Page 207 of Buried Too Deep

Tandy swallowed. “I’m running. I know that. But I can’t look at anything around here without thinking of my father. I need a fresh start.”

Cora took a step forward. Tandy took a step back. “Bye, Cora Jane. Be happy, okay?” Then she was gone.

Cora stared after her, openmouthed. Then she sank into the chair, numb once again. A warm hand covered hers. Phin.

A pair of arms hugged her from behind. Val.

A hand stroked her hair. Burke.

“You’re ours now,” Phin said. “It’ll be all right.”

Cora nodded. And let the tears come.

Tulane Medical Center, Uptown, New Orleans, Louisiana

MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 12:30 P.M.

“I’m fine,” Phin insisted, but Cora plumped his pillows anyway.

Why was he fighting this? Every time she leaned over him, her breasts brushed over his chest and he could inhale the scent of strawberries.

“Actually, I’m not fine,” he said, and she looked down at him surprised.

“What’s wrong?”

He smiled up at her. “Just want you to plump my pillow again. Come really close.”

Cora laughed. “You bad boy.” She sat in the chair next to his bed. She’d barely left since he’d been admitted, and it had meant the world to see her there every time he’d opened his eyes. To know she’d be there when he opened them again. And then she sighed. “Um, I have a confession to make.”

She’d sobered, and he felt his smile fade away. “What happened?”

“I…Well, I called your sister.”

Phin’s eyes widened. “What? Why?”

But he wasn’t as upset as he once might have been.

“She called you Saturday morning, on your cell phone. Left you a voicemail.” She shrugged. “I listened to it and it broke my heart. You should hear what she said.”

He didn’t want to listen. He hated that his sister was once again worried about him after he’d landed his ass in the hospital. At least this time he was being hailed as a hero, unlike last time when he’d just been in a bar fight. But still.

No, you’re going to listen.

“How did she know to call me?”

“You’ve been on the news, Phin,” Cora said matter-of-factly. “You were even trending online for a few hours. This story has gotten a lot of press. Burke told your family that you were here in the hospital and that you would be all right. We figured we owed them that much.”

He’d seen a few of the reports on TV, had read a few online. They’d managed to keep everything related to Alice VanPatten and the others secret, but everything else was widely known.

Alan Beauchamp’s church was mourning their minister. Phin didn’t know what to make of that. They knew he’d killed people, had sent his daughter to a psychiatric hospital after lying to her about her baby being dead, and then paid someone to place that child elsewhere.

The identity of Ashley’s father had not been shared, pending DNA confirmation. Phin hoped he never met Colonel Walton Beauchamp. He hoped the cops were able to use the DNA to put the raping bastard away for a long time.

You’re stalling. He really was.

“What does Scarlett want?”

Cora pressed his phone into his hand that wasn’t hooked up to an IV. “Listen.”

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