Fate Actually: Moonstone Cove Book Two

by Hunter, Elizabeth

  Her heart sank, and she quickly exchanged glances with Katherine and Megan. Both of them looked as lost as she felt.

  “Ruben,” she said. “I know you don’t want to do that. You’re conflicted. You love this place.”

  “Yeah. You’re right, Toni. I do. But here’s the thing—” Ruben moved toward the pillar, keeping his gun trained on Nico. “I tried to make a good deal. I tried to get a little back for my family. If Whit Fairfield would have been decent, there would have been no problems. Nico would have eventually sold him the land, I’d have ownership in the winery, and all this would have been partly mine. Finally the Montenegros would have a little portion—just a fraction—of their own hard work.”

  Nico growled, “But I’m not going to sell, so no one can have it? That makes no sense.”

  “Sure it does. I’m blowing the tunnels, Nico. You didn’t even know they were here to begin with. The land stays yours. It probably won’t even hurt your precious vines. But you don’t get” —his voice rose— “to profit off of my family being cheated.”

  Toni was getting hard swings from Ruben, from frightened and conflicted to wildly angry and murderous. She wondered if he was drunk or high. “Ruben, if you’re going to blow up the caves, why not let us go?”

  “I do not want anyone stopping me.” He pointed at her. “And I know you’re friends with that detective.”

  “These tunnels are beautiful,” Megan said. “Ruben, these are works of art. Look at the love and pride your grandfather poured into them. You’re just going to destroy all that?”

  “Don’t you think I tried to save them?” He shook the gun in her direction. “Do you have any idea how I tried? I even got Danny involved. Danny!”

  “We’re trying to help Danny,” Toni said. “I talked to him, Ruben. He knows you’re not the kind of person to murder your boss in cold blood. He knew there had to be an explanation. Just like I know there has to be a way to resolve this.”

  “But I did kill Fairfield.” Ruben started laughing, and it was nearly a manic scream in Toni’s mind. He was breaking. Something about the man felt like it was breaking in half. “I went out there to meet with Danny that night, and Fairfield insisted on coming along. He said we needed to up the ante. That’s what he said. ‘Up the ante.’ Like it was a game or something. He wanted Danny to arrange an accident during harvest.”

  Megan gasped.

  “Yeah.” Ruben’s lips were twisted in a grimace. “I told him about my cousin, and he wanted to make Danny responsible for something like that? I told him no way. Danny was out of it. No more.”

  Grim satisfaction was all she was getting from Ruben now. “You don’t feel a bit sorry for killing him, do you?”

  “He brought that fucking gun to threaten me and my cousin that night.” Ruben pointed at the pillar. “I’d already talked to Marissa about using the divorce to get the land from Nico, but Fairfield told me he was on to us. He knew what Marissa and I were up to, and it wasn’t going to work.”

  “Did he threaten to fire you?” Katherine asked.

  “He did fire me!” Ruben barked a laugh. “Do you believe that shit? All my time, all my attention, all the extra hours worked? Gone. Like I was nothing. He fired me and then still expected me to convince Danny to cause an accident.” His face was twisted with hate. “Said he’d ruin me if I went to the cops or told anyone.”

  “So you beat him up?” Nico asked.

  “Yep.” Ruben managed to get another charge taped to a pillar, even while the gun stayed trained on Nico. “I figured I’d teach him a lesson for firing me. And for messing with Danny. For scheming with fucking Marissa. For fucking with everyone and not ever paying the price.” Ruben’s face grew red. “That’s really what it was, a big fuck-you from all the little guys to all the big guys. We do all the work, and they make all the money.”

  “If he attacked you, then it was self-defense,” Toni said. “Why don’t you turn yourself in and tell Drew everything? You’re right. No one liked Fairfield. No one thought he was a good guy. If you tell Drew he threatened you with the gun—”

  “Too late.” Ruben’s face was bleak. “Maybe I stay out of prison for that, but not for…”

  “Marissa.” Nico clenched his hands. “It was you who beat her up. You beat her so badly her brain just shut off.”

  “She’s a backstabber.” Ruben choked out the words. “I tried to talk to her, and she was so… smug. So confident that she’d be able to get everything for herself. She must have told Fairfield we were planning to cut him out. I guess she thought it would give her leverage? I don’t know. But she told him our plan. She told him everything.”

  “So you beat her?” Henry said. “She nearly died, Ruben.”

  “I struck back at a snake!” Ruben waved the gun in Henry’s face. “She wasn’t a woman, she was a snake.”

  A heavy, terrible feeling swelled in Toni when she saw the gun inches from Henry’s face, and something in her chest shuddered and clenched hard. She needed to get out of the cave. Something in her was breaking along with the last of Ruben’s self-control.

  “Let me go,” she choked out. “Ruben, you need to let me go.”

  “The air.” Henry put an arm around Toni’s shoulders. “She’s pregnant, okay? Take her phone if you want, but let her go. By the time she walks out—”

  “Pregnant?” Ruben laughed. “Oh, that’s rich. Just what this town needs. Another Dusi spawn. Probably another lying woman.” He shook his head and backed toward another pillar. “I’d be doing Moonstone Cove a favor if I got rid of a few pests, but I’m not like that.”

  A few pests?

  Was he talking about her and the baby? About Toni, Katherine, and Megan?

  Rage built in her, and the quickly mounting waves grew bigger and bigger until Toni felt like the whole of her body and mind was centered on Ruben Montenegro.

  She clenched her fist and felt like her skin would burst. “Ruben, you better let me out.”

  “Or what?” He laughed a little as he reached down for another stick of dynamite and a roll of duct tape hanging on his belt. “I’m not going to do that.”

  Toni felt the emotional signatures of everyone around her. Henry, strong and resolved. Nico, growing steadily more furious. Baxter and Katherine somehow melded together, both calculating and detached. Both splitting their attention between the terrified children they guarded and the violent man with the gun.

  And Megan.

  Megan was… not afraid. Not even a little bit.

  Feeling Megan’s calm centered Toni. What do you have up your sleeve, Atlanta?

  Megan stepped toward Ruben, holding up her hands.

  He saw her approaching. “Listen, princess, I’m going to need you to step back.”

  “I just want to tell you I understand. I understand all of it. How it feels when someone takes all your work, all your devotion and energy and love. And then just… spits on it, you know? Just treats all that devotion like it’s nothing.”

  Ruben pointed the gun directly at Megan and yelled, “Do I look like I need a fucking therapist?”

  Toni kept her eyes on Ruben. She pictured reaching out. She pictured taking his hand and making him sleepy. She pictured making him cry. She pictured making his head explode between her clenched hands.

  Megan didn’t stop inching toward Ruben. “I know how that feels, Ruben.” Her voice was low and soothing. “I know what it feels like to be unappreciated. Taken for granted.”

  She was standing a few feet away.

  Ruben said, “If you understand, then you know that you need to back the hell up.”

  Megan smiled sweetly. “I also know what it’s like when the people you love more than life itself are threatened by a disturbed asshole who cares more about some fucking useless holes in the ground than the safety of three children.” She lifted her hands, and Toni saw dust rise when a slew of loose bricks hurtled through the air and took aim at Ruben Montenegro.

  The bricks hit Ruben directly i
n the chest, knocking him to the ground.

  Megan lunged for the gun and screamed, “Katherine, run!”

  As if on cue, all the lights they’d been holding were doused in darkness, and Katherine, Baxter, and the three teenagers were swallowed in shadows.

  Toni jumped on Ruben, who was lying dazed at the base of a dynamite-clad pillar. She didn’t think. She didn’t hesitate. She put both her hands on his neck and sucked every bit of anger out of him, just like she had with Henry. Only Ruben was a lot angrier and a lot more disturbed.

  His eyes crossed and he jerked on the floor, turning on his side as his body shuddered and heaved like he was trying to throw up.

  And Toni? She stood up straight and started kicking the shit out of him.

  “You think you can threaten us?” She kicked the back of his legs. “You think it’s okay to beat up my sister-in-law?” She kicked his arms as he covered his head. “You think it’s okay to terrify children?”

  She was aiming for his head when Henry grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up and away from the man on the floor.

  Megan reached for a pile of rope in the corner, and the end flew to her hand. She looked over at Nico as she held the rope with one hand and the semiautomatic pistol in the other. “Do you know how to tie stuff?”

  Nico’s eyes were saucers. “How did you—?”

  “Can you tie shit up or not?” Megan wasn’t playing. “Henry, do you hear Baxter and Katherine and my kids?”

  “I don’t. Sorry, I’m kind of trying to—”

  “Let me fucking down I’m going to kill him!” Toni screamed and twisted in Henry’s arms. “I’m gonna kill that piece of shit!”

  Nico took the rope from Megan and started tying Ruben up. “What the hell is going on right now?”

  A small part of Toni recognized that she’d absorbed all the anger of a homicidal maniac who thought dynamite was a viable solution to his problems, but she had a hard time feeling her way around it like she had with Henry.

  Henry yelled, “Nico, I’m gonna take her out of here.”

  “Okay.” Nico’s gaze kept shooting to Megan while he tied Ruben up. “How did you do that?”

  “Can we talk about it later?”

  Henry carried Toni out of the cave and into the light where he finally set her down. Toni ran back toward the cave portal, but he just spun her around again.

  “Do I need to throw you in the creek?” He was scratching his head, clearly trying to figure out how to get her out of the murderous rage. “Toni, you’re gonna have to help me out on this one. I don’t know what to do.”

  “I don’t know either!”

  “Maybe you should run back to your house.”

  “Run all the way back?”

  “Try it.” He waved her toward the road. “Last time, getting you really exhausted helped. I’ll run with you. We’ll find Baxter and Katherine on the way.”

  They ran toward the road and spotted the truck’s dust in the distance. Baxter, Katherine, and Megan’s kids were already halfway to Toni’s house, which meant they’d be able to call the police soon.

  When they were nearly halfway to the house, Toni started to feel sick to her stomach. “Henry?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I think I’m going to throw up, and I don’t know if it’s because of the baby or the crazy murderer I just sucked the emotions out of.”

  “Either way,” he said, “you’ll probably feel better if you puke. This might be the one case where it’s better coming up than going down.”

  She was panting when she ran to the edge of the vineyard and puked her guts out. Breakfast, dinner, and lunch the day before. It was all gone.

  And she felt… oddly better. Still revved with way more adrenaline than was probably healthy, but she didn’t feel murderous anymore.

  “Oh God.” She heaved one more time, but there was nothing left. “I think I threw up all of Ruben’s breakfast too. Not sure how that’s possible, but there’s no other explanation.”

  Henry stayed beside her, rubbing her back and holding out a bottle of water.

  “How did I know” —he was panting from the run— “that I’d never be bored if I fell in love with you?”

  “Probably the same way I instinctively knew it was a good idea to fall in love with someone large enough to physically remove me if I tried to kick an asshole to death.” She took a giant mouthful of water and spit it out before she lifted her face to Henry’s. “Kiss?”

  He put his hand on her head and turned her face away. He couldn’t stop laughing even while he was panting. “You are so weird, and I don’t know why I like you so much, but I do.”

  Toni smiled when she heard sirens in the distance. “Come on, Henry. This day just got interesting.”

  Epilogue

  Two months later…

  The party was at Toni’s, and she and the kids were the only ones not drinking. The flagstone patio under the oak trees had been cleared, and lights were hung in the trees. Nico brought wine from the barrels they’d just started bottling at the winery, and Toni’s mother and sisters brought mountains of pasta and salad while Henry and her father cooked an entire side of beef.

  Katherine and Megan sat down at the old wooden table Toni had rescued from the barn.

  “The place looks amazing,” Megan said. “The garden is perfect.”

  “Goats.” Katherine nodded in satisfaction. “I told you they’d do a thorough job.”

  The herd of goats belonging to the college had done extraordinary work eating the brush around the barn and along the creek, leaving clear the areas around the house that Toni had wanted to plant. The small vineyard between the house and the barn was neat and pruned; Henry had already taken cuttings from the old vines to propagate in Nico’s greenhouse.

  “The goats were a good suggestion,” Toni said. “And the two of you… I cannot thank you enough.”

  After the craziness in the wine cave, Toni had been sick for over a week. She’d made it back to her house and been able to make a statement to the police, but when Henry led the officers to the cave where Megan and Nico were holding Ruben, Toni collapsed into bed and she could barely get out.

  She was exhausted and overwhelmed. She hadn’t known how Ruben’s wild and violent emotional state would affect her, but it had been far worse than she’d imagined. Henry wanted to take Toni to the hospital, but she refused to go.

  What was she supposed to tell them? So I sucked the hatred and anger from a violent murderer, and it put me a little off the entire world for a bit.

  She made it to her obstetric appointment a few days later with Henry’s help, but when she mentioned her exhaustion, the doctor cheerfully told her that was normal for an expectant mother “of her advanced age.”

  Bite me.

  Toni was too tired to say it, but she was thinking it. Thankfully, everything with the baby looked completely normal, and all her blood tests came back showing the mini-human was perfectly healthy and right on target for a spring due date.

  So Toni called her dad to cover for her at the garage, went home, and slept more.

  Katherine and Megan had no explanation for her exhaustion, and Henry was getting desperate when she could barely keep her eyes open for more than an hour days after she’d drained Ruben.

  Katherine had finally called their friends in Glimmer Lake. The only thing Robin, Val, or Monica could relate it to was the overwhelming state of exhaustion that sometimes plagued Robin after she’d spent a long time in communication with a troubled spirit.

  Their advice? Sleep. Rest. And be in the healing outdoors as much as possible.

  So Henry drove Toni to Moonstone Cove and sat next to her while she napped on the beach. She slept on a cot in the garden while he directed the goats and dug in the garden beds. And after days of sleep and more soup than she’d ever eaten in her life, she started to feel better.

  And Henry? Well, he kind of never left. Toni needed him, so he stayed. And then one day about a month aft
er the incident in the wine cave, Toni suggested he hang his clothes up in the closet she wasn’t using, and Henry said that was a good idea.

  And that was that.

  “Note to self.” Toni raised her glass of sparkling cider. “Do not suck out the emotions of a murderer ever again. It feels really gross and you won’t want to eat for a week.”

  “Probably a good idea in general,” Megan said. “Especially when I had it under control.”

  “I mean… the bricks were a good idea, but then you had to explain all our psychic stuff to Nico.”

  Megan craned her neck and caught sight of Nico standing next to Henry and Toni’s dad at the barbecue. “I think he can handle it.”

  In truth, Nico seemed slightly scared of Toni and all her friends now. Not that he hadn’t been busy himself.

  As the party continued and meat was carved at the grill, Nico’s son Ethan drove guests back and forth from the wine cave, which was in the process of renovation already.

  Katherine said, “Baxter just went down to check on the progress. He was very impressed. He said your cousin already has power to the caves and it’s even more impressive lit up.”

  “Henry and I walked down there a few days ago. It’s going to be amazing. I’m not looking forward to the extra people, but it’s going to launch Nico’s business to the next level.” She glanced at her cousin and her boyfriend. “Henry is over the moon.”

  “And how are things with your mom and dad?”

  “Uh…” That one was more difficult. “About the baby? They’ve been surprisingly… chill. Very excited about a new grandchild. My mom told me, ‘Toni, you could never do anything like the other girls your age, so what should I expect?’ Which is…”

  “Accurate?” Megan offered.

  She shrugged. “Pretty much. And my mom has only brought up Henry and me getting married two or three times, so that’s kind of nice.”