Chapter Thirteen

“He did what?” Lilah asked, nearly dropping the pan of water she had been setting on the stove.

Harlan took a seat at the table and ran a hand through his still-wet-from-the-shower hair. He’d debated not telling her what had happened, but she was bound to find out anyway. Besides, the lie of omission had sat heavily on him last night. He’d stayed out late at the bar with Sammy and Alvin, who’d insisted on buying him a couple of drinks and commiserating with him about his enforced leave of absence. When he’d finally returned home, Lilah had been fast asleep in front of the TV and he’d gently carried her to bed.

He’d reconciled himself to her deception and neither of them had spoken of it again. It was his baby after all and their futures were tied. But their relationship still seemed fragile, and he had to concede his own part in that.

“J.D. put me on administrative leave for a week. I’m not going to work this morning.”

“That’s so unfair. I shouldn’t have insisted on going to the cave with you yesterday—”

“It was my decision,” Harlan said firmly. She had enough worries without shouldering blame for his career hiccup. “And it was a culmination of several issues that have been brewing between us.”

“Still.” She set the pan on the stove and brought him a cup of coffee before sitting across from him at the kitchen table. “I’ve caused you nothing but trouble since I came home. I should leave.”

“Don’t you dare.” That would be what finally did him in.

“What are you going to do?” she asked. “Return to work next week and hope J.D.’s cooled off?”

“No.” He hadn’t realized he’d already decided until that very moment. “I won’t work for him again. Going back would feel like complicity in his crooked games. I won’t be a part of it.”

“Now you believe me when I say he’s been on the take?”

“Should have from the start.”

“If you don’t go back, what are you going to do, then?” She hesitated, smoothing her hands over her jeans. “I have a little money saved, plus I might get a portion of that money Dad had socked away.”

“I’ve got money,” he said gruffly. “Not a problem.”

“And I have health insurance with my job,” she continued, eyes clouded with uncertainty. “That should cover most of my childbirth expenses. So I can certainly help there.”

The baby. J.D.’s timing was lousy.

“Stop worrying. I’m fine,” he said, reasoning out the possibilities. “I have plenty of contacts with other law enforcement agencies. I’ll take a temporary position elsewhere and, hopefully, I’ll win the sheriff’s election.”

“Doesn’t seem right, though, that J.D.’s such a crook and gets to ride out his time until retirement.”

“No free rides.”

She cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“I believe J.D. might be the mole in the sheriff’s office. The one that tips off the drug distributors before every raid that leads to a dead end. And I intend to find out the truth.”

“How can you prove it?”

“I’m going to the state and federal people to tell them my suspicions.

Convince them to set up a new raid bypassing J.D. and his entire office.”

“That would be epic. But there’s no telling how many people J.D. has under his influence,” she warned. “Could be hard to get anything past him.”

“His luck has to run out sometime,” Harlan muttered, stirring sugar in his coffee.

She gave a sigh. “Suppose so.”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

“It’s just that... I wonder how this will affect my family. I don’t want to believe Uncle Thad’s involved with a drug ring, but if he is, Aunt Vi and his kids will be devastated at the news.” She brought a hand to her mouth. “Oh, no. What about Ed? If he’s in it, my nephews will suffer. If Ed goes to prison, they won’t have a mother or a father.”

He took her hand in his. “Let’s agree to handle only one problem at a time. Deal?”

She drew a shaky breath. “Deal.”

“How did your afternoon with Jasper go yesterday?” he asked, wanting to distract her from their problems.

“Unnerving.”

“Oh?” He leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee. “Jasper not his usual sociable self?” he joked.

Lilah snickered. “Right. Anyway, we got to talking about his father—my grandfather, Ernest. Jasper. He started going off the deep end talking about the sins of the fathers visited on the children, et cetera. So I asked him about the hunting accident, the one Aunt Vi said wasn’t really an accident.”

Harlan sat up straighter, pulse racing. “And?”

“He didn’t come right out and say it, but he insinuated it wasn’t an accident.”

“I’ll take a look at that old file, see what the official report says.”

“Can’t do that now can you?”

“I’ll get Sammy to scan it and send me an email copy.”

He’d also ask Sammy to check the evidence room and see if the leather bracelet was still there. Much as he mistrusted J.D., it was possible he’d locked it in storage and had forgotten about it.

Harlan took one last sip of his coffee and rose. “Let’s go out for breakfast. It’ll do us both good to get out of here.”

“You sure? I’ve already started cooking.”

“Save it for tomorrow.”

She shrugged. “Suits me. I’ll grab my purse.”

That was one of the many things he liked about Lilah. She wasn’t some glamour girl who would waste thirty minutes on hair and makeup. In less than five minutes, they were in her car and pulling out of the driveway.

She’d insisted on driving, saying after the kind of day he’d suffered, he needed to relax and be chauffeured.

“Where are we going?” she asked, easing onto the county road.

“I could use a steak and—whoa!—slow down around that curve!”

Her compact car whipped around it way too fast for his comfort.

“Harlan—I can’t!” Her voice rose several octaves. “The brakes aren’t working!”

What the hell? He unbuckled his seat belt, practically crawled into her lap and pressed his left foot on top of hers. The brakes pounded to the floorboard, but the car didn’t slow one iota.

They gathered speed as the car plummeted downhill. Trees flashed by the windows at tornado-level speed. Damn. He thought fast, scooting back to the passenger side. “It’s okay, Lilah, keep steering. After the next curve, we’ll come to a field. Make a sharp right into it when I give you the word.”

The Mothershed’s cow pasture was fairly level and, with luck, the car would grind to a stop with no harm to Lilah.

They rounded the curve.

“Now!” he yelled.

Lilah jerked the steering wheel to the right. Her car careened on its right side, and then fell back down to the ground on the opposite side with a crash of metal and broken glass. He tried gripping the dashboard, but his body toppled forward and his head hit something hard and unyielding. Pain exploded behind his eyes and then, mercifully, a black abyss of nothingness descended.

* * *

LILAH BLINKED. HOW ODD. She was in her car, but it wasn’t moving. And she was parked in a field, with not a road in sight. The front windshield was cracked, and through the spider-webbed fissures, a cow chewed a mouthful of grass and stared at her indifferently.

Her hands hurt. Frowning, Lilah looked down and saw they were scratched and bloody. Cuts tattooed their backsides and spread up her wrists and forearms. How had that happened? She turned her head to the side and reality and remembrance slammed into her gut.

The brakes had failed and she’d wrecked. Harlan lay lifeless, and a deep gash on his forehead oozed blood.

He was hurt. Was he...?

“Oh, God, Harlan! Wake up. Please, wake up!”

Lilah leaned over and placed a hand over his heart. It beat.

“Hey, in there? Are y’all hurt?”

Outside, a man and a woman ran to the car. The man struggled, but managed to open the door on her side. Arms lifted her out of the vehicle.

“No,” she protested. She didn’t want to leave Harlan’s side. “Help Harlan.

Please.”

Strong arms placed her carefully on the ground and then the woman loomed overhead, her eyes wide with pity. She pushed a lock of hair from Lilah’s face. “We will, sugar. Don’t you fret now. We called for help.”

In no time, a siren’s wail erupted and it seemed people were everywhere.

She struggled to get a glimpse of Harlan, finally spotting him being helped onto a stretcher and into a waiting ambulance. EMTs brought one to her and she was lifted and placed in the ambulance beside Harlan.

The shock started to wear off, and self-reproach set in. “What have I done?” she sobbed and turned her head to face Harlan—whose eyes were open.

He reached out a hand and squeezed hers. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yes. But you...” Her throat closed up.

“I’m fine.” He managed a slight smile. “Might have a headache a day or two, but no big deal.”

She let out a sound that was halfway between a sob and a laugh.

“The baby?” he asked hoarsely. “Everything okay?”

She squeezed his hand this time. “I think so. They can check at the hospital.”

Unbidden tears streamed down her cheeks. This was all her fault somehow. It was her car and she’d been driving. “I don’t know what happened. The brakes were fine earlier. I promise.”

“Don’t cry. I believe you. I suspect someone cut the brake line.”

“Who? Why?” Damn, she was sick of this nightmare.

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out. I promise you that.”

“I want it to stop. I want...” She wanted to leave. Pack up and move as far away from here as soon as possible. Mom had been right to run away all those years ago. Ran and never looked back, never returned. Not even for her ex-husband’s funeral.

Lilah laid a hand over her eyes, remembering all the reasons she’d stayed away from Lavender Mountain. There was nothing for her here but heartbreak.

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