Once a Family

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  “I was hoping you would,” he admitted. It would be easier to let Tatum walk away with Sedona there, taking her in. And he had to make certain that this move was as easy as possible. For his sister’s sake. “She told you about having sex with Harcourt when she wouldn’t talk to anyone else. Maybe she’ll talk to you.”

  Sedona made a sound and then seemed to hesitate, as though she might say more. “I’ll do my best,” she said, and he wondered what she’d held back.

  But knew he had no right to ask.

  * * *

  FIVE MINUTES AFTER she got off the phone with Tanner, Sedona had made arrangements for Tatum to return to The Stand. Maddie’s spare bed was still available, so Tatum could slide right back into the life she’d left the day before.

  In the end, Tanner’s move the previous day might just have helped them all. Maybe it had shown him something he’d needed to see to help his sister. Maybe, when he took Tatum back to the shelter, Tatum would see that Tanner really did support her and want what was best for her. Maybe his actions could start to rebuild her trust in him.

  Her phone rang as she was pulling a green pantsuit out of her closet. She’d just stepped out of the shower when Tanner had phoned before. And now he was calling again.

  “Hello?”

  “She’s not here.”

  Something dawned on her. Tatum had called half an hour earlier, to ask if she was still her lawyer. She’d been in a rush, saying Tanner was going to be there in what had sounded like seconds.

  Tanner had called fifteen minutes later with fifteen minutes left before he was due to pick her up....

  She held on to the closet door as her thoughts flew. And screeched to a halt.

  Del. He had a car. Visited Tatum at school.

  “Oh, God, Tanner, I’m afraid she’s with Harcourt,” she blurted, telling him about the call she’d had from Tatum.

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  “No, you aren’t.” Thinking quickly, she spat out the first thing that sounded good to her—because it would keep Tanner safe while they figured out what to do. “Come over here. I’m just out of the shower, but I’ll call Tatum and see if she’ll pick up. By the time you get here, I’ll be ready to go and maybe I’ll have some answers for you.”

  “Shouldn’t we call the police?”

  “I don’t think she’s missing, Tanner. She was clearly expecting someone to get her from school half an hour ago. Let me make some calls. If I don’t find out anything solid, I’ll call you back and we can call the police together. Just come here, okay?”

  She didn’t want him to do anything foolish. She’d just figured out she loved the man. She couldn’t have him ruining his life because his heart was in pieces and he was scared to death.

  Even if she couldn’t have him, she could help him.

  And in that instant, she understood, on a very minute scale, how Tanner must have felt with three younger siblings needing help and him being the only one there to give it. He’d still been a kid himself—and he’d been man enough, even then, to know that it was up to him to look out for them.

  Even though, ultimately, there wasn’t anything in it for him.

  He’d done it because he loved them. Period.

  It didn’t get any better than that.

  * * *

  TANNER DROVE STRAIGHT to Sedona’s. If he’d been in his right mind, he’d have been pounding on Harcourt’s front door with the police on the line. But his right mind hadn’t been serving him so well lately.

  Sedona seemed so sure that he had to be at her place. And so, breaking the speed limit the entire way, he was at her back door in less than twenty minutes.

  Dressed in a green suit, with her mane of hair tied back and makeup on her face, she was at the door waiting for him.

  “Thank God,” she said as she looked him over from head to toe. His breathing faltered as he feared what she’d found out when she’d phoned his sister.

  “I was afraid you’d go to the Harcourts’ and get yourself arrested for trespassing, or, at the very least, make Tatum so angry with you she’d never speak to you again.”

  She’d been afraid for him? He shook his head. “Did you get ahold of her?”

  “Not exactly.”

  He studied her face, trying to read what she was withholding from him, needing to know whatever she knew. “What does that mean?”

  “I spoke with Del’s mother, Callie. She answered the phone.”

  “Why does Callie Harcourt have my sister’s phone?” He just needed her to tell him Tatum was okay. That she was safe and that no harm had come to her.

  “Tatum called her and said she needed a ride home from school. Del was already home when they got there and the two of them went out to get some ice cream. Tatum forgot her phone on the counter when she left.”

  Relief flooded him.

  He thought about calling the police. Having Callie Harcourt brought up on charges of kidnapping for taking his underage sister without his permission.

  “She said she’d have Tatum call me the second she gets back.”

  “Does she know who you are?”

  Sedona stepped back, pulling him into the small dining area just inside the door. “Yes,” she said. “Tatum told her.”

  “Does she know that Tatum lied to her about not having a ride home from school?”

  “I don’t think so. She didn’t seem to think anything was wrong and I didn’t want to alert her and have her warn Tatum before we got to her.”

  Good thinking.

  So, all was not lost. Tatum had gone home from school with a friend without permission. That was all.

  They could still fix this....

  “Tatum doesn’t like ice cream,” he said, telling himself again that everything was going to be just fine. He wasn’t alone anymore. Tatum had other people who cared and were looking out for her.

  “But she likes Del and if he wanted ice cream...”

  “It’s also not like her to leave her phone anywhere. Especially since she just got it back. That damn thing is more friend to her than any human I know of.” He couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t just sit back and calmly wait for the phone to ring.

  Something wasn’t right.

  Sedona’s hand on his got his attention. He looked down to see her slender fingers threading through his. “Relax,” she said. “Callie’s not going to let anything happen to Tatum. Let’s give them half an hour more and then I’ll call back.”

  What was he going to do for half an hour? Did she have any idea what could happen in half an hour?

  “Let’s go sit outside,” she said. “I’ll pour some tea.” Like the child he’d never been, Tanner let Sedona lead him out to the chair he’d occupied a couple of times before. She left him then, but only long enough to pour their tea.

  It was too long.

  He didn’t want tea. Or to sit. Hands clenched on the arms of the chair, he was on the verge of springing up and getting the hell out of there, heading over to see Callie Harcourt for himself and find out where Del would have taken Tatum for ice cream.

  The ringing of Sedona’s phone stopped him from trying to make his break.

  “It’s not her,” she said, joining him on the porch without tea, her phone in her hand.

  “Hello?”

  Her eyes widened and she looked over at Tanner, putting the phone on speaker.

  “Tatum? Where are you?”

  “I’m at a friend of Del’s.” Tatum’s voice wasn’t right. Tanner tensed, shaking his head at Sedona.

  “Where’s your phone?” It wasn’t the question he’d have asked.

  Frustrated, Tanner sat powerlessly and listened as a strange-sounding Tatum said, “Del thought I should leave it at his house in case Tanner put a trace on it.”


  His sudden intake of breath was so sharp his chest hurt. Sedona’s hand came down on his and she said, “Why would Tanner put a trace out on your phone?”

  “Because I wasn’t at school when he went to pick me up. I had Del’s mom come get me. He told me to. He said she’d agree to be my guardian and I was going to ask her tonight, but Del said I should wait until after his father goes to bed tonight because that’s the best time to talk to her. When she’s not distracted by dinner and Del’s dad and things.”

  “Does that sound right to you? That Del’s dad goes to bed and then family business is discussed?”

  Tanner stared at Tatum’s attorney as a strange sense of calm momentarily eased his panic.

  “No.”

  “So why did you accept him telling you so?”

  “Because Del’s dad is mean.”

  “And you want to live where the man of the house is mean?”

  “No, and Del doesn’t, either. That’s the point. We’re going to make our own life, have our own home, so Del can get away from his dad. His dad hits him, Sedona.”

  Tanner raised his brows at Sedona.

  “Did Mr. Harcourt hit you, too?”

  That thought hadn’t occurred to him.

  Tatum’s “No” came before he could process the idea and he gladly let it go.

  “So it was Del?”

  Tatum’s hesitation had Tanner up and out of his chair. He’d known it.

  “Tatum, where is Del right now?”

  “He’s outside in the garage with his friend. They had something to do with the car.”

  “Are you alone?”

  “Yeah, but a couple of friends are going to stop by. Some other girls and all. We’re going to get ice cream.”

  “Where?”

  “I’m not sure. Someplace they all hang out. I couldn’t ever go before because Tanner wouldn’t let me.”

  Hands in his pockets, he paced the small deck. Ellie, who’d been left inside, stood on the other side of the sliding glass door, watching him.

  He should have let Tatum have a dog. Something to love that was all her own.

  “Whose phone are you using?”

  “Del’s. I told him I was going to call you to find out what we have to do to get his mom set as my guardian.”

  Find out where she is. He mouthed the words to Sedona.

  “You didn’t answer my earlier question,” Sedona said into the phone. “Is Del the one who hit you?”

  Silence hung on the line again.

  “Tatum? Remember, I can’t help you if you aren’t completely honest with me.”

  “I mean, he’s been mad a couple of times and when he loses it he sometimes does things he doesn’t want to do. He can’t really help it. His dad’s, like, abusive with him. I’ve been telling him the things that Sara’s said to me, and he totally gets it. He’s going to talk to his mom about going to counseling and try to get her to go, too. It’s like I told you, Sedona. He really loves me and...” Tatum’s voice drifted off.

  “Tatum?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You still there?”

  “Yeah. I just...I don’t know, I felt a little sick for a second, but I’m fine.”

  She didn’t sound fine. She sounded tired. Or something he couldn’t put his finger on. When Sedona glanced up at him, he shook his head. And again mouthed the words to find out where Tatum was.

  “Have you been feeling sick before just now?”

  “No.”

  “Tatum, was it Del who caused your bruises, who hit you before you came to the shelter?”

  He waited.

  “I need the complete truth, Tatum.”

  “Yes.”

  Tanner breathed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  SEEING TANNER GO white, Sedona almost dropped the phone. Keeping an eye on him, she knew that while he deserved to have her arms around him, deserved to have someone looking out for him, he needed her tending to Tatum.

  “So why did you tell me that it was Tanner who hit you?”

  “He ruined Talia’s life as soon as she fell in love. He was going to do the same to me. Like he thinks, because of Tammy, we couldn’t have good relationships with men.”

  “But why say he hit you?”

  Tanner sat down, watching her, his gaze avid, alert.

  And his ability to focus somehow kicked hers into full gear. She was in court, doing her job. At her best. And trying to think like a fifteen-year-old.

  “Was it because he threw Del out of your house?” Forcing Del to go back to an abusive situation?

  “He didn’t throw Del out of the house. He told him he had to leave and Del did.”

  Frowning, her lawyer’s ear hearing something important, but unable to pull it out and put everything together, Sedona said, “I wasn’t being literal. And you didn’t answer my questions. Is that why you blamed Tanner for something he didn’t do?”

  “Tanner didn’t hit me, but I saw him.”

  “You saw him?”

  “He nearly killed a man. With his bare fists. In our house.” Tatum’s voice faded in and out a bit, as if she were exhausted, as if she didn’t have the energy to keep her secrets any longer. “He took me to the neighbors’ to get a ride to school, but I had to go to the bathroom and didn’t want to go over there so I ran back home to go and when I walked in the back door, Tanner was pummeling this guy in our living room. He just kept hitting him, Sedona. Over and over. The guy was bleeding and stumbling, and Tanner hit him some more and then he opened the front door and picked him up and threw him down the front steps. I was so scared I ran out the back door and back to the neighbors’ before he found me....”

  She had to turn her back on the look of horror on Tanner’s face. She couldn’t feel his pain and do her job.

  “Did you tell anyone what you saw?”

  “No! Tanner was... We couldn’t make it without him. I was afraid to get him in trouble.”

  Tatum had been five the day that Tammy had finally brought her young family to the ground. The woman’s actions that day had inspired consequences that had irrevocably changed all of their lives.

  And had driven all of them ever since.

  “Did you ask him about it?”

  “No. When I got home from school, everything was normal and I just... I guess I pretended it didn’t happen. I didn’t think about it anymore and Tanner was always so nice and never yelled. And then, when Del... That first time he hit me...I remembered it all. Like, it made me sick. And then Del said he didn’t mean to hit me. And he was so sorry and he was usually always so nice and sweet, and he was always telling me how much he loved me....”

  Her voice faded off.

  “Tatum?” The girl seemed to have fallen asleep. “Are you feeling okay?” It was an inane question considering that they’d just relived a ten-year-old nightmare.

  “Not really,” she groaned sleepily. “I’m kind of sick to my stomach.”

  Tanner had said the girl reacted that way to stress. She heard him move behind her but didn’t turn around. Tatum could be her only concern at the moment.

  “I need you to tell me where you are,” she said. “If Del is as good a guy as you say, he wouldn’t want you to hide from your attorney, would he? I mean there’d be no reason, right?”

  “I guess not.” She was starting to sound more confused. Alarm shot through Sedona.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m not sure of the address, but...” Tatum went on to describe the neighborhood, the turns they’d made at the end. Enough so that, with Del’s car out front, someone who knew the area should be able to find the house quickly.

  “I have a police friend, a woman, who I’m going to call,” Sedona said with
a calm she absolutely did not feel. “I want you to stay where you are, no matter what Del says, until my friend gets there, okay?”

  “Okay. I’m really not feeling well.”

  Tanner moved again. A chair fell over.

  “I can hear that, sweetie. Just go out front and wait. Can you do that for me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m going to call my friend now, but I’ll keep you on the line, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Tanner’s phone appeared in front of Sedona and without looking at anything but the hand that held it out to her, she took the phone, dialed a friend of hers―Donna Brady, a beat cop on the Santa Raquel police force―and described to her where she’d find Tatum Malone. Telling her to hurry.

  Donna didn’t hang up as she expected, but rather kept Sedona on the phone while she drove, and at Donna’s instruction, Sedona asked Tatum if she’d had anything to eat or drink lately.

  “Only the lemonade Del gave me before he went outside with his friend.”

  “Who poured it?” Donna asked. So Sedona asked Tatum.

  “Del did. I had to use the restroom and when I came back to the living room he told me he was going out to the garage for a few and gave me the lemonade. He knew I was thirsty....” The words fell off.

  “Hurry.” Sedona told Donna what was going on.

  “Sounds like a derivative of ‘X,’” Donna said. “We’ve had four busts in area schools in the past six months. Just small amounts, though. Shouldn’t be anything serious.”

  “Tell her to take her straight to the hospital,” Tanner said, loudly enough for everyone on both phones to hear. “I’ll meet her there.”

  With both phones still at her ears, Sedona hurried after him, making it inside the opened passenger door of his truck before he burned rubber down her driveway.

  * * *

  “TAMMY WAS A user part of the time she was pregnant with Tatum.” Tanner was talking as quickly as he drove through the streets of Santa Raquel to reach the small county hospital just outside of town. “By some miracle Tatum was born clean, but she could be more susceptible to stimulation.”

  Sedona told Donna, who called for a paramedic backup and then, apparently sighting Tatum, said, “We’ve got her, I’m hanging up now.”