Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“You don’t know her,” I said. “You don’t know anything about her if you think she would have done this.”
My father leaned forward in his chair. “I know enough. I know people are capable of a lot of things we don’t want to think they could do.” He raised an eyebrow. “I know you two have been seeing each other. Your mother wants to know why she hasn’t come to dinner yet.”
I scrubbed a hand across my face. “Because it’s new. Because we hadn’t gotten to that yet.” I drew in a breath and let it out. “We talked about Thanksgiving.”
My father’s eyes brightened. “Really? Well, that’s interesting. Your mother would love to have her for Thanksgiving.”
I shook my head. How could we be having this conversation right now? Avery needed to see the doctor. And she was safe enough in my jail, for now, but if someone was setting her up, I needed to get her out of there, not talk holiday plans with my father. It was easier to answer than to try to put him off. “She wanted to invite us to Heartstone Manor for Thanksgiving. She thought it’d be fun—a big family holiday. Edgar and Harvey will be there.”
“So, it has gotten that far,” he said, and the simple confirmation shook me.
I nodded, trying to swallow past the lump in my throat. Despite our argument the other day, and her kicking me out of the brewery, I hadn’t doubted we’d figure it out. I could be an overbearing, bossy pain in the ass sometimes. It went with the job.
Who was I kidding? It was who I was. I wanted everyone safe and happy and whole, and sometimes I thought the best way to do that was for everyone to do what I said. Made sense to me. She was wrong about chasing the necklace. But I understood why she didn’t want to give up. I got the pull of family and justice better than most people. We would have worked it out.
But now—
“How are you so sure she didn’t set that fire?” my father asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“She didn’t do it, Dad. Not in a million years. She doesn’t have it in her.” There was a lot I didn’t know, but I was dead certain about that. Avery hadn’t set that fire.
My father nodded and stood. “Finish that bourbon. I’ll be back.” He took his phone with him.
I looked at my abandoned glass and left it where it was. I had work to do. Step one: get Avery out of jail. There was the fast way and the slow way. The slow way was to investigate the crime until we found proof of her innocence, or wait, press charges, and hope the judge granted bail. All of that meant leaving Avery in jail overnight. And that wasn’t going to happen. No fucking way.
She hadn’t set that fire. But someone had. And unfortunately, the list of prospects was too long. At the top of the list was Matthew, the main person I knew who had a specific grudge against Avery. But since Prentice’s death, the Sawyers had faced varying kinds of sabotage and outright attacks. Someone had gone after the Inn at Sawyers Bend, trying to dump cockroaches in the air intake and canceling produce orders. That had escalated to an outright attack that had been meant for Royal Sawyer. Not long after that, Ford’s ex-wife had been killed in the gardens of the Inn in such a way that if Tenn’s wife, Scarlett, hadn’t been at the right place at the right time, the murder most certainly would have been pinned on him.
And now we had another Sawyer who looked guilty of a crime I was absolutely certain she hadn’t committed. But someone wanted me to think Avery Sawyer was at fault.
Who? And how the hell was I going to figure it out in time to keep her out of jail for good?
One thing at a time, I reminded myself as my father walked back into the room.
“Paperwork’s being faxed over. You’ll have it in a few minutes. You can go get your woman out of jail, though I’d recommend you keep it quiet.”
I raised an eyebrow, and he explained what I would have put together already if I hadn’t been so rattled by the sight of the woman I loved behind bars. The thought rocked me. Was that who she was? The woman I loved? Wasn’t this too fast? Weren’t we just having fun?
No. This wasn’t just fun. Avery was more than a woman I’d known most of my life, more than my best friend’s little sister. She was mine. I’d claimed her with that first kiss, and I wasn’t letting go. We could do this slowly, if that’s what she needed, but Avery belonged with me.