Chapter 13 Blake
BLAKE
I went over the statements from the Walkers and all the neighbors for the fifth time. There wasn’t a single thing that pointed to who might have taken the little girl.
But that patch of trees across the road at the vacant lot… Something told me that was the key to the whole thing. Pulling up a map on my phone, I studied the area, then started moving the map around, expanding what I could see.
There was nothing for miles and miles except trees and a lake. Even if someone lured Dakota away through the trees, where would they take her in the middle of a snowstorm? They couldn’t have walked that far. Murky Falls was too far away.
As for motive, I still couldn’t find anything to go on. There was no one in town, other than the psychotic Austin Callahan, who would do something like this. And he was too young at the time for such a violent crime.
I had a feeling I might never figure it out unless I found a killing floor in someone’s basement. And how likely was it that I could enter every single home and search with no argument?
I slammed the papers down and screamed in frustration. I knew I wouldn’t find the answer overnight, but this was driving me insane. The more in-depth I got, the more I needed to know, and the answers wouldn’t come fast enough.
“Babe?” Parker called out from the other room.
“In here!”
I wasn’t ready to put any of this down for the night, but a break might help clear things up for me. Gathering the papers and stacking them neatly, I grinned as Parker walked through the door, but he was definitely not happy.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“We have company.”
Grimacing, I looked down at myself. “I hope it’s family. I’m not really dressed for visitors.”
“Oh, it’s definitely family,” he chuckled humorlessly. Then he winced as he put pressure on his right leg.
“What happened?” I asked, rushing over to him.
“It’s—”
I didn’t see any blood or signs of a wound, but when I jerked up his pant leg, I gasped in horror.
Blake was tattooed across the entire length of his calf, along with a bunch of fancy script I couldn’t read.
“What the hell is this?”
Parker opened his mouth to answer, but a very familiar voice beat him to the punch.
“That’s to remind him that he will always be attached to you, and if he ever fucks up, I will put another one across his chest,” my dad said as he strode into the kitchen. “I think it looks pretty nice.”
Slowly, I got to my feet, shocked to find not only him, but all but one of my brothers standing in my house. “What…how are you here?”
“Well, it’s a funny thing,” Dad grinned, scratching his jawline. “We got a call from a friend of yours. A Sheriff Maverick Wynne. Funny guy. He said you pushed him through a window.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m gonna push him through another,” I muttered.
“You know, when you said you were getting married, I thought for sure you would call us when that whole nasty business was over and clue us in as to a wedding date. I thought you were still in Pennsylvania.”
“Sir, I already told you, I have every intention of marrying your daughter.”
“You’d better. You knocked her up!”
“You told him?” I gasped.
Dad chuckled, shaking his head. “He didn’t. The town sheriff did. Nice man, though I didn’t think I would find out quite so much about my daughter from a stranger.”
“Sir, we’ll plan the wedding as soon as possible.”
“We will?” I asked, a little shocked that he was just taking over. Then again, Parker always did do his own thing.
“I was thinking next weekend.”
“Next weekend?” I said, surprised at how quickly this was moving.
“Can’t have that kid coming out—”
“Watch it,” Parker snarled.
Dad held up his hands. “Relax, son. I was going to say we can’t have that kid coming out without his parents being properly wed.”
“Good. Let’s keep it that way,” Parker grunted.
“I’ll need six weeks,” Adam spoke up.
“Nah, six weeks is too long,” Dad answered.
“How about you—”
But I never got the chance to answer because I was interrupted yet again.
“You can’t find anyone in six weeks,” Todd snorted. “When was the last time you took a woman out and made it last more than a week?”
“Hey, I’ll have you know that I have my eye on a very special lady.”
“And then you’ll bring her to a wedding and break up with her the next day,” Matt chuckled.
“We’re not waiting six weeks,” Parker said in frustration.
“Right, this is our wedding, and we’ll get married when we want,” I chimed in.
“Right, next weekend.”
I rolled my eyes at Parker as he plopped his arm around my shoulders. “Not next weekend.”
“Why wait? Your dad is right. Besides, they’re already here. Why make them go home?”
By that logic, why would we wait even a day? “They have to go home at some point anyway.”
“Yeah, but they’ll go home, then have to come back. It’s so much driving around.”
“Then they can fly,” I said angrily.
Todd raised his hand sheepishly. “Actually, I really don’t like to fly. Makes me queasy.”
“That’s because you shouldn’t drink before you get on the flight,” Doug snorted.
“It’s not drinking that makes me queasy. It’s the idea that the plane might crash with me on board.”
“You’d hardly even notice it,” Matt argued. “By the time the plane went down, you’d already be half-dead.”
“How do you figure?” Todd asked. “Seriously, if the plane is still going down, but hasn’t crashed, then I would still be alive.”
“Yeah, but you’d already know you were going to die.”
“That’s precisely my point!” Todd snapped. “I don’t want to know I’m going to die. I want to go peacefully in my sleep!”
Matt shot him an odd look. “Really? Honestly, I think I’d like a fighting chance.”
“And who are you going to fight on a plane that’s going down?” Doug shouted.
Geez, enough of this. They were worse than women bickering over purses. I stepped in between them, but the moment I did, Parker yanked me out of the middle of their argument.
“Excuse me!” I said, getting more pissed by the second.
“What are you thinking, putting yourself between them?”
“I was thinking I was going to break up the fight.”
Dad tsked, shaking his head at me. “Not a good idea. Especially not in your condition.” He looked at Parker. “Son, what exactly are you gonna do to keep my baby girl safe?”
“Anything necessary,” he said before I could speak up.
“I need more than that.”
This time, I didn’t let Parker push me aside as I stepped between them. “Yes, please tell him how you plan to smother me and keep me safe.”
“Blake can take care of herself,” Parker said to my satisfaction. “Though she does tend to be a little reckless. Pushing a guy through a window wasn’t her best moment.”
“What happened to you not dictating my life while I’m pregnant?” I asked.
“Sir, the wedding will be next weekend, and I can assure you, I will do everything in my power to keep Blake and our baby safe.”
“Good man,” Dad said, clapping him on the shoulder. He turned to me, beaming with pride. “You found a good one here.”
I thought I had, too, but after my future husband just decided our future for the both of us, I was no longer so certain in my decision. Right now, I was thinking more about the first time we met, and how pushing him out a window looked pretty damn good right now.
My lips curled in a smile that made Parker shiver. “Trust me. I know.”
“Ma,” Parker smiled, hugging his mother as we walked through the door.
“Showoff,” I muttered before plastering a smile on my face and leaning in to hug the older woman. I really did like her. She was sweet and made excellent food. It had been so long since I’d had a mother figure in my life that I couldn’t help but feel a little sad every time I saw her.
“I hope you’re taking good care of my future grandchild,” she murmured as she hugged me.
“Of course.”
“Oh, I’m talking to Parker.” Spinning, she pinned him with a glare. “What’s this I hear about you sneaking out of the house without saying goodbye?”
“Krista,” he cursed under his breath. “I was trying to let her sleep.”
“Well, what if she had needed something?” Clara snapped. “What if she had gone into preterm labor?”
“She’s not even three months pregnant!”
Dad slapped the back of Parker’s head as he pushed his way inside. “Ma’am, I’m Blake’s father, Dean.”
“Oh, it’s so nice to meet you. And look! All your boys!”
“Well, aside from one. He’s got a big boxing match coming up.”
“How wonderful! Well, everyone, come in and make yourselves at home. Blake, I have something to show you.”
She took my hand and pulled me through the house, bypassing her husband as he made his way to the gathering. I had no idea where we were going, but I was extremely grateful for the reprieve from the onslaught of company.
“Now, I don’t want to assume anything, but I know you don’t have a lot of time to find a wedding dress, and I thought I might be able to help with that.”
“Oh...” I had no idea what to say. Was she going to make me wear some hideous dress from her wedding? And how was I going to say no to that?
Flipping on the light in the spare bedroom, she opened the closet doors and pulled out a garment bag that had to be forty years old. I held my breath in dread as she slowly unzipped the bag. God, this would be really hard to say no to.
“Now, I know it’s a little old-fashioned. There are no big slits up the thigh and it’s not low cut, but it’s a classic.”
I gasped when she pulled it out and showed me the full dress. It was beautiful. With a full skirt, the bodice had a scoop neck and a lace overlay that flowed over the shoulders and created tight sleeves.
“Wow. That’s…”
“It was my mother’s. I wore it at my wedding, and I had planned to pass it down to one of my girls, but they both nixed the idea. And since Bailey is—”
She cut herself off, sighing heavily. “Anyway, I thought you might want to try it on. If not, that’s perfectly fine. I won’t be offended. But if you do like it, there’s a woman in town—”
I didn’t think as I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around Clara in a tight hug. I wasn’t sure what came over me, but I had the desperate urge to cry. And I really hated crying.
“Oh, honey,” she murmured, squeezing me back.
“I’m sorry, I just…” I couldn’t even speak. “Stupid hormones,” I laughed.
It wasn’t the hormones, though. It was her. Here I was, a complete stranger to her, and she was treating me like her daughter. I hadn’t had that in a very long time, and it had never really bothered me. I was used to being a daddy’s girl and being smothered by brotherly love.
I just hadn’t realized how much I was missing out on until this moment. To have his mother offer me her wedding dress was just too much to take at the moment. God, I was turning into a sap. I needed to dig down and find the woman who tossed people through windows again.
“Michael said your mother died when you were very young.”
I nodded, swiping the tears from my eyes. “Yes. She caught a cold and then…it all just happened so fast.”
“That must have been very hard on you, growing up with all those boys.”
“It wasn’t too bad. They took care of me and taught me to defend myself,” I smiled, remembering the first time they took me shooting.
“Well, I can certainly see why Michael fell for you. I always knew it would take a strong woman to tame him.”
“I’m not sure I’ve tamed him,” I laughed.
“Maybe not tamed, but you’ve definitely gotten him to settle down, and that’s something. There was a time I never thought he would come home to us.”
“That was never because he didn’t want to be here.”
“Oh, no,” she waved me off. “Before those ridiculous charges. No, when he left home, I thought for sure he would never come back to us. He and his father are like oil and water. There was never anything they could agree on. And the last time he came home, the way the town gossiped about him, I knew he wouldn’t stay. I thought I lost him for good.”
Her eyes shimmered with tears as she got lost in memories. She had no idea how badly Parker had wanted to come home.
“You know, when we were dreaming of what we would do if we could get out of the mess we were in, he talked a lot about coming back here.”
“He did?” she asked hopefully.
“Yeah, he didn’t have to talk me into coming here. I was sold the minute he described this ranch and his family. It sounded like the perfect place to raise kids.”
“And now you’re starting a family of your own,” she smiled, gripping my hand. “My first grandchild. Well, enough of these tears. Like I said, I won’t make you try it on—”
“I would love to,” I said immediately, taking the dress from her.
She helped me struggle into the dress. It was a good fit, but needed to be taken in around the boobs.
I wasn’t nearly as large as she was. All the satin and silk was absolutely beautiful, and the lace arms were so delicate, I feared I would tear them.
But when it was on, I knew this was the dress I wanted to wear.
“You look beautiful,” she whispered, looking at my reflection in the mirror.
“Thank you.”
“Well, we’ll take this into town first thing tomorrow to Elaine. She’ll have it taken in and fixed up in no time. You’ll be a beautiful bride.”
I smiled as I looked at myself in the mirror.
I hadn’t been sure about rushing into marriage before.
When Parker said we would get married right away, a part of me wanted to wait.
Maybe it was because, after all we’d been through, I just wanted some time to be a normal couple.
Or maybe I just wanted to be one hundred percent sure in my decision.
But looking at this wedding dress, I no longer felt the need to wait. I did want to marry Parker, and the sooner the better.
Everything was going to be perfect.