Beauty in Hiding

by Robin Patchen

  Derrick closed his eyes, took a deep breath. He thought of Quentin and Keith and broken knees and popped-out eyeballs and losing everything.

  He opened his eyes and squeezed the pillow in his fists.

  Gramps’s eyes opened. “Derrick?”

  He jumped at the single word. “Hey, Gramps.”

  The old man blinked. “What are you…? Did Harper tell you where to find me?”

  Derrick glanced into the house. No sign of the other guy.

  “Nope. She wouldn’t have, either. She was hiding from me.”

  Gramps tilted his head to the side. “From you? Why?”

  “You should have given me the money.”

  Gramps’s eyes widened, and his jaw fell.

  Derrick pressed the pillow over his face.

  Tears streamed from Derrick’s eyes as Gramps gripped his wrists, tried to push him off.

  He wanted to stop. He wanted to run away. How could he kill this man who’d loved him, who’d protected him after Mom and Dad died? How had Derrick fallen this far?

  This was crazy. He wasn’t a killer. If he ran now, Gramps might think it had all been a dream. A weird, crazy dream. He hesitated. Let up on the pressure just a tad.

  No. He had to do this.

  Gramps’s arms flailed wildly, and he knocked over the lamp.

  The crash reverberated in the room.

  A shout came from the house. “Red?”

  Derrick dropped the pillow, met Gramp’s wide, terrified eyes.

  And bolted.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Harper sat as still as she could and watched Garrison, who was still standing and staring at nothing.

  The silence would kill her. Not Derrick, not prison. Waiting while Garrison processed all she’d told him—that would be the death of her.

  Jack squeezed her hand and offered a slight smile. Part of her wanted to hate him for getting these people involved. But another part of her was glad he had. Because now, whatever happened, at least the running was over. She could tell her side of the story. As long as Gramps was safe, she could take whatever was coming.

  What laws had she broken?

  She hadn’t stolen anything or hurt anyone. Red was an adult, and he’d come with her willingly. All along, she’d tried to do the right thing. For her sake. For Red’s sake.

  But would anybody believe her?

  Harper glanced at Sam, who gave her a slight smile as if this were a perfectly normal situation.

  Garrison stared beyond her.

  Jack pushed back in his chair. “Look—”

  “Just let me think,” Garrison said.

  Jack met her eyes, shrugged.

  “Honey,” Sam said, “do you think you could let us know what you’re thinking?”

  He blew out a long breath and met Harper’s eyes. “Your story is strange. If I’d heard it from anyone else, I’d have dismissed it out of hand because it doesn’t make sense.”

  Harper couldn’t seem to form words, but Jack said, “You said ‘if.’ Does that mean you believe her?”

  “I do,” Garrison said. “I’m good at telling if people are lying, and I don’t think you are.”

  “I’m not,” she said. “I swear I’m not.”

  Garrison’s mouth flattened into a smirk. “And I hope that if you’d made up a story, it would’ve been a little better than what you’ve told me. Made-up stories make sense. Usually.”

  Harper swallowed, nodded.

  “None of that changes the fact that you’re wanted in connection with two murders. You need to turn yourself in.”

  She stared at the table. She could do that, but what would she do with Red? Would he go with her back to Maryland? Could she have Roger hire him another nurse while she dealt with this? Would anybody be able to protect him from Derrick? Would anybody believe he was trying to kill his grandfather?

  “I’ll call the detectives investigating the murders,” Garrison said. “I’ll give them a heads-up, tell them you’re here and you had no idea you were wanted. I’ll try to pave the way, but I can’t promise anything.”

  “I didn’t do it.”

  Garrison held her gaze. “I believe you.” He stood, grabbed his cell phone, and went out the front door.

  “I didn’t get them involved on purpose,” Jack said. “It’s important to me that you understand that. I was worried. It all just got out of hand.”

  “That’s the truth.” Sam’s voice was kind. “My husband can be like a dog with a bone sometimes. He got suspicious. He misses being a cop.”

  Harper just shrugged.

  “I think,” Jack continued, “maybe this is better than you running away again. Maybe it’s better if you deal with it.”

  Jack was probably right.

  “I believe you, too,” Sam said. “And I’ll be praying. God can handle this.” Her smile was kind, gentle. “Do you mind if I use your restroom?”

  “Help yourself.”

  After Sam walked away, Jack squeezed Harper’s hand. “I never doubted you for a minute.”

  Right. She looked at him, raised her eyebrows.

  “I was afraid you were in trouble,” he said. “I never thought…” He swallowed, glanced away, then met her eyes. “Okay, I doubted you, a little. Can you forgive me?”

  Had he done anything wrong? “I’ve lied to you about everything, and I was about to take off without a word.”

  “None of it was my business.”

  “Maybe,” Harper said. “What’s going to happen now?”

  “I have no idea. I don’t know Garrison well enough to guess, and the guy’s sort of an enigma. Scary intimidating cop who tells stupid dad jokes.”

  Harper nearly smiled. “My dad tells stupid dad jokes, too.”

  “They all do. I probably will someday, too. If I’m ever lucky enough to…” He turned his chair toward Harper, then turned her chair so they were facing each other. He took her hands and met her eyes. “I’m with you in this. Whatever happens now, whatever you need me to do. I’m on your side. I’ll make sure Red is taken care of, protected from Derrick. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

  A flood of emotions filled her, almost too big to name. His kindness, his quick understanding, his generosity. How could she refuse him anything?

  How could she draw him into her nightmare?

  “Don’t.” His voice was intense, and he leaned closer. “You’re so easy to read. Don’t push me away. Not now. Please.”

  “Maybe after I get this all—”

  “No. Not after. Circumstances are never going to be perfect, Harper.”

  “But none of this is your problem.”

  “It is, though. It is my problem, because it’s your problem. And I care for you.”

  She leaned away, wanted to stand, to put distance between them so she could think. “You don’t even know me.”

  “I know you risked your own life and freedom to protect an old man who’s not even related to you. I know you’ve been through hell, and all along, you’ve just been trying to take care of him. No thought for your own comfort, your own needs.”

  “You make me sound so noble.”

  “Noble.” He nodded. “That’s the right word.”

  She looked away. “It’s not. You don’t know.”

  And even if he did, even if he really did care about her, could she trust him?

  “I want to be here for you.”

  Harper pushed back her chair and stood.

  Jack stood, too. Her plan to get farther from him so she could think was not working. Because there he was, tall, broad, beautiful, and just inches away.

  Sam stepped out of the bathroom. Surely Jack would back up now, put more space between them. But he didn’t move.

  Sam disappeared into the living room. A moment later, the front door opened and closed.

  They were alone.

  “I’m not…” She swallowed, shook her head. Tried to think. “I can’t be who you want me to be. I don’t know you. I don’t
trust… easily.”

  “I’ve given you plenty of reasons not to trust me.”

  No, that wasn’t true. “You’ve been nothing but kind to me. And you didn’t have any reason to trust me.”

  “I’ve seen how you’ve taken care of Red. How you’ve been breaking your back to provide for a man who, by all accounts, is very wealthy. How devoted you are to him. I was afraid for you. I certainly didn’t intend for this to happen.”

  None of that changed the truth, though. Of course Jack wasn’t trying to hurt her, not yet. But her history was too long to be discarded that easily. “Every man who’s ever found me attractive has lied to me, hurt me, treated me like…” But she couldn’t finish the sentence. Because the men in her past had treated her exactly the way she’d acted. She’d never deserved better because she’d never behaved better.

  She didn’t know if she could now.

  And she didn’t want to reduce either one of them to the kinds of relationships that littered her past.

  “Not all guys are like the yahoos you’ve fallen for,” he said. “Is your father like that?”

  Her father had his issues, but he was a good man. He’d treated her mother with respect. “No.”

  “How about Red. Is he like that?”

  “Of course not.” She thought of the men from her past. Then all the men at the strip club, men with handfuls of dollar bills and opened mouths and lust in their eyes. “Because of how I look, men don’t see me, the real me. They want things from me because I’m…” She didn’t know how to finish that statement.

  “Beautiful?”

  Her cheeks warmed, and she didn’t respond.

  His eyes crinkled at the corner. “Well, then, you can trust me. Because I think you’re a dog.”

  The way he was looking at her belied his words. Every cell in her body responded to him. It was as if her entire being were leaning toward him, needing him.

  He lowered his gaze to her lips. “Woof, woof.”

  She shouldn’t kiss him again. If she did, she’d fall for him completely. And then she’d be lost.

  But maybe Jack really was different. Maybe this was a man she could trust.

  Anyway, she didn’t have the strength to resist.

  His lips brushed hers. He paused and waited for her to step back. Which she probably should have. But she’d lost all control when it came to Jack Rossi.

  She leaned in, kissed him back, and surrendered her heart.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Jack’s cell phone rang, and Harper jumped as if they’d been caught doing something wrong. But kissing Harper wasn’t wrong. Nothing had ever felt so right.

  Though she leaned away, he didn’t release her. He wanted to ignore the call, to ignore the outside world and stay locked in an embrace with Harper forever.

  But the moment was over.

  “You should get that,” Harper said.

  He reluctantly pulled his cell from his pocket. “Hello?”

  “Jack? It’s Elizabeth.”

  Oh, no. “Is Red okay?”

  “I don’t know. Dad called, said he thinks maybe he had a heart attack, but he wasn’t sure. Just said he was clutching his chest and talking gibberish. Dad called 911.”

  Jack met Harper’s eyes. “What hospital?”

  He got the details and hung up.

  Harper’s face was white as death. “Please tell me he’s all right.”

  “They’re not sure what happened, but to be on the safe side, they took him to the hospital.” Not exactly what Elizabeth had said, but it would keep Harper from panicking. He took her hand and headed for the front door. She snatched her purse from the counter on the way. Harper started for her car but pulled up when she saw Garrison’s car parked right behind hers.

  Jack said, “I’ll drive.”

  Sam was seated in Garrison’s Camry. Garrison was on the phone, pacing in the yard. He saw them, then spoke into the phone. “Hold on a sec.” He covered the phone and met Jack’s eyes. “What’s up?”

  “We have to go.” Harper’s words were frantic, terrified.

  “Red’s on his way to the hospital,” Jack said.

  Garrison headed toward his car. “We’ll follow you.”

  Harper stared forward silently throughout the drive to Manchester. Jack tried to engage her in conversation a couple of times, but she barely seemed to register his words. Finally, Jack parked at the doors to the ER, and Harper rushed inside.

  Jack parked and hurried to meet her. Harper was nowhere to be seen. He approached the nurse behind the desk. “My friend just came in looking for Harold Burns.”

  “She’s back there with him. You’ll need to take a seat.”

  He started to argue, but the woman cut him off. “Are you family?”

  He blew out a long breath. “Just a friend.”

  “Then have a seat.”

  He turned, surveyed the room, and saw Steve in a chair on the far side. He crossed to him and sat. “What happened?”

  Steve shook his head. “He fell asleep in the sunroom while we were talking, so I went inside to watch TV.” He lifted his trembling hand to rub his nose. “I mighta drifted off myself. I heard a crash. I got up, and when I got into the sunroom, Red was in the chair. His skin was gray. His eyes were terrified. And he was talking about someone trying to kill him.”

  Jack had witnessed that fear in the old man’s eyes when he had one of his dementia moments. “What did he say?”

  “Something about someone named Derrick. Said he was trying to smother him.”

  Jack’s stomach dropped. He looked around the emergency room, but Derrick could be anywhere. Jack had no idea what the man looked like.

  “Don’t know who Derrick is,” Steve said. “Figured he was doing like he did that day at the rec center. But the color of his skin, the way he was clutching his chest… I called an ambulance.”

  “You did the right thing,” Jack said.

  “Yeah.” Steve nodded, then shook his head. “You know what’s weird, though?” He paused, seemed to be thinking back. “Elizabeth put these throw pillows on the couch out there. Nobody ever touches them. And the sofa was a good five feet away from Red. But when I went out there, one of those pillows was on the floor by the back door.”

  Derrick.

  It didn’t make sense. And it was the only thing that did make sense. “What caused the crash?”

  “The lamp. He must’ve knocked it over.”

  Or Derrick had. Or he had been trying to get away from Derrick.

  “Be right back.” He left Steve in his seat and rushed to meet Garrison as he and Sam walked in. “Derrick’s here.”

  Garrison froze. “What do you mean?”

  Quickly, Jack told Garrison everything Steve had said. “Red didn’t know his grandson had been trying to kill him. So why would he say that? Derrick must be here.”

  Garrison stared beyond him at nothing for a moment, then nodded once and turned. He was already dialing his phone by the time he stepped back into the cold November afternoon.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Harper sat by Gramp’s side in the ER. Now that the truth was out, she could go back to calling him Red, even if she thought of him as family. The door was closed to their little space. Outside the room, the rest of the hospital buzzed with activity. Footsteps, voices, ringing phones. Inside the room, the only sounds came from Red’s quiet snoring and the hum of machines monitoring his health. And the smells. After working in a nursing home, the hospital smells shouldn’t bother her, but right now, her stomach churned.

  It seemed like hours had passed, though it had probably been no more than one. Occasionally, the nurse came in and checked his vitals. Once, she’d drawn blood, probably looking for troponin, the protein in the blood that rises in response to heart damage. So far, nobody’d felt the need to tell Harper any of their findings.

  A woman had wheeled in a computer to ask about Red’s health insurance and medical history. Now that Harper had been found by t
he authorities, she could share his insurance information. She’d need to call Red’s lawyer and let him know what was going on. And she’d need to stay with Red to make sure Derrick didn’t get to him.

  She watched the monitors but saw nothing to worry about. His heartbeat was steady. His pulse was normal. His blood pressure was a little high, but nothing to be concerned about.

  She took his cold hand and closed her eyes. Dear God. Please save him. Whatever happens to me, please protect him. She prayed for his health, for his life. And then she prayed for herself. That God would show her what to do now that her story had fallen apart. That He would protect them both. That the truth would be brought to light, and that she would be free of the charges that were no doubt coming.

  And she prayed for Jack. Lord, You know how I feel about him. Protect him from this mess I’ve made. Make a way for us to be together. If that’s not what You want, then please, help me not to care for him.

  Finally, an Asian woman stepped into the room. She was petite with short black hair and wore a white coat over scrubs. “I am Dr. Pham.”

  Harper stood and shook her hand. “Harper Cloud.”

  The woman peeked at Red, who was still sleeping. She lowered her voice. “You are his granddaughter?”

  “I’m his caretaker, his nurse. I have legal documentation, if you need to see it.”

  “Do you have it with you?”

  Harper dug into her small purse and pulled out the paperwork. The doctor read it over and handed it back. “The ECG showed that Mr. Burns suffered a minor heart attack.” She kept her voice low, and Red didn’t stir. “The blood tests confirmed that. Right now, his vitals are steady. Nevertheless, we will keep him here for a few days. He will be transferred to a room, and I will hand over his care to a cardiac specialist.”

  Harper took all the information in, tried to think of something intelligent to say but came up with nothing. “Thank you so much.”

  She smiled. “They will take good care of him upstairs.” With that, the doctor left, and Harper sat beside him. A few minutes later, his eyes opened.

  Harper took his hand. “Hey, sleepyhead. How you feeling?”