I see Jordan slip quietly by us into the house.
“I promise,” I whisper into her hair. I can hear a car running over the gravel road behind me and turn to see Luke and Olivia pulling in. I’m not sure if he’s gotten the update on the threat but I’m anxious to inform him. Luke is smart, book smart, business savvy. He knows law and will be able to assure Rebecca even better than I can that Hoyle doesn’t stand a chance at putting me away again.
“I heard.” Luke steps out of the passenger seat. “Don’t get too worked up. You’re fine. He’s nuts if he thinks he’s going to railroad you again for Brent’s murder. He’s lucky he didn’t get indicted for it himself last time. No judge will side with him now. No prosecutor will take him seriously.”
“See?” I say, looking down at a weary Rebecca. “Nothing to worry about. He’s desperate; it was just an empty threat.”
She nods her head and pulls herself away from me. “Olivia, I hope Luke didn’t give you too much trouble today. If he hasn’t scared you off, will you join us for dinner?”
“He was no trouble, actually backed me up on a tough call. He’s a brave guy.” She smiles over at Luke and I’m shocked at how quickly she’s warmed up to him. Most women don’t look his way twice unless they’re gold diggers trying to figure out if he’s rich. It’s not because he’s bad looking or anything. I mean, for a guy, he’s what most women would call good-looking. But he looks smart, and by smart I mean a little dorky. His shirts are all tucked in perfectly, his hair short, his glasses thick-rimmed and trendy. He’s a geek. A well-built one, and the kind of geek some girls are into. And judging by the way Olivia has her shirt perfectly tucked in, her hair just as tamed, I’m thinking maybe she is one of those girls.
“So will you stay for dinner?” Rebecca asks again as she heads for the front door.
“I don’t think I should. That’s not really part of the job, not sure it would be appropriate.”
“Oh please.” Rebecca shoos off the idea with a wave of her hand. “It’s like an episode of a bad reality show in here. All of us living together like a bunch of college kids, drama and all. I don’t think we’re following traditional rules here. No reason you should have to.”
“I’m not sure Click would—”
“Don’t worry about what Click wants. This is my house; I’m allowed to have whatever guests I please, and I think I just might be wholly insulted if you turned me down right now.”
“Well I guess I’ll stay for dinner then.” Olivia smiles and I find myself proud of Rebecca; she’s the matriarch of this odd little bunch, keeping us all grounded, keeping us all fed and focused on more than just logistics.
The sound of another car on the gravel road sends a knot to my throat. Everyone I expect to be here tonight already is. I turn slowly to see Nick’s car accompanied by another car pulling up. Every eye in the driveway is now on the approaching cars. Silence overtakes us all as Click steps outside, Jordan behind him with Adeline in her arms.
“Devin,” Rebecca says a tremor in her voice.
“It’s Nick. He’s not going to let anything happen, Rebecca, he’s on our side,” Luke says, stepping in closer to her, closer to me. Protective. And I can feel Olivia falling in behind him.
The look on Nick’s face as he pulls himself out of his car tells me maybe Luke is wrong. Maybe he is here for me. He’s here for something and it’s not good. Two other Marshals step out of the blue car behind him and they look equally as somber.
“Nick, you look like someone’s killed your dog, what’s going on?” I ask, trying to keep the tension down, though it seems like a losing battle.
“I’m here on business, Devin, and not good business I’m afraid.” He tips the front of his hat to all of us, but this time keeps his head down slightly, afraid to look at us.
“There have been two witnesses who have suddenly come forward regarding Brent Hoyle’s murder.”
“Nick,” Rebecca shouts in a tone I’ve never heard from her before. It’s a mix of anger and sheer terror.
“Luke,” I say quietly, “you stay with her. Don’t let a thing happen to her or Adeline, you hear me?” I’m preparing myself for another stint in prison, though this one will be shorter, I can guarantee that.
I watch as Luke rests his hand on her forearm, attempting to calm her. “Nick, you know as well as I do the implications of arresting Devin for a second time for a murder he didn’t commit. Especially based on some hearsay he-said-she-said witnesses. I can’t imagine your boss would have signed off on this. The media would get a hold of this and your office would get raked over the coals. They have to know that.”
“They do,” Nick says, still averting his eyes from me. The two other Marshals are standing just as solemnly, but also seem to be on the ready, warned about me maybe? Warned about the emotions of this particular situation, how Rebecca might react. “I’m not here for Devin.” Nick looks up at me, then to Rebecca.
It hits me like a cannonball to the gut. I know in an instant what he means and I feel my knees growing weak under me.
“Nick, you can’t be serious. You know she didn’t have anything to do with Brent’s murder. This is Hoyle.”
I hear Click hop down the front stairs, and he’s at my side in a flash, standing in front of Rebecca, ready to do whatever I ask him to.
“Devin, I know that, but a warrant has been issued for her arrest. I need to take her in, sort this out. If there is no credibility to it, which I’m sure there won’t be, she’ll be fine.”
“Like I was? It took ten years to sort things out for me. You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let that happen to her. How could you do this? You should have called me, given me a chance to get her out of here.”
“And what? You’d spend the rest of your life running from this? Looking over your shoulder, moving Adeline around to God knows where just to stay one step ahead?”
“I don’t understand.” Rebecca’s voice is different now, chillingly cool and flat. “Someone is saying I killed Brent?”
“Two people,” Nick says, his eyes down at his boots again. “Marie Louise Harper and Cali Sorenson.”
I recognize the names from high school, cheerleader friends of Rebecca’s. I use that term lightly considering none of them ever really had her back.
“They are saying you told them you killed Brent. That you admitted it to them the following day, and they both are giving similar accounts of the events. It’s enough to have you brought in, questioned, maybe detained.”
I lunge forward without any thought, “You son of a bitch,” I scream, reaching for Nick’s throat. I’m not an idiot. I know Nick doesn’t want this to be happening. I can see the conflict on his face. But I’m looking for someone to blame, someone to hurt the way I’m hurting right now. Click is on me before I can reach him and he’s pulling me backward. The other two Marshals are looking nervous now but Nick is waving them off. I hear the front door open and Adeline’s voice grows farther away as Jordan takes her back into the house.
“Devin, I couldn’t stop this but I will do everything to keep her safe while this gets settled. I won’t leave her alone for a minute in there.”
“Adeline?” Rebecca asks, brushing by as I shrug Click off me.
“The judge wanted her to be sent to your father. I couldn’t pull many strings but I was able to have temporary custody granted to Jeanie and me. She’ll be with our boys, she’ll be safe.”
I can’t hear anything anymore. There is a ringing in my ears and a spinning in my head that’s making everything sound farther away than it is.
“Don’t put me in cuffs in front of her, Nick,” Rebecca says, and I’m amazed at how steady her voice is, how high her chin is. She looks completely unafraid.
“I won’t.” Nick swallows hard and puts his arm around Rebecca. I am sick now, sick to my stomach and my limbs aren’t doing what I am telling them too. I’m floating away. I’m falling. I’m sinking. I hear Rebecca’s voice one more time before she’s sliding into Nick’s car
.
“Luke, stay with him. Don’t let anything happen to him.” She’s repeating my words, my plea. She’s breaking my heart, ripping it from my chest. I don’t understand her strength in this moment. The pain coursing through me is almost too much for my skin to contain, but she looks stoic and oddly brave. Then I realize, just like everything Rebecca does, this is not for her. She’s doing it for the rest of us.
“All my love,” she mouths to me and I manage to whisper back, “Half my heart.”
Chapter Nine
Devin
I’m broken. This pain feels unbearable. My body is empty. The image of Rebecca spending one second in the hell I spent a decade in has destroyed me. I’m in the house, Adeline in my arms. How did that happen? Why is time slipping by and no one doing anything to fix this? It must be a nightmare. I’ll wake up in a minute with Adeline’s tiny arm sprawled across my face and her teddy bear hogging my pillow. But I don’t wake.
Jordan finally peels Adeline away from me and takes her upstairs to pack a bag for her fun sleepover at Jeannie and Nick’s. I don’t want to let her go. I don’t want to watch her leave, but I know she can’t be here. She can’t see all this. A beast is going to break free in me and I don’t want her around to see it.
Click pulls Olivia into the kitchen to discuss some sort of game plan and Luke sits down beside me. I want to punch him in his mouth. He hasn’t done anything wrong, but he also didn’t stop this from happening. So I hate him. I hate the world.
“Devin, this isn’t all those years ago. This isn’t you alone with no help, no money, stuck in a corrupt town. Things have changed. We are going to get her out of there, and we’re going to do it quickly.” His hand slaps my shoulder and I hang my head in my hands, my elbows resting on my knees. I can’t fight the tears. I want to, I feel like I need to, but it doesn’t matter. I sob an impossible-to-hide cry.
“You don’t know what it’s like, Luke. You don’t know what it’s like in there. You don’t know what it does to you.” My words are choppy, caught in my throat. I know Luke isn’t ready for this. He’s never seen me exhibit any emotion even resembling sadness. And this is bigger than that. This is fear, grief; this is helplessness. Something he doesn’t recognize in me.
“I promise you, Devin. I’ll get her out. I’ll bring her back.” His voice is low and serious. He’s bent; his elbows are on his knees just as mine are, trying to make sure his words are reaching me.
“She’s everything, Luke. She’s everything.”
“I know, brother, I know. I’ll get her back. I’ll bring her back.”
“Luke, I wouldn’t have made it six months out of jail without your help. You saved my life. You’re my best friend. You always bail me out. I need you to fix this.”
“I’ve got your back on this, Devin. Stay here. Don’t let Adeline see you like this, and let me work on it. Have I ever let you down before?”
I pull my wild eyes up and meet his. “Not once.” I wipe my face dry and suck in a deep centering breath, remembering the little girl upstairs who needs to see me happy, not falling apart.
Click and Olivia join us back in the living room, and I hear Luke speaking like he always does when work is to be done. “Olivia, I need you to come with me. I want to find out more about these two witnesses. What’s motivating them? Click, you make sure there is enough security at Nick’s house for her and the kids. Then we need the medical examiner’s notes. That’s where the answers lie. Can you get Jordan working on it?”
“Wait,” I say, shaking off the last bit of emotion. “We’re not showing that to anyone else. If Rebecca really did do this, that book could be the thing that seals her fate. We need to destroy it.”
“It could be the one thing that saves her,” Click says, stepping forward and trying to reason with me.
“I don’t want anyone else seeing it,” I bark back.
“It’s too late,” Click says, stiffening his stance. “I gave it to Jordan yesterday. I told her to find the answers. I told her by the time you were ready to know what was in there it might be too late for you and Rebecca. She’s already working on it.”
I lunge forward and my fist makes direct contact with Click’s cheek. What shocks me is I know he’s fast enough to have blocked or evaded me, and he didn’t. He took the hit full on. It’s like he was giving it to me, taking his punishment for disobeying an order.
He stumbles back a step but doesn’t fall. He straightens up and readies for another blow, not raising his hands to protect himself.
“Devin,” Luke shouts, tugging my arm backward, “he’s right. We need to know. It might tell us Hoyle really did this. It might be what saves her.”
Jordan and Adeline are thudding their way down the stairs and the site of the curly-haired little cherub calms my racing heart slightly. “Cwick, you have a boo-boo.” Adeline points up to his cheek and I feel like a whole new kind of asshole.
“I just bumped my face on the door,” Click says, crouching down to Adeline and pulling her in for a hug. “Luke and Olivia are going to drop you off at Jeanie and Nick’s. You are going to have so much fun.”
“Can you come pway too?” she asks, snuggling her pillow tighter to her.
“I wish,” Click says like a child. “But I have to stay here and do some work.”
“Debin, can you come?” she asks, turning toward me, looking up with those giant eyes.
“Oh, I’ll be by to see you, but I have to stay here, too. You be a good girl.” I lean down and kiss the crown of her head as I feel the tears coming back. Luke reads my shaky voice and hurries Adeline and Olivia out the door.
“So you have the book?” I ask, spinning quickly toward Jordan, anger clear on my face.
“I do,” Jordan says without showing the least bit of intimidation as I bore holes into her with my livid eyes.
“And have you figured anything else out?”
“Yes. I’ve figured out a part of the code. It’s all based on one of Shakespeare’s books. Corresponding pages and lines with numbers he’s used.”
“What does it tell you?”
“Nothing yet. I can confirm what Luke found, but nothing more at this point. I will sit with it now, but it’s slow going. He intentionally made it more difficult than anything else in the book.”
“No matter what that book says, it is not yours to share. Do you understand that? Her life is swinging in the balance. Anything you find comes to me. And only me.” I’m pointing my finger at her accusingly but she again seems unfazed.
“Devin, I care about Rebecca and Adeline. I don’t care if that book said she killed everyone in Clover, I wouldn’t turn her in for it. I’m on your side. We all are.” Jordan doesn’t wait for my response. She heads back upstairs and presumably back to work.
“I’m going to go see her.” I slip my coat on and dig my keys out of my pocket. “Stay here with Jordan. Help her if you can.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you, Devin. I felt like knowing would be better than not knowing. I was afraid what would happen if Rebecca found out why you left without a word or if we needed to make a play on Hoyle. I thought you were too close to it and I knew I could trust Jordan.”
He’s looking for something from me right now. Click needs absolution or punishment. The slug to the face wasn’t enough for him. I know the worst possible thing I could do to him right now is to say nothing . . . and that’s exactly what I do. I slam the door behind me and suck in a deep breath of the cold night air. I don’t know if he was wrong. I don’t know if I am crazy. I just know Rebecca is in jail and I’ve never been so afraid in my life. Not even when I was locked up myself.
Chapter Ten
Devin
I’ve played out every scenario possible to try to understand what happened to Brent. I’ve been doing that since the morning I found out he was dead. Never in the equation had I let thoughts of Rebecca’s possible involvement come into play. Not until that damn book. Why did they find her blood at the scene? A gunsh
ot wound killed him, not blunt force trauma like the medical examiner had reported during my trial. As I drive toward the police station, the place where I was brought the morning I was arrested, I wonder how I’ll get her out of this.
No matter what she did or how it happened, I know Rebecca is a good person and if she killed Brent it was because she had no choice. With a fair trial, a well-paid and experienced lawyer can clear her. I will get her out of this if it’s the last thing I do.
My phone is vibrating in my pocket and I wrestle to pull it out before I miss the call. I don’t recognize the number but under these circumstances I answer it, not wanting to miss something that might pertain to Rebecca.
“So is this worse?” I hear Hoyle’s voice on the other end of the line. My hand crunches down on my phone so tightly I hear the case crack slightly.
“You asshole.”
“I’m guessing that’s a yes. I warned the girl. Now, I’m a benevolent man, regardless of what people say about me. You get that company out of here. You get yourself out of here and things go back to how they were. If you do that I’ll have these girls retract their statements and Rebecca will walk free this afternoon.”
“No one is going to believe these two girls, coming out of the woodwork as witnesses all these years later. I’ll have a lawyer here in no time and he’ll crush this case. It’s paper-thin.”
“The way it stands right now it is, but I have other cards to play. I’ve got enough to keep her in there for a few days. Drag this out.”
“A few days . . . boy oh boy, you don’t have staying power in your old age like you used to.”
“I’m not looking to lock her up for a lifetime. I’m just looking to get her somewhere you can’t protect her. Somewhere I’ve got more people on my team than you do on yours.”
“You better call off your dogs. I swear if anyone hurts her while she’s in there I’ll kill you. I won’t think twice about it.”
“This is your chance to save her, Devin. Are you man enough to back down in order to keep her alive? Or are you really that dead set on destroying me? You can’t be that selfish.”
All My Heart (The Clover Series) Page 7
