Natural-Born Protector / Saved by the Monarch

by Carla Cassidy

  Melody nodded, although she found it odd that Mike would have drop cloths covering the entire floor for painting a single wall. Mike set his paintbrush down and wiped his hands on his apron and exchanged a look with Fred.

  Fred looked at Melody, and in the depths of his eyes she thought she saw regret. Regret for what? Her heart banged against her bruised ribs as a sudden fear overtook her. Stop it, she told herself and drew a deep breath. There was nothing to be afraid of here.

  “Melody, Melody, Melody,” Fred said in a singsong fashion. “You’ve become as big a problem as your sister was.”

  It was then she noticed the knife Mike was holding in his hand.

  He was overreacting. Once again Hank stood at the window overlooking the parking lot from where Melody’s car was gone. She’ll be fine at Fred’s, he told himself. There was absolutely no reason for his gut to be churning with anxiety.

  Why had Fred told Melody he’d never been inside Lainie’s place? What possible motive could he have to lie about such a simple thing?

  He’d spent several minutes trying to pin down Maddie on when she’d seen Fred, but all she knew was that it was around the time that Lainie had died. Had it been on the night that Lainie had been murdered?

  Why would Fred have gone to Lainie’s and why would he lie about it? It just didn’t make sense, and what didn’t make sense made him nervous.

  He jerked away from the window and slid a hand through his hair as if the gesture would help him make sense of things. Why would Fred want to hurt Lainie? The man had been like a father to her. Lainie had loved Fred. It just didn’t make sense to suspect Fred of any wrongdoing.

  Still, no amount of rationalization vanquished the bad feeling he had in his gut. He paced the living room, his mind racing in a million directions. Why had Fred lied?

  He glanced at his watch. Ten-thirty. How long could it take Melody to eat breakfast and come back home? He suddenly had a need to see her, to make sure she was all right.

  He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his mother’s phone. “Mom, I know you didn’t intend to keep Maddie today, but is it possible you could watch her right now for a little while?”

  “What’s wrong?” Susan asked.

  “What makes you think anything is wrong?” he asked.

  “I’m your mother, Hank. I can hear it in your voice. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

  He sighed. “Probably nothing, but I need to find Melody. She went to have breakfast with Fred Morrison. I don’t know why, but I just need to check on her and make sure she’s all right.”

  “I’ll be right there.” Susan clicked off before Hank had fully finished speaking.

  What had begun as a little whisper of worry now quickly became an urgent scream inside his head. Once his mother arrived, he grabbed his keys and headed for his car, telling himself that he was probably playing the fool, but not caring. It was at that moment that he recognized the depths of his love for Melody Thompson.

  “Fred? What’s going on?” Melody asked, her voice sounding tinny and small, drowned out by the banging of her heart.

  “If you’d just come back for the funeral then left again nothing would have happened, but you had to dig and dig and put your nose where it didn’t belong. I tried to warn you with the phone call and the brick. I told you to go back to Chicago.”

  She stared at him as if seeing him for the very first time. His neatly cut salt-and-pepper hair looked the same way it always had, but his handsome features were suddenly alien as his eyes radiated a weary resignation. “You?” The single word escaped her lips on a faint sigh.

  “I even had Mike here rough you up, figuring that would be enough to send you packing, but it didn’t.” Fred walked over to the corner and grabbed the solid silver cane with the ornate head. When he looked at Melody again, his eyes were hard pellets. “She was going to get pregnant. If that happened, your mother would have never married me. She would have been saddled with raising a kid because we all know Lainie wasn’t capable of being a real mother.”

  “You killed her?” Melody’s world tilted and a new grief for her sister welled up inside her. It was bad enough for Lainie to have been killed by a stranger, but she’d loved Fred and she’d thought Fred loved her.

  “I didn’t intend to kill her. I went over there to try to talk some sense into her. I wanted her to get a hysterectomy so she wouldn’t have any babies.” Fred’s eyes flashed with anger. “If she’d just done what I asked there wouldn’t have been any problems, but instead she laughed at me, told me that I couldn’t do anything to stop her from having a kid or two.”

  Melody listened in horror. She shot a glance at Mike, who stood nearby as if awaiting orders. He didn’t look shocked by Fred’s words. He looked bored.

  “She went into the bathroom and I followed her.” Fred’s fingers tightened on the top of his cane. “I was in love with your mother long before your father died. When he had his heart attack and died, I was determined that she’d be mine. I built my company for her. I built this house for her and I waited for her to finally agree to marry me. But over and over again she put me off, telling me we’d have time for our life when Lainie got settled. Lainie was never going to get settled,” he screamed.

  Melody took a step backward, still reeling from what she was hearing. She’d thought that the killer was James O’Donnell because he had a sick obsession for Lainie, but instead it had been Fred because of his sick obsession with her mother.

  Even as she listened to him and kept Mike in her peripheral vision, she frantically looked for a way to escape. But Fred was standing by the door to the room and Mike was on her right side, in front of the windows.

  “It was a tragic accident,” Fred continued. “When she laughed at me I struck her—” he raised his cane and slashed it through the air and at the same time a low rumble of thunder rattled the windows “—she fell and laughed and I hit her again…and again…and again.”

  “And you lost the stone out from your ring,” Melody said with horror.

  “A trip to a jeweler in Oklahoma City took care of that problem, and I thought everything was fine, but you keep digging and digging.”

  “I’ll stop. I’ll go home and never tell anyone what you’ve told me,” she lied.

  Fred shook his head and every muscle in her body tightened as Mike took a step toward her. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that. I’ve been a patient man, Melody, but my patience has finally run out. Mike is going to see to it that you never tell anyone anything. You’re going to disappear. Your mother will go through a grieving process, but then there will be nothing more keeping her from me.”

  “You’ll never get away with this,” Melody exclaimed. “Several people knew where I was going this morning.”

  “And you arrived and we had a lovely breakfast together and planned your mother’s birthday party, and then you left. Mike will make sure your car isn’t found for months and you’ll become part of the concrete foundation of a new building we’re working on. People will search for you and your disappearance will remain a mystery for years to come.”

  He stepped backward toward the door to leave and nodded to Mike. Melody suddenly realized why the floor was covered with drop cloths. It was so there wouldn’t be any mess when Mike killed her. Her bloody, dead body would be wrapped in one of those cloths and she’d be dropped into a hole and covered with concrete.

  “Please,” she said to Mike as Fred left the room. “How can you do this for him?”

  “He pays me well for helping him out,” Mike said as he advanced on her. Lightning flashed and thunder exploded. Melody raced for the door that Fred had just exited, but when she twisted the knob, it was locked.

  She whirled back around and grabbed a lamp from a nearby table and held it out in front of her in an attempt to keep Mike away.

  All she could think about was Hank and Maddie and her mother. They would never know what happened to her. Maddie would never get a letter from Chicago and her m
other would marry the man who had murdered her two children. And Hank…he would never know that she’d loved him. He would never know that for her, he’d been magic.

  The rain slowed him down. It fell in torrents, the windshield wipers barely able to keep up. Lightning split the skies and thunder boomed almost instantaneously.

  But the storm outside had nothing on the tornado of emotions that was whirling through Hank. As he drove he kept telling himself that he was overreacting, that he was going to arrive at Fred’s place and find Melody eating a bowl of fruit and a muffin. Hank would be embarrassed by intruding, but at least he’d have the peace of mind to know Melody was okay.

  As he pulled up in the driveway, he saw her rental car in front of the door, but even the familiar sight couldn’t stanch the feeling that she might be in danger.

  Thankfully the rain had eased off to a mist as he got out of his car. He started for the front door, then paused and changed his mind. With the faint alarm of danger ringing in his ears, he went around the side of the house, deciding to see what he could find by peering into windows.

  The alarm that had been faintly ringing in his ears became more shrill as he saw a covered pickup truck parked in the grass by a back door. Why would a worker park back here instead of in the driveway?

  He crouched down and went to the first window. A peek in showed him the kitchen, but there was nobody inside. The table was set but it didn’t appear that anyone had eaten yet. He frowned. She’d been here long enough to eat a three-course meal and be on her way back home.

  He moved to the next window and cursed inwardly as the tightly drawn blind prevented him from seeing in. Where was she? Another rumble of thunder boomed overhead, but it sounded no louder than his beating heart.

  When he looked into the next window his heart stopped. She was there—and as he watched, a man he’d never seen before rushed her with a knife.

  He heard her scream as he launched himself at the window. He didn’t feel the slashing glass as he broke through. He landed on the floor inside, pulled his gun and stood at the same time.

  Melody was on the ground, her eyes closed as blood oozed from a wound in her chest to darken her yellow T-shirt. Hank faced the man with the knife, rage cascading red before his eyes. His fingers itched to pull the trigger. God, he wanted the man dead.

  Emotions ripped through him. Was Melody dead? “Put the knife down before I put a bullet through your heart,” he said.

  “It wasn’t my deal,” the man said quickly, his eyes frantically searching for an escape route. “It was Fred. He made me do it.”

  Hank kept the gun trained on him while he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “Zack, I need you out at the Morrison place. Melody has been stabbed and I just shot a man.” He clicked off the phone as the man’s eyes widened.

  “Hey, wait!” he said just before Hank pulled the trigger.

  The bullet struck him mid-thigh, and with a squeal of pain he fell to the ground and writhed in pain. Hank rushed to Melody’s side while keeping an eye out for Fred.

  “Melody? Melody, open your eyes, honey.” He used one hand to check her pulse. It was there, but reedy and thin. And the blood on her chest had spread in a frightening pattern on her blouse.

  He put pressure on her wound, trying to stop the bleeding, gun still held in one hand. As the man on the floor screamed in pain, Hank prayed for Zack to get here in time to save Melody’s life.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “You have to wake up,” Lainie said, her voice a sweet familiar sound. “Melody, you have to wake up now.”

  “But I don’t want to leave you,” Melody said.

  Lainie smiled, that loving gesture that put a sparkle in her eyes and warmed Melody’s heart. “I don’t need you anymore, Melody. I’m not afraid. But more important, you don’t need me anymore.”

  Melody stared at the sister who had been such an integral part of her life since the day she’d been born. “I don’t?” she asked softly.

  Lainie nodded. “You’re strong, Melody. So much stronger than you think. You’re going to be just fine without me. All you need to do is let me go.”

  “But I’ll miss you,” Melody protested.

  Again Lainie smiled and touched her sister’s cheek with a soft, feathery hand. “And you’ll remember me often, with laughter and joy. Kiss Maddie for me. And now, take a deep breath and open your eyes, Melody. Open your eyes.”

  Her eyes opened and she realized she was in a hospital bed. She frowned in confusion, for a moment her mind pulling a blank as she tried to remember what had brought her here. It was night. She could tell by the hush in the hallway although the lights in her room were on.

  She turned her head slightly toward the window and saw Hank. He was asleep in the chair, his handsome features lined with strain and marred by tiny cuts.

  Fred. Memory slammed into her and she drew a deep breath, instantly moaning as a sharp pain pierced through her center.

  Hank was instantly at her side and took one of her hands in his. “Don’t try to sit up,” he said. “You have stitches in your side.”

  “Mike?” she asked.

  Hank’s eyes transformed from warm and caring to something cold and hard. “If that’s the man who stabbed you, then he’s in a hospital room down the hall. I had the distinct pleasure of shooting him in the leg.”

  “What about Fred? He killed her, Hank. He killed Lainie and then he lured me to his house so he could kill me, too.”

  He squeezed her hand. “Fred is now in Zack’s custody and he’ll never be a free man again.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to process everything that had happened. She opened her eyes and looked at him once again. “What were you doing at Fred’s? How did you know I was in trouble?”

  “Maddie. Fred’s picture was in the morning paper for some grand opening of a mall. Maddie told me she’d seen him going into Lainie’s one night, and I knew you’d told me that Fred had told you he’d never been to Lainie’s. The inconsistency made me nervous.”

  “Thank goodness. If you hadn’t gotten nervous, I wouldn’t be here right now.” She shifted positions on the bed and winced with pain. “Am I going to live?”

  He smiled and, in the warmth of that smile, she knew she was going to be fine. “You lost a lot of blood and you have ten stitches where Mike stabbed you, but he managed to miss anything vital.”

  She nodded. She must have fallen asleep, for when she opened her eyes again, morning sunshine poured through the windows and her mother was in a chair next to her bed.

  “Mom.” Tears sprang to Melody’s eyes as she thought of how devastated her mother must be.

  Rita leaned forward and gripped her hand tightly, tears in her eyes as well. “Oh, Melody, thank God you’re okay.” Rita’s tears splashed onto her cheeks. “I thought I’d lost you, too.”

  “I’m fine, Mom. Please don’t cry.” Melody knew her mother had plenty to cry about. A daughter who’d been murdered, another daughter nearly suffering the same fate and the man she loved responsible for the ugly betrayal. “I know you feel like you’ve lost everything,” Melody began. “I know you’d planned to live out the rest of your life with Fred.”

  Rita’s eyes flashed and the tears vanished instantly. “I hope he rots in prison,” she said with a venom Melody had never heard before. “If they decide to electrocute him, I’ll volunteer to throw the switch.”

  “Mom!”

  Rita sat back in her chair and drew a deep breath. “Fred had been pressuring me to marry him for years but something always held me back.” She frowned thoughtfully. “It wasn’t just Lainie or you or anything I can put my finger on. It was just something inside me that refused to agree to have him as my husband. I knew he was ruthless in his business practices, and that bothered me, but he was kind to me. Now when I think about it, my skin tries to crawl right off my body.”

  Melody knew that feeling well as she thought of the way James O’Donnell had looked at her. “But you’
re alone now,” Melody said softly.

  “Nonsense, I’ve never been alone. I have you and I have my friends. I have my memories. I have me. I’ll be fine.” She smiled and patted Melody’s hand. “All I want right now is for you to heal and have a wonderful life…for me…for Lainie.”

  Melody realized that she’d underestimated her mother’s strength. It had been Fred who had always told her that her mother was too upset to deal with Lainie. It had been Fred who had perpetrated the myth that Rita was weak and needed him to take care of her.

  “She’s at peace now, Mom. And so am I,” Melody said softly.

  “I’m glad.” Rita stood and leaned over to kiss Melody on the forehead, the gesture evoking a hundred memories of similar kisses from Melody’s childhood. “Zack has been waiting for some time to question you. Do you feel up to seeing him now?”

  Melody nodded and within minutes her mother was gone and she was reliving the nightmare for Zack. It was still hard to believe that Fred had been so afraid that Lainie would get pregnant, he’d killed her. That wasn’t love; that was sickness. James O’Donnell was a gardenvariety creep, but Fred had been something much worse, something evil.

  Zack finally had all the information he needed and left.

  She was alive. The bad guys were where they belonged and she’d only told a little white lie to her mother when she’d said she was at peace. Her stab wound would heal, but it would take much longer for her heart to scar over.

  She was the one who had set the rules, a simple summer fling. But in a matter of weeks, her feelings for Hank had spiraled out of her control.

  “I brought you flowers.” Maddie danced into the hospital room clutching a vase with an arrangement of colorful blossoms. Hank followed just behind her, and at the sight of the two of them Melody’s love welled up inside her, making speech impossible.

  Maddie set the vase on the table next to the bed, then leaned over and placed a hand on Melody’s cheek, her gaze mournful. “Daddy told me a bad man hurt you. Sometimes when I have a tummy ache, Daddy kisses me and it makes me feel better.” She leaned forward and planted a slightly sloppy kiss on Melody’s cheek. “There, does that feel better?”