by C. J. Miller
Jade recognized Beatrice Lake when she stepped out of her house. Jade slid lower in her seat, hoping the glare of the morning sun hid her. Beatrice was one of the members of The Victims of Livia Colton who had protested outside of her house. But now, it blew her mind to think about how close Declan had been living to his mother and yet they hadn’t connected.
The same way that Livia Colton was in Shadow Creek and she remained elusive.
Declan was halfway out of the car before Jade realized his intentions. She scrambled to follow him, wanting to be close without crowding him. He stood at the end of the sidewalk, silent and unmoving.
His mother started when she saw him. “Oh, you surprised me.” Beatrice looked at Jade and her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing at my home?”
Declan folded his arms across his chest. “You’ve been to her home. At least she isn’t shouting and holding a sign. You know we could. I have a lot to say about a woman who protests a Colton, but threw away a child.”
Beatrice’s mouth fell open. “How did you know that?” The words escaped on a choked whisper. “I never told anyone.”
Then her hand clamped over her mouth and she started to cry. “You’re Declan. You’re the little boy I gave away.”
She fell to her knees and covered her face. Declan said nothing. He wasn’t moving. Perhaps her display of emotion was enough to prove she felt bad. She was speaking, but it was impossible to hear through her sobs.
A man came out of the house, alarm written on his face. “Bea! Beatrice? What did you do to her? Who are you?”
Beatrice’s daughter came to the screen door, but she didn’t come outside.
Beatrice’s husband was yelling now, confused. “Who are you people? Wait, I recognize you. You’re the daughter of Livia Colton. The youngest one.”
The words didn’t upset Jade the way they usually did.
Declan stepped in front of Jade protectively. “I’m Declan Sinclair. Beatrice is my mother.”
* * *
Declan felt no obligation to stay, but he had come this far and he had questions to ask his mother. Jade sat quietly on Beatrice’s back porch. Her husband was fixing them iced tea and her daughter was watching from the window.
“I’ve thought of you every day since I left you,” Beatrice said.
Small comfort. “Why? Why did you leave?” Declan was keeping a lid on his anger. His mother didn’t look the way he remembered. She had deep lines around her eyes and mouth and across her forehead. Of slender build, she seemed almost frail.
“I couldn’t take care of you,” Beatrice said.
“You felt the only option was to drive me across state lines and leave me on the street?”
Beatrice flinched but Declan didn’t feel he had to temper his words. It was the truth of what had happened. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“Why Louisiana? Do you know how scared I was? I had never been there.”
Though his volume was low, the sharpness in his tone was brutal. If Beatrice started to cry again, Declan would leave. His mother had disappointed him then and she was a disappointment now.
Instead of breaking down, Beatrice straightened. “You had been to Louisiana before.”
Declan stared. Not that he could recall.
“When you were a little boy, your father and I took you there for Mardi Gras. You loved it. It was exciting and fun. You danced and clapped along to the music and you gathered so many beads. When your father killed himself, all I could think about was that happy time and how much you liked Mardi Gras. I thought about Livia Colton coming for you. You don’t know how evil she was, Declan. She controlled this town. She made people disappear. I didn’t know what danger your father had put us in getting involved with her. I felt I had to protect you. If I went to the authorities and asked for help, they would have taken you, but then she could have gotten to you.”
Declan heard the fear and desperation in his mother’s voice. “You could have run and stayed with me.”
“That would have been the right thing to do. But your father committed suicide and I was going out of my mind with fear and worry. I made a terrible mistake. By the time I realized that and tried to find you, I’d learned you were in the foster system. I didn’t have money for a lawyer to get you back and I knew my mistake would cost me,” Beatrice said.
Declan heard her love for him. She had cared. She had been sick and panicked, but she had cared. That realization opened a part of his heart he had closed off.
“How are you involved with The Victims of Livia Colton support group?” Declan asked.
Beatrice glanced at Jade.
“Please, tell him. It’s okay,” Jade said.
“I needed to be part of a group who understood my anger. After our family broke down, I lost everything. I had nothing. Your father had spent our savings on gifts for her. He took out a loan against the house for her. He ran up our credit card bills. Without him and being upside down on the house and in debt, I fell apart. What I did to you was wrong and under other circumstance, incomprehensible. But at the time, I did what I could to protect you. I admitted myself to a mental hospital. When I was better and I started my life over, I kept tabs on you. I never told anyone you were my son. I felt like I would be taking credit for something I didn’t do. But I have never stopped loving you, Declan. Do you want to meet your sister, Sarah?”
She had been lingering in the doorway. At the mention of her name, she came outside.
Declan extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Declan.”
Sarah ignored his hand and hugged him instead.
* * *
Jade caught a glimpse of Declan through the window. He was standing behind her house with wood between two sawhorses to create a makeshift table. In front of him were unrolled scrolls of paper, held open with gray rocks on each corner. At the sight of him, her heart beat faster. He had mentioned earlier that day he had something special planned for the night. It had been on her mind for hours; she’d been wondering.
It was two-dollar margarita night at El Torero’s, but she had the feeling it was something more than that. In the last few days, since talking to his mother, he had been acting differently. Not in a bad way. The conversation with Beatrice and Sarah had changed him.
Beatrice had spoken to The Victims of Livia Colton group and they had toned down their protests. They were still running their website and dedicating themselves to bringing Livia to justice, but the Colton siblings hadn’t reported any protests at their homes.
Jade tapped on the window and Declan looked over his shoulder at her. He waved her outside. Jade was barefoot and she slid on a pair of sneakers she had lying by the back door.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked. The weather was warm, but the occasional breeze felt great. It made her happy to have a job working outdoors.
“Making plans,” Declan said.
He was looking across her land, the fenced pasture where she grazed her horses and beyond that, the untouched land she hadn’t yet made plans for. More room for her horses and maybe an expansion of her stables. “Plans for what?”
He stepped to the side and showed her the drawing he was looking at. White paper with blue sketches. It almost looked like her father’s barn and it took her a minute to follow.
“You want to move my father’s barn here?”
He nodded. “I spoke with Allison and she has a specialist in mind for the job. You’ll have a piece of your father with you at Hill Country.”
Tears of happiness filled her eyes, blurring her vision. “That’s incredibly nice of you. What made you think of it?”
“I saw the look on your face when I spoke of the barn. When you were looking around inside it, I could see the happiness on your face. I want you to have it.”
Jade hugged him.
He
was trembling slightly.
“Are you cold?” Jade asked.
Declan released her. “I’m not cold. I have something important I want to talk to you about.” Then he dropped to one knee and took a ring from his pocket. Holding it out to her between his thumb and index finger, he knelt before her. “Jade, I need you in my life. I love coming home to you each night and I love our conversations. Most of all, I love you. Will you be my wife?”
Jade couldn’t take her eyes off Declan’s. “Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you too, Declan.” She threw herself against him, knocking him to the ground.
They laughed and Declan slid the ring on her finger. “I also have one more piece of news.”
Jade’s heart already felt so full, she didn’t know if she could take anymore.
“I called your father’s family in Argentina. After I move the barn, they will deliver a foal that is a descendant of one of your father’s favorite horses. Your grandparents would very much like to meet you and get to know you.”
Jade and Declan sat in the grass. Jade laid her head on Declan’s shoulder. “For so long, I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. That I was an outsider in my family and since I had lost my father, I didn’t belong anywhere. But now I feel like I’m part of something more.”
They sat outside as the sunset and the moon rose higher in the sky, the shiny lights from the stars twinkling above them, like good luck wishes for the future.
* * *
Jade couldn’t take her eyes off her engagement ring. It had only been four days and every time it caught her eye, she felt butterflies all over again. Declan was at physical therapy for his shoulder and she had time to think about their wedding.
Funny, she had never considered herself the type of woman who wanted a big wedding, but now, she couldn’t stop thinking about flowers and dresses and menu ideas. Obviously, she would invite her whole family and their significant others and Declan’s mother, stepfather and half sister. They would move on from the hurts of the past and build something real together.
She heard a noise behind her and turned to welcome Declan home. His shoulder was doing much better and his physical therapist expected he would regain full use of it.
When she turned, she came face-to-face with her mother holding a gun. Livia looked tired and ragged. Jade had last seen her mother appearing put-together and in control. Now she was wearing ill-fitting clothing, the roots of her hair were dark. Jade felt physically ill. Fear and horror rolled over her.
“Hello, Jade. It’s been a long time. Where’s your boyfriend?” Livia asked.
The protesters hadn’t been around in a few days and now Jade wished they would come by. Or that anyone would. “He’s not here.”
Livia sneered. “Obviously. He has something I need. Take out your phone, very slowly, and call him.”
Jade reached into her back pocket and withdrew her phone. With quaking hands, she called Declan.
“Hey, just finishing up here, about to drive back to the farm,” Declan said.
“Declan. I have a problem. Livia is here. She wants something that only you have.”
* * *
A key. Livia was holding Jade at gunpoint demanding a key.
As he drove, Declan called Knox. Knox said he would alert the authorities, the local sheriff and the FBI, and meet Declan at La Bonne Vie. Declan’s heart was racing and he felt almost light-headed, but he had to stay focused and get to Jade. Livia could kill her and finally have the revenge she craved. She wanted the key, but Declan trusted nothing Livia said or did.
Livia’s instructions were to bring the key from La Bonne Vie to Hill Country in twenty-five minutes. Drive time alone would take him most of that. Four minutes had passed. His heart was racing and the adrenaline firing through his body was making him simultaneously tuned up and dizzy. To think clearly, he had to stay calm. With Jade’s life in Livia’s hands, that was impossible.
Declan got out of his car, leaving his high beams on to illuminate the house. A key. Something so small in the house. If it wasn’t exactly where Livia said it would be, if it had been moved during construction, he wouldn’t find it. Jade would die.
Headlights turned down the long driveway. Declan didn’t wait. He entered, knowing the tear-down process had left the house unstable. The floors seemed to shake under his feet. He located a flashlight. The electricity had been turned off in the house and he didn’t have time, nor did he know if it was safe, to turn it back on to help aid his search.
He took the stairs to the bathroom where Jade had showed him the hidden cabinet behind the bathroom vanity.
The last time they had looked, it had been empty.
“Declan? Are you here?”
Knox’s voice. “Upstairs.”
Declan pulled off the door to the secret compartment and felt inside. He couldn’t find the key. His arm wasn’t long enough to reach to the back.
Knox entered the bathroom. “How can I help?”
“We need to move the vanity. Livia believes there’s a key in this cabinet, but I can’t find it.”
Together, they tore the vanity from the wall, throwing it out into the hallway. Then they resumed the search.
With better access, Declan patted around inside the enclosure. The key wasn’t there. Using the flashlight to illuminate the space, Declan caught a flash of metal glinting back at him.
Nailed to the top of the compartment was a key. He pulled down on the head of the nail, but it wouldn’t budge. “I need a hammer!”
The construction site had a few lying around. Declan maneuvered inside the small space with the hammer and pulled down on the nail, freeing the key. He caught it in his palm.
“This better be it,” he said.
The clock was ticking and Knox and Declan raced to their cars. Declan would need to drive like a madman to reach Hill Country in time.
* * *
Livia had instructed Declan to come alone. With Jade’s life on the line, he wouldn’t risk angering Livia. She had asked him to leave his car keys in the ignition with the car running. Once she had the key from La Bonne Vie, she would take off.
Livia was waiting for him in the barn. When he entered, Jade was sitting on the floor by her goat pen. The goats were bleating and pigs were moving around their pen, obviously agitated.
When Jade lifted her eyes to meet his, terror shone in them.
“I have the key,” Declan said, holding it up. “Let Jade leave and you can have it.”
Livia didn’t look well. Her face was gaunt, her hair stringy and greasy. Gray hair streaked through her once blond locks. Her clothing was torn and dirty. “You are not in a place to negotiate. Toss me the key.”
Declan threw the key high and to the right. Livia reached for it, taking her attention off Jade. Jade rolled away and Declan launched forward, tackling Livia. His shoulder burned where he had been injured, but he ignored it. He had to protect Jade.
Declan reached for the gun, forcing Livia’s arm away. The gun went off.
Adrenaline fired through him. Knox, Mac, River, and Thorne had been waiting outside. They rushed into the barn.
Livia was shrieking and fighting to get free of Declan’s grasp, but he wasn’t letting her get away. She had to be stopped. Her reign of terror ended tonight.
Knox, River and Declan subdued Livia, tying her hands behind her back.
“I will never go back to prison,” Livia said. “Be smart. I have allies. Rich allies. Let me go and I’ll make it worth your while. This key is important. It’s the only way to open a security box I have with priceless treasures. One of these coins, and you’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams.”
Then Roman Blackwell had been right about the coins. Livia did have them hidden away.
“You killed my father. You are a liar and a cheat. Why would a
ny of us let you go?” Jade asked. Her voice was calm and Declan was thrilled she had this opportunity to speak her mind.
Livia narrowed her eyes. “You. It was you who turned me over to the authorities.”
Declan hugged Jade and ignored Livia’s ranting. No one was interested in a bribe from Livia. “I am so glad you’re safe.”
“Isn’t this interesting? Matthew Sinclair’s little boy falling for my daughter,” Livia said.
Declan heard manipulation and calculation in her voice. She was likely already thinking of ways to hurt them and pull them apart. The trouble with Livia’s plan was that he and Jade were stronger than ever before. Nothing could tear them apart. They had truth and trust between them.
“You betrayed your family, your own mother, and for what? So you could go live in a run-down ranch house with Mac?” Livia’s voice was shrill and shrieking. The more Declan and Jade ignored her, the more panicked she seemed to become.
Mac glanced over, but said nothing.
“Mac was a better parent to me than you ever were,” Jade said.
Livia snorted. “One of you will let me go. This isn’t how family treats each other.”
The Coltons exchanged glances. They weren’t releasing Livia. They had their own definition of family now: the people who kept each other safe, the people who loved each other. Livia wasn’t part of either of those.
Special Agents Monroe and Fielder arrived on the scene. They handcuffed and leg cuffed Livia. She shuffled to their car and they pushed her inside. As they watched her drive away, a sense of relief washed over Declan.
He wrapped his arms around Jade. “I was terrified she would kill you.”
“I thought she would kill me too,” Jade said. “While I was waiting for you, she ranted about the problems she had with my brothers and sisters. How none of us helped her in prison and how she would make us pay by killing us.”
“She can’t hurt you now or ever again. She’s out of our lives forever and I’ll be at your side for the rest of your life, making sure of it,” Declan said.
“And now we can have a fresh start and a new life together.”