Chapter 39 Beck
BECK
My heart was still racing when Avery finished telling us about the guy who’d chased her home from Lena’s. I was torn between the impulse to pull her into my arms and never let her go and the desire to stalk the streets until I found the motherfucker.
I stayed put because Avery needed us but my murderous rage was still there, simmering under the surface, so I kept myself busy by making her a cup of tea while she told us everything she could remember about the guy.
And apparently I wasn’t alone in my fury because as soon as Avery was done, Dane pushed back from the island fast enough that the chair wobbled.
He stalked toward the hall.
“Where are you going?” Avery asked after him.
“To find the fucker who chased you,” Dane said without stopping.
Avery sprang off her chair and went after him, grabbing his arm. “No… stop.” Dane tried to keep walking, pulling her along, but she finally tugged hard enough on his arm that he stopped walking. “Please… I want… I want you to stay with me.”
Dane’s brow furrowed like he didn’t understand. “Beck and Noah are here.”
“I want you,” she said. “I want all of you.”
My heart stuttered in my chest, like an old record with a scratch. I knew she probably just meant right now — she wanted us to stay with her right now — but I couldn’t help wanting to read more into the words.
Dane relaxed a little, then nodded and let her lead him back into the kitchen.
It was like watching a little girl lead a wild bull suddenly turned docile, and I wondered what kind of magic Avery possessed that allowed her to do that to Dane.
Wondered what kind of hold she had over him.
Probably the same hold she had over Noah. Over me.
I pushed a cup of steaming tea across the island and Avery sat down, then took a sip. “Thank you.”
I nodded. “Can I get you anything else?”
She shook her head. “This is perfect.”
Dane stood next to her like a guard determined not to leave his post. “What were you doing at the library?”
“The library?” Avery’s eyes were clouded, and I knew she was still in shock, her body coming down from the adrenaline that had propelled her home.
“You said you went to Lena’s after the library.”
“Right.” She dug in her bag and removed a manila envelope. “I took the slides from the town meeting to the library to see if they had a projector. Turns out they did.”
“And?” Noah had been mostly quiet, holding Avery’s hand and listening while she told us about the chase through town.
“Hearthstone is planning a marina and golf course next to the gated community,” she said. “And it looks like Harold was working with them.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Harold was anti-Hearthstone.”
“Do we know that for a fact?” Avery said. “Or is that just what he told everyone? Is that just what everyone in town said about him?”
I rubbed my jaw. She had a point. Now that I thought about it, there wasn’t any actual evidence that Harold had been against the Hearthstone project, just the usual slippery political statements about wanting to do what was best for the town and not being sure a large development was in the interest of Blackwell Hollow’s residents.
“Fuck.” I glanced at Avery, who looked scoldingly at me. “Fudge.”
Dane glared at me but all I could do was shrug. I didn’t like making Avery unhappy.
“If Harold was pro-Hearthstone and Sheriff Crowe doesn’t know it, she might be looking at all the wrong people as his possible murderer.”
“Exactly,” Avery said. “Which is why I’m going to confirm the initials are Harold’s, then take everything to her.”
Dane scratched his head, a sign of mounting frustration. “What do you mean you’re going to confirm the initials are Harold’s?”
“Simple,” Avery said. “I’m going to go to the town clerk’s office and pull up other planning documents for projects we know Harold worked on and see if I can find a match to the initials on the slides.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to take everything to Sheriff Crowe now?” I wasn’t big on the idea of Avery continuing to dig around in Harold’s murder when someone had just chased her through town. “Let her handle it from here?”
“No, because if I’m wrong, I’m going to look like an idiot, and I feel like I’ve looked like an idiot enough in the week that I’ve been here.”
Noah reached for her hand again. “You don’t look like an idiot.”
“I stumbled onto a dead body, took a coffee shower at the Common Ground, almost got mowed down during the town meeting, and got caught in a… compromising position by Rosie in one of the courtrooms. And I’ve only been here a week.”
“What kind of compromising position?” Noah and I said at the same time.
We both looked at Dane, realizing at the same time that he didn’t have questions about that particular revelation.
He glared, daring us to ask more questions.
“None of that was your fault,” I said. “I mean the compromising position might have been your fault, but I’m more than willing to blame Dane since it seems like he was an involved party.”
Avery’s cheeks turned pink and I had to resist the urge to kiss her stupid.
“The point is, I’m not going to bring some half-baked accusation to Sheriff Crowe without at least confirming those are Harold’s initials on the slides, especially when all it takes is a visit to the town hall.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Noah said.
“It will be.” She sounded certain. “Just a quick visit to look for some records and then I’ll drop everything off at the sheriff’s office.”
“Promise?” After the scare tonight, I wanted Avery as far away from Harold’s death as she could get.
"Promise.”