I’d picked up.
“Is that for Hank?” she asked. “Max said you were taking care of him.”
“Actually,” I said, recovering from the shock of seeing her. “It’s for Marco. The sheriff deputy who Carson shot.” But of course she knew him. He and Max had been best friends for years. The story he’d told me filtered back—how Emily had come to their apartment to speak to Max, how she’d said something to convince Max to come home from college early.
Her sunken eyes clouded. “When I heard…” Her voice trailed off and the pain on her face made it clear she, at least, had possessed no knowledge of Carson’s schemes. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you.” Part of me wanted to tell her it was okay, but it wasn’t, so instead I said, “It wasn’t your fault.”
Her gaze dropped to the floor, and it stayed there for a couple of seconds before she lifted her face. Tears shimmered in her eyes. “Marco is like a second son. When I heard what Carson had done…” She shook her head. “I still can’t believe he shot Marco. Carson knew him. Had watched him grow up. To shoot him in cold blood like that…”
“He shot at Wyatt too,” I said, my voice thick. “He wouldn’t have batted an eye at killing him.”
“To get to you,” a man behind me said in a dry voice.
I involuntarily flinched, but I shouldn’t have been surprised Bart Drummond was with her. Emily looked like she’d blow over in a strong wind. It was a wonder she was out of her house at all. She probably didn’t go anywhere alone anymore.
I slowly turned to my side as Bart walked past me to get to his wife, and his words finally penetrated. He was attempting to make this all about me. “Carson was cleaning up loose ends,” I said, turning the blame where it squarely belonged. “I was a loose end.”
“And my son and Max’s best friend were caught in the crossfire,” he said in a voice so cold goosebumps broke out on my arm.
Emily turned and patted her husband’s arm, but she looked like she was being careful not to upset him. “No, she’s right. This wasn’t personal for Carson. It was a man cleaning up his mess.” Tears filled her eyes again. “Because I can’t let myself believe he’d purposely target Wyatt and Marco.”
Bart wrapped an arm around Emily’s back. “Now you’re upset, love.”
The look he gave me made it clear who he blamed for that.
She leaned into him and gave me a smile, but I saw hesitation in her eyes. A reserve that hadn’t been there before her husband had joined us. What was it like to be married to such a man? I hadn’t been able to ask my own mother, and part of me wished I could ask Emily.
“I hear you’re working for Max at the tavern,” she said. “He has such lovely things to say about you.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond given he’d fired me a few hours earlier, but the last thing I wanted to do was give Bart the satisfaction of saying so. He was the one who’d started this whole mess, somewhere down the line. I lifted my gaze to his as I answered. “Max is a wonderful boss. I’m very lucky.”
“Lucky,” Bart said. “Do you consider yourself lucky, Carly?”
The blood fled from my head, and I had a moment of dizziness as the truth slammed into me.
He knew. He knew who I was.
Everything in me screamed run, but anger and my pride made my back straighten. “I believe luck is what you make of it.”
“A good philosophy,” he said. His mouth stretched into a grin, but his eyes were cold. “One I share. You never know when something interestin’ will fall in your lap, but what really matters is what you do with it.”
Oh, he definitely knew.
Did I leave town? Did I try to reason with him? Maybe this would be the linchpin that convinced Wyatt to finally share his secrets. Because my desire to bring Bart Drummond to justice had just gotten a whole lot more personal.
Emily shook her head and glanced up at her husband. “Don’t bore poor Carly with your work talk, Bart.”
“Despite her…interesting manner of dressing, Carly seems to have a level head on her shoulders,” Bart said with a chuckle. “I’m sure she’s findin’ our conversation quite interestin’.”
I’d wondered when he’d make a dig at my oversized clothes.
“Speaking of work talk,” I said with a smile I