Making It Right (Most Likely To #3)

“Gill said no one. Now let’s go.”


All the way to Eugene, Zoe’s phone lit up. Every conversation, every text was the same. Someone tried to kill Jo. The doctors were waiting for the morning to take her out of sedation to let her lungs heal. And the last bit of gossip let everyone in River Bend know that Jo knew the name of the person who killed her father.



Considering Drew almost never used his phone to talk, the fact that it rang caught him by surprise.

“Dude!”

It was Gustavo.

“Hey.”

“What the hell happened? Is Coach Ward okay?”

Drew was sitting in a group of athletes with his right hand plugging an ear and his left pressing the phone to the other. “What are you talking about?”

“She was shot.”

“What the fu—”

“I heard she was in the ICU again. Didn’t you see anything?”

“No. I haven’t heard a thing.” Drew jumped to his feet and scanned the field, hoping Gustavo was wrong and Coach Ward was standing close.

“What’s wrong?” Tina asked.

“Coach Ward is in the hospital.”

Gustavo yelled into the phone. “Call me back when you find out what’s going on. There are all kinds of rumors spinning around here.”

“I will.” Drew hung up. Coach Gibson and his wife were standing among a handful of parents from River Bend. One was his dad. He ran to the group and knew they were talking about Coach Ward.

“I just heard,” he said. “Is she okay?”

His dad placed an arm on his shoulder. “She’s going to be okay.”

“I knew something was wrong.” She’d missed the picture opportunity on the podium. The disappointment he’d felt seemed trivial now.

“I heard something about Jo knowing who killed her father,” Principal Mason, who stood next to Coach Gibson, said.

Drew looked to his father.

“I never liked the fact Joseph’s death was deemed accidental. The man was too smart to leave a bullet in a gun he was cleaning.”

“Why are we standing here talking?” Drew asked. “We should be at the hospital.”

“Does anyone know where she was shot?” Principal Mason asked.

“I heard it was here,” Tim’s mother said.

“We would have heard something if that was the case,” Karl said.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Coach Gibson added.

When the starting gun went off, all heads turned.

Drew’s dad stepped closer to his side. “We’re outta here.”

“I need to get my stuff.”

“Screw your stuff. We’re leaving.”

“Gather your athletes, Wyatt. This meet is over for River Bend.”



All Jo had to do was lie there and wait.

Not an easy task regardless of how many FBI personnel were surrounding her. One of the nurses in the station worked with Gill, a man posing as an orderly carried a gun.

The vital signs pinging on the monitor were not her own, the blankets and dressings masked the dripping IV that wasn’t connected to her arm.

And now she waited.

Even when her friends walked into the room, she didn’t open her eyes. Zoe didn’t stay long, and Mel left even quicker. Good thing, too, because as Mel was walking out of the room, Karl and Drew stepped in.

The room held one camera that could be viewed from the nurse’s station, and audio recording hid within the wires of medical equipment.

Jo counted her breaths to keep them even.

“Oh, man.” Drew’s voice was a whisper.

“They said she’s going to be okay,” Karl said.

“This looks bad.”

“She’s a very strong woman, Drew. One of the strongest I’ve ever met. She’s going to be fine.”

Jo heard footsteps cross and had to keep her hand limp when one of them reached for it. Drew’s voice cracked. “I made fifth place. Tim came in third.”

She bit her tongue and kept her smile away.

“She’ll be proud,” Karl assured his son.

“Oh, man . . . I can’t do this.”

“You’re fine. Go on. I’ll be just a minute,” Karl said.

The sound from outside her door amplified and then dissipated as someone exited the room.

She heard a chair scrape along the floor and the sound of Karl’s breath. “Damn it, JoAnne. It’s so hard to stay mad at you when you keep ending up in the hospital.”

Breathe in . . . one, two, three.

Breathe out . . . four, five, six.

“I’ve been told that people hear things and remember things said when they were unconscious in hospital rooms. So I’m promising this to you now, not because I don’t want you to remember it, but because I do. I always believed your father was murdered. But I was too afraid to look for his killer. You see, I learned he was Drew’s real dad just months before Joseph’s death. I know how it would have looked then, and I know how it looks now.”

Karl rested a hand on her arm.

Jo didn’t flinch.

“I didn’t kill him. And I would never harm you. The fact some in River Bend think I’m capable grabs my balls and twists them in knots. I guess I should learn to be a little more diplomatic. A little more laid-back like you. My guess is you know about Drew, which is why you’ve taken him under your wing.”

She heard Karl sniffle and had to force herself not to join his emotions.

“I didn’t want him gaining a sister to be the same thing that removes me as his dad. I know it’s selfish of me, but I would have liked to keep who his real father was from him. I see now that isn’t possible. It’s only fair that someday he knows he has a sister.” Karl patted her arm, and the sound of a chair scooting back reached her ears. “Anyway. It looks like they have you well protected here. I’m going to get back to town and make sure everything is ready for your return.”

A few footsteps, the sound of the ICU . . . the door closed.

And Jo released a long-suffering sigh.



Gill had a remote mic in his ear from Jo’s room. There was no way of knowing if Karl’s bedside confessions were made because he’d spotted the recording devices or if they were as heartfelt as they sounded. Living by the standard of believe none of what you hear and half of what you see forced Gill to hold his opinions of the man until he could prove him right.

As he sat in the ICU waiting room, Drew spoke with Wyatt and Mel and allowed his mother to hug him. Eighteen was such a hard year for boys, technically a man but still too young to process his emotions without tears.

All eyes went to the door when Karl walked in.

Drew walked right up to his dad, stuck his chin in the air. “We need to find out who did this to her.”

Gill liked the word we.

Karl placed a hand on Drew’s shoulder. “We will.” He looked at his wife. “Why don’t you take Drew home.”

“I wanna stay.”

“We’ll come back tomorrow. There is a reason visitors aren’t allowed in the ICU all day. Jo needs her rest.”

It looked like Drew was going to argue, then reconsidered.

“Go on, Caroline. Take him home.”

Once they’d left the room, Karl turned to Gill. “A moment of your time?”

They stepped outside hearing range of the others, and Gill crossed his arms over his chest.