Page 44 of Lone Star Secrets

Chapter Sixteen

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As Angel and she drove toward the hospital in San Antonio, Mia couldn’t stop the hamster wheel of woulda, coulda, shoulda going on in her head.

She should have checked on Melanie during the night or first thing this morning. That she should have realized the woman was on the edge and about to do something that could turn out to be fatal.

But she hadn’t.

She’d been so wrapped up in her own sleep and Angel that she’d barely spared Melanie a thought. And now, Melanie could be dying.

“Critical,” she heard Presley say as he gave the latest update to Angel. “Lots of blood loss from the stab wounds to her torso. According to the nurse who was just here, Melanie’s in surgery right now.”

That was more info than Ruby had given them. Then again, they hadn’t pressed Ruby for more since they’d been anxious to get on the road when she’d delivered the bad news.

Anxious but not careless.

Angel had taken the time to check his security cams and to send out a drone to make certain that a hired gun or a killer wasn’t waiting at the end of the road for them. But no one had been there. Now though, the diligence was continuing on the drive with them firing glances all around while talking to Presley.

Since Presley had been at SAPD headquarters, he’d only had a short drive to the hospital and was now in the waiting room with RJ. Mia was thankful for that. RJ shouldn’t be alone right now.

“Can RJ hear what you’re saying?” Angel asked.

“No. I stepped to the far side of the room to call you,” Presley explained. “And RJ’s on the phone right now, checking up on their foster kids. CPS has already stepped up to remove them.”

Of course, they had. They wouldn’t have had a choice about that. The kids would need to be in a stable environment, and no way could RJ and Melanie provide that at the moment. It was likely they’d never be able to foster kids again, even if Melanie was cleared of all charges connected to Kenton’s death.

“I need to know,” Angel said, groaning, “is it possible that Melanie’s wounds weren’t self-inflicted, that someone tried to kill her?”

“I can’t swear it on a stack of Bibles, but the EMTs believe she did this to herself.”

“Hell,” Angel muttered.

She totally understood his frustration. Mia didn’t know which was worse. Attempted suicide or attempted murder.

“Who found her?” Angel pressed, still firing glances all around them. She understood the reason for that, too. If Melanie had been attacked, it could have been designed to draw them out.

So they could be killed.

Yeah, she understood Angel’s concern.

“RJ was the one who found her,” Presley explained. “They were still in the hotel, and he went down to the lobby to pick up their breakfast that’d just been delivered. While he was gone, she used a knife that was from their room service the night before, and she stabbed herself in the stomach and chest.”

“And he didn’t see anyone coming into the hotel, someone who might have gone up to the room and attacked Melanie?” Angel pressed.

“RJ said no, that he was only gone about five minutes. When he got back to the room, he saw her on the floor, and she was bleeding. He dropped their breakfast, called for an ambulance, and started trying to slow down the blood loss.”

Mia could picture that. The fear and panic RJ must have felt. And the sense of hopelessness that had driven Melanie to do this.

“Did Melanie leave any kind of note?” Mia asked.

“No, but she did keep saying she was sorry when the EMTs were loading her into the ambulance,” Presley said. “And I have no idea if she was apologizing for stabbing herself or if that was a pseudo confession to her murdering Kenton and then covering it up.”

Mia knew it could be either, but she was hoping that Melanie hadn’t been the one to end her own son’s life.

“There was a complication as they were prepping her for surgery. You probably remember that Melanie has that rare type of blood,” Presley added. “The doctors have been pumping her with blood to keep her alive, but they’re running low on their supply, and they’ve put out the call to get more.”

Mia remembered. AB Negative because she had the same blood type. And that had fueled her urgency to get to Melanie. If the woman needed blood, then Mia could become her donor.

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