by Dana Mentink
Needs to know. Like the fact that he had a granddaughter?
“I’ll pick you up at six thirty. Aunt Ginny said to stay as long as you like, but if you leave, do me the courtesy of at least telling me where you are, okay?”
He didn’t wait for her answer.
Dory watched his long legs eat up the ground, chin down as he left.
She’d made the right decision keeping Ivy a secret, hadn’t she?
Yes, she decided, shoving the uncertainty away. Now all that remained was to solve the Blaze mystery and go back home to her little girl. She’d figure out what to do about Chad eventually.
I want to meet my daughter. His grated words rang in her ears.
One problem at a time.
* * *
Chad jerked his chin up when the clod of dirt smacked him in the chest. “What?” he growled, dropping the hammer he was using to strengthen the support for the water tank. Grumbling, he searched through the tall pasture grass to find it. Meatball and Jingles lay in the shade of an oak, tongues lolling, ever watchful.
Liam snickered. “Good thing I was lobbing dirt instead of grenades. What’s eating you?”
Chad sighed. He didn’t want to discuss his mountain of angst, but he knew it would be stupid to meet Blaze without some backup, and he wanted to bring people whom he trusted, not some random acquaintance of Dory’s. Some level of sharing was in order. He told Liam about the meet.
“Ooookay,” Liam drawled. “I’ll just pretend I’m not annoyed that you didn’t fill me in earlier on this dumb idea. That bridge is closed off for a reason. Unstable and isolated. Exactly the place you shouldn’t meet a guy who probably threw a boulder on you.”
“Not my idea, but Dory’s going, and that means I am, too.”
“I will have your six—you know that. Maggie’s at the Lodge working extra hours anyway since Helen and Sergio took the girls to visit his folks.”
Chad huffed out a breath. “And Mitch left with Uncle Gus to pick up the new baler. They’ll be on the road for hours.”
“I’m assuming we’re going to continue our idiotic reckless streak by keeping Danny out of this?”
“Blaze says he’ll bolt if he sees any interference.”
Liam grinned as he loaded the extra wood and nails onto the ATV. “Then I will do my best impression of a shadow.” He paused. “Anything else you want to get off your chest?”
It would do no good to avoid the question. Liam could sniff out evasion like a bloodhound on the scent. “Dory’s been lying.”
“’Bout what?”
“Something important she kept me from finding out from back then.”
“Yeah?” He frowned. “So you contacted her after your bust-up and she withheld intel?”
“I didn’t exactly contact her.”
“Ahh.”
Chad wiped a smear of dirt from his jeans. “What’s the ‘ahh’ for?”
“Nothin’. I’m not exactly a relationship guru, as Maggie will tell you. Just saying that I’m coming to understand that God made plenty of gray area along with the black and white. Personally, I find that confusing, but there it is.”
Gray area? A baby was certainly not a gray area. That was a thing a person should disclose under any circumstances. He realized he was grinding his teeth. “She was wrong.”
Liam slapped Chad on the back. “There’s a whole lot of right and wrong mixed up in that gray area I mentioned a minute ago. Annoying, but inescapable.”
Chad sighed. “I’ve gotta get Zephyr back. I’ll text you when we leave for the bridge.”
“Ten-four, little brother. Secret Mission Bridge Intercept begins now.”
“And if you see my dad, don’t share anything. He wants to talk to Blaze. We’re gonna have to keep him out of this somehow, too.”
Liam laughed and got on the ATV. Jingles and Meatball immediately sprang up, ready to follow. “The Jaggert men are an ornery bunch—that’s certain.”
Chad considered that as Liam rode away. He’d been told on plenty of occasions that he was uncommunicative, stubborn, and rigid in his thinking. But Dory had seen better things in him, things he hadn’t seen in himself. What would Ivy be like? Would she be friendly and funny, like Dory? Have his good traits? Or his bad ones?
Alone with the grass and the wind and the quiet presence of Zephyr, he finally allowed himself to dredge up the part that ached the most about Dory’s revelation. Long ago, he’d made a solemn promise to God that he would never abandon a child like his mother had done. He would die before he left his progeny with the nagging uncertainty that they hadn’t been worth sticking around for, worth loving. But Dory had put him in exactly that position. The sheer injustice of it made his breath catch.
What had Ivy been told about her absent father? That he’d not stuck around...that he’d not wanted her? He gulped and his common sense returned. No. Dory had always had a heart too big for her body. She wouldn’t have hurt their child to repay him.
The brilliant blue sky met his eyes as he looked up. Lord, what am I supposed to do about this mess?
The question accompanied him back to the stables and carried right on through his afternoon work with the horses. He still hadn’t gotten the smallest clue by dinnertime, and he pushed the food around his plate.
“Chad, you’re gonna wither and blow away if you don’t eat something,” Ginny chided.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, shoveling in a bite.
“Dory staying for a while?” Uncle Gus asked.
At her name, the fork slipped from his fingers. “Yeah. For tonight, anyway.”
“Well, good,” Ginny said. “I’ll make up a plate for you to take to her.”
He did so, stomach knotted as he walked to the saddlery a couple of hours before sundown. His nerves were jangling both at the prospect of seeing Dory and the fact that his father had not answered the phone the last two times he’d called. What was he up to?
Two separate knocks and Dory didn’t answer. That was when he noticed her car was gone.
Everything in him went white-hot with anger that was quickly shot through with cold fear. The plan had changed. She’d gone to meet Blaze without him.
Muscles tensed, he tried to fight through his storm of emotions.
When he’d finally decided to head for the bridge and hunt for her, her car pulled up and she got out. Relief powered through him.
“You thought I’d left,” she said.
He tried to shrug it off.
Her smile was sad. “I told you I was going to stay to meet Blaze. I still keep my word, believe it or not.”
He searched in vain for something to say. Five years ago, he’d trusted her with everything, including the scars left by his mother’s abandonment. He’d come to find out Dory’d been deceiving him. Now he wasn’t sure who she was anymore. At the moment, he wasn’t sure about himself, either.
She held the handles of a paper bag. “I drove into town to buy a change of clothes so I can return the borrowed ones.”
“Shouldn’t drive with a busted window.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I swept away the glass. Is that for me?”
He realized she meant the dinner plate.
“Uh, yeah. Aunt Ginny’s meatballs.”
She took the plate. “Do you...um, want to come in?”
No, he wanted to say, but something made him follow her anyway. He sat at the table while she nibbled at the meatballs, trying not to stare at the woman who was so familiar and altogether new to him.
She rolled her eyes. “Delicious. I’ll have to ask for the recipe.”
“Does—” He stopped. How had words starting flying out of his mouth without permission from his brain?
She put her fork down. “Go ahead and ask.”
“Does Ivy like meatballs?” It had to be the dumbest questio
n ever. His child—their child—was a complete mystery to him and he’d just asked if she liked meatballs.
After a hesitation, Dory took out her phone and pulled up a photo. It was Ivy, with spaghetti sauce all over her grinning face and a meatball speared on her fork. “Her favorite, as a matter of fact.”
He stared at the picture of that happy child. Joy and anger and sadness and hurt all twined together inside. He got up and began to pace. “I don’t know what to do here...about Ivy.”
“I didn’t, either, for a long while.” The sinking sun crept through the window and painted Dory in shadow. Her tone was far-off, almost distant. “When I told my parents that I was pregnant, my father blew up and kicked me out of their house.”
Chad stiffened. “He should never—”
She stopped him. “Neither Dad nor I handled things well and we’ve made peace with that. Anyway, rather than staying and facing it, I ran. I lived on the streets for months, in and out of shelters.” She blinked hard. “I couldn’t stay in my parents’ house and I couldn’t come back here to Driftwood. I had no idea what to do.”
The knowledge made him cringe inside. He forced himself to look at her through the haze of pain. “Where did you go?”
“Anywhere and everywhere. I begged for money sometimes and slept in my car.”
Bile rose in his throat. “Aww, Dory.”
“God taught me plenty about humility back then. I finally landed in a church-sponsored shelter program. They were amazing and reminded me that Ivy was a gift from God. I knew I had to survive, so the baby would, too. She was the only thing I had left.”
The only thing I had left. He’d felt alone after their breakup, after his father had gone to prison. He’d spent so much time nursing his wounds and, all the while, Dory had been suffering. And he’d wanted her to, hadn’t he? His anger mixed with guilt and everything in between. Liam’s “gray area,” probably.
“The church program arranged for me to find a trailer to rent and a job waitressing. I continued on like that until I went into labor. I was scared, Chad. Barely twenty, alone and terrified. I broke down and called my mom. She and my dad came, but Ivy arrived before they did. I was alone, just me and her.”
Alone.
Why didn’t you call me? he wanted to say, but he knew why. “I should have been there.”
She cocked her head and pushed the plate away. “I handled it.”
“But I didn’t get the chance even to try.” Anger flicked up again and he crossed his arms. “Honestly, I don’t know that I would have had the courage, but I deserved the option to be there when my child was born.”
“Chad...” Her voice started out hard, but lost its edge. “Maybe. I don’t know. But she’s doing great. We don’t...”
“Want me around? I know that’s your feelings, but do you get to speak for Ivy? To decide that she doesn’t get to know her father?”
Her eyes sparked. “Even if that father was a jerk to her mother?”
Again he was lost in that sea of emotions that threatened to drown him. Guilt. Anger. Pain. Regret. And why did part of him long to hold her and soothe away the terrible memories from that long-ago day? “I didn’t handle things right.” There, he’d said it, confessed what his heart had probably always known. “You didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
Her eyes softened into that iridescent golden hue he remembered so well, the color that he would never find anywhere else on the planet.
“We both made mistakes. I—”
He did not get the chance to hear what her next words would be because her phone buzzed with a text.
She read the screen and turned it so he could see.
Here now. Leaving in 15 if you don’t show.
She was already heading for the door.
NINE
Dory gripped the armrest, trying to still the butterflies somersaulting in her stomach. Chad pushed the truck as fast as was practical on the twisting mountain road. Silhouetted against the ocean, the peaks were draped with a heavy curtain of trees. The sun was gradually sinking behind a jutting rock as the road led them up the cliff side.
He turned off the paved road and onto a graveled trail that dipped into a gorge. Steep, narrow, dangerous.
The way was abruptly blocked by a chain-link fence. Beyond was a wooden bridge that spanned a hundred-foot gap from one side of the gorge to the other. Once upon a time, it had been meant for people, not cars, but the years had not been kind to the structure. The slats nailed across the bridge had warped, with dark holes indicating missing pieces. Below came the sound of a great volume of water rushing out to the ocean.
Dory had been there decades before, when she and Chad were dating. Not surprising since the spot was a teen magnet. The bridge had been rickety even back then, but it hadn’t been officially barricaded until a group of boys plunged to their deaths into the water when the slats had given way underneath them.
Chad peered through the windshield at the chain-link fence. “Padlock’s been cut. Liam’s on his way. He’ll get a bead on things as best he can. Dory...” he started, but she was already dialing her phone.
She pressed the speaker button so Chad could listen. “I’m here, Bla—”
Blaze cut her off. “Who’s the cowboy?”
She realized with a start that he must be able to see them from his vantage point. No use trying to trick him. “I brought a friend.”
“I told you not to.”
“You shoved a boulder down on me. Alone was not an option.”
Blaze went quiet for a moment. “I was trying to scare you, is all. Same reason I sent you your kid’s photo.”
“Yeah, about that, Blaze. If you so much as breathe in the direction of my child, there will never be a good enough spot for you to hide from me. Got it?”
Chad shot her a look that just might have been admiration. Why did that please her? she wondered.
“Whatever,” Blaze grumbled.
“We’re here now, like you asked. Start talking.”
The phone went dead.
Dory’s stomach clenched. “He hung up.”
“There.” Chad stabbed a finger toward a dim light visible through the chain link. “He’s using his phone’s flashlight to show us his position. He’s right behind the gate in the shadows. Stay here.”
Chad got out. He retrieved a rifle from the back seat.
Typical Chad. Full stop or full go. Never a “let’s talk it over.”
No, she wanted to say. You’ll spook him. But Chad might be right. Blaze was dangerous and it would be foolhardy to seek him out unarmed. Any longer hesitation on their part might mean he’d bug out on them entirely.
“Start talking, Blaze,” she heard Chad call through the fence.
So much for a friendly approach to gain Blaze’s trust. She let herself out of the truck and crept closer to hear Blaze’s reply.
“I’m not talking to you, man. I don’t even know you. You got nothing to do with this.”
The anger practically radiated from Chad. “My last name is Jaggert. Ring a bell? My dad captained the boat. You faked your death and left him to take the fall, to blame himself for your drowning all these years. And here you are, the picture of health.” Chad shot Dory a furious look when she edged up next to him.
“Please, Blaze.” She kept her voice calm. “We need to know what happened to you.”
Blaze must have eased out farther onto the bridge. The boards creaked under his weight. “It wasn’t an accident.”
She must have misheard. Not an accident?
Chad jerked, shoulders rigid. “What did you say?”
Blaze’s answer was lost in the gust of the wind that ripped through the canyon. Chad eased the gate open and stepped onto the bridge.
“Don’t,” Dory whispered, but Chad didn’t reply.
“Tell us
what you know,” Chad said.
Blaze didn’t answer.
Dory edged up behind Chad. “Why did you push the rock down on me?”
His face was a pale crescent in the darkness. “Because I thought you were working for her.”
“Who?” Chad was losing patience. “Blaze, why did you come back here?”
She could not read his expression clearly, but his voice rang out like a mallet striking a gong. “The inheritance is mine. My stepmother meant it for me.”
Chad tracked him with the rifle as he stepped farther out onto the worn planks. “Then why didn’t you stay and claim it five years ago? Why play the possum?”
“Because she wants me dead. She sent people to track me. I’ve been lying low, doing what I had to do to survive, but I can’t do that anymore. Time’s running out and the cops are after me now, too, for the ATM job, which I didn’t have anything to do with.”
Dory figured it was time to negotiate. “Maybe we can help you. We have a friend in the police department.”
“Cops won’t believe me. No one will.”
“Tell us who wants you dead.”
He paused. “My aunt.”
Chad darted a quick glance behind him at Dory. The woman who would profit the most from her sister’s death. “Angela Robertson?”
“Yeah. She’s always hated me. She—”
A shot cracked from above, striking the fence pole and sending gold sparks dancing. Blaze cried out, bolting across the bridge, stumbling to his knees.
Dory wasn’t sure if he’d been shot or had fallen through a broken slat. Another shot answered immediately from below and sailed high over their heads.
Chad grabbed Dory’s arm and they raced back to the truck. He pushed her into the front seat and pressed his phone into her hand. “Text Liam.” He sprinted after Blaze before she could stop him.
Dory’s heart thundered madly as she pulled up Chad’s contacts and looked for Liam. A text appeared as she was thumbing through.
Returned fire. In pursuit. Hold your position.
She texted back.
