Love Under Two Benedicts(61)

“I…” Kelsey was shaking inside, and she couldn’t seem to stop it. “I really don’t remember seeing him.”

“I believe you,” Matthew said.

“Sometimes, when we witness horrific things, our subconscious will take over and edit our memory of the event,” Steven said. “I think the moment you witnessed your family being murdered, your subconscious just shut your mind off for a little bit.”

“I remember seeing them shot, and then the next thing I remember is being at the hospital.” No one said anything. Steven’s arm had come all the way around her, and Matthew held both her hands, his thumbs rubbing the backs of them. In that moment, it felt as if the world only contained her, Steven, and Matthew.

“You think the getaway driver is the person trying to kill me now?” Kelsey asked.

“Yes, I do.”

“Why now? It’s been five years.”

“I don’t have an answer for that,” Matthew said.

“Maybe he got sent up for something else and only came out of the system,” Adam said. “There was that newspaper interview you did about the restaurant. The reporter dedicated a few paragraphs to your past and how you’d found triumph after tragedy. That’s how Benny’s mom picked you for her son. Maybe that’s what drew his attention to you, too.”

“If so, he might have been hanging around the restaurant a time or two, getting an idea of your routine,” Caleb said.

“In any event, keeping you safe may hinge on you remembering what that guy looked like,” Matthew said.

“I just draw a blank,” Kelsey said. Her nerves had eased, and the shaking stopped. She wrapped her hands around Matthew’s and leaned into Steven’s embrace.

“By yourself,” Matthew agreed. “Under hypnosis, you might remember everything.”

“You want me to submit to hypnosis?”

Matthew squeezed her hands. “I want you to think about it. We need to stop this guy, honey. We need to keep you safe.”

“One of your dads said this attack had a different M. O. than the one with the car.” Kelsey felt as if she grasped at straws. In her heart, she knew Matthew was right. She knew she should just say yes, she’d do the hypnosis thing, but a part of her fought reality.

“Caleb’s right,” Adam said. “It just means the asshole hired someone.”

“Why?” Kelsey asked again. “It’s been five years.”

“If we catch him, and he’s convicted as an accessory to murder, sweetheart, he could get the death penalty,” Matthew said.

No one said anything for a long moment, letting her have the silence. No one looked at her as though he thought she was being foolish. And she knew if she said no to the hypnosis, then that would be the end of it.

“I’ll think about it. The concept scares me, but I’ll think about it.”

“Good girl.” Matthew leaned forward and kissed her.

“I’m taking the shell casings into Waco. Their lab can tell us what we need to know,” Adam said. “I suspect a high-powered sniper weapon.”

“Isn’t that a kind of rare gun?” Kelsey asked.

“This is Texas,” Adam said. “We have every sort of gun under the damn sun here.”

“Oh. What about the canvass?” Kelsey recalled that one of the dads had said some of the townsfolk had volunteered to ask others if they’d seen any unfamiliar vehicles in the area at the time of the shooting.

“My brother Morgan organized that,” Adam said, then he smiled. “Hell of a welcome home for him. Steps foot in town and immediately gets drafted. I’ll be getting the report when I go back to the office.” Then he looked at Matthew. “You head on home now. Take care of your woman.”

Kelsey bristled just a little. She raised one eyebrow and skewered Lusty’s sheriff with as stern a look as she could muster. The man simply smiled and winked at her. She wondered then if he’d said that just to get a rise out of her.

“I’m not going to sit around in case he changes his mind,” Matthew said as he got to his feet.

The brothers Benedict would have rushed her out the door in seconds, but Kelsey insisted on thanking the dads not only for the coffee and cookies, but for sitting with her while the others gathered evidence. When each man, in turn, gave her a very tight hug, she thought she just might start to cry.

“Come on, sweetheart,” Steven said.

They got in Matthew’s cruiser. Kelsey insisted on sitting in the back seat, thinking the front would be easier for Steven with his injured arm.

“It’s just a graze,” he said to her. “And when we get home, I’ll prove it.”