Destiny Of A Donovan (The Donovans Book 15)

by A. C. Arthur

  Yes!

  Sirens. Help was here Brynne thought. Finally, help was here.

  Wade was tired when he walked into the Big House. He was hungry and he needed a hot shower. But first, he wanted to see Brynne.

  There were some developments in Tuscany that he was going to have to deal with in person, but he did not want to leave her. Tonight, he was going to ask her to go with him. After their intense conversation this morning, however, he wasn’t sure where her head would be this evening. He’d given her the space by not calling or texting her while he’d worked in the office all day. He hadn’t known he was going to say that this morning, which was sort of unusual for Wade. He always contemplated what he was going to do before doing it. Yet this morning, he’d just guided them into the conversation of forever, of marriage. And Brynne had slowly retreated.

  Now, he planned to ask her to travel with him. Wade only hoped she would be more receptive to that than she had been to the idea of marrying him.

  He was just dropping his keys on the oak console table in the foyer when Lauren can running out of the living room.

  “Is she with you?” she asked coming up to Wade.

  Her eyes were wide as she spoke, her voice elevated.

  “Is who with me?” he asked in return, a sick feeling already swirling in the pit of his stomach.

  “Brynne!” Lauren said. “I haven’t seen her all day. I left for work early but I assumed she would be here. Because I’d asked her about her schedule last night and she’d said she had nothing planned for today. She was just going to relax. I thought that was a good idea because she’d been running back and forth the past few days and I figured she needed to slow down a little.”

  “Stop!” Wade said as he grabbed Lauren by the shoulders. “What are you trying to say? Where is Brynne?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to say,” she told him and pulled out of his grasp. “I don’t know where she is. I needed to ask her something about a new project we’re working on together so I called her around three this afternoon and I got her voicemail. I called two more times before leaving the office at five and I kept getting her voicemail.”

  Mrs. Ramsey came from the direction of the kitchen then. She was holding a tray with a porcelain tea pot and three cups.

  “I told you to stay put,” she said to Lauren. “You need to calm your nerves so I made tea. Wade you come on in here too and have a seat. Nothing ever gets done by fretting and running around.”

  “Calm down?” Wade said trying to wrap his mind around all that was being said. “What do you mean? Somebody tell me what the hell is going on?”

  “Tell him,” Lauren said to Mrs. Ramsey.

  The older woman shook her head as she realized they weren’t going to listen to her right now.

  “Evelyn Terrington called here for Brynne. It was around two o’clock. That was about an hour after Brynne had that visitor and so I thought she was still out on the deck,” Mrs. Ramsey said.

  “What visitor?” Wade asked.

  There were so many questions and nobody was giving him the answer he wanted. Where was Brynne? That’s all Wade wanted to know. Where the hell was she?

  “He said his name was Mr. Donovan,” Mrs. Ramsey told him. “I figured he was family so I let him in and told him Brynne was on the deck. I never saw her leave.”

  Wade was already pulling his phone from his jacket pocket. “Neither of you called the police?” he asked.

  “No,” Mrs. Ramsey said. “I believed she would come back when she was finished with her business.”

  “Brynne wouldn’t not answer her phone,” Lauren said. “I didn’t call the police because that means…”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Wade said. “It means nothing. But I’m calling them so that they can get out there and find her and confirm that it means nothing.”

  It hadn’t been twenty-four hours yet. That was the customary time frame for a missing person’s alert to go out and for law officials to begin to actively look for her. But Wade wasn’t just anybody, so when he called the Valley police, he was immediately transferred to one of their top detectives. And that detective had immediately put out an APB for Brynne and her car.

  Fifteen minutes later Wade received a return call from the police. Brynne’s car had been towed and she was in the hospital.

  Chapter 13

  Brynne was released from the hospital later the next day and Wade couldn’t wait to get her back to the Big House.

  He’d driven like a madman with Lauren in the passenger seat pushing him to go faster, and had made it to the hospital just in time to see Brynne regain consciousness. The doctors said she was out of it when she was brought in and while they’d taped her broken ribs, stitched the cut on her forehead and took x-rays of her fractured leg, she’d slipped in and out, each time, whispering his name.

  She’d been allowed to come home the next day because Wade had hired a nurse to come to the house to check her vital signs and to make sure that Brynne was resting so that her leg and ribs could heal. He wasn’t certain how necessary the nurse was going to be as Mrs. Ramsey had been at the door waiting for them when they arrived.

  “I already have the bed turned down for her,” Mrs. Ramsey had said as she directed Wade up the steps.

  He’d carried Brynne to his bedroom and placed her on the right side of the bed where Mrs. Ramsey had pulled the comforter and sheets back. The lamp on the nightstand on that side of the bed was on and there was already a little bell sitting next to it. No doubt she intended to wait on Brynne hand and foot until she was completely healed. That was good, because Wade intended to do the same. And Lauren, she’d followed him into the bedroom carrying the bag of Brynne’s belongings that they’d brought from the hospital.

  “I’ll get you a clean night gown and Wade can go down with Mrs. Ramsey to get you something to eat while I help you change,” Lauren had said.

  “I’m not hungry,” Brynne had told them.

  “Nonsense,” Mrs. Ramsey, who Wade hadn’t seen enter the room, said. “You have pain pills and anti-inflammatory pills here that the doctor wants you to take twice a day. And you can’t have them on an empty stomach. So I’ll fix you some soup to start off for the night and tomorrow we’ll see about some soft scrambled eggs and dry toast.”

  Brynne had frowned at her words but had wisely remained silent. Wade, who was adjusting the pillows behind her had leaned in to drop a kiss on the tip of her nose.

  “Feels good to have so many people love you, doesn’t it?”

  She’d given him a tentative smile in response. They hadn’t talked a lot about what had happened. Earlier in the day Detective Brimley, the one who had called Wade to tell him Brynne was in the hospital, came to visit. Brynne had given him her statement then, telling him that Roslyn Ausby had been there. The first responders on the scene hadn’t mentioned another person being there, but Wade had suggested the detective go back to his office and contact the police in Big Bear and Los Angeles because Roslyn Ausby had a history with this family.

  An hour later, when it was close to nine at night, Lauren had finally gone to her room and Mrs. Ramsey had left with instructions for Wade to call her on the cell phone if they needed anything throughout the night. This would normally be her night off where she would return to the house she shared with her husband of forty-two years, but she was staying at the Big House tonight.

  Wade had taken a few minutes to go into the bathroom and change out of his jeans and shirt, putting on basketball shorts and a tank top before lying on the bed beside her.

  “I’ve got a few selections I think you might like,” he said as he picked up the remote control to the television. “We have Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Light Between Oceans which Lauren told me to tell you that guy you like from The X-Men is in, and Something New which happens to be one of my favorites.”

  He was pressing buttons on the remote, moving from one movie poster to the next as he talked so she could see what he was referring to. />
  “You watched Something New?” she asked, surprise clear in her voice.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I know it’s a chick flick, but I’m a low key Simon Baker fan,” he admitted.

  “Let me guess,” she said, “You watched him in The Mentalist first?”

  “You got it!” Wade said and chuckled. “I was pleasantly shocked at how much I enjoyed this movie though.”

  “I enjoyed it too,” she told him. “But I’d rather not watch it right now.”

  “Okay, so you want to go with sci-fi instead?”

  “No,” she told him. “You can just put it on the local news or something. I’ll probably doze off soon. Mrs. Ramsey made sure she saw me swallow that pain pill.”

  “Right,” he said. “That’s fine. I’ll turn the television down so it won’t disturb you. I can go over and sit in the chair too, if you’ll be more comfortable.”

  “No,” she’d said and reached out a hand to touch his arm. “I want you to stay right here.”

  Wade was glad to hear that because he didn’t want to be too far away from her again.

  “They’re going to catch her this time,” he told Brynne when they’d been quiet for a while.

  “I can’t believe you’ve known all about Roslyn and what she’s been doing to my family all this time. You never said a word.”

  “I didn’t need to,” he told her. “As long as you were here safe with me.”

  “I don’t think the detective believed me when I said she was there,” she said.

  “He’ll follow up, regardless,” Wade told her. Because he was going to make sure that he did.

  “She sent me a package and I saw her at my therapist’s office a few weeks ago.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Wade asked.

  “I didn’t want to deal with it,” she admitted. “Remember you asked why I’d stayed here so long? Well, that was part of the reason. A big part.”

  “Because you didn’t want to deal with this woman and what she was doing to your family,” he said.

  “That and because I didn’t want to admit I now had a brother. I just wanted to be somewhere where I could be a normal person, living a normal life. Not one with all this drama.”

  “Then you probably should have decided to stay somewhere else since Evelyn and Mia brought drama through the door at the auction.”

  “I know. That was unexpected and had me thinking twice about running away from my problems. You had me re-thinking that too. In fact,” she said sleepily. “I’ve been thinking over a lot of things since you announced that we were going to be something more.”

  Wade hoped that was a good thing, but because he could tell she was going to be out cold soon, he moved closer to her on the bed and held her gingerly in his arms.

  “Tell me what you’ve been thinking about us, Brynne,” he whispered into her ear.

  “I’m thinking that I like the sound of “us” a lot more now than I did before,” she said. “I mean, when your car goes off the road and crashes into a tree, you tend to put some things in perspective.”

  Wade smiled and kissed the top of her head. “I can imagine that.”

  “So I’ve worked so hard on his new life I’m thinking that it’s time I really live it.”

  “I agree with that as well. What do you want to do to live your life?”

  “I want to work,” she told him and she moved slowly, in an attempt to get comfortable.

  Wade moved too, being sure not to put too much pressure on her, but not let her go completely either.

  “And I want to buy a house and maybe have children.”

  Again she sounded drowsy.

  “I want to be with you, Wade. I love you and I want us to get—”

  Brynne stopped talking suddenly and struggled to sit up slowly on the bed.

  “What is it? Are you in pain?” he asked as he sat up with her.

  She stared at the television, reaching an arm over to him for what Wade didn’t know. “Turn it up,” she told him. “Turn up the television.”

  Wade found the remote that he put to the side on the bed when he’d turned over to hold her. He pressed the volume button and they both stared at the TV.

  “The therapist was found on the floor in her office at the Breeston Medical Building in downtown San Francisco. Police are on hand investigating and will keep you posted as this story unfolds. But if you have any information as to what may have happened to Sybil Dunham, give the police tip hotline a call.”

  “Oh no,” Brynne said, shaking her head. “That’s my therapist. I was on my way to see her just before the accident. I kept calling her but the line was busy.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?” Wade asked, concerned filtering through him now.

  “Last week,” she told him. “But Roslyn hadn’t been there that time. It was just a few weeks ago. That one time that she was there.”

  When Wade looked at Brynne again she was shaking. He wrapped his arm around her.

  “What if she did this, Wade? What if she wanted to know stuff about me because she knew Sybil was treating me and Sybil wouldn’t tell her so she—”

  “Stop,” Wade said and kissed her on the mouth to keep her quiet. “You need to get your rest. Let the police do their job. They’ll find out what happened to the therapist and they’ll find Roslyn. I promise you, sweetheart, this will all be taken care of.”

  To his surprise and most likely thanks to the pain medication, Brynne nodded and lay back against the pillows. Wade lay down with her. He turned the television and the light off and held Brynne in his arms until he knew she was asleep.

  Then he thought about Roslyn Ausby and the dead therapist. He thought about why Evelyn had called his house asking for Brynne and because Brynne had told him that the Mr. Donovan that came to see her had been her brother Dane, Wade wondered where he was now. Did he go back to New York or was he still here in the Valley or in San Francisco where the murder had just occurred?

  By noon the next day Bernard Donovan was walking into the Big House. His booming voice reaching all the way through the foyer to the living room where Brynne had been sitting on the couch.

  She’d been there since after breakfast this morning and having Wade help her bathe and get dressed. Lauren had wanted to be there but she had a meeting she could not cancel. Or rather a meeting that Wade would not let her cancel.

  “I’m here and so is Mrs. Ramsey. Go into the office and take care of business. When you return I’ll work from here to handle the things I need to,” he said to his sister.

  “Fine,” Lauren had conceded before leaning over the bed and kissing Brynne on the cheek. “I’ll be back.”

  Brynne had hugged her best friend tight before letting her go. If things had gone differently on that road she may never have seen Lauren’s pretty face again. It seemed like a little thing in retrospect, but it was big. Lauren’s brown eyes and that light splatter of brown freckles across the bridge of her nose was a big thing to Brynne. A really big thing.

  So was her father, she thought now as she heard him announce himself. Nobody could announce who they were and what they wanted like Bernard Donovan.

  “I understand that my daughter is here and she’s been in an accident. I would like to see her. Now,” he’d said when Mrs. Ramsey had opened the front door.

  About a minute after hearing him Brynne was looking up into Bernard’s frowning face. He came to stand in front of where she sat on one end of the couch, his frown apparent. Her father had a full beard and thick brows. His eyes were tree bark brown, his skin even darker. He kept his hair cut low and no longer wore the diamond earring he’d had in his left ear during his younger years. Today, he was wearing black pants and a white collarless shirt. His blazer was charcoal gray, his shoes Italian tie ups.

  “Baby girl,” he said as he bent down and gathered his daughter in his beefy arms.

  Brynne whimpered in pain and he immediately apologized.

  Then he was rubbing a hand down the
side of her head as he kissed her cheek. “I’m so sorry, baby girl. So damn sorry.”

  “This isn’t your fault, daddy,” she said and surprised herself with the words.

  How long had she spent blaming him, Uncle Henry and Uncle Albert for all that was going on? Too long, Brynne thought.

  Bernard finally sat on the couch beside her, holding her hands in his. “It is my fault,” he said. “I was supposed to protect my family and I failed. Look at you, baby. Look at your face.”

  “I’m going to be alright,” Brynne said. “Really, I am.”

  “You should have never been here,” Bernard continued. “You’ve been gone too long. I should have come to get you sooner. But I thought you needed time to adjust. I felt so guilty I figured the best thing I could do for you was leave you alone. I’m sorry. I’ve been so wrong.”

  Brynne leaned over, resting her head on her father’s shoulder.

  “You did your best,” she said remembering her grandmother’s words. “And I had some growing to do, so even if you would have come to get me. I wouldn’t have left.”

  “I thought about that too,” he said with a little chuckle. “The part about you arguing with me to stay away. My mother warned me that I was going to have a child that gave me as hard a time as I had given her and my father. I think you’re the one.”

  Brynne had smiled because she thought somewhere in there a compliment may have existed. Then, the issue that they’d been skirting around came up because Brynne had come too far to sit here with her father and not say the things she thought needed to be said.

  “Why didn’t you take the paternity test when you first found out she was pregnant?” she asked him.

  Bernard sat back heavily in the chair, blowing out a breath as he did. He kept Brynne’s hand in his as he shook his head.

  “I was a proud and arrogant man, baby girl. All my life I’ve been headstrong and fearless. The boldest and most vocal one of all my brothers. That scared my mother and angered my father. Ike Donovan knew I was going to fall at some point. He’d even predicted it.” Bernard shrugged then. “I didn’t listen to him.”