“There’s one more thing I need to take care of before I can rest,” Samantha said. She thrust her hand into the pocket of her gown and withdrew an earring.
“I don’t understand.” Tyler looked at her curiously. He wasn’t sure who looked worse, her or him. His left eye was nearly swollen shut and he felt as if he’d been through a meat grinder. Samantha looked little better. Blood splattered the front of her gown and her face was devoid of color.
“When Bones was after me, I hid on the balcony, hoping he wouldn’t find me and would eventually go away. While I was hiding there, I found this between the cracks of the floorboards.” She held the earring up between her fingers. Large, and shaped like a four-leaf clover with a tiny emerald in the center, it sparkled in the foyer light.
“I recognized it,” she said. “When I was seventeen, I bought these earrings for Edie’s birthday.” Her gaze captured his intently. “I need to talk to Edie. I need to find out how and when this got on the balcony.”
“Samantha...” He began a protest, but saw the resolve in her eyes and knew she wouldn’t let it rest until she had her answers. “Okay. We go to Edie’s,” he said in resignation. “Although we might want to clean up a bit first.”
It was a little over an hour later when they got into the car and Tyler headed toward Edie’s apartment building on the other side of town.
“How’s your head?” Samantha broke into his thoughts.
“A little sore, but the paramedics assured me it was nothing to worry about.” Samantha had insisted his wounds be looked at by the paramedics who had shown up with the police.
“I knew there was nothing to worry about. You’re too hardheaded for a little statue to do much damage.” She flashed him a smile and his love for her welled up in his throat, making it impossible for him to reply.
The Marcola case was over. Dominic was free. Tyler knew he would have to tell her he was leaving, accepting the offer with the firm in St. Louis. But now wasn’t the time. Later. He would tell her later.
He cast her a surreptitious glance. She looked beyond exhaustion. Dark smudges had appeared beneath her eyes and she grimaced as she changed positions. “Are you sure you’re up to this? We could always talk to Edie later.”
She shook her head. “No. I need to do this now.” She looked down at the earring she held in her hand. “This earring on the balcony doesn’t make sense. Father’s fall from the balcony doesn’t make sense. I need to do this now.”
“There could be a reasonable explanation for the earring,” he replied.
She looked at him, her features revealing a weariness that tugged at his heart. “I hope there is,” she whispered.
Tyler parked in front of the large brick building where Edie had her apartment on the third floor. “You want me to wait here?” he asked.
“No. I want you with me.” She reached out and took his hand in hers. “I know you think I’m half crazy and I’m sure this is all a wild-goose chase. But I owe it to my father to make sure. I know he wouldn’t jump off the balcony, and I can’t imagine him falling accidentally.” She squeezed Tyler’s hand. “I feel like so much of my life has been filled with loose ends. I owe it to myself to follow this through, so Father’s death doesn’t haunt me forever.”
Tyler nodded. He reached out and touched the tiny wound Bones’s knife had left in her neck. It would heal. Leaving Samantha would leave behind a wound, but he hoped it would eventually heal, as well. She was one hell of a woman and she deserved one hell of a man. Unfortunately, Tyler knew he could never be that man.
Chapter 14
“Samantha...Tyler...”
Edie greeted them at the door, clad in a housecoat and slippers. Her features registered her surprise as she looked at first one, then the other. “What’s going on? Has something happened? Tyler...your eye.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Would somebody please tell me what’s happened?” she demanded.
“Can we come in?” Samantha asked, the cold early-morning air slicing through her. She knew if what she suspected was true, this was going to be difficult, and she wanted it over and done with as soon as possible.
“Of course.” Edie opened the door wider to allow them inside. “Come on into the kitchen.”
They followed her through a tidy living room, into a small but cheerful kitchen. “Sit.” She gestured them toward chairs at the round oak table. “I’ll pour coffee for us all. You both look like you could use a cup. Or a pot,” she added dryly.
As Edie poured the coffee, Samantha filled her in on the latest in the Marcola case and the events that had occurred with Bones the night before.
“I can’t believe it, although Georgia Monroe was always much too proud, too concerned with what people thought of her, but I never dreamed she’d go to such lengths,” Edie said when Samantha had finished telling her all the news. “You’re both lucky to be alive.”
She rocked back in her chair and gazed at Samantha fondly. “So, your client goes free. You’ve done your job well.” She shook her head, a wistful, almost-haunted smile on her face. “Your father would have been so proud of you. He was thrilled enough when he learned you were going to law school.”
Samantha stared at Edie in surprise. “What do you mean? How could he have known about that? I didn’t tell anyone when I started law school.”
“Wylie didn’t tell you?”
“Wylie? Tell me what?” Samantha’s heart thundered in anticipation.
“One of the last jobs Wylie did for your daddy was to check up on you and make sure you were all right,” Edie said. “Your father was brokenhearted when you ran away, but he was always aware of where you were and what you were doing, ready to step in if you needed him.”
“Wylie never mentioned it,” Samantha replied, her heart seeming to lodge in her throat. She had been important to him. He had cared about her.
“He wouldn’t have,” Tyler observed. “Wylie wouldn’t break Jamison’s confidence.”
“Jamison was proud that you had the strength, the guts to take off and build a life for yourself. He told me once that you were doing it just like he had—on your own, using your brains and determination.” Edie reached across the table and patted Samantha’s hand. “And he would have burst his buttons with pride over this. You not only got your client off, you solved the whole damn case.”
Samantha extracted her hand from Edie’s. “And now I need your help in solving another case.”
Edie frowned. “What? You know I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
Samantha withdrew the earring from her coat pocket and held it up for Edie to view. “Does this look familiar?”
Edie gasped. “My earring!” She reached out and took the piece of jewelry from Samantha. “I wondered what had happened to it. I remember when you gave these to me.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me where I found it?”
“Of course,” Edie answered quickly. “Where did you find it?”
“On the balcony where Father fell.” Samantha paused for a moment as Edie averted her gaze and stared down at the earring in her hand. “Edie, the man you mentioned to me...the man you were in love with...it was my father, wasn’t it?”
Edie didn’t answer, nor did she raise her gaze to look at Samantha. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she finally said, her voice a mere whisper.
“You never could lie worth a damn, Edie,” Samantha replied tersely. “Edie, I don’t want to hurt you,” she said more gently. “I just want to know the truth. How did your earring get on the balcony? I need to know what happened. Please.”
Edie appeared to crumble before Samantha’s eyes. Her plump shoulders slumped forward and tears trekked down her cheeks, splashing onto the front of her brightly colored housecoat. When she finally raised her head and looked at Samantha, her eyes radiated a tortured pain that stole Samantha’s breath away.
“Yes, I loved Jamison,” she finally gulped out amid her tears. “I think I fell in love with him the first d
ay he interviewed me for the job. But nothing happened between us until you were about twelve. That’s when we started seeing each other on a personal level. We became lovers.”
Samantha sat back in her chair, surprised, yet somehow not surprised. She’d never given much thought to her father’s private life—the fact that he was a man and might need a woman. Edie was the logical choice. She’d been available, both emotionally and physically.
Samantha’s head filled with tiny pieces of memories. Edie’s intimate knowledge of their house and her father. Edie’s presence at birthday parties and the occasional family gathering.
The clues had been there, but Samantha had been too embroiled in her own unhappiness, the angst of her own life, to see what was going on around her. “So what happened?” she finally asked.
Edie swiped at her tearstained cheeks and smiled bitterly. “What happened? Nothing happened. He came here or I’d go to the house. We’d sleep together, then I’d go home or he’d go home.” She got up and grabbed a handful of tissues from a decorated box on the counter, then sat down once again.
“At first, I didn’t mind. Whatever piece of himself Jamison wanted to give, I eagerly took. But in my heart, I dreamed that eventually we’d get married. I loved you and Melissa, dreamed of the four of us being a family. As the years passed and nothing changed, I tried to be patient. I knew he mourned for your mother, but I thought eventually that would pass. Dear God, how long could a man mourn?” She laughed bitterly.
Tyler reached for Samantha’s hand, as if knowing whatever Edie said next would be difficult to hear. Samantha squeezed his hand tightly, although inside she was curiously numb. “What happened that night on the balcony? How did Father fall?” she asked softly.
Edie stared at the tissues in her hand as she methodically pulled them into tiny pieces. “Jamison called me about seven to come to the house. Tyler was gone and it was Virginia’s night off. As usual, I got there and we...we slept together.” Her cheeks flamed red and tears once again filled her eyes. “When—when we were finished, we talked for a little while, then as usual he told me I could go on home. This time it made me mad. I felt cheap and I told him so. I told him I was tired of being his little secret, that I’d given him years of my life and it was time he made a commitment. He laughed.”
She looked at Samantha beseechingly. “Sometimes your daddy could be cruel.”
Samantha nodded, her heart aching for Edie’s pain and for remnants of her own childhood pains. She could envision Edie’s heartbreak—needing, wanting to belong to something bigger than herself; giving her heart and soul to a man, only to have him deal her the ultimate rejection.
“Anyway—” Edie sniffed and dabbed at her eyes “—he told me he cared about me, but he was satisfied with our relationship, that he’d never marry me. We argued. He left the room and went into your mother’s bedroom and I followed him there. I was so angry, so hurt. I kept hammering at him, telling him he had to let go of her. She was gone and wasn’t coming back.” Edie’s words came faster and faster, spilling from her without breath. “I pulled him out on the balcony to show him the place where she’d fallen. I—I didn’t mean for it to happen....He—he said more hateful things and I just shoved at him, wanting him to stop talking. He was too close to the edge—off balance—and he fell.” Edie’s voice rose hysterically, then she dissolved in sobs.
Now she knew. Despite the circumstances, a sense of strange peace swept through Samantha. All the pieces were now in their proper place. She could let it go now.
“I didn’t mean to....” Edie buried her head on the table. “I loved him. Oh, God, I loved him so much. I just wanted him to forget her. To love me...”
Samantha stood and motioned Tyler toward the door. There was nothing left to learn here, nothing left to do. It was time to go home.
“You going to call the sheriff?” Tyler asked, moments later when they were back in his car and heading home.
Samantha shook her head. “What’s the point? I believe Edie. It was just like the authorities ruled it—a tragic accident.”
“You could probably have her brought up on charges of manslaughter.”
“To what end?” She looked out the window. “There’s been enough tragedy, enough pain. It’s time to move on. Edie will have to live with her memories of that horrible night. That’s more than enough punishment.”
For a few moments they rode in silence. Samantha continued to stare out the window, trying to make sense of all that had happened, all she had learned in the last twenty-four hours.
Exhaustion tugged at her, weighing her down. Her body ached from her fall down the stairs. Her eyes felt grainy, her heart almost numb. Still, she sought reasons for all that had happened, for logic in a world gone mad. “I keep thinking there’s something to be learned from all this...but I’m just too tired to figure it all out,” she finally said.
“The lesson is that loving somebody can be hazardous,” Tyler replied.
Samantha turned and looked at him in surprise. “Surely you don’t really believe that.”
He shrugged, his features reflecting his own brand of exhaustion. “Think about it. Abigail Monroe died because Georgia loved Morgan and Kyle too much. Dominic was arrested because everyone knew he loved Abigail. Your father died because Edie loved him, because he loved your mother too much. It’s not exactly a testimony for the wonders of love.” He pulled into the Dark driveway and parked.
“You’re wrong....” She forced a smile. “But I’m too tired to figure out how you’re wrong. Later. Later we’ll argue about this.”
Together they got out of the car and went into the house. Samantha eyed the staircase tiredly. With the cast on her leg, going up the stairs required maximum energy.
“Let me help,” Tyler offered, and scooped her up in his arms.
Gratefully, she relaxed in his embrace and placed her head against his chest, loving the steady sound of his heartbeat.
She suddenly remembered all the plans she’d made for the night before. The omelettes she’d been going to cook, a night of making love, her intention to finally tell Tyler she loved him.
Now certainly didn’t seem like the right time. They were both too tired, too overloaded for proclamations of love. Later. She closed her eyes as he carried her up the stairs and to her bedroom. She didn’t open them until he gently placed her on her bed. Then she grabbed his hand. “Stay here with me,” she said softly, sleepily. She wanted to sleep knowing he was right next to her.
“Samantha...I...”
“Please, Tyler. Sleep beside me. I just want to know you’re here.”
He hesitated for a moment, then nodded. He took off her shoes, then kicked off his own and stretched out beside her. Within minutes, she slept.
Tyler watched her sleep. His own exhaustion tugged at him but he fought against it, knowing this would be the last time he saw Samantha this intimately.
Never again would he allow himself the pleasure of watching her sleep, of holding her in his arms, of loving her. Eventually, with time and distance, he hoped he would forget the sweet scent of her hair, the richness of her laughter, her quick mind that stimulated, provoked and endeared. With enough time he would forget the spark in her eyes, the curve of her lips, the warmth of her body pressed against his. Eventually he would forget he’d ever loved her at all.
He rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling, his thoughts flying over all the events that had taken place in the last hours.
He’d suspected for a long time that Jamison had been seeing a woman. His mentor would disappear sometimes in the evenings for a couple of hours—although he certainly hadn’t suspected Edie. Sad. It was all so sad. There never seemed to be any winners in the game of love.
There had been a time when Tyler had wanted to emulate everything about Jamison; had admired his strength, his power, even his coldness of character. He wasn’t sure he wanted that anymore. He was no longer sure what he wanted.
He rolled over and loo
ked at Samantha once again. At least she had found her peace. She and Melissa were on the road to a new, close relationship and she knew now that despite her father’s lack of affection, he had loved his daughters. She would have Justice Inc. to keep her busy. With the triumph of the Marcola case behind her, she would probably have more work than she would know what to do with.
Eventually, she would meet another man, one who was capable of loving her as she loved—wholly, without constraint, without fear. Yes, Samantha would be fine. And he would do what he always did—somehow survive. He closed his eyes and within minutes was asleep.
He awoke several hours later, the sun streaming full into the bedroom window. He stretched, feeling surprisingly rested, then turned over to look at Samantha. Her half of the bed was empty, the pillow still holding the imprint of her head.
“Samantha?” he called as he sat up. There was no reply.
He went into the bathroom and sluiced cold water on his face, ridding himself of the last remnants of sleep. His eye was still swollen and red, although less sore than it had been.
“Samantha?” he called again as he went downstairs. She was not in the study, nor in the kitchen. He looked in the garage and realized her car was gone. Instantly he knew where she was.
He grabbed his coat and headed for his car. He drove to the cemetery where Abigail Monroe had been buried—and where Jamison Dark had been laid to rest. He’d had a feeling he would find Samantha here...finally able to say her goodbyes to her father.
He parked his car next to hers and got out. In the distance he could see her, at her father’s grave.
The fact that he’d known instinctively she would come here made him realize how deep their relationship had grown. There had been a time when he wouldn’t have hazarded a guess at where she might go or what she might do. Now his heart knew hers.
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