Chapter Thirty-three – Because of You #2
I thought of Cooper and the way he touched Luca every chance he got, and how love all but poured from both Dale and Lydia when they looked at their son and grandson. The way Kurt looked at Beckett and Maisey. The way Fallon looked at her children—unconditional, reverent love.
I wasn’t sure Dick or Belinda knew how to love anyone but themselves.
This wasn’t news to me, and yet somehow it helped calm me.
I didn’t owe this man anything. Not an explanation or an apology or even my time.
I’d hear what he had to say, and then I’d send him out of my life without another thought.
I would never let him be one of the things I felt guilty over again.
“How did you find me? And why are you here?” I asked.
“How? How, you have the gall to ask? Your face is plastered all over the internet, practically having sex on the hood of some sheriff’s vehicle. Whoever that deputy is, if he were working for me, he’d be fired.”
A weighted ball landed back in my stomach. I was all over the internet?
“What are you talking about?”
He snagged his phone from his suit jacket, swiped the screen, and shoved it at me.
It was the home page of some tabloid site, and it had a crisp, clear picture of Cooper and me kissing. He was leaning up against his sheriff’s vehicle, his face almost hidden, but mine was on clear display.
The headline read, “Eden Blackwell Finally Opens Up About Her Divorce and How Cooper Wylee Broke Her Heart and Stole Her Son.”
My palms turned sweaty. Disgust, anger, and panic all took turns racing through me.
My hand shook when I gave the phone back.
Dad took it, demanding, “Well. What do you have to say for yourself?”
I responded out of habit before I could catch myself. “That’s just Eden trying to make Cooper pay for leaving her.”
He swiped his phone and read aloud, “Eden’s voice shakes as she explains the current tramp Cooper is hooking up with is just one in a long line of women he paraded through their home.
‘I caught them twice this week, practically having sex in public at the Harrington Ranch, where the woman works. That’s the sort of thing I was subjected to over and over again while married to him.
I can handle it. I have thick skin. But my little boy shouldn’t have to live like that. ’”
God… Cooper was going to go nuts. And Luca? Luca would be so embarrassed.
Dad looked back up. “Nothing has really changed in nearly a decade. Will you ever grow up? Will you ever stop threatening everything for me with your antics?”
“So sorry that my nearly being beaten to death was a hiccup in your election campaign,” I said dryly.
“Don’t take that tone with me. I am months away from winning my last term as state senator.
I cannot afford for your name to be dragged back through the headlines.
Eddie’s case is still open. You are still wanted in questioning for what happened that day and what happened with the money the two of you stole from the casino. ”
I couldn’t hide my shock, and he scoffed, “You don’t think I knew about the deal you worked with Jacy and the tribal leaders?
You don’t think I knew what was going on in my own damn town?
I let you get away with it because it was better for me if my name wasn’t smeared.
Now, you’re nothing more than a criminal, and I won’t have you ruining everything.
This term is going to feed into a federal election for me.
I’ve got important things to accomplish. ”
“You always had more important things going on than me.”
“You were supposed to be an asset, and instead, you became a disgusting liability.”
“Nice, Dad. Your daughter should never have been an asset. But the truth is, everything that happened is on you as much as me. I came to you. I came to you with my face bashed in and bones broken, begging for help, and you sent me right back to Eddie. If you’d stepped up that day and been a real father, then Eddie wouldn’t have been near me on the day he died.
A real father would have protected his daughter, would have delivered a message to Eddie that said, ‘Get the hell out of town and out of my daughter’s life for good. ’”
“I see the years have done nothing to improve your attitude.”
“The years have wiped away any remaining blinders I was wearing.”
The current between us was charged, a furious bolt waiting to strike.
“If I saw this, you can bet it was flagged in an FBI database somewhere. They’ll be coming to see you. Keep my name out of it.”
“You know, Dick, I think your constituents deserve the truth, don’t you? About my loveless childhood. About the way you blamed your daughter—the victim—for being abused. Or how about the big one… How about letting Eddie’s murderer reach me in the hospital.”
He paled. Visibly shaken. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You didn’t post a guard at my hospital door, and Eddie’s partner sent a goon for me.
I bet you were hoping whoever finished Eddie would finish me too.
Then, you could have been the grieving father.
” Why hadn’t Dad posted any deputies at the hospital?
If I’d been a suspect, it would have kept me from running.
If I’d been a victim, it would have kept me safe.
“As far as I know, you killed Eddie,” he snapped. “That’s what it looked like to me as an experienced law enforcement officer. You were lucky I could put it down as self-defense and keep everyone off your back for as long as I did.”
His words seemed to crack open a black hole in my memories. Images began swirling out of the darkness. They were broken and shattered still, but slowly assembling.
Eddie hit me so hard I flew off the table where he’d pinned me.
I scrambled, partially to my feet, lunging for the living room.
He grabbed my hair and slammed me face-first into the wood floor.
I tried to crawl away, and he kicked me in the ribs.
I curled into myself while taking kick after kick.
I tried to ward him off, but he grabbed my hand, bending the fingers back, the one he’d already broken screaming in agony…
The screech that left me sounded unearthly.
Another pair of shoes swam into my view. A dirty pair of pink Crocs that landed their own kick. Pure reflex had me trying to block it with my mangled right hand, only for it to take the full force of the hit with another scream of agony.
I inhaled sharply.
Marla. Marla had been there.
She hadn’t been in Sacramento like she’d said. She’d been in the house at the time of Eddie’s death.
Which meant Marla had to know who shot Eddie. Had to know it wasn’t me, and yet, at the hospital, she’d ranted about me being the killer. Why? Was she Eddie’s partner all along?
I threw that thought out as quickly as it came. Eddie had been afraid of his partner, and Marla had never conjured up a stronger emotion in him than scorn.
But another truth hit me as the new memories swarmed, and it caused relief to wash over me with the force of a sonic boom.
There was no way I could have killed Eddie.
I couldn’t have pulled the trigger with my right hand so horribly injured.
Maybe I could have attempted to use my left hand to pull the trigger, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to hit Eddie square in the chest unless I was pressed right up against him.
“My hand was a mangled mess of breaks…” I looked at Dad. “I couldn’t have killed Eddie, Dad. But you knew that all along, didn’t you? God…do you know who did?” More ugly thoughts followed that one. “Was his partner one of your donors? Were you protecting them more than your own daughter?”