Then he heard her in the bathroom heaving.
There wasn’t anything he could punch or shoot to cure morning sickness.
So after Remi shooed him away, Declan went to the kitchen and poured her a glass of water and took stock of what he had to eat. Nina, Caleb’s wife, had claimed that sour candy had been a lifesaver when she’d first been pregnant with their son. Madi hadn’t really felt sick with Addison but with her second pregnancy she’d always had crackers, some kind of Popsicle, and a lot of snacks. Declan hadn’t been grocery shopping in a hot minute. All he had that met the criteria was a bag of pretzels Desmond had left the week before.
They would have to do.
He plated some, set the water next to it, and brought his phone back out to him.
That was when he saw the missed call. It was from Cussler and time-stamped at just after three in the morning. It was now almost five.
There were no texts or emails as a follow-up. No voice mail, either.
Declan wondered if it had been an accident. His chief deputy was a married man and a father to four. Declan only liked to call him when it was absolutely necessary. He decided to send a text, instead. He put the phone down and the ringer up, surprised he’d missed the call in the first place. Normally he was a light sleeper. Then again, normally, he didn’t have a naked Remi Hudson in his bed.
No sooner had he set the phone down than the woman of the hour made her entrance. She was wearing another one of his old T-shirts. It was too big for her and somehow still she made it an attractive piece. The urge to rip it off her like he’d done earlier was nearly overpowering. She frowned at him, picking up on his thoughts.
“Don’t go getting any ideas, buddy. I feel like death incarnate. I know it’s cliché to blame you for how I feel right now, but—” she took a seat at the dining table next to him “—this is all your fault.”
Declan chuckled.
“The words every man wants to hear after a night of rolling around naked in bed with a beautiful woman.”
That pulled a smile from her. It was small but there. She motioned to the plate of pretzels. He nodded.
“I didn’t know if you would want to eat but read that if you eat a little every few hours that it might help with morning sickness, especially when you first wake up.”
Remi’s eyebrow arched high.
He unlocked his phone and found the app he was looking for. He tapped it and slid the phone over.
The surprise was clear on her face.
“You downloaded a pregnancy app?”
Declan shrugged.
“I figure I’m already behind on the game, might as well try to catch up best I can.”
Remi gave him a look he couldn’t quite place and grabbed a handful of pretzels.
“If I didn’t feel like I was about to be sick, starve, and cry all at the same time right now I’d kiss you.”
Declan smirked.
“And if you kissed me right now I might just destroy another one of my shirts.”
Remi’s cheeks flushed pink and she laughed.
“Smooth one, Sheriff.”
“I try.”
The phone between them buzzed.
Remi tensed.
“I missed a call from my chief deputy. I texted him I was up,” he explained, spinning the phone around to face him. “If something was wrong he would have called more than once or probably just come here to wake me up himself.”
He trailed off when the phone started to ring. He stopped whatever he was going to say and took the call right there. Cussler was quick and precise. He’d called Declan, then decided to let the sheriff get some sleep when he hadn’t answered. It was no secret Declan hadn’t gotten enough of it lately. Cussler recounted what had happened and had handled the situation.
Declan thanked him and ordered him to seek the same sleep he’d let Declan get.
As they ended their call, Declan was already slipping deep into his thoughts.
Finally Remi said, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
He didn’t answer right away. If it had been yesterday afternoon the new information would have been another piece in the bizarre puzzle. Another stroke of chaos. Another reminder that he had no idea what exactly was going on.
But Declan had since had some sleep, some comfort, and a woman who’d told a story about a rancher and a wolf.
Now he finally saw some sense in the chaos.
Declan met Remi’s gaze. She had a pretzel at her lips and was undoubtedly the most stunning woman he’d ever seen.
“I think it’s time I called a family meeting.”
Chapter Seventeen
The last time Remi had been in the same room as all of the Nash siblings, they had been in the loft of their stable and hoping they wouldn’t get caught by the adults they’d snuck away from. There had been others there, friends and crushes and hangers-on, because being a Nash in Overlook earned a certain amount of fame. Unwanted by them, given by most.
When the triplets were together, even more so.
Remi had never liked the attention thrust upon them. They clearly didn’t want it. However, talking to each as they showed up at Declan’s house, she was glad to see it hadn’t beaten them down.
Like their older brother, the triplets were and were not the same as she remembered.
Outside of the sheriff’s department, Caleb was smiles and humor. He had a coffee cup in one hand and a baby teething ring in the other. He declared to everyone that he’d found it in his truck and wasn’t going to let it out of his sight until he could pass it to his wife, Nina, since it was one of their son’s favorite things to play with. Love had drenched every word.
Madi, who been closed off to everyone who wasn’t her family when they were younger, embraced Remi with a warm hug. The scar along her cheek was just as noticeable as it had always been, but it did nothing to dampen her lighthearted spirit. She plopped down on the couch next to Caleb and started to tell him about her two children’s current favorite toys. One was the remote control to their TV. The other was a gardening bucket with a painted smiley face on it. Both laughed at that.
Desmond came in last. The limp he walked with hadn’t changed from when they were younger but there was definitely something different about it and him. A lightness? A carefree air around him? Remi couldn’t place her finger on it but accepted a hug from him with pleasure. He was a businessman who had spent his career helping others. He hadn’t had to come with Caleb to Heartland the day before, but he had, no hesitation. Remi thanked him for it and he accepted the kind words with a charming Nash smile before moving into the living room to sit.
Then there they were.
The Nash triplets.
Once they had been three eight-year-olds forced to live through trauma no kid should have to experience.
Taken from a park during a game of hide-and-seek. Hurt, scared and terrified.
Now three adults, happy and healthy—and no idea they were about to revisit a past they’d all seemed to move on from.
Remi knew this same thought was moving through Declan’s mind the moment he came in from the bedroom and saw them. He shared a look with her.
She tried on an encouraging smile.
It wasn’t missed.
Madi stopped whatever Caleb was saying to Desmond by putting her hands on both of their arms. They followed her gaze to Declan. The three of them looked up at their big brother as he pulled a chair from next to the dining table opposite them. He waited until Remi was sitting in the armchair before he started.
“I’m going to dive in because I’ve already held off telling any of you this for too long as it is.” Still, Declan took a breath before continuing. The triplets lost their earlier humor. Three sets of baby blues were focused solely on him. “The morning before Cooper Mann allegedly attacked Lydia Cartwright he asked to mee
t me because he thought he had information on a cold case. Your cold case.” The shift was subtle but there. The triplets tensed in unison. “He said a man in a fancy suit at the Waypoint Bar kept rattling on about a note in the wall at Well Water Cabin that law enforcement had missed. I thought it was a bunch of nonsense but, well, I had to check. Remi was in town and nice enough to indulge me with a fresh pair of eyes. Which made the difference because she found it.”
“A note in the wall?” Caleb repeated.
Declan nodded.
“It looked like a painted-over wallpaper seam,” Remi explained. “Basically it was glued against the wall in the paint. I almost didn’t see it.”
“What did it say?” Madi scooted to the edge of the couch cushion. Her darkened expression reminded Remi of how she’d often looked as a teen.
Declan pulled out his phone, selected one of the pictures he’d taken of the note and passed it to her. They took turns looking at it even though Declan answered.
“Justin Redman was the only thing written on it.”
“Why does that name sound familiar?” Desmond asked.
Caleb was quick to answer.
“Dad was on a case trying to find his attacker just before the abduction, right?”
Declan nodded.
“I took another look at the file last night to see if anything stuck out to me, but it was pretty cut-and-dried. Dad was about to go after his attacker hard and then had to let someone else handle the case after the abduction. Justin was killed in a car accident before another detective could take the case so it was ultimately dropped.”
Madi scrolled through Declan’s phone.
“I guess he got really lucky, then,” she muttered. Then she amended, “The attacker. Not Justin, obviously. You know how good Dad was at cases like that.”
They all nodded in agreement. Declan continued.
“Before I could really get a grasp of what we’d found, Cooper was arrested. I assumed he was pulling my leg with the note, painted it in there a while back and used it to distract me. Or it was a twisted way to drum up more publicity for himself after he tried to kidnap Lydia. You know how some of these bad guys love the spotlight.”
Desmond snorted.
“It would have been a doozy of a news bulletin, too. ‘A new lead following Overlook’s most infamous kidnapping case found at the same time local idiot kidnaps, or tries to, an innocent woman.’ If he did it for attention he’d surely get it.”
“But you didn’t go public with the note.” Caleb’s voice held an edge. He was angry he hadn’t been told. Not only was he Declan’s brother, he was one of his detectives.
“We had to handle the situation as delicately and quickly as we could, given the town’s history,” Declan defended. “I had to put the maybe of the abduction case on the back burner while I dealt with the very real and present attempted abduction. And all before the press tore into us to make that job harder.”
Madi continued looking at Declan’s phone. Desmond nodded. Caleb was satisfied enough not to argue.
“Cooper denied he attacked Lydia and said she attacked him, mutilated her face with his keys, and then jumped into his car. A witness saw him and assumed he was pushing her inside. He said he was trying to get her out while Lydia swore up and down that he attacked and was trying to take her when we interviewed her. I was going to dig deeper into Justin Redman, still, but the next day I got distracted again.”
“Claire’s Café?” Madi guessed.
What had happened across Main Street had already circulated twice over throughout the county.
“Yeah,” Declan answered gruffly. “A man jumps out of a car outside, attacks a woman, and I give chase. Once he’s standing still he tells me, in so many words, that he wanted me to chase him away from Claire’s. I run back to find out a man and woman, both wearing suits, had come inside and shot a man in the arm before escaping back to their car. They then go and pick up the man I’d been chasing.”
None of the triplets commented. Again, they knew this part.
Well, most of it.
They didn’t know why Remi hadn’t been shot and, somehow, the news hadn’t made its way to them.
“And then we have yesterday,” he continued. “I talked to Cooper on a hunch and became convinced he’s not lying.”
“Then Jazz and I figure out that Lydia Cartwright didn’t exist, at least not online, until five years ago,” Caleb supplied. “And you go to her house and find out it’s empty, meaning she lied.”
Remi hadn’t known that part. She gave Declan a questioning look. He returned it with an apologetic one.
“I was heading to Heartland to talk to Jonah again. See if he knew anything about the house and why she’d lied. But changed course here when Cooper’s grandma showed up to plead his case. I saw you in the field before I ever made it off Winding Road.” He redirected his attention to his siblings to, she guessed, tell them about what had happened on Heartland before they’d met in the field. However, the words stuck in his mouth.
Declan became angry. A muscle in his jaw twitched. His hands fisted.
Remi spoke for him.
“My brothers, Dad and I were making some food when Lydia showed up. She said she had come for me, not Jonah, and immediately attacked. I was able to get her out of the house, but she opened fire.” Remi felt her own bad memories tensing her body. She took a breath and skipped the heart-wrenching parts. “It wasn’t until I made it out to the barn behind our house to where Jonah and Josh were that I found out there were four men with her, all armed. I shot one in the stomach before Josh was shot. After that we managed to ride off. My brothers said no one spoke to them or around them when they were trying to hide. If—if my dad heard anything, it might be a while before we can find out what that was.”
Each Nash gave her a sympathetic look. She was thankful they didn’t say anything. There wasn’t much reassurance they could give her at the moment. Sometimes a look of understanding or a pat on the back helped more than words. A sentiment the family was, no doubt, well versed in by now.
“Which brings us to early this morning,” Declan continued. “Cussler called this morning to tell me that a man named Joe Langley was taken to the ER early. He was attacked during a jog through his neighborhood after he couldn’t sleep. He said a man in a suit came out of nowhere, did the deed, and left him with his phone to call for help.”
“It seems like the Fixers are our common link between everything that’s happened,” Caleb jumped in. “We might not be able to see their scorpion tattoos but their suits and frustrating-as-hell ability to stay a few steps ahead of law enforcement? It can’t be a coincidence.”
Declan shared another look with Remi. After his call with Cussler they’d spent the next few hours talking out his theory and going over what they knew.
Once again, Madi didn’t let the exchange lie.
“There’s more,” she stated.
Declan nodded.
“For the last few years the Fixers organization has been popping up in our lives. From talk about men in suits to men in suits actually showing up as hired guns, they’ve been around. I have no doubt that the man at Waypoint Bar was a Fixer, the two men and woman on Main Street were Fixers, and even Lydia and the men at Heartland were Fixers. But, what is the only thing we know about them?”
“They do what they’re paid to do,” Desmond offered.
“Which means that someone out there is pulling the strings.”
“But why?” Madi asked. “And to what end?”
Declan sat up straighter and then domed his hands over his lap.
Remi knew what he was about to say and yet goose bumps erupted across her skin when he said it.
“The woman outside of Claire’s Café wasn’t just attacked. She was pistol-whipped in the face. The man inside the café, Sam, was shot in the arm. The side of the ar
m. And Joe Langley had his leg broken. Badly.” Silence filled the room so quickly Remi felt suffocated by it. Declan caused that silence with his deafening theory.
She looked at Madi and the scar that had been created by being pistol-whipped.
She looked at Caleb, remembering the scar across his arm from a bullet grazing it.
She looked at Desmond, the man who had grown up with a limp after having his leg broken from the sheer force of a man twice his size.
No one moved.
Declan had to bring the conversation home.
“I think everything that has happened in the last week is because someone is sending us, the Nash family, a very personal message.”
* * *
MADI TOUCHED HER scar. Caleb rolled his shoulder back. Desmond put his hand on his knee. Then the three did something that only they seemed to be able to do on occasion.
They said the same thing at the same time.
“Why?”
Remi’s brown eyes found his. Sometimes he believed they were a dark amber, beautiful and dangerous depending. Her brow was pinched, expression thoughtful. This was a question they’d already tried to tackle in the early hours of the morning. In fact, the case had become the only thing they’d talked about since Cussler had called.
Yet, here they were with no clear answers.
“One theory is someone is trying to rattle us. Maybe someone from an old case is ticked off at Caleb or me. Maybe someone is angry with Des because of the work he’s been doing with the foundation. Maybe it’s a blast from the past who’s angry with Madi.”
“But we know who it is,” Caleb said. “It’s the Fixers. We find them, we find answers.”
Even though he said it, they both knew that was a tall order. As much as it pained Declan to admit, finding the Fixers was a damn near impossible feat. Over the years they’d managed to catch a few, but once behind bars, the Fixers died by their own hands or another Fixer.
That was how their reputation had grown so much and so quickly.
They rarely got caught and, even if they did, they took their job, client and any other nefarious details with them to the grave.
Last Stand Sheriff Page 14