Providence Series Books 1-4

by Mary B. Moore

  Opening the drawer, I saw the lingerie that I’d been buying for her since the first time that I’d seen her. Most of it was at our new place, but I’d kept my favorite pieces back so that she could wear them when I finally made her mine.

  I rang my contact who was near here and gave him instructions. I had the details memorized, so it didn’t take me long to relay it all to him. “And make it spectacular,” I repeated in a sarcastic voice. Psychotic fucker. Who says shit like that?

  I hated packing up to go to Houston, but I’d rather take this job. I had issues killing women, and although I’d been part of attempts on their lives, I’ll admit to taking a softer approach when it came to the women involved. This one, though, I sure as shit wouldn’t be going near, so Houston it was.

  Going through my toys, I started picking out what I needed to make it look like a suicide. I always wore gloves so it didn’t worry me that they’d find anything to do with me from the scenes. I was more careful than that. In fact, I was the best.

  Chapter 24

  Brett

  I rolled over and made a grab for my phone before it could wake up Sabine. Who the shit was calling at 3am?

  I hit the answer button without looking at the screen. “Yeah?”

  “It’s me,” Coleman replied. The tone of his voice warned me that there was trouble. “John Ferguson was found dead at his home today.”

  Sitting bolt upright, I looked over to make sure that I hadn’t woken her up and then got out of bed and left the room. “Give me a second.” I walked downstairs carefully and then closed the door to the living room, turned the lights on and sat down. “Tell me.” I’d never liked the guy. He’d always given off a vibe that he was untrustworthy. In fact, only last week we’d had an undercover security guy put into the IT department to watch what he was doing.

  “Apparently it was suicide. Left a note and everything.” I heard rustling over the phone and then he was back. “It’s the usual bullshit. I’m sorry, yada yada yada…oh, here it is. ‘I’m sorry for the hurt and pain that I have caused the Townsend family. This was my only option’.”

  “So does this mean that it’s all over?” Something wasn’t adding up here.

  “Does it fuck. It means that they just got rid of our link to Morrison, before he could give him to us. It means that they’re creating a smoke screen. I don’t trust this one bit.”

  Call me cold hearted, but I struggled to give a fuck about someone who had been stabbing me in the back after being employed by my family for ten years. “Well, at least we’re down an asshole.”

  “Yeah, but we still have a bomber to find and whoever employs him. There’s no way men like Morrison or Ferguson knew someone of that caliber.”

  He had a fair point, and it brought it all back into focus. My family were still in danger, Sabine was in danger. “Fuck!”

  Cole

  Three days later…

  Ebru and I were lying in bed looking through photos of her and Louise after discussing our wedding and the plans we’d made so far. Ebru didn’t want a huge one or for it to be over the top, and I was inclined to agree. I’d suggested that we get married at the church where Louise was buried so that she was close to us on our big day. Initially, Ebru had looked unsure about the idea, but the more I told her my plans, the more involved and enthusiastic she’d become over it. I wanted to get a plaque that said ‘maid of honor’ on it and put it on her grave. Rather than throwing the bouquet like a bride normally would, at the end of the ceremony we’d walk out to the grave and Eb would put it on there along with my button hole. It wasn’t morbid; it was a way to involve Louise and make sure that she was a part of the biggest moment of our lives.

  We’d been sorting the photographs into chronological order so that we could put them in the photo albums that I’d bought for her, and she was telling me the stories behind most of them. I never got bored listening to them and seeing how animated she got. There were so many things that I couldn’t stop thinking about during moments like these. How would I cope if I lost my sister or one of my brothers? Would I be able to tell the stories of what we got up to growing up? Would I even be able to look at photographs of them, knowing that I’d never see them again? It just didn’t bear thinking about, and Eb’s strength amazed me.

  She’d just been telling me a story about her and Lou lying on their backs trying to figure out the shapes of clouds and how a bird had crapped on Lou, when my phone started vibrating beside me. Looking at the screen Coleman’s name came up, and I started to panic. He hardly ever rang me; had something happened to Brett?

  “Yeah?”

  I heard Brett in the background talking to someone, which was a fucking huge relief, before Coleman said, “I need you at your parents' house now. Everyone is meeting us there.”

  “Cool, my man. See you there.”

  Looking at Ebru, we got off the bed and made our way downstairs. “What did he want?”

  “We’re to meet everyone at the parentals.” He hadn’t sounded pissed or worried on the phone, just his normal self. Then again, I don’t think I’ve ever really heard Coleman use any other tone aside from frustration or irritation, mainly when he was talking to me.

  “Why?” Ebru stopped and put her sneakers on while I tied mine up.

  “Unknown, baby. I just take the orders.”

  We got to my parents before Coleman and Brett did, so I got to attack the muffins that Mom had made yesterday. I was just taking a huge bite out of one when they came through the door, with a woman that I’d never seen before in my life. What shocked me most was that Brett was holding her hand. Well, well, well!

  Coleman waited until they’d taken a seat and then launched into it. “I got a call from a guy in Piersville PD three hours ago. A body was found in the lake.”

  The entire room stopped all movement and stared at Coleman in shock. “Who?” Luke asked the question we’d all been wondering.

  “What has this got to do with us?” Ren spoke up. “I mean, we can all give our alibi’s if we’re being accused of something?”

  Shaking his head, he turned to look at me. “It was Adele.”

  It took me a couple of seconds to process what he’d just told me. When it sank in, I didn’t feel sad or have any feelings towards the news, really. The only thing that I was confused about was the shocked gasps and people looking at me in pity. Even Ebru had a look that made me think that I really should be feeling something.

  “What the fuck?” This came from Dad, and we all turned to see him looking more pissed off than the time I drove his car the day after he bought it, when I was nine…and into the barn.

  A reasonable explanation came to mind. “She was probably drunk. She drank a lot of the time and went off with random guys. So, maybe she was that drunk that she drowned when she got into the lake and…”

  “The preliminary observations show that she’d been beaten and stabbed, badly.” Coleman interrupted. “They’re going to check for rape during the autopsy, but it wasn’t an accident. In fact, your initials were carved into her thigh, Cole.”

  That news turned my gut, and I sat back, the reality hitting me now. “She was a fucking huge bitch, but Jesus she didn’t deserve to be murdered.” Getting up, I started pacing with my family watching me. “Who does that to a girl? Who actually hurts one like that?”

  I could see Ebru watching me out of the corner of my eye, and shit did I want to go over and pick her up and make sure that she was okay and didn’t have any injuries on her. I know it was irrational and stupid because we’d just been together and I knew for a fact that she was perfect, but the fact that someone targeted Adele made me worry that Eb was next. I might sound like a cold hearted asshole thinking like that and not about Adele, but she was everything to me; I couldn’t be without her.

  Before I could act on it, Mom walked up to me. “It’s okay to be upset sweetie. You guys dated once upon a time, and with the baby as well…”

  “Fuck that,” I fumed. “Yeah she d
idn’t deserve to die, but I’m going out of my bastard mind worrying that they’re going to go after Ebru. What if this is it starting all over again? What if it was a warning? What do I do if they actually win and hurt her?”

  The room had gone totally silent and Ebru was looking at me with tears in her eyes. I felt like crying like a little bitch too.

  “There was no baby,” Coleman rumbled from where he was now leaning against a wall.

  That fueled my anger even more. He really wanted to argue over semantics at this precise moment? “Fetus, baby, whatever you wanna fucking call it, man. Really?”

  “No, Cole, I’m saying that there was no baby.”

  Walking backward, and hoping to dear God that I made the target that I was aiming for, I collapsed onto the couch next to Ebru. “What?”

  Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a square of paper, that he unfolded, and read us what was on the pages. Or actually, what wasn’t on them. “Full medical records for Adele Tanner, and we got all of them,” he stressed, looking over the top of the paper at me. “There is no mention of a pregnancy that year at all. Two years after it, she had three pregnancy scares. Only one of which was true and she aborted. She was diagnosed with Chlamydia in 2013, and aside from the other normal shit that you’d expect to find, there were no other pregnancies or pregnancy scares in 2010.”

  I couldn’t figure out what he was saying. I knew the words, but right now what they meant just wasn’t registering. “But…but…she said…”

  “She was fucking lying,” Brett fumed, bringing my focus on him and the pretty woman sitting beside him.

  “I’m sorry, my asshole of a brother didn’t introduce us.” I stood up and walked over with my arm out as Brett and the girl gaped at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had? “I’m Cole.”

  Looking at Brett first, she slowly raised her hand and shook mine. “Sabine.”

  I was about to comment on the accent that I’d heard, when Brett stood up and gently helped her up from the couch that they’d been sitting on. When he moved her into the center of the room, I noticed that she had a limp. I’d never seen Brett actually show that he cared about any chick before and the care that he was taking with her threw me. With his arm around her, he introduced her to the room.

  “This is Sabine. Sabine this is my family. There’s so many of y’all that if you could introduce yourselves one by one instead of at the same time that would be great.” He was such a bossy shit. “Sabine works for TCO and is from France. And before anyone asks, yes she hurt her leg and is recovering.”

  The poor woman’s cheeks were on fire as she looked around the room, but my family followed their orders and, one by one, got up and introduced themselves to her. When it was all over, we were all back in our seats and there was now an awkward silence in the room.

  Clearing his throat first, Dad asked, “How are you feeling about what you’ve just found out, son?”

  It had started to hit me more as I’d watched my family with Brett and his girl, and when Eb had walked back over to me and sat down on my knee, I’d felt the force of the loss. Or the truth about the loss as it was. It was taking everything in me not to break down and cry like a bitch.

  “I don’t know what to think. It’s been six years and every year I mourned that baby…” I broke off as Mom started crying loudly.

  “She was lying, Cole,” Coleman growled. I had a feeling that if she’d still been alive, he’d have made sure her life was a living hell.

  “Who would kill her?” I asked him. Maybe she’d pissed someone else off?

  The front door opened and one of Coleman’s guys walked in and whispered something to him. His furious, “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” made Ebru jump. No one said anything while they had a quiet discussion between them and then Coleman turned and looked straight at me.

  “I’ve got to take you in.”

  “Where?” I had no idea where we were going, but Brett apparently did.

  “Oh, fuck no! He didn’t do it.”

  Coleman looked at him and nodded, but the grim look on his face told me that this wasn’t going to be a fun field trip. “We know that, but there was a note.” Looking at me, he explained. “The police want to ask you some questions and for you to provide your alibi. They found Adele’s belongings an hour ago, and amongst them was a note that said something along the lines of I hope you enjoy the gift, Cole.”

  I sat completely stunned by this. What fucking gift? Who even thought of shit like that as a gift? I mean, it’s not like you could return or exchange it, was it? I wasn’t going to argue with him, though. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway, I needed to go in and answer their questions so that they’d know that I had nothing to do with this.

  “It gets worse,” he continued as I stood up. “Someone has come forward and given a statement that they saw you with her last night.”

  I felt the blood draining from my face at the implication of it. Spinning to face Ebru, I didn’t even have to tell her that I hadn’t been.

  “Bull fucking shit.” She fumed, and then turned to my parents. “Sorry, but I’m pissed.” Mom gave her a nod in understanding and motioned with her hand for her to continue. “He was with me from three o’clock yesterday, and I can even prove that he was in bed with me last night too.” Her cheeks went scarlet at what she was revealing by saying that. If I wasn’t maybe being accused of murder, I might have laughed. “I’m coming with you. If they want to ask him questions, then they can ask me questions too seeing as how we live together and are getting married and all that.”

  Coleman nodded and we walked towards the door. “I wouldn’t worry about it, bud. I’ve also got a tracker on all of y’all’s cars, Latham is getting the data to bring in and show the police to prove that the cars didn’t move last night. Any of them.”

  The relief that I felt at hearing this was short lived. “You stuck something to my baby?” I hissed as we got into the SUV.

  Turning his head to look at me, he grinned. “Nah, don’t be dumb.”

  “So, how are you going to prove that it didn’t move? You just said that there were trackers?”

  “Yeah, but they’re not all stuck. We had to screw a couple of them on too.”

  I was hoping that we got to the police quickly before I actually committed a murder. No, I’d wait and check the damage that they’d done to the ‘Stang and then I’d kill him.

  It wasn’t until later that the news that Adele had been lying and that I’d been living in hell for no reason for six years finally sank in. If I hadn’t had Ebru, I don’t know if I’d have been able to get my head around it as quickly as I did. All of the pain, all of the tears, the living hell…none of it had been true.

  “So, you didn’t have any reason to want her dead?” The officer that I didn’t recognize asked me.

  It was on the tip of my tongue to say ‘well yeah now I do’, but thankfully Coleman had drilled it into me to think before I spoke and to be careful how I phrased things. This was one of the questions that he’d said they’d ask. The thing was, I had no reason to tell anything but the truth.

  “No, I didn’t. We were in a brief relationship of sorts six years ago that ended. I hardly saw her after it up until about seven months ago. Even then, it was at the bar, or once when I was putting food from that new Italian place in my car.”

  The officer consulted the paperwork in front of him. “We have a statement here that says there was an incident between you and Ms. Tanner at Ethan Knight’s club in July.”

  “It wasn’t an incident, per se,” I explained. “She was yelling at me and was removed from the premises.”

  “What was she yelling at you about?”

  This was the bit that I’d been dreading. “She had claimed that she’d aborted our child after our relationship ended in 2010. That night, she revealed the loss to my friends and the family members who were there.”

  I had a feeling that I’d really fucked myself up now. “So, would you
say that you had a motive to want her dead?”

  Shaking my head, I tried to explain it in a way that would make him see sense. “No, not at all. She did that six years ago, six. Life moved on after it. That night, anyone can tell you and I’m sure the security footage will prove - I did nothing in return. We left shortly after so that I could tell my family what had happened and I haven’t seen her since.”

  Maybe I should have waited for my lawyer to arrive, but I’d just wanted to get this over and done with when we’d gotten here. At that moment, the lawyer in question walked through the door. “Miss Wells has given a formal statement providing an alibi for Mr. Townsend,” he placed some paperwork in front of the officer as another one walked into the room and nodded his head. “Coleman Hart has also provided evidence that my client didn’t leave his home in the form of security cameras that are stationed around Mr. Townsend’s home, as well as trackers placed on all of the vehicles owned by the Townsend family. Not one of them went anywhere aside from their places of employment yesterday; security footage of these places can also be provided.”

  The officer’s lips thinned as he read over it all, and I made a mental note of his name to give to Coleman to look into. He looked way too upset that they couldn’t get this to stick on me.

  Looking back up at me, he placed the paperwork into the file in front of him. “You may leave Mr. Townsend. However, I’m going to request that you do not leave the area in case we need you to…” he paused, and then said with a sneer, “assist with our inquiries.”

  This was one hinky asshole, and from the look on my lawyer’s face, he was thinking the same thing. Right now, though, I needed to get to Ebru and get her out of this place. The fact that she’d been around filth was bugging me, and I hadn’t been there to protect her. The worry that someone could get to her and do what they did to Adele was also riding me hard. I couldn’t lose her.