Chapter 28
Ears ringing from the report of the gun, Anna watched in horror as Owen fell heavily to the ground and didn’t move. When Will started to turn to her next, she reacted without conscious thought, throwing herself at him. They rolled a few times, but she had fear and fury on her side. Breaking free, she got to her feet, but Will reached out for one of her hiking boots and tugged.
They hit the ground again, her on top this time. He had his hands around her neck, which meant somehow he’d lost the gun. Buoyed by that knowledge and fueled by panic, she punched him in the throat.
Coughing, holding his throat with one hand, Will rolled toward her and wrapped his palm around her lower leg. But she was done with this, done with him, and she kicked out. Hard. She was still kicking his unconscious body when someone wrapped their arms around her and wrestled her away.
Owen, covered in blood, looking ashen, held her against him, so tight she could feel him shaking. “Are you... laughing?” she asked in disbelief.
“I hope you never get this mad at me,” he said. “I’m not sure I’d come out the winner.”
“I am this mad at you!” Whirling to face him, she patted her hands down his torso. “There’s so much blood, where are you hit?” She yanked the radio off his hip and yelled into it. “Ky! Owen’s been shot!”
“What?” Owen looked down, seemingly surprised. “Huh. You’re right. I am bleeding.” He hit his knees.
“Help’s on the way,” Ky said through the radio. Calm but serious. “Is he breathing? Is it a through and through? Can you slow the bleeding? Keep the wound clean?”
“He’s breathing, I don’t know yet, and I’ll do my best.” She crouched before Owen, shoving his shirt out of her way to see a hole just below his collarbone, blood seeping out of it. Craning her neck, she looked at his back. Another hole. A through and through, then. “You put yourself in front of me!” she yelled at him, ripping off her own shirt to press it against the exit wound, which was bleeding much more profusely than the front. “That was stupid!” Tears were pouring down her face. “You’re so stupid!”
He let out a low half laugh, half groan. And then he collapsed in her arms.
Anna eyed the clock on the wall of Wendy’s hospital room. The hands moved so slowly she wanted to scream. Her head hurt from where she’d hit it on a rock attempting to take down Will, who was at this very minute in custody, hopefully sitting in a jail cell. She hadn’t even realized she’d been bleeding until she’d gotten here. Five stitches later, she was fine.
Except for the going crazy part.
It’d been four hours, twenty minutes, and five seconds, and Owen was still in surgery. He’d better not die on her. She wasn’t done yelling at him.
Because... he loved her?
One of the rescue team’s first responders had said it was possible the bullet hadn’t hit anything vital. But she couldn’t get past the image of Owen lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood.
He’d been medevaced here and rushed into emergency surgery. Ky was in the surgical waiting room, and he’d promised to come get her when he heard something.
But there’d been nothing but radio silence.
She drew a deep breath. It’d been a crazy day and night, and she’d had a shocking number of revelations, some spoken, some unspoken. But the biggest thing she’d learned was that Owen would lay his life down for her.
No questions asked.
“Anna, he’s going to be okay,” Wendy said.
She looked at her sister holding one beautiful baby, and then at Hayden holding another, and finally down at the one in her own arms—she had no idea how to tell them apart yet and didn’t want to admit that out loud—and found herself stunned at the juxtaposition of life and death. “You don’t know that,” she whispered.
Just saying it out loud made her chest ache. Closing her eyes, she bent over the precious baby girl in her arms and cuddled her close. But the problem with closing her eyes was that everything that had happened on that mountaintop played across her eyelids in high-def.
Her, begging an unconscious Owen not to die.
Ky, talking to her through the radio, telling her to get the gun, keep it close in case Will woke up.
She’d lived five lifetimes before help had arrived...
“Do you know what the last thing I said to him was?” she asked the room. “I told him that he was stupid.”
Wendy choked out a laugh. “Sounds about right. He is a man, isn’t he?”
Hayden went brows up.
“No, you don’t understand,” Anna said. “He’d been shot and I yelled at him. I told him he was stupid for taking that bullet for me. And he...” She swallowed hard.
I love you, Anna...
She closed her eyes again. “He lost consciousness. So he’s lying on that surgical table with his last memory being me yelling at him that he was stupid.”
Wendy grinned. “Aw. You love him.”
Anna opened her mouth, then shut it again. Dear God. In spite of herself, it was true.
Wendy grinned knowingly.
Hayden looked confused. “If you love him, why did you make that ridiculous deal about this being over once you located the necklace and coins?”
“Babe,” Wendy said, shaking her head at her husband. “Just sit there and look pretty.” She turned to Anna. “So? Why did you?”
Anna sighed. “Because as you just mentioned, I’m ridiculous.”
“You could always recant,” her sister said with an annoying older sibling vibe. “When he wakes up, which he will, tell him just how ridiculous you’ve been and recant the deal.”
Anna hesitated.
“Okay, what aren’t you telling me?” Wendy asked.
“Owen went to see Will and didn’t tell me.” Embarrassment had her raising her voice. “Will had a video!”
The baby in her arms jumped, and she winced guiltily, kissing the furrow in her tiny little brow, lowering her own voice with effort. “He lied, Wendy. Lied by omission. And look at Dad! Neither of us could’ve in a million years imagined he’d been a thief! So it’s not a stretch to believe Owen could be a liar. He went to see Will without me. Why would he do that? He was the one who said we were an us and that he had my back. Not that he’d go behind my back!”
Hayden gave Wendy a pointed look.
Wendy grimaced.
“What?” Anna asked.
Both of them suddenly became enthralled with their babies.
“One of you needs to start talking and fast.”
Wendy sighed. “He went to see Will because of me, okay?”
“What?”
“Will showed up at my house,” Wendy said. “The night after he showed at yours. He was drunk, threatening, angry, and I got scared. Hayden was working late that night, so I called Owen.”
Anna’s mouth was literally hanging open. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to end up in jail.”
Anna sucked in a breath, trying to rein in her anger, but she couldn’t. Wendy had called Owen, not her. How was she supposed to get over this? “You clearly told Hayden about it.”
Wendy grimaced again. “Yes.”
“But not me.”
“Yes. I’m sorry!”
“You’re not, or you would have told me!”
“I’m telling you now,” Wendy said.
“Yeah, because Hayden made you.” Once again she was the odd person out. “I can’t believe this. Now I can’t trust you right along with Owen.”
“Focus!” Wendy yelled. This time it was the infant in her arms who jumped. Wendy cuddled her close. “Shh. I’m sorry, shh, it’s okay, baby.”
Anna managed to find a rough laugh. “You don’t know which one you have either.”
“Hey, I’m still getting the hang of this mommy thing. And you’re just mad because you realized you love Owen and a little part of you is totally panicking inside.”
Actually, it was a pretty big part of her panicking inside, thank you very much. Owen hadn’t told her something big, but... Wendy had asked him to keep it a secret. Which pretty much deflated her anger. Owen had been between a rock and a hard place, aka her and Wendy, but at the end of the day, he’d had their backs in the only way he could. He hadn’t betrayed her.
He wouldn’t betray her.
Yes, they’d started out on opposite sides of the fence, and yet... and yet he’d never shied away from the possibility that he could be wrong about her dad. He’d kept an open mind. He’d stood at her side. He was capable, resilient, smart, strong in both spirit and body, and he’d been an amazing partner. He thought things through, and while he was capable of acting on impulse, he never acted rashly.
Unless he was trying to put himself between her and a bullet, that was...
Most of all, he was calm, and he’d used that calm to help her feel brave. That made him something else—a friend, a great one. But he was also far more than that, and if she was being honest, he was also more than just a boyfriend or a lover.
He was the kite string that both anchored her and yet kept her flying.
And he loved her.
She had no idea how to handle that. Okay, so he hadn’t told her about protecting Wendy. The truth was, she was so incredibly grateful to him for being there for Wendy when she’d needed him. And what had Anna done to show that gratitude? She’d reminded him that they were over, then let him take a bullet for her and, oh yeah, had called him stupid.
All in the same day.
And he was currently in life-threatening surgery to which she could lose him.
Everything else seemed trivial, and she could scarcely breathe. “I’m sorry. I’m not upset you went behind my back. I’m upset because I’m afraid to lose him. I’m just so terrified of opening up my heart, and it doesn’t even matter because he wormed himself in there whether I like it or not.” She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “And for the record, I don’t.” Her eyes filled. “And if he dies, I’ll kill him.”
“Is that my sweatshirt you’re using as a tissue?” Hayden asked.
She looked down at her arm. “Yes.”
He looked pained.
“Do you want it back?”
“Not even a little bit.”
Wendy smirked. “You have worse on your shirt from changing Annabelle earlier.”
Sonya poked her head into the room, looking unsure of her welcome.
Wendy’s face lit up. “Sonya! Come in! Anna told me she called you—you’re so sweet for coming! I wanted to thank you for being such a help a few weeks back when Anna went to see you, but—”
“You’ve been a little busy.” Sonya smiled. “I get it. Congratulations. I just wanted to leave you a basket of goodies in case the food sucked.”
Wendy gave her the gimme hands, and Sonya set the basket on the table by her bed before looking at the baby in her arms. “Oh my goodness,” she said softly. “She’s precious.” She turned and took in the other two as well, and her eyes widened. “Triplets?”
“Yep,” Wendy said. “Three times the fun.”
Sonya’s eyes got misty. “Your father would’ve loved this so much.” She put a hand to her heart. “I know how much I miss him. I can only imagine what you’re all going through.”
Hayden passed the tissues around again.
“It’s because of you that we’re going through a lot less than we could have been,” Anna said. “You sent me on the path that ultimately allowed us to learn he didn’t steal the Ruby Red or the coins.”
Wendy looked at Anna. “Maybe now his name can remain on the buildings he worked so tirelessly to give to the public.”
Anna didn’t know how to tell her that while he hadn’t stolen from Ruby, he still had that early record, which was now out there to the public.
Sonya swiped at a tear that had escaped down her face. “He was just such a wonderful, loving man who, yes, maybe made a few desperate, questionable decisions, but when he turned his life around and went legitimate, he really did try to talk Shady Joe into doing the same. But Joe wasn’t interested in legitimacy. He was far too consumed with greed.” She paused. Bit her lower lip. “There’s something I didn’t tell you before. I hope you can understand why. I needed to know you wouldn’t stop loving him no matter what you found out.”
“Of course not,” Wendy said. “What is it?”
“Joe sent your dad that coin, the one you found in his things. It must’ve been shortly after the theft. Joe sent it as a taunt, a sort of ‘screw you, I got the whole thing even though you said I couldn’t do it.’”
“Why do you think he never got someone to recover Ruby’s things and return them to her?” Anna asked, bringing up the question that had been bothering her for some time now.
“It came down to being too high of a calculated risk.”
“To who?” Wendy asked.
“Us,” Anna said softly, watching Sonya as the woman nodded sadly.
Anna looked at Wendy, who had a hand pressed to her heart, which was presumably aching every bit as much as her own was.
“Your dad spent the rest of his life correcting course,” Sonya said. “Even when he knew putting himself out there in such a public way with the philanthropy might come back to haunt him.” She paused, clearly weighing her next words carefully. “He was filled with guilt over feeling like he knew exactly what had happened to the Ruby Red and the coins. There was no escaping that. Knowing where Joe liked to hide things and how hard it was to get up there, he wanted to find a way to tell Ruby where her belongings might’ve been hidden, but he was also afraid of what Shady Joe might do if he revealed the hiding place or the fact that he had the coin.”
“He was afraid Joe would come after him,” Anna said.
Sonya shook her head. “He wasn’t afraid for himself. He was afraid Joe was unhinged and would go after his one vulnerability.”
“Us,” Anna breathed.
Sonya nodded. “He was also afraid for Ruby, because Joe had been able to charm his way into her life once before. He knew the guy could do it again. At the time, your dad knew Joe was being watched by the authorities, who were very close to putting him away for some other crimes, several of which were for elder abuse.” She paused. Hesitated. “Lou also knew about his MS and that he was on borrowed time.”
“That’s why he didn’t have his letter sent immediately. He was waiting, hoping Shady Joe would be locked away and unable to hurt anyone, but also he was looking to keep himself out of it and safe from prosecution. Only Joe didn’t get locked up for years, and Dad... he didn’t get sick and pass for nearly a decade after that.”
Sonya winced but held eye contact. “I’m sorry.”
Anna shook her head. “I don’t blame you for keeping his secrets.” And she truly didn’t. She’d had a loving father who’d made some wrong decisions for the right reasons. He’d changed the course of his life, and by extension, hers and Wendy’s as well.
Someone knocked on the hospital door and Anna’s friend Nikki peeked in. “Hey there.” Nikki took in the sight of the babies and beamed. “Oh wow, Wen, you and Hayden sure do make cute kids!” She turned to look at Anna. “I’m really sorry to do this now, but I need to ask you some questions about what happened.”
“What happened to Will?” Wendy asked. “And will anything happen to Joe?”
“Will’s being held without bail since he’s considered a flight risk. He’ll be charged for several crimes, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful installation of a tracking device. Rico Edwards will be getting an autopsy. If it turns out he didn’t die of a health issue and Joe killed him, he’ll be charged for that as well.” She looked at Anna. “Can we go somewhere private to talk?”
“Don’t you dare go somewhere private,” Wendy said. “I mean it. I’ll just get up and follow, and then the nurses will yell at both of you.”
Anna sighed. “We can do it here.”
Nikki nodded. “So... what happened up there? In your own words.”
Anna let out a breath and looked at Wendy. “I know how much Dad’s reputation means to you, and what it will mean to the girls, and all the good that he did, all the love he had for us, that still stands. You know that, right? It’ll never leave our hearts. I need you to say you know that because I’m going to tell the whole truth so we can be done with it, so nothing can come back to haunt us, or these precious babies, ever.”
Wendy’s eyes were shiny when she nodded. “I know.”
“Even if it means his name isn’t on buildings anymore?”
Wendy sniffed. “I thought that was what mattered, but I was wrong. All that matters is our own memory of him and what a wonderful dad he was.”
So Anna told Nikki everything, the whole crazy story from start to finish.
Nikki had been taking notes, at least until Anna got to the part about Louis being an associate of Joe’s, when she held up a hand. “Stop,” she said. Paused. “You know that anything you tell me about your dad is going to end up in the report.”
Anna looked at Wendy again, who nodded. “The truth’s more important,” she said. “I get that this might hurt his reputation. We know he made mistakes, but he’s atoned for that as much as he could. Do what you have to do. It’s okay.”
When Nikki was gone, Anna looked at Wendy. “You okay?”
“Getting there. You did the right thing. Dad was amazing. The end. That’s what I’m going to tell the girls.”
Anna nodded. And if Wendy was brave enough to admit all that, then she could be brave enough to go make an admission to Owen as well.
She realized that there were moments in life that were tipping points. Fixed moments when you realized that things would happen that would fundamentally change you, and maybe there’d be no going back, but that was okay.
She’d had more than a few of those moments since meeting Owen. But the one that scared her the most had been watching him throw himself in front of her to save her. He’d had to have known with terrifying certainty that he could die doing so.
He’d done it anyway.
And that had been the moment she’d known exactly how much she loved him—with her entire heart and soul. If she lost him now, if he died, he’d do so without knowing how she felt. She hadn’t been brave enough on the mountain, but she would find the courage now. She couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t.