“If you didn’t think she belonged there, why didn’t you say anything?”
“I was not her primary doctor. Things were different back then. I was the newest doctor at the time. My opinion was not wanted or needed. In fact, until I had been there for five years, I was more like a nurse than anything. I always felt they were trying to gain my trust.”
“Do you think she was crazy?”
He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “I don’t think so. There were strange things happening at the time,” he said quietly, almost like he was talking to himself.
“Dr. Abner, if I wanted to find out more about her time at the asylum, how would I find out about it?”
“Her file won’t tell you much, unfortunately.” He leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. He looked off to his side and I followed his gaze, not understanding what he was looking at. He looked back to me, his gaze sharpening. “The true stories are in the asylum.” He stood suddenly and walked to the door, his elderly body moving much faster than expected. “I’m afraid I have to get back to my patients now. I’m sure you can understand that these people need my help.”
I felt like he was trying to tell me something, but I didn’t understand what. I searched his eyes, but he quickly averted them and pulled the door shut as we exited his office.
“Thank you for speaking with me,” I said before turning and walking out of the building. He told me the stories were at the asylum. I didn’t particularly look forward to going into another asylum, especially one that had been abandoned, but he seemed pretty certain that I would find my answers there.
CHAPTER THREE
Storm
I watched as Coop looked intently at every person that walked in the bar. He had told us what was going on with Victor Adams, the man that was after him, but I couldn’t imagine that he would find any enemies in this bar.
“Coop, you need to relax. What the hell do you think is gonna happen here?”
He quirked an eyebrow at me and continued his perusal of the bar. “I’m sure that they said the same thing the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. Or how about when the Trojans were attacked by the Greeks when they hid in a large wooden horse? Or when the Visigoths successfully invaded Rome? How about the Battle of Trenton when George Washington led his troops across the Delaware River to defeat German Hessians garrisoned in New Jersey?”
“What the fuck? Are you a history book or something? You’re talking about Visigoths and shit that happened thousands of years ago. Besides, that was all during war time.”
“Fine,” he said leaning forward. “You want an example of a surprise attack that happened during peacetime?” I nodded. “September 11th.”
Well, he had me there. “Fine, I’ll give you that one.”
He leaned back in his chair and continued watching the men and women in the bar. “Besides, I have a little girl to think about. I can’t let my guard down for even one minute, because that one minute could be the minute that I get taken away from her.”
“She’s hardly a little girl. She’s what? Almost seventeen? You have to let her live her life at some point.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll do that when Adams is out of the picture.”
“Why don’t you just put the fucker in the ground? Besides the fact that he’s Vanessa’s father, the asshole has it coming. Cazzo told me all about what he did to her. I’m surprised Cazzo didn’t end him.”
He took a drink of his beer, but still didn’t look at me. “Did you ever think that he didn’t do it because he’s not a killer?”
I snorted and took a drink of my own beer. “I think over the past year we’ve all successfully passed the no killing zone and gone straight to murder 101.”
“That’s different. That’s kill or be killed.”
“Dude, that is exactly the fucking situation you’re in now. Go put a bullet in his head and end this shit. Find yourself a woman, pop out a few kids, and fucking live your life.”
“Yeah, not sure I need a woman in my life. I’ve already been there and it didn’t work out so well.”
“I’m right there with you. Not already having a woman, but I’m not sure I want the whole woman and all the trouble she comes with.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “Because you’re such a saint.”
“I never said I was, but hell, women are creatures I will never understand.”
“Just what exactly is it they do that you’re trying to avoid? I mean, I know why I want to stay single, but you just said that you’ve never had a woman. So, what are you afraid of?”
I leaned forward, making sure to catch his eyes. “Have you not seen these women that the guys married? One of them is gun happy and carries grenades around like they’re tic-tacs. Then there are the women that started a sex toy company and practically got themselves killed because they named their company after a drug. The only one of them that’s sane is Kate, and she’s fucking married to an assassin, so you know there’s not something right upstairs.”
“So, find a woman that’s completely oblivious to all this shit. It can’t be that hard. Hell, you could throw a dart at half the women in this bar and you’re bound to hit one that knows jack shit about Reed Security.”
I snorted and then choked on my beer just as I was taking a sip because Jessica Fucking Rabbit walked through the door. I smacked Coop until he finally lifted his gaze and looked at the bombshell that just strut her ass through the door.
“Are you seeing this? Damn, she’s fucking sexy.”
“See? Now that is a woman that’s safe,” Coop said. “That woman is pure sex. You take her home for a night of fucking and you’re gold.”
“How do you figure? A woman like her doesn’t look like the commitment type. She’s all tits and ass. She was made for fucking, not for taking home to meet mom and dad.”
Saying that was painful. Hell, my mom would be happy just to see me at this point. I just couldn’t bring myself to pick up the phone and call her after I had walked away when they came to pick me up from my last tour. But my dad, he would be so fucking ashamed of me right now. If he knew that I was fucking hiding because I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the phone, he would tell me that I wasn’t the son he knew. And he would be right. I wasn’t the son he once had. I was a man running from the shit that I had seen and refusing to reach out to anyone as a lifeline to bring me back to life.
Jessica Rabbit turned my way and I saw her face for the first time. She was a cross between an angel and a sex kitten. And that red hair, fuck me that was sexy.
That’s her.
I shook off the voice in my head and studied the redhead once again. She was fucking beautiful.
“Why don’t you go find out?” Coop said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Just go up to her and find out what she’s looking for.”
“Right,” I snorted. “Because that doesn’t look at all desperate.”
“Why does it have to have anything to do with desperation? Just tell her you want to get all the bullshit out of the way. You have something you’re looking for and so does she. Find out what that is and shove the other shit to the side.”
I stared at Jessica Rabbit and wondered if that would actually work. Hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted, but it was worth a shot to do things his way. I could man up and talk to a fucking woman about something deeper than a good fuck.
Standing, I slammed my beer down on the table and straightened my back. I could do this. I was fucking Army Strong. I had this.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” Coop grinned as he waved down the waitress for another beer.
Heading for the bar, I signaled the bartender for my own beer and took the seat next to her. She didn’t turn to look at me or even seem to recognize that someone was sitting next to her. She was totally oblivious. Could I really date a woman so completely unaware? Yes, because that meant she was the complete opposite of a gun-toting Maggie.
“You come here often?” I asked.
She didn’t seem to hear me
, so I slid closer so she could hear me better. “What’s a beautiful woman like you doing here alone?”
She still didn’t respond. She didn’t even flinch or anything to let me know she heard me. Maybe she was deaf. I tapped her on the shoulder and she finally turned, acknowledging me with a raised eyebrow.
“Is there something I can help you with?”
Fuck, it was like being hit with a freight train. She had the most vibrant green eyes I had ever seen. And I knew because I looked at the same color in the mirror every fucking day.
Is that weird to think? Is that like saying I’m admiring my own eyes? Shit, it’s like I’m hitting on myself while looking at a beautiful woman.
“Hello?” she said, bringing me out of my inner dialogue that was taking me down one very weird fucking road.
“Uh.” I shook my head and tried to get back in the game. What the fuck was I doing? “I was wondering if you came here often?”
“Yeah, you already said that,” she sassed.
“What- you heard me?”
“Of course I heard you.”
“Why didn’t you answer? That’s just fucking rude.”
She shrugged and took a swig of her beer. “I was wondering how many more lines you were going to bring out. I’ve heard them all.”
“I doubt that. Are you French? Because Eiffel for you.”
She snorted a laugh, almost spitting out her beer. “Okay, I haven’t heard that one. Give me another.”
“Alright,” I grinned. “What has thirty-six teeth and holds back the Incredible Hulk?”
“Um…I have no idea.”
“My zipper.”
“Oh my God. Please tell me you’ve never used that on a woman.”
“I just did, but no, you’re the first.”
She giggled and took another drink of her beer. “Okay, it’s unique for sure, but it just doesn’t do it for me.”
“If that didn’t work, I know this one will. My love for you is like diarrhea, I just can’t hold it in.”
She spit out her beer, spraying me with the liquid that was just inside those plump lips. Hell, I was getting hard just looking at them. I wanted this woman. She was so fucking gorgeous, but she didn’t act like she knew it. Which made me want her even more.
“Well, I’m here. What were your other two wishes?”
“Stop,” she laughed. “I don’t think I can take anymore.”
“If a fat man puts you in a bag tonight, don’t worry. I told Santa I wanted you for Christmas.”
Her laughter was hypnotizing and I couldn’t help myself. I just wanted to hear more and more of it.
“Can I follow you home? Because my parents told me to follow my dreams.”
“I’ve heard that one,” she grinned. “I think you’re slipping.”
“I’m not drunk. I’m just intoxicated by you.”
She blushed and took another sip of her beer. “Okay, give me your very best. Prove to me that you’ve got what it takes to make a woman swoon.”
I thought about it, but there really wasn’t a good pickup line for a woman like this. So, I gave her all I had.
“There’s not a pickup line in the world good enough for a woman like you, so please don’t break my heart when I ask you out.”
She stared at me, a little surprised by my words, but then she smiled and stood from her stool, tossing down a few bills.
“It was good. Really good actually. Probably the best line I’ve ever heard.” She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “See you around.”
She turned and walked to the door. Wait, what the fuck just happened? I stood and called after her, “That wasn’t a line!”
CHAPTER FOUR
Jessica
I walked down the chips aisle, tossing my favorites into the cart. This was the problem, I loved salty foods. And if there was ever a time for comfort food, it was when you were moving to a new town, buying an estate that used to be an insane asylum, all to find out the mysteries of your past. So, what the hell, I tossed a few more bags in the cart. It all went to my ass. Some women had trouble with their thighs or their stomach. Nope, for me, everything I ate went directly to my ass. It made shopping for clothes difficult to say the least. Mostly because it didn’t go to my stomach. So, my stomach was skinny, but my ass was huge. Yeah, try finding jeans that fit that kind of body.
“Oh dear Lord,” a woman gasped from in front of me. Naturally, I assumed it was because of the amount of junk food in my cart. But she wasn’t looking at my cart. She was staring directly at my face. The woman had to be around eighty years old. “I’m sorry, but what’s your name?” the woman asked me.
“Jessica Finley.”
She swallowed visibly and pushed her cart closer to me, resting her hand on my forearm. “My God, it’s like looking at my friend almost sixty years ago. You look just like her.”
I had a feeling she was talking about my grandmother. I had seen pictures and I did look very much like her, but still, I needed to hear her say it. “Just like who?”
“Your grandmother, Ruth.”
My breath stuttered in my chest and I had to fight to keep my voice from shaking. “You knew my grandmother?”
“I was her best friend, dear.” She looked around the store and then back to me. “Not here. Follow me back to my house and we’ll talk over tea.”
She hustled off and I stood there for a moment, stunned that I had so easily run into my grandmother’s best friend. Forgetting my shopping cart, I grabbed my purse and waited outside at the front of the store for the old woman. She barely glanced at me as she left, so I got in my car and discreetly followed her to her house. When I pulled in the driveway in town, she directed me to pull to the back of her house. It all felt very cloak and dagger, like we were doing something wrong.
“Why am I hiding my car?” I asked as I helped her carry in her groceries.
“This town is full of nosy people who would love nothing more than to find out who you are and why you’re here. I don’t get many visitors, so they’d be descending in no time. Then one look at your face, and everyone would know that Ruth Hammond’s granddaughter was in town. There’d be no hiding then.”
“I didn’t know that my grandmother was such a legend around here. I was always kept in the dark about her.”
She filled her teapot and sighed. “It was such a shame what happened to her.”
“You said you were her best friend.”
She pulled down two teacups and sat at her kitchen table, so I sat down across from her and waited with bated breath for her to tell me what she knew. “Ruth was one of the funnest girls I’d ever known. She was always looking for a good time and when she laughed, everyone turned to see what was so funny.”
“So, she was well liked.”
“By everyone,” the woman smiled.
“I’m sorry, but you didn’t tell me your name.”
“Elsie Daughtry. I was Elsie Phillips back then. I married my high school beau and we had forty-five wonderful years together before the good Lord took him.”
“Were you all friends?”
“We were inseparable, the four of us.”
“Four?”
“Why, Wallace, your grandfather.”
My head spun in confusion. “Wait, my grandmother was raped. He couldn’t have…”
“Oh, that’s all hogwash. At least, my Samuel and I never believed a word of it. Wallace and Ruth were madly in love. Of course, back then, it wasn’t appropriate to even kiss in public, let alone do what they were doing in private.”
I blushed, not because of what she was talking about, but because an eighty year old woman was talking about sex with me.
“What did happen? All I know is what my family has told me.”
“Well, the official story is that Wallace wanted to have sex with her, but she refused. We all knew they were already having sex. It didn’t matter what we said, though. One day she was here and the next she was in that asylum. Everyone was told that she
found out she was pregnant in the asylum and it made her go even crazier.”
“But you didn’t believe that,” I said curiously.
She waved my statement off. “I knew that wasn’t what happened. Ruth had confided in me almost as soon as she found out she was pregnant. Wallace had told Samuel that he was saving up for a ring and was going to ask her father for permission. Gosh, she was probably three months along when she disappeared.”
“What do you mean ‘disappeared’?”
“Well, it all just happened one night. She was there and then she wasn’t. None of us were allowed to see her. Wallace was arrested and he didn’t stand a chance. He was sent to prison for rape. Your great-grandfather testified at his trial and when the judge heard his testimony, Wallace got a hefty sentence of thirty years. I think it was more your great-grandfather’s influence in the community that sent Wallace to prison. It was all based on his word.”
“What about my grandmother? Didn’t they ask her?”
“Back then, she was still considered to be under her father’s care. She was eighteen, but she was a woman. She didn’t have a job or live on her own. She had no husband to testify on her behalf. Basically, her father could have her committed because it was in her best interest.”
“What happened after that?”
“Well, it caused quite a stir in our little town.”
“It’s not so little.”
“No, not anymore, but back then, we were a much smaller community. Girls were warned of the dangers of boys and their desires. Samuel jumped at the chance to marry me. He didn’t want anyone to tear us apart the way Ruth and Wallace were. We waited for Ruth to be released from the asylum, but she never was. I talked to your great-grandfather, tried to get him to give me permission to see her, but he said that her mind was gone. Personally, I think it’s all rubbish. I don’t think he ever went to see her more than a few times since she was sent there.”
“What about Wallace, my grandfather? What happened to him?”
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