Secondhand Sinners

by Genevieve Lynne

  Sonny finished a text message he was typing out on his BlackBerry, looked at a piece of paper on a clipboard, and shook his head. “Not on his list.”

  “That list is wrong. I was here yesterday. Alan let me in himself.”

  He looked up at him and scratched his head.

  “Check the log.”

  Sonny picked up another clipboard and scanned it. “Oh. Somebody needs to fix the list.”

  “You’re telling me.” Miller walked around the counter, heading straight for the big metal door. “Since you’re here alone, I’ll let myself in.”

  Levi was lying on his cot, reading a magazine. After a quick glance in Miller’s direction, he went back to reading.

  “I need to ask you something,” Miller said.

  “Haven’t you heard? I’m not talking.”

  “This isn’t about that. It’s about Daniel.”

  Levi put the magazine on the ground and sat up. “What about him?”

  “I didn’t know about you and him.”

  “Oh God.” Levi rolled his eyes and lay back down.

  “What?”

  “Go home, Miller.”

  “No. Not until I find out the truth.”

  “The truth? Ha! I thought you knew the truth. I thought you were so certain about everything.”

  “Obviously I’m not anymore.”

  Levi looked at Miller out of one eye and smiled.

  “What?” Miller asked.

  Still smiling, Levi stood up and walked to face Miller. He reached through the bars and patted him on the shoulder. “I’m happy for you, man. I mean really happy for you. That certainty of yours was weighing you down.”

  “I can’t tell Emily about Abby.”

  “Sure ya can, buddy. You say, ‘Hey, Emily. I took our daughter and brought her back here to be raised on the land where you were abused.’”

  “She’s not our daughter.”

  Levi scoffed. “Nice try.”

  “I’m asking you to back off, man. There are some things I need to figure out.”

  “There’s only one thing you need to figure out and that’s how to tell my sister. Did you really come back here to ask me to play nice?”

  “Things aren’t as simple as you think they are.”

  “Then why don’t you enlighten me?”

  “Abby has Wilson’s.”

  “Oh.” Levi’s face softened. “I didn’t know.”

  “She doesn’t like to talk about it. I thought she got it from Daniel until this morning when I found out he was gay. So now, there’s only one other person I can think of who could’ve given it to her.”

  “Hoyt?”

  “Hoyt. Did he hurt Emily?”

  “She never said anything to me if he did. But I didn’t know about what my family was doing to her either.”

  “What were they doing to her?”

  Levi shook his head. “It’s not my place to tell you.”

  Miller shoved his hand in his pocket and closed it around the old key Daniel had stolen from Hoyt. “You said your sister left so I could keep my certainty. You were right. Now that she’s back I don’t know anything at all.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “What I’ve been doing for the last fourteen years. Make sure Abby never finds out, especially if she was conceived though some kind of hurt and pain.” He walked back to the front lobby and past the front desk. “See ya around.”

  “Yeah,” Sonny said without looking up from his phone.

  Miller couldn’t get out of there fast enough. He closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath of hot air, and pushed the door open. The image of Sonny’s BlackBerry burned like a negative behind his closed eyelids. It wasn’t the phone that stopped him. It was something next to it—small and square and out of place. He went back inside and picked up the blue Lego. “Where did this come from?”

  Sonny shrugged. “Found it in the hall. Kid must’ve left it.”

  “What kid?”

  “That kid who was here with the lady.”

  Miller’s pulse started to pound in his ears. “What lady?”

  Sonny sighed and looked up. “The lady who was here with Alan.”

  “She was here? When?”

  “Left a few minutes ago.”

  “I didn’t see her.”

  “They were in the back. Came and went that way.”

  “What was she doing here?”

  “Don’t know.”

  Miller looked down the hallway, which seemed longer and narrower than he remembered. “What’s down there?”

  “Offices. Video room.”

  “You guys have a video room?”

  “Have to make sure the detainees are behaving.” Sonny’s phone chimed. He picked it up and started typing.

  “So you’ve recorded every conversation Levi’s had since he’s been here?”

  “Yep.” Sonny typed some more then picked up the log-in sheet Miller had signed twice. “Both of ‘em. You’ve been his only visitor.”

  Miller inched away from the desk until he was sure he was out of Sonny’s peripheral vision. Then he hurried down the hall to the door with the ‘Video’ placard on it. He slowly pushed the door open. There was the image of Levi in his cell on the screen of the little TV. Next to the TV was a two-deck DVD player with a red light flashing next to the record button. So they recorded the holding cell. For fourteen years he’d been so careful to not say a word about his deal with Chester Hale. He lived his life around keeping Abby “hidden in plain sight,” as Chester had put it. He’d always thought his biggest threat was someone seeing Abby’s resemblance to Daniel or Emily, not some shitty, outdated piece of video equipment. Alan must have loved showing it to Emily. It was probably his plan all along. Miller was so stupid he practically handed her over to him.

  He turned the Lego over in his hand while he walked further down the hall to the back exit and alternated between prayers that Emily was still out there and prayers that she wasn’t. He didn’t know how to maneuver in a world where Emily knew his secret, where Alan knew his secret, where Abby knew his secret. When he got outside, Alan stood beside Emily as she closed the back door of his car.

  “Em!” he called out. “Emily!”

  She looked at him. Her eyes were red. She’d definitely been crying, but her face wasn’t angry like he expected. No furrowed brow or eyes full of hate, just that sad look he remembered seeing on her too many times when they were teenagers. He hated that look. It took her away from him, and for days at a time. Daniel was the only one who could get through to her.

  “Emily?”

  Alan opened the front passenger door and said something to Emily. She lowered her head, pushed her hair behind her ear, and got in. All these years he’d thought his skeletons were safely and permanently buried underneath too many layers of lies to ever be able to see the light of day. He was wrong. Lies never died. They lay in wait for the floodwaters to go deep enough to set them free.

  Alan closed the door and walked up to Miller. “Leave her alone. She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

  “How much did she see? I need to explain.”

  “She saw the recording from the other day and most of the live feed in there just now. I’m pretty sure she’s got the idea. You hated her, so you took her baby.”

  “No. I didn’t hate her. I was a kid and was trying to do what was best for Abby.”

  “The road to Hell, Miller. Listen. I feel bad for you, man. I really do. You had your shot. Fortunately for me, you screwed it up royally. Now it’s time for you to step aside and let me have what’s rightfully mine.”

  “Yours?”

  “Yeah. It’s biblical.”

  “No it’s not.”

  “Back in the day if a man died, the brother got a shot at his woman.”

  “You’re his stepbrother.”

  “Same thing.”

  “But they weren’t…” Miller looked over Alan’s shoulder to the car. Emily wasn’t even looking at him. How coul
d he have been so stupid and not even consider that there might have been a camera in the room with the holding cell? How could he have sent her off with Alan?

  Alan squeezed Miller’s shoulder. “Okay, listen. I was trying to be nice about this ‘cause I know you’ve always had a thing for her, but here’s the deal. Emily and I? We have some unfinished business that—”

  “Unfinished business?”

  “That’s my nice way of saying we fucked.”

  “When? Today?”

  “No.” Alan laughed. “Not yet, anyway. It was a few years after she left town. We met up at a bar.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “I’d tell you to go ask her for yourself, but she obviously doesn’t want to talk to you. Guess you’ll have to take my word for it. I never figured her for a biter, but she did this thing where she took little bites outta me. Damn. I can get off just thinkin’ about that.”

  Miller could’ve rolled in a pile of fire ants, walked barefoot through a bed of stickers and then been struck by lightning, and that still would’ve hurt less than hearing Alan talk about being in bed with Emily.

  Alan pushed on his shoulder. “She doesn’t want to see you. Stop being a dick and go home.”

  “I’m being a dick?”

  “There you go.” Alan gave Miller’s shoulder one final squeeze and started to walk back to his car. “Keep reminding yourself of that,” he called over his shoulder.

  Miller stood there while Alan’s car pulled out of the parking lot with no idea of what he was going to do next. Fear and confusion mixed together into a mortar of indecision that was seeping into every joint. He couldn’t shake off the flashback of hearing odd sounds as he walked up the stairs, of walking into his own bedroom and seeing Alan in his bed and the look of pleasure on Sara’s face. Only now it wasn’t Sara’s face he saw, it was Emily’s.

  How could she have been with Alan? How could she have shared something with that ass that she once shared with him? Humiliation burned in his chest. What they had last night wasn’t special at all. Alan may have been a bastard, but he was an idiot…an angry idiot.

  Emily wouldn’t let him explain his side of the story? Fine. He could relegate her presence to the distraction that it really was and go about the business of getting his quiet, content life back. He was going home. Emily could go to hell.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Emily

  Emily cringed when Alan got in the car. “That was fun.”

  “Where’s Miller going?” Jack called out from the back seat.

  Alan looked into the back seat through his rear view mirror. “Who cares?”

  “He’s taking me fishing today.”

  “I’ll take you.”

  “No.” Jack shook his head. “Miller’s taking me.”

  “I doubt that. Right, Emily?” Alan said, taking her hand.

  She snatched it out of his grasp. “Don’t talk to my son.”

  “Hey, Jack.” Alan kept his eyes on Emily, his lips contorted into a spiteful smile. “You know that word retard?”

  “Don’t,” Emily said through gritted teeth. “Leave him alone.”

  “That’s a bad word,” Jack said.

  “Well…” Alan twisted at the waist to face Jack, “Miller called you that.”

  “But,” Jack’s voice wavered, “but he’s my friend.”

  “No. He’s a liar. You know what else he said?”

  “Stop, Alan. I get it, okay? Leave him alone.” Emily looked back at Jack. “He didn’t say that, buddy. Alan heard him wrong. Right?”

  “You know what? Your mom’s right. Now that I think about it, he didn’t say retard. He said ‘I wear a pink leotard.’”

  “Leotard?” Jack started to laugh. “That’s funny. Leotard. Leotard. Can we go home now?”

  “Not yet. Your mom has to help me find something.”

  “What?”

  “Something that was stolen from me years ago. A treasure.”

  “Oh cool!”

  “Let’s go,” Emily said, sitting back and pushing on Alan’s shoulder to get him to do the same. “The sooner we get this over with the sooner I can get back to Miller and clear this whole thing up.”

  “Yeah. About that.” Alan shot a fake pout at Emily. “I don’t think Miller’s going to want to take you back after our little discussion.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I told him about our hook up.”

  “You had no right.” Emily wanted to slap Alan. Or punch him. Or kill him. She crossed her arms over her stomach and clutched Miller’s shirt in her fists. “I told you I’d do what you asked. Why’d you have to go and tell him about that?”

  “Because it pisses me off that you still think I’m asking you to do something. You don’t get to call the shots anymore.”

  “I’m sure you left out the most important details, like how I was depressed and wasted and you stalked me.”

  “I’m hurt that you think those are the most important details. Now…” He held his hand out. “Give me your phone.”

  Instinctively, Emily’s hand touched her pocket. “No way.”

  “Give it to me, or I’ll get on the phone and call the high school. I’ll tell Abby all about her so-called adoption.”

  “They’d never let you talk to her.”

  He pulled his own phone out of his pocket and pressed a number. “Got the school on speed dial,” he said, raising it to his ear. His voice changed from dark and angry to light and charming. “Hey there, Shirley. This is Alan. How’s it goin’, beautiful?” He rolled his eyes as he listened. “Listen, I’ve come across some stolen items in this case I’m working on. I think I’ve got something here that belongs to Abby Anderson. I’m going to need to talk to her ASAP.” He paused for a moment to listen, then winked at Emily and said, “Great. I’ll hold.”

  “Okay. Okay,” Emily whispered fiercely, pulling her phone out of her pocket and handing it over to him. She still hadn’t had time to process what she saw and heard when Miller and Levi were talking. Was Abby her daughter? She couldn’t be, not if she had Wilson’s.

  With his gaze fixed on Emily, he said, “Oh, you know what, Shirley? I was wrong. Sorry to have bothered you.” Alan ended the call. “Next time I won’t hang up.”

  “I would have helped you find what you’re looking for. All you had to do was ask. There’s no need to go all brutal on everyone.”

  Alan slid her phone into his pocket, started the engine, and pulled out of the parking lot. “I’ve been stuck in this shit hole for far too long, trying to find what I’ve been looking for. Now that everything is falling into place, I’m not about to rest my whole future on anything so fragile as trust.”

  The situation was much too heavy to wade through. Emily wanted desperately to go back thirty minutes in time, to when she stood with Alan in that video room at the police station watching the recording and then live feed of Miller and Levi’s conversation. She’d probably have to go back much further to undo all the damage Alan had done. How far back? When did this whole mess begin? When Miller took Abby? When she ran away? Even earlier?

  She knew she was in trouble when she saw the gleeful smile on Alan’s face while they watched Miller tell Levi that Abby had Wilson’s before he shrugged in defeat and said he had to make sure Abby never found out. She didn’t know how bad the trouble would get. Not until he put his arm around her, pulled her close to him and whispered, “It’d be a shame if Abby ever found out about this, wouldn’t it?”

  Though she didn’t know if Abby was her daughter, there was a huge part of her that hoped she was. However, there was another part of her, the one that was chased away by her own family, that doubted anything so wonderful could be hers. God hadn’t necessarily come through for her in the family department. Why would he drop the daughter she gave up almost fourteen years ago in her lap now? And under these circumstances?

  “How am I supposed to help you find Hoyt’s treasure?” she asked.

  “You’re going
to tell me where the key is.”

  “What key?”

  “The key to the safe deposit box. The one Daniel gave you.”

  “He didn’t give me a key.”

  “You’ve forgotten. Think harder.”

  “Why would he have given me a key to a safe deposit box?”

  “Hoyt kept a treasure hidden away at the bank while the rest of us went hungry. I came home one day and they were fighting over it because Daniel took it. Your name came up.”

  “My name? Why?”

  “Probably because he gave you the key.”

  “I don’t remember a key, Alan. I swear.”

  “Then he must’ve hid it. I know he snuck out of the house all the time to meet you. Where did y’all go?”

  “He came to my house.”

  “Then that’s where it must be.” He made a sharp U-turn in the middle of the road. “It’s hidden in your room.”

  Unease twisted at Emily’s stomach. She couldn’t go back home. She still had nightmares about that house.

  “This is actually for the best,” Alan said. “I thought I’d have to drive you back to Dallas because you had it stashed away with all your old stuff. Or worse, you’d have thrown it out because you didn’t know how valuable it was. God, Em…” He reached over and rubbed her shoulder, and she let him so he wouldn’t mess with Jack. “Now that you’re back in town, all my planning is really paying off.”

  “I think you’re mistaking dumb luck for planning. Cause there’s no way you could have known I was coming to town.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

  “You knew? How?”

  “I may have been the little birdie that spoke in your mom’s ear that said you should come home to help your brother. Didn’t take much either. Not sure if you noticed, but that woman’s gone a little off her rocker.”

  Emily remembered her mother’s call telling her to come home, the rustling on the other end after she answered, her mother’s odd cadence. Like she was reading a script. “How could you have known about Abby being adopted?”

  “I didn’t. Not until I saw that video. Your brother bashing your father’s head in was my first stroke of luck. Seeing that video was my second. Cut out a messy step I was not looking forward to.”