Texas Girl Grit: Sequel to Texas Hellcat (Texas Series Book 2)

by Shelley Stringer

“Sean. He and Aaron jumped in immediately when we got there and heard you scream. Sean said he grabbed you and pulled you free as Aaron struggled with Scott. He surfaced with you, I pulled you out of the water, and he went back for Masen as I ran you to the truck.

  “Sean…he and Aaron are okay?”

  “They’re fine.”

  I took a deep breath. “What happened to Scott?”

  Liam’s eyes changed, his expression darkening. At once I saw it all cross his demeanor…hate, the disbelief Scott had done the evil things he’d done, the betrayal he felt by someone he’d been friends with--someone he’d trusted. Betrayal by someone he’d loved as a brother.

  He’d trusted him to protect me.

  He’d trusted him to protect Masen.

  I knew, in my heart, it was going to take a great deal of acceptance and self-forgiveness to make that veil of darkness lift.

  I reached to touch his jaw. “Liam?”

  His lips thinned, his nostrils flared. “He’s dead. Once he knew we had you and Masen, it was as if he quit fighting Aaron and Sean. They had to surface for air. They said he never did. Aaron and Bud stayed behind for a bit, waiting for him, but he never came up.”

  I shuddered. My gaze met his as he lifted his head once again. “Are they sure?” I whispered.

  He raised his chin, nodding once. “The police called. Divers found his body this morning.” Then he let out a long sigh, running his fingers through his hair. “I don’t understand. Why would he do this? Did he hate me that much?” he asked, looking up at me inquiringly.

  “I know why.”

  His eyes widened, waiting for my explanation. As I started to respond, Sean pushed through the door.

  “You look much better this morning. Blue is not a great skin tone for you,” he teased, leaning across the bed to kiss my forehead and then tapping Liam on the shoulder. He then sank down in the chair beside us. “Why so grim?” he asked, looking back and forth between us.

  “Scott,” I explained, glancing back to Liam. “He was ranting and raving out of his head yesterday morning. When I asked him about Jen and then questioned where Aaron was, he went off. He was drinking, and the drunker he got, the more he ranted. He said he was trying to make his father proud, and do what he wanted him to. He said he’d never been able to gain his father’s favor, even when he killed his own mother for him.”

  My voice began to shake, hearing myself repeat the words Scott had muttered the day before making me realize how twisted and dark he was.

  “Jesus,” Sean said. “He always said his dad was a dick, and he didn’t have a relationship with him. But this,” he trailed off.

  Liam spoke up. “He told me, once, his dad didn’t claim him, and cut him off after he lost his scholarship at UT. But he never said who his father was.”

  “Senator Reeves was his father. He told Scott to break into my apartment – he was the intruder. He told him to rape me at the spa. He told him he wanted to get me out of the picture. And all Scott wanted was to make Reeves proud.”

  You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Both of their incredulous expressions urged me on. “Then he blamed both of us,” I said, motioning to Liam and back to myself, “for killing Reeves. And he resented you because your family was in politics too, but in his eyes, your father loved you unconditionally and you could do no wrong. I think he was jealous of you. He called you the ‘golden’ boy.”

  “Shit,” Liam exhaled, dropping his head in his hands. “I practically served you up to him!” He pushed his hair back again agitatedly. “A dozen times he could have killed you,” he swore, pushing up to pace the room.

  “Don’t do that to yourself, man. None of us suspected him,” Sean tried to reason.

  Liam stopped and turned to look at me sadly. “Kelly did. She tried to tell me about the weird vibes she got from him. The duct tape she found in the Escalade after the attempted rape,” he trailed off disgustedly.

  Then the full tragedy came rushing back to me. Tex coming for me, laying on the floor, talking to me through the door to the cellar.

  “Liam,” I choked out. His eyes shot to mine, and at once, he turned and returned to the bed, sinking down beside me.

  “What is it?” he asked softly, taking my chin in his hand.

  “Tex,” I whispered chokingly. “Scott shot Tex.”

  Liam pulled me up and hugged me to his chest. “I know, Baby. We found him after Allie called me, frantic she’d sent him to get you and then never heard from him again.” He rubbed my arms soothingly and pulled away a bit to look at me. “I can’t believe he joined forces with Scott to torment you with the blackmail notes,” he started, but then drew his brows in question when I shook my head.

  “He was in on it, but he had a change of heart when Allie talked to him.” I hiccupped, my emotions getting the best of me as I braced myself for having to tell Liam about Allie. “Scott hurt…Scott hurt Allie.”

  Liam closed his eyes and nodded. “Allie told me as much. She told me she told Tex about Scott abusing her, and she begged him to go and get you.”

  I nodded at him. “He did, that’s why he came to the farmhouse, Liam. He tried to save me. He said he was sorry,” I sobbed, the tears flowing freely now. “He thanked me for helping his Allie-girl, and he was sorry. Tex died trying to save me.”

  A tear slipped down Liam’s cheek as he pulled me tightly to his chest.

  “You have to know that, Liam. Deep down, he was a good man.”

  Liam gripped me tighter, his shoulders beginning to shake. My heart hurt for him as he mourned Tex, letting his defenses down and becoming that little six-year old boy who idolized his larger-than- life grandfather.

  I was relieved I could at least give him that.

  Sean cleared his throat. “Sorry about Tex, man. Have you talked to your mother?”

  Liam took a deep breath, composing himself as he released me and squared his shoulders. “Yeah. I called her last night. The police had already informed Dad, and he broke the news to Mom and Allie.”

  “Are you going to tell them about Tex’s involvement in all of this?” Sean asked gently.

  “No, man. Let’s keep it between us, yeah? The police don’t have to know he’d helped Scott, unless they uncover a money trail. DNA and Kelly’s testimony should be enough to close the case on everything Scott did to her. All anyone has to know is Tex went to get Kelly and Masen to safety after Allie told him about Scott, and Scott killed him.”

  I nodded to him, still teary-eyed. Liam lifted his hand and brushed my hair back off my forehead. “Baby, is that okay with you?”

  I smiled at him through my tears. “Of course, Liam. I forgave your grandfather the minute he called to me through the door. And before he died, he told me the tape of you and Texanne at the hospital was staged.”

  Liam nodded and pulled me to him once more. Sean rose and leaned over to kiss me on top of the head, tapped Liam’s shoulder, then left.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  A s far as we knew, the police investigation only entailed confiscating all the evidence from Scott’s apartment and cell phone, and confirming our testimony. The sex tape and audio tape were history, now only existing in police files as evidence of Scott’s being my stalker and blackmailer. His DNA matched samples of hair and skin taken at the scene of my attack at the spa and samples taken from the murdered sorority girl, closing that chapter of my life.

  There were no charges to bring against Texanne. As Liam pointed out, there was no way to prove she knew about the blackmail, and her only motivation could have been wanting Liam for herself.

  I was in bed, a couple of weeks after Tex’s funeral. I grinned as I listened to Liam humming as he patted Masen to sleep. After a few moments, he returned to our room and sank down on the bed. Flipping the lamps off, he then pulled me into his warmth.

  “He’s restless tonight, doesn’t seem to want to go down,” he murmured into my hair.

  “It’s hard for me not to get him and put him in
bed with us,” I said.

  “I know, Baby, but it wouldn’t be good for him in the long run. He needs to be comfortable in his own bed.”

  I nodded and answered into the darkness, “He’s having nightmares. Maybe he dreams about drowning or the cold water. I know he’s still a baby, but we don’t know what he remembers.”

  Liam sighed in the darkness. “Let’s hope he remembers nothing about those last few hours.”

  “I talked to Hallie about that. She said if he is having nightmares, they should go away. She says she doubts he’ll have any lasting ill effects.”

  “What about you?” Liam turned to me. “Have you talked to Hallie about your nightmares?”

  I nodded. “Of course. She says it’s to be expected, with what we went through for months with the blackmail, with the trauma of being shot by Reeves, then almost losing you, and then finding out Scott was behind most of it. But she says the dreams should fade with time, when I realize deep down Scott and Reeves are not coming back.”

  “She said ‘deep down?’” he asked with a chuckle.

  I slapped his shoulder in the dark. “You know what I mean. Her words were ‘subconscious or unconscious’ or something,” I corrected, giggling at myself.

  “I’m glad to hear you laugh again.” he said.

  “Yeah.” I sighed, thinking about Tex’s funeral and the sadness which had surrounded Liam’s family. I’d never seen as many dignitaries as I had the day of the service. There were numerous old, South-Texas families represented that day at the ranch. Tex and his wife had made many friends through the years, and I began to doubt my initial assessment of the man. He must have been a different person before politics, power, and losing his wife had hardened him into a control-hungry power broker.

  “I guess it’s all over, now. We can breathe easy?” I said, more of a question than a statement.

  Liam sighed, then reached down and grasped my knee, hitching it over his legs. He tangled us together every night, like he couldn’t get me close enough. “Well, yeah, the worst is over, I guess. The Texas Rangers called me yesterday.”

  “I thought they’d closed the case,” I murmured, caressing his chest with my fingertips.

  “They have. But there were some numbers in Scott’s cell phone records to Mexico. We were almost sure they were connected to the drug cartel. But one number was a match. I never got the chance to tell you, but while I was in the hospital, the Texas Rangers found the helicopter that attacked the house.”

  “Yeah, I saw it on the news in the waiting room at the hospital.”

  Liam continued. “It was a rental. After forcing the pilot at gunpoint to target our house, they landed in a field, in a secluded area south of San Antonio. The chopper pilot was murdered, execution-style. And there were two other bodies, illegals, found in the chopper with the pilot. One of the cell phones recovered from the scene recorded a call thirty minutes before the attack. That call was made from Scott’s phone, Baby.”

  I shivered, thinking about how close Liam had come to losing his life. “Do you think the cartel is done with us?”

  “No. Not until something is finished with this border bill, and the Mexican Government gives us real cooperation in fighting the cartels. But we’ll be vigilant. We’re as safe as we can be.”

  We were silent for several minutes, Liam stroking my arm.

  “What did your dad want earlier when he phoned?”

  Liam sighed in the darkness. “To let us know about the will. They met with Tex’s lawyers today and had the final reading.”

  “Oh.” I hadn’t given it much thought. I knew Liam, Ethan and Allison had already inherited their trust funds, and much of the business was already in Davis, Liam and Ethan’s capable hands.

  “The ranch and main house, of course, he left to Momma,” he murmured, continuing to brush his thumb on my shoulder. “The corporations he had were set up to fall directly to me, Dad, and Ethan, holding the controlling interests upon his death.”

  “None of that is a surprise, right?” I asked, turning to look up at him in the dim moonlight.

  “No, we already pretty much knew how everything would be dispersed. The surprise was the investments and money he had we didn’t know about.”

  “And what was that?”

  “What he left in trust for his great grandkids, and for you and Chelsea.”

  I pushed up on an elbow. “What? Me?”

  “Yeah. That’s the great thing about all of this, Kel. He changed his will the day after I was shot. He called his lawyers in and had them add you and Chelsea. He made provisions for fifteen-million dollar trusts to be set up for each of us – me, Ethan, and Allison…to be split among our children and any future children we have, for them to inherit on their twenty-first birthdays.”

  My hand dropped to my belly, knowing our daughter already had a trust in her name. Liam’s hand covered mine.

  “That means he’d already changed his mind about you, even before Allie told him about what you’d done to try to help her. It proves your point--deep down, he was a good man and he loved his family.”

  I moved to snuggle into his neck, covering as a sob escaped.

  “I can’t tell you how much it means to me, knowing that,” he said, his voice tightening as he choked out the words. “And Masen,” he said, his voice steadier as he whispered our son’s name.

  “What about Masen?” I asked, pulling back. Tex had let me know, with his comment at Thanksgiving at the farm about being “that little bastard,” how he felt about Masen.

  “I know he was sorry about how he treated you and Masen, because he left ten million in trust for Masen specifically, in addition to the fifteen million to be split between any other children we have.”

  I was speechless. I couldn’t believe he’d made such a turn-around before his death. Maybe it was almost losing one of his grandchildren. Maybe it was seeing how happy Liam was with me and Masen. Or maybe it was seeing Allison interact with me, with Sammy and Masen at Thanksgiving.

  No matter what had caused his heart to change, I was grateful.

  “The fact he loved us in the end is worth much more than the money,” I said, my own voice breaking.

  “Yeah, Baby…it’s everything.”

  * * *

  “Come on, Hellcat. That’s enough, Baby.”

  I moaned again, gritting my teeth as another contraction hit. My labor had started in the middle of the night. By morning, I realized it wasn’t false labor. It was three weeks early, but once I’d admitted to Liam I’d been having contractions since midnight, he’d rushed me into Austin. We’d been in this room ever since. My water broke once they had me in the hospital, but things hadn’t progressed since then. That was twenty-four hours ago. They couldn’t give me an epidural because they said it would slow down my labor, and I hadn’t dilated enough. Shutting my eyes, I saw stars, then blackness as another pain ripped through me. I could barely focus on him or anything in the room.

  “I’m having her naturally. I can do this,” I whispered.

  “Any change?” Liam asked.

  “She hasn’t dilated past a three, and the monitors indicate the baby’s heart rate shows distress. We need to do a C-section.”

  The doctor had examined me, but the next contraction had me back in a fetal position. Liam mopped the perspiration from my brow, bathing my face with a wet washrag.

  “I want to have my baby. I want to see her. I want to see Liam holding her,” I argued. I’d dreamed of our delivery room moment. I had the fantasy suffering through natural labor and her delivery, I could work through my guilt about my past. I’d even admitted as much to Liam a few nights before I’d gone into labor.

  “You’ve been in labor thirty hours, Kelly. Your body can’t take much more,” Dr. Fisher said. “Liam can be there through the surgery. Think of your baby,” he added.

  “Okay,” I whispered, giving in.

  “Thank you Jesus,” Liam said. “My Hellcat, so stubborn,” he added, his lips at
my temple.

  My eyes opened as the waves of nausea passed, the ebbing contraction taking them with it. I knew it would only be a moment before the next contraction hit me. Liam kissed me again, then stood as the nurses surrounded my bed to move me to a gurney.

  “Please don’t leave me,” I begged. Liam turned and grabbed my hand.

  “Only long enough to get him in some scrubs,” the doctor replied. “He’ll meet you in the delivery room.”

  Liam squeezed my hand, the tears in his eyes sliding over. “They can’t keep me away. I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he said, releasing my hand as we passed through the doorway.

  I counted the lights as we whizzed down the hallway.

  I focused on the voices in the delivery room. With bright lights surrounding me I couldn’t find darkness even when I closed my eyes.

  I counted as they leaned me over to start the epidural. I’d made it to fifteen as the next contraction hit. I had no idea how I’d stay still through it.

  And then the pain stopped. The minute the drugs hit my system, I was relaxed, euphoric even.

  “I love you,” I said to the guy who’d pushed the gigantic needle in my back. He chuckled, helping me to lay back down on the table.

  “I love you, so, so much,” I repeated.

  “I get that a lot. Too bad it’s usually happily married pregnant women,” he sighed, shaking his head.

  The room filled with people as a screen was wheeled over my middle. Someone grasped my hand. I could feel him against my temple at the head of my bed. Then Liam’s eyes came into focus, framed by the green cap and mask he’d donned. I could tell from the crinkle at the corners of his eyes he was laughing.

  “Baby, tell the doctor one more time you love him, and I might have to deck him.”

  “I think he’s an anthestiticsan…and anthestestical…an antetestical,” I mumbled. Liam continued to chuckle. “I love you too, so, so much,” I added.

  “That doesn’t carry a lot of weight after you said it to him,” Liam replied, nodding to the guy beside him. They both laughed.

  “Mrs. Covington, can you feel this?” a disembodied voice asked from behind a large screen at my chest.