So the word was out. My stomach felt like it was sinking down to my shoes.
Gary nodded. “So we’ve staved off that potential disaster for now. Don’t confirm it but don’t deny.” He gave me a sympathetic look. “Of course, you’ll have to make up your mind by the time the baby’s born for the birth certificate.”
Oh, Lordy. The birth certificate.
I glanced up at Joe with a look of complete terror.
He walked over and knelt next to me. “Just deal with one problem at a time. You have seven months to figure it out.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
Joe stood, and then his voice grew hard. “I’m countin’ on you, Gary. I need you to protect her.”
“You know I’ll do the best I can,” Gary said in a grave tone.
Joe nodded. “I’m goin’ back to town, but I’m only a phone call away.”
He left the room without another protest. It didn’t escape me that Joe, who’d once gone to unreasonable measures to protect me the way he saw fit, was trusting me to deal with this situation.
I told Gary the rest of it—taking the blame for Wagner’s death, deepening my relationship with James, facing off with the Sugar Branch police, and meeting James one last time at Sinclair. I even told Gary what James had said about trying to figure out a way for us to be together, and how he’d taken off for Little Rock afterward.
Gary continued writing for several seconds. Finally, he looked up and said, “I think you’re right. I think Malcolm’s taken some kind of deal so he can break free to be with you. It sounds like he needs you to corroborate what he’s told the Feds.” He frowned. “But that doesn’t make sense. Grand jury testimonies are sealed. The Feds will never know what you say.” He tilted his head. “He said they would know if you lied. Which indicates the prosecutor will know, and the FBI doesn’t usually share information with state prosecutors when they’re in the middle of an investigation. Does Deveraux know about your relationship with Malcolm?”
I twisted my hands together on my lap. “Mason suspects, but I never confirmed it. When he came back to town, he told me to get my house in order because he was bringin’ it all down.”
“Which was one of the reasons I cited when requesting your continuance. Mason Deveraux is your ex-boyfriend. I officially protested and requested a new prosecutor. That should buy us a few weeks.”
I looked down. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. I’ll be weeks deeper into my pregnancy. Which means I’ll be in prison even longer without my baby.”
Gary leaned closer and held my gaze. “You’re not goin’ to prison. Not if I can help it, but I need to know one thing. You don’t want to risk testifying against the other criminals in the county, but are you willing to throw Malcolm under the bus to protect your baby?”
Tears stung my eyes. “That’s not fair.”
“No, Rose. It’s not, but it’s an option you need to consider.” He took a breath. “He told you to tell the truth, but his deal is likely with the FBI, not the state, and you’d be surprised how little the two communicate. We can get you a deal with the state to give them information about Malcolm. Malcolm will be safe due to his deal with the Feds, but the state will be none the wiser. Once we accept, they can’t take it back. Win/win.”
“But if I spill what I know about James, then I might have to drag Jed into it, and out of the lot of them, Jed is the one who deserves my loyalty the most. He’s always had my back, since the very beginning. He and my best friend will be my baby’s godparents. I refuse to incriminate him in any way, shape, or form. I’ll spend the rest of my life in prison before I let that happen.” I rubbed the back of my neck, where I could feel a tension headache blossoming. “And if word gets out I made any kind of deal at all, I’ll lose all credibility. I can’t risk it.”
Even more than that, I couldn’t betray James. It didn’t matter if it ultimately wouldn’t get him into trouble. The love I felt for him didn’t bend in the wind.
Even if his did.
Gary frowned. “You’re making my job a whole lot harder, Rose.”
“Loyalty isn’t meant to be easy,” I said. “Otherwise, there’d be a whole lot more of it.”
He sighed. “I hope these criminals know what you’re doing for them.”
“I hope so too.”
My whole future depended on it.
CHAPTER 21
A s we were wrapping up, Gary got a call from the courthouse. It was hard to determine what was being said on the other end based on Gary’s one-syllable answers, but when he hung up, he looked relieved. “Well, at least they haven’t taken leave of their senses entirely. Your appearance has been moved to tomorrow. For now. This afternoon I have a meeting in the judge’s chambers to discuss removing Deveraux.”
“Will it work?”
“Honestly? With the corruption down here, our chances are fifty-fifty.” He gathered his things and stood. “Looks like you have the afternoon off. I suggest you lie low for the rest of the day.”
“I’m not goin’ anywhere,” I said as I walked him to the door. “Thank you so much for helpin’ me.”
He grinned. “Honestly, I haven’t had a case this intriguing in years. But I don’t say that to make light of your situation. I swear, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you walk out of this a free and safe woman.”
“Thank you, Gary.”
When I shut the door behind him, I pressed my back to the door and closed my eyes, reminding myself that I’d put myself in this situation. I needed to accept the consequences.
Pushing out a sigh, I dug my phone out of my jeans pocket and texted Joe.
We’re done. My appearance has been postponed until tomorrow.
He texted back immediately. I have meetings all afternoon. I’ll be home for dinner. Are you doing okay?
I’m fine, I sent back. Just tired.
Take a nap.
Joe was going to baby the snot out of me.
But I had to admit a nap sounded good, so I walked over to the sofa and lay down, closing my eyes for just a moment. Muffy jumped up next to me and curled into my side. I absently rubbed her back, her presence relaxing me, and the next thing I knew, the living room was brighter from the afternoon sun and someone was banging on the front door.
Carly hurried out of the kitchen and cast me a worried look. “I’m sorry, Rose. Hospice got postponed, so I was watching for them, but I got caught up in the kitchen. I was trying not to disturb you.”
“That’s okay,” I said, sitting up, my head feeling foggy from sleeping so long. “I needed to get up anyway.”
She opened the front door, and I heard a familiar female voice say, “Hi, I’m looking for Rose.”
Margi Romano.
Carly’s back stiffened. “She’s busy right now. You’ll have to come back.”
While I didn’t feel like seeing Margi, especially not if Dena had been talking her ear off, I wanted to get this over with and off my plate.
“That’s okay, Carly,” I said, swinging my legs over the edge of the sofa. “I’ll talk to her.”
Carly stepped back but looked none too pleased as Margi walk in. Carly’s protectiveness caught me by surprise.
“Oh, you look like you’ve been sleeping,” Margi said with a guilty look. “Sorry to disturb you.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “I needed to get up anyway. Do you want me to take you back to the barn and the pasture?”
“I can go back there on my own if you point the way,” she said with a warm smile.
I was tempted to let her, but I’d been lying around or sitting most of the day. “That’s okay. I could use the walk.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Carly asked with a worried look.
Joe must have put her in charge of my personal safety as well as my food consumption. “You stay and wait for hospice to show up. If I see them pull in, I’ll walk back to the house so we can talk to them together.”
Carly nodded and headed back into th
e kitchen, casting one final glance over her shoulder as if she expected to catch Margi up to no good.
I got up and grabbed a sweater. “We can head back out through the front.”
Margi headed out onto the front porch, and Muffy and I followed.
“I love your farm,” Margi said as she descended the steps. “It’s so picturesque.”
“I love it too,” I said as I followed her.
“I heard you haven’t lived here long.”
I cast her a surprised glance, but she didn’t look fazed.
“It’s a small town. People talk.”
“What else have they been sayin’ about me?” I asked as we walked side by side along the fence separating the pasture from the deep yard up to the barn. I had a feeling I knew what she was about to say, and my stomach turned at the thought of having this conversation, but I figured we might as well get it out in the open.
“Dena called me last night,” Margi said unapologetically. “She told me that you’re pregnant.”
“Oh,” I said, pissed even though I’d expected it, “do you know she was told confidential medical information by a nurse at my doctor’s office?”
“I never said she got the information in an ethical manner, but it hasn’t stopped her from tellin’ everyone she knows. She’s livid.”
“What’s goin’ on with my body is none of Dena Breene’s business. Frankly, I don’t care if she’s livid. She’ll be lucky if I don’t sue her and the nurse who broke the law to tell her.”
Margi’s eyebrows shot up.
“She’s spreadin’ rumors about my baby,” I spat. “God help the person who tries to hurt him or her in any way.”
She grinned. “You’re gonna make an amazin’ mother.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said, still pissed. “But my job is to love this baby and keep it safe, and I’ll be takin’ that job seriously.” I’d let a lot of people run roughshod over me in the past. That would not be happening to my baby.
“I told Dena to mind her own business, for what it’s worth. Not that it slowed her down any. But I do know she made a special trip to the courthouse with a fresh-baked pie to go see Mason Deveraux this morning.”
My stomach sank to my feet. Mason was going to find out sooner or later, but I’d hoped he’d find out after my grand jury appearance.
I pushed out a heavy sigh.
“Joe’s gonna make an amazing father,” she said as we continued to walk toward the barn.
Was she fishing for confirmation that Joe was the father? Part of me thought I’d do best to keep quiet, but I found myself saying, “He definitely loves my niece and nephew. He’s a natural.”
“Do you know when you’re due?”
Yep. She was here for information. “I’m not really sure yet,” I said with a forced smile. “Anne, the nurse at the clinic, stole my opportunity to revel in the news before sharing it with the world. Dr. Newton wants me to come in and have an ultrasound so we can determine how far along I am.”
“Dena’s saying you tricked Joe by getting pregnant so he won’t leave you.”
I stopped and put my hands on my hips. “Is that so? Seems to me that Joe’s ecstatic over the news, and he’s free to come or go as he pleases.”
She stopped and turned back to face me. “I’m just repeating what I’ve heard.”
“Does it give you a strange satisfaction?”
Confusion flickered in her eyes. “What?”
“Droppin’ by my house unannounced and sharin’ all the awful things people are sayin’?”
Her brow lowered as she studied me. “I took you as a woman who likes to confront things head-on.”
“What in the heck are you talkin’ about?”
She took a step closer, a fire burning in her eyes. “How in the hell can you stand up to these narrow-minded, judgmental people if you don’t even know what they’re saying?”
“I ignore them.”
“Well, fuck that,” she said with a smug shake of her head. “Don’t let them get away with that shit. Take what you know and use it against them.”
I pushed out a sigh, exhausted by whatever game she was playing. “I don’t have time for this nonsense. I’ve got bigger problems to deal with.”
“The grand jury.”
I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes. “Do you make it your business to know everything about me?”
Her brow shot up. “I don’t know everything, but I intend to.”
“Excuse me?”
Margi made a face. “I want to be your friend, but I’m not exactly great with people. It’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed friends with Dena for so long. She doesn’t have any friends because she’s too bitter. I don’t have any because I seem to lack social skills.”
I shook my head in amazement. “Well, you obviously weren’t raised in the South.” I stared walking again. “Come on.”
I led her to the corral to show her the broken fencing, then took her into the barn. “If there were stalls before,” I said, “they’re gone now.”
“They’d be easy to put back in. And the fencing too,” she said absently as she studied the floor and the walls. “I’d pay for it all, of course.”
“I don’t know the first thing about takin’ care of horses,” I said. “And to be honest, the thought of it is too overwhelmin’ given everything else that’s happenin’. I don’t think this is gonna work.”
“Now hold up,” she said, lifting her hands, palms out. “You won’t have to do a thing. I’ll pay to mend the fence and build the stalls. And I’ll be the one taking care of the horse, or horses. Or my helper, Jimbo.”
I shook my head, dread skating down my back. “No. No strangers. I’ve got enough to worry about.”
I sure didn’t need to give any strangers access to my land and barn.
She studied me for a moment. “Okay, I’ll take care of the horse, but it won’t even be all the time. Just when we’re overflowing and there’s an emergency situation with a rescue horse.”
Meaning a horse that had been mistreated and removed from deplorable conditions.
A grimace twisted her mouth. “I’ll need to bring some guys out here to do the repairs, but you can have Joe vet them if you want.”
I was sympathetic to her cause, but with everything else going on, this felt like one thing too many. “I want to help, Margi, really I do, but—”
“You stop right there,” she said, holding up her hand. “I don’t need an answer right now. Why don’t you think about it?”
I nodded. What would it hurt to tell her no in a few days versus now?
We started walking back to the house and Margi said, “Randy thinks the world of you.”
I found it hard to reconcile this brash woman as soft-spoken Randy Miller’s girlfriend. “That has to be interestin’, datin’ Randy and listening to Dena.”
“Let’s just say Dena has been the source of more than one argument.”
I walked her to her truck and told her goodbye just as another car was pulling in. I sucked in a breath, wondering what new hell was arriving at my doorstep, only to realize it was the hospice nurse.
Fresh hell indeed.
CHAPTER 22
T he hospice nurse was nice but direct. When Violet got sicker, we’d need to move her downstairs. Violet, in all her stubbornness, insisted we didn’t need a hospital bed—my bed would do just fine. Then, as if to prove that she was dying just fine on her own, thank you, she proceeded to get out of the chair she was sitting in and go down the stairs of her own accord (with me walking in front of her to break her fall should she collapse).
As Violet settled in on the front porch, looking over the front yard, she said, “Rose, would you call Mike and tell him I want to see the kids?”
“Sure.” Part of me was worried about bringing them here with the potential threats, but I’d spotted a sheriff’s car parked on the side of the road. The person surveilling us definitely wasn’t hiding, more like he or she was making i
t clear that we were being watched. Besides, Vi needed to see her kids. “Let me tell Carly that we’re adding more to the dinner roster.”
As I went inside, I texted Joe to tell him about Violet’s request—and my fear that Mike might refuse.
Let me handle it.
Part of me wanted to protest that I could do it. I’d fought tooth and nail to stand on my own two feet over the last year and a half, but then I realized two things.
One, this wasn’t my fight. This was between Mike and Violet, and for whatever reason, Joe and Carly had become mediators between the two of them. I needed to welcome that, not feel insulted. And two, accepting help from my friends didn’t mean I was weak. Nevertheless, Joe and I had history. I knew he could be controlling without meaning to, and he’d definitely taken on a self-appointed protector role since finding out I was pregnant. I needed to tread lightly.
Joe texted back a few minutes later.
Mike says we can pick them up from daycare, but I can’t get away for another hour.
One hour Violet could be spending with her kids. I’ll get them.
I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Rose.
He had a point, but then it struck me that I’d heard from every major player I’d had contact with other than Tim Dermot, and if he planned to threaten me, I was sure he would have done so by now. I think the threats are over. But I can pick up Neely Kate from the nursery and have her ride with me to get the kids. And I’ll bring Muffy.
The little bubble showed up in the text field, blinking on and off for nearly twenty seconds before his message popped up.
Okay.
Carly was in the kitchen absorbed in something on the laptop again.
“Mike’s lettin’ Vi have the kids tonight,” I said, “so I’m gonna go pick them up from daycare.”
She looked up in surprise. “Is it safe?”
“I think so. But if you’re concerned, there’s a sheriff’s car watching the driveway from the road.”
“I’m not worried about me,” she said pointedly.
“I think I’ll be fine. I’m gonna steal Neely Kate from the nursery to ride with me.”
Come Rain or Shine: Rose Gardner Investigations #5 (Rose Gardner Investigatons) Page 21