Chapter Fourteen
Paige dropped her keys into her bag as her feet walked the familiar path from the parking lot to the lobby of the Skyline Motel.
She’d been surprised to find the weather pleasant enough for her to shed the jacket she wore.
The sun beamed on her, a contrast to the dark mood she was in.
She threw open the door and stepped inside, her steps faltering when she heard familiar voices talking low from the direction of the seating area.
When Wally and Ben noticed her, they stood. From their expressions, she figured they had been talking about her, and the thought bothered her. She pinned Ben with a glare.
“You told him.” The accusation dripped with disdain.
“Not exactly.”
Paige rolled her eyes. “Stop talking in riddles.”
Wally looked from Ben to her in confusion. “Charlotte, honey, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but all he said was that you and he knew each other when you were kids. That was right before you came in.”
She took a deep breath and released it slowly. “I was coming to talk to you about that myself. I didn’t expect Ben to beat me to it.”
“Come over here and sit down. You look about ready to drop.” Wally motioned for her to take the empty spot on the couch next to where Ben had been sitting.
With one last glare at Ben, she moved to sit in an empty chair instead. “I’m fine. Just tired. I’m sorry you had to get Betsy to cover for me.”
Wally waved off her apology. “It does that woman good to have something to do. You sure you’re okay?”
She nodded. “It was a rough night, but I’m fine. I do have something I want to talk to you about. Alone.”
She stared at Ben pointedly, but he seemed unfazed by her ire.
“We can talk,” Wally agreed. “But I think you need to hear what Ben has to say first.
Her eyes snapped to her boss. “Wally, I don’t—”
“In this case, I think you should talk to him. Trust me on this. I’ve never steered you wrong before.”
She started to protest again, but Wally stood and walked into his office before she uttered a word. She stared after him, mainly because she didn’t want to face Ben when it was just the two of them.
“Paige...”
“Don’t call me that.” She turned back but couldn’t meet his eyes. Her hands settled on her lap, and she stared at them.
“It’s your name.”
She shook her head. “Not anymore.”
“And why is that?”
She lifted her eyes to meet his. “You think because you convinced Wally to take your side that I’m going to tell you everything? Believe me. You don’t want to know.”
“You’re wrong about that, but I understand why you don’t want to talk. We don’t know each other. Not really. But I hope you’ll listen. I have a lot I want to tell you. All I ask is that you hear me out. Then if you want me to leave, I will.”
Her eyes narrowed as a realization dawned on her. “You have secrets too.”
“Something like that.”
“I don’t want to know, Ben. I can’t. What I’m dealing with...it’s too big for me to take on your secrets too.”
“That’s just it. My shoulders are big enough to carry mine and yours. I can ease your burden.”
Paige shook her head. “No one wants to carry mine.”
“Like I said, hear me out and then decide.”
Her head told her to say no, but her heart wasn’t in it.
She wanted to hear what Ben had to say. She wanted to know more about the man he was now.
What had happened in his life since they had known each other?
Why was he so anxious to help her? What secrets did he have that would make a difference to her situation now?
“I’ll listen.”
Ben didn’t bother to hide his relief that she agreed. “Is there somewhere more private we can go?”
She nodded. “Come on.”
She didn’t bother knocking before leading him through Wally’s office.
She had no doubt that her boss had been listening, and she refused to look his way when he likely watched her with a knowing expression.
Stepping through the back exit, she headed to the grassy area beside the back parking lot.
Though it was out in the open, no one would disturb them.
She sat at the picnic table and waited for Ben to join her.
She kept silent, giving him the chance to say what he wanted to say.
“I’m not sure where to start.”
Paige guffawed. “I know the feeling. I’m still trying to reconcile that you are the boy I knew when I was six.”
He grinned. “A lot has happened since we hung out at the clubhouse. It’s still there, you know.”
“It is?”
“I still live in Fire Creek. I go by there sometimes. Not a lot. It’s hard, even now, to go there by myself. That was always our spot. It wasn’t the same after you moved.”
“That was so long ago.”
“It was not long after that when I went to live with Gish and my brothers.
Everything I told you about them was true.
You already knew that my dad was never in my life, and my mom.
..well, she never wanted me around. One day, she left and never came home.
I found out later that she overdosed on heroin, and since she had no ID on her, the city labeled her a Jane Doe. No one knew to come for me.
“I was scared of what was going to happen to me when she didn’t come home, so I never told anyone about it.
I pretended everything was okay, and whenever anyone came by the apartment looking for her, I made excuses about why she wasn’t there.
I started doing odd jobs for people in the neighborhood and used that money to buy food.
I thought I was keeping up the pretense, but my landlord knew.
He lived in the building, and when the rent went unpaid, and he stopped seeing my mom around, he figured she’d abandoned me. ”
Ben placed his arms on top of the picnic table and leaned forward.
“My three brothers all came from rough upbringings, and Gish took them in when they had nowhere to go. My landlord told me he knew where my mom was, and he was going to take me to her. Instead, he left me at the bar for Gish to find.”
Paige thought she was all cried out, but she felt tears prick the back of her eyes. “I’m sorry. I knew things were bad for you at home, but I had no idea.”
“No reason why you would. We were six. We didn’t talk about that stuff. Hell, with my stutter, I didn’t talk at all if I could help it.”
“And now your stutter is gone. It’s hard to believe you’re the same person.”
“I’m not. Living with Gish and my brothers changed my life.
There was a woman who worked at the bar.
..Her name is Becky. She acted more like a mother to me than my own ever did.
I wished Gish would marry her and make it official, but their relationship is a whole other story for another day.
Anyway, she helped me learn to control my stutter, and she said with my imagination and my gift for pretending, I should be an actor.
My brothers were big into sports. I started acting in plays at school. ”
Paige smiled. “That’s hard to picture. I mean, I always knew you had a fun personality. I just never imagined you’d show that to anyone but me.”
“I had the chance to take a theatre scholarship when I graduated from high school. It would have been the only way I could have afforded college because my grades were mediocre at best. I didn’t take it, though. My brothers and I decided to follow in Gish’s footsteps, so we enlisted in the Army.”
She digested that bit of information and felt like there was more to that decision than what he’d told her. She didn’t have to wait long for him to enlighten her.
“Remember I said Gish often helped people who needed it?”
She nodded. “That’s why he took you and our brothers in.”
“And the Becky that I mentioned?”
“Who is like a mother to you.”
“Well, Gish had been helping people long before my brothers and I came into the picture. He helped Becky, too. She had an abusive boyfriend who got her hooked on drugs. Gish helped her get clean. He gave her a job at the bar and helped her start a new life. He’s helped a lot of people, but he made sure what he did wasn’t public knowledge. ”
She tilted her head, her face twisted in bewilderment. “What are you trying to tell me, Ben?”
“Not many people know this, but I trust that what I tell you is between us and just us.” At her nod, he continued.
“Gish is a former CIA operative. After he left the Agency, he continued to help people who needed it but couldn’t get it any other way.
When my brothers and I found out about what he was doing, we decided we wanted to do the same. ”
“Like you’re giving back to someone else because of the people who helped you. They call it paying it forward, I think.”
Ben nodded. “Exactly. Our training in the Army and what Gish taught us prepared us to help people in all sorts of situations. Even dangerous situations.”
There it was. The bombshell he wanted to drop on her. The proof that she trusted him to help her.
“Ben—”
“Wait, please. Let me say this. We call ourselves the Legends because that’s how Gish was known when he was in the CIA.
We each own our own business, and when someone reaches out to us, we figure out the best way to help them.
We either work together or separately based on what is needed.
We’ve helped people with stalkers, with missing persons… well, you get the idea.”
“If you own your own business, why are you working construction?”
“I was here on a case. I was only on the construction crew to get close to our suspect. That’s why I had to leave you so suddenly last night. We got what we needed to close the case, and my brothers and I needed to be there for the arrest.”
“I guess if I asked about the case, you would tell me, but then you’d have to kill me.”
He grinned at her use of spy-inspired humor.
“I can tell you some. The arrest makes it public record. A man and his wife kidnapped a little boy because they were unable to have children of their own. This happened five years ago. His wife committed suicide a year ago, and last night the man was arrested for the kidnapping. The little boy is being reunited with his birth family today. There’s still a lot to unwrap from all of this, but that’s the gist. I came here to investigate the man because he was suspected of abusing the boy.
There wasn’t any evidence of physical abuse, but from what we’ve uncovered, there’s been emotional and psychological abuse. ”
She felt her eyes widening the more he shared. “Oh, my God. I don’t even know what to say to that. I can’t believe that happened here. Ivy Springs is such a quiet town. It’s why I stopped here.”
“Stopped?”
She hesitated. This was part of her story that she’d shared with people in town, but somehow sharing it with Ben felt like a slippery slope, as if opening up to him about this detail would compel her to tell him all of it.
She wasn’t sure she was ready to do that.
But he could glean this information from Wally if he’d thought to ask, so it didn’t make sense for her not to tell him.
“I was on a bus heading to Atlanta. We weren’t supposed to stop here, but there was a problem with the bus. It was fixed pretty quick, but I decided to stay behind instead of going to Atlanta. That was over a year ago.”
“Let me guess. A fresh start in a new town and a new name.”
She shrugged. “Something like that.”
“It’s more than that,” he countered. “The first time we met after I came to town? Aside from the fact that you broke my nose, I saw that you were afraid. You are afraid. You didn’t settle in this town.
You’re hiding here. You’re running from something.
And don’t deny it because I won’t believe you.
One of my talents is discerning what people are dealing with. ”
She scowled. “Why do you care what I’m dealing with?
You don’t owe me anything. It doesn’t matter that we once knew each other some twenty-something years ago.
It sounds like the reason you came to town has been taken care of.
There’s nothing keeping you here. Unless you’re trying to fulfill some need to be a hero or something.
If that’s it, forget it. I’m not your charity case. ”
“Paige—”
Once again, their conversation was interrupted by his phone ringing.
She crossed her arms over her chest as she watched him check the screen, frown, and then answer.
Whoever was on the other end of the line dominated the conversation, and Ben’s face hardened the more he listened.
Finally, he ended the call without saying goodbye and pushed to his feet to step over the picnic table’s bench seat. He grasped her hand and pulled her up.
“Come on. We’ll have to finish this later.”
“Wh...” She sputtered as she scrambled after him. “Ben, where are we going?”
He didn’t answer, and she had to half-walk, half-run to keep up with his hurried strides.
They rounded the side of the motel, and she slammed into his back when he stopped abruptly.
She peered around his solid frame and gasped at the spectacle happening in front of the Skyline.
News reporters from television networks had cameras on tripods facing away from the motel toward the traffic passing on the street.
She backed away, jerking her hand from his hold. Whipping around on her heel, she ran around the back of the hotel before one of those cameras swung in her direction and ruined everything.