Chapter thirteen
“Iwill,” Clara said. “I was the only one there that night.”
Amber stirred against Juan’s leg, but kept her head down, quietly chatting and reading with Zoe.
“I never liked Anthony Ely,” Clara started. “Believe me, as a NICU nurse, I saw enough women in Amber’s situation, enough men like Anthony, to spot the bastards a mile away.”
Juan considered suggesting she watch her language around Zoe but held his tongue. Zoe was learning to talk, but sometimes, no other words would do.
“That night, I was up in my attic. It’s my crafting spot.
The light’s not great, so I’m not usually up there at that time.
But that night, a friend from the hospital I worked at called me and told me about a set of triplets born to a nineteen-year-old girl whose parents had kicked her out.
I was making quilts for the babies and giving a lot of thought to how we could help the girl.
” She paused and took a drink of the whiskey Lovell had poured for her.
It wasn’t yet three in the afternoon, but Juan sensed this was the first time either mother or daughter had relaxed in a good long while.
“I’d just turned the light off when I saw a man, not Anthony, walk down Amber’s old driveway toward the road.
Now that’s uncommon enough in our neighborhood—usually the only thing you see moving in the streets are the slick luxury cars coming or going.
But he was also carrying something. I couldn’t tell what from my attic window, but when he stopped at the end of the drive, glanced around, then started across the street…
Well, I know a furtive look when I see one. I know when someone’s up to no good.
“So I watched. He seemed to assess something. I wasn’t sure what at first, but a minute later, I knew.
It was garbage night, and everyone’s bins were out.
He walked to one two doors down, across the street from mine.
One not visible from the owner’s house because of the curve of the driveway.
Or visible from mine because of the hedges and trees.
At least not visible from the first or second floor.
Unfortunately for him, I could see everything from the attic. ”
“Did you get a look at the man?” Ryan asked. Juan’s gaze flickered to the chief of police. He looked relaxed, leaning forward, elbow on the table, notebook open, but the grip he had on his pen said otherwise.
She shook her head. “No, it was too dark. But he had a funny walk. Not a limp, but he sort of rocked side to side.”
Amber jerked and looked up. “Corey Osborne,” she said.
“He and Anthony went to high school together. He’s an EMT and, well, he came to the house a few times when I needed…
medical care but Anthony wouldn’t let me go to the hospital.
They had a weird relationship. Corey worshipped Anthony.
” She paused, then added quietly, “I think seeing me the way he saw me, usually bruised, beaten, helpless, excited him.”
Juan’s chest burned as he added Corey Osborne to his mental hit list. Not that he planned to take out the two men in cold blood, but if the chance ever arose, he wouldn’t mind if either of them left this earthly plane. Painfully.
“Anthony Ely is a first-class piece of shit that should be scraped off the bottom of my shitkickers and flushed down the public sewage system. It doesn’t surprise me that he collected twats like Osborne around him,” Clara said, startling a laugh from everyone.
“Mom,” Adrian admonished, though she, too, laughed.
Clara took a sip of her whiskey and shrugged. “I don’t have much use for beating around the bush.”
“What did he do next?” Ryan asked.
“He dumped his package in the bin, then walked back to the Ely house,” Clara continued.
“Again, unfortunately for him, I’m a nosy old biddy, and I wanted to know what he dumped.
I waited until I saw him leave. He drives the kind of jacked-up truck that assholes think makes them look tough.
The kind real farmers scoff at. You know the type.
They usually have a pair of fake testicles hanging from a trailer hitch they wouldn’t know how to use if their life depended on it. ”
Ryan smiled. “Yeah, I know the type.”
“When he was gone, I popped across the street, opened the bin, and found a bag. Like a gym bag. Bigger than a backpack, but not as big as a weekend bag.” She paused and took another sip.
“Now, I don’t know about you all, but when someone dumps a bag in someone else’s bin in the dead of night, I’m sure as hell going to look inside.
” For the first time, the energy that surrounded Clara dimmed, and her gaze dropped to her drink. “When I did, I found the baby. Zoe.”
A quiet sob broke from Amber, and Juan set his hand on her shoulder. He couldn’t make this easier for her, but he could remind her she wasn’t alone.
“At first, well, I didn’t think it was looking good for her.
I thought I’d found a body. A tiny but perfectly shaped little body.
Silent and still covered in afterbirth.” Another sip and an inhale.
“But then she moved,” Clara said, her voice growing stronger again.
“She curled her little fist, and in that moment, I knew I had two things to do. The first was save her and the second was protect her from Anthony Ely.”
Respect and admiration swelled inside Juan.
His brothers were the best of men. And the Warwicks were good allies, too.
He was surrounded by good people all the time.
People who cared, people who fought the good fight, people who set the standard.
But Clara and Adrian? They were a whole different ball game.
“You were a NICU nurse,” Leo said.
Clara nodded. “I brought her inside my home, cleaned her, warmed her, and called Adrian. I didn’t know how premature she was, but I knew she needed more care than what I could give her on my own.”
“She was twenty-nine weeks,” Amber said.
Clara nodded. “Makes sense. Still too early, but most of the vital bits developed. High survival rates with advanced care. We didn’t have advanced care, but we had two experienced nurses, each with a will of iron.”
“Why didn’t you call the police?” Ryan asked.
“I’d seen the police chief visiting the Elys a few times. I figure if he wasn’t doing anything about how Anthony treated Amber, then he sure as shit wouldn’t do anything to help the baby. Would probably have charged us with kidnapping,” Clara replied.
“He would have,” Amber said. “And Anthony would have turned it to his advantage and told the world how glad he was to have his baby back, played the doting father, and then she would have grown up in that hell.” She paused and took a deep breath, then another.
“I want to hear the rest of the story, but you will never know how grateful I am for the decisions you made that night.”
Clara nodded, a simple response to a powerful emotion.
“Adrian arrived with supplies,” Clara continued. “And we took care of her. She had a few rough days, but by day six or seven, she was out of the woods. Still a preemie and needing preemie care, but a fighter, too.”
“Why didn’t you reach out to Amber?” Juan asked.
“A week after I found Zoe, I stopped by with a plate of cookies,” Clara said.
“Anthony answered the door. Told me his wife was recovering from a bad fall down the stairs and it would be best if I didn’t stop by again and disturb her.
Now, I have to admit, I wondered if you were in fact recovering,” Clara said, her eyes on Amber.
“It crossed my mind he’d killed you and was buying himself time, because sure as the sun rises in the morning, if you’d taken a tumble down the stairs, it hadn’t been an accident. ”
Amber lowered her head and shook it. “It wasn’t an accident.
I’d been able to hide the pregnancy until that night.
I’m tall and had only gained eighteen pounds by then.
And he hadn’t touched me, sexually, in months.
But he came home early from golfing that day and saw me get out of the shower. I couldn’t hide it without clothes.”
Clara rolled her lips and nodded. “Figured it was something like that. I went home, and Adrian and I decided to keep taking care of Zoe until you were better, then figure out a way to get you away from your piece of shit husband. We’d heard rumors about networks like yours,” she said, nodding to Mantis.
“But neither of us had those connections. We started some discreet digging, but four weeks later, you were gone.”
“And we had no way of finding you,” Adrian said.
Amber’s gaze darted between the two women, then landed on Ryan.
“Anthony hired a nurse to look after me. The damage he’d done that night…
it nearly killed me. I was in and out of consciousness for nearly a week, and it took several more days for me to be fully alert.
I have only vague memories of giving birth.
The labor pains mixed with all the others, and I wasn’t even really aware of what was happening.
” Then fixing her attention on Ryan, she repeated what she’d already told the rest of them about Anthony telling her she’d given birth to a boy who’d died.
This was Juan’s third time hearing it, and it didn’t get less painful, less horrifying, with each recital.
“The nurse figured out exactly what happened and how I was injured, though,” Amber continued.
“She helped put me in contact with the right people. I had nothing left to lose at that point. I thought my baby was dead, I’d almost died, and I knew if I stayed, it was only a matter of time.
I figured he might catch me, but if he did, he wasn’t going to do anything he wasn’t already doing. ”
“But he didn’t catch you,” Juan said. “You’re here now. With your baby.”
She reached up and set her hand atop his. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“How did you know Amber was gone?” Juan asked.