Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Diana
Mrs. Locke looks pretty much the same as she did last night, only this morning she’s wearing a robe. It’s hot-pink flannel, and it’s worn in places. Her feet are in pink fuzzy slippers.
“Good morning, Mrs. Locke.”
She cocks her head, scowling. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m a friend of your son’s. I was actually here last night with him, but I stayed in the car.”
“Good, then you can give me my dog back.”
Seriously? She thinks I’m here because of the dog?
“I’d be glad to do that,” I say, “if you were taking proper care of him. The poor thing was starving and in need of a bath. So you won’t be getting him back. In fact, I should call the cops on you for animal cruelty.”
“Nobody cares about a damned old dog.”
Wow. As if I couldn’t hate this woman more. Not only did she abandon her son for something he didn’t do, but she’s cruel to animals and thinks no one cares about them.
To a person who grew up on a ranch around all kinds of animals, those are fighting words.
“I care,” I say. “Your dog is now clean and well fed, and he won’t be coming back here. But that’s not what I came to talk to you about.”
She narrows her eyes. “I need a watchdog around here.”
This time I laugh. “Teddy is no watchdog. He went with Dragon and me willingly. That’s not watchdog material.”
She rolls her eyes. “Fine. What the hell do you want anyway?”
“May I come in?”
“No.”
“Then I guess we’ll talk out here.” I hold up the tray of coffee I picked up on the way. “Can I offer you a coffee?”
“I’ll have a pumpkin spice latte,” she scoffs out.
“Sorry. I only brought medium roast. But I have cream and sugar.”
Finally, she opens the door. “If you’re determined to hang around here, come on in. I don’t want to stand out here on my feet.”
I walk in and realize I probably shouldn’t have. There are a couple of rifles hanging on the wall. They could very well be loaded, and although I’m a great shot, I’m not armed.
For a moment, I wish I were Brianna. She’d have some snide comment to make, something to say that would make this woman bow down to her.
That’s my little sister. A total spitfire who doesn’t take any crap from anyone.
I aim to channel her now.
“Do you want cream and sugar in your coffee?” I ask.
“Yes.”
No please? Not that I’m surprised. I take the lid off one of the cups of coffee, add some cream and a packet of sugar, stir it, and hand it to Mrs. Locke. “Here you go.”
She doesn’t thank me.
I take the lid off my own coffee. The steam rises. I blow on it, swirl it around a bit, and then take a drink.
Damn! I burned my tongue.
“So…” Mrs. Locke prompts.
I place my cup of coffee on a messy side table—normally I’d look for a coaster first, but this table is littered with rings, so I think I’m good. “Like I said, I’m a friend of your son’s. I want to ask you about your daughter.”
“I don’t talk about my children,” she says. “Before he showed up yesterday, I thought of myself as never having children.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to sweeten the pot.” I open my purse and pull out a hundred-dollar bill. “Will this get you talking?”
Her eyes widen at the sight of the money. “Are you for real?”
“Does this look fake to you?”
She shrugs. “Could be counterfeit for all I know.”
“Then I suppose you’ll just have to trust me. My name is Diana Steel, by the way.”
Her eyes widen again. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
“Because I’m the daughter of Talon Steel, one of the owners of Steel Acres Ranch and a principal in all of our other holdings.”
She smirks. “Then you can afford way more than a hundred bucks.”
“I can, but you have to earn it.”
She sighs and plunks down on her threadbare couch. “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“I want to know why, once your daughter disappeared and you knew for sure that Dragon hadn’t had anything to do with her being attacked, you didn’t go rescue him from that fucking group home?”
She takes a sip of her coffee. She doesn’t respond at first, and just when I’m pretty sure I’m barking up the wrong tree?—
“Felix and I thought about it.”
“But all you did was think?”
She glares at me. “You don’t know what it was like, to lose two children.”
I gaze at her coldly. “Seems you only lost one. The other one you gave away.”
She takes another sip of coffee. “I loved both my children.”
“Past tense? Dragon is still alive.”
And Griffin may be too, but I’m not going to clue her into that yet.
She takes in a slow inhale. “I don’t know that man who was here last night. I haven’t seen my son since he was nine years old. He could be an imposter.”
“He’s not. But if you need to know for certain, I’m sure he’d agree to do a DNA test.”
She sighs. “He looks a lot like his father. Except for the eyes. His father had brown eyes, and Dragon’s are more a greenish brown.”
“Hazel,” I say softly.
“I had no idea Dragon was still alive,” she says.
“He’s young and healthy. Why wouldn’t he be alive?”
She looks down. “You hear about things happening in those group homes.”
“You could have checked.”
“No, I could never.” She puts her coffee down, reaches for a pack of cigarettes on the table next to her. “It’s been too long. I’m not interested in that life anymore. Felix and I had to remake ourselves. We had to forget we ever had children.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think?” She puts a cigarette in her mouth and talks around it. “Because it was just too damned painful. Our little girl was gone. And our little boy…”
“Wasn’t gone,” I say. “You could’ve rescued him from the system at any time.”
She opens her mouth wide, letting the cigarette drop onto her lap. “No, we couldn’t have. When you voluntarily give up your parental rights, the system isn’t real quick to give them back.”
“They would’ve asked Dragon what he wanted.”
She looks down. “Maybe.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“Like I said, it was too painful. It would’ve all been a reminder of what happened to Griffin.”
I scoff. “So you left Dragon there. You left him there because he would’ve reminded you of his little sister.” I shake my head. “I can’t believe you. What the hell kind of mother are you?”
She stands up, leering over me. “That’s just it. I’m not a mother. It’s like I told you. Felix and I had to remake ourselves. We remade ourselves into a childless couple. We even changed our names. We’ve moved around a lot.”
I get to my feet and meet her gaze. “Why did you change names? Why did you move around a lot?”
She breaks eye contact with me and sinks back into her chair. “We had our reasons.”
“So Dragon couldn’t find you once he turned eighteen?”
She doesn’t respond.
So that’s the truth. She doesn’t want her son. She doesn’t want anything that reminds her of the daughter she lost.
And now she’s hardened. Hardened into an old woman with no heart.
Dragon will get nothing from her. Certainly not any maternal love. So I’m done interrogating her.
Time to move on.
“I need you to tell me something, then,” I say.
She squats down and grabs the cigarette that fell from her lap. “What’s that?”
“Tell me everything that happened the night your daughter disappeared.”