Cold Image

by Leslie A. Kelly

  “None taken. Mine weren’t decent.” It was true. There wasn’t much anyone could say about the glamorous Lincolns that she hadn’t told herself multiple times. “If you’re asking why they dumped Isaac there, it’s because they’re complete narcissists who were incapable of caring about anyone but themselves. Isaac disturbed their perfect, ice-cold lives, especially once I was far away.”

  “So they stuck him there because they didn’t want him around?”

  “Yes, plus he went a little crazy when I left the country to work in Afghanistan.”

  “What were you doing there, anyway?”

  “Counseling soldiers with PTSD.”

  He maintained his stoic expression, but she definitely wondered what was going on behind those dark, gleaming eyes.

  “I should never have left him alone with them, but I very much wanted to do it. I was working with Doctors Without Borders, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do that once I had Isaac full time after he turned eighteen.”

  Her words got a reaction; his eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? You were a volunteer?”

  She shrugged. “I wanted to give back, and I could afford it.”

  His mouth curled again, just a bit. It didn’t look like a potential smile this time, more like the start of a sneer. “Nice.”

  She knew exactly what he was thinking. It wasn’t flattering.

  “I live on my own money, not my parents’. I make a pretty good living, you know.”

  If that sounded defensive, it was because it had been. She’d gotten her undergrad degree by working her ass off and earning an academic scholarship. Yes, she was lucky she’d had an inheritance from her grandparents to pay for medical school, but at least she hadn’t had to take anything from her parents.

  Having no student loans enabled her to build up a nice savings account in the two years she’d worked in New York once she’d been certified. So she could afford to take a year off to volunteer overseas. It had wiped out much of her savings, but the experience would have been well worth it…if not for what had happened to Isaac.

  “Sorry again.” He grunted. “I keep thinking the worst and saying shitty things to you.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I suspect that’s par for the course.”

  Gaping, he stared directly at her. She stared back, not intimidated.

  Mistake. Looking at him head on made her quiver. She simply couldn’t ignore her fascination with those handsome, masculine features; there was no denying his looks would inspire any woman to make a complete fool of herself.

  She didn’t consider herself a fool, yet Kate felt her heart skip a beat, and her stomach did a funny little flip. Being the focus of this man’s undivided attention was disconcerting. Shocking. She didn’t like it…and yet she did.

  “Touché,” he said. And then, as if she hadn’t been fascinated enough, that mouth widened into a genuine smile and amusement tripped out of it in a deep, throaty laugh.

  God in heaven. He’d been heart-stopping when dour. The smile took him up to soul-shattering. She was finding it hard to even breathe, wondering how many women had seen that genuine smile and lost their hearts—and their clothes—right on the spot.

  She swallowed, hard. “Umm…where were we?”

  She knew where she’d been—deep in her seductive imagination. But she hoped he’d be able to pull her back from the edge.

  “So, you were going to take your brother once he came of age,” he said, not going back to the subject of her work with soldiers, or PTSD. She knew he’d been in the Army a few years after 9/11, and figured his combat days had been as traumatic as the soldiers she’d worked with. He obviously didn’t want to address them.

  “Yes. I thought the timing would work out well. He would finish high school, I’d finish my nine months and come back, he’d move in with me and I’d help him get through college.”

  “Sounds like it was a good plan,” he replied, his voice gentler than she’d ever heard it.

  “I thought so.” She dropped her head, twisting her fingers together until she crumpled the corners of the pages she held. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I know they did something to him, hurting him, physically or emotionally, until he couldn’t stop himself from lashing out.”

  “I’ve done my fair share of that.”

  “But you had the chance to grow up and straighten out on your own.”

  He nodded to concede the point, a frown forming as he, too, realized Isaac had never had that chance. “What’d he do that was so heinous he ended up at Fenton?”

  “After a string of other bad behaviors, he stole our father’s prized 1937 Benz Roadster and smashed it through a wall at the country club.” He’d sworn to her that he hadn’t intended to crash the car, merely to take it to give their father a good scare. She hadn’t entirely believed him. “It was the last straw. Father was livid about the car. Mother was humiliated in front of her friends. They dumped him at the academy, without even contacting me.”

  His tone didn’t change, so she wasn’t sure if he was trying to make her feel better or merely stating fact when he asked, “What could you have done?”

  “I could have come back and brought him to live with me right away!”

  “Come on, Doc.”

  Doc? Nobody ever called her Doc. Katherine, Kate, Doctor Lincoln. Never Doc.

  She didn’t like it. It implied…closeness. Intimacy. Not something she wanted in her relationship with a man who already bothered her in ways she hadn’t yet defined.

  Bullshit. You’ve defined them. Her logical brain just didn’t want to admit it.

  “I’ve known people like your parents. Do they ever willingly give up control of anything they think they own—like your brother? You can’t honestly believe they would have let you take him, be kind to him, when they thought he should be punished.”

  Kate had been tormenting herself with the what-if’s for months, and was used to taking the blame. Now, though, she felt a tiny quiver of absolution glide through her. She’d thought the same thing, of course, which was why she and Isaac had decided he wouldn’t move in until he was eighteen. But it was nice hearing it from someone else, even a near-stranger who had never met her brother, or her awful parents.

  “You gotta let it go. It’s hard—believe me, I know it’s hard. But you have to do it if you ever want to move on.”

  The tears she thought she’d stopped crying months ago dampened her cheeks. “I will,” she said, angrily wiping them away with her hands. “After.”

  She was about to thank him for his help and his concern when he abruptly turned his attention back to the computer screen. His chair lurched forward as he pushed himself under the desk, presenting his back to her, a broad, solid wall that silently screamed Keep out.

  Derek Monahan was a private man. A hard man. Yet he’d let down his guard with her, had offered her consolation and kindness. And he didn’t like it one bit.

  “The whole place is under a fucking black cloud,” he said as he hit print again. After finding stories about the students, he’d begun reading about the history of the facility, which sat on a couple-hundred acres of secluded land, ten miles outside of the city. “Talk about a blighted setting.”

  “Wait until you see it up close and personal,” she said.

  “Tomorrow night,” he murmured.

  That took her by surprise. “What?”

  “They have sporting events Saturday nights that sometimes run late, so tonight’s out. It’s gotta be tomorrow.”

  “But you’ll be working there by Monday morning.”

  “I know. I want to scout it out first.”

  Once he was an employee, he would have more leave to wander the property, but he would also be more recognizable and, perhaps, questioned about his curiosity. A clandestine visit made a lot of sense.

  “Okay. I’m coming with you.” She hated the thought of prowling that place in the dark of night, but knew he would need her. Besides, her brother had endured it. She added
steel in her voice, expecting him to argue. “Don’t say I can’t.”

  “I’d hoped you would.”

  Kate’s jaw unhinged. Had he really just said that? She’d expected an overprotective, woman-stay-home attitude from such a gruff, hard-looking man. “Seriously?”

  “Of course. The whole point of me going late at night is so you can come along and show me what you’ve found so far.”

  “You surprise me,” she murmured.

  “Why?”

  “You project one image, but you aren’t stubborn. You’re smart enough to take help when it’s offered, and you don’t try to shut me out because I’m a woman.”

  “Did you think I was some kind of caveman?”

  Actually….

  He grinned. “Aside from the fact that Julia and Olivia would have beaten any lingering misogyny out of me by now, I spent half my life with a forward thinking grandmother and a strong aunt. Weaker sex my ass.”

  Though curious about why he would have spent half his life with a grandmother and aunt, she didn’t pry. Kate liked the relaxed, almost boyish look on his face, sensing it didn’t appear often. With that expression, he looked almost like a different—though equally sexy—person. Frankly, she wasn’t sure which she liked better. This side appealed to her a lot. But, being completely honest with herself, so had the surly, long-haired, bad-ass guy she’d met in Julia’s office. Which, she wondered, was closer to the real Derek?

  She didn’t wonder for long. They were both Derek, of course. During the hours they’d spent alone together, she’d already realized he was a complicated mix of sexy and sultry, angry and rebellious. Smart and tender, caustic and tough.

  And he fascinated her more by the minute.

  Smile fading, he glanced away. “Anyway, I need to look at any particular places Isaac mentioned to you. It’s not as if we can walk around on the campus together in broad daylight.”

  Definitely not. “We can’t be seen together by anybody at Fenton. The headmaster might have me arrested for trespassing if he finds me there again.” He had warned her of that the last time she’d gone there to snoop around, having security escort her out.

  “There’s a prime example of how rotten the place is. Banning the family member of a missing loved one says they’re more interested in keeping secrets than in helping find a lost kid.”

  “I figured that out when the local police did the most cursory investigation after I filed a missing person’s report. My parents’ attitude didn’t help.”

  “Looking at the map, it appears the place is right outside the Savannah-Chatham Police district. Too bad. Liv’s husband is a detective; he could be a big help on this. I know for sure he wouldn’t have looked the other way.”

  “The school is policed by a small force in the nearest town. I don’t even think they have a detective squad.”

  “Isaac’s wasn’t the first they blew off, from what I’m seeing.” He shook his head, the rigidness easing out of him in a slow breath as his broad shoulders slumped the tiniest bit. “Those boys don’t have a chance. Jesus, your poor brother. Sounds like he wasn’t a bad kid, just one in need of affection. He sure wasn’t going to find it there.”

  Hearing the genuine feeling in his voice, Kate looked into his dark eyes, seeing the way they softened with sadness. She couldn’t look away, torn and confused by the emotion she saw there, suspecting he didn’t often show it. Something warm and human washed between them, a tide of understanding, and she realized she’d gotten to know a lot about this man in that one moment. He might hide his feelings behind his hard façade, but he definitely had them.

  “No, he didn’t have nearly enough love in his short life,” she murmured, appreciating the expression of genuine sadness for Isaac. The rest of his loving family certainly hadn’t shown it.

  “Have you ever thought….” He shook his head and began to swing his chair back around toward his desk. “No, never mind.”

  “What?” she prodded.

  “Forget it.”

  Kate scooted her own chair closer, until she sat right beside him, their legs brushing. She tilted her head at an angle, forcing him to face her. “Say it.”

  A beat. Then he put it out there. “Have you ever wondered if Isaac wasn’t actually your parents’ kid? And maybe that’s why they treated him like shit?”

  She immediately shook her head. “I remember my mom being pregnant. She bitched and complained for eight-and-a-half months.”

  “Huh.” He waited. As if expecting her to read his mind.

  Suddenly, she did. “Are you saying….”

  “That maybe he wasn’t your Dad’s?”

  Kate stiffened. Although she had no real feelings for her parents anymore, there was something instinctive and human that made her react defensively. “No. It’s crazy.”

  “Forget I said anything.”

  But she couldn’t.

  She’d never let the thought enter her mind before, but she supposed there had been a moment or two during her life when she’d wondered. Oh, not that her mother had cheated and conceived her younger sibling with another man, but that something strange had happened to explain their complete lack of concern at his disappearance.

  “My father was always awful to him, and they look nothing alike,” she murmured, wondering why a rich, successful man would be fairly indifferent to his daughter, but outright hateful to his only son and, ostensibly, heir. “My mom’s just a stone-cold bitch to everyone.”

  Kate’s thoughts churned, knowing his explanation made sense. She could certainly picture her beautiful, selfish mother having affairs, as she knew her father had. Maybe the long years between her birth and Isaac’s meant something after all…that Isaac Lincoln II hadn’t been able to father another child?

  “I suppose it does make sense,” she said, not feeling much, other than another heaping helping of sadness for Isaac.

  “Maybe,” he said. He turned, staring at her. “But Isaac was 100% your brother, no matter who fathered him.”

  “Of course he was. I wouldn’t care if they’d found him on their doorstep.”

  Which was why she had to find out what had happened to him. No matter what.

  He swung away again. “You hungry?”

  The quick subject change startled her. Sensing he was angry at himself for getting into a private conversation, she went with it. “A little.”

  “Pepperoni?”

  “Sure.”

  He picked up his phone, barking a quick voice command, placed an order, and put it back down. She had to laugh. “You have pizza delivery on speed dial?”

  “I don’t cook a lot.”

  “Since they know to deliver here without you even giving an address, I assume you work late a lot too?”

  It was late—after eight o’clock. They had the office suite to themselves, his boss, Julia, having popped her head in to say goodnight about twenty minutes ago. Having been so focused on what they were doing, it hadn’t really occurred to her that this entire suite of offices was empty. She was alone with dark and sexy Derek, who had affected her physically at first sight, and was now tugging at her emotions as she got to see glimpses of the man within.

  She didn’t need to be adept at self-evaluation to understand why she suddenly shivered. It wasn’t with fear. It was attraction. Her most feminine side had been dormant during these past months of worry, fear, frustration and grief. This completely unexpected man had awakened it.

  “Yeah, I guess I do. I live outside of the city, and hate to shop, so carry-out and delivery are my two favorite meals. You sure you’re okay with pizza?” A half-smile. “I figure you’re more used to five-star dining.”

  “Are you kidding? I would have given my right hand for pizza when I was overseas. That stuff they served on base barely qualified.”

  “Tell me about it. Gooey bread with ketchup and sprinkled parmesan.”

  “It was better than the some-kind-of-meat loaf.”

  “But nothing beat the mystery glop
on toast.”

  They both laughed, sharing a memory, reminding her that, despite outward appearances, they did have a few things in common. Including time spent in another world, practically on another planet. She hadn’t been carrying assault weapons, merely a pen and some empathy, but they had both seen the devastating results of battle. She only hoped Derek had had somebody like her to help him deal with its aftermath.

  The pizza arrived quickly, a loud knock telling her the delivery guys were probably used to pounding to get the attention of the lone occupant. He left the office, going through the dark reception area to get it. Coming back and putting it on the only clear part of his desk, he grabbed paper plates and napkins from a nearby shelf. His every move was efficient and precise. She’d noticed that about him before. There wasn’t a languid bone in his body—he was always focused, in action and in speech. She suspected the brief lapse into personal conversation a little while ago had been a rarity.

  He confirmed it by getting right back to work as they ate.

  “Okay, I’ve done a lot of research on the property, as well as checking every available map. According to the most recent satellite images, there are a lot of structures on the site.”

  She quickly swallowed. “Do you know what the land was originally used for?”

  He nodded, grim and disgusted. “A Confederate prison camp.” He mumbled something under his breath. “This is gonna be fun.”

  “It’s even worse than you think. It’s a boggy swamp out there—useful for nothing except dumping captured northern soldiers, and then tuberculosis patients, and then the mentally ill.”

  “And now, wayward boys. The place is damned.”

  Kate didn’t actually believe in such things. Or, at least, she hadn’t. Now, though, she was working with a private investigation agency that dealt with the supernatural, and they had her full confidence. Maybe it was possible a blight of negative energy could linger over land so saturated with darkness, torment, and death.