Being Lovers

by Rachel Carrington

  “I know. You needed your rest. Speaking of that, how are you feeling?”

  “Nice try changing the subject, but why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? You spent the night in Broomtown?” Each syllable drips with disapproval. No matter what Art says, Francine doesn’t want me anywhere near my hometown.

  “No. In Cranfield. Adam wanted to get an early start in town. We’re going to see Ike’s attorney first.”

  She makes an irritated noise. “The one that accosted you at the funeral?”

  “I wouldn’t say accosted, but he wanted to talk to me. Maybe I should have listened to him. I might have already had the answers I’m looking for.”

  “You’re not spending the night again, are you?”

  I could picture her lips pursed. “No. We’re talking to a couple of people then leaving.”

  “A couple? Who else?”

  “Mark’s friend, Jeremey.”

  “That loser who came to Juniper Springs? The one who got into a fight with Art? I don’t think that’s a good idea at all.”

  “Adam will be with me.”

  The reminder doesn’t stop her tirade. “That SOB is up to no good, Emily. I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. I wish you had waited until I could go with you.”

  “And this is another reason why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to get worked up like this.”

  “Of course I’m going to get worked up. It’s ridiculous to think I wouldn’t. You and Adam could be walking into a trap. That sniper could be anywhere.”

  “We’re safe as long as he doesn’t know where we are. Either way, we’ve got to get to the bottom of this, Francine. I can’t keep living in fear like this.” My gaze turns toward the door when I hear it open. I silently let Adam know who I’m talking to before continuing the conversation. “Adam is back, and we need to go. I’ll call you when we’re on the way back to Juniper Springs. We’ll be fine. I promise.”

  “You’d better be. Otherwise, I’m kicking Adam’s ass.”

  “You called her?” Adam hands me a cup of coffee when I toss my cell onto the bed.

  “I was worried about her.” I can hear the defensiveness in my voice, but I don’t apologize.

  “How’s she doing?”

  “Good enough to chew me out for leaving town without telling her.” I take a long, appreciative sip of the coffee. It’s a little bitter for my taste, but I’ll never turn down caffeine.

  Adam does a quick check around the room and in the bathroom before returning to zip the suitcase. “We’d better get going.” He juts his chin toward the bed. “Don’t forget your phone.” He’s got his hand on the doorknob when I call his name. “Yeah?”

  “Are we okay?” The knot in the pit of my stomach makes me ask the question. As far as we’ve come together, I don’t want to lose him. But I don’t want to hold onto someone who doesn’t want to stay.

  His hand drops, and he lowers the suitcase to the floor before walking back to me. He cups my face in his warm palms and gives me a long, leisurely kiss that melts me from the inside out. When he lifts his head, he’s smiling. “We’re more than okay.”

  My breath is lost so I can only nod, but the feeling of heaviness eases from my shoulders. The secrets remain, and the uncertainty hangs over us, but we’re together. For now, that has to be enough.

  Garrett Hein’s office is little more than a cottage tucked away on a backstreet at the edge of town. Though the yard is landscaped and neat, the exterior of the building needs a coat of paint and new shutters. The business sign swings crookedly from one hook, and Adam has to shift it to one side to turn the doorknob.

  A bell jangles, alerting the receptionist of our arrival. She looks up with a weary smile on her face. “Welcome to Mr. Hein’s office. Do you have an appointment?”

  “I don’t, but please tell him Emily Jacobs is here to see him.”

  Her brow furrows, but she makes the announcement to her boss by pressing the intercom button on the phone.

  “Send her in.” Hein sounds extremely cheerful and meets me and Adam in the hallway outside his office. He pumps my hand enthusiastically. “Miss Jacobs, I’m so glad you decided to return, and I do apologize for approaching you at the funeral. I had no other way of getting in touch with you.”

  We follow him into his office, and its opulence surprises me. Broomtown doesn’t bring in a lot of money from any industry. Most of its residents lived below the poverty line, but Garrett Hein doesn’t seem to have that problem. With gold statues, a thick Oriental rug, and shiny leather furniture, his domain screams wealth and prestige. And he probably earned every penny of it working for Ike Metzger. The thought turns my stomach.

  “Please sit down.” He sweeps a hand toward two chairs across from his polished mahogany desk.

  With his hand at the small of my back, Adam urges me to accept the invitation. I sit next to him, turning my body toward his. Hein plops down into the executive chair that squeaks. He folds his hands and beams at me.

  “Now then. I suppose you’re here about Mr. Metzger’s will. I can tell you that—”

  “Actually, we’re here because someone was hired to kill me.” My interruption flummoxes him, and he stares at me for several long seconds, blinking rapidly.

  “Well, I…that’s…and you think I might know something about it?” His face flushes.

  Adam leans close. “Do you?”

  Hein’s jaw snaps shut. “Absolutely not, and I resent the implication.” He rubs his hands almost frantically down the front of his sweater vest. “I only tried to talk to you, Miss Jacobs, because Mr. Metzger included you in his will.”

  “What?” I trade glances with Adam who looks as confused as I am. “Ike left something to me in his will?” I can only imagine what it is. Probably something to remind me of Mark in an attempt to torture me.

  Hein whirls his chair around, and using his feet, pedals toward a file cabinet a few yards away from his desk. He whips open the door to reveal a stainless steel safe inside. Keeping his back to us, he begins to turn the dial.

  “I can assure you, I know nothing about your situation, Miss Jacobs.” Hein huffs out a breath then tugs open the door to the safe. “All I know,” he spins back and lowers a wooden box onto his desk top, “is that this belongs to you now.”

  Adam slides to the edge of his chair and eases the box closer. “Do you have any idea what’s in it?” Though he addresses Hein, he’s looking at me. We both shake our heads.

  Before he can open it, I cover his hand with mine. “Not here. Not now.” Whatever is inside that box, I don’t want to share it with Ike’s lawyer in case he really doesn’t know. If it’s Ike’s intention to humiliate me, I’d prefer not to share it with a stranger.

  Hein looks disappointed, but he doesn’t comment on my decision. “Now that we’ve taken care of that, my secretary will see the two of you out.” In a manner that’s way too eager, he stands and gestures toward the door.

  Neither one of us get up. Adam shakes his head. “Not quite yet. You knew Ike Metzger probably better than anyone in this town which means, more than likely, you have information that can help us.”

  “Information that is protected by privilege. If you knew anything about this side of the law, Sheriff Madison, you’d know that a client’s privilege doesn’t end with death.”

  “I do know that, Mr. Hein, but you may be able to answer a few questions that could potentially help us, that could protect Miss Jacobs. Whatever Ike might have thought about her in the end, he knew how much his son loved her. I doubt he’d have a problem with you offering what assistance you can to help us catch the man trying to kill her.”

  The attorney’s lower jaw works as though he is chewing a piece of tough steak. “I don’t feel comfortable talking to you about Mr. Metzger or his personal business; however, I’m not opposed to general questions.”

  “We appreciate it.” Adam inclines his head as though acknowledging the great sacrifice Hein is making. He sits back in the
chair and slouches down a little, probably to put the lawyer more at ease.

  Hein folds his hands atop his desk and transfers his gaze from Adam to me. “So how do you think I can help?” A bead of sweat dots his upper lip, and my gaze is drawn to it.

  “Do you know if anyone was threatening Ike?” Adam’s question surprises me. It paints Ike as a potential victim which we both know isn’t the case.

  “No, I don’t. Mr. Metzger wouldn’t share information like that with me. We had strictly a professional relationship.” He runs a finger over his lip to erase the wetness.

  “Have you had any break-ins or seen any suspicious characters sneaking around your office since his passing?” Adam’s voice remains low and sympathetic.

  Hein’s brow furrows, and he looks toward the ceiling before returning his gaze to Adam. “Arlene, she’s my secretary, mentioned one guy neither one of us recognized. Said something about needing to pick up something that Mr. Metzger had left for him here. But I was out of the office, and he didn’t leave a name or phone number. Not that there was anything here.”

  “See,” Adam shifts in the chair to lean closer to the desk, taking Hein into his confidence, “we believe someone was blackmailing Ike, and that same person is trying to kill Miss Jacobs.”

  The lawyer’s gaze shoots to the left then the right before settling back on Adam’s face. “I did have a potential new client who came to see me a few days before Ike’s death. Honestly, he looked pretty shifty so I wasn’t sure I wanted to help him. I had to leave the office for a few minutes, and when I got back, I caught him going through my files.” He indicates the filing cabinet with the point of his index finger. “I’m probably one of the only business in town that maintains hard copy files instead of electronic.”

  “Do you think this guy saw anything?”

  Hein sucks in his lower lips then shrugs. “I can’t be sure, but I did see him talking to Mark Metzger a few days later in the town square which I found odd. When I asked Mark, he just said the guy was an old friend from school.”

  Adam stands and offers his hand. “Thank you for your help, Mr. Hein. I appreciate it.”

  “Not at all. I would ask that you keep my name out of any investigation, of course.”

  Adam gives him a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “Of course.”

  “Unless my investigation skills totally suck, he knows more than he’s telling.” My fingers are linked with Adam’s as we walk to his truck.

  “They don’t suck at all. Hein’s will protect Ike Metzger with his last breath which is why I had to make it sound like Ike had been in some kind of trouble.” He taps the packet of paperwork Hein gave him against his palm. “Whatever information is in here, it’s not about our guy. Hein’s too smart for that.”

  I let go of Adam’s hand to grab hold of the door handle on the passenger side, shifting the box to my right hip. “Now that we’ve talked to him, I don’t believe he didn’t know what Ike Metzger was really like.”

  “He knew, but he was paid well to turn a blind eye to what really goes on in this town.”

  “You’ve got some balls.” Jeremy Braddock’s gravelly voice catches Adam before he’s fully in the truck.

  Adam adjusts his grip on the handle and swings his booted feet to the ground before slamming the door of his truck. “I’ve never had any complaints.”

  Jeremy lumbers forward across the parking lot of Hein’s office, long arms swinging. “I thought you said you were done with this town after the funeral, Emily. You know you ain’t welcome here, and neither is your boy toy.”

  Eyebrows rising, Adam leans one hip against the front fender of his truck. “Not that it’s any of your business, but we had a few loose ends to tie up here.”

  Mark’s best friend hitches his pants up and trains a steely-eyed gaze on Adam’s face. “I’m making it my business since seeing either one of you here is bound to stir up some bad memories for the people in this town, people, I might add, who only want to get back to living life the best they can.”

  “You mean without their idol?” I come around to the front of the truck to stand next to Adam.

  Jeremy points a finger at me. “What you did almost destroyed us.”

  I’m not the same woman who’d lived under Mark’s boot for seven years so his best friend’s words propel me forward. He’s taller than I am so I have to tip my head back to see his face. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Keeping a blind eye to Mark’s activities suited you, and maybe that was your own form of self-preservation, but he wasn’t the saint you thought he was.”

  Jeremy’s hands clench at his sides. “You might want to back up, Emily.”

  As the tension climbs, Adam takes hold of my arm and gently guides me back to his side. Then he takes a few steps forward to put himself between Jeremy and any potential danger. “And you might want to think long and hard before you seriously threaten her.”

  “You don’t belong here.”

  Adam tips his head to one side and studies the younger man. “You served in the military, didn’t you?”

  The question takes Jeremy aback, and it takes him several seconds to respond. “What business is it of yours?”

  “You own a truck, maybe one with military-grade tires?”

  Jeremy’s hands curl inward again. “If you don’t stop asking questions and get your ass back in that truck, you and me are gonna have a serious problem.”

  “I think we already do.” Adam closes the final gap separating him from Jeremy’s brawny form. “Because I think you know something about whoever it is that’s trying to kill Emily.”

  Jeremy’s eyes widen, and his gaze shoots toward me. “What? Trying to kill you? What is he talking about?”

  If he’s acting, he’s seriously good. Even I believe his surprise. “After Mark died, we found out he’d hired someone to kill me. That person is probably the same one that killed Mark and the sheriff here. We don’t know why the man Mark paid ended up killing him, but this killer has been shooting at me and my friends for weeks now.”

  Jeremey steps around Adam so he can face me full on. “You can’t be serious. Mark would never hurt you, Emily.”

  “Yeah? Is that why he killed her parents?” Adam comes back to my side.

  “I don’t know anything about that.” Jeremy’s chin goes up. “He didn’t talk to me about serious stuff.”

  “Then why did you come after me?” It’s freeing to ask the questions, to challenge these people who, with the help of the Metzgers, have had a hold over my life.

  He kicks at a stray piece of gravel. “Because Mark asked me to. He was worried about you. Look, whatever you’re thinking I know, I don’t. But I can tell you that Mark would never have hired someone to kill you. Yeah, he could get pissed off at you from time to time, and I know he could be an ass, but he loved you. All he wanted to do was keep you close. Maybe he went about it the wrong way, but I’d swear on a stack of Bibles he wouldn’t have wanted you dead.”

  “Unless he thought if he couldn’t have her no one else could.” Adam’s clearly not buying Jeremy’s story.

  “No way. I’m telling you that’s not Mark. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to have his ass kicked every now and then, but he’s not responsible for this.”

  “You sound so sure of yourself. Yet, you say you don’t know anything about my parents’ death, either. I’m finding it a little hard to believe Mark didn’t talk to you about it, maybe get you to help him cover up something.”

  Mark and Jeremey had been as close as brothers so he’s never going to convince me that he knows nothing. Mark killed my parents by staging a car accident, and unless he hired outside help, it was something he couldn’t have done alone. Though I was never able to prove it, the pieces fit, and Mark might as well have admitted his guilt to me the day I was arrested for shooting him.

  Jeremy shrugs his massive shoulders. “I can’t stop you from believing whatever you want, but I wasn’t a part of killing anyone or hiring
someone to kill someone. Like I said, Mark and I never discussed serious stuff. We just hung out, drank a few beers, and shot some pool. Occasionally, he would tell me how you were getting on his nerves, but that’s it. After you shot him, he asked me to see if I could find you.”

  “And, of course, Ike offered his assistance.” I wait for him to deny it. Instead, he looks away. “You knew what he was like, Jeremy. He hated me because he thought I didn’t love Mark enough, and he never thought I was good enough for his son.” Anger swells within me, and the memories I thought I’d buried with Mark come rushing back. “You can’t stand there and tell me you didn’t know how he treated me. And you did nothing.”

  “You didn’t do anything, either, Emily, and you could have left a long time ago. You made the choice to stay so I figured you knew what you were doing.” Jeremy’s voice is now high-pitched as he goes into defensive mode. “I don’t stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

  “You expect us to believe you’d be willing to risk your freedom for someone who didn’t tell you why?” Adam’s voice lowers when the front door to Mr. Hein’s office opens. “You knew going to Juniper Springs was risky, especially after Emily had already shot Mark. And that’s why you went. You were looking for a fight.”

  “Damned straight I was. I was pissed that she’d walked out on my friend, that she’d shot him. No, I didn’t know the whole story, but tell me you wouldn’t believe a friend you’ve known all your life. Mark had no reason to lie to me.”

  “Except he was the son of Ike Metzger, and we both know that man never met the truth.” I shift the box because it’s getting heavy. Without a word, Adam reaches over to take it from me. “So all of this anger you’ve had toward me, that’s because you think I had something to do with Mark and Ike’s murders?”

  “Someone killed them.” His chin juts out as though daring me to disagree.

  “But that someone wasn’t me. I was there with Mark when he died, Jeremy. I wanted him out of my life, but I didn’t want him dead.”

  “You shot him.” The accusation is forceful.