Aiden couldn’t believe Jane Fordham had found the safe house. And that she was holding a gun on Shelby and Eva while carrying her own son. Who did that? The woman was mentally unbalanced.
And that made her extremely dangerous.
“You don’t want to shoot me,” Shelby said in a calm voice. “I understand why you’re upset. Emmitt shouldn’t have left you high and dry with a son to raise.”
“Our son!” Jane screeched. Her face twisted with hate. “Emmitt didn’t love you, he loved me!”
“I know he did.” He admired Shelby’s ability to speak calmly while staring down the barrel of a gun. “I’m sure we can work something out. I agree your son deserves financial support. I’ll do whatever I can to help you, but you need to put the gun down first.”
“Work something out?” Jane let out a harsh laugh. “It’s too late for that.”
Aiden didn’t like the sound of that. He worried she would pull a murder suicide if they didn’t intervene. He didn’t dare take his gaze off Jane Fordham, while praying Kyleigh and Reed would get there and find a way to help him disarm the woman. It wouldn’t be easy, not with her gun so close to Shelby and Eva. If they startled her, Jane could fire off two rounds before they could stop her.
She was, after all, a trained soldier. Maybe slightly rusty, having been out of action since giving birth, but still competent in using a weapon.
He estimated the distance between him and Jane to be roughly six feet. It felt more like six miles. Especially considering how Shelby and Eva were much closer to her. Impossible for him to cover the distance in time.
But that wouldn’t stop him if this situation deteriorated any further. He had to pray that Shelby would find cover.
“Please, Jane. Put the gun away. You don’t want to risk harming Emmitt, do you? We’re both mothers, right? We would do anything to protect our children.”
“Emmitt didn’t protect us,” Jane said in a low, agonizing tone. Aiden felt a flicker of compassion for what she must be going through. Not that it gave her an excuse to kill. The barrel of the gun in her hand dipped for a second, then steadied. “And that means I have to take what’s rightfully mine.”
“You can’t collect money if you’re in jail,” Shelby said, a hint of desperation in her tone, as if the tense situation was getting to her. “Don’t you see? I have an FBI agent standing behind me. If you kill me, they’ll kill you, and Emmitt will end up in foster care, growing up without either of his parents. Is that what you want for him?”
A flicker of movement from behind Jane caught Aiden’s eye. He tried not to shift his gaze to the point he drew Jane’s attention. But he felt certain Kyleigh and Reed were behind her.
Yet even though he was thrilled to have additional backup, Shelby and Eva were still too close to Jane and the barrel of her gun.
“I told you it’s too late!” Jane’s voice rose in agitation. “Things have gone too far.”
“It’s never too late,” Shelby said. “I promise we’ll find a way out of this. But you really need to put the gun down.”
“Jane, don’t!” Jane startled when a male voice shouted from somewhere off to the right. Jane turned that way. Aiden rushed forward, practically leaping in front of Shelby and Eva. As if they’d choreographed it, Shelby threw herself into a snowbank, clutching Eva to her chest and using her own body to shield the little girl.
The gun fired just as Aiden slammed his arm against Jane’s, the bullet going harmlessly up into the sky. The eighteen-month-old baby cried out as he slipped from her arms. Aiden tackled Jane, wincing as the young boy came down with them. He hoped the snow-covered ground prevented him from being hurt.
“No, Jane!” A man Aiden belatedly recognized as Victor Morrison ran toward them. His gaze was etched in horror as if he hadn’t anticipated this turn of events.
“Stay back!” Brady barked. “FBI, stay back and keep your hands where I can see them!”
Victor stopped, his expression resigned as Kyleigh and Reed approached from either side with their weapons drawn.
Aiden rolled off Jane, searching for the gun. When he found it, he put his foot on top, shoving it deeper into the snow, then reached for the young boy. “Hey there, it’s okay. Your mommy is fine.”
She wasn’t fine, but he needed to calm the toddler down. Emmitt junior reared away from Aiden, reaching his arms toward Victor.
“May I take him?” Victor asked. “Please? I’m the only father figure he’s ever known.”
“Don’t move,” Reed said. “You don’t get the kid until I pat you down.”
Victor lifted his arms out from his sides, allowing Reed to search him for a weapon. Of course, the guy had a gun and a knife, as most soldiers did. Reed made a point of checking for an ankle weapon, but there wasn’t one. Then he stepped back. “Okay, he can take the kid.”
Since Emmitt was crying loud enough to break eardrums, Aiden gratefully handed the boy to Victor. Then he turned his attention to Jane, who was curled in a ball on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Get up.” He reached down to grasp her arm. “You’re under arrest for attempted murder.” He didn’t mention the murder of Tom Mitchell because he wasn’t sure which of these two had pulled the trigger.
“This is my fault,” Victor said in a low voice. “I tried to protect Jane, but she was fixated on Shelby and her daughter.”
“Are you and Jane married?” Aiden hauled Jane to her feet. Despite her earlier bravado, the woman continued sobbing into her hands, going along without a fight now that it was finally over.
“No!” Victor looked appalled. “I could never—Jane is my stepsister.”
Aiden didn’t remember anything about a stepsister, but he’d been more focused on Oliver Kennedy. And blood relatives to their key suspects. Which just showed how far off track they’d gone.
“Did you kill Tom Mitchell?” Aiden asked, shooting Victor a narrow look.
The soldier glanced away, swallowing hard. “It wasn’t me.”
“Jane, then?” he pressed.
“I honestly don’t know. This is more complicated than you realize,” Victor said in a low voice. “I’ve been trying to support Jane through this, but she hasn’t been listening. She had a promising career working in army communications until she got pregnant.”
“Who then?” he demanded, filing away the information on Jane’s having a communications background. “I need to know who killed Tom Mitchell?”
“I did.” Another voice had Aiden spinning around. He shouldn’t have been surprised to see Bill Parsons standing there. The sergeant major held up his hands as if in surrender. “I knew what Emmitt Copeland had done, how he’d had an affair and gotten Jane Fordham pregnant. I tried to cover it up, but then Greg Savage started digging into things, and well . . .” His voice trailed off.
“Stay right there,” Brady said. “Reed, hold him at gunpoint until I frisk him.”
“Go ahead,” Parsons said in a resigned tone. “The FBI took my weapon and refused to give it back until their investigation was complete.”
Aiden remembered Donovan saying that but waited until Brady did the search, then stepped back. “He’s not armed.”
“You killed your own investigator?” Aiden could hardly believe what he was hearing. “Why would you cover up for Emmitt?”
There was a long pause. Then Parsons said, “I am—was Emmitt’s father. His mother and I never married, so Emmitt didn’t know it. I—we kept it a secret from him.”
A hushed silence fell over the group. Again, Aiden had to admit he had not seen that one coming. Bill Parsons was baby Emmitt’s grandfather. What a tangled web of secrets. All leading to violence. “So why are you here now?”
The old man grimaced. “I heard from my boss that the FBI had gotten a subpoena for my personnel and financial records.” He darted a glance at Brady and shrugged. “Donovan and your brother are smart. I knew it wouldn’t take long for them to put the pieces together. I made child support payments to Emmitt’s mother until he was eighteen.” Parsons’s gaze shifted to the baby in Victor’s arms. “When I discovered what had happened, and how Jane had fallen into the same situation, I wanted to protect her. But then I discovered how fixated she was on Ms. Copeland and her daughter.” He paused, then added, “I came forward now because Jane isn’t a bad person. She needs help. And if I take responsibility for my actions, she and Emmitt stand a better chance of getting the help they need.”
Aiden blew out a breath as he digested this. It seemed Bill Parsons was going out on a limb to protect his grandson. Maybe because he hadn’t been there for his own son, other than providing financial support. “What about Tim Tobin’s attack on us?”
“I ordered him to do it.” Parsons dropped his gaze. “I kept thinking if you were all out of the way, I could cover this all up and move forward with Jane and Emmitt.”
“You killed your own investigator and set up another former soldier to kill us.” Aiden struggled to find any sympathy for the guy. “You don’t deserve those stripes on your sleeve.”
Parsons didn’t respond.
“Did you ask Kevin Carter to call me about my dad’s files?” Shelby asked.
“Yes.” Parsons shrugged. “I suspected he was digging into Emmitt’s past too. I didn’t want your father to know about Jane and Emmitt.”
“Did you kill my father?” Shelby demanded.
“What? No.” Parsons looks shocked by that. “He died of a heart attack.”
Aiden wasn’t sure he believed the guy, but there would be time to dig into that further later. For now, they had Parsons on murder.
“Okay, then.” Brady stepped forward with handcuffs. “Bill Parsons, you are under arrest for the murder of Tom Mitchell.” His brother went on to recite the entire Miranda warning, even though Parsons had already confessed, and in front of several cop witnesses.
“I can take him in,” Marc offered. He must have come out of the safe house at some point, but Aiden hadn’t noticed him until now.
“We can take Jane into custody too,” Reed offered. “I think a good lawyer will argue extreme emotional disturbance, but she still threatened Shelby and Eva with a gun, as well as taking several other shots at them, so we can’t let her walk.” Reed glanced at Victor Morrison. “You’ll need to take care of Emmitt while we get her processed through the system.”
“I understand.” Victor turned to Jane, his expression earnest. “I’ll hire you the best lawyer money can buy, okay? Don’t say anything more, Jane. Not a single word.”
Jane nodded listlessly as if she no longer cared what happened to her. Aiden couldn’t help wondering if she was battling depression or some other mental illness.
“Wait, one more thing.” Aiden stepped toward Bill Parsons. “Did Oliver Kennedy really sign an affidavit that I killed Copeland?”
Parsons shrugged. “He did, but only on my orders. I had another female soldier come forward with sexual harassment complaints against Kennedy. I told him to sign the document or get booted out of the army with a dishonorable discharge. He signed them.”
“Does that mean Emmitt’s death really was an accident?” Shelby asked. When Parsons didn’t answer, she took a step toward him. “After everything me and my daughter have been through, I deserve to know the truth.”
“Yes, Mitchell deemed it an accident, and I believe he was right.” Parsons suddenly looked like an old man. “I was angry and wanted to pin Emmitt’s death on someone, anyone. But Mitchell insisted that other than the rumor of an affair, there was nothing to support his death as anything but accidental. Since I knew about the affair, I let it go. But then he started digging into Emmitt’s background, and I couldn’t allow the truth to come out.”
Shelby nodded and moved closer to Aiden. He reached out to put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. Marc Callahan asked Brady if he could use the SUV to take Parsons in. Brady nodded in agreement. Kyleigh and Reed were going to use their vehicle to take Jane Fordham away.
“Oh, by the way, you need the food.” His sister sighed. “I was so looking forward to that lasagna and garlic bread.”
“Me too,” Reed said with a frown.
“We’ll save some for you.” Aiden gestured to the safe house. “Come back here when you’re finished. We may as well eat here before heading back.”
“Deal,” Kyleigh said. “We’ll return as soon as we can. Come with us, Ms. Fordham.”
Reed picked up Jane’s weapon and tucked it into his glove to protect her fingerprints, then followed. Aiden watched as Kyleigh and Reed escorted Jane Fordham to their vehicle, which they’d parked a few blocks down the road from the safe house. Kyleigh returned with the large bag of food, handing it over.
“Thanks, Kyleigh. For everything.” He took the bag from her fingers. “Tell Clark thanks too.”
She rolled her eyes at the nickname but hurried back to join Reed. “Don’t forget to save us some,” she called back over her shoulder.
Victor turned away, carrying Emmitt Junior.
“Wait!” Shelby pulled away from him and hurried over to him. “I, uh, this is Eva.” She smiled tentatively at Victor. “She’s Emmitt’s half sister.”
“Yes, I know.” Victor managed a smile. “Eva is a pretty name.”
“Thank you. Eva, this is Emmitt.” Shelby introduced her daughter to the little boy. “Can you say Emmitt?”
“Mit,” Eva said. “Hi, Mit.”
Emmitt hid his face against Victor’s neck. “Sorry,” Victor said. “Emmitt is feeling shy today.”
Watching Shelby interact with her husband’s illegitimate son made his heart swell with love. No matter how upset she was about what her husband had done, it was clear Shelby would not hold the father’s sins against his son. If he hadn’t already loved Shelby and Eva, he would have fallen hard in that sweet moment.
Yet he didn’t believe Shelby felt the same way toward him. And really, he couldn’t blame her. She and Eva deserved to return to their normal, quiet life in Oshkosh.
A life he would never ask her to leave behind.
Shelby’s heart ached for what would happen to Emmitt’s son now that Jane had been taken into custody. It wasn’t easy to think about how her husband had cheated on her, fathering a child with another woman, but that was hardly the little boy’s fault. And she wanted Eva to know her half brother and vice versa. She met Victor’s gaze. “I hope we can get the two kids together again sometime.”
“Ah, maybe.” Victor flushed. “I don’t know how Jane will feel about that, but we’ll see how things go.”
“Okay.” She took a step backward. “Just know I’d like Eva to know her brother.”
“That’s nice of you,” Victor said. “I’m sorry for all of this. I guess I should have reported Jane’s obsession sooner.”
“Wait. You knew she was coming after me?” That sparked her anger. “Do you realize how close she came to shooting me and Eva?”
“I didn’t know, not right away . . .” He grimaced. “But the way she kept leaving Emmitt with me raised my suspicions. I found the jammer in her car, and she claimed she was just testing it. Then I caught up with her earlier today after she fired at your SUV at the train tracks. She promised me she’d go home after that but didn’t.”
“How did she know we were there?” Shelby held Victor’s gaze as Aiden came up to stand beside her. “From Parsons?”
Victor took a step back, too, as if sensing he was on shaky ground. “Jane spoke to Parsons on a regular basis. He tended to act like a mentor to her. She mentioned to me that Parsons was planning to have Finnegan arrested, but then he told Jane the meeting didn’t go as planned.” He paused, then added, “I followed her here. You know the rest. I didn’t do anything illegal.”
“That’s not true,” Aiden said. “You should have reported Jane to the police for shooting at our SUV. That’s reckless endangerment.”
“Yeah, well, no one was hurt, so I concentrated on getting Jane out of there.” Victor lifted his chin. “You want to arrest me? Go ahead. But Emmitt will end up in foster care.”
Shelby couldn’t stand the thought. “Let it go for now, Aiden.”
“He holds some responsibility for this,” he protested.
“I know, but he didn’t pull the trigger. Jane did. I’m satisfied in knowing the danger is over.” She turned to look up at him. “Please? Just let it go.”
She could tell he didn’t want to, but he nodded at Victor. “Take the kid home. But know this, your career in the army is over. We won’t take legal action as a civilian, but you can be held responsible within the army. You can either resign or I’ll make sure you’re brought up on charges of dishonorable conduct.”
“I was planning to resign anyway to better support Jane and Emmitt.” Victor turned and hurried back to the SUV parked at the end of the driveway across the road. It didn’t take long for him to drive away.
She let out her breath in a soundless sigh. It was over. For good.
“Are you okay?” Aiden asked, his dark eyes full of concern. “That was a lot to handle.”
“We’re fine.” She bent over to set Eva on the driveway. Her daughter went to the closest snowbank to grab a handful of snow. “I prayed the entire time Jane held that gun on me. I expected her to shoot at any moment. If Victor hadn’t shown up to distract her when he had . . .”
“I know. Me too.” Aiden pulled her into his arms. She eagerly hugged him back, her eyes brimming with tears. Why now, she had no idea. Maybe they were tears of relief. Or tears of sadness over the troubled future baby Emmitt faced.
Or maybe they filled her eyes because she didn’t want to say goodbye to Aiden.
“Hey, are you crying?” Aiden’s voice sounded panicked. “Don’t cry. You’re safe and so is Eva. Everything is fine. We can head to your home in Oshkosh after we eat dinner. You can even teach on Monday if you’re up to it.”
She shook her head, trying to pull herself together. “I—it’s just everything. So many lies and deceit.” Her gaze landed on Eva playing gleefully in the snow. “Lives that will be changed forever.” Including hers, she silently added.
“I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this.” Aiden pressed a kiss to her hair. He was the kindest, most honorable man she’d ever known. “I’ll support you, Shelby. I can take a leave of absence and help you and Eva work through things.”
“You would, wouldn’t you?” She couldn’t help but smile. “You have your own family to deal with Aiden. We are not your responsibility.”
“What if I said I wanted you to be my responsibility?” His gaze searched hers. “I’m going to leave the National Guard, Shelby. I was feeling restless before this happened, and I realize now that I can’t go back.”
“I hate that you’re giving up your career over this.” The thought troubled her.
“Like I said, my heart wasn’t in it.” He tugged her close. “I know this may be too soon for you, and if so, I understand, but I love you, Shelby. I would like you to give me a chance to prove how much.”
“Love?” She wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. “In a few short days? That’s impossible.”
To her surprise, he chuckled. “Obviously, you haven’t met my family. Or heard how they all found the love of their lives in a short period of time. One thing about the Finnegans, we know what we want.” His gaze softened. “I know it’s too soon for you. And that’s okay. Just give me a chance. Let me move to Oshkosh. When my tour of duty is over, I’ll find a job. Maybe as a cop.”
She stared at him in awe. “You would move away from your family for me?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation in his tone. “I would do anything for you, Shelby.”
She wanted desperately to believe him. To trust his love. But she’d dated Emmitt for nine months before saying the words, “I love you.”
“Really?” His brown eyes widened, making her realize she’d said the words out loud.
“Yes, really.” She smiled. “But you’re right about needing some time, Aiden. I—can’t rush into anything. Eva doesn’t deserve to have her life turned upside down if things between us don’t work out.”
“I would never hurt you or Eva. I’m in this for the long haul so take all the time you need, Shelby. I’m not going anywhere. All I ask is that you give me a chance.”
Before she could say anything more, he captured her mouth in a deep kiss. One that was even more powerful than before because her love for him washed over her.
She loved him! God had brought Aiden into her life when she’d needed him the most.
Yet she would take the time he’d offered, for her daughter’s sake. And because these last few days had been a whirlwind of danger.
But deep down she knew Aiden Finnegan was the man for her.
A snowball lightly smacked her in the back. Aiden broke off the kiss and laughed as Eva threw another snowball at them. She turned to scold the little girl, but her daughter giggled so hard she couldn’t do it.
“I got you, Mommy! I got you!”
“You sure did.” She was glad Eva was too small to make a real snowball. She bent and made her own, lobbing it toward Eva who screamed in delight and ran away.
Aiden joined the fun, making a much bigger and harder snowball. She narrowed her gaze in warning. He simply grinned and hit her in the chest with the snowball.
“That’s it, you’re getting one too.” She quickly scooped up another handful of snow. She hit him on the back of his head. She’d been aiming for his back and braced herself for his anger.
He turned to grin at her. “Good one.”
“Hey, break it up out there,” Brady called from the front door. “This isn’t playtime. Your lasagna and macaroni and cheese is getting cold!”
“Macaroni and cheese?” Eva perked up. “I’m hungry, Mommy!”
“Me too.” Shelby took her daughter’s hand. Aiden stepped over to take the other one. The three of them walked inside the safe house.
Together.