by Jayne Blue
Something passed over his face the instant we heard the door to the upstairs carefully shut behind Reed. Jack dropped his shoulders and the mask of calm he’d worn disintegrated. He took a few hesitant steps toward me, waiting for my cue to how he should act, how close he should get to me.
He sank down and sat on the opposite end of the couch and wrung his hands as he rested them on his knees. “Are you okay?” he finally said.
I took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I am.” Even now, it was to Jack I told the truth.
“I’m sorry for some of the things I said to you that morning.”
He was looking at me but something kept me from meeting his eyes. Instead, I stared at his strong hands as he rubbed the thumb of one hand over the palm of the other.
“It was a lot,” he said. “I just couldn’t believe any of the things Seth said were true. You didn’t know my dad like I did. This wasn’t like him.”
“Jack,” I said. “You didn’t know your dad like you thought you did. I’m sorry I had to be the one to open your eyes.”
I could have started softer. I didn’t blame Jack for the sins of his father. How could I? But I wouldn’t sit here and listen to excuses. Not when my own father was still locked up and paying for it. Now I faced the same fate for doing nothing wrong other than getting messed up with people with the last name Manning.
“You’re probably right,” Jack said and then I finally did meet his eyes. He looked tired and worn. He was hurt and the deepest part of me wanted to go to him, to take him in my arms and kiss the pain away. I wanted him to do the same for me. But after everything that happened ... after everything that could still happen, maybe it was too late for that. I couldn’t forget that the minute I confronted him with the truth, he had turned his back on me. I didn’t know if I could trust him again. Not yet.
“Let me try and do the right thing now. I came here to see you. To talk to you. But to put all of this together. Addie’s lawyer friend from the Justice Project is going to meet me later tonight. We’ve already faxed copies of the most damning information, but they want all of it. They’re meeting with your dad in the morning.”
I nodded. “Addie told me that. Charlie’s going with them. I don’t think my dad will talk to anyone he doesn’t know about this stuff. He’s had his hopes dashed before. So much so I almost wish we could do all of this without telling him. I’d like it if the next visitor he got was someone coming to take him out of that place for good.”
Jack ran a hand through his thick brown hair. I wanted to reach out and brush it away from his eyes. He needed a haircut. I kept my hands in my lap.
“I didn’t mean what I said to you that night,” he said quietly. “I was hurt and angry and shocked.”
“Do you believe your father did those things?”
Jack looked at me, pain visible behind his wide brown eyes. “I know he did it but I’m having a hard time believing that he could. I don’t know if that makes any sense but that’s where I’m at with this. I’m trying. And I’m sorry for my part in it.”
I cocked my head. “What part was that?”
“I just keep thinking if I hadn’t been so stubborn. If I would have tried harder and come around more. Maybe he would have confided in me or come to me before he’d reached the point of no return with this. But I didn’t. By the time your father went to jail, my dad and I were barely speaking. Miranda had driven a permanent wedge between us and it wasn’t until later, after he started getting sick, that I came back and tried to fix it. By then it was too late. His mind had already started to go.”
“I don’t blame you for what your father did,” I said and it was true.
He nodded. “Right. You just blame me for what I did.”
I took a breath. “I have to figure out a way to get through this. Now I have to clear my own name and Addie says being around you won’t help with that.”
Jack put his head down and nodded it. “She told me that too. But, Tora, what the hell happened that night?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. You don’t actually think I had anything to do with it, do you?”
Jack jerked his head up and looked at me wide-eyed. “No! God, Tora, no! Of course I don’t think that.”
A weight lifted off my shoulders. Until now, I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed to hear him say it.
Jack must have seen something shift in my face because the next thing I knew he had his arms around me and he pulled me against him. I sank into him. Again, my body betrayed my head. I should pull away. I shouldn’t let him suck me back in. I needed to keep my distance and stay strong. Jack had bailed on me at the first sign of trouble. I’d been raised not to trust anyone. Letting him back in would leave myself open to him hurting me again if I wasn’t careful.
But he felt so good. His arms were so strong around me and it was so easy to think he could protect me, if I thought I needed that sort of thing. And he smelled like fresh air and his own secret scent that was all male and all him. He crooked his finger under my chin and lifted my lips to his. He pressed his lips against mine and I couldn’t stop myself from melting into his soft, slow, hungry kiss.
I put my hands up against his chest meaning to push him away but he pressed against me harder and the little groan he made as his arms came around my waist made me stir for him even deeper. I wanted him. I wanted this. Part of it shocked me how badly my body craved his. Less than a week had gone by since he’d touched me and I felt starved for him.
I opened my lips for him and my traitorous fingers found their way into the thick tangle of hair at the nape of his neck. He felt so good. His lips were soft but his body was hard and I wanted nothing more than to drown in him. He pressed me back further, meaning to drive me down until he had me on my back, his body stretched across mine. But he shifted and his foot brushed against the plastic band around my ankle and cold, hard reality flooded my senses where desire had momentarily chased it away.
“Stop,” I managed to gasp between kisses. Jack stilled against me. He pulled back and looked in my eyes. “Jack, stop.”
He searched my face and must have found the truth there. He stiffened and for a moment, I wondered if he would press his luck and kiss me again. That secret part of me wanted him to but Jack wasn’t that kind of man. He honored my words and finally pulled himself off me, holding a hand out to help me back up.
I was flushed and panting and there was no point in lying about how badly I wanted him. But the reasons for denying him were too powerful.
“I have to take care of myself now, Jack,” I said. “It was easier before. For so long you’ve been the only thing that was true and real in my life. It’s different now. Now I’d do anything to escape into some lie again. Now my life is too real. So real I might not survive it.”
“Don’t say that.” Jack’s voice was ragged. “Don’t ever say that. I don’t even want you to think for a second that we won’t find a way to beat this. I’m so sorry, Tora. I told you I loved you and the first time you really needed me I failed you. I get that. I get what that must have been like for you. I can’t take it back but I can try and earn your trust again.”
“Jack ...”
“I’m going to find a way to get you out of this,” he said. He’d risen from the couch and now paced in front of it, tearing his hand through his hair.
I drew my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, squeezing myself in the corner of the couch as I watched Jack unravel a little.
“I want to fight something or someone for you, Tora,” he said, his eyes so full of passion and desperation for me that it tore at my heart.
I rested my forehead against my palm. “I keep going over and over it, you know. That night there were only two other people in the house. There was Seth and Mary Barlow. And now Mary Barlow is flat out lying about what happened that night.”
Jack stopped in front of me. “What’s she said?”
“She says she caught me snooping around the house that night but, Ja
ck, I didn’t. I stayed at Seth’s side or Miranda’s table pretty much the whole evening. And she says Miranda wrote her letters saying how she was afraid of me. I just can’t believe that’s true.”
Jack shrugged. “Maybe I should pay her a visit.”
“Don’t!” I almost yelled it. “Please, don’t. I’m afraid you’ll make it worse without meaning to. Let’s just take Addie’s lead on that. She’s going to question her soon, I think.”
Jack stopped pacing and took his seat back on the end of the couch, keeping an invisible barrier of personal space between us. I don’t think he trusted himself to get close to me again and to be honest, I didn’t trust myself either.
“So there’s Seth,” he said.
I nodded then rested my chin on my knee. “There’s Seth. One of the biggest things they have against me is the browsing history on my phone. Addie said the police turned up a bunch of searches about how to poison someone with antifreeze. The thing is, that was Seth’s phone. He gave it to me when I said I lost mine. He was trying to control every aspect of my life and I was afraid he would snoop through the contacts on mine.”
“But why in the hell would he want Miranda dead?” Jack stared at the far wall as he let his wheels turn. “He knew his best chance at getting that senate seat came with Miranda’s direct help. What possible reason would he have had to kill his own mother?”
“Do you think he was capable of it?” I think I knew the answer to that question already, but I wanted Jack to get there without my prompting.
“Tora, I was shocked at how bad he’s gotten with his drinking and everything else. I already told you that. God, I hope you know that if I even thought for a second he had murder in him, I never would have let you alone in a room with him again after we got close. I hope you know that.”
I nodded. I did.
“Believe me, if I’d thought Seth was capable of it, I wouldn’t have let myself alone in a room with him again.”
Jack shot to his feet again. “Okay. So that’s what I have to figure out. I’m going to see what R.J. can dig up about Miranda’s housekeeper. I know enough of the same people Seth does, I’ll see if there was anything else going on with him we didn’t know about.”
“Will you talk to Addie first?” I asked. “I appreciate your trying to help, but I just don’t want you to inadvertently make it worse in the process by sniffing around.”
Jack cocked a brow at me. “Are you happy with her? This Addie Moscowitz. She seems capable, or at least she did this morning. But, Tora, I can get you any defense lawyer in the country. I know some of the best.”
I smiled. God, it would be so easy to just sit back and let Jack play my knight in shining armor. But I don’t live in a fairytale and I had to take care of myself.
“I appreciate that,” I said. “But so far Addie’s done everything she said she would do. And I think she’s actually doing this because she believes me, not because I can afford some thousand-dollar-an-hour retainer.”
Jack nodded. “You know, I think I got that sense from her too.”
“Good,” I said. “And I really do appreciate your offer of help. I may very well need it more than I even realize. But there’s something else.”
“Anything.” Jack sat in front of me, perching himself on the edge of the coffee table.
“Have you heard from him?” I asked. “From Seth, I mean? I’m afraid to turn on the television. What’s the media take on all of this?”
Jack took a breath. “Don’t. Watch the news I mean. At the moment they aren’t painting you in a very good light. All the things you knew people were saying behind your back when you married Seth? They’re in the news crawl on CNN now. And Seth did come to see me the other night.”
My heart lurched, imagining what awful things he had to say.
“He was wasted, of course,” Jack went on. “He was more worried about the impact of all of this on his political future than he was about the fact that his mother might have been murdered.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said. “And it also makes me wonder even more about whether her murder wasn’t a surprise to him. You know?”
Jack nodded. “I’ll play it your way, Tora. I’ll talk to Addie tomorrow. But I want to do some digging. If Seth was in trouble. If he’d had some sort of falling out with Miranda before she died, somebody else was bound to know something about it. I have some ideas about where to start.”
“Thank you,” I said for what felt like the thousandth time. It wasn’t a natural feeling for me, to have others pitching in to help, even if it was Jack. He came to me again as I rose to my feet. He kept his distance but put his hands on my shoulders.
“You aren’t going to jail again, Tora,” he said. Something sparked behind his eyes as if he were trying to transmit something to me without saying it. “I swear to you. I will not let that happen, no matter what.”
I smiled and deflected. “You offering to take me on the lam, Jack Manning?”
His eyes stayed deadly serious. “I’m saying no matter what, I won’t let it happen.”
I kicked my leg out to the side to display my new wardrobe accessory. “I think the state of Illinois might have other ideas about me turning fugitive. But I appreciate the sentiment just the same.”
“Tora,” he said. “I’m telling you you’re the last member of the McLain family that’s going to go to jail for something a Manning did.”
Something cracked inside me. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—let myself give in to tears or doubt. Once I started, I was afraid I’d never be able to stop.
“Jack,” I said, my voice faltering over the word. “Promise me this instead. Promise me that you’ll bring my father back to me.”
And he did. This time, when he sealed his promise with a kiss, I didn’t pull away.
Chapter Nine
Jack
Reed and Margie followed me out to my car at my insistence. “Thank you,” I said as Margie pulled me into a hug. “Thank you for looking out for her.”
Margie patted my back and pulled away to look me in the eyes. Hers shone bright with love for me. “I’m glad to be able to help. I told you before, I feel Jackson in this. I don’t mean to sound hokey. But he wants us to help her and that means she must be worth it. Of course I know she’s worth it to you.”
Reed hung back and leaned against my car. He crossed his arms over his chest. I knew that look. He was keeping his mouth shut I think because Margie was here. “She didn’t kill Miranda, Reed,” I said, hoping to preempt whatever lecture he seemed on the verge of giving. “I don’t know how I’m going to prove it yet, but I’m pretty sure Seth did it.”
Margie nodded. “That’s what I think too. That boy hasn’t been right since day one but it’s gotten worse. So what are we going to do about it?”
“The state bar is already starting to do something about it,” Reed said. “I got a text about an hour ago from a friend of mine. They’re opening up an ethics investigation on him. It looks like the prosecutor leaked the details of the recording on Tora’s phone about his part in framing her father.”
“You seem like you’re not happy about that,” I said. As far as I was concerned, Seth deserved whatever he had coming to him and more. My biggest challenge was not wringing the life out of him if he was ever dumb enough to walk into a room with me again.
“Oh, he’s earned it,” Reed said. “But he said a hell of a lot of other things on that tape. He named names.”
“You’re worried about that Pagano fellow,” Margie said.
“I don’t know why the hell the rest of you aren’t more worried about him.” Reed threw his hands up and pushed himself away from the car. “Look. I feel real bad about what happened to that girl’s father. Getting him out of jail is the right thing to do. But what do you think’s going to happen after that? Your girlfriend is all over that tape naming names too.”
Reed was right. If the U.S. Attorney decided to reopen the investigation into George Pagano, it could be
dangerous for Tora.
“What’s the statute of limitations on a RICO case like that?” I asked.
Reed shrugged. “It’s long past. But if Pagano engaged in a cover-up, I don’t know what other charges might still stick.”
“You know and I know he’s going to say that Miranda and Seth acted on their own. There’s no proof I’m aware of that links anything directly to him. He’s going to get away with that one all over again. At least maybe we can get Tora’s dad some justice at the same time.”
“Oh, I hope so.” Margie rubbed my upper arm and I reached around her to open the car door. “And don’t worry, honey. Your girl’s going to come around. Just give her some time. Don’t give up on her.”
I think Margie Burnett was part mind reader or witch. Without my saying so, she knew exactly what pressed heavily on my heart. Tora didn’t seem to trust me anymore. It gutted me to watch her pull away from me. As much as I wanted to deliver her father back to her, I wanted to take away the hurt from her eyes as well.
I hugged Margie again. “I didn’t handle it well when she told me about Dad’s part in all of this. I accused her of setting the whole thing up with Seth. I told her I didn’t want anything more to do with her.”
Margie flapped her hand. “You were upset. You didn’t mean half of what you said. And since then you’ve been working to help her and prove her father’s innocence. She may be skittish now but she’ll see your actions speaking louder than your words. She won’t blame you forever for that if she’s worth giving your heart to, Jack. Is she?”
I smiled. I didn’t like the narrow-eyed stare Reed was giving me, but I couldn’t shield my feelings from Margie to avoid a lecture from him. “She is.”
“Well, then, it’s settled.” Margie gave me a good-natured slap on the back. “You do whatever you have to do to help bring Tora’s father back to her and mark my words, she won’t give a second thought to any words you might have said to her in anger. If I held Reed’s mouth against him for more than a little while, I would have kicked him to the curb decades ago. Believe me.”
