Watched from a Distance

by Allison B Hanson

  He’d seen evidence of her strength many times, but he wouldn’t lean on her for fear her tiny body would snap and Colton would snap him.

  “I’ve got this,” he mumbled. “Go sit over there and watch the show.”

  “The cursing and stumbling, you mean?”

  “I find your lack of pity and sympathy disturbing,” he said with an eye roll, grateful his injury hadn’t been cause for pity. If she’d lost the sarcasm, he’d know he was really in trouble.

  “Have you called her?” Angel asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

  He silently wished she’d go back to pestering him about his recovery. He knew exactly who Angel meant by her.

  “Let it go,” he warned.

  “Come on, Dane. You two were good for each other.”

  “She has a life. A normal one with her daughter. A life I don’t fit into.”

  Clearly, since Lena hadn’t called him. Not once. Not even a text.

  “Ten more steps, Mr. Ryan,” the nurse snapped when he’d stood still too long. He knew for a fact he didn’t owe ten more steps. She’d said twenty, and, surely, he’d already done fifteen. She was punishing him for stalling.

  “I have work to do here,” he said to Angel. “Can we talk about this later?”

  “Sure. Later. I hope you call her and have something else to talk about, other than the fact you’re a big—”

  “Yes. Thank you,” he cut her off before she called him more names. “Thank you for coming and offering your kind support.” He couldn’t hide the mocking tone in his voice.

  She frowned at his sarcasm as he took another excruciating step toward recovery. “I’m just saying,” she said with a poke to his arm, “you need to call the woman.”

  Chapter One Hundred One

  Lena rang the bell at her former in-laws, Denise and Alan Scott’s home, and stepped back. She and Kenzie didn’t have to wait long before Denise opened the door and gasped in surprise.

  “Nana!” Kenzie cried, obviously not noticing the immediate tension as she leaped into her grandmother’s arms.

  “Kenzie! Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay. Come in, dear,” she said to Lena over Kenzie’s head.

  She hadn’t even closed the door behind her before Alan rushed into the living room.

  “Are you both okay?” Denise asked as Kenzie ran to her grandpa.

  Lena had called them after Brandon took Kenzie, hoping he had gone to his parent’s home in Charleston, South Carolina. When that hadn’t been the case, she told them not to contact the police, that she would take care of it.

  All these months later, she finally had.

  “We’re fine now. I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. We were dealing with…some things, and I wanted to come speak to you in person.”

  Lena had wanted to make sure the body found in Vancouver was, indeed, their son before she faced them with the news. She’d just gotten verification last week that his identity had been confirmed. The death certificate had been overnighted to her, and was in her purse.

  “I’m afraid I have some bad news about Brandon.” There was really no good way to say this.

  Alan was holding Kenzie. He looked at her, his face going pale. “Sweetie, why don’t you run downstairs to the playroom? I’ll be down in a second,” he said.

  Kenzie clapped. “Can we play restaurant?”

  “Sure we can,” her grandfather promised. “Go on. I’ll be right there.”

  When Kenzie was out of earshot, they all sat at the dining table.

  “Can I get you something to drink, dear?” Denise asked. The Scotts had always treated her like a daughter. Even after the divorce. Not having parents of her own, it was important to Lena that Kenzie got to visit them whenever possible.

  “No, thank you,” she said, gearing up to tell them.

  “He’s gone?” Alan asked, though it came out as more of a statement.

  “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  “He was killed?”

  “Yes. About four months ago, the coroner said.”

  “Was it drugs?” Denise rubbed her temples. “I knew something was terribly wrong when he came here asking us for money. We offered to help, but when he said he needed a hundred thousand dollars, we realized it was more than just a few late bills.”

  “If I thought it would help, I might have given it to him,” Alan said with a sigh. “But I could tell from his behavior it would only be the first time. He’d be back, asking for more and more.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Lena offered helplessly. “Maybe if I hadn’t—”

  “This is not your fault,” Denise was quick to say. “He gave you no choice but to file for divorce when he started fooling around with other women and not coming home. No one expected you to put up with that.”

  Lena leaned over to hug the woman who had been like a mother to her. In the years since the divorce, Lena had backed away from the Scotts because there was no legal tie anymore. They came to Miami to visit Kenzie once, and last summer they’d bought Kenzie and Lena tickets to come to Charleston, but Lena had assumed they’d only been interested in seeing their grandchild, not her.

  She realized now she’d misunderstood the situation.

  “I had Brandon cremated after they were done with the autopsy, but we could have a service here,” Lena suggested.

  “That would be nice.” Denise sniffed and pulled a tissue from a box on the side table. “We’ll keep it small,” she said.

  Lena swallowed, unsure if now was the time to ask for a favor. But she didn’t really have a choice if she wanted a place to sleep tonight.

  “I had something else I wanted to speak with you about.” She swallowed down a wash of guilt over not being able to provide a home for her daughter. She hated Viktor Kulakov for putting her in this position.

  “What is it?” Alan asked.

  She took a steadying breath. “Because I’ve been searching for Kenzie all this time, I’ve been out of work for eight months, and I lost the apartment in Miami. Kenzie and I are basically starting over.”

  “We can give you some money,” Alan offered easily.

  Lena’s tight muscles relaxed just a little. “I appreciate that. But what I was going to ask was, can Kenzie and I stay with you for a few weeks? Just until we’ve found a place to stay and get settled. Since we’re starting over, I’d like to live here in Charleston, so she’s closer to you. Once I find a job, I was wondering if you might be able to watch her some of the days I’m at work?”

  The two retirees looked shocked.

  Oh God. Maybe she was asking too much. They probably didn’t want to be strapped down by a child when they could go play tennis at the country club, or travel the world.

  Lena plunged on. “It’s just that, after what happened, I’m kind of leery about sending her to daycare.” Leery was not the right word. Terrified was more accurate. She knew it hadn’t been the daycare’s fault. Brandon was Kenzie’s father, and they hadn’t had any reason to stop him from taking her. If the person in charge hadn’t been new, or if Lena had been there, or had thought to leave instructions to prevent him from taking Kenzie, it never would have happened. If they’d even called her to ask first, Brandon might have been stopped.

  “Of course, dear,” Denise said quickly, and gave her a wide smile. “We’d be delighted. You can stay as long as you like. Between the three of us, we’ll make sure Kenzie has someone with her at all times.”

  Denise seemed genuinely excited to be able to help, and Lena felt the stab of guilt again for thinking they only liked her when they were legally obligated to. Her own mother hadn’t been very interested.

  “Thank you. I’m sorry to impose, but I just need a little help getting back on my feet.”

  “It’s not imposing, Lena. You’re family,” Alan said with a watery smile.

  Denise met her gaze. “We’re just a little shocked, because right after you got married we asked Brandon if you would move to Charleston, and he said he wanted to, but you refused.”


  A familiar surge of irritation went through Lena. Brandon had always been a liar, manipulating people so he wouldn’t be the bad guy. Even with his own parents, apparently.

  “He never asked me,” she said.

  She bit back the urge to defend herself by showcasing Brandon’s many flaws. They knew their son as well as she did. They knew how he was.

  Denise nodded and patted Lena’s leg. “The important thing is you’re here now. I guess I’ll get started on Brandon’s service. Let me go find the number for the funeral home.”

  Lena was surprised they were taking all of this so well. Their son was dead, but they were handling it like troopers.

  Denise left the room, and Lena looked over at Alan.

  “We lost our son many months ago,” he said with a shaky voice. “We knew where he was headed and expected someday we’d get a knock on the door telling us he was gone. It hurts like a son of bitch, but it’s also a relief in many ways. We don’t have to wait any longer.”

  Lena stood and went to hug him. He allowed a brief squeeze, but then he pasted a smile on his face and pulled away. “I’m fine. Really. And I promised a certain little girl I’d go downstairs and pretend to eat plastic food. If you’ll excuse me?”

  Lena smiled and nodded. “I hope you have a taste for it. You’re going to be eating a lot of it.”

  “Thank you, for giving us Kenzie.”

  She swallowed down the emotion and smiled back. “Thank you, for giving us a home.”

  Alan blinked a few times, then looked away, as if her words had reminded him of something. Instead of going downstairs, he turned and went the other direction, toward his study.

  Denise returned to the living room, talking to someone on the phone. She covered the phone to speak to Lena.

  “Would you come with us this afternoon to help set things up? I know you two weren’t married anymore—”

  “Yes. I’ll go with you.” Brandon hadn’t been her husband for three years, but he’d still been Kenzie’s father. And she wanted her little girl to be able to say goodbye properly.

  Alan had come back to the room carrying a piece of paper. He twisted it into a cone and let it uncoil. Denise said goodbye and disconnected her call.

  “What is it?” Denise prompted when her husband hadn’t spoken.

  He shook his head and looked up at Lena with an unreadable expression. Whatever he was going to say, it was big.

  “When Kenzie was born, I told Brandon he needed to make sure his family was taken care of, in case something happened to him. At the time, he was working on the docks, and it was a dangerous job. I helped him get a life insurance policy.”

  Lena recalled paying the annual premium while they had been married. “I remember.”

  “When he moved out of your home after the divorce, he had his mail sent here since he didn’t have a permanent address. When the bills came, I paid them myself, because I knew whatever he was doing was far more dangerous than working on the docks.”

  Surprise shot through Lena. “That’s… I had no idea.”

  He unfolded the document and handed it over to her. “He never changed his beneficiary after your divorce.”

  Wait. What?

  She stared down at the paper, seeing her name at the bottom. She scanned back up to the top and saw the policy amount. Good lord.

  Five hundred thousand dollars.

  The rest of the words became unreadable as tears filled her eyes, and the paper shook in her trembling hands.

  “My God. I’ll be able to buy a home for Kenzie. I won’t have to struggle to make a good life for her.” Her voice came out as a strangled whisper.

  “Honey, we never would have let you struggle, anyway, but now you don’t have to worry about a thing,” he said.

  There were now two men in her life she would never be able to thank enough.

  Which brought her thoughts straight to Dane.

  She hadn’t reached out to him, partly because she knew he would want to help her, and she already owed him too much.

  And then there was the issue of his dangerous job. She’d had her fill of danger, more than enough for a lifetime, regardless of how much she loved him.

  So, why was the first thing she wanted to do was to call and tell him about her good fortune?

  And, yes, how desperately she missed him…

  Chapter One Hundred Two

  Dane knew this was a bad idea.

  After how bad his last bad idea had turned out, he should have learned his lesson. But here he was, sitting in Tobey’s fort, hoping the boy came out this afternoon.

  It was hot, and the fort had not been made to fit his body. It had been designed for a four-year-old Tobey. As evident by the two-foot plastic sliding board used to exit the fort. Tobey wouldn’t even fit on that now. Dane should have built it for him to grow into. He hadn’t thought ahead.

  Before he could berate himself even more, he heard the shuffling sound of feet hitting earth. And a few seconds later, Tobey stepped into the fort.

  His eyes widened. “Dad!” He gasped and quickly looked around.

  “Hey, bud, is anyone with you?” Dane tried to see through the cracks in the wood.

  “No. Mom and Randy are watching TV.” Tobey made a disgusted face. “They don’t let me go anywhere alone anymore, but I kind of snuck out of the house.”

  Dane could imagine Caroline’s fear after Tobey’s abduction. Honestly, he didn’t think it was out of line. If he had still been around, he would be keeping his son close, as well.

  “Since I’m your dad, I also have to say you shouldn’t ever sneak out of the house. But at the moment, I’m really glad you did this one time, since it will give us time alone to talk.”

  Tobey sat at the opening of the tiny enclosure with a smug smile on his face. “Cool.”

  “So, how are you doing?” Dane asked.

  “Good, except Mom keeps kissing me a lot. I hope she gets over it before I have to go back to school. What if she kisses me when she drops me off at school?”

  Dane chuckled. “There could be worse things. It builds character.”

  “How are you?” Tobey motioned to the bandage on Dane’s leg. His shorts had pulled up when he’d contorted himself into the tight space.

  “I’m fine. I got shot in the leg. No biggie.”

  “You got shot?” Tobey’s eyes lit more with awe than sympathy.

  “Yeah.” Dane shrugged and gave himself over to the moment that his son thought he was cool.

  “Can I see the hole?” Tobey asked eagerly, leaning closer.

  “Sorry, there isn’t a hole anymore. They stitched it up.”

  Tobey deflated. “Oh. Okay.”

  “Anyway, I wanted to let you know all the other boys who were with you got home to their families, too.”

  Tobey lit up. “That’s good. I kind of miss hanging out with them. I mean, I was scared a little because the guards had guns, but it was also kind of fun to be able to play video games all day.”

  Dane grinned. “And eat pizza.”

  “I hate pizza now.”

  They laughed together, and Dane hoped it was the only side effect of his ordeal.

  “I think you should probably get back,” he said regretfully. “I just wanted to check in and make sure you were doing okay.”

  Tobey’s face fell. “When will I get to see you again?”

  “I’m not sure,” Dane said sadly. The fact was, he shouldn’t even be there now. He wanted to be part of his son’s life, but he couldn’t. It just wasn’t safe. “It probably won’t be for a while. But I want you to know that I’m thinking about you and I love you. Always.”

  His son’s lip trembled. “I love you, too, Dad.”

  “Tobey?” Caroline’s voice penetrated the stillness of the trees around them.

  “Shit,” Dane said, then corrected to “Shoot.”

  “Yeah?” Tobey called loudly. He was still sitting at the entrance to the fort, like he was protecting Dane from bein
g seen.

  “Who are you talking to?” Caroline asked from the edge of the yard.

  She hadn’t come any closer, and Dane recalled her incredible fear of snakes, spiders, mice, insects, Bigfoot, and anything else that might lurk in the woods behind their home.

  “Uh…” Tobey paused for a few seconds, then gave up with a frown. “Dad.”

  As a father, he was very glad his son wouldn’t lie to his mother, but given the circumstances, it was quite inconvenient.

  “You feel closer to him out here, huh?” Caroline said without a trace of alarm in her voice. “Do you remember when the two of you built your fort together?”

  “Yeah.” Tobey nodded. “It was fun.”

  Caroline obviously thought Tobey was talking to Dane in spirit form, rather than in real life. That did make more sense. He relaxed.

  “I understand you miss him,” she said gently. “But you can’t run off like that. I was scared witless when you weren’t in your room.”

  Tobey sighed. “Mom, the bad guys are all dead. They won’t come get me again. I promise.”

  Dane hoped that was true of all bad guys in general.

  “Come on,” she called brightly. “We’re going to order pizza for dinner.”

  Tobey let his head fall back and groaned. “Great. I’m coming.”

  Before he hopped down, he reached out and bumped fists with Dane’s in a very manly gesture. Dane would have preferred a good hug, but this brief contact would have to do for now.

  “Bye,” Tobey whispered and ran off.

  Dane listened to his son’s footsteps tromp through the bracken, then turn silent as he stepped into the grass-covered yard.

  “Are you coming?” Tobey asked.

  “Go on in. I’ll be there in a second,” Caroline said.

  Dane shifted silently so he could look through a small gap in the wall of the fort. He winced at his shoddy craftsmanship, but the narrow break let him see Caroline, who was still standing at the edge of the woods. He could also make out Tobey’s form as he ran to the house and went inside.

  “Thank you,” Caroline whispered so softly Dane barely heard it.