Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) (20 page)

Raleigh and Mia spent hours writing down everything they knew about the people on Rose’s list. Pax had questioned some of them and would continue the next day. He dragged himself out of the cottage late that night.

Cody was asleep on the couch, having cried on and off for the last bit. Mia’s heart broke for him, for the burden he bore. Just like his brother. Her heart hurt even more for Raleigh, as he and Rose speculated about people Mia didn’t know who might have had reason to kill Hank.

What
she
was about to speculate would be the hardest thing she’d ever had to say. Mia secretly turned on her phone’s recorder function and set it on the edge of the kitchen counter. Then she sat down at the table, catching their attention with the screech of her chair legs on the wood floor. Her eyes held Rose’s gaze as she gathered the woman’s bony, calloused hands in hers across the paper-strewn table. “You killed him. Didn’t you?”

The blood drained from Rose’s face, and she shifted her eyes away for a second.

“Mia?” Raleigh said, shock his only expression. “Did I hear you right?”

Mia fought not to move her gaze from Rose’s, holding it the way she held Rose’s hands. “Hank was celebrating Cody’s tenth birthday that night. You followed them, because Raleigh had warned that ten was the ‘magic age of
enlightenment.’
You saw what he was doing and, after Cody ran off, you killed Hank in the heat of passion.”

“That’s…crazy,”
Rose said, her eyes shifting from Mia to Raleigh in rapid sequence.

“Something was bothering me, and I just realized what it was. You asked Raleigh about the lake the other day. When he said George wasn’t doing anything with it, you were relieved. You talked about how sometimes fixing one problem creates others. It’s time for all the secrets to come out. Did you kill Hank?”

“Yes.” The word was barely audible, coming from her trembling mouth. She looked at Raleigh. “I did it. She’s right. I was in a blind rage, and I got into the truck with him right after Cody left. He was going to drive off and find the boy, probably try to stop him from telling anyone. When I wouldn’t get out of the truck, he drove anyway. I made him pull into an empty parking lot. I hadn’t planned on killing him. But I saw the knife lying in the center console, probably his way of scaring my son into complying—and keeping it a secret. Hank said I didn’t see nothing, that I was a crazy, stupid bitch for accusing him. He hit me.”

She touched her cheek. “Then he said he’d do whatever he wanted. When I called him a disgusting child molester, he grabbed for the knife. But I already had it, and I shoved it up into his throat. I didn’t think. I just did it.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, her eyes wide and unseeing. “He tried to wrestle it out of my hand, but my fingers were glued to the handle. It was like a cloud of rage rolled over me. I kept stabbing him. Everything he’d done to you, Raleigh, to us, it drove me crazy.”

Mia watched Raleigh, as the realization hit him. All the blood drained from his beautiful face, too, as he processed the unbelievable.

Rose continued. “When he slumped forward, and I realized what I’d done…I panicked. There was blood everywhere.” She grimaced, shaking her hands as though she were there again. “Then my survival instinct kicked in. I pulled him over to the passenger seat, shoved him down to the floor, and drove. My fingers kept sliding on the steering wheel. In the blood. I could barely think. But I knew I had to get rid of his body. Driving his truck into the lake on George’s property was the only thing I could think of. I knew you’d be at the garage. That you’d never have to know. I swam out the open window before the cab filled up, washed off the blood, and hoped to God there were no gators in there. It was pitch-dark.

“I went to your cabin and borrowed a shirt, and then I used the motorcycle you kept out back to ride to my truck, which was hidden a short ways from the beach. That’s when you called, and I dropped your bike back on the way to your garage. I figured people would think Hank skipped town, like he always did, but went on to greener pastures. No one had been in that lake since they found that big ole gator in there aeons ago. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” Rose went on, clutching at Raleigh’s hands. “For you to be accused.” Tears shook her voice. “Raleigh, say something.”

“You can’t go to prison,” he said in a low voice devoid of emotion. “You can’t leave Cody without a mother
and
a father. Can’t put him through the trial, the publicity. I grew up without a mother.”

“What are you saying?” Mia asked.

“I’ll plead guilty.”

Mia shot to her feet. “No! You are not doing that!”

Rose, thank God, was also shaking her head, but she wasn’t as emotional or as convincing as Mia when she said, “I can’t let you do that.”

Raleigh’s face was wooden. “It makes sense. I don’t have a kid. I already have a record.”

“And you have me,” Mia said, tears stretching her voice thin. She turned his face toward hers, her hands pressed to his cheeks. “We finally found each other again. I won’t let you go to prison for something you didn’t do. Rose won’t, either.”

But Rose wasn’t saying anything. Fear froze her expression. “They’ll convict me, I know they will. ’Cause I actually did it. If you plead not guilty, they’ll acquit you, Raleigh. They don’t have enough evidence, and you’ll go free. I’ll pay you back for every dime you spend on legal fees.”

“No, Rose, you cannot let him take the fall for you.” Mia gripped her upper arms now and pinned her with a fierce look. It was all she could do not to shake the woman. “I know you’re scared, that you’re panicking the way you did that night. But you murdered a man. Maybe with good reason, but you did it. Not Raleigh. Not anyone else who might be arrested for it. You did it.”

“I know you’re right,” Rose said. “But I’m afraid to go to prison. Hank used to talk about it, how you never had any privacy. How awful the food was. And people would try to kill him. Or rape him.”

“I know,” Raleigh said. “The Department of Corrections wasn’t any picnic, either.”

“But, most of all, I’m scared for Cody.” Rose’s voice was a raw whisper when she said, “What will happen to him if I go to prison?”

“We’ll take care of him.” Mia turned to Raleigh. “If it comes to that, and it might not. They might decide it was a crime of passion.”

“I stabbed him twenty, maybe thirty times. You think anyone’s going to cut me slack? Really? I could go away for a long time. Twenty, thirty years. I could be put to death.”

“They’d have to prove it was premeditated.” Raleigh was pretty sure of that, given his discussions with Grace.

Mia still hadn’t released Rose. “We’ll raise Cody if you go to prison. We’ll bring him to visit. Help him to write and call. And love him.”

Raleigh looked at Mia. “We?”

“Yes, we. I love that you’re the kind of man who would sacrifice his freedom for someone else. But we are not letting you do it.” She turned to Rose. “Are we?”

“No. No, of course not.” Rose turned to Raleigh. “I love you for everything you’ve done for me and Cody, for offering, but Mia’s right. As tempting as it is to let you take the fight, I couldn’t live with myself. What kind of person—what kind of mother—would that make me?”

Mia sagged into the chair, the emotions and the adrenaline of the past few minutes draining her. “We’ll talk to Grace and let her handle everything. If you come forward, maybe they’ll do a deal. Your maternal instincts overtook you, something any parent would understand. Because Hank was going to grab the knife, it could even be seen as self-defense.”

Rose nodded, tears streaming down her face as she covered her mouth with her hand.

“Mama?” Everyone turned to Cody, who was sitting up on the couch, confusion on his sleepy face. “You killed Dad?”

Damn, why hadn’t she thought to make sure he was still asleep before she pressed Rose for the truth?

Rose nodded, sobs making her words hard to understand. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

He ran over, wrapping his arms around her. “Mama, I don’t want you to go to jail.”

“I don’t, either, but we have to pay for the things we do.” Rose’s eyes closed as she held her boy tight.

After a few seconds, Cody looked at Raleigh across the table. “You said you’d go to prison for her.” Not a question, so he’d heard enough.

Mia hoped he wouldn’t ask Raleigh to do it to save his mom. “But you know he can’t do that. He’d be lying to the police. To everyone.”

Cody shook his head and rushed forward, hugging Raleigh now. “You can’t do that, Raleigh. It wouldn’t be right.”

“I won’t.” His blue eyes met hers over Cody’s head. “I want to do everything I can to protect your mama and you, but I can’t give up my life…Mia…to do it.”

Cody turned to Mia. “You and Raleigh will take care of me? Promise?”

“Cross our hearts and hope to die,” Raleigh said.

His fingers curled into Raleigh’s shirt. “No, don’t hope to die!”

“He doesn’t like that expression,” Mia said.

“Sorry, I know that. We’re going to do everything we can to help your mama. She’ll have Ms. Grace in her corner, and hopefully she’ll only go away for a little while, if at all. Until she gets out, you’ll live with us.”

Cody loosened his grip, his pained eyes on his mother. “You killed him because of me.”

Rose reached forward and brushed a lock of hair from his face. “It wasn’t your fault, baby. He was a bad man. But I shouldn’t have killed him. I just wasn’t thinking straight.”

“We’ll be here for you,” Mia said softly, stroking his back. “Through the tough times and the good times. That’s what friends and family do.” She slid Raleigh a meaningful look.

He reached over and placed his hand at the back of her neck. “Yes, we do.”

“Like when Mia wouldn’t leave, even when you wanted to protect her,” Cody said.

“Exactly.”

Mia covertly reached over and pressed the stop button on her phone’s recording app. Luckily she wouldn’t need it as a backup.

Rose asked, “Can we go to the police, and talk to Grace, in the morning? I’d like one more night with my baby boy.” She let out a sigh. “Besides, I’m so tired. I can barely put one word in front of the other.”

“Sure,” Raleigh said. Because he’d do anything for them. “Why don’t you stay here? You can sleep out on the deck, under the stars.” He slid Mia a smile. “It’s pretty amazing.”

Fifteen minutes later, mother and son were settled on the deck, one on the couch, the other on the chaise lounge that was pulled right next to it. Cody kept touching his mother, hugging her, as though she might disappear right there.

Mia and Raleigh dragged themselves to the bedroom, and she barely had enough energy to climb into his arms and slide her leg between his. To get as close as possible.

Her nose brushed his chin, and she pressed her hand against his cheek. “You would have gone to prison for Rose.”

“It was the first thing that came to mind. To protect Cody. I wasn’t
thinking…didn’t
even consider—”

“Me?”

“I did, but in a gut-wrenching, heart-shattering way. Of absolutely losing you. Letting your parents think I was a murderer.” He tightened his hold on her. “Preserving their family was all I could think about in that moment.”

“Family means a lot to you. Because you never really had one. I understand.”

“How can you be so
understanding?”

“Because I love you.” She said it as simply as he’d said it once.

He wrapped her even tighter in his embrace. “I love you, too.”

“And you do deserve love, Raleigh. You deserve devotion and loyalty and success and love. You proved that tonight. Not that I needed proof.”

He made a soft, contented sound next to her ear. She smiled. He finally believed her.

The sun streamed in through the window, and Raleigh came to consciousness a step at a time. He first became aware of Mia entangled in his arms.

Then reality crashed in. Rose, Hank’s murderer. Everything that had to be done that day. Everything she would have to face. That they would face together.

We
. Mia’s word the night before
counterbalanced
the angst, how she’d come to his defense when he offered to take the rap. How she would help raise Cody…with him.

We
.

He liked the sound of that. They would have some challenges, and Mia would be an instant mother. But Cody adored her, and she obviously cared about him.

Rose wouldn’t serve a lot of time, not with Grace as her champion. Wherever they ended up, they would all be family again.

“Mama’s gone!”

Cody’s scream shot him to a sitting position, dragging Mia with him.

“Hold on, bud!” Raleigh dragged on his pants and ran to the door.

Mia was already throwing on a long T-shirt, steps behind him, as they met Cody in the hallway.

“She left! The truck’s gone!”

They looked out the front window, and yes, the old truck was gone.

“She couldn’t face going to prison,” Mia said. He could read the rest in her expression:
What does that mean for you?

He ran out to the deck, even though he knew that if the truck was gone, so was Rose. Two letters sat under a shell on the table. One had his and Mia’s names on it; the other bore Cody’s name. Raleigh handed the kid his, then sank down on the chaise lounge to read the first one. Mia leaned over his shoulder.

I’m so sorry, but I can’t think about going to prison. I can’t put my boy through visits, through him having to tell people that his mama’s in prison. It feels better that his mother be on the run. Then he can imagine me free, eating well, feeling the earth beneath my feet. He told me that’s what scared him the most, picturing me in prison. He said he’d rather me be free, even if I was a fugitive. I thought about it all night, while he slept in my arms. I knew he’d have you and Mia.

Don’t worry, I’m not hanging you out to dry, Raleigh. I am hereby writing out my confession. I, Rose West, admit I killed Hank West.

She went into all the details she’d told them last night, and added more. How rage had taken over, and she’d kept thrusting the knife at Hank. He’d put up his hands at first, trying to ward her off. But she hit his aorta in one of the first stabs, and he quickly lost consciousness. Details that would coordinate with the evidence.