Nick wished he could trust her olive branch. He stepped over to hug her and noticed the way her ribs protruded and the reek of tobacco on her clothing and hair. His mind raced through possible ways to talk with her privately before she spilled everything to Eve. He should have told Eve the truth last night. Now she would be blindsided.
Eve slid out of the booth and approached her sister. Patti hugged Eve, but watching her face over Eve’s shoulder, Nick suspected Patti would rather hit her.
“Is something wrong?” Eve asked.
“You mean other than the fact you disappeared with my daughter?”
Time slowed. Nick saw Eve recoil, her eyes widen. Bree put her hand over her mouth and froze in place. Stupid, stupid. He could have prepared Eve for this if he hadn’t been such a coward.
Eve’s smile came out, an uncertain grimace as if Patti had made a joke she didn’t quite know how to take. “Your daughter? Who do you mean?” She glanced toward Nick.
Nick rubbed his eyes. “I wanted to tell you last night.” Eve’s gaze held his.
Patti crossed her arms over her chest. “I want to see my daughter.”
Nick tore his gaze from Eve’s and took a step toward Patti. “Let’s talk about this later. I need to talk to Eve. Explain things.”
“I want to see her. Now,” Patti said.
Nick shook his head. “What will that accomplish? She doesn’t know anything about you, Patti.”
Eve held up her hand. “Wait, wait, you’re not talking about Keri, are you?”
Patti glared at her sister. “Of course we’re talking about Keri. Don’t be a nitwit, Eve.”
Eve flinched, and Nick wanted to hurl something through the window. “Don’t talk to your sister like that,” he growled.
“She’s faking,” Patti sneered. “She has to be. No one forgets everything about their past.” She leaned toward Eve. “Keri is my daughter. And I want her back.”
Eve began shaking her head. “You’re lying.” She grabbed Nick’s arm. “Tell me she’s lying, Nick. Keri is my daughter. I would know if she weren’t. She’s mine.”
“I was going to tell you last night,” he began.
She held up her hands in a protective motion. “No, this isn’t true. Are you saying I’m not Keri’s mother? She calls me Mama.” She turned back to her sister. “Why are you doing this? You’re a liar.” Her hands balled into fists at her side, and she took a step closer to her sister, who watched her distress with a supercilious smile.
“Tell her, Nick,” Patti jeered. “Surely you don’t have amnesia too. Tell her how she couldn’t have kids so she had to steal mine.”
Nick ignored the younger woman’s sneer. He took Eve’s hand. “You are her mother—her real mother. We decided not to tell her any different until she was older.”
Patti’s smile faded. “How dare you? I’m her real mother. Do you mean to say she thinks you’re her parents? You think you can just steal my daughter away from me?”
Nick faced Patti and squared his shoulders. “Did you want me to tell her that her own mother abandoned her, just walked away without even saying good-bye? That she was too strung up on drugs to care about her baby girl? Is that what you wanted us to do? We love her, Patti. She’s happy and content with us. Just go away and leave us alone. Please.” Even as he made the plea, Nick knew Patti would never agree.
Nick had heard all the stories. As a child, Patti had guarded all her belongings. And friends. More than once she’d stolen a boyfriend or best friend from Eve. Heck, she’d even tried her wiles on Nick, but he hadn’t been interested—not when he had Eve.
Eve’s blue eyes turned icy. “I love Keri, and she loves us. You can’t have her.”
Nick grabbed Patti’s arm and tugged her toward the door. “Look, your sister has been through too much to deal with this now. I want you to leave us alone. We’ll discuss this when we’ve caught Gideon.”
Patti jerked her arm free. “I’m not leaving town without my daughter,” she growled.
“You can’t have her.”
“We’ll see what a judge has to say.” Patti turned back toward the door with jerky movements. “The courts generally rule in favor of the biological parents. I’m going to get her back.”
“Over my dead body.” Nick moved to intercept her. “She’s ours, not yours. You gave up all rights the day you left her with us, no diapers, no formula, no money.”
For the first time Patti’s defiance left her. Her glance held true appeal. “I’ve changed, Nick. I know I was wrong. Can’t you see she belongs with me? What if that killer finds you, Eve?” she said, directing her gaze back to her sister. “Don’t you want her to be safe?”
“Of course I do,” Eve snapped. “I would do anything for Keri.”
“Then let me take her and keep her safe.”
“It won’t work, Patti,” Nick said. “We’re not going to let you drag Keri from pillar to post with never a stable home. You’ve been missing for two years. We thought you were dead.”
Patti’s pleading smile changed to defiance. “I’m going to get her back, and you can’t stop me.” She flounced out the door and slammed it behind her so hard that the pictures on the wall shook, and one fell to the floor with a crash. The café customers looked up with curious stares.
Eve almost visibly gathered her coolness around her. Her back straight and her head high, she slid back into the booth and interlaced her fingers together. “Why didn’t you tell me, Nick?”
“I started to last night,” he said.
“You were only too happy to avoid that conversation. Didn’t you think this was something I needed to know?” Her gaze bored into him with a fierce accusation.
He shrugged. “Yeah, you did, and I blew it.”
“Tell me how this happened,” she demanded.
“You sure you want to hear all this now?”
“I can go,” Bree said.
Eve grabbed her hand. “No, stay with me.”
Bree nodded and kept hold of Eve’s hand.
“Patti was twenty-five when she had Keri. She’d been in and out of drug rehab for three or four years. You were really worried when you found out she was pregnant. You wanted to take her in until the baby was born. I thought she was just mooching off you, but I was gone a lot, and I thought it would get you off my back about work.”
He didn’t like admitting how unconcerned he’d really been about Keri. The story made him sound like a real jerk. Maybe he was.
“So she was living with us when Keri was born?”
He nodded. “From the first day, she kept leaving you with the baby and running around with her friends. You were working one day, and she left the baby with a friend who had a day care. When she never showed up to pick up Keri, her friend called you and you went to get the baby. We never heard from Patti from that day to this.”
“It seems unbelievable,” Eve murmured. “Did we just assume she was ours and start teaching her to call us Mommy and Daddy?”
“Not at first. But about two weeks after Patti ran off, I came home from work and you said, ‘Keri, Daddy’s home.’ We looked at each other and knew it was supposed to be that way. Patti wasn’t coming back.”
“Did you adopt her?” Bree asked.
“Please tell me we did,” Eve said.
Nick didn’t want to admit how little thought they’d put into the situation. They’d been such idiots.
“Nick?” Eve asked. “We adopted her, didn’t we?” Her cool control cracked enough for fear to creep into her voice.
Man, he was slime. If only he didn’t have to admit it. “We got guardianship. Adoption was an option, and we started the ball rolling about six months ago, but our marriage started falling apart, and we never finalized it.”
Eve took a sip of water, and her hand was steadier. “Why didn’t we do something sooner?”
“We thought Patti was dead. There seemed to be no hurry.”
“So she could really take Keri?” She put down the glass a
nd grabbed his hand. “What can we do to stop her? We have to stop her, Nick.”
He rubbed his thumb over her palm. “We’ll need to contact a lawyer, but I guess we’ve got a battle on our hands.” He wanted to point out that their case would be stronger if they remarried, but he didn’t want to manipulate her.
Though in another week he might not be above it.
14
GIDEON WATCHED THE NEWS WITH AVID ATTENTION WHILE he slowly ate a bowl of ravioli. He heard steps on the stairs behind him and turned to see his daughter. Odette wore a short denim skirt and a red midriff top. Her sandals covered nothing of her feet. He put down the bowl of ravioli carefully and turned to face her.
“Where do you think you’re going dressed like that?” The red on her cheeks and the plum on her eyes made her look like the cartoon of Cinderella. “Is that makeup? You look like a tramp. Go wash and change your clothes.”
“Dad, I’ve got a date.” Odette tried to move past him. He grabbed her arm and propelled her down the hallway. “Let go,” she protested.
He didn’t answer, just pushed her into the bathroom. Once the door was closed and locked, he got out a washcloth and lathered it up. “Sit,” he ordered, pointing to the toilet seat.
She knew better than to give him any sass. Her face turned up to his in a gesture of resignation. “Everyone else gets to wear makeup,” she muttered with her eyes closed.
He methodically scrubbed every trace of the vileness from her face. It was his job to see his family stayed pure. Her skin was red by the time he finished, but pain would teach this lesson most memorably. With the washcloth rinsed and draped over the towel rod, his gaze swept her attire.
“Change your clothes, Odette,” he said in a soft voice.
Her eyes popped open, and an expression of fright pulled her mouth down. “This is a new skirt. I really like it.”
Instead of answering, he opened the cabinet and drew out a jar of petroleum jelly. He unscrewed the lid and scooped out a glob of the sticky goo.
“What are you doing, Dad?”
He smeared the jelly over the detestable skirt. “Throw it in the trash. And while you’re at it, get rid of that paint you used on your face. There will be no Jezebels in this house.”
Odette gave a groan of frustration and got up. Tears rained down her face. “Why do you have to be so mean?” Brushing past him, she fumbled with the lock and finally managed to open the door.
Her sobs echoed down the hall as she ran out. Her feet pounded up the steps, and then her door slammed. It was hard to be a parent, but she’d thank him someday for making sure she stayed righteous.
With that problem taken care of, he began to review his plan. He and the good captain were out for the same thing—justice. Andreakos was still making the mistake of working inside the law. Gideon had discovered the law’s shortcomings long ago.
He would have preferred not to make Miranda wait out this cat-and-mouse game, but Eve needed to suffer before he killed her. She would enter the next life better prepared. Pain was purifying. So many of its aspects fascinated him. It was so much more valuable than most people realized.
God had given him the job of wielding the weapon of pain, and he still had much to learn about it.
He listened to his daughter sob a few more minutes, then went to the basement entrance. He unlocked the padlock, opened the door, and turned on the light. Stepping onto the first stair, he locked the door behind him before descending.
At the bottom of the flight, a steel door with two combination locks was to his left. He opened the locks and pulled the door shut behind him, then threw the deadbolt. Turning around, he stepped to the stainless steel worktable in the middle of the room.
The face he had taken wasn’t right. No matter what he did to it, it would never be right. The cheekbones weren’t high enough—the lips weren’t full enough.
He had to have Eve.
EVE CUDDLED KERI CLOSE AS THE TODDLER PUT HER THUMB IN her mouth and closed her eyes. They sat on the back porch in a rocker looking out over the big lake. The sound of the waves and the foghorn should have lulled her as much as it did Keri.
She couldn’t lose her baby. The maternal love she felt for the child had welled up the moment Keri called her Mama. Keri belonged with her. If only she could remember everything.
The screen door behind her creaked, and the heavy tread of boots moved across the wood porch. “Mind if I join you?” Nick’s deep voice was low and pensive.
“I don’t mind.” She longed to ask him a million questions.
The other rocker creaked as he settled into it. Nick cleared his throat. “You okay?”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Nick? How could you let me stay in the dark about something so important?”
“I couldn’t do it. Keri is your port in the storm, especially right now. It didn’t seem pressing anyway. I thought Patti was gone for good.”
Eve held Keri closer and pressed her lips against the blonde curls. “What are we going to do?”
“Our first step is to get a lawyer. I expect your sister to go for the throat. We have to be prepared for that.”
“I don’t know any lawyers. Do we need to get one here or . . . or—?” She stopped. “I have no idea where we live.”
“Bay City.”
The name of the town meant nothing to her. “Is that in Michigan?”
“Yes, down on Lake Huron, north of Detroit. I’d guess she’ll try to get custody now. For some reason, she seems in a terrific hurry.”
“She can’t have Keri.”
“No,” Nick agreed. “The way she abandoned her can’t look good to a judge. And she never paid one dime in child support.”
“Did you?” The words burst out of Eve.
He ran his hand through his hair. “Yes, of course I pay support. I love Keri. My lawyer drew up a generous support schedule for her.”
Eve was past feeling shame. All that mattered was the little girl in her arms. “What did I do before? Did I have a job?”
“You ran a dance studio, ballet. When you were in your twenties, you danced with the New York City Ballet. It was hard for you to give it up when we married.”
“Why did I?”
He looked at his hand and twisted the wedding ring on his finger. “It was time.”
“There’s something you’re not telling me. Don’t you think the secrets have hurt me enough?”
He shifted and didn’t meet her gaze. “It’s not important, Eve. Keeping our daughter is important—not rehashing the problems with your career.”
So there were problems. Could they have a bearing on this situation? Eve didn’t see how, but she needed to know everything in order to understand her past. The blank slate was so frustrating. “What about Keri?”
He seemed to know what she was asking. “You took her to work with you every morning, and she learned to dance almost before she could walk. You’ve always put her first.”
“Then why didn’t we put her first when it came to making sure no one could take her away from us?”
“It was stupid,” he admitted, finally lifting his gaze from his ring. “Look, don’t freak, okay? We’ll get through this. No judge in the world would give Keri to a woman like your sister.”
Eve dropped another kiss on her daughter’s head and breathed in the scent of her baby shampoo. “Were we happy, Nick? At least for a little while?”
He leaned closer, and she smelled his cologne again. She should pull away, but instead she found herself leaning toward him ever so slightly.
“We can make a new start, Eve. Go on from here.”
“What if I never get my memory back?” she whispered.
“Maybe that would be good. You’d have none of the old baggage.”
She felt cold and pulled back. “I’d be all ready for a new wound, is that it?”
“That’s not what I meant. But sometimes it’s hard to believe something can change.”
“Did it ever change, Nick?”
“Surely I made mistakes too,” she muttered. “No marriage stands or falls on one person.”
He glanced back at her, and something flickered in his eyes. “Let’s forget the past, Eve. Both of us. Some things are better left buried.”
“What did I do?”
He stood and went toward the house. “It’s time for Keri to be in bed.”
Someone from her past would tell her the truth. Maybe Will. He still hadn’t come to talk to her, but she could go find him.
NICK WAS GONE WHEN EVE GOT UP. SHOWERING AND DRESSing quickly, she found Bree in the kitchen, putting the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. “I want to talk to Will,” Eve said. “Would you take me out to that Job’s Children place?”
“Don’t you think Nick wants to go with you?”
“He doesn’t have the right to make that decision,” Eve said, aware her voice was too sharp.
Bree held up her hands. “Don’t bite my head off. I’m not too impressed with that Will guy, that’s all. He hasn’t even checked in on you since his surprise appearance. Don’t you think that’s a little strange?”
“He probably saw all the hoopla and wanted to stay out of it. But he knows things about my family, about my past. Nick isn’t telling me everything, Bree. I have to find out what I can.”
“Why do you think Nick is keeping something from you? It’s clear he loves you.”
“He didn’t tell me Patti was Keri’s birth mother. I think there’s more. Will might be able to tell me.”
Bree sighed. “Let me see if Anu will keep the kids.”
“You’re a good friend,” Eve said. While Bree called Anu, Eve went to the office and searched the computer again for anything under Eve Andreakos. She found nothing that might tell her about her past.
She and Bree rode in silence out to the forest. Samson lay on the backseat.
“Don’t be mad at me,” she told Bree when the car came to a stop in the parking lot.
“I’m not mad, Eve, but this feels like a mistake. I don’t like what I’ve heard about this place. People in town call it a cult. Nick is a good man. Can’t you feel that yourself? And you’ve had your family’s phone numbers for two days. Why haven’t you called them yet?”
Rock Harbor Series - 04 - Abomination Page 14