It All Falls Down: Rose Gardner Investigations #7 (Rose Gardner Investigatons)

by Denise Grover Swank

  “Any idea what Kate is up to?”

  “This is all for Neely Kate.”

  “What?” he said in disbelief.

  “Kate’s takin’ out all the people she thinks hurt Neely Kate. Last summer it was Stella and Branson. Pearce Manchester, the son of one Arthur Manchester, nearly killed Neely Kate, and Kate blames Hardshaw for it. She’s been plotting revenge on them ever since. Carson Roberts is her in. She’s been sleeping with him for two years to get intel and influence their operation.” I paused. “She’s the one who sent them to you, to get even with her dad but also to get back at you. I’m here because she meant for me to die the night J.R. was killed, and I suspect you were too.” I looked him in the eye. “We’re unfinished business.”

  He lifted his eyebrows. “She has her hooks in Carson, huh? That man’s not a quarter as smart as he thinks he is. So the baby is to lure you here?”

  “That, and I think she plans to give her to Neely Kate.” At least I hoped so. She had to know that Neely Kate would never forgive her for killing my baby. But I suspected she’d deluded herself into believing Neely Kate would understand her reasons for killing me.

  I shoved James’ chest, trying to push him off me. “Get up. I have to go to her.”

  He didn’t budge. “Not yet. Let’s think this through.”

  I knew he was right, but it was hard to concentrate while listening to my baby’s hysterics. “Please,” I begged. “Don’t let Kate hurt her.”

  “I’m gonna help you save her,” James said, his voice gruff. “But you need to do as I say, okay?”

  “How am I supposed to believe you when just yesterday you threatened to kidnap me and take me from my baby?” I shot back.

  He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to mine. “I would never do that to you, Rose. I was just tryin’ to hurt you.”

  “Well, you succeeded.”

  He lifted his head. “I’m sorry.”

  I stared at him in shock.

  His face softened. “I’m sorry for a lot of things, but I deserve everything I have comin’ to me and more, so just remember that if you ever feel guilty, okay?”

  I shook my head. “What are you talkin’ about?”

  He pushed up onto his elbows and then his knees. He got to his feet, then pulled me to mine. “I’m gonna go around to the other side and go through the door in front. I need you to give me two minutes before you make yourself known to her.”

  Another shriek rent the air.

  “I can’t listen to Hope cry for two minutes,” I said.

  “Please, Rose. I know I haven’t given you reason to trust me, but I’m askin’ you to do it now. I’m gonna help you. We’re gonna save her. Together.”

  I nodded but didn’t trust myself to answer. I was barely holding myself together as it was.

  “After two minutes, I want you to call out to Kate,” he said. “Tell her you can’t see and ask her to turn the lights on. Approach the window from the side and go in, but only if she’s not holding a gun on the baby. If she is, keep her talking until I can make my move. Don’t let her know I’m here. Let her know how much you hate me.”

  “I don’t hate you.”

  “Then you’re a fool,” he grunted, and he took off through the field toward the front of the building.

  Chapter 34

  Waiting two minutes was impossible. I didn’t have a clock, and while I started to count, Hope’s crying made me lose count. At least her high-pitched cries had eased a bit. She wasn’t in pain. But this was the crying of a baby who wanted her parents, and it sliced into me almost as deeply.

  Had I made a mistake not calling Joe? In my frantic need to save Hope, I’d taken Kate at her word. But Kate was so volatile I’d worried that doing anything else would set her off. Following her every direction had seemed like the best choice.

  Kate called out, “Rose, if you’re lyin’ in wait out there, you’re just prolonging your daughter’s agony.”

  Hope released another startled cry, and panic washed over me, castigating me for letting my daughter endure pain at the hands of a madwoman while I placed my personal safety over hers.

  A part of me knew James’ plan made sense. I knew Kate was counting on me to react first and think later, but Hope’s pathetic cries were wearing me down. I thought of what Joe had said a few days ago—that he always wanted Hope to know that her parents were there when she needed them.

  The thought that my daughter might believe I’d abandoned her to her pain and fear pushed me out of the shadows.

  “I’m here,” I called out, still out of sight. “Give me back my baby, Kate.”

  “You don’t deserve this baby, Rose,” she snapped, her words laced with cold anger, the kind that had had plenty of time to brew.

  “You’re probably right about that,” I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the other as my nervous energy begged for release, “but you can’t hold Hope responsible for the wrongs you perceive I’ve done, so I’m beggin’ you, Kate, stop hurtin’ my baby.”

  “So you have been out there,” she spat in disgust. “Listening to your baby cry and not doing a damn thing about it.”

  I didn’t answer, because she was right. And while I knew I was running headlong into the trap she had laid out for me, I couldn’t let that stop me. I’d already failed Hope by putting her in this situation in the first place. Still, something deep inside of me believed I’d been right about Kate’s plans—that she intended to harm me but not Hope, because she wanted Neely Kate to have Hope. I took some manner of comfort from that.

  “I suppose you want me to come in there,” I said, still concealed in the tall grass. I watched the inside of the building, hoping for a glimpse of Kate or Hope, but all I saw was darkness. “Or do you plan on shooting me the moment you see me?”

  “You think I plan to kill you?” she asked with a laugh.

  “I know you plan to kill me,” I said with a certainty that sank to my marrow. “So do us both a favor and tell me the truth.”

  “I’m not done with you yet,” Kate said. “Like any clever cat, I like to play with my food.”

  I stepped out of the grass and moved a couple of feet closer to the busted-out window. “I’ll come in, but I’m not walkin’ into darkness. You need to turn on a light.”

  “You’re not the one makin’ the rules, Rose Petal.”

  I stood my ground.

  “I’ll hurt her again,” Kate said.

  My heart lurched. She would, I had no doubt about that, but I couldn’t back down. I might be handing myself over, but I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. James wouldn’t have any hope of stopping her unless she turned a light on.

  “She’s scared of the dark,” I called out in a pleading tone. It wasn’t a total lie. For all I knew, that could be why she woke up so much at night. She woke up in a void without the love and warmth that surrounded her all day, and the contrast had to be startling.

  “What?” Kate asked, but it wasn’t in her typical sarcastic tone. It held a note of concern.

  I took a step closer. “We moved her to her own room a few days ago, and she wakes up at night, terrified. She always stops cryin’ the minute we go to her. We think she’s scared of the dark.” I took a breath and inched forward another step. “I know you hate my guts, Kate, but it’s not Hope’s fault that I’m her mother. Please, I’m beggin’ you. Don’t hurt her anymore, and turn on a light so she’ll be less scared.”

  She didn’t answer for several seconds, and I was terrified she’d hurt Hope again just to show me that she could. But then a small flame glowed in the darkness. A lighter.

  Why did she have a lighter?

  But then something caught fire—a torch from the look of it—and she tossed it into a pile of firewood on the concrete floor.

  It lit up the space enough for me to see Kate, holding a bundle wrapped in Hope’s receiving blanket.

  I started to cry.

  “You’re gonna need to come inside,” Kate said, taking
a few steps backward, but she was bouncing the bundle in her arm as though trying to soothe my crying baby.

  Relief poured through me. She might hurt Hope to rile me, but she’d wanted a baby of her own, once, and she still had a nurturing instinct buried under all that hate.

  I closed the distance between me and the open window as the flames in the firewood took hold, going up in a blaze that released gasoline-tinged smoke.

  “Climb inside,” Kate said. Reaching behind her, she grabbed a handgun off an abandoned metal desk and pointed it toward me.

  I climbed onto the three-foot-high window frame and then hopped the rest of the way in. Once landed, I held my hands out from my sides. She was about twenty feet away, the fire between us. “I’m here. Now what?”

  “Where’s Joe?”

  “The last time I saw him he was being held captive with Jed on Carmichael’s property.”

  She narrowed her eyes as she studied me. “You’re lyin’. You wouldn’t be this calm if he were being held prisoner.”

  “He texted me that he and Jed escaped,” I admitted, seeing no reason to lie. “But he doesn’t know where I am, and I turned off my phone so he can’t track me.”

  “Let me see your phone,” she said.

  I took it out of my pocket and held it up. “See? It’s turned off.”

  She moved closer to the fire, much too close for my comfort. All it would take was a tiny toss, and my daughter would be in that pile of burning wood. “Keep holding it up and turn it on.”

  I did as she asked. Was she wanting proof?

  “Now find Joe’s location.”

  She might be crazy, but no one had ever accused her of being stupid. I turned on my phone and pulled up the app. I wanted to know almost as much as she did, and I was equally relieved and distraught when I saw he was back at home.

  I held it up for her. “He’s at our farm.”

  “Your farm,” she said in disgust. “He doesn’t own it. Now toss the phone into the fire.”

  I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t give her a reason to hurt Hope. It landed dead center and made popping and cracking sounds as it was consumed by fire.

  Kate’s gaze landed on my hand. “Is that a ring I see?” she asked in a fake squeal. “Who’s the lucky man?”

  “Who do you think?” I asked. “Joe.”

  “What about James Malcolm?”

  She’d called him James, which caught me by surprise, but then again, Kate was full of surprises. “We haven’t been together for nearly a year. He ended things with me last summer.”

  “So he doesn’t care about your baby?” she asked, holding Hope up higher.

  “He hates me, so why would he care about my baby?” I choked out.

  Why was he here? He might not hate me, but he resented Hope and blamed her for ending our relationship. While I might not understand his motivations, he was out there somewhere, hiding behind twisted metal, looking for his chance to save us. But he wouldn’t shoot Kate if she was holding Hope, and even if he tried it, Kate was standing too close to the fire. Hope could get burned.

  God, I hoped he wouldn’t try it.

  I reached out my hands. “Just let me hold Hope. Please. She’ll stop crying if she’s with me.”

  She grinned, squeezing Hope tighter. “I like hearing you beg.”

  “Is that what you want? You want me to beg?” I asked. “Do you want me to get on my knees?”

  “You want to know what I really want, Rose Petal?” Kate asked in a sneer. “I want James Malcolm to come out of the shadows.”

  “You think he’s here?” I asked with a bitter laugh. “I came here alone. Just like you told me to.”

  She’d asked him to come, of course, so she knew he could be there. But I didn’t want her to know that we’d seen each other.

  “Oh, I know he’s here,” she said, turning to face the darkness. “Come out, come out wherever you are,” she sang. Jostling Hope in her arms, she stuffed the gun into the waistband of her jeans and opened the blanket to reveal my daughter in the sleeper I’d put her in after her bath.

  I released a sob.

  “Every second it takes for you to come out is one step closer we get to this nice warm fire,” Kate said, turning Hope so her feet were held out in front of her. Hope’s hands were fisted, and her face scrunched up and red as she continued to cry. “Baby skin is so soft and tender, I suspect it wouldn’t take much heat for it to burn.”

  It felt like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs.

  “One.” She took a step closer.

  I watched in horror. “He’s not here, Kate! Please don’t do this!”

  “Wrong answer,” Kate said with a grin. “Two.” Another step closer.

  Hope screamed even louder.

  Oh. God. Would James let her burn my baby?

  I was about to call out to him, but he stepped into the light, his hands at his sides, palms up. He stood in an aisle between two large machines. “I’m here. Now give the baby to her mother.”

  But Kate stayed put by the fire, her face beaming with triumph. “I knew you’d come—if not for Rose Petal, then for your own kid.”

  “What do you want?” he asked, his hands clenched.

  “I want you to answer a simple question. Yes or no.”

  “Go on,” James grunted.

  “When you were workin’ for my father, you walked into his study one day when Daddy Dearest had his hand up my skirt.” Her brow lifted. “Did you notice?”

  He stared at her, his brow shooting up. “I saw you in his study many times.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question, now does it?” she asked, moving closer to him.

  “Did I see him stick his hand up your skirt? No.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she snapped. “He was molesting me. You stopped in the doorway, and your eyes went wide. You started to walk out, but my father called you back in and sent me away.”

  His face lost some of its hardness. “I didn’t know, Kate, I swear it.”

  “But you surely suspected.”

  He drew in a breath, then said, “I sensed something, but when you walked past me on your way out of the room, you didn’t seem upset. You seemed…happy. So I told myself I’d imagined it.”

  “You could have stopped him,” she said, her voice breaking.

  He looked bewildered as he shook his head. “I couldn’t have stopped him, Kate. If I’d known, I would’ve beaten the shit out of him, but that wouldn’t have stopped a man like that. The only difference it would have made is that I’d be dead.”

  “So you admit you knew and did nothing?” she demanded.

  “I’ll admit that I had my suspicions, but every time I looked to you for proof, I didn’t see any signs.”

  “So you’re blaming me?” she shrieked.

  “No, Kate,” he said. “I only blame myself.”

  She lifted her chin. “Well, I blame you too.”

  He nodded. “That’s fair.” Then his gaze zeroed in on Hope. “You blamin’ that innocent baby too?”

  “Sins of the father,” Kate said, then her hate-filled eyes turned to me. “And the mother.”

  “I’ve wronged you,” James said, taking a step closer. “But this has nothing to do with Rose.”

  “That’s not true.” She shifted Hope in her arms so that she was cradling her. Hope settled down and began to root for her breast. “She ripped my family apart. She’s tried to turn my sister away from me. She hurt my brother.”

  James swallowed. “Seems to me she’s makin’ him happy now. That baby you’re hurtin’ is his. You’re hurtin’ your own niece.”

  She shook her head. “Now, now. We all know you’re her father.”

  “So you’re gonna hurt her for that?” James asked, taking another step closer. “If you’re gonna go by that reasoning, then you should be payin’ for your own father’s crimes.”

  “I have,” she said bitterly. “Trust me, I have.”

  Hope released a cry in frust
ration.

  “She’s hungry,” I said. “Just let me have her,” I pleaded, holding out my hands. “Please.”

  “Seems like this is between you and me,” James said. “Hand the baby over to her mother, and we’ll settle it. Just the two of us.”

  Kate laughed. “I’m not done with Rose Petal yet. I plan to right a few wrongs. It seems like poetic justice for me to deal with you together, wrapped up in a tight little ball.” She cocked her head. “Our good friend Carson’s on his way, you know, which means I have a little housekeeping to do before he arrives.”

  I turned to stare at James, terrified by what that might mean.

  “Let them go,” James pleaded. “You want me to beg you for it?”

  She laughed again. “Look at the both of you with the begging.”

  Hope began to cry again, and irritation covered Kate’s face. “Jesus, all this thing does is cry. Maybe it’s better that I didn’t have my baby. Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a mother.”

  “Neely Kate loves her,” I said. If I couldn’t save myself, I had to at least save Hope. I had to make sure she had that future I’d seen flickers of earlier. “That’s your plan, right? That’s why you went to see their birth mother. To test her. But you found her lacking, and you know how much Neely Kate wants to be a mother, so you plan to give her Hope.”

  “Her name is Daisy,” Kate said, turning to face me.

  “You plan to give her my baby and rename her Daisy,” I said, tears streaming down my face.

  Kate shifted Hope so that my daughter’s head rested on her shoulder. “I plan to give Carson and Baby Daisy to Neely Kate at the same time. A gift to show her how much I love her.”

  I stared at her in disbelief, looking for even a hint of sarcasm, but she truly believed she was about to present Neely Kate with a gift that was better than every gift she’d ever received combined.

  “Neely Kate doesn’t want Rose’s baby,” James said in disgust. “If you knew anything about her, you’d know that.”

  “I do know her,” Kate said, her face red with fury. “I know that if this baby doesn’t have a mother, Neely Kate will love her with everything in her.”

  “And Carson?” James asked. “I assume you pulled him from the meeting tonight. What’s his purpose?”