Chapter 13 #2
While the turmoil continued in Jubilee, it was spilling over into the Beaumont household in Dallas.
Karen was at work every day, while Justine pretended to job search, although the only jobs she qualified for were for unskilled laborers, and as she put it, she wasn’t about to lower herself to menial labor among the unwashed. What she wanted was a rich man. But without money to squander in bars and clubs, she had no way to meet them.
She was lolling about at home, making sure she kept dishes washed and the floors clean so her mother wouldn’t be on her back every evening after she got home from work, and prowling through every aspect of her mother’s life in the process. Trying to find something, anything, that would get her out of this hole.
She’d already gone through the jewelry box and found nothing but worthless costume jewelry. There was a small safe on the floor of her mother’s closet, but the door was ajar and there was nothing in it, so she moved to her mother’s office and began digging through the neatly color-coded filing system in the side drawers. There was one for repair receipts. One with tax information, incidentals she didn’t even understand.
And then there, at the back of the last drawer, a file marked Insurance Policies. She pulled it out and began sorting through the contents. Homeowner’s insurance. Car insurance. Health insurance. And then bingo! A last will and testament and a $500,000 life insurance policy.
Her eyes widened as she read the will. She was her mother’s heir. Then she read the life insurance policy. She was the recipient of the payout.
“Thank you, Mother, for your concern,” she crowed. She put everything back the way she found it and began thinking of all the ways Karen Beaumont could die.
That evening when Karen came home, Justine had done the best she could do with a box of Hamburger Helper and made a salad out of lettuce and tomatoes with croutons on top. The table had been set, and everything was in its proper place.
Karen came into the house from the garage and could already smell food as she passed through the utility room and into the kitchen. She saw a covered dish warming beside the stove and Justine loading pans into the dishwasher.
“Wow!” Karen said.
Justine was all primed for her act as she glanced up. “Oh, hi, Mom.”
“Hello, yourself!” Karen said. “Something smells good.”
“It’s done whenever you want to eat,” Justine said.
Karen walked up behind her and gave her a quick hug. “Thank you for this. I want to get out of these shoes first.”
“No problem,” Justine said. “Sweet tea or coffee?”
“Sweet tea,” Karen said, and hurried away.
Justine filled two glasses with ice and filled them with the tea she’d made, then put them at the table. She carried the casserole to the table and set it on a hot plate, removed the lid, and put a serving spoon beside it, then took the salad and the bottle of salad dressing from the fridge and put them on the table, too.
She was sitting primly at her place, waiting, when Karen returned and sat down.
“I feel like I need to give thanks for your help and this food before we eat,” Karen muttered.
Justine frowned. “Just don’t, okay? That prayer stuff freaks me out.”
“That’s the devil in you, scared of the Word,” Karen said, and then winked.
“Maybe so,” Justine said. “Maybe so. But I still don’t like it.”
Karen was still laughing as she scooped out a generous helping of the hamburger and noodles, added a serving of salad, and then took a sip of her tea and leaned back, waiting until Justine had filled her plate.
“Enjoy,” she said as she picked up her fork.
Justine smiled as she took a bite, blithely adding a little salt to the casserole and some pepper to her salad—eating, drinking, and watching every bite her mother chewed and swallowed.
Justine poured the rest of the dressing onto the lettuce that was left and gave it a toss, then added another helping to her plate.
“More salad?” she asked. “It’s not good left over and will go to waste if we don’t eat it.”
“Good thinking,” Karen said, and put the rest of it on her plate, added another handful of croutons, along with a second helping of the Hamburger Helper. “Coming home to the wonderful supper is such a treat. Thank you, darling.” Then she started on her second helping.
Justine smiled. “You’re so welcome. And thank you again for coming through for me. I can promise you, that will never happen again.”
Karen was chewing and smiling, and then she wasn’t.
She reached for her throat, her eyes widening in panic, but Justine was looking down at the salad on her plate and didn’t notice.
Karen banged the flat of her hand on the table and then shoved her chair away from the table and tried to get up.
Justine looked up, then flew out of her chair. “Mom! Mom! What’s wrong?”
Karen was visibly choking now, and waving her hand toward the hall.
Justine grabbed her mother around the waist and started doing the Heimlich maneuver over and over, trying to get whatever was stuck in her mother’s throat to come up. One minute passed that seemed like an hour, and then another, but nothing happened, and then all of a sudden, Karen went limp in her arms.
Too heavy for Justine to hold up, she fell with her. Her hands were trembling as she felt for a pulse, then leaned over her mother’s face.
Karen’s eyes were frozen in a wide-open stare, bloodshot and bulging. Her tongue was swollen and protruding from the side of her mouth. Her skin was flushed and hives were visibly apparent.
Justine leaned over, checking to see if she could feel breath on her cheek. No pulse. No air coming out.
Now she was crying and screaming as she ran to get her phone to call 911.
“911. What is your emergency?”
“My mother, my mother,” Justine kept saying between sobs. “She choked while we were eating. I tried to help her cough it up, but it didn’t work. She fell on the floor and she’s not breathing anymore. Help me. Help me!”
The 911 operator verified the address that came up on the call and dispatched help, then kept talking to Justine.
“Do you know how to do CPR?” she asked.
Justine was sobbing. “Yes, but her tongue. Her tongue. It’s…it’s…it’s so swollen that it’s sticking out of her mouth.”
And that’s when the dispatcher guessed it wasn’t food the woman had choked on. She’d eaten something she was allergic to.
“An EpiPen. Does your mother have an EpiPen? Does she have allergies?”
“Uh, nuts…some kind of nuts. I don’t know about the pen. I’ve been living with my father for the past four years and just moved home. Should I go look?” And then she began hearing sirens. “Oh wait, I hear sirens. I need to unlock the door!” she cried, and jumped up running, still talking to the dispatcher as she opened the door. “In here! In here!” she cried, and then ran back to where her mother was lying.
It was obvious to the EMTs that the woman was dead, even though one of them immediately jabbed an EpiPen into her arm before they loaded her onto a gurney. They were putting an IV into her arm when the ambulance took off. It would be up to a doctor to pronounce time of death.
Police were already arriving on the scene and Justine was in hysterics, barely able to answer their questions, but volunteering all the information to the detective on the scene.
“How was your mother when she came home?” he asked.
“She was good. I made Hamburger Helper and salad. She was happy. Went to change her shoes. We both started eating. We both had seconds.”
“Is she allergic to anything?” the detective asked.
Justine wiped her eyes and blew her nose as she nodded. “Some kind of nuts, but I forget if it’s all of them or a certain kind. I thought she choked on a bite of food. I began doing the Heimlich maneuver.” She shuddered. “I kept doing it and doing it, but nothing came up. And she got heavy and I couldn’t hold her up. We both fell on the floor. And that’s when I saw her face!”
“You didn’t go look for an EpiPen then?”
Justine was rocking back and forth, staring off into space as she shook her head. “I didn’t connect that…that… Oh God, her eyes!” Snot was mixing with tears until the detective handed her his handkerchief. She wiped and blew. “I thought she looked like that from choking. Like I told the dispatcher, I’ve been living with my father for the past four years. I just moved home a couple of weeks ago. Online job hunting.” She took a slow breath and then looked up, straight into the detective’s face, and shuddered. “She’s dead, isn’t she? My mommy is dead.”
He didn’t answer, but he kept asking questions.
“You said you made the food. Can you show me everything?”
She nodded. “It’s all either in the trash or still on the kitchen counter.”
“Who does the shopping?” he asked.
“Mostly Mom. I don’t have a car. Sometimes I went with her, but not often. She shops for the cheap stuff. We’re watching…were watching how we spend the money. It’s tight right now.”
She got up and led the way to the kitchen.
“Don’t touch anything. Just point out what you used. The forensic team will deal with gathering it,” the detective said.
She nodded, still trembling, staring blankly at everything for a moment, then pointed to the open trash can.
“That’s the box the Hamburger Helper came in. That’s the tray the hamburger meat was on. And the wrapper with the seasonings. I’m no cook, so I just followed directions. The pan in the sink is the one I cooked it in. The leftovers are still in the casserole dish. The empty bowl is where the salad was. The rest of the head of lettuce is in the refrigerator, and the handful of cherry tomatoes I put in the salad are from the container in the refrigerator. The open bag of croutons on the counter are the ones I used on top of the salad. The bottle of dressing on the table is the one we used. One of Mom’s purchases. They’re all her purchases. I just used them. We drank sweet tea. The rest is in the pitcher in the refrigerator.” She stopped, swaying where she stood. “We were eating and laughing, and then we weren’t.” Her eyes rolled back in her head.
She fainted.
The detective caught her before she hit the floor.
When she came to, there was a cold, wet cloth on her forehead and a female policewoman sitting in the chair beside her. The house was full of people she didn’t know.
And Justine was playing it to the hilt.
“Is there anyone you can call?” the policewoman asked.
“Not anymore,” she said.
“You mentioned living with your father prior to this.”
Tears rolled again. “He didn’t want me. Mom came and got me. It was temporary. Until I could find work and get my own place.”
“Is there somewhere else for you to stay tonight?”
Justine panicked and sat up. “I don’t have any money. I don’t have any friends here. This is home. Why would I have to leave?”
“The techs from the crime lab are still—”
Justine came off the sofa like she’d been launched. “Crime lab? My mother’s death is a crime? I didn’t kill her! I didn’t kill her! I just cooked supper. Oh my God! Oh my God!”
She started screaming and crying incoherently, to the point that other officers came running.
“What the hell happened?” the detective said.
The officer was flustered. “I was just asking her if she had somewhere to go, and this happened.”
“Exactly what did you say to her?” he asked.
“That as long as the crime lab techs were here, she—”
“You called this death a crime? We don’t know that. And at this point, I have no reason to believe it was. The coroner will figure out why she died. We’ll figure out the rest. Dammit it, Officer. You know better than this.”
“Yes, sir. It was just a slip of the tongue. I didn’t mean to infer that she’d killed her.”
“But she’s obviously taken it that way. Has anyone called her father?”
“I asked if we could call him for her, and she said it was no use. He didn’t want her. Her mother is the one who went after her and brought her home.”
“Well, she’s an adult, and if she doesn’t want to communicate with him, she doesn’t have to. We found out Karen Beaumont has been divorced from Justine’s father for years. So, there’s no law that says he must be notified.”
The officer nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Then there’s no law that says she can’t be here. The end. Go tell her. She’s had enough shocks for one day, dammit.”
“Yes, sir.”
In the end, it was the detective that delivered the news. After that, Justine crawled back onto the sofa, pulled the blanket up over herself, and watched in wide-eyed horror until every person had left the property.
Then she lay there for an hour or so longer before going to the kitchen. They’d carried off the casserole dish, the pan she made the food in, the bowl the salad was in, and half the food in the refrigerator, and tracked stuff all over the kitchen floor.
She started gathering up the mess in a garbage bag, carried it out the back to the garbage can, and then got a mop and a broom and went to work, removing every trace of the police presence in the house, made sure everything was locked up, set the security alarm, and then went to take a bath.
She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.
Murder was hard work, after all, but the guilt would never fall on her shoulders because the grocery receipt for those cheap-ass buttered croutons had been part of the contents of the garbage they’d taken. And they’d been paid for with Karen’s own credit card, along with the rest of the food she’d bought two days ago on her way home from work—while Justine had been logged onto her laptop, filling out job applications.
It had been nothing short of fortuitous that Justine had noticed something about the croutons that Karen had not. They’d been deep-fried in peanut oil for extra crunch before the artificial butter flavor had been added. The way Justine looked at it, the rest was nothing more than Karen’s karma for being such a cheapskate.
***
Liz made sure that Harley’s suite at the hotel had been sealed until her return. She didn’t want Larry slipping in with a passkey to nose around. She knew Harley had added her own password to the hotel computer, so there was no chance of anyone else snooping, either. For now, she was still registered as a guest in that room, and no one had any further need to go inside.
But the next morning, bright and early, Larry was knocking on Liz’s door and waving his phone in her face about Brendan’s message.
“He’s taken off work to be with that woman…that auditor.”
“I know. He copied the same text to me. Didn’t you see?”
Larry frowned. “No, I guess I didn’t notice. But that doesn’t change the fact that we no longer have a boss in the bakery section.”
“Yes, we do. Anthony. He’s Brendan’s second-in-command and has been for almost two years. The team is well trained. They’re efficient. We’re fine. How’s Justine?”
Larry glared. “I have no idea. Her mother came and got her. I have work to do.”
“So do I,” Liz said and winced when he banged the door behind him as he left.
But Liz knew something that Larry Beaumont didn’t. She’d had an email from her dad last night when she got home from work.
Darling daughter,
What a mess my health issues have caused, but I think we’re finally on the downhill slope. The fraud division of the FBI who’s been working with me found money trails from both new vendors to a Dallas bank account in Larry Beaumont’s name. Payments into that account varied according to money rendered by us, but the timeline was always the same. Three days after the vendors received payment from the Serenity Inn, half of the overage they were charging wound up in Larry’s account. Larry has been defrauding me to the tune of thousands, and at any time within the next few days, federal agents will be coming after him with an arrest warrant. Don’t worry about what happens next. I have it covered.
Love, Dad…
Mom says hello.
Liz read the email twice in disbelief. First a hit man, now the feds coming to arrest their manager. It was a hotelier’s worst nightmare.
“Oh my God… Michael! Come read Dad’s email.”
Michael stopped what he was doing and joined Liz on the sofa, leaned in to read, then shook his head and gave her a hug. “The underlying chaos is unbelievable. A fraudulent manager. A crime boss trying to tie up loose ends. It’s hard to know who to trust anymore,” he said.
“It’s sure taking the joy out of my job. I feel responsible because I’m the owner’s daughter, and yet I’m caught in the middle, knowing everything that’s happening, without the power to fix it.”
“Maybe Ray will sell, and you’ll have a new and capable owner.”
“I can only hope,” she said.
Michael kissed the back of her neck. “Come to bed, love. You need a cuddle and I need my wife.”
“Best offer I’ve had all day,” she said, and left work and worry behind as she followed him to their bedroom.
***
It was Sunday morning.
The police had finally taken her statement the day before.
Harley had just been released from the hospital.
She and Brendan were going to stop by his house to get some clothes on their way back to the hotel. As they were riding, Harley reached across the console and put her hand on Brendan’s thigh.
“Thank you.”
He gave her a quick glance. “For what?”
“For standing by me. You’re putting yourself in danger because of this.”
He shook his head. “When you find your place in the world, you do everything you can to keep it. And when you find your forever person, you do whatever it takes to keep them. You’re my forever person, Sunshine. I was baking bread when you nearly died. That’s not happening again. We do this together. Understood?”
“Understood,” she said, and then shifted focus as he pulled up in a driveway and drove into the garage, then helped her out of the car and into the house.
“I’m going to pack some clothes. You can either rest on the bed while I’m doing it or here on the sofa,” he said.
“With you,” Harley said.
He swooped her off her feet into his arms and carried her to the bedroom, then eased her down on the bed.
“I could get lost on this thing. Big bed for a big man,” she said.
He grinned. “Trust me, if you get lost, I’ll find you. As for big beds, they are a necessity in our family. When my brothers and I were growing up, our feet were always hanging off the foot of the beds. We got used to sleeping that way, but it was hell in the winter—never could keep our feet warm enough. Now we all have beds made to fit.”
“I had a canopy bed when I was little. I called it the princess bed because it looked like something out of a Disney movie. But the canopy aspect of it always freaked me out a little. Felt like something was hovering above me, just waiting to fall.”
He winked. “The trials of childhood. Our beds were too short and yours was intimidating.”
She laughed, then groaned. “Crap, it hurts to laugh.”
He frowned. “Sorry. No more talking. Lie back on the pillows. I’ll hurry.”
He pulled a suitcase out of the closet and opened it up on the bed, then grabbed underwear and socks from a dresser drawer, then T-shirts and sweatshirts from another.
“Don’t pack much,” she said. “I shouldn’t be at the hotel more than two days, counting this one.”
“Noted,” he said, and took a couple of pairs of jeans off their hangers and a couple of shirts, and added them to the mix. He was in the bathroom gathering up toiletries when his cell phone began to ring. He ran back to the bed, picked it up, and answered.
Sean and Amalie’s faces popped up on video call. He sat down beside Harley, showed her their faces. They waved at her, and then Brendan moved it back to him.
“Hey, you two. What’s up?” he asked.
“We have news we’re going to share with everyone at dinner today, but we didn’t want you left out of the loop, so you’re the first brother to find out. Amalie’s pregnant…with twins.”
Brendan let out a whoop, and Harley laughed at his delight.
“This is awesome news! Congratulations to the both of you!” he said, and glanced at Harley. “Harley is sending you two thumbs up.”
“Thanks, little brother. We’re both really happy and excited.”
“You should be, and Mom’s going to brag all over the mountain about the babies being twins, so prepare yourselves,” Brendan said.
“Yes, we know. The only other person who knows is Wolf. And we had to tell him via Zoom, too. Gotta go. I hear cars driving up. The onslaught has begun.”
The call ended, and Brendan was still smiling. “This is the kind of news that reminds you good still happens, isn’t it?”
She nodded, watching the delight spreading over his face. She’d never had siblings, but seeing that relationship through him made her envy that bond.
“You’re very blessed by the family you have,” she said. “I can’t imagine how it would feel to know there were people who always had your back.”
“You have me,” he said.
She sighed. “I do now…to a degree. But we can’t start being us until we get rid of the me I was before.”
He shook his head, frowning. “I fell in love with that person. I don’t want her gone.”
“But I brought the ghosts of my past with me, and that hinders everything, including your safety. That’s something I can’t forget.”
He dumped the rest of the stuff into his bag and closed it, then leaned over. “My lady,” he whispered, and brushed a kiss across her lips. “I’m going to take this suitcase to the car and then come back for you. Bathroom’s there if you need it. Don’t go wandering about. You still wobble when you walk.”
She poked him in the arm for the comment.
He grinned, then started singing at the top of his voice as he walked out of the room with the luggage.
“AIN’T NO SUNSHINE WHEN SHE’S GONE…”
Harley started to laugh, and then winced again. “That still hurts,” she muttered, and got up and wobbled her way to the bathroom.
***
Up on the mountain, Shirley Pope was busy in the kitchen. She was skipping church today because her family was coming to dinner—everybody but Brendan, but that was okay. Right now, he was right where he needed to be, and she’d sent him a text this morning, giving him her love and sending best wishes to Harley for healing.
The year was moving them closer into spring, but they’d have to get through the irascible month of March before she could count on better weather. It was still cold, but the sun was shining and the sky was clear. A day for gathering to her those she loved.
Sean had run a dust mop over all the floors. Amalie had gone behind him with a dustcloth to wipe off the furniture, and Shirley was in her element in the kitchen. She’d baked pies yesterday so the oven would be free for the ham baking now. Vegetables were being prepped. Two kinds of salad were in the refrigerator, and rolls on the sideboard were ready to pop in the oven at the last few minutes.
Aaron and Dani were on their way up.
Wiley, Linette, and Ava were on their way down.
She was as happy as any mother could be.
But Sean and Amalie were even more excited. Today they were sharing baby news, and none too soon. Amalie’s morning sickness had been hard to hide. After calling Brendan earlier, the itch to tell the world was the only thing on their minds.
When they heard a car coming up the drive, Sean looked out the window and saw Wiley and his family pull up and park, and started announcing a play-by-play.
“It’s Wiley and his crew. The back car door opens…and…there she comes…the fabulous Ava, flying out of the gate before the starting bell rang. She’s got Pinky under one arm and a little tote bag in the other. I hope it’s not hair bows and barrettes. They do nothing for my hair.”
Amalie burst out laughing, remembering when Ava was going through her hairstylist phase. Nobody was safe.
“Ava is always in a hurry to get to Grandma. The rest of us are side pieces. I wonder what she’s going to think about babies.”
Sean hugged her. “No worries, darlin’. She’ll love them, and then hold it over Mikey Pope for becoming an aunt, when his only claim to fame is being a big brother.”
Before they could get to the door, Aaron and Dani drove up.
“Looks like the gang’s all here,” Amalie said.
Ava came shooting through the front door, dumped her stuff at the end of the sofa, and was yelling as she ran through the house.
“Grandma! We’re here!”
Wiley and Linette were right behind her, with Dani and Aaron on their heels. Coats came off. Sean put another log on the fire, and the laughter in Shirley’s voice had already begun to echo throughout the house.
***
Dinner was a hit, and Shirley sat at the head of the table, thinking of how coming home had saved them. Her sons were men to be proud of, and she loved their wives like the daughters she’d never had. Ava was the little cuckoo in their nest, and no better surprise could have happened. She was Shirley’s little shadow.
They had eaten their way through the main meal and were clearing the table and making coffee in preparation for dessert. Shirley was at the sideboard, getting ready to cut pies.
“Cherry pie and apple pie. Ice cream in the freezer if you want it à la mode. Who wants what?” she asked.
Sean stood. “Hey, Mom, before you cut the pies, Amalie and I have something we need to tell you.”
All of a sudden, the room went silent. Even Ava’s chatter ended.
Sean reached for Amalie’s hand. “Amalie’s pregnant. With twins.”
Within seconds, the room was alive again with shouts of delight, congratulations, and hugs and kisses all around. Shirley was beside herself. There were going to be babies in her house. Her mother would have been so proud. And then in the middle of the chatter, Ava piped up.
“You do know the baby business is a lot of trouble, right?”
Linette grinned. “As much trouble as you and Wiley are?”
Ava giggled. “Bubba causes it.”
“Hey…I can hear you two talking about me,” he said, and then picked her up and kissed her.
Ava was in Wiley’s arms, eye to eye with him. “I guess you and Linnie are gonna get in the baby business, too. And then Aaron and Dani, and Grandma will have a whole house full of crying babies. I’m just sayin’… I’ve heard how they sound.”
Wiley grinned. He got Ava like nobody else. They both said what they thought.
“I don’t know about baby business,” Linette said. “Right now, I have my hands full dealing with monkey business.”
“Ava, do you know what happens to you when the babies are born?” Sean asked.
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“You will be their aunt. Aunt Ava. That’s really special. Kids your age hardly ever get to be an auntie that young.”
Her eyes widened. “Is Mikey Pope an auntie?”
“No,” Sean said. “Girls are aunties. Boys are uncles. But Mikey isn’t anybody’s uncle.”
“Right. He’s Ellie’s big brother. Not an uncle.”
Sean winked at Amalie. “I told you. Mikey’s gonna get an earful at school on Monday.”
***
After a text from Brendan, Liz was waiting at Harley’s suite to let them in as he brought her into the hotel from the employee entrance. But as they came off the staff elevator, Harley staggered. Seconds later, Brendan had her clutched tight against his side, his arm around her waist.
“I got you, Sunshine. Lean on me. We’re almost there.”
Liz ran toward them and grabbed Brendan’s bag. “I’ve got this. You take care of her,” she said and headed back to the room to unlock the door, while Brendan picked Harley up and carried her.
“I thought I could do this,” she muttered.
“Just hush, you and I are good,” he said, and kissed the top of her head as they went.
Her arm was around his neck, her head against his shoulder as they walked into the suite. Liz shut the door behind them and waited while Brendan took Harley to her bedroom.
As soon as he laid her down, she breathed a huge sigh of relief.
He took off her shoes and covered her with a blanket. “Rest, darlin’. I’ll be up front. You will not be left alone again.”
“Love…” she mumbled.
“Love you, too,” he whispered. “Going to talk to Liz.”
“Liz.”
He hung up his coat, then hurried back to the living area where Liz was waiting. She handed him a key card.
“This is your card. Harley’s is on the dresser in her bedroom. We found it on the floor when we were cleaning up. Her purse and money are safe. I made sure. Everything is shipshape, except her,” Liz said. “What’s the prognosis?”
“Actually, it’s good from a healing standpoint. Concussion will heal. The head wound wasn’t serious, but between the two, she’s dealing with a constant and pounding headache and some balance issues. They will pass. She said she was about a half day away from finishing the audit, so maybe we’ll be out of here by tomorrow night.”
“Don’t let her overdo it,” Liz said.
“I won’t. What’s happening with the hotel sale?”
“Dad’s beyond ready. This thing with Beaumont and his daughter were bad enough, and then the hit man slipping past our security sent him over the edge. We already have someone interested enough to ask for first refusal. Hope it works out. He seems keen enough.”
“Is it confidential, or can I ask who?” he said.
“Probably confidential, but you know how to keep stuff to yourself. Wolfgang Outen.”
“Whoa! Really?” And then he smiled. “Oh, wait, I’ll bet I know why he’s willing to give up his jet-set lifestyle for Jubilee.”
Liz was surprised. “Why?”
“He’s about to become a grandfather. Sean and Amalie are having twins. They just announced it.”
Liz beamed. “Oh wow! That’s wonderful. Twins. Two more little Popes in the world is a good thing. Dad and I will pretend we don’t know that, and Mr. Outen can tell us himself if he wants to. I better get back to work and leave you two to get some rest. Room service is ready when you are, and security is on high alert until you’re out of here.”
Brendan walked her to the door, then locked up the suite before taking his bag to the bedroom. He kicked off his boots, went to wash up, and then eased down on the bed beside Harley.
The moment he curled up behind her, she sighed. The last conscious thought he had was of the sound of her breathing, and the first thing he heard as he was waking was her mumbling in her sleep, “Brendan, get Brendan.”
“I’m here, Sunshine. I’m already here.”
Harley woke with a jerk, her heart pounding, then saw him lying beside her and groaned.
“I was dreaming. God, will this ever go away?”
He cupped the side of her face and then brushed a kiss across her forehead. “Yes, it will, darlin’. Eventually, the bad stuff we live through is sorted and stored away in a part of our memory we choose to forget. It’s self-preservation and you’re already good at that.”
“And you know this because?”
He didn’t flinch or look away from her gaze. “It’s how we survived Clyde Wallace. The miracle is that we didn’t turn into him, and we have Mom to thank for that.”
She was silent for a moment and then clasped his hand. “Why did she stay with him? Why didn’t she pack all of you up and come home sooner?”
“Well, she tried once, when I was just a toddler. I don’t remember it, but I know the story. Clyde followed her, loaded us all back up and took us back to Arkansas, and told her if she ever did that again, he would kill her and us, and then go back to Pope Mountain and kill Grandma. And Mom knew he meant it.”
“Oh my God. That’s awful. She was trapped, wasn’t she?”
“Right up until the moment Clyde murdered those people. His life sentence freed us,” Brendan said.
“What a remarkable woman she must be to have endured all that and not be bitter. My mother is never happy for long. Dad gives her everything but himself. I grew up knowing there was a great divide between them. It’s why I was so gun-shy about boyfriends when I was younger and why I stayed single. I never met anybody I wanted…until you. Now, I can’t think of life without you in it.”
“You don’t have to. I’m your guy. I already gave you my heart. The rest of my life is yours, too, when you’re ready.” He glanced at the clock. “It’s time for you to take your meds, but you need to eat so they won’t make you sick. Can you think of anything that sounds good?”
“French fries and any kind of pie.”
“Noted…and extra ketchup, so you’re not double-dipping in mine again.”
She grinned. “You weren’t using it, and I don’t like to see things go to waste.”
He helped her sit up, then hesitated. The thought of leaving her on her own, even for a moment, felt risky.
“I’m going to get the menu. I need more than fries. Can you get to the bathroom and back on your own?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t try to come down the hall on your own. Promise me. I’ll come get you in a few.”
“I promise,” Harley said, and then watched in silent wonder at how a man that size could move that quietly and quickly, and how a random job that nearly got her killed was the reason they even found each other. “Meant to be,” she muttered, and eased herself up and off the bed, while Brendan was calling in their orders.