Page 44 of Finally

Fresh tears sprang to my eyes. I needed that reassurance more than I’d realized. “Thank you,” I choked out. Brandon gave my shoulder a squeeze and then turned and disappeared into the crowd.

A few hours later, I sat staring at the double doors of the emergency room, my leg bouncing anxiously as I willed them to open up and for someone to come tell me what the hell was going on. It had been hard to let Greg go back there without me, but the nurse had assured me that he was in very good hands and that she would let me know as soon as they were done.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to suffer through the wait all alone. Micah, Nolan, Josh, and Mary all showed up not long after I did. I’d texted Maddie, who rushed over to the hospital and sat next to me, holding my hand. Mom had seen everything on the news and had arrived by herself and sat on the other side of me, softly rubbing my back. I didn’t bother to ask where Dad was. In a gentle tone, she explained to me what they were doing with Greg and it helped to know what was happening.

“They’ll have to run some tests to make sure the bullet exited cleanly and that no fragments were left behind. They’ll also have to check him to see how much damage was done. It’ll take some time and I know it’s hard to be patient, but you want them to be thorough. They’ll get him started on some antibiotics because, as with all gunshot wounds, he’s at risk for infection. They’ll have to do surgery to repair the damage and possibly do a blood transfusion, depending on how much he’s lost. Once he’s stable, I’m sure someone will come out and get you.”

“Thanks, Mom. I’m glad you’re here,” I told her.

Her eyes swam with tears as she leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “You’re my baby. Of course, I’m going to be here when you need me.”

Landon got to the hospital an hour later, his arms loaded with bags of food from his brother’s restaurant. My stomach roiled at the thought of food, but I appreciated the thoughtfulness behind his gesture. Micah quickly moved in and wrapped his arms around his husband. They stood off to the side, speaking too quietly for any of us to hear, but I remembered what Greg had told me about how the two of them had met. I imagined this had to have brought back painful memories from a time when Micah had been in my shoes and Landon had been on the other side of those doors.

Brandon and Carlos were the last to arrive, looking exhausted and tense as they plopped down into the two empty chairs near our group. Landon handed them each a plate of food and I waited until they’d had a few bites before I just couldn’t take it anymore.

“What happened? Did Jared explain anything?” Brandon and Carlos looked at each other then sent a questioning look at their boss.

“Tell him. He has a right to know,” Micah said.

Carlos turned to me. “So, Brandon told you that Greg got a call from Micah…”

“Yeah, Greg told me you were going to have a friend of yours run the fingerprints through his system. Was Jared really the person who broke into my house and attacked Maddie?” I asked, directing my attention to Micah. Maddie shivered next to me and I squeezed his hand.

“Yes. Just as I’m sure all of you did when you started the campaign, Jared had to have his fingerprints added to both the federal and state registries. Many police departments don’t have the funds to purchase very sophisticated equipment, so a lot of times, things fall through the cracks. I suspected that was what happened, so I asked my friend to run the prints through his system. He was able to make a positive match between Jared’s prints and those at your house, as well as the prints on at least one of the threatening letters you received,” Micah explained.

My stomach churned as I realized that Jared had been behind everything all along. He’d actually pretended to be outraged on my behalf when the letters first started arriving and had reassured me that everything was going to be all right after the break-in. I never really knew him at all.

“I just don’t get it. He was my campaign manager, but those letters were trying to scare me into dropping out of the race. Why would he want me to fail at a campaign he was in charge of? It just doesn’t make any sense,” I argued.

“Money,” Brandon said at the same time Carlos responded, “Fear.”

Carlos shrugged his shoulders. “It was a combination of the two.”

“What was he afraid of?” Maddie asked.

“Losing his wife,” Brandon answered.

“Colleen? What does she have to do with any of this?” I felt even more confused.

Carlos set his empty plate aside and leaned back in his chair as he explained. “Jared had a gambling problem that no one was aware of, and apparently, he’d racked up quite a bit of debt. His wife didn’t even know how far into it he was.”

“She does now,” Brandon added.

Carlos nodded his head grimly. “She doesn’t deserve what she’s going through right now.”

“So, Jared had accumulated a massive amount of debt. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, and his bookie was threatening to send some guys to collect, only he wanted to hit Jared where he’d hurt the worst, so he didn’t just threaten Jared’s life—”

“He threatened Colleen’s,” Maddie said, finishing Brandon’s sentence for him.

“Exactly,” Carlos said. “Jared panicked and he knew he had to come up with the money quick or these guys were going to hurt the woman he loved. Now, this is where things get even more interesting.”

“Oh, God. What else?” I wasn’t sure I wanted them to answer that, but a driving curiosity had me asking the question anyway.

“Someone must have done their research and they came to Jared with an offer of a large sum of money, enough to pay off all his debts and still have some left over for him and his wife to start over. All he had to do was get you to give up the race for governor. For Jared, it was the answer to his prayers,” Brandon said.

“Unfortunately for him, you don’t scare easily,” Carlos said, giving me a soft grin that faded with his next words. “Jared tried everything he could think of, sending letter after letter. He made sure to send them from various locations so it wouldn’t raise suspicion. Having the O.O.A. showing up to cause problems just fed into Jared’s plans. He could keep threatening you and everyone just assumed that they were the ones behind it.”

“When he saw the letters weren’t going to be enough to get you to quit, he decided that maybe breaking into your house and trashing a few rooms would scare you into reconsidering. He made sure to do it when you were out of town, he just hadn’t expected to find someone inside when he got there.” Brandon’s eyes darted over to Maddie as if he were making sure his words hadn’t upset him.

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