“Why do you think that?”
“I don’t know.” Kelly kneaded her fingers into her forehead. “Did I dream that? I can’t remember.” She slapped her head.
Lexie restrained her friend’s hand. “Calm down. That won’t help you remember.”
“I’ve got to! I know it’s important.”
“You don’t remember anything about last night? What did you drink? Take?”
“I don’t know.” Her high-pitched voice held a note of hysteria.
Scared at what her best friend was saying, Lexie reached for her cell phone in her pocket but remembered she didn’t have it with her.
Kelly swiped at her tears, only to have more fall. “When I looked outside. I didn’t see Jared’s car. No one’s.”
She’s only confused. Good. “That doesn’t mean he’s dead. You can call him when you get home and ask him what happened. Why he left you here. Come on. I’ll help you up.” Lexie scanned the dark shadows around her, her gaze coming to rest on the only bowl around. What had been in it? Chips? But there was no indication there had been dip to go with them. Then she noted the coolers with water in them. Must be where the beer had been. “This place is creepy and smells awful. Let’s get out of here. Everything will be better once you’re home.”
Kelly went even paler. “Can you take me to your house? I’ll call Mom and tell her I came to see how you were doing. I don’t want to go home alone. I don’t want her to see me like this. I need a shower. Maybe borrow some clothes to wear.”
Lexie’s stomach gurgled, reminding her of her sleepless night battling nausea. “Sure. Mom went to church. She shouldn’t be home for another hour.” Grunting, she tugged on Kelly’s hand. She rose a few inches then sank down on the cement floor. Exhausted from being sick, Lexie wrapped her arms around Kelly, and with what strength she had, she dragged her to her feet. Between them, neither had much energy.
Finally standing, Kelly swayed into Lexie who went down on one knee. She put her hand out to steady herself and encountered a puddle. She sniffed and jerked back. Urine. Bile rose into her throat.
Lexie scrambled to her feet and pulled a wobbly Kelly toward the exit. At the door, she paused, steadying Kelly. A chill ran up and down Lexie’s spine. She glanced over her shoulder and for a second wondered if they had been alone. She pushed Kelly through the threshold out into the bright daylight.
At her car, Lexie dug into her purse, produced some hand sanitizer, and coated her hands with it. Jared might not be dead, but something bad went down here last night.
“You need to put a BOLO out on Lexie,” Beth said the minute Ethan stepped into his sister’s house. She held up a cell phone. “I found this under her bed covers. It’s Lexie’s. So we can’t track her by her GPS.”
“Calm down, Beth.” Ethan moved her toward the living room while Cord shut the front door after he entered. “It’s only been an hour or so. You’re overreacting.”
“How can you say that when . . .” Beth swallowed hard, “not after what happened to Emma?”
Ethan guided his sister to the couch and settled next to her. “Emma and Lexie are different.”
Her eyes simmering, Beth looked at him then Cord. “Lexie is underage. I won’t allow her to run away like Emma. I can’t lose her, too.”
“You didn’t allow Emma to run away. She just did it without your okay.” Ethan took her hand and waited until he had his sister’s full attention. “You haven’t lost Emma. You know where she is now and that she’s doing okay.”
“Only because you found her. What if Lexie has done the same thing as her big sister?”
“First, I’ll say it again. Lexie is completely different from Emma. She’s never given you a reason to be concerned. Second, you said Kelly is missing, too. They’re probably together somewhere.”
Beth glanced at Cord. “Do you think I’m overreacting?”
Cord’s eyes softened as he took in Beth. “I can only tell you from experience that if you smother your child, they often rebel in ways you don’t want. Remember what happened with Sadie.”
“Everything turned out for your sister in the end.”
Cord grasped the brim of his cowboy hat and moved it around in a circle over and over. “Sadie left with Harris Blackburn when she was seventeen, but they had to wait to marry until she turned eighteen a month later. She hadn’t even graduated from high school. She was determined to prove to Mom and Dad she could be her own person. At the time, they didn’t know she was pregnant, but if they had, it would only have driven her further away. They would have whisked her away so far from Harris and insisted she give the babies up for adoption. I’m sure that’s why she did it.”
Beth’s gaze fastened on Cord’s face. “But look at her now. Last year, she returned and is now teaching high school English. Lexie loves her as a teacher. She’s learned so much.”
Cord had insisted earlier that Ethan’s sister was just a friend, but their body language—a blush on Beth’s cheeks, a gleam in Cord’s eyes—spoke of more. And Ethan had been oblivious to it while busy settling down in Summerton after being gone for seventeen years.
“It hasn’t been easy without our family’s support. Dad still hasn’t accepted Sadie back into the family. Harris married her, then left her almost immediately. He didn’t want children and having twins right off the bat sent him packing. Sadie struggled to finish high school and go to college while raising Steven and Ashley. I helped where I could. I even tried to talk her into coming home sooner. She wouldn’t until last year. It’s a delicate balance for a parent when a child becomes a teenager.”
Beth frowned. “What you and Ethan are saying is that I’m not balancing it well. This from two men who aren’t parents. I am not smothering Lexie. I learned with Emma.”
With his forehead creased, Cord shook his head. “I didn’t say that. You asked my opinion. I’ll always give you the truth even if you don’t want to hear it. Officially we can’t do anything unless we suspect foul play. Is there anything pointing to that?”
Beth shot to her feet, her hands balled at her sides. “Officially. This from my brother and—a friend. I expected y’all to do more than that.”
The conversation with his sister was going downhill fast, especially for Cord. Beth sent the man stabbing looks. Ethan tugged her back onto the couch and took both of her hands so she would shift toward him. “Beth, I’ll go over and talk with Mary Lou after I take a look at Lexie’s room, while Cord,” Ethan glanced at his friend, “will quietly have his men look for Lexie’s car. When they find it, they’ll let you and me know rather than approach her. She’ll never know. Okay?”
Beth released a long breath. “I guess so. I just can’t shake this feeling something isn’t right. I got this when Emma ran away, and I was correct then.”
Ethan rose. “You’ll know when we do. If she comes home, call me. I’m going to Mary Lou’s. Remember, Lexie is a good kid. She’s never given you a reason to worry.”
“Sure and Sadie never did until she ran away with Harris.” Her gaze on Cord, Beth didn’t get up from the couch as Ethan and Cord made their way toward the foyer.
“I didn’t score any points with your sister today,” Cord murmured, plopping his hat on his head.
“Welcome to my world. Things have been a mess ever since Emma ran away two years ago. Now that Emma is an adult, there is little Beth can do about it. Emma doesn’t want to have anything to do with Beth. Since Zed died in a factory accident, she’s clung to her kids a little too much, and Emma was Daddy’s little girl. She was devastated by Zed’s death.”
“Is this why we never married? Families are complicated.” Cord reached for the door handle.
Ethan chuckled. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”
“Time for your meds, Lucy,” Patti Shea said as she entered the patient’s room at Greenbrier Nursing Home.
Lying in her bed, Lucy rolled her head toward Patti, the eighty year old’s eyes trying to focus on her nurse. Lucy blinked sever
al times. “Where have you been, Anna?”
She was used to Lucy calling her by her daughter’s name. Patti smiled as she slipped the woman’s hydrocodone into her pocket and replaced it with an over-the-counter pain reliever she dropped into the little paper cup. “Working, but I’m here now to give you your medication. Ready?”
“How’s Wally?” Lucy struggled to get up.
Patti helped her. “Daddy is fine. He sends his love. He’ll be here later.”
When her patient sat up, Patti presented the paper cup. Lucy took it with a glass of water Patti handed her. “Did you swallow it?”
Lucy nodded. “You’re a good daughter.” She stroked Patti’s arm.
Patti’s cell phone vibrated in her pocket. “I need to go, Mama.”
Lucy stared at her. “Who are you?”
“Patti, your nurse. Rest now,” she said as she headed toward the hallway, removing her phone, noting the number and quickly answering the call from her husband.
“I found someone else who can buy some pills from you. He’ll be a steady client.”
“I don’t know if I can do it. I’m taking what I can from the patients who don’t know what day it is.”
“Find others. You’re creative. You can come up with ways. Remember the money you get helps with the bills we have to pay.”
“Yes, I’ll do what I can.” Patti punched the off button. How could she forget the bills she was trying to pay off? She was drowning in debt and didn’t know what else to do. With her husband out of work and unable to find a job, there was little recourse for her to get any extra money.
Patti went to the medicine cart and unlocked it to retrieve the next patient’s medication. This one in the room next to Lucy’s missed her pill yesterday. Could she risk two days in a row? Maybe she would try it and see what happened. Betty took only tranquilizers. She’d give her another herbal supplement. Then, if it worked, she could adjust her schedule of taking pills to two days off and one day with their real medicine. She had to do something. She needed the painkillers for herself, and the other medication helped pay the bills.
Sadie stared at the open window over the sink then at Steven. How much did he overhear?
“Ashley,” Steven yelled. “Come down here. Mom has to tell us something.”
The whole neighborhood probably heard him. Sadie stalked to the sink and stood on tiptoes to close the window. She had a feeling this wouldn’t be a pleasant little conversation with her thirteen-year-old twins.
When Ashley trudged into the kitchen, she reminded Sadie of herself at that age. Her daughter’s long, white blond hair tumbled down her back in curls. She had the part near her face clipped back, emphasizing her large brown eyes, dark like hers whereas Steven had hazel eyes with curly, sandy-colored hair. A person could tell they were brother and sister, but not fraternal twins, and they worked hard at making it stay that way.
“Couldn’t this wait until I finished studying for my algebra test for tomorrow? I don’t understand why teachers have tests on Monday.” Ashley leaned against the counter just inside the doorway.
“To ruin your weekend by making you study.” Steven went to the fridge and got a Coke. “There’s nothing in the house to snack on.”
“I’m going to the grocery store tomorrow after school. If you’d ration the chips and protein bars through the week, this wouldn’t be a problem.”
“Mom, what do you need to tell us? Remember, algebra test.”
“Let’s sit at the table.”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “Oh, no. It’s one of those conversations where you talk, we listen.”
“No. I have to tell you two something, and then you can ask questions.” Sadie took her usual chair at the table and waited until they sat across from her. How did she start? Her kids had stopped asking about their father years ago probably because she made it clear the subject of him was off limits.
“This is about your father.” Sadie inhaled a deep breath, her mind racing with possible ways to continue.
“What’s there to talk about. Isn’t he dead?” Steven asked.
Sadie dropped her gaze to a burnt spot in the tabletop where her daughter had placed a skillet without a hot pad down. When their father had never come around to see them like their friends whose parents were divorced, they started thinking he was dead. She’d never corrected them in that assumption.
“Not exactly.” She peered first at Steven then Ashley. Confusion dominated their expression. “He divorced me when you two were babies and left. He didn’t want to have anything to do with us. The last time I saw him was ten years ago when he came by for some money.”
“The man who came to see you earlier?” Steven’s quiet voice held too much control.
Sadie nodded.
Ashley looked at her brother. “You met our dad today?”
“I guess so, but she didn’t say anything to me about it. How come, Mom?”
Both her children stared at her. Waiting for an answer she didn’t really have. She’d never told them the reason Harris walked out on their marriage was because of them. She’d always let them think they had fought and he’d left. That had satisfied them when they were young. From their frowns, it wouldn’t now.
“He took me by surprise. I didn’t realize he was in town.”
“More like speechless or you could have introduced us. It’s obvious Grandma knew he was here. Who else? Everyone but your own children?” Steven sat back, his arms rigid at his sides, the biceps bunching as if he were clutching the seat.
“No. Grandma saw your dad today for the first time. She came over to tell me since she didn’t think I was aware of it. I hadn’t known until about an hour before she saw him.” Sadie slid her gaze to Ashley who hadn’t said much since Sadie had made the announcement. Her daughter sat with arms crossed over her chest, looking away.
“So what are we supposed to do? Welcome him with open arms?” Steven rose so quickly the chair fell backwards. He glanced at it, murmured, “Why didn’t you tell us he was still alive and could do this?” then stormed from the kitchen.
Ashley remained, her shoulders hunched over, her head down.
“Ashley?”
She lifted her chin and pierced Sadie with a narrow-eyed look. “I’ve always told my friends my dad died. You knew that. Why didn’t you stop me?”
Because it was easier to believe he was dead than alive and coming back into our lives. “I don’t have a good answer other than I thought I would never see him again, so in a way, he was dead to us. I really didn’t know otherwise.” Which was a cop-out and Sadie knew it.
Ashley pushed to her feet, leaning into the table. “I want to meet him.”
“No.”
“Why not? He’s my father. I think I have a right to finally meet my own dad.”
Words tumbled through Sadie’s mind, but nothing stayed long enough to form a coherent sentence. Her daughter glared at her for a long moment, then hurried from the kitchen. A minute later, she flinched at the sound of the front door slamming.
Today had started out as an ordinary one, but everything fell apart when she came home from church. Now she wished she’d taken the five thousand dollars from Harris so she could pay for an attorney. But there wasn’t any way she would take his money. No telling where it came from—through legal or illegal means. During the nine months they had been married, he’d moved from one job to the next, never staying long, and when he did have money, it was often because of playing poker with his friends.
Please, Lord, let him move on. Get tired of playing the father role and leave Summerton. Finally, I was piecing my life together and now this. Why?
As Lexie turned onto her street, Kelly grabbed her arm and said in a panic-filled voice, “Look. The police are there at your house!”
Kelly caused Lexie’s arm to jerk to the right. She fought to keep her car going straight. “Kelly, let go.” She stomped on the brake several houses from hers then twisted toward her friend. “We almost had a wreck.”
“What’s a cop doing at your house?”
Lexie checked out the two cars in front of her home. “The one in the driveway is Uncle Ethan’s new SUV. The other is the police chief’s. I can tell by the sticker on the bumper. Ethan and he are friends, and Cord has been dating Mom this past month.”
“Why are they at your house? We can’t go there.” Kelly made a frantic gesture at her dirty, crumpled clothes that highlighted she’d slept in them on a concrete floor.
The scent emanating from Kelly reminded Lexie of a few unpleasant ones from the warehouse. “Yeah, I guess they might ask questions.”
“You think? I know they would.”
“Then where do you want to go?”
“Home. I’ll sneak into my house. Mom’s probably still sleeping. She always does on the weekend.” Kelly’s nose wrinkled. “I have to take a shower and get rid of this smell. It’s making me sick to my stomach.”
Instead of driving by her house, Lexie backed up into a neighbor’s driveway and turned in the opposite direction.
“Listen, Lex. I don’t want you to say anything to anyone about picking me up or about the warehouse. Promise me. Please.”
Lexie chewed on her lower lip. She didn’t keep secrets from her mother. Ever since Lexie’s dad died three years ago, her family had fallen apart. When her older sister left after the holidays her senior year, Mom had been scared she would lose her, too. She’d cried all the time and even stopped going to work at Greenbrier. She’d taken a leave from work, and Lexie hadn’t thought she would ever go back to the nursing home. Finally, she did, but it had taken a long time for her mother to begin to live again.
“I will if you’ll promise me you won’t do anything like last night again. You don’t even remember what happened to you. That means one of two things. You drank too much, or you took something.” Or both. As she recalled the bowl at the warehouse, Lexie wondered if pills had been in it. She’d heard about some kids at school going to pill parties. Did Kelly go last night? Lexie parked a few houses from Kelly’s. “Are you sure you don’t remember anything?”
Severed Trust: The Men of the Texas Rangers | Book 4 Page 4