Twisted Shadows

by Patricia Potter

  Sam listened intently. “And so did McGuire.”

  “Yes.”

  Nate broke in. “McGuire also had an arrangement with my boss. He approved warrants and wire taps, and milked Barker for information. He knew one day he might need Barker’s help.

  “When McGuire learned—through Barker—that Patsy’s daughter had suddenly appeared in Boston, he feared she also knew about the killing thirty-four years earlier. Just the hint of corruption would destroy him. It was his chance to take her out, and at the same time lure the mother out of hiding.”

  “So the attempts were meant to kill me, not just scare the wits out of me?”

  “Several came from Victor trying to scare you. He wanted you out of Boston. But that gave Anna deadlier ideas and she went after you in earnest,” Nick said. “Strangely enough, Anna claims she wasn’t aware of McGuire’s interest. She had hoped to inherit most of the estate because she knew I didn’t want it. McGuire, on the other hand, wanted to find both of you and obtain the gun in case Gaberra’s body ever surfaced. They were at cross purposes until McGuire figured out what was happening and let the Carrolls’ whereabouts slip to Victor. He made the trip to Chicago to keep you there. Then he would let the Merrittas do the dirty work and consume themselves.”

  “And now you’re free, too,” Patsy said.

  “Pop was the reason I stayed in Boston. He was the only family I had. Not much of one, but sometimes he tried.”

  “And now?” she said.

  “I’m ready to leave. The Merritta name isn’t worth much in Boston now. My partner and I can locate anywhere, and we both like this part of the country. It will also make it easier to administer the trust with my sister.”

  My sister. Samantha liked the sound of that. She’d liked him showing up on her doorstep to tell her in person what was happening.

  “You had something to do with that trust, didn’t you? Before you knew about me?”

  He nodded. “Pop and I had come to an understanding. He knew George and Victor would take the family back into narcotics. He didn’t want that. Both he and I understood I could never cleanse the family. Not completely. And not without a war.”

  He hesitated, then continued. “But I didn’t know about you, or that he intended to involve you. Unfortunately, he died and never really had a chance to get to know you. I talked to him the afternoon of the dinner, then the morning he died, though, and he was excited. You were everything he’d hoped for. You weren’t easily intimidated, he said, and you’re smart as hell.”

  “Do you think he was murdered?” She hated to voice her suspicion, yet somehow it had become important to know. To have everything in the open. A prelude to a fresh start for all of them.

  “Yes,” Nick said softly. “I think Anna was afraid he would change his will. But I don’t think it can ever be proven. He was taking so many medications.”

  Patsy took several steps in his direction. “Are you really going to move to Colorado?”

  “We’re thinking about Colorado Springs,” he said. “Because we have such a large international business, we need proximity to an airport. I’ll be up to Steamboat, though, to see my mother.” His eyes twinkled in a way Sam had never seen before. “There’s a certain young lady there, too. I think it’s time to do some courting.”

  Patsy’s eyes glistened with tears. She touched her bracelet, the one with the little flower that she always wore. Sam never thought it very pretty, but she knew it was her mother’s most cherished piece of jewelry. Now Patsy took it off and fingered it for a moment, then opened it.

  Sam had never known it opened.

  Patsy held it out to Nick. “When you marry…”

  Nick looked at it, and a muscle flexed in his cheek. Sam moved over and looked at it.

  There was a tiny photo of two babies, not more than several days old.

  “Paul gave that to me,” Patsy said. She looked at Nick. “You were always close to me. Always. It broke my heart when…”

  Sam leaned against Nate’s shoulder as a tear wandered down her mother’s eyes.

  Nick’s fist closed around the bracelet. “Thank you,” he said in a husky voice.

  Her mother’s lips parted in a brilliant smile. Sam knew it would take a long time for the two of them to be easy with each other. But they had made a beginning.

  So had Nicholas and Nate. They had flown to Denver together, then rented separate cars. But they even smiled at each other now. Her brother and her husband-to-be.

  “Will you be here in time to give me away?” she asked.

  Nick grinned. “Try to keep me away.”

  “And I’ll be moving to Denver to be with Nate. Mother and I plan to open a second Wonders. We can see each other often.”

  Nick and Nate exchanged glances.

  Maybe she was rushing things a bit, but now everything seemed possible. Still, it was a truce.

  A truce. Not only a truce, Sam thought, but a covenant. Both men had conquered their demons, and perhaps she had, too. She would never again expect perfection from human beings. Not from her mother. Not from her brother. Not from her husband.

  Not from herself.

  She’d been so busy trying to create the perfect life, she’d never really lived, or felt, or cared enough to look beyond the surface. She’d judged her father and Nathan and Nick. They’d all made mistakes, but they’d all been trying to protect her.

  What greater love…

  She stood on her tiptoes to kiss Nathan. “Thank you,” she said, then turned to Nick. “You, too.” Then it was Simon’s—they would all always think of him as Simon—turn. “You’re invited, too, of course,” she told him.

  “I’ll be there. Wherever you have it. David always said his daughter was something special.” He looked at her mother. “And his Patsy.”

  Sam looked at her mother. The lines around her eyes had smoothed out. When she looked at Simon, she wore a smile Sam hadn’t seen in two years.

  “For the first time in thirty years, I feel free,” Patsy said.

  “I bet Dad is smiling up there,” Sam said.

  And suddenly she realized there were probably two dads smiling. At least she hoped so.

  One she knew. One she’d never had the chance to know. But now she knew that both had loved her.

  She swallowed hard, and Nathan took her hand. His lips skimmed over hers as if he read her mind.

  “I imagine they are,” he said.

  And she knew that the very last shadow had left them.

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