Let Me Go (An Ashley Hope Suspense Thriller—Book 1)

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Please don’t let him die, Ashley Hope thought, her eyes squeezed tight to help fight back the tears.

Her older brother, Kyle, was on the other end of the phone, calling with an update on their father’s condition. “The doctor said it was a heart attack,” he told her. “But they think he’s alright for now. They’re gonna let me take him home from the hospital in about an hour.”

Ashley sighed in relief. She shared a special bond with her father. As long as she could remember, he’d always been her biggest supporter, encouraging her to follow her dreams but also warning her when he felt she was headed in the wrong direction. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.

“We’ll be there around lunchtime tomorrow,” she said into the phone, hoping the doctor was right, that her father really would be okay.

When her brother clicked off, she slid her cellphone onto the breakfast-room table in the midst of her schoolbooks, laptop, and documents from the case file. She knew she needed to get back to work writing her thesis – the final step in obtaining her master’s in criminal justice – but concentrating on the psychological profile of a serial killer proved to be a rough task with her father’s health on her mind.

She jumped as the unarmed security system chimed, a signal someone had opened the door leading to the garage. Knowing her fiancé, Brett Holbrook, was due home at any moment, she resisted the urge to grab a knife from the block on the kitchen counter. The events of the day had definitely set her nerves on edge.

“Ash?” Brett called out.

“In here.”

He dropped his briefcase onto the tile floor, concern evident on his face, and pulled Ashley into his arms. “Any word?” he asked.

Although Brett’s relationship with her family had been rocky up to this point, his actions since receiving the news that morning proved that he cared about her father. A fact that made Ashley love her husband-to-be even more. Still, she wished he would agree to let her make the trip alone.

“It’s too soon to say,” she replied. “The doctor says he’s okay for now. Depends if he takes care of himself. Which he won’t.”

Her father had always put his children first in his life. The business he shared with her Uncle Russ came in a close second. Working long hours to pay the bills, he tended to push his own needs aside.

“Is there anything else I can do?” her fiancé asked. “You know, to make things easier?”

“If you’re talking about money, there’s no way he’d ever accept it. It’s a pride thing.”

Brett nodded. “Yeah, I get that. But there are ways for me to pay for his medical treatment without him ever knowing.”

Ashley appreciated the offer, but like her father, she wanted to earn the money to help her family herself rather than take it from someone else. Even if that someone was her future husband. At the same time, she didn’t want her father to be denied the medical care he needed. She felt it would be best to play it by ear.

“It means a lot to me that you want to help Daddy, but let’s find out how much the insurance will pay first.”

Brett nodded and then glanced at the table. His nose wrinkled in disgust at the sight of the crime-scene photos – nine young women murdered and left handcuffed in their own beds. “When does your thesis have to be turned in?”

“Not until Wednesday.” She had hoped to complete it over the weekend, but now that they were going out of town, she realized that might not happen.

He hugged her tighter. “You’ve worked so hard. I’m really proud of you,” he said, his brown eyes shining. “I know your mom would be too.”

Ovarian cancer had claimed the life of her mother when Ashley was only twelve. She still remembered their last conversation. “Keep your grades up,” her mama had insisted. “Go to college and get a fancy degree.” A feat neither of her parents had been able to accomplish. Left to raise her younger brother, Shane, and to cook, clean, and care for her father and Kyle, there were years she’d worried it was a promise she wouldn’t be able to keep.

Brett pushed back a lock of honey blonde hair from Ashley’s face and planted a quick kiss on her lips. “How did I get so lucky? Beauty and brains all in one package.”

She felt her face grow warm from the compliment.

“Stop, you’re making me blush,” she said. “And you know – good and well – that I’m the lucky one.”

And she meant it. Meeting Brett was the best thing that had ever happened to her. He could have married anyone he wanted. It still amazed her that she’d been the one he’d asked.

“I saw Travis outside,” he told her. “Amanda made lasagna. They want us to join them for dinner. I thought it might help take your mind off of things. Would be a nice kickoff to Memorial Day.”

Ashley managed a smile. “With everything going on, it would be really nice to relax and not have to cook.”

Brett pulled a bottle of merlot from the wine rack, grabbed Ashley’s hand and led her out their back door to the patio and then across the lawn. They’d purchased the home just five months prior when they’d moved from Chattanooga to Briarwood, an affluent suburb of Nashville, Tennessee.

Awestruck would best describe her feelings when she first crossed the threshold into the four-bedroom house on Marigold Court. A two-story foyer boasting a winding staircase greeted her, flanked by a formal dining room on the left and a study for Brett on the right. She floated across the gleaming hardwood floor past a powder room into a vaulted family room adjacent to an open kitchen area. Can we really afford this? she thought as she ran her hand along the cool granite countertop. Although she already knew the answer (Brett wouldn’t have insisted she see the house otherwise), none of it seemed real.

A personal financial advisor with Parker Stone Investment Management, Brett held a steady rein on their finances. But Ashley would never forget what life had been like before she became engaged. In those days, she’d been drowning in student-loan debt while living off of ramen noodles and begging for extra shifts at the department store. Throughout the time they were dating, Brett had repeatedly offered to help her with her expenses, but she’d refused. When he learned his transfer to Parker Stone’s Briarwood office had finally been approved – after almost two years of waiting – he’d asked Ashley to marry him and make the move to the suburb which was near Belle Haven, his parents’ home.

Although they’d purchased their new home together and were now living as a family, she’d insisted on repaying her loans with money she’d earned rather than use Brett’s. Student debt aside, the bulk of her financial worries had been left in the past.

Travis Robinson met them on the steps to his screened porch, pushing the door open and allowing Ashley to enter first. As a CPA with one of the largest accounting firms in Nashville, Travis shared Brett’s fascination with the financial markets as well as his love for golf. The two had forged a swift friendship, resulting in several evenings spent at their neighbors’ home.

Leaving the men chatting near the doorway, Ashley hugged Amanda, careful not to press too close. Although it had only been a week since she’d last seen her neighbor, Ashley could swear the swell of Amanda’s belly had grown by at least an inch. The floral sundress she wore further accentuated the roundness of her midsection in stark contrast to her otherwise petite frame.

“What can I help you with?” Ashley asked her, noticing the wicker table already set, a salad next to each of the four dinner plates, and the lasagna occupying center stage.

“Everything’s done; just take a seat and I’ll go get Zander.”

Ashley spied the toddler playing in the family room on the other side of the French doors. “Let me get him.”

Zander giggled as she scooped him from the sea of toys scattered across the floor. “You’re getting heavy, little man.” His soft, caramel hair brushed against her cheek, and she caught the distinct aromas of animal crackers and apple juice. She wondered what it would feel like to hold her own child one day. With both her studies and the planning of her upcoming October wedding consuming so much of her thoughts and time, she hadn’t yet asked Brett how long he wanted to wait before starting a family. Seeing all the other women in the cul-de-sac with children on their hips, Ashley hoped her future husband would be receptive to the idea of trying for a baby within a few months after they were married.

When she returned to the screened porch, the wine had been poured and everyone was seated; their conversation focused on the new family moving in across the street. She placed Zander in the highchair at the end of the table, took her position next to Brett, and prepared to dig into her salad.

Travis fixed his gaze on Ashley. “Brett mentioned that you’re going out of town for the holiday,” he said, half statement and half question.

A pang of guilt hit Ashley when asked about the trip. It had been so long since she’d last visited her father – over seven months – and now he was sick. She wished she’d made the time to see him more often.

“My father had a heart attack. We’re going to visit my family.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Travis said, a note of concern in his voice. “Where does your dad live?”

“Not far, just a couple hours east of here,” Ashley answered, intending to be vague.

“What town?” Travis pressed.

Ashley hesitated. “Mettler Ridge.”

She caught the glances exchanged between Travis and Amanda and felt her stomach tighten. She was well aware of the stereotypical view many people held regarding those living on the Cumberland Plateau, and in rural Appalachia in general. The fact that Mettler Ridge was located in Laurel County, the poorest county in the state, didn’t help.

Amanda wiped a smudge of tomato sauce from Zander’s chin and then turned toward Ashley. “I thought you grew up in Chattanooga,” she stated, sounding shocked to learn her neighbor came from the backwoods.

“I earned my bachelor’s from the university in Chattanooga, but I was born and raised in Laurel County.”

Ashley felt the climate in the room change, as though the temperature had dropped twenty degrees. Like Brett, Travis and Amanda both came from prominent families in the Nashville area, and they must have assumed that Ashley’s family was wealthy as well.

“There’s no hospital in Laurel County, is there?” Travis asked.

“No. My brother took him to the one in Cedar View. It’s the closest. About thirty minutes from my father’s house.”

She realized the lack of a medical facility would further reinforce the notion that the area was completely uncivilized.

Amanda was quick to fire off the next set of questions, leaving Ashley feeling as though she was being interrogated.

“What kind of work does your father do?” Amanda asked, her tone implying that she suspected it would be a job that required little to no education.

“Automotive repair. He and my uncle have their own shop.”

The smirk that crossed her neighbor’s face cut Ashley to the bone. It obviously wasn’t enough that her father was co-owner of a business; he was still a blue-collar worker, and thus in Amanda’s world, likely not up to par.

Ashley admired her father for the hardships he’d overcome, building the business with her Uncle Russ from the ground up. But her father’s grit likely wouldn’t matter to her neighbors.

“And what about your brother? What does he do?” Amanda asked. “Did he graduate from UT Chattanooga too?”

“No,” Ashley admitted, her voice low. Like her father, Kyle had dropped out of school in order to take a full-time job. Her younger brother, Shane, had graduated from high school, but he’d never gone to college. Ashley wasn’t about to volunteer the information; it was none of her neighbors’ business. “He and my younger brother both work at the auto shop.”

Amanda nodded, the superior gleam in her eyes revealing that she had suspected as much.

Ashley had already been excluded from Amanda’s monthly Sunday brunch, a gathering for the neighborhood women with young children, a group which included the majority of the females in the subdivision. She felt certain that as soon as the news of her background spread (and she knew it would happen fast) she’d be left off the guest list of many other functions as well.

There’d been a few times over the course of the last five months when she’d felt like an outsider in the community, but she’d had hope those feelings would change. Now she doubted she would ever fit in. Wasn’t sure she belonged in Briarwood at all.

“I guess there aren’t that many employment opportunities in Laurel County,” Amanda continued, the smug look still planted on her face.

Brett cut into the conversation. “There may not be any industry in the area, but you should see the mountains – the wildlife – it’s really a beautiful place,” he said, as though needing to come to Ashley’s rescue. “And any place that produces Ashley has to be pretty amazing.”

She felt her heart warm in the icy room as Brett came to her aid. She could always count on him for support. They shared a love stronger than she’d ever thought possible.

And he was right; the mountains were beautiful – thick hardwood forests, jagged moss-covered bluffs, and towering waterfalls that crashed into emerald pools.

But as much as she longed to see her family, wanted to make sure her father was truly okay, the thought of returning also filled her with a sense of dread.

The last time Brett had seen her father was at their engagement party. What had begun as one of the happiest days in her life had soon ended in total disaster. After drinking too much champagne, a few of her cousins had made crude comments to some of Brett’s female relatives, resulting in an actual fistfight between the families. Brett became so upset that Ashley feared he’d cancel the wedding before the day was over.

After dealing with the fallout from the brawl, she realized the only way to ensure the success of her future marriage would be to keep her fiancé and her family apart.

But now, wanting to be there at Ashley’s side while her father might be dying, Brett had insisted on accompanying her to Mettler Ridge – and no amount of pleading would change his mind. It was her worst nightmare come true.

Brett grabbed her hand beneath the table and met her gaze with a look that said, who cares what they think? She smiled and squeezed his hand in return, as though it was the two of them against the world. Together, they made the perfect team. He was everything she’d ever wanted in a husband. And more.

Ashley knew she didn’t deserve to be engaged to such an amazing man, and not only because of her lack of wealth.

The feud between her fiancé and her father and brothers wasn’t the only reason Ashley wanted to keep Brett out of Laurel County. Once he was there, she feared what he might find out. There were things in her past that she hadn’t yet told him about. Things that were too dark for words.

Would Brett still love her if he learned the truth?