Forever Hers

by Walters, Ednah

  Raelynn giggled and kissed his cheek. “Mommy, give him a kiss too.”

  That she didn’t want to kiss him in front of Raelynn was apparent in her rigidness. He cocked an eyebrow. Sighing, she reached and planted a kiss on his cheek.

  “I want a grown-up kiss,” he added. “Please.”

  Raelynn’s eyes widened. Amy’s eyes promised retribution, but she reached up and pressed her lips to his. Before she could retreat, his hand come up and held her head in place. Then he ran his tongue along the soft, plump flesh, begging her to let him in. She did, their tongues caressing gently. Tension left her body and her hand reached up to grasp his shirt. When he eased his lips from hers, she stared at him with glazed eyes.

  “Eew,” Raelynn said, covering her mouth. “I don’t like grownup kisses.”

  Amy buried her face on Eddie’s shirt. He laughed and planted another kiss on Raelynn’s head. “Your mommy and I like it.”

  Raelynn looked at her mother, obviously waiting for her verdict. Amy finally turned and smiled at her daughter, then she lifted her from his arms and sat with her on a stool.

  “I’ll finish setting the table,” Eddie said, feeling pretty pleased with himself.

  While mother and daughter watched him with the same indulgent expression, he carried the bowl of fruit, the frittata and serving spoons outside. He retrieved a mug from the rack and poured himself some coffee then joined them on the patio.

  After breakfast, Raelynn went inside to watch TV and left them lingering at the table. Eddie studied Amy and smiled. He liked the way her turquoise top brought out the blue in her eyes. More of her natural hair had grown, so the strands were two-toned, which suited her.

  “You’re staring,” Amy said.

  Eddie grinned. “I know.”

  “It’s rude.”

  “You’re beautiful.”

  Her cheeks warmed. “Thank you.”

  “I’m still waiting for the copy of your work.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know if reading it now is a good idea. It’s pretty raw.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  She made a face. But before she could come up with a response, Jimmy’s grandmother came around the house. The woman had to be in her seventies yet she walked like a much younger woman. She even wind surfed.

  Eddie stood. “Morning, Catherine.”

  “Good morning, dear. Nice morning for breakfast on the patio.”

  “Yes, it is,” Amy said. “Join us, please. I made frittata.”

  “No, no, dear. As much as I enjoy your cooking, I’ve already eaten. I was on my way for my morning walk when I saw your cars. What happened?”

  “What do you mean?” Amy asked, but Eddie was already stepping away from the table.

  “The tires are all flat and Amy, your windows are smashed.”

  Eddie was off the deck before Catherine finished talking. Amy raced after him. They didn’t just smash her windows. They’d slashed hers seats and yanked out her audio system.

  “Don’t touch anything,” Eddie warned, walking around the cars, looking for anything the burglars might have left behind.

  “They’re back,” Amy whispered behind him.

  “Who’s back?” Catherine asked.

  “The burglars,” Amy improvised so calmly Eddie turned to look at her.

  How could she be so calm? Eddie wanted to gut Nolan for the crap he was putting her through.

  “Thank you for telling us, Catherine,” Amy added. “We’ll call the police and let them deal with this.”

  She patted Amy’s arm. “Let me know what they say, dear. If they can’t catch these no-good thieves, my sons will move in with us and start a neighborhood patrol. They are both sharp-shooters,” she added and chuckled.

  Eddie waited until the woman left for her walk then started for the house. After a few steps, he realized Amy wasn’t behind him. She was walking around the three cars, taking a thorough inventory. Even Baron and Kara’s SUV, which they’d been parking in the wide driveway to give room for the mats and punching bags, hadn’t remained unscathed. The tires were slashed and would all need to be replaced.

  As for Amy, she didn’t lose it like an average woman would. She held it together. His baby was a survivor. She might have been victimized but she was no one’s victim. She could have stayed with Nolan, but she’d found the strength to walk away and move her child out of harm’s way. It took strength to stand up to a psycho.

  From the moment he’d learned about Nolan, he’d seen her as someone that needed to be rescued and protected. Even as he taught her self-defense, he never imagined she’d use it because he, the big detective, would protect her. But the way she’d trained the last week, working morning and evening, determination in her expressive eyes, she had a goal. And that goal included protecting herself and her child. When he’d pieced together the puzzle that was Nolan, he’d put off telling her his theory for fear that it would be too much for her to handle. She’d handled it.

  He didn’t know what he felt for her. Admiration. Awe. Love. He just knew he was one lucky bastard to have her in his life. He turned and closed the gap between them.

  ***

  Amy looked up as Eddie walked toward her with determination in his steps and a look she couldn’t define in his eyes. He cupped her face, ducked his head and gave her a brief, possessive kiss, the kind that made her toes curl and blood sing, but he didn’t give her body time to appreciate the invasion. He lifted his head and grabbed her hand.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  “Whoa, slow down. What was that kiss for?” She half jogged to keep up with his long strides.

  He grinned. “That was because it’s Sunday.”

  Warmth unfurled in her stomach and spread like a blossoming flower. “You’re talking about something we discussed last week instead of our vandalized cars?”

  He stopped and looked into her eyes. “Yep. You know why? This,” he jerked his head to indicate the cars, “brings us closer to nailing Nolan, so I don’t want you to worry about him anymore. Focus on us. Our relationship.”

  She studied him with a puzzled expression. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I want a relationship with you, Amy Kincaid. You and Raelynn. I want it all. I’m willing to learn. You’ll teach me.”

  He was bold and gorgeous, and his timing sucked, but she couldn’t deny she wanted him. She chuckled. “I don’t remember offering.”

  He gave her another quick kiss. “Think about it.”

  As if she’d be able to think about anything else now, but she was wrong. As soon as she stepped inside the house, thoughts of Raelynn had her racing to the study. Her daughter would have to stay indoors until the police finished with the cars. Raelynn had come a long way and Amy refused to see her regress because of one act of vandalism.

  “I’ll call the police,” Eddie said and disappeared toward his bedroom.

  Amy checked on her daughter, who was curled up on a couch, her eyes glued to the screen. “You can watch a few more episodes today, sweetheart. I’ll bring you a snack later, okay?”

  “’Kay, Mommy,” she said without looking away from the screen.

  Closing the door to the study, Amy went to her desktop, tapped a key to get rid of the screen saver and searched recorded footage of the last twelve hours. Her security camera range didn’t extend beyond the hood of the cars, so all it caught was the back of the skulking man as he moved from car to car. He wore a ski mask.

  Eddie reappeared with his cell phone glued to his ear and the computer tablet for the second surveillance system in his other hand.

  “Three cars,” he said into the phone. “No, captain, we didn’t touch anything,” he snapped. “But that doesn’t mean our fingerprints aren’t all over them. Okay. Yes, everything photographed and documented.”

  At last no one would accuse her of vandalizing her own car this time, not with Eddie as a witness. As soon as he sat and fired up the tablet, Amy joined him. His video recordi
ng was clearer, but still they saw nothing of the burglar’s face. Luckily, they had a wireless camera on a security light pole and caught him leaving, teeth flashing. It also showed him throwing the crowbar in the nearby bushes. Then he pulled off his gloves and pocketed them, but one fell. He kept walking until he was out of the camera range. The screen went blank then the timer started again. It showed Catherine, Sam’s grandmother, walking then stopping by the cars.

  Amy and Eddie looked at each other and both jumped up and raced outside. The rubber glove was exactly where the man had dropped it. Eddie stopped her from getting too close.

  “Don’t step on the grass or touch anything. Could you get the colorful, plastic hampers you use for clothes? We’re going to mark the crime scene, so the cops don’t drive all over it. Too many criminals beat the system because an overzealous rookie accidentally destroyed the crime scene.”

  She nodded and hurried back inside the house. He was right behind her. When she reappeared in the living room on her way outside, he was ahead of her with two rolls of toilet paper. Outside, he covered the glove with a hamper then proceeded to wrap the toilet paper around a tree, unrolled it and looped it around the next tree, then the light pole, across the road running past the house to the bushes, where the burglar had dropped the crowbar. He was ingenious and quick on his feet.

  Instead of going back inside the house, they waited by the cars and watched the recording again.

  “Freeze that frame,” Amy said. “Zoom in on his right wrist.” It showed a partial tattoo of the Eye of Horus. “That’s the same tattoo the men who killed Charles had on their wrists.”

  “The right wrists?”

  “Yes, just like this.” She pointed at the image on the tablet.

  “Do you remember what you said during the trial?”

  She tried not to remember that day or the months preceding it. “The entire trial is a blur. I was eight months pregnant, tired and they showed me pictures of me all purple and blue, my face unrecognizable. I just wanted the whole thing to be over with, so I could go home.”

  He frowned. “Come. I want to show you something. Court records are now accessible to the public online if you know where to look.” Inside the house, he disappeared into his bedroom and came back with his laptop, fingers typing furiously. He moved closer to her, so she could see the screen. “These are the court transcripts from the trial against Dan Talbert and Kendal Youngblood.”

  On the screen was the name of the court and the defendants, the district attorney and the defendants’ lawyers. Then a list of items, which were introduced into evidence, which she didn’t bother to read as Eddie scrawled down to Day 2 of the trial. Her name was listed as a witness.

  Reading the questions the prosecutor had asked and her responses seemed so surreal, like the entire event had happened to someone else. “What am I supposed to read?”

  “You said the defendants had tattoos of the Eye of Horus on their right wrists just like the man on the screen.”

  “Yes. See?” She pointed at the screen. “The prosecutor even had them lift up their sleeves to show them to the jury.”

  “Read the description of your injuries.”

  Lacerations on her face, a broken crown on her right lower molar, and a broken rib on her right side. She could see what he was getting at. “I see what you are saying. Most of my bruises were on my right, meaning my attacker was left-handed. My right ear was so messed up, I heard ringing for weeks. By the time of the trial, it was gone.”

  “That’s right. People tend to curl away from the hand attacking them and cover their faces, so there’s no way you curled and faced the fist, especially when you were covering your stomach and protecting your baby. The man on the video and the two serving time are all right-handed.”

  Wooziness washed over Amy. Nolan was left-handed. How could she have missed that during the trial? No, not her. How could the defense have missed noticing that her bruises her mainly on the right side of her body? When she looked up, Eddie was watching her expectantly.

  “Is Nolan left-handed?”

  Amy nodded, her eyes smarting. “We have to go to Charlottesville, tell the DA’s office what we know. My attacker is also the one who pulled the trigger. I remember because he called his friend chicken sh…” Her voice broke and tears filled her eyes.

  Eddie pulled her into his arms. “We will talk to the DA but first, we need to track this other man down. I can offer him a deal, make him turn against Nolan. Right now it would only be your word against his, and Nolan made sure no one would ever believe anything you said.”

  Sirens filled the air as the police cars approached. Eddie pressed his lips on her temple and started for the front door. “Stay here. I’ll deal with them.”

  Amy rocked in place as he walked away. Everything Nolan had done to her during their marriage and afterwards now made sense. He’d been afraid she might remember that night. Their marriage protected him because spouses couldn’t testify against each other. But after the divorce, spousal privileges became null and void. Who would believe anything a crazy ex-wife said?

  Should she call her parents and warn them about Nolan?

  No, that would be pointless. They never believed anything she ever told them anyway, so why would they start now. Taking off to Virginia to talk to the DA would be fruitless too if all they had were her memories and evidence from a closed case. She was the crazy woman who kept calling Charlottesville Police Department with ‘bogus’ claims of harassment and break-ins. Nolan had done a bang up job of covering his ass. No one would believe anything she said. No one, except Eddie.

  Too agitated to sit, she jumped up and went to the bathroom to splash water on her face. She pinched her cheeks to put color back on her face then checked in on Raelynn. Her daughter was mesmerized by whatever she was watching. Amy closed the door and her heart leaped when something yanked at her hand.

  “Jimmy, you gave me such a fright. What are you doing here?”

  “Can Raelynn come outside and play?”

  “Not right now, Jimmy. Maybe after lunch.” She nudged the boy toward the back door. “Yeah, definitely after lunch.”

  “Why are the police at your house? What happened to your cars? Is Raelynn still scared of the police? Is that why she can’t come outside and play? She said she was, but I told her they’re the good guys. She said they’re mean.”

  Amy looked over her shoulder as she practically pushed the child out the door and closed it behind them. “Raelynn didn’t mean it like that, Jimmy.”

  “But she said—”

  “Go home, Jimmy,” she said firmly. “Raelynn is not feeling well.”

  He stuck out his lower lip, the gesture so much like Raelynn’s, Amy heart squeezed. She waited until he crossed the lawn and entered his grandmother’s house before she stepped back inside, locked the door and went toward the front door.

  The door opened before she reached it and Eddie and a heavy-set older man with a crutch walked in. White hair and a beard gave the man an absentminded professor look.

  “Ms. Kincaid,” he said, extending his hand toward her. “Captain Briggs. We’re here to catch this man that’s been botherin’ yah. May I see the footage of the vandalism?”

  CHAPTER 15

  “I should be helping process the scene,” Eddie said, pacing. He’d been doing that ever since Captain Briggs left after viewing the surveillance recording.

  “It wouldn’t be admissible in court.”

  Eddie glowered, scrubbed his face and cursed.

  “No.” He yanked the door and went outside. Within minutes he was back. “They finally found the crowbar and are dusting it for fingerprints. Talk about doing things at a snail’s pace.”

  The morning crawled past too slowly for Amy. Eddie’s back and forth pacing and constant trips in and out weren’t helping either. It was obvious he wasn’t used to depending on others.

  “They found motorcycle tire treads,” he said, coming back inside for the umpteenth time. “
One of their forensic guys is taking pictures and measurements, so they can use the Treadmate database later and find a match. I know bikes and treads. I told the guy it’s a Dunlop K81 with a width of 4.25 but he wouldn’t listen.”

  “Have they checked the glove for fingerprints?”

  “No, they plan to send it to a crime lab.” He ran his fingers through his hair.

  Just as she’d suspected, he was getting in the way of the local cops and interfering with their job. She just didn’t know what to do to keep him busy and away from the crime scene. She was sure the local cops were just as good as the ones in L.A. Hadn’t he even said Captain Briggs was a legend? “Where is Captain Briggs?”

  “Out there barking orders at his deputies over the phone. He e-mailed them a picture of the Eye of Horus and wants them to show it to every hotel and rental companies from here to Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort. Nolan’s man has to be staying somewhere close by. When does the sprinkler system turn on?”

  “Every Saturday.”

  “That’s yesterday. The ground might still be soft and wet enough for him to have left footprints too. And the neighbor’s?”

  According to the video footage they’d watched, the guy had walked toward the road and might have crossed over to the Mulligan’s lawn.

  “I don’t know,” Amy said. “We may have to check with them.”

  Eddie disappeared outside again. He was beginning to drive her crazy. She checked on Raelynn, got her some cookies and milk then went back to watching the cops work through the surveillance tablet. She was just as anxious as Eddie but for a different reason—she wanted the cops to be done so they could remove their yellow crime scene tape, which had replaced the make-shift, toilet paper one. Raelynn would soon get bored of watching TV and want to play outside. Seeing the tape would bring back memories she didn’t want her daughter to deal with. Then there were gawkers. They had trickled in from the neighboring homes, until there was now a crowd.