Chapter Forty-Six
Melissa
Dante and I sat on the couch with Danika, while Danny hovered by the front door. He looked uncomfortable. Like he wanted to bolt and the only thing keeping him in place was that Dante and Dani were happy to see me. Even if he wasn’t.
His eyes locked on mine, and his words shocked me. “Thank you for the phone. Dante and I sat and watched some of the videos you took.”
“There were a lot,” Dante added. I looked at him and the smile on his face made it all worth it.
I shrugged. “I didn’t want you to miss anything if I could help it.” My voice sounded shy to my own ears, and I hoped they could hear the truth in my words.
“We appreciate it.”
Danny moved further into the room. His hands clasped around the back of a kitchen chair. I leaned back on the couch, Dani snuggled in my arms. The silence, awkward and unnerving.
“I’m sor—”
“I want to—”
Danny and I spoke at the same time. Holding Dani tight, I began again, “I’m sorry for screaming at you when you came to the clubhouse. I’d like to say that it wasn’t me. But...” I didn’t want to admit the truth. “I think Haizley might have been right. I think I was projecting my own trauma from what Gunner did on to you. And I’m sorry for that.”
Danny looked at Dante, who nodded and reached for Dani. Walking over in front of me, Danny held out a hand. “Take a walk with me?”
Ignoring Danny’s hand, I turned to Dante. He nodded to me and tilted his chin toward Danny’s outstretched hand. His smile was reassuring, but I still didn’t want to go. Dante was the buffer between Danny and me.
If the two of us went outside alone, we were likely to start World War Three with the way we yelled at each other. Of course, at least here there was no one outside to witness it.
“Ok,” I relented, taking Danny’s proffered hand and letting him help me to my feet. Instead of letting go, he pulled my hand up, tucking my arm around his.
The sun was shining, and the wind was minimal, making it feel unseasonably warm for the end of February. We walked down the steps and Danny drew me along with him.
“I want to apologize for my reactions as well. My mother would kick my ass if she were to see how I spoke to you. Not to mention what my dad would have done.”
That made me smile. Danny had spoken a little of his parents before he left, and I knew how important they were to him.
“The truth was, I was just as angry at you when I walked into the clubhouse.”
Me? What did I do?
“Haizley told us Danika was calling you mama, and... I didn’t take it well.”
I stopped walking and pulled my arm away from Danny. We hadn’t gotten far from the house. We could turn around and go back. They could go back to the clubhouse.
“Melissa, wait,” Danny called when I turned around. “I know you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I never asked her to call me mama,” I said, my back to Danny. My face tilted to the sky, hoping to stave off the tears.
“I know. We watched the video from the zoo.”
There was no stopping the tears. No stopping the guilt I felt that not only were they not there to hear her first word, but it should have been papa. I had tried so hard.
“Melissa, please look at me.”
I shook my head, refusing to turn around. My emotions were out of control. If I looked at his face, and saw the pity I heard in his voice, I would break.
“Dante and I know what you did. We know you worked hard to not only care for and protect our daughter, but also make sure she didn’t forget who we were. I can’t tell you how much it meant to us to be able to see everything we missed.”
Wrapping my arms around my waist, I stood there, trying to pull back my reactions. This was it. This was when he told me they were taking her home. This was where Danny ripped my heart out by taking Danika away from me.
It’s why he brought me outside. He didn’t want me breaking down in front of Dani. He didn’t want her last moments with me to be filled with tears.
“But?” I asked, my voice hoarse with emotion. I looked to the house, and Dante stood in the window, watching us. Another witness to my emotional demise.
“Melissa, there is no but. I am trying to express our gratitude for everything you did for us. Dante and I talked, and while I didn’t want to see it at first, he showed me how important you are to Dani. How much she needs you in her life.”
I spun around to look at him. “What are you saying?”
“We’re staying in Diamond Creek. At least for now. There are still things I need to do. The war that’s coming...” He looked out over the land. “We don’t know what will happen, so we’re staying here.”
“Really? You aren’t taking her back to New York?”
“I can’t say we’ll stay here forever. But for right now, no, we’re not taking her back to New York.”
I threw myself at Danny. When he caught me, he stumbled back a few steps, but he kept us on our feet.
“Thank you!”
“But I need you to do something for me. For Dani.”
“What? Anything!” I said. I would do whatever they asked of me to keep Dani in my life.
“I need you to talk to your brother.”
Except that.
I stumbled back, glaring at him. “No. That is unfair,” I said, pointing my finger at him.
“It’s not. Melissa, you work with children. You help them get over their trauma, but you refuse to deal with yours.”
“What about your trauma, Danny? What about what you went through in New York? Have you dealt with that?”
“Not all of it, but Haizley is helping.”
Of course she was. Haizley was amazing. And she was great at what she did.
“Do it for Dani. She’ll need her uncle.”
I looked up at him. He wasn’t playing fair. Implying I would still be her mother. He was using my love for Dani against me. And by the hitch of his eyebrow, he knew it.
“Did Haizley tell you to do this?” This sounded like her. Something she would come up with to manipulate her patient. This was what we were taught. To give our patient choices. Options to work on their trauma based on rewards. Dani was my reward.
“No, Dante did.”
I turned back to the house, glaring at it and the man inside. I wanted to be mad at him. I wanted to yell and tell him what he was asking was wrong. It was too much to ask. But he had seen me working with Dani. He knew how things were done.
“I don’t think I can do that.”
“Not even for her?”
“That’s not fair, Danny.”
“I know. But it’s all we have to work with.”
“Miss Jefferson.”
Danny and I both turned at the voice. Detective Andrew Henderson stood behind us with a gun. Looking around, I wondered where he came from. How could he just appear before us? There had been no sound of a vehicle, no horses riding on the packed dirt.
Danny tried to move in front of me, and Henderson pointed the gun at him. “Don’t move.”
“It’s Dr. Jefferson,” I ground out.
“Not the time, Melissa,” Danny whispered.
I knew it wasn’t the time, but this man refused to acknowledge my education and experience. Time and time again, he talked down to me. I could only assume it was because I was a woman.
“What are you doing here?”
“I want my daughter back,” he answered.
“Your daughter?”
“Yes, my daughter. The little girl you stole from her mother. I want her back and you are going to help me get her.”
“I don’t have your daughter, Detective.”
“But you know where she is.”
The pieces clicked together. Why he had come to my office. Why he refused to acknowledge my title and my authority. Henderson moved the gun between Danny and I, keeping us both from moving toward the house. With every swing of his arm holding the gun in my direction, Danny took a step closer to me.
“She is with a nice family. She is happy. She doesn’t need to be disrupted.”
“She’s mine!” he shouted.
“Then where the hell were you?” I yelled back at him. “Where were you when she was hungry and crying? Where were you when she was being touched by men her mother paraded through their home? You waited until she was beaten, bruised, and broken before you stepped up. You don’t deserve her! I would never help you get her back!”
“YOU FUCKING CUNT!”
“MELISSA!”
The detective focused his gun on me. I heard Danny yell, but I was frozen. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. All I saw was the barrel of a gun. I heard the shot just before I hit the ground.
My head hit the hard earth, and I groaned. Danny was on top of me, and when he rolled over, I saw the blood.
“DANNY!”
I patted my body, feeling for the hole. It wasn’t until Dante was on his knees beside us I heard Danny groan.
“Fuck, that hurts.”
Looking around frantically, I saw Detective Henderson on the ground a few feet away. He wasn’t moving. The gun he had held in his hand lay a foot away from his body.
“Danny, are you ok?” Dante asked, his voice filled with raw fear.
“Yea, it’s just a scratch,” he said as he held his arm, blood seeping between his fingers.
“What happened? Where’s Dani? Is she ok?” I asked, my eyes slipping from the detective to the house.
“Dani’s fine. She’s in the house.”
Getting up, I slowly made my way toward the detective.
“Melissa, what the fuck are you doing?”
“He might still be alive,” I said.
“Get your ass over here,” Danny yelled.
But I couldn’t. I needed to know what happened. He had shot at me. And he could do it again. Dante grabbed my arm, stopping my movement.
“We need to get the gun. It’s too close to his hand. I don’t know what happened, but if he wakes up—”
“He’s not waking up,” Danny said as he stood over the body.
Dante and I made our way over to Danny, and I looked down at Detective Andrew Henderson lying in the dirt. A bullet hole between his wide-open eyes.
“How?” I asked, looking around. “Did his gun backfire?”
“No, he shot Danny,” Dante said. “You can’t release two bullets at once in two different directions.”
“He shot you?” I grabbed Danny’s arm, and he winced.
“It’s just a scratch. The bullet grazed my arm. It didn’t go into it.”
“What the fuck did you do?” I yelled.
“I was trying to save your life.”
“By giving up yours? Have you learned nothing?”
“Are you for real right now? Most people would say ‘Thank you, Danny.’ ”
“Thank you? You want me to thank you for putting your life in jeopardy? AGAIN! What if you had been shot in the chest? Where would that leave Dante and Danika?”
“Woman, what if he had shot you? You antagonized the son of a bitch until he aimed his gun at you!”
“Oh my God, you two are going to drive me crazy. You’re both equally stupid and reckless.”
Danny and I stopped our bickering and looked at Dante.
“Can you believe he just called us stupid?” I asked Danny.
“And reckless,” Danny added.
“I’m going to check on our daughter. And call in reinforcements.”
Dante walked inside, leaving Danny and me alone once more.
“Thank you,” I muttered.
“You’re welcome,” he replied.
We looked at the detective.
“Who do you think shot him?” I asked. Danny and I looked around again. In the distance, we saw a dust cloud headed our way. Danny reached down and picked up the detective’s gun, pushing me behind him.
“I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out.”