Audience members were looking at her, nodding. A few of them even bore little grins.
“She tells the story that when I was eighteen months old, I announced from the bathtub one morning that I wanted chocolate for breakfast. At which point she informed me that we didn’t eat chocolate for breakfast. I frowned for a moment, picked up Baby—who, of course, was in the bath with me—and announced that Baby wanted chocolate for breakfast.”
Yep. Three hundred faces were upturned in her direction. Bloom just kept on doing what she was doing. Because she’d told herself to do so.
“My mother told me to tell Baby that we didn’t eat chocolate for breakfast. She was one step ahead of me the whole way. Until I held my rubber doll up to her nose and pointed out that ‘Baby doesn’t have any ears.’”
The entire room erupted in laughter. Bloom started to sweat. It was those bright lights.
She was successful. Capable. And in control.
But she looked to the right, anyway. To the seat at the very end of the front row. She’d arrived early specifically to put a reserved sign on that chair. Lila McDaniel didn’t have a lot of time. But when Bloom had called the director of The Lemonade Stand—the unique women’s shelter where she’d lived for the weeks it had taken her to come back to herself after it had been discovered that her husband had been drugging her for months—to ask for support for the Friday morning keynote session, for backup statistics and a small informational speech to her colleagues about shelter work, Lila had immediately appointed herself to attend.
As the laughter died down around them, Lila nodded. She wasn’t smiling. Yet there was no doubting the warmth in her expression. And it empowered Bloom.
“Mom recovered before I was out of the tub,” she continued. The room, when she paused to take a breath, was completely silent. She was speaking to interested bodies. Not walls...
“She explained to me that if I gave Baby chocolate for breakfast I would make her sick. And I told her that she couldn’t give me chocolate for breakfast because she’d feel bad if she made me sick.”
A collective sigh moved around the room. There were men there. Many of them. All with psychiatric doctoral credentials.
She glanced at Lila again. The woman just looked at her without even so much as another nod of encouragement. To anyone in the room, Lila was just another attendee. To Bloom, she was fresh air in her lungs.
“I can stand up here and fill the next two hours with my mother’s tales of my greatness. I can talk about the long-distance call I made when I was five to reassure my grandmother, whose purse had just been stolen, that she would be just fine because I loved her and so did other people, so she hadn’t lost what mattered. I can entertain you all day long. To a room full of psychiatrists, my childhood is fascinating stuff. But entertaining you is not my purpose here today.” Heads tilted, a few people frowned, all eyes were still on her.
It could be, a small voice inside her said. She could wing this. Be a huge success. But this invitation—to keynote for her peers on whatever topic she chose—gave her a chance to fulfill a higher purpose.
And to grow as a person, too. To take back another piece of herself that the bastard had tried to steal from her.
“I’m a smart woman. A wise woman. And a victim of domestic violence.”
Many of them knew. Bloom’s husband had been an esteemed colleague to some of them. Even if just through professional organization memberships.
Knowing and wanting to hear were two different things.
She forced herself to look out at them. To continue to connect. All but a few heads were turned away or bowed. People were suddenly interested in loose threads in their clothing. Their shoes. The carpet. A clock on the wall.
“I am also a survivor,” she said, her voice imbued with emotion. “I am strong and capable, successful and healthy. Because I was able to get out. To get help. Because I had a counselor who was educated to my specific needs, who not only knew the kinds of things I was experiencing, but who knew what would most likely come as well, who was able to prepare me to handle those things, sometimes even on my own, when they did come.
“It’s been two years since my recovery, ladies and gentlemen. And I stand before you today, a fully alive, contributing woman who truly enjoys life. My life. I got lucky. I landed in a perfect place—The Lemonade Stand—a place you all will hear about before this session is through.
“But first, my challenge to each and every one of you is to listen. To hear what I have to say. And to look inside yourselves. To ask yourselves the tough questions. And for those of you who receive positive answers, to help. Even if you are in the field you need to be in, you can still help raise awareness of the need for counselors who specialize in intimate partner violence. And for those who don’t have special training in that particular field, you can help by being willing to refer their own clients to those who do...”
Bloom was on a roll. Confident. She gave statistics. Mixed in with difficult, but potent personal anecdotes. She grabbed her scholarly audience by the throat. Figuratively.
Much like she’d once been grabbed physically.
She took them down her road with her. As a victim and also as a psychiatrist with a successful practice.
Sparing them nothing, she made them feel her pain.
And brought them to her happy ending.
Thanks to a counselor who was a specialist in treating intimate partner violence, she was no longer a victim.
She was a survivor.
And it was up to all of them—herself included—to save every other victim out there.
* * *
SAM’S HOUSE WASN’T MUCH. The fact that it was a cottage not far from the beach was the nicest part. Inside, the floors were linoleum—old linoleum that, before his time, had likely been laid for its ability to withstand sand and water more than for its ambience.
For his current purposes, however, the house was near perfect. Set up on a cliff, on private land, with only a skinny, private, fenced path down to the beach, it was the perfect place to hide.
Or to have someone else hide.
He’d spent Saturday morning cleaning the floors, the bathroom. Changed the sheets on both beds—his own and the one in the spare room. She could use whichever one she wanted.
He’d even thrown the rug in the front room, the one Lucy thought was hers, in the wash.
Probably should have given the Irish setter a trip to the tub, too, but his five-year-old mistress preferred to take her baths in the ocean—an arrangement which benefitted his bathroom walls—and he’d run out of time to make it down there.
He’d stocked the fridge with vegetables and several salad dressings, eggs and milk. Chosen two different kinds of bread. Brought in a box of sensible cereal and a box of sugared, too. Three types of crackers, microwavable popcorn and ice cream bars. Colombian dark coffee and breakfast blend.
He’d bought a new set of towels, two kinds of body wash, extra tissues, paper towels and toilet paper.
He’d packed a bag. Found a room he could rent by the week where Lucy would be tolerated.
And if he didn’t get his ass in gear, it would all be for naught.
He had a plan. Possibly not his best, but the only one that was going to work.
And just a little more than twenty-four hours to put it in motion.
A little over twenty-four hours to convince a confident, intelligent, determined woman-in-charge that she was going to have to leave her home, her life and do exactly as he said.
* * *
BLOOM WAS IN her office late Saturday morning, just a few miles from The Lemonade Stand, having finished with her last client. She had a busy day planned—shopping to do, friends to meet in LA for a coffee house concert one of the women was playing in, a run on the beach—but was taking a moment to reflect.
To breathe. And be present.
Her speech the day before—and the lunch following—had been successful beyond her hopes. Lila had names of volunteers, counselors had Lila’s card and many of her peers had exchanged cards with each other—those with specific domestic violence training and those without. She’d given out contact names for members of the High Risk Team.
And she’d talked Lila in to staying for lunch, her treat. She’d seen the woman, who was in her fifties, smile more that day than she could ever remember.
And hoped it wasn’t just a reflection of the success of the morning. Bloom had no idea what Lila’s personal life looked like. The woman was like a phantom—at the Stand seven days a week and some nights. She had an apartment someplace close by, but didn’t appear to have any family. Or friends.
Which wasn’t natural. And raised Bloom’s professional radar above comfort level.
If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Lila.
And she hoped she was.
Because she had a few minutes before she had to leave for the city, Bloom caught up on enough world and state news that she’d be able to contribute to conversation at dinner that night.
A headline caught her eye. Because of the name. There couldn’t be too many prosecuting attorneys named Trevor Banyon in Southern California.
He’d been arrested on gun running charges. She wanted to open the article. Like a bystander wanted to get closer to a car accident. You just had to see. To know.
But she knew better. Reentering any part of Banyon’s life would take her places she didn’t need or want to go. She’d left her past behind. And wasn’t going to let it pull her back.
The past was an unhealthy place for her. The present, which contained her hopes for the future, was the road she was consciously traveling. A road that was already giving her a happy life.
Closing the news app, she gathered her things, planning to leave straight for LA from the office. Her overnight bag was in the trunk of her six-year-old hunter green Jaguar.
A gift from Ken—Dr. Kenneth Freelander—after he’d verbally brutalized her the first time. Before he’d started drugging her to keep her in line. She loved the car, as she’d once loved him. And kept it as a reminder that lemons could always be made into lemonade. That thorns had roses.
That it was up to her what she saw when she opened her eyes in the morning.
Out of the office, door locked, she nodded at a couple of people she knew, professionals who shared her office building, as she walked down the hall. Shared the elevator with a woman and a young girl, presumably patients, as they’d pushed the button for the fourth floor, which housed all pediatric and dental specialties.
Bloom exited the elevator and then the building, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. Even in July the California coastal air wasn’t smoldering with heat. But it was warm enough to be a comfort to her skin after spending several hours in air conditioning.
A man approached her on the sidewalk. She moved to one side in preparation for their eventual passing, not really noticing him any more than she noticed any of the other patients who came and went.
But she noticed enough to take a second look. Did she know him? Was he, perhaps, the husband of one of her patients? The tempo of her heart upping just a small notch, she looked more closely. If he was an ex...
Hand on the jeweled canister of mace attached to her key ring, Bloom made one deft move with her thumb, unlocking the release.
And almost as quickly returned the safety catch. She did know the man. But not because of any of her patients.
She knew him because of herself.
Detective Samuel Larson was the man who’d saved her life.
CHAPTER THREE
HE ALMOST DIDN’T recognize her. Hell, what was he thinking? If it hadn’t been for the fact that he’d memorized every bone in that face when he’d studied the crime scene photos, he wouldn’t have recognized her. Her high cheekbones and that little bit of a squaring off of her chin gave her away.
That and the slight bit of crookedness on one side of her jaw.
That auburn hair, more brown than red but with a hint of fire that had drawn his attention every time, was longer now. Softly curled.
Her body stood straighter, was fuller without losing the slenderness that drew eyes to her when she walked.
Bloom Freelander had...bloomed. His body took note.
WTF.
Had he left his mind back at the cottage? In the toilet he’d cleaned?
Still several yards away she didn’t appear to have seen him yet. Which gave him time to get his head out of the plumbing and back to the case at hand.
Maybe the fact that he was dreading the next minutes, the fact that her life could very well depend on his ability to force her to do his bidding, was the reason he’d gone so far south.
He’d thought about her often over the past couple of years. Had wanted to check in on her. But he’d had no reason. No right.
Had thought it was not good or fair to remind her of the time in her life she was working so hard to escape.
Maybe he’d hoped he’d run into her. Maybe, when he’d been at the beach, or the grocery store, he’d kept an eye out for her.
Fate hadn’t seen fit to bring them together.
But it had damned sure seen fit to put her in danger again.
He was no fonder of the fates at the moment than he was of his overresponsive nether region.
No doubting now that she’d seen him. She was staring right at him.
As if she couldn’t believe it was he? Or was trying to place him?
Didn’t matter.
Either way, it was showtime.
* * *
“DETECTIVE LARSON.” Bloom slowed down, stepped off the walk into the grass as he drew closer, so as not to block traffic into and out of the building. If he had a medical appointment, she couldn’t keep him. But...she’d thought of him so often during her months of healing. Wanted to let him know that he’d helped. A lot.
“Dr. Freelander...” He stepped off the walk, too.
“I told you,” she said with an easy smile—something she’d been unable to give him when he’d known her. “Call me Bloom. Dr. Freelander is someone else in my mind. My former self. And the nemesis of my former self, too.”
“Did you get your divorce?”
From anyone else the question would have been rude. But Sam Larson had been in every intimate crevice of her life as he’d built the case that had put her diabolically intelligent and demonic husband behind bars.
“I did,” she told him, smiling again. “It was final just last month.” Because Ken had fought it tooth and nail. From the throne he seemed to think he sat on in his prison cell.
Detective Larson’s frown was something she remembered well. It gave her stomach a sexy little jolt to see it now.
Not an altogether comfortable experience. She was healthy. Happy. Just as she was. Without sex. Been there, done that. Didn’t want the complication. The physical experience just wasn’t worth what it put you through, exposed you to, made you vulnerable to...
Besides, she was professional enough to recognize that any feeling she might have for this particular man was transference—a former captive gravitating toward the safety net offered by her rescuer.
“I thought you were going to change your name.”
The fact that he remembered gave her another jolt. Nice to know that of all of his many cases she’d been...memorable.
Or he just had one hell of a memory. Which was impressive, too.
“I was,” she told him. “But it’s on my degree. My doctoral certificate. And on the deed to the house I was just awarded as part of my settlement.”
And that was enough about her. “You look g
ood,” she told him, smiling again.
“Thank you. So do you.” He would know, as closely as he was looking her over.
Just as he’d done in the past. As though he didn’t miss a single freckle. She’d thought the intensity of his regard had been due to the fact that he’d been the detective in charge of investigating her case.
But there it was, two years later, still searching out her secrets...
“I imagine you have an appointment to keep,” she told him, pulling the strap of her black leather satchel more closely to her body. “I just wanted to thank you. You have no idea how many times I’ve thought of you since Kenneth went to prison and I could begin to heal, and I wanted to let you know what a difference you’ve made in my life. That you helped. So much. That the work you do...it matters so much...”
It wasn’t like her to babble. Those brooding brown eyes of his, the flop of blond hair that never seemed to be in place, they were...familiar. As though she took them with her everywhere she went.
The idea was shocking, and yet recognizable, too. His calm, his strength, they’d been like examples of a parent to her. Something she’d been emulating as she rebuilt her life.
Rescuer, rescuee. Safety net. Sense of security.
“I don’t have an appointment,” the detective said, rocking back on the heels of the black slip-ons he’d always worn. They looked like the exact same ones from back then. Did he buy several pairs at a time? Were they some kind of detective issue? Uniform to go with the dress slacks and button-down shirts he’d always worn? With a sedate tie in varying shades of blah.
“You’re here on a call?” she asked now, adrenaline rushing to the fore. Knocking out the other...inappropriate emotions his unexpected presence had raised in her. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have kept you.”
Even as she said the words she realized that if he’d been on an emergency call he most likely would have had a partner with him and wouldn’t have stopped to chat.
Which meant he was following up on a lead of some kind. Investigating every angle. Just like always.
The Promise He Made Her Page 2