Like a Love Song

by Camille Eide

“You won’t get far. Don’t even try it, Brandi.”

  Joe left the chapel and went toward the house, looking back several times to make sure the girl didn’t slip out. He stopped on the front porch, where he could keep an eye on the chapel. Praying the girl wouldn’t pull any more stupid stunts, he stepped inside and hollered at the guys to get Miss Roberta.

  Vince threw Joe an odd look, then said maybe she and some of the girls were in the kitchen.

  Joe went in, but the kitchen was deserted. He checked the utility room, then went out back. She was probably with the other kids, caring for animals in the barn.

  But the barn was also empty.

  Joe returned to the front yard, chilled clean through from the wind. He was shivering not only from the cold, but also from what he’d just witnessed. A girl had to be really messed up to pull something like that.

  As Joe waited on the lawn, the ramifications of Brandi’s behavior began to sink in. What if he’d been a different kind of guy? There were scumbags who would have taken advantage of a girl in that situation.

  She’s a mess, Father. She needs Your help. Her life is in a dangerous place right now.

  Joe paced the length of the lawn, nearly frozen in only a beer-soaked T-shirt. Freezing and wandering around outside was ridiculous. He needed to get Bertie out there to deal with Brandi. And someone needed to call Sue.

  Wait—how long had he left the chapel unguarded? He needed to make sure Brandi was still in there before he did anything else. As he turned to go, the front door opened and Bertie stepped out onto the porch. Joe breathed a sigh of relief and bounded up the steps. “Good. I was looking for—”

  “Hold it right there, Joe.”

  He met her at the door and stopped. “What? Why?”

  The sound of shrill crying came from deep inside the house.

  Joe glanced toward the chapel and then back at the house. “Is that Brandi?”

  Bertie sniffed him, her lips clamped tight. “Sorry, but you’re gonna have to wait out here. The police are on their way.”

  “Police?” Dread raced ahead of the suspicion forming in his brain, numbing him as the picture came into terrible focus. “Bertie, I don’t know what she told you, but—”

  “What she told me and how you both look adds up to some very serious charges.”

  “Charges? She’s lying, Bertie.” He fought to keep his voice from booming. “You know she lies. I can tell you exactly what happened—”

  “It’s out of my hands. Assault and attempted rape are capital offenses, especially in a home like this. I’m bound by law to report this. We’d be spread across every newspaper and sued ten ways to Sunday if I didn’t.” Bertie turned toward the girl’s cry. “Best for everyone if you just stay put, Joe. Let the law do what they need to do. Sorry.” She stepped inside and closed the door with a firm click.

  He stared at the door.

  This was just a nightmare.

  It had to be.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  As Sue passed the Stewart farm, another twinge gripped her chest.

  Sold.

  Juniper Ranch was no longer hers. The deed was signed, no turning back.

  Sue reached for her phone to call Bertie, but it was dead.

  Keeping her phone charged hadn’t exactly been foremost on her mind last night. She turned her attention to the snow-dusted road ahead.

  How had her dream come to this?

  She knew exactly how. A blend of bad planning, trusting the wrong people, and circumstances beyond her control. But the death of her dream wasn’t what tore at her.

  She’d grown to love those kids. That was never part of the plan. How could anyone take in these kids and not get emotionally involved? Her heart hurt like crazy, and they weren’t even gone yet. Had she really believed she could avoid this?

  Rounding the last turn, the ranch came into view. From a distance, the snow-capped roofs, white and glittering in the afternoon sun, resembled a sandcastle topped with sugar. A steady wind pulled at the powder on the rooftops, tugging up bits of snow into swirling clouds that disappeared into the vast sea of white.

  Nothing I love ever lasts.

  Sue turned onto the ranch’s road and drove toward the house.

  Joe.

  Sue forced his dimpled smile out of her mind. Signing over the deed felt more final than she’d expected. Juniper Ranch was history. Time to accept that she needed to put Joe and the kids behind her, just as she had everyone else she’d lost. Chalk it up to another lesson learned the hard way and move on.

  Alone.

  A green sheriff’s cruiser was parked in the staff lot.

  Apprehension nudged her on and she continued up the drive, pulse quickening. When she rounded the curve, she stopped. Another cruiser sat near the shop, two men standing beside it.

  She scrambled out of the car.

  High-pitched yelling from the porch sent her heart racing.

  “Sue!” Bertie called down from the porch. She appeared to be restraining Brandi.

  The girl sobbed as alarmed faces gaped from the window.

  Sue hurried toward the house, limbs numbing with dread, worsened because she didn’t know what to fear. “What’s going on?”

  “He hurt me!” Brandi pointed with a shaking arm at the squad car and tried to pull away from Bertie’s hold. “That monster tried to rape me!”

  “What?” Sue whipped around to see the men near the deputy’s car.

  A uniformed officer.

  And Joe.

  Joe? No, oh no, it can’t be true.

  But his ex-mom did say—

  Dread raced through her, deadening her limbs.

  Joe caught her eye and mouthed her name.

  “Court said he was deviant. Fancy name for a filthy pervert. I wouldn’t trust him alone with her for a second.”

  On legs threatening to buckle, Sue stumbled toward the cop car. The officer stepped forward, but Sue skirted around him and faced Joe.

  His shirt was wet and smeared with blood, and so were his hands and cheek. “Sue, I need to tell—”

  “Ma’am, are you in charge here?” the officer asked.

  She ignored the cop and took a step closer. “Joe? What’s—” A gust of wind brought the smell of alcohol to her nostrils. Her stomach clenched. “You’ve been drinking?”

  “The girl is lying, Sue. When I found her—”

  She spun away as he spoke, nausea welling.

  The girl is lying.

  Joe’s voice droned on as a decades-old memory filled her senses, chilling her again with the same realization.

  You stop your lying, Suzy! You just want to ruin what I got.

  She closed her eyes to shut out the sting of betrayal, of being defenseless and alone. Not again. Someone had to listen to the girl.

  “Ms. Quinn?” the cop said.

  Sue turned.

  The deputy positioned himself between Sue and Joe. “A minor in your care has made charges of sex assault against your employee. Child Protective Services are on their way to collect the girl. We will be conducting an investigation and need your cooperation. Now if you’ll please go inside, Officer Richards will …”

  As he spoke, Sue looked at Joe again, dazed by a train of disjointed facts.

  Sex assault. Alcohol. History of abuse. A hidden past. Accusations and lies.

  Brandi broke free of Bertie’s hold and ran down the porch steps, her hair a mess, her sweatshirt torn. “Look what he did to me!” She stopped in the middle of the yard and pushed up her sleeves to reveal blood and dark bruises on her upper arms. “He hurt me, Miss Susan! He was too strong, and I was so scared.”

  Horror shattered something deep inside. She spun around to Joe.

  His face was grave. “Sue—”

  “How could you?” The words were shrill and distant, like they came from far away, from someone else. “I t-trusted you.”

  “Ma’am?”

  Trembling, Sue turned to the officer.

  “Any i
nformation you have about his character or behavior would help us sort this out.”

  Another queasy wave rolled through her. Leia’s words, the ones he’d said were lies, echoed in her mind. Sue closed her eyes. “The courts removed him from his childhood home for … sex abuse.”

  When she opened her eyes, Joe was staring at her, his face a stony mask.

  The deputy nodded. “I think we’re finished here for now. Mr. Paterson, this investigation will go more quickly if you cooperate. We need you to come to the station for questioning.”

  Joe’s eyes never left Sue’s as the officer opened the back door and gestured for him to take the backseat. He studied her a few more long seconds before he climbed in.

  Sue watched the squad car back up. Her heart lurched.

  Bertie hollered at her to come inside.

  But she couldn’t move. As the car retreated down the drive, her world crashed down around her.

  What have I done?

  Heart sinking, she squeezed her eyes shut tight, suddenly certain that the departing police car was a sign of the worst mistake of her life.

  * * *

  While Bertie stayed in the kitchen with the kids, Sue tried to calm the girl. But after half an hour, she still hadn’t been able to get anything coherent out of her.

  When two caseworkers from Child Protective Services arrived, Sue showed them to her office, and then went to get Brandi.

  The girl was seated on the stairs, still a sniveling mess.

  Sue had never seen her so distraught.

  He was too strong, and I was so scared.

  She had seen the bruises on Brandi’s biceps and couldn’t think about them without feeling ill, those angry purple marks and dried blood that screamed brutal attack across her flesh. “Brandi, the CPS women want to talk to you,” Sue said quietly. “And they need to take you to the hospital for an examination.”

  “No. I hate hospitals. I won’t go.”

  Sue studied the girl’s fear-laced expression. “I know, but it’ll be okay. It’s just a routine part of this kind of investigation.”

  “Don’t let them take me. Please?”

  “I’m sorry, but you have to go with them, Brandi. I have no say in this. They need to do their job. No one is going to hurt you, I promise.”

  Sue and Brandi met the women in the office and listened as they went over the protocol. They would remove Brandi for an interview, examination, and temporary relocation.

  Brandi would not like being relocated, but it wasn’t up to Sue. Until the county completed their part of the investigation, the minor involved would not be allowed to stay in a home where there had been allegations of abuse. In fact, Sue could face the removal of all her kids.

  As a shaken-looking Brandi left with the state workers, Sue felt a nagging need to get away and process everything, get her head on straight. But she had no time to deal with her own emotional mess. A kitchen full of disturbed teens awaited answers and reassurance.

  Sue entered the kitchen and met the faces of her remaining kids.

  Bertie hushed the chattering voices and raised tired brows at Sue.

  “Everything’s going to be okay, guys. Brandi is going to talk to the people at the hospital and get some help.”

  Chaz stumbled forward, eyes rimmed with red. “What about J-man?” His voice crackled. “What’s going to happen to him?”

  Several kids started talking at once, their voices a collective maelstrom of confusion.

  How much had they seen and heard? “Listen, guys, please.” When the room stilled, Sue went on. “The police are talking to Mister Joe now, and they’ll do whatever it takes to do what’s right. That’s all I know. The best thing for us to do is get back to our regular routines and move forward. Together. We can do that. Okay?”

  Vince, Tatiana, and Haley threw glances at each other, murmuring things Sue couldn’t hear.

  Cori turned teary eyes at Sue. “But is he coming back?”

  “What fairy tale have you been smoking?” Chaz threw Cori a glare. “Whenever things go wrong, people leave and never come back. That’s how it is.” His voice sounded choked. “He was the only one who ever treated me like a normal kid. J-man’s like what a dad’s supposed to be. He was the best one I ever had.” His face reddened. “This stinks.”

  “Stinks,” Daisy echoed.

  Sue closed her eyes as the impossible heaviness pressed on her again. What she wanted to say was, Yes, this stinks. In fact, everything about this is so wrong, so upside down, that all I want to do is curl into a ball and cry.

  The rest of the evening passed in a weighty hush, a wary silence Sue knew too well from her own days in a group home, when no one knew when another kid would be sent away or who would be next.

  Sue and Bertie took their respective places on bed watch, which now meant Sue would sleep on a cot in the girls’ hall and Bertie in the boys’ dorm. Bertie didn’t mind running doubles—triples if she included sleeping bed watch—but running the woman 24/7 wasn’t an option.

  In the morning, Sue would call the temp agency for help. Though she had given Linda and Karla notice, the ranch was still in operation for ninety days. Sue needed to either bring the two women back or replace them.

  Sitting on her cot in the girls’ hallway, Sue stared at her phone, too wound up to sleep. She punched Layne’s number, hoping it wasn’t too late to call.

  Layne answered and listened as Sue relayed the day’s events in low tones.

  “Will they do a rape kit on her?” Layne asked.

  Sue winced. Talking to her friend about all this was supposed to calm the chaos in her heart, but it wasn’t helping. In fact, the more she talked, the more agitated she felt. “I don’t think so, Layne. She claims things didn’t get to that point, that the … attack was interrupted when he heard something and took off.”

  Layne didn’t respond, and in the silence, something in Sue revolted again. The scene she just described made her sick. Of course, the idea of a large, powerful man attacking a teenage girl would repulse anyone.

  But that wasn’t it.

  “Sue?”

  What kept nagging at her was how impossible it was to picture Joe hurting anyone. And yet there were those glaring bruises, reminding Sue of the lesson she had learned long ago not to trust appearances. And the alcohol was another thing Sue had a hard time imagining Joe doing. But then, experience had taught her that people were capable of hiding all kinds of things.

  “Sue? Are you there?”

  “Sorry, just thinking.”

  “Do you doubt her story? What’s your gut telling you?”

  “My gut?” Sue’s temples thumped and her stomach churned from a steady onslaught of distress. Nothing made sense. Her instincts were in such a mess she doubted she could ever rely on them again. “Are you asking me if I think Brandi is lying?”

  A long, heavy pause. “Is it possible?”

  Sue closed her eyes. Of course Brandi was capable of lying—everyone knew that. But would she really lie about something this serious? “Anything’s possible, Layne. But I’m not inclined to accuse a girl of lying about a thing like this.”

  “Ah.” Layne’s voice softened. “Sorry, hon, I understand.”

  Tears stung Sue’s eyes. She rubbed them away.

  “So Joe’s story was off, huh?”

  Joe’s story?

  She swallowed hard. “I didn’t hear Joe’s side of the story.”

  Silence.

  A tingle of dread raced up her spine. Joe had tried to speak, but Sue hadn’t listened to him. The man she’d come to know and trust and …

  And …

  The man who had followed her rules and had proven himself kind. Helpful. Generous to a fault. The man who responded to his family’s abandonment and betrayal with forgiveness. Joe, who said he loved her and was now sitting in a cold sheriff’s station in Lakeview being interrogated by cops.

  Her chest tightened. “Layne, I gotta go. I need to make another call.”

&nb
sp; Chapter Thirty-Three

  Rubbing his unshaven jaw, Joe took a seat in the sheriff station’s waiting area. He’d spent a fairly sleepless night in a holding cell so he could resume questioning with another deputy at 9:00 a.m. Apparently, a couple hours of insulting questions and probing about his sex life was just a warmup for the real interrogation.

  As if he hadn’t already been humiliated enough when the kids saw him being hauled away in a cop car, accused of assault and attempted rape.

  Of a kid.

  That about crushed him. But the horrified kids and the invasive questions were nothing compared to the way Sue had turned on him.

  She couldn’t have done a better job cutting him down if she’d fired a double-barrel shotgun at point-blank range. The repulsion on her face, her disgust as she offered those accusing words—

  “Mr. Paterson.” Deputy Cramer came into the waiting area and pulled Joe aside. “I talked to the DA, and at this point, we don’t have enough evidence to arrest, and we can’t keep you any longer. But we are still conducting an investigation, so until we know more, you’re not allowed to return to Juniper Ranch.”

  Joe shook his head slowly. “No problem. I have no intention of going back.” Ever.

  “All right, then. We have your number, and we’ll be in contact. For now, you’re free to go.”

  Outside, Joe inhaled the frigid air and waited for the sun’s rays to penetrate his skin, but a steady wind stole the warmth before it could reach him. His work coat, truck, and his few belongings were sitting at the ranch ninety miles away. He could ask a neighbor to get it and meet him, or leave it behind.

  Whatever. As long as he didn’t have to see Sue.

  When she had told the deputy about his past, he could almost feel the cold blade of betrayal slicing into his back. Just like before.

  It was as if he were ten again, humiliated and alone. And once again, the people he needed the most didn’t believe him. In fact, Sue wouldn’t even listen to him tell his side. In one brief moment, everything he had done to earn her trust disappeared. All gone, along with the things he’d been stupid enough to hope she felt for him.

  Time for a new plan. He was free. Wind at his back, no attachments. He’d gotten John and Fiona moved and had someone taking care of them. The La Pine property was listed and some decent offers were coming in. Maybe he could take a cruise. Go to Mexico. Or buzz down to Louisiana, see if the Gulf rig could still use him. They would have found another crew boss by now, but he didn’t mind starting at the bottom. Sometimes he missed the hard work. Right about now, hard work and cold steel sounded pretty good.