Reckonings

by Cynthia Eden

  He pulled her into his arms. “You didn’t do this. It’s not your fault, none of it. I don’t care what BS the Westports spewed, none of this is on you.”

  Her arms wrapped around him. She held him tight. Over his shoulder, she could see the wreckage of her home and—

  “Someone’s coming,” Jamie said, tensing. A blue SUV was heading down her driveway. Moving slowly. Almost silently.

  Davis pulled away from her and turned toward the vehicle.

  “The fire marshal?” Jamie asked. “Is that him?”

  “No, Quint drives a county truck.” He paced toward the SUV. She could see the sudden, battle-ready tension in his body. “I’ll be damned. I told him to stay away.”

  What?

  But then Davis was hurrying toward the vehicle. The driver had braked, and he was pushing open his door. Stepping out into the sunlight. She could see his hair and the sharp angles of his face...a familiar face.

  Ice water poured through her veins.

  “Sean?” His name came from her as a sharp denial because, no, he couldn’t be standing there.

  But he heard her cry. His head turned toward her. For an instant, he actually smiled.

  She shook her head.

  And Davis drove his fist into the guy’s jaw.

  * * *

  SULLIVAN PARKED IN front of Grace Meadows. When he’d called Davis, he’d already been close to his destination. Rolling green hills surrounded the place—it looked like a scene from a damn movie.

  The first thing he noticed—well, after those hills—was that there was no security. At least, no security guards. Security cameras were perched around the perimeter, but those would be easy enough to bypass.

  If someone wanted to get out.

  He’d done some fast and frantic digging on the place before this little visit. Grace Meadows was a residential facility—a voluntary facility. That meant the patients weren’t secured there. They could come and go as they pleased.

  Has Henry been coming and going...all the way down to Texas? He hadn’t found a record of Henry flying down to Texas, but with all the Westport money, it would be easy enough for the guy to cover his trail.

  A little flirting at the front desk gave him a quick entrance to the facility. And to Henry’s corridor. He strolled across that gleaming tile. Flowers were everywhere. People smiling. Giant TVs were on the walls. This place wasn’t like any psych ward he’d ever seen before.

  Then he turned toward Henry’s room.

  And he found a man standing guard. Interesting.

  The man lifted his hand. “Mr. Westport doesn’t want visitors.”

  “I’m not a visitor.” Sullivan smiled. “I’m a counselor.”

  “No, you’re not.” The guy, all three hundred pounds of him, went into a menacing pose. “You’re an unwanted guest, Mr. McGuire, and you need to leave.”

  Well, well...so Garrison had put out his guard dogs. He’d known that Sullivan would head to Grace Meadows, and he’d wanted to make sure that there was no chance Sullivan could talk to Henry.

  Did the guy really think this would slow me down? A minor annoyance, that was all.

  Besides, Sully had already anticipated this situation.

  He glanced at his watch. Five, four, three, two...

  The fire detector shrieked, the blast truly earsplitting.

  “That means we all have to get out of here,” Sullivan murmured helpfully when the body of bulk didn’t move. “Better grab Westport and run, because if he even gets a little smoke inhalation, I’m guessing you won’t get paid.”

  The guy glanced over his shoulder. That was the moment Sullivan needed. He shoved against him, and they both went crashing in. The man inside the room yelled and jumped to his feet.

  “Well, hello there, Henry...” Sullivan began, but then his eyes widened. “What the hell?”

  * * *

  “I TOLD YOU to never come near her!” Davis yelled.

  Sean staggered back and slammed into the side of the SUV.

  “I told you to stay away, and you track her down. You come to her home?” He lifted his hand. “You—”

  “Stop it!” Jamie grabbed Davis’s hand and held on tight. “What are you doing? Stop!”

  He turned to look at her and found Jamie staring at him in horror.

  “You can’t attack him,” Jamie said. Her gaze was stark. “This isn’t you!”

  Yes, sweetheart, it is. I will attack anyone who tries to hurt you. She’d heard about his dark side before, but this was the first time she’d seen it.

  “Do you just...attract violent men... Jamie?” Sean asked, grunting.

  Davis started to hit him again.

  “Stop,” Jamie said. “He’s not worth this.” Her fingers had wrapped around his arm.

  Davis glared at the man before him. Blood dripped from Sean’s lip—he’d busted that lip. The guy had gotten off lightly. Very, very lightly.

  “I— Hell, I wanted to make sure she was all right!” Sean swiped away the blood that was dripping down his chin. “I wanted to see if the story you were spinning was real or not, and I—” He broke off as his gaze slid to the black remains of Jamie’s home. “Hell, I didn’t want it to be true.” His shoulders slumped. “I needed it to be a lie.”

  Davis slowly lowered his hand. “You drove all this way...”

  “Because I had to know.” Now Sean’s blood-covered chin jutted into the air. “I had to know if I’d done this. If I’d made her a target.” Then he looked over at Jamie. “I’m sorry. So damn sorry.”

  Jamie didn’t move.

  “God, you still look the same,” Sean whispered. “Still just as beautiful, and you still hate me just as much, don’t you?”

  Davis stepped in front of Jamie. “You sent them after her. You led the guy right to her door!”

  “I needed the money! I had nothing, nothing! And I didn’t think Garrison would hurt her. Garrison never hurt her. He just wanted to look after his son, and I—I did some checking.” He rushed to the left, trying, no doubt, to make eye contact with Jamie. But Davis just moved, too, deliberately blocking him. He didn’t want Sean even looking at her. “Henry is different! Better! He hasn’t hurt anyone! He’s on a dozen charity boards, and he’s—”

  “He killed my brother,” Jamie said, her voice trembling. “And he tried to kill me. You know what he did.”

  Davis hated the pain in her voice. He didn’t take his eyes off Sean. He was just waiting, waiting for Sean to push him so that Davis could attack.

  But Sean staggered away from the SUV. He headed toward the shell of Jamie’s house, and he just stared at it, as if he couldn’t quite believe his eyes.

  “All I did...” He kept looking at the ash on the ground. “I just... I said I’d seen you at a vet convention. You had a different last name. You were in Texas. I—I did some checking at the event. I learned you were living just outside Austin and I told him that. But the guy has so much money. So many connections—I figured he could have found out all of that information on his own! Either I told him and made a little extra cash, or someone else would have found you for him.”

  Davis glanced over at Jamie. Her skin was so pale. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and hold her tight.

  “How much?” she asked as she took one step, then another, toward Sean. “How much was my life worth this time?”

  Sean spun toward her. “I’m sorry!”

  And the guy ran to her.

  Oh, the hell he did.

  Just before Sean could reach her, Davis stepped into his path, and he knocked the jerk down. Sean crumpled fast. The guy couldn’t take any kind of blow.

  “Davis!” Jamie yelled. “Don’t!” Then she grabbed his arm again. “I can handle this.”

  But he didn’
t want Sean hurting her. Every word Sean said...it hurt. Did Jamie think he couldn’t tell? He could. He felt her pain all around him.

  Jamie released him. She put her hands on her hips and glared down at Sean. “How much?”

  Sean pushed up to his feet. His angry stare flickered to Davis. “You got cop friends down here, too? Will they save you when I press charges?”

  Davis shrugged. “Let’s find out.”

  Jamie put herself between them. “You shouldn’t be here, Sean. Go back home. You’ve done enough damage.”

  And, just like that, the guy seemed to wilt. His head sagged, and his eyes closed. “Fifty thousand. He paid me fifty thousand dollars, okay? To tell him what I knew, then to keep quiet about it. I wasn’t ever supposed to tell anyone. Fifty thousand...it can buy a whole lot of silence.”

  “Only you didn’t stay silent,” Davis said. Anger turned his words into a growl.

  “No.” Sean’s gaze slid toward Jamie. There was emotion in his stare. Regret. Longing. Sean jerked his thumb toward Davis. “When he told me what was happening to you, I couldn’t keep quiet. Hurting you was never part of the deal.”

  You should have never made any deal.

  “It’s been so long,” Sean continued, his voice roughening. “I thought he had to be different by now. I mean...so much time has passed. He’s got a job. Garrison said he’d finished his therapy years ago. Henry was supposed to be a changed man.”

  “Some people can’t change,” Jamie said. Her gaze was on Sean.

  She means you, idiot. You didn’t change. You sold her out this time just like you did before.

  “I want to make this right,” Sean said, sounding desperate. “Please, tell me what to do. How can I make this right?”

  Davis gazed at Jamie. She was staring at Sean as if she were looking at a stranger. Maybe to her, the guy truly was a stranger. She’d thought he was someone else, long ago; then she’d learned the truth.

  Just like Ava and my brothers...we’re all slowly learning the truth about what happened to our parents. What we’ve believed for so long is wrong. There are so many secrets.

  Secrets and lies. Long forgotten sins. They were everywhere.

  “Jamie, please,” Sean said, his voice sharpening. “Talk to me. We were friends, lovers. You have to know I wouldn’t put you in danger!”

  But Jamie’s laughter was so bitter. So cold. Not at all like the woman Davis knew. “Being my lover doesn’t matter. It sure didn’t matter to Henry.” She shook her head. “There’s nothing you can do.” Then she was looking away from him, her gaze focusing on the shell of her house once again.

  “You should leave,” Sean told her, edging closer to her. “I brought... I brought twenty grand with me. It’s yours, Jamie. Take it and run. Start over again. I won’t tell this time, I won’t tell anyone—”

  “I’m not going to run any longer.”

  Davis stiffened.

  “I want to have a life here.”

  With me?

  “I don’t want to keep looking over my shoulder. I want to stop Henry—stop him for good because I’ve already lost enough of my life to him. I’ve lost enough,” she said, her voice determined, her delicate jaw hardening. “And I’m not going to be afraid any longer. I ran, I hid and I lost everything. But he’s the one who should have suffered.” Her hands had clenched into fists. Tears filled her eyes, but Davis could tell—those tears were from anger. “He’s the one who should have been punished. He’s the one who should have lost everything.” Each word carried her rage, a rage that she deserved to feel. She’d held her pain and fury inside for too long. It was time to let it go.

  “I won’t lose anything else,” Jamie vowed. “He will. If he is doing this to me, then I’ll prove it.”

  We will, Davis thought. Because he was going to be at her side the whole time.

  “And there won’t be any more hiding behind his father. He’ll pay for what he’s done.” Jamie exhaled and said again, her voice determined, “I won’t lose.”

  * * *

  SULLIVAN DID A double take as he stared into that room. The man staring back at him, with wide, startled eyes...he had Henry Westport’s brown hair. He had Henry’s bright blue eyes.

  Same build. Same height.

  “Get the hell out of here,” the guard barked as he shoved at Sullivan. “Go!” Then he turned toward the patient. “We have to get out of here, Henry. The alarm is sounding.”

  “Henry” nodded. But Sullivan just blocked the doorway. “You’re not Henry Westport.” It was the jaw. This guy’s jaw was harder than Henry’s. And his brows...they were shaped differently. His nose was a little too long. Small differences, but they added up. Sullivan had studied Henry’s picture, he knew what the guy looked like.

  This man is close, but he’s not Henry Westport.

  “Of course I’m Henry,” the man snapped, and he tried to glare at Sullivan, but the fear in the fellow’s eyes made that glare worthless. “And there’s a fire, we have to leave—”

  “There’s no fire, and you’re not Henry.” Hell, a double. Someone had hired a double to take Henry’s place. How long had this been going on? Had Garrison hired the guy when his son vanished? Or so his son could vanish? Or maybe Henry had even cooked up this scheme himself.

  “I’m Henry Westport,” the guy snapped again, and he even had a clipped New England accent edging the words. A nice touch, but total baloney. “Look, you need to get out of here. You need—”

  The guard charged at Sullivan. All three hundred bulky pounds of him. Sullivan sighed, sidestepped, then grabbed for the fellow. He let the guard’s own momentum work against him, and soon he was crashing into the wall, hitting hard enough to stun, then slumping toward the floor.

  Sullivan smiled at “Henry.”

  “So...how about we try this again? Who the hell are you? And where’s the real Henry Westport?”

  The man stepped back. His gaze swept the room, as if seeking an escape. There wasn’t one.

  Sullivan closed in on him. “We can do this the easy way...you just tell me what I want to know...” He rolled his neck, loosened his muscles and said, “Or in five minutes, I’ll have you begging to tell me—”

  “I’ve been here a little over a month!” the guy squeaked. That fancy accent was gone. “They paid me...hell, it’s like a free vacation. I’ve done it before, whenever the guy needs to slip away. Easy cash.” He put his hands up in front of him. “It’s just like an acting gig!”

  No, it wasn’t.

  “I’m an actor!” the fellow said, voice frantic. “This helps to cushion me, you know, between jobs. So what if a rich and famous guy wants to slip away—doesn’t hurt anyone, right?”

  Wrong. Dead Wrong.

  “Where is the real Henry Westport?”

  The actor licked his lips. “I have no idea.”

  Chapter Ten

  The new lover was in his way. An annoyance that would have to be eliminated. But some research had shown him that it wasn’t just one McGuire that he had to worry about. It was the whole damn family.

  Private investigators. Ex-military. Not such easy prey. He’d have to be careful with them. Maybe...perhaps it would be easier to work around them.

  He watched as the vehicles drove away. They’d all been right there, staring at the torched remains of the house. Jamie had even walked toward him at one point. Had she sensed that he was close? He’d been staring straight at her, not daring to move at all. She’d inched closer. Closer.

  The wind had lifted her hair. Tossed it against her cheeks. She was blonder now. Her hair streaked with gold. From all the time in that Texas sun? And her body was curvier. But her eyes were still the same. So big, so innocent. So—

  Lying.

  She had plans of her own. He’d heard her. She thou
ght to get some payback? Anger had whipped within him at those words, and it had taken all of his self-control to stay still. But lunging out and attacking then—no, that wouldn’t have been smart.

  Three against one. Those odds weren’t to his advantage.

  Better to attack...one on one.

  Better to take Jamie away. To lure her to me.

  And he knew exactly how to make that happen.

  Sean Nyle had proven to be so useful over the years. He’d hated the man, of course; he was sleaze, but a useful sleaze. It was time for the man to be of use again.

  So he waited, waited until the vehicles were completely gone, then he finally moved. His muscles were stiff, and pinpricks shot through his feet as feeling came back to his toes. How long had he been still? He wasn’t sure.

  He’d just come out there on a whim, wanting to be close to Jamie. Then she’d appeared.

  We’ll always be linked.

  He hoped she understood that. She needed to see that no other would ever understand her the way he did. What they shared—no one could touch it.

  And they’d better not try.

  He started his motorcycle, revving it up. He knew a short cut that would take him to the main road. He might even beat the other cars there. It was a good thing he’d taken his time learning this area. It made it so much easier to hunt his prey.

  I’ll start with you, Sean...because you aren’t getting in my way.

  It was better to begin with the simplest prey.

  * * *

  DAVIS STOPPED HIS vehicle in the lot of Jamie’s clinic. They hadn’t spoken during the ride over. Jamie had been staring out of the window, seemingly a million miles away from him.

  He wanted her back with him. In the here and now. He didn’t want to lose her to ghosts.