Free Viper's Kiss by Shannon Curtis Page B

He looked at Maggie, and she felt pinned by his cobalt eyes. There was anger there, but also a hint of a softer emotion she couldn’t name.
    “She didn’t do it,” Lillian rasped. Maggie felt her mother’s hand grip hers, before loosening almost immediately, as though the effort cost her greatly.
    Luke nodded. “It’s okay.” His tone was soothing.
    Lillian coughed. “No, she wouldna steal. Not after Andy.”
    Luke cocked an eyebrow, and Maggie felt the weight of his gaze. She refused to meet his eyes, staring instead at her mother.
    “Andy?” Luke asked quietly, with interest.
    “Shh, Mom, you need to rest,” Maggie said softly. She didn’t want to revisit the pain Andy McTavish had wrought on her family, didn’t want her mother to revisit that pain on her deathbed.
    “No, darlin’, I’m sorry fer what that man did,” Lillian whispered.
    Maggie brushed at her wet cheeks. “It wasn’t your fault, Mom,” she whispered back.
    Her mother’s throat worked as she tried to swallow, and she nodded. “Aye, it was. Forgive me?”
    Maggie choked back a sob and nodded. “Only if you forgive me, Mom.”
    “Och, ye’re a wonderful daughter, and there be nothing needin’ forgiveness.” Lillian sighed, as her eyes fluttered again. “I worry about ye, darlin’, with this nasty business ye be involved in.”
    Maggie licked her wet lips, tasting the salt of her tears. Nothing to forgive. Her mother didn’t know about her secret shame. She also didn’t know she was innocent of murder and spying. Lillian’s breaths were coming farther and farther apart.
    Luke placed a comforting hand on Lillian’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Kincaid. You’re daughter is merely helping us with our enquiries,” he said.
    Maggie’s eyes shot to meet his. What? The man was lying to her mother. She looked at her mother, and a smile of relief crossed the woman’s face.
    “Och, really now?”
    Luke nodded. “Yes, she’s a very important consultant on the case.”
    “Ach, that’s good. She’s a good gel,” Lillian rasped again. Her grasp on Maggie’s hand relaxed, and her head rolled to the side as she stared vacantly into space. Her jaw slackened. No more rattling breaths sounded, no matter how long Maggie waited for them.
    She stared at her mother. She was gone. Her mother’s image blurred, and she felt the touch of a warm hand on her shoulder. She brushed at her tears and looked up at the man beside her.
    His normally clear eyes were shadowed with sadness, a suspicious glint of moisture, before he blinked. His features fell into a remote mask as nurses hurried into the room.
    “We’re here to move you, Mrs.—” One began. “Oh.”
    Luke pulled Maggie toward the door as the nurses checked her mother. Maggie couldn’t turn away, didn’t want to abandon her mother in death.
    A tall man with dark hair and the darkest brown eyes stepped in her line of vision. She snapped her attention up to his face. It was set in grim lines as he nodded to the door.
    “Come on.”
    She allowed herself to be pulled through the doorway. Luke and his men flanked her either side and to the rear, and she fell into step with them.
    Mom’s gone .
    She looked down at her bare feet. Sadness weighed heavily on her, and her knees buckled briefly. Luke’s hand grabbed her elbow and pulled her along. His touch gave her support, although she wasn’t sure that was his intention.
    Hot tears rolled down her face, and she wiped the sleeve of her gown across her runny nose. It’s over. She’s gone . The speckled linoleum clouded to an indistinct white mass as she trudged along with the men.
    She was caught, but she didn’t care. Her mother was dead. They could do whatever they wanted. They could lock her up and throw away the key, for all she cared. She sniffled. At least her mother had died believing she was innocent and free. She died believing a lie.
    There was small comfort in that.
     
    Luke sat in the back seat of the Ford with Maggie.