Chapter 5
Malcolm’s name lit up the display on the dashboard. Hudson jabbed his finger into the touchscreen. “Pop’s been in a car accident.”
“What?” Malcolm inhaled hard. “Holy fuck.”
Hudson tore through a yellow light as he spat out the location of the crash. “Where are you?”
“I just left a client around the corner. On my way.”
Tessa reached forward and ended the call. “That was your best friend, right?”
Hudson nodded, his throat too tight to utter another word.
She shielded her eyes against the setting sun and pointed. “There.”
A small crowd gathered at the top of the road hugging the bay. He hit the gas harder.
Please be alive. Please be alive.
The tires of his rental spun on the pavement. Gravel pinged off the bumper as he jerked the car onto the shoulder and threw it in park. “Stay here.”
He jumped out and looked down the steep embankment. “No.”
“Oh my God.” Tessa clutched his wrist.
Her sob shattered the numbness he’d clung to like a shield. A scream, so deep he could see the air wavering around him, unearthed itself from a place in his soul. The swells grew stronger as his focus locked on the front of Pop’s sedan crushed into the low concrete wall lining the bay.
Sirens wailed in the distance. A car door slammed behind him as he lurched forward and screamed at Malcolm over his shoulder. “Wait up here for the ambulance with Tessa.”
Stumbling on the sand and marsh grass, he ran down the slope toward Nathaniel waving from the rear of the car. Sweat mixed with tears and dripped into Hudson’s eyes. He squinted against the sting as his foot plunged into a hole.
Nathaniel caught him by the shoulders. “I was driving home from D.C. and saw Sam’s car in front of me at the stoplight on Bay and Third. Then the light turned green and he took off and swerved all over the place until he…”
Hudson twisted from Nathaniel’s grip. Broken glass crunched under his sneakers.
He lunged for the driver’s side door. Pop’s silver hair came into view as Hudson fell to his knees beside the vehicle.
Gripping the edge of the shattered window, he reached in and pressed his fingers to Pop’s neck. “It’s Hudson. Can you hear me?”
No pulse.
No response.
And no deployed airbag.
He pressed harder into the blood-covered flesh and prayed for a beat to quicken beneath his fingertips.
“Wake up, old man. I got you.” Tears blurred his vision as he rose and yanked on the door handle. “Open, Goddammit.” It didn’t budge. He looked back at Nathaniel. “Try the passenger door.”
Nathaniel’s suit jacket strained against his shoulders as he mimicked a tugging motion. “I tried. It’s jammed too.”
“Try again.” Hudson’s ribs roared in agony as he wrenched at the door another time to no avail. A scream tore from behind him. He spun.
“I’m too late.” Tessa let out a strangled sob. “Please, tell me he’s not dead.”
No. Pop’s not dead. He can’t be.
Hudson caught a flash of sandy-colored hair on the passenger side of the car. “Get that damn door open.”
Malcolm grunted. “Working on it.”
Sirens blared from the top of the embankment. Blood dripped from Pop’s nose. More trailed from lacerations on his cheek that appeared more ashen than it had been seconds ago.
Nathaniel latched onto the back of his shoulders. “It’s too late. He’s gone.”
“No.” Hudson threw back an elbow. Glass pierced his shirt as he thrust his upper body through the window. He held his breath, tensing so hard he barely felt his own heartbeat, and waited for a moan, a breath, any indication he wouldn’t be attending another funeral this week.
“Come on, old man.”
A groan trembled from Pop’s lungs. Relief filled Hudson’s chest so fast he almost puked. Pop’s lashes fluttered. For a heartbeat, Hudson stared into eyes the color of his own, but brighter.
Pop blinked. “Son-of-a-sea-bass. You’re here boy.”
The thick, bloody rattle smothered Hudson’s relief with bone-deep fear. “You’re going to be fine. Don’t move.” He angled Pop’s head to the side, bracing his neck with both hands. “You’ve been in a car crash. Concentrate on taking slow breaths and stay with me.”
Pop latched onto Hudson’s wrist with surprising strength.
“I can’t, Hudson.”
“No.” Hudson shook his head and stared into the eyes of the man who’d taught him how to be a man. “Don’t give up. I need you. We’ll get you out of here.”
A shuddering wheeze shook Pop’s body. The violent burst sucked the air from them both as the cough settled. The eerie precursor to the inevitable, which Hudson had witnessed far too often on the battlefield, blanketed the car. “Listen to me, old man. You’re not allowed to die.”
Another trickle of blood slid from Pop’s mouth as he patted the back of Hudson’s hand. “Did you meet Tessa?”
“Yes. You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
“You’ll figure it out, boy. Just—”
Pop’s head slumped forward. His limp hand slid from Hudson’s and onto his thigh.
“No.” Hudson’s whisper broke the dam he’d been holding back. Tears streamed down his cheeks on a sob to rival Tessa’s as he buried his face in Pop’s neck and inhaled cigars and the sea.
He jerked his head up as the passenger door wrenched open with a metallic crack.
A paramedic climbed in. “Sir, I need you to move.”
“No.” Hudson searched for a pulse, desperation thundering through him with the force of a freight train.
“Hudson.” Tessa’s voice broke. “What did Sam say? I heard him say my name.”
He pulled out of the window and spun. “He’s…”
“No.” Tessa trembled, her face ravaged with tears as she peered around him and into the car. “Sam has to be okay. I…I made chili. And we’re supposed to eat Ralphie’s scones and then go fishing.” On a strangled breath, she buried her face in her hands and crumbled to the ground.
A female paramedic dropped next to her. “I’m so sorry, sweetie.” Twin tears slid down her cheeks as she grabbed Tessa’s hands. “He loved you. You know that, right?”
Jealousy and confusion knifed through Hudson as he glared at the woman in the sand who cried over his grandfather like she’d been his—what? Family? Granddaughter?
She’d only known Pop a couple of years for fuck’s sake, but somehow, she’d managed to integrate herself into his life.
Into the things he did with his grandfather.
The things he’d been looking forward to with thinly harnessed desperation.
This woman wasn’t family, she was—
“Fuck.” Pop had given her the ruby ring. That meant something.
Nathaniel caught his eye. “I’m sorry about your grandfather. I called Vivian to let her know he’s gone. I was telling the officer that Sam might have had a few drinks, or maybe he had a heart attack.”
Red hot fury edged Hudson’s vision. “Pop did not have a heart attack and he wasn’t drunk.”
He grabbed Tessa’s hands and pulled her up. “Did Pop have any recent health issues he didn’t tell me about?”
She shook her head. “No. He had a physical a few weeks ago. He showed me his labs and the reports. He’s…
” She pressed her fist to her mouth. “He was in great health. He walked on the beach and was strong enough to carry his own gear when he went fishing.” She grabbed Hudson’s forearms. “The fish. Get it before it rots.”
Her desperation kicked him into mission mode. “Copy that.” He spun to a twenty-something police officer. “There’s a cooler in the car with a dead fish. Bring it to me. Now.”
The cop wrinkled his nose. “I can’t let you take anything from the vehicle, but I’ll see if the fish is there.”
Hudson tracked the officer’s path to the car like a general overseeing a military maneuver. He touched the sinker through his shorts. His other hand twitched at his side. Opening his fingers, he wrapped his pinky around Tessa’s and squeezed as the cop emerged from the car with no cooler.
“The fish is on plenty of ice.” The officer held out his hands to indicate the size. “Nice catch. I’ll make sure it doesn’t rot.”
“Oh my God.” Tessa yanked her fingers from Hudson’s and stared at the cop. “No.”
Fading light caught the gold wrapper stuck to the officer’s pants. The flash stabbed into Tessa’s eyes, freezing her in place. Her breath hitched as the last accident scene she’d arrived at too late slammed into her memory.
Blood coated her palms.
Frank’s voice cut through the rain.
“Some paramedic you are.” He spit on the wet ground. “Useless excuse for a daughter. This is your fault.”
“Come on, sweetie. Breathe.”
Lia’s voice yanked Tessa from the memory. Her heartbeat rioted as she stared at the emergency responders gathered around the smashed vehicle.
She’d known the crash was bad the moment she saw the car from the road.
Knew she should help, but she’d never said she was a paramedic.
Not when Malcolm held her back with surprising strength for a suited-up lawyer, and not when she stomped on his shiny shoe and escaped.
And when she saw Sam, her limbs had stopped working.
She whirled to Lia and pulled her out of earshot. “The butterscotch wrapper. It’s the kind Frank eats. One blew past me on the boardwalk when I thought I saw him this morning.”
“He’s not here, sweetie. The wrapper could have been anyone’s. Could’ve been Sam’s.”
“It’s not.” She pressed her fingers into her temples. Hudson’s razor-edged tone cut through the air as he spoke with a paramedic.
“I want to see the medical examiner’s report immediately. Tell me you understand.”
“We understand, Dr. Langley. We’re looking at all angles.”
Tessa gripped Lia’s wrist. “Did you hear that? ‘All angles’ means they think this might not be an accident. Frank’s here.
He got to me. Got to Sam. Oh my God. Tell me this is a coincidence.
Tell me Frank isn’t in Belmarva. That he wasn’t in Sam’s car doing God knows what.
That he’s still in Belize and I’m overreacting. ”
An officer approached. Lia raised her hand. “Give us a minute, Russ.”
He stopped a few feet from them. “I’m really sorry about Sam.”
Tessa didn’t look at Lia’s friend she’d met a handful of times. “I need to tell someone, but what if they think I’m like Frank?”
“They won’t.”
Pain pulsed in her cheekbone, sharp as the night it had broken. “But everybody always does. Always.” Every accusation she did or didn’t deserve screamed in her brain. “What if they find out about the things I’ve done and think I was involved with Sam’s—”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she clasped her forearms to stop trembling. “What do I do?”
“You tell the truth, sweetie. You did nothing wrong.”
“But I did.”
“A long time ago, for reasons beyond your control. Nobody needs to know that. Just tell them about Frank.”
A strong hand gripped her bicep.
Hudson.
“Who the fuck is Frank?”
His question thundered through her brain. How long had he been standing there?
She turned to Lia. “I can’t do this.”
Hudson stepped between them. “Do what, Tessa?”
“I…”
Frank’s voice bellowed in her head to flee. She willed her feet to move, but they remained rooted to the sand as Hudson pressed his lips into a hard line.
“Start talking.”
“Okay.” She wrapped her arms around herself tighter and pressed her fingers into her skin hard enough to leave bruises. Once she laid herself bare, there’d be no going back. “Frank is—”