~ Barbara ~
Pulling up at the morgue, Barbara noticed that David’s father’s BMW was in the parking lot. Entering the building with Ryder on one side and Ace on the other seemed like overkill, especially since they were all wearing armored vests. Instead of complaining, though, Barb zipped her lips. The men were intractable when it came to security.
Signing in at the reception desk, Barb realized their small town didn’t have much in the way of security for the morgue. Then again, why would they, a little voice in the back of head whispered. How one small, unexpected discovery could screw up her life so badly, she’d never know.
“Mrs. Reynolds.”
Coming to her feet, she approached the window. “That’s me. Can I go back?”
Nodding, the woman buzzed the door. “Just you. The father has requested family only.”
“You ain’t going if we can’t go.”
Ace’s overprotectiveness was getting in the way of progress today. But asking him to sit down seemed rude, and she knew it would embarrass him in front of Ryder to be left behind.
Turning to the receptionist, she tried to tear up. Scrambling around in her brain, she tried to think of saddest possible thing she could imagine. A gigantic combat boot kicking a cute puppy came to mind. Grabbing onto the image in her mind, she dredged up all the emotion of the last few days and let the tears fall.
“David meant so much to me, and I can’t believe he was here one day and gone the next. I don’t think I can do this without a support person.”
The woman’s face turned empathetic. “I’ll allow just one friend. Pick one.”
Grabbing Ace’s hand, she pulled him toward the door, and they made their way down a long, creepy hallway. It was a little weird, because the building didn’t look that big from the outside. At the end was a viewing window.
Gathering her courage, Barbara stepped close to the window. Peering inside, she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. When the tears cleared, she saw poor David laid out on a cold metal table and his grieving father standing over him with two other men in the background.
The old man must have sensed movement because he looked toward the window. The moment their eyes locked, she knew something was off. He looked different from the nice older gentleman she’d always known. The pure, blind hate in his eyes made her blood run cold.
“We should go.”
“Whatever you say, Barb,” Ace said automatically.
Before they could get turned around, the two men stepped in and gestured for them to enter the room with the elderly doctor. Ace tensed at her side. Since they had cut off their avenue of escape and they both knew the older doctor pretty well, they entered the room. Ace pulled her back against the window and away from the other men.
“I never thought for a minute the poor, grieving ex-wife would come to pay her respects.”
“You know I cared deeply for your son.”
“An ounce of damn understanding was all he needed from you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We picked you because you were young, innocent, and were supposed to be true blue.”
Barbara was taken aback. “I was for the entire duration of our marriage.”
“He went to you and tried to make things right. He told me all about how you bragged about moving on with man who gave you lots of orgasms.”
“He needed an excuse to move on with his life, and I created one.”
“Even with that piece of shit standing right there beside you, I still have trouble seeing you as a biker slut.”
Offended on her behalf, Ace squared up beside her and said, “We came here to pay our respects, not so you could spew hate. I know you’re grieving, but you have no call to take it out on Barbara.”
“We moved heaven and earth to get you back,” David’s father continued, as if Ace hadn’t spoken.
Ace’s voice turned suspicious, voicing what she was thinking. “What kind of stuff?”
The older man scrubbed his hands over his face. Looking down at his son, he spoke woodenly. “I told him that when women are in trouble, they always come running back to the one man who can keep them safe. It was a flawless plan.” Lifting his head, he glared at her. “But you went running right into the arms of a fucking biker.”
Barbara gasped. “I’ve never heard you talk like that before, Dave.”
“My son was the better man. How could you choose that monster over my David?”
Holding up both hands, she tried to talk reason to him. “It wasn’t like that. David was real good to me, but I couldn’t stay married to a man who wasn’t faithful. You have to know cheating is wrong.”
Shaking his head, the grief-stricken man closed his eyes. “My David overcame so much in life. He kicked drug addiction, alcoholism, and even his anger management problems. He made it through premed, medical school, and even passed his medical exam. He deserved to have a good life.”
“I don’t disagree with you,” she agreed softly. “He did deserve good things. He could have found a woman who didn’t mind the cheating so much.”
As if she hadn’t even spoken, he said, “We researched everything about you. You were innocent, sweet, accommodating, and easy to guide. You were supposed to be the mother of my grandchildren. I never thought you would throw away the perfect life we provided for you over him stepping out occasionally. You could have had it all.”
Ace’s voice turned deadly. “It was you, wasn’t it? You set up the perfect terrifying situation. A young, newly-divorced woman running into a bunch of dead bodies in the middle of nowhere wouldn’t know how to handle something like that. Especially if she came from a sheltered home and was innocent about criminal activity. Most of them would freak out and go running to the only capable man in their life.”
“Our Barbara faints at the sight of blood, so we were sure she’d call him that day. We both cleared our schedules and were waiting for the call that never came.”
“Jesus.” The word slipped out before she could stop herself. In an instant, her knees buckled, and if Ace hadn’t had his arm firmly around her waist, she would have fallen. “I can’t believe David would do that to me.” Looking down at his pale form, she whispered hoarsely, “On some level, I honestly thought he cared about me.”
“Cared about you? He thought you were perfect. Every wealthy man has a mistress. It’s just the way the world works. Leave it to a naïve little thing like you to believe in true love,” Dave sneered.
Ace’s wheels must have been turning. “That farmer found the bodies and freaked out long before he called Barbara and invited her to come and look for fossils.”
“Who’s the first person you’d call if you found bodies buried on your property?”
“My fucking attorney, of course.”
“As did Mr. Farrington.”
Ace guessed, “It would be difficult to phone up the police and convince them that the property that’s been in your family for generations suddenly had dead bodies.”
“The police aren’t ignorant and neither is Farrington.” The older man was sounding more lucid by the minute.
Ace continued to make educated guesses that her brain couldn’t begin to understand. “He concocted a plan to take the heat off Farrington by having the perfect little professor who’d never so much as jaywalked in her entire life find the dump site.”
“Who in their right mind would ever suspect that pretty little thing?” Dave said with a sour smile. “Our attorney was privy to our situation with Barbara because he’d done the divorce paperwork. David dragged his feet about signing it and tried to brainstorm ways to get you to not only come back but to get you into a situation where you’d stay put.”
Barbra’s head snapped up. “If I had contacted David, he would have hung that over my head every time I wanted to leave. He’d have made me believe I needed him to sort out crap like that for me legally so I didn’t end up implicated or in jail.”
“He didn’t think you were quite that gullible. He thought simply coming to your rescue would be enough for you to fall back in love with him.”
Ace released her and shoved her between the viewing window and his big body. “You’re being awful chatty, old man. It feels like that part of the movie where the evil villain implicates himself by bragging about his evil deeds.”
“That godforsaken woman took everything from me. I want her to understand what her own selfishness did to my David before my men gun her down and drape her over his dead body. We’ll make it look like a suicide. Poor grieving ex-wife feels guilty for all she put her husband through and can’t stand the thought of living without him. I’ll make sure it gets written up correctly in the newspaper.”
Seeing the two men reach into their jackets and pull out handguns with silencers on the end, Barbara felt sick to her stomach.
Ace pulled out his weapon with one hand and used the other to yank the man standing in front of the door away and send him spiraling into the second gunman. “Run, Barb. Get Ryder, quick,” he urged.
Something in her chest fractured at the idea of leaving him in danger, but she knew she had to get help. Edging out the door, she made a run for it. The long hall seemed twice as long when Ace’s life was hanging in the balance. Hearing a strange thudding sound, she pushed herself to open the door leading to the reception area. Taking one look at her, Ryder came barreling through the door.
“It’s been David’s dad behind it all. They’ve got guns. Ace needs you. Door at the end of the hall,” she rushed out as he burst past her.
Without a word, he ran full speed down the hall as he pulled his weapon.
Turning to the shocked woman behind the reception desk, Barbara spoke slowly. “You have two shooters in the building with guns. They have silencers on the end. Doctor Reynolds Senior is making them kill my friend. Take your cordless phone and get out of the building. Call 9-1-1 for an ambulance and the police. Do you understand?”
Nodding, the woman grabbed the phone and ran for the front door. Barbara took off back to the room. It was a stupid thing to do, but she had to know if Ace was okay. Halfway down the hallway, she saw Ryder drag Ace out then crouched at the door and kept firing into the room. Ace’s eyes were closed, and he was bleeding onto the floor.
Fear as cold and sharp as ice sliced through her chest, catapulting her into action. Scrambling forward, Barbara dropped to her knees beside Ace.
Ryder ground out roughly, “Give me his gun and his back-up. Stem the bleeding. I’m not sure how serious it is.”
Ducking when a bullet ricocheted off the metal frame of the window, she shouted, “We’re getting shot at! It’s pretty serious.”
Without looking back Darkness muttered, “I meant his injuries, not our situation.”
Ignoring him, she was already tearing open Ace’s clothing. He’d taken a bullet in the leg and another in the arm. There seemed to be a grazing type injury along the side of his head. She seized his gun from his hand…or tried to. The moment she tried to pull it free, Ace’s eyes shot open.
“You’ve been shot. Stay still,” she told him.
Forcing himself into a sitting position, he muttered groggily, “I’m fine.”
Ryder’s singsonging voice rang out. “Rise and shine, buttercup. We got a fuckin’ shoot-out on our hands.”
Tearing at her shirt, Barbara tied a thick band of material around his leg as he shot through the window. “You shouldn’t be here, Barb. Get the hell out,” Darkness instructed.
Ryder spoke up. “Do not leave. They’ve been trading out men through the back. I think Old Doc Reynolds left already. If she goes out alone, they’ll have her.”
Ripping another piece of her shirt, she tied it around his arm.
The gunshots died down as sirens approached. Ace looked down at her. “You didn’t faint at the sight of my blood.”
“It’s different when the blood belongs to someone you love.”
A small smile tipped his pale lips. “You did real good, angel.”
“I’m not sure what I’m doing tying bits of cloth around your wounds. I guess I saw it on television or something.”
“I meant thanks for running to get help instead of arguing. You really saved my life.”
Darkness turned on him, pointing a now grubby finger in his face. “Look, you stupid fucker, I’m the one who saved your worthless life, not your fancy pants professor who ran for help.”
Grabbing him by the shoulder, Ace grinned. “Fine, you helped like a big boy. Are you happy now?”
Before Ryder could get in another word, law enforcement officers swarmed the place. “Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air.”
Ryder quipped, “This is the part I always hate.”
Barb, never having been arrested before, was very confused. “Wait a minute. Do I have to put my hands up, too?”