Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) - Tina Wainscott Page 0,93

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.