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Chapter 2
Beckett
"Welcome! Welcome!" Georgia sings as she greets the latest arrivals.
With a smile on her face you would never know that the woman was chastising her herd of boys for picking at the food in the kitchen just moments ago.
We couldn't help it really. She's starved for hours just so we'd eat the dinner Mia had ordered the caterers to deliver. It's not that the food was bad. We just prefer Georgia's leftovers.
It's hard to enjoy a catered meal when you're used to eating prime homemade pasta and garlic bread.
"Think she'll miss me if I sneak into the kitchen and get some of that bread from last night?" Quinn quietly asks as she tugs on my sleeve.
Some things don't change. Quinn's appetite while pregnant is the same as it was with Hope. The girl could eat everything in the refrigerator and still be hungry. Aubrey couldn't keep anything down for the first three months. Their response to pregnancy couldn't be more different.
"We already got caught with our hands in the cookie jar. Trust me, you don't want that wrath." I warned her.
"Are you ready?" Aubrey whispers to Quinn apparently they are in cahoots with this.
"Beck said they already got caught. Do you still want to try?" My sister and her partner in crime discuss the situation.
"Well, yeah. The catering was good but no one cooks like Georgia. Plus you're pregnant. You get a pass with this one growing in there." Aubrey rubs her hand on Quinn's not quite there belly.
"I can work with that! Do you want anything, Beck?" The offer is tempting but I already got my ass chewed, I'm not willing to risk it again.
"No thanks. Be careful, Georgia is a stickler about eating in front of guests." I warn them as they hurry off on the hopeful search for the best leftovers around.
"She should have had Paige and Brynn cater this thing." Leo joins me watching the girls disappear into the kitchen.
"She wanted Paige to enjoy the event and not work it. And Brynn is still recovering. She needs to take it easy." I remind him knowing that the food would have been much better if they had done the job.
"In all the years I've known those two, I've never seen them just relax at a party. They'll be working... and there goes Paige, cleaning up glasses. Brynn hasn't... nope, she just tossed a stack of trash too." Leo gives the play by play of the room.
"I had to force Paige to stop cleaning up after the wedding." I remind Leo of a similar situation a year ago.
"I remember. Brynn was just supposed to cut the cake and the woman was serving it for an hour." Leo laughed remembering the same night. "What the hell is he doing here?"
Looking at the front door, I see what Leo has zoomed in on. Charlie and his wife just arrived. He's looking a bit tense. I bet he's worried about what one of us might say in front of his wife. The woman deserves to know who she married.
"Not the time and not our place." I remind Leo to let it go tonight. "Georgia said no talk about the fire or the Markham's tonight. She wants one night without a problem."
Not that I agree. I don't but it's not my house or my party. But I'll be damned sure to make sure that man does anything else to my family. He won't get another chance.
"Shit! Where's Ethan?" Blake comes up seeing our newest guests.
Understanding exactly what he's worried about, I get the three of us moving. "We better find him and fast!"
Cole
The party is in full swing and it's literally asses to elbows in every room. There isn't a single person from town who isn't here. Even Charlie is making the circle around the room.
"Why is he here?" Ethan growls, glaring at Charlie. "He shouldn't be here! He was just as guilty as Lindsey with all the tormenting she did. He's going to do more to us. I swear, Cole, he isn't done."
Ethan's voice gradually grew louder with every word. Heads began to turn and others around us started to listen in on our conversation. I know that is the last thing we need right now.
"Hey Ethan! Can you give me a hand for a minute?" Beckett called him over and escorted him out of the room.
"Come on, Beckett's going to need help." Leo came from behind me and we followed the two up the stairs and away from prying eyes.
"Ethan, you can't talk about Charlie like that. He already suspects that we don't trust him. You heard Ma. She wants to give him enough time and space for him to hang himself. He has to trust that we don't suspect him. We won't get any evidence against him if he thinks we know he was a part of Lindsey's schemes!" Beckett scolds him.
"He has done enough damage to us! Charlie is just as guilty as Lindsey for everything that's happened! He shouldn't be running loose!" Ethan argues.
He is sick of the cat and mouse game. I don't blame him. Ethan and Brynn have been through enough. They've found a way back to each other. That's huge, given how long it's taken for her to finally forgive him for his mistakes. No one has been through more than these two.
Ethan has been a handful for Brynn to deal with. He is increasingly protective of her. He checks on her throughout the day and often checks the camera's videos just for safety. She's been a rock for him and he's only getting worse. I can't see him relaxing any time soon, at least not until every person involved with Brynn's injuries is held accountable.
Speaking of the luscious blonde bombshell, Brynn walks into the bedroom, immediately seeing the problem from downstairs. She's been good about getting Ethan to calm down and she's had to do some serious work at times for just that.
Heading straight to Ethan, she captures his face in her hands, forcing him to look only at her"Ethan! Listen to me! You're right, Charlie is responsible! No one is saying otherwise. But calling him out for it tonight isn't the right way to go. Think about it, Ethan. He has to do something more for us to catch him in the act. If he knows we don't trust him, he will be less likely to screw up."
Ethan stops fighting us and looks around at his closest friends trying to help him out. We won't let anyone get away with harming Brynn and harassing Aubrey and Beckett. None of us have gotten out of this unscathed.
"I promise, Ethan. Justice will come to him." Brynn makes the promise hoping we can keep it.
If anyone can calm Ethan down, it's Brynn. She's the only one he's been listening to lately. She is the only one who can get him to see the reality of the situation. If we want to get rid of the people who are harming this town we have to play our cards right.
Charlie knows more about what happened in the woods that night of the fire than he lets on. He got there before we did. There was definitely something wrong with Charlie when we got there. That raises the question of whether Ethan did see someone else out there.
Ethan didn't want to answer any questions from Charlie. He punched him and accused him of lying about Lindsey. It was ugly and Charlie was very calm about it. Too calm. He saw something more than just Ethan burning down the cabin with Lindsey and the mayor inside. We just don't know what that is.
It's possible that he can shed some light on what Ethan has been saying about someone else being out there. Ethan is a smart man. He doesn't make accusations without evidence to support it. It's possible the someone else Ethan saw was Charlie.
He let us deal with Ethan, even when he was arresting him, Charlie was careful. Leo and Beckett were right there supporting Ethan. I was busy working on getting Georgia to get him an attorney and explaining the circumstances.
Georgia acted fast and had Ethan on bail minutes after we got to the police station. We kept Ethan quiet and got him back to Georgias as fast as we could. When Georgia and I went to the station the next morning, Charlie wasn't exactly forthcoming with information.
And we have a lot of unanswered questions about that night. We won't get any answers if we don't play out parts. Georgia was right about that. Charlie will get comfortable thinking we believe his story and he'll mess up.
We just need to keep Ethan under control in the meantime. Easier said than done.
Ethan paces the room as we guard the doors and windows, keeping him from sneaking out on us. He doesn't like us stopping him from going after Charlie. He doesn't want Charlie anywhere near Brynn or Aubrey. But we have to make things look "normal" for him to relax. Once Charlie feels safe, he'll make a mistake. Then we get him.
We stayed upstairs too long. The family was missing and it wouldn't be long before someone starts wondering where we are. It was when Aubrey came in did we know we had to rejoin the party.
"Georgia is wondering where everyone is. She wants to make a toast but everyone is up here. The family meeting has to wait. Let's go." She orders us to go, taking on Mia's responsibility of herding the crowd.
Brynn stuck with Ethan as the rest of us headed downstairs. Wondering if it's possible that Ethan is right, I hung back to see what I could see that Ethan was so sure about.
I went to the back bedroom, and as I have seen Ethan do many times since the fire, I left the light out in the room and closed the door. Going to the window, I watched the woods behind the house from inside the dark bedroom.
There's a lot of shadows out there. The sliver of moon isn't giving me much light to see if someone is there. But I stay where I am and patiently wait. As the breeze blows and shadows shift, I look for the one that is different from the rest.
"What are you looking for?" The soft female whispers next to me and makes me jump. "Sorry, I saw you come in here. I was trying to figure out what you were up to."
I should have known that Mia was good at being in the background. I didn't even know she was in the room a few minutes ago. She has a way of blending into the background and people don't notice her. That might be a handy tool we need for later.
"Ethan keeps saying that there was someone else at the cabin that night. He thinks there's someone out here still watching us. I thought I might be able to see if I could see them too." Looking back out the window, I saw it.
Briefly there was one shadow that didn't move with the wind. One second that came and went too fast. The shadow I thought I saw was gone. How does that happen? Shadows don't just disappear. And I know there was something there...
"Sometimes you have to be a shadow to see what isn't supposed to be there." Mia whispered looking out the window with me.
Holding onto my arm, she spotted something I missed. "Look at that, two o'clock. See the shadow of the deer? Now look directly below it. There's a person just under that branch. See how the branches sway with the wind, but that one spot doesn't move."
She's got good eyes. I wouldn't have seen it without her pointing it out. There is someone out there. The question is: who is it?
"It's not Charlie. He's downstairs and that form is smaller than he is." She has a point. It still doesn't answer the question.
"Female? Or a small guy?" I wonder out loud.
"There's another one over there." Mia points to the west of the yard and see it immediately.
This one isn't exactly hiding. He is just out of view but isn't trying to not be seen. When he lights up a cigarette I see a quick flash of his face. No, that's one of the Bradford security guards. He's just getting some air.
Mia stayed with me, watching the shadows, looking for the discrepancies in the way they move. And I learned something very important about her. She sees everything. As a wallflower, she is an observer. And she misses nothing.
"How many have you seen?" I wonder if she has been watching all this time out here at the house.
"A few. The security guards are easy to spot. They stand out because they are really hiding but the others... I think there have been at least three. They are all here at the same time. The one there..." She points to the left of the trees. "That one is female. There's two men too but they aren't here tonight."
No, they aren't out there hiding but I'm betting that they are here. They're just inside the house and downstairs. One of them is in uniform. The other is the mystery.
Who else is in on this sick game?
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