Rock Harbor Series - 04 - Abomination (18 page)

Eve took a sip of water, and her hand was steadier. “Why didn’t we do something sooner?”

“We thought Patti was dead. There seemed to be no hurry.”

“So she could really take Keri?” She put down the glass and grabbed his hand. “What can we do to stop her? We
have
to stop her, Nick.”

He rubbed his thumb over her palm. “We’ll need to contact a lawyer, but I guess we’ve got a battle on our hands.” He wanted to point out that their case would be stronger if they remarried, but he didn’t want to manipulate her.

Though in another week he might not be above it.

14

G
IDEON WATCHED THE NEWS WITH AVID ATTENTION WHILE he slowly ate a bowl of ravioli. He heard steps on the stairs behind him and turned to see his daughter. Odette wore a short denim skirt and a red midriff top. Her sandals covered nothing of her feet. He put down the bowl of ravioli carefully and turned to face her.

“Where do you think you’re going dressed like that?” The red on her cheeks and the plum on her eyes made her look like the cartoon of Cinderella. “Is that makeup? You look like a tramp. Go wash and change your clothes.”

“Dad, I’ve got a date.” Odette tried to move past him. He grabbed her arm and propelled her down the hallway. “Let go,” she protested.

He didn’t answer, just pushed her into the bathroom. Once the door was closed and locked, he got out a washcloth and lathered it up. “Sit,” he ordered, pointing to the toilet seat.

She knew better than to give him any sass. Her face turned up to his in a gesture of resignation. “Everyone else gets to wear makeup,” she muttered with her eyes closed.

He methodically scrubbed every trace of the vileness from her face. It was his job to see his family stayed pure. Her skin was red by the time he finished, but pain would teach this lesson most memorably. With the washcloth rinsed and draped over the towel rod, his gaze swept her attire.

“Change your clothes, Odette,” he said in a soft voice.

Her eyes popped open, and an expression of fright pulled her mouth down. “This is a new skirt. I really like it.”

Instead of answering, he opened the cabinet and drew out a jar of petroleum jelly. He unscrewed the lid and scooped out a glob of the sticky goo.

“What are you doing, Dad?”

He smeared the jelly over the detestable skirt. “Throw it in the trash. And while you’re at it, get rid of that paint you used on your face. There will be no Jezebels in this house.”

Odette gave a groan of frustration and got up. Tears rained down her face. “Why do you have to be so mean?” Brushing past him, she fumbled with the lock and finally managed to open the door.

Her sobs echoed down the hall as she ran out. Her feet pounded up the steps, and then her door slammed. It was hard to be a parent, but she’d thank him someday for making sure she stayed righteous.

With that problem taken care of, he began to review his plan. He and the good captain were out for the same thing—justice. Andreakos was still making the mistake of working inside the law. Gideon had discovered the law’s shortcomings long ago.

He would have preferred not to make Miranda wait out this cat-and-mouse game, but Eve needed to suffer before he killed her. She would enter the next life better prepared. Pain was purifying. So many of its aspects fascinated him. It was so much more valuable than most people realized.

God had given him the job of wielding the weapon of pain, and he still had much to learn about it.

He listened to his daughter sob a few more minutes, then went to the basement entrance. He unlocked the padlock, opened the door, and turned on the light. Stepping onto the first stair, he locked the door behind him before descending.

At the bottom of the flight, a steel door with two combination locks was to his left. He opened the locks and pulled the door shut behind him, then threw the deadbolt. Turning around, he stepped to the stainless steel worktable in the middle of the room.

The face he had taken wasn’t right. No matter what he did to it, it would never be right. The cheekbones weren’t high enough—the lips weren’t full enough.

He had to have Eve.

EVE CUDDLED KERI CLOSE AS THE TODDLER PUT HER THUMB IN her mouth and closed her eyes. They sat on the back porch in a rocker looking out over the big lake. The sound of the waves and the foghorn should have lulled her as much as it did Keri.

She couldn’t lose her baby. The maternal love she felt for the child had welled up the moment Keri called her Mama. Keri belonged with her. If only she could remember everything.

The screen door behind her creaked, and the heavy tread of boots moved across the wood porch. “Mind if I join you?” Nick’s deep voice was low and pensive.

“I don’t mind.” She longed to ask him a million questions.

The other rocker creaked as he settled into it. Nick cleared his throat. “You okay?”

“Why didn’t you tell me, Nick? How could you let me stay in the dark about something so important?”

“I couldn’t do it. Keri is your port in the storm, especially right now. It didn’t seem pressing anyway. I thought Patti was gone for good.”

Eve held Keri closer and pressed her lips against the blonde curls. “What are we going to do?”

“Our first step is to get a lawyer. I expect your sister to go for the throat. We have to be prepared for that.”

“I don’t know any lawyers. Do we need to get one here or . . . or—?” She stopped. “I have no idea where we live.”

“Bay City.”

The name of the town meant nothing to her. “Is that in Michigan?”

“Yes, down on Lake Huron, north of Detroit. I’d guess she’ll try to get custody now. For some reason, she seems in a terrific hurry.”

“She can’t have Keri.”

“No,” Nick agreed. “The way she abandoned her can’t look good to a judge. And she never paid one dime in child support.”

“Did you?” The words burst out of Eve.

He ran his hand through his hair. “
Yes
, of course I pay support. I love Keri. My lawyer drew up a generous support schedule for her.”

Eve was past feeling shame. All that mattered was the little girl in her arms. “What did I do before? Did I have a job?”

“You ran a dance studio, ballet. When you were in your twenties, you danced with the New York City Ballet. It was hard for you to give it up when we married.”

“Why did I?”

He looked at his hand and twisted the wedding ring on his finger. “It was time.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me. Don’t you think the secrets have hurt me enough?”

He shifted and didn’t meet her gaze. “It’s not important, Eve. Keeping our daughter is important—not rehashing the problems with your career.”

So there were problems. Could they have a bearing on this situation? Eve didn’t see how, but she needed to know everything in order to understand her past. The blank slate was so frustrating. “What about Keri?”

He seemed to know what she was asking. “You took her to work with you every morning, and she learned to dance almost before she could walk. You’ve always put her first.”

“Then why didn’t we put her first when it came to making sure no one could take her away from us?”

“It was stupid,” he admitted, finally lifting his gaze from his ring. “Look, don’t freak, okay? We’ll get through this. No judge in the world would give Keri to a woman like your sister.”

Eve dropped another kiss on her daughter’s head and breathed in the scent of her baby shampoo. “Were we happy, Nick? At least for a little while?”

He leaned closer, and she smelled his cologne again. She should pull away, but instead she found herself leaning toward him ever so slightly.

“We can make a new start, Eve. Go on from here.”

“What if I never get my memory back?” she whispered.

“Maybe that would be good. You’d have none of the old baggage.”

She felt cold and pulled back. “I’d be all ready for a new wound, is that it?”

“That’s not what I meant. But sometimes it’s hard to believe something can change.”

“Did it ever change, Nick?”

He looked off toward the water. “No.”

“Surely I made mistakes too,” she muttered. “No marriage stands or falls on one person.”

He glanced back at her, and something flickered in his eyes. “Let’s forget the past, Eve. Both of us. Some things are better left buried.”

“What did I do?”

He stood and went toward the house. “It’s time for Keri to be in bed.”

Someone from her past would tell her the truth. Maybe Will. He still hadn’t come to talk to her, but she could go find him.

NICK WAS GONE WHEN EVE GOT UP. SHOWERING AND DRESSing quickly, she found Bree in the kitchen, putting the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. “I want to talk to Will,” Eve said. “Would you take me out to that Job’s Children place?”

“Don’t you think Nick wants to go with you?”

“He doesn’t have the right to make that decision,” Eve said, aware her voice was too sharp.

Bree held up her hands. “Don’t bite my head off. I’m not too impressed with that Will guy, that’s all. He hasn’t even checked in on you since his surprise appearance. Don’t you think that’s a little strange?”

“He probably saw all the hoopla and wanted to stay out of it. But he knows things about my family, about my past. Nick isn’t telling me everything, Bree. I have to find out what I can.”

“Why do you think Nick is keeping something from you? It’s clear he loves you.”

“He didn’t tell me Patti was Keri’s birth mother. I think there’s more. Will might be able to tell me.”

Bree sighed. “Let me see if Anu will keep the kids.”

“You’re a good friend,” Eve said. While Bree called Anu, Eve went to the office and searched the computer again for anything under Eve Andreakos. She found nothing that might tell her about her past.

She and Bree rode in silence out to the forest. Samson lay on the backseat.

“Don’t be mad at me,” she told Bree when the car came to a stop in the parking lot.

“I’m not mad, Eve, but this feels like a mistake. I don’t like what I’ve heard about this place. People in town call it a cult. Nick is a good man. Can’t you feel that yourself? And you’ve had your family’s phone numbers for two days. Why haven’t you called them yet?”

“Because I can’t shake the fact that not one of them has tried to contact me yet. What’s that all about?”

Bree sighed. “True. That is strange. And I’m sorry. But you don’t have to look to some stranger whose motives we don’t know.”

“Right now, everyone’s a stranger. I don’t want to depend on Nick. I’m sure we were divorced for a reason, and I want to discover what I need to know without him censoring the facts.” Eve threw open her door and got out.

A dingy white building sat surrounded by tall pines. No one seemed to be moving about, but the twang of a guitar came from the piney woods. There were several signs around about “embracing the pain.”

Samson bounded out of the backseat when Bree opened his door.

The women followed him into the trees and found a group of young people sitting around a campfire, strumming guitars, sitars, and several other instruments Eve didn’t recognize. Her gaze swept the group, and she saw Will in the middle of a circle of teenagers and twentysomethings. He hadn’t noticed her yet.

She searched her memory for some trace of his face and came up empty. Any memory of him was as lost as the rest.

Samson bounded into the center of the group, and several women exclaimed over him and stroked his ears.

Will saw Eve, and his smile broke out. He joined them at the edge of the clearing. “Where’s Keri?”

“You know Keri?” Eve asked.

“Of course. She’s the cutest toddler you ever saw.” He took her elbow and guided her away from the group. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to find out how we knew one another.”

He glanced at Bree from the corner of his eye, then refocused on Eve. “Maybe you’d rather discuss that in private.”

Eve pulled her arm away. “Bree is my best friend. I don’t have any secrets from her.”

He shrugged. “We were lovers.”

Eve put her hand to her throat. Her knees felt wobbly, and she wished she could sit down. Was he joking? If so, it was a poor attempt. She held up her hand. “Start at the beginning and cut the jokes.”

“No jokes, Eve. We danced together about five years ago, then lost touch. I never forgot you though and managed to track you down about a year ago. Your marriage was on the rocks, and we just clicked.”

“I betrayed my marriage vows?” Eve whispered. It was hard to grasp. She never would have thought she’d do something like that. Maybe that’s why Nick didn’t want to tell her why their marriage had failed. He was trying to keep this from her. If she knew she loved another man, she would be less apt to try to repair their marriage.

She studied Will’s face. His blue eyes returned her gaze. If she loved him, why didn’t she feel the same surge of emotion as when she’d seen Nick again for the first time? Or for that matter, every time she still saw Nick?

“We should go,” Bree said, tugging at Eve’s arm. “We need to get the kids.”

“Let me come with you,” Will said. “I’ve missed you.”

Eve held up her hands and backed away. “I don’t remember you, Will. I think it’s best if we don’t meet again.” She turned and ran back to the Jeep.

Her pulse pounded in her ears. She didn’t want to believe it, but it made sense.

Bree caught up with her when they reached the car. “I think he’s lying,” she said.

“What possible reason would he have to lie?” Eve asked. She hugged herself and shuddered. “I feel so dirty.”

Bree took her by the shoulders. “Stop it, Eve! Don’t just accept what he says as truth. Talk to Nick about it. Maybe your family too. I don’t trust that guy.”

Eve wished she could believe Will wasn’t telling the truth. The thought of talking to Nick about this made her feel queasy. But it wasn’t going to go away.

A FAMILIAR BOX VAN SAT PARKED ALONG THE STREET. NICK HAD been at the sheriff’s office, checking on the investigation, when Oliver called. Though barely nine o’clock, the sun was already heating the drops of rain from last night into mist that clung to the ground and sidewalks. It was going to be a hot one.