by C. J. Miller
“This room looks terrible,” Jade said.
“We haven’t done any demo here,” Declan said.
“It feels empty and cold.” She didn’t want to explore that emotion too deeply. “Let’s keep going.”
Another ladder led deeper.
Declan shined the flashlight down. “I don’t see anything. It smells like wet earth.”
Jade was curious. She checked her hard hat. If she was going to do this, if she wanted to purge her bad memories and overcome her fears, she had to face them head-on. She knelt on the floor and started down the ladder. Her legs quaked and her hands felt weak. When she reached the bottom, she looked around.
Declan jumped off the ladder and landed next to her. “We can do this together.” He extended his hand to her.
Jade took his hand and was happy he was beside her. Moving aside a large plywood sheet that was sunk in the mud was a two-person job and then a tunnel was revealed. It was constructed like a mine shaft, wood beams holding out the walls with rocks along the floor. The walls were packed mud and she tried not to think about them caving in.
Jade let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Her mother wasn’t in the small space. Her mother wouldn’t be waiting in the dark on the off chance Jade visited La Bonne Vie and decided to spill a family secret.
Jade envisioned her mother as two people: the graceful and wonderful woman she pretended to be when someone was watching, and the person she morphed into when she was upset. Though Livia could maintain a cold facade regardless of the circumstances, even a husband’s death, when it came to her children, she was often more cruel than indifferent.
The tunnel was dark. Declan flipped on his flashlight. “If you want to turn back, let me know. Parts of the tunnel might be caved in. We can see how far we get.” Declan had to bend his knees to enter the space.
Jade walked behind him, keeping her hand on his back. The strength in his body was a reassurance. The confidence in his steps kept her going. Only the flashlight illuminated the small space. Her boots stuck in the mud and Jade shivered in the cold, damp air.
“I remember it being light down here,” Jade said. They turned a corner and lost the little light from the entry. Though the walls were two feet apart, claustrophobia began to creep at her. The tunnel could collapse and they could be stuck under the ground. Each step felt like effort.
When they reached another plywood board, Declan pushed it to the side. They were inside another room. This one was lined with wood on the floor and sides, creating a box, like an unmoving elevator. Declan scaled the ladder and pushed at the top. “I can’t open it.”
Panic flared, but Jade tamped it down, reminding herself they could go back through the tunnel if they had to get out. But she wanted fresh air. The humid room was musty and stale. Her imagination took flight, thinking of the people and drugs and items that had been moved between the house and barn using this tunnel.
It felt dirty and wrong. “Let me help you push.”
Declan moved to the side of the ladder and tucked the flashlight in his belt. Jade held on to the other side and they pushed at the ceiling. Their bodies pressed together on the narrow ladder.
“Count of three, big push,” Declan said. “One, two, three.”
Shoving the wood as hard as they could, the hatch flew open and Jade shielded her eyes from the light. For a flash, she imagined it was Livia standing over them.
As her vision adjusted, Jade realized she was clinging to the ladder with both arms wrapped around the metal bars. Declan was helping her out, guiding her up the last few rungs.
They were standing in Fabrizio’s barn. Unexpected emotion wrapped around her. Her father’s barn. Jade hadn’t realized how much she had remembered until she stood in the far corner, recalling everything in its place. The feed, the medicines, the saddles. Her shoes next to her father’s when they would change into riding boots.
Her father had put love and care into its construction, wanting a place for his horses, thinking about every detail, overseeing the construction himself. He had wanted a certain type of wood, and the layout was based on the one his family had in Argentina.
During the time he’d known Livia, had Fabrizio questioned how she had so much money? Jade was too young to remember, though her father had told her stories about his work in Argentina and how he had moved to America to be with Livia, leaving his family, including his five brothers. Livia had worked to ensure that Fabrizio lost communication with his family and Jade had been too timid to reach out to them, feeling they would reject her for her father leaving and for the crimes Livia had committed.
Allison entered the barn. “You made it. I was about to send in a search party after you.” She glanced at her phone. “I’ll be back in a bit. Much to do. My customer is very demanding.” She winked at Declan.
“The barn is still lovely,” Jade said. Unlike the house, it seemed fresh and bright and welcoming.
Declan looked around. “I haven’t decided what to do with the barn.”
He sounded casual, but the words rattled her. Tearing down her mother’s home—and in Jade’s thinking, that giant mansion was her mother’s alone—was okay with her. Demolishing that horrible place off the face of the earth would be better for everyone—her siblings, the town and Livia’s victims.
But the barn. Her father’s barn. Jade had memories tied to this space. Jade walked to the back. Her footsteps echoed across the emptiness, which brought a sense of sadness. At one point, every stall had been filled, hay was stacked high and the whinnies of happy horses echoed when Fabrizio would let them out to roam. Along the back wall, her father had a small desk where he had written notes about his horses. He had made notches in the wood to show her growth. Small lines with the dates written beside them.
They were still there.
Jade ran her fingers over the notches and a lump formed in her throat. Her father had doted on her, showering her with his time and love. After he’d died, Mac had done what he could, but there was no replacing her dad.
“Your father made those for you,” Declan said.
Jade spun around. Declan was standing five feet away, watching. His head was inclined and his green eyes shone with compassion. “Yes.” Jade looked up to the second-story loft. She had hidden up in that loft. It had been rare for Livia to care where she was or what she was doing. The loft had been filled with horse supplies that had reminded her of her father.
Only a few weeks after Fabrizio had died, someone had come to take the horses away. Livia had gotten rid of most of her stock. On the heels of losing her father, Jade had lost her horses too.
Jade had hidden. Hid in the loft with a book and whatever food she could swipe from the kitchen. She hadn’t announced her hiding spot to her siblings, either. Long afternoons of being alone with her thoughts had helped her grieve for her father and everything she had lost when he’d died. Gone with him were also her sense of peace, genuine affection, love and warmth. The horses, happy days spent with her father and her innocence stamped to death by Livia.
“Maybe you’d like time alone in the barn,” Declan said.
Jade shook her head, answered a question he hadn’t asked. “I don’t want you to tear it down.”
Declan lifted his eyebrows. “What do you want me to do with it?”
Options came to mind, but the most realistic was to sell it to Mac. “My stepfather would make good use of it and the land around it.” The barn was a good place for supplies or more horses.
Declan rubbed his jawline. “I know you feel strongly about this. I can see it in your eyes. I’ll think about it.” Though he was being reasonable and he owed her nothing—he owed the Coltons nothing, especially after what Livia had done to Edith and his parents—his response angered her. It was as if he didn’t understand how much the barn meant to her. While she couldn
’t expect him to fully get it, she needed him to know. “I need you to promise me that before you tear the barn down, you’ll give me a chance to buy it and the land it sits on.”
Declan set his hands over hers. She hadn’t realized she had crossed to him and her hands were fisted in the cotton fabric of his shirt.
“I thought you were invested in Hill Country.”
She had no money. Not even a few hundred dollars to spare for the application to a loan that would be denied. “I am,” she said. Frustration plucked at her. Every dime she had was tied up in her farm. Her lines of credit were fully extended. She could beg her siblings to help her buy the plot that contained the barn, but would they help her? They had their own demons when it came to La Bonne Vie. Knox, Leonor, Thorne, River and Claudia had admitted at various times over the years that Fabrizio had been a good stepfather. But Jade knew none of them carried the same deep connection she had with him. They might not be willing to do anything to keep the barn standing.
Declan touched her shoulders. “I am working with the state and the county on getting the permits to use the land in different ways. Before I move forward with anything, I will check in with you. I will tell you my plans and give you a chance to buy the plots this barn sits on.”
It was a small concession, but given her financially weak position, she would have to take it. They hadn’t known each other long enough to call on favors.
“That’s a promise?” she asked.
“Are you asking me to give my word?”
She nodded, needing him to give a firm commitment.
“My word is my bond. I will come to you with the plans and you’ll have the right of first refusal to buy the barn.”
“Thank you, Declan.” She was overcome with gratitude and reached up on her tiptoes; intending to kiss his cheek, she had pressed her lips against his.
Electricity fired between her and Declan as long slumbering desire awakened. Falling back to flat feet, she touched her lips. That kiss could have turned into something amazing. She had liked him from the first time she had laid eyes on him, and now that feeling had grown stronger. They kept finding time and ways to see each other and Jade knew without asking that it wasn’t one-sided. He liked her too. Maybe not enough to promise her the barn, but enough to care how it affected her.
Stopping the kiss was the right decision. This day had been filled with emotions and letting those spiral into a sexual relationship was a mistake. Because it wouldn’t just be about a kiss. More was tied into her feelings for Declan.
Searching for a way to segue this into another topic, any topic, Jade grasped for words. “I was the one who gave the FBI my mother’s bank account passwords.”
Declan’s eyebrows lifted. “Your mother’s bank account passwords?”
The story had weighed on her and she had never told her siblings what she had done. She had trusted Mac enough to confide in him. Telling Declan felt safe. When she had chosen to give the authorities her mother’s passwords, knowing they would help build a case against her, Jade had worried about Livia finding out and seeking retribution. She was concerned about her siblings learning what she had done. Hard to feel like family mattered given how their mother had treated them, but Livia had liked to pretend she was loyal, and Jade had liked the idea of it. “My mother kept a logbook with passwords. I found it in one of her hiding places. I memorized some of them. Not hard. They were our names, middle names and her husbands’ names and birthdays.” Telling the FBI, she had felt simultaneously like a rat for turning in her mother and justified because Livia had killed Fabrizio.
“That was brave of you,” Declan said. “You should be proud that you did the right thing under difficult circumstances.”
“Not sure proud is the right word,” Jade said.
Livia’s reach was long and she was hateful and vengeful. Her father had believed that Livia was a decent person and he had told Livia on many occasions, often after a particularly vicious fight, that she was a good woman who could do better. The belief that Livia had good inside her was misplaced. There was nothing good about Livia Colton.
* * *
Declan was seeing a side of Jade he hadn’t expected her to be honest about so soon. The Colton children were Livia’s victims, as well, but now, seeing the riotous emotions plaguing Jade, Declan had underestimated her anger for her mother.
More than that, Declan had believed the Colton children would be loyal to Livia and defend her actions. But the opposite was true. Jade had provided evidence against her mother. Though she clearly struggled with that decision, she had done what was right, and as a young woman. That had taken courage and strength. He admired her and that kiss had emotionally rattled him. The last few months had been trying for her and her family and she deserved his support and respect.
“My mother didn’t like the barn. I’m surprised she didn’t burn it to the ground after my father died,” Jade said.
Livia wouldn’t have done that—it would have cut off a useful location in her complex system of underground tunnels. “She needed the barn as another route from the house.”
Declan could see nothing of Livia in the barn. It was very different from the grand house in style and function. The elements of the barn were utilitarian.
La Bonne Vie had been her place of business, a part of the carefully crafted lie she pretended about her family. It wasn’t her home. Livia didn’t care for it as a place to raise and nurture her children. The parties she had thrown and the image she had tried to convey were attempts to hide the ugly truths in her life.
“Does your mother know that you spoke to the authorities?” Declan asked.
Jade rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know. I suspect she may know one of us betrayed her. It’s part of the reason I worry about her coming after me. She’s come after my siblings.”
“I’ll keep you safe.” Declan hadn’t considered every aspect of that statement, but he meant it. Livia had a long reach, but not long enough to get past him and his resources.
“I can’t ask you to trail me around town or come by the farm every day. You have a job,” Jade said.
He could be flexible about his work. “I’ll speak to Sheriff Jeffries. See if he’s heard anything about Livia’s whereabouts.”
“I’m sure Hawk would tell me if Livia had been seen around town,” Jade said.
PI Hawk Huntley was involved with Jade’s sister Claudia. “It can’t hurt to ask some questions. I’ve seen a dark sedan parked outside Hill Country a couple of times. I wrote down the license plate. If the authorities are watching you, that could mean they have information about Livia. Maybe they expect her to show up in Shadow Creek again.” If they did, they wouldn’t necessarily clue the Coltons in on that. From what Declan had heard, no one knew the specifics of who had been involved in Livia’s jailbreak. Jade’s older sister Leonor was wealthy. Knox was a former Texas Ranger who would have inside knowledge of the penal system. Though it was hard to imagine, and no evidence suggested it, any of them could have been involved.
“If she does, this time, I’ll be ready to face her,” Jade said.
Chapter 4
Declan parked on Main Street. It was a short walk to the sheriff’s office. Posted in some local business windows were “Knox Colton for Sheriff” signs in dark blue background, white lettering and underlined in red. Knox’s bid for local office might prove successful. Bud Jeffries was inept and Declan had heard that the town wanted him voted out in the upcoming election. Though the town wasn’t sold on Knox Colton, either, given his ties to a criminal mastermind, he was a former Texas Ranger and that carried weight. Despite the embarrassment that Livia caused him, he wasn’t turning away from the opportunity to enforce the law in Shadow Creek. It took courage to step up and not let his mother define his life.
The sheriff’s station was located next to the Shadow C
reek Mercantile. Declan strolled inside the quiet office. With the exception of Livia Colton’s crime spree and the events of late related to it, Shadow Creek was a slow town. The receptionist was seated at a scarred wood desk, surfing the internet on a desktop computer. The office needed updates that weren’t in the budget for a small town. The peeling white paint, the tile floor in a black-and-red checkerboard pattern and the dusty miniblinds, half of them closed, made the office feel dingy.
Four metal desks were set in the main room behind the receptionist’s area. Bud Jeffries’s office was in the back. Bud was on the phone, his feet propped on his desk and a can of diet cola in his hand.
Declan tapped on the door and Bud motioned for him to come in. Bud had a stain on the front of his tan work shirt and the buttons were straining. Losing five pounds or wearing a properly fitting shirt would go a long way to make him look the part of sheriff. He wasn’t Declan’s favorite person, but he had information Declan wanted. Being a visitor, Declan had no pull with the sheriff. He’d need to be polite.
Bud finished his conversation and hung up the phone.
“Sheriff Jeffries, how are you today?” Declan asked, taking a seat in the wood chair across from the older, heavier man.
“Good, Declan. What can I do for you?”
Declan hadn’t had much time to get to know the other man. Though winning over local law enforcement could help with his plans at La Bonne Vie and gain the support of the community to parcel up the land. Declan hadn’t gotten the impression that Bud Jeffries held much sway in Shadow Creek. He suspected that Knox would have an easy time being elected. Knox, or anyone who wanted the position.