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CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

B rooklynn pressed her sock over Forbes’s wound.

It seemed he’d all but forgotten he’d been shot. He was fixated on the woman in his arms.

Rosie. His sister, back from the dead.

There was going to be a story there. Brooklynn prayed they’d be around to hear it. She couldn’t help scanning the woods, fearing another enemy might pop out to shoot them.

But the cavalry had finally arrived. The lights of emergency vehicles, along with men’s shouts, told her they were safe now. Surely, any remaining enemies were hightailing it away.

“Brooklynn!”

The man’s shout had Forbes backing away from his sister. He twisted to look behind them. “Who was that?”

“I’m not sure.” And she wasn’t, but she had a feeling. “Rosie, can you hold onto this? Try to stop his bleeding? I’ll go see.”

“No, don’t.” Forbes reached to grab her, then winced. “Stay here where it’s safe.”

“It’s safe, Forbes.” Surely the entire Shadow Cove Police Department wasn’t crooked. And there were firemen and paramedics and EMTs.

She squeezed his opposite shoulder. “I’ll be right back.” She pushed to her feet and jogged through the forest to the edge of the yard.

Firemen aimed water at the house, but from where she stood, the old beauty was done for.

Her heart broke just a little to see the amazing structure, in the Ballentine family for over a hundred years, crumble in flames.

“Brookie!”

She turned in time to see Lenny running toward her. Her normal reaction to him was quickly squelched as he approached.

“Are you all right?” He looked her over, head to toe, then swiped a thumb across her cheek. “Is this soot?” His volume rose. “Were you in there?”

She kept herself from shrinking away from his touch and his raised voice. “I’m fine, Lenny.”

“What happened? Did he get you into this? Ford Baker? I ran a check, and that’s not even his real name, you know. He’s really?—”

“Forbes Ballentine. I know.” She took Lenny’s hand and led him back toward the emergency vehicles that now filled the front yard. “He needs a paramedic.”

“Oh.” Lenny froze, looking behind him.

“Run and get somebody, would you? My ankle?—”

“Here, let me?—”

“Go, Lenny. He’s been shot.”

He looked conflicted, finally bolting toward an ambulance. She watched as he grabbed someone and pointed.

One person followed him back at a jog while two others carried a gurney.

A cop must’ve heard him, because a woman hurried their direction as well.

A coughing fit had Brooklynn wanting to lie down in the damp grass and rest. She hobbled to the edge of the forest to lean against a tree. When the paramedics reached her, she pointed to where she’d left Forbes and Rosie.

Praying Rosie was still there, though she half-expected the woman to disappear as mysteriously as she’d arrived.

The paramedics shouted, and Forbes’s sister responded.

Lenny followed the paramedics, but Brooklynn called his name.

He shifted. “I need to go help?—”

“Get someone else to do it.”

A tiny smile bloomed on his face. “I can stay with you.”

She hated, hated, that she had to do this. And the fact that he’d misunderstood why she didn’t want him to go into the woods only made it worse.

The other cop approached. “Are you Brooklynn Wright?”

“Yes.”

The woman moved closer, arm outstretched. “Lori Putnam. I’m sorry we were late to the party. Everybody okay?”

“Forbes and I are, and… Go on into the woods there. You’ll see. I’ll be here when you get out.”

The woman looked between Lenny and Brooklynn, then continued toward the light between the trees.

Lenny watched until she disappeared in the darkness. “Why did you call them? You should’ve called me.”

“I couldn’t.” She took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’m sorry, Lenny.”

“None of this is your fault. It was that Forbes?—”

“It wasn’t Forbes’s fault, either. His family was murdered here twenty-five years ago.”

“I know that, but he came back and stirred it all up. I wouldn’t care about that, except he got you involved.”

“ I got me involved.” She started hobbling toward an ambulance, sucking in oxygen and needing to get off her feet.

Men were shouting, running. They’d discovered Leo’s body, no doubt. But the way the man had fallen, the way he hadn’t moved at all…

He was dead.

A fireman ran up to her. “Anybody in the house?”

“Not that I know of. There shouldn’t be.”

“Thanks.” He bolted back toward the melee.

Lenny wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her. Normally, she’d push him away, but she didn’t have it in her tonight.

He’d hate her soon enough.

They reached the ambulance, and a paramedic started asking her questions.

“Can you give us a minute, please?” she asked.

He looked from her to Lenny, must’ve decided the man’s police uniform made him safe, and stepped back a few feet.

Lenny lifted her onto the back of the ambulance.

Thank heavens for sweet relief.

“Tell me what happened.”

“I’ll tell the whole story to Lori and the FBI.”

“The FBI? Why would they… What are you talking about?”

“Lenny, your father…” She swallowed. “He was part of this.”

“He’s a cop. This is what we do.”

“No, I mean…” She took his hands. “He tried to kill me.”

Lenny yanked back. “You’re crazy. Dad would never?—”

“He was shot.”

“What?” His head whipped back toward the woods. “Dad wasn’t… You’re wrong.”

“I’m sorry.”

He took another step back. “Be careful what you say about my father.”

“I promise to only tell the truth.”

That wasn’t going to help Lenny, though.

He spun and bolted toward the forest, where Forbes was being carried out, his sister at his side, holding his good hand.

She half-expected Lenny to say something to Forbes, but he didn’t, just raced past him.

She hadn’t wanted Lenny to see his father’s body. She’d hoped to soften the blow a little, but maybe that was a blow that couldn’t be softened.

The EMTs were taking Forbes to a different ambulance. She needed to see him, so despite the pain in her ankle, she pushed herself off the back of the ambulance and hobbled that direction.

Before they slid him into the back, he said, “Wait!”

Thanks to that commanding voice of his, the EMTs stopped.

With Rosie’s help, he sat up, looking around.

Their eyes met, and she closed the distance between them. “Hey.”

“You okay?”

“I’m alive, thanks to you.”

He chuckled. “I was about to say the same thing.” His gaze flicked to Rosie. “And thanks to you.”

She didn’t smile back. “You’re here because of me. This is my fault.”

Forbes squinted as if he was trying to figure her out.

Brooklynn asked the question. “What do you mean? How is this your fault?”

“Why are you here, Forbes?” Rosie asked.

“I got… Did you send it?”

“Send what?”

“I got an anonymous note, a letter.”

Her lips pressed closed a moment as she thought about that. “I told Grandmother the smugglers were operating again. I told her to keep you away from here. I told her?—”

“Wait. Grandmother knows you’re alive?”

“Don’t be angry with her. She was trying to protect me. I was trying to protect you. All these years, though, she wanted… She needed to know who killed them. I think… I was trying to keep you safe, but I think she must’ve sent the note.”

“Gran wouldn’t…” But the protest died on his lips. He blinked, looked up at the house. The flames weren’t out, but the firemen were winning the battle. “She wanted to know.”

Brooklynn couldn’t make sense of that. “She wouldn’t have sent you into danger, though. Would she?”

“To find out who killed her son? Maybe.”

Rosie laughed, though the sound held no amusement, “Yes. She would have. She did. I told her to protect you, and she dangled a carrot instead.”

Brooklynn couldn’t fathom.

And then Forbes’s lips tipped up at the corners. “She trusted me to figure it out and stay alive.”

That was giving the old woman more credit than Brooklynn would have.

“She’s too much like me,” Forbes said. “Desperate for justice, no matter what the cost. She knew she couldn’t get it herself, but she thought I could.” He stared at the remains of his childhood legacy. “And I did.” He squeezed Brooklynn’s hand. “We did.”

There were still unanswered questions, not the least of which involved the living, breathing woman standing beside them, a woman thought dead for twenty-five years.

The danger was past, but there were still plenty of questions.