Lethal Homecoming (Tanner Hollow #1)

by Lynette Eason

  “Yes. But he missed. By a lot.” Well, not really, but right now she’d say just about anything to see some color come back into her mother’s face.

  “Obviously you need to upgrade the security around here,” Richard said.

  Callie rolled her eyes. “Mom, just breathe. It’s going to be okay.”

  Her mother opened her eyes. “That’s twice someone has tried to hurt you tonight. Someone is after you. Who? Why?”

  Megan had returned with the first aid kit and was pestering Nolan about letting her help clean his wound. So far he’d put her off and she had that half scowl, half pout on her face that boded trouble for someone if she didn’t get her way soon. Nolan must have recognized the look, because he finally relented. He didn’t resist the ibuprofen she handed him either.

  Rick’s children must have lost interest in the chaos because as soon as they gave their, “I didn’t hear or see anything statements,” they disappeared back to their rooms.

  Callie rubbed her tired eyes for the hundredth time that night and sat on the couch beside her mother. “Coming home might have been a bad idea.”

  “No,” her mother shook her head. “It was time.”

  “But look what I’ve brought with me.”

  She clasped Callie’s hand and turned her head to look her in the eye. “Did you bring it with you or was it already here?”

  Callie frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Nolan stepped back into the room and her mother stood. “This conversation will have to wait. Let’s get this taken care of then we’ll have a talk,” Nolan said.

  “Fine,” Callie said. But her mind spun. What could her mother possibly have to talk about?

  After the crime scene unit left, Callie joined Nolan in the kitchen. “What time is it?”

  He nodded toward the window. “Time for the sun to come up.”

  Megan swept into the kitchen, fully dressed and made up. “Brian’s picking me up.” She smiled at Nolan. “He’s taking me to the little café down near Red’s. Remember that place?”

  His cheeks flushed and he cleared his throat. “I remember it.”

  Callie raised a brow at the interaction.

  “Anyway, I don’t know when I’ll be back.” Megan winked at Nolan. “I’m sure I’ll be reveling in all the good memories. We had some good ones, didn’t we?”

  “We did.”

  She sighed. “I don’t know who wants to shoot Callie, but I sure hope you find him fast.”

  “I plan to.”

  “Last night was horrid.” She shuddered.

  Callie stood and hugged her sister. “I’m sorry to have brought this home with me.”

  “Just be careful and watch your back.”

  “I will.” She studied Megan. “Are you and Brian serious?”

  “Serious? Nope. Not at all. He’s just someone to have fun with right now.”

  A knock on the kitchen door pulled them apart. Brian stepped into the room and nodded. “Morning.”

  “Good morning,” Callie murmured.

  He turned his gaze to Megan. “You ready?”

  She swept past Callie and Nolan. “See you later. Stay safe.”

  And then she was gone, leaving Callie alone with Nolan. Her heart thumped a bit harder as she took her seat. “How’s your head?”

  “Pounding. But I can ignore it for the most part. How’s your throat?”

  “Sore.” She smiled. “But I can ignore it for the most part.” She glanced at the door one more time. “How serious was it between you and Megan?”

  “Not as serious as she just made it sound.”

  “Are you sure you’re remembering that correctly?”

  He snorted. “I have a perfectly fine memory of the times I spent with Megan. We had fun, but that was it.”

  “I think she wanted more. The way she was flirting with you just now says she still might.”

  “I don’t know. She doesn’t matter. Not in that way anyway.” He paused and swallowed, then met her gaze. “Why’d you leave, Callie?”

  She didn’t have to ask what he meant. Her mind tumbled back to that awful year her father had died and her mother had married Rick. “I had to. Rick was very abusive toward me. Verbally and physically.” There, she’d said the words aloud for the very first time.

  He fell silent, then cleared his throat. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  She shrugged. “I was … embarrassed.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I just was.”

  “But that wasn’t your fault. What about Megan?”

  “He didn’t touch her,” she whispered, “just me.” She lifted her gaze to meet his before looking away. What was it about her that was so unlovable? What was it about her that caused men to want to abuse her? A year ago, she’d broken off a relationship that had been emotionally devastating. She’d done a lot of healing in the time since, but that question lingered in the back of her mind.

  Nolan grasped her fingers and she jumped. “Sorry, I got lost for a few seconds.”

  “I’ve never stopped loving you, Callie.”

  She blinked. “Oh.”

  “I just thought you should know that.”

  Tears gathered. She forced them away, unable to deal with the raw emotions sitting on the surface of her nerves. “How did you get here so fast?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean the person shot at me and seconds later, you were at my door. And Jason, too.”

  “We were watching the house.”

  “Oh. Really?”

  “Yeah. The events of last night just didn’t sit well with me. I decided to come stake out your house and Jason insisted on coming along.”

  A tear spilled over. “Thanks.”

  Footsteps echoed on the hardwoods, and she swiped away the tears as her mother entered the kitchen. “May I come in?”

  “Of course,” Callie said even as her mind still reeled at Nolan’s words. He’d never stopped loving her? But … she was unlovable, right?

  Her mother fixed herself a cup of coffee and joined them at the table. She sat silent as Callie exchanged a look with Nolan. He raised a brow and she shrugged.

  “What is it, Mom?”

  With a heavy sigh, her mother lifted the coffee cup and took a sip. “I have a secret and I think it’s time to tell it.”

  “A secret?” Nolan asked.

  She nodded. “I’ve wracked my brain to try to figure out how someone would know it and why it would be something someone would want to kill Callie over, but I just can’t think of a reason.”

  Callie swallowed hard. “Okay. So …”

  “So, I think I need to tell you my story and see if you can figure it out. I’m afraid if I wait too long, someone will hurt you, but at least if I tell you the truth, you may have a fighting chance.”

  A fighting chance?

  7

  “Go on, then,” Callie said.

  Her mother twisted her fingers, then ran a hand through her hair before she cleared her throat. “Um … okay, this is hard.”

  “Just tell us, Mom.”

  “Right. Twenty-four years ago, I went to my high school reunion. Blake was out of town. Again. Callie was just barely a year old, and I was tired of being a single parent. I asked your grandmother to stay with you and looked forward to the night out. I never planned to—“ She looked away.

  “Planned to what, Mom?” Callie glanced at Nolan. The intensity on his face sent shivers down her spine.

  Her mother rubbed her forehead as though to massage away a headache—or her memories. She sighed. “I never planned to meet up with Rick—and have a one-night stand.”

  Callie gasped. Then gaped. “What?”

  Tears leaked down her mother’s cheeks. She raised a shaky hand to dash them away. “It sounds horrible, doesn’t it?” She laughed. A humorless sound that caught in her throat. “What am I saying? It was horrible.”

  Callie swallowed, her throat tight. “Go on.”

  “I
don’t know, maybe I did plan to meet him. We’d dated in high school, you know. We’d been the couple on campus. Everyone looked up to us, envied us, wanted to be us.” She shrugged. “I had seen Rick often over the years. It’s hard to avoid anyone in Tanner Hollow when you go into town to do grocery shopping or attend church.”

  “But?”

  “But that night was different. We started chatting, standing in the gym of the high school where we’d spent a lot of time together, talking about old times, reliving old memories,” she gave a small shrug, “and old feelings resurfaced.”

  “That’s understandable, I suppose,” Callie said slowly, “but you don’t act on them when you’re married to someone else.”

  “I know. And I …” She frowned. “I didn’t mean to. But I just … I don’t really remember a whole lot about the night after a certain point. I guess I drank too much, although I only remember having two cups of the punch they were serving, but the next morning, I woke up and Rick was there beside me. In the bed.”

  Callie flinched but didn’t think her mother noticed. She had a faraway look in her eyes as though seeing the events play out in her mind. “My clothes were on the floor.” Tears spilled over her lower lashes, yet she continued her story, her voice thin, but steady. “When I realized what I’d done, I was mortified. I had betrayed my husband, my vows, my child. Everything I believe in. I ran out of there, got in my car and drove home. My mother was furious with me. She’d been calling all my friends. She really let me have it once she realized I wasn’t lying dead in a ditch somewhere.”

  Callie could see that happening. Her grandmother could be a formidable woman. “Did you ever tell Dad? About that night?”

  “No.” Pain flashed. “I couldn’t. I was just so ashamed. And then …” She drew in a deep breath.

  “Then what, Mom?”

  “Then I found out I was pregnant.”

  “With Megan.”

  “Yes.”

  Callie almost couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. “Is she Rick’s daughter?”

  Her mother hesitated, then sighed. “Yes. Without a doubt she is Rick’s.”

  Pain crashed through Callie. She simply stared at the woman she thought she knew.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t even remember …” She shook her head.

  “It sounds to me like you were drugged.” Nolan spoke for the first time since her mother had started talking.

  “What?” Her mother looked up at him, blinking away her tears. “What do you mean?”

  Nolan leaned forward and clasped his hands in front of him. Callie studied him. He’d grown from the boy she’d loved into a very capable man. Who said he’d never stopped loving her. She focused on his words.

  “You said you were drinking, but not a lot, and that you don’t remember anything until you woke up. Is it possible he put something in your drink?”

  Her mother rubbed her head. “Anything is possible. Yes, of course he could have.”

  “It sounds to me like he did.”

  “But why?”

  “I don’t know. Could he have been targeting you for a reason?”

  “What reason? I was nobody.” She grabbed a napkin off the table and swiped her nose. “I’m still nobody.”

  “That’s not true. You were married to a rich older man and were the sole heir to his fortune.”

  Callie gaped at Nolan, her jaw dangling. She snapped it shut. “Of course. You’re right. I’ve seen it frequently at the hospital. Girls at parties or bars wake up to find they’ve been raped and robbed. Men and women meet a friendly person on the beach who offers to buy them a couple of drinks and they next thing they know, they wake up and are victims of a crime—if they wake up at all.”

  Her mother covered her mouth and sat in silence while she digested this. She moved her hand to her eyes and pressed. Finally, she looked up. “I don’t know. Why would Rick do that? I mean other than the obvious. Why do that, then wake up and tell me he loved me and that he’d never forgotten me? That he had hoped and prayed that he’d run into me at the reunion, and when I walked in it was as if we’d never been apart. Just … why?”

  “You had an affair with him, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.” Her mother wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Every time your father was out of town we found a way to meet. At first I said no, but … well, there’s no excuse. I eventually did and this is where we are.”

  “No wonder Dad was barely in the grave when you married Rick.”

  Her mother flinched. “Yes. I know. But Rick convinced me there wasn’t any need to wait.” She rubbed her hands together. “I was engulfed in guilt. Hated what I’d done to your father. I suppose I thought by marrying Rick so quickly, I could pretend like I hadn’t been unfaithful, that I could deny my sin.” Her voice dropped and Callie had to lean in to hear her. “He’d tried for years to get me to leave Blake, but I wouldn’t.”

  “Why not?” Nolan asked.

  “I don’t really know. I suppose most people would think it was because of his money. Rick believed that even though I tried to explain that it wasn’t. At least not completely.” She sighed. “As crazy as Blake made me and as much as I hated myself for what I was doing to him, I just didn’t want to leave him. It was bad enough I was cheating on him, that I’d had another man’s child and let him believe she was his, but if I left him …” She shook her head. “I simply couldn’t do it—and I couldn’t do that to you. You adored your father.”

  Yes, she had. And if her mother had left him for another man, Callie wasn’t sure what she would have done. “Did Dad suspect?”

  “I don’t know. He never said a word. Never treated me any different, but sometimes there was this look in eyes.”

  “What kind of look?” Callie asked. Her emotions were all over the place and she just wanted to walk from the kitchen and bury herself in her bed. Instead, she straightened and forced herself not to fidget.

  Her mother looked down, and Callie caught the sheen of tears before her lids hid all expression. “I would catch him looking at me, sometimes it was just a quick meeting of our eyes and for just a moment, there would be a look of sadness and pity that he couldn’t quite hide before he’d look away—or force a smile.” She laughed a short huff that held no humor. “I thought he knew. I was almost sure he did, but I was never brave enough to say anything. I used to wish he would just confront me, but he never did.”

  “So when he died, you married Rick.”

  “Yes. To my everlasting regret.”

  “What happened, Mom? What’s the story behind that? You’ve never told it.”

  She flinched before shaking her head. “In the beginning Rick was great.” She lifted her hands. “He was wonderful. Attentive and acted like he was crazy about me. He made me laugh and told me I deserved the moon and he wanted to give it to me. He swept me off my feet, I’m ashamed to admit.” She sighed. “At least I thought he did. Why would he drug me when he didn’t have to?”

  “Maybe he didn’t realize he didn’t have to,” Nolan said. “And it could be that he had the drug with him and was prepared to use it on the first person he had access to. But I don’t think so. My gut is screaming that he had this planned from the get-go. He knew you had money, the two of you had a history, and he knew just how to play you.”

  “But it wasn’t even my money.”

  “But it would be if your husband was out of the picture.”

  Callie went still, one part of her brain shouting at her, another part trying to push away the horrible thought. But she couldn’t ignore it. “What if Dad’s heart attack wasn’t a heart attack?” she whispered.

  “What?” Her mother blinked at her. “Of course it was. He’d had heart issues since his early twenties when he was diagnosed with cardiac syncope.”

  “What’s that?” Nolan asked.

  “It’s when the heart doesn’t pump the right amount of oxygen to the brain and you can pass out. He got a pacemaker and seemed to be doing fine. Then th
e heart attack hit and—he was just gone.”

  Callie stood to pace. “I don’t like this. I don’t like any of it. Something’s not right.” She turned back to her mother. “Go back to when he changed. What triggered that?”

  “Shortly after we were married—just a few weeks—he got a call and I heard him cursing a blue streak. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me to mind my own business and hit me.”

  “Mom!”

  “I know. I was stunned. I didn’t know what to think.”

  Callie blinked. “What was the call about?”

  “I don’t know, he wouldn’t tell me and I was too afraid to ask, but the mask was off. He was so awful.” She reached out and grasped Callie’s fingers. “Awful to me and to you.” Tears slipped down her pale cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

  Nolan cleared his throat. “I’ll look into Rick’s background again as well his offspring. Why are they here again?”

  Her mother sighed. “Rick requested it. He and his lawyer were pretty tight, so the lawyer called them. In a moment of weakness, I said they could stay here.” Her eyes narrowed. “I knew they were bad news, but I didn’t realize to what extent until after they were already here. They wouldn’t have anything to do with him while he was alive, but they’ll show up when they think they’re going to get their hands on my money because their father was married to me.”

  “And will they?” Nolan asked.

  “I truly don’t know what is in Rick’s will. I know how much money I have and I know how much he had. I suppose they’ll get that. But we signed a prenup, so there’s nothing of Blake’s or yours and Megan’s that they can get their hands on.”

  “A prenup?” Callie asked.

  “It was Rick’s idea. I told him that even without a prenup, he wouldn’t have access to certain funds because they were set aside for the girls. He said it didn’t matter, he wanted to sign one anyway. At first I thought it was because he was trying to reassure me he wasn’t after my money, but later figured out it was because he was afraid of what other people would say since we were marrying so quickly after Blake’s death. So I agreed.” She shrugged. “He was right, too. I had people comment that if they hadn’t known he signed a prenup, they would have just thought he married me for the money.” Her lip curled. “People are so self-righteous.”