Hurricane Force (A Miss Fortune Mystery Book 7) (21 page)

When I was finished, Carter stared at me for several seconds, his expression a mixture of frustration and a tiny bit of disbelief. I didn’t blame him. It was a huge coincidence.

“Wait,” he said finally. “You said these weren’t the guys from the alley behind the art gallery.”

“They’re not.”

“Then why would they be here at Gertie’s house?”

“I think they might have followed the guys from the alley here.”

“Why would you make that leap?”

I pointed to the hedges. “Because I think the men from the alley had already been dispatched before we arrived.”

Carter turned around to look at the hedges where I pointed to the tip of a shoe sticking out from under the bush. He walked over and pushed branches of the bushes aside and peered inside. I knew the men from the alley were both in the bushes as soon as he turned around.
 

“This is a huge mess,” he said. “I don’t even know how to report it, but I can’t leave four bodies in Gertie’s backyard and I can’t just send them to the morgue without paperwork.” He ran one hand through his hair. “Jesus H. Christ!”

He was right. It was a huge problem, and I didn’t have a clue how to handle it.

“Carter?” Deputy Breaux’s voice sounded behind us and I jumped. “Is everything all right? Mr. Templeton called about gunshots and said he couldn’t reach anyone down at the sheriff’s department.”

Carter looked at me, and I could see the panic on his face. He didn’t just have to come up with an explanation that worked, he had to do it in a matter of seconds. “No, Deputy Breaux. We have a situation here.”

“What kind of situ—oh, Christ! That’s a body. That’s two bodies. What in the world happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Carter said. “Gertie’s house alarm went off, but it’s always been broken so I didn’t think much of it. Fortune had dropped me some dinner by the department and rode with me to pick up a chair Gertie requested she get from her shed.”

“And you found them like this?” Deputy Breaux asked.

Carter shook his head. “When we went to get the chair, one of them came out of the bushes with an assault rifle. I managed to disarm him and got off a clean shot, then the second man came around the shed and I took him out with my service revolver.”

Deputy Breaux’s eyes widened with fear and admiration. “Wow! That is something else. I wish I would have seen it. So what were they doing in Gertie’s backyard?”

“I don’t know for certain, but I suspect they killed the two men hidden in Gertie’s bushes.”

Deputy Breaux’s head jerked around to stare at the bushes. “There’s two more bodies in there. Holy crap. That’s more dead people than I’ve ever seen in one place, even the funeral home.”

“It’s practically an infestation,” I said.

Deputy Breaux looked over at me. “Are you all right? I can’t imagine how scary that was being right in the middle of it.”

“I’m fine,” I said.

“She’s a lot tougher than she looks,” Carter said. “Can you call and get a pickup of these bodies for me? I’ve got the camera in my truck. I just need to document the scene. I’ll do the paperwork when I get back to the department.”

Deputy Breaux nodded and looked over at me. “Do you need me to give you a ride? I don’t think you should stay here with the bodies and all.”

I looked over at Carter, desperately wanting him to say I had to stay and give my statement. Maybe then I’d have a better chance to explain. After I’d had a chance to process it all and not while I was standing over a man I’d just killed.

“Go ahead,” Carter said. “I can take your statement tomorrow.”

His tone was so dismissive that I felt the tears well up all over again. He bent over one of the bodies and pretended to check it, but I knew it was his way of avoiding looking at me. I turned around and followed Deputy Breaux out of the back lawn, perched on the edge of completely losing my composure.

I’d thought my life was over when I got sent to Sinful. If I’d known it was just beginning, I would have done things a lot differently.

Chapter Fifteen

Ida Belle and Gertie were sitting in my living room when I walked in the front door. They barely looked up when I walked inside, their eyes glued to the television.

“Francine had a baking emergency that Ally went to tend to,” Gertie said. “I sent you a million texts, but I guess you were busy with more important things.” She elbowed Ida Belle.

I walked into the living room like a zombie and sank into the first chair. They looked at each other, instantly sobering.
 

“What happened?” Ida Belle asked.
 

The dam burst. All the tears that I’d been holding back came flooding out. Tears for hurting Carter with my lies. Tears for ruining my career because I refused to follow protocol. Tears for my mother whom I missed so much and tears for a father I didn’t miss at all. Tears because I hadn’t realized just how much everything in Sinful mattered until I was faced with losing it.

Gertie and Ida Belle jumped up from the couch and hurried over. Gertie leaned over and put her arm around my shoulders. Ida Belle sat on the coffee table and put her hand on my arm.
 

“Whatever it is, we can fix it,” Gertie said, but her voice was laced more with fear rather than conviction. My breakdown had scared and surprised them.

“Not this time,” I sobbed. “Everything is ruined.”

“You told Carter the truth,” Ida Belle said.

I nodded and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “I had no choice. He made me just like you two did.”

Gertie sucked in a breath. “The men were at my house?”

“Yeah, but they were already dead. Ahmad’s men had taken them out. They hid behind the shed when we arrived. I just…reacted, you know? The first one rushed me from the bushes, holding an assault rifle, and I dispatched him like he was a pizza delivery boy.”

“You killed him?” Ida Belle asked.

I nodded. “I disarmed him and shot him with his own weapon. The entire exchange probably took three seconds. I was standing there in shock from the dispatch when the second one ran out and Carter shot him.”

“Disarming and disabling men with assault rifles isn’t exactly the kind of thing librarians are known for,” Gertie said. “I take it the revelation wasn’t well received.”

“That’s the biggest understatement I’ve heard since I’ve been in Sinful,” I said.

“I’m so sorry,” Gertie said. “Give him some time. This was a shock, I’m sure.”

“How could it not be?” Ida Belle agreed. “Not only is Carter hurt on an emotional level, his pride has taken a huge hit. You fooled him, and he’s not easily fooled.”

Everything they said was absolutely true. I knew Carter had been shocked, then angry, and at some point almost resigned. I knew I’d hurt him on every level possible except physical, although I had just discovered that severe emotional pain caused you physical pain. Every muscle in my body was knotted. My stomach felt as if I’d eaten bad Chinese food. My head pounded as though I’d been struck with a two-by-four. Getting shot hurt less.

“I didn’t just injure his pride,” I said. “I decimated it. He asked me if you two knew.”

“Oh no.” Gertie’s hand flew up to cover her mouth.

“And you had to tell him we did,” Ida Belle said. “At this point, it couldn’t be helped. Nothing that’s happened since you arrived in Sinful makes sense unless we were in on it from the beginning. It won’t take Carter long to piece everything together. Everything he only had a mild suspicion of before, he’ll know he was right about.”

“And he’ll know things couldn’t have happened that way unless we knew,” Gertie said. “We wouldn’t place that kind of trust in someone if they couldn’t back it up, and we wouldn’t have taken part if we hadn’t been qualified to do so ourselves.” Gertie looked over at Ida Belle and sighed. “We had a good run, sister.”

I looked at Gertie, confused. “Wait—I didn’t tell Carter about you guys.”

They both frowned.

“But how did you explain telling us and not telling him?” Gertie asked.

“I told him you made me right after I arrived, just like he did. That you recognized the moves from your time in Vietnam and knew no civilian could have pulled them off.”

Ida Belle looked at Gertie, then back at me. “We appreciate your loyalty, Fortune, and we understand you live by a soldier’s code, but this isn’t a bullet we want you to take. If Carter knew the truth about us, it might make him feel better about not connecting the dots with you before now.”

Gertie nodded. “Right now, it looks to him like two old ladies got the jump on him.”

I shook my head. “I won’t blow a soldier’s cover. Ever. If you want to tell him the truth, that’s up to you, but he’ll never hear a word of your past from me. I made you a promise, and that’s worth more to me than my broken heart or Carter’s pride.”

Gertie gave my shoulders a squeeze. “They don’t make them like you anymore.”

I felt tears well up again as the entire last hour replayed in my mind.
 

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” I said as I dissolved into tears once more.

###

Between crying jags, wallowing and two hot showers, I took up an hour and a half of the night. The only lucky break I got was when Ally called to say she’d be working with Francine well into the night and was going to bunk with her. At least it bought me some time to come up with a cover story for the end of my relationship with Carter. I couldn’t exactly tell the truth, and Sinful residents would be on that change in wind direction like stink on crap.

The call from the sheriff’s department came as I’d just stepped out of the shower for the second time. Carter needed to get statements from all of us, and he wanted to talk to Gertie first as it was her house.
 

“I’m not ready to face him,” I said, still wrapped in a towel and running a comb through my hair.
 

“Of course you’re not,” Gertie said, “but you don’t have a choice.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I tossed the comb in the sink. “There are four dead men in the morgue and I killed one of them. More importantly, they would have killed you if they’d found you at home. The man I dispatched didn’t hesitate. He was going to kill whoever was in your backyard, whether they were a threat or not.”

They both stood there silently watching me, probably waiting for me to either explode or start crying again. I felt like doing both, but I wasn’t going to do either. I was done being a regular girl. It was time to become a soldier again.

“Look,” I said, “I know something has to be done. I wouldn’t have ever come to Sinful if the threat wasn’t real. I know better than anyone the level of evil we’re dealing with. You two take my Jeep and go on ahead. I’m going to call Harrison and bring him up to speed. I should have as soon as it happened.”

“Do you think you’ll be in trouble?” Gertie asked.

“I’m going to be in so much trouble, I probably won’t see anything but a desk for at least a decade. That’s if I get to keep my job at all.”

“I’m so sorry,” Gertie said, her dismay obvious. “We should have never asked you to take the risks that we did. It’s our fault you’re in this mess.”

“Don’t even go there. It’s
all
my fault. I’ve always had a problem following orders, which is how I wound up here in the first place. I’ve always pushed it. Always had something to prove. If this time it costs me everything, then I only have myself to blame.”

And that was the bottom line. I could rage at my mother for dying and leaving me when I needed her the most. I could rage at my father for barely showing a passing interest in his only child. I could blame society for expecting women to be less capable in certain jobs than men. I could blame the CIA for the rules that tied agents’ hands so often.

But what difference did it make?

It was a bunch of explanations but not an excuse. The bottom line is that no matter why I did the things I did, I always had a choice in doing them.
 

“You’re sure you’ll be okay here by yourself?” Gertie asked.
 

I smiled. “Everyone is probably safer if I’m alone.”

Ida Belle nodded. “I’ll text you when we’re done, then we’ll come get you for your round.”

“What are you going to tell Carter when he asks why I’m not there?” I asked.

“I’ll tell him you’re taking care of business,” Ida Belle said. “He can deal with it or not. Despite my empathy for his broken heart situation, we’ve got a much bigger problem to address.”

“Thanks,” I said. I watched as they made their way out of my bedroom and then looked out the window as they stopped in front of my Jeep and had a brief argument. I smiled. Gertie wanted to drive and Ida Belle was refusing. Ida Belle climbed into the driver’s seat and Gertie flopped into the passenger’s seat, still wearing a pout as they drove away.
 

It was nice when some things were always the same. It made life feel secure, even though I knew better than most people that security was as big a myth as control.
 

I put on yoga pants, T-shirt, and tennis shoes, then pulled my hair back into a ponytail. No sundresses. No lip gloss. No shiny wave of fake hair running across my shoulders. Those days were over.