by Diana Palmer
“Four, tomorrow,” she said. “It’s usually a longer shift, but one of the girls wanted to be home when school’s out for a teacher workday, so she’s doing the night shift for me.”
“Nice.”
She grinned. “Very.”
“I’ll see you at four. We never did set a date for the wedding,” he added. “How about Friday?”
Her heart jumped. She was thinking of all the arrangements and invitations and a gown and flowers. Just as quickly, she remembered that she wasn’t going to have any of those traditional things. Not for a sham wedding. A temporary affair.
She managed a smile anyway. “Okay. Friday it is.”
“See you tomorrow.”
“See you.”
He didn’t move. He waited. She realized that he wasn’t leaving until she was inside. It was flattering. She went into the house and closed the door. Only then did she hear the car drive away.
On her way to bed, she went through a dark house. The only room alive in it was Clark’s. She poked her head in the door. Matt was sitting in front of the game console, in his chair, while Clark perched on a beanbag chair beside him. They were whacking grunts in Halo.
“Having fun?” she asked.
The two males grinned at her, looking so much alike they could have been twins.
“Never mind. Watch out for sticky grenades,” she advised.
“We’ve been sticking them on Hunters,” Matt told her.
“Does it work?” she asked, never having tried it.
“Watch,” Matt said. His avatar tossed one at the huge Hunter. The next minute, the fearsome creature was on the ground.
“Excellent,” Winnie said, giving him a thumbs-up. “I’ll have to try that. Kilraven’s coming up to take us to see Mom tomorrow just after I get off work at four,” she told him.
“Your brother…I mean, Boone, called to check on her. They said she’s sleeping and doing well,” Matt replied.
“Good. Sleep well.”
“Eventually,” Clark promised.
She shook her head and went to bed.
10
Winnie had a boring day at work. It was the norm to have a few days of routine calls and then one that taxed personnel to their very limits. On a difficult shift, there could be terrible wrecks, attempted robberies, suicides and futile foot chases after suspects that ended in frustration. There could be officers injured. There could be suspects who resisted arrest. There could be drunks with guns daring police to evict them from an abused wife’s house. There could even be dog attacks or wild animal attacks. But this day was uneventful, except for a chase after a stolen car that finally resulted in an arrest.
“Guess who made the collar?” Winnie asked Kilraven when she and Matt were in the Jaguar with him, headed for the hospital in San Antonio.
“I’ll bite,” Kilraven said.
“Macreedy,” she replied.
He gaped at her. “Him?”
“Him,” she said. She glanced at Matt in the backseat, who was frowning, curious. “He’s a deputy with the sheriff’s department. He’s famous for losing funeral processions in inaccessible places. He has no sense of direction. So when he does something like this, we’re all surprised.”
Matt grinned. “I get it.”
“Maybe Carson Hayes was right, and all he needed was a little self-confidence,” Kilraven said.
“Maybe so.” Winnie laughed.
THE HOSPITAL WAS CROWDED. Kilraven maneuvered Matt’s wheelchair through the crowds with Winnie following close behind as they made their way to Detective Gail Rogers’s room.
“Mom!” Matt exclaimed, reaching up.
She laughed and leaned over, grimacing at the painful effort to hug him. “You’re okay, then?” she asked, fighting tears.
“Of course I’m okay,” he scoffed. He sat back down and grinned at her. “You look pretty good,” he said. He was fighting tears, too, although he tried to hide it.
“I just got shot,” she said. “No big deal.”
“Right,” Matt drawled.
Rogers looked past him at Winnie and Kilraven. “I think I may have missed something. The nurses said he went home with the Sinclairs. How did he end up at the ranch?”
“We knew who his father was the minute we saw him,” Winnie said quietly. “I would try to apologize, but I don’t know where to start. Boone and Clark feel the same way.”
Gail lay back on her pillows and looked at her daughter with quiet pride. “I never tried to explain,” she said after a minute. “Your father was furious when he knew I was pregnant. I tried to tell him the child was his, but I couldn’t get him to listen. Finally, I just quit trying. I knew it was no use to try and contact any of you kids. He would have stopped any attempt and he’d have made you pay for it. I had Matt and got on with my life. He’s been a joy,” she said, glancing at her youngest child with a smile.
“That’s in between being a holy terror.” Matt laughed. “That’s what she calls me.”
“He likes to take the chair for rides down hills,” she said, making a face at him. “See these gray hairs,” she asked him, pointing at the top of her head. “You gave them all to me.”
“I like going fast,” Matt protested. “Not that I get much speed in this old thing,” he muttered. “I’m not complaining,” he added quickly. “It helps build up my arm strength.”
“We’ve got a motorized one ordered,” Winnie said, surprising everyone in the room. She smiled. “Boone had them do a one-day ship. We’ll have it tomorrow.”
“Well!” Gail exclaimed.
“You can’t argue,” Winnie added firmly. “You know how the Sinclairs are when they get the bit between their teeth. Boone and Clark want to see you,” she said then. “But they won’t come until you say it’s okay.”
She bit her lower lip. She was hesitant, and Winnie understood why. She moved closer to the bed. “We’ve all had a rough time,” she said slowly. “It isn’t going to be easy, trying to put our family back together. But we all want to. Especially me.”
Gail took in a long breath. “We can try.”
Winnie smiled. It was a genuine smile. “Yes. We can.”
“When do I get to come and stay with you?” Matt asked Kilraven. “Not that I don’t like the ranch, I like it a lot,” Matt said. “But he works for the CIA,” he said in a loud whisper. “Maybe he can use his influence to get them to hire me when I get out of college.”
Kilraven laughed. “Maybe I can. If I still have any by then.”
“I’ll bet you’ve got all sorts of top secret gadgets, too, don’t you?” he persisted.
“A few,” Kilraven admitted. “But some of them are classified.”
“Darn.”
“You can see the ones that aren’t.”
“When?”
Kilraven glanced at Winnie. “We’re getting married Friday.”
“Wow! Will it be in a church with a minister and everything? Can I come?”
“It will be in a judge’s office,” Winnie said calmly. She smiled. “Of course you can come.”
“Oh.” Matt seemed very disappointed.
Kilraven felt uncomfortable. “I want coffee.”
“I want hot chocolate,” Matt said. “Can we go get some and bring it back here?”
“I guess so. You want something?” he asked the women.
“Coffee would be nice,” Winnie said.
Gail shook her head. “They’ll never let you give me caffeine. I know. I tried to bribe one of the nurses to bring the pot in here. Vicious girl,” she muttered. “Made all sorts of threats. If I just had my service weapon…!”
“Now, now, no shooting up hospitals,” Kilraven chided. “What would people think of the department if Marquez had to bail you out of jail, and you in a hospital gown?”
Gail glowered at him. “I hate hospitals.”
“Yes, well, they save a lot of lives,” Kilraven reminded her.
“So they do.”
“We won’t be long
,” Kilraven said. He pushed Matt ahead of him out of the room.
Winnie stared at her mother with wide, soft eyes. She was trying to reconcile the memories of twelve years ago with the woman in the hospital bed.
“You’ve changed,” Winnie said finally.
“Yeah,” her mother said with a chuckle. “I’ve gotten older and meaner.”
“I meant, you…” She bit her lip. “It’s hard to put into words. I remember you always waiting on Daddy, bringing him things that he could have gotten for himself. He wouldn’t even make himself a sandwich. You were always jumping up, every time he called. You aren’t docile like that anymore. You’re like, well, you’re like the people I work with in Jacobs County,” she said with a faint smile. “They’re hard people, because they do a hard job. But they’re always there when you need them. They never let you down. That’s what I mean.”
“I let you down, though, didn’t I, baby?” she asked sadly. “I was such a wimp, Winnie. I let your father walk all over me, from the day I was sixteen and we got married. I was raised thinking that’s what women are supposed to do.” She smiled. “Your uncle Bruce was a high roller. He was flamboyant and full of dreams, funny and fun to be with. I’d never met anybody like him. He came to see your father twelve years ago and made a dead set at me. I’d been dominated and ignored and taken for granted for so many years…” She broke off. “I didn’t know he hated your father and wanted to score off him. I didn’t know that’s why he’d kept his distance from us, except for Christmas cards once a year. I fell, and fell hard. So we ran away together.” She shook her head. “We went to Vegas and I got a divorce, then we got a quickie wedding and went to the Bahamas. That was when I knew why he was always so hyper. He was a drug user. He shot up in the room, and wanted me to join him.” She lay back on the pillows, agonizing over the memories. “I used my ticket and came back to the States. I wouldn’t sleep with him. He came to see me and confessed that he’d only wanted me because he hated your father for, as he said, cheating him out of the ranch. It didn’t happen that way, but that’s another story.”
“You never slept with him?” Matt had told her as much, but she needed to hear it from her.
She shook her head. “I found him repulsive when I saw him using drugs. I could never do that. You know, I never even had a parking ticket my whole life. My grandfather was a U.S. Marshal.”
“Wow,” Winnie said, impressed. “That would be my great-grandfather.”
Gail nodded. “He was quite a guy. I used to have clippings of some of his exploits, but I wouldn’t know where to look for them, after all this time. I imagine your father threw all my things out.”
“Actually, he didn’t get the chance to,” Winnie told her. “You remember old George, who drives the cattle trucks for us?”
“Yes.”
“Daddy put the stuff out and told him to carry it off, but George hid it in the attic while Daddy was gone hunting.”
Gail was surprised. “And you didn’t throw it out, Winnie? You had good reason to.”
“I didn’t think about it,” Winnie confessed. “I was just ten years old. George said we had to keep it, and he was a grownup, so I kept the secret.” She smiled. “I hadn’t thought about it in years! All those things, even your trunk, they’re still up in the attic.” She hesitated. “You might like to come down and look at them sometime.”
Gail smiled hesitantly. “I might.”
“What happened after you got home from the Bahamas?” Winnie asked.
“I had no money, your father had cut off my credit card and emptied our joint bank account,” she said with a sigh. “I had a little savings account that he couldn’t touch, just a few thousand dollars, but it was enough to get me an apartment and a few clothes to wear. I didn’t know how I was going to make a living, but I thought about Granddaddy, and I knew I might have a future in law enforcement. I was athletic and healthy and strong for my height, and I looked younger than I really was. So I applied, and they accepted me. I did the police academy thing, graduated with honors, and got a job with the San Antonio Police Department. Last year, I got promoted to homicide detective sergeant. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. I love it.”
“I worked as a clerk for the Jacobsville Police Department for a while, before I got the job as a 911 operator,” Winnie told her. “I figured I was too soft to be a cop.”
Gail laughed. “So did I. But I seemed to fit right in.”
“Our uncle… He lived in San Antonio, didn’t he?”
“Oh, yes, he did,” she said heavily. “He was a pest, always needing money, wanting loans, wanting me to go back to your father and make it all up to him so that he could get forgiven and back in your father’s good graces.” She shook her head. “All those dreams he had, but the drugs got in the way of anything he tried to do. In the end, they killed him. But not before he’d done permanent damage to Matt.”
“Matt told us about that,” Winnie said coldly. “I couldn’t believe a man would be so coldhearted as to do that to his own nephew.”
“He could do that, and more,” she said. “He got mixed up with Senator Sanders’s hoodlum brother,” she added. “I thought he was just a ‘gofer,’ just an extra hand for the local bad guys. But he might have had his hand in more than that. I didn’t want anything to do with him, but especially after he crippled Matt and almost killed him. I swear to God, if I could have proved it, I’d have had him sent to prison for life for attempted murder. But it was only Matt’s word against his.” She shook her head. “He always could talk his way out of anything.” She lay back on the pillows with a grimace. “Then he had the gall to come to the apartment when I was working and tell Matt that he needed to borrow the motorized wheelchair. Matt’s so good-hearted, he said sure.” She winced. “He sold it to buy drugs. I saved every extra dime I had for almost a year and a half just to afford it, and then my coworkers put in the last couple of hundred dollars I was short…” Her voice trailed off.
“Matt will have a new one tomorrow,” she said gently. “It’s all right.”
Gail looked at the ceiling, fighting tears. “One stupid mistake. I made one stupid mistake, and I’ve paid for it, over and over again. If I could only go back and change it.” She shook her head. “But there’s no way. You kids paid a higher price than I did for that one mistake I made. I’m so sorry, Winnie. So sorry…!”
She was sobbing. Winnie ran to her, pulled the blond head into her arms and rocked it, crying, too.
“It’s okay, Mama,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”
The sobs grew louder. Gail had gone so long without hope, missing her children, wanting to see them. It had been impossible. Now here was her daughter, forgiving her, comforting her. It was like a new start. It was even worth getting shot.
Winnie laughed, because she’d said that last bit aloud. “Please don’t get shot again,” she said gently.
“I’ll do my best, baby,” Gail promised. She drew back, dabbing at her eyes with the sheet.
Winnie pulled out a paper towel and dabbed at her own eyes.
Kilraven appeared in the doorway and hesitated.
“Women’s Terrorist and Sobbing Society?” Kilraven quipped.
“What a great legend for a T-shirt,” Winnie exclaimed. “I’ll have some made up right away.” She glanced at her mother and laughed. “You can have one, too.”
“I’ll wear it to work and drive my lieutenant bonkers,” Gail promised, laughing.
Kilraven handed Winnie a cup of coffee in a plastic cup. “It looks weak.”
“I don’t care. It’s still coffee,” she said.
Gail shook her head. “What I wouldn’t give for a cup of that.”
“I’d let you share it, but the nurses would probably smell it on your breath and have us thrown out,” Winnie reasoned.
“Evil girls,” Gail muttered.
“I understand from the night nurse that you’ve been an interesting patient,” Kilraven said with pursed lips and twinkl
ing eyes. “Sneaking out the door and down to the street in your gown and a robe to have a cigarette?”
She glared at him. “You can’t smoke in here, they won’t let you.”
“You could quit,” he pointed out.
“You know what you could do, too,” Gail shot right back.
He chuckled as he glanced at Winnie. “See? That’s you in twenty years.”
“God forbid!” Gail said.
“Stop that,” Winnie told her. “You’re not bad.”
“I guess I ought to quit smoking, sure enough. But it won’t help my other shortcomings. I yell at people, I do terrible things to uniformed officers,” Gail began.
“What do you do to uniformed officers?” Kilraven wondered.
“Only if they threaten to mess up my crime scene,” Gail said defensively.
“What?”
“I send them to other precincts to question people I think might be involved in my cases.”
“Oh? That doesn’t sound too bad,” Winnie commented.
“I give them false names of people in lockup,” she confessed.
“And you’re calling the nurses evil?” Kilraven asked.
She glowered at him. “They won’t let me smoke and drink coffee.”
“You should quit smoking,” Kilraven pointed out.
“Oh, sure, it’s easy, I’ll start right now,” Gail said sarcastically. “Have you ever tried to quit?”
“Sure. I quit two years ago.” He frowned. “And I quit five years before that. And I quit seven years ago.” He smiled.
“Have you ever stayed quit?” she persisted.
“I’ve been clean for two years,” he pointed out. “And as long as I don’t have anything traumatic to upset me, I probably can stay quit for the rest of my life.”
Gail was looking at him curiously. “That’s a big if.”
He shrugged. “I like cigars.” He glared at Winnie when she made a face. “I’m not the only person around who likes a good cigar. They say the governor of California likes them, too.”
“Smelly, stinky things,” Winnie scoffed.
He lifted his eyebrows. “Yes? Well, if you marry me, you’ll just have to get used to them, won’t you?”