Redemption (Desire Never Dies)

by Clara Grace Walker

  “You can’t treat me this way!” Her nails dug into his cheeks. “You can’t. I’ll make you pay!” Fully on him, she kicked again at his crotch.

  Earl gasped, nearly retching. Pain throbbed through him to the point of dizziness. Hadn’t she taken drugs? Why wasn’t she passing out? Still coughing, sputtering, trying to suck air into his lungs, he curled into a ball, shielding his face with his arms.

  “I’ll make you pay for this!” She continued screaming, pounding on his back with her fists. “If I’m going to die, you’re going to die with me.”

  “Not today, lady.” A thin, middle-aged, Hispanic man sprinted up behind Shirley, bringing the barrel of a gun down on her head.

  She shrieked and collapsed unconscious on top of Earl. He rolled her off him, finally catching his breath. “Thank God,” he said, and stuck out his hand. “And thank you.”

  The man smiled and shook his hand. “Danny Ventura. I work for Nick Beck. You seen him?”

  Earl shook his head. “Not since yesterday. He disappeared after breakfast this morning.”

  Danny’s face dropped. “Fuck. I hope we didn’t get here too late.”

  Chapter 84

  Belanger screamed.

  Mindy tasted his coppery blood in her mouth and spit it out.

  Lightning lit the sky outside. Thunder followed so close to the flash that the two things seemed to happen at once. A loud crash shook the building and rattled the bed. Belanger jumped and she raked her nails across his face.

  “You bitch!” He hissed, stumbling from her reach. “You bit me! Do you know how filthy the human mouth is?”

  “No.” And she didn’t care either. “But I’m sure it can’t be any filthier than you.”

  Belanger glared at her, holding his hand to his mouth. “You’re going to pay for this.”

  She reached for the ropes, working at the knots holding her left hand to the bedpost. Belanger pulled his hand away from his lip and dropped it to his belt buckle, unbuckling it and pulling it through the loops. She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the scene. And the memories that came with it.

  “Where’s Earl?” She tried steadying her voice. Tried not to think about what he wanted to do. “You better not have hurt him.”

  “I haven’t hurt him.” Belanger sounded disinterested. “Shirley’s got him. She has their happily-ever-after all planned out.”

  “Earl.” Mindy whispered softly. “What have these psychos done to you?”

  “Psycho!” Belanger’s voice rose as his pants dropped to the floor. He tripped trying to rush her. “You think I’m a psycho? You’re the one who’s mentally unbalanced. You were made a ward of the state.”

  She laughed, because he looked like a clown stumbling toward the bed with his slacks pooled around his ankles, but also because it seemed to piss him off. She’d managed to undo some of the knots and felt the rope loosen around her wrist. “You’re more in need of a guardian than I am. I’ll bet if you weren’t Shirley’s brother, she’d have you in a straight jacket.”

  “You bitch!” He lurched forward, slapping her across the face.

  The blow sent a stinging wave rippling across her cheek. She tried reaching again for the knots binding her remaining hand. “Only nutcases beat and rape people. Anyone who’s been through medical school should know that.”

  “I am not a nutcase!” He slapped her again. “And my sister would never put me in a straight jacket. Shirley loves me.”

  “Is that what’s wrong with you? A little too much sisterly love?”

  “Take that back!” He slapped her three more times, his face taking on the color of a fire truck. Rage flared his nostrils and beat through a vein running across his temple. “You take back what you said about Shirley. You take it back. Right now! Or I’m going to really hurt you!”

  “You’re going to really hurt me anyway, and we both know it. And I’m not taking back a damn thing. You and your sister are both nuts.”

  He raised his hand again, but not before she slipped her hand through the rope and slapped him first. His face snapped to the side and she punched him in the nose. Blood shot from his nostrils, splattering her face and hand. “Don’t you ever touch me again!” Rage, held hostage for years, exploded through her. She screamed at him and shook. Lunging at him with her fists, she pounded relentlessly into his face, not stopping until a figure in the doorway caught her attention. An older, Hispanic man carrying a gun. He aimed the weapon at Belanger.

  “This asshole giving you trouble, Miss?”

  Mindy threw one more punch at Belanger’s face. He let out a grunt and fell backward on the bed before sliding off and onto the floor. She looked at the Hispanic man and smiled. “Not anymore.”

  He grinned. “I see that. Nice work.”

  She looked him over closely. “Who are you? And where did you come from?”

  “Danny Ventura. I work for Nick.” He held out his hand then looked at her tied-up feet. “Here. Let’s finish getting you untied before that creep comes to.”

  “Have you seen Earl?”

  “I’m right here, baby.” Earl appeared at the man’s side, placing a foot on top of Belanger, who’d opened his eyes and tried lifting himself to his elbows. “Stay put,” he snarled.

  Belanger dropped his face back to the carpet. “Where’s Shirley? And who’s he?”

  “Him?” Earl chuckled. “Meet Danny Ventura. A reporter for The Tattletale. You morons should consider who your patients are before you try holding people hostage.”

  With her feet finally unbound, Mindy jumped from the bed, leaping into Earl’s embrace. “You really are my knight in shining armor.”

  He winked. “The armor might be a little rusty, but I’ll always ride to my lady’s defense.”

  She met the warmth of his lips with a sense of peace she hadn’t known since she was six. His warmth surrounded her; heated her from head to toe. “I’ve been such a fool.” Tears slipped silently down her face. “All this time I’ve been so afraid to be with you. Afraid you wouldn’t want me once you found out about my past.”

  He kissed her full on, pressing into her lips, tasting her with his tongue before slowly pulling away. He stared into her eyes, smiling. “No more being afraid. From now on, we’re going to face all of our problems, past, present and future, together.”

  “Ahem.” Danny cleared his throat. “I hate to break this up, but there’s a hurricane bearing down on us, and we need to go find the others.”

  Mindy got up, allowing Earl to wrap a blanket around her, and left her fear behind.

  Chapter 85

  “What the hell are we going to do now?” Darla demanded. She sat in the front passenger seat with her knees to her chin.

  Rod exhaled, scratching the top of his bald head. The storm raged around the car, growing in ferocity. Rain poured like it was being dumped from buckets overhead. Lightning provided the only illumination to what had become a dim day. He’d never seen clouds so dark. “We have to go back to CRC and take shelter until the storm passes.”

  “No way!” Her cheeks went from rosy to red. “We are not going back there. No fucking way!”

  “We have to.” She could be so damn unreasonable sometimes. “There’s a tree blocking the road, babe, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  “So what. Big fucking deal. It’s not like we’re in the middle of nowhere. We can’t be more than a mile from the nearest building. Probably less.”

  Rod glanced out the window, taking in the drenched landscape surrounding him. While it was true Key Largo was fairly well populated, it wasn’t entirely without its less-travelled areas. Naturally, Shirley had chosen one of the island’s out-of-the-way spots to locate her facility. “Babe, have you somehow managed to miss the ugly state of the weather out there?”

  “For crying out loud. It’s just a little bit of rain.”

  “It’s more than a little bit.”

  “Fine.” She huffed. “You be a pussy and stay here. I’m going to go look for she
lter someplace that isn’t fenced in and run by a crazy person.”

  “Darla, be reasonable.”

  She opened her car door. Rain blew sideways into the car. Ignoring it, she stepped outside.

  Rod let out a heavy sigh. “Have it your way then.” Why he loved this woman was a complete mystery. Most of the time she was a pain in the ass.

  As he cracked open the door a gust of wind tore at it, wrenching it from his hands and slamming it into the front quarter panel of his car. “Shit!” He swore and jumped out of the car just before a second gust of wind slammed it back shut. His heart raced. Rain stung him from all sides. When he looked over at Darla, she was already completely soaked, her hair matted against her face and neck. Her cotton dress stuck to her in a way that, had they not been in the middle of the worst thunderstorm on record, would have had him suggesting they jump into the back seat. “This was a bad idea.” He found himself shouting to be heard. “We’re going to get killed out here.”

  “Quit your fucking complaining,” she yelled back. “At least you didn’t land your side of the car in a pool of water. I’m stuck, you know. I think my foot’s caught in a tree branch.”

  As he made his way to the passenger side of the car he saw the water up to her knees. “Sorry, hon. Let me help you.” She had the same look on her face she used whenever she was about to banish him to the couch for the night. He’d spent more nights there in the last two years than he cared to remember, becoming intimately acquainted with every lump and loose spring in his leather sofa. How a woman managed to get such control over him, he would never understand. Him. Rod Skinner. His sexual prowess had been legendary. He’d rivaled Wilt Chamberlain for the number of notches on his bed post. And here he was, trying desperately to please a woman who definitely did not appreciate him. Just another pussy-whipped man. Hell.

  He reached her and tried freeing her ankle from the branch it’d gotten jammed into. Stepping into the ditch, he bent over and thrust his hands into freezing water up to his elbows. Not that it mattered. Rain had soaked him through already. Following the curvature of the wood with his hand, he felt two opposing twigs twisted tightly around her foot. “How the fuck did you manage this?”

  She shrugged. “Like I would know. Just get me out of here.”

  “Hang on.” He tugged, jerking hard on the wood repeatedly until he felt the branch come loose. “There. That ought to….”

  Too late, he saw the dark snake swimming above the water. It opened its mouth to reveal fangs and a white throat. And bit down murderously on his hand.

  “Fuck!” He cried out. Pain shot through his entire arm. It took only seconds for the bite marks on his hand to begin swelling. “Mother fuck!”

  Darla stepped out of the ditch, staring at him with wide eyes. “Rod, what’s wrong?”

  “I got bit,” he said. “By a cottonmouth.”

  Chapter 86

  Jamie made her best attempt at running, holding Charlotte bundled in front of her. Maggie did the same with Isabelle. They’d hurried around the back of the building and followed the walkway to the hotel. But as they drew close, she saw the crowd of people and knew at once something was wrong. Patients and family members gathered just outside the door. And she saw the reason why. “Oh no.”

  She halted and Maggie stopped just behind her. “Why have you…oh no.”

  Charlotte peeked up from her shoulder. “Mommy, why do the men have guns?”

  Maggie tried unsuccessfully to keep her daughter from looking. “Mommy, there’s daddy. And Mr. Beck is on the ground.”

  Jamie’s attention riveted to the figure seated on the sidewalk. A flashback of memories assaulted her. Marianne Clarke and Pearl Watson holding the two of them hostage on this very island. Nick taking a bullet to save her. And both of them miraculously escaping. “Not again.” She handed Charlotte to Scott, ran to Nick, and saw blood-soaked gauze wound around his arm. A glance at the armed CRC security staff and Nick’s bleeding arm said it all. The man she loved had been shot. Again. Dumbfounded, she croaked out the first question that popped into her head. “The same arm?”

  “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Orlando.”

  Preston said something she couldn’t quite make out, and Maggie let out a startled squawk. The girls screamed and started crying. Jamie glanced in the direction of Maggie’s pointed finger and saw Belinda’s body, bloody and lifeless on the ground.

  Vince knelt over her, holding her hand and crying. “She was my Robert Palmer video girl,” he said, mumbling it repeatedly to himself.

  “Why aren’t you in Orlando?” Nick demanded.

  She looked helplessly at Maggie. “We never made it past the checkout desk. Shirley’s goons took us hostage and had us locked in the rehab building.”

  “You filthy little cockroach!” Nick shook his fist at Ryan and screamed. “I’ll kill you for this.”

  Ryan laughed. “You’re forgetting who has the gun, asshole.”

  Maggie physically restrained Preston.

  Jamie sunk to her knees. She laid her head on Nick’s shoulder. Though soaked to the bone, the cold feeling chilling through her came not from the weather, but from the fear frosting her inside. “What are we going to do now?”

  Chapter 87

  “Come on.” Darla urged Rod. They limped up the road, his arm slung over her shoulder. He weighed twice what she did, and holding him up was getting tough.

  The storm hadn’t let up either. In fact, it had only gotten worse. Rain lashed them both, feeling more like sand than water. She’d been soaked to the skin instantly upon stepping from the car, and now shivered, listening to her teeth chatter while the wind threatened to knock her over. “We have to keep moving,” she said. “We have to find help.” If only she knew what to do. She didn’t know a damn thing about snake bites or first aid. Rod had tried cutting open the wound with a pocket knife and sucking the poison out. That’s what they always did in the movies. Then they’d started up the road, toward a light they saw in the distance. But the light wasn’t as close as it first appeared. Rod’s attempt at sucking the poison out of the bite hadn’t helped either. His hand had swollen to the size of a cantaloupe and turned a bright shade of red. She could tell the color even in the growing dark. He looked pale and felt like he might fall any minute.

  “We have to keep moving,” she pleaded. His weight sagged on her shoulders. He’d gone from running, to walking sluggishly, to stumbling. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold him up.

  “I can’t do this, babe.” His voice came in a ragged whisper. “I need to lie down. You go on.” He let go of her and slumped to the ground, sitting in the middle of the road with his head in his one good hand.

  “Rod, get up. Look. I can see the light now. It’s coming from a house. Rod, please. We’re almost there.”

  Instead of getting up, however, he curled up in the fetal position, his face tipped to the side and close to being submerged in the water covering the road.

  “Rod, you have to get up. You’re going to drown.” She squatted beside him, holding his face in her hands. “Rod, please. Tell me what I’m supposed to do.” The awfulness of what had happened with Rory hit her full force and she started to cry.

  Rod struggled to lift his hand, grazing her cheek with his fingertips. “Darla.”

  His voice was so weak she could barely hear it above the howling wind. “Rod, please. I’m sorry about Rory. I really am.” She cried harder, tears warming her rain-soaked face. “I don’t know what gets into me sometimes. I just get so jealous of other women. I can’t explain it.” His head felt heavy in her hands. “Rod, please don’t die on me.”

  “I love you, babe.” His hand dropped to the ground.

  His voice was so quiet she hardly heard the words. “I love you, too,” she said. “I will never love anyone else but you. I promise.” She choked on her tears, hating what had happened. She should have stayed in the car. They should have gone back to CRC. This was all her fault. Still
holding his head in her lap, she stroked her fingers over his wet, bald head. It took several minutes before she could look at him again.

  Seeing him only choked her sobs out harder. His eyes were still open, but he no longer looked at her.

  Waving her hand in front of his face, she felt nothing. No breath. No warmth. Nothing. He was gone. And it was all her fault.

  She sat there crying, feeling more lost than ever. Around her, wind lashed the rain into such a fury, each drop felt like a whip; like a punishment for the terrible things she’d done to the only man who really loved her.

  “Oh hell.” She cried out in despair. “Rod, you fucking idiot. How dare you die on me? What am I supposed to tell everyone?”

  As if in answer to her question, she realized she could tell people whatever she wanted. She could make up whatever stories she wanted. She knew, without question, what she should do next, and how to get the spotlight turned firmly back on her. Leaving Rod’s corpse where it lay, she headed for the shelter of the house just ahead.

  Chapter 88

  Earl, Mindy and Danny ran to the rec room while the storm pounded against the walls of the rehab center. Clouds rolled in so thick the day had turned the color of twilight. Lightning thundered near and far, brightening the distant sky and trees outside in turn. Behind them gusting wind and debris smashed through the building’s shell, shattering two large panes of glass across the corridor.

  “We need to get out of here,” Danny shouted. “The hurricane’s going to tear this building apart.”