Cold Hearts

by Sharon Sala

  * * *

  The kitchen in the Jackson house was just as Lissa remembered. The cutlery was still in the same drawer and the dishes in the same place in the cabinets. It was like being in a time warp. Even the curtains were the same, just a little more faded by countless washings over the past ten years. It felt good to be here. She and Mack had made so many good memories in this house. Now she was ready to make some new ones.

  She’d settled on reheating a bowl of beef Stroganoff and had noodles cooking on the stove to go with it. She’d taken a peach pie out to reheat and had a fresh pot of coffee brewing.

  The day was sunny but cold, and as she worked she thought about her friends cleaning up her house. Until that broken window got fixed, it would be cold inside, and she felt bad they had to work in that.

  She had rented a car to drive back and forth to work, but now that she wouldn’t be going back for a while, she decided to turn the car back in to the rental agency and gave them a call.

  The owner had heard about what had happened to her and was properly horrified on her behalf. After a brief conversation, he offered to pick up the car himself. He and an employee came by a little while later to pick up her check and the car keys, and then left to go to her house to retrieve the car, which was still in the drive.

  Lissa was standing at the window, watching them drive away when the timer went off. That meant the pie was ready to take out of the oven. She glanced down the hall on her way to the kitchen, but the door to Mack’s room was still closed.

  She was getting ready to drain the noodles when she heard a knock at the door. She set them aside and went to answer, quickly recognizing one of her mother’s oldest friends.

  “Mrs. Sanford! It’s so nice to see you. Please come in,” Lissa said.

  Frieda Sanford smiled as she handed over a plate of cookies and then took a seat on the sofa.

  “These look wonderful. Thank you,” Lissa said.

  “I heard Mack was released from the hospital and wanted to bring a little something. I’m pleasantly surprised to see you here.”

  Lissa sat down beside her. “He got hurt trying to protect me, and I’ve been temporarily evicted from my own home because of a stalker. I’m sure you heard all the dirty details.”

  Frieda’s smile faded. “Yes. It’s horrible, what’s happening to you. I would be terrified out of my mind.”

  “I was. I will be so grateful when he’s caught and jailed.”

  Frieda nodded, but she’d come for another reason, and she needed to get it said. “You know, your mom and I were best friends.”

  “Yes, I know. She thought the world of you,” Lissa said.

  “When she was diagnosed with the brain tumor, she told me first. Of course, you weren’t here, and with your father already passed and everything, I guess I was the obvious choice.”

  “I’m grateful she had you,” Lissa said.

  Frieda nodded. “Yes, well, about a month before Polly...your mom got to the point where she could no longer speak, she called me over one day. Just to visit, she said, but as soon as I got there, I knew there was more. It didn’t take long for her to break down and start crying. She said she’d done a terrible thing to you and Mack right after you graduated, and that she needed to unburden herself before she died.”

  Lissa froze. All of a sudden she knew she was about to find out why her parents had gone out of their way to break her and Mack up. She took a deep, shaky breath and waited.

  “It all had to do with something that happened to her the summer she graduated high school.”

  Lissa leaned forward, listening intently.

  “She was getting ready to go away to college when she found out she was pregnant. She’d already broken up with the boy, so finding out was devastating. When she told him, he denied it—and her. Her parents reacted badly as well, and then made it worse. They sent her away to a home for unwed mothers and then used their religious beliefs as a lever, telling her it would shame their family and stigmatize the child if she raised a bastard. She caved in and put the baby up for adoption.”

  Lissa was stunned. “Oh, my God! Are you serious? I have a sibling somewhere?”

  Frieda’s shoulders slumped. “No, and that’s part of why she did what she did later to you and Mack.”

  “What do you mean?” Lissa asked.

  “She regretted the adoption almost immediately and tried to change her mind, but the courts wouldn’t let her. The baby went to a couple in Miami, Florida, and then died before he was two from child abuse.”

  Lissa gasped. Her heart was hammering so hard she felt faint.

  “Oh, my God, oh, my God,” she whispered.

  Frieda nodded. “The guilt nearly killed her. She met your dad a couple of years later, and they had a happy marriage and then they had you. She told me she thought she’d moved past all that guilt until you had the miscarriage. She said when they got the call from the hospital that you were losing a baby they didn’t even know you were carrying, she freaked out. She said all her guilt and sadness came back, and what was happening to you felt like it was happening to her all over again. Then she felt she had to tell your father about her past, and he gave her a hard time about that. She said she did everything wrong for what she thought were the right reasons, but she knew after you two left for college in two different directions that she’d done you both a disservice.”

  Lissa was in tears. “I’ve been back in Mystic almost seven months. Why are you just now telling me this?”

  Frieda’s expression implored her to understand.

  “I guess because I didn’t know where to start. For all I knew you’d both moved on, and I didn’t want to start something that might turn ugly for one or both of you. Can you understand that?”

  “I guess... Yes, I do,” Lissa said. “But why now?”

  “When I heard that Mack was nearly killed trying to catch your stalker and that you came home from the hospital with him to help nurse him back to health, I knew there had to be something left between you. I’m not betraying your mother’s confidence. I’m just telling you what she would have if she was still alive, okay?”

  Lissa threw her arms around Frieda’s neck and hugged her.

  “You’ve answered a question that neither of us has been able to fathom. They knew we loved each other. I just couldn’t understand why they lied.”

  Frieda patted her heart with relief as Lissa leaned back. “You don’t know what a heavy burden this has been to carry. I’m so grateful to get it off my chest.”

  Lissa’s eyes welled again. “My poor mother. What a tragic thing to carry all her life.”

  “I know it’s none of my business, but are you and Mack going to renew your relationship? I know your mother would be pleased if you did,” Frieda said.

  “We already have,” Lissa said.

  “Oh, praise the Lord!” Frieda said. She then clapped her hands together as if that task was done and stood abruptly. “I need to be gone, and I’m sure you’re busy. You don’t know how good I feel now. This is a good day, a very good day.”

  Lissa got up and walked her to the door. “Thank you for the cookies and for the story. It’s explained so much.”

  “You’re welcome,” Frieda said. “Be safe, the both of you. Bad things are afoot in Mystic now. I don’t know what to make of it. Someone murdering good people, and now a stalker? Our little town has seen too much sadness lately.”

  Lissa stood in the doorway waving until Frieda Sanford had driven away, and when she turned around, Mack was standing only a few feet behind her wearing a pair of sweats and holding a zip-front hoodie.

  “Oh, you’re awake! I wish—”

  “I heard it...all of it,” Mack said. “Are you all right?”

  Lissa sighed. “As sad as Mama’s story is, I feel better knowing it because I was holding quite a grudge. It was the wrong thing to do, but I guess now I understand why.”

  Mack held out his good arm and pulled her close.

  “I lo
ve you, Lissa. We have been given this second chance at happiness, and I will never again put off saying anything that’s in my heart.”

  “I lived ten years without you in my life and grieved about half of that away before I finally accepted I was going to grow old without you.”

  Mack held her tighter. “I’m sorry, I am so sorry.”

  “So am I, Mack. Finding out it was my parents who broke us up was shocking. I never thought we would be together again, but I’m forever grateful that we are.”

  “Dad would be really happy about this,” Mack said. “He left a letter for me in a safety deposit box, and the last part of it was about you.”

  Lissa’s eyes widened. “Really? What did he say?”

  “Basically, he thought we should make peace with each other. He always thought you were wonderful.”

  Lissa’s eyes filled with tears again. “I love knowing that, but I’m still so sad. I will always hate that it was my car he’d stayed late for when this happened.”

  Mack wiped the tears off her face.

  “No, baby, no. He was murdered on the job. The car could have been anyone’s, and if it wasn’t that night, it would have been another one. And if Trey Jakes’ theory is right, his mother is also in danger.”

  “What? Why?” Lissa asked.

  “I’ll tell you about it over lunch, but it has to stay between us,” Mack said. He rubbed a thumb over the little mole above her lips, and then leaned down and kissed it. “For good luck, remember?”

  “Yes, I remember...so much,” she said softly.

  Mack’s gut knotted. He wanted her. It was the primal need of a man to claim his mate, but he was already feeling shaky. Damn the timing of all this.

  Lissa saw the stress on his face and knew immediately what was wrong.

  “You either come sit down in the kitchen or sit down in here. You choose,” she said.

  “In the kitchen with you,” he said.

  “Good,” she said as she picked up the plate of cookies, and together they moved into the kitchen, where Mack quickly sat.

  Lissa helped him get the hoodie on, then zipped it about halfway up.

  “How’s that?” she asked.

  “Perfect.”

  She continued to chatter as she reheated the Stroganoff and finished draining the noodles. Mack sat in near silence, answering when needed, but mostly he sat and watched while trying to absorb the fact he was actually going to spend the rest of his life with her.

  * * *

  Louis drove home with his belly full of soup and corn bread, but his heart was heavy. Something had to be done about Reece. He sort of wished he’d talked to his mother about that, but she was gone, and he didn’t want to go back and drag her into it. He parked and walked into the house in halting steps, just wanting to lie down until he felt better. The pain pills were in his bedroom, but the water was in the kitchen, so he made a detour.

  He had the water in hand, ice clinking against the glass as he headed for his bedroom, with no thought in his mind but the pills. He downed them in one gulp, took off his shoes and jacket, and without bothering to undress, just stretched out on top of the bed and closed his eyes.

  The silence was bliss, and then Reece started screaming. He could hear him coming, yelling at the top of his voice,

  “Mama’s gone! Where did you take her? She never even said goodbye. What the fuck kind of woman comes begging for money, then leaves without so much as a thank-you? I’ll break her neck. I will break her fucking neck, so help me God!”

  Louis groaned. He shouldn’t have come home, but it was too late now. He rolled over and sat up on the side of the bed, his hands over his ears, as if trying to block out the noise.

  “Don’t you do that!” Reece yelled. “Take your damn hands down and listen to me. Where’s Mama?”

  “Gone. She didn’t say where,” Louis said.

  “Why didn’t you—”

  “Stop screaming at me, Reece. I don’t feel good. I hurt, and I need to rest.”

  “You were supposed to—”

  Louis picked up the water glass and threw it across the room against a wall, splattering water and broken glass all over the floor.

  Reece was so shocked, he stopped talking.

  “Thank you,” Louis said calmly. “I hate when you shout. I have been doing exactly what you told me to do. I helped clean up Melissa Sherman’s house, and I want you to know, I have never been so ashamed in my life. The place looked like there was a riot inside. Blood and broken glass everywhere, and you tore up her things. You tore them up like they were nothing. She’s a nice lady, and now she won’t be teaching or living in her house again until you’re arrested and put in jail.”

  Reece’s eyes narrowed angrily. “What do you mean, she’s not going back to school or her house?”

  “Exactly what I said,” Louis snapped. “No one would, you idiot. You’ve been stalking her, and you tried to kill her boyfriend.”

  “Boyfriend? She has a boyfriend?”

  “Yes, the man you thought you killed—who, by the way you did not, and you better be glad. If you had killed him, I would have turned you in myself.”

  Reece snorted aloud. “Listen to your stupid self. You can’t turn me in, and you know it.”

  Louis’s eyes welled. “Go away, Reece. Go away. I don’t feel like talking. I need to sleep.”

  “Fine, I’m leaving, but just remember, you try to fuck me over and I’ll kill you first.”

  “Perfect,” Louis muttered. “Go ahead and do it. I’m tired of you. I’m tired of this life. This life hurts.”

  And just like that, all the rage slid out of Reece’s voice. “I’m sorry, Louie. I didn’t mean it.”

  “Yes, you did, because you’re bad. You’re bad, Reece, and I’m tired. Go away.”

  Reece left. He couldn’t face his brother after what he’d said. He would never kill Louis. They were twins, halves of one whole. Even if Louis didn’t like him sometimes, he was the only one who understood him.

  * * *

  Pinky locked herself in her motel room and turned out the lights. She was in a precarious situation right now, and until she got out of Mystic, she could still wind up in Reece’s mess. She took all the money out of her purse except for a hundred dollars in twenties, and hid nine hundred in cash on her person, putting some in her bra, some inside her panty hose and some inside her shoes. She hid the cashier’s check and the other thousand in cash inside a small tear in the lining of her coat, and then pinned the tear together with a safety pin. She shoved a chair under the doorknob and then sat in the shadows, trying to figure out a way to get out of town without waiting two days for a bus.

  Thirteen

  The miracle of Mack and Lissa’s reunion was how easily they fell back into the comfort of being in love. They ate their lunch together without worrying about embarrassing themselves as people did on first dates, then ate peach pie à la mode while laughing about the first time they’d made love.

  “I didn’t even have my pants zipped back up when Dad pulled into the drive,” Mack said.

  “And my bra was undone in the back, and I had to stuff my panties down the front of my pants because I didn’t have time to put them back on.”

  Mack threw back his head and laughed. “Dad had to know something was up when he walked in, but he never said a thing. What I never told you was that before I went to bed that night he walked into my bedroom, dropped a half dozen condoms in the drawer of my nightstand and walked out without saying a word.”

  “Oh, my Lord, I would have died,” Lissa said.

  “You know what bothered me the most? The fact that he had them on hand.”

  Lissa’s eyes widened as she got the implication, and then she burst out laughing.

  “I didn’t know your dad dated.”

  “Yeah, neither did I,” Mack said, and then lifted his cup of coffee. “To Dad and his secrets. May they all come to light.”

  Lissa lifted her cup as well, as the seriousness
of the moment overcame the earlier mirth. “To your dad.” Moments later she set her cup down, reached across the table and took his hand. “They will figure out why this is happening and catch the killer. I have faith.”

  “God, I hope so,” Mack said. “In the meantime, I need to make that call to my security company and get someone over here ASAP. Right now your safety is my top priority.”

  “I’ll get your phone for you. Is it in the bedroom?”

  “Yes, on the nightstand.”

  She left the kitchen in a run and returned moments later with the phone. Before she could hand it over, he grabbed her around the waist with his good arm and pulled her down into his lap.

  “Just one knock-my-socks-off kiss and I promise I won’t ask for more,” he said, as he nuzzled the side of her neck.

  “Don’t make promises I don’t want you to keep,” Lissa said as she very carefully slid an arm around his neck and aimed for his mouth, then changed her mind at the last second and bit his lower lip instead. She followed that with a flick of her tongue to temper the nip, and then kissed him full-on while his lips were still parted in shock.

  His eyes were still closed when she took his hand off her breast and handed him the phone.

  “Love you, Matthew Jackson,” she said softly,

  Mack shivered as her sweet voice wrapped around his heart. “Love you, too—so much.”

  There was a lump in her throat as she began clearing off the table. If this was a dream, she didn’t want to wake up.

  Mack eased himself up from the chair and walked into the living room as Lissa began cleaning up. He sat down, scanned through his contacts until he found Cain’s personal number. He got a recording when he made the call.

  “This is Cain. Leave a name and number. If I like you, I’ll call back.”

  Mack grinned. “Pick up, you jackass, it’s me, Mack Jackson. I need help.”

  There was a click, and then a deep rumble in his ear. “So whose body did you bury in the cement this time?” Cain Embry asked.