Rock Harbor Series - 04 - Abomination

by Colleen Coble

  “Leave her alone! She hasn’t done anything.”

  Gideon chuckled. “Maybe not, but you have. And you’re going to pay.”

  Eve started to cry. “What did I do?”

  “You know, but you don’t want to admit it.”

  “I don’t remember anything,” she screamed into the phone.

  “The pain will cleanse you,” he said. A click sounded in Eve’s ear, returning Gideon to anonymity.

  She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it.

  Nick took the phone out of her hand and put it down on the table. “What did he say?”

  She sagged against his chest. “He threatened to hurt Keri if I leave.” Something swelled in her soul, a hard core she hadn’t known existed. “I’m going to stop him. What do you need me to do?”

  13

  THE SPARE ROOM OF THE LIGHTHOUSE LOOKED OUT OVER Lake Superior. With the window open, Eve could hear the foghorn from the automated light buoy offshore that blinked out every few seconds. The rhythmic blare of the horn added a touch of normalcy to the surreal way her life was going right now. On the other side of the bed, Keri slept with her mouth open.

  Nick was here, just downstairs on the sofa. She buried her hot face in the pillow as a wave of longing swept through her so intense she thought she’d meld with the sheets. While her mind didn’t remember him, her body did.

  They were divorced. She needed to remember it. That fact was more important than the way her pulse jumped to life when he looked at her. More relevant than the way Keri’s face lit up when she saw him. And he couldn’t keep them safe. That was up to Eve. Knowing that something had destroyed their trust in each other, however, didn’t eliminate the way she wanted to dump her problems on him and let him handle them.

  He exuded strength and reliability, traits she desperately needed right now.

  Gideon wasn’t going to destroy her life. She wouldn’t let him. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Something scratched at her door, and she bolted upright with the sheet clutched in her hands.

  “Eve.” The hoarse whisper came from the other side of the door. Nick’s voice.

  She slipped her feet into slippers and tiptoed to the door. Her hand touched the door, then withdrew. He was dangerous to her in ways she couldn’t fathom yet. Did she dare go out and talk to him?

  The scratch came again. “Eve?”

  He’d wake Keri. Grabbing up the robe hanging on the back of the door, she cinched it around her. Her hand went to the door again, and she opened it to see Nick standing in the hallway.

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “It’s one in the morning.” Even as she protested, her slippered feet moved her through the doorway and closer to the danger Nick represented.

  His face was in shadow, but his voice vibrated with longing. “It won’t take long. Come downstairs.”

  “Just for a minute.” She brushed past him. He tried to take her hand, but she pulled out of his grip. Padding through the dark house, she felt her way down the creaking steps. She bit back a groan when she barked her shin up against a wooden rocker. This was all his fault.

  “You okay?” he asked from the bottom of the steps.

  “Fine,” she said shortly. Her head shrieked a warning for her to go back to her room, but her feet carried to where Nick stood with his hands in his pockets near the fireplace.

  “You had a long drive today and should be in bed,” she said.

  A smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Ever the mother. I’m fine.”

  “Am I the motherly type?”

  “The worst kind,” he said, a grin lifting his lips. “A mama bear. You mother everyone you meet, not just Keri.”

  “Lately I’m more like the child,” she said. She tightened her robe around her. “What’s so important it couldn’t wait until morning?”

  “I couldn’t sleep. I still can’t believe you’re here.” He took his hands out of his pockets and put them on her shoulders, where they seemed to burn right through the fabric. “These past months have been pure hell on earth. I prayed every prayer I could think of, made every promise to God under the sun, if he’d just let me find you alive.”

  She spread her hands, palms up. “What do you want me to say, Nick? I can’t answer any of this. I don’t know you. I don’t remember our life together. There is nothing inside that recognizes what you’re talking about.”

  She was a liar. Something inside her heart moved toward him like the tide to the moon.

  “Your memory will come back.” His hope sounded like desperation.

  “It’s been three months, Nick. Even the memories I thought I had turned out to be false. I don’t even remember the day Keri was born.”

  He lifted his hands as though to touch her face, then dropped them awkwardly at his sides. “I want you to come home when this is all over,” he said. “Give me another chance. Things will be different. Even if your memory never comes back, there is still this attraction between us. You can feel it too—I know you can.”

  It would help if she could tell him he was wrong. “Chemistry wasn’t enough to save our marriage, and it’s nothing to build a future on either. I don’t know you. I don’t know what you like to eat or drink. What your favorite football team is. Where you went to school, if your parents are living, if you have any siblings. The list goes on and on. I don’t know you.”

  He fell back onto the sofa as though his legs wouldn’t hold him. “Nothing? I can’t quite believe it.”

  “It’s true. I can’t remember what my house looks like. I didn’t even know what I looked like until I looked in the mirror. You say you love me. If you do, then give me some space. Take your freedom and make a new life.”

  “Freedom? A piece of paper changes nothing. I still love you.”

  She curled her fingers into her palms. “Please don’t say that. Let’s concentrate on finding this guy.”

  “I thought you wanted to run away—that you don’t think I can protect you.”

  “Right now you’re the best I’ve got. You’ve seen Deputy Dawg.”

  He grinned. “I kept looking around for Ty Coon. Deputy Montgomery is more on the ball than you give him credit for, but I’ll ask for more help. Gideon’s not going to get to you or Keri.”

  If only he were right. Deep down, Eve knew Gideon would take her. “Nick, will you make sure Keri is happy?”

  He got to his feet again and faced her. His warm fingers touched her chin and tilted her face up. “You’ll make sure Keri is happy.”

  Her chin tingled. She breathed deeply of his masculine scent, so clean and compelling. Eternity by Calvin Klein mixed with the musky aroma of his skin. It was so strange how she could recognize the scent but sense nothing about the man. Nothing other than that her soul longed for him. Surely they’d had good times once for her to feel this security in his strength.

  Her lips parted as she stared up into his face. The warmth in her stomach spread. She ached to press her lips against his, to burrow against his chest and hide there forever. But she couldn’t betray how she felt. Summoning a reserve of strength she didn’t know she had, she put her hands on his chest and pushed him away. She turned on legs that threatened to let her down and walked away.

  “This isn’t over,” he called after her.

  It was, but he just didn’t know it.

  EVE HAD ANSWERED SO MANY QUESTIONS FOR THE PAST FORTYeight hours that her head felt like a watermelon. Not that she’d been able to answer any of them. No matter how hard she tried to batter down the barrier that separated her from her memories, the door remained stubbornly locked.

  The media swarmed Rock Harbor, and everywhere she turned, she found a mic thrust in her face. Eve was beginning to see how celebrities lost their tempers and took a swing at the paparazzi.

  Nick’s presence was constant. Watching every person who approached, he shadowed her movements. Keri hardly let him out of her sight, and it was a joy to see them together. That made
up, at least in part, for the way every one of her senses seemed to spring to life when he turned his dark eyes her way.

  Eve sat at Keri’s bedside on Wednesday night and listened to Nick’s deep voice read The Cat in the Hat until the little girl’s eyes began to droop. The book had been in his SUV, and the way he read it, she could tell it was a story he’d read a zillion times.

  He pressed a kiss on Keri’s hair, then tiptoed to the door. Eve kissed the little girl as well and followed him out into the hallway. “I need to talk to you about Keri,” he said.

  She should have known this was coming. What father would leave a little girl with a mother who didn’t even remember her? She would fight with every ounce in her to keep her daughter though. Her mind might not remember the particulars, but her heart burst with love. She marshalled every argument as she led the way to the living room.

  Bree and Kade were with Davy, putting him down to bed as well. They would have a few moments of privacy. A cinnamon candle on the fireplace sent its spicy aroma out to greet them as they stepped into the living room. Wasn’t aromatherapy supposed to calm the nerves? The fragrance did nothing to soothe her agitation.

  “Sit down.” Nick’s voice was grave.

  “You can’t have custody of her,” she blurted, sinking onto the sofa. She clasped her cold hands together.

  He raised his eyebrow. “I wouldn’t take her from you, Eve. You should know—” He shook his head and broke off.

  She should know better—that’s what he had been about to say. But she didn’t know. That was the whole problem. Had Keri even had her immunizations? Did she have any medical problems? There were so many things a mother should know that Eve didn’t. She was beginning to think she would never recover those lost memories.

  “So what about Keri? Is something wrong with her?” Her daughter seemed perfect.

  “No, no, she’s fine. It’s . . .” He sat on the edge of the chair. “It’s about your memory, something you don’t remember about Keri.”

  Bree and Kade came into the living room. “I didn’t think he was ever going to go to sleep,” Bree said of Davy. “He’s excited about softball practice.” Bree’s gaze darted from Kade to Eve. “Are we interrupting something? We can go to the kitchen.”

  “No, no, it can wait.” Relief put a lilt in Nick’s voice. “It’s not that important.”

  Eve wanted to hit him. Was he hiding some secret about their baby? “Nick, I’d like the phone numbers of my family,” she said. “My parents, any siblings.”

  He nodded and pulled his cell phone out. “Get me a paper and pen, and I’ll give them to you.”

  “I’ll get it.” Bree opened the drawer in an end table and drew out a pad of paper and a pen.

  Nick took them and began to write down the numbers. “Your parents live in the same place where you grew up, a small town over near Grand Rapids. Your two brothers live in Grand Rapids. Adam is a bartender, and Seth manages a bowling alley. They’re not married. Your sister—” He stopped and looked up. “No one knows where Patti is.”

  “Oh? Since when?”

  “She ran off two years ago.”

  Nick wasn’t meeting her gaze, and Eve frowned. Did he used to date Patti? There was something about her sister he didn’t want to tell her.

  THE SKY HUNG HEAVY WITH STORM CLOUDS CHASING ONE another in swirls that mirrored the eddies of the harbor. The sky and lake matched Nick’s mood. He should have told Eve the truth last night.

  It was time for breakfast, but Nick hadn’t been able to resist the aroma wafting from the pasty shop. Beef pasties could easily become an addiction. He took another bite and wiped the juice from his chin before entering the Suomi Café. He’d gotten up late, and Kade told him he’d taken the day off to take the kids to the new wildlife exhibition at the ranger station while Eve and Bree were eating breakfast here.

  Oliver still hadn’t arrived in Rock Harbor, but he’d e-mailed Nick Tuesday saying another project had come up that would delay him a couple of days. Nick hoped the forensic sculptor would make it in today. Oliver could shed some light on the investigation that no one else could.

  The aroma of Finnish cardamom bread permeated the Suomi Café. The worn plank floors of the restaurant and the cracked leather booths showed the place was well loved and well used. Nick caught a glimpse of some kind of pancake drizzled with what looked like raspberry syrup. He’d have to eat in here sometime when he hadn’t succumbed to the pasty temptation. His gaze scanned the room and came to rest on Eve’s bright head. Tension was in every line of her shoulders and downturned head, and he knew she’d seen his entrance.

  Even the familiar way she stood—heels together and toes out at the forty-five-degree angle known to all ballet dancers as the first position—caused a wave of love to swell. Eve wrapped herself in a blanket of quiet strength. Her demeanor had always calmed him after a rough day at work, but it could be hard and cold as well.

  Her guardedness could cut, and he felt its icy blade when he approached. He zigzagged around the waitress and approached the booth Eve was sliding into. “Mind if I join you?”

  “Sit down,” Bree said with a quick glance at Eve. Bree scooted over.

  Eve still hadn’t spoken, and Nick fixed his gaze on her. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Her clipped tone matched her averted eyes.

  “Mama is going to come see you,” he said.

  Her head came up then, and she looked like a felon about to bolt. “Your mother?”

  “Yeah. She loves you like a daughter. She took your part over me all through this divorce thing.” He studied her face.

  Color rushed into her cheeks, but she didn’t answer. Nick knew this had to be hard for her, faced with a mother-in-law she couldn’t remember. He’d tried to tell his mom not to come right now, but she didn’t listen. She often didn’t.

  When neither of them said anything, Bree cleared her throat. “Have you talked to Montgomery this morning?”

  Nick nodded. “Nothing we didn’t know though. The preliminary examination showed the woman died of stab wounds. Just like the others.”

  Eve tore her paper napkin into strips. “We have to find him before he can hurt anyone else, especially Keri.”

  Nick wanted her to look at him. “I don’t really think Keri is in danger. He’s never touched a child before. He’s a missionary killer.”

  “Missionary killer, what does that mean?” Bree asked.

  “It’s a type of serial killer. He thinks his killing is justified and he’s ridding the world of a certain kind of evil. Many kill prostitutes, but we haven’t figured out exactly what Gideon’s angle is.” He decided not to tell her about the verse in Proverbs. It might undo her to know Gideon had targeted her for a supposed sin.

  Eve shuddered. “I was never a prostitute, was I?”

  Nick wanted to laugh but didn’t. “Not hardly.” He glanced at Bree. “This is a small town. A stranger is going to stand out here. If he shows up, I think we’ve got a chance to get him.”

  “A stranger won’t stand out right now,” Bree said. “Tourist season just started. We’ve got strangers in town by the droves.”

  The bell on the door tinkled behind him, but he didn’t pay any attention until a female voice called his name. And Eve’s. He turned to look, and a rock seemed to lodge in his throat. As if they didn’t have enough problems.

  A face he hadn’t seen in two years approached. Eve’s sister, Patti, walked toward them with purposeful steps. He would have bet money she’d died in a meth house somewhere.

  Wishing now he’d had the courage to talk to Eve last night about Keri, he stood and moved to intercept her. “Patti?”

  Eve’s younger sister had aged some. Tiny lines marred the pale skin around her eyes and mouth. Her blonde hair had darkened to ash, and it hung in dull, lifeless locks that touched her shoulders. The clothes she wore looked like they’d come from a secondhand shop. The garish orange colors of the plaid blouse made her look dull and ye
llow.

  “Nick,” Patti said, veering to walk around him. She continued on to join her sister at the booth. “Hello, Eve.”

  Eve looked from Patti to Nick and back again. “Hello,” she said. Her gaze held a plea when she looked back to Nick.

  Nick used to think the women looked a lot alike, but drug abuse had transformed Patti into a jaded woman, while Eve still had her fresh skin and clear eyes. He stepped between them again and put his hand on Eve’s shoulder.

  “Think you have to protect her, Nick?” Patti asked, her voice taunting. “I’m not dangerous. Especially not to my own sister.”

  Eve’s shoulders tensed.

  “This is Patti, your sister,” Nick said.

  “I haven’t changed that much,” Patti said. Color flooded her cheeks, and she blinked quickly as though forcing back tears. “You’ve gotten older too.” She studied Eve’s face. “You don’t look it though. The years have been nicer to you.”

  Nick needed to head off what he sensed was coming. “I’m not sure if you’ve seen the papers, but Eve has been through a lot, Patti. She was attacked, and she doesn’t remember anything.”

  Patti’s blue eyes snapped. “What do you mean? I thought the amnesia the paper mentioned meant you didn’t remember the attack. You know your own sister.”

  “No, no. I’m sorry.” Eve stood awkwardly. “I wish I did, but I don’t remember anyone.”

  Nick winced. Patti would use that statement if she’d shown up here for the reason he suspected.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Patti cheeks reddened even more. “That only happens on soap operas.”

  “I had a concussion,” Eve offered. “How did you find me?”

  “You’re a media darling,” Patti muttered. “It wasn’t exactly hard.” Her pronounced stare at her sister dragged on.

  “Eve will recover in time,” Nick said.

  “How much time? And what about Keri?”

  “What about her?” Nick asked, hoping to head her off. “Would you like to see her? She’s with a friend, but you can see her later tonight.”

  Patti blinked and shrugged. Her smile, when it finally came, looked pinched. “Don’t I get a hug?” she asked, looking from Eve to Nick.