by Floyd, Susan
Dana touched it with gentle fingers. “How did you do that?”
Jean pointed to Ollie.
“I didn’t do it. The ground did it.” Ollie squirmed almost completely around to look up at Dana. “You’re really pretty.”
Dana knew the right thing for her to do was to pat Jean on the head and tell her to suck up the pain. And that was exactly what she planned on doing. But before she could stop herself, she’d leaned over and planted a feather-light kiss on Jean’s grubby knee. “There. Now it will feel better.”
Jean beamed at her.
Ollie touched her face. “You’re really pretty,” she repeated.
Dana tapped her forefinger on Ollie’s pert nose. “You are, too.”
Karen leaped to her feet suddenly. “I think that’s him.” She pointed to the small speck in the distance.
“Are you sure?”
“Don’t know. I’m going to go check.” She ran full speed down the long, dirt driveway, Jean and Ollie only seconds behind her, all three finally stopping at the mailbox.
Dana settled back against the brick to wait. What was she supposed to do? Not kiss a booboo? Adam’s image was so clear that Dana felt she could touch him. But he wasn’t really there. He never would be again. She stood up and looked at her watch. The truck Karen had seen didn’t turn into the driveway, but the girls weren’t deterred. They whooped as they spotted another vehicle coming toward them.
Glancing at her watch, Dana tried not to doubt him. Living in the country meant allowing people the time to get from one place to another. But it was twelve-thirty. Should she leave a note and go home? How long were they supposed to wait?
Just as she’d made up her mind to leave, she heard screams and squeals. Sure enough, an old blue truck was turning into the driveway. She watched it stop at the mailbox. After a brief conversation with Brady, the three girls clambered into the truck bed. Dana frowned. That wasn’t exactly safe. But then, she had to grin. Brady was driving slower than she would have thought possible. The girls whooped and cheered as the truck crawled forward. For the first time since their mom had dropped them off, they looked as carefree as little girls were supposed to.
It took a good ten minutes for the truck to reach the house. By that point Dana found herself with a stomach full of jitters. As Brady got out of the truck, she saw he was dressed in jeans with a light-blue chambray shirt, the sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms. Without his uniform, he was almost ordinary. Almost. When Dana caught his smile, she felt her own lips tug upward. There was nothing ordinary about those dimples or the intensity in his hazel eyes.
“I know, I’m late,” Brady said before she could say anything. “It took me a lot longer to do everything I needed to.”
Dana nodded, understanding his need for vagueness. She gestured to the door. “Let’s go in.”
Brady pulled out a device that she didn’t think was legal.
“Can you buy those at the hardware store?” Dana whispered in his ear.
His oblique smile was her answer, but before he could use it, Karen stopped him.
“I have a key,” the girl offered, her eyes lifting to his for approval.
“Even better.” Brady smiled down at her. Karen averted her eyes, but Dana could tell the girl’s suspicion of her uncle was waning. Both adults stepped back to let Karen insert the key into the lock and push the door open.
A terrible stench wafted out like a cloud of noxious gas. Undeterred by the sickening smell, the girls ran into the house.
“Stop!” Dana called in alarm, gasping at the overwhelming odor. When they paid no attention, she plunged into the house after them.
BRADY RECOILED, but entered the house a few moments after Dana. He easily found the light switch, but seeing the house clearly only seemed to make the stench worse. With an angry stride, he headed across the living room to tug open a window. Silverfish scurried along the sill. Disgusted, he worked his way around the perimeter of the room, opening every window. While his actions eased the smell slightly, they did nothing to ease his anger.
Dana stood in the middle of the room, the horror of what she was seeing naked on her face.
In his job, Brady had seen some awful places—crack houses filled with cigarette butts, spilled food and soiled diapers, metamphetamine labs where lethal chemicals were stored beside play-pens, but this was worse. Maybe because he never would have expected his sister-in-law’s house to look like this. Dammit! Bev had money. The automatic deduction from his bank account every month proved it. That could only mean she didn’t care.
Everything from junk mail to clothes to dirty plates littered the floor. Cockroaches and ants swarmed old cans of fruit cocktail and soda left on the coffee table. The hall carpet was stained with only God knew what. Brady turned as Dana gave a muffled squeak and pointed to a decaying rat in the corner of the room.
Ollie walked over to the rodent as if it were nothing, reaching down to grab the book that it had died on. She shook the rat off, as if her actions were the most natural thing for a five-year-old to do. Karen, meanwhile, was making it a point to crunch on as many bugs as she could on her way to her bedroom.
“Girls!” Dana was the first to come back to herself. She plucked a pristine Neiman Marcus bag out of the corner and checked to make sure it wasn’t infested. “Bring enough clothes for next week. And you can each bring your books and your favorite toys.” All three scrambled around, picking through the debris and stomping on bugs as they passed.
Dana started to walk down the hallway, but Brady put a hand out to stop her. He could feel the goose bumps on her forearm. “Wait,” he said quietly.
“What for?” Dana gave him a surprised look.
“Bev might be still here.” He didn’t want to think about it, but there could be another reason for the stench in the house.
Dana covered her mouth and her eyes went wide. “You don’t think she’s—”
Brady shrugged. “I hope not, but let me check.”
Brady did a quick search of the house, slowly opening doors, becoming more and more horrified at each discovery. The toilet was clogged, filled to the point of overflowing. No house got this bad overnight. And that meant the girls had been living in filth for who knew how long. He stopped at the last door, which he figured had to be the master bedroom. If Bev was in the house, she’d be here. With a deep breath, he pushed open the door.
Brady had thought himself beyond shock, but the sight of the bedroom floored him. Bev’s room was straight out of House Beautiful magazine. Her king-size bed was covered in an elegant bronze and silver designer duvet. The carpet was new and thick. In one corner a state-of-the-art laptop computer lay open on a teak desk, almost as if the user was planning to come back any moment. Tiffany-style lamps graced both the nightstand and the desk.
Barely able to hide his disgust, Brady opened her closet. He wasn’t acting as an officer of the county. He was the uncle of three girls who’d been forced to live in squalor. The contents of the closet only made him angrier. Cedar-lined walls protected neat rows of linen and silk suits. The shoes were equally impeccable, lined up with the toes all pointing forward. He did a quick search of the dresser—beautiful sweaters and underwear in a variety of colors filled the generous drawers to the brim.
Looking into the large gilt-edge mirror above the dresser, Brady saw another door. It had to be her bathroom. With slow and careful movements, he crossed the room and opened the door. Relief that Bev wasn’t there was quickly followed by another burst of fury. The sink was made of flawless marble, as was the Jacuzzi tub surround. Brady flushed the toilet. What the hell was she thinking? He stepped out of the room and could hear Dana talking with the children.
“Don’t you have any clean clothes?” Dana was asking.
“These are the cleanest we have,” Karen explained. He could hear the shame in her voice. “Momma says that if it looks clean, then she doesn’t have to wash it. These look clean. See?”
“That’s okay,” Dan
a’s voice was soothing, though Brady could hear the rage beneath her controlled tone. “Just get your very favorite clothes and all the underwear that you can find and we’ll wash them when we get home.”
Home.
Brady could almost see Dana make the decision. Even though she’d only known him for less than a day, she was prepared to make a home for his nieces.
“Put that down,” Brady told Dana. “I need to show you something.”
Dana wordlessly followed his instructions, putting down the bag and trailing behind him.
DANA WASN’T SURE what Brady wanted to show her. It wasn’t as if that part of the house could be any worse than what she had already experienced. It horrified her that the girls seemed so accustomed to the condition of the house that it appeared “normal.” No wonder their clothes smelled clean to them. Brady led her to the master bedroom. He pushed open the door and gestured for her to enter.
“My God.”
Brady yanked open the drawers, grabbing a handful of silk underwear, then moving to the closet. “Cedar-lined.” He enunciated the words carefully. He didn’t have to tell her the closet alone had cost a fortune.
“Doesn’t look as if Bev planned to go anywhere permanently,” Dana observed, running her hand over the silk duvet. She clicked on a lamp and a beautiful amber glow filled the room. “I wonder what happened?”
With a sudden movement, Brady whirled and slammed his fist into the luxurious wallpaper. The sound reverberated throughout the room. Dana wasn’t sure what to do. If she knew him better she could take him by the hand and tell him she felt the same way. But she didn’t know him. Nevertheless, she felt herself crossing over to him, her hands, seemingly of their volition, reaching out to gently knead the bunched muscles of his shoulders. He tried to shake off her touch, but she persisted.
She’d never done this before. Never touched a stranger in such an intimate way, and she was disturbed by how much she liked feeling the warmth of his body on the palms of her hands. She supposed that after all they’d been through, he was no longer a stranger. He leaned his forehead against the wall, and Dana found herself mirroring the pose—her forehead on his back, her arms moving to encircle his waist. He smelled as if he’d just stepped out of the shower. They stood that way for only a few seconds, then Brady pushed himself off the wall.
Embarrassed, Dana stepped away from him.
“There’s got to be some kind of explanation. Was Bev always like this?” She didn’t want to sound accusing, but she couldn’t help wondering how Brady had let this situation occur.
Brady sank down on the edge of bed and shook his head, his face tight and drawn. Dana could see self-recrimination in his eyes.
“Didn’t you know?” Now, she was accusing.
“I should have,” he muttered. “I should have tried harder to see them.”
“But why didn’t you? Why didn’t you see them?”
There was a long pause. Finally, he said in a low voice, “It’s very complicated. When Carson went to prison, our whole family changed.” He stopped and then looked up at her. “That’s not true. Our family changed after Carson married Bev. My dad died when I was a kid and Mom raised us alone. For twenty years, it was just the three of us. Even when we moved out, we didn’t move far. We had a lot of good times with my mother, dropping by to visit a couple of times a week, having dinner with her on Sundays, then just like that—” Brady snapped his fingers “—Carson met Bev. They got married a day later. At first, Bev seemed okay, but the longer they were together, the less Carson would see of my mother. His visits dropped off and soon there was only me and Mom for Sunday dinner. Even after Karen was born, my mother rarely saw them. Bev made it so uncomfortable for her to visit them that she gave up after a while.”
Dana didn’t say anything; her throat was too tight with emotion.
“Then my mom got sick. Really sick. Once she was diagnosed with lung cancer, she only lasted four months. Carson visited twice. She asked about him, Karen and Jean every day. Jean was only a baby and my mother never got to see her. The truth is I never forgave Carson for that, never forgave him for letting our mother die without bothering to say goodbye.”
His back straightened and he stared at Dana. “You’ve got to believe me,” he said roughly. “I didn’t like Bev, but I never thought she’d abuse her children. I never thought that she would do—this.”
He seemed to be pleading with her to understand.
Dana didn’t know if she could. She still didn’t understand what this had to do with Carson’s children. Why hadn’t he looked out for the girls after his brother’s imprisonment? There had to be more to cause this long a rift. Brady wasn’t telling her something. He wasn’t telling her something big. But she didn’t have time to delve into this further. They needed to get the children out now.
“You know we can’t let her have them back,” Brady said, his voice pointed and urgent. “I won’t let them go to CPS. I can’t do that to Carson. It’s bad enough that he’s where he is. I’m not going to let those little girls get split up. I need your answer. Will you marry me?”
Dana felt his intensity—knew it was valid—but she couldn’t stop remembering the last time she’d gotten involved. The last time she’d done something that defied common sense. If she hadn’t loved Adam so much, he wouldn’t be dead today. He would have never called her “Mommy.” In stead of answering Brady, she headed for the door. “Come on. Let’s find the girls and get out of here.”
He caught her arm. “Dana, I need an answer. If you don’t marry me, I’m going to have to find a family that’s willing to take all three children so CPS doesn’t have to be called. I don’t know anyone. I know a lot of people, but no one who can handle three.”
Dana met his eyes. “What makes you think I can?”
Brady drew her closer, and although her mind resisted, her body complied. “Because of the way you are with them.”
“I’m doing what anyone else in this situation would do.” Her words sounded mechanical.
“Please, Dana.”
She was going to do it. Against her better judgment, despite the fact she’d known the man less than twenty-four hours, she was going to marry him. Not because of him, but for Karen, Jean and Ollie. She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “We’ll talk about it later.”
She hurried out to the living room, intent on gathering up the girls and getting out of the house. She needed to process what she knew she would inevitably agree to.
There was no sign of the girls at all. She checked outside and then went back through the house.
“Karen?” she called as she checked the bedrooms. “Jean? Ollie?”
Brady joined her. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t find the girls.”
“They can’t go far,” Brady said.
“The kitchen?”
Brady started in that direction, but Dana ran past him. She pushed open the swinging door and stopped to find the girls huddled in the corner by the stove. Karen’s arms were wrapped protectively around Ollie, and Jean, in a tight ball, rocked steadily on the other side of Ollie. All three were sobbing as if their hearts were breaking.
Dana immediately dropped to her knees. “What’s wrong?”
“Is anyone hurt?” Brady asked as he stepped into the kitchen.
“Momma,” Ollie sniffled.
“Momma?” The fine hairs on the back of Dana’s neck stood up. “Are you remembering something about your mother?” Dana tried to pick up Ollie, but Karen wouldn’t let go of her youngest sister.
Giving up, Dana rubbed one hand on Karen’s back and motioned Brady over with the other. He knelt beside her, then pulled both girls into his arms.
Still on her knees, Dana turned to Jean.
Eyes squeezed shut, Jean keened like a wounded creature. When Dana laid a light hand on Jean’s leg, Jean kicked out and scrambled away until she was under the table. Once there, she curled up in the fetal position and began to rock.
Dana
went flat on her belly on the grimy floor and inched toward the little girl. Finally, she was nose to nose with Jean and said, “Hey there, sweetie.”
Jean whimpered and rocked harder.
“If you open just one eye, you’ll see me. And I’ll be smiling at you.” Dana told her in a calm, low voice.
Jean shook her head, but the rocking slowed.
“One little-bitty eye,” Dana persuaded. “I promise you’ll just see me. And I’m smiling at you.”
One blue eye opened. And then the little girl couldn’t get into Dana’s arms fast enough. “Shh, sweetie. You’re safe with me. You’re just fine. Karen’s here, Ollie’s here and Uncle Brady’s here. We’re all here.”
“Momma’s here, too,” Ollie sniffed, her little finger pointing to a door that no doubt led to the garage.
CHAPTER FIVE
DANA EXCHANGED GLANCES with Brady. Then they both turned to stare at the door.
“Maybe you should take the girls out,” Brady suggested.
Dana agreed. If Bev was behind that door, she preferred not to see her.
“Come on, sweeties. Let’s go.” She stood up awkwardly with Jean still clinging to her, then took Ollie’s hand. “Karen, grab that bag and come with me.”
Karen did what she was told, but the entire way across the kitchen, she looked over her shoulder at her uncle.
Dana left the house as quickly as she could, not wanting the girls to see how shaken she was. Once they got to the car, Dana opened all four doors. Ollie climbed into the back seat, and Dana leaned against the trunk, holding Jean. Karen joined Dana, never releasing her grip on their bag of belongings. Almost twenty minutes passed before Brady came outside, his mouth set in a grim, straight line.
“Is she…”
“Yes.” His voice was low. “They’re sending out the medical examiner.”
“Medical examiner.” Dana didn’t want to know any more details. Before she could ask what they should do next, Brady grabbed the bag out of Karen’s hands.
“What are you doing?” Dana asked.
