Rebels and Roses (Winslow Heights #2)

Chapter 21

21

C ooper was sitting at the bar after Jane left to talk to Erica when Finn walked in. The sheriff walked right up to them, barely glancing at anyone else in the tavern.

“I got a call about Tom’s phone records. Or should I say, your ex-wife’s phone records since it was her phone he was using?”

No preamble. Right to it. Cooper had always liked Finn’s style.

“I thought Tom’s death was a closed case,” Cooper said. “Or did you re-open it?”

“All I did was get some phone records,” Finn replied with a shrug. “It’s no big deal. Let’s just say that your curiosity is infectious. Just because the coroner has ruled the death an accidental overdose doesn’t mean that I can’t nose around a bit. Strictly on my own time, of course.”

“You wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t found out something interesting.”

Maybe, just maybe, there might be something that Cooper could follow up on. Right now, he only had Erica’s secret arrival in town.

“The last call into the phone came in around midnight. It was from Fiona Kemp.”

“That’s not what Fiona told us.”

Cooper’s ex-wife was a liar. He wished he could be shocked, but he wasn’t. Had she even really been that drunk or just pretending?

“It isn’t, which is why I’m headed to the hotel to ask your ex-wife a few questions. I want to know if she actually did see him that night after the party, and if she was with him when he died. She may not be telling the whole story.”

“Knowing her as I do, there’s a high probability of that,” Cooper said.

“If you came with me, I couldn’t stop you,” Finn went on. “Not in my official vehicle, but in your own. I couldn’t stop you from being there. Especially as this is not an interrogation but simply to clear up any misunderstandings there might have been about her statement.”

“I’ll be right behind you,” Cooper said, pushing the fries he’d been munching on away. “Let’s go.”

“Hell, I’m going, too. You don’t have a car, so I’ll drive,” Tate said, turning to his assistant manager. “Ronnie, watch the place. I won’t be gone long.”

“Yes, sir,” Ronnie replied, his chest puffed out in pride. “I’m in charge. I’ve got it.”

The young man was a student, but so far, Tate had said he was a decent employee.

“Just don’t burn the place down,” Tate instructed. “No hiring or firing. Just sell drinks and food. If something happens, just lock up and put a ‘closed’ sign on the door. I’ll deal with it when I get back.”

“You trust him to run the joint while you’re not there?” Cooper asked when they were in Tate’s car, driving toward the Winslow Inn.

“I’m fairly certain I won’t return to a pile of ashes if that’s what you’re asking. Would I go on vacation for a week and leave him? Fuck, no. At least, not yet. He has potential, though. More than anyone else I’ve hired lately.”

It didn’t take long to get to the inn, and Tate parked next to Finn in the parking lot. Cooper’s car was parked not too far away so Jane was still here.

They walked into the lobby, and were heading to the elevators when the manager, Dean, flagged down Cooper from behind the desk. They’d gone to high school together about a hundred years ago.

“Hey, if you’re looking for your guests and Jane, they just left a few minutes ago. If you hurry, you can probably catch up to them.”

“Jane left with Erica and Fiona? She didn’t drive?”

“I guess not,” Dean said. “They didn’t say anything to me. All three of them were together, though. They got into a car and left.”

“Together?” Cooper pressed. “Erica and Fiona left together? Were they arguing or anything?”

The two women were literally suing each other. Had they decided to make nice? Had Jane conjured up some major magic and now everyone was best buds? She was amazing, but getting Fiona to act reasonably about anything was a challenge.

“Which way did they go?” Finn asked.

Right or left, they’d eventually end up back in the center of town. The only difference would be how long it would take to get there.

“Left, I think,” Dean replied. “Like I said, they didn’t say anything to me or the clerk, but I did hear one of them mention food. I assume they were going out to eat. But it hasn’t been long since they left. If you turn your lights on, you can catch them easily.”

“Then let’s go,” Finn said. “If they’re heading to get something to eat, we can talk there.”

Cooper thanked Dean, and they climbed back into their cars. Finn took the lead, and he didn’t put on his lights and sirens, but he wasn’t taking his time either. This route to town took them through a mostly rural area without much traffic or pedestrians. Despite exceeding the speed limit by quite a bit, they hadn’t caught up to the women. It didn’t make any sense unless whoever was driving was auditioning for a Formula One racing team.

“Does Jane have a lead foot?” Tate asked.

“No, she’s a good driver. Keeps up with traffic but isn’t a speed demon. And Fiona, despite what you might think, hates to drive and has anxiety about it. She wouldn’t speed at all. She drives like our grandmother. But I don’t know about Erica. Maybe she’s already in town, parked the car, and they’re on their first iced tea.”

“We just passed a couple of bikers. I’m going to ask them if they saw another car go by recently.”

Tate pulled to the side of the road, and the two cyclists caught up with them fairly quickly. Cooper had rolled down his window and waved to them, hoping they’d stop.

“Sorry to interrupt your ride,” Cooper said. “But I don’t suppose you saw a car come by you a few minutes ago? A dark sedan?”

Cooper didn’t remember the color of Fiona’s rental, but it was either blue or black. Erica, on the other hand, hadn’t rented a vehicle. She’d taken a taxi from the airport. At least, that’s what she’d said. At this point, he couldn’t be sure.

“A blue car passed us about ten minutes ago,” one of the bikers said. “They turned down the lake road as we went by them.

“The lake road? Are you sure?”

That didn’t make any sense. That road went to…well…the lake. There were no restaurants or anything. Were they planning some sort of picnic? Was Jane taking them there to see the lake?

“Very sure,” the man assured them. “We even talked about following them, but we decided that with the chance of more rain, we wouldn’t risk it. We didn’t want to get caught in a storm.”

Cooper thanked them while Tate sent Finn, who had stopped a ways ahead when he’d seen them pull over, a text that they were turning around to take the lake road.

“Can I ask why they would be going to the lake?” Tate said. “Does this make any sense to you?”

“No, not a clue as to what they’re thinking. It is a nice day like that guy said. Maybe they wanted some fresh air? Jane might have convinced them to go someplace and talk it out instead of getting a judge involved. She could have suggested the lake because if they start to yell at each other, no one will hear them.”

“It’s not the worst idea, although I would have brought them to the tavern and got them a little liquored up.”

“Erica is pregnant.”

“Oops, right. Then the lake might be the right call.”

Tate had turned down the old dirt road that led to the lake. The trees made a shady canopy on the narrow lane that eventually opened up to a large clearing and the lake. Finn was right behind them as they came out of the shade and into the sunshine.

Cooper squinted against the bright sunlight, spying a dark sedan parked near the banks of the lake. It looked like Fiona was climbing out of the driver’s side as the vehicle lurched forward. She jumped clear of the tires, rolling on the ground, and then to Cooper’s absolute horror the car kept moving forward.

The world stopped for a moment, his own heart ceasing to beat, too. His brain was trying to make heads or tails of the scene before him, but it was as if he couldn’t quite believe it was all happening. By the time he realized it was, the nose of the car was in the water.

He didn’t have time to think about what he was going to do. Running on pure, raw adrenaline, he pushed open the car door, and fumbled with the buckle of his seatbelt in his haste.

“Easy, let me stop the car,” Tate said. “If you kill yourself, you won’t be able to help.”

Fiona’s head whipped around, her eyes round with shock, when she heard the motor of Tate’s vehicle and then the crunch of tires on gravel as he slammed on the brakes about a foot from where she was standing.

Just watching. Watching. As the car slid into the dark, cold water. Time had slowed down to a crawl, everything happening in the most frustrating slow motion.

Jane and Erica were nowhere that Cooper could see. He could only assume that they were in that sedan. Were they trying to get out? What had Fiona done?

That was a question to be answered later.

As he leaped from the car, Fiona took off running into the trees surrounding the back side of the lake. If she thought he was going to chase her, she didn’t know him at all. Even if there were two strangers in the car, he wasn’t going to let them drown.

Not bothering to kick off his shoes, he jumped straight into the water, the cold hitting him hard like knives to his lungs and taking his breath away. He heard Tate’s own splash on the other side of the vehicle, but his attention was on the interior of the car. Only half of the vehicle was submerged so far, and he was able to get a look inside.

Jane and Erica were slumped over unconscious, still held in by their seatbelts. The car was still sinking slowly, and the window of opportunity to save the women was also inexorably closing as well.

Pulling hard on the back handle, he heard it click open, but the door wouldn’t budge. The pressure from the water was keeping it closed.

“It has to equalize,” Tate yelled, also grasping the handle on the passenger door. “It’s going to take a minute.”

That meant that the water would rush into the vehicle. Then - and only then - would the door open all the way allowing him to get inside.

Jane and Erica hadn’t moved at all, but he could see their chests rising and falling. They were still alive, but they didn’t have a clue as to what danger they were in.

Just as the pressure would have equalized, the rear of the car lifted upward and the nose pointed straight down as the vehicle began sinking, but far more quickly than before. Cooper had managed to open the door, but now the car was underwater.

Sucking in a breath, he dove down into the murky lake, the vehicle now completely filled with water. Tate had also dived down and was working on freeing Erica while Cooper fought with Jane’s seatbelt.

His lungs ached, and his fingers were thumbs in his haste, but somehow, she was suddenly free. Wrapping his arms tightly around her body, he swam to the surface, coughing and sputtering as he finally took a huge breath of oxygen. Exhausted, he dragged himself and Jane to the edge of the lake, pulling her out and laying her on the ground where he also collapsed next to her.

She was beginning to moan, and he turned her on her side as she vomited a mouthful of water, coughing and gagging afterward. Seeing her puke was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. She was alive, and she was breathing.

Glancing to his side, he could see Tate doing the same for Erica. Cooper leaned down and placed his forehead against Jane’s, calling her name a few times. His heart hurt as he waited for a response. Any response.

Her lids fluttered, and she finally opened her eyes, but they didn’t seem focused. He could hear sirens in the distance, but he couldn’t move from her side. He was afraid that if he didn’t sit right here and watch her, she might stop breathing at all. He was keeping her alive by his sheer force of will.

It could have been seconds, minutes, or hours when the ambulance arrived. In reality, it hadn’t been long. The emergency workers nudged him aside, although he didn’t move willingly. When they loaded her and Erica into the back of the ambulance, he jumped in after her. If they didn’t want him, they were going to have to toss him out on his ass.

Fear still stabbing at his heart, Cooper held her hand as they raced to the Winslow University Hospital. The adrenaline that had pushed him before was now slowly ebbing from his veins. The nasty realization of what had happened was hitting him with the full force of an eighteen-wheeler going a hundred miles an hour. Fiona had tried to kill Jane and Erica.

It was a good thing she’d run when she saw him, because if she was there with him right now? He’d kill her with his bare fucking hands. If he had to, he’d hunt her down and drag her to jail himself. That she’d dared to touch a hair on Jane’s head…

If she tried again, he’d be standing in her way. No one and nothing would ever harm Jane again. If he had his way, she’d never feel a moment of pain for the rest of her life. Without her, there wasn’t anything else.

All she had to do was wake up so he could make her happy every single day. She just had to stay alive.

“I’m fine,” Jane said with a sigh, lying back on the sofa, a stack of pillows behind her, and a cup of hot tea on the coffee table. “You don’t have to fuss.”

Jane, Cooper, Lucy, Zack, and Tate were all in Cooper’s apartment, and every single one of them were driving her crazy. She’d barely been allowed to lift a finger for the last twenty-four hours. She wasn’t an invalid, and she hadn’t died.

Not from lack of trying on Fiona’s part, though.

After Fiona had put the car in drive and jumped from the vehicle, running into the woods to escape, Finn had run after her. He’d easily caught up, handcuffing her and taking her to the station while everyone else had gone to the hospital.

A few blood tests later, and the results were in. Erica and Jane had been drugged via the coffee that Fiona had made. She’d laced the drink with a heavy dose of sleeping pills. Since they had taken a few minutes to kick in, that gave her time to get the two women out to the car on their own steam.

Erica and the baby were going to be fine. The young woman’s parents had shown up this morning, demanding that Fiona be arrested for attempted murder. Finn, however, had already done that. He’d witnessed the scene with his own eyes at the lake.

“I like taking care of you,” Cooper said. “Just relax and let me.”

The others were openly chuckling at his mother hen behavior. He’d gone from the county’s most eligible bachelor to a doting partner in a short amount of time.

“I appreciate it,” Jane said. “I really do. But I’m okay. I’m feeling good.”

“You almost drowned,” Cooper pointed out. “And you were drugged, as well.”

“But I didn’t drown. Because you saved me. And Tate saved Erica. We’re okay because you’re stubborn as a mule and don’t take no for an answer.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Tate laughed. “Otherwise, Finn wouldn’t have looked up the phone records, and we wouldn’t have gone to the inn to talk to Fiona.”

“Speaking of Fiona,” Lucy said, her brows raised in question. “What’s the latest on her? Did her attorney ever show up, Zack?”

Fiona’s first phone call after she was arrested was to her parents, who had said that she needed to keep her mouth shut until her lawyer arrived. He was catching a charter flight and would be there in a few hours.

“He did,” Zack confirmed. Since Cooper was busy at the hospital with Jane, and then this morning bringing her back to his apartment and taking care of her, Zack and Tate had been keeping in touch with Finn regarding the case. “But apparently, Fiona didn’t like being told to keep quiet by her parents. Finn’s a decent interrogator, and it didn’t take long for him to get the story out of her. Especially, as she feels what she did was ‘justified’ or something like that. I’m sure there are details she didn’t reveal, but the whole story is a nightmare from beginning to end. The deputy helping make the recording of her statement called it rich people’s problems. I can’t say that I disagree.”

Cooper shook his head as he sat down at the end of the couch, lifting Jane’s feet so they were resting in his lap.

“Should we ask what she said? I’m curious and terrified all at the same time.”

“Tom was being followed,” Tate confirmed. “Fiona hired someone to do that. She hired several people to mess with him. She wanted to make him paranoid enough that Erica might leave him for being crazy.”

That didn’t make any sense to Jane. What had Erica ever done to Fiona?

“Why would she want to do that?” Jane asked. “What would she gain by that?”

“Millions of dollars,” Zack replied. “It seems that the Kemp grandparents were tired of Fiona and Tom partying and not adulting. About three years ago, they decided to set up some incentive for the kids to settle down. Ten million incentives, in fact. Whoever got married and had the first great-grandchild would get ten million dollars. Every great-grandchild after that would get five million.”

“What could possibly go wrong?” Cooper said, his tone dripping with cynicism. “I take it the race was on to have the first grandchild.”

“It was,” Tate confirmed. “And Fiona said in her statement that it would be over her dead body that her partying, whoring, drug-addicted brother was going to be first to get that money. When she saw how serious Tom was getting with Erica, she was determined to break them up. Of course, she didn’t know that Erica was already pregnant, and she didn’t have a clue about Cassie.”

“Tom was hedging his bets, you see,” Zack continued. “He figured with several women, at least one of them would get pregnant. If they all did, well, that was fine, too. He would make even more money. I’m not sure the Kemp grandparents thought this through all that carefully. I think they were getting older, wanted great-grandchildren, and panicked a little.”

“So, Fiona tried to make Tom look unbalanced to Erica so that she would dump him?” Lucy queried. “Then when that didn’t work, she killed him?”

“Fiona says that Tom dying was an accident, but his being here in Winslow Heights wasn’t. When Tom would tell her about being followed and watched, she’d purposely bring up how Cooper worked with law enforcement and so forth. She was pushing Tom - in a roundabout way - to come to Cooper for help,” Tate explained.

“Why?” Jane asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does if you look through her eyes,” Zack replied. “Remember, she was desperate to break up Tom and Erica. If he flew off and came here, she could point out that he was clearly losing it. So, she kept talking about how amazing Cooper was. She was surprised when Tom stole her phone, but she wasn’t upset about it at all. It meant that he’d taken the bait. She gave him a few days and then followed. When she talked to her brother, and he and Erica were still together, she knew she had to take a different route.”

“Why Cooper?” Lucy asked. “Why him?”

“Because she’d heard for years how terrible the law enforcement was here in Winslow Heights,” Zack said. “She figured she’d come to some backwoods town, get Tom using again, and she wouldn’t have to worry about cops getting in the way. If he wouldn’t use, she’d already decided that she’d pay some college girl to accuse Tom of sexual assault. She thought that an inexperienced sheriff would mangle the case, he’d get off, but that Erica would still end the relationship.”

“And that’s my fault,” Cooper said under his breath.

Jane reached out to place her hand on his, shaking her head.

“This was all her. Not you.”

“She came to this town with a purpose, thinking she could get away with luring Tom back to drugs,” Tate said. “Get him using again. She knew that Erica wouldn’t stay with Tom if he was using again. Tom had told her that, although he hadn’t mentioned the baby. For obvious reasons… Or Cassie and the baby either. He’d marry one of them, and he’d win. Fiona swears that the overdose was a complete accident. She just wanted him to use, not to die. She swears she loved her brother and wouldn’t want him dead. She just wanted the money. But she was not going to prison for something he basically did. She said she didn’t even have to try all that hard to get him to use. She said that he admitted to her that he hadn’t really stopped, he’d just cut down a bit.”

“She thought she was in the clear when he died,” Cooper said, shaking his head. “That she’d win eventually because dead men can’t get married and have a baby. She was sad, but hey, she’s going to inherit tens of millions.”

“Pretty much,” Zack agreed. “What she wasn’t telling anyone while she was here, was that she was engaged to a guy back in Miami. They were planning on getting married at Christmastime.”

“She had it all planned out,” Jane said, stunned at the duplicity of the woman. Her own brother, for heaven’s sake. If he had been clean, she’d been willing to screw all that up - for money. “Except that Erica was pregnant. That had to throw a wrench in her plans.”

“She panicked,” Zack said. “She realized that she’d lose their little competition if the baby belonged to Tom. Erica wasn’t afraid of taking a paternity test, so the chances were good that Tom was the father. Fiona decided that she had to get rid of Erica another way.”

“Drowning her,” Lucy replied. “But how did Jane get caught in this?”

“You were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Cooper said, a muscle ticking in his tight jaw. “If you hadn’t gone over there that day, nothing would have happened to you. But because you offered to talk to Erica for me, you were there just as Fiona was drugging Erica’s coffee. She couldn’t push you out of there, and she didn’t know what to do. She decided to drug you, too. After all, she’d be killing two birds with one stone. She’d get rid of any sort of would-be witness, and she’d be hurting me at the same time. A win-win as far as she was concerned.”

“Finn said that she smiled when she explained that part,” Tate said, his expression fierce. “Like it was funny or some shit like that. That woman is diabolical. You’re well away from her, brother.”

“I swear she wasn’t that bad when we were together,” Cooper replied. “Or maybe she was, and I just didn’t see it.”

“She had a lot of people fooled,” Tate said. “Don’t feel badly about wanting to see the best in her. And she probably wasn’t this bad back then. She wasn’t desperate for a huge influx of cash then. It’s when the chips are down that you see someone’s true colors.”

Jane had certainly seen Cooper’s. He’d risk his own life for hers. Her ex wouldn’t have even gotten wet in the rain for her. She’d chosen far better this time.

Everyone chatted and munched on some food brought by Tate from the tavern, but eventually, they drifted off to get back to their own lives. Jane wasn’t at death’s door, although the way Cooper was acting, a bystander would be fooled into thinking she was.

He had leaned down to clean the last of the glasses from the coffee table - a chore she’d offered to help with and only got a scowl in return - when a business card floated out of the breast pocket of his cotton t-shirt. They both reached for it, but she was first since his hands were full. It was a card for a local realtor.

“Are you looking to expand the theater? Is the newsstand looking to shut down?”

Zack and Cooper hadn’t even opened the movie house yet, but already it looked like it might be successful. There was a great deal of interest and excitement, but the actual opening would show whether their forecasts were correct. The two brothers would never get rich off of it, but that’s not why they were doing it.

Cooper had disappeared into the kitchen with the last of the dishes, so his voice was slightly muffled when he answered.

“Actually, I was thinking of maybe buying a house. The secret’s out about my identity so I don’t have to pretend I’m destitute or anything.”

“A house? That sounds kind of…permanent.”

As in he was intending to put down roots. Staying.

Her heart beat a little faster, and she could feel herself smiling. She’d known that they were together, a couple, but that didn’t mean that he would be happy to settle down in a small town in Illinois. Cooper was a wanderer at heart. Would she and Winslow Heights be enough for him?

“I figure you and I need a home base,” Cooper replied, returning to the living room, drying his hands on a kitchen towel. “A place to call home. We can maybe get a dog. I know you’ve been wanting one.”

A dog. And a house? He’d said “you and I” like they were going to live there together.

“We? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?”

It had been an old joke with her parents. The old “mouse in the pocket” whenever she’d used the royal “we”.

“I do not,” Cooper said, tossing the towel on an end table. “I’m talking about you and me. Me and you. Us. You said your lease was ending in a few months.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good reason to live together,” she said lightly, feeling giddy and overwhelmed at his suggestion.

Living together was…big. It was a further step in the commitment department. And a dog, too? That was almost like having a child together.

Perching on the edge of the sofa, he caged her in with his long arms on either side of her torso. Their lips were mere inches from one another, and he was grinning like he’d won the lottery.

It was beginning to feel like they both had.

Neither one of them had been looking for anything, but here they were.

“How about because I love you?” he asked, his breath warm on her cheek. “Is that a good enough reason?”

“I love you, too.”

A million fluttering butterflies had been let loose in her stomach, making her almost dizzy with pure happiness. This man was more than she’d ever hoped for and more.

“Good, because I don’t go around saying stuff like that to people. I mean it. You’re stuck with me, baby.”

“I don’t feel stuck. I feel lucky.”

“You may not be saying that in a few years when we’re married, have a baby, a dog, and a lawn to mow.”

Her throat was clogged with emotion, and she was sure there were tears in her eyes. But not sad ones. She lifted her hands so that she could cup his face, his stubble scratchy on her palms.

“Cooper Winslow, are you talking about settling down?”

“Only with you. And that doesn’t mean we still can’t have some adventure. There are some places on this planet that I’d love to show you.”

“Can we take the baby?”

The question came out choked, but he didn’t seem to notice or mind.

“Yes, but let’s leave the dog with Tate. He loves to spoil dogs.”

“I hate mowing lawns,” she teased. “You’re going to have to do it.”

“Then your job will be to walk the dog. See? We’re perfect for each other. We’re already making compromises. That’s something that I haven’t been good at in the past, but I want to. For you.”

“I’ll make compromises for you, too.”

It wouldn’t always be easy. They’d argue, and they’d be stubborn. Then they’d apologize and have awesome makeup sex. They’d always remember that they loved each other, though.

Cooper’s feet might take him all over the world, but his heart would always have a home with her. She’d make sure of it.