by Lori Ryan
She shook her head. “No!” Never that. Turner had never been that to her. “He and my mom met after I’d moved out so he was never my stepfather.”
Kaeden nodded his head but didn’t speak. One hand rubbed her back while the other rested on her legs, squeezing, letting her know he was ready to support her.
She poured it all out. All the hurt and fear and terror of their lives over the last few years.
“My mom was swept away by him. I didn’t even know they were dating until she told me they were going away together. They were gone for three months, traveling to Europe and Asia. When they came home, they were married.”
She took a deep breath, remembering. “She was so happy. I didn’t like him much, but he made her so happy, I didn’t say anything. Not that I could say anything by then.
“Instead, I stayed away. They lived in Texas and I was hours away by plane so it was easy to make excuses not to visit. But then my mom started to change. I could hear it in her voice when we talked. She always tried to sound so chipper and happy like there was nothing wrong but I could tell something was. I went to visit and on the surface there was nothing wrong.”
Kaeden kept up the steady rhythm on her back and Jane sank into him, needing that connection as she told her story.
“Turner Carson is a powerful man. He’s extremely wealthy and his businesses provide jobs for a huge portion of the city they live in. On top of that, he owns most of the buildings in town and a hell of a lot of the rental properties as well. He may not be the mayor of the city, but he might as well be its king.” She paused. “He’s used to getting his way.”
It was putting it mildly.
“He was controlling. I could see it in the way he treated my mom even though she tried so hard to make things look like nothing was wrong on the outside. I told her it was okay if she wasn’t happy. That she could leave. She said he didn’t hit her, that he wasn’t abusive but I know he was hurting her in other ways. He was cruel and manipulative. I could see him chipping away at her confidence, her independence. Every time I went back to visit, there was a little more of her gone. It was like she was a little closer to death each time I went. Walking and talking and playing her role, but some part of her was dying and I didn’t know how to stop it.”
There were tears streaming down her face now and Jane knew there was no way to stop them.
“They were married for four years before she decided to leave him. She didn’t tell me.” She swiped at the tears. “God I wish she had told me. If I had been there.”
Kaeden ran his hand over her leg. “What happened?”
“The whole town was so loyal to him. So damned loyal. She didn’t realize how much. She thought if she went to a lawyer it would stay confidential, the way it was supposed to be.”
“It didn’t?”
She could hear the edge in Kaeden’s voice.
She shook her head. “The lawyer didn’t tell Turner that she was planning to leave him, but he didn’t have to. He casually let it slip that she had come to see him. In the same sentence he mentioned maybe Turner could encourage my mom to pop in and see a woman who was a counselor and had an office in the same building.
“It was enough to send him into a rage. Of course, he hid that rage so well from the people around them. He even went to a fundraising gala they were scheduled to go to that night with my mom. My mom had been told by the lawyer to bide her time while he prepped the divorce papers for her, so she went with him to the event.”
Jane’s tears were slowing as the anger at what had happened began to take hold, battling down the despair she always felt when thinking about her mom.
“On the drive home, he told my mom he knew she’d been to the lawyer and that she was never going to leave him. That if she thought she was going to walk away from him, she had no idea who she was dealing with. That no one left him.”
Jane slowed, not wanting to tell the next part but knowing the story couldn’t be told part way. “She tried to tell him she was leaving. And that’s when he lost it. He didn’t say the words, but I think it was one of those things where if he wasn’t going to have her, no one would.”
The memories sliced at Jane’s heart, bringing out the bone deep ache that would never go away. She could see her mother’s terror in her mind, imagine the horror her mother must have felt when she realized what was happening.
“He reached over and unbuckled her seatbelt and then slammed her side of the car into a tree.”
Kaeden cursed under his breath, low and hard, and there was an almost deadly quality to it.
Jane kept going, needing to get it out. “He was hurt too, of course, but not badly. My mom suffered the worst of it. She survived and she can walk but her pelvis was broken in several places and there was damage to her legs and back. She’s in pain every day and needs ’round-the-clock care and medicine.”
Kaeden’s head fell to rest on hers and he pulled her in, hugging her close.
“She tried to tell a doctor what had happened, but no one in that city wanted to believe what was happening. They saw Turner as this great benefactor, the father of the town. And what we didn’t know was that he’d already begun to paint a picture of my mom as hysterical and unstable to the people around her for years. She hadn’t known it was happening but he’d been telling people how much she relied on him to keep her steady, that she was seeing doctors for mental health issues she didn’t have.”
She told him how they’d run away together after her mother had healed enough to be moved. That she’d sold her townhouse and her car, and they’d taken the jewelry Turner had given her mother and run with it, using it to buy her mother a new identity.
“She needed the new identity to be able to live in the type of care facility she needed, but we didn’t have enough to support her and get a new identity for me. I thought at first I could just hide her and go on with my life, but he came after me. I had sold my car when I took my mom to hide her so I was taking the bus to and from work and then walking the three blocks to a friend’s house where I was staying. He was there one night waiting for me.”
She began to shake at the memory. She’d been so scared. “I told him I’d never tell him where she was. That she was away from him and happy. He threatened me and said he’d have me arrested for stealing the jewelry but Texas is a community property state so my mother had every right to take those jewels. In fact, she could have taken anything she wanted since they were never divorced.”
She couldn’t stop the shaking as she talked. She swallowed hard and continued, needing to get it all out now that she’d started. “He threatened me then. He was holding my arm so tight it hurt and he told me horrible things. Things he would do to me if I didn’t tell him where she was.”
She looked at Kaeden, seeing his eyes swim with barely controlled rage.
“I believed him. I believed every word. He began to drag me to his car and I knew if I got in that car with him, he would kill me. I screamed but no one came and I couldn’t fight him off. He was too strong.”
Kaeden held her so gently but she could see the battle raging inside him. Could see that if it were up to him, Turner Carson would probably be in a shallow grave somewhere with no one to save him from whatever punishment Kaeden was imagining dishing out.
She loved him for that, but it terrified her to think that he might go up against Turner for her and her mother and end up losing everything in his world, just as they had. She couldn’t do that to him.
Chapter 29
Kaeden swallowed down the anger pounding into him, through him, at Jane’s story. He wanted to hide her away somewhere and then go find this man and show him what should happen to any man who put his hands on Jane. What should happen to a psychopath that would do what he’d done to his wife.
He didn’t. He controlled the rage and talked to her, surprised when his voice came out so calm. “How did you get away?”
Her eyes were faraway when she answered and he hated that she was reliving
this for him.
“Someone opened their door and shouted. They must have finally heard me yelling. He ran and I was able to get to my friend’s.”
“What did the police do?” She must have called the police. Surely they arrested him.
“He was arrested and out the same night. He can buy all the fancy lawyers he wants. He was watching my friend’s place later that night. I knew then that I needed to leave. He was driving by my house regularly so I put on layers of clothes to make myself look heavier and used the leftovers from an old Halloween costume. A wig and glasses and some makeup to make my face look darker. I told my work I needed another leave of absence to help my mom again. They weren’t happy but they approved it. I think I knew, though, that I wouldn’t be coming back. Part of me just didn’t want to admit it. I took the clothes I was wearing, a bag of clothes, and the little money I had left and I ran.”
She took a deep breath. “I’ve been hiding since then. I let myself occasionally pop onto Turner’s radar through the private investigators he’s using, but I stay ahead of him. If he’s following the sightings of me, he’s not locked onto my mom. My mom emails me but until this morning, I haven’t talked to her in two years.”
“This morning? Why this morning?”
She leaned into him and he was glad to feel it. He had a feeling she’d needed to tell this story to someone, needed to know she had someone by her side in this.
“I called her.”
He saw guilt etched in her features.
“I shouldn’t have,” she said, “but I was worried.” She went on to describe the email she’d gotten from her mom with the picture of the flowers someone had given her and her subsequent call with her mom.
“It was probably nothing, but now I’ve not only laid a trail to me here, but I’ve possibly led him to my mom when he finds the lodge.”
Kaeden shook his head and squeezed her leg. “You said you used your cellphone. I assume it’s a disposable?”
“Yeah. There’s no contract or anything.”
“Then he’s not going to be able to track that.”
He saw the exhale of breath as she realized what he was saying was true.
“I want to go to her, to be sure this wasn’t anything to worry about, but I’m too afraid to.” Her features seemed to crumple and she covered her face with her hands. ‘I’m terrified to go check on her and terrified not to.”
He pulled her hands down and tipped her chin up. “You’re not alone in this anymore.”
As he said the words, he also realized he wasn’t alone anymore. He had options here, too.
He pulled his phone out and looked at Jane. “Do you trust me?”
He could see the indecision in her eyes, but she nodded.
He dialed Samantha’s number and hoped he wasn’t pulling her out of bed. Since he’d already heard kids outside, he would guess she might be awake, but he didn’t know for sure.
“What’s up, Kaeden?” She sounded awake so that was good.
“Did you bring your computer with you, Sam?”
Her only response was an intelligent snort. Okay, so yeah, Samantha Page probably didn’t go anywhere without a laptop. Maybe two.
“Can you come to Jane’s cabin?”
He saw the look of shock on Jane’s face and pulled the phone from his ear. “She already knew. There’s not much Samantha doesn’t find out.”
Samantha disconnected with him and he waited, handing Jane another tissue as she struggled to clean herself up for the other woman.
She was beautiful to him. Her skin was blotchy and red and her eyes were swollen, but that didn’t matter. He was well on his way to loving this woman. Was maybe even there already if he were really honest with himself.
Chapter 30
It was several days before Evan heard back from Turner Carson. Long enough that he was starting to sweat whether the man was going to pay his bill. He’d never taken more than a couple of hours to return any of Evan’s calls.
“I’m in New Jersey,” Turner said in lieu of a greeting.
Surprised didn’t begin to summarize Evan’s response to that. The last he’d heard, the man had said he was checking a lead in a resort town in Massachusetts somewhere.
Evan hesitated. For the last few days, he’d been wishing the woman wasn’t his mark. He didn’t want to think that this sweet woman who offered a smile to a stranger could be the thief he’d been sent to track down.
He’d even gone back and brought her flowers, telling her he was thanking her for helping him make the decision on where to place his mom. He’d wanted to see if his gut was really on about this woman. And his gut said she wasn’t a criminal.
He’d been sent to do a job and he needed to do it. His daughter needed the care the money from this job was going to bring.
Turner apparently wasn’t going to wait for a response. “I hope you have news. You’re costing me a fortune.”
Evan did something he never did. He lied to his client. “I don’t think it’s her. It was a dead end.”
“What do you mean, you don’t think? You told me you had a solid lead to follow.”
Evan’s chest was tight at the thought of giving up the money from the job. Shit, he didn’t even know if this guy would pay for his trip out here and the hotel he was staying in if he convinced him his wife wasn’t here, but he needed to be sure he wasn’t putting this woman in danger by telling his client he’d found her.
“I’m going to check one more thing, sir. I just need another day to see where this leads, then I’ll call you.”
“No.”
Evan was taken aback by the single word directive. Its tone brooked no argument.
“I’m in New Jersey. I’ll check myself.”
Evan cursed himself for sending his client the name of the facility he’d been checking on. All of his radar was going up on this guy. Everything in him was screaming that Debra Carson wasn’t what she seemed.
The truth was his radar had been going off for some time on this case, but he’d ignored it.
And now he was about to blow all the money he’d hoped to bring in on this just when his family needed it most.
It didn’t matter. He couldn’t pay for his daughter’s medical bills on the blood of what he would bet his life was an innocent woman.
“Sure, Mr. Carson,” he said. “You let me know if you want any backup.”
“Right, I’ll do that.”
“I’ll send you my bill and the receipts for travel and lodgings,” Evan said before hanging up.
Then he got in his car and headed for the assisted living home. He wanted to talk to Debra Carson one more time. This time, he was going to flat out ask about her husband. If his gut had been off and she was guilty of running off with her husband’s family heirlooms, well then, he’d decide what to do then.
But he had a feeling he knew damned well where this was headed. And he didn’t like it one bit.
Chapter 31
Kaeden held Jane’s hand while Samantha did her thing on the laptop. It had taken only minutes to fill Samantha in and she’d known right away how to help.
“Okay,” Sam said, “the facility your mom is in hosts tours for prospective clients on Tuesdays and Saturdays of each week and they log all of those visits in their computer so they can follow up. It’s a pretty exclusive place. You have to fill out a form to get the tour.”
Kaeden squeezed Jane’s hand as she nodded at Sam’s explanation.
“In the last three weeks, there have been several people on the tours, but no one matches this guy’s story. There was a couple looking at the home for their daughter who needs long term care, three older couples looking for themselves, and a woman looking for her mother. No single man looking for his mother.”
Samantha looked up from her computer. “And there’s no one scheduled to move in other than an elderly man and a couple. Nothing that matches his story.”
“Oh God.” Jane covered her mouth with her hand and sobbed as Kae
den rubbed a slow circle on her back.
“We need to get there now, Sam,” he said.
Samantha nodded and went back to her computer screen. “On it.”
Kaeden turned to Jane. “I’m just going to grab my wallet and pack a change of clothes. I’ll be back before Sam can finish getting us tickets.”
He was glad when she didn’t try to fight with him on going with her. He didn’t know why he’d thought he could keep from trying to help this woman. Yeah, the shit had hit the fan and he’d failed spectacularly the last time he’d tried to help someone, but he’d have an easier time stopping his own breath than he would walking away from Jane in that moment.
She needed him and he was going to be there.
He grabbed a few things and shoved them into a bag, hoping he could get one of his coworkers to pack the rest of his shit up and take it back with them.
Then he was back by Jane’s side as Samantha started reading off flight details.
“There’s one leaving in two and a half hours. If you get in the car right now, you can just make it.”
The door to the cabin opened and Jack, Logan, and Chad walked in.
“Sam filled us in,” Jack said, with a nod to Sam. “We’ll take our rental.”
It took Kaeden a second to process that each man had a bag slung over their shoulder.
“What?” he asked stupidly, looking to Samantha.
“I’ve got you all tickets, but you need to leave now,” she said, exasperation plain in her tone.
Jane looked from Samantha to the other men and then over to Kaeden. He shook his head at her. He didn’t have a clue what was happening.
“We’re not going to let you go this alone,” Jack said to Jane. “Either of you.” He shifted his gaze to Kaeden. “The rest of the company will stay here and head back to Connecticut when the week is up, but we’re going with you guys. Samantha will coordinate from here. She’s got some contacts in New Jersey who might be able to help.”