“If he would what? Come after you?” Connor looked more furious than I’d ever seen him as he jerked away from Jules and started to pace. “Who the hell came up with such a stupid idea?”
“It’s not stupid,” Jules stated hotly, her own temper sparked at Connor’s furious questions. “We had a plan. I had Addie and Carly backing me up. We were willing to do what it took to catch the guy!”
“By risking your safety?”
I shrank back from their furious argument and Jake’s arm slipped down to cup my shoulders.
“I’m still confused about the snake,” he said, rocking his foot so the swing would sway, and ignoring the massive argument taking place in front of us.
“I…” I shook my head to clear away the sight in front of me. “Wade felt my fear and it woke him up. He was waiting for us on the deck when we came back so I told him I saw a snake. Instead of the truth which was that Danny had caught us by the lake trying to trap the stalker. He scared me when he snuck up on us.”
“O-kay,” Jake dragged out and glanced over at Danny. “So, Danny didn’t know about the plan, he just happened to be out there.”
“Um, I don’t know why Danny was out there,” I replied, suddenly curious.
“Danny,” I called out over the shouting couple. “Why did you come find us this morning?” He looked uncomfortable, his eyes shifting toward Carly so quickly I almost missed it.
“I heard Carly get up, but she never came back. I went looking for her and saw the three of you headed toward the lake. I didn’t think it was safe for you three to be wandering around the lake in the predawn hours so I followed you.”
“At least someone had the right idea,” Connor said, pointing toward Danny. “Did you even think to bring a weapon?”
“Of course! We had our Tasers,” Jules shouted back, her glare so furious I was afraid to speak.
“Tasers! What if he’d had a gun?” Connor argued and I had to tilt my head in acknowledgement. Danny had shown me how quickly it could have gotten out of hand. “Or a knife? This guy smothered a woman to death. No telling how many others there have been.”
“You were watching me?” I barely heard Carly’s question, but the way Danny shifted I knew he’d heard her. He was uncomfortable, but to my surprise Carly wasn’t bothered by the idea of him watching out for her.
“Yeah, I worry about you,” he admitted in a low voice and I strained to catch it, leaning over Jake so far I almost fell off the swing. Jake grabbed me, keeping me steady as I unashamedly eavesdropped on their conversation.
“You do?” Carly was twirling her hair again and this time Danny caught the pleasure in her voice.
“Yeah, I do. I never meant to hurt you, Carly.” His voice roughened as he continued, “I want a chance to make it up to you, to show you I’m not that guy. To keep you safe instead of be the one who hurts you.”
I sagged against Jake at his words and heard Jake mutter, “Gotta make it harder on the rest of us don’t you, buddy?”
I reached up and pecked his cheek.
“I think they’re all trying to live up to you,” I informed him and he gave me a sideways grin.
“Enough!” I jumped at the loud shout and the sudden silence that followed was deafening. Wade rubbed his eyes tiredly and for the first time I could see the drain on him from witnessing all of our emotions.
“Let’s get back to the point at hand. We need to catch the stalker. We have the perfect bait,” he waved to Jules and Connor opened his mouth, but Wade kept going, “And there are enough of us to keep her safe. If this guy killed Summer, then he needs to be held accountable. Besides, he’s obviously a threat that needs to be eliminated.”
“He messed with the boat wires.”
“And he seems to have focused on Jules.”
“Both reason enough to go after him.”
“We still don’t know who messed with the circuit breaker here.”
“Let’s focus on one thing at a time.”
“So, same plan, just more people?” I asked, meeting their eyes as I glanced around. Connor nodded reluctantly, but the rest were on board as they nodded eagerly.
“Next time, come to us.” Jake played with my hair, his expression upset. “It’s more important we work as a team, and not divide ourselves. I don’t like the fact that you didn’t think you could come to us with your plan.”
“I wonder why we didn’t? Oh yeah, because Connor shit a brick.” Jules rolled her eyes at her husband and I could see the beginning of another argument.
“That’s beside the point. You have equal say, and the idea was good, the execution a little more worrying, but if we work together, then we could do anything.”
“Good talk, coach,” Connor retorted bitterly. “But it wasn’t your wife in danger.”
“Again, she’s my sister, and I worry just as much about her as you do, but we’re the reason they attempted it on their own.” Jake’s expression was hard as he lashed back at Connor. “Think about that. They could have been hurt because they didn’t come to us. We’re lucky Danny saw them.”
“Hey, in all honesty, we have no idea if the stalker was even around.” I tried to calm the brewing storm between the best friends, not wanting to see either of them say something they would later regret.
“Did the stalker see Jules this morning?” Wade’s blunt question silenced all of them as their heads swung toward me.
I swallowed hard at my sudden knowledge.
“He did.”
“Then I guess we’ll be grateful for Danny’s smart thinking.” Connor said, clapping him on the back.
“See, that’s the problem,” I burst out without thinking. Connor blinked at me, not expecting me to be the one to say something. “You compliment Danny for following us and act like Jules, Carly and me couldn’t have handled him. What’s the point of us training with you guys and going to the shooting range if we don’t use the skills? Are we as strong as you? No, but that doesn’t mean the three of us couldn’t have handled him. We were smart. We didn’t assume just Jules could do it anymore than we’d assume just one of you could. You need to respect our abilities and have confidence in us.”
At some point in my speech I’d stood up and now found myself awkwardly standing there staring at my best guy friend.
“You think I don’t respect you? Admire you? You don’t think I’m not scared to be your sparring partner when we switch it up?” Connor shook his head as the answers to those questions drifted through me. “I am, Addie. I am so proud of you. Of Jules.” He looked at her as he said it and she lowered her eyes. “Of Carly.” She smiled as he glanced at her. “But my job, job,” he made it a point to look me in the eyes when he said it. “Is to protect. To protect you and him.” He gestured to Jake. “To protect all of you. I would be pissed at any of you if you’d tried something like that without telling the gang. Jake is right, we do work better as a team. Do I worry? Hell, yeah. I’ve had more scares since I met you than I’d had in the two decades before. Do I want anything to happen to you or Jules? No. Do I worry about my wife? You better believe it. I don’t want her in risky situations if I can help it, but I won’t stop her either, but I will do my best to keep her safe.” He walked up to me and said, “That includes you, kid.” He grabbed me in a fierce hug and as I wrapped my arms around his waist I felt the others gather around us and suddenly we were engulfed in a group hug.
“Alright, enough of this,” I finally cried, wiggling out of the tangle of arms. “We’ve got a bad guy to catch.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Is this going to work?”
“Yes,” I answered, squinting in the semi-darkness.
“Are you just telling me what I want to hear?”
“Yes,” I said with a barely concealed grin and he bumped me. “Connor, it’ll be fine.”
“What if she gets hurt?” He fretted to my amusement.
“Then she’ll have something to brag about like you?” I offered, gesturing to his chest an
d the scar he liked to show off.
“Not funny,” he replied in a semi panic. “That won’t happen right?” When I didn’t answer, he gripped my arm. “Addie.”
“She’s fine. I swear, Connor. Now let go.” I twisted my arm from his grip, regretting pairing up with him. I was positive Danny or Wade wouldn’t have bothered with the questions but no one had been willing to partner with Connor. Except for me.
“What was the deal yesterday? With the lottery ticket?” He asked, his voice so low it was almost inaudible. We were positioned in a semi-circle around Jules, waiting for our guy to take the bait we displayed so enticingly. “And thanks for the save, by the way.”
“Anytime,” I murmured, my eyes constantly in motion. “And Danny. He’s having a hard time. I figured I’d use the winnings to pay his rent for a couple of months.”
“Aww, Addie, I didn’t know he was having trouble. We can figure something out to help him, maybe collect money.” I cut him off with a flat stare.
“Connor, this is Danny. His pride won’t allow him to accept anything you give him. Why do you think I was going to pay the rent to the landlord and not just give him the winnings?”
“Oh, yeah, true.”
“I also thought we’d hit up a gas station. If I can find some decent winners, I can stash them at his apartment. Think that’ll work?”
“Yeah, help without helping.” Connor nodded, shifting in his crouch. “Probably shouldn’t say hitting up the gas station. Sounds like you plan on robbing it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind next time I plan to rob a gas station.”
Movement by the shore stopped his retort as a slender man slipped from the trees. His baseball cap was pulled low over his face, but I recognized the rusty red color.
“An Alabama fan?” Connor’s disgust was complete and I gave him a disbelieving stare as the guy crept closer to Jules. He caught my stare and shrugged, “It’s a Bama fan. She’s got this.”
I almost laughed but just then our guy came up behind Jules and in a motion so familiar I could almost feel the hand covering my mouth, he fastened his hand over her face and locked his arms around her.
We were moving instantly, but Jules had it under control. She dropped her weight, throwing him off balance and with a hard blow to the inside of his thigh his leg gave out. She was still trapped by him though until Carly came running out of the woods with a wild cry and jumped him, yanking on his hair like a mad woman. Between the tiny person raining blows down on his head and Jules biting the hand over her mouth, he didn’t stand a chance.
Connor and I stopped and stared at the sight in front of us. Jake came up alongside with Wade, but it was the furious Danny that surprised us all.
He jerked Carly off the guy and when the guy twisted around to come at her, Danny slammed his fist in his face so hard we all winced at the cracking sound.
The guy dropped like a stone and Jules stumbled away from him, eyeing Danny with respect. However, Danny wasn’t paying any of us any attention.
“What did you think you were doing?” He held Carly’s shoulders, his chest heaving from the run as he lightly shook her. “You could have been hurt. That wasn’t the plan, woman.”
“I don’t know!” Carly cried. “I just had to do something. I had to be brave.” Her words caused Danny to drop his forehead to hers, their difference in height laughable except he was strong enough to lift her up to meet his eyes.
“You are brave. You don’t need to prove that to anyone,” he whispered as we all watched them. I could see the uncertainty on his face and silently urged him to do it.
“Kiss the girl,” I whispered under my breath, bouncing on my toes as Jake glanced at me sideways.
I don’t know if he heard me or not, but a second later, his lips pressed into Carly’s and I let out a cheer. Jules pumped her fist in the air and even Wade let out a laugh. Connor and Jake exchanged glances with one another and I heard one of them mutter, “Women.”
Connor headed over to the guy on the ground and checked to make sure Jules wasn’t hurt. She shook her head and Jake asked me, “Is she okay?”
I nodded to him and smiled, “She’s fine. Maybe a bruise, but he’ll have way worse.” I gestured to the guy on the ground and remembering how he’d attacked Jules was positive he was the one who’d attacked Summer.
“You saw the attack?” Jake asked, confirming my thoughts.
“Yep, same style,” I answered, relief flowing through me as I let the last of my doubts about my father’s role in Summer’s death go. I needed to apologize to Duke and assure him of his brother’s innocence. Years had been lost because they hadn’t wanted to talk, to clear the air and admit their feelings. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to us.
“We need to get the local PD out here,” Jake said, his phone out. I nodded, walking off to give him privacy to make the call.
Wade nodded at the still kissing couple.
“I know that makes you happy.”
“It does,” I replied, smiling happily at them. It was a little awkward watching them kiss, but still, after all this time I deserved to see their happy ending.
“What now?” Wade asked and I was sure it was meant to be an innocent question about the next steps, but the world tipped sideways as malevolent rage washed over me, the flicker of a gun in the corner of my eye.
“Addie,” Wade grabbed my arm and I came back to him. “Are you okay? I’ve never seen anger like that before.”
“You saw that?” I touched my forehead, feeling lightheaded.
“Yeah, it was like a wave of dark violent rage washed over you, but it didn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t think it belonged to me,” I replied, knowing it wasn’t over. We’d caught one bad guy, but I had the feeling the worst was yet to come.
“We should talk to Jake,” Wade said, a small worried frown creasing his face. I was about to agree when my phone buzzed. A glance down revealed a text from Duke asking if I’d meet him. I showed it to Wade who shook his head.
“You think you should go now?” He asked, and an overwhelming sense of urgency came over me.
“Yeah, I need to go now.” I tapped his arm, distracted by my sudden concern for Duke. “Tell Jake for me, okay? He’s going to be busy for a while. This can’t wait.”
“Addie,” Wade said, stretching his arm as I hurried off. I gave him a quick glance over my shoulder, the unsettled feeling pushing me to move. He pulled back, letting me go, and I skirted around the others, not in the mood to be slowed down by questions.
A few minutes later I found myself by his dock, the sun rising over the trees and banishing the dark. I’d somewhat expected him to be waiting for me on the dock since that’s where everything seemed to happen, but it was empty.
I jogged up the steps to the door, feeling uncomfortable as I knocked. The door creaked open under the weight of my hand and I paused, uncertain if I should just walk in.
My instincts screamed at me to leave, to go find one of the guys, but my concern for Duke overrode those feelings and I pushed the door open.
I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the dark room, and reached for the light switch. I was beginning to wonder why he’d texted me to meet him, when I realized flipping the switch wasn’t doing anything.
“I’m so glad you could join us, Addie.”
Her voice wasn’t wholly unexpected as all of the pieces finally fell into place. The odd feelings and questions were answered as I glanced up to see our neighbor standing there with a gun in her hands.
Duke was tied to a chair, a handkerchief stuffed in his mouth as his eyes implored me to run. I shook my head and stepped closer. I wasn’t going to run. Not from the woman who’d destroyed multiple lives.
“Joyce.” Everything made sense as I said her name and I could have shaken myself for not seeing it all sooner. “Up to your old tricks, I see.” I waved to the light fixture and she smiled.
“I’d hoped it would be enough to make you leave, especi
ally after Royce cut the wires on your boat,” she said with a disappointed frown. “Alas, you stayed and now I have to resort to more drastic measures.”
She waved the gun at me and I nodded.
“You’re setting him up,” I replied, as Duke worked to get the gag from his mouth.
“It’s rather appropriate, don’t you think? I mean, everyone in this town has long suspected he was Summer’s killer.”
“I bet that terrified you. When the mayor refused to allow his daughter’s death to be ruled a suicide and after you’d worked so hard to make sure your husband declared it one.”
“You figured it out.” The flat statement didn’t hide the rage in her eyes as I smiled.
“Joy…. Joyce.” I wandered a little closer as Duke continued to frantically shake his head. “Did your husband have any idea that you’d killed her?”
“No, he blamed Roy. He always blamed Roy, for everything. When the neighbor’s cat went missing, he suspected little Roy of killing it!” She shook her head, a fanatical gleam in her eyes. “My little boy would never. Just like he didn’t chase that little tart, Summer, through the woods. Oh, Roger accused Roy of stalking that whore, but I knew better. My Royce was too smart to be taken in by that little hussy. Always fliting around in her skimpy bikinis.”
I nodded encouragingly for her to continue as I assessed our situation. Apparently, it was like mother, like son, in this twisted little family and I was dealing with an enraged psycho who didn’t know her little boy had just been arrested for assault. Whether that information would come in handy or not, I hadn’t decided, but if nothing else it might stall her until Wade arrived with Jake.
I could only hope my heightened emotions had registered with Wade because otherwise the cavalry would not be arriving any time soon.
“Roger just knew Roy had killed Summer when he was called out to the lake that morning. She was floating there so peacefully.”
“After you smothered her and threw her in?”
Duke’s eyes rounded at my words and I realized he didn’t know the truth yet. He was finally able to spat out the gag she’d stuffed in his mouth and after a few attempts, gasped out, “She killed Summer?”
Hidden Secrets (The Hidden Series Book 3) Page 19
