'Til Death (A Rebel Ridge Novel) (29 page)

“How is he doing?” Kennedy asked a nurse who had come to hover
in the doorway, drawn by the activity.

“His fever is down.”

“Good. The sooner you get him well, the quicker he’s mine. We
need some privacy now, please.”

Prince’s gut knotted. He didn’t like the way that sounded.

Kennedy waited until the nurse was gone, and then sent a
text.

“What’s going on with all the mystery?” Prince asked.

“Considering the fact that you’re going to be behind bars for a
really long time, I thought you would like your reunion with your family to be
recorded for posterity.”

Prince’s eyes bugged. The only family he had was Fagan and
Lucy, and he couldn’t fathom why they would be coming to visit. Fagan hated his
guts, and Lucy was a snake. He didn’t want to see her any more than he guessed
she would want to see him.

“What the hell? Why are you talking to me like that?”

Kennedy shrugged. “How else would I address the fact that you
tried to kill Margaret Lewis?”

Prince glared. “I never once told her I was gonna hurt
her.”

“Just because you didn’t say it means nothing. You stalked her,
broke into her home, shot at her, assaulted her, then chased her up a mountain
and caused her to fall to what could have been her death.”

Prince frowned when he heard she wasn’t dead. “That’s not what
happened.”

“Don’t bother trying to deny it. Facts talk,” Kennedy said, and
then walked to the door.

He saw Lucy being wheeled from one end of the hall, and when he
turned to his left he saw a very large man coming from the opposite direction.
Since he’d been told Lincoln Fox was on the tall side, he was guessing that was
his man.

“Are you leaving?” Prince asked.

“No. We’ve been waiting for your company to arrive, and they’re
here.

* * *

All Lucy knew when she left her room was that they were
taking her downstairs, she assumed for some tests. Her hair was sticky and
matted, and she felt naked without her makeup, but her face was still too
swollen to consider it. Wesley had always referred to her makeup as war paint,
and she used to giggle about it, but since she’d tried to have him killed, she
didn’t think it was prudent to fall back on fond memories of their time
together. Like life and seasons, things changed. As far as she was concerned, he
had betrayed her, giving up his rights to her loyalty. And she was a bitch when
it came to keeping score.

The orderly was wheeling her briskly down the hall, but when
they passed the elevator, she pointed.

“Hey, you missed the elevator. Aren’t we going down to the
lab?”

“No, ma’am,” he said, and kept rolling.

“Then what on—”

She let the question go when she saw Detective Kennedy step out
of a room just a few doors down. He seemed to be waiting for her, which made her
nervous. When she saw a tall, dark-haired man turn a corner at the other end of
the hall and come toward them, she panicked. It was Lincoln, and when Kennedy
stopped him and shook hands, she panicked. Why did this feel like an ambush?

She wouldn’t look at Lincoln, but she felt his gaze. The old
saw—if looks could kill—had never been so true. And then the orderly wheeled her
past the men and into the room. When she saw the patient in the bed, she
gasped.

Prince saw the shock on Lucy’s face and realized something was
up. She was just as surprised to see him as he was to see her. When Lincoln Fox
walked in behind Kennedy, it was obvious they were about to be fucked. He just
didn’t know how far over he would have to bend.

Kennedy was watching the siblings and their body language. What
was most telling was that they had yet to meet each other’s eyes, let alone
speak. His phone buzzed. He scanned the text and stepped out into the hall.
Marlow and his deputy were coming down the hall with a handcuffed man between
them. The last family member had arrived. Time to get the party started. He
waited until they were standing just outside the door, raised a finger to his
lips to caution them to stay silent, then stepped back into the room.

“So, Prince...Lucy...this isn’t the greeting I would have
expected,” Kennedy said. “Prince, I would have thought you’d want to apologize
to your sister, seeing as you tried to kill her and her husband.”

Lucy’s gut rolled.

Prince frowned at Lucy. “What the hell? I didn’t try to kill
you, and you know it.”

Linc eyed the detective, curious as to what he was thinking
since Prince had essentially just admitted the attack on Wesley by not denying
the accusation. He waited to see what else the bastard gave away.

“That’s not what
she
said,” Kennedy
said.

The shock on Prince’s face was obvious. He looked at Lucy in
disbelief.

“Lucy! Is that what you told them? That I tried to kill
you?”

Lucy had one chance to talk her way out of this, and she wasn’t
going to blow it. She turned on the tears and shrank back in the wheelchair, as
if she was afraid he would jump out of the bed and start hammering on her
again.

“I know you told me to lie,” she said, and started to tremble.
It was a skill she’d perfected back when she was a kid and her daddy would get
so mad at all of them that he would start beating the first one he could catch.
“I know you told me to say it was a heavyset, middle-aged man with a
salt-and-pepper mullet, but I couldn’t lie. I couldn’t lie to the police.”

Prince snorted. “Since when? You been lying all your life.”

Lucy started to sob. “Oh, Prince. You tried to kill my sweet
Wesley and now you’re blaming me? I didn’t think I could be any sadder, but I
was wrong. You have broken my heart.”

Prince was desperate and turned to Kennedy. “No, Detective.
That’s not how it went down at all. It was her idea to off her old man. She
wanted him dead before he filed for divorce. Fagan knew it, too. She told him.
Hell, maybe it was Fagan who did it.”

Linc’s heart skipped a beat.
Here it
comes.

Lucy wailed.

Prince was cursing.

And then Fagan walked in, and once again the siblings were
shocked into silence.

Fagan was obviously pissed, which was what Linc had been hoping
for. Earlier he’d seen Fagan trying to distance himself from the actual crimes,
and he guessed that was what was about to happen again.

“I can’t believe the crap coming out of your mouth,” he
said.

Lucy sniffed and mopped at her eyes. “I know, baby brother. I
was shocked, as well.”

Fagan snorted. “I was talking to you, Lucy.”

Lucy gasped. “How dare—”

Fagan pointed at her. “You. Don’t talk.” Then he glared at
Prince. “You are a mean bastard, Prince, and whatever happens to you, you have
coming.”

“Shut the hell up!” Prince yelled.

Linc froze. He’d heard that voice and that phrase outside his
house just before it blew.

He moved to the end of Prince’s bed. “You’re fond of that
phrase, aren’t you?”

Prince frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, just that I heard you say it before, but you weren’t
talking to your brother, you were yelling at your dog—just before my house blew
up. I know because I heard you.”

“You didn’t hear shit,” Prince said. “You were already
uncon—”

Linc’s heart skipped a beat. Prince looked like someone had
just stuck a cattle prod up his ass.

Linc kept pushing. “What? You didn’t finish what you were going
to say. Were you about to say that I was already unconscious? You bastard! You
stood outside that house and watched it burn. Who killed Dad? You or Wendell?
Oh, wait...let me guess. Neither one of you had the balls to stand up to him
face-to-face. But you are fully capable of being the shit who distracted him
while Wendell came up behind him and bashed him in the head with my baseball
bat.”

Prince’s lips went slack, and then he started trying to explain
his way out of the gaffe he’d made.

“We didn’t kill your dad. Why would we? He was family.”

Sheriff Marlow had been standing in the doorway, keeping an eye
on his prisoner, but this was when he honored his promise to Lincoln. He cleared
his throat and moved into the room.

“Sorry, Prince, but that’s not true and you know it. What you
don’t
know is that we have identified you and
your brothers as the men who robbed a bank in Lexington over eighteen years ago.
It’s a done deal, so don’t argue about it. Fagan confessed. What you don’t know
is that Fagan also told us that Marcus Fox found out that you boys were the ones
who stole the money. When he told Lucy, she called Wendell and told him Marcus
knew. She was mad at all three of you, because if you got arrested it would
embarrass her. She told Wendell to kill Marcus to keep him quiet. She didn’t
care about being a widow, because she already had a lover waiting in the wings
to pick up the slack. She wouldn’t have to move back into her mama’s house. Not
when Wesley Duggan was waiting for her to move into his.”

Lucy screamed and kept on screaming until Linc took a step
toward her. She choked on a sob and covered her face.

Prince’s mouth dropped. When he regained the use of his voice
he shouted, “Fagan!”

Fagan glared. “What? I told you I was sick and tired of being
dragged into your messes. I told Lucy the same thing, and now you both know I
meant it. I’m done. Whatever happens to me for not telling sooner is gonna have
to happen. My sin was keeping silent, and I’m done. I cleaned the dirt out of my
house, and now I’m cleaning the dirty lies out of my soul, just like Mama would
have told me to do.”

Prince glared. “You are no Goody Two-shoes, little brother. You
are a worthless drunk who smokes more of the weed you grow than you sell. I have
always stood up for you! I didn’t throw you out in the cold. That’s what
you
did to
me!
” Prince
yelled.

“And you know why, so shut your mouth,” Fagan muttered, then
began talking to Kennedy. “There’s no love lost between me and Prince, but to be
on the fair side, there’s no love lost between me and Lucy, either. She’s a
nasty mean bitch. She can order a hit like she’s ordering one of her fancy damn
coffees, but she thinks if she doesn’t pull the trigger, she’s lily-white. So
Prince and Wendell killed Marcus like she asked. And then she got in trouble
again when Lincoln Fox came back and told Wesley that he’d lied on the stand. It
opened up a new can of worms when Wes found out she’d lied to him. He told her
he was going to divorce her and confess to perjury. She was pissed and asked me
to get rid of Husband Number Two. I believe her actual request was to ‘make her
a widow.’ I told her no way in hell.”

Kennedy eyed Lucy curiously. “What do you have to say to that,
Mrs. Duggan?”

She cringed, glanced up at Linc and then looked away. “I didn’t
say that,” she muttered.

Fagan snorted.

Prince sighed. “Do I get a court-appointed lawyer?”

“Yes, but you’d better come clean now,” Kennedy said. “It will
go better on you in the long run.”

“I’ll come clean, all right. What Fagan said about Lucy is the
truth.”

Lucy shrieked. “You liar!” She stood up from the wheelchair and
grabbed Kennedy’s arm. “He’s lying. I swear.”

Kennedy shrugged out of her grasp. “Sit down, Mrs. Duggan.”

Lucy dropped.

Prince laughed.

“After Fagan turned her down, she asked me to kill Wesley. She
didn’t know he’d already filed for divorce and confessed to the perjury that
sent Lincoln Fox to jail. I showed up at her house a couple days later and found
her drunk off her ass. Long story short, I cleaned her and her house up, hid the
empty booze bottles in the neighbors’ trash cans, and then we had ourselves a
little family brawl to explain why I had the gun that I was supposed to use to
kill her old man. Only he’s not dead, so you can’t charge me with his
murder.”

“No, but we can charge you for Marcus Fox’s murder, which we
will. Got anything else to say?” Kennedy asked.

Prince’s shoulders slumped. “Truth is, me and Lucy had bigger
fights for less reason when we were all still living at home. She’s just mad at
me cuz I missed Wesley’s heart.”

Lucy moaned.

Fagan spoke up again then, throwing another twist into the
story that took the last load of guilt off Lincoln’s shoulders.

“Oh...I’m not done cleaning my house,” Fagan said. “Don’t
forget about Prince stalking Meg Lewis. That had nothing to do with any of this
other shit. Her ex, Bobby Lewis, killed Wendell a couple of years after the
trial. He’s been in prison ever since. When he learned he was dying of cancer,
he had his brother, Claude, ask Prince to come see him, said he would make it
worth his while. Just mention the word
money
and
Prince would kiss the devil’s ass, never mind the man who killed our own flesh
and blood. So Prince goes to see Lewis, finds out that when he killed Wendell,
he stole the money off Wendell’s body and hid it. Something like twenty thousand
dollars. Anyway, Bobby didn’t tell Prince where it was buried, said it was where
he’d buried his favorite dog, Ike, and that his ex-wife would know and to ask
her.” Fagan was so mad he was shaking. “But did my brother go ask her that
simple question and leave her the hell alone? No. He plagued her and stalked her
and scared her half to death, then told me as soon as she told him what he
needed to know he was gonna slit her throat. That’s the kind of people I’m
related to. Deviants. Fucking deviants!”

Linc was shocked. Finally the truth about why Meg had been
targeted, and it had nothing to do with him.

Lucy was weeping loudly. Fagan turned on her.

“You better cry now and get it out of your system, sister,
because where you’re going, no one’s gonna care. You wanted Marcus dead and
Wendell did it. You wanted Wesley dead and Prince gave it his best shot. You
need to be taken out of circulation before someone else pisses you off and you
want them dead, too.”