Surrendering to the Sheriff by Delores Fossen Read Free Book Online

no say in this whatsoever.”
    The little glance that Kendall shot him was probably to let him know that he didn’t have a say, either. She was wrong about that.
    Here came the tears, spilling down his mother’s cheeks. Since this was about to get uglier than it already was, Aiden took hold of Kendall and eased her back away from Carla. “Mom, I need to get Kendall’s statement so I can figure out who tried to kill her and the baby.”
    That got Carla’s attention. She’d obviously known about the attack, but it probably hadn’t occurred to her yet that anything bad that happened to Kendall also happened to the baby she was carrying. Of course, maybe Carla didn’t care about that at all, despite her insistence about raising the child.
    “Any idea who kidnapped me and tried to force Aiden to destroy evidence?” Kendall demanded. And it was indeed a demand. There was plenty of anger in her voice and narrowed eyes when they landed on his mother.
    “What evidence?” Carla questioned.
    “The bone fragments,” Aiden supplied.
    Carla pressed her hand on her chest as if to steady her head. “Those fragments will convict Jewell of murder. There are only a handful of people who’d want that evidence destroyed. Joplin, Jewell’s children and Kendall.”
    “And you,” Kendall added.
    Obviously, his mom hadn’t seen that coming.
    Neither had Aiden.
    “You’re under psychiatric care,” Kendall added a heartbeat later. “Any other secrets you’d like to tell us about?”
    Aiden was about to assure Kendall that it wasn’t true, but his mother certainly didn’t jump to deny it. “How did you know that?” Carla demanded.
    Ah, heck.
    Apparently, another can of worms had just been opened.
    “I’d rather not say,” Kendall answered, repeating the words his mother had said earlier.
    That put some fire in Carla’s eyes. “So what if it’s true that I’m seeing a psychiatrist? That doesn’t mean I would try to have evidence destroyed.”
    “You might if you thought it’d make my sister look bad.” Kendall paused. “Or if you thought it’d get rid of me and the Braddock baby I’m carrying.”
    Aiden mentally repeated his
ah, heck
because he didn’t like the sudden look in his mother’s eyes. The fire was still there, but he also saw something else.
    The hatred.
    It’d always been there, of course. But Aiden saw it now in a whole new light. Carla loathed Jewell, and that loathing extended to Kendall, since Jewell had practically raised Kendall after their father died.
    Maybe his mother’s hatred extended to the baby, too.
    Yeah, Carla had demanded to raise the child, but he hoped like the devil that there wasn’t something else going on here. Something that had caused her to put Kendall and the baby in danger.
    But then he mentally shook his head.
    There were plenty of other suspects with a more obvious motive without his reaching, and motive was something he’d take a hard look at soon. Right now he needed to fix this. Kendall was wobbling again, leaning against him, no doubt because she was dizzy. Probably in pain, too. No way did she need to be standing in the ER having words with his mother.
    “We’re leaving now. Come on,” Aiden said to Kendall. “Mom, I’ll call you.”
    And this time he didn’t leave any room for argument. He got Kendall out of that corner and left his mother standing there, glaring at them.
    Even though he was hurrying, Aiden didn’t let his hasty departure make him stupid. He checked out the parking lot again to make sure no one was lurking around ready to attack.
    There didn’t appear to be.
    Rather than leave Kendall there with his mother nearby, he drew his gun and hoped this wasn’t a mistake.
    “Hurry,” he reminded her, though he figured Kendall wouldn’t dawdle out in the open where her attacker could have another go at her.
    Just in case that was the guy’s plan, Aiden kept her close. Right against him to be exact. And even though he didn’t break into a