22. Ben
BEN
She sat there in shock, not moving as her fingers still gripped the door handle. I tried and failed to get in to check on her since the front end had smashed into the pillar, effectively crushing the doorframe. She was fucking lucky she wasn’t driving faster, and that the airbag hadn’t deployed.
Luck seemed to be on her side in that she hadn’t driven straight through the gym. Instead, it settled half in and half out. She had no physical signs of trauma, but the blank look on her face said it all.
She was freaking out in that beautiful head of hers. I wanted to stay with her, to make sure she was okay, but River was looking at Clara like she had intentionally driven through the damn window, which was just ridiculous.
Clara didn’t have an evil bone in her body.
Sirens grew louder as the ambulance and fire truck arrived on the scene. There was nothing for me to do here, except step aside and let the professionals take over. I had damage control to do. There was going to be one hell of an insurance claim, along with repairs to the building.
And the little matter of convincing River that this was all one big misunderstanding.
So, as much as I didn’t want to leave my wife, I walked away, leaving this to the professionals. River was sitting on a bench, her face pale and flushed as she pressed her fingers to her pulse on her wrist.
“You doin’ okay?”
She nodded, but stared out at the car vacantly.
“Quite the close call.”
“She tried to murder me,” she whispered. “Your wife actually tried to kill me.”
“No,” I laughed, hoping she would find the whole thing funny. “You know Clara. She would never hurt anyone.”
River’s eyes slowly turned to me. “I saw her, Ben. She was already driving too fast, and then she turned the wheel toward the gym. Toward me!”
“No, you must have that wrong. I’m telling you, Clara’s not like that.”
She shoved to her feet, getting in my face. “I’m telling you that she directed that car toward me! She was trying to murder me!”
“River, do you hear yourself? You’ve known Clara all your life. Do you really think she’s capable of something like that?”
The confusion that swam in her eyes told me I was getting through to her, but there was still that set to her jaw that said she was not backing down on this.
“There must have been something wrong with the car. Wyatt will take a look, and he’ll be able to tell us what happened.”
That seemed to appease her for now, but I didn’t dare walk away, not when she still looked so damn convinced that Clara was trying to murder her. What possible reason would she have?
“Are you sure you’re okay? Do you want me to get a paramedic over here?”
She shook her head, her eyes still glazed over in a daze. “No, I’m…I’m alright.”
“Ben!” Maverick called out, stepping over the wreckage to get to me.
I hesitantly walked away, making sure I was out of earshot for this conversation.
“Mav, good of you to come.”
“Well, it’s sort of my job. Care to explain what happened?”
I didn’t like the tone in his voice, the accusation that lingered underneath the concern. “Just what are you saying?”
“I’m asking what happened.”
I still wasn’t sure, but since Clara was involved, I’d lie my ass off to protect her. “Gas pedal must have stuck.”
“Gas pedal, huh?” He tipped his hat up, eyeing me like I was a suspect.
“Just what are you implying?”
He glanced around, then lowered his voice so only I could hear. “Bud said Clara was causing a commotion on the street. Said she was real upset about something after she left the gym. She was parked across from him. He saw the whole thing.”
“Upset about what? That’s ridiculous!”
He shrugged, the look of confusion and speculation just as infuriating as the fact that he was standing here questioning me.
“He said she left with Georgia, and when she came back, she was driving fast and erratically, then turned right into the gym.”
“Bud’s all the way down the street,” I pointed out. “He wouldn’t have been able to see a damn thing!”
“Even so, it does paint a picture that some may see as…questionable.”
I had to admit, though it pained me to do so, that my wife wasn’t coming out looking so hot right now. But I would never admit that to a lawman.
“Right now, she needs to get to the hospital. You know it wasn’t that long ago that she was poisoned.”
“That was over six months ago,” he pointed out.
“Still, we have no idea what the lasting effects were. Plus, she’s been pushing herself like crazy with her workouts. What if that somehow affected something?”
“Right,” he nodded, his pen dancing in the air over his notebook as he tried to figure out what to write. “The workouts did it.”
“I’m not saying they did,” I snapped. “I’m telling you we don’t know what happened.”
“And I’m telling you to make sure you get Ryder Lawson on speed dial, because right now, this doesn’t look too good.”
I refused to believe that Clara in any way caused this accident on purpose. It just wasn’t in her nature. “Sure, I’ll get him on speed dial, but you’d better do a thorough investigation to clear her name.”
“You know, you might not want me to be too thorough, if you catch my drift.”
I caught his drift, alright, and I didn’t like what he was implying. “You’re making a lot of assumptions without even talking to my wife,” I bit out.
“Ben, talk to her and find out what the hell happened. Figure this out before she ends up in jail for attempted murder.”
As he walked away, I glanced back at River, trying to figure out why my wife would want to kill the young woman who had been teaching her yoga for the last few weeks.
But then another thought crossed my mind.
Just a few minutes prior, I had been talking with River. Maybe my wife wasn’t targeting River.
Maybe the target was me.
I laughed to myself, shaking my head at the stupidity of it all.
My wife. A murderer. It just wasn’t possible. No way. Clara just didn’t have it in her.
Of course, then I thought back to how she kicked me out of the house and told me she wasn’t sure if we could make it. I wasn’t exactly her favorite person right now, but I still couldn’t imagine Clara ever getting so upset that she’d intentionally drive through a window to kill me.
Just thinking of it made me laugh.
God, I was letting my imagination get the best of me, and it wouldn’t be long before I convinced myself that my wife was actually a closeted murderer.
Insanity was running rampant through my family right now, and I had to put a cork in that before the bottle shot off like champagne on New Year’s Eve.