The Damaged Heroes Collection [Box Set #1: The Damaged Heroes Collection] (BookStrand Publishing Mainstream)

by James, Sandy

  Ross tried to pronounce her mother’s maiden name a few times, but he botched it pretty bad. Laurie finally told him to think of a bowl and then think of a female sheep. He finally got it right.

  “My name’s Kennedy. Like the rich family,” he told her. “But we weren’t.”

  “Weren’t what?”

  “Weren’t rich.”

  Laurie nodded. “Ah. That explains a lot. You don’t like rich people because of your family. Where’d you grow up?”

  Ross acted like he really didn’t want to answer her question as he stared at anything but her face. She pushed a little. “I know. You grew up in... Butte. That’s why you seem so comfortable in Montana.” At least she got a lopsided smile from him.

  “Gary, Indiana,” he finally answered.

  “Ouch. Isn’t that the murder capital of the country? Did your parents work in the steel plants?”

  Ross nodded. “My father did. Mom’s a teacher. Well, she used to be a teacher.”

  He didn’t need to explain anything else, and Laurie sure as hell didn’t need to read his feelings to understand. He’d grown up with fear of never having enough money. Threats of strikes had to haunt him. More than likely, his mother had been forced to change schools several times or was laid off as schools closed or consolidated. Gary had been in decline for decades. The city was all but dead now, and Ross had probably been one of the unfortunate children who had to grow up watching its death rattles.

  She wasn’t sure she’d ever tell him she was Laurence Miller. He might never want her if...

  Want me? Laurie scolded herself over the mere thought.

  The man had more than enough emotional baggage to keep her employed as a therapist for months to come. He needed her professionally, not personally. Yet the draw toward him remained so strong, so undeniable. Her intuition kept murmuring to her that he was meant to play an important role in her life just as she was in his, but it was only a whisper. When he pulled the other chair out and sat down next to her, she sighed before catching herself.

  Ross heard her heavy sigh but kept his thoughts to himself. Talking to Laurie was like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube. He kept turning and twisting what little she’d told him about herself in his mind. Maybe she had been right; his brain was overworked. But he knew there was something important she was hiding. Every attorney instinct he possessed told him she wasn’t being entirely truthful. He loved the chase for the truth. Hell, he thrived on it. The predator in him stayed crouched and ready to pounce on the first thing that showed a chink in her armor.

  Laurie’s brows knit as she read the first page.

  “What?” he asked. “Some deep, dark family secrets? Someone in your family related to Jesse James or something?”

  “This isn’t what I expected. Alex said it would have notes. Maps maybe. But this is really just personal stuff.”

  Ross shivered and rubbed his hands together. “Why don’t we take it downstairs? It’s getting chilly up here. We can read it by the fire.”

  “We? You didn’t want to read. Remember?”

  “Yeah, but this is a mystery now. I want to know who wrote it. Is there a name?”

  Laurie closed the journal and turned it over to check both front and back covers. “Nope. No name.”

  “Let’s go down where it’s warm and read it.” He went over and grabbed the red beaded dress and led the way out of the attic. Laurie followed.

  Back in the great room, Ross draped the garment over a leather chair. She sat down on the sofa.

  “Read it to me.” Ross plopped down next to her hard enough she bounced. He liked the exasperated grin she sent his way. He draped his arm across her shoulders.

  “Ask me,” Laurie replied.

  “Pardon?”

  “Ask me. Don’t tell me. You’re too friggin’ bossy.”

  “Fine. Will you read it to me?”

  “Try ‘please.’”

  “And you’re calling me bossy?” The stern look in her eyes meant she was serious. “All right. Will you please read it to me?” He was happy Laurie let his hand rest on her shoulder.

  Opening the journal, she read aloud.

  Ellie and I made it to Chicago today! I know it’s a big dangerous city, but the excitement is just too peachy! We found Ellie’s friend’s place. It’s not much, but Crystal said we could sleep here until we find jobs.

  She took us to Colosimo’s Café so we could audition. Before we left, Crystal told us we needed to pick new names. No one uses their real names here. They either want to leave their past behind or they are hiding something. Ellie chose to call herself Duchess. It suits her. She looks like royalty. I didn’t know what to choose until Crystal said I should be Ruby because of my red hair. Ellie’s blonde hair is much prettier.

  Ellie dances so well. They hired her for the chorus on the spot. I have to go back tomorrow to sing for the guy who runs the club. Do you think he’ll want to hear some hick from Greenwood, Indiana sing?

  Laurie glanced up at Ross. “Wasn’t Colosimo one of the mob bosses before Al Capone?”

  He nodded as he stroked her upper arm with his fingertips. She leaned a little closer. “I took a modern history class that had a lot about Prohibition. If I remember right, Capone and a guy named Torrio took over when Colosimo was murdered. There’s no date on the journal?”

  Laurie flipped through the pages and checked the cover again. “Nope. No name, either. Except for Ruby.”

  “Keep reading.”

  At least I can sing. Even if I do have funny eyes that make me look like a cat and even if I’m not very pretty, I can sing. Ellie can dance. If God hadn’t given me my voice, I might have ended up in the Four Deuces with the other runaway girls. Crystal told me all about the Deuces. I feel sorry for those girls. She said some of them were even virgins before they went there to work, but a person has to eat. Once a girl ends up at working at the Deuces, she never leaves. I’d starve to death before I’d sell my body. But I can sing.

  “Do you know what the Four Deuces was?” Laurie asked.

  “I think it was one of the brothels on the south side,” Ross replied.

  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “Not a pretty picture. I mean, I know those girls are long gone, but... Damn.”

  She nodded. “I know. I feel bad for them anyway.” She flipped to the next page. “Here’s the next day.”

  Johnnie let me audition and gave me a job! I thought he seemed like a wonderful man until Crystal told me all about the things Johnnie Torrio had done.

  Ross jerked his arm away so quickly he almost knocked the journal from Laurie’s hand. “She’s talking about Johnnie Torrio.” He grabbed the book from her and flipped through the pages.

  “Yeah, but who—”

  “He used to be deep in the Chicago underworld. Wow. Interesting find you’ve got there. What are you gonna do with it?”

  Laurie sat for a moment then exhaled a sigh. “I don’t know. Alex was looking for something with maps, not something like this. I just don’t know.”

  “Why did Alex want it?” Ross asked, trying to mask the strange jealousy he suddenly felt. How could he be so jealous about a woman he’d just met? And why would a relationship she claimed was over make him so apprehensive? This woman was driving him to distraction in more ways than he could count. She made him angry. She made him frustrated. And she made him so full of desire he almost couldn’t stand it.

  “Last I heard, he was finishing his dissertation for his Ph.D. in history. He needed some more primary documents. The last one was rejected because the review panel said he didn’t do enough in-depth research with primary documents. But this seems so...so...personal.” She took the book back and thumbed through several pages. “I’m not sure I want him to have it. I’ll email him at the university when I get home and let him know I found the diary, but that it wasn’t what he expected. I don’t need to give it to him.”

  When the phone rang, they both jumped. Laurie put the journal
down and hurried to the telephone sitting on the end table. “Hello? Mama! Je vous très bien. Mais, on a ètè attrapès dans une tempête de neige, nous.”

  Ross stared at her open-mouthed. Laurie truly was an enigma.

  After listening for several moments to the voice on the other end of the line, Laurie continued to have a long conversation in fluent French. She ended a string of words with, “Oui. Oui.”

  At least Ross understood the last two words. He waited patiently as he listened to her rattle on to her caller.

  Laurie rolled her eyes in obvious exasperation and twisted the long phone cord around her fingers. “Je ne suis pas bébé. Oui. Je ferai attention, moi. Je serai à la maison bientôt. Je t’aime aussi. Au revoir.” She hung up the phone and took a second to free her fingers from the tangle of the cord. “Seems like the phone is back. Electricity shouldn’t be too far behind. Did you need to call someone?”

  “Who was that?” Ross asked.

  “My mother.”

  “You speak French with your mother?”

  “Well, yeah. She’s from France.” She stared at him like she thought he was stupid.

  “Like I could have known that. What did you tell her?”

  “I told her we got stuck in a blizzard, and she wanted to know who I meant by ‘we.’ I told her I helped you when you got stuck, and she told me to be careful because I didn’t know anything about you.” She walked back over and sat on the couch. “She’s really upset because I didn’t return her messages. I kind of...forgot to tell her I came out here. She knew anyway. Mama’s intuition is pretty strong.”

  He knew a lie when he heard one. “You forgot? Yeah, right. You’re hiding out from something. What is it?”

  “I’m not—”

  He snorted a laugh. “Sure you are.”

  “Fine. I am. Look, my parents... They want...” She seemed to be having a hard time looking him in the eye, and that pissed him off.

  What does she have to hide?

  Laurie finally returned his gaze. Her eyes looked troubled. “They want me to quit my job and work for them. I love my job, but work was getting...rough. I just had to get away for a while. Why else would I come out here in January? I was hoping to get snowed in ‘til April.”

  “No one told me it would be this bad. I knew it was going to be cold, but damn. This is ridiculous. Could we really be snowed in until April?”

  She shook her head. “Nah. The phone’s back on. I’ll call someone to plow us out now.”

  “Won’t the city plow—?”

  Laurie chuckled as she interrupted him. “No way. Closest city is River Bend, and they don’t come way out here. I’ll have to call someone to dig us out. Here,” she said, handing him the phone. “Go ahead and make the call you’re dying to make. Office, right?”

  He disliked the knowing smirk on her face, but he grabbed the phone from her and punched the familiar number. “Sheila? It’s Ross.” He had to hold the handset away from his ear to escape from her incessant screeching. When the sound of her rebuke seemed to die down, he put the phone back to his ear. “I’m fine. Just got caught in an honest-to-God blizzard.”

  After a few minutes of listening to Sheila alternate between scolding him and expressing her happiness that he was safe and healthy, he finally ended the conversation and hung up the phone. He turned back to Laurie. “Think I could make it to the car to get my work?”

  “I don’t think you should.” Laurie walked to the window and took in the scenery for a moment. “It stopped snowing, but it’s still mighty cold. You weren’t exactly dressed for...” She stopped mid-sentence, put her index finger to her lip, and seemed to lose herself in thought. Then she smiled and snapped her fingers. “You know, I think I’ve got some stuff you can use. We might be able to get your work.”

  She was up to something, and he wasn’t sure for a moment if that idea should thrill him or terrify him. Free falling. She’d told him he needed to let go. Maybe, he’d just give that a try. “Super. Let’s go.”

  Ross followed Laurie to an enormous closet near the ranch house’s main entry. Several things tumbled out when she opened the door. “Sorry,” she said, grabbing a basketball that was rolling away. “My family is nothing but a bunch of pack rats. Like I told you, we never throw anything out.”

  Ross just chuckled.

  After browsing through the variety of coats hanging in the closet, Laurie finally located a fur-lined parka that seemed big enough to fit him when he held it to his chest. She also fished out some gloves and a hat and handed them to him.

  It took her a couple of minutes to find matching boots. “I’m not sure these are big enough. What size shoe do you wear?”

  “Fourteen. Doubt you’ve got any that big.”

  She lifted the tongue on several boots. “Ah ha. Thirteen and a half. Should work. Evidently the men in my family have big feet too.”

  “You know what they say about guys with big feet.” Ross wiggled his eyebrows. While savoring Laurie’s face flushing red, he waited a beat or two before finishing the thought. “Big shoes.”

  Punching him on the upper arm, she handed him the boots. He dutifully followed her to the kitchen where they both donned their winter apparel. Laurie was planning a snowy adventure. But was he up to it?

  Oh, yes. He was up to a lot of things.

  Chapter 6

  I finally met Fortune today. The girls had been talking about him for a while. Frankly, I don’t see the fuss. He’s so skinny and tall. Crystal told me they call him Fortune because he can turn straw into gold, but I want to stay away from bootleggers. They are a nasty bunch. Always give me the heebie-jeebies. I thought he wanted to go out with Duchess. He was always hanging around when the chorus danced after my first number, so I assumed he was after a dancer. Then I saw him talking to Duchess a few times, so I guessed he was interested in her. She was sure interested in him. But he asked me out instead. I told him I’d think about it. On my way out of the club, I ran into Fortune again. He had the nerve to kiss me! Would it be too wicked if I admit I liked it?

  When Laurie jerked the kitchen door open, Ross finally understood the difference between a Chicago “snow storm” and a Montana “blizzard.” The snow had piled up against the door so high it reached Laurie’s thighs.

  “You really wanna do this?” she asked, arching a pretty blonde eyebrow at him.

  Ross had agonizing physical withdrawal from his inability to work. He didn’t have to think about it for more than a few seconds before he nodded. Laurie gave a melodious laugh and bounded into the snow as he followed behind.

  The wind had died and the sun shone bright overhead. Laurie was obviously enjoying every minute of her freedom. She found a flat place in the snow, flopped down on her back, and flapped her arms and legs to make a snow angel. Ross gawked at her, wondering if she’d lost her mind. The huge smile on her face from enjoying something as simple as snow sent a stab of envy through him. All the deep snow meant to Ross was that he couldn’t find his client.

  “Join me?” she asked. “Have a little fun?”

  Ross just shook his head.

  Pulling herself out of the snow bank, Laurie brushed off the clinging snow and hiked her way toward his rental car. She trudged around the larger drifts and laughed the whole way. “Isn’t this wonderful?” She stopped and spun in a circle. “I was getting sick of being cooped up.”

  Ross was having more than a little difficulty keeping up with her. Damn, she moved fast. And she didn’t even look winded. His idea of aerobic exercise was taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Although he still lifted weights to burn off some of his crippling stress, the muscles in his legs trembled by the time they reached his convertible.

  Laurie tried to dig out the buried driver’s side door. “At least I didn’t lock it.” She burrowed like a mole into the pile of snow that had drifted against the car.

  Ross figured he should be more help, but he was still panting from the trek from the house to the convertible.
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br />   Laurie stopped digging and looked up at him with an amused grin. “Tourist,” she said with a condescending smirk. He bundled his coat a little closer around his face and grunted in response.

  Laurie finally worked her way into the car and reached into the back seat to grab his briefcase.

  “Here,” she said as she pulled herself out of the convertible and shoved the leather attaché at him. “Need anything else?”

  “I can’t remember if I put the garment bag in the back seat or the trunk.”

  Crawling back inside and glancing over the seat again, Laurie called back, “Not here.”

  She hauled herself back out of the car. Ross flashed her a sheepish smile. “I forgot where I put the keys. I don’t suppose there’s a trunk latch.”

  “Tourist,” Laurie accused again. “How do you get in the trunk without keys?” She ducked back inside. “Ah ha. Found a button.”

  He couldn’t simply let the subtle insult go unchecked, and damn it all if she hadn’t made him think like a kid. Ross quickly bent down and formed a small snowball. The instant she extracted herself from the car and turned back to face him, he aimed it right at her chest. Her very ample chest. It exploded, sending snow cascading down her front. “I may be a tourist, but I know what to do with snow,” he teased.

  Afraid for a moment that he’d overstepped the line of appropriate humor, he held his breath, waiting for her reaction. She laughed in genuine amusement, and he let the air rush from his lungs in an audible gasp. Thank God she’s got a sense of humor.

  Ross trudged his way back to the rear of the car to fetch his garment bag before slamming the trunk shut. When he looked up to say something to Laurie, he received a direct snowball hit to the face.

  As he brushed away the flakes of snow sticking to the stubble growing on his cheeks and chin, he heard Laurie laughing as she ran away—at least running as fast as she could through the thick snow. Seeing the strategic benefit of his long legs, he decided to dole out some payback. He dropped the garment bag and briefcase on the trunk and gave chase.