“Her family must be devastated.”
“Don’t think about it anymore. The more you do, the more it will destroy you.”
“We have to do something, Luke. We can’t keep going on as though nothing’s wrong. People are dying.”
“We have to let the police do their jobs.”
“He’s too resourceful. We have to do something ourselves.”
“Like what, Kate?”
“Find the money.”
“What money? I thought you said there wasn’t any.”
“If there wasn’t any Louis would have given up a long time ago. Someone told him my father had money somewhere. We have to figure out where the money is.”
“You’re not in any shape to deal with that shit. Frankly, neither am I. We’re both walking in our sleep.”
“Then we need to rest up. I can’t lie down and take this anymore. He’s done too much harm. So many people have suffered. I can’t sit around and do the innocent thing anymore. I can’t let him go after my daughter.”
He supposed she had a point. He was worried about Hallie too. Every time she was out of his sight he was terrified Louis was going to get his hands on her.
“I’m feeling better now. I just need to dry off and we can go over things.”
He shrugged his shoulders. At this point, he didn’t have a better idea.
She got out of the tub and dried off while he went downstairs and fed Hallie. He called Nate and after hearing the news of both the fire and Sara’s death, Nate had suggested he come and pick Hallie up so she could spend the day with the twins. Even with Nate, Luke had reservations about letting his daughter out of his sight, but he knew he had to trust someone and he didn’t trust anyone more than Nate and Suz.
Once Hallie had been picked up and Luke and Kate were both showered and dressed, they headed for the attic. There were several more boxes of her parents’ things. It was time to go through them. They started with the larger ones, which it turns out were full of mostly toys. Kate took a trip back through her childhood, which hadn’t been all that pleasant.
Picking up her teddy bear, which had once been her favorite toy, she seemed to drift off somewhere. He looked up from the box he was digging through and watched her. He knew bits and pieces about her childhood. Basically, that she’d been on her own a lot. Her parents had traveled, leaving her with her sister when she’d been really young, and then by herself once she’d gotten older. She’d had grandparents she’d liked. He knew that because he’d met her grandmother once back in college and Kate had given Hallie her name. Other than that, she had no other family. It was sad. He couldn’t imagine growing up in such a lonely atmosphere. Hell, he had two brothers and a sister. His house had been anything but lonely.
“Maybe I’ll give him to Hallie,” Kate said thoughtfully, as she gazed at the teddy bear. The thing had definitely seen better days. His brown fur was faded and matted. His plastic eyes were scratched up, and his mouth was hanging off halfway. There was stuffing escaping from a small hole in the back of him.
“She likes stuffed animals,” he agreed absently.
She set the bear down and dug through the box further. There were mostly just old dolls and a couple of board games. Nothing of any value or importance.
Disappointed, she sighed. “I just don’t understand it. If there’s money, where is it?”
He shrugged his shoulders, hating the defeated look on her face. She’d been through so much in the last three years. So much misery over this supposed money. It just wasn’t right. “I’m sorry, baby. I know this has been hell for you.”
“It’s been hell for all of us,” she agreed, laying back and staring up at the wooden beams of the ceiling. “My parents were selfish and careless but I can’t see them getting themselves into this kind of trouble. They just didn’t seem like the type to have shifty friends and scary business deals. Louis wasn’t the kind of person they would have gotten involved with.”
“Maybe he didn’t seem shifty when he met them,” he suggested, leaning back next to her.
“I don’t know. I just really can’t picture them getting involved with someone like him. I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to this than meets the eye.”
“Like what?”
She shook her head, confused. “That’s just it, I don’t know. But I think maybe I should try to contact my sister. She was older. Maybe she knew more about Mom and Dad‘s work than I did.”
“The only number I have for her is the one in your address book. It’s probably different now.”
She slowly sat up. “Well, what do you say we find out?”
TWENTY-FIVE
Michelle Quincy lived in a trailer park outside of Boise, Idaho. She’d lived there for just under seven years now and she hated it with a passion. That’s what marrying three deadbeats and having five kids got you. Nothing. Of course, she’d been married to her latest loser for a little over five years. She wasn’t any closer to him now than she had been the day they’d married. She’d been six months pregnant and already the mother to three kids. Her choices had been limited.
Lighting up a cigarette, she sat down at the kitchen table and looked out the window at the kids playing in the backyard. Joey was eleven now. His daddy had been a musician, a guitarist. He’d gone off on tour with his rock band when Joey was only a year old. He hadn’t bothered coming back. He’d sealed his fate with a drug overdose when Joey was three. The next oldest was Kourtney. She was ten. Her father had been a real charmer. He’d been married with three other children. Needless to say, he had never been a part of their lives. Lindsay was next, at eight. Her father had been a used car salesman. That marriage had lasted for seventeen months, until he’d decided his secretary was more attractive to him than his wife. Finally, there was Jenny and Kevin. They shared the same bastard of a father who, unfortunately, was still her husband. He was an unemployed leach, with a bad temper.
Deeply inhaling the nicotine, Michelle let herself wonder what her life would have been like without all the deadbeats and the bad decisions. No use in wondering about the could have, should have, would have’s, she decided.
Hearing her phone ring, she grimaced. If this was another bill collector, she was going to lose it. Last week it had been the electric company threatening to shut off the power. What was it going to be now?
“Hello?” She cradled the phone against her ear.
“Hi. I’m looking for Michelle Fitz.”
Of course you are, she thought, cursing herself for putting all of their bills in her name. “She’s not here right now. Can I give her a message?”
“So I have the right number?” the voice asked. There was something familiar about it. “Who is this?”
“This is her sister.”
Michelle tensed, her heart beginning to pound. “That’s impossible.”
“Michelle?”
Michelle hung up the phone, rattled. When it rang again, several seconds later, she just stared at it. It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t Kate. This was some kind of sick joke. But who would play a sick joke like that on her?
After several seconds, curiosity got the better of her and she answered.
“Michelle, it’s Luke Garrison.”
Her eyes shut. God, it was true. Luke was Kate’s husband, and the voice before had belonged to Kate. “God, it can’t be.”
“She’s alive.” Luke told her. “And she wants to talk to you.”
“Oh my God,” she said again, reaching for her smokes and lighting up another one. “I thought she was dead.”
“I’m going to let her explain things to you,” he said simply. “I’m going to put her on.”
Michelle waited, hearing the phone rustling. Then she heard her sister’s voice again.
“Michelle?”
“God, Kate, is it really you?”
“It’s me,” the voice said softly. “How are you?”
“You’re asking me how I am when I’ve thought you were dead for three
years? What’s going on here?”
She listened while her sister filled her in on the last three years of her life. The story was unbelievable, to say the least.
“My God, I can’t believe it.” Michelle let out a sigh. “How are you doing now?”
“Adjusting. I’m just glad to be home. But things are very unsettled with what’s going on now.”
“You think this guy is going to keep coming after you? You should get out of there, Kate. Go somewhere safe.”
“Which is where?” Kate asked.
“I’d offer to let you stay here but I’ve got a full house.”
“How many kids do you have now?”
“Five. They range in age from eleven to three.”
“Joey’s eleven now,” Kate mused. “I can’t believe it.”
“Yeah. Time goes by. Yours is what, four now?”
“Just about. Hallie’s going to be starting school soon.”
Michelle felt a momentary sense of sadness. She and her sister had never been close. It seemed wrong that their kids were complete strangers. “I’d love a picture if you get time.”
“Yeah, I’d like that too,” Kate said, her voice brightening. “Maybe sometime we can get together. Just to visit, you know?”
“I’d like that,” Michelle decided, then lit up another cigarette.
“Listen, another reason I’m calling is because I wondered how much you know about what Mom and Dad did for a living.”
Michelle wondered where Kate was going with this, but didn’t ask. “Not a lot. Dad was a salesman for a uniform company I think. At least he started out that way. I kind of lost track of his work once I got older.”
“Yeah, me too. I just wondered if there was money somewhere that we didn’t know about.”
“Mom and Dad didn’t have any money. If they had, I would have been borrowing it, trust me.”
“What about any weird business deals?” Kate asked. “Do you remember anything strange going on? I mean you were older.”
“Not really. But I didn’t pay any attention to them, Kate. You obviously don’t remember the trouble I used to get into. They had their hands full.” Michelle regretted the trouble she’d caused her parents sometimes. Other times she felt they’d had it coming. That’s why she made a point to pay attention to her own kids.
“They struggled as parents,” Kate said, and Michelle knew she remembered her childhood the same way Michelle did. “I suppose they did the best they could.”
Michelle frowned at that. “They’re best is less than my worst.”
Kate didn’t comment on that. Instead, she changed the subject. “Are you still married?”
Uncomfortable talking about her latest mistake, Michelle grimaced. “For now,” was all she said. She knew Kate had the perfect life and the perfect husband. She’d done everything right, whereas Michelle had done everything wrong. That was intimidating as hell and Michelle had no intention of talking about it with Kate.
“Oh. Well, I want to give you my new phone number so we can stay in touch.”
Michelle grabbed a pencil and wrote the number Kate rambled off down. “I meant what I said about us getting together some time,” Kate added. “It would be nice to see you again.”
“Yeah, it would,” she agreed. “It’d be pretty hard for me to drag five kids to Seattle though. That’s a long road trip in a minivan without a television.”
“Maybe we could come to you,” Kate suggested.
Her sister always had been an eternal optimist. Somehow, Michelle couldn’t picture Luke Garrison traipsing into the trailer park, but she didn’t say so. “Give me a call when you feel like you can get away. We’ll work something out.”
Kate hung up and Michelle stared into space a moment, the phone still on her ear. Finally, she set it back on the cradle, still shocked.
“Well?” Luke asked, as Kate set the phone down. Her face was void of expression. From the sound of her voice as she’d talked to her sister, the conversation had been cordial. A little strained, but friendly.
“She doesn’t know anything about any money.” Kate leaned against the large mahogany desk that took up a good portion of the office. “She’s unhappy. I can tell her marriage is on the rocks.”
“Shocking.”
She frowned at him and he relented.
“Okay, okay. So what else did she say?”
“Nothing, really. She’s got five kids.”
Luke bit his tongue this time.
She rolled her eyes. “Okay so she hasn’t made the best choices for herself. I still feel bad for her. I know what kind of childhood she had and it wasn’t great.”
“Neither was yours,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, and look what I’ve been through.”
“None of that was your fault, Kate. What she’s going through is her fault. She chooses to get married every month to a new loser. She needs to get some self-respect and go to college or something—try to make something of herself, for the sake of her kids.”
“It’s easy for you to say that. You’ve got a gazillion reasons to feel secure in your bank account.”
“Yeah, and I made every one of them myself.” He scowled at her, for the first time since she’d gotten home, angry with her. “I took a lot of hits for that money, Kate. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t fun to eat the shit of a three hundred pound linebacker.”
Immediately she looked sorry and his anger dissipated. Tension was making them both say things they didn’t mean.
“I didn’t mean to say you didn’t earn your money. I’m sorry.”
“I suppose you’re right about your sister in a way. I just don’t get someone that makes one bad decision after another, without taking the time to think in between.”
“Desperation,” Kate figured. “She can’t be alone.”
He supposed that was probably true. Childhood neglect would likely cause something like that. “So what now?”
“I don’t know. I had hoped Michelle would have something to tell me.” She rubbed her hands over her face, frustrated.
“We’re tired, Kate. It’s possible we’re missing something here because we’re so exhausted. Since Hallie’s out of the house maybe we should try to get a little sleep.”
“I am tired,” she admitted.
“How tired?” he asked, his brow lifted in mischief.
She rolled her eyes. “You never get enough, do you?”
“Not really.” He grinned. “It relieves my tension.”
He headed for the stairs and she followed. When they reached the bedroom, he grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. His mouth was on hers seconds later. “I sleep better after sex.”
She grinned against his mouth. “Is that right?”
“Oh yeah. The more sex, the better I sleep.”
She laughed as he tickled her, his mouth never leaving hers. He pushed her back onto the bed and came down on top of her. He made quick work of pulling her shirt over her head.
“Luke?”
He lifted his head, his eyes locking with hers.
“Remember when we were talking about having another baby?” she asked softly.
“Yeah.”
She smiled halfway. “I don’t think we need to talk about it anymore.”
He tensed. “What are you saying? You think you’re pregnant?”
After a moment, she nodded. “I haven’t taken a test or anything, but I’m late and I’m sick and my boobs hurt. It feels pretty much like it did when I was first pregnant with Hallie.”
“Wow,” he said, for lack of anything better. “That was fast.”
“Are you unhappy?”
“No, Blue, I am not unhappy. Just surprised. I didn’t think it would happen this fast.”
“Me either. You’ve got some strong swimmers.”
He found himself smiling. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
He leaned over and kissed her, his mouth lingering over hers as he smiled against it. “You think it will be a boy th
is time?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. “I’m just happy to be here with you. I’m happy we have our family.”
He rubbed his nose against hers affectionately. “Yeah, baby. I am too.” He kissed her again, and this time she kissed him back. He ran his hands down her sides, gripping her hips and pulling her against him. She did feel like she’d put on some weight, which was a good thing. She’d been skin and bones when she’d first come home.
He moved her bra aside and let his mouth graze her nipple, his tongue swirling over it thoroughly. Then he moved to the other side. He felt her hands pulling at the button fly of his jeans. A minute later, they were undone and he was in her hands.
“I guess I’m not the only one who sleeps better after sex,” he said the words against her neck, inhaling a breath as she squeezed him between her fingers.
“You’re not,” she assured him, letting go of him only long enough to lift his t-shirt over his head. They rolled and she straddled him, going to work on her own jeans and letting him help her pull them off. When they were skin to skin, he sat up, holding her securely in his lap as he entered her. She wrapped her arms around his neck leaning over and nibbling against his lip as she moved over him.
“God, you feel good,” he said, the words coming out in a groan. He held her tightly as he rolled her over onto her back and took over, moving in and out of her with ease. Her legs wrapped around him, pulling him deeper into her and he almost lost it. He picked up the pace and felt the ripples pounding through her a moment later. He was right behind her, the climax staggering him as he leaned over and smothered her groans with his mouth.
He rested his head against her shoulder, momentarily out of breath. “You amaze me.” He said the words against her shoulder blade, his lips brushing against her softly. When she didn’t answer, he lifted his head and looked at her. There were tears streaming down her face. “What? Why are you crying?”
“Because that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
Okay, she was right. She had to be pregnant if she was getting this emotional about him saying something like that. He smiled at her. “Something tells me it’s going to be a long nine months.”
Root of All Evil Page 23