SING ME HOME (Love Finds A Home - Book One)

by Jerri Corgiat

  Ignoring the photographer, he directed a hard stare at Seamus, but Belinda’s glare outdid his. “This isn’t a good time,” she hissed.

  “Wasn’t my idea.” Seamus looked over his shoulder, and they all followed his gaze to the pickup.

  A tall, slim figure marched from the far side of the truck, down into the culvert, then up the other side without pause. Her spine was iron, her curls a gold crown, and she held her head at a regal tilt. If the sight of Lil hadn’t addled him, he would have smiled. No longer an angel, an avenging queen. His avenging queen, if she’d still have him.

  Belinda drew a sharp breath. “What’s she doing here?” Beside her, Neil quivered.

  Her laser blue gaze pinned on Belinda, Lil strode right by Jon without a glance. When she was two feet in front of his ex-wife, she stopped and slapped the newspaper she held against her thigh.

  Belinda started but smiled. “I see you like the headlines. You’ll like it even more tomorrow when the judge tells me I can bring my babies home.”

  “Don’t count on it.” Lil’s voice was low, hard and even. “I may not know everything, like whose baby yours is, but I know enough to convince Judge Dougherty that the night you supposedly spent sleeping with Jon is one big whopper, just like everything you’ve ever said about him is a pack of lies. You drugged him.”

  Relief rose like a tide and carried Jon off. She knew. He didn’t know how she’d figured it out, and he didn’t care. It was enough that she knew.

  Ready to step in should Belinda threaten Lil, Jon blinked as his ex rounded on Seamus instead. “Why didn’t you keep your mouth shut?”

  Seamus only folded his arms. “Did you drug him?”

  The anger slid off Belinda’s face. She moved forward and gripped Seamus’s arm. “I’m sorry if I sounded harsh.” She searched his face. One, fat tear hovered at the corner of her eye and finally slid down her cheek. It was a fine performance. “Seamus, I’ve told you how it was. You, of anyone, should understand what I’ve been through.”

  Unmoved, Seamus just stared back with those impenetrable eyes. Jon didn’t understand the exchange, but then he could hardly hear it over the singing in his heart. Lil knew.

  Belinda’s face hardened, and she dropped her hand. “Fine. Believe what you will, it doesn’t matter.” She sneered at Lil. “After tomorrow, I’ll have what I want.”

  Lil’s chin came up. “No. You won’t. And I’ll tell you why.” Lil turned slowly and stared hard at each one of them, sparing nobody, not even him. The song in his heart faltered and fell still. Even Seamus dropped his eyes. “I have never in my life seen such a bunch of self-centered, grasping, selfish, egotistical…” Words seemed to fail her just as Neil made a gurgle of protest. “You, too, you timid little rabbit. I’m sure you knew what was going on, and you did nothing to stop it.”

  She flicked a glance beyond him at Wart-nose and the photographer darted forward, raising a video camera.

  Lil paused dramatically, then raised her arm and pointed at Neil. “It’s your baby!”

  Inwardly, Jon groaned. She didn’t know Belinda as well as she thought she did.

  Dumbstruck, Belinda stared, then her laughter trilled. “Him? You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Neil reddened and shuffled his feet. Lil’s pose fell apart. Looking confused, she dropped her arm.

  Still gurgling, Belinda glanced at Wart-nose. “Come to join the party, Walter?” She looked back at Lil. “Oh, I see. Thought maybe you could get it on tape for the judge, didn’t you? The dramatic confession and all that. So sorry to disappoint. Besides, no matter what anyone’s told you—” Her smile faded, and her look turned scathing. “It’s Jon’s baby, sweetheart. Accept it.”

  Lil’s brows collided, and Jon’s hopes plummeted. She still had doubts.

  Seamus spoke, his words low and measured. “The baby. It’s mine, isn’t it?”

  Belinda whipped around to face him. “Shut up!”

  For an instant, they were all riveted. Feeling a trickle of pity, Jon looked at Seamus. He couldn’t like the man, but he could certainly sympathize. His eyes moved to Lil’s, locked on hers and held. For a brief moment, they were the only two people in the world, and hope bloomed again. Her gaze scorched him with exasperation, caressed him with love and implored him to understand…something.

  Then Lil rounded on Seamus, on Belinda, on Neil, and her softness hardened into magnificent rage. “Did the consequences of what you were doing occur to any of you? All of you playing your little games, running your little schemes without one ounce of honesty among you. Well, let me clue you in. You’re not the center of the universe. You’re not the ones who count.” She was shouting now. He marveled. He’d never heard Lil shout. “Those children are what matter. And not one of you has put them first.”

  Silence fell, then Belinda stepped forward, clapping her hands. “My, that was a great performance, don’t you think? But I’m afraid it means nothing, Lifesaver Lil. I’ll still get what I want.”

  “Yes, it does mean something.” Lil gave Belinda a look that would melt steel. “While all of you have been busy yanking me and the children around like puppets in your sick little dramas, I’ve been busy, too. Quite busy. Busy taking care of the children. Busy establishing a business that can support us. Busy preparing a parenting plan. What do you think? Sounds to me like I’d make a good mother, doesn’t it?” She paused. “The attorney I hired thinks so.”

  Belinda’s mouth gaped, then snapped shut. “So what?”

  “This is what.” Lil swooped up the newspaper off the ground and shook it under Belinda’s nose. “The judge already knows all this. All of it.”

  Belinda’s mouth fell open again, and this time it stayed that way.

  “That’s right. He knows about the contract. He knows about the night Jon spent with you—a night Seamus is now willing to say you arranged. He knows how you hired Walter to take pictures. He knows, because I told him.”

  Jon’s euphoria faded, and grim alarm stole over him. She’d told the judge about the contract?

  She paused to let the words sink in and darted a look in his direction that again asked for understanding. With an effort, he kept his mouth shut. “I told him everything. In a confidential letter. And in the morning, before court convenes, my attorney is filing my own custody request.”

  There was a long, stunned silence.

  Then, Seamus’s closed expression cracked open, Neil tittered, and Jon felt his own jaw drop. Confused, he stared at Lil. God, what was she doing? The court had no idea of the rift between them. Surely Lil knew, especially now, that the appearance of unity between them was the only weapon he had.

  Belinda was the first to recover. “So what? You’re not a natural parent. No judge is going to give you custody. And just telling him about Walter proves nothing.”

  “That’s exactly what my lawyer told me,” Lil smiled grimly. “No judge is likely to give me custody, unless I lie like you.”

  Jon felt weak. She loved those kids. Would she destroy him to protect them?

  “But I won’t lie. I won’t need to.” She paused. “Because what he will give me is time. Tomorrow morning, you’ll pitch your lies. And I’ll pitch my petition. The judge will be furious at all this last-minute chaos. He’ll call for a recess to consider the matter.”

  Jon’s head cleared. He saw exactly where Lil was headed. She was brilliant. He wanted to applaud.

  “Big deal.” Belinda tried to sound bored, but her voice held an undernote of fear.

  “Yes, a very big deal. Because when he returns, he’ll talk about fairness, he’ll talk about confusion, he’ll talk about the need to give all parties time to respond. In short, he’ll postpone the hearing.”

  Understanding began to dawn on Belinda’s face.

  “And in that time,” Lil continued, “Jon will use all the resources he has to disprove every last, little bit of your so-called evidence. He’ll have time to take depositions from Seamus. From Walter. From your mother. And fr
om one Glory Galore. The P.I. I hired just tracked her down in New Orleans. Along with a certain photographer who did some work for you in the past.”

  Belinda’s face flashed white, then red, but Lil was relentless. “Jon will have time to do what he should have done a long time ago. Dig up all the dirt on you.” She paused. “I’d imagine that’s considerable. You’ll lose your children, you’ll lose your free ride, and you’ll likely end up in jail.”

  Jon felt a fizz of laughter bubble up. Sweet, soft Lilac O’Malley had bested Belinda. She’d bested them all.

  Belinda’s hands clenched. The cigarette holder fell unnoticed to the ground. “You bitch,” she breathed. “You bitch!” Her voice rose to a shriek, Walter yanked up his camera, and Belinda launched herself at Lil.

  “Lil!” A small figure exploded from the culvert and rocketed toward them. Before Jon’s mind could even register it was Mel, she’d darted between the two women.

  She pushed against her mother with all her slender might. “She’s not the bitch. You are!”

  Jon leaped but not soon enough. Belinda shoved back and backhanded Mel to the ground. “Don’t you ever talk to me like that. Don’t you ever—”

  “That’s enough.” Jon roared, yanking Belinda backwards and off her feet.

  Panting, Lil staggered back and pulled Mel with her. She kneeled, gathered his daughter into a quick hug, then held her out and stroked the injured cheek. “You’ll be okay,” she said firmly. “We’ll all be okay. Come on. Let’s go back to the truck.”

  Tears halting, Mel stared at her a moment, then nodded and slipped her hand into Lil’s.

  Jon fought to hold Belinda and watched Lil half-carry Mel to the pickup. After Mel was inside, she returned.

  When Lil reached Walter, she accepted the film he held out without breaking her stride, then stopped in front of Belinda. “Two can play at your game.” She held up the film. “I think the judge would like to see this.”

  Snarling obscenities, Belinda strained toward Lil. Still hearing the crack of her hand on Mel’s face, Jon’s temper shattered. Rage reddened his vision. He flung her around to face him and shook her by the shoulders. Her head flopped back and forth. It’d be so easy. Her neck would break like a twig.

  Seamus clamped down on his arm. “Think of your kids.”

  The crimson fog faded. Belinda twisted away. Making tsking noises, Neil reached for her. She slapped his hands away and stumbled back, her wild stare darting among them.

  “You’ll be sorry,” she rasped. “You’ll all be sorry.”

  Suddenly she whirled and bolted at Lil. Lil’s eyes went wide, but Belinda shot past her without a glance.

  As he guessed her real target, Jon’s heart flew into his throat. He sprinted after her, sliding on the spongy grass. “Melanie!” His feet shot out from under him, and he landed on a hip with a jarring thump. “Get out of the truck!”

  Seamus and Lil stood frozen, but as he hit the ground, understanding penetrated. Lil flung herself toward the still-running pickup, and Seamus leapt after her, but Belinda was too fast. She scrambled into the truck, fish-tailed into a U-turn that sent Seamus diving for cover and blasted up the road in a hailstorm of gravel.

  Mel’s face was a white blur in the back window.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  LIL STARED helplessly as the truck dug into rock and careened up the road. Melanie pounded on the window, her mouth stretched in shouts Lil couldn’t hear. Then she disappeared completely under the dark vault of the trees.

  Lil whipped around and ran for the Mercedes, hampered by her skirt. Jon already hobbled toward it, digging in his pocket for keys. Seamus flung open the doors and yelled at them to hurry. She heard the Studebaker’s engine grind.

  “Call nine-one-one,” she shouted as she zipped by Neil, who’d been reduced to wringing his hands.

  The car’s motor roared to life, and she dove for the front seat. She slammed her door while Seamus scrambled into the back. Jon skidded out of the drive. As they blasted past the Studebaker, Walter U-turned behind.

  She fumbled at her seat belt, then tried Jon’s phone. Nothing, no service. She threw down the cell. Gravel rattled on the undercarriage and mixed with the sound of their breathing. Condensation clouded the inside of the windows, and Jon cracked his open. She did the same, and a chill wind whipped through the car.

  She glanced at Jon. His hair streamed behind him, and his jaw was set. She touched his thigh. “Your fall. Are you okay?”

  He unclenched one fist long enough to give her hand a squeeze. They hit a pothole, and he clamped his hand back on the wheel. His profile was carved anger, but it was the fear on his features that scared her the most.

  She looked ahead but saw no sign of the truck. The last image of Melanie’s terrified face blackened her vision, her rising panic shoved the air from her lungs. Silently, she urged Jon to hurry, hurry, fighting the specters that swelled in her head. Wildly, she cast about for something else to focus on and her mind pinned on a thought. She twisted to look at Seamus, a black silhouette in the glare of Walter’s headlights. “Your baby?”

  Seamus grunted. As the Mercedes skidded to a stop at the junction to the highway, cricket song filled the car. Everything else was deathly still. Forgetting her question, Lil peered one way, then the other. Only wet blackness rolled in both directions. Jon slammed a fist against the wheel.

  “There!” Lil pointed toward Cordelia. A flash of taillights crested a hill about a mile down the road and disappeared.

  Jon stomped on the accelerator, and the car squealed, then wiggled itself straight on the pavement. They shot forward. She clutched the arm rest and prayed.

  In the backseat, Seamus stirred. “It happened last fall. Late last fall,” he started without preamble, his voice an undercurrent in the rush of the wind. “After you got married, my thinkin’ turned stinkin,’ as they say in AA. Started going to more meetings. Some at Serenity Gardens. She was there.” He blew out a breath. “Happened just like the first time. She was needy, afraid she was losing her kids. One thing led to another.”

  She turned to look at him. The darkness hid his expression, but she saw the shrug of his shoulders. “Knew it wasn’t right. Knew I was just trying to replace you. So I cut it off, but I figured I owed her. And I believed her. Paddy O’Neill said you and the country star were getting tight and it scared me, thinking what could happen. Thought what she planned to do was best. Thought whatever it took was okay. So, I helped. Some help.”

  A few mile markers blinked by, then Jon spoke. “She’s a good liar.”

  Tracking the twin, red points of light still a good mile ahead, Jon pushed the car to the limits of safety on the curving road. The guardrails on the road’s edge flashed by in long silver blades.

  Walter fell back, but the Studebaker still barreled stubbornly after them. Lil wondered if Neil had collected enough of his mind to call the police. They were the only cars on the highway.

  They crested a hill, and the straightaway cutting through the farmland on the way to Cordelia unfurled ahead like a roll of black film. Empty black film. Jon slowed, and fear flurried in her stomach. Where were they? Suddenly Jon cursed and slammed on the brakes, throwing her into her seat belt. “Jon?”

  He didn’t answer. He hooked an arm over the seat, reversed onto the shoulder in a spray of rock and was out of the car before she could react.

  She nudged her door open, and it clanked against a guardrail that ended at the back bumper. She edged through the opening. Jon had already rounded the back of the car and was half-falling down the steep slope that tumbled into darkness on the passenger side. Seamus scrambled behind him.

  She looked ahead of them and spotted what Jon must have seen. A flash of dull red masked by the deep underbrush at the bottom of the hill.

  Taillights. Blinking in the silence.

  Her mind vivid with what they might find, she fumbled in the glove box and pulled out a flashlight and a thin, first aid box. She prayed it’d be all
they’d need. Tires crunched on the gravel behind the car. Walter.

  She pointed. “Down there! We’ll need help!”

  “I’ll go,” he called back. “Cell’s out, but there’s a HiPo station up ahead.” He ducked back into the Studebaker.

  She skidded down the hill after Jon and Seamus, the flashlight beam bouncing over the ground, the first aid kit knocking against her knee. When she reached the pickup, Jon was clambering in through the passenger door. The truck leaned drunkenly against saplings on the driver’s side. A thick-barreled oak at the front had halted the truck’s plunge. Seamus waded through the brush, trying to find a path to the driver’s door. With each click of the flashers, the overhead light inside flickered and dimmed, flickered and dimmed.

  Heart ricocheting against her ribs, she pushed up behind Jon and pointed her flashlight into the truck. Melanie sat bolt upright on the bench. Hope surged as she saw the little girl had kept her head long enough to use the seat belt, but Melanie’s eyes stared straight ahead, wide and sightless.

  A black void opened under Lil’s feet, and her vision swam. No!

  Then Melanie blinked.

  Lil’s breath left her in a dizzying whoosh. Jon grappled with the seat belt. Lil backed out to give him room, then climbed onto a crumpled fender and directed the flashlight beam through the windshield.

  Through the spider web of glass, Belinda’s head lolled back. Blood trickled from a gash on her forehead. She wasn’t wearing a belt. The impact had smashed the front end and driven back the steering column. Getting Belinda out of there would take more than their hands.

  A rustling sounded behind her, and Walter appeared. He heaved himself up alongside and followed the track of her beam. “Goddamn. Highway patrol’s on its way.” He looked at the box she held. “What you got there?”

  She dropped the first aid kit in his hands. He rummaged through it and grabbed a roll of gauze. “Maybe do some good. If she’s still alive.” He started after Seamus.