Heart of a Hero (New Beginnings Book 4)

by Margaret Daley

  “Yes.” David scooped Andy up into his arms and stood. “My car’s by the rec hall.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Lisa said, her heart slamming against her chest.

  “Of course.” David headed toward his vehicle across the compound.

  “I’m getting my medical bag. I’ll be right there,” Jacob called out.

  “M-om?”

  Lisa matched David’s long-legged pace, keeping up with him. “Andy, I’m right here.”

  “Don’t—feel—well.” Her son struggled to release each word.

  She hurried ahead to open the back door of David’s Jeep, then slipped inside. When David reached the vehicle, he leaned in and settled Andy across the seat with his head resting in Lisa’s lap. Her son’s eyelids flickered, then closed. Her black jeans heightened the pallor of Andy’s face.

  While David slipped into the front and started the engine, Lisa smoothed Andy’s hair from his forehead, her hand quavering so badly even the simplest task seemed difficult.

  Lord, please protect Andy.

  Jacob squeezed in next to her. “Let’s get going,” he said to David, then to Lisa Jacob asked, “Is he on any medication?”

  “No. He doesn’t even like to take anything for his allergies.”

  “Yeah, I know. I had to check, though.” While Jacob was listening to his heartbeat and breathing, Andy opened his eyes again. Jacob paused. “Andy, have you taken anything in the past few hours?”

  Her son’s forehead furrowed, confusion clouding his eyes. His pupils were large. “On-ly my—” again he blinked slowly as though he were trying to focus on Jacob “—sports dr-ink.”

  Jacob, and probably David, think Andy’s on something. The thought frightened her worse than seeing her son getting attacked by those boys a few weeks ago. No, it can’t be. Not my son. It has to be something else. Please, Lord, not that.

  “What do you think is wrong?” Lisa cradled Andy’s head, continuing to stroke his hair back from his forehead.

  “Maybe some kind of allergic reaction to something. I’ll know more when we get to the hospital and I can run some tests.”

  Although Jacob appeared calm, his tone professional, it didn’t stop her fear from mushrooming. She struggled to take a breath and forced air into her lungs. She had to be strong for Andy.

  The Lord is with Andy. The Lord is with me. She kept repeating the words as the distance between the ranch and the hospital shrank.

  * * *

  Wanting to deny the word Jacob was saying, Lisa staggered back a few steps until she encountered the wall of the emergency room. “Andy didn’t take antidepressants! He wouldn’t!” Lord, not Andy on drugs. Not my baby.

  “That’s what the test results reveal, Lisa. I’m monitoring his blood pressure, breathing and pulse rate. I’m giving him fluids intravenously, and now I’ll give him an antidote to counter the benzodiazepine overdose.”

  Overdose! The word chilled Lisa. A cold sweat broke out. She saw Jacob’s mouth moving, but she couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying. All she could think about was Andy suffering from a drug overdose. Her son! The one who wouldn’t even take a painkiller when he sprained his ankle last year. She could name numerous occasions where he refused medication. Finally, the feel of David’s arm slipping around her pulled her back to the moment.

  “We’ll keep him here until I think he’s out of danger,” Jacob finished saying, then moved to her son’s bed.

  She started to follow, but David stopped her by tightening his arm about her shoulders.

  “Lisa, how would Andy get the antidepressant? Do you take it?”

  Her world tilted and spun before her eyes. She yanked away from him and faced him. “No.” She dropped her voice to a fierce whisper. “And I don’t make it a habit of leaving drugs around for my son or give them to him to take unless prescribed.”

  “I had to ask. If he didn’t get it from you, then how did he get it? Remember Nancy saw him talking with Joey in the barn right before Emily found the same kind of medicine. There must be a connection.”

  “Yeah, Joey. He probably did something to my son.”

  “Maybe, but why?”

  The doubt she saw flash into David’s gaze—heard in his voice—hurt as much as angered her. “Because he doesn’t like him. Have you forgotten the fight a few weeks ago?”

  “No, I haven’t. But what if Andy bought something from Joey? Have you considered that?”

  “Yes, and that’s not possible.”

  “Why?” His cop persona was fully in place.

  “It just isn’t,” she muttered, her attention returning to her son lying in the hospital bed, pale, suddenly small in the midst of all the machines and equipment surrounding him. “Please leave. I can’t be distracted at this moment.” Her fury made her tremble at what David thought about her son.

  David studied her for a few seconds, then seemed to decide something. His expression blank, he skirted around her and strode toward the door.

  Jacob finished giving Andy the antidote and paused in front of her. “I heard what David said. Tell him about where Andy is coming from, about what you went through, your son went through. Make him understand what you and I know. Andy wouldn’t be experimenting with drugs. At least not knowingly.”

  Lisa released her pent-up breath on a long sigh. “I will after I get my son home, and I know he’ll be all right. He’s my focus now.”

  Jacob gave her a small smile. “I understand, but I need answers, too. Remember, drugs have come to the refuge. I can’t have that.”

  “I’ll do all I can. Andy isn’t going to avoid my questions after this.” But how was she going to make him talk if he didn’t want to? And how was she going to tell David about her past? Would he believe she was no longer connected with drugs?

  * * *

  Andy leaned into the railing as he climbed the stairs to the second-floor landing outside his apartment. Lisa watched him let himself into their place while she stood below with David, waiting for her son to disappear inside.

  “I want to talk to you. Will you come up?” she finally asked, aware the hour was late but needing to have this conversation with the man she was all too aware was a police officer.

  “Can this wait?”

  Yes, forever. “No. Please, I wouldn’t ask unless I thought it was important.”

  “Okay.” He started up the steps.

  “Do you want anything to drink?” she asked when she closed her front door.

  “No.”

  “Let me check on Andy and make sure he’s okay, then we can talk.”

  Without waiting for a reply, she strode down the short hall and went into her son’s small bedroom. He lay in bed, the covers pulled up around his neck, his eyes closed. Brushing his hair back, she kissed him on the cheek and wondered if he was really asleep.

  At the hospital before they’d left, she’d informed him about the antidepressants in his system, then told him that they needed to talk about what happened today. No more evasions. He’d nodded, started to say something, but at that moment David reappeared in the emergency room. Andy had clamped his lips together and peered away.

  David had heard from Jacob that Andy could go home, and David was there to drive them because he’d driven her to the hospital. Even with what happened today, she couldn’t shut down her developing feelings toward David. He had been doing his job, and now she needed him to focus that on Joey—not Andy. Although she didn’t relish saying anything to him about her past, she knew it was time and had accepted his offer of a ride.

  Switching off the lamp on the table, Lisa tiptoed from Andy’s bedroom, leaving the door ajar. Slowly she made her way back to the living room, fortifying herself with calming breaths the closer she came to David.

  He stood before the window, the drapes not drawn yet, his hands jammed into his jeans pockets. When she entered, he pivoted toward her. A grim expression confronted her. He wasn’t going to make it easy for her to confess her past sins.

&n
bsp; “Have a seat.” She waved her hand toward the chair across from the couch.

  He closed the distance between them. “That’s okay. I’m too wound up to sit.”

  “Okay.” Then she would stand, too, although she was dead tired. “Earlier today you wanted to know why I’m sure Andy didn’t purposely take an antidepressant and, in this case, more than a normal dosage.” Although for a brief moment, she’d had her doubts, too, she didn’t anymore. “I don’t know how it ended up in Andy, but he didn’t buy any from Joey and take it. He’s a good kid.”

  “I’ve seen good kids turn to drugs.”

  “I didn’t want to say anything to you at the hospital, but I want you to know about why I know Andy is innocent.”

  “Why now?”

  “To make you understand what’s going on with my son.”

  “Okay. What’s going on?” David stepped back at the same time a barrier seemed to spring up between them.

  She fixed her gaze on him. “Up until four years ago, I was a drug addict whose habit landed my son in the foster care system. Seeing Andy stumbling around on the basketball court brought back all the horrors of being addicted to drugs—horrors my son was aware of.” As she’d spoken the color bleached from David’s face. Before she lost her nerve, she continued. “He won’t even take an over-the-counter medication for a headache or his allergies. That’s why I know he won’t have anything to do with drugs. He knows what they can do to a person, how easily they can destroy a person’s life because they nearly did mine.”

  “I see. Thanks for telling me.” His voice came out in a monotone, no emotion revealed in his words or face.

  Although the wall between her and David grew with her confession, her declaration had strengthened even more her belief her son was innocent of any wrongdoing at the refuge. For a while she’d forgotten how much of a struggle it had been for her and that Andy had been there every step of the way, giving her the motivation to succeed, loving her in spite of what she’d done.

  “Tomorrow I’ll be having a conversation with Andy. I’ll get answers. This can’t go on. His reaction to the antidepressant could have been fatal. Emily could have taken that pill today and…” She couldn’t finish her statement. Tears clogged her throat.

  An emotion—anger—glimmered in his eyes for a few seconds, then it was gone, masked by his neutral expression. “I need to go. Let me know what Andy says.”

  Cold. Impersonal. David was out the door before she’d moved a step. She went to the window that overlooked the parking lot, caught sight of him climbing into his Jeep and quickly pulled the drapes. Her hands quaked. Memories warred with her knowledge she’d done the right thing by telling him about her past.

  The emotions she’d held at bay most of the day deluged her, suddenly and overpoweringly. Tears crowded her eyes, blurring her vision so much so that she had to feel her way to the chair. Collapsing into it, she buried her face in her hands and cried.

  What if I’d lost Andy today from a drug overdose?

  How am I going to deal with this?

  Lord, help. I can’t do this without You. You are my rock.

  * * *

  David rested his forehead against the steering wheel he gripped. Outside his Jeep, darkness ruled. But inside it reigned, too. A darkness of the soul. His hands clenched so tightly around the cold plastic that they locked in place. Although pain shot up his arms, he didn’t care. He welcomed it. Maybe it would drive the past from his mind.

  Everything came back to drugs. To people who became so addicted they would do anything for a score. It would never change. People didn’t change.

  Like Sodom and Gomorrah, popped into his thoughts.

  He raised his head and looked up at Lisa’s apartment. Why, Lisa? I had begun to care about you. Were you once like that teenage girl I tried to protect and ended up killing a thirteen-year-old boy?

  Numb, drained of all feelings, David started his car. He had to get away from here. Put as much distance between himself and Lisa as possible.

  He drove the streets of Cimarron City aimlessly, no place in mind. Saturday night. A bar’s lighted sign mocked him as he passed it. He kept going. But for the first time in his life, he wanted to stop and drown himself in liquor as he’d seen some of his fellow police officers do to numb their emotions. He wouldn’t go that route. He’d seen his share of good cops destroyed by alcohol. Somehow, he would make it through the night.

  * * *

  “Ready, Max.” David yelled from the bottom of the stairs at his sister’s house.

  The eight-year-old poked his head around the corner upstairs, his hair a mess, sticking straight up at odd angles. “Mom said I can’t go to the game until I get my room cleaned.”

  David checked his watch. “I can wait fifteen minutes, then I’ve got to go.”

  Max grinned, said, “I’ll get it done,” then disappeared around the corner, the sound of pounding sneakers echoing through the house.

  “What’s going on?” Kelli asked from the entrance into the den.

  “Your son has a deadline to get his room cleaned. I can’t wait long.”

  Kelli spun on her heel. “Good. Come on in and let’s talk.”

  Her tone announced he should race up the stairs and help his nephew clean instead of following her into the den. But that wouldn’t stop her. He might as well get the conversation over with because she would pursue it. She could be so stubborn at times.

  He entered the room but hung back at the entrance. “What’s up?” he asked as if he didn’t know what she wanted to talk about.

  “Thanksgiving and the invitation you extended to Lisa and Andy.” She whirled about, her hands on her waist. “She was coming and now she told me this morning she isn’t. She didn’t tell me why, but I have a feeling you know why.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, why?”

  He came into the den a few feet and stopped, clutching the back of a lounge chair. “We haven’t exactly spoken this week, but I have a feeling it has to do with what she told me last Saturday night.”

  “Did it have anything to do with what happened to Andy at the scrimmage game you had?”

  “Yeah.”

  A long pause with his sister glaring at him. “Am I gonna have to drag the details out of you?”

  “She told me some things about her past to help me understand why Andy couldn’t have willingly taken the antidepressant found in his system.”

  “So?”

  “I’m not at liberty to discuss the details.”

  “Why has she suddenly told me she and Andy aren’t coming to dinner this Thanksgiving?”

  He averted his gaze and plowed his fingers through his hair. “She probably thinks I’m upset with her.”

  “Are you?”

  “I don’t know what I feel.”

  “Figure it out and fix it. She’s a good friend who has been wonderful with the women at my shelter. There are some who’ve been on drugs, and with the setback in their situation have wanted to start using again—anything to take the pain away. She’s the one who has helped them find another solution to their pain.”

  “She has?” She would know what those women were going through having been in that situation herself. I’ve been wanting to change, anything to push the past away because what I’m doing isn’t working. So, how has Lisa changed? Has she really? Or is it all some kind of pretense?

  “I’m planning on having her and Andy here on Thanksgiving, and you’re going to make sure the invitation you issued is accepted. Don’t come without them. Understood?”

  He arched a brow. “Is there anything else you want?”

  “Don’t use that sarcastic tone with me.” Kelli’s mouth tightened into a frown. “Thanksgiving is meant to be shared. You had the right idea. We’re gonna serve lunch at the shelter, then come back here for a small supper and celebrate the abundance the Lord has given us with family and friends.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He saluted his sister.

  The
sound of pounding sneakers filled the house as Max clamored down the stairs and raced into the room, skidding to a stop a few feet from David. Saved in the nick of time.

  He walked with his nephew out to his Jeep. Right after the game, he would have to catch Lisa who had kept her distance all week when she’d picked up Andy from practice. He’d been fine with that because he thought that had been a good idea. But he had been concerned with the fact that Andy hadn’t come to the third tae kwon do lesson this morning at the refuge. He needed to talk with Andy as well as his mother. But what was he supposed to say to a woman who had told him something from her past she wasn’t proud of when he couldn’t even face his own, let alone talk about it with another?

  * * *

  “We won, Mom!” Andy flung his arms around Lisa, then as though he remembered he was twelve and among his friends, dropped them and stepped back. But he didn’t wipe the huge grin from his face.

  “And you shot the winning basket. Way to go, hon.”

  After the players calmed down some, David waved them to him. “This was a tough game. You all did great. I’d like for us to go to The Ultimate Pizzeria for a little celebration. I’m treating.”

  That announcement met with a round of cheers from the boys, especially Andy who always felt at home at the restaurant. While David spoke with the parents and finalized the plans for the impromptu party, she stayed back. She would have let Andy go with one of his friends, but with it being at The Ultimate Pizzeria, she couldn’t very well not go. She would keep her distance though from David. He had made it clear he didn’t want to have anything to do with her.

  Last Sunday he’d called but immediately asked to speak with Andy. Her son had talked for a few minutes, assuring his coach he was doing all right. That had been the only contact she’d really had with David since her confession. What else did she expect from a police officer who had seen enough drug addicts in his profession not to want to have anything to do with one—even a recovering addict?