And then he’d walked out. Just to cool off, she was sure.
And she’d never seen him alive again.
“Doug was killed a few days later. He’d gone out looking for a way to get money, to take care of us. He hooked up with this really creepy, shady guy we’d met on the bus to L.A.—Baird Oliver. It was all his idea. I know he was only able to talk Doug into it because he was so scared.”
“They did something stupid?” Hayley asked softly.
Alyssa nodded. “They robbed a convenience store. Baird got away, but he was caught later. Doug crashed running from the police. He was killed.”
“And you were pregnant and alone.”
She nodded. “I know it was wrong, the robbery. But he was desperate. And Baird was persuasive, in a slimy kind of way. Doug just wanted to take care of us.”
“You think he changed his mind about leaving?”
“I know he did. He didn’t have the money, so he couldn’t have been running away like Drew says he was. And he was headed back, not away. He was coming back to get me.”
“You must have been terrified.”
“I was. The next couple of years were hell. I knew I couldn’t come home, my parents hadn’t spoken to me since we ran off. Getting pregnant, having Luke, would only make it worse.”
“That’s sad.”
“Yes.”
“So what did you do?”
Alyssa laughed, only this time it was full of scorn, directed only at herself. “I brilliantly got so run-down trying to work three jobs and still take care of Luke that I got sick, which became pneumonia, and I ended up in the hospital.” She looked at Luke once more. “They took him away from me, Hayley. He was the only thing I had left of the man I’d been so crazy in love with, and they took him away.”
Hayley took in an audible breath. Alyssa liked her even more for her expression of genuine sympathy. “What happened?”
“Drew,” she said simply. “He found us. Saved us. Both of us. He took care of me when I could barely lift a finger to help myself for weeks. And he got Luke back, out of foster care. And I will always, always owe him for that.”
She meant it. Even though occasionally, after incidents like last week’s, she had to remind herself just how much she owed him.
And how impossible it would be to ever really pay him back.
Chapter 6
“Careless, foolish, and impossibly self-centered his entire life.”
Drew kept his voice low even though Luke was so raptly involved with his new playmate he doubted he would have heard anything short of a bomb going off. He didn’t care anymore how the boy had known the dog would be here in the park, he was just savoring the expression of delight on Luke’s face.
“And you’re obviously not,” Quinn said. It was so matter-of-fact Drew felt oddly pleased. “How’d that happen?”
Drew shrugged one shoulder. “Doug was kind of sickly when he was a baby. So everybody fussed over him. Then later he was so damn cute and clever, everybody spoiled him. He was smart enough to figure out early that he could charm people into just about anything.”
“And it’s a lot easier than working.”
Drew studied Quinn Foxworth for a long moment. He instinctively liked the man, for his brisk, businesslike manner, and the innate steadiness he sensed in him. And the obvious fact that he was crazy in love with his Hayley, and wasn’t afraid to show it.
He envied the man that.
“Yes,” he said finally. “And Doug was all about the easy way. But Lyss still insists he was trying to get money to take care of them both when he was killed.”
“But you don’t believe that.”
“More likely he was trying to get enough money to run from the responsibility. He didn’t have it on him when he died, so I’ve always thought he didn’t want to get caught with it and it was stashed somewhere for him and his scumbag partner to retrieve later.”
“The partner that went to prison?”
Drew nodded. “Baird Oliver. That robbery wasn’t his first foray into crime.”
“And they never found the cash?”
Drew shook his head. “Wasn’t in the car when Doug crashed and Oliver didn’t have it on him, either.”
“So your brother’s motives are what you were fighting about?”
Drew sighed, looking again at Luke, glad simply to see the boy so happy. “More who he was. Or wasn’t.”
“And you each have your own version.”
“Yes,” Drew admitted. “But mine’s based in fact, hers is based in...fantasy. Some sort of dream image she’s always had of him.”
“Incompatible visions.”
“Exactly.” He let out a compressed breath. “We agreed early on to not discuss it, because it just degenerated into scenes like last week. Our marriage may be...just a business arrangement, but the fighting isn’t good for Luke. And he’s old enough now, he’s starting to ask difficult questions.”
Quinn studied him for a moment. “About his father?”
“Yes. I wanted to settle that as soon as he was old enough to understand, to tell him the truth, but Lyss kept putting it off.”
“Because she didn’t agree that what you wanted to tell him was the truth?” Quinn suggested.
“Probably,” Drew said with a glum expression. “I didn’t mind that she wanted him to know about Doug, he is his biological father. But she didn’t want him to hear anything negative, anything at all.”
“Which makes a dead man the perfect father. He can do no wrong.”
Drew’s breath stopped in his throat. He stared at Quinn. How many times had he thought just that, and then hated himself for it?
Quinn shrugged. “I tended to idealize my own father, after he died. And it took a while before my sister could get me to remember he hadn’t always been perfect.”
“She’s older?”
“A little.” Quinn grinned then. “Or a lot, sometimes. Our parents always said they had a wise, brilliant kid and a smart but stubborn one. I’ll let you guess which was which.”
Drew smiled, an odd enough occurrence while talking of his family situation that he was acutely aware of it.
“So what do you do about it?” Quinn asked.
“What can I do?” Drew answered wearily. “I kept hoping she’d eventually realize that what she thinks she knows isn’t the truth, but she’s determined to hang on to that idealized image.” He shook his head sharply. “But it’s not all her doing. I let her most of the time, because I just don’t want to fight that fight. I don’t want to fight with her at all.”
Quinn’s steady gaze sharpened, and Drew wondered if he’d let too much show. He wasn’t sure why he was talking so much to this guy he’d just met a week ago anyway. He never talked about all this to anyone.
“So, this is just a business arrangement,” Quinn said, not even making it a question.
“It took me two years to find them, after Doug was killed. When I did, Lyss was really sick. Exhaustion, pneumonia. They’d already taken Luke, put him in a foster home. She couldn’t take care of herself, let alone him. Getting married was the fastest way to get through it all.”
“You would have had claim on Luke by blood, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes. But he needed his mother, too. And she needed help. And—”
He cut himself off. This was insane. He wasn’t going to explain to this near-stranger why he’d done what he’d done. Let him think whatever he was going to think. He was regretting already that Foxworth knew as much as he did.
When did you start running off at the mouth? he asked himself sourly.
He should get Luke and Alyssa, and they should just go home. The fight was over, and Luke had scared them enough that he thought they might be able to avoid the heated exchanges i
n the future. It would be hard to pry the boy away from the dog he was having so much fun with, but—
Almost on the thought, the dog stopped mid-romp. He spun around on his hindquarters and stared at Drew. And then he bolted, straight toward them.
Cutter sat, not as Drew would have expected, at Quinn’s feet, but at his own. The animal stared up at him intently. No, more than intently. That gaze was intense, and seemingly impossible to look away from. Drew thought of tales he’d read as a boy, of sheepdogs who controlled their flock with just the power of their eyes, and cattle dogs who did the same. He’d always thought it a bit fanciful. Now he wasn’t so sure.
“Uh-oh.” Quinn’s voice was wry, almost wary sounding.
Drew lifted a brow at him. “Your dog trying to tell me something?”
“He’s expressing an opinion, yes.” Quinn crouched down beside the animal, who only flicked a glance at him. “We can’t, boy. We don’t do domestic. It’s not our place.”
Drew shifted his gaze from the dog back to the man, who had seemed perfectly sane moments ago. Yet now here he was, talking to a dog as if the animal could comprehend every word. We don’t do domestic... What the hell did that mean?
Cutter let out a low sound, not a growl but a sort of whuffing bark. It sounded oddly insistent.
“No, Cutter,” Quinn said.
The insistent bark came again just as Luke, clearly curious at the departure of his delightful companion, came up to them.
“Do you have to leave?” the boy asked, looking crestfallen.
“We should,” Quinn said, “but I’m not sure he’s going to let us.”
“Okay, this is crazy. He’s a dog,” Drew said.
“Sometimes,” Quinn said. “Sometimes I’m not sure what he is.”
“Quinn?”
Hayley’s voice came from behind him, and Drew turned to see the woman and Alyssa approaching. Lyss was smiling, and he was thankful to Hayley for that if nothing else.
“Do we have a...situation?” Hayley asked as they came to a halt. She was looking at the dog.
“It seems we do.”
Hayley frowned. “Did you tell him this was personal, not really our business?”
“I did. He’s not listening.”
“I think,” Drew muttered, “I’ve lost my mind. We need to get out of here.”
“And away from the crazy people who talk to a dog like he’s a person who can understand?” Hayley said.
Drew blinked. “I....”
“It’s okay,” Hayley said with a smile that was impossible to ignore. “We understand, believe me. It took us a long time to accept that...he really does understand. Not the words, perhaps, but he knows what’s going on.”
“Well, I don’t,” Alyssa said, watching this all with much more amusement on her face than anything else.
“He knows there’s a problem,” Hayley explained. “And it’s in his nature to want to fix it.”
“You mean to want us to fix it,” Quinn amended drily.
“Well, yes,” Hayley agreed with a laugh. “It is our function to figure out what he wants and try to do it.”
This time Drew and Alyssa were united. They both looked from the dog to his people in wary disbelief.
“You’re saying he wants to fix our problem?” Alyssa asked.
“He wants it fixed, yes,” Hayley said. “He likes people. He loves some. And he doesn’t tolerate fixable problems well.”
Drew looked back at the dog, who was still staring at him in that way that made him faintly uncomfortable. “Fixable?”
“Yes. But he thinks everything’s fixable. At least, he has so far.”
“I don’t think so,” Alyssa said. “Not this time. I’ve been trying for years.”
Drew’s gaze snapped to his wife. “What are you talking—”
“Let him try, Dad!” Luke said, sounding anxious, as if he thought a fight was about to start. “Please? Mom? Maybe he can help. He’s really smart.”
“This,” Drew muttered, “is ridiculous. We’re down the rabbit hole.”
“Luke, honey, why don’t you and Cutter go play a little more, because we will have to leave soon,” Alyssa said. “Let us talk to Quinn and Hayley.”
Luke hesitated as Cutter didn’t move. Hayley stroked the dog’s head. “Go ahead, boy. We’ll talk.”
The woof that came this time was much more pleased sounding. And Drew shook his head sharply at how willing even he seemed to be to assign human emotion to the dog. But the pair raced off to continue whatever boy-dog game they’d made up.
Alyssa watched her son go, then looked at Quinn. “Hayley told me what you do. What Foxworth does, I mean. And it sounds good, and noble, and all that. But there’s nothing you can do to fix us.”
Drew winced inwardly. She sounded so certain. Not that he thought this Foxworth outfit could fix them, but Lyss sounded so sure they couldn’t be fixed at all.
And she was probably right.
“Drew told me about his brother,” Quinn began.
“Oh, I’m sure he did,” Alyssa said, her voice fairly dripping with resentment.
“I only told him the truth,” Drew said.
Hayley stepped in before things escalated, saying calmly, “And Alyssa told me her side of things. Which I’m sure is very different.”
Drew stayed silent this time, reminding himself of his determination to never fight over this again.
“You each have your opinions, your interpretations of what happened, then,” Hayley said.
“I know what happened,” Drew said.
“You weren’t there—I was,” Alyssa pointed out.
“You weren’t with him when they robbed the place. Or when he crashed, thank God. And you never accepted the truth, even when the cops told you.” So much for his determination, Drew thought.
“The police didn’t know, either. They didn’t know Doug, not like I did. They assumed.”
“So,” Quinn said, “neither of you knows for sure what was in his head, you just have what you believe but can’t prove. And the two versions are not compatible. That about it?”
“I know,” Alyssa said stubbornly.
“And you can’t fix willful blindness,” Drew snapped.
And there they were, back to square one.
Quinn sighed. He looked at Hayley. “I’m not sure even Foxworth can fix this one. How do we prove what was in a dead man’s heart?”
“But Cutter...” she said.
“I know. He’s as determined as I’ve ever seen him.”
“We could look into it, couldn’t we?”
“Wait. You’re saying you’d go against your own policies because of a dog?” Drew asked, sounding as incredulous as he felt.
“Not just a dog. This dog,” Quinn said. At Drew’s look he chuckled. “Believe me, not so long ago I sounded just like you. But it’s hard to argue with the kind of stats this guy has piled up.”
“So, he’s never wrong, is that what you’re saying?”
“No. He just hasn’t been yet.”
Hayley cut in. “Maybe somebody, somebody not emotionally involved, might know something. If anybody can find somebody like that, Foxworth can.”
“Somebody without a dog in this fight, you mean?” Drew joked, unable to quite believe he was taking this discussion even semi-seriously. “This is crazy.”
“On that, I agree,” Alyssa said. “Dog aside, I don’t want anybody digging around in this. Luke’s been through enough. I’m not going to risk destroying his image of his father.”
Drew’s stomach knotted. Had she really said that? Did she even realize she had acknowledged the possibility that there even was a risk of that image—that illusion—being destroyed?
That quickly, Drew cha
nged his mind. From what Quinn had said, Foxworth was big, had great resources, better people, and tremendous results. They also had time, time the police never had, and as Quinn had explained, once they took a case, they never gave up unless their client told them to.
It was almost dizzying how quickly he’d flipped, but Drew couldn’t deny the allure of this being settled once and for all. But he knew Alyssa would never voluntarily seek out truth that might contradict her image of Doug.
But if Foxworth could do it...
“—I appreciate the thought, but no,” Alyssa was saying.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Quinn said. “We’ve never really tried to pull Cutter back once he’s gotten his teeth into something, so to speak.”
“Maybe he’s right,” Drew said.
“What?” Alyssa’s head snapped around and she stared at him.
Careful, he cautioned himself. There’s only one way to get her to see reason. And in this case, it had the advantage of being true, and being the one thing that had made him sickest about this whole thing.
“Luke,” he said quietly.
“I told you, I won’t have him thinking his father was some common criminal who didn’t love him!”
“That’s not the reason to do it,” Drew said, keeping his voice low, even with an effort.
“Then what is?” she demanded.
“He doesn’t even have to know. I swear to you, even if I’m proved right, we don’t have to tell him.”
“Then what is it you’re after, Drew?”
“I’m after a way to clear the air between the parents he has now. Because a six-year-old talking about going away because he thinks it will make us happy is nothing to ignore.”
Alyssa opened her mouth. Shut it. And as if he could see it, he sensed the fight drain away. As always with her, Luke came first. And the truth of what he’d said was undeniable.
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