by Debbie Mason
Jasper closed his eyes and shook his head. Finn thought he heard him mutter, “I’m trying, Madame. I’m trying.”
Meow. Simon dropped an envelope at Finn’s feet. He picked it up. “Patty O’Hurley.”
“Yes, yes, that’s who it is. Ivy was Mrs. O’Hurley’s paid companion.” Jasper glanced at Simon. “I believe that’s where we’ll find Olivia, Master Finn.” He pointed at the address on the envelope.
Everyone turned to run for the doors. “No, George, you stay with your mom. I’ll bring Liv back, I promise.”
Finn raced through the manor and into the parking lot. A black Jeep screeched to a stop beside him, and the passenger door swung open. Finn jumped inside, followed by Griff and his dad.
Griff gave them an update as he put on his seat belt. “I just talked to Aidan—cops are on their way. They got a phone call just before mine. Some guy saying that both Ivy and Paige Townsend had worked for him, but he’d been unaware to what lengths they would go to secure the estate. He said Ivy has both Paige and Olivia and was going to…” Griff trailed off.
Liam cursed and jerked the wheel, the Jeep’s tires squealing. “Hang on. We’re going off-road. It’ll cut the time in half.”
They reached the Victorian in under five minutes. In the distance, they heard the sound of sirens. Finn jumped out of the Jeep before it had come to a complete stop. “For Chrissakes, Finn.” He shot Griff a look as he ran up the steps.
“Okay, okay, I’d do the same but the point is not to get yourself killed so you can save your wife,” Griff said as Finn tried the door. It was locked. Griff kicked it in.
They heard Ivy before they saw her. “You’re too late! They’re dead!” And then she came running at them with her knife raised. A bullet whizzed between Finn and Griff and hit Ivy between the eyes. She dropped two feet in front of them.
Aidan lowered his gun. “Go. She came out of the room to the right. Ambulance is on the way.”
Heart pounding, Finn sprinted down the hall. He saw Olivia the moment he stepped into the room. She was lying in a pool of blood. He didn’t remember crossing the room or kneeling beside her or taking her cold hand in his. Her finger was bloody. She’d written his name. She’d written to him and to George. She loved them. She wanted them to go on. To live, love, laugh, and be happy.
“Finn! Snap out of it. She’s alive. She’s got a pulse,” Griff said.
Liam ran in with a first aid kit. Their father was kneeling beside Paige. He looked at them and shook his head.
“You’ve got this, bro. You’ve got this,” Liam said. “Tell us what you need us to do.”
He kissed Liv and whispered in her ear, “I love you, Princess. Keep fighting. Keep fighting for me, for us.” He opened the kit and quickly pulled on gloves. “Make her comfortable, get something for under her head. Griff, talk to her.” And then Finn did what he did best—he worked on saving a life.
The smells and sounds were familiar. Without opening her eyes, Olivia knew where she was. She’d spent too much time in hospitals not to. And while she admired the men and women who worked there, she’d grown to hate hospitals. But today, waking up in one felt like the most wondrous of gifts. As was the ridiculously gorgeous man holding her hand. He’d fallen asleep with his head on her thigh. She slipped her hand out from his to stroke his beard-stubbled face.
His eyes slowly opened, and he lifted his head. “You’re awake,” he said, as if he thought he was dreaming.
“Yes, thanks to you. I heard you, you know. I heard you telling me to fight.” She stroked his hair. “Thank you for saving me.”
“Thank you for fighting.” He took her hand and kissed her palm. “I read what you wrote.” He rubbed his face, his eyes shiny. “I don’t even want to think about losing you, but if we’d been five minutes later…Your words, your last thoughts, they would have meant something, Liv. I would have tried to honor them.” He smiled. “They made me think about a lot of things. How I’ve dealt with losing Mom and Riley. They helped, Liv. Thank you.”
“I’m glad.” She lifted his hand to her face, rubbing it against her cheek. “I’m sorry I ran out on you, Finn. I should have talked to you about how I was feeling. But when I heard Isabella asking you to come to Kenya, it felt like—”
“Liv, I’m not going to Kenya. I’m staying right here with you. I’ve let DWB know I won’t be coming back.”
“No, please don’t do that because of me. You’ll end up resenting me. We’ll work it out.”
“I loved the work I did with DWB. I’m proud of what we accomplished, but I was running, Liv. I was using my work to avoid coming home and dealing with the pain of losing Mom and Riley. I think it’s about time I gave back to my own community. And if that board of director’s job is still open at Helping Hands, I’d like to throw my name in the ring.”
“There’s always a place for you on the board.”
The door to her room opened. “Okay, there’s something seriously wrong with you two. Olivia barely escapes death, and the moment she wakes up, you two are talking about work?” Liam said, coming into the room with his brothers and father.
Finn narrowed his eyes. “Were you listening outside the door?”
“Uh, yeah, we didn’t want to interrupt anything.”
Olivia thought maybe she should remind them she was recovering from a knife wound to the side and it was highly unlikely she and Finn would be doing much more than kissing and cuddling for a few weeks. But before she had a chance to say anything, George and her mother poked their heads into the room.
“Is it okay if we come in?” Isabella asked.
“Yes, of—” She laughed when George strode into the room like no one had better try and stop her. Olivia worked to hide her wince. It looked like laughing was out for a while too. Finn got up and kissed her. “I’ll get you something for the pain.” He motioned for his brothers and father to follow him.
George came around the bed with a flowerpot decorated with rainbow-colored handprints. Inside the pot was a yellow primrose. One that had no doubt come from their garden. “I made it for you,” George said, putting the flowerpot on the side table.
“It’s beautiful, George. I love it, and I love you,” she said, holding out her arms to the little girl.
“I love you too, Livy,” she said, stretching up to kiss Olivia’s cheek. She dropped back down on her light-up shoes. “I saved you.”
“You did?” Olivia held back a smile. George really was a lot like her father. “I thought Finn saved me.”
“Yeah, but he wouldn’t have gotten there in time if I hadn’t told him about Ivy.” Olivia didn’t get a chance to find out how George had known it was Ivy, because the little girl filled her in on the rest of the news. She heard about Paige. Ivy had severed an artery, and Paige had died before Finn, his brothers, and father had arrived. She also learned that Aidan had shot and killed Ivy.
Isabella grimaced. “I’m sorry. George, Livy is just awake. Maybe we should wait—”
“There’s more?” Olivia asked, trying to keep the alarm from her voice.
“Yep, good news,” George said, hopping up onto the side of the bed.
“Georgina, be careful!”
“It’s okay. I’m fine, Isabella.” Olivia smiled and then looked at George. “So, what’s the good news?”
“Me.”
She laughed, and then winced. “I agree, you are a very special little girl, but—”
“No, silly, you get me. I’m going to live with you during school and live with Mama on the holidays.”
Olivia looked at Isabella. “I don’t know what to say. Are you sure?”
“It’s what she wants. She’s made a home here. She has friends, she loves her school, and her dog, and bunny, and she loves you and Finn. It would be selfish of me to take all that away from her. Unless you don’t want her.”
George scowled at her mother. “She loves me. Of course she wants me.”
“She’s right, I absolutely do. But are you ve
ry sure, Isabella? I don’t want anything other than George to be influencing your decision.”
Nathan’s other wife held her gaze. “I promise, it’s not.” She held out her hand to George. “Livy needs her rest. We’ll come back tomorrow.” She waited at the door while George said goodbye and told Olivia how to care for the plant. Then George scooted under Isabella’s arm and out the door. “Nathan made a lot of mistakes, Livy, but she isn’t one of them. And entrusting her to your care wasn’t either. He knew you’d fight for her, just like you fought for your son. Thank you. Thank you for not holding what Nathan, and what I unknowingly, did to you, against George.”
“Hey, Princess, what’s with the tears?” Finn said as he walked into her room five minutes later. He came around the bed and carefully sat on the side. “Are you in pain?”
She nodded.
“Okay, just give me a minute, and we’ll take care of that.”
She sniffed. “It’s not the kind of pain a pill can take care of.” She told him about her visit with George and Isabella.
“Your ex might have been an asshole, but he had great taste in women. And he raised a pretty awesome kid.”
“She is, and now she’s partially ours.”
“Yeah, so I’m thinking maybe we should plant plastic flowers.” He laughed, lifting his chin at the flowerpot. “Just so you know, it took her five tries before she found the one she liked.”
“Do you know the meaning of primrose?”
“No, do you?”
“Of course I do. I’m a wedding planner.” She smiled at his what-does-that-have-to-do-with-anything look. “Primrose means I can’t live without you.”
He smoothed her hair from her face and gently kissed her forehead. “You and I know better though. Because while I can live without you, and you can live without me, I don’t want to, and I thank God I don’t have to, Liv.”
Her wholehearted agreement was lost in his kiss.
“Okay, you two lovebirds. I just have to check on the patient, and then I’ll let you get back to it.”
They both looked over to see Dr. Bishop smiling at them from the door.
“She’s married to a doctor. I think you know him. Your partner at the clinic, ring a bell?”
He waved a dismissive hand at Finn. “Yes, which is why she’s my patient and not yours. Though I will commend you on an excellent piece of emergency fieldwork, my boy. Well done, and you’ll both be pleased to know everything’s a-okay with the little one.”
“What happened to George?” Olivia asked.
The older man laughed. “Not that little one. That one.” He pointed at her stomach.
“I’m…pregnant? She’s pregnant?” Olivia and Finn asked at almost the same time, looking at each other.
As though Dr. Bishop had staged the whole thing, Finn’s entire family walked in the room, including George, Isabella, and Stanley, at the precise moment he said, “Yes, we’ll be welcoming another baby Gallagher next spring.”
Hidden in Greystone Manor is a book containing all of the dark secrets of Harmony Harbor…including Ava DiRossi’s. No one—especially her ex-husband, Griffin Gallagher—can ever discover the secrets that tore her life apart years ago. Only now Griffin is back in town. Still handsome. Still angry with her for leaving him. And still not aware that Ava never stopped loving him…
An excerpt from
Starlight Bridge
follows.
Chapter One
Ava DiRossi didn’t believe in fairy tales and happily-ever-afters, but right about now, she’d sell her soul for a fairy godmother.
As the elevator shuddered and creaked on its way up to the north tower, Ava removed her black work shoe. The sole had come loose, flapping when she walked. She hammered it against the steel frame of the service cart in hopes it would hold out until the end of her shift. After several good whacks, she stopped to examine the seam. Satisfied the shoe wouldn’t fall apart before she got home, she slipped it back onto her foot.
Obviously she didn’t need a fairy godmother to take care of her footwear or to provide her with fancy gowns. And Prince Charming? She’d had one of her own. A long time ago. Only he’d turned out to be more princely and charming than she deserved, and she’d ended their fairy-tale marriage. But there was something a fairy godmother could help her with. If Ava had one, she’d ask her to turn back the clock to three months earlier. Her life had been so simple then.
She loved Greystone Manor. It had been her refuge, her sanctuary. She’d been left alone, free to do as she pleased as long as the guest rooms were well and properly cleaned. And they were, because Ava wouldn’t have it any other way. She made sure each room sparkled and shone.
But everything had changed the day Colleen Gallagher died and Ava’s cousin Sophie had become manager of the manor. It seemed like every time Ava turned around, her cousin was there with a new scheme to improve Greystone’s bottom line. One that invariably required Ava’s help and was designed to push her out of her comfort zone.
The elevator jerked to a stop. Without thinking, Ava pushed the service cart toward the now-open doors. A jarring pain shot up her arm, and she sucked in a breath through her teeth. That’s what she got for letting thoughts of fairy godmothers fill her head. She used her good arm and her hip to push the heavy cart into the deserted hall. As though in judgment of what she was about to do, long-dead Gallaghers looked down at her from the portraits in gilded frames that lined the stone walls.
“I’m not any happier about it than you are,” Ava told the portrait of William Gallagher, the family’s patriarch. He looked like the pirate he’d been reputed to be. “But Colleen would understand. She’d want me to find her memoirs.”
Until the private viewing at the manor three days after Colleen had passed, no one had believed that she’d actually written her memoirs. But during the wake, in a recorded message for the Widows Club—of which Ava was a member, the token divorcée—Colleen had held up the book, proving that it did indeed exist. And not only had Colleen written about her life and her secrets, but she’d also recorded each and every one of theirs. Just before Colleen announced where she’d hidden the book, static filled the screen and the videotape was damaged beyond repair.
There were secrets in the book that Ava couldn’t afford to have come to light. Secrets she’d confessed to Colleen in a weak moment. Secrets the Gallagher matriarch had promised to take to her grave.
Oh, now, you have a head full of fanciful thoughts today, don’t you, Ava my girl?
“Yes, thanks to you and Sophie, my head seems to be full of them these days. And I can tell you I was much happier without them,” Ava said as she parked the cart under William’s portrait, then sighed when she realized she was talking aloud. Talking to her ex-husband’s great-grandmother, who’d died more than two months ago.
It wasn’t the first time Ava had caught herself doing so. She wasn’t worried she was going crazy though. Her newly acquired habit was a result of stress and exhaustion. There wasn’t much she could do about being so tired she could hardly think straight, but she could alleviate part of her stress by finding the book that would reveal the truth about her and that night and the man she’d allowed to ruin her life.
In case someone happened upon her in Colleen’s room, Ava tossed two sponges in a bucket and made her way to the walnut-studded door, sliding her passkey into the lock. Colleen had lost her battle with her son Ronan, a historian, over the entry upgrade. She never did like change. If Colleen had gotten her way, Greystone Manor, which had been built in the early nineteenth century and modeled after a medieval castle, would have stayed exactly the same.
Meow.
Ava jumped, pressing a hand to her chest as a black cat wound his way between her legs. Simon, who’d arrived at the manor a week before Colleen died, raised his blue eyes and meowed again. Placing the bucket on the hardwood floor, Ava crouched to scratch behind his ears.
“You miss her, too, don’t you?” she said to the cat, realizin
g that was most likely the reason she’d been talking to a dead woman. She missed Colleen. Ava had worked for her ex-husband’s family for more than a decade.
Simon purred, rubbing his head against her leg. She gave him a final pat. “You can come with me, but you have to stay quiet.”
Ava picked up the bucket and straightened to open the door. As she did, a sweet, floral scent wafted past her nose. She frowned at the fresh bouquet of pink, yellow, and white roses in a crystal vase on the nightstand beside the canopied bed. Odd. Who would…Jasper, she decided. The older man had been with the Gallaghers for as long as she could remember. He’d been Colleen’s right-hand man and confidant. Skinny as a rail with stiff, upper-crust manners, he was a pain in Ava’s culo.
Her gaze lifted from the roses to the Gothic-style leaded windows that overlooked the gardens. Sleet pelted the windowpanes, and the barren trees swayed in the cold mid-January winds. She wrapped her gray sweater around her while casting a longing glance at the fireplace with a three-tiered wrought-iron candelabra standing in front of it. The fireplace was more for show than heat. So no matter that she could practically see her breath in the room; now wasn’t the time to put it to the test and risk an actual fire.
She eyed the hundreds of books lining the walls of the sitting area. More were stacked haphazardly on the antique tables on either side of a well-worn, gold damask love seat with additional piles creating small towers on the hardwood floor. A cluttered white desk with feminine lines sat in the center of the room with a view of the dark, turbulent sea through the French doors that led onto a stone balcony.
The room looked exactly the same as the night she’d searched it with her cousin, her Auntie Rosa, and the rest of the Widows Club. As far as Ava knew, no one had found the book. Though not for lack of trying. It had to be here, somewhere in this room.
She set the bucket beside the fireplace and walked the perimeter, lifting the heavy, antique-gold drapes and peeking under the oil paintings in search of a safe or secret compartment. Simon meowed from where he stretched out on the back of the love seat, once again drawing Ava’s attention to the shelves of books behind him.
