Dark Water

by Talty, Jen

  Stole her love.

  * * * * *

  From the moment Frank took Lacy’s hand in the Hall of Justice to the time they pulled into his driveway, he knew something was terribly wrong. She had smiled at him and even kissed his cheek when they left, but as soon as her ass was planted in his truck, she clammed up, and if looks could kill, he figured he was about six feet under by now.

  “You going to tell me what’s got you so pissed off at me on our wedding day,” he finally said when she slammed the door to his apartment and tossed her purse on the couch. She stood a few feet into the family room, with her back to him and her hands on her hips. “Come on, Lacy, what did I do?”

  “I can’t believe you even have to ask that.” She turned. Fire burned behind her usually warm expression. Her face was hard and a single tear rolled down her check. “I trusted you.”

  “What are you talking about?” he questioned, but by the hurt look she gave him, his charade was up. He unbuttoned his shirt and slipped off his tie.

  “Are you going to tell me?”

  “Why bother, you already know.” He made his way to the refrigerator and snagged a beer before scuffing his way to the sofa. This was going to be one hell of a long day.

  “Maybe I want to hear it from you. All of it.”

  She stood behind the sofa, and he was thankful he couldn’t see her face anymore. He couldn’t take the disappointment in her eyes. It was worse than disappointing his mother. “Everything I told you about that night was the truth. I just didn’t tell you that I was the one who took the disturbance call.”

  A loud gasp echoed in his ears followed by a shriek and then a loud thud.

  “Lacy?” He leapt from the sofa. “Shit.”

  She sat on the floor with her back against the couch and her hands to her face, mumbling a whole bunch of crap he couldn’t understand.

  He knelt beside her and tried to take her in his arms, but she just kicked him.

  “That is why you’re mad at me, right?” he asked after he collected himself, but made sure he was far from striking distance. Obviously she’d been upset over something else, and he’d just given up his dirty little secret. He felt relieved that she knew, but scared because that meant she’d leave him.

  He didn’t want her to go.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Then what did I do? I don’t understand.”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore.” She swiped her face and then looked him directly in the eye. “You’re not the man I thought you were.” She crossed her legs and folded her arms, keeping herself closed up from him. From the world. “I thought it was bad enough that you had been the man who pulled my sister from the lake, but to find out you are the one responsible…”

  “I didn’t kill her. Taylor did.”

  “Doesn’t matter. You walked away from her when she needed your protection the most.”

  “I did what I could under the law. If I had done more, the whole case would have been thrown out and I could have lost my job.” He knew this was a lame attempt to make her understand when she couldn’t see beyond her own pain and his betrayal.

  “But my sister might still be alive.”

  He couldn’t argue that point. No need to try to either. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t planned on keeping this from you, but I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

  “What I don’t understand is why you couldn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.”

  “The truth would have made you push me away, just like you’re doing now.” He finished his beer in one swing. The bubbles only added to the acid churning in his throat.

  “Why? Why marry me? Why worm your way into our lives? Just out of guilt?”

  Sure, he felt guilty. He wished things had been different. “I can’t see into the future. I had no idea Taylor would snap. Hannah answered the door with a nice smile and told me it was all a mistake.” He continued to look down at his fingers as he fiddled with the paper label on his empty beer bottle.

  “She had a restraining order. He wasn’t supposed to be there.”

  Slowly, he lifted his gaze. “I didn’t know that. All she had to do was tell me and I would have arrested him. Otherwise, I had no grounds and would have lost my job, and he would have gone after her another day.” Looking back, he knew deep down he had done the right thing. Regardless of what his gut had told him, it would have been a mistake to try to take Taylor in. He had no grounds and he wouldn’t be in the position to make sure Taylor ended up where he belonged. Behind bars. “When I pulled Hannah from the lake, the guilt of walking away was so overwhelming I couldn’t do my job. I blamed myself.”

  “As you should,” Lacy said with conviction.

  “No, I shouldn’t. And damn it, I’m not going to do it anymore.” He slammed his fist on the floor. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty. I didn’t have all the knowledge I do now. That makes a huge difference. You can believe whatever you want, but know one thing…” he stood, then reached down and heaved her into his arms, “I did exactly what I was supposed to that day. Hannah chose not to tell me what was really going on. The only mistake I made was not telling you sooner. I’m sorry for that, but I won’t take responsibility for something I had no control over.”

  She blinked a few times, leaning away from him. Her body trembled, but he didn’t think it was out of fear, at least not from him. She opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything.

  He smoothed her soft hair from her face and ran his hand down her back. “I wanted you long before I knew who you were. My caring for you has nothing to do with Hannah.”

  “Oh yes, it does.” She placed her hands on his chest and gave a good shove. “You married me out of guilt.”

  Laughing probably wasn’t too smart, but he couldn’t help letting out a dry chuckle. “I married you for a lot of reasons, but guilt isn’t one of them.”

  She started pacing, circling the couch like a vulture, all the while twirling her hair. “When this is all over I want a divorce.”

  “It won’t be that simple.” No way in hell would he let her just give up.

  “Yes it will, because you…” she stopped and pointed her finger at him, “…you will make sure Taylor gets arrested and goes to jail. Once that happens, no one will care what we do, and I will have permanent custody of Andy. End of story. End of marriage.”

  He swallowed, not allowing the current guilt to take over, but he felt desperate. He had to find a way to keep her from walking out of his life so he could show her how good they could be together. “Let’s say Taylor gets arrested and is charged with murder. He could plead not guilty, which means a trial.”

  She narrowed her eyes and planted her hands on her hips. “What are you saying?”

  “A trial will take time, and during that time, they could put all custody on hold.”

  “You mean take Andy away?”

  “No, that’s not what I mean.” Tentatively, he took a few steps closer. “It just means that our marriage will have to appear as if we rock each other’s world.”

  She tossed her hands wide. “Great. Just great.” She plopped down on the couch. “You’re a bastard.”

  “You’re not really mad at me.” He checked his watch. He had to get Andy back to the social worker’s office in about an hour.

  “No. I’m really mad at you.”

  He didn’t have time to argue. They’d have to deal with all this later. “Go ahead and hate me if it will make you feel better, but you better be able to act as if I’m the fucking love of your life if you want to keep Andy.”

  “Like I said, a bastard.”

  He maneuvered himself onto the couch next to her, but didn’t touch her. No time like the present to start working on faking it. Well, she’d be faking it, but he would be doing everything in his power to sweep her off her feet. “I know the omission of truth hurt you, but please understand why I did it.”

  “The only thing I understand is that I’m trapped, which is a real sucky feeling.”

  H
e rested his head on the back of the sofa and stared at the picture of him and Jared sitting on the mantel. It had been taken the day both of them graduated from dive training, one of his more stellar moments in life. He’d worked hard to get into that program, and he’d be damned if he would allow any of this to ruin it for him. He’d been hiding for the last few months and it ended today. “Let’s get through the next couple of days and then we’ll see where we are.”

  “You think all this business with Taylor will be over by then?” She shifted, tucking her legs underneath her, but still pulled farther away from him.

  “The beginning of the end will be. He’s made too many mistakes, and I know for a fact that Ms. Lazzery believes he’s full of crap. All we have to do is catch him with something we can actually arrest him for.”

  “You can’t just cuff him, can you?”

  He rolled his head and looked into the saddest brown eyes he’d ever seen. It killed him to know that his actions, or lack of actions, caused her any kind of pain. “I want you to know that I would like nothing more than to beat the crap out of that asshole, but what good would that do?” He traced a path with his finger down the side of her jaw. “We have to use the law to our advantage. We can’t just take him in on a minor offense because he can walk away from that untouched and still go after Andy.”

  She didn’t flinch, nor did she back away, but those beautiful chocolate eyes filled with more sorrow. “I can’t have that.”

  Frank slid his hand across her soft neck and cupped the back of her head. “I know you don’t trust me much right now, but I will do everything in my power to bring Taylor down and keep you and Andy safe.”

  “I do believe you want Taylor to pay.” She gripped his wrist. “But any chance we might have had, you just blew it.” Immediately, her face hardened. “Honesty means too much to me.”

  He wanted to kiss her senseless, but muffled voices followed by someone banging on his door interrupted him. Besides, he figured she’d slap him anyway, so whoever was at the door unknowingly had saved his pride.

  He let out a long breath before leaving her side to answer the door. Whoever stood on the other side had become impatient, because they kept banging.

  “I’m coming,” he yelled, gripping the handle. He barely had a chance to open it when his mother and Jake came barreling in and talking over one another. “Calm down and tell me what’s going on.”

  “It’s Andy,” Jake said.

  “What about him?” Lacy raced to the hallway. “What happened?”

  “He’s gone,” Sandy said. “He said he wanted to rest up before the meeting with everyone so we let him.”

  “How long has he been gone?” Frank questioned as he snagged his weapon and badge from the table.

  “I don’t know.” Sandy rested her hands on Jake’s shoulders and pulled him in. “He went into Jake’s room about an hour ago. I thought I should wake him and give him some food, so I sent Jake in after him a few moments ago. That’s when we realized he was gone.”

  “The window was open,” Jake added.

  “Shit,” Frank muttered. The last thing he needed was Andy going off on his own.

  “Left open?” Lacy questioned.

  Jake shook his head frantically, indicting he knew more than he let on. Jake was a lousy liar.

  “He went back to the trailer, didn’t he?” Frank checked his pockets for his keys. Damn, stupid kid. Did he actually think this would help?

  Jake nodded, keeping his gaze to his feet.

  “You should have come to me when he told you his plan,” Frank snapped. “I can’t believe you let him leave.”

  “I didn’t let him!” Jake lifted his head, tears pouring out of his eyes. “I begged him not to go and he promised he wouldn’t. Just said he wished he could find whatever it was his father wanted so he would just leave Lacy alone. I swear. He didn’t say he’d actually sneak out.”

  “It’s okay,” Sandy said, stroking Jake’s hair. “You couldn’t have known.”

  “Still should have come to me the moment Andy started talking about it.” Frank stormed by them.

  “Oh no, not without me,” he heard Lacy say.

  He turned and held his hand out. “You stay put. I’ll be in touch when I find him.”

  “Don’t you dare tell me what to do. That’s my nephew out there.”

  “And you’re my wife.” The moment the words left his mouth, he understood the meaning of in the doghouse. He didn’t have to look at her to know she’d be steaming mad.

  “Fine, get in the damn truck.” But the passenger door being slammed shut cut off his words. “But you better do as I say and let me do my job,” he said, slipping into the driver’s seat and revving the engine. “I mean it. This could be dangerous.”

  “Just drive.”

  Swallowing his pride once again, he yanked the gearshift and hit the gas. Their relationship problems had to take a backseat to the reality that Andy could be in real danger. No way in hell would he allow anything to happen to Andy. Or to Lacy. He’d die first.

  * * * * *

  Lacy didn’t bother to wait for Frank to put the truck in park before she leapt from the vehicle and bolted toward the trailer. She could hear him yelling at her to wait, that it might not be safe, but she didn’t listen to him. All she wanted was to wrap her arms around Andy and hold him tight.

  The door to the trailer had been left wide open. She was always yelling at Andy to make sure he shut the door tight. Her heart raced and her lungs burned. “Andy!” She stopped in the center of the room and looked around at the mess. Everything had been turned upside down. The dishes had been pushed from the cupboards and most were shattered on the floor. “Andy?” Slowly, she made her way back toward the bedrooms. “Oh, no,” she whispered.

  Taylor held Andy with one hand and used the other one to hold a gun to his head. “You stupid bitch.”

  “Let him go.” She sucked in a breath and forced her body to remain calm. “It’s obvious we don’t have what you want.”

  “You’ve got it, all right. We just need to find it.”

  Where was Frank? She wondered. He should have been inside the trailer by now. Maybe he had to call for back up and now was just waiting for the right time. That had to be it. “I have no idea where Hannah might have hid it, so just let us go. We can’t hurt you.”

  “But those papers can.”

  “I really don’t know what you’re talking about, and even if I did, I don’t care. Just let us go and we can all go about our lives like nothing happened.” Time. She had to give Frank the time he needed to do whatever he had planned. She smiled weakly at Andy.

  Andy just blinked. Tears rolled down his pale, stricken face and he did nothing to wipe them away.

  “I can’t let you go. Not now.”

  “Yes, you can.” The box. Where did I put the box with Hannah’s personal belongings? That had to be the answer. Whatever Taylor wanted had to be in that box which she now remembered taking over to Frank’s place. “I swear, I won’t say anything. Just leave me and Andy alone.”

  “Let’s go.” He waggled the gun in her face and then used his foot to nudge her. “Don’t make me hit you or the kid.”

  With shaking legs, she turned and headed toward the door with her head held high. It would be over in a minute because Frank was outside, waiting. He’d stop Taylor. He had to.

  But that thought died the moment she stepped outside and saw Paul standing over Frank’s body with a gun pointed at his back. “Oh, God, no…”

  “Get in the fucking car and shut your damn trap.” Taylor pushed the gun into her back.

  For a moment she couldn’t breathe. Frank didn’t move. He lay face down with his gun about five feet from his hand. As far as she could tell, there wasn’t any blood near Frank’s body. That had to be a good sign, except that she couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

  “Just do as he says,” she said, glancing over her shoulder to Andy.

  Andy nodded as he walked b
y Frank’s body. His eyes darting between her and then back to Frank.

  She wished she knew how to comfort Andy, but at the moment no words came to her. If Frank was dead, then so was she. If he wasn’t dead, he probably would be soon. She got into the back of Paul’s car and looped her arms around Andy’s trembling body.

  “Frank’s okay,” she whispered. “Everything is going to be okay.” She knew her words fell flat.

  “Let’s go,” Taylor said.

  “What about the cop?” Paul questioned.

  “Leave him. Now get the fuck in here because this place is going to be crawling with cops in minutes if anyone saw you take out the prick.”

  “No one saw me.” Paul jumped into the car right before Taylor gunned it. “Including him.”

  She held onto Andy with everything she had. They were all each other had in this world. Someone had to have seen what happened. The trailer park was filled with nosey neighbors.

  But would anyone talk?

  Probably not.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “SHIT.” FRANK KICKED a rock and watched it soar dangerously close to Jared’s head. “Sorry.”

  “I have half a mind to send you home.” Jared glared at him.

  “Be my guest.” Frank wouldn’t mind being left alone so he could take off and go find Taylor and wring the bastard’s neck. “It’s not like you’re going to let me near this case anyway.”

  “Damn right about that one,” Jared snapped. “Pull yourself together or I’ll put your butt in the county jail.” Jared turned his attention back to the two local cops who were now a part of the task force. The only thing anyone needed to do was find out where Taylor had taken Lacy and Andy.

  “Calm down, okay?” Reese said behind gritted teeth. “Taylor just fucked up. No matter what he did before, we got him on two counts of kidnapping.”

  “It’s going to be two counts of murder if we don’t find him…soon.”

  “I’m with you on this one.” Reese glanced around then lowered his voice and said, “We’ve got a lead that Taylor had his cruiser loaded up as if he might be gone for a while.”