by Cari Quinn
November had always been her favorite time of the year. Crisp and cool enough for layers, but not completely lost to mittens and hats, or the burrowing parkas that kept out the whipping cold.
But not this year. This year just felt cold.
There’d been lies in the blurry lines between summer and fall—when she’d thought she might be okay again. Now it felt as crushing as the last time she’d left. The home she’d been building with Logan felt like it belonged to someone else. That she was hurtling down the highway to a stranger’s house.
She stroked down Fiona’s dense fur at her scruff to the bulky undercoat that covered her belly. Living in the cold of Maine had filled her out with her winter coat. Would she like Winchester Falls?
Bella lifted her head and stared into the all-too-knowing silvery blue of Fiona’s eyes. The dog’s heavy pink tongue swiped up her cheek. “Thanks, girl.” She slipped out from under the heavy dog and into the front seat.
The green sign off the highway read four miles to Winchester Falls.
He gave her a tight smile. “Almost home.”
She nodded and twisted her fingers into a knot on her lap. She hadn’t even seen the town before they left. They’d gone straight from the hospital to the cabin.
The access road to Logan’s—their house—required a trip through the town.
God, she didn’t know if she was ready for that.
She’d imagined the scenario a dozen times, but none of them included running to Winchester Falls with this still hanging over their heads. It had been more of an end game. That she’d face it when everything was over.
But it was never going to be over.
The library and town hall came into view and her belly cramped. She took a long breath and looked at the floorboard. She knew exactly what she was going to see. The park and the gazebo. Not the stage. Not this time of year.
She lifted her gaze to the salon. Swishing leaves danced down the sidewalks. No matter how many times George swept out the front, they blew across the street from the Town Square and escaped the half wall from the park.
There was a new bench in front of the Mad Hatter. Scrolling iron work and a wide seat that invited someone to sit. Instead of plain wood, it was candy red with an outrageous paisley painted on it.
She placed her hand over Logan’s arm. “Stop.” He eased to the side and parked in front of the storefront.
“Izzy.”
She shook her head. “I need to get out.” She opened the door before he could say another word. A warm breeze lifted her hair and tossed it around her head as she stepped out to the sidewalk.
There was a cutout in the wood, more ironwork with a familiar name created in the swirls.
Nichole.
She sat down on the glossy and unapologetically in-your-face seat. Nothing around it was like it. A few more benches had been installed since they’d been gone, but all of them paled in comparison.
The sound of heels on cement dragged her out of her head.
“Bella?”
She looked up as Skye Delgado came rushing down the stairs and right for her. She stood and her friend crashed into her. The familiar scent of Estée Lauder’s Beautiful wrapped around her a moment before Skye’s arms.
“Oh my God. I didn’t think we’d ever see you again.” She pulled back, her wide dark eyes sheened with tears before she dragged Bella back in for a spine-cracking hug. Skye might only be five feet tall—well, five and a half with the stilts she wore—but she was petite and lush at the same time and man she was strong.
They’d instantly bonded over Valentine’s espressos and being new shop owners in a town that hadn’t had anything new in twenty-five years.
She dragged Bella to the bench and sat down. “Are you okay?”
“I saw the bench and I just couldn’t—” She swallowed down another wash of tears.
“Oh.” Skye swiped her hand over the lacquered seat. “After you moved up to the cabin,” she paused and smiled briefly up at Logan, “Nic and I started having coffee here in the mornings.”
Bella nodded. “She always talked about it. That you were her sanity when Adam—” Bella bowed her head.
Logan stood beside her, a soothing hand on her back.
Bella took a shaky breath. “When Adam was driving her crazy.”
Skye shrugged. “I had to do something. I needed to remember her and all I could think of was her lipstick. That she wouldn’t want some boring bench with her name on it. She’d want this.”
Bella’s eyes filled. “No, she wouldn’t. She would have painted the whole store in crazy colors if I’d let her.” She stared at the sidewalk. Their store was across the street. She couldn’t stand the idea of looking at it. Knowing that everything was gone.
Logan’s hand moved up to tangle in the hair at the nape of her neck. Quiet and supportive even as part of her wanted to shove his hand away. She leaned into his side. He tensed and she looked up.
Jacob Stack was striding across the street from the grocery store. If Mayor Darcy was the matriarch of Winchester Falls, then Jacob was the patriarch. Two people couldn’t be more different and alike in the entire town. But they both loved it with a singleminded determination that couldn’t be denied.
And when he dragged her up and off the bench and into his arms, Bella wasn’t sure what to do with herself. The tears she’d been battling choked her and she clutched his back.
Jacob had sheltered her in the storm of the paparazzi, he’d stood up for her against Sharon when she’d taken over the Festival planning, he’d always been there in the background.
“Ah, Bella, we missed you. We’ve been so worried about you two.”
She pulled back and smiled up at him. “We had to go.”
Tanned and lined with years of farming, his face melted into a rare smile. “I know it. We all knew it, but we were afraid you were never coming back, girl.”
She stepped back next to Logan and slipped her hand in his. “It was time to come home.” She looked up at Logan and his red eyes and granite jawline. The emotion was just as close to the surface for him, too.
This was his home, not just hers. It had been his for far longer. Logan was right. It was time to fight for their home. She twisted her fingers in Skye’s for a moment before letting go and moving around Logan’s Escalade.
People were standing out in front of their stores. Shopowners and customers—faces she’d come to know in the years she’d been in town. She threw her shoulders back and crossed the street to the first place she’d settled into.
She’d been an apartment dweller in New York City, a college nomad, a woman who’d created her entire empire online, but this brownstone had been the first place that had truly felt like home. The life she’d created with Logan had been the second. The cabin near the falls had become theirs.
But this was hers.
It had been hers with Nic and Adam. Her only family until Logan.
Logan slipped his hand in hers as she came up to the front of the store. The front window had been boarded up, the glass swept away. But the scorch marks remained. The old door they’d been so proud of was charred and the brass hinges glowed out of the inky stains.
Amazingly the stairs to the lower level were barely marred. The corner of a paper tacked to the front fluttered in the breeze. She went to the stairs and Logan pulled her back.
“It’s okay. I need to see it.”
Large block letters explained the status of the building, but the only word that was important in her mind was one.
Condemned.
Her vision blurred. Late morning sun slanted across the white and yellow form letter. Logan curled his fingers over her shoulders. “I’m rebuilding.”
“I wouldn’t expect any less.”
“I have an idea.”
He pressed his cheek to her temple. “I’m probably not going to like this, am I?”
“Probably not. We’re going to need Marcus.”
“Can we trust him?”
He asked the question that she’d been asking herself the entire car ride there. She didn’t know the answer. But something had felt off since she’d looked at the pictures. “We’re missing something with those pictures. I know it. I don’t think we can do this alone, Logan. It’s too big—and Aimee has too much influence.”
But she had an idea that was probably going to make Logan go off the deep end.
Thirty-Two
Logan felt naked.
Standing in the middle of the sidewalk with too many people around them had him crowding into Izzy. Memories of another time when he was in this exact spot crawled up his spine. The acrid scent of smoke and paper, of burnt plastic and his own fear.
Of the red and orange blaze that had lit up the sky.
Inky skies and so many stars—a clear night that should have been perfect.
All he could see was the ravages of her store and billowing smoke.
Nichole’s twisted body out of reach.
He closed his eyes and shook his head.
Izzy curled her fingers around his hand and upper arm as she pulled him out of the wreckage of memory. Of almost losing her.
He wanted to bundle her up and put her back in the truck.
What had he been thinking coming back here? This wasn’t the place to fight Aimee. They’d lost every damn time.
She pulled him away from the building to the crowd of people that had gravitated to them. Jacob with his arms crossed and a pair of his sons flanking him. Genevieve standing in front of him with her stone gray hair flowing around her shoulders. Skye and the shopkeeper from the clothing store down the street.
Mayor Darcy came forward from the back of the pack. White blazer over crisp black slacks and white blouse. “It’s about time you came back home.”
Logan moved toward her and pressed a kiss to her papery cheek. “I missed your gorgeous face, Sharon.”
She reached up and tapped his jaw. “Charmer.”
Isabella craned her neck. “Cameron, are you back there?”
Logan looked down at Izzy. The spark of determination in her eyes made him proud and scared the holy hell out of him at the same time.
“Yeah, I’m here.” He came around the side with his arms folded across his chest.
She squeezed Logan’s hand.
The nerves alive in his chest flowed out to a full body assault. Shit.
“Okay. I know a lot of you have figured out some of what happened over the summer.” She lifted her chin and shook her hair back. Exhaustion and fear had curled her into a ball on the ride in, but now she seemed more like the Izzy he’d met that first day in late August.
A ballbreaker.
Confident and unafraid.
Fuck, she was gorgeous and breathtaking.
But fear clawed up his neck and strangled him. She had a plan. And he was so beyond fucked. Isabella Grace in determined mode was like a tornado.
He knew her well.
Had fallen smack in love with that Izzy more than a year ago.
“What you might not know is that it wasn’t an accident.”
The crowd murmured and everyone started talking at once. She held up her hands. “Logan and I left because we were afraid. We’re not afraid anymore. We need to show everyone that we’re not going to hide anymore and that Winchester Falls is stronger than ever.”
“Oh shit.” He tightened his hand around hers. “Iz.”
She turned to him and rubbed her hand down the middle of his chest. Apology lit her eyes, but she wouldn’t be deterred.
“We’re coming out of hiding on Saturday night. A benefit concert at The Barn. To remember Nichole and raise money for Adam. Spread the word.”
Well, crap.
Jacob, Cameron, and Sharon came forward.
“We should discuss this, Isabella.” Sharon folded her arms, mirroring Jacob.
Izzy walked over to Cameron and hugged him. The usually reserved Cameron bowed his head into her shoulder and crushed her to him.
Jealousy coated Logan’s throat and threatened to burn through his common sense. He knew there was nothing there on Isabella’s side for the man, but Logan knew a man an inch away from being in love. Logan had known it when they’d been finishing The Barn. He couldn’t blame him, but it didn’t mean he had to like it.
Friend or not—and he and Cam had been friends for years—he was prepared to rip one of Cam’s burly arms off and beat him with it. But he stepped back and Logan relaxed.
“You scared me, Bella. And then you didn’t let me come see you.”
“I know. Nic.” She lifted her shoulder. “I didn’t handle it well.”
“None of us did.”
“I know. And I’m going to make up for it. I need your help with The Barn. We’re going to have extra security.”
He nodded, pride lighting his eyes. “Whatever you need. This town missed you.” He looked up at Logan. “Missed both of you.”
“Isabella?” Sharon said.
Logan stepped next to Izzy. Whatever she was planning, he had to at least look like he wasn’t in the dark about it. “Sharon, we’ll keep the town safe. I promise. We have people that will make sure of it.”
Izzy nodded. “We need to show everyone that Winchester Falls takes care of their own.”
“Nichole would be proud. The hospital for Adam is crushing them in debt. We’ve had a few town meetings about raising money. And The Wolfes will take the help if it’s from the town.”
“I hope so.” She looked up at Logan, tears in her eyes. She missed her family and if he could do anything to help, he would.
Logan drew her into the street and across to the Escalade. “Think maybe you should clue me in on this kind of stuff? You know, before you take over the world.”
“I knew you’d try and talk me out of it.”
“Why?”
“Call the guys in. We’re going to lure out a crazy woman.” She rounded the truck and got inside.
What the hell did that mean? Logan opened the driver’s side door with a sigh. Fiona popped up in the back, barking her fool head off.
“Hush now.”
“She really doesn’t like it when you leave her behind,” he said.
Fiona tried to scramble over the console to the front seat. Izzy rubbed her face against the dog’s neck. “I know, I know. We’re going home now though. Okay?”
Fiona knew that word and vibrated with it.
“Get in the back.”
Fiona whimpered but eventually calmed in the backseat as they made their way down Main Street to the access road up to the house.
Izzy dug her phone out of her sweater. He heard the familiar buzz of a phone rebooting.
“Are you sure about this?”
She held up a finger as she dialed. “Marcus? I know—” She cut off as he obviously gave her a lecture. Since Logan was usually the one on the receiving end of those, he didn’t envy her.
She sighed and punched a dial on the stereo. “He wants to talk to both of us.”
“Logan?” Marcus’s deep voice filled the speakers of the car.
“Yeah.”
“Before Bella so rudely cut me off last night, I was trying to explain to her that we had some additional information. We hadn’t been able to talk since I sent you the message about Bishop.”
Logan slowly made his way up the incline to the cabin. “Did he finally get details out of the kid?”
“Well, he’s not exactly a kid, Logan.”
Logan drew in a deep breath. “What did he say, Roth?”
“You were right. That year that he disappeared, DeSalvo wasn’t just going underground to get away from Aimee. He was in a facility.”
Logan’s eyebrows shot up. “What kind of facility?”
“I’m working on it. From the outside it looks like a drug rehab, but something is hinky.”
“Hinky?” Izzy questioned.
“Yeah. I think we’ve finally got something so I’ve got Aidan digging into it with our electronics g
irl. If there’s something off, Gracie will help us figure it out.”
“That’s great,” Logan said.
“Marcus, we need you out here. We want to lure Aimee out of hiding.”
“Well, she’s not hiding. She’s making herself as public a spectacle as possible.”
Logan opened the window and punched in the code for the gate, rolling into the gravel driveway.
Izzy crossed her arms over her stomach. “We need you to see what she did at the cabin. She’s losing it—there’s no way she’s not. Not with what she did. We need to push her now while she’s freaking out.”
“I thought you didn’t trust me.”
Logan winced at the coolness of Marcus’s tone.
“I don’t trust anyone right now.” Izzy’s voice was matter-of-fact. “She’s got way too much insider information. I don’t know how she’s got it, but she does. So we’re not hiding. We’re in Winchester Falls.”
“Are you nuts?”
He pulled up to the front of the house and parked, leaving the truck running. “Hear her out, Roth.”
“I don’t want to be stupid about this, Marcus. I swear I don’t. But the idea of Logan and me happy and making a life in Winchester Falls seems to set her off. I think we need to use that.”
“I’ll be there by this afternoon,” Marcus said. “I’m bringing a detail. No arguments.”
“None from me,” Logan said.
“Bring Sarah if you haven’t reassigned her.”
“She’s eager to be back on this job.”
“Good,” Izzy said. “I have a lot I want to discuss.”
Logan so didn’t like the sound of that.
Thirty-Three
Bella slid out of the truck. The familiar crunch of gravel under her boots made her heart stutter. She hadn’t been here since the explosion. She opened the back door and Fiona scampered out of the truck and bounded across the drive to the yard.
She barked and twirled around in a circle before returning to Bella. “Go on. Go explore.” Fiona cocked her head, her butt wiggling with the force of her tail wagging, but she wouldn’t leave her side. Bella rolled her eyes and went to the back of the truck to help Logan with their bags.