Chapter 16

Sixteen

I wasn't a runner. But I ran like I was an Olympic gold medalist.

I bolted into the woods, vaulting over bushes and rocks, ducking under branches, nearly died twice when the hairdryer hit a branch and ricocheted back at my face, and then I burst out of the woods just as Hattie was backing Beau's boat away from shore.

Behind her stood Emmeline.

Hattie waved at us. "I'm just running Emmeline to my place to show her some recipes. We'll be right back!"

Lucy and Beau caught up to me. "She's fine?" Lucy put her hands on her hips. "Bert messed with us."

Bert. We'd left him alone. "Hattie would be yelling at us for leaving him unattended," I said. "But she didn't. She's not okay." I plunged into the lake, lurching through the water. "Hattie! Wait! I want to come!"

She shook her head. "No, no. Stay here. We need some girl time. Emmeline is traumatized."

Dear God. Hattie would never allow any female to claim the title of traumatized. She'd be smacking that word right out of Emmeline's mouth, telling her to get over victim status and own her power. Fresh urgency coursed through me. "Hattie," I shouted. "Stop this boat right now, or I'm telling Devlin that you killed Beckwith, because I know you did!"

Next to me, King Tut was swimming delightedly, thrilled that I was in the water with him.

"You beast! I didn't kill him!" Hattie stood up, shouting at me.

"You did! You're a liar! You used our friendship to get us to help you, but you did it! He stole your recipes, and you were mad. You didn't even tell us you'd had an affair with him!" I shoved my way through the water.

"It's not an affair if you're not married, you uptight little wench!" Hattie shouted back, but I heard the clunk of her shifting the engine into neutral. Emmeline hadn't noticed because we were yelling like maniacs.

The boat was still drifting backward, but it was slower now.

I could make it.

"I have spent the last fifteen years trying to leave behind being a criminal, and you dragged me into that!" I reached the edge of the boat. "Just for that, I'm cutting you out of my drug business. You're such a rat!"

"You can't kick me out! You need me! How are you going to figure out where to hide all that money? You're a financial antique!"

"I don't need you!"

Emmeline finally spoke up. "Wait, you're still running the drug operation?"

I stared at her, like I'd forgotten she was there. "What? No? Don't be silly. Hattie!" I grabbed the edge of the boat. Dear heavens. I was so sucky at pulling myself onto the boat from the water.

But Hattie's life depended on it. "You're such a rat!" I grabbed the edge and hauled myself up as hard as I could.

I made it halfway, and landed with a thud on the rail on my stomach. Crap.

Before I could adjust, I felt claws dig into the back of my legs as King Tut ran up my back and vaulted into the boat. He landed in front of Emmeline and growled.

She took a step back and then I heard Lucy behind me. "On three," she muttered. "One, two, three." She grabbed my legs and tossed me into the boat. I landed on my face, and then shot to my feet.

I put my hands on my hips. "Hattie, Bert told us everything. How you killed Charles and Beckwith. You lied to me!"

Emmeline moved her hand behind her back, and my heart jumped. Did she have a gun? Of course she had a gun. There was no other way she could have gotten Hattie into the boat.

Lucy vaulted over the railing. "I'm not going to lie, Hattie, I feel super rejected as well. You know I love excitement and bodies. I would have stood beside you, too."

"Hey! That's my boat! You don't get to take it!" Beau sloshed up beside me, grabbed the dock line, and pulled on the boat. "You are all monsters! Stealing my precious baby."

I looked at Hattie, and she nodded. Emmeline had a gun.

Oh, boy.

Attacking someone with a gun felt like such a bad idea.

But I'd done it before. What was one more time?

Hattie stood up. "I didn't kill them."

"Still lies?" Lucy moved in front of me to hide my right arm as I wound up the cord on the hairdryer and began to swing it. I was really good with the hairdryer, but one miss and we'd all be dead.

Not Beau.

Beau would save himself and at least be able to tell Devlin what happened.

Emmeline moved her arm, bringing it back to the front. Gun! "All right," she said. "All of you?—"

"Now!" Lucy dove out of the way, and I swung that hairdryer like a woman who was insane, desperate, and had full faith in her corded implement skills.

The hairdryer smashed into Emmeline's hand with a loud crack. She yelped, and the gun flew out of her hand and into the water. Hattie and Lucy immediately tackled her, shoving her to the bottom of the boat. King Tut let out a yowl of glee and launched himself onto her foot. He wrapped himself around it and started hammering with his back legs, apparently trying to disembowel her foot.

Emmeline screamed, but she was no match for a former baton twirler and a pissed off senior citizen.

It took only a moment before she was tied up in Beau's life jackets.

The minute she was secure, Hattie stumbled to her feet, panting. "She was going to kill me, ladies. I thought that was it. My fantastic life had reached a glorious, dramatic ending."

I let out a breath. "It's not your time, Hattie. Too much adventure left."

"I know, but boy…" She took a breath. "That was closer than I've been for a long time." She grinned. "So glad you guys figured it out so quickly!"

"Hattie!" Lucy threw her arms around Hattie and hugged her.

I did the same, wrapping the independent sassy senior up in a massive hug.

When she hugged us back, my heart got a little emotional.

I wasn't ready for Hattie to die over recipes and revenge. I wasn't ready for any of us to, actually.

After a long minute, Hattie pulled back. "See, Mia? If you'd retired, I'd be dead. You can't retire from adventure."

Lucy grinned. "It's true, Mia. And retiring won't change your past. No one hates you for what you're doing now. It's what you did before, and you can't change that."

I sighed. "I know."

Lucy tucked her arm through mine. "You're a hero, Mia. To us, at least. Eventually people will figure that out."

"And if they don't?" Hattie shrugged. "Life is too damn short to limit yourself to try to get other people to like you. Those aren't your people. Screw 'em."

I sighed, feeling the truth of what they were saying. "And my business?"

"Maybe it's time to start showing the world who you really are. Then your people will find you, and believe in you until the end of time," Hattie said.

Lucy threw up her arms. "Like us!"

Hattie nodded. "Exactly like us, Mia."

My throat tightened. These two incredible women made me feel more loved than any moment with my mom ever had. They saw me for who I was, and not only embraced it, but encouraged it with all their hearts.

"It's about damned time you stopped being boring," Beau shouted from the shore, where he was now tying up the boat. "Make your mother proud, Mia! Be a criminal and own it!"

I laughed. "I'm not going to be a criminal, but I do love the fun we have."

"Right?" Hattie grinned. "And if you have to be a wee little bit criminal in order to make the world a better place, then…" She shrugged. "You'd be very ungrateful if you didn't embrace all the gifts you have, wouldn't you, my favorite little pickpocket?"

I raised my brows. "Is that how you're positioning it? That I'm ungrateful if I don't chase down murderers?"

Hattie laughed, amusement dancing in her eyes. "Mia, you're so easy to manipulate. You can't say no to that delicious moral code of yours. Just own it."

I sighed.

Lucy grinned. "Are you officially unretired?"

Hattie snorted. "She was retired for about thirty seconds."

"Unretire," Beau shouted, as he sloshed back toward the boat. "You and that monster cat of yours are my new muses. I can't write without you!"

King Tut meowed, and then launched himself at me. I caught him and hugged him to my chest, smiling as he purred. Even my cat craved adventure. "All right," I said. "I do love you guys too much to let you handle murderers on your own. You'd both be dead or in prison within the hour."

"Yay!" Lucy clapped her hands and hugged me. "The trio of trouble is back!"

I looked at Hattie's smug grin, and I knew what she was thinking.

The trio of trouble wasn't back…because we'd never left.

I was just going to have to learn to live with that, and the truth of who I was. Graffiti and all.

Because it was worth it. For love. For laughter. And for the best friends I'd ever had.