Free Time Will Tell by Jody Morse, Jayme Morse Page B

out of earshot, Gabe whispered, “You guys are going to be okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promise.”
    Even though Connor and Erica didn’t say anything in response, Gabe could tell from the way the tension in their bodies eased up that he had been able to calm them down a bit.
    Once they approached the town square, Mary-Kate glanced over her shoulder at them. “I need to go get my mother. She’s in the nursing home a block away.” She hesitated a moment, tapping her finger against her chin. “Do I trust you to stay here with them? I th ink you might try to run off.”
    Gabe decided that it was time to plead with her , even if it was just because he needed some way to stall her. “Mary-Kate, you can’t do this.”
    “Yes, I can, Gabe. And I will,” Mary-Kate said, frowning at him. “I thought you promised you were going to be good.”
    “I’m going to be good,” Gabe insisted. “There has to be some way you can let them live, though. Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it. Anything.”
    Mary-Kate tapped her finger against her chin for a moment before her lips tilted into a small smile. “Actually, Gabe . . . yes, there is something you can do to save them. But you’ll have to act quickly. The time left to save my mom is running out.”
    Gabe braced himself, knowing that whatever Mary-Kate would say next wouldn’t be easy, but it didn’t matter. He would do whatever it was, as long as it meant he could try to win back Lexi’s trust.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 15
     
    Anna tried to close the filing cabinet drawer, hoping that no one would catch her rummaging through Greg Lawrence AKA Geoff’s file. She had to get out of the office and call Lexi to let her know what she’d just found out.
    Even though Anna had known that Greg Lawrence was a crazy, deranged person, he had never done anything to hurt her personally. Not that she knew of until now, anyway.
    Just thinking about it made her livid. Now that Anna knew who had killed her mother, she wasn’t going to give up on getting her revenge anymore. She was going to make sure that Greg Lawrence would pay for what he had done.
    Before she had the chance to stuff the folder inside the drawer, she heard Darius ask, “What are you doing in here, Anna?”
    Anna froze in place . She was busted.
    Slowly, she turned around to face Darius. Anna felt guilty about snooping through his files, but she also hoped that he would be able to understand if she explained. He had loved her mother, after all, so surely he wanted to know more about the vampire who had murdered her. “I was just . . . I looked through your files to learn more about my mother,” Anna offered lamely. Holding up the folder, she added, “And I found this.”
    Darius motioned to the folder. “What is that, exactly?”
    “It’s Geoff’s file,” Anna explained, remaining rooted in place. “Except his name isn’t really Geoff.”
    “What do you mean his name isn’t really Geoff? Of course his name is Geoff.” Darius narrowed his eyes at her, and Anna was pretty sure that she noted a look of coldness in them—a look that she had never seen in them before, and she began to feel uneasy.
    Anna hoped that she hadn’t lost his trust by breaking into his personal files, but . . . he had to forgive her. It would help him if he knew the truth, too. “His real name is Greg Lawrence. He’s the mayor of Briar Creek, and he’s been trying to kill one of my best friends for over a year now.”
    “ Anna, I think you’re reading that file wrong,” Darius said, laughing. “Geoff can’t be the mayor of Briar Creek. How could he have been a mayor if he spent months at our facility? That wouldn’t even make sense.”
    “You’re right. It doesn’t make sense,” Anna said, considering it. “It’s the truth, though. I know that face well enough to know it’s Greg Law rence’s picture in that file.”
    Darius took a step closer to her, and sat down at the