The Liar (45 page)

He put her on her feet, but kept an arm around her. When he felt her shivering, he stripped off his jacket, draped it over her shoulders as her grandparents got out of the car.

“I’m all right. I’m not hurt. I’m—” The rest was muffled against her grandfather’s shoulder. She felt him shaking, knew he wept. Wept with him a little as others drove up.

“Where is the bastard?” Jack demanded.

“Inside. I shot him, Grandpa. He’s not dead—again—but I shot him.”

Jack took her face in his hands, kissed her wet cheeks.

“Let me see the girl.” Viola pulled her away, studied her face. “You were born to take care of yourself and yours. You did what you were born to do. Now we’re going to take you home and . . .”

She paused, steadied herself. “Griff’s going to take you home,” Viola corrected. “Your mama and daddy are at Suzannah’s with Callie. Just staying there while she sleeps. They need to hear your voice.”

“I’ll call right away. I had my phone in my pocket. He never knew I had it. He never knew much about me, I guess. Sheriff.”

Her head felt too light, and the dark circled for a few seconds as Hardigan strode up to her.

“I shot him. He was going to kill me so I shot him.”

“I want you to tell me everything that happened.”

“She gave Forrest the outline,” Griff interrupted. “She needs to get away from here. She needs to see her daughter.”

Sheriff Hardigan tapped his cheek where Shelby’s was bruised. “He do that?”

“Yes, sir. It was the first time he ever hit me. I guess it’s going to be the last time.”

“You go on home now, darling. I’ll be around to talk to you tomorrow.”

It took some time. Clay rushed up, picked her up off her feet, held her suspended as if he’d never let her go. There was Matt, who thrust his phone out to her after he’d hugged her so she could speak to Emma Kate.

“Tell Forrest I’m taking his truck.”

Griff drove away from the cabin, from the blood, from the lights, then just stopped at the turn onto the road.

He drew her over against him, held on.

“I need a minute.”

“You can take all the minutes you want.” She started to relax against him. “Oh hell, Griffin, I forgot to tell them. Richard has a key in his pocket—or I guess that’s where it is. It was in that picture frame, the one holding the picture of me and Callie I gave him. He said he was going Monday morning to the bank, and I think he means one of the banks right in the Ridge. It’s where he put the jewelry, the stamps, too, I guess. He put it right in the bank in Rendezvous Ridge.”

Keeping his eyes closed, Griff just breathed in the scent of her hair. “Who’d have figured to look for it there?”

“I guess he was canny in that way. I have to tell them.”

“You will. Tomorrow’s soon enough. They’ve waited five years. They can wait one more night.”

“One more night. I want a hot shower and a gallon of water, and I want to burn this dress. But I want to see Callie more than anything.”

“That’s first on the list.”

“Do you know the way to get back to the Ridge from here?”

“I haven’t got a clue.”

“That’s all right.” She took his hand in hers. “I do. I know how to get us home again.”

S
helby slept long and deep, comforted by the sight of her sleeping child, and her own mother’s fussing, her father’s gentle, if insistent, exam.

The sun beamed high and bright when she woke, turned the hills she loved into a glimmering green, bathed to shining by the storm that blew through while she slept.

She might have winced when she looked at her face in the mirror, at the purpling bruise on her cheekbone. And winced again, with an added hiss, when she pressed testing fingers against it.

But she reminded herself it would heal and fade.

She wouldn’t allow Richard to leave a mark on her. Or on hers.

She heard voices as she went downstairs, followed them into the kitchen.

She saw Griff leaning on the counter smiling at her grandmother, and her grandfather giving Matt some instructions over a hitch in his truck. Her mother put a pretty tray together; her father drank coffee in a splash of sunlight. Emma Kate and Forrest with their heads together, and Clay, Gilly and the baby huddled together.

“This looks like a party.”

All conversation stopped; all eyes turned to her.

“Oh, baby girl, I was just fixing you breakfast in bed. You need rest.”

“I slept just fine, Mama, and I feel just fine now.” She went to kiss her mother’s cheek, snatched a piece of bacon off the plate she didn’t really want to make her mother smile. “Party. Oh, Emma Kate, your party.”

“Don’t even start to go there.” Jumping up, Emma Kate hugged her hard. “You scared me, Shelby. Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“I’m happy to promise that.”

“Come over here and sit,” her father ordered. “I want a look at you.”

“Yes, sir, Daddy. But where’s Callie?”

“We took Jack over to Miz Suzannah’s so she’d have more company.” Gilly smiled but gripped Shelby’s hand tight. “We all thought you’d sleep longer.”

“I’m so glad you’re all here. I’m so glad I woke up to all of you.” She looked at Griff. “All of you.”

She sat so her father could turn her face this way and that, shine his little light in her eyes. “Headache?”

“No. Not a bit, I promise.”

“Do you hurt anywhere?”

“No—well, my cheek’s a little sore. Tender.”

“That’s what this is for.” Viola gave her an ice pack, and a kiss on the top of her head.

“Feels good.” Like bliss, Shelby thought. “He backhanded me because he could, and he pulled my hair like a girl in a catfight. Mostly he just tried to hurt me with words, like always. But he couldn’t. Nothing he could say could— Oh, good Lord, I forgot again. Forrest, I have to tell you why he was here, in the house when I came to get Fifi. He was after—”

“A key? Safe-deposit box he’s been paying for under the name of Charles Jakes for about five years now?”

Deflated, she shifted the angle of the ice bag. “Yes, that’s what I forgot to tell you.”

“Griff filled me in last night when I came by. You slept late, Shelby. We found what the feds have been after right in the First Bank of Tennessee on High Street.”

“All of it? Here?”

“Most of it. The owners and their insurance company’ll be notified. That’s for the federals.”

“Tell her the rest, Forrest.” His mother poked him. “I still can’t believe it.”

“What rest?” Her stomach pitched so she reached for the Coke her mother had put in front of her. “Is he dead? Did I kill him?”

“Not that part of the rest. He made it through the night, and they give him a decent shot of making it altogether.”

Closing her eyes, she let out a breath. She’d done what she’d had to do, just as Forrest had said, but dear God, she didn’t want a killing on her hands. Even Richard’s.

“He’s going to live?”

“They say he is. Then he can spend the rest of his life behind bars. The other one, he’s one tough son of a bitch. They’re giving him a better than decent shot.”

“I didn’t kill him. I don’t have to live with having killed him.” She closed her eyes again. “But he’ll go to prison. He won’t get out again.”

“He’s going to spend what’s left of his life in a cell. He’s never going to touch you or Callie.”

“Tell her the good part,” Ada Mae insisted. “We’ve had enough talk of that man in this house.”

“Spending his life in prison’s a pretty good part,” Forrest said, but shrugged. Then grinned. “There’s a finder’s fee for the property stolen in Miami. Standard ten percent. There’s going to be some paperwork and some hoops to jump through, but Special Agent Landry figures you’ll get about two million out of it.”

“Two million what?”

“Dollars, Shelby. Pay attention.”

“But . . . he stole it.”

“And the information you gave us found it.”

“We need to have mimosas.” When Ada Mae wept into her hands, Jack put his arms around her. “Oh, Daddy, why don’t we have any champagne?”

“They’re going to give me all that money.” Shelby held up her hands, struggled to take it in. “Enough I can pay off the rest of the debt?”

“Don’t see how it’s your debt to begin with,” Viola said, “but you’ll be free and clear. The man’s not dead, Shelby Ann, and you were never his wife. Unless you’ve got fools for lawyers, some of that debt’s already going to be gone. You’ll have enough left, if I have any say about it, to give you a good start.”

“I can’t imagine it. I have to let it settle in. I just can’t believe I’d be free of that weight. Free of him, altogether.”

“I want you to eat now, and rest some more.”

“I need to see Callie, Mama.”

“What are you going to tell her?”

“I’m going to tell her as much of the truth as I can.”

“She’s got MacNee, Donahue and Pomeroy in her,” Viola said. “She’ll stand up to it.”

•   •   •

L
ATER SHE TOOK
Callie to Griff’s. She thought both of them could use some time around a man who’d never hurt them. And she wanted some quiet time of her own with him.

She sat on the porch with him while Callie raced around with the dog in a shower of bubbles.

“I can’t believe you bought her another bubble machine.”

“It’s not another. It’s one for here.”

“I’m so glad you said it was all right to bring her here for a while.”

“It’s always all right, Red.”

“I guess I know that, too. So much went through my mind last night, on that awful drive, in that cabin. I’m only going to bring him up to say Daddy’s checked in with the hospital. They both came out of it. Richard, he’s trying to work a deal, but they’re not giving him room for one. And the other one, he’s giving them chapter and verse. I think Forrest had the right of it. He’s never going to get out of prison. I don’t have to worry for Callie on that score.”

“I’d never let him near her.”

She heard it in his voice—the fierceness and the love.

“I believe that, too. Everything from last night’s a little jumbled today. I don’t know if I told you everything straight.”

“It doesn’t matter. You’re here.”

“I’d like to fix us a nice supper later, the three of us.”

“I’ll fix it.”

Smiling, she tipped her head to his shoulder. “You’re not a bad cook as cooks go, but I’m better. And I’d like to do something normal. That’s how I feel when I’m here. I feel normal.”

“Then stay. Stay for supper, stay the night, stay for breakfast. Stay.”

“I have Callie.”

He said nothing for a moment, then rose. “Would you come in for a minute? I want to show you something.” When she looked out in the yard, he turned.

“Hey, Little Red, will you watch Snickers for me, make sure he stays right in the yard? We need to go in for a minute.”

“I will. I will. He likes the bubbles! See, Mama, they make rainbows.”

“I see them. You stay right in the yard with Snickers. I’m just inside.”

“Where’s she going to go?” Griff asked as he drew Shelby in. “And you’ll be able to see her out the window anyway.”

“Did you start on another room?”

“Mostly finished one.” He led her upstairs. She could hear Callie laughing through the open windows, hear the dog’s joyful barks.

Normal, she thought again. Safe and real.

On the second floor he opened a door.

The light spilled in through the windows, splashed on the pretty green of the walls. He’d hung a crystal light catcher in one of those windows, and more rainbows shimmered.

“Oh, it’s a wonderful space. The color’s like bringing the hills right inside. You did a window seat!”

“Thinking about doing some shelves over there, but haven’t decided. Plenty of closet space.”

He opened double doors and made her eyes go wide. “This is amazing. It’s all set up, all painted and pretty. Even the light in here. Is that . . .” She opened another door. “A bathroom, so pretty and fresh. And . . .”

She spotted it then, the little soap dish. A grinning Shrek.

It felt like arms hugged her heart.

“You did this for Callie.”

“Well, I thought she needed her own space, one she could grow into. You know Callie and I are getting married. Can’t have your bride bunking in an unfinished room.”

Her eyes stung. “She mentioned that. How you’re getting married.”

“Want in on that?”

She turned to him. “What?”

“Bad timing.” Flustered, frustrated, he scrubbed a hand over his hair. “I usually ace the timing angle. Might still be a little off balance. I want her to have her own space, that makes her happy. I want her to be comfortable here. Sometimes you might want to stay, and she’d have this for herself. Like the office you’d have on the third floor.”

“Office?”

“I haven’t started on it yet because you might want it somewhere else, but I think it’s a good space. It’d be across from where I’m going to put mine. First-floor-office idea was good,” he added, “but the third floor takes work away from the living space.”

She hadn’t quite caught up. “You’re going to build me an office?”

“How are you going to run a business if you don’t have an office?”

She walked to the window, watched Callie and the dog. “I never talked to you about any of that.”

“Miz Vi did.”

“Of course she did. You believe I can do that? Start up and run my own business?”

“I think you can do anything. You have already. What’s going to stop you? Anyway, you’d both have space, and you could spend more time here. See how it works for you.”

“How about you, Griffin? How’s it work for you?”

“I love you. I can wait awhile. You’ve had a hell of a time, Shelby. I can wait awhile, but I want the two of you here as much as I can get. I want you to be mine. I want—”

When he cut himself off, she shook her head. “Say it. You’ve earned it.”

“I want Callie to be mine. Damn it, she deserves me. I’m good for her, and I’m going to keep being good for her. I love her, and she should be mine. That’s the second part of this, I guess, but it’s just as important as the first part, just as important as you and me.”

She sat on the window seat, took a breath.

“I’m going to be there for the two of you. That’s where I draw the line. You know what fear is—you do, because you went through it. The kind of fear where you don’t think you’ve got any blood left in your body. Where everything’s drained out of you, but fear. That’s what it was when he had you. I can be patient, Shelby, but you’re going to know what you are to me. What you and Callie are.”

“I know fear. I know fear like what you spoke of. I felt it, too, and with it a terrible, blinding rage. Both so tangled they were one thing in me. That fear and rage that if he did what he planned to do, I’d never see my baby again, or tuck her in at night, or watch her play and learn. Never dry her tears. And a fear and rage I’d never see you again, or have you hold onto me or take my hand the way you do. So many things, I can’t say all of them. It would take a lifetime.

“But I knew you’d come. And you did.”

She drew another breath. “I’ve never said I love you.”

“You’ll get around to it.”

“How about now?”

She watched the change, so subtle in his face, in his eyes. And her heart just smiled inside her.

“Now works for me.”

“I’ve never said I love you because I didn’t trust. Not you, Griffin, I came to trust you so easily, and that scared me a little so I didn’t trust me.”

Crossing her hands over her heart, she swore she could feel it swell. “It’s all been so fast, so I’d think, I can’t get carried away with all this. I can’t let myself go, just ride this wave. But I did. I am. I love you, I love who you are with me, with Callie. I love who you are. It might’ve been fear and rage that made it come so clear. But it is clear. You made Callie this room—for her. She’s already yours. So am I.”

He stepped to her, took her hands. “Was there a yes in there?”

“There was a whole bunch of them. Weren’t you paying attention?”

“I got a little lost after ‘I love you.’” He drew her in, took her under, took them both under with the light splashing and rainbows circling.

“I do love you,” she murmured. “It fills me up, lights me up. Like Callie does. I didn’t know anyone else could make me feel that way. But you do.”

Overcome, he rocked her, rocked them both. “I’m never going to stop.”

“I believe you. I believe you and I . . . we’re going to build wonderful things together. With you, I can look past today and tomorrow into weeks and months and years.”

“I’ve got to get you a ring. I should get Callie a ring.”

Her heart just melted. “You’re right. She does deserve you. I’m going to keep you filled up and lit up, too.” She eased back, framed his face. “I want more children.”

“Right now?”

“Pretty much right now. I don’t want to wait. We’re good with children, you and me, and Callie should have a big, noisy, messy family.”

He was grinning, and those clever eyes shining with it. “How big?”

“Three more, that’ll make four.”

“Four’s doable. It’s a big house.”

“I have such ideas about this house—I’ve held back.”

“Really?”

“Really. And I’m going to be ferocious on some of them.” She threw her arms around him. “I’m going to work with you on this house, on this family, on this life. And we
are
going to build something strong and real and beautiful together.”