Dead Silence (Stillwater Trilogy #1)(83)
Author: Brenda Novak

“Camille didn’t say anything about the fight,” Buzz said, glancing over his shoulder as though he knew his wife would be getting impatient for her food.

“What, then?”

Buzz shook his head.

“You don’t want to tell me?”

“It’s not that. It’s just that I’m sure it wouldn’t mean any more to you than it did to me.”

“Try me. What’d she say?”

Buzz’s eyebrows rose as he shrugged. “Maybe you should know,” he said. “Maybe it would get you to back off the Montgomerys.”

“What?” Joe pressed.

“She says Kennedy has something that’ll prove Grace’s family is innocent.”

Joe shoved his hands in his pockets to hide the clenching of his fists. He wanted the Montgomerys to be guilty. He needed them to be guilty. Or Kennedy would come out of this looking like a hero, and he’d be dog shit. “What kind of proof?”

“I have no idea. Kennedy hasn’t mentioned a thing to me. Did you hear him say anything unusual at the pool hall last night?”

“Nothing.”

Buzz jingled the change in his pocket. “Whatever it is, she thinks he buried it somewhere. She kept pressing me, as if some detail might jog my memory. But it doesn’t make any sense to me. If he has proof that Grace is innocent, why would he hide it?”

Kennedy wouldn’t hide anything that proved Grace’s innocence, Joe thought. There’d be no reason for that. He wanted her to be innocent.

He’d only hide something that proved her guilt….

Joe’s heart suddenly slammed against his ribs as the meaning of Buzz’s words became clear to him. Kennedy had something, something Joe needed.

Joe blinked several times, his mind racing. Where would Kennedy hide it? At his house? In his car?

No, Buzz had said he’d buried it. But where?

The line moved forward, and Joe moved with it. Then he froze in place. Buried it? That was it! That was what Kennedy and Grace had been doing in the woods up at the lake!

Remembering the small mound of earth he’d noticed not far from the restrooms made Joe feel giddy with relief and hope. He knew where it was. Just when he was beginning to panic, just when he feared Grace would get the best of him, Kennedy’s own mother handed him everything he needed to destroy the Montgomerys for good—and maybe Kennedy, too.

“Joe?” Buzz said, sounding perplexed.

Joe told himself to breathe deeply, to calm down. “What?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Listen, my head is hurting like hell. I’m going home to take a couple of aspirin, okay?”

“The fireworks haven’t even started yet. Are you sure you don’t want to tough it out a little longer?”

“No, I’m out of here.” Joe wasn’t worried about missing the show. If he found anything at the lake, the real fireworks wouldn’t start until he got back.

19

Teddy and Heath located Grace just before the fireworks began. Kennedy let them sit with her because he knew they’d beg him until he relented, even if he tried to say no. She reminded them too much of their mother. In most ways, Grace and Raelynn were very different people, but they both had a gentle way with children. Like Raelynn, Grace didn’t talk down to Teddy or Heath, or act as though they were a bother. She was genuinely interested in what they had to say. And they thrived on the attention.

After the fight with Joe, Kennedy would’ve preferred to let the gossip die down before allowing Teddy and Heath to associate with Grace again. Lord knew he’d given the Vincellis sufficient fodder for their campaign against him. But Grace would be gone after the summer ended. How could he deny his boys the chance to enjoy her company while she was here?

Heck, he wanted to be with her, too. He’d tried to convince himself that a few hours in her arms would be enough. But what they’d shared last night only made the situation that much more difficult. Now he had a slew of erotic images to contend with, images that burst upon his mind when he least expected it. Grace eagerly meeting his thrusts as they made love. Grace’s satiated smile as he ran his fingers along the curves of her body. Grace’s eyelashes resting against her cheeks as she lay peacefully in his arms. He might have broken down and gone over to the Montgomery blanket himself, except his parents had joined him, with some of their close friends and neighbors.

“So are we going to have the funds to build that new wing at the elementary school this year?” Tom Greenwood asked Kennedy’s father. They’d been talking about town business for a few minutes. Usually this interested Kennedy. He had strong opinions on what should happen with the school, plenty to say. But tonight he could think only of Grace and how or when he might be able to get his hands on her again.

Glancing toward her for probably the millionth time, he saw her smooth Teddy’s hair off his forehead and wished he could move closer. But then he caught his mother watching him and quickly looked away.

“It’s a possibility,” Otis was saying. “But I’m still not convinced we shouldn’t start over. That building is getting too old.”

“You’re talking about more money, money we don’t have.”

“In the long run, it’ll be cheaper than sinking a hundred and fifty thousand into that old school.”

“So where would you build? On the Corte property?”

“No, that’s too far out of town.” Otis started naming possible sites, enumerating the pros and cons of each, but Kennedy just pretended to listen. He wasn’t interested in any issues right now. He was only interested in Grace.

A boom signaled the beginning of the show. Conscious of his mother’s attention, Kennedy stretched out on the blanket and watched several fireworks explode in the sky. The kids around him gasped at the shimmering display of red and blue. But as soon as his mother entered his father’s conversation with Tom, Kennedy’s eyes drifted back to Grace.

She was lying between Teddy and Heath, gazing skyward.

Kennedy remembered the smell of her, the smooth texture of her skin, and knew he’d been more than crazy to believe last night would solve anything. He still wanted her, more than ever.

Go home, Kennedy. We both knew it could only last until morning….

Had she meant it?

“What about the middle school?” he heard his mother say to Tom and Otis. “That needs repairs, too. I hear the roof’s leaking in several places….”