Heroes of Falledge Book One: Black Hellebore (14 page)

Later, he again donned his Black Hellebore attire and stalked the streets. He spied a tall, thin woman climbing into her car. Before she could start it, a black figure approached her car and banged on the window.

"Open up," a muffled voice said. "Get out of the car!"

Nicholas smirked. A carjack. Not on his watch.

The thug pounded on the window some more. The lady seemed too shocked to do anything.

Nicholas reached the guy's side a moment later. "Walk away," he ordered.

"Who the hell are you?" The guy looked from Nicholas, back to the car.

"Walk away," Nicholas repeated.

"Make me, masked freak." The guy's lips twisted into a snarl.

Nicholas cocked back his arm and punched him in the gut. With a whoosh of air, the would-be carjacker dropped to the sidewalk. Nicholas tapped the side of his head with his elbow and knocked the guy out.

The woman rolled down her window. "Thank you..."

Nicholas turned to face her, and his mouth became drier than the desert. He shoved a black hellebore into her hand and ran away, gone in a blink of an eye.

*****

Sunrise found Julianna poring over the reports of the large feline. The identified locations all centered near a stretch of foreclosures.
I'll check them out. No one better be living in any of them, cat or no cat.

After a good stretch, she stood and walked over to the counter. Julianna made the coffee especially strong this morning and had already downed two cups. She poured another as the front door opened, and the bells jingled.

"Morning, Julianna."

"Morning, Logan." She blew into her cup and cautiously took a sip.

He helped himself to some. "Ah, that hits the spot."

She smiled. Logan was a good guy. They had dated for about a week before they mutually decided that working together made being together a bad idea. Personally, she suspected they both used the coworker excuse as just that, an excuse. He was too much of a ladies' man, and she wanted... She still wasn't sure what she wanted.

He had the newspaper under his arm, and she nodded to it. "Anything interesting?"

"Apparently that Black Hellebore guy prevented a carjacking last night. Margaret Gilbert reported it last night." He yawned.

"You took the report?"

He nodded. "Yep. How was your night off?"

She groaned and took another sip.

He chuckled. "Stayed up all night?"

"Couldn't sleep. This murder thing..."

Logan's firm features immediately turned somber. "I know what you mean. Never thought we'd be investigating a murder, let alone two."

"And no clues, no eyewitnesses..."

"Until he strikes again, we're all sitting ducks."

She placed both hands on the ceramic cup, the heat of the coffee not enough to warm her chilled fingers. "You think there will be another one?"

"Yep." He leaned against the counter, his ankles crossed. "I'd put money on it."

"No one else here has mob connections."

"Didn't mean he'd necessarily kill someone here in Falledge."

"Can you call Lightmeadow and see if there have been any murders there?"

"They have a murder a month, if not more. Won't necessarily be related, but might as well." The corner of his lips twitched. "You still not happy with the sheriff?"

"We should be cooperating, working together on all of the cases," she said stiffly.

"We're busy with the murders. Don't worry, though, I'll call. I know you and Sheriff Palmerton don't get along."

That was an understatement. "Thanks, 'preciate it."

"No prob." He lifted his cup toward her, nodded, and headed toward his desk.

Logan left the newspaper on the counter, so she skimmed the Black Hellebore article. The carjacker had been knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital to be treated for a nasty blow to the stomach. Nothing too serious, though, and he currently sat in their jail, next door to the station.

Margaret Gilbert. Julianna's eyes closed, and she breathed in deeply, the aroma of hazelnut coffee filling her nose, calming her slightly. She abandoned her coffee and the newspaper and opened the file cabinets, sorting through the files until she came across Robert Gilbert's. She pulled it out and brought it over to her desk.

Bobby had killed himself around the time of Julianna's death. She stared at the date. The night of her funeral, actually. She didn't know much about Bobby. Although they had been the same age, they hung in separate crowds, his a reckless one. Nothing else was in his file, but that wasn't surprising. Even if he had been a minor, the records would have been sealed. His mother would have made sure of that.

Wonder if Nick remembers him.

She glanced over her shoulder. Logan was on the phone, the sheriff nowhere in sight. Her heartbeat sped up, and she hurried back over to the file cabinet. She fumbled through the files, her nerves getting the best of her, until her fingers curled around her twin's. With a deep breath, she started to remove it when a hairy hand closed around hers.

"Sheriff," she whispered, feeling guilty like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"We've been over this, Julianna."

"I know." She hung her head.

He took the Gilbert file and returned it to its proper location. "Dwelling on the past won't help you."

If anyone knew this, it was the sheriff. He suffered a bad spell for a long while, after his wife passed away suddenly. Took to drinking too much, couldn't handle his duties. This happened shortly after Julianna became deputy. Not only did she need to handle the town, but also the sheriff. Through their mutual despondent view of life, they helped each other crawl and fight and struggle toward the light. When he finally started to act as sheriff again, he made her to promise she wouldn't abuse her powers to return to her sorrows by looking at her sister's file. Julianna most likely knew all of its contents -- Justina and Nicholas, charged with trespassing, had to do a month of community service. Julianna's parents had never bothered to seal Justina's records. Julianna, herself, hadn't thought about that until after she became a deputy, and, by then, was too curious to seal it. Anything pertaining to her sister, she wanted to keep open, as silly as that sounded.

"I'm sorry," she murmured to the sheriff.

He grunted, patted her shoulder, and walked away.

Julianna returned to her desk and sank into her chair. The morning was already not going well. The idea of returning home to an empty house at the end of the day was definitely not an appealing one. Tonight, if Ginny offered again, Julianna decided to accept. In fact, she was going to call Ginny and see if she could provoke an invitation. She tried to tell herself it was because of the Black Hellebore's increased violence, but deep down, she just wanted to see him again. Like a moth to a flame, she couldn't stay away from him too long.

*****

After work, Nicholas sauntered toward home. Home. He was beginning to think of Ginny's house as his. Growing roots here, of all places, still bothered him.

Especially when he saw the woman from last night climbing out of her car. He ducked his head and sped up.

Unfortunately, she noticed him. "Nick Adams, is that you?"

He took two more steps before slowly turning around to face her. "Yes, Mrs. Gilbert."

"When did you come back to town?"

"Not that long ago. I really have to get--"

"All grown up. Wow, I can't believe it." She sighed, and tears filled her eyes.

"I'm sorry. Have to go." He pivoted on his heel and ran away at a human's slow pace. He couldn't bear to see the sadness in her eyes, the sadness he had caused even though she didn't know his role in it. He never wanted to run into the mother of the boy he had killed ever again.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Julianna hurried up the steps to Ginny's house, running late. Logan's phone call that another mob-related murder had occurred last night took up more time than expected.

She knocked once and entered. Nick was setting the table, and she moved to help him. They worked in silence, their moves synchronized, as if they had done this hundreds of times already. It felt natural, right. Their arms brushed at one point, and he glanced up at her. She offered him a smile. He didn't return it.

"Want to talk?" she asked, her voice low.

He shook his head.

"How's Mrs. Gilbert doing? She shaken up?"

He lowered his gaze.

Had she unknowingly touched on a nerve? "I'm not sure when exactly you left, so you might not know, but her son, Bobby..."

Nick flinched.

"I know it's hard to talk about back then," she said firmly, not about to let him hide in his turtle shell, "but Justina died, and we didn't. We're adults now. We can talk about then. It's not going to break you."

"I don't want to talk about--"

"I'm not talking about Justina. I'm talking about Bobby." She eyed him carefully.

His shoulders slumped, and he looked defeated. "I know. Bobby--"

"He died, too. Suicide."

His head whipped up, his posture straighter. "Suicide?"

"Yes. The town was really reeling after two--"

"Suicide," he murmured. He stared at her, his features open and clear, as if a weight lifted from his shoulders. "He was a drug dealer."

"He was?"

"Yeah. Did you ever do drugs?"

She blinked in surprise. "Of course not! Not even a puff of a cigarette. Justina and I promised you we wouldn't after you told us about your parents. We both took that very seriously. Justina never did either." She tilted her chin toward him. "Why do you ask?"

He took a deep breath, his body shuddering as he released it. "Justina did. When I found out, I couldn't forgive her."

"No. Justina would never--"

"I caught her," he said sharply. "And it wasn't just once either. Wasn't experimenting. No, she was using."

"I had no idea." Julianna's legs buckled beneath her, and she pulled out a chair to sit down, the table between them. "She never told me."

"Didn't tell me either. Caught her buying. Not sure if that was the first time or not. Then I smelled it on her. Saw her smoking several times after that. We started to grow apart. I couldn't stand to see her doing that to herself, not after..."

"Your parents." It had taken Nick several years before he confided in the twins about his birth parents. Both had been serious drug addicts. One time when they had been stoned, his father had beaten Nick to a pulp and his mother until she died. Nick had been five. His father was in jail and would live out the rest of his days there.

Despite his brawn and height, Nick looked so fragile at that moment. She stood and walked around the table. Neither of them hesitated. They held each other as if their lives depended on it. Her head lay against his chest, and she could hear his heart beating. Its steady pulsing sounded like a lullaby.

She twisted her neck so she could see him. "You know, the other day wasn't the first time I looked you up. When I first became deputy, I did. Not that I thought you would have a record, but I just wanted to know if you were alive or not, if you were okay. Are you?"

He opened his mouth, but instead of talking, he covered her lips with his. Passion and life and promise and hope, all filled that kiss. Kiss after kiss, their bodies crushed together, heat rising between them.

This time, it was all the sweeter, since there was no doubt who was kissing whom.

*****

Kissing Julianna was different than kissing Justina. Justina had been reckless and wild, but her kisses almost tame compared to her twin's. Julianna gave all of herself, and he drank her in, accepting her as she was: infuriating, intoxicating, incredible.

He brought his hands down to her hips, then to the small of her back, pressing her gently to him. "Julianna," he moaned against her mouth.

A soft cough made him back up so swiftly Julianna fell toward him. He steadied her, and she brushed his arms away.

"Ginny," she said in greeting, her voice breathless, her lips swollen.

"'Bout time, you two," she said smugly, and clapped her hands.

Julianna glanced at him from beneath her long eyelashes. She was beautiful, with a strength Justina never found. Maybe Justina had been so reckless because she was trying to make up for something.

Not that he wanted to think about Justina right now.

For once.

Nicholas touched Julianna's back and guided her to her seat. She waited a second, and he realized she wanted him to pull out her seat. He almost laughed but complied with a smile. He never did that for Justina. The thought had never occurred to him. She had always bounced into her seat too quickly.

Stop comparing them. They aren't the same person.

Dinner was a blur. They talked, laughed, and joked, but it wasn't until Ginny went upstairs afterward that he realized she hadn't said a word, just watched them with a satisfied smile on her face.

They sat on Ginny's fold-out porch chairs and watched the sunset, not talking, just enjoying each other's company. They seemed to exist in a bubble, where nothing could harm them or ruin their happiness.

Julianna broke the silence. "I was a mess when I realized you left."

"I'm sorry."

She reached over to grab his hand and gave it a squeeze. "I'm just glad you came back. And I think I understand why you left. That helps."

He gulped. Some of why he had left had been because of guilt. Bobby's murder... At least he had no reason to run again. All day long, he had planned on doing just that.

"I was a coward," he said.

"You felt betrayed."

"She left me. And what did I do? I left you to face life alone."

She shook her head. "I wasn't alone. I still had my parents.
You
were alone."

"How are your parents?" He couldn't believe he hadn't asked about them until now.

"Good, thanks. Dad's says the kids are worse each year. How he can handle teaching middle grade kids are beyond me. The library's growing. Mom's thrilled about that."