by Debra Webb
Chet selected the pizza place down the street from his contact list and placed the order. He had thirty minutes. He shoved a couple of beers in the freezer to get them icy cold and headed for the other bathroom—the one in the hall he and Chester shared so Lori would have her own private sanctuary in the master bedroom’s en suite.
The hot water felt amazing. All he could think about was sinking into Lori and celebrating life. They were so lucky. Jesus, he loved that woman.
He opened his eyes and thought about the appointment he had with the urologist next week. As long as he wasn’t producing sperm antibodies the odds were really good that reversing the vasectomy would make things right. He would be good to go with only a little downtime.
He intended to make love to Lori as many times as possible before that happened.
Once he had the final verdict he would sit down and tell her everything. He didn’t want to tell her until he knew one way or the other what they were facing.
Nearly a year ago, when he’d first laid eyes on her, he hadn’t dreamed she would ever be his. Not for a second. He had hoped, but he’d been reasonably sure she was unreachable for a divorced father like him.
But now she was with him and he wanted to keep it that way. Whatever it took, he wanted to keep her happy.
He dried himself off and went to their room for a pair of boxers. The shower was still going in the en suite as he’d expected it would be. Boxers on, he went back to the living room to wait for the pizza. He picked a channel on TV that wasn’t showing the breaking story about the Man in the Moon.
The doorbell rang and he grabbed his wallet. That would be the pizza. He paid the delivery guy and headed for the kitchen. The smell of hot, loaded pizza had his gut rumbling. When he heard Lori coming he removed the extra cold beers from the freezer and carried them to the table. Clad only in a towel, she paused at the door and stared at the pizza box.
He smiled. “It’s loaded, the way you like it.”
After a long moment that had him sweating bullets she took a seat and opened the box. She couldn’t know what he had to talk to her about but somehow it felt exactly as if she did. She’d been a little distant all day.
“I don’t know about you but I’m starving.” He had a long draw from his beer and made a satisfied sound.
She didn’t say anything. She ate. She sipped her beer but she didn’t even look at him.
The anxiety twisting inside him tightened. “It’s a shame the chief couldn’t get that bastard to tell her where the other children were buried before he took that bullet to the brain.”
“I’d like to forget about work for the night.”
She still didn’t look at him when she spoke.
Not good.
“Is something wrong?” Tomorrow was his birthday. He’d kind of hoped to start celebrating early. Looked like that wasn’t going to happen.
She chugged the rest of her beer, wiped her mouth with the napkin and looked straight at him. “You betrayed me, Chet.”
What the hell? “What’re you talking about?” Deep inside that one secret he’d kept from her twisted like barbed wire. “I would never betray you. Never.”
“Really? You were going to just keep lying?”
How could she know? “I’ve never lied to you.” And that was the truth.
“I saw Sherry this morning.”
Dread stabbed deep in his gut.
“I wanted her to know that I wasn’t trying to take her place with Chester. After the way she acted the other night I wanted to try and clear the air.”
“Whatever trouble she’s trying to start, she has no right to try to come between us.” If Sherry had told Lori about the vasectomy he wanted to be mad as hell but mostly he was mad at himself.
“You had no right to keep anything as important as this from me. A vasectomy is a major decision for any relationship. I’m not questioning your reason for doing it in the first place—I’m certain that was Sherry’s idea.”
“She said the Pill made her fat. We were falling apart.” The pizza soured on his stomach. “I was just trying to make her happy. I didn’t want our family to fall apart.”
Lori nodded. Her eyes glistened with emotion and he wanted to fall to his knees and beg her to forgive him. “That’s the only reason I’m not hating on you right now, Chet. I can see how she manipulated you. I know how much you love your son, and I’m certain it was an act of desperation. But that doesn’t change the fact that you kept it from me.”
“I wish I could go back and do it right.” He shook his head. “I have no excuse except that I was so afraid of losing you that I didn’t want to risk your reaction. You said you weren’t interested in having kids in the near future, so I thought I had time to make it right. I saw my doctor this week. I’m going for a test that will let us know if it’s feasible to do the reversal. The doc’s confident there won’t be any problems, since it’s only been three years. There’s a test before the surgery that’ll tell us what the chances of success are. It’s outpatient surgery. A few days downtime and then I’ll be as good as new.” He took a breath, thankful that he’d gotten it all out.
She shrugged. “I’ve always thought I didn’t really care about having children. I couldn’t see putting my career on the back burner. I still can’t. Not really. But whether we have children or not is a decision we need to be able to make together with no secrets.”
“You’re right. Not squaring this with you was wrong, and if the doctor discovers I can’t give you children, then I understand if you don’t want to be with me anymore.”
She stood. “I think the best thing to do is for me to…”
Chet held his breath.
“… punish you properly”—she unwrapped her towel and let it fall to the floor—“just to make sure you never forget that I won’t tolerate any secrets between us.”
He pushed back his chair, almost knocking it over in his haste. “Punish me any way you want, baby.”
She gave him a firm look. “Take off those boxers and follow me.”
He was pretty sure that was the fastest he’d ever snapped off a pair of boxers.
She took his hand and led him to the bed. Moving like a sleek panther, she crawled onto the bed and stretched out to ensure he had a good view of what a lucky man he was.
“Start with my toes,” she ordered.
Anticipation had his body trembling. She arched an eyebrow at his hesitation.
He knelt at the end of the bed and reached for one smooth foot. He licked the arch before sliding his tongue between and around those red-tipped toes of hers. She closed her eyes, and the soft sounds coming from her throat made him even harder. He gave the other toes the same treatment before moving to her ankles. Taking his time, he moved up those toned calves to her silky thighs. He traced a path up the inside of one thigh and she squirmed. He grinned.
By the time he’d burrowed his face between those lush thighs of hers she had fisted her fingers in the sheets and was crying out his name. He gave her first climax with his tongue. And then he used his fingers to bring her to another before giving her what she kept screaming for… every inch of him.
By the time they collapsed together, he’d lost count of the times she’d come.
“I love you, Lori.”
She pulled his face to hers. “I know you do, and I love you, Chet Harper.”
She kissed him and they started that sweet, hot dance again.
9911 Conroy Road, 10:00 p.m.
Jess sat in the middle of her living room floor and stared at the faces lining her wall. At least seventeen little girls were unaccounted for.
“The burying tree”—that was what Cagle had called the place he kept his treasures. There were thousands of trees between the ones on his property and the ones at Bullock’s cabin. Not to mention that whole damned park around Bullock’s cabin. How the hell were they supposed to know which one was Cagle’s burying tree?
Budgets were already stretched too thin. No one was goi
ng to waste resources looking for remains when there was no comprehension whatsoever of where to start. With Cagle dead there was very little chance they would ever find those children.
That made Jess sad.
We have to go outside where he can see.
Who was he? Why had Cagle needed anyone to see? There was no indication whatsoever that he had worked with an accomplice. To the contrary, he had a reputation as a loner. Even people he had worked with for decades didn’t know his daughter’s name or where she lived.
Jess had put together many of the pieces of the puzzle. Cagle’s wife had left him when their daughter was just a child—the daughter she had given him on a harvest moon. What had he done that prompted his wife to fear him? They would probably never know. Whatever she had seen was the beginning. The evil had been there, waiting patiently until something triggered the first act.
Once he’d crossed that line, the urges he obviously attempted to resist became too great to conquer. The torture belt he wore cinched around his waist was loaded with nails that had dug deep into his skin. The marks of vigorous self-punishment were all over his body—any place that would be covered by clothing bore the telltale signs of his struggle. Scars of varying sizes and ages told the tale of how long he had fought his heinous desires. Until his daughter showed up in his life again. She and her children had given him the strength to fight those cravings.
“Why start digging up bones then?” It just didn’t make sense.
Thirteen years. His family was happy. He was only a couple years from retirement. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
And why use Jess as an excuse to launch back into that abyss of darkness? Or insist that someone had to see? That part nagged at her.
Her cell did its thing and she checked the screen. Sylvia Baron.
If Jess were smart she would just let it go to voice mail. Sometimes she wasn’t so smart. “Sylvia, what’s up?” It was pretty late for a social call, but with Sylvia she never knew.
“Congratulations, Harris. You pulled it off again. Got the bad guy and made the news as Birmingham’s most beloved hero.”
“Thanks.” She didn’t feel like a hero. She hadn’t found all those little girls.
“Listen, I hope it’s okay, but I invited Gina to your party tomorrow.”
“I’m not having a party.” The woman had obviously had too much wine. Something Jess wished she were doing. Whine, whine.
“Your detective’s birthday party,” she explained with her usual indignant impatience. “That won’t be a problem, will it? She’s still a bit down, and I wanted to make sure she felt included.”
“I’m not hosting the party, but I’m sure that’s fine.” She’d have to try and remember to text Lori in the morning.
“Great. I’ll see you then. Why don’t you wear that red suit of yours? It’s very flattering. Very slimming.”
Jess hugged her belly with her free arm. Did she look fat? Already? Maybe she was bloated since her period was late. How nice of Sylvia to point that out.
“See you tomorrow,” Jess said in hopes of ending the call.
“Really, Harris,” Sylvia said before Jess could hang up, “you did well.”
Jess wasn’t sure how to take what sounded like a real compliment. “Thanks.”
Sylvia said good night and ended the call.
Jess had no idea if the woman could really be counted as a friend, but she was leaning in that direction. Tomorrow she’d probably say or do something to have her leaning in the other direction.
The alarm sounded, warning her that she had company coming up the stairs.
She got up and checked the monitor. Dan. He had promised to come straight here as soon as his chief-of-police duties were done. She had been far too exhausted to hang around for the press conference.
She unlocked and opened the door. He smiled, and she felt better already.
She angled her head and tried to see where he had his hands. “What’ve you got behind your back there?”
He grinned and held out both hands. Flowers and chocolates!
“The flowers are gorgeous.” She went for the box of chocolate. “There’s a vase under the sink.”
While he filled the vase with water and then arranged the summer mix of blooms, she climbed onto her bed and opened the chocolates. She checked the diagram on the inside of the cover to locate the ones with caramel centers, her favorites.
Dan placed the flowers on the table and she smiled. “They’re really gorgeous, Dan.” She popped another candy in her mouth, closed her eyes, and flat out moaned.
He sat down on the sofa and patted the spot next to him. “Come sit with me.”
Was he kidding? She patted the bed. “Come sit with me.”
He got up and started her way. She gathered the box of candy, put the lid on top, and set it on her bedside table. After a couple swipes of her tongue the caramel was no longer stuck to her front teeth.
The mattress moved as he climbed on and plopped next to her.
“Did you come to talk about something, or is this our usual Saturday night visit?” Her body was already heating up in anticipation of the latter.
“Wow, that was romantic.”
She laid down on her side facing him. “Is it not okay to be unromantic sometimes? I mean, we’ve known each other forever. Do we have to make everything a production?”
She wanted him. She wanted to have sex with him. As in now.
“You should take the pictures off your wall.”
She glanced at the makeshift case board she used for homework. “I don’t want to forget them. If I leave them right there, I can’t. No matter how many cases I investigate, I won’t forget those faces.”
“How about you make a separate case board at work for the ones you need to get back to when you can?”
That wasn’t a bad idea. “That could work.”
“I mentioned your landlord the hero in my press release.”
“I saw that.” Jess had thanked Mr. Louis at some point between washing Cagle’s blood off her face and his body being carted off by the coroner’s office. “But what he did was very dangerous, and I can’t help wondering if we could have taken Cagle alive if dear old George hadn’t made that bold move.”
“We had no way of knowing the gun wasn’t loaded, Jess. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. You can’t second-guess yourself or the SWAT commander’s decision. Every move today was the right one.”
She sighed. “Maybe.”
Except she didn’t have her period. That was wrong in so many, many ways.
“I think, when the forensics business is done—” Jess bit her lip, summoned her courage to say it “—that we should allow the parents to see Cagle’s basement if they want to.”
“I thought about that, too. Their children were there for who knows how long. Maybe it will help with closure, since we can’t tell them where this burying tree is.”
“I hate that part.”
He tugged at a strand of her hair, wrapped it in his fingers. “I know. I do, too.”
She reached up and caressed his jaw. “Make love to me, Dan.” She needed to feel alive… to feel him inside her.
“First you need to check out your other present.” Those blue eyes of his twinkled.
“What other present?”
“Look in the chocolate box.”
She grabbed the box, anticipation making her grin. “You didn’t need to get me presents.” She moved aside the top tray of candies, and beneath it, where more rows of chocolates should have been, was a slim velvet box. “Dan!”
“I got it at that charity auction my mother held a couple weeks ago. It made me think of you.”
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the mention of his mother. She opened the box and her breath trapped in her chest. “Oh… it’s beautiful.” It was a heart-shaped locket on a gold chain. Not a new one. Old, very old. A tiny diamond sat in the center of the locket. On the back the words you are my heart were engraved. S
he batted her eyelids frantically but the damned tears slid down her cheeks anyway. She slugged him on the shoulder. “Thank you.”
He brushed at her cheeks with his fingertips. “You had a locket like this when we first met.”
She nodded. “It wasn’t so fancy. Plain old gold colored, no diamond. Lil gave it to me. I don’t know what happened to it.”
“And it didn’t have this.” He took the locket from her and opened it.
Inside the locket was one of those silly pictures of them done in the old mall photo booths. The air fled her lungs and for a moment she couldn’t speak. “You kept that old picture all these years?” God, they were so young.
“Of course.”
“Help me put it on.”
The mattress shifted as he got onto his knees. He fastened the delicate chain and she pressed the cool metal of the locket against her skin. “I love it. This is the best present anyone ever gave me.”
He shoved the box of chocolates aside and pushed her down onto the bed. “You’re the only present I’ve ever wanted.”
She smiled, swearing silently at herself for crying some more. “I love you, Dan.”
The look of joy in his eyes had her trembling like a virgin. Tenderly, he opened her robe and kissed his way down her body. She responded instantly. When he lingered near her belly button a new rush of tears stung her eyes.
He dragged the robe off her and then she slowly helped him undress. Once they were both naked, she kissed him all over, paying special attention to the scar left by Eric Spears’s knife.
When their bodies were entwined fully she stopped thinking and let the wondrous sensations fill her up, making her whole again.
Sunday, August 22
The alarm sounded and Jess sat up in bed. She stared at the clock. Eight o’clock, but it wasn’t the alarm clock that had awakened her.
Someone was coming to her door.
God, she hoped it wasn’t Mr. Louis with breakfast.
She snatched up her robe and cinched the belt tight. She stared at the monitor and she had to close her eyes and look again.