Page 6

“No, I’m fine.”
“But one minute you were standing there, and the next you were falling,” Sutton was saying as she attempted to get down on the floor with me.
“No, wait, you stay there. I am getting up,” I said gruffly, getting to my feet.
“You may want to be sitting when the babies come,” Natalie said wisely. I only glared at her a little as Sutton walked me to a kitchen chair like an invalid.
“You should be babying him,” I said and motioned to Brian. “He’s the one shot.”
“And yet you were the one who hit the floor,” Brian added with a smirk.
“Do you need to go to the hospital?” Sutton asked him.
Brian removed the towel so we could see the wound. “Nah, it just grazed me. I’m fine.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Natalie spoke up, “While monitoring your house, we saw two figures in black casing the place. I called Brian, and that’s when he dropped you off at the station. When your car returned, they must have thought it was you. The gunshots started the minute Brian opened the door.”
“They aren’t messing around anymore,” Brian added. “We need to catch the bastards.”
The next words were out of my mouth before I had even thought about them. “Maybe we need to go back to New York.”
Candice, who had been rather quiet since we had returned to the house, said, “I was thinking the same thing.”
“But I’m in my last trimester,” Sutton said with what was damn near a wail. “I finally got used to Dr. Young, and I thought Brian could protect us better here.”
Everything she said was true. But there was also the fact that I was struggling running the company her father left to us. I was also worried sick that Sutton was going to meet her death in Otterville Falls.
I knew we had just built this beautiful home, and we had planned on living part of the year here and part in New York. But it seemed to me every moment we spent in Otterville Falls brought the implosion of my family that much closer.
Sutton was looking at me in dismay and, if I wasn’t mistaken, a hint of betrayal in her eyes.
“I don’t think you can leave during the middle of an investigation,” Natalie said. “We could talk to Knox, though, if you are serious.”
Sutton backed away from me. “No, we aren’t leaving. Not yet.”
I stood and went to her, hating that she was stiff before sinking against me.
“It was just an idea,” I whispered against her hair. “Don’t worry. We don’t need to go anywhere.”
I just hoped that I wasn’t making a massive mistake.
3
Sutton
Ifelt like vomiting, my eyes darting between the bloody towel at Brian’s shoulder and Mark’s tired face. It had been a very long day. That had to be why Mark was suggesting that we leave Otterville Falls. I couldn’t go through another move. To be perfectly honest, I may have been having contractions.
They weren’t regular; I had timed them. But they were enough to take my breath away. I just needed some time to think.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked Brian for the second time.
“Yeah,” Brian assured me. “They only nicked me, not even worthy of stitches.”
I knew I should be grateful that Mark’s brother was okay. However, all of the day's emotions began to overwhelm me, and once the tears started, they seemed to have no intention of stopping.
“Who do you think was behind this?” Mark asked.