Redemption (Desire Never Dies)

by Clara Grace Walker

  “I’m surprised we haven’t cracked them yet either. But that doesn’t mean I can’t find out what information they’re sitting on.” He smiled. His skills at getting information were fairly legendary.

  Sarge shook her head, leveling a stern look in his direction. “I hope you’re not thinking of hacking into their cell phones or computers without a warrant. Because that sort of thing is illegal.”

  Danny grinned. She could retire from the force all she wanted. She would never stop being a cop. “We need paper documents. Remember? The digital trail has obviously been tampered with.”

  “B and Es are illegal, too. In case you’re thinking of going that route.” She spoke to him like a mother scolding a two-year-old.

  “Don’t worry about a thing, Sarge. I would never consider making you an accessory to a crime.”

  She set down her barely eaten burger, catching his stare and holding it. “What are you thinking?”

  “Probably best you don’t know.”

  “I don’t like what I’m hearing.”

  “But you’re not going to try and stop me?” He smiled at her, as if to confirm the statement.

  She dropped her gaze and twirled a fry in a puddle of ketchup. “I’m afraid Nick and the other patients at CRC may not have time for me to try and stop you.”

  Danny took another swig of lukewarm soda, swishing it around his mouth before swallowing, while he formulated a workable plan. “That’s what I like about you, Sarge. You’re a woman who knows how to see reason.” He got up and stepped out of the booth, leaving a twenty on the table. “Finish your meal and meet me back at the hotel. I have a feeling the folks at St. Louis University are about to experience a technological malfunction.”

  Sarge smirked. “And luckily for them, you’ll be there to fix it.”

  He grinned, but didn’t answer. He needed to find out what was going on at CRC and get Nick and his family out of there. He had a bad feeling about the place.

  Chapter 49

  Mindy sat in the love seat with her knees pulled up to her chin. Visiting hour had started five minutes ago. Obviously, Earl wasn’t coming. He’d probably left bright and early this morning, having realized she was just no good for him. Nick was stupid to think she could help. She wasn’t worth believing in. She’d gone and chased Earl away just when Nick needed his help. She closed her eyes for a moment, prepared to spend the next hour hiding out. Watching everyone else with their loved ones and knowing she was utterly alone. Wondering how she would explain to Nick she didn’t deserve the trust he’d placed in her.

  As she opened her eyes, however, Earl stepped through the door looking every bit the hero he played onscreen. Her heart almost stopped beating and she held her breath, watching the fluid movements of his body as he strode toward her. His eyes focused on her with every step he took, as though their words the night before had never happened.

  “Earl!” Excitement thrust his name from her lungs, just as he reached her.

  A smile brightened his face. “I take it you’re happy to see me.” He pulled her into his arms. “And here I was, afraid you were going to ask why I was still here.”

  The smell of his soap and aftershave enveloped her and she buried herself in the warmth of his arms, resting her face on his soft, cotton t-shirt. “I’m happy to see you,” she admitted. “After last night I was afraid you were going to leave and never come back.”

  “Not a chance.” He kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Not ever.”

  “I don’t deserve you,” she said.

  “Hey.” Earl took her by the chin, tilting her face up to look at him. “What’s this all about?”

  She closed her eyes, savoring the rough texture of his thumb gliding across her skin. His breath feathered softly over her face. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me anymore. But that’s the most honest thing I’ve ever told you. Except for when I said I loved you.”

  He tightened his embrace and slid one hand down the small of her back, cupping it over the curve of her bottom and pressing her against him, digging his fingers in just enough to make the act proprietary. Mindy let out a small gasp, responding at once to his hardening arousal.

  He stared into her eyes, lids lowered. “The biggest thing wrong with you is how convinced you are there’s something wrong with you.”

  “That doesn’t even make sense.” She wanted somehow to believe it.

  Using the hand still placed on her upper back, he crushed her breasts into his chest. “It makes more sense than you think.”

  Desire flooded her body, rushing to moistening folds between her thighs, and confusing her thoughts. “It doesn’t make sense,” she insisted. “You’re just too good for me. That’s all.” She wanted to bury herself in him. To stand there forever, feeling him, smelling him, knowing his love was hers. But the only way to really know his love was hers would be to really let him know her. And the thought of opening herself up to him, and trusting him to love her still, and keep the secret that had to be kept, left her paralyzed with fear.

  “Tell me what’s going on with you, Mindy. Please.”

  He probed her gaze with sky blue eyes, peeking into the corners of her heart. She couldn’t tell him anything right now, even if she wanted to. Not right here. Not with everyone watching. And listening. “It’s getting dangerous here,” she whispered. Whether Nick’s trust in her was ill-placed or not, she couldn’t let him down. “You have to help us.”

  “Us?” Bending his head down as though to kiss her, Earl’s lips grazed her earlobe. “You mean you and Nick?”

  She nodded. The feel of his lips coaxed goose bumps to her flesh. “Nick said he wants to send Jamie and Charlotte home.”

  Understanding lit Earl’s eyes, followed quickly by concern. “I’m getting you out of here. I have a court date to take over your guardianship in two weeks, but I’m going to find a pay phone somewhere and call my lawyer. See if I can get the hearing moved up.”

  “You can’t!” Faces turned in her direction. Mindy’s heart beat accelerated. It took only an instant and a cursory glance around the room to realize her mistake. She’d spoken too loudly. “I’m making so much progress here.” She said the words aloud, in a normal tone of voice, and waited for the CRC staffers to turn their gazes elsewhere. “I don’t want to hurt Nick’s investigation,” she said quietly. “I need to help him.”

  She studied Earl’s face closely, watching different emotions play in his eyes, from fierce protectiveness to curiosity to surprise and ending in respect. It was the last look that stoked her emotions the most. No one had looked at her with respect since Grandma died. There’d been some congratulatory looks, sure, when she was busy selling records and winning awards. Though mostly those looks came tinged with envy and condescension, sure in their knowledge her success had been more rooted in luck than anything earned. Respect. That was something she hadn’t seen since Grandma had complimented her singing voice and her puzzle-solving skills. Seeing it now, in Earl’s eyes, it stuck a lump in her throat and made her want to cry.

  She reached up, stroking the coarse dark hairs of his bearded chin. “Please understand how much I need to do this,” she said. “I want to do something good for a change. I want to help someone.”

  “Okay,” he said. Reluctance and fear played in his gaze, but the respect remained. “If it’s important to you, then it’s important to me. What do you need me to do?”

  Happiness slammed into her with such unexpected force she felt her knees might give way. A few minutes ago she’d thought she’d lost him forever. Now here he was, still standing by her side and looking at her with an admiration she thought she’d never see. Possibly she might even deserve it. Lightly kissing his cheek, she whispered one more time into his ear. “I love you, Earl.”

  Chapter 50

  Shirley rested her forehead in the palm of one hand. “I swear, Arthur, if you don’t sit down you’re going to make me dizzy. You haven’t stopped pacing since you walked in here.”

 
; Her brother paused, scowled at her, and resumed the zig-zag pattern he’d been making across the mauve carpeting in her office. “I don’t like it. All these people who knew Regina suddenly showing up here. It has to be more than just coincidence.”

  She considered his rantings. As usual with Arthur, she held her tongue, waiting for him to flush the anxiety from his system. Knowing he wouldn’t listen to anything she said in his flustered state. He was right about one thing though. It couldn’t all be a coincidence.

  She hadn’t given the Mance girl a second thought when the Tyler boy showed up. After all, Regina was still alive then, and her mother had referred the Tylers to CRC. She hadn’t even been too surprised when Darla Arnold arrived, a known close friend of Regina’s, since Darla’s boyfriend Rod and Preston Tyler were close friends and Preston had referred them.

  Then Nicholas Beck had checked in. She’d been uneasy about him from the start. He was referred by an “anonymous” former patient. An actress, he’d said, seeking to hide the fact she’d been in rehab. It was a ridiculous story; one Pauline should have known to question. What point was there in a celebrity hiding the fact she’d been in rehab from the rehab facility itself. If he’d been talking to her at the time, she’d have simply told him no. Instead she’d found out the truth about his so-called referral two hours after he’d checked in. She’d had second thoughts about letting him stay after that, but she’d been too afraid of appearing suspicious, of looking like she had something to hide, to tell him to leave.

  In retrospect she could have told him his referral source needed to be named in order for him to stay, but his appearance had rattled her. This was exactly why she taught her patients not to speak or make decisions until they had reached a calm and emotionless state of mind. She was right, as always. Unfortunately, that didn’t help her much now.

  Of course there would be no problem to puzzle out if her brother had simply kept his appetites to himself in the first place. Try as she might, she’d been unable to break him of the habit; not even after that scandal up in Palm Beach had put an end to his cosmetic surgery career.

  “You know, you could say something.” Arthur finally stopped pacing and stared at her, hands on his hips. His dark eyes narrowed in irritation.

  She smiled sweetly at him. “Are you ready to listen?”

  He sighed, his facial features softening and his hands falling to his sides. He slumped into a chair on the opposite side of her desk. “What are we going to do?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing!” The volume of his voice rose to the level of yelling. He gripped the arm rests until his knuckles turned white. “How can you possibly say that?”

  “Because to do anything other than go on about our business would only arouse suspicion.” She kept her voice calm. She controlled her breathing.

  “What about all these people asking questions about Regina?”

  She noted the surge in his blood pressure, given away by his reddened face. “Breathe, Arthur,” she said, and shrugged. “Let people ask their questions. What are they going to find out? Only what we’ve already told the police.”

  Arthur raked long fingers through graying hair. He was breathing alright. So loudly half the county could probably hear him.

  “Are you sure?”

  She’d asked herself that same question many times and always she came to the same conclusion. If there was something else to be found out, wouldn’t it have come to light by now? They’d spent an entire week following the Mance girl’s death in group and private therapy sessions encouraging the patients to share their memories of her and express any feelings they had regarding her death. Nothing suspicious or unexpected had come to light. “If anyone had anything to say that was unfavorable to CRC, it would have come out by now,” she said, repeating to her brother the very same arguments she’d used to calm herself.

  “What about that Tyler boy? They were pretty chummy before she died.”

  “We’ve had Scott with us for more than a month now,” she reminded him. “No one in the world can be that tight-lipped. Especially not an angry sixteen-year-old boy.”

  Arthur stood and resumed pacing. “I hope you’re right about that.”

  She lifted her head from her hand, leaning back into her chair. “Come now, Arthur. Have you ever known me to be wrong?”

  “Never, Ms. Cantwise.” Ryan knocked once on the open door and strode into the room, smiling. “Rory said you needed to see me.”

  How she adored Ryan. “If only everyone could be like you,” she said, rewarding him with a genuine smile, then glanced pointedly at Arthur, who sighed, heaved his shoulders and slumped back into the chair. “I have something I need you to look into for me, Ryan.”

  “Name it.”

  His enthusiasm never failed to touch her. With his dark good looks and broad shoulders, he reminded her so much of Arthur when he was a young man. And without her brother’s peculiar problems. It was as if the universe were giving her a second chance to perfect her efforts. To fix all the things that had gone wrong with Arthur and now couldn’t be fixed. “You’re aware that several of our patients came to us already knowing each other?”

  He nodded, a smirk lighting his eyes. “Awful lot of recommending going on in that group, isn’t there?”

  “Indeed.” She liked that about Ryan. Reading between the lines came naturally to him.

  “I should make an effort to familiarize myself with the social dynamics of their group,” he said.

  “That’s a lovely idea.”

  “We wouldn’t want their friendships to interfere with their recoveries.”

  “Exactly.” It was like he could read her mind.

  “I’ll be sure to give them my full attention.”

  “Perfect, Ryan.”

  “Thank you.” He hesitated by the door, making no attempt to leave. “There is just one other thing.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’ve been tracking the path of the storm.”

  “And?”

  “And Phoebe’s trajectory seems to be changing. They’re saying now she might hit the Keys.”

  Emotions dueled within her like cowboys at high noon. Fear shot first, hitting her like a gut shot. But denial struck a split second later. Fate would not let this happen to her. Not after all her hard work. Not after it had laid her path before her. Not when everything was going so well.

  “Ms. Cantwise,” Ryan said. He looked at her expectantly. “Should we begin evacuating?”

  She shook her head instinctively. “Might is not the same thing as will.” That single word gave her hope.

  “Shirley!” Arthur jumped from his chair. “You can’t be serious. We can’t stay here with a hurricane approaching.”

  “Sit down, Arthur.” She commanded him sharply. “I will not abandon my work and my patients without good cause.”

  “You don’t think a hurricane is good cause?”

  “Sit down, Arthur.” This time she lowered her voice, smiling at him.

  “But….”

  She held up her hand, silencing him and turned back to Ryan. “Were evacuation orders issued for this area?”

  “No. They said to stay tuned for further details.”

  “There. You see.” She turned back to Arthur, triumph lacing her words. “Everything’s going to be fine. We have evacuation plans on file with the county, and I will personally call the Sheriff’s office to check up on things.”

  “Maybe.” He sounded unconvinced.

  “Should I continue to monitor the storm’s progress?” Ryan asked.

  “Of course not. You’re going to have your hands full keeping an eye on that meddlesome Nicholas Beck and that slut Mindy. I’m going to take charge of dealing with the storm personally.”

  “Very well.”

  Ryan was frowning. She didn’t like that he was frowning. “And Ryan?”

  “Yes, Ms. Cantwise?”

  “Bring your TV to my office.”

  His jaw tensed, bu
t he nodded his compliance. “Right away, Ms. Cantwise.”

  She smiled and stayed calm, but one thought burned through her. She needed to get Earl Grayson into her fold. And quickly.

  Chapter 51

  Earl studied his three companions. Preston, with his tightly clenched jaw, was clearly upset. Rod stole distracted glances at Darla every few seconds. Only Nick appeared relaxed and casual.

  They made a strange group. Huddled in the corner of the room, voices kept low. Shirley would have to be blind and stupid not to be suspicious. And Shirley was neither blind nor stupid. The thought of her set his nerves on edge.

  “This is what we know so far,” he said to the group. “Regina was having the same nightmares as Mindy, and she wasn’t being treated for drug addiction. Her nightmares couldn’t be related to withdrawals.”

  Nick nodded. “Not to mention the unbelievable coincidence of the two of them having the same nightmare.”

  Fury burned in Earl’s gut as he thought about Belanger drugging Mindy and laying his hands on her. To hell with Vince. Dr. Pervert was the one whose lights he was totally punching out. “Rory told Mindy he saw Ryan leaving Belanger’s office the night Regina died,” he said. “So we know that little bastard’s involved, too.”

  “And Rory thought Belanger was having an affair with Regina,” Nick added.

  Rod’s gaze darted towards Darla, and then back to the group. “You think an affair could go unnoticed in this place? It’s more closely monitored than the cold-era Soviet Union.”

  While Preston nodded, Earl remembered what Mindy said about hearing Rory in the woods with Darla. He caught Nick’s gaze as they both glanced in her direction. Perhaps Nick thought karma was having the last laugh where Rod was concerned. No matter how much of a cad the guy had been though, Earl felt sorry for him. It totally sucked having the woman you loved in the arms of another man. A feeling only Preston seemed clueless about. No wonder people said ignorance was bliss. “No reason to think Rory would lie about seeing Belanger coming from her room,” he said.