WindSwept Narrows: #16 Anna Carson & Catherine Jenkins

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  “The house we lived in then was…god, memories from when you’re four are weird…it seemed nice. I remember the outside…I remember a three car garage off to the right. The room we had was on the first floor, on the left side of the house. It was big, hell when you’re four everything’s big…huge, massive shelves that reached the ceiling. I’m pretty sure it was a library or den…our bed was in there…microwave and fridge with a big freezer…we learned to take care of ourselves very early.”

  Catherine wasn’t sure her action would be taken the way it was meant, but she bent her knee and gave his back a nudge, her eyes meeting his as she nudged him again, smiling when he took the message and slid a little closer. She pulled his palm from where it rested crossed over his chest and wrapped her hands around it.

  “That explains the diplomas…a bit of a prodigy, were we?”

  “Hmm…we refused testing, even in school,” a small laugh and he shook his head. “Not sure why. Some in high school and college were adamant…it was important…but not to us. So…here we were…Anna read this story book,” his eyes rolled and his laughter was genuine. “Thought she could hang her hair out the window….”

  “Oh, god…you didn’t?” Catherine could picture two small children plotting.

  “I wasn’t quite that naïve…I knew how it hurt her head when…” He stopped when another memory intruded. “When someone grabbed her hair,” he said softly. “The main door to the room was usually kept closed. But when it was open, there was a gate…typical kid gate, I guess…she tried climbing over it once…we learned fast…only tried that once…anyway…we kept a book…we had a clock and knew when it was safe…that no one would look for us. Then we learned to stuff the pillows beneath the blankets and that bought us all day out in the world.”

  “Is this where you learned the breaking and entering skills?” She teased, trying for a little lightness. She had his much large palm trapped between hers, resting on her thigh.

  “Those are much more sophisticated,” he said with a small chuckle. “I kind of knew the hair thing wouldn’t work…so we got the screen off and hung upside down awhile, trying to figure out a way down. We were ground level, but we weren’t that big. We managed to wrestle a chair with cushions…like a dining chair without arms…through the window and position it right under it…then it was easy. So armed with warm clothes and some money, we snuck out and found the library and discovered a convenience store. I think we were seriously sick that first time…but we couldn’t have been happier.”

  “The people watching you…your parents…”

  “We found out later that the house was owned by our paternal grandparents,” he said slowly, pulling memories together. “When we learned to read and write…we kept a journal. Anna’s kept hers…still has it…I had a burning party when I was eighteen. Some things a guy should be wiser about putting into writing,” he said, his head shaking ruefully, his fingers folding around hers with a smile at her laughter.

  “Hmm…a man who learns from his indiscretions.”

  “Self-preservation. Honesty about crazy girl behavior can get you serious pain. Being killed would be a mercy at that point.” He admitted easily. “So…the house belonged to the grandparents…we found out the parents and us lived in it at their benevolence, to which, they were provided regular photos of us and once a month, we were bundled into the back of a limo and taken to their house. That stopped when we were about eleven…they didn’t know what to do with us and I think we were at the anger stage then for a short time. Educational toys appeared in boxes, we figured from the grandparents…just set inside the room along with clean clothing. The fridge and freezer were kept stocked, even fresh fruit and finger vegetables,” he shrugged. “Seemed normal to us. Anyway, we found the library and it was…like unreal…there wasn’t enough time in the day. Once the librarians got used to us, they just helped us with what we wanted from the shelves and we sat there…laid in the middle of the kid section, devouring everything we could get our hands on.”

  “And you gravitated to money? Anna?”

  Aaron drew in a long breath. “We didn’t know what the words meant…things we heard around us at the house. Not until much later. We watched tons of people come and go. Anna can draw. Like a master…she’d make portraits in her journal of people she saw…she was always peeking through the door, just holding it open a tiny crack so she could see and draw…and she’d make little marks next to each portrait when they returned so she didn’t redraw them. There was a lot of money…another of those things we didn’t know what it was, but from their behaviors, we knew it had to be important. So we’d collect it…at night…when it was quiet. No noises…no people…we’d sneak out and take some. Not enough to ever be noticed. If it was important, we needed to have some of it…and we’d hide it in one of the little learning toys…a cash register…and our stuffed animals.”

  “They were dealers,” she said quietly, the confirmation in his eyes.

  “We never touched the stuff we saw lying around. Just collected money.”

  “Why does Anna have medication?”

  “Sleeping pills,” this time his breath was ragged. “One afternoon the door was open and I was in the connecting bedroom…not sure doing what…she was sitting next to the gate, like she usually was, a big book open on her lap and her drawing journal underneath. Somehow…we knew they’d make us stop if they saw what we were doing…so we didn’t. It’s been a long time since I read her page about this…it was a couple days before she could even write it down. A young guy came in…talking to the dad, she said…and he came to the gate…leaned over and touched her face. We also learned very early never to talk and once they spot you, don’t move. He talked to her but more to the dad, she said…”

  “Aaron…” She saw the strong mixture of anger, frustration and fury in his eyes, his hand and the pulse at the side of his throat tensing.

  “I can see her writing…god, we had awful handwriting when we were little…he told the dad that she was a cutie…that he knew lots of guys interested in…interested in getting off inside a pretty little thing like her…she was the perfect age for training…” He let his head fall to the back of the sofa for a long minute. “At four, we didn’t know what he meant. Anna wrote it down a couple days later when she calmed down. All she knew was the feeling…the aura…the vibration of his voice…she said the dad told him she was worth more to him untouched, shoved the guy aside and closed the door. I don’t know how long before I came in…and I couldn’t find her. She was always…if the door was closed, she was dancing around, singing…geeze, she rarely shut up…but I couldn’t find her. Then I heard a little noise from the closet. We never went in there. Nothing in there…but that day…curled up in a tight little ball, was Anna…trying to hide beneath a pile of coats. I’d never seen her eyes like that before…so big and so…terrified…red and…I couldn’t get her to stop crying.”

  “Oh god…at four that would stick…”

  “She tried to justify it…nothing happened to her. It was just words…yet she still has nightmares from it. I spent the night in the closet with her, just two little kids holding each other. We dragged stuff from the other room after that and outside of the bathroom, weren’t apart. It was the middle of July when we were coming back from the library…the house is surrounded with guys in jackets blazing FBI and DEA…as soon as we were spotted, we were thrown into the back of a limo and taken to another house. We never saw the parents again. All our stuff was there, though…and we threw enough of a fit that we got the large family room on the lower level, across from the bathroom and down the hall from the kitchen. We were about ten when we started researching to find out what had happened…but all the news had was a large drug bust.”

  “You don’t know where they are?”

  “I’m not ten any longer, Catherine. I know exactly where they are,” he said coldly. “We don’t have their last name. This new house…it was all still being run by the paternal grandparents. I d
on’t think they knew about the drugs…they’re too disconnected to know. But we were family and they took care of us, in their own way, I suppose. We had a housekeeper and cook, Missy…and there was a guy, Danny, her husband, he took care of the grounds. We had tutors that came in each day…but no one monitored them and we pretty much did as we pleased once we had their lessons out of the way. We found another library…”

  “You’re very good with computers, too, aren’t you,” it was more a statement than a question, and he met the teasing smile in his eyes. “Which accounts for being able to find only what you wanted found about Aaron Carson.”

  “We were able to manipulate one of the tutors. Got registered in public school…used the excuse about socializing. I don’t know if the grandparents knew and approved or not. Anna…she’s always had these feelings…not sure how to describe it. She was convinced we had to start making plans. This came about ten…we got these insane allowances, and got Missy to help us open a bank account. We’d just deposit money. Anna was very good at getting increases out of the grandparents…we were teenagers…always new stuff to have and as long as we kept our grades high, we got money,” he shrugged dismissingly. “And she had us putting stuff into a storage unit. Anything we wanted to keep. She was adamant. I’d been exposed to her feelings for so long, I didn’t question. One Thursday…after the tutor left…three guys in suits came into the house. We were fourteen…a couple months past…we didn’t recognize them. Dark glasses…suits…I thought maybe we had papers to sign…the grandparents had been sending people for our signatures for a couple months, we know it had to do with inheritance but never gave it much thought.”

  Catherine sat up a little straighter, her mind too long accustomed to dots that needed connected.

  “Anna went frantic when she looked at them. I mean…within five minutes, we had things in our packs, jackets on and out the door. We were a block and a half away when she says she saw the big SUV drive past. We kept to side streets, so no one saw us…then there was a massive explosion…” He had to work to keep his fingers from crushing the smaller hands holding his. “I swear, I could feel the heat…the ground shaking…they said it was a gas leak…Anna called Missy’s name and almost went to her knees in the middle of the sidewalk. I kept her on her feet and then she just grabbed my hand and pulled.”

  “No one found you? No one went looking?”

  “No one knew, Catherine. If the grandparents looked for us,” he shrugged. “As far as anyone else knew, we went up with the house. We didn’t contact anyone. We had a plan…went to a couple different hair cut places, I got a crew cut and Anna went to a pixie…we tinted it blond and started at the high school full time. We were so far ahead…”

  “Is Anna into finances, too?”

  “God, no…woman used to drive me batty until I took her checkbook away and set her up online and always keep a buffer there,” he laughed. “She discovered botany I guess just after our fifth birthday. She had things growing in the yard around the house….wild exotic flowers and vegetables…we had a budget from the grandparents just for landscaping. It’s what she does now. She opened a nursery and landscaping service a little over ten years ago.”

  “I saw her…the newspaper on Sunday…”

  Aaron straightened up slowly. “Where?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Do you have Sunday’s paper?” Catherine flexed her knee and swung it to the floor when Aaron was up and moving toward a large desk. She pushed up, using the cane to cross behind him. Her hand went out, sliding sections aside and pulling the society page out. She dropped it on top of the pile while he turned a bright light on over the desk. There was no protest when he pulled the chair out and turned her so she could sink into the rich, padded leather. “Big spread about the benefit last weekend.”

  Aaron’s gaze shot keenly over the variety of color photos, landing immediately on two with Anna and Carter.

  “I was supposed to be there. But had a…friend got married in Vegas. She hates those things. She doesn’t know this is here…she would have said.” He read quickly through the article that told about her business and Carter’s interests, a short blurb about the eligible bachelor being captivated by the owner of Alice’s Garden.

  “I doubt anyone would recognize you from when you were kids, Aaron,” her hand covered his on the desk. “Is that what you’re worried about?”

  “You…my very beautiful cop…have no idea what you’ve wandered into,” Aaron gave into the urge, bending before her and framing her face before settling his mouth hungrily over hers. He tasted surprise and heat; the sweet wine and an even sweeter sensation when she returned his kiss.

  Prepared, no, her mind melted beneath his kiss. Losing herself in passion had never been big on her radar. What was it about him that made her insides melt, like now? She misunderstood the groan from him and pulled back.

  “You’re all bent over…”

  “And you’re wounded…” Aaron stood up, moving before she could protest. He had her in his arms and back to the sofa, laying her out before stretching out beside her and blocking her safely inside.

  “My mouth works fine,” she whispered before sinking her fingers into the hair at the back of his head, this time it was her mouth doing the ravaging. Her tongue swept in, around and out to trace a teasingly slow line around his lips.

  Aaron groaned into her kiss. Not a doubt in his mind about her last statement. He slid one hand beneath her head, the other brushed the stray hair from her face, a soft, smooth complexion that melted beneath his palm. She wore a plain black tank that hugged her like a second skin and a looser open weave sweater on top. He lay facing her, hungrily devouring each kiss that drifted to the next and tried to remember that she had over a hundred stitches in her leg. Part of his brain was trying to recall which side in conjunction to which one now that they were becoming tangled on the sofa.

  Right side, a small functioning part of his brain shouted. Which meant it was the leg on top…the one he’d nudged up by putting his leg between hers. There were no other sounds in the house but the soft sounds of their kiss, the ragged breathing that broke when she lifted herself to one elbow, breaking the kiss and stroking her palm along his cheek. He saw a slight wince on her face when she angled a little higher, her hands crossing over her and pulling the light sweater up and dropping it behind the sofa before she shifted to lie more along his body.

  Aaron groaned when she pressed her hips against his, angling and rotating, stroking with her body. He was listening to the raging argument inside him. Catherine Jenkins wasn’t going to vanish from his life, she was going to become his life, he told himself firmly, his hands pulled from the absurdedly narrow waist and gripped her shoulders.

  “Catherine…Cat…listen to me…your leg…”

  “I have two…” she murmured against his jaw, raising her head and peering down with a slight tilt.

  The smile mixed with those pale violet eyes were killing his self-control not to mention his momentary burst of rational thought.

  “You can’t tell me you aren’t interested, Aaron,” a soft husky laugh left her lips as she trailed hot kisses along his jaw, down his throat. She felt his hands tighten when she found a sensitive spot in the hollow just inside the collar of his shirt. She nipped again, a little stronger and soaked up his groan, felt his body tighten a little more beneath her hips.

  “Christ…you’re hurt…”

  “So…the parts I need to use are fine, trust me…” She whispered softly, dropping tiny kisses along his mouth. A firm, full mouth that made her want to nibble along his lip until he stopped thinking. She snaked her palm between them, slim fingers popping buttons free until she could press her palm against his chest, stroking, feeling the silken dark coils teasing her fingers.

  “This is where the gentlemanly manners I learned are supposed to override what you’re doing to my sanity,” he said gruffly, his palms releasing her shoulders and gliding down the center of her back, onto her hips
and then her behind. Both of them groaned, both of them closed their eyes and wandered into another kiss. A long, slow kiss that swept into a deeper, hungry kiss.

  “I love your manners…and my sanity is probably right behind yours…please tell me you…I don’t…” Catherine knew she was breathing too quickly and buried her face in his throat, inhaling the spicy scent of after shave and Aaron.

  “You’re blushing…” He whispered, nudging her face with his head and smiling at the mock growl she attempted. “Birth control?”

  She nodded.

  “Catherine…”

  “If you’re going to tell me you…you get a girl all worked up…with sexy kissing and then…just…”

  “Being accused of playing fast and loose with your affections?” Aaron gave her hip a little nudge until she was back on the sofa, groaned loudly and adjusted his slacks as he sat up. “Oh, yeah…that’s me…”

  “I bet I sleep good…with the right incentive,” she purred as she moved behind him, ignoring the throbbing in her thigh. Dark lashes blinked wildly when he was suddenly up from the sofa, his hands out to lift her and head towards the stairs. “Decisive…” She breathed, laying her head down and letting her fingers toy with the buttons on his shirt.

  Aaron took her hands in his and bent to kiss her as he set her on the edge of the bed. “Be right back…”

  Decisive, she’d said. Yeah…that’s me, he thought, palming one of the tablets and carrying a small glass of water with him. He moved quickly, her mouth opening in surprise when he pinched her nose and popped the pill inside, following it with water until she swallowed.

  “I…I’ll kill you! I swear to…what the hell…why did you…” Catherine wrenched her wrists from his hands, glaring furiously. “I should stick my finger down my throat and puke all over you!”

  Aaron carried the glass back to the bathroom, returning to pull a lower drawer open on the bureau. He carried a grey tee shirt toward the bed, sighing heavily.