"How did you know I was at Beth Ann's tonight?" he asked.
"I didn't." She hesitated. "I was searching for you. Everywhere. It was...the last place I could think of to look."
He ran a finger slowly over one eyebrow. "Why did you want to find me?"
During the ensuing silence, he could sense her reluctance to continue. But finally, she said,
"They're coming after you tomorrow."
"They?"
"My father and probably a couple of other officers."
"They have another search warrant?"
"An arrest warrant."
Clay had always known it could come to this. But now? As far as he knew, the police didn't have any more evidence than they'd had all along.
"What's changed?" he asked.
He heard her sigh. "The political climate. If this was happening anywhere else, they wouldn't have a prayer of getting a conviction."
"But here?"
"Where are you going to get an unbiased jury? Everyone already believes you're guilty."
Clay glanced around the kitchen, where almost everything had occurred that fateful night, and heard once again his stepfather's angry voice and outright lies, his mother's screams. He saw Grace in the corner, her face chalk-white as the tears she was silently crying dripped from her chin.
Molly had huddled beside her. Then there were the powerful blows of his stepfather when he'd tried to step in to defend his mother, and his desperation to conquer or be conquered. Clay had known in those few minutes that he couldn't let his stepfather win. Maybe he was only a kid, but he alone stood between his mother and sisters and the man who was a danger to them.
And the violence wasn't the worst of it. What followed topped even that--the panic that came with realization, the permanence of what had happened, the blood splattered everywhere, the heavy lifeless body Clay had had to drag from the house.
Clay's muscles still ached when he thought of all the digging he'd done that night. He'd been physically and emotionally exhausted, had wanted to lie in bed for a week--then wake up and learn it'd been a terrible nightmare.
But it had been real. All of it. He'd had to get up the next morning and the next and soldier on as if nothing had happened. There was no one else to take the lead, to provide the support his family needed.
Closing his eyes, he drew a calming breath. "Thanks for letting me know."
"That's it?" she responded.
"There's nothing more I can say, Allie."
"Then why not use the time you've got left to get out of town? Go to Alaska, like your father did, or somewhere else, and don't come back."
Clay pinched his neck, hoping to ease the tension in his muscles. "You're telling me to run?"
"I'm scared for you. Go now. Before they can arrest you."
"That's interesting, coming from a law-and-order type."
"As far as I'm concerned, they're not playing by the rules. Why should we?"
We. He jammed a hand through his hair. He didn't want her in this with him. After what she thought she'd seen at Beth Ann's, she should hate him, hope for the worst. "There's no 'we,' Allie.
I'm in this alone. Do you hear?"
Silence. He cursed, wishing he could offer her...something. But telling her how he felt would only make this harder on both of them. "I can't go anywhere," he added.
She sniffed, which made him wonder if she was crying. "Why not?"
Because the police would get another search warrant and find what was in his cellar. Then there'd be no question about what had happened. He'd have a much better chance going up against the flimsy evidence they already possessed. "The time's come to put an end to this, don't you think?
The reverend went missing, and the town wants someone to pay. If I stand trial, chances are they'll leave my mother and sisters alone."
"But you didn't kill him."
Her words caused a terrible longing. "How do you know?"
"I know. And I hate that what happened between us last weekend is probably what's angered everyone enough to do this. We shouldn't have..."
She let her words dwindle away, but he finished for her. "Made love?"
"Yes."
He smiled in spite of what tomorrow would bring. "Are you kidding? When I close my eyes, I can still taste you, feel you--"
"Clay, don't," she said, her voice breathless.
"Whatever comes next, I don't regret it," he said and hung up.
The following morning, Allie was awakened by a call from Grace Archer.
"Your father just arrested my brother," she said.
Allie scrubbed the fatigue from her face. The hour or so she'd been sleeping since getting Whitney off to school wasn't nearly enough, not when such a bad day loomed before her. She'd spent the entire night worrying about what would happen to Clay and wishing she could do something to stop it. But she didn't have any answers. "How'd you get my new number?" she asked distantly, stalling, trying to head off the poignant emotions that were already descending on her like a heavy burden she'd barely put down and had to take up again.
"Madeline."
With a sigh, she relaxed into her pillow. "I'm sorry, Grace...for Clay."
There was a long pause. "How sorry?" she asked at last.
The question took Allie aback. "I don't know what you mean."
"At Evonne's, you said you were on my side."
She pushed herself up on one elbow. "I am."
"Do you care about my brother?"
Allie didn't really want to face that question. But if answering it honestly meant she might be able to enlist Grace's help and support..."I'm in love with him," she said.
There was another significant pause. Then Grace spoke again. "Can you come to my house tonight?"
"What for?"
"Madeline says you're out of work."
"And..."
"I have a job offer for you."
"Doing what?"
"Clay's going to need a good investigator, isn't he?"
Allie threw off the covers and sat up. "Will you be handling his defense?"
"Of course."
"But you're just about to have a baby."
"I had her last night. Her name is Lauren Elizabeth, and she's beautiful. Perfect."
Had Allie not been so exhausted, she would've smiled at the pride in Grace's voice.
"Congratulations. How are you feeling?"
"Fine. Except for this."
"So you're out of the hospital?"
"Kennedy will be taking me home in a few hours."