Best Kept Secret (Rochester Trilogy 3)

I am now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Beau Rochester

FBI agents are all over the inn. Marjorie pulls up while they’re in full force, taking pictures and collecting evidence. She walks up the sidewalk, staring at the inn. “What happened?” she asks, her hand dropping to the side. Her purse dangles from her fingertips. “I just went to book club.”

“We had a visit from Joe Causey.”

“Joe Causey and the FBI?”

“Yeah.”

Marjorie shakes her head. “Is everybody okay?”

“Nobody got hurt.”

Joe got a black eye. He also got arrested. And I have a pain around my heart that has nothing to do with the physical fight.

When Emily walked Paige out of the inn to give the FBI agents room to do their jobs, it was like Paige came to after a long sleep. She took one look into Emily’s face and demanded to be let go. Then she ran into Jane’s arms. She hasn’t let go of her since then. The two of them sit on a blanket on the lawn, Paige clinging to Jane and watching all the action with suspicion in her eyes. Kitten cowers in her lap. She streaked out of the inn behind everyone else. Hid the whole fight. Emily stands nearby, her hands in her pockets and longing in her eyes.

“I couldn’t find a parking spot.” Marjorie laughs weakly. “There are so many cars on the road that I couldn’t find a spot.”

“I’m sure they’ll be gone soon. And I hope you know I’ll pay extra for all the trouble.”

She waves this off. “You don’t have to do that, Beau.”

“I think I do. This has been a mess since we first moved in.”

Marjorie lets out a breath. She knows I’m right. There hasn’t been a moment of peace since we descended on this place. Paige almost brought the whole place down on us with her screaming that very first night. And now there are FBI agents everywhere. It’s an official crime scene. Camera flashes go off inside. Lauren stands on the porch in a navy jacket, talking to the men in there.

This quiet seaside inn has made all kinds of sacrifices for us.

“Is that Emily?” Marjorie’s eyes go wide with disbelief. “Emily?” she says, louder.

Emily gives her a little wave. They were friends before. Not best friends or anything, but friends. Marjorie forgets all about me and goes to talk to her. Emily doesn’t look quite ready for this. She takes a step back as Marjorie arrives and throws her arms around her for a quick embrace.

“Beau.” Lauren Michaels steps to my side along with the FBI agent in charge of all this. “I wanted to keep you updated. We’ve got the footage from the security cameras, and I’ve had two people from my team review them independently.”

“Good news for me, I hope.”

“Yeah. It is.” Lauren glances back toward the inn. “The place has been turned upside down, but we’ll be able to use the evidence to keep Causey behind bars while he awaits trial. Oh, we also found evidence that he’s the one who left the rat.”

“The trial. How long’s that going to take?” I don’t like the thought of him being released into the world under any circumstance. Jane and Paige and Emily don’t deserve that.

She shrugs. “Depends. The trial can’t start until we’ve got a jury together, but it’ll be a tough sell in Eben Cape. Too many people know him.” Lauren looks me in the eye. “You’ve got time.”

I watch the FBI agents moving in front of the open door. They do it with purpose. Jane and Paige and I—we were in over our heads when we got here. It’s a miracle Marjorie didn’t kick us out after the first week. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she did.

Okay, I would have blamed her. But I would have understood.

“How’s everybody doing?” Lauren asks. “Emily looks pretty good.”

Actually, Emily doesn’t look good. She looks worried. It’s obviously hard for her to stop looking at Paige. After their brief reunion inside, I’m not sure when she’s going to get another one. “Everybody’s pretty shaken up,” I admit. “You saw the video.”

“Yeah.” Lauren pats my arm. “You need anything, you can always call me. You know that, right? Any of you.”

“I do. Thank you.”

She goes back to her job. What’s a person supposed to do when the FBI is in the goddamn inn he rented? I don’t want to hover over Jane and Paige. I don’t want to follow the agents around in some kind of weird job shadow. I just want to be sure that we’re all safe.

And for the first time since Rhys died and Emily disappeared, I’m pretty sure we are.

Joe Causey was driven away in a cruiser by some of the first agents on the scene. I trust Lauren’s word about keeping him behind bars until the trial. I also know she’s right about the jury. Eben Cape is full of people who will have an opinion about Joe. Some of them will believe that because he’s an officer, he’s within his rights to do just about goddamn anything. Others will remember what an asshole he was in school.