The sound of a woman screaming woke me. I shot straight up in bed and frantically looked around my room, unsure of what to do. The scream was followed by gut-wrenching sobs, and it sounded like Josie.
I got out of bed and hurried to the door to see what was happening. The door pushed open before I reached it, and Coal stepped into the room.
“Coal!” I gasped in surprise and jumped into his arms, elated to see him for the first time in weeks.
But my happiness was short-lived. “Aspen,” he choked out. “We have to go.”
Josie’s sobs were quieter, but I could still hear them in the background. That’s when I noticed the devastated look on Coal’s face.
“What happened?”
Coal put me down and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Luke was shot. He’s alive, but it’s bad. We need to get to the hospital,” he said, struggling to contain his emotions.
“I can’t go. I’m not supposed to leave here,” I reminded him.
“You can now. Your mother’s dead, and the man who was helping her is in custody,” he explained.
I quickly got dressed while I tried to process the news. My mother was dead, and Luke had been shot.
“Did she shoot Luke?”
“No, her accomplice did. And then Luke shot him.”
“We’re leaving now!” Tatum shouted from somewhere in the house.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Coal said.
I waited until we were in his truck on the way to the hospital before I asked for more details. “What exactly happened?”
“I don’t know everything, but from what I’ve been able to get, Pamela showed up at the bank with a bomb strapped to her chest. They were outside on the street when it exploded. Then, her partner shot Luke, and he returned fire.”
“Who was her partner?”
“I don’t know. Tatum might be able to tell us at the hospital.”
When we arrived at the hospital, we were shown to a waiting room and told Luke was in surgery. Tatum had her arms around Josie, who was damn near inconsolable.
“Have you called your mom?” I asked quietly.
“Yeah, her and my dad are on their way.”
“You said it was bad. How bad?”
“He was shot in the left shoulder and left upper chest,” Tatum said.
“Do you know who shot him?” I asked.
“Edgar Romero.”
“Romero?” I asked, surprised to hear a familiar name.
Tatum nodded. “Yes. He’s the brother of Edwin Romero, the man Pamela worked for until they were arrested.”
“That can’t be a coincidence.”
“It’s not,” she confirmed. “From what we’ve pieced together so far, Pamela started sending large amounts of money to Edgar shortly after she was released from prison. We don’t know why, but we suspect she owed him money or he was blackmailing her.”
“Is that why she killed her husband? For his money?”