by Beverly Bird
“She’s got all her limbs, Sammy,” Sandy said to her brother. “So you didn’t bring her home out of pity.”
“I’m whole, thank you.” Cait took a quick bite of a sandwich.
“Cute, too,” said Sandy. Then she was off again.
Cait lost Sam. One minute he was there, then he was absorbed into the chaos. She panicked for a brief moment, then forced herself to relax. She ate and looked around, greedily taking in all this…family.
Another woman sidled up to her. “Hi, I’m Traci.” She held out a hand.
Cait moved her sandwich plate to shake hands with her. “Hi. Another sister?”
“Yup. I’m the baby of the family.” Her eyes coasted up and down Cait.
Cait had had time to think of a defense against all these questions. “Sam only brought me because he feels responsible for me,” she explained.
To her amazement, the woman laughed. “Sam feels responsible for no one.”
“Patients,” Cait corrected.
“Well, that’s true.”
“And we were kidnapped together.”
“So he’s going to marry you to make up for that?” Traci laughed again. “Not our Sammy.”
Traci moved away. Cait spied an open space on a settee and moved that way, lowering herself gently before her legs could give out. Marry her?
A child landed at her feet. “Hi. I’m Lucas.”
Cait found her voice yet again. Here was comfortable ground. She was good with kids. “Hi yourself. I’m Cait.”
“I know. Everybody said. Isn’t this fun? I love coming to Gram’s house.”
“I can understand why.”
“It’s not always like this, though,” Lucas confided. “Only when everyone comes.”
“Does that happen often?”
“As often as Mom can arrange it,” another woman said, sitting down beside Cait. “She lives for this stuff. I’m Abigail. Spare your voice. I already know. You’re Cait and you got kidnapped with Sammy. Would you like a drink?”
“Um, no, thanks.” She was parched, but she couldn’t drink liquor.
“Here,” Sam said, appearing in front of her, holding out a glass of milk.
Something in her heart rolled over. Cait took the glass. “Thank you.”
“Leave her alone, Abby,” Sam said. “She doesn’t need to hear tales of my misspent youth.” Then he was off again, laughing with a dark-haired man in one corner of the room. The boy, Lucas, got up and scampered off, as well.
Cait put her plate and her milk down beside the settee and hunted for a washroom. She found a powder room down a short corridor beside the rec room, knocking twice to make sure no one was inside. There were so many people here, it boggled her mind. When there was no answer to her knock, she slipped into the room and just stood, collecting her breath.
Then she looked in the mirror and was amazed to find tears glinting in her eyes.
Hormones, she thought wildly. That was all it was. She wasn’t crazy. Molly Gates had proved that someone really was after her, so she wasn’t nuts. And not once, she thought, not once since that revelation, had she truly felt fear. Because the only thing that really terrified her was becoming a stranger to herself. And losing her child.
If she wasn’t crazy, no one would take her baby. If all this wasn’t in her mind, then she was safe. Sam wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
Cait stared at herself. She saw rosy cheeks, despite her exhaustion from all her sleepless nights lately. The face that looked back at her wore a lopsided grin. She was safe, because for the first time in her life she wasn’t alone.
Maybe Sam would leave her when this was over. But for now someone hated her enough to try to drive her insane, and he was standing by her. Her world had been turned upside down, but now, for this pure, special place in time, she had everything.
Cait opened the door to slip back out of the bathroom and ran into Sam’s chest.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
She pulled back a little. “Perfect.”
“You’re enjoying this?”
Never, not once in her whole life, had she been included in a family like this. “I’m loving it.”
He stared at her in surprise for a moment. “We’ll go soon. I just needed to put in an appearance.”
“No.”
He eased her back into the light of the powder room to look down at her face. “You’re serious.”
“Do you even know what you have here?”
“Mass chaos and tribal warfare.”
She punched his chest.
“Wrong answer?” he asked.
“Family. Oh, it is so precious. You don’t understand, Sam, because you’ve always had it.”
Then they heard footsteps coming along the hall outside, punctuated by whispers.
Sam stepped into the room with her. He eased the door shut behind him, and they stood close together in the tiny space. “I think someone wants a moment alone,” he whispered.
“You?”
“Me, too.” He closed his mouth over hers.
Cait wasn’t sure she could hold so much happiness. And in that moment she knew it was going to cripple her to let it all go. Then he pulled back and touched a finger to her lips. “Shh.” He reached and turned the light out.
“What are you doing?” For a wild moment she thought he might be considering making love with her pressed up against the wall. Then he turned around and eased the door open again a crack.
Maribel Walters was standing there, just outside the door, with a gray-haired man Cait hadn’t met yet. Sam’s father, Cait guessed instinctively. And in a gesture that struck Cait to her soul, the man put his fingers to the woman’s lips much as Sam had just done to her.
“Thank you,” the man said to Maribel. “Thank you for always being my best friend.”
Maribel Walters snaked her arms around his neck and held him close. “You’re welcome, you old fool. Happy anniversary.”
Thirteen
Tabitha went with Jake to Laredo on Saturday morning. Neither of them expected much to come of his visit to the motel, but they could have lunch in the city afterward and she figured she could do a little shopping. During the drive, they dissected Cait’s life with all the glee of two gossipmonger cronies, trying to make sense of what was happening to her.
“The tape’s real, but spliced,” Jake explained. “It’s Hines, all right, but pieces of it have been omitted. Someone else was probably talking in those missing sections.”
“The person who’s doing this to her?” Tabitha asked.
“Good guess.”
“How could they manage such a thing?”
“Call him in jail and tape the conversation. There’s deep static on the tape, too. Our experts think it comes from lifting the conversation off a phone line.”
“And you still think it’s one of Sam’s ditched dates?”
“That makes the most sense. Get Cait out of the picture and maybe lure Sam back?”
“Get her out of the picture by putting her in a loony bin,” Tabitha clarified.
“Or by unraveling her so much that Sam no longer finds her interesting.”
“He’s amazing me,” Tabitha said.
“How so?”
“There’s a pool going on at the hospital. Five-dollar buy-in, guessing how long it’s going to be before he moves on. He’s never dated the same woman more than a few times.”
Jake grinned. “What’s your bet?”
“That he doesn’t move on.”
Jake lifted a brow at her. “No kidding. Are you serious?”
Tabitha sat back more comfortably in her seat. “It’s Mission Creek Memorial,” she explained. “And for some reason, love has really been in the air there lately.”
Gil Travalini was released from the hospital on Saturday morning. Cait wanted to be there to see him off. Her stomach also felt delicate and she did not want to be at Sam’s condo in the event she suffered another bout of morning sickness. How
would she explain it?
Her lies were building, stretching out, like a row of dominoes. And she knew, sooner or later, that one of them was going to fall, sending all the others into collapse. She stood in Sam’s bathroom and closed her eyes against the mental image, willing her stomach to settle.
“Please,” she whispered aloud. “Not yet. Just let me get out of here.”
She had to do something about her life.
How could she be so happy and so miserable at the same time? Because, she answered herself, life was precious and sweet right now, but she was going to lose it all. She couldn’t continue this way indefinitely.
Last night, after they’d left the powder room, Cait had stood in the kitchen of Sam’s parents’ home and had known that she was going to have to tell him about the baby. The sure knowledge had rolled over her all at once, robbing her of breath so completely that Sam had thought she was ill, or at least exhausted by everything that had been happening lately. He’d whisked her out of there. But that hadn’t put the truth out of her mind.
And once she told him it everything would change, end, fracture. It would upset this delicate balance between them. She had no idea how he would react, but she did know that nothing would ever be the same between them again.
At least, she thought, she’d had this precious time with him, a golden spot of weeks that she would remember all her life. At least she could tell this child that she’d loved his or her father completely.
Cait realized she was shaking just as Sam’s voice came through the bathroom door. “Are you all right, or are you just taking up residence in there?”
“No, I’m…I’m done.” She wrapped a towel around herself and stepped out of the room.
He’d left the bedroom. Cait dressed hurriedly and found him in the kitchen. He was at the table, looking at a photo album. “What’s that?” she asked.
“One of life’s last great mysteries.” He took a swig from a mug of coffee.
Cait went to look over his shoulder. “Is that your parents’ wedding?”
He didn’t answer right away. He’d been quiet all through their drive home last night, too, and through most of the night and morning. “Yeah. I’ve wondered my entire life why they stayed together when there was no fun, no laughter.”
Cait hugged herself. “Life is more than fun and laughter.”
“That occurred to me while we were spying on them last night.”
She held her breath, not sure where this was going but sensing it was important.
“I always thought they were bored and miserable together,” he continued finally.
Cait sighed. “That wasn’t boredom we saw, Sam. That was peace.”
He looked over his shoulder at her. “How did you get to be so smart?”
She wanted to smile and couldn’t quite pull it off. “It’s always easiest to recognize something from a distance.”
“Forests and trees?”
She nodded. “I spent a lifetime watching other people have it. Outside, looking in.”
“Ah, honey.”
He reached to take her hand, but Cait stepped away. The words it’s over were a booming litany in her head now. Sometime today she would tell him. “I’ve got to get dressed.”
“I’m going with you to the hospital.”
“You don’t have—”
“Yes. I do.”
She didn’t argue. She had so little time with him left.
Gilbert was glad to be going home, yet shaken at the thought of leaving behind all the people he’d grown close to during his extended stay in the hospital. Cait had seen it a hundred times, which was why she wanted to be here for him when he left.
She stayed with him until he climbed into his wheelchair, clutching teddy bears and balloons. Then she gave him one last hug and gently disengaged herself from him before he was taken downstairs to the lobby. She knew that if she watched him wheeled out the front doors of the hospital, she’d get misty-eyed. She didn’t want to do that to him. This was emotional enough for the boy as it was.
Besides, Sam would be with him all the way.
“Where are you going?” Sam asked as she stepped away.
“I thought I’d run downstairs for a cup of tea.” She held up one of the decaffeinated tea bags she’d taken to carting around in her purse. “Your condo is seriously lacking in my favorite amenities.”
A grin touched one corner of his mouth. “Now you know how it feels. We’ll stop at the store and pick up some of the things you like on the way home from here.”
She felt as if her whole body spasmed, but he didn’t seem to notice. “I’ve got to go.”
By the time she reached the cafeteria, her heart felt wooden. She got hot water for her tea and went to a table, praying that no one saw fit to join her. She needed to think.
Once, she thought a little giddily, the idea of anyone taking it upon themselves to sit down with her would have been so farfetched as to be ludicrous. It was just a measure of how far her life had come since her abduction…and how far it had yet to go.
What was she going to do now?
She couldn’t leave Mission Creek, she realized, any more than she could continue to hide the truth from Sam. She couldn’t do it to escape whoever was tormenting her. She’d have to stay and fight that through. She couldn’t bear to uproot herself even one more time. It was the subconscious truth behind why she had canceled that first doctor’s appointment, and why she hadn’t raced off to Laredo the minute Molly Gates had left her apartment yesterday. Deep down, she didn’t want to go.
So she’d stay and she’d face the music. Looking around at Sam’s family last night, she’d known for sure that she couldn’t do anything else.
All the people and the laughter had been in such harsh contrast to her own life that she’d had to wonder how different her life might have been with a few nips and tucks. Had her mother ever told her father that she was pregnant? If the man had known he was a father, would he have come for her when her great-aunt died, or even before? She needed to know that her child would be absorbed by Sam’s incredible family if anything happened to her. Surely if they were aware of the child, the Walters family would take him in. Sam’s siblings were as passionate about life as he was, and they let their hearts rip. His parents were steady, rock solid, the salt of the earth.
For the sake of her child, she had to come clean with Sam. For the sake of herself, she couldn’t keep living a lie. And for Sam’s sake, he had to know, whether he hated the truth or not. She loved him, she thought weakly. She loved him too much to rob him of having a choice about what he wanted to do with the situation. She knew what it was not to have any choices. Her entire youth had been spent like that.
She let out another big sigh and sat back in her seat. Then it happened as she’d known it inevitably would. Someone approached her table.
Cait looked up as a shadow fell across the Formica. It was the cafeteria worker. What was her name? Holly Sinclair?
“You look glum this morning,” Holly said.
Cait dredged up a smile. “Just thinking.”
“Well, don’t get so lost in thought that you forget what’s good for that baby of yours. You shouldn’t be drinking tea. I’ll go put on a pot of decaf coffee for you.”
“No, I don’t like cof—”
Cait broke off.
She stared at Holly as the woman headed back behind the counter again. That baby of yours.
Cait felt her blood run cold. The cafeteria worker knew she was pregnant.
Her heart started clubbing her chest. Two days ago she would have wondered if she’d actually heard that or had imagined it. Now her stomach heaved, and Cait shoved to her feet. How? How could this woman know?
Maybe whoever had put that note in her locker had told her, had spread the word. But who? Who was it? She had to know.
Cait ran for the counter to go after her.
Tabitha and Jake stood staring around room 19 at the Shady Day Motel.
; “This isn’t good, is it?” Tabitha said eventually.
“Not even a little bit.”
The room was unused. Empty. If not for its decrepit air and the dust coating almost everything, it would have looked as though it was ready for the next guests to check in. Jake made a move toward the door again and Tabitha hurried after him.
They went back to the front desk. A skeletal young woman with overbleached hair was chewing gum behind the counter and watching a black-and-white TV off in one corner. “Where’s the occupant of room 19?” Jake demanded.
The woman shrugged without taking her eyes from the television. “How should I know? Tell you the truth, I never seen her.”
“Never?”
“Guess she comes and goes at night. I work days.”
“So who would have met her?” Jake pressed.
“The other guy. Jimmy Su. He works nights.”
“Where can I find him?”
“I don’t know where he lives.”
“Look it up.”
The woman finally glanced away from the TV, startled by his tone. “Yeah, all right. Is this important?”
“Very.” She knew he was a police detective from Mission Creek. He’d had to flash his badge to get her to open the room. Irritated, Jake watched her go into a back room and called after her, “Get me a phone number, too, if you have one.”
Tabitha pressed her fingers to her mouth. She was pale. “You’re going to call this Jimmy guy?”
“If I can. It’ll cut down on time. What was Cait doing today? Do you know where she is?”
“I think she’s been staying with Sam. She hasn’t been home much.”
Jake took his cell phone from his belt and handed it to her. “Call there. Make sure she’s with him.”
“What do I tell her?”
“That in all likelihood, Deena Hines is in Mission Creek. Somewhere. Tell her and Sam to step up their guard.”
The desk clerk came back with an address and phone number written on a slip of paper. Jake reached over the counter and grabbed the phone there. He brought it up onto the counter and punched in the number. When a groggy voice answered, Jake identified himself.