Chapter Eight
Ava placed the last dish into the dishwasher and pressed the start button. Dinner and dishes were done and the sun was beginning to set low in the sky. Pink, orange, and a dash of purple. She dried her hands on a dishtowel and stepped outside to get a better look and possibly catch a glimpse of her husband. Logan had disappeared after dinner and she’d wanted to give him some time alone.
Time’s up.
She knew where he was. That was no secret. And he knew that she knew. He’d climbed into his treehouse to think about the case. And Lyle. And Mary. And the whole being back in Corville thing. He’d come home out of a sense of duty, not because he’d wanted to.
Without conscious thought, Ava found herself walking across the green lawn and straight to the large oak tree. Looking up into the canopy of leaves and branches, she could make out the outline of the treehouse but she couldn’t see Logan. Hopefully he wasn’t up there with a bottle of tequila like the first time she’d followed him to his treehouse. Or had it been whiskey? She didn’t remember anymore, only that she’d been as sick as a dog the next day.
This time, however, she didn’t have to shimmy up the tree and take her life into her hands. Logan had installed a very solid and safe spiral staircase that led to a much fancier treehouse than the one he’d had at the ranch. It even had a queen-sized bed that sat right under a skylight where they could lie there and look up at the starry night sky. Before the twins, they’d spent many a night doing just that.
Logan was lying on that bed and staring up at the ceiling, his hands folded behind his head when she found him.
“The sunset is pretty tonight.”
She laid down next to him, not pushing him to talk but clearly letting him know she was there if he wanted to. He didn’t say anything but he did wrap an arm around her, pulling her closer so her head was resting on his chest. She could feel his heart beating solid and steady underneath her ear. He smelled good. How could one man smell so amazing? She’d never understand it. It was sort of like how he was becoming more handsome and sexy as he grew older. She was just…getting older. It wasn’t fair.
It was quite a while later when he finally answered. “Aaron wants me to go see Wade tomorrow and tell him about Lyle.”
Ava’s first reaction was hell no. Her second reaction was absolutely no.
“That’s…ballsy.”
She could feel Logan’s chest shake with laughter. “That’s one way to put it. He says that Wade has refused to see anyone since the trial, but Aaron thinks he will see me. Gave me some bullshit about how I’m the only one that Wade respects.”
Ava sat up and frowned down at her husband. “He tried to kill you.”
“That’s what I said but Aaron was adamant. He still blames me, by the way, for ruining his life. He said I should have let Wade go when I realized it was him.”
Aaron really did have king-sized balls to say that.
“You should have let go a serial killer just because you had the same father? He actually said that? Asshole.”
“He said it.” Logan shrugged and shifted on the bed. “I let him know that I didn’t take kindly to it. He can hate me all he wants to but this all goes back to Wade. Hell, they didn’t have to come back to Corville. That was their choice, not mine.”
Lyle and Aaron had moved their families out of Corville for a time, but they had eventually come back once Logan and Ava had moved. They had cited various reasons including business, but Logan had conjectured that they liked the attention. Sure, they hated it too, but they weren’t anonymous like they were when they’d moved away.
“You aren’t going to do it, are you?”
Even as she said it, she knew what the answer was just by looking at Logan’s face. His jaw had that determined set that she’d learned not to argue with. He’d made up his mind and she’d never change it.
“I’m going to, although I’m not sure that Wade will care.”
“He seemed to love his brothers.”
“Maybe. As much as he was capable of, anyway.”
“Then I’ll go with you,” she offered. “Mom won’t mind keeping Brianna and Colt, and they love being with their grandmother.”
“No, baby. You’re staying here. I’m not taking my wife to a maximum security prison for men. That’s crazy talk, woman. Besides, you’d just be waiting around while I talk to him. Better to stay here and get a jump on the evidence. The autopsy should come in tomorrow, plus the ballistic report. We can find out that I was right about where the shot came from.”
The one thing she appreciated about Logan was that he didn’t assume that she would stay behind baking pies. He was happy to have her on the investigation as long as she didn’t try to do anything dangerous. That’s when he got pissy and domineering. She’d had to remind him on multiple occasions that she had never been shot at. Logan certainly had and more than once.
“I’m on file duty?” she asked with a heavy sigh. “You get all the interesting assignments.”
“I wouldn’t call seeing Wade interesting…or maybe I would. I haven’t seen or talked to him in years. I would imagine prison has changed him.”
Wade had cooperated with authorities to a certain extent, leading them to other victims from years past. There were still some open questions about his college years and Wade was playing a cat and mouse game with the FBI profilers. He kept stringing them along, telling them that there were more bodies out there but then he didn’t deliver. Since he was doing life without the possibility of parole, he had plenty of time to play mind games.
“Don’t let him get in your head.”
Logan tugged her back down, his arm tight around her middle. “Worried about me? I’m not about to let Wade bother me. I’ll go there, tell him about Lyle, then come home.”
Ava snorted, tossing her hair back and out of her eyes. “Right. He’s never going to let it be that simple.”
With Wade nothing ever was.
“If he even agrees to see me,” Logan replied. “He might not.”
“If he doesn’t, what then?”
“I’ll talk to the prison officials and give them the news. They can tell him. I will have tried and that’s all I can do.”
There was a part of Ava – a big part – that hoped Wade would refuse to see Logan. A smaller part was curious as to what Wade was like after all this time.
“Aaron doesn’t deserve your help.”
Logan gave her a curious look. “What about Mary? Does she deserve my help?”
Good question but the answer wasn’t as easy. If one looked at the situation without any sentiment or emotion, the answer was no. Mary had been rather horrible to Logan and her treatment hadn’t improved over the years. Logan would have every right to turn his back on Ava’s family. But he wasn’t like that.
“I don’t like to see any innocent person railroaded.”
Grinning, Logan picked up a strand of Ava’s hair, rubbing it between his fingers. “What a delightful answer. Except it was an answer to some other question, not mine. You seem pretty sure that Mary’s not guilty.”
“Aren’t you?”
“I’m like you. I think your sister is a class A bitch but murder is a bit too far. She’d rather talk behind your back than stick a knife in it.”
That was a decent description of Mary Hayworth Bryson.
“Where does that leave us?”
As fast as lightning, Logan rolled over so that he was hovering above Ava. Her pulse kicked into gear and the blood in her veins began to hum with anticipation. They were childless for an entire night. That was something that hadn’t happened since…
Hell, she couldn’t remember the last time. It had been that long.
“It leaves us right here in this comfy bed. Just you and me. Got any ideas of what we could do with all this free time?”
Ava had several and they all included being naked. Every single one.