled her seatbelt.
“What did Rich write down? Because I figure wherever we’re going, Conroy and Mia will likely be right behind us.”
That was probably true. “Conroy, at least.”
“How’s the arm?”
Hollis scrunched up her nose.
“Sorry.”
“I’m sure it’s not broken,” she said. “And as far as I can see, you don’t need to feel bad about it. You’ve saved my life plenty of times today. Yesterday. Probably before that, too, and I didn’t even know it.”
“Kind of like how you saved me from burning to death in the diner.”
Hollis sighed.
“Want to grab a cup of coffee?”
“That actually sounds really
good.” Still, she said, “Not that I’m trying to avoid getting ahead of Conroy.”
“I can take a picture of the note and text it to Conroy.”
She eyed him. “Why would you do that?”
“Because you’re hurt. Because I’m one guy, and he has police backup.”
“Drop me off.” She wanted to go with him. But not if she would be a liability. That wouldn’t be smart. Neither would it feel good, knowing she was only slowing him down. “You could go with Conroy.”
Will studied her. “After the last couple of days, I’m not in a hurry to let you out of my sight. Seems to me like we’re doing pretty well looking out for each other. Right?”
She had to admit that was true. “Doesn’t mean I have a gun to back you up. I want to find Frankie and Sharleen, but not if you don’t think me being there is a good idea.”
There had been enough danger. Hollis wasn’t interested in just wading into more without careful consideration.
“Unless you have an extra gun?”
Will said, “You know how to use one?”
“Frankie took me to the range sometimes. Mostly pistols, nine-millimeter, a twenty-two, and a forty-five. I don’t like rifles. Or semi-automatic anything.” Just remembering the sound of one of those made her shiver now. A single shot from a handgun was loud enough.
“Huh. Well, then.”
“Does that mean you’re going to give me a gun?”
“No.”
She twisted around to argue the point with him, but her elbow slammed against the back of the seat and pain flared in her wrist. She shut her eyes and took a few long breaths. While she did that, Will started the car and drove away from Rich’s house.
He headed into town, which meant he drove past the diner. Hollis fought the lump in her throat. The front windows were shattered. Inside looked black, the structure little more than a hollow shell of what it had been. Even though the destruction had been mostly in the back of the building, it still seemed like the whole thing would have to be torn down.
She wanted to say something, but what was there to say? Will reached over and squeezed her good hand. There was nothing better he could’ve done. “Thanks.” She tried to think what she was thanking him for specifically, and ended up adding, “For everything.”
