The Lockwood Legacy - Books 1-6: Plus Bonus Short Stories
Page 54
“Yes,” Jessica said. “He told me that he has no intention of entrusting this mission to an underling again and that there’s only one thing in the cave he wants. He said he would recognize it immediately.”
“Did he tell you what that one thing is?” Kate asked.
“No,” Jessica said. “I have no idea.” She hesitated, and then asked in a small voice, “What are you going to do with me?”
Jenny and Kate exchanged a long look. It was Jenny who turned back to Jessica and said, “Do you have any feeling of family for us at all?”
The question seemed to take Jessica by surprise. “I really don’t know,” she said honestly. “I like Mandy a great deal, but the two of you have distrusted me from the start.”
When that statement was greeted with two sets of raised brows, Jessica said hastily, “And with good reason, but really, none of this was ever to hurt the three of you. I really wasn’t thinking about anyone but myself.”
“Clearly,” Kate said acerbically. She turned to Jenny. “What do you think?”
Jenny sighed and said, “Look, Jessica, I’m mad enough at you right now to throttle you with my own hands, but I know what it’s like to fall into Robert Marino’s web. I’d be a hypocrite if I blamed you for that part.”
“All I want are the family art pieces back,” Jessica said. “I know I have no right to ask, but can you help me get them?”
“Do you know where they are?” Jenny asked.
“They’re in Robert’s gallery in New York,” she said, “locked in the safe in the back.”
Jenny thought for a minute. “Did Robert have you sign an agreement?”
“Yes,” Jessica said.
“So all you have to do is pay the loan amount and the items are yours again?” Jenny asked.
“That’s how it looks on paper,” Jessica said bitterly. “But, of course, Robert won’t honor the terms of the agreement.”
“No,” Jenny said, “he won’t, but he always makes sure that if necessary he can prove that all of his dealings are legitimate.”
“What are you saying?” Kate asked.
“I’m saying that we just buy the stuff back,” Jenny said. “First we catch him, and then we present the agreement and the cash and get Jessica her stuff, and call it even.” She turned to Jessica. “But there are two stipulations. Mandy never finds out and you never cross us in the future or your dear Daddy will learn every detail of this whole sordid mess. Understood?”
“Understood,” Jessica said. She looked down and then said, “I am sorry. I was desperate.”
“Why didn’t you just ask us to help you?” Jenny asked. “We are family.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have a very intact interpretation of that concept,” Jessica said drily. “The Northrups are rather deficient in that area.”
Kate blew out a long breath. “Well,” she said, “I can’t tell you the Lockwoods are much better at it. Or at least we weren’t. Things are different now. We’re different. I believe in giving people a second chance, Jessica, but you won’t get a third.”
“I won’t need one,” Jessica said. “I want as far away from Robert Marino’s control as possible.”
“Then it’s settled,” Kate said. “We work together and get rid of the son of a bitch once and for all.”
86
Jolene shielded her eyes against the harsh desert sun and watched Sissy and Missy as they trailed along happily behind Philip Baxter. He was taking the girls for a walk along his “nature trail,” teaching them the names of native plants.
She felt Rick come up beside her. “He’s a natural with kids,” she said, her eyes still on Sissy and Missy. “The girls loved him on sight.”
“He’s a hell of a nice guy,” Rick said. “And smart. I’ve just been looking at his power system. Solar and wind. I don’t know a lot about that stuff, but I know good workmanship when I see it. All his tools are clean as a whistle. So’s the whole place.”
“And you were afraid he was some nut living alone in the desert,” Jolene said.
They had arrived on Baxter’s land early that morning, shared lunch with the man, and been treated to a full tour of his home and workshop. “I’m kind of an amateur inventor,” Phil had admitted in his bashful way. “I like to know how things work.”
Slowly, over several hours, Phil opened up in conversation and now he seemed very happy to have their company. So happy, in fact, that every time Rick had glanced at his watch and caught Jolene’s eye, she shook her head.
Now, however, with the sun starting to sink toward the horizon, they really couldn’t put off their departure much longer. “Honey,” Rick said, “I know you hate to disappoint Phil, but we’re gonna have to get on the road pretty soon.”
She sighed and cupped her hands. “Sissy! Missy! Time to go, girls.”
Three disappointed faces looked back at her, but the girls and Phil Baxter all obeyed the summons. As they approached, Phil said, “Do you have to go so soon?”
“I’m sorry, Phil,” Rick said, “but we have to get to our hotel so we can do the caverns tomorrow.”
“Oh, sure,” Phil said cheerfully, although his face was sad. “I know. I just had more I wanted to show the girls. Maybe you can come back sometime?”
Jolene turned to the twins, “Sissy, Missy, tell Mr. Baxter thank you and get on to the car with your Daddy.”
“Thank you, Mr. Baxter!” they chorused as they fell in behind Rick, who was already walking toward their suburban. Both girls looked back every few steps and waved at Phil, who returned their farewell gesture with a kind of childish innocence all his own.
“Phil?” Jolene said.
He turned toward her. “Yes?”
“I’m going to tell Mandy all about you and help her get in touch with you,” she said. “But I’m going to wait until we get back from vacation so I can do it in person, so you be patient. Okay?”
Phil smiled shyly, “It’s going to be hard to wait now that I know about her, but you know her best so I’m going to let you handle it.” He looked down, scuffing the toe of his boot in the sand. “I hope I get to see you all again, too,” he said.
Jolene caught hold of his hand, “You will,” she said. “I promise.”
As they were driving away from Baxter’s home, Jolene said to Rick, “Look at him. He’s still standing there watching us.”
It was in just that fraction of a second when Rick took his eyes off the road and glanced into the rearview mirror that it happened. An 18-wheeler came barreling around the blind curve just outside the gate to Phil’s land, striking the side of the suburban and sending it spiraling into the desert.
Phil Baxter started to run the instant he saw the 18-wheeler round the curve. He knew he would never get there in time. His lungs were already burning from the effort when the two vehicles collided. “No, God. No. Please, no,” he prayed.
The 18-wheeler flipped on its side and slid down the hill, slamming into a cutout in the road. The Wilson’s suburban tumbled through the barbed wire fence and landed on its roof in the scrub brush.
When Phil got there, he knew instantly that Rick Wilson was dead. The man’s head was hanging at an unnatural angle, a thin line of blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. In the passenger seat Jolene moaned. Her eyes opened a slit and Phil saw that she immediately understood everything. “The girls,” she said. “Get my girls.”
From the backseat, Phil heard Sissy and Missy crying, still strapped in place with their seatbelts.
“Shhhh,” Phil said. “It’s okay. You just hang on. I’ll get you out.”
Taking his boot, Phil kicked out the remaining glass in the window and wedged his body inside. Unclipping the knife from his belt, he used it to cut Missy’s seatbelt strap. The little girl fell into his arms, wrapping herself around his body in terror.
“It’s okay, Missy. Sugar,” he crooned, “you gotta let me go. We can’t both fit through the window.”
“I want my Mama,” the little girl cried.
Phil extracted the little girl and stood her up on her feet, hastily running his hands over her body. “Are you hurt, honey?” he asked.
She shook her head, tears rolling down her face.
“Okay," he said. "Now you stand right here while I get your sister.”
Phil crawled back in the car and cut Sissy loose, removing her from the car and carrying her over to Missy. “You both wait right here while I talk to your mama,” he said.
Circling the wreckage, Phil lay down on his belly, his face just inches from Jolene. That’s when he smelled the gasoline. Jolene smelled it, too. Her eyes met his and she said firmly, “You get my babies out of here so they don’t see this.”
“I have to get you out,” he said in a low voice.
“My legs are broken,” she said. “I can’t move. Nothing is gonna get me out of here but the Jaws of Life.”
From behind him, Phil heard running footsteps and looked up to see the driver of the truck, covered in his own blood from a cut on his forehead. “Jesus Christ,” he said. “I am so damned sorry. I never saw them. What can I do?”
“Help me with this door,” Phil ordered. “We’ve got to get her out of there.”
The two men applied all their strength to the door, but it wouldn’t budge. The whole dash was collapsed onto Jolene. She was right. She’d have to be cut out of the wreckage.
“I radioed for help,” the man said. “They’re on the way.”
“Get Sissy and Missy out of here,” Jolene said again. “Please.”
“Okay,” Phil said. “You hang on.” He turned to the man. “What’s your name?”
“Leroy,” the man said.
“Follow me,” Phil ordered.
The two men walked over to where Sissy and Missy now sat huddled together on a large rock, their eyes wide with fright. Phil went down on one knee and said, “Sissy, Missy, I need you to go with Leroy over to his truck while we wait for help to get here.”
“No,” Missy said defiantly. “Not until we see Mama.”
The stubborn gleam in the little girl’s eyes told Phil there was no reason to argue. He held out a hand to each child and led them around the wreckage to Jolene. “They won’t go without talking to you,” he said.
Jolene looked at her daughters. “Obstinate as a pair of mules,” she said lovingly. “Just like me.”
“Mama,” Sissy said. “I’m scared.”
“Don’t be scared, Sissy,” Jolene said. “You either, Missy. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Daddy’s not okay,” Missy said, tears streaking her cheeks.
“No,” Jolene said, her voice breaking, “he’s not.”
“And you’re not okay,” the child continued.
Jolene looked at her daughters and said, “Savannah, Madison, your Daddy and I will always love you. No matter what. Now you do what Mr. Baxter says. Please. For me.”
Unsure, but unwilling to defy their mother, the little girls accepted Leroy’s hand and stumbled away with him. When they disappeared beyond a little hill, Phil lay back down on the ground. “What can I do for you?” he asked with tears in his eyes.
“I’m not going to get out of this,” Jolene said, “so promise me you’ll take my girls to Mandy yourself.”
“I will,” Phil said without hesitation.
“Rick and I have it in our wills that the girls go to Mandy and Joe,” she said. “My people are all dead and Rick’s folks are old and sick. All our papers are in the lock box at the bank. Understand?”
“Yes,” he nodded.
“You tell Mandy that I love her,” Jolene said, tears running down her face now. “I survived the cancer, but I didn’t start living again until she came back in my life. You tell her she’s the only sister I ever had and the only person I trust with my girls.”
“I’ll tell her,” Phil said. In the far distance he heard the wail of sirens. “Hear that?” he said hopefully. “They’re almost here.”
“Phil,” Jolene said seriously. “I can feel the heat building up in the front of the car. You need to go. Now.”
“No,” he said desperately.
“Go on, now,” she said. “As long as I know my girls are looked after, I’m okay. You just get back to a safe distance.”
Their eyes met for a long moment. They both knew what was about to happen and they both knew there was nothing Phil Baxter could do about it. “This isn’t your fault,” Jolene whispered. “I’m glad you were here.”
Phil nodded, but couldn’t speak. He leaned into the window and kissed her gently on the forehead, running his fingers along the line of her cheek before he stood up, turned, and staggered away.
He’d just reached the crest of the hill when the explosion sent him to his knees. He couldn’t bring himself to look back. Instead, Phil Baxter put his face in his hands and wept.
87
“Thank you, Lester,” Kate said. “Let me call you back after we tell her.”
She hit the “end” button on her phone and quietly laid the device on top of the table. It was completely still in the kitchen. The sun was just coming up and Jenny would be there in a minute.
Kate sat unmoving, staring out the back windows at the bird feeder. There was a cardinal there, the scarlet of its feathers stark against the soft gray light of the morning.
She heard the front door open and close and listened as Jenny’s footsteps came down the hall. Kate didn’t turn her head when her sister came into the room.
After a minute a warm hand came to rest on her shoulder. “My God, Katie,” Jenny said. “Are you alright? You’re white as a ghost.”
Kate reached for Jenny’s hand and felt strong fingers intertwine with her own. Jenny knelt on the hardwood floor beside her chair. “Katie?” she said again. “What is it?”
Tears spilled from Kate’s eyes as she looked into Jenny’s upturned face. Kate swallowed and tried to speak, but her mouth was so dry the words refused to come. All she could do was shake her head.
Jenny’s own eyes grew dark with concern. “Katie, please, this is not like you. You’re scaring me. What is going on?”
Kate cleared her throat and whispered hoarsely, “Jolene and Rick Wilson are dead.”
Jenny gasped, tightening her grip on Kate’s hand. “The girls?”
“They’re alive,” Kate said.
“Oh, thank God,” Jenny said. “What happened?”
“Eighteen wheeler,” Kate said in a strangled voice. “Sideswiped them coming off Phil Baxter’s land out between Marfa and Terlingua. Rick was killed instantly. Baxter got the girls out, but Jolene was trapped in the car. It . . . it . . .”
Kate looked away. Jenny waited. Finally Kate said thickly. “It blew up.” Then, in an anguished whisper she asked, “How am I going to tell Mandy?”
Jenny reached up and drew Kate into her arms as sobs racked the older woman’s frame. “Shhh,” Jenny said. “We’ll tell her together.”
“Last time,” Kate choked, “with Mama. Daddy made me tell you both. Remember?”
The image rose in Jenny’s mind on cue. Kate, a girl of 15, gaunt and thin from the strain of their mother’s long illness, taking the brunt of their father’s anger to protect her sisters. Jenny, herself just 11 years old, already too guarded to show her terror over being in a world without Irene’s gentle voice. And six-year-old Mandy, crying and begging Kate to bring their mother back.
“I remember,” Jenny whispered.
“I prayed to God that night,” Kate said. “I think that was the last time I ever got down on my knees. I begged Him to never make me cause either of you that kind of pain again. I’ll never forget how you cried yourselves to sleep.”
“In your arms,” Jenny said, her own voice breaking. “We cried ourselves to sleep in your arms. You didn’t cause the pain, Katie. You stayed with us every night for weeks. You lo
st your mother, too, but your every thought was for us.”
Struggling to compose herself, Kate raised her head and looked into her sister’s eyes. “Mandy loved Jolene like she loves us, Jenny. This is going to break her heart. What are we going to do?”
The question caught Jenny off guard. Katie always knew what to do. She never needed to ask. But now, so devastated by the knowledge of how Mandy’s world was about to implode, Kate, their pillar of strength wavered.
Jenny felt her own world teeter on that realization, only to right itself in the next heartbeat when she saw the trust in Kate’s eyes. Kate, stoic and strong, could allow herself to falter with Jenny because together, they would always be safe.
“Did you make the coffee?” Jenny asked, still holding Kate by the shoulders.
Kate frowned. “Did I what?”
“Did you make the coffee?” Jenny repeated.
“Of course I made the coffee,” Kate said. “There’s a full pot.”
Jenny stood up and walked to the counter, poured a cup, and brought it to Kate. “Drink this,” she said.
Kate took the cup with shaking hands and did as she was told. After a few sips, the color began to come back into her cheeks.
“Better?” Jenny asked.
Kate looked up, understanding now what her sister was doing. “Yes,” she said. “We have to catch Joe Bob before he goes to work.”
Jenny took her phone out of her pocket. “I’ll send Josh,” she said.
When the connection was made, she quickly filled Josh in on what had happened and then said, “Get up to the gate and watch for Joe Bob. Stop him before he leaves for town and bring him down to the main house.” She paused, and then said, “I know, darling. I love you, too.”
Retrieving her own cup of coffee, Jenny came back to the table and pulled her chair close to Kate’s. Within ten minutes they heard the front door open and Josh and Joe walked into the room. Jenny stood to greet Josh, who pulled her into a tight hug before turning to embrace Kate as well.
Joe regarded them all with a stricken expression, “This is going to break Mandy’s heart,” he said. “What are we going to do?”