A Stranger on the Beach(104)

“Drop it now!” Mike said.

He stood inside the back door, moving forward, his weapon out. The shots came too fast for her to keep track. Jason was down on the floor, his blood spreading toward her.

“He’s got a second gun,” she said.

Mike crossed to the spot where Jason lay and felt his pulse. He reached down and took Jess’s gun away.

“He’s alive. I’m calling an ambulance.”

“I need one, too,” Jess said, and passed out.





63


One month later

Aidan walked into the hushed lobby of the federal courthouse. Caroline and Jason Stark were scheduled to plead guilty to criminal charges this morning, and he wanted to be there to see it happen. He stepped up to the security line, placed his phone and belt in the bin, and walked through the metal detector. As he retrieved his belongings on the other side, a woman who’d just done the same turned around and gasped.

“What are you doing here?” Lynn Lombardo said.

The security guard was right there watching. Aidan didn’t need to get into some confrontation with Caroline’s sister. If nothing else, the past weeks of chaos had taught him to keep a tighter grip on his emotions.

“I’m here for the guilty plea. It’s open to the public,” he said calmly, and walked away.

Lynn’s high heels rang out on the marble floor as she pursued him.

“Aidan, wait.”

He turned. She caught up with him by the elevators.

“I didn’t mean to sound so hostile. Can we talk for a minute? Please,” she said.

“All right.”

They moved out of the stream of people to a bench against the wall.

“I owe you an apology,” Lynn said.

“That’s an understatement,” he said.

“Caroline lied to me, like she lied to you,” Lynn said. “She told me you were stalking her and her family. That’s the only reason I came after you at your job. I’m sorry. I should have known better than to believe anything she said.”

“Wait, you’re apologizing for yelling at me at the bar? I don’t give a crap about that. I almost went to jail for life for killing a man who was still alive. You knew about it and did nothing. Try apologizing for that.”

“Yes, I’m sorry for what happened to you, and my part in it. You have to understand, though—Caroline told me you were trying to kill Jason. I knew nothing about the Russians or the money laundering or any of that. She told me you were a jealous lover, and that she had a way to make it look like Jason was already dead, so the police would finally arrest you. It made sense to me at the time. But she was lying, like she lies to everyone.”

“I heard Caroline is living with you. If she really put one over on you, then why take her in?”

“Because she’s family, and she had nowhere else to go. The judge let her out on bail, but only on house arrest with an ankle bracelet. The feds seized all their assets. Not only their money. The beach house and the apartment in the city, too. My place was her only option.”

“They seized the beach house?”

“Yes, it’s going on the auction block next month.”

The idea flashed into Aidan’s mind that this was his chance to get Gramps’s land back for his family. But, no, it was impossible. Even heavily damaged by the hurricane, that house would sell for a bundle at auction, and he barely had a dollar to his name. He could try to talk to Tommy. Maybe if they pulled together, they could raise the money somehow. It was something to hope for, anyway.

“Caroline won’t be staying with me after today,” Lynn said. “Once she pleads guilty, they’ll take her straight to jail. Her lawyer thinks she’ll get one to three years. Jason’s looking at ten, and that’s only if he testifies against the Russians, which is like a death sentence. So, you see where Caroline’s greed got them.”

Aidan looked away. He nursed a cold fury at what that woman had done to him. But her hooks had sunk in deep enough that it still troubled him to think of her in jail.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.

“Are you? If I was you, I’d want to see her punished. Isn’t that why you’re here?”

Aidan didn’t answer.

“Court is about to start. We should go,” he said.

As they waited for the elevator, he thought of something.

“Lynn?” he said. “Would you tell Hannah I’m sorry for the way I approached her at her school? I thought she was in danger. In my mind, I was there to help. It seems far-fetched now, but Caroline had me so confused.”

Lynn nodded. “I understand, and I’ll tell her. I talked her out of coming to court today. It upsets her so much to see her dad in handcuffs. She’s back in school now, and I want her to focus on herself. I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive Caroline for what happened. But Joe and I are there for Hannah, always. We’ll make sure she comes out of this all right.”



* * *



Aidan watched from the back of the courtroom as Jason Stark entered guilty pleas to conspiracy and money laundering and was led away by two guards. It was jarring to see the Wall Street titan in prison blues, manacled and unshaven, his once impeccably trimmed hair looking gray and disheveled. As Stark reached the holding cell door, he turned, raised his fingers to his lips, and blew his wife a kiss. In the front row, Caroline was too busy consulting with her lawyer to notice—or else she didn’t bother to respond. Aidan wondered where things stood between them now that their perfect life had been destroyed so completely.