Chapter Seventeen
"I can barely recall the last time we were all together and having fun. It's a shame Honor isn't here,” Justice said as she served more margaritas from the freshly made pitcher.
Liberty held up her hand to stop her sister from pouring her more. "That's enough for me."
"Come on, Lib. We're having a sisters’ night. We’re all here to celebrate the fact that we’re now aunties. Live a little." Justice realized what she said. "Oh no, I didn't mean—sorry about that."
"Don't worry. You all don't have to be cautious around me. I'm fine. Justice, you’re right. Tonight isn’t about me. It’s about honoring a new family member." She lifted her glass with a forced smile. "Cheers!"
They each raised their glasses.
“And you know it’s completely okay if you weren’t okay,” Freedom said from where she painted her toenails. “We all need to be able to not be okay sometimes.”
Liberty sighed. “It’s been two weeks. At some point I need to start breathing again.” She was trying her best push her thoughts aside, although she didn’t feel quite up to it, but she wanted to celebrate Josephine. When Liberty had held her niece in her arms she had felt an overwhelming amount of love. Seeing the bond that Honor already had with her daughter had been an amazing thing. One day, Liberty hoped to experience that type of love too.
“Have you spoken to him?” Hope asked.
“Him? The delivery man? The milkman?” Liberty hid her smile.
“I’m taking that as a no?” Hope gave an exasperated moan.
“It’s definitely a no.” Liberty looked through the bottles of nail polish and selected a pale pink for her toenails.
“You don’t have to decide your future at this moment. Get through the grief then decide.” When Hope realized that Freedom was staring at her in confusion, Hope tilted her head. “Yes, I can give good advice sometimes.”
“I think we need to back off and just let Liberty figure it out,” Freedom said.
“We’re all worried about her,” Hope added.
“I’m okay. I promise,” Liberty said.
“You don’t look okay.” Justice jumped when Freedom pinched her on the arm. “What was that for?”
“Use your filter,” Freedom whispered.
“Are you going to speak to Wyler?” Hope asked.
“I haven’t decided.” Liberty missed Wyler—missed everything about him. He’d become her best friend. Lover. Support system. Her husband. She’d gone back and forth so many times since they parted, wanting to speak to him but the risk of getting hurt kept her from reaching out.
Losing the baby had stripped Liberty, like a rug had been pulled out from underneath her. Doc had told her it was normal to feel a void and sorrow. She felt guilty knowing she had spent too much time worrying over the things in her life that didn’t matter. She didn’t understand why she had a miscarriage, but she felt blessed that she’d carried her child even if for a short time.
“Let’s not discuss anything emotional tonight,” Freedom announced. “I have an idea.”
“Oh no. Your idea of fun usually involves getting into trouble,” Liberty said.
“Let’s go to Mav’s. It’s karaoke night. Let’s have a few drinks, get on stage, and rock it out like we used to.” Freedom stood and rolled her hips as she belted out a few lines from a Taylor Swift song into her make-believe microphone.
Hope clapped her hands barely containing her excitement. “I second that idea.”
“I could use some karaoke therapy,” Justice said, blowing on her freshly painted nails.
All gazes turned to Liberty in question.
“You all go. I’ll stay, take a long, hot bath and catch up on Netflix.”
“Not happening.” Freedom rolled her eyes. “We all go or none of us go. Tonight is our night. We’re sisters and we stick together.”
“I heard the hands are over at Mav’s playing darts,” Justice said with a wag of her brows.
“That sounds so exciting,” Liberty droned sarcastically. “Again, go and have fun.”
“Wyler might be there,” Hope said in a sing-song tone.
“No, I doubt that,” Justice said. When she realized all eyes were on her, she shrugged. “What?”
“Explain,” Freedom urged.
“I saw him this morning over at the coffee shop,” Justice admitted. “He looked miserable. Unhappy. I doubt he’s doing anything fun these days. You do realize he hasn’t been here at the ranch since…” She allowed her words to trail off.
“And you’re just now telling us this?” Hope groaned and picked up a pillow, tossing it at Justice’s head.
“I thought it might be best not to mention the run-in.” Justice threw the pillow back at Hope.
“Can you all stop treating me like I’m a tool away from being a full toolbox. If you saw Wyler, that’s great.” Liberty attempted to sound cavalier. “He and I aren’t enemies. Right now, we’re working through some things.”
“Anyone else have anything they’d like to add?” Hope asked.
“Fine! I stopped over at the cabin a few days ago. I wanted to see how Wyler was. I have your back, Liberty, but he is my friend,” Freedom said.
“And?” Liberty rolled her hand to get her sister to spill the tea.
“He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. He’s hurting too.”
“He’s crazy over you,” Justice said matter-of-factly
“He misses you.” Freedom drained her glass.
“You’re taking a cherry pit and growing a tree.” Liberty rubbed her temples where a headache threatened to bloom “How about we go to Mav’s.” The last thing she wanted was to sit around talking about her love life or the lack thereof.
“Seriously?” Freedom looked surprised.
“Yes!”
Justice jumped up. “I’m going to go put on that new dress I bought while I was in New York,” she squealed.
“I’m coming too! I need to shave my legs.” Hope raced up the stairs behind Justice.
Freedom kept her gaze steady on Liberty. “You’re miserable.”
“I miscarried.”
“Yes, and that was a horrible loss, but you also miss Wyler. I know you.”
“I thought you said I should handle this on my own?”
“You’d want me to tell you that you’re being ridiculous.”
“ You are the one who is ridiculous.” Liberty was starting to wish she hadn’t agreed to a night of celebration.
“How?” Freedom said haughtily.
“Keller. That’s how”
Freedom appeared flushed at the mention of her old flame. “I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to deflect and turn the spotlight onto me.”
“Freedom, there’s a fine line between love and hate. You act like he has the cooties and yet I saw you two together a few days ago. Was that a ki—”
“No!?” Freedom about came out of her seat.
Liberty raised a brow. “You two looked like you wanted to rip each other’s clothes off.”
“I don’t like him.”
“Honey, you chase after Jinx like he’s Mr. Wonderful and he doesn’t look at you like Keller does.”
“You’re wrong. Keller likes Lanah.”
“Wait, I thought Carter and Lanah were an item.” Liberty couldn’t keep up.
“Maybe for a bit, but Lanah hangs out with Keller a lot since he’s back in town.
“That doesn’t mean anything, Freedom.”
“It does when he cheated on me with her when we were eighteen,” she blurted in one breath.
Liberty paused. Then said with a gentle smile, “Honey, are you that completely blind? I don’t know what happened in the past, but he’s crazy over you.”
“Then he shouldn’t have given Lanah the time of day.”
“Said in the saddest, most jealous voice ever,” Liberty teased.
Her cell phone rang, and she saw that Lee Rhimes, the private investigator, was calling. She had completely forgotten about hiring him. “I have to take this.”
“Sure, but hurry. I have a hankering for karaoke.”
Once Liberty stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind her, she clicked “talk”. “Hi, Lee!”
“Liberty, I’ve been trying to contact you for days.” The stern ex-military man seemed a bit frantic.
“I’ve been a bit preoccupied.” She’d leave out the details. She’d turned off her phone and enjoyed some much needed disconnect from the outside world. “Do you have information?”
“Reggie Barnes is actually Ronald Cooper. He grew up in Philadelphia. He’s very much still alive and the only other living relative I could connect him to is an eighty-year -ld aunt in California. It appears the man of interest has a list of minor traffic violations, some brushes with the law but no real jail time to speak of.”
“What about the woman?”
“Penelope Sands. Also born in Philadelphia. Now she’s a real peach. Turns out she has been in and out of trouble all her life, mostly for con jobs. She served a few years behind bars for drug trafficking and was released on good behavior. The two met each other while while they spent some time in the Behavioral Institute of Philadelphia. I managed to reach a nurse who was more than willing to talk. He said Ronald and Penelope struck up quite a relationship during their stint at the hospital. Together they liked to wreak havoc on the other patients and the staff.”
Liberty wrapped her head around what Lee was telling her. “Do you know where they are now?”
“Hold onto your seat. Ronald is sitting in jail awaiting trial. He was arrested for beating up a homeless man. From what I can gather, Ronald was staying in a shelter and somehow struck up a conversation with the victim, who is an ex-marine, who didn’t like the fact that Ronald was lying about serving in the military. During a physical altercation, Ronald used a metal rod to beat the victim who’s now in a coma.”
Liberty dropped down into one of the rockers. “So he’s dangerous?”
“It would appear so.”
“Where’’s Lacey? Or rather Penelope.”
Lee’s exhale rattled the other end of the line. “Gone. I can’t find any trace of her. I figure she took off the second she saw what Ronald had done and didn’t want any trouble herself.”
“Thank you, Lee.”
“No problem, Liberty. Remember, these people are good at what they do. They’d conned a lot of people along their way. Take care and call if you need anything.”
Liberty clicked off and dropped her face into her palms. How had she missed all the red flags?