Sam’s eyebrows went up. “Just like that? You have a job. A place to live I assume. A life outside of Ember Falls.”
Drew started to trace the top of his coffee cup. “My place is just that. A place I go when I’m not working for the General.”
“The General?”
Drew grinned. “General Paul McAlister. Everyone calls him the General. I met him through his grandson when we served together and he introduced him as the General. That’s how he referred to him. Even his late wife used to call him that as well. From what I’m told, she was the only one who ever won an argument with the man. He’ll kick your ass for fun and you’ll thank him for it.”
“Ooh,” Sam said. “He sounds like fun.”
Drew nodded and laughed. “He’s great.” Drew drank more coffee, thinking about the man who he’d wished had been his father and smiled. “I was in a pretty dark place when I met his grandson Matt. I don’t know why we bonded the way we did. I think he inherited his Grandfather’s ability to just sense bullshit. Plus, I got into a fight right before we shipped out. Asshole hit on this waitress, wouldn’t take no. Had his hands on her. I got in his face about it. He didn’t like it and neither did his buddies. I’d bitten off more than I could chew, but damn it if I was about to back down.”
“You were standing up for someone,” Sam offered.
Drew shook his head. “I was looking for a fight. I was pissed at the world and wanted to pound someone. I could have tried to diffuse the situation, but I wanted to take him on. I didn’t realize he had buddies.”
“How many?”
Drew held up his hand with all fingers out, including his thumb. “Figured I was about to get my ass kicked. Still didn’t care. Next thing I knew, Matt jumped in. The two of us held our own until the police came. Numbskulls hadn’t counted on the fact that the ass they were grabbing belonged to the daughter of a police lieutenant. She was working there, putting herself through college. She told the cops on scene that Matt and I came to her defense, so we didn’t get any legal hassles out of it. Girl was okay, assholes spent a few nights in the local pokey and I had a new friend named Matt McAlister.”
Drew finished his coffee. Sam got up to refill their cups. She remained silent because she sensed Drew wasn’t done. When she sat back down and pushed his coffee closer, he ignored it.
“After Matt introduced me to the General,” Drew continued. “I noticed whenever Matt heard from him, he’d always say the General says to give you his regards. We had leave around Thanksgiving one year. I had no place to go.” Drew chuckled. “Well, no place where I thought I’d be welcome.”
Finally, Drew took the coffee and drank. It wasn’t as hot as the first cup, but it was still good. He imagined living off of this stuff. “Matt was killed in Iraq.” He drank again. He didn’t look up to see the sympathy in Sam’s eyes. He didn’t need to.
“I brought his body home. I’d been injured in the same fire fight. Nothing severe, but I was home and I wasn’t going back. We were almost near the end of our tour. Another week and a half and we would have been out of there. Matt was the General’s only grandchild. He had two kids. One died before she hit ten. The big C. The other fathered Matt. They left Matt with his grandparents so they could go out of town for their anniversary. He was thirteen. They never made it home. Drunk driver.” Drew shrugged. “The General’s lost his two kids, his wife to a heart attack and I got to take the last of his family away.”
“Drew, you didn’t take him away,” Sam said.
Drew waved her off. “I know, but that’s what it felt like. Before I knew it, I was working for the General. And he’s more than a boss. He brought me back here. He’ll stand with me when I put my sister in the ground, and then I’m going to tell him I’m leaving. McAlister Securities has no interests here in Ember Falls. But Cole needs me. I gave my word that I’ll stay, and I will. And I know the General. He’ll have already figured it out. He probably knew it before I did.”
Sam smiled. “You love him.”
“Yeah,” Drew said. “I do. And I’m going to break his heart.”
“Maybe not,” Sam said. “You can still keep him in your life. Just because you stay and he doesn’t, doesn’t mean you have to cut him out completely.”
Drew nodded. “And you’re wondering if that’s what I did with my sisters. What do you know about what happened before I left?”
Sam hesitated. This was tricky ground. Not only because it was emotional quicksand, but because she was a cop and this was still an open investigation, but every instinct in her said he didn’t do what he was accused of.
“Some of it,” she admitted. “I know a girl named Molly Winters disappeared. She’s still never been found. You were arrested. They said you were found close to the scene of the crime. Claimed you didn’t know anything. They charged you, which since there was very little evidence, was stupid. Then the existing police sheriff died and a new one came in, Ollie’s mother, in fact. Charges were dropped. You got out.”
“Yeah, I got out,” Drew said. “I don’t remember most of that night. I was wasted out of my mind. I don’t even remember drinking. Molly smoked pot. Pretty sure she was into some harder stuff. I’d never done drugs before then or since. I don’t remember doing it that night, but I was probably drunk off my ass. It didn’t agree with me. I nearly died.
“They found me OD’ed about ten miles from the school, which is the last place anyone can remember seeing Molly. Not that they know that she was snatched from there. Or for that matter that she was snatched, but saying I was found near the scene looked better on paper, and for that matter, in the papers.”
Sam wished she had a notebook. She felt certain something he’d said was important to solve the case, but she couldn’t quite pin it down. Still, she might be able to dig up more.
“The cops wanted me to be guilty,” Drew said. “So did the DA. Molly’s parents were friends with the Brooks. He was mayor back then, not a senator. He had it in for me. And he was buddies with the DA and sheriff. There was zero evidence. And thank you for not asking, but I’ll say it so you don’t have to. I’m innocent. I can’t prove it. Hell, I can’t even remember it, but I know it in here. I wouldn’t have hurt her. That much I know. Knowing that, believing that, it was one of the few things that kept me going for a while.”
“For a while?”
Drew stared at his coffee and wondered if she’d slipped something into it to make him so chatty. This wasn’t like him, opening up. He was more of the dark, brooding kind of guy, not the cry on your shoulder type.
But he was at the end of his rope. Something had to give. And this was helping. He could feel the knot in his gut loosen just a little bit.
“A little bit after the General buried Matt, I opened up to him. It was probably selfish of me, but I think he wanted to talk about something besides Matt and I needed to get it out. Looking back, I realize nothing I said was a surprise to him. He’d done his homework on me.”
Sam smiled. “He didn’t just believe you, he believed in you.”
“Yeah he did.” Drew stood up, walked over to the glass doors that led to the back deck. “Not that he said anything sappy when I told him I was innocent. He just nodded and said, ‘Good to know because I need a new man at my company and having you be innocent makes the paperwork easier.’” Drew smiled as he recalled that moment. “That’s how he asked me to work for him.”
Sam got up and stepped beside him. “He’s more than just a boss. He’s family now. And you staying here to take care of Cole won’t change that.”
Drew turned to her, looked into those delicious brown eyes, saw the exquisite curve of her mouth, and he wanted so badly to put his mouth on hers. And then to keep going.
Sam would have to have been blind not to see what was swirling in his eyes, and dead not to want his hands on her, but she wasn’t going there with him tonight.
“You want to step outside?” Sam said. “It’s a nice night and the fresh air would feel great.”<
br />
Reluctantly, Drew followed her out to the back porch.
“Did you ever talk to your sisters?” Sam asked as she headed for a small bench swing.
Drew shook his head. He leaned against the back banister and looked out into the dark woods behind her home. “They never came to see me when I was in the hospital or jail. I wrote to them, they never responded. I figured they believed it. I didn’t blame them. I heard some of what was going around about me. Stuff they had no evidence of. I’d been seen by over half a dozen people dragging Molly into my car. Nobody knew who these people were, but if you ask someone in town, they’re sure they existed. And my sisters had other reasons to be pissed at me.”
“Such as?” Sam moved the bench back and forth slowly.
Drew turned around, leaned on the banister. He folded his arms as he looked at her, silhouetted in the moonlight.
“I wasn’t there for them,” Drew said. “I couldn’t protect them. That had been my promise. I’d always protect them.”
Sam used her feet to stop moving. “I’ve heard things were rough at home for you.”
Drew laughed. “Rough, huh? Who told you that? Ollie?”
Sam didn’t deny it. “Ashley’s never really talked to him about the details, but he said every once in a while, she’d slipped and said something about how she wasn’t her father’s little bitch anymore. Or if she saw your father, she had to resist the urge to run him over just so she never had to worry about her closets anymore. He wasn’t sure what that meant.”
Sam saw the rage in his eyes roll in like a storm.
“Did your father put her in the closet?”
Drew shook his head. His fists clenched, his jaw tightened and he looked out into the night sky, avoiding Sam’s eyes. “No, I did.”
Sam’s heart started to slam against her chest. “What?”
Drew turned to her. He needed her to see his eyes as he explained this.
“I’d put them both in there,” Drew admitted. “When Dad was home, drunk and on a tear, he was in a mood to hurt someone and he wouldn’t stop until he did, so I’d put them in the closet and go to him. Sometimes, I’d say something to piss him off even more, focus his attention on me. Sometimes, he’d see me and I knew I didn’t need to bother. He’d lay into me. And Kelli and Ashley were safe.”
Sam shot up and went to him. Put her hand on his heart. “You were trying to protect her. You did protect her.”
Drew shook his head. “I convinced myself that it was better, but Ashley was afraid of the dark and I…” He took a breath, his lungs on fire. He wished to hell he had a cigarette, but he’d thrown them all away and had no intention of breaking his word. “First time I did that, Ashley came running out. She heard me screaming, so she ran out to help. To stop him. To save me. He grabbed her by the throat and I swear I thought he was going to rip her head off. I punched my father in the nuts and he hit me so hard I saw stars. I’m not sure what happened next, but Ashley wouldn’t talk for a week.”
“How old were you?”
Drew shrugged. “We were seven. Almost eight. It was three days after mom died.”
Unsure of what else to do, she put her arms around him. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Drew moved away from her without returning the embrace. Lord knows he wanted to, but he couldn’t. Not yet.
“My father was always mean and cruel,” Drew said. “And we never knew when he’d strike out. Smacking us with the back of his hand, giving us a kick when we didn’t expect it, but normally it was quick and it was done. Those rages he went into, they were rarer. Sometimes you could go days, other times weeks, but when they happened, it was legendary. It was three weeks before it happened again. Something set him off. Not sure what, but he came home looking for us and we knew. So I did almost the same thing again.”
“Almost?” Sam said. She was afraid to know what was different, because she could tell whatever it was, it haunted Drew.
“Ashley begged me to hide in there with them,” Drew explained. “But I knew he’d look for us and break down the door to get to us. He was already slamming doors downstairs. So I pushed both of my sisters in there. And then I locked the door.”
Sam blinked. “You had a closet door with a lock on it?”
“We did then,” Drew said. “I’d managed to change it out after the last time. I didn’t want them getting out again. So I locked my sisters in a closet and dealt with my father. My sister is still afraid of enclosed spaces. I did that to her. I knew they’d be stuck in there until I could manage to let them out and sometimes that was hours later, but I stuck them in there whenever I knew he was in a rage. I tried to protect them from my father, but there was nobody there to protect them from me.”
Drew looked at Sam, saw the outrage on her face and realized he’d gone too far. He looked to the back of the house, plotted his escape and decided to bolt.
“I should go,” he said. “I’ve laid enough on you for the night. I’m sorry. Thanks for the coffee.”
Without looking back, Drew rushed down the stairs of the back porch and off to the side of the house. He needed to get home. This was a mistake. He should never have opened up to her. What the hell was wrong with him that he just spilled his guts?
Drew made it to his car, had his hand on the handle, when he heard Sam.
“Drew wait, please.”
He stopped short. He didn’t turn to look at her, but he waited. After the kindness she’d shown him, he figured it was the least he could do. He could see her reflection in his window.
“You didn’t ask me if I thought you were innocent,” she said. “Maybe you don’t care. Or maybe you were afraid to hear the answer, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I know you didn’t hurt that girl. That’s not you.”
Drew let out a laugh, but it held no humor. “I appreciate that, but I don’t think you know me well enough to say that. I’m an ass. I’ve hurt people. Not just my sisters.”
Sam walked over and leaned against the car so she could see his face. “I know that too.”
They locked eyes and he saw her grin and now he laughed for real. “You’ve been talking to your partner, haven’t you?”
“What’s discussed in the squad car stays in the squad car,” Sam replied.
“Uh huh,” Drew shifted around so they were both leaning against his car. “I can’t blame you for that. Can I ask you this? How hard is he going to make it to reconnect with my sister?”
Sam thought about the question. She had been dead serious about not wanting to talk about what Ollie said, but Drew’s inquiry seemed fair. There was a lot riding on how things progressed between Drew and Ashley. They needed to find common ground for Cole’s sake.
“He’s not out to punish you,” Sam said. “I’m sure he’s got a lot of anger, but in the end, he’ll want what’s best for your sister and Cole. I’m sure if you convince him you’re good for them, he’ll stay out of the way. He…” Sam hesitated. “He cares for your family.”
Drew smiled. Nicely put, Deputy Rossi. It was a far more diplomatic way to say he’s in love with your idiot sister who has no clue he feels that way.
Drew stepped away from the car and turned towards Sam. She was just so damn beautiful in the moonlight. She looked up at him, those big, brown eyes waiting.
And something clicked.
“Bruce Liverman,” he said.
Sam started to blink. It was a name she hadn’t heard in years and never expected to ever hear again. “What?”
Drew smiled. “Bruce Liverman. He was a snot nosed kid one grade below us. He picked on Kelli a little when we were in school, until I set him straight. He used to terrorize a bunch of the girls in school.”
Sam crossed her arms. “I remember him. Why are you bringing him up?”
Drew took a step closer. “He pulled your hair once. Kept saying a girl shouldn’t play football and grabbed you by the hair. You punched him and knocked out a tooth.”
Sam felt her face get warm as she recalled
that moment. Couldn’t believe Drew remembered. “I told you, I can take care of myself.”
“I believe you.” Drew moved in close, lightly pressing his body to hers. He waited for a sign that she wanted to protest, but there was none. He placed his hand on her cheek, and gave her one more moment to say no.
She didn’t.
His mouth was on hers, and the taste of her lips was exquisite. He hardened the kiss, exploring the inside of her mouth.
She slid her hand up his muscular arm, knowing if she pushed at him even in the slightest, he’d stop. Instead, her hand made it to the back of his head and her fingers weaved through his hair.
He heard a soft sigh escape and wanted to scoop her up and carry her back inside. He’d find the first flat surface, lay her down and taste every last inch of her. He wanted to hear her do more than sigh.
Sensing his excitement building, she quickly moved her hand to his massive chest and with much regret, pushed with enough pressure to signal him to stop.
He did, but with disappointment in his eyes, and longing on his face.
“Let me touch you,” he asked.
It took every ounce of self-restraint, but she shook her head. “No. We’re not going there tonight. It’s too soon. And there are too many… complications.”
He nodded, pushed himself off of her and leaned back against the car next to her. “How much of this is because of your partner.”
Sam took a moment to inhale the cool night air. She wasn’t one who got worked up so fast by someone she didn’t know, but Sam knew if she weren’t leaning against his car, her legs might not be able to support her right now. “Some. It’s also too fast. Maybe not for you, but for me. I’m not into casual trysts. I don’t have a problem with them, but they’re not my thing. You need to know that. And I need to decide if I’m ready for whatever this might turn into.”
Drew didn’t look at her. He was trying to get control of himself and looking at her all flustered in the moonlight wasn’t going to help.
“I’ve done casual, meaningless trysts,” Drew admitted. “They have their place. But nothing that was going through my mind just then was casual.”
Torn Away (The Torn Series Book 1) Page 9
