“As long as I have you, everything is fine.”
“No.” He tightened his fingers on hers. “We have to talk. Everything on the table, Bailey. Everything.”
She searched his gaze, suddenly chilled. “What is it, Logan?”
“Not here. Home. Just you and me.”
“I love you so much, Logan.”
“And I love you.”
He kissed her. Raine chose that moment to open the door and peek inside. “You’d better get out here, Logan.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s Billy Ray and some sheriff’s deputies.”
He frowned. “What about them?”
“They’re looking for you.”
Bailey went cold. He stood to head for the door; she grabbed his hand, stopping him. “Don’t go out there. Please.”
“Do you believe in me?”
“I do.”
“Then have faith. It’s going to be okay.”
She couldn’t return the smile. This moment felt different. Felt coordinated, timed to inflict the most discomfort.
Logan exited the restroom. Bailey followed. Her knees went weak at the sight of Billy Ray and the deputies. At Billy Ray’s smug expression. It seemed to shout, “Gotcha!”
Rumsfeld, the sheriff’s detective she recognized from the other day, approached Logan. “Logan William Abbott?”
“Yes. What’s this about—”
The viewing room doors opened and the pallbearers emerged with the casket, followed by Stephanie, Paul and August. They all looked their way; Stephanie stumbled and Paul steadied her. The townspeople of Wholesome began spilling out behind them, the stunned silence deafening.
“I have a warrant for your arrest.”
“On what charges?”
“The abduction of Dixie Jenkins.”
“No!” The word slipped involuntarily past Bailey’s lips.
Rumsfeld nodded to Billy Ray, who stepped forward with handcuffs.
Logan glanced at her, then back at Billy Ray. “C’mon, Billy Ray. You can’t really think cuffs are—”
“Turn around, Abbott.”
“—necessary. Seriously?”
“Seriously,” he said, yanking one arm behind his back and snapping on the cuff. “You have the right to remain silent.” He grabbed Logan’s other arm and wrenched it back. “Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law—”
He snapped the cuff closed. “You have the right to—”
“You son of a bitch!” Raine pushed past Bailey and lunged at Billy Ray. “This is a lie!”
The two deputies grabbed her and held her back. She fought them, kicking and thrashing. “How can you do this! It’s a lie! A lie!”
Billy Ray went on as the deputies escorted her outside, unaffected by her outburst, completing his Miranda recitation. “Do you understand these rights as I have relayed them to you?”
Logan said he did and Billy Ray jerked him forward, with what seemed like all of Wholesome watching. Bailey hurried after them, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Wait!” she cried. “What do I … I don’t know what to do!”
“Call my lawyer,” Logan said. “Terry King. Tell him what happened.”
Billy Ray shoved him into a sheriff’s cruiser, then slammed the door. Moments later, Bailey watched it speed away, cherry lights and siren screaming.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Wednesday, April 23
1:25 P.M.
The next few hours passed in a blur. As Logan had instructed, the moment she returned home Bailey called his lawyer. Terry King had explained that Logan would be taken to the parish jail, processed and booked in. He’d warned her that it could be hours before he had an opportunity to speak with him and that she should stay calm.
Easier said than done.
Both Paul and August had offered to stay with her. She had refused. Adamantly. Both had only agreed when she promised to call if she needed anything.
She’d worried their presence might make her feel worse, not better. She couldn’t trust August not to say something snarky. And Paul, although staunch and reassuring, she feared would expect her to behave in a similarly stoic manner. She’d wanted to be able to sob, scream or stomp her feet, to throw herself across the bed and howl, or curl up in a ball of silent misery.
All of which she had done since they left. She felt as if her heart had been ripped from her chest.
As if sensing her distress, Tony laid his head across her lap and whimpered. She bent and buried her face in his furry neck.
“What’re we going to do?” she whispered. “He didn’t do it, Tony. I know he didn’t.”
Tony responded by licking her hand. She shut her eyes, tears squeezing from the corners.
For all the agonizing over the past weeks and months, over the whispers of others and unanswered questions, over the coincidental and inexplicable, she knew in her heart that Logan had not done this. He couldn’t have, not the man she loved.
Ironic that just moments before he had been arrested they’d promised to trust each other. To start anew. To believe in each other and their love.
She straightened, wiped the tears from her cheeks. Wasn’t that the essence of faith? Belief beyond doubt? Absolute trust not in what could be examined in the physical world, but in what could only be felt by the heart?
So, had she meant it when she promised him? When she said she loved him?
Tony lifted his head, nose and ears twitching. He growled, low in his throat.
The kitchen door. Softly closing. Footsteps. Bailey’s heart leaped with joy. Logan. They’d released him. He had been right, it was all going to be okay.
“Logan!” she cried, leaping to her feet and running that way. “Thank God! I was so afraid—”
She stopped cold. Not Logan.
Raine.
They stood gazing at each other for what seemed to Bailey like forever, but in truth couldn’t have been more than a couple of moments. “How’d you get in?”
“I have a key.”
Anger washed over Bailey in a white-hot wave. “Have you come to laugh at me?”
“No. God, no. Why would you say that?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”