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)
Oh, fuck.
I snapped my mouth shut and blinked, trying to get myself together.
“You okay, Avery?” Cole asked, a chill in his tone that sent a blade of ice up my spine.
We locked gazes, and for a split second, I saw comprehension in his blue eyes. Then it was gone, masked by that genial campaign smile.
“You looked a little dizzy there for a second,” he said. “Do you need to sit down?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just tired, I guess.”
“Well,” he reached across the bar and patted me on the shoulder, “get some rest. It’s a lot, running a place like this by yourself.”
“Don’t I know it,” I said, my stomach twisting, wishing he would just leave so I could fucking think. I needed to think. I felt crazy standing here having this friendly conversation with the man who might have shot my father and framed my brother for murder. Who’d tried to kill Griffen and then Royal and had likely murdered Ford’s ex-wife, Vanessa.
I nodded at Cole, watching as he turned, lifted a hand in farewell to Ford, and headed out the door, the edge of the white envelope Ford had given him sticking out of his back pocket.
“Avery, you all right?” Ford asked.
I was so not ready to voice what I knew in my gut was the truth. Not until I could think it through, talk to West. Sterling. Something.
“I, uh, yeah. I just need to go in the back for a second,” I said. “Can you watch the taps if anybody comes in?”
“Sure, I got it,” Ford said. “Take your time. I’ll give a shout if I can’t figure anything out.”
“Okay,” I said, pushing through the swinging door to the quiet of the brewery.
I paced the open space in the center of the brewery. Was I crazy? I was connecting dots all over the place. Okay, so Cole’s wife had died in childbirth, along with their baby, three years ago. Or was it four? What if Caro was Caroline? Had she been planning to leave Cole? Had he known before her death? Was the baby Prentice’s or Cole’s? So many questions. I couldn’t sort it all out in my head.
I wanted to call Griffen, but I should talk to Sterling first, since she was the only other one who knew about Caroline Sawyer/possibly Caro Haywood. Sterling could tell me if I was crazy. Or maybe I’d go flip the lock on the front door and see what my brothers thought, since they happened to be right there in my taproom. If they didn’t think I was nuts, we could call Sterling and—
I caught the noise of a scuff of a shoe on the concrete floor of the brewery. Turning, I froze.
Cole Haywood stood in front of me.
“I don’t know how you know,” he said, “but you do, don’t you?”
I opened my mouth with some vague idea of saying “Know what?” like I was clueless, but I didn’t get that far.
Cole raised his hand in a fast arc. I heard a buzz and felt a burn on the side of my neck. Pain arced through me as every muscle in my body locked, and everything went dark.
Chapter Thirty
WEST
Itapped on the steering wheel of my SUV, waiting for the group of tourists—identifiable by all the shopping bags in their hands—to cross the road. Things had calmed down since the leaves had begun to fall. The second the road was clear, I pressed the gas, finishing my slow travel through town. Everything was quiet, exactly the way I liked it. I looked at the bag of sandwiches on the seat beside me. So quiet, I could take a lunch break with Avery.
I frowned as my phone rang, blaring through the dashboard. Sterling’s name flashed on the screen. I tapped to answer.
“Sterling, what’s up?” I asked, a skitter of nerves going down my spine. Sterling and I weren’t strangers, but she didn’t usually call me.
“West, I called Avery, and she’s not answering. I figured it out.”
“You figured what out?” I asked, thinking there were any number of reasons Avery wouldn’t answer her phone, especially since she was short-staffed. But those nerves dancing up and down my spine didn’t like it.
“No, hold on a second. I just need to take a breath. Hold on.” The sound of her sucking in a deep, quick breath filled my car’s speakers. She let it out in a whoosh. There was a jingle I imagined was her earrings rattling as she shook her head. “Okay, sorry. It’s just. Okay. Emmett called. You know—”
“I know who Emmett is,” I said.
“He found out my dad made a trust before he died for a Caroline Sawyer.”
“Who the hell is Caroline Sawyer?” I asked.
“Exactly what we were wondering. I called Avery and told her. She didn’t know either. I talked to Griffen. He didn’t know. Nobody knows who Caroline Sawyer is. And then I realized—Caroline Sawyer. Caro Haywood.”