Chapter 11
Once Lakin got rid of Eric Seller, she did as she’d promised Troy and called Eli. Worried that Parker might overhear their conversation, she had asked the ABI lieutenant to come talk in person.
That had to be his knock at her cabin door. Unless Troy was back.
Or Jasper Whitlaw…
She shivered and called out, “Who’s there?”
“It’s me, sis,” Eli called back.
She released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, turned the dead bolt and let him in. “Thanks for coming out.”
“I would have come earlier,” he said. “But I wasn’t in Shelby.”
“You didn’t have to drop everything,” she assured him. “I could have waited.”
He studied her face. “No. I don’t think it could. And I wanted to see you anyway.”
“Check up on me, you mean,” she said with a smile.
“I’ve been worried about you,” he said.
She released a shaky breath. “You’re not the only one. Troy has been bugging me to call you.”
He glanced around as if looking for her boyfriend. “He’s not here? I was counting on him sticking close to you after the break-in.”
“He has been,” she said. But was it out of concern or obligation?
She wasn’t as confident of his love as she’d always been.
Or maybe it wasn’t his love she questioned but his commitment to a future with her.
“He’s with Spence now.” Or at least she hoped he still was and not out trying to find Jasper Whitlaw or Eric Seller.
Eli glanced around the cabin. “You shouldn’t be alone at all right now,” he said.
“You sound like Troy. And like Mom and Dad who’ve been trying to get me to stay with them,” she said. She was so glad she’d resisted the temptation of going home, though, or Whitlaw might have shown up there.
“I sound like someone who loves you then,” Eli said with a slight grin.
She sighed even as a smile curved her lips. “People who love me should know that I can take care of myself,” she pointed out.
“You’re tough, Lakin,” Eli said. “But a lot of victims were.”
She sucked in a breath. Victim. “I’m not in danger of anyone killing me,” she assured him. “I’m just…”
“What?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. Then she pulled the photograph out of her purse and handed it to him.
Before he even looked at it, he asked, “What’s this?” Then he studied the snapshot, and his jaw clenched. “This is you…in the picture…”
“The little girl,” she clarified, just in case he thought she was the woman who had to be her biological mother.
“Where did you get this?” he asked. “Did Mom and Dad have it?” Then he flipped it over, probably looking for a date like Troy had. “Jasper Whitlaw. Who is this?”
“The man in the picture,” she said. “He claims he’s my father.”
“He can claim whatever the hell he wants,” Eli said. “But he needs to prove he actually has a biological relationship to you. And even if he does, he’s not your dad.”
“No, he’s not,” she agreed. “That’s why I haven’t said anything to Mom and Dad about this, so please don’t…”
“Lakin.” Eli’s blue eyes studied her face with the intensity he’d given the photograph moments ago. “When did this guy give you the picture? Before the break-in?”
“The morning after it,” she admitted.
“I don’t like this,” he said. “Has he bothered you again?”
She didn’t deny that he had. There was no point; she was still trembling a bit from the interaction earlier. “Today,” she said. “He showed up at the office.”
“What does he want from you?” he asked.
“Money,” she admitted with a pang of regret that Troy had been right about him.
Eli cursed. “We really should tell everyone else about this, warn them to be on the lookout.”
She shook her head. “Mom and Dad are already on edge because of this serial killer. I don’t want to needlessly put them through anything else. I gave Whitlaw forty bucks, so he knows I don’t have much money. Maybe he’ll just leave town now.”
“He wants more than forty bucks, Lakin,” Eli said. “He’s going to be back. And I want you to keep your distance. Make sure you’re never alone with him.”
She nodded. “I’ll be careful.”
“You said Troy bugged you to call me,” Eli said. “So he knows about this guy?”
She nodded again. “Yes.”
“And clearly he doesn’t trust him anymore than I do,” Eli surmised.
She smiled. “You’re both cynical and overly suspicious.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re wrong.”
She sighed. “No, it doesn’t.” She didn’t trust Whitlaw, either.
She hadn’t when she first met him and she definitely didn’t now after how he acted in the office.
He’d barely disguised his threats to go to her family for money.
“I… I’m worried,” she admitted. “I don’t want him bothering Mom and Dad. ”
“Or you,” Eli said. “I’ll check him out. And then I’ll track him down and have a little talk with him.”
She smiled. “You mean you’ll run him out of town like it’s the Wild West?”
“Something like that,” he said with a grin.
“Before you run him out of town, can you do me a favor?” she asked.
Eli’s grin slipped away. “What?”
“Can you find out what happened back then? Why I was left at the grocery store and what happened to her…” She pointed toward the photograph he held. “To my biological mother.”
“He didn’t tell you anything?”
She shook her head. “But he said he’s the only family I have left.”
“That’s bullshit. You have us.”
She hugged him and held on for a long moment. “I know. That’s what I told him.”
“And you have Troy and all of the Amos family, too,” Eli reminded her.
That was what Troy had told those playground bullies all those years ago.
She smiled. “But I don’t want Troy fighting my battles anymore.
” She didn’t want Eli fighting them, either, but at least he was armed.
She wasn’t, and neither was Troy. And she had a feeling that Troy was right about Jasper Whitlaw being dangerous. At least to her and her family.
What about Troy? Was Whitlaw the one who’d run him off the road?
Was Troy in danger, too?
* * *
“So the honeymoon is over,” Hetty remarked as she joined Troy and Spence at the bar.
“Honeymoon?” Troy asked. Hetty had admitted she’d fallen for her former nemesis, but he hadn’t thought they were doing more than dating right now.
She chuckled. “Metaphorically. Instead of rushing home to me, my man is out drinking in the bars.”
Spence chuckled, too, and looped his arms around her waist, pulling her in for a kiss.
Troy shook his head. “I can’t believe you two are together. Not after all the trash you talked about him, Hetty.”
Instead of being embarrassed or remorseful, his sister laughed.
“She stills talks trash about me,” Spence said.
“No, I tell you to take out the trash,” she corrected him, but from the twinkle in both their eyes, it was clear they were teasing each other.
Maybe that was all they’d ever been doing even back when they fought with each other.
“She’s as bossy as ever,” Spence said.
Troy groaned. “Don’t I know it.”
“I wouldn’t have to be so bossy if you two would just do what I told you to,” she said.
Spence laughed, then saluted her. “Yes, ma’am, from now on.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Troy warned him. “She’ll just get worse.”
Hetty slapped his shoulder, and he flinched as his back muscles tightened. “Oh, God, I’m sorry, Troy!”
“I’m fine,” he said. “I just did a lot of physical therapy today.” He had been daily; he needed to get stronger.
“Is it going well?” she asked, her green eyes bright with concern.
“It’s getting better,” he said. He probably wouldn’t hurt like he did now if he wasn’t so tense from finding Lakin alone in the office with Whitlaw. And then the other guy, Seller, warning him about losing her…
“And your relationship with Lakin?” Troy probably flinched again because Hetty added, “That’s too bad.”
He sighed.
“She still hasn’t forgiven you for not calling her when you fell?
” Hetty asked. “That doesn’t sound like Lakin.
She loves you so much, and she’s so forgiving.
Unlike me and Mom. We’re still pissed as hell at you.
” She reached out as if to smack his shoulder again but pulled her hand back before making contact.
“I understand why you’re all mad about that,” Troy admitted. “I would be, too.”
“But you would do the same thing all over again, wouldn’t you?” Hetty asked. “You wouldn’t call any of us until you knew if and how you were going to recover.”
His sister knew him well. He nodded. “I didn’t want to upset anyone until I knew what I was dealing with. And I sure as hell don’t want to be a burden to anyone.”
Hetty snorted. “No, you want to be the hero, Troy. And you don’t have to be. You just have to be you. That’s who we all love.”
“I like him a lot, but love…” Spence shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Hetty laughed and lightly swatted her boyfriend’s shoulder. “I know you love him, too. All of you Coltons love my brother Troy.”
The Coltons had always been so warm and friendly to him.
While they were that way with everyone, they’d made him feel special in that they’d taken the time to get to know him.
Sometimes, growing up in a big family like his, Troy had felt lost in the shuffle.
Unimportant. But the Coltons had always made him feel special; no one more so than Lakin.
She’d always looked at him like he was her hero.
And he didn’t want her to stop looking at him that way, or worse yet, to look at him with pity instead. “I just want to make sure that I’ll be able to work again,” he said. “I want to take care of Lakin, not have her take care of me.”
Hetty shook her head. “Your damn pride, Troy. It’s going to be your downfall. Lakin doesn’t care about money or anything else but you.”
Hetty didn’t know Lakin like he did; she didn’t know about Lakin’s dreams, about the hotel she’d already purchased and the family she wanted to have.
Troy didn’t want to hold back the woman he loved from achieving everything she wanted.
He didn’t want to tie her to his uncertain future.
That was why he hadn’t begged her to marry him like Seller had told him he should.
If Troy knew he had a job and a way to help her out with the business and with the children she wanted to have, he would hit his knees and propose right now.
But he had a feeling that even if he did, Lakin might not accept. He might have already done too much damage to their relationship. He might have hurt her too much for her to trust him completely with her heart.
* * *
Once Eli reluctantly left his sister’s cabin, he wasted no time running a background check on Jasper Whitlaw. To verify the man’s real name, Eli had even taken fingerprints from the photograph he’d borrowed from Lakin.
She wanted it back. Hell, she hadn’t wanted to part with it at all.
He could understand why. That photograph was the one link to her past and the people who might be able to answer questions about it. Like why she’d been left in that grocery store all those years ago.
Jasper Whitlaw might have those answers, but he would obviously only give them to her if she paid for them. And then it wasn’t a guarantee that he would actually tell her the truth about anything.
A quick background search was enough for Eli to conclude that this man was probably not her father. So what was he? Besides a convicted criminal? The man had been in prison until recently, so maybe that was why he hadn’t sought out Lakin sooner.
But why now? What did he want from her?
Money or silence?
Did Lakin know more about her past than she was willing to remember?