All I Want (23 page)

He didn’t want to hear anymore. He could imagine—no he couldn’t and didn’t want to, but if she wanted to talk he would let her. “What do you need right now?”

“I just want to feel safe.”

“You are safe,” he told her desperately. “I’ll keep you safe.”

“I know you will. I believe you, I really do. But if he is still here, that fear is too.”

“Why don’t you go take a bath? Unless you still want to talk.” He needed a breather. He needed to process all this because right now he wanted to rush out the door and look for Joe and beat him to death. Even that wouldn’t be satisfying enough.

“No, I’m done talking. I’ve said more than I ever thought I’d say. And, Sean, I would have told you eventually, probably not as much as I did tonight, but I wasn’t going to keep it from you.”

He believed her. He was positive it wasn’t a subject that could just come up out of the blue, especially since she fought so hard to put it behind her.

He pulled her up and hugged her tight, then led her up the stairs and into the bathroom. Turning the tub on, he poured bubbles in and helped undress her and stayed there until she was in the water relaxing. “I won’t go far. I’ll just be downstairs, I promise.”

“Watch the clock. If my grandmother doesn’t call, please call her.”

“I will. I’ll take care of it.” And you.

He shut the door and didn’t get one step before he heard the sobs coming from inside. He was torn between rushing back in and giving her space. He knew she’d appreciate the space right now.

Walking downstairs, he pulled out his phone, flipped through his contacts and placed a call he never thought he’d make in a million years.

Always Deserved

Carly laid her head on her knees again, curled in a little ball in the tub, bubbles and the scent of lavender floating around her. What should have been relaxing her was making her tense. Nothing was going to relax her right now, maybe never again.

Unable to control her emotions, the sobs just flowed out, tears mixing in with the water, popping the bubbles as they fell.

Why wouldn’t it end? Why couldn’t she just live a normal life? A life she was trying so hard to live, to push all those evil memories, feelings and demons away. The one problem was they would never go away, not if her father was still looking for her.

And now he found her. She thought she was covering her tracks, changing her email every time he contacted her in the last few years.

Actually, as far as she knew, it was only twice he tried. The third time she changed her email, she blocked his. Who knew if he was trying to reach her still? She didn’t care. She’d wanted nothing to do with him. Ever again. That fourth change was just a precaution.

She didn’t want to see him, didn’t want to hear his name and didn’t want to speak his name. Changing her name to Callahan couldn’t come fast enough for her—wiping out the last remaining piece tying her to her past with him.

Knowing she should call and talk to her mother didn’t make her get out of the tub. She was too weak still. She knew Sean would do as he promised—he’d watch out for her, and he’d keep track that her grandmother called. Until then, she closed her eyes and willed herself to block out the night, to block out the past completely. If only it were that easy.

***

“So did you find anything out?” Alec asked his brother Ben the next morning in the conference room. Alec, Ben, Phil and Sean were meeting with the door shut.

Sean had hated making the call to Ben last night, but it was all he could think to do. He knew Ben had contacts deep in law enforcement from his years as a Commander in the Elite Navy SEALs. He’d been hoping they’d come in handy.

Ben snorted and eyed his older brother. “Really? I thought the oldest was supposed to be the smartest.”

“It’s not the time,” Phil jumped in, normally the peaceful one of the boys. Turning to Sean, he asked first, “How’s Carly doing?”

“She’s as good as could be expected. I drove her to the school, walked her in and straight to the security office like you said, Ben. I gave a description to the officer so there is no chance Joe will be getting into the school, not without being buzzed in through the doors, then searched. I told her to stay put until I picked her up.”

“That’s good,” Ben said. “Here’s what I found out. Twenty years ago there weren’t the paper trails there are now, but there was enough for me to pick up things and put them together. Joe
was
looking for Trisha and Carly. I found a private investigator that Joe had hired back then and I managed to talk to him last night. He’d actually kept all his paper records from back then, but said that he didn’t even need to look into them. He remembered the case well.”

“Why’s that?” Sean asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“The PI was young, just starting out and took whatever clients he could. He remembered Joe coming in acting all big and tough, trying to be intimidating. Scott, the PI, said Joe was a real dick, but he was a client so he did what was asked. At the time though, there was little to lead Scott to Trisha and Carly. It’d been almost a week before Joe went to him, and by then there was no sign of the girls anywhere. Scott had gone to Theresa’s house and asked the neighbors, then had the landlord let him into her apartment after it was reported her car had been gone for days. There was evidence she picked up and took off in a hurry. Scott couldn’t even track their cars; they both sold them fast, so there was no record of what they were using as transportation.”

“Sounds like Carly comes from some pretty tough stock,” Alec said. “Brynn filled me in on a few things last night, but I doubt she knows everything.”

“I don’t think anyone knows everything,” Sean said. “She told me some things last night, things I wish I never heard and will never get the images out of my head. I’m still ill over it.”

“He’ll get what’s coming to him, trust me,” Ben said. “So after a few months and no signs of them, and nothing to report back to Joe, Scott stopped looking. He confided in me that he actually remembered hoping he didn’t find them because he would have felt honor bound to notify Joe, even though he secretly prayed the three were long gone.”

“I still can’t believe they were able to hide that well,” Phil said, shaking his head.

“Back then it was easier,” Ben interrupted. “Credit cards weren’t used as much. They were using cash for everything, it seems. There were no employment records for those years either. I did some research on Trisha and Theresa myself. Up until about ten years ago it was like they were ghosts. Whatever jobs they had, they were being paid cash for them. No public help, nothing.”

“Carly told me last night that her mother and grandmother cleaned houses. They also did a lot of arts and crafts fairs, so it seems to fit they supported themselves with cash only.”

“Someone was thinking ahead, it seems,” Phil said.

“Anyway, Joe lost interest in them at the time. Then once a year he’d go back to Scott and ask him to look again, and of course there was nothing. Multiple years went by and I saw some charges were brought up on abuse and assault against him, but they were dropped.”

“If they were dropped, how did you get them?” Alec asked.

“Do you really want to know?” Ben returned with his eyebrows raised.

“Probably not,” Alec said. “Go on, what else?”

Ben turned back to Sean. “Anyway, the first thing I did was search his tax returns and saw that Joe was still at his same job, then suddenly nothing, no tax return one year. Another search found he was in jail for assault and battery, with multiple charges, and he served five years, then five years’ probation.”

“He finally got his due, then,” Phil said.

“Hardly,” Sean said. Five years—that was nothing to the twenty-plus years Carly and her mother had lived with.

“Sean’s right,” Ben said. “Those five years on probation, he moved around within his boundaries holding down some part-time jobs, nothing major. And it seems he stayed out of trouble, until recently.”

“What happened?” Sean didn’t want to know, but he needed to right now. They needed to know everything before they could decide on their next step.

“He obviously never learned from his mistakes or stopped beating on women. His latest is in a coma on life support. As of last night, the State Police in Pennsylvania informed me the family is taking her off. There’s a warrant out for Joe’s arrest, and he’ll be charged with murder once she passes.

Sean put his head down on the table. “I’m going to throw up.” He took a few deep breaths, lifted his head and looked around at the Harper brothers, their faces filled with sympathy and determination. “I brought him here. I put our engagement in the paper. She didn’t know about it. She was upset when I said I did it, but I didn’t think anything of it. I was just so excited about it and figured she would be too.”

“You couldn’t have known, Sean,” Alec said, reaching over and laying his hand on Sean’s back. “None of us knew. How could we? Even Brynn didn’t know the extent of what we’re finding out.”

“What do we do now?” Phil asked.

Ben looked at Sean. “You still have his cell number, right?”

“Yeah, I do. Why the hell would he give it to me if he was running from the law?” It made no sense.

“I don’t know, but we’re going to use it, and we’re going to call him. The local State Police will be here at ten to set everything up. By the end of the day, Carly and Trisha should be free to live their lives.”

***

Sean walked to the front door of the school, stated his name and was buzzed in. Classes had been dismissed over an hour ago, and there were only a few cars left in the parking lot.

He hadn’t felt this free in longer than he could remember, and he couldn’t wait to go see Carly and tell her.

Walking down the hall to her room, he looked around at the pictures hanging that the students had drawn, all their projects and all the handwritten notes. Someday he’d walk these very halls and look at the work his own kids did.

Turning the corner into her room, he looked at her. Carly’s head was down as she wrote something on the paper in front of her, concentrating hard, he could see.

She lifted her head quickly and jumped, still skittish, but she’d said she wanted to go to school today to keep her mind off of everything, and honestly he knew it was the safest place for her to be. The school in their area had a high level of security. No one could get in without being screened first. Ben even told him after the fact that he’d called in a favor and the local police had stayed around the school all day.

“I lost track of the time,” she said.

He walked over and sat on the corner of her desk and held out his hand. “You’re free now.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, her eyes darting around, wariness front and center.

“It’s over. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

“You mean that? How? What happened? It’s only been eight hours since you dropped me off.”

“Friends in good places,” he told her, grinning. He wanted to see her smile, and she did manage to crack the barest of grin. “I’m serious. Your father is in jail right now. He’ll be going away for a long time. You will know exactly where he is, and know what is going to happen to him. If he ever gets out, you’ll know and we’ll prepare. It’s behind you, Carly.”

“Jail?” she asked, wide-eyed. “What happened? Are you hurt?” She was scanning his body, looking for any signs of injury, but there were none.

“No. Nothing happened like that.” He told her about his meeting in the morning with Ben, Alec and Phil and what had been discovered. “When the State Police arrived they had me call your father.”

“Don’t call him that. Please don’t.”

Sean nodded his head. “They had me call Joe. We cleared all the employees out of the offices, kept their cars in the parking lot like they should have been there but sent them elsewhere, and the police were parked around the corner. I told him if he wanted to see you, he had to see me first, that you told me what had happened, and that I had no intention of letting him near you without an explanation.”

“I still don’t understand why he would agree to that. I don’t remember him ever thinking he had to explain himself to anyone in the past.”

“He did hesitate over that, but agreed. I’m sure he didn’t think we could have possibly known about the warrant for his arrest, everything just happened so fast. Ben was up all night getting the information. Remember, he left your house after seven last night. It’s not like we had a lot of time to gather information. Joe was clueless.”

“It just doesn’t sound like the man I remember,” she said, shaking her head.

“I told him to come to Harper’s at eleven. I wanted to meet in public. He knew where I worked and agreed.” The minute Joe walked in the door, the police wanted to arrest him, but they didn’t want him to run so they changed plans. “Ben was sitting in the waiting room, pretending to wait for Alec, who was just coming out of his office when Joe showed up.” Sean didn’t want the brothers there for this, but they’d said they weren’t leaving.

“Then what?”

“Alec asked if he could help him. Joe stated his name, and Alec yelled down the hall for me. I came out and walked him to the conference room where the police were waiting. He didn’t even put up a struggle when he saw them, Carly. I can tell you, I almost wet my pants when they all pulled their guns on him.”

“Why did you go in that room with him!” she shouted at him. He’d never heard her yell before.

“Were you scared for me?” he asked, chuckling.

“What the hell is wrong with you? All of you. Ben I can understand, but you and Phil and Alec? Brynn is never going to forgive me!” She was screeching at the top of her lungs. So much so another teacher came running down the hall to see what the commotion was.

Her face flooded with embarrassment and Sean turned and laughed, then addressed the newcomer in the doorway. “Sorry. Carly is just a little emotional right now.”

“I’ve never seen Carly yell before. I didn’t know if she even knew how.”

“Neither did I. Now I know. I better be careful in the future, don’t you think?” he asked the young teacher, smiling.

“It’s okay, Brenda,” Carly said. “It’s nothing. You can go now.”

Sean was surprised the teacher turned and left so quickly, but she did. “Are you done yelling?”

“I am. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was kind of cute.” He hugged her tight. He had to get his hands on her right now. She’d actually lost her temper in her fear for him. “He didn’t put up any resistance. As I said, we were all safe. Ben was guarding the front door in case Joe decided to take off, but he didn’t.”

“I wonder why he came looking for me? I guess I’ll never know. It’s not like I want to ever see him or talk to him.”

“I know why. I won’t tell you if you don’t want me to, but I asked to go to the police station when they questioned him after he was booked, and before they transported him back to Pennsylvania.”