One Heart Remains: Wallflowers, #3

by C. P. Smith

  “What?

  “You can’t remember four digits?” Cali asked.

  I pointed to my chest. “ADD.”

  We followed them until Highway 80 turned into Butler Street, pausing at the intersection when they turned down 18th Street, heading toward Bernice’s cottage.

  Curiouser and curiouser.

  “Curiouser and curiouser,” Sienna mumbled.

  “It’s like were related or somethin’,” I mumbled absentmindedly, following Natalie with my eyes.

  “Follow them, but park up the street,” Cali said, pointing to an open spot.

  Sienna followed and parked like Cali said. I turned around and watched Bo keep going, but Nate was crossing the street. He’d bailed out of the truck to stay with us. I opened the door when he got closer, and he ducked in the back seat with me.

  We watched silently as Natalie and her friend parked further down, then climbed out, opened their truck, and pulled out a metal detector.

  “Beachcombin’?” I asked incredulously. “It’ll be dark soon.”

  They disappeared around the corner in front of Bernice’s cottage, heading for the beach, so we climbed out and pulled our hats low on our heads and began to follow. Nate led, scanning the area as we walked, acting as if there was a gun pointed at our heads.

  I changed my mind watching him stalk like a panther. Peeved or not, he was so dang hot doing it!

  When we reached Bernice’s cottage, we ducked down low and climbed up the porch, keeping in the shadows of the thick beach grass that formed a wind barrier around the porch. Natalie and her friend were a hundred feet away, scanning the sand near the rental next door. The one Senator Scott and his family had rented.

  “Why are they huntin’ for lost treasure right outside a crime scene?” I whispered. The girls looked as bewildered as I was.

  Nate grunted something under his breath and pulled out his phone. “Devin? Does that look like Natalie’s brother?”

  Brother? Well, that explained why he was helping her.

  Natalie kept kicking the sand up with her foot like she was looking for something, and her brother was scanning the area just off the porch.

  “You see what we see?” Nate mumbled under his breath, still talking with Devin.

  “What does any of this have to do with our phones or the Senator?” Sienna asked.

  I shrugged. “We didn’t even have our phones that night since I’d . . . Wait! Aliens,” I all but shouted, then clamped my hand over my mouth.

  “Aliens?” Nate grumbled, hanging up his phone.

  “I used Bernice’s phone to take pictures of the aliens.”

  Cali caught on immediately and pulled her phone out, mumbling, “I’ll call Bernice.”

  I turned to Nate and explained. “Senator Scott and his family were takin’ a walk while we were out on the porch. I was lickin’ my wounds about my father and made a crack about the Senator and his wife bein’ aliens ’cause they were holdin’ hands.”

  “What’s that got to do with your phone?”

  “I didn’t have it ’cause I’d thrown ours out the window to avoid you.”

  He opened his mouth then shut it. “All right, I’ll bite. What does this have to do with why she stole your phones?”

  “I wanted evidence of the aliens, of course.”

  I could tell I was testing his patience, but he was funny when he was frustrated so I couldn’t help it. I planned to feed the good wolf for the rest of my life if I had to.

  “And?” he sighed wearily.

  I leaned up and kissed him because he was mine and I was his, and I was not happy-ish but plain old happy. Blissfully happy.

  “I borrowed Bernice’s phone and took, like, a hundred pictures of the Scotts while they were standin’ right where Natalie is now. But she had no way of knowin’ it was Bernice’s phone I used, instead of mine or one of the girls’.”

  His eyes shot to Natalie, and he pulled out his phone again.

  “Okay, look through the images and see if you see somethin’ then call me back,” Cali said.

  “You think Natalie had somethin’ to do with the kidnappin’?” Sienna asked.

  I thought about that and couldn’t see it. She was a hungry reporter, yes. But a kidnapper?

  A loud beeping noise drew my attention back to her brother, who was scanning the area near a sand dune, just as Cali’s phone rang. I looked toward her as she answered, then back at Natalie when Cali gasped, “Natalie was hidin’ in the background?”

  Nate moved then. He stood from his haunches, phone at his ear, and barked out, “Natalie was there the night Rachel Scott was kidnapped.”

  Her brother hooted triumphantly, holding up something shiny while I tried to wrap my head around Natalie as a kidnapper. Devin and Bo peeled from the shadows almost immediately, like the avenging angels they were, and tackled the man. Natalie seemed stunned at first then started to run. She made it five feet before Nate reached out and snagged her around the waist.

  The girls and I stood and took in the scene before us. Bo had her brother cuffed, his face pressed into the sand, and Natalie was trying to wrestle away from Nate. “Quick,” I shouted at Cali. “Record this for YouTube. We can title it Bodacious Bar Owner, Hot Cop, and Dashing Detective strike again!”

  _______________

  Four days later . . .

  I was behind the bar filling an order for a draft beer. I’d gone online and gotten my food handler’s permit so I could help Nate when I was at the bar. So far, I wasn’t causing too much trouble. At least when I remembered to charge a customer for their drinks, I wasn’t.

  “Love the T-shirt you got Gertie,” a server named Jessica laughed. I grinned as I topped off the beer. Nate may have said no to Gertie wearing anything but UGA approved merchandise, but what I heard was maybe. Okay, that’s a lie. I did hear no. But no means maybe in my book; so I got Gertie and I matching shirts. Born To Be Wild baseball tees, with black rhinestones embedded in the letters, graced her body and mine. I’d paired mine with black leggings and flip-flops. I was on the hunt for a rhinestone encrusted collar to pair with hers. And Nate? Well, he was practicing deep breathing to keep from wringing my neck. The color in his cheeks was an interesting shade of ‘if you kill her then we can’t live happily ever after’ red.

  See? No means maybe!

  Bo walked in with Sienna as I sat the draft on the bar. I started to walk around to greet them but turned back. “That’ll be five fifty,” I stated, remembering Nate couldn’t pay his employees unless I charged the customers.

  The man handed me a ten with a huge smile, saying, “Keep the change, wild thing.”

  I glanced at my shirt and laughed.

  Nate looked over his shoulder and scowled.

  “Hey, thanks,” I replied pertly. I was learning a cheerful disposition earned more tips. “Dilly. Dilly!”

  I handed the money and his ticket over to a server then grabbed Nate’s wrist, pulling him from behind the bar while he continued to glare at the man. He wrapped his arm around my neck as we headed to the twelve top he’d had set for our party.

  The whole gang was there. His mother. His aunt. Devin and Cali. Bo and Sienna. My dad. And Bernice and Eunice. We all wanted to know how Natalie pleaded.

  Turns out Natalie had been hiding in the shadows because she was one of many women sleeping with Senator Scott. In her case, she’d been sleeping with Scott for insider information.

  Her goal as a journalist was to work for CNN or MSNBC as a political correspondent and thought the gambling controversy might boost her ratings if she broke a story no one else could.

  So how did she get tied up in the kidnapping? Well, while Natalie waited for Scott to show up, David Weller, aka the kidnapper, came ashore on his boat. Weller, a soon-to-be-bankrupt landowner, was desperate for the bill to pass because it was his land one of the proposed casinos would sit on.

  Natalie saw Weller, who she recognized as one of the leaders of the gambling bill, as he cased the renta
l, passing underneath light poles like an amateur without his hood up to cover his face. But he hadn’t seen Natalie. Senator Scott was soon forgotten in the wake of Weller showing up, and she watched Weller watch the Scott family until they went to bed. Then she watched him break inside and try to kidnap Scott’s daughter, without calling the police.

  When Weller got away, instead of going to the police with what she saw, Natalie decided to blackmail him for insider information to further her career. She’d lied and said she’d recorded him during the kidnapping attempt and that she found something at the beach that would corroborate her claim. Waller had fallen for it easily because in the course of the kidnapping he’d actually lost a lighter with his name engraved on it. Hearing that, Natalie enlisted her brother’s help to steal our phones and help find the missing lighter.

  And that left us with her flirting with Nate. That was all real. In the heat of the moment, and the lack of light, Natalie hadn’t recognized Devin or Nate until we showed up at the station. She’d never gotten over her crush on Nate, so her manipulations were solely to steal him away from me until her mother pointed out it was a lost cause. The only reason she came back to the bar when they caught her with our phones was to find Sienna, hoping to nab hers as well.

  Crazy right?

  Knox was still bent out of shape he misread her. But, as I pointed out to him, men really shouldn’t attempt to figure out what was going on inside a woman’s head. It’ll just leave you battered and bruised—and looking like a fool most days.

  As soon as Nate and I sat down at the table, I asked the question I thought everyone wanted to know. “So tell us, Bo, how did Natalie look in an orange jumpsuit?”

  _______________

  One week later . . .

  “So, Gertrude,” I said to my faithful companion, “I’ve been meanin’ to talk to you about your waistline.”

  We were out for an evening stroll. I’d taken it upon myself to walk her during the dinner rush any time Knox, Sienna, and I got together. It would take time before I was completely comfortable with Knox, but I had faith we would get there.

  “She’s a bull, there’s nothing wrong with her waistline,” Knox commented.

  “I never had a dog growin’ up,” Sienna said.

  I shoved the leash at her. “Have at it. She pulls a little to the right.”

  “Is her suspension off?” Knox chuckled.

  Ha! Clearly, I got my sarcasm from Knox.

  “I’m hungry. Are you hungry?” I asked.

  “I could eat,” Knox said.

  “Do you like pizza?”

  He raised a brow. “I’m a man.”

  I smiled. “Have you had Vinnie Van Go-Go’s pizza since you’ve been here?”

  Vinnie’s served super thin New York style pizza you could fold in half and eat while you walked through the downtown district. The slices were huge and delicious.

  “Nope. Lead the way,” he answered.

  We crossed the street and headed toward the city market in the heart of the downtown area. Up ahead, as we passed Johnson Square, I caught sight of Cali, Bernice, and Eunice. All three looked angry, but Bernice and Eunice were furious. Arms were flailing, voices were raised, people were watching in abject horror. It was like an episode of Jersey Shore.

  I glanced at Sienna and we smiled.

  “Jesus,” Knox sighed. “It’s like watching an older version of you girls.”

  I glanced at the two sisters and agreed. They were both Wallflowers. Just older, seasoned versions.

  Sienna gasped, as we got closer. I wasn’t sure why until Cali stepped to the right and my Aunt Shirley became visible. That’s when I stopped cold. I hadn’t seen or heard from my aunt since everything went down. Dragon had been arraigned and held without bail. Once customers heard about my assault, other women started coming forward. I wasn’t the only one who kept quiet out of fear. Basil Dracul had been threatening women for years. His other victims had assumed no one would believe them because of where they’d met. That they were less of a victim because they chose to cut loose in a bar rather than a church. Like me, they’d hid in fear. Felt they were to blame for someone else’s sickness, becoming victims all over again to their own guilt. I wept a little every time I thought about those other women. What kind of world did we live in that a woman had to hold her tongue about abuse to avoid being ridiculed?

  “I did the best I could,” I heard her fire back at something Eunice said.

  “You let that girl down and there is no excuse,” Bernice bit out. “A child is precious. A gift from God, whether you bore her yourself or not. You owed it to your sister, to Poppy, to be the best momma you could be. Not whorin’ around and invitin’ evil into your home.”

  “It was only supposed to be for a few years. I wasn’t supposed to raise her,” Shirley groused.

  Bernice shook her head. “You’re a fool, Shirley Gentry. There is no time limit on love.”

  Shirley glanced up and saw us standing there. Her face paled when she realized Knox was there, but she grew angry when she turned her attention toward me. “Always had to have it your way, didn’t you?” she hissed at me.

  It should have made me ill to hear that, but I was fine. Bernice was right. I was a child who needed her, and she’d done the bare minimum. She’d fooled both Knox and me into thinking she cared. That was on her, not him or me.

  I was learning to accept that Dragon’s assault wasn’t my fault—thanks to a counselor provided through the police department—and to never be ashamed about what happened. I was a victim. Victims are never at fault.

  “I gave up my life for you, and this is the thanks I get. You draggin’ me into court and spreadin’ lies.”

  I found my voice then and fired back, “You know I’m not lyin’. I remember the look in your eyes when I cried about a dragon chasing me in the dark. You’re the one who told me it was just a dream.”

  Her face twisted bitterly. “I should have let my father have you,” she said snidely.

  I blinked.

  Eunice paled.

  Sienna gasped.

  Cali growled.

  Knox jerked like he’d been struck, then recovered, ready to strangle her. Sienna and I both grabbed an arm to hold him back. Thankfully Bernice beat him to the punch, literally, handling Shirley in a way only another woman could. She slapped Shirley’s face so hard, my aunt stumbled back and clutched her cheek. Knox was still fighting against our restraint, so I whispered, “Dad, trust me. Let Bernice handle this.”

  He looked down at me, and I could see the pain she’d caused. I winked at him and burrowed under his arm. He relaxed into me and put his other arm around Sienna, holding us both tight as we watched Bernice do her thing.

  Bernice stood shocked by her action. She kept looking at her hand then back at my aunt in confusion. “I’ve never struck another human bein’ in my life,” she whispered blankly. I expected her to lay a bushel full of truth on my aunt, but she turned her attention toward me instead, her expression burning with an untold emotion. As I held her attention, I swear it was like love bloomed right in front of me, warming the coldness in my bones Shirley had wrought with a single look.

  “If you ever come near Poppy again, I’ll do more than slap you next time,” Bernice said over her shoulder, still holding my gaze like it was important I understood her. “I’ll level the entire weight of the Armstrong family directly at you.” Bernice turned back after that gauntlet had been thrown. “You’re done in this town, do you understand? Pack your bags and get the heck out, or as God as my witness, I will bury you.”

  Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. That wasn’t a gauntlet; that was every piece of clothing in Frock You she’d thrown down. I glanced at Cali. She was smiling. I guess since Cali was the heir apparent to Armstrong Shipping, Bernice truly had the entire weight of her family to throw at my aunt.

  Eunice nodded emphatically in agreement, then pulled out her phone, took a picture of Shirley, and said, “I’ll send her picture to Luther, Daddy�
�s new bodyguard. He’ll make sure she leaves town nice and quick.”

  Shirley paled even further, the hand holding her cheek was shaking like a leaf. She looked like she wanted to argue, but Knox took a step toward her when her eyes landed on me, so she took off.

  Knox let go of me when Cali approached, and she and Sienna both put an arm around me as I watched Shirley disappear from view.

  “You okay, sugar?” Bernice asked walking up to me, rubbing my cheek with the back of her hand.

  I hemmed and hawed about that. Bounced it around Johnson Square a few times. Thought about tossing it like a salad, but I realized quickly I was fine. Yeah, I’d lost the only mother I’d ever known, but I’d gained so much more. A sister. A father. A man who loves me, and friends no girl could do without. Being a Wallflower was for life. Permanent just like the tattoos inked onto our wrists. We were survivors who changed the course of our lives and broke free from the confines we’d created. We found love and friendship, but most importantly we rescued ourselves from a lonely existence. We were finally the ones taking a turn on the dance floor, rather than sitting on the sidelines watching life pass us by.

  “Actually, I’m hungry.”

  Sienna and Cali looked at each other and smiled knowingly. As I’d said before, Wallflowers don’t faint, have the vapors, or otherwise swoon.

  We just keep on keepin’ on.

  Gah, I come up with the best lines!

  “Still want Vinnies?” Sienna asked.

  “Yes! I feel like two slices, too. Watchin’ Bernice throw down makes me hungry.”

  Bernice looked aghast. “I didn’t throw down. Ladies do not throw down.” She sighed dramatically. “It was more like a suggestion.”

  “Was not. You totally threw down.”

  “Was so. Throwin’ down implies blood. A genteel slap, to remind someone they should use good manners, is a suggestion.”

  “Was not.”

  “Was so.”

  Dagnabit, Bernice knew how to play this game like a pro.

  _______________

  One month later . . .

  Devin Hawthorne sat at the bar inside Teasers, an upscale strip club located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He kept his eyes on the back of the bar, rather than the stage. He already had a woman. One he loved. He had no desire to check out the merchandise. But the same woman who owned his heart had sent him inside the strip club to gather intel on a man.