B00CCYP714 EBOK (37 page)

This moment of nostalgia was probably the result of the blow to her head on top of the concussion she already had from the explosion, or it could have been the pained look on her mother’s face. Rainey saw it for a second, the fleeting thought of what if Romeo and Juliet had not ended so badly. Constance covered it by examining the cut on Rainey’s cheek. Rainey grabbed her mother’s hand and asked the question she never got an answer to as a young girl.

“Why did you leave him, Mom? Why didn’t you just tell your mother to go to hell?”

Constance answered truthfully for the first time. “My mother was willing to part with her daughter, but not her grandchild. She would have taken you from me. I gave up my life as Billy’s wife to keep you.”

“But after I knew the truth—”

Constance cut her off. “After you knew the truth, it was too late for Billy and me, but not for a father and daughter destined to be together.” 

The two women stared into each other’s eyes for a moment of the deepest understanding that ever passed between them, while police and security company employees milled about the broken patio furniture, commenting on the “hell of a fight” that went down there. Paramedics went to work on Gunny first, as she appeared to be the most in need of care, seeing as how she was barely breathing. Rainey only wanted her to live for her mother’s sake. So she would not have to live with taking a life, even for a noble cause.

Constance pulled a handkerchief from her pocket—monogrammed, of course—and applied it to her daughter’s cheek wound.

“Ouch, not so hard,” Rainey whined, ignoring what had just passed between them. She blamed her mother for leaving her father since she was a child. The guilt for doing so was too much to bear at the moment, so Rainey tucked it away. “I didn’t know you could shoot.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Rainey Blue Bell. I wasn’t so different from you once. I gave you that name for heaven’s sake. I haven’t always been a stick in the mud.”

 “I guess you haven’t,” Rainey said, taking a good look at her mother and really seeing her for the first time. “Why didn’t you go in the panic room?”

Constance supported Rainey as she struggled to her feet, steadying her while she gained her balance. “Because you are my daughter and you needed help.”

Rainey smiled at her mother and knew what she said was true. “I think I may have some of your DNA after all.”

Constance winked. “Who do you think taught your father how to shoot?”

#

Several hours later inside the criminal psychology critical care unit, Rainey called in a favor. Her arm bandaged, head examined, face stitched up, and finally released from the emergency room again, Rainey asked Katie to wait in the hall with Danny, while she paid one last visit.

Machines beeped and whirred in the background. The patient was strapped down with locked restraints. Gunny was awake and staring as she approached. The bullet Constance fired entered her cheek, hit her jaw, and glanced off her skull. Rainey had already shattered one side, her mother got the other, but Gunny was alive. Her jaw wired shut, she was unable to speak, but she had nothing to say that Rainey wanted to hear. On the other hand, Rainey had something to say to her.

“I’m sorry about your son and how he manipulated you. If you were well enough to understand his mental disease, I would explain it to you. There is such a thing as a bad seed and your son was one, incapable of remorse or empathy. Now, whether it came from his genetic makeup—in light of recent events, it seems both natural parents had some issues—or a combination of things, Michael Paul Perry saved a good many lives by accidently ending his own.”

Gunny fought the restraints, but Rainey just smiled at her.

“It’s a shame really. We could have been good friends. I liked you. Unfortunately, the brain injury you suffered created the perfect storm for paranoid delusion and the emergence of a severe personality disorder. You are a wounded soldier, and I hope you get the help you need. Get well, Gunny. Don’t come near us again. Get us off your mind, because you don’t want to be on mine.”

Rainey leaned down very close to Gunny’s face and whispered, “You were with my children. There is no love lost here. I won’t hesitate and I don’t miss. That’s what goes wrong with these diabolical plans. I’m for taking the shot and ending the damn thing when you have the chance.”

She stood up straight and smiled down at the stranger that had once been a friend. “Oorah, Gunny. I wish you well—very far away from me.”

“I really do think you should see a plastic surgeon about that scar.”

“Katie says it makes me look mysterious,” Rainey said to her mother. “Besides, it keeps people from concentrating on my hair.”

“Well, at least you took off the Dora the Explorer Band-Aid.”

“Yeah, you do look a little different from the last time I saw you, make that a lot different,” Alana Minott said. “What happened to all that hair?”

“I donated it to people who make wigs for sick children, before mine removed it a strand at a time. Besides, once you’ve had your hair used as a weapon against you, chopping it off is an easy decision,” Rainey said.

She had not seen Alana in the four weeks since the morning they spoke in the hospital, but had spent hours with her on the phone. The calls came often at first, but not so much now. Rainey spoke openly about how it felt to fight for her life again. The stress, balancing emotions that were out of sync, the mental trauma that comes with the physical injuries, Rainey talked about it all with the young woman. She shared her experiences in hopes that it would make it easier for Alana to understand her own healing process. With Katie’s help, Rainey learned the healing power of helping others. Katie truly believed it took a village, and Rainey had certainly witnessed the power of women uplifting each other.

 “Perfectly tussled pixie curls. Using unruly to your advantage. Very smart,” Constance said. “You look just like you did as a toddler.”

“I’m not sure that’s a compliment, Mother.” Rainey reached to sweep the hair off her neck that wasn’t there. “I can still feel it, like an amputee feels the absent limb.”

“It’s really cute, Rainey. You’ll get used to it,” Alana said in support of Rainey’s shearing.

Alana was Rainey’s fellow wallflower among a sea of women in Molly’s elegant home. The fundraising reception for Sarah Harris’s Second Chance House was in full swing. Alana had spoken earlier on behalf of women who benefitted from the women’s shelter services for rape survivors.  Now, Katie had abandoned Rainey for a turn through her old social circle. Constance drifted over, appearing out of the whirling mass of women, and only women, ranging in ages from teens in braces to geriatrics with walkers.

The well-heeled elite roamed the rooms dripping diamonds and dropping fat checks in silver bowls carried by very handsome androgynous bois and pretty girls. Whether assuaging their guilt for never having needed a second chance or just repaying the karma for the kind hand held out along the way, the money flowed freely.

“I see there are quite a few couples among tonight’s guests,” Constance noted. “I take it this is what it feels like at one of our functions, when everyone is coupled up and you’re left to the speculation of the other lonely party goers.”

“Be careful, Mother, if you hang with the lesbians too long, the country club crowd may grow suspicious.”

Constance saved Rainey’s life. This had somehow left her with the assumption that she and Rainey would now have those long chats and mystical connection common among mother-daughter relationships. Rainey thought it necessary, in order to keep her sanity and respect for her mother, that she rebuild the walls Constance was hell-bent on eliminating from their bond. After so many years of mutual disdain, she really did not want that kind of dependent relationship with Constance. Rainey loved her mother, appreciated that life had forced her to be what she was, but a healthy distance needed to be maintained. Katie walked up with a champagne flute for each of them and Rainey seized the opportunity.

“Katie, isn’t that Martha Ann Smith over there with your mother? Mom, I know you two go way back. You should go talk to her.”

Constance nodded, but didn’t take the bait. She, instead, stayed to chat. “I see that Molly tapped every deep pocket in the Triangle. Martha Ann brings old money to the table. Where she drops a donation, fifty will follow. That lawyer of yours is shrewd, Rainey, very shrewd.”

 “Pockets aren’t the only things Molly tapped in this room,” Katie quipped. “But you have to hand it to her, she always left them smiling. Oh, except that tall blond one over there. That’s Anne. It took her a bit to get happy again.”

Constance followed Katie’s surreptitiously pointed pinky and gasped. “Good lord, that’s Anne Broadmoor. You don’t mean Anne Broadmoor is—that she and Molly Kincaid were—”

“Yes, Mother. Molly bedded half the women in this room. We’re watching them pay for the privilege of an up-close and personal look at the woman who finally landed the elusive Ms. Kincaid. I’m watching Leslie watch Molly watch Leslie see them all. It’s quite intriguing on a psychological level and entertaining from a purely voyeuristic perspective. You’re spoiling the view.”

Constance was an old hat at party politics. Rainey should have known she would catch on rather quickly. “Oh, I see, this is the unveiling of the off-limits sign. Your friend Leslie seems to be handling the revelation that Ms. Kincaid’s prowess was not a myth fairly well.”

Katie tipped her champagne glass in Leslie’s direction. “Do you see that shiny object on Leslie’s chest? It is a diamond and platinum miniature of Molly’s house key, delivered with roses and a card that said: ‘You have the only key,’ exactly thirty minutes before the party started.”

Constance placed her hand over her heart. “How absolutely romantic. This Ms. Kincaid is quite chivalrous isn’t she? No wonder half the room is swooning.”

“Yes, but the other half of the room is swooning over Agent Sexy’s new hairdo,” Katie said, elbowing Rainey in the side to make her laugh, and to indicate she should be nicer to her mother.

“There she is,” Alana said at Rainey’s elbow. “She came. I’m proud of her.”

Alana had made great strides in her recovery and was volunteering to work with other women. One of the first women the shelter paired her with had become a close friend. Rainey craned to see the expected guest and almost did not recognize her. She looked very different from their last meeting. Rainey, with Alana at her side, crossed the floor to greet the young woman. When she saw them approaching, Bladen Asher broke out in a huge smile.

Rainey hugged Bladen. “You look great. How’s the colonel?”

Bladen laughed, something she had learned how to do again. “He’s fine. He’s outside. He’s never going to let me out of his sight again. I keep telling my parents they can go home now.”

Rainey chuckled. “Give them time. They’ll come around.”

Bladen waved at Katie, who had been left behind with Constance. “Katie has been so kind to me. The shelter is a Godsend, and I can’t thank you enough for answering my late night phone calls, both of you.” Bladen included Alana with a nod. “I’m going to be okay, I think. It will take time. One step in front of the other, right?”

 “Yes, and this was a big step,” Rainey said. “You’re safe here. Have some fun, meet some people. You’re doing great, Bladen.”

Katie had slipped from Constance’s clutches and made her way over to Rainey. She hugged Bladen. “You look stunning. I’m so glad you could be here.”

Alana saw some other young women she knew. “Bladen, come with me. I’d like to introduce you to some of the other volunteers.” She turned to Katie. “Bladen is thinking of becoming one of the volunteer teachers at the shelter school.”

“That would be fantastic,” Katie said. “We would love to have you. Go enjoy yourselves, now.”

Bladen hugged Rainey again. “I really can’t thank you enough.”

Rainey hugged her back. “No. Thank you. I wouldn’t be standing here without you.”

Katie got the next hug and didn’t wait for a thank you from Bladen. “I owe you, young lady. You saved my girl for me.”

Bladen accepted the hug with a chuckle. “You’re welcome,” she said, as Alana swept her into the party.

“Is she going to be okay, Rainey?” Katie asked.

“I think so. Medically, she’s done with restorative surgery. She should make a complete physical recovery. Mentally, only time will tell.”

Katie sipped her champagne casually, but her question wasn’t casual. “And how are you doing? Have you forgiven yourself for not seeing what no one else saw either?”

“I let that woman into our home, Katie. I should be upset about that.”

“Brooks and Danny both said there was no way you could have accessed that file as a private citizen. Brooks only found it because she was looking into Michael Perry’s adoption for Danny. You couldn’t have known, Rainey. No one did.”

“That’s the thing about these people. They could be standing right beside you and you would never know it, until they show you their hand.”

“Well, hopefully the Rainey season is over and we can rest for a while,” Katie said, slipping under Rainey’s arm.

Katie was forever an optimist, but Rainey had no such illusions. Someone was probably out there right now, trying to figure out a way to get to her. The danger in Rainey’s life, like the real rainy season, would cycle through again. Rainey smiled down at Katie, unable to spoil her good mood with the truth.

“I think we’re good for a bit. It’ll take the wackos sometime to recognize me with no hair.”

Katie grinned and grabbed a handful of Rainey’s ass. “I think that haircut is sexy and if you play your cards right, you might get lucky.”

“I’m calling that bluff,” Rainey said, with a chuckle. “It’s already past your bedtime, Cinderella. I’ll be lucky to get you up the stairs before you fall asleep.”

“Well, the babysitter is spending the night, so just let me have a nap and wake me up,” Katie said, grinning.

Rainey started moving them toward Molly. “Let’s just say our goodnights. Everyone knows we have triplets. They won’t think it’s rude that we need sleep. No one would ever guess we’re slipping off to have sex.”