But his name isn’t the only one listed. Evergreen Corp.
It’s on the next record, as well. And the next three.
Oscar Stanley didn’t own these properties alone.
He had a business partner.
And everyone knows that business partners are the most likely to commit murders, second only to spouses. I have to tell Myles— I’m halfway through my thought when something heavy slams into the side of my head.
Pain detonates in my temple and everything goes black.
“Taylor!”
Consciousness slowly returns, but I immediately wish I was still out cold.
My head is throbbing and I can smell blood. That’s bad enough.
But there is also a bounty hunter shouting an inch from my face.
I crack open an eyelid and he whispers a prayer at the ceiling, then gets back to shouting. “Are you okay? Where else are you hurt? Tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m okay. Stop yelling,” I command in a strangled whisper.
“Stop yelling? You’re laying here bleeding and you want me to stop yelling?” His hands race over my body and back up to my head, the brownish moss color of his eyes eclipsed by dilated pupils, sweat trickling down the sides of his face. Is he shaking? “What the fuck happened?”
“I don’t know.” When I realize there is a crowd of people around us, a lot of them on the phone to what sounds like 911, I struggle to sit up. “I was sitting here. Someone hit me. With a book, I think. It felt like leather.”
“There was a book on the ground. Over here on the floor,” calls the county clerk receptionist who helped me earlier. How long ago? How long have I been passed out on the floor of the library? “There’s some blood on it. Probably hers.”
“Christ,” Myles grits out, appearing seasick.
Someone assaulted me.
A nervous sound escapes my lips and I’m promptly pulled into Myles’s arms. The warm safety of his body makes me forget about our audience and I simply wrap myself around him, legs around his waist, arms circling his neck, desperately needing the heat. I’m cold, teeth chattering. It feels like I’ve been pulled out of an icy pond.
“Myles.”
“I’ve got you, Taylor. I’m right here.” He’s taking deep breaths, as if trying to calm himself down, but I can tell it’s not working. “Are there cameras in here? I want to know who did this. Now.”
“No cameras, sir. I’m sorry.” A male voice. There’s a pause wherein all I can hear is my heart racing along with Myles’s. “There’s an ambulance on the way.”
“I don’t want the ambulance. I just want to go home.”
“You could have a…” He swallows thickly, his Adam’s apple moving against the uninjured side of my head. “It could be a concussion. Jesus. I left the meeting as soon as I saw the ballistics report. The gun you found on the beach was not the murder weapon, Taylor. It’s still out there. And I could feel something was off. I should never have left you alone—”
I process the news about the ballistics report, a weight sinking down to my knees. “This is not your fault. I’m in a public library in the middle of the day,” I say into his shoulder. “I should have been safe.”
“But you weren’t, Taylor. You weren’t.”
My intuition is whispering that this is a bad turn of events. Not only because this is the second time I’ve been the target of violence, but in trying to help Myles, I might have inadvertently made everything worse.
“I’m okay.”
“I need a paramedic to tell me that, all right? Stay awake, all right? Eyes open.” Several seconds tick by and I slowly notice his muscles tensing beneath me. “Is that your paperwork on the table?”
Oh dear. This is not the time. “I suddenly feel woozy.”
Myles stands with me in his arms and strides into one of the stacks, away from the listening ears surrounding us. If I’m not mistaken, he’s also moving us in a subtle rocking motion. But he’s still breathing fast, the warm bursts pelting the side of my head. “Believe me, I just want you lying down in a bed somewhere with ice on your head, but I need information now, Taylor. Someone hurt you.”
“Right. I know. Okay.” I swallow. “It never made sense to me that Oscar Stanley, a retired postman, could afford so many vacation homes. Obviously he might have received an inheritance or otherwise, but a partner made more sense. So I came to check the property records and I was right. I’m…drawing a blank right now on the name of the corporation because I’m still slightly dizzy—”