her family while she was doing it. She’d taken care of things; the way she had for Wallace since…forever.
Jennifer had never been back to that cabin. She’d had Kyle start it on fire ten years ago, on her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.
She had killed for this man in front of her. Now he had ruined everything. “Everything, Wallace? Oh, Wally, you always have been an idiot. What am I looking for exactly?”
They both know she’d do it, find what he needed. Protect them all. Damn it, even underneath all of that, maybe she did still love him. Somehow.
She always had been a fool where Wallace Reginald Henedy II was concerned.
He’d said it was for Reggie.
That was all it would take to have her doing his bidding.
He shook his head. “Maroon notebooks. There are at least two dozen in the back of the filing cabinet in my offices. Both Barratt County and Finley Creek Gen. Get them. Promise me that you will not read them. You have to find them, Jenny. You have to. Find them and burn them. All.”
“Why did you do it? Shoot that girl? Did it have something to do with Carrington’s daughter? Tell me.”
He shook his head. “Izzie. She looks like Elizabeth would have. Did you know that? Big dark eyes.”
“Elizabeth’s been dead for twenty-six years. That girl has nothing to do with our daughter.”
He stared at her with torture-filled eyes.
Her heart broke for him all over again. Like it had twenty-six years ago when he’d realized that even though he saved lives every day, he hadn’t been able to save the one that had mattered the most.
26
Jake MacNamara felt absolutely sick as he rushed into FCGH. They still had W4HAV blocked off. It would be for a while.
Izzie could have died right there, and he wouldn’t have been able to get there in time to hold her. He’d learned now. Days later.
He hadn’t been there for her when she’d needed him.
It sickened him.
Izzie, her friend Annie, and Annie’s three kids were his whole world. Pretty much his entire family this side of the Atlantic.
Izzie was his daughter in every way that mattered.
He still smelled like smoke from the house fire he’d been at when he’d learned about what had happened to Izzie. Callum had filled him in quickly, practically dragging him to the hospital.
Right now, he needed to see Izzie. He didn’t recognize the nurse working at the desk tonight. He flashed his badge. “I’m Jake MacNamara, Izzie’s uncle. Can you tell me what room my niece is in?”
“Are you on the list of approved visitors?” She was young and nervous and obviously a newbie. Jake studied her quickly. The nightshift ER would eat her alive before too long. Only the strongest survived in this place.
“Of course. I’m her next of kin.” Jake bit back the impatience; the nurse was doing her job to keep her patients safe.
“It’s okay, Felicity. Jake is Izzie’s uncle. We’ve been waiting for him to arrive,” a woman said from behind the nurse. Kevin Beck’s daughter. He’d worked with Detective Beck for a few years when he’d first signed on to the TSP. Now, she was married to Izzie’s boss. He’d seen her quite a few other times since then. She was good friends with Izzie.
It took him a minute to remember her name though. “Jillian, how is she?”
“She’s going to be okay. We’ve moved her up to stable. She’s been awake, and has even been out of the bed briefly,” she said as she led them down the hallway. “It’s going to take her a while to make a full recovery, but Izzie will.”
Jake thanked her and then stepped into the room. Izzie was sound asleep.
“She’s unhooked herself from the monitors again,” Jillian said with a slight laugh. She went to work with tubes and electrodes and things Jake couldn’t identify. “She knows better than that. She keeps trying to fly the coop. She’s a bit restless. I caught her walking around the hallway myself a few hours ago. All a good sign, we don’t want her to rush things.”
“Yeah, good luck with that.” He settled in the chair next to the bed. He wasn’t going anywhere for a while. Not until Izzie told him exactly what had happened. When she told him she was going to be ok.
27
Allen was going to check on Izzie again. See her and convince himself she was going to be all right.
The attorney prosecuting Wallace Henedy had left Allen a message an hour ago.
He wanted