Marie Ferrarella - The Coltons - Nick, Clay & Jericho

“He dropped a credit card and the gun?” Nick asked incredulously. Whoever had tried to break in was smart when it came to technology and seriously lacking when it came to common sense. “That’s a little too pat, don’t you think?”

Garrett paused, as if framing his answer. “Not every criminal belongs to MENSA.”

This sounded more like the work of a high school drop-out. “What’s the name on the card?”

There was noise on the other end, as if Garrett was looking for the card. “Got it,” he murmured under his breath, then read, “Georgeann Grady.”

Okay, that cinched it, Nick thought. If he’d had any doubts, this erased it. Someone was definitely out to frame Georgie.

Was it a matter of someone trying to kill two birds with one stone? Or was this strictly about revenge with the focus entirely on bringing Georgie down any way they could?

“It couldn’t have been her,” Nick told his subordinate flatly. “Georgeann Grady has been here in Esperanza for the last two days.”

“Maybe she’s working with an accomplice?” Garrett suggested.

“An accomplice who is trying to implicate her?” he asked incredulously. “It doesn’t make any sense. No, my guess is that someone is trying to frame her.” Restless, Nick got up and began to pace. “The question is, is whoever’s behind this trying to get the Senator, too, or is there some other connection we’re missing?” He stopped by the window and looked out. Miles of flat land spread out before him. God, but the terrain was lonely. “Tell Steve I don’t want him leaving his desk until he has a complete history on the woman. If she had so much as a schoolyard altercation in kindergarten, I want to know about it. Is that understood?”

“Understood.” He could almost see Garrett snapping to attention. “I’ll have him get back to you.”

When he put away his phone, Nick felt the back of his neck prickling. As if he were being watched.

Glancing to the doorway, he saw Georgie. She held on to Emmie’s hand. Antsy, Emmie all but danced from foot to foot.

“I had lots of ‘altercations’ in kindergarten,” Georgie told him crisply. There wasn’t even a hint of a smile on her face.

Emmie tugged harder on her hand. “What’s a ’cation, Mama?”

“Altercation,” Georgie corrected. “That’s a fancy word for fighting.”

Emmie’s green eyes widened. “You punched someone out, Mama?” she asked, clearly fascinated.

Georgie wasn’t ashamed of what she’d done. She’d been raised to stand up for herself. Her brothers had been proud of her. “Only when some nasty little kid called your grandmother or your mama a bad name.”

“I’d altercation them too,” Emmie told her solemnly, carefully enunciating the word.

It took effort not to laugh, but she didn’t want to hurt her daughter’s feelings. Emmie’s heart was in the right place. Georgie gave her a little squeeze.

“I know you would, pumpkin. I know you would.” All the while, she kept her eyes on Nick. “Why are you investigating me again?” She thought they were past this, especially after last night.

Or was she an idiot to believe that?

“Because somebody tried to make it look as if you attempted to break into the Senator’s house in Prosperino. A gun and a credit card were conveniently left on the premises.” He didn’t want her to think he had any doubts about her innocence. “And because the laws of physics haven’t been, to my knowledge, repealed in the last few days, you couldn’t have been in two places at once.”

“Mama rides really, really fast,” Emmie offered helpfully.

Nick shook his head. “Not that fast. She would have had to have been in California and her bedroom at the same time last night.”

Looking every inch like a miniature adult, Emmie nodded her head. “And she was there with you the whole time.”

Startled, Nick exchanged looks with Georgie. It was Georgie who spoke first. “Emmie, how do you know where he was?”

“’Cause I went to see him in the guest room. He wasn’t there. Then I went to your room and there he was. You were asleep. Was he keeping you safe, Mama?”

It was ironic that the little girl would choose those exact words.

“Yes, honey, he was keeping me safe,” she told her seriously, then glanced up at Nick. “Okay, Emmie and I are off to Baker’s Jewels.”

He made a quick decision. “I’m coming, too,” he told her.

A twinge of disappointment twisted inside of her. “Still don’t trust me?”

“It’s not you I don’t trust,” he answered, getting his suit jacket from the back of the chair and slipping it on. “I think I need to go on keeping you safe,” he said, using Emmie’s words. The little girl flashed him an approving grin.

His tone told Georgie that there was no way she was going to argue him out of it. She didn’t bother wasting her breath.

“Okay, c’mon. Let’s get going. The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better.”

“My thoughts exactly,” he agreed.

Except that, she thought as she led him out of the house, once they got to the bottom of this, he’d be gone again.

She blocked out the thought as best she could. There was no point in dwelling on what she couldn’t change.

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