Poison (4 page)

****

He followed Cassie for weeks. He soon discovered her secret life. She had men coming onto her like flies buzzing around rotten food. Cassie didn’t look the part of the whore, and he had been surprised to find out that she was. He’d spent months learning her routine, watching her go home with unknown men, night after night. The only break in her routine—the men’s faces.

What he could see, and none of those men could understand, was the sadness in Cassie. She hated herself for what she did. And she drank to soothe her guilt. And that made her vulnerable. To him.

He found her intensely interesting, and his own sexual awareness had increased the more he’d imagined what she was doing in all those different places with all those different men.

It had been easy to observe her, follow her, and intimately get to know her routine. He’d learned her mannerisms, her schedule, how little she talked to anyone, and that, other than the one night stands, she lived a solitary life. She’d been perfect for him. Unhappy, seeking to change, but with no luck. And no one close in her life. Except for him.

There was only one thing that was unforeseeable to anyone, even someone as intelligent as him. Who could have predicted how Cassie would take to Tim? Marcus Timothy Leary, had been thrilled at first when his son was born, so much so, he’d even given the kid his name.

But that’s when it all went wrong. After the child was born, Cassie had changed. She’d done as the doctor instructed and stayed clear of alcohol, thereby managing to sober up. From there she had too easily taken to mothering the baby.

No matter what he said or did, he couldn’t get her attention focused back on him. He couldn’t make her see how desperately she needed him. He couldn’t get her under his control again. And that made him angry. Very, very angry.

And now his wife had outmaneuvered him. She’d been quicker and more cunning than he’d given her credit for. Who’d have guessed Cassie would hide his son from
him
? It was wrong. Marcus knew better than anyone what was right and what was wrong. And a wife taking a son away from his father was wrong. His wife was going to have to pay for running away from him. Along with all her other sins.

There was only one person Cassie had in the world to turn to, the woman Marcus hated nearly as much as Cassie herself, her sister, Kelly Reeves.

Chapter Three

John locked his office and stepped into the nearly empty reception area. Empty except for Cassie, who sat with her back to him, not moving. What the hell was she still doing here?

“The job’s so hard you have to work late?”

She jumped, then swiveled around in her chair. “Oh! You startled me.”

“Who were you expecting?”

Her face was ashen. She held a white card board box gripped tightly in her hands. Sticking out from the opening was a cheap vase with a half dozen pink roses.

“Who are those from?”

“They were delivered. No card.”

John shrugged. “Estelle orders flowers to decorate the office. She hates for it to feel too clinical.”

She swung her gaze back toward the flowers. “He used to send pink roses to me.” Cassie slammed the box down on her desk and pushed it away.

“Is there a note?”

“No.” She bit her lip. Then she whispered, “What if they are from him?”

“Who? Your ex? They aren’t from him. If there’s no note, then they are from Estelle.”

“Pink roses?”

“Sometimes.”

“You’re sure? These are from her?”

John hesitated. Cassie’s pallor scared him. She really believed the roses were a threat. He couldn’t be totally sure the flowers were from Estelle, but what good would it do to scare Cassie more? If there was no note there was no way to know for sure right then, but who’s to say he wasn’t right? “Yes. I’m sure.”

Her shoulders slumped with a release of breath.

He leaned an elbow onto the counter separating them. “Do you really think you and Tim are in that much danger?”

She looked at up at him. “Yes. We are in that much danger.”

“Does Tim know?”

“He knows a stilted version of the truth.”

“How do you explain this to him? That his own father wants to hurt you both?”

She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. “I know you think I did something to deserve all this, but I didn’t. I didn’t know Marcus was violent until it was too late. Tim has known for a while that his father is in jail because he isn’t a nice man. I’ve tried to explain that we are here only as a precaution to give the police time to find Marcus and put him back in jail where he belongs. I try to hide how serious it is. But he knows. He has nightmares. Sometimes he thinks I’m not going to come back to him. We go through this every time I leave for work. He’s just waiting for the earth to come out from under him. So you can rest assured John, I’ve paid dearly for any sins you’ve imagined I’ve committed.”

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t say anything like that.”

“You say things like that every time you look at me, whether you speak or not.”

“Well I sure as shit don’t wish this on your son, no matter what I think of you.”

She stilled. “Okay you probably don’t. Maybe I took that too far. But sometimes so do you.”

He stared at her. He nodded. “Noted. Sometimes I do.”

“I overreacted to the flowers.”

“Well you’re the one with a son to protect. Not me. I can’t judge what’s an overreaction.”

She glanced up swiftly to him, her eyes big. “Meaning?”

He shook his head. He wasn’t having
that
conversation with her.

Not now. Not ever.

Cassie sighed and pushed the flowers onto the counter between them. She tidied her desk, avoiding his gaze. Finally she stood and gathered her things.

He watched her. He didn’t like hearing Tim was scared his mom wouldn’t come home from work. What kind of knowledge was that for a kid to have? Hell, he didn’t like that Cassie was scared that she wasn’t going to come home from work. He didn’t think anyone could fake the fear she had of the innocuous floral arrangement.

Cassie was just about to hustle past him, when he put a hand on her arm to stop her. She paused, looking at his hand, then up into his eyes. Her lips trembled. She quickly dropped her face from his view. She raised a hand to wipe at her cheeks. Tears?

Damn it all to hell. A stab of genuine sympathy filled him. He put a knuckle under her chin and forced her to look up him. Her eyes were glazed in moisture. She was trying not to cry. He swallowed, unsure why her efforts to hold back tears from him put a knot in his throat. Had he become so heartless with his anger that he couldn’t let her fear a man she seemed to think wanted to physically harm her?

“Cassie—”

The clinic door opened. Cassie jumped back. John turned around as Luke walked into the foyer toward them.

“What’s going on?” Luke asked looking between them. Cassie was busy wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands.

“Just closing up.”

Luke stared at him. His mouth tightened. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You fired her, didn’t you?”

“No, nothing like that.” Cassie shoved an arm into her coat.

“What happened then? Why are you crying?”

“I overreacted to some flowers sent to the office. I thought they were from my ex-husband.”

“And if they were? What would that mean Cassie? What kind of danger are you and Tim in?”

She let out a long, shaky sigh. “Lethal. We are in lethal danger.”

“I drove by that trailer you’re renting. It’s crap,” Luke said after a long pause.

“I’m doing the best I can.”

Luke shook his head. “Changing your name and moving away isn’t enough. If this crazy lunatic wants to find you, he will. You shouldn’t be alone.”

“Yeah well I’m fresh out of strange people to call for help. Harry was it.”

“I think you and Tim should come stay with us.”

John jerked his gaze up to Luke. “What?”

“It’s the only solution.”

“Who is us?” Cassie asked.

“John and I, we’re roommates.”

John frowned. He didn’t like the plan or that they were discussing it between the two of them. He had too many memories of this dynamic, reminding him of the old days; Cassie and Luke as peers, with him on the outside, the annoying little brother.

“Do you mean it?”

“Forget it,” John said at the same instant Cassie spoke.

They stared at each other for a split second. John looked away first. Luke continued, “We have plenty of room, and there would be no connection between the Tyler’s and Cassie Reynolds. It would take a safety pin to open that trailer up and there you’d be, all alone and vulnerable. My guess is that your landlord wouldn’t think twice about ratting you out to anyone who asked. Come to our house, and you’ll have comfort, an alarm system, dead bolts, and most of all, our help.”

Cassie glanced at John through lowered lashes, than she let out a long, loud sigh as she turned to Luke. “I can’t Luke.”

“Sure you can. We’re all friends, aren’t we?” Luke looked from one to the other.

“It’s not a good idea,” John persisted.

“Sure it is.”

“Sarah will never go for it.”

“Sarah will understand. It’s the right thing to do.”

“I think it’s a—”

“Please John?” Cassie asked softly.

He glanced at her. “How long?”

“As long as it takes to make sure her ex isn’t hunting her,” Luke answered.

John ignored Luke. “You’re sure about this? You think you’re in that much physical danger?”

“Yes. I know I’m in that kind of danger.”

“There’s no one else?”

“No. There is no one else.”

He tapped his fingers on his leg. Cassie coming to live in his house was not how he expected the conversation to go. Not over a cheap, lousy flower arrangement. He finally answered, “Fine.”

Cassie’s posture loosened, and her gaze rose to his with big, relief-filled eyes. “Thank you John.”

“Come on Cassie I’ll drive you to your place and you can grab a few things for tonight. We’ll move all your stuff out of that rat’s nest this weekend.”

“Tonight? You can’t be serious,” John protested.

“Yeah I’m serious. The sooner the better that Cassie gets away from that trailer.” Luke walked toward the front of the clinic with his hand on Cassie’s arm dragging her with him.

“We have to pick up Tim,” Cassie said. She looked back over her shoulder at John. John kept his face blank, while inside he was seething in confusion. On the one hand, he wanted Cassie and her son safe, on the other, how the hell was he supposed to live under the same roof with her?

****

This was a bad idea. Moving into a house with John Tyler was about as bad of a solution to her problems as she could think of. John did not want her here. But how could she not take this offer? The trailer was a joke. And there was no one to protect them at night. There was no one period to help them. Except, Luke and John Tyler. So despite every reason she didn’t want to do this, she was doing this.

Luke stopped his truck before a large, cedar-shake sided house with gray trim. It rose three stories into the night sky. Stars shimmered over it. The back side had an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean. A half dozen neighbors lined the small cul-de-sac. Cassie hadn’t expected this.

“My wife grew up here. Her parents gave it to her…to us. I ended up with it. I thought about selling it, but then…well, no matter, John and I own it now.”

Cassie glanced over at Luke when he didn’t make a move to get out. He finally shook his head and smiled at her. She should ask what had happened to his wife. It was the obvious response to what Luke said. But she couldn’t. Not now. Not tonight. She had more pressing things on her mind.

Cassie’s stomach knotted. She and Tim followed Luke inside. The house was as impressive inside as out. She had expected some kind of bachelor pad apartment. Not a half million dollar house set against an ocean beach and decked out in furniture worthy of an upper class interior designer.

To the left was a large living room with wood flooring and a fireplace. The hallway went to the kitchen which ran the length of the house with a large center island and six person table tucked off the end of the room.

They were standing in the kitchen when Cassie heard John’s familiar stomp come down the stairs that curved to the foyer. Her heart beat faster, and her breathing hitched. She did not want to be here. She didn’t want to face John in his house. It was different here, more personal than it was at work.

John came down the hallway, and her awareness of him was a hundred fold more intense than usual. After seeing him at work for the last two weeks, she should be used to the impact he caused. One glance into his chilly gaze, and her hands were clammy, and her heart beat strange. John looked around at Luke, Tim, and finally at her. Then he frowned and looked away.

The next few minutes were taken up with Luke and John discussing the practicalities of their living arrangements. Luke left through the laundry room and beyond that to his room. Luke’s earlier melancholy had turned to enthusiasm about having her and Tim there. Tim ran excitedly after Luke. Cassie was left alone with John. She couldn’t think of anything to say to him, nor could she meet his gaze which was pinned on her.

Finally, he said, “This is all Luke’s doing, and the only reason I agreed is because he’s right, Tim deserves a safe place to live.”

“I know. That’s why I agreed to this too. I don’t want to do this anymore than you do.”

John raised his brows. Then he spun on his heel, stomped to the foyer, and hefted up both of her suitcases. He motioned with his head for her to go up before him. On the second floor he pointed to a bedroom.

“There’s not much for furniture.”

She started when his voice came up behind her. He dumped her suitcases on the bed.

“It’s wonderful, all of it. The house. The furniture… your help.”

He scowled at her, then turned and led her across the hall to the other bedroom a bit smaller with a smaller bed. “Tim can stay here.” He showed her the bathroom down the hall. No wonder Luke had thought this would work so well. If circumstances weren’t so bad between John and her, it would make sense. The house was huge.