by Nicole Helm
“When this is all done, we’ll figure out both.”
She smiled up at him, sweet and hopeful, and he had to believe for the first time in a very long time things would work out okay. One way or another, he would find a way to get this future they were laying the groundwork for.
“I like the sound of we,” she murmured.
“Me, too.” Then he kissed her in the middle of Bent proper, with twinkling lights and quiet music and the odd hush of evening snowfall drifting around them.
Chapter Fifteen
Gracie’s heart was beating in overdrive as she and Will dropped each other’s hands before stepping into Rightful Claim. There was so much riding on this interaction and she was trying really hard not to get her hopes up, but how could she not?
All they needed was one clear-cut clue and this could be figured out in a matter of hours. But she also knew, through two years of living this mystery, it could stretch on forever.
Laurel and Cam sat at bar stools toward the back, Grady behind the bar. As Gracie walked toward them, Laurel leaned over from her side, Grady leaned in from his and they both grinned at each other.
Gracie wanted that. Laurel and Grady were as different as night and day, as Carsons and Delaneys, but they loved each other. They clicked. Despite the differences. It was special.
Cam watched Gracie as she approached, and she had no doubt that even though it felt like his eyes were on her, his attention was really focused on the table in the corner where Ty and who she presumed was Kayleigh were sitting.
Will hadn’t gone over there yet. He’d gone to the far side of the bar from where Laurel was and ordered a drink from Vanessa Carson, who eyed all the Delaneys on the other end suspiciously while she filled a mug with beer.
“Hey there, AOD,” Grady greeted, that razor-sharp Carson grin angled her way.
“Oh, we’re shortening it these days.” She took a seat next to Laurel. “Cute.”
“Well, I like to have nicknames for all the Delaney girls. Laurel here, for instance, is—”
Laurel leaned over the bar and slapped a hand to her fiancé’s mouth. “You rethink that line of conversation, Carson, or you will be very, very sorry.”
Grady laughed against Laurel’s hand and when she finally took it away, he winked in Gracie’s direction. “She’s crazy about me.”
Cam cleared his throat, and both Gracie and Laurel glanced toward the corner. Will was approaching the table where Kayleigh and Ty sat. Ty looked relaxed and polite if uninterested. The blonde who was certainly Kayleigh looked... Well, Gracie didn’t know if she was reading into things or what but she suddenly seemed uncomfortable as Will approached.
“I knew Ty wasn’t in here for a good time,” Grady said, disgustedly glaring at his cousin. “You owe me an explanation later, princess,” he muttered before heading down to the other side of the bar and Vanessa.
Gracie looked at Laurel wide-eyed when she didn’t pitch a fit at someone calling her princess. “You let him call you princess?” she demanded.
Laurel’s cheeks flushed pink, but she lifted her chin loftily. “We should focus on the task at hand.”
“Uh-huh.”
When Laurel and Gracie both looked again at the table in the corner, Cam shook his head. “You two focus on the bar and pretend to be gossiping,” Cam said. “They’re going to notice if we’re all three staring at them.”
Gracie turned back around and looked at the drink Grady had placed in front of her. She wasn’t going to drink it, so she stole a glance at Laurel, who was doing the same in her direction. “Princess? Really?”
Laurel glared at Gracie this time. “I love the man. Annoying nickname or no. You make certain allowances when you’re in love.”
Gracie tried not to flush under Laurel’s watchful eye.
“You know, love can be confusing. Sometimes incidents can cause people to confuse a certain shared experience or sympathy for—”
“Did I imagine you and Grady falling in love in the midst of you solving a dangerous crime that actually involved you being kidnapped for a bit?”
“That was different.”
“How?”
“We didn’t have a bunch of dead-wife baggage.”
“But you had plenty of Delaney and Carson baggage.” Which reminded Gracie of Ty’s little tidbit from outside, and the reason they were here, and a much more comfortable subject. “Did you know Jesse Carson is out of jail?”
“Yes, I’d heard. A week ago. I try to keep tabs on that psychopath. I do not trust him.”
“His name has come up a few times over the past few days and Will and I were wondering if he’s connected to all this somehow. He was Paula’s uncle, so not in any affair, but... I don’t know. There’s all these little clues and none add up, but we should see what kind of car he was driving two years ago. Just to be thorough.”
Laurel nodded. “I’ll have to go through the proper channels officially for the record, but I might be able to bend a few rules to get that information a little sooner on the down-low.” She frowned down at the drink she hadn’t touched. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“I don’t, either.” Gracie didn’t want to add to Laurel’s frustration, but it seemed necessary. The more they all knew, the more eyes were on the lookout. This needed to come to an end. “You know who drives that kind of truck.”
Laurel’s expression shuttered into something blank, and because Gracie at times had to use that expression in her line of work, she knew what it was. It was the mask you put yourself behind when something personal hit. But Gracie wasn’t a victim Laurel was trying to solve a case for.
Gracie reached out and put a hand on Laurel’s arm. “I don’t think it’s possible, but I think we have to look at every impossible angle. Especially with the history between him and Jesse.”
“We will look at every angle.”
“Laurel—”
Laurel quieted her with a steely-eyed glaze. “He’s my father, and I love him. But if he did something wrong, that won’t change what I have sworn to do or the laws I’ve promised to uphold. Quite frankly, he was one of the people who instilled that responsibility in me, so if he has anything to do with this, I absolutely will make sure he’s brought in.”
For some reason it made Gracie think about what Will had said earlier. You aren’t beholden to the people who love you. She had no doubt Laurel would do what was right, but she wondered if she was taking too much of that on herself. “I know you love your job, and you take it very seriously, but there are times when it’s okay to step back and let someone else handle something. You don’t have to take on every hard thing, especially if it involves people you love.”
Laurel stared hard at her hands, which she’d linked together on top of the bar. “If this all connects back to Paula’s death, I failed the first time around.”
“Hey. You know that isn’t true. You know you can’t blame yourself when you didn’t have the tools or evidence or means necessary to find an answer. We’re human.”
“Knowing something and feeling something are two different things. You can’t tell me that part of why you stuck in Will’s life so long was that Paula’s death weighed on you even if it wasn’t supposed to.”
Gracie considered that, but it didn’t sit right. Especially with Will’s words from earlier about not being beholden to people. Usually she’d accept Laurel’s view as truth even if it didn’t feel right, but she shouldn’t. She shouldn’t. “No. It was him. Not her, not the accident. Something about him.”
“Uh-oh,” Cam muttered, interrupting that moment with Laurel. He swiveled in his seat, ducking his head toward them. “Jesse Carson just walked in.”
Laurel swore, hunching herself around her untouched drink. “If he’s connected, I don’t want him seeing us here. Especially together. One at a time, we split up. Gracie, you go to t
he bathroom. Text Will to meet you back there once he can extricate himself. I’ll go up to Grady’s apartment. Cam, you follow me and go out the back. Watch the front for when Jesse leaves the bar, what he’s driving and what direction he’s going. Got it?”
Cam and Gracie nodded wordlessly.
“You first, Gracie. Keep your back to the front of the bar, but otherwise keep a leisurely pace. No attention drawing. No panic.”
“Yup.” She got off her seat and it was hard not to look back, to try to catch a glimpse of Jesse, or to see how Will was faring. But Laurel was right—even without a connection, Jesse was dangerous. They had to take every possible precaution.
She walked into the bathroom, stepped into a stall, then pulled out her phone and texted Will, hoping he wasn’t so focused on everything that he ignored his phone.
* * *
“WHO’S THIS?” A LARGE, balding man who looked like a stereotypical biker approached. His question was aimed at Kayleigh, and he jammed a thumb in Will’s direction as he asked it.
Kayleigh slid her hand over Will’s forearm and Will tried not to grimace. He was very much not used to women flirting with him anymore, and the fact she was Paula’s cousin and he was almost positive married, based on the ring on her finger, made it extra weird and a little gross.
“This is Will,” Kayleigh replied. “What are you doing here, Dad?”
“Got some business to take care of.” The man who, if he was Kayleigh’s dad, had to be Jesse Carson, eyed Will. “I know you?”
“Maybe,” Will returned with a casual shrug as he carefully pulled his arm away from Kayleigh. He hadn’t gotten much out of the woman. She kept going on about how talking about Paula made her too sad, or how the past was best left in the past. Even with Ty’s casual attempts at moving the conversation toward Paula, she didn’t bite.
Something about it was off, that Will knew, and the appearance of Kayleigh’s father confirmed all his suspicions. If only he could figure out what any of his suspicions actually meant.
Maybe Jesse was the answer.
“I was married to Paula,” Will offered when Jesse still said nothing else. “We didn’t attend a lot of Carson family functions, so I’m not sure we would have ever run into each other. But you were her uncle, right?”
Jesse grunted, narrowing his eyes at Kayleigh, and then at Ty. “So, who’s gonna go get me a celebratory get-out-of-jail drink? Ty? I’ll take something hard. Have Grady put it on my tab.”
Ty rolled his eyes, but he got up to do Jesse’s bidding nonetheless.
“And you,” he said, giving Kayleigh an intimidating glare. “You have to go to the bathroom.”
“Excuse me?” she all but screeched.
“Do as you’re told, girl. Or I’ll tell Cyrus a few things I don’t think you want your husband to hear about.”
Kayleigh huffed, muttering things about being an adult and not being bullied by her jerk of a dad, but she got up off her stool. “Whatever,” she muttered.
Will nearly jumped when her hand drifted across his butt as she walked behind him to go to the bathroom.
Jeez. He pretended to watch her go, but he was really scanning the bar for Delaneys, who had scattered and disappeared. He frowned and turned back to Jesse.
“Looking for something?” Jesse demanded gruffly. “Maybe a few someones.”
“Huh?” Something was off and weird. Why was this man maneuvering people so they were alone?
“I hear you’ve been looking into Paula’s death, that you think it’s shady. That true?”
Will’s throat felt dry but he took a sip of his beer and did his best to keep the building panic under wraps. “Never settled right with me. The way she died.”
“Me neither. I’ve been in jail, of course, but I had methods of investigation from the inside.”
Will didn’t trust this man, but all of this could lead him somewhere. “What exactly are you saying?”
Jesse leaned close. “I have information. Evidence. And it all ties back to your girlfriend’s uncle.”
Will’s body went to ice. Not just because Jesse was implicating Gracie’s uncle, but that he knew or assumed a relationship had developed there. He didn’t like Gracie being on this man’s radar, especially when tied to this. It hadn’t occurred to him it might be used to hurt her, and for the first time he regretted grabbing life by the horns before solving this mystery.
“You want the information,” Jesse continued in that low, conspiring tone. “Then you and the girlfriend meet me outside in ten.”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“And if you don’t, I guess you’re just out of luck.” With that, Jesse gave him a hard pat on his broken arm that had Will hissing in pain.
Jesse laughed as he sauntered out of Rightful Claim.
As much as Will didn’t trust Jesse, he couldn’t think of any reason Jesse would have to lie. To say he had evidence when he didn’t. He searched the room again, but all the Delaneys were missing. What the hell?
He fished his phone out of his pocket to find a message from Gracie.
Meet me in the back by the bathrooms.
He immediately moved for the back, trying to ignore the searing pain in his arm. Kayleigh bounded out of the bathroom and though Will tried to do a sidestep that would keep her from seeing him, she pounced.
“Hey, sweetheart. Dad gone?” She grabbed on to his good arm.
Will tried to extricate himself, but she only scooted closer, cornering him against the wall as she trailed a fingertip up the zipper of his coat.
“Look, I have to—”
The women’s bathroom door swung open again and Gracie stepped out. Thank God. “I have to talk to my girlfriend.” He slid away from Kayleigh’s body.
She scowled after him, and then at Gracie. “A Delaney? You can’t be serious.”
“It was nice seeing you, Kayleigh. See you around and all that.” Will waved awkwardly and walked over to where Gracie was standing by the door frowning. “Save me,” he whispered.
That frown didn’t leave her face, and she studied him, then slowly turned her gaze to Kayleigh.
“Aren’t you married to Cyrus Gentry?” Gracie asked, as if she was totally confused by the whole situation.
Will didn’t think she was.
Kayleigh huffed and turned on a heel, stalking back out to the main portion of the bar. Before Will could tell Gracie what Jesse had said, she peered up at him.
“Am I your girlfriend?”
Will rocked back on his heels, taken completely off guard by the question. “Er. Well, I mean, we slept together. Which was a first for you. I should hope I’m something to you.”
Her mouth curved, a small self-satisfied smile. He wished he had the time or place to enjoy it. “We have to go.”
“What?”
“Jesse told me he has evidence, but he’ll only give it to me if we meet him outside.” He took her arm and started propelling her toward the front. “Where did the other two go?”
“We didn’t want Jesse to see us.” She pulled her arm away, stopping them before they got into the thick of the bar. “We need to get Laurel before we go out there.”
“There’s no time. I don’t know how long he’s going to wait, and he said it was this or nothing. Text her as we walk out there.”
“Cam’s waiting outside to watch Jesse,” Gracie said, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “So we won’t be out there alone. Let’s go out the back.”
Will nodded and followed her to the back exit.
Chapter Sixteen
They stepped out into the back. It was weirdly dark, no Christmas or parking lights shining. It didn’t make sense, but Gracie was never out this late. Maybe there was some reasonable explanation.
The door to the bar snapped shut and they were plunged into almost c
omplete darkness. Will stopped walking, holding Gracie to get her to stop, as well. “Something isn’t—”
Someone in the dark snatched her phone out of her hand before she could hit Send on the text to Laurel. She reached out for whoever it was but found nothing but air. “Hey!”
“You won’t be needing that,” a low voice said, far too close to her ear. She moved closer to Will, but she could tell she accidentally jarred his broken arm by the way he hissed in a breath and she jumped back.
“Jesse, if you have evidence—”
“I’m in charge here, son. You’d do good to remember that.”
It was all wrong. Even though it was dark when it shouldn’t have been, Cam should be here. He was supposed to watch Jesse. Even if Cam was staying out of sight, he would have noticed the light situation and done something. Warned her or gotten Laurel or done something.
Now Jesse had her phone, and she might have written it off as threatening bullying but too much was wrong and off.
“I want my phone back,” Gracie said, determined to be strong and pretend like nothing was wrong.
“Little Delaney bitch wants her phone back. We all want something, sweetheart. Delaneys are finally going to be out of luck.”
“That’s enough,” Will said, a dangerous growl to his voice.
But Gracie knew they weren’t in control here. This was all wrong and they were in the weaker position. She tried to reach back for the door behind her, but a meaty hand curled around her arm.
“Let go of me,” she warned.
“Sorry, sweetheart. You’re coming with me.”
She tried to wrench her arm free, and she could feel Will moving forward. But there was a sickening crack of something, and then a thud.
“Will?” she whispered, suddenly boneless with fear, thoughts of fighting back disappearing as she tried to reach out for Will.
But Jesse’s grip only tightened.
“Might live through that. Might not.” Jesse’s voice was low and pleased. Gracie’s stomach turned as he started dragging her away.
She fought. Kicked and jerked and pulled, but he was so much stronger than her. When he got to a truck, the engine roared to life and as he jerked open the passenger-side door, the dome light came on to reveal Kayleigh Gentry in the driver’s seat.