Page 16

SIXTEEN

It had been sixteen days since she last had a conversation with Gray. Sixteen days of carrying on with her life as if it hadn’t fallen apart. She’d always been an overachiever, but hitting the criminal radar and having her heart broken in the same week was taking it way too far.

She didn’t want to be out on the town with Bronwyn. She should be at home, in her bed, eating ice cream straight from the carton and watching TV, but even that had lost its appeal.

It was just as well. It turned out that watching true crime documentaries hit differently after you learned your scarf had been bugged.

Last night, she’d watched a documentary on the making of the Blue Ridge Parkway. She loved her mountains. Loved hiking them. Loved exploring. She even loved camping in them. But last night, she’d watched TV and searched for cheap flights to anywhere that was far from home.

She tried to shake off the gloom. Tonight, she would be young, carefree, and fun, even if it killed her. But she wouldn’t order anything caffeinated. She had enough trouble sleeping without hamstringing herself with late-night coffee.

“I’ll take an iced decaf Americano with oat milk creamer.” Meredith studied the small menu in front of her and added, “And a triple berry muffin.” When the waitress turned to Bronwyn to take her order, Meredith took a few moments to refamiliarize herself with her surroundings. It had been a long time since she’d been out on a weeknight for, well, any reason. But when Judy, a longtime friend and the co-owner of Mountain Brew, Gossamer Falls’ one and only coffee shop, said she wanted to have a music bingo night on the first Monday of the month, Meredith had promised to attend.

The idea was straightforward enough. Judy provided bingo cards and daubers, and at 7:00 on the dot, she would start playing music. Thirty seconds to “name that tune” and find it on your bingo card. Whoever won each round would receive a free drink to be used on another visit to the coffee shop. Judy planned to have at least three rounds if there was enough interest, with each round having a different theme.

Meredith looked at the sheet of paper in front of her. Four bingo cards on the page, each filled with song titles from the ’80s. A solid place to start.

“We don’t have to stay.” Bronwyn tapped a perfectly manicured finger on the bingo card in front of her.

“Yes we do. Until the end. I promised.”

Bronwyn pinched her lips together. “Yes, yes. You Quinns and your promises. Heaven forbid you break one.”

Meredith focused on her oldest friend. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Bronwyn waved a hand. “Nothing. It’s a good character trait, but you’re clearly miserable, and promise or not, if you told Judy what’s going on, she would understand.”

“No.”

Bronwyn flinched at the word, and Meredith realized she’d been far harsher than she’d intended. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“And by it , you mean the part where your heart is broken?” Bronwyn placed a hand over her own heart. “Because it’s not like I have any experience in that department or anything. I wouldn’t know anything about what it’s like to fall in love with someone who doesn’t love you back.”

“This is different.”

“How so?”

“I’m thirty-two. You were sixteen, and he was a creep.”

A flash of old pain crossed Bronwyn’s face before she sighed. “Yeah. He was. I’m not trying to say my experience is the same as yours, but it’s not like I’ve never had my heart broken. I’m here for you if you want to talk about it.”

“I know. Thank you.”

The silence that stretched between them wasn’t uncomfortable. It was the kind of pause in a conversation that began decades earlier and had never really ended.

Judy brought the drinks and muffins and waggled her eyebrows in delight. “Bronwyn, thanks for being here. And for sharing the word with your staff. I’ve counted five Haven employees so far.” She leaned in closer. “And Meredith, thank you for talking it up around town. We have a full house. Y’all are the best.” She set the food on the table. “Good luck tonight!”

Meredith took a sip of her coffee and whispered to Bronwyn, “And now you know why I can’t leave. Judy’s poured a lot of energy into this. I want it to be a success. Especially since I’ll be single forever. Might as well make an effort to be sure I have social options that don’t require a date.”

Bronwyn raised her own glass, filled with sparkling water and a lime slice, and toasted Meredith. “Good call.”

The next hour and a half was more fun than Meredith had expected it to be. She didn’t win, but she enjoyed dancing in her chair to the different songs and cheering for the winners. On the final round, Judy called out that to get bingo, you had to fill your entire board. It took longer, but eventually an elementary school teacher who had been a few years behind Meredith in school won the grand prize of a ten-dollar gift card.

Simple pleasures. Fun atmosphere. Friendly people. No one acting a fool. Her life wasn’t bad. Not even a little bit. She would focus on the beauty and try not to dwell on the way her chest ached almost all the time now. She knew the “heart” that loved others wasn’t physically located in the heart that kept her blood pumping. But something pulsed with painful tremors anytime her mind replayed that kiss. Or, as she’d taken to mentally calling it, her “trip to the dark side.”

She pulled on her heavy coat and wrapped a thick scarf around her neck. A scarf that she’d had Mo check for bugs before she left for the evening.

Bronwyn tucked her arm through Meredith’s, and they walked out into the frigid February night. They’d stayed to talk to Judy, and the street was empty except for their two vehicles.

“Do you have a full schedule tomorrow?” Bronwyn asked as they paused by her BMW.

“Packed. If it keeps going this way, I may have to add another workday to my schedule.”

“What? You mean you might have to work five days a week? The horror!” Bronwyn gave Meredith a cheeky grin. “It’s a good problem to have.”

“It is.” Meredith had set a three-days-a-week schedule when she’d moved home, originally because there weren’t enough patients to justify being in the office more often. Then it was because she wanted to be available to take care of her mom while she went through chemo. But her Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays had been so slammed that she’d added two Fridays a month as soon as her mom was back on her feet. “I’m thankful for the patients, but I don’t want to be so busy that I can’t run the clinic.”

“Do you have any clinics planned for this weekend?”

“I would have, but my only choice for a protector is Gray. Cal and Landry are going somewhere for an early Valentine’s Day weekend. So are Mom and Dad. Mo will be in Charlotte all day on Saturday for some kind of meeting with a client who lives in the Pacific Northwest and wants to meet with him in person. And Donovan is working.”

Bronwyn grimaced. “What about Connor or Chad?”

Cal’s older brothers, who were like Meredith’s older brothers, would probably have stepped in. “I couldn’t bring myself to ask them. I mean, what if something did happen? They have wives. Kids. I can’t risk that.”

Bronwyn threw her arms around Meredith and gave her a huge hug. “Your heart is ridiculous, and I’m so glad I know you.”

They rocked back and forth, laughing, and as they broke apart, Meredith caught a glimpse of a dark figure hurtling toward them.

Before she could process what was happening, she was shoved into the middle of Main Street. She’d taken the hit in her stomach, and either the blow or the landing had knocked all the air from her. She lay in the middle of the road, desperately trying to pull in some oxygen and clear her head when she heard a sound that some part of her recognized as a vehicle.

She managed to sit up, but the dizziness drove her back down, elbows resting on the pavement.

Bronwyn lay a few feet away, eyes blinking rapidly. “What—?”

The headlights were probably what saved her life. Meredith saw them and had a flash of insight. The fast-moving vehicle was headed straight for them. She scrambled to her knees. “Run!”

Neither of them could get up, but they crawled into the empty space between her 4Runner and Bronwyn’s BMW seconds before a large truck screamed past them.

Meredith had no memory of getting from the street to the door of the coffee shop. But she and Bronwyn reached it at the same time and pounded on the door until Judy rushed forward and unlocked it.

“What’s going on?” she asked as they shoved past her.

“Lock the door. Quick.” Meredith managed to gasp out the warning before she collapsed into a chair.

Judy locked the door and turned to where Meredith and Bronwyn were huddled together. “What’s happening?”

“Call the police.” Bronwyn bit the words out. “Please.”

Judy nodded. “My phone’s in the back. Hang on.” She jogged away from them.

“Judy,” Meredith called after her, “make sure the back is locked.”

“I’m on it. I’ll set the alarm too.”

Meredith wasn’t sure when the shaking started. But once it did, there was nothing she could do to stop the full-body tremor that racked her frame. Bronwyn, for her part, had managed to pale underneath her normally brown skin. Her eyes were wide, and her breathing was coming in short little gasps that didn’t seem healthy.

Not that shaking from head to toe was healthy.

“I think we might be going into shock,” Bronwyn forced out as Judy returned to the main room.

“I don’t know what happened. That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” she said into the phone. “Meredith Quinn and Bronwyn Pierce just beat down my door. They look like someone roughed them up. And they told me to call the police.”

A pause.

“They might be going into shock. There’s some blood on Meredith’s face.” Another pause. “Yeah. Call her. Okay.” She held the phone away from her ear. “Jeremiah Dawkins is on the desk. He can’t leave the station, but he has someone on the way here. And he’s calling Dr. Shaw.”

Judy walked behind the cash register and came back with two towels. She handed one to Meredith and one to Bronwyn. “You, um, there’s some blood.” She pointed to Meredith’s face and Bronwyn’s hands.

“It doesn’t hurt.” Bronwyn looked at her hands like they belonged to someone else.

“Same.” Meredith held the towel to her temple and brought it away. “That is actually a lot of blood.” She should be worried about that. Shouldn’t she?

Judy pressed the towel back to her head. “Hold it there. Keep pressure.”

A second later, the front door rattled. Judy ran to it, peered outside, then opened it. Donovan came inside, took one look at Meredith and Bronwyn, and spoke into the walkie-talkie contraption on his shoulder. “Tell Dr. Shaw she might want to hurry. And call the chief.”

“Don’t call the chief.” Meredith shook her head to disagree, and the pain that split through it had her dropping her head to the tabletop.

“Meredith!” Voices. Loud voices. Bronwyn. Donovan. Judy. And then everything was quiet.

Gray lived five minutes from the coffee shop. He made it there in three. He slammed his Explorer into park and ran to the knot of first responders standing by the door. They parted like the Red Sea as he approached, and one young volunteer firefighter held the door open for him.

Inside, Donovan leaned over Meredith.

A bloody, not moving Meredith, lying on the floor. A phone beside Donovan was on and the voice that came through was that of Cal’s mom. “Okay, I’ll be there in two minutes. Keep an eye on her.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Donovan had his hands on Meredith’s wrist.

He didn’t look up when Gray knelt on the other side of Meredith and took her chilled hand in his own. “What happened?”

Donovan shook his head. “Still don’t know. I got here and she passed out.”

Judy Galloway, the coffee shop owner, leaned over Bronwyn, who sat at a nearby table. “Dr. Shaw said for you to take a sip of this. Can you do that for me, sugar?”

Bronwyn reached out trembling hands and took the mug Judy handed her. She didn’t drink. She looked at Gray. “Someone shoved us into the road.”

Judy gasped. “What?”

“Then a truck. Big. Dark. Headlights. We managed to get out of the way. It would have hit us.” She held his gaze. “Someone tried to kill us.”

The door to the coffee shop opened on that pronouncement. Dr. Shaw entered, glanced at Bronwyn, then gently but firmly nudged Gray out of the way. “Move over, baby. Let me see what’s wrong with our girl.” Gray adored Carol Shaw. She was the closest thing he had to a mother now, and he was so thankful that Cal was willing to share her.

She did the things doctors do, pulling open Meredith’s eyes, flashing a light in them, taking a pulse, and listening to her heart. While she did that, she spoke to Bronwyn. “Bronwyn, honey, where are you hurt, baby?”

“Hands. Knees. Maybe an ankle. I think Meredith may have hit her head on the pavement.”

Gray had never felt so out of control, so helpless, since he joined the military. This chaos in his soul. This desperation as he watched Carol run her hands over Meredith’s scalp. This was why he couldn’t have relationships. This was why he couldn’t fall in love.

“Tell me what happened, sweet girl.” Carol’s voice was calm. If she was rattled, there was no outer evidence. How could she be so solid? Gray knew that Meredith was her favorite niece. She loved her like the daughter she never had.

“Aunt Carol? Is she going to be okay?” Bronwyn’s voice was shaky, and Carol reached over and placed one hand on her ankle.

“My girls are tough.”

Bronwyn must have taken that as confirmation, because she took a deep breath and when she spoke, the words were quiet but clear. “We came to the music bingo night and then we stayed to chat with Judy. When we went outside, we were standing by my car, saying good night. Then someone came up and shoved us into the road.”

Carol returned to her examination. At one point her hands paused and covered the same area on Meredith’s head again. “There’s a bump here. She definitely hit her head at some point.”

The knot in his chest crawled up to his throat and threatened to choke him.

“Breathe, Gray. She’s strong.”

Bronwyn continued speaking, and her voice lost the certainty she’d had before. Now, her confusion and shock were evident. “It was like some kind of football tackle. And as soon as we were down, he ran off. No idea who it could have been or where he came from. I don’t know if Meredith saw anything or not. I was pretty stunned. It took a few seconds—I don’t know how long, really—to sit up. Then Meredith yelled for me to run. But I couldn’t. I don’t think she could either. We kind of crawled in between our cars. We barely made it out of the road when a huge truck screamed by.”

She took a sip of whatever Judy had brought her. “We came here and Judy let us in and called for help. I don’t know who they were targeting. It could have been either of us.”

“Or both,” Donovan muttered.

Gray didn’t think Bronwyn heard him, but he gave Donovan a look that must have gotten his aggravation across because Donovan’s next words were an even softer, “Sorry, Chief.”

Meredith stirred beside him. The hand he held clenched around his. A soft moan fell from her lips.

“Meredith? Baby? I’ve got you, sweetheart.” Carol Shaw was not one to hold back on the endearments under any circumstances, but when she was soothing an injured patient, a crying child, or a frightened parent, her bedside manner was something that couldn’t be taught. Gray had seen her in action many times, but he’d never realized how much comfort she brought to the people watching.

“Aunt Carol?” Meredith’s voice was a low rasp. “What—?” Meredith tried to sit up. “Bronwyn!”

Bronwyn was beside her friend in a heartbeat. She wrapped her hand around his and squeezed Meredith’s hand through him. “I’m right here. I’m okay. Gray’s here.”

Meredith collapsed back onto the floor. “We’ll be okay, then.”

Gray didn’t know what to do with that so he tucked it away in his mind for later. Bronwyn leaned against Gray’s shoulder as they watched Carol run Meredith through a few tests before she allowed her to sit up.

“I have the mother of all headaches.” Meredith squinted at her aunt.

“You may have a concussion. You have a goose egg on the back of your head, a nice scrape on your face that’s going to be fun for you for the next few days, and your pants are ripped. Were they ripped before? Or is that new?”

Meredith grinned at her aunt, and when she did, Gray finally allowed himself to believe that she really would be okay. He couldn’t keep sitting here. He was no one to her. Not even a friend. Not anymore. And he had a job to do. Even still, it took everything he had to stand up and walk away.

He stepped outside.

Donovan met him on the sidewalk. “Chief, I’ve got both of their purses. They were beside Bronwyn’s car. I’m guessing they dropped them when they were tackled.”

“They weren’t tackled.” Brick Nolan, one of Gray’s deputies, shook his head. “You tackle someone standing still, everybody goes down pretty close to where they started. They landed in the middle of the daggum road. I found a bracelet a foot from the center line. I think it’s Bronwyn’s. Whoever hit them shoved them into the road. This wasn’t no accident. It was attempted murder.”