Wounded at the Lake

by Mitzi Pool Bridges

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “My brother,” Matt told him. “Do as he says. If it weren’t for him, none of this would have gone down.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Glad to know the big guy,” Coop said. But his mind was on Lori—on his own disillusionment and disgust at the whole operation. “The guy Thor is guarding is Bart Mallory, CEO of The Natane Corporation”

  They looked over to see Thor standing at attention as two FBI guys hauled Mallory to his feet and put him in handcuffs.

  “If the corporation is involved, as it must be, we could have the head of the biggest child sex-slavery ring in the Southwest in custody. Maybe in the entire country.”

  “Is Shafer the dead guy?”

  “He is. Lori is his wife.”

  Matt stepped back. There wasn’t much that rattled Coop’s brother. This did.

  “I thought I saw her, but changed my mind. I couldn’t put Lori here for any reason. Wasn’t Doc going to give her a test this morning to check for another reason for her amnesia?”

  “Evidently her memory returned.” Or she had been lying this entire time. Unless she was one hell of an actress, that didn’t compute.

  The coroner, the FBI forensic team, and a half-dozen HPD cops more than filled the room. Lori was nowhere to be seen.

  A gurney was brought in. Shafer was picked up and taken out.

  Mallory, cursing at the top of his lungs, was hauled out between two FBI agents. Sobbing quietly, the sisters were taken away.

  Where was the guy who had been holding the sisters? “I think someone is missing.”

  Matt looked around. “Who? We have one dead guy, the boss, his lackey, and the sisters in handcuffs. Who else?”

  “There were two big guys. One is missing.”

  Matt called over two agents and sent them to check the house and grounds. They couldn’t let a single person involved get away.

  The FBI would get to the bottom of this now and uncover the logistics. They’d find out how Shafer fit in with Mallory and The Natane group.

  Thirty minutes later, the agents were back. “We didn’t find the guy. Sorry.”

  Lori? Where was she?

  His Lori. Or so he’d thought. Who was she really? Was what they had real? Or had it been an interlude because of a memory lapse?

  His heart hurting, he looked around the room where the FBI had cleared everyone out and taken them either to jail or the morgue. He wanted to talk to the sisters, but not as badly as he wanted to talk to Lori. Later. Right now, Coop’s brain wasn’t operating on all cylinders.

  Thor walked over and nudged Coop’s thigh. He reached down and patted the dog’s head.

  “You took care of the bad guy, Thor. Now all we have to do is find Lori and get her story. Not the one Shafer spouted before he was shot, but the real one. I want to know what part she played that made her husband want her dead.”

  That wasn’t all he wanted to know, but it was a start.

  Chapter Twenty

  Donald was dead!

  Lori’s world rocked. One minute she was in love with Coop and couldn’t wait to tell him they were going to have a baby; the next she was Donald Shafer’s wife. Now he was dead.

  Her mind couldn’t wrap around what had just happened—nor around the mess that had been her life.

  Damn it to hell. Which was surely where Donald was headed. Her head reeled as she finally remembered it all. When she married him, she’d thought he was her Prince Charming. He had a beautiful home, money, was nice looking, and told her he loved her. Why wouldn’t she love him back? She’d dreamt of a man like him all her life. She’d been way too young and idealistic to see behind the façade.

  It took a year after they were married for the scales to fall from her eyes and see the truth. Donald wanted her as a possession. The wife he could parade around town in beautiful clothes—clothes she had no choice over, she had to wear only what he picked out. The same with her hair, her jewelry, shoes.

  How could she have tolerated it so long? At first, she thought he’d change back to the prince she’d met and fallen for.

  Stupid.

  And why hadn’t she known his business dealings were anything but legal? But she didn’t. Since she wasn’t allowed into his office, she’d thought he was involved in some secret government work he couldn’t talk about. Recently, she began to wonder. His business dealings didn’t bother her as much as the way he treated her. More and more she’d felt a prisoner instead of a wife. That’s when she had started planning and plotting to get away.

  “Where the hell is it?” She scrambled through the kitchen cabinets. The den overflowed with FBI, police, and others she didn’t want to think about. She had to hurry. They would be looking for her any minute.

  Unless Donald had a medical issue, there had to be a reason she hadn’t gotten pregnant. They’d never used protection and she didn’t take birth-control pills.

  Lori frantically pushed aside every can and unopened box. Check the tea. Hands shaking, she opened one tin after another. And there they were.

  The bastard had had the cook feed her the tiny pills. Furious, she threw them across the room and ran upstairs. She couldn’t wait to get out of here, but there were a couple of things she vowed to take with her.

  Bastard!

  She’d wanted babies. Begged Donald to go for tests to find out why she couldn’t conceive. He’d laughed and told her he didn’t want a sniveling brat running around under his feet. She had dropped the subject.

  For the first time, she was glad there was no child in the picture.

  In no way had Donald ever been father material.

  Once she made her decision to leave, her friend Mel volunteered to help. She’d found an attorney who wasn’t afraid to go against the wealthy Donald Shafer. The process was moving forward when the horror had happened.

  Quickly, she went to her closet and took down a box, opened it, threw the knee-high Manolo Blahnik boots to the floor and retrieved her laptop from beneath a layer of tissue paper. The precautions she’d had to take to hide everyday things—normal things—made her anger spike.

  Another box—another pair of expensive boots, and she pulled out the money she’d saved from the three hundred dollars a week Donald gave her. He’d made the giving grandiose, as if he were doing something wonderful, when it wasn’t that at all. It was another way to impress upon her how great and generous he was.

  It didn’t fool her. But she’d taken the money and made plans.

  Taking a handful of bills, she found two envelopes, put money and a thank-you note in each: one to Shorty, the other to Doc. The rest, she stuffed into the handbag Mel had given her years ago. Then she threw her cell phone on the bed and stormed out of the room. She wanted nothing here. Not the fashionable clothes, not the expensive jewelry, or makeup.

  She kept the cell phone Coop had given her. She’d need it later.

  As she ran down the back stairs, she looked down at her jeans and sweatshirt. Good enough. Better than what was upstairs.

  Once more in the kitchen, she grabbed car keys off the hook and raced to the garage. The black SUV the security men used was gone. The Mercedes Donald so generously said belonged to her, sat there alongside the sleek, black Jaguar he’d purchased shortly before he tried to have her killed.

  He loved that car and bragged about it constantly.

  She laughed wildly.

  She’d never driven the Mercedes. One of the security guys had been assigned as her driver. The women at the Country Club, the Junior League, and the Garden Club thought it sweet and considerate of her husband to be so protective.

  She knew better.

  He had been having her watched.

  Looking around to make sure there was no one to stop her, she threw the keys to the Mercedes to the ground and stepped into the Jag. I’ll take care of your precious car. Just like you took care of me.

  In minutes she was out of there. Relief, warm and sweet, swept over her. In a short
while she’d be free.

  But she wouldn’t have the man she loved. Her baby wouldn’t have his or her father. Regret sent her belly into knots. Tears blurred her vision as she swung onto Loop 610 and kept driving.

  When she could fill her lungs enough to talk, she picked up the cell phone and called Mel.

  After her friend reamed her for not calling before now, Lori made arrangements to be picked up. What would she do without Mel? All it took was a phone call and she was there. Lori couldn’t ask for a better friend.

  Her bastard husband had been smart enough to send text messages to both her mom and Mel. They thought she had been too busy with the holidays and parties to call. They should have known better. Mel had even called the house and talked to Donald. He assured her how busy and tired his wife was from all the festivities.

  On the east side of town, where the sidewalks were either missing or non-existent, where cars lined the streets, where you’d better not show your face after dark, she pulled to the curb. Minutes later, Mel pulled up behind her.

  Leaving the door of the Jag open and the car running, she grabbed her purse, and walked away. “Take that, Donald.”

  Smiling, she got into the front seat of Mel’s car and never looked back.

  Lowering the window, she threw the cell phone Coop had given her to the ground. He couldn’t trace her now if he wanted to. Which she seriously doubted.

  Her heart ached for what might have been. Her husband had been a criminal and a would-be killer. What did that make her? A sick feeling grabbed her and wouldn’t let go.

  “I presume you have a good reason for doing that,” Mel said, as she pulled onto the street.

  “I do.”

  “Good. You can explain later. After I got your call, I asked my boss for a couple of days off. I hope you’ll stay with me until your divorce is final. I have plenty of room.”

  “Thanks, Mel, but the situation has changed. I want to go home.”

  “Tell me everything. I want to know why you were too damned busy to call over the holidays. It wasn’t like you. You’ve hurt your mom’s feelings and mine aren’t that happy.”

  Lori put a hand on her friend’s arm. “Do you know how happy I am to see your face—to hear your voice? I feel like crying.” She took a deep breath. “I was dead, Mel. I couldn’t call.”

  The car wobbled. “Dead! What the hell do you mean, dead? You’re sitting here. We’re talking.” Mel’s big brown eyes swept over her. “You’re not a ghost, are you?”

  Lori laughed. “Slow down. I’m going to tell you a story that will blow your mind.”

  And she did.

  They were getting close to her mom’s. Though guilt stole over Lori for what her mom might think after being ignored through the Christmas season, she couldn’t wait to see her.

  “The bastard. Are you sure he’s dead? If not, I’m going to kill him myself.”

  “He is.” She could always depend on Mel. From the time they were kids, through high school, and despite objecting to Lanie’s marriage to Donald, she’d stood by Lori’s side.

  “I haven’t told you everything.”

  “Nothing can be worse than what I just heard.”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  “What? Shafer’s?”

  “Coop’s.”

  “How the hell do you know for sure?”

  “I know. I had just finished my period when Donald tried to kill me. I haven’t had another.”

  “Does Coop know?”

  “Of course not. I found out this morning.” Which seemed a century ago.

  “Are you going to tell him?”

  Lori shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Do you love him, Lanie?”

  “I don’t feel like Lanie. I feel like Lori. Do you think you could call me by my new name? And yes, I love the guy. Now that he knows who I am, and who I was married to, he’ll want nothing to do with me. Coop is an honest, upright, and wonderful person. He’ll never want someone like me. Right now, it’s better he doesn’t know about the baby.”

  “It’s your call, but if he’s the kind of guy you described, he would love you despite your lapse in judgment.”

  Lori laughed again. “Is that what you call it?”

  “Absolutely.”

  They passed the city limits of Lindale, a small town outside of Tyler, Texas. As Conroe was an appendage to Houston, so was Lindale to Tyler. She’d be home in minutes. Her heartbeat accelerated. How would Mom take her story?

  Familiar landmarks swept past them. The grocer’s, the gas station, and the school she couldn’t wait to leave.

  “Do you have my diploma from the University of Houston?”

  “I do. I’ll bring it the next time I come. Congratulations, by the way. You made it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “About?”

  “I’m thinking of all the things I hid from Donald; my diploma being one of them. I wasn’t as dumb as he reminded me every single day, but for some reason I guarded everything that concerned my education from him. It was my secret. Something he couldn’t take away.”

  “I think I understand. However, you were never dumb. Just stupid.”

  Lori laughed until tears came to her eyes. “Isn’t it great what you can do on a computer? Online courses never crossed his mind. Come to think of it, I don’t think anything did unless it reflected on him.”

  “He didn’t know about the money you squirreled away.”

  “I kept that from his as well. Too bad it isn’t more. What I have won’t last long. I’ll need a job, clothes, a place to live, and enough to pay the doctor and hospital. I’m going to have to get a job as soon as possible.”

  “You don’t have to do this alone, you know. If Coop is a good man like you say, he’ll take care of you and the baby.”

  “We’ll see.” She didn’t want to think or talk about that right now. The wound in her heart was too fresh.

  “Don’t be stubborn, Lan…Lori. You know, I’m not sure I can call you Lori. You’ve been Lanie to me for almost twenty years.”

  “We’ll work on it.”

  Mel pulled into the driveway. Her mom’s car sat under the carport. The doublewide looked the same. Colorful hanging baskets overflowing with bright purple petunias lined the porch overhang. She’d bet anything her mom had hauled them inside and pampered them during the cold spell. How had she ever thought this place so terrible? It was clean, neat, and paid for. Her mother was happy here. How long had it taken Lori to realize the cost of a house wasn’t important; what was in your heart was.

  Though she planned to move once she was on her feet financially, she’d never have anything but love for the home her mom had provided. Lori had never known her dad. He’d died when she was a baby and her mom never remarried. Would she follow in her footsteps? Would she raise her child alone as her mother had? Regardless of what Mel told her, the man she loved would never be in the picture. A sob caught in her throat. The road ahead didn’t look easy. But she was stronger now. Tougher. She could do it.

  “You have to go in,” Mel said after they’d sat there a few minutes.

  “I’m ready.”

  “Do you want me to go with you? Or wait until you’ve told your mom your story?”

  Lori took Mel’s hand. “Come with me. Please.”

  A few minutes later, her mom was still hugging and kissing her. When they were finally seated, and Mel had made a pot of tea, they sat on the couch while Lori told her story.

  “I’m so sorry, Mom. I made a big mistake. Donald wasn’t who I thought he was. You and Mel were right. I should have listened.”

  Lori’s mom sat next to her on the sofa wiping her tears. “You were a child when you married. And paid a huge price for that mistake. It’s time to forget it and move on.”

  “That isn’t likely to happen, is it? I’m expecting a child because of what happened—Coop’s child. He’ll want nothing to do with me now.”

  “You’ll move on with your life. You can’
t change the past, but you can start over.”

  “You’re right. I owe it to my baby.” It wouldn’t be easy, but she would do everything in her power to give this child the life he or she deserved.

  Her mother took Lori’s hand. “I’ll be here to help.”

  “So will I,” Mel added.

  Tears welled. Was it hormones? “I’m grateful. To both of you.”

  “You must be worn out; why don’t you go to your room and rest?”

  “Go ahead, Lan…Lori. Mel will help put dinner on. You’re not serious about this Lori name, are you?”

  “I’m sorry, Mom. Right now, I prefer being Lori. Lanie sounds like another person. Someone I once knew and, at this moment, don’t like.”

  She wanted to stay and talk, but she was tired.

  “I’ll work on it.” Her mom was trying, but the words weren’t very convincing.

  Lori opened the door to the room she’d grown up in. It hadn’t changed. The furniture was old, but glowed as if Mom had polished it five minutes ago. The rug was frayed, but clean. The sheers at the window were the only thing that was different.

  She sat down on the edge of the bed. Stretched out. Familiar. Home.

  She’d been right to come here. It would be good for her and good for her baby.

  Putting a hand on her flat tummy, she relived the last weeks. Relived every second she’d shared with Coop. Why did she fall for him? All of the brothers were good men, handsome men. But Coop drew her from that first day.

  He loved her. Or said he did. What did he think of her now? She fought to keep from crying. He was probably cursing the day he saved her life and brought her to the homestead.

  She stroked her flat tummy, as if comforting her child. “Your dad’s a good man, sweetie. But he may not be in our lives. Whatever happens, we’ll make it. You and I will be a team.”

  She fell asleep and dreamed of a baby girl and a man who worshipped her. The closer she got to him, the further away he floated. When she woke there were tears on her cheeks.

  Lori spent the rest of the evening catching up with her mother’s and Mel’s lives. Every so often they’d ask another question. “Whatever made you want to help with dogs? Do you really love Coop, or are you infatuated with him because he saved your life?” On and on the questions went until she was worn out. She couldn’t answer most of them anyway, and after dinner begged off, and went to bed.