He shook his head with more force than before.
Then he shook the gun at her.
“But if William wants you so badly, then I’m going to cut through all of this madness and deliver you myself. If he won’t give me the book for covering up the murder of your whiny little brother, then I’ll sweeten the pot with the opportunity to finally destroy all of the family that destroyed William Reiner’s.” He motioned his head to the back door. “The only choice you get now is to come quietly or I’ll make a pit stop to kill your Detective Lovett, since I’ve heard you two have become so close.”
Millie went from standing still, wondering what the heck the ledger was all about, to making another not-so-great choice that day.
She ran.
Right at Gordon.
It caught the man so off guard that he didn’t pull the trigger until Millie’s hands were already pushing his wrist and arm up.
The shot exploded overhead and made an awful noise. Glass shattered. Someone in the store screamed.
Millie didn’t slow down.
Her momentum took them both backward, much like her fight with Jason. This time there was no wall right behind them. There was also a gun in play from the get-go. The ground caught Gordon just as he squeezed off another shot.
Millie recoiled on reflex as the sound pierced her ears.
It was all Gordon needed to throw her off him.
She tried to scramble back but it was too late.
Gordon turned the gun on her—
Then yelled as a man tagged in and threw a punch that redirected Gordon’s aim. The gun dropped from his grip and skidded across the floor.
Millie had hoped her savior was one of two men. Yet, as the newcomer turned, it was neither Foster nor Fallon.
“Cole?”
Millie had never seen Cole Reiner in person, but she’d seen his picture. There was no doubt it was him, dressed down but fiercely focused, and ready to tussle with the former detective.
When he looked her way and yelled, “Run,” Millie decided to let him have that tussle.
She scrambled to her feet and ran half-bent and stumbling to the double doors that led into the store. Once on the other side, she was met by nothing but the sound of ’80s music that looped on the overhead speaker and a commotion from, she guessed, the street. Any employees or shoppers must have run at hearing the obvious shots.
Millie was about to follow.
She tore through the toy aisle as another shot went off behind her.
She didn’t have time to wonder where it hit.
The sound of squeaking tennis shoes against the recently buffed floor shot another dose of adrenaline into her veins. Someone was coming toward her from the front of the store.
More than one someone.
Millie stopped and readied to pivot, going back a few feet to the midstore opening that cut across the middle of the space and aisles, but she ran out of time.
She watched, heart in her throat, as the two people she’d wanted to see most came into view.
Foster looked her up and down in an instant. He held his gun down at his side, and focus unlike any she’d seen yet was evident across his features. He ran toward her, saying something, but Millie didn’t hear it.
Her own focus homed in on the man who she’d been told that morning was dead.
But he wasn’t.
A look of relief and guilt washed over Fallon’s face.
If Millie had the time, she would have cried right then and there.
Instead, the world turned to chaos.
Everything that had slowed when she saw her brother, alive and well, sped up in a whirlwind of violence and sound.
The three of them came together just as the doors to the back banged open.
Millie didn’t look back but knew it wasn’t good.
Another gunshot sounded.
Millie went from trying to run to being caught off guard as Fallon tucked himself around her. Both staggered as Foster yelled out.
One last gunshot went off, but Millie couldn’t tell from where.
Instead, she fell to the ground beneath the weight of her brother.
The deadweight.
She held on to him as pain lit up her backside from hitting the floor.
Fallon wasn’t moving but Foster was.
She watched in what felt like an out-of-body experience as the detective ran down the aisle and right up to Lee Gordon, his discarded gun and the blood around both.
Foster had shot him, just as he had Jason to protect her.
But this time, he hadn’t been the one to take the bullet meant for her.
This time Millie did cry as her brother lay limp in her arms.
* * *
FOSTER SPENT A portion of his life not believing in good luck or bad luck, yet, three months later he was starting to decide it was okay to change his mind.
The bad luck had already happened, but no one realized how much until Foster had finally managed to get all parties together for a chronological and lengthy explanation of the last six to eight months.
And it had happened to the exact people who deserved it.
It was bad luck for Lee Gordon that, after years of helping a drug supplier in exchange for cuts of the money—which he had used to live an expensive lifestyle after retiring—that he’d covered up the death of none other than Cole Reiner’s childhood friend. A man Cole had decided to avenge by getting justice, even when it included dropping off everyone’s radar to find whoever was the dirty cop.
It was bad luck that William Reiner, who had realized the value of family in the last few years, had become so determined to find his little brother that he’d accepted the help of another little brother who had been looking for redemption.
It was bad luck again when both parties, looking for the same dirty cop, had gone about it by opposite routes. Cole had learned everything he could about those who had been a part of the corruption of The Flood and those who had managed to run from it while William and Fallon had infiltrated the drug scene that stretched across South Alabama to find the exact supplier who had worked with the same dirty cop.
It was bad luck that Millie Dean had refused to give up on her brother, no matter what anyone said, which led both to her and eventually Foster to confuse all sides involved.
And it was an extra dose of bad luck that Millie and Fallon had both missed each other so much near the six-month anniversary of him leaving that both had made impulsive choices.
Fallon had befriended and then stolen from Jason Talbot the one piece of evidence that eventually led to proof that Gordon had been involved in several transactions, deals and cover-ups, while Millie had gone to the woods, making Jason think she was working with her brother.
Everything else that had followed eventually turned into good luck for everyone who deserved it in the end.
William Reiner was reunited with his brother and Cole was able to provide leads to several cold and closed cases that had potentially been tampered with before The Flood happened. He also accepted a job back at the department with every intention of going for detective in the near future. June, his now fiancée, had been beside herself at his homecoming. So much so she’d announced she was ready to go to jail for drugging Millie and Foster.
It was an admission no one accepted and the only area of transparency everyone involved believed could stay a little opaque.
Then the focus turned to Fallon.
For all the trouble he’d put Millie through, Foster should have felt some anger at the young man. Yet the moment Fallon had shielded his sister from Gordon’s last shot in the grocery store, Foster had decided he could never do wrong by him. He’d been as brave as his father had the day he’d shielded Fallon.
And it was only after Millie realized that Foster had given her brother the Just in Cas
e bulletproof vest to wear before they’d gone into the store, that she pulled Foster down to their level with a strong embrace and a passionate kiss.
The good luck had continued from there on by way of the town, county and state covering the intricate story of two sets of siblings fighting for justice and each other with the help of the sheriff’s department. It didn’t make anyone forget about the town’s past, but it was a step in the right direction.
“Keep it up and we might turn this place around yet,” the sheriff had told Foster on the way out.
Foster aimed to do just that.
But not without doing a few things first.
Foster parked outside his house but walked up his neighbor’s drive instead.
The front door opened before he could knock.
Fallon was grinning. “I’m not supposed to say anything yet,” he confessed hurriedly in a whisper. “But Millie just got accepted. Full scholarship. She told me it wasn’t a big deal but when she tells you, make sure to hype it up.”
Foster did a little dance of excitement. Fallon joined in. After the world had settled around her, Millie had decided that she wanted to become a social worker and had applied for an online program that, according to her, was exactly what she hoped to get.
“I love where I am right now,” she’d told him. “And I love the people I’m with. If I can do both, I’d like to try.”
Now Foster didn’t need to promise to be excited for her. He genuinely was.
Both men went quiet as Millie herself appeared in the doorway. She leaned in for a kiss that Foster turned into a dip.
“And that’s my cue to go gag inside,” Fallon said around a bite of laughter. He went inside and told Larissa and Amanda, loudly, that his sister was making out with her boyfriend on the front porch.
Millie shook her head, smiling when the kiss was done.
“Are you sure you want to switch houses with him?” she asked for the fifth time that week. “Living with me and having my brother as a next-door neighbor? That’s almost a comically bad idea.”
Foster grinned. “Don’t you know? I eat bad ideas for breakfast.”
Millie rolled her eyes. “The only thing you eat for breakfast is scrambled eggs with spoons because, for whatever reason, you keep throwing away your forks.”
He let out a howl of laughter at that.
“You caught me doing it one time and now I’m marked for life!”
“All I’m saying is that when you officially get all moved in, I’m going to make sure my forks are already counted up,” she said, hands going onto her hips. “I will not stand a fork thief!”
Foster got a squeal out of her as he pulled her in against him. The kiss they shared next quieted them both in the best way.
He wouldn’t say it for three months—the night they’d get engaged—but in that moment Foster knew one thing with absolute certainty.
His luck had changed for good the moment he’d met Millie.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9780369709004
Uncovering Small Town Secrets
Copyright © 2021 by Tyler Anne Snell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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“Hello?” the detective said after answering on the first ring. Samantha was surprised to hear that he sounded wide-awake.
“Detective Har—I mean, Gregory?”
“Yeah, hey. How ironic that you’d be calling me at this ungodly hour. I was actually just thinking about you.”
“Were you?” Samantha asked, momentarily forgetting all about her home being vandalized. “What were you thinking about?”
“I just finished reading your latest blog post about Jacob. This is great stuff, Sam. I mean, you did go in on Collin pretty hard, but you presented some solid evidence that backs up your claims. And I love the way you concluded the post. ‘Come on, people,’” he read. “‘Do the right thing. Come forward. Speak up. Be heard. Help bring justice to Jacob Jennings and his family. Because as we all know, someone knows something…’ That’s really awesome, the way you worded that ending.”
“Thanks, Gregory. Unfortunately, the post really struck a nerve in a certain someone here in Gattenburg.”
“What, did you receive some negative feedback on it?”
“Worse. My house was just vandalized.”
Cold Case True Crime
Denise N. Wheatley
Denise N. Wheatley loves happy endings and the art of storytelling. Her novels run the romance gamut, and she strives to pen entertaining books that embody matters of the heart. She’s an RWA member and holds a BA in English from the University of Illinois. When Denise isn’t writing, she enjoys watching true crime TV and chatting with readers. Follow her on social media.
Instagram: @Denise_Wheatley_Writer
Twitter: @DeniseWheatley
BookBub: @DeniseNWheatley
Goodreads: Denise N. Wheatley
Books by Denise N. Wheatley
Harlequin Intrigue
Cold Case True Crime
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Samantha Vincent—A popular true-crime cold-case blogger who’s determined to uncover the truth behind an old friend’s murder.
Gregory Harris—A devoted police detective who’s torn between joining forces with Samantha in the pursuit of justice and remaining loyal to his brothers in blue.
Ava Jennings—Samantha’s friend who turns to the blogger for help in solving her brother’s mysterious death.
Jacob Jennings—Ava’s dead brother, whose body was found near Westman’s Automotive Factory, where he worked as a team assembler.
Collin Wentworth—A known troublemaker who was Jacob’s childhood friend. He currently manages Westman’s Automotive.
Walter Wentworth—The chief of police in Gattenburg, Illinois, and Collin’s father.
Kenzie Stevenson—Jacob’s coworker at Westman’s, Collin’s ex-girlfriend and an anonymous source for Samantha.
Victor Elliot—Gattenburg’s well-respected mayor.
Hudson Taylor�
�Another coworker of Jacob’s and an anonymous source for Samantha.
Axel Guzman—A well-known member of the Midwest drug cartel.
To my mother, who’s the most glamorous bookworm I know. Thank you for introducing me to the wonderful world of Harlequin all those years ago.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
CHAPTER ONE
Samantha Vincent flinched when the coffee shop door slammed shut behind her. She stared down the dark, vacant street in search of her car—she hadn’t realized she’d parked so far away.
The temperature had dropped severely since she’d arrived at the café. There was now a stinging chill in the night air. She set out toward the sidewalk, tightening her houndstooth-patterned scarf in an effort to block the wind as it whistled eerily past her ears.
Samantha had spent the day working on her popular true crime cold case blog, Someone Knows Something, and time had gotten away from her. By now, businesses were closed and most residents of small-town Gattenburg, Illinois, had retired for the evening.
A frigid breeze whipped through her golden-brown bob and blew open Samantha’s black wool peacoat, sending unsettling shivers throughout her entire body. But it wasn’t just the icy climate that had unnerved her.
She was still rattled by an email she’d received from Ava Jennings, an old high school friend whose family Samantha had grown close to after spending countless days at their home during her teenage years. In her message, Ava pleaded with Samantha to investigate her brother Jacob’s mysterious death, which police had just officially stated was cold with no leads.
Harlequin Intrigue July 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Page 38