Ashley Ridge (Haunted Hearts Series Book 3)

by Denise Moncrief

  “A man?”

  “But I have no idea who might have followed me out there.”

  “No clue?”

  “None.” A mystery. Unsolved.

  If Josh couldn’t identify who attacked him, then Courtney’s ordeal wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. Because whoever was out there, was probably looking for Courtney just like Josh had been.

  Chapter Four

  As soon as Ashley pulled into her driveway, she spotted Josh McCord and Tori Downing on her front porch. She groaned. Now wasn’t the time for a confrontation with Josh. And why would he bring Tori with him? She’d only met the woman once when Gray brought her to the hospital to see Josh. They weren’t friends, or even acquaintances.

  She shoved the gear into park, grabbed her purse from the passenger seat, and pushed her door open. Before she could get out of the vehicle, Josh was in front of her.

  He looked like hell. The bruises on his face left over from the pounding he’d taken out at the Jepson place were fading, but he showed signs of fresh cuts and abrasions, and his limp was even worse than it had been before the beating. He pressed his hand against his side.

  How was the man ever going to heal if he kept getting into scrapes?

  She was about to ask him what he was doing out of bed and out of jail. Shouldn’t he still be hospitalized? And hadn’t Gray arrested him for the murder of Jared Crenshaw? Before she could ask anything, he tore into her. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you for hours.”

  How was that any of his business? He had no place in her life. Not anymore. Yet he had the habit of appearing on her porch whenever he felt like it. Unannounced. Each time Terrance found out about Josh’s visits, Ashley suffered an onslaught of verbal abuse. Terrance’s jealousy could quickly turn to molten wrath. Would he find out Josh had been there? It didn’t matter. The inevitable was coming at her. Terrance hadn’t yet given her much grief for begging him to help Josh, but his vindictiveness was barreling down upon her like a fast-moving train.

  “I’m not in the mood for company, Josh.”

  He blocked her from climbing the porch steps. “Did you turn off your cell phone or something? An investigator with the State Police has been trying to contact you.”

  That stopped her. “Why?”

  “Because I thought Lucy Kimbrough might have done something to you.”

  She pressed her lips together, trying to recall the name. “Okay, I give up. Who is Lucy What’s-Her-Name?”

  “Kimbrough. She’s…she was a Hill County Sheriff’s deputy. She’s dead.”

  “Okay.”

  She still had no clue what he was ranting about.

  Tori Downing descended the three steps from the porch to join them. “The woman hinted she might have hurt you. Josh was just trying to find out if you were okay.” Tori’s explanation came across sounding like a rebuke.

  Ashley tugged at the shoulder strap of her heavy handbag. “I don’t know her. Why would she try to hurt me?” She pushed past them and unlocked the front door of the house. Before inviting them in, she glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching. “Come in. I have a feeling I need to hear about this.” Once inside, she shut the door behind them. “So tell me what happened? Why would someone I don’t know want to hurt me? Does this have anything to do with you?” She directed her steady gaze toward Josh.

  He had the decency to hang his head, but just for a moment. “She’s someone I should have never… She thought I was… She had it all wrong.”

  “Really, Josh?” Tori hammered him with a hard tone.

  Her eruption took Ashley by surprise. Tori’s angry voice was slightly scary.

  “After all we just went through, you can’t even tell it to her straight?” Tori kept her eyes trained on Josh, but addressed Ashley. “He slept with the woman, and she became insanely jealous of every other woman he’s ever been with. That includes you. She mentioned you specifically, Ashley. So yeah, he was worried enough about you to make sure you weren’t dead or something worse.”

  Josh made an odd noise, something between a laugh and a gasp, kind of like he was strangling. “What could be worse than being dead?”

  His flippant words stabbed her in the heart. Ashley turned her back on them and dropped her purse on the coffee table in the small front living room. Josh followed her from the foyer and plopped into the nearest chair while Tori stood under the arch between the front entrance and the living area.

  “Oh believe me, there are a few things that are worse than being dead.” She turned her fiercest glare toward Josh.

  He recoiled, but then regained his equilibrium. “I suppose there are.”

  She sighed and rubbed the ache in the back of her neck. “So what happened?”

  “Lucy forced me to go with her out to Victoria House.”

  Ashley looked him up and down. “Josh, how could a woman force you to do anything?”

  “She pulled her gun on me.” His voice squeaked.

  Apparently, admitting that a woman could overpower him had embarrassed him. Ashley stared at him but he turned his head, his neck flushing pink.

  “Go on. What happened at Victoria House?”

  “She took me upstairs and that’s where… That’s where she’d dumped Caroline’s body.”

  Ashley’s stomach turned over. “Caroline? You mean Gray’s Caroline?”

  Tori sucked in a ragged breath. After Ashley had first seen Gray and Tori together, she’d wondered how close the two of them were. Now she knew.

  Ashley’s hand flew to her mouth. Josh seemed to jolt out of his embarrassment and leaned forward, a strange excitement radiating from him, almost manic, but not in a good way. His flip-flop moods were starting to freak her out.

  “She was dead. Her throat cut. Just like Jared Crenshaw.”

  Ashley lowered her tired body onto the sofa across from Josh.

  “Lucy said she was going to take me to Courtney, because she wanted me to tell Courtney the truth. That I didn’t need anyone but her. I don’t know what I said to make her think we were a couple like that. Like we belonged together. Just because I slept with her doesn’t mean… I’ve never thought of Lucy or any other woman that way. Ever.”

  Not even me?

  “After she… She said I’d played you, just like I played Caroline. I was afraid she’d murdered both of you.”

  Ashley shook her head. Something about his story wasn’t making sense. Actually, a bunch of things weren’t making sense.

  “Wait. She was taking you to see Courtney, but you ended up at Victoria House? Is that where Courtney has been hiding?”

  “No. At least, I don’t think that’s where she’s hiding. I didn’t see her there, but then all I saw of Victoria House was the front room and Victoria Hamilton’s bedroom…and the dining room when that state cop was interrogating me.”

  “Slow down, Josh. Take a breath. You’re scaring me.”

  He sucked down a breath just as she suggested and began again. “Lucy was in a weird mood. She would say she was doing one thing and then she would do another. She must have been off her meds or something. After we got to the house, she saw Gray’s car in the driveway. She talked about me and her and Gray and Caroline double dating…after she’d already killed Caroline. The woman was sick.”

  Tori moved further into the room. “That’s not all of it though. Josh is off the hook for killing Jared Crenshaw. Lucy confessed to his murder.”

  “What? Why would she do that? How did they know each other? Everyone thought that Josh—”

  He uttered a noise of irritated disgust. “Really, Ashley? I told you I didn’t do that.”

  Josh turned accusing eyes on her. Apparently, she’d just wounded him…again. It was clear they couldn’t stop hurting each other.

  “Why would this woman, Lucy, kill Jared?”

  Tori interrupted their stare down. “Lucy and Jared were both working for Cooley. There must have been some sort of disagreement between them. The details aren�
�t very clear because some of the things Lucy said were kind of weird.”

  “Old man Cooley? The meth cooker.”

  Tori nodded. “Besides that, Lucy said she had punished Jared for beating up Josh.”

  Ashley had heard enough. The story was a jumbled up mess, and the less she knew about what happened, the better. She was quite certain the official version of the incident would be much different from the truth.

  She rose to her feet. “I’m glad you wanted to make sure I was all right, but you can see that I am, and it sounds like the threat is over, so why don’t you go? I’m tired and I need some rest.”

  Tori closed the distance between them and placed a gentle hand on her forearm. “Ashley, Gray wanted us to stay with you until he gets here.”

  “Gray? Why is he coming here?” Her heart had gone from racing to pounding.

  “He’s gone to see Fred Haskins.”

  Hearing Gray’s intentions punched Ashley in the gut. The room swayed like the time she had vertigo. “Why would he do that?”

  “Gray is going to tell him the truth.”

  Panic surged through her. She shoved Tori’s hand off her arm and moved toward the door as if to stop Gray from doing the unthinkable, but it was probably already too late. She froze in the middle of the living room floor, waiting for a coherent thought to form. When it did, an awful feeling of impending doom assaulted her.

  “He can’t do that.” Her voice trembled, and she hated revealing her fear. “He said he’d never do that without telling me first.”

  “I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop him. He said he couldn’t live with the secret any longer.”

  Tori’s sympathy made her want to smack the woman. She didn’t need or want anyone’s pity. She just wanted to be left alone.

  “He’s coming here after he talks to Fred?”

  Tori nodded.

  Good. When Gray arrived, Ashley planned to…she couldn’t imagine anything awful enough to do to him. She’d have to leave Fairview. Run away before Haskins could have her arrested. Or worse…he might just have one of his associates make her suffer before she disappeared.

  She smiled, a weird exhilaration coursing through her in the midst of the second worst day of her life. If Haskins destroyed her life, he would rob Terrance of the pleasure.

  Josh’s obnoxious cellphone ringtone jangled inside a nearby drawer and made them all jump.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot. I found your cell out at the Jepson place. I’ve been hanging onto it for you.”

  Ashley opened the drawer, retrieved the phone, and handed it to Josh with a trembling hand, fearful of what bad news the caller might have for them. When she overheard Courtney Crenshaw’s terrified voice, the tension in her neck muscles increased.

  ****

  They were all on edge waiting for Gray to arrive. Tori pacing. Josh making jerky movements and then remaining still for long stretches of time. Ashley picking at her nails and observing Tori and Josh doing the restless dance. As soon as a car door slammed, Tori jumped to her feet and rushed out of the house.

  Ashley made a move to follow her, but Josh grabbed her by the elbow. “Let them have a moment.”

  Jealousy stabbed Ashley in the heart. She peeked through the front curtains to spy on Tori and Gray. As she watched the couple embrace, she wanted what they had. All the telltale signs of budding romance were staring her in the face. A tear welled in her eye. She didn’t want Gray, but she wanted what Tori had with Gray, the glow of new love.

  Josh stood so close to her that she could smell his distinctive scent, strong and masculine. Longing raced through her. She hadn’t forgotten what it was like to be with him. If she leaned a little toward him, would he embrace her? Did she really want him to? Her heart said yes, but her wounded psyche shouted no, reminding her that it was a very bad idea to let Josh McCord get next to her again. She would never get over the damage done from the last time she allowed her heart to rule her head.

  When Gray and Tori turned and approached the house, Ashley rushed away from the window, not wanting to get caught watching them. Josh laughed behind her, startling her and making her stomach jerk. “If you’re gonna spy on them, don’t be shy about it.”

  “I’m not spying,” she snapped and turned a mean glare on him.

  He remained by the window, a defiant smirk on his face, as if her angry expression didn’t bother him one whit. “Sure you were. You can’t stand seeing them together, can you?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s that supposed mean?”

  He shrugged. “Take it any way you want.”

  “What are you implying, Josh?”

  “Nothing. I’d spy on them too…if I were you, and I wouldn’t care if they knew it.”

  That was part of Josh’s problem. He had no impulse control. Did just what he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it. Truthfully? She envied his freedom, no matter the trouble it caused, and it made her miss what they could have had together even more. Josh was the piece of her that was missing. He had always inspired her to go further, do more, and to push her limits. Without him urging her on, she pulled back, hid in a shell, and sheltered her heart.

  Oh, she knew she was a modern woman and she should be able to find the strength within herself to be whomever she wanted to be, but it seemed that part of her, the part that pushed to be all she could be, died the night Jeremy Haskins had raped her, the night she knew she could no longer depend on Josh to be there for her when she needed him.

  No, Josh hadn’t been her strength for her, but he’d been her encourager and her support, the one who cheered her on and praised her when she achieved. She missed that. Missed it more than she’d ever admit. She couldn’t let him know how much it killed her to see him, to talk him, and not let him know how she felt. She loved Josh, and she always would, but loving him and being able to trust him with her heart were two different things.

  He turned toward the window and pushed aside the curtain. She studied his profile. A strong face. Not Hollywood handsome. Josh was not a pretty boy. His face was not symmetrical and his nose was a bit crooked. The red hair was certainly attention grabbing. What he lacked in natural good looks, he made up for with a lost little boy charm. When they were younger, he could get out of trouble just by smiling. And he got into a lot of trouble. It seemed that sometimes Josh went looking for it if it didn’t have the decency to find him first.

  When Gray and Tori walked through the front door with their fingers entwined, eyes only for each other, their romantic relationship was even more obvious. Ashley felt like they had spewed syrup all over her. The sweet was turning her stomach. But the sugar seemed tinged with sadness, and maybe even a little regret. Gray looked pale and shaken, but even in his haggard condition, Ashley could see how the man felt for Tori. How would the recent death of his ex-wife affect their new romance? There was definitely a pall over the couple.

  Ashley bit her lip. What had Gray told Fred Haskins? That was the question churning in her mind and upsetting her stomach. Gray’s grim expression caused her chest to tighten. When he caught her eye, he turned his face away from her.

  “Let’s go into the kitchen and sit down. I have some things I need to tell you. All of you.” When Gray spoke, his voice sounded strained, barely there.

  Once they were seated, he addressed Ashley first. “Josh was a little concerned Lucy had done something to you. I’m glad to see you’re all right.”

  She turned and stared at him, then glanced toward Josh. The silence became awkward.

  “Well, I just assumed he’d tell you what happened out at Victoria House.”

  Tori untwined her fingers and rubbed her hand up and down Gray’s upper arm. “It’s all we’ve been able to talk about or think about.”

  Ashley blinked back a tear. She’d be damned if she’d start crying. She’d face this. If she had to run away, that’s what she’d do. She had a little cash saved. Maybe it was enough to get started somewhere else. Maybe Gray knew of someone who could get he
r a new identity.

  Gray rubbed his eyes. “I guess it would be.”

  “She could have killed Josh.” She paused and swallowed hard. “She could have killed all of you.”

  “But she didn’t.”

  Josh cleared his throat. “I heard from Courtney.”

  Gray sucked in a deep breath. “And?”

  “She’s okay, but she’s in hiding. Deep hiding.” His pause seemed very significant. “She won’t tell me where she’s at. She just wanted me to tell her mother that she isn’t dead.”

  Ashley put a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Why is she still hiding? With Jared and Lucy dead, surely there’s no more danger for her.”

  Gray answered for Josh. “This isn’t over, Ash. Whoever Lucy Kimbrough and Jared Crenshaw worked for will want to know what Courtney knows. He’ll track her down until he finds her.”

  Josh stared straight at Gray. “What if he gets to her...”

  The way Josh and Gray talked it was as if they knew who the man was already. Was Jeremy’s old man mixed up in this somehow? Maybe Gray went to see Haskins about Courtney Crenshaw. Maybe he hadn’t told Haskins how Jeremy died after all. Hope bloomed for a brief moment.

  Gray shook his head. “Bennett won’t stop until he locates her. You should let him do a dump on your phone. Maybe he can figure out where she called from.”

  Bennett? Oh yeah, the guy with the State Police.

  Josh nodded. “Good idea.”

  “The three of you are the three most important people in my life. The people that matter to me.”

  Gray glanced at Josh and then at Ashley, removed Tori’s hand from his arm and wrapped it in his. “I know keeping the secret of how Jeremy died ruined our friendship. I regret that. More than anything. I think it’s time we stopped acting like we hate each other, because after what I did today, we’re going to need each other more than ever.”

  Ashley slid into a chair next to Josh. “What did you do, Gray?” She asked but she already knew.

  “I told Haskins what happened.”