LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter 4

      Everett had always been a light sleeper. He had trouble drifting into slumber and struggled to get back to sleep if he woke in the night. Things had gotten worse over the last few years, and he’d tried every tip and gadget that came his way. Recently, he’d found a combination of an eye mask, headphones and white noise playing on his phone worked best. It was awkward going to bed wired up, but at least he felt human in the mornings.

      Even with his support system in place, he lay awake for several hours after his conversation with Alyssa. There were so many thoughts competing for his attention, it would be surprising if he ever slept again.

      The first, and most important thing, was that he’d become a dad. It was not the way he’d always pictured it would happen, but he was determined to make the best of it. For Sean, for Kennedy and for this new little family. It was exciting, scary and intense. And he still couldn’t quite believe it was happening. He couldn’t help wondering how Kennedy would fit into his life. Was it really possible to love someone else’s child? He had made a commitment to care for Sean’s daughter and protect her, but would he ever care for her the way he would if she had been his own? It wasn’t important. If the love didn’t come, he would make sure Kennedy never knew.

      He just wished he didn’t have to get to know her alongside the mystery surrounding her parents’ deaths. His thoughts turned to the call from Casey telling him Sean had killed himself. Even though it had been four years since they’d spoken, Everett’s first reaction had been guilt. Should he have known? Could he have done something to prevent it?

      Next came disbelief. Not Sean. Not his energetic, arrogant, laugh-in-the-face-of-danger ex-friend. And that was what stayed with him. Maybe everyone felt that way, but Sean had always believed he was invincible. He’d never had a moment’s self-doubt in his life. But Sean’s open disapproval of Georgia’s relationship with Casey had ended up with his brother heartbroken at the altar.

       You hadn’t seen him in four years. A man can change a lot in that time.

      Except…Everett had seen him. He’d headed the FBI team who had chased down the cattle rustlers. After not speaking to him in years, Sean’s first words had been a quiet, mocking whisper when Everett had read him his rights.

      “I’m going to enjoy making you look dumb in court, Colton.” The familiar gleam in his old friend’s eye said it all. Sean hadn’t changed a bit. Even though it was malicious, he saw this as an extension of the duct-tape and peanut-butter games. Sean played to win, and he was looking forward to a new challenge.

      Of course, Everett accepted that no one ever knew for sure what was going on inside another person’s life, or head. But when his focus shifted from Pierce Tostig’s murder to the Dodds’ deaths, his concerns became professional as well as personal. The suicide note was just part of the problem. There were too many other things that didn’t add up.

      Even if he allowed himself to picture Sean committing suicide, he could not accept that the man he had once called his friend would have killed his wife. With a new baby to care for, it was likely she’d have faced a reduced charge and might even have escaped a custodial sentence.

      Sean and Delilah were two of a kind, each drawn to the other’s reckless streak. They had a six-month-old baby whom they both clearly loved. Their criminal activities hadn’t halted when Kennedy came along but they had gone to the trouble of enlisting a neighbor to help with the babysitting. Even if he’d thought of taking Delilah’s life, would Sean really have taken the drastic step of depriving Kennedy of both parents? Yes, she had an aunt, but would Sean have considered Georgia a suitable person to care for his child? Everett doubted it. It came back to that same question. If his mind had been disturbed, who knew what his reasoning might be?

      The night they died, there were signs at their house of a disturbance. It appeared that the couple had been eating at the kitchen table when chairs were overturned and plates tipped onto the floor. There were marks suggesting someone had been dragged along the gravel drive between the house and the garage.

      Had Sean forced Delilah out the door and into the car against her will? That suggested an impulsiveness at odds with a written suicide note. As did driving his vehicle full-speed at a wall. Death wasn’t guaranteed, and Sean was nothing if not precise. If he had wanted to die, he had a safe full of guns that would have been a safer bet.

       Thank goodness Kennedy had been staying with Georgia that night…

      It was the first time in his life Everett had been thankful for Georgia Dodd, the woman who had almost been his sister-in-law. When they were kids, Sean’s little sister had been trouble. As an adult, she had embraced rather than outgrown the label. When she’d gotten engaged to his twin, Everett had done his best to put aside his misgivings. Dumping Casey at the altar had sealed his dislike for her. Sean might have urged her to do it, but Georgia had a mind of her own. The decision to walk had been hers.

      She was Kennedy’s only surviving close relative. She was behind bars and, if she was found guilty, that was where she would stay. It was one more thing he would have to deal with now his life had taken this new, unforeseen turn. In one day.

      But the most painful twist the last twenty-four hours had thrown at him was bringing Alyssa back into his life. And he didn’t know how to deal with that.

      When they broke up, he’d learned the hard way that heartache really did hurt as much as people said. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d picked up his cell phone and gazed at her number on the screen, rehearsing what he was going to say. But he’d known there were no words to make it right. The damage had been done before they met.

      For Alyssa, it had happened way back when a random drunk stabbed her dad. Casey would say that, in Everett’s case, it had been more recent, dating back to his brief stint in the world of corporate law. Did that make it harder to deal with?

       I’ll leave the amateur psychoanalysis to my brother.

      Friends told him the pain of a breakup got better with time. It didn’t. He just found ways to push aside the ache of missing her. Instead of staring at her picture like a man dying of thirst would stare at an out-of-reach bottle of water, he threw himself into his work, went for long runs, worked out and took aimless drives with his music turned up loud to tune out the memories.

      He’d even tried dating again. If possible, that had made him miss her more. After a few attempts, he’d given up. It was unfair to the other women, who didn’t know they would never be enough for him because they weren’t Alyssa.

      Four years had passed, and he still thought about her every day. She was imprinted on his heart. Now she was in the next room…

      A

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