Wallflowers: One Heart Remains

by CP Smith

  “It matters,” Knox replied bitterly, “because a man named Dragon molested her in your house.”

  Shirley blanched, shocked at first at his tone. Once his accusation sunk in her demeanor changed. “That’s just not true. I would never let anything happen to Poppy.”

  Knox ignored her denial, his face growing flushed with each passing second. Nate glanced at Devin, and they both took another step closer to Knox.

  “I left her in your care because you swore to me you’d keep her safe. Promised me you’d protect her like your own. But you let a filthy animal into your home, and he abused the most precious thing in my life,” Knox growled, taking a step forward.

  Nate braced to subdue Knox when Shirley bolted out of her chair, her own color rising for the fight. “They were dreams. They weren’t real. She’s makin’ it all up!”

  “You’re calling my daughter a liar?” Knox asked quietly, the words mere echoes of his rage.

  “I’m sayin’ she can’t trust her memories,” Shirley tried to argue. “There was no dragon. Yes, I dated from time to time, but I never let them near her.”

  “We need their names.” Bo jumped into the fray.

  She swung around and looked at him. “Their names? I didn’t keep a log. Most were men I met at the Tap Room on the nights Poppy was stayin’ over at a friend’s house.”

  Nate grew solid, and so did Bo and Devin. The Tap Room was the biker bar where the girls had almost been abducted. The same bar Knox was at when he saw the girls and subsequently overheard Larry Dwayne Daniels admit to trying to cash in on Calla’s money by kidnapping her. The man was still in the hospital after Knox taught him a lesson he won’t soon forget. He’d beaten him within an inch of his life when he overheard the man’s drunken account of what happened.

  “Look,” Shirley said nervously. “I’m sure Poppy believes that somethin’ happened or we wouldn’t all be here. But I’m tellin’ you, she’s wrong. You can’t trust her memories. She was a child. She doesn’t know what she’s talkin’ about.”

  A fire lit underneath Nate’s skin at the implication Poppy was confused. He’d seen the evidence of Poppy’s abuse as clearly as he saw his own. It was in every word she spoke. Her every action. Abuse victims don’t feel worthy of love because they blame themselves for what happened, as if they deserved it somehow, or should have stopped it. And they don’t trust easily because most were abused by someone who should have given their lives to protect them, rather than taint their victims with filth.

  “Don’t!” Nate barked. “She trusted you, and you let her down in the most basic way a parent can, so don’t stand there and imply her memories are fabricated dreams. Your niece was violated by a man you let into your home, and we intend to find him and make sure he pays.”

  She glared at Nate. “I bet you think if you play the hero to a lie, she won’t figure out you’re an animal.”

  Nate didn’t take the bait. “She loves you, you know.”

  Shirley glanced around the room, unsure of where Nate was going with his remark. “Of course, she does. I’m her mother.” This was said with no small amount of flippancy. She neither cared if it was true or if it wasn’t. She was stating a fact.

  Nate shook his head. “You’re no mother.” His declaration had no effect on Poppy’s aunt. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow, challenging Nate to continue. “A mother sacrifices. Her life becomes about keepin’ her child safe. About raisin’ them to be good men and women. A mother loses sleep when their child is sick. Skips meals if there isn’t enough food in the house so their child eats. Put themselves in front of fists. In front of the fuckin’ world because the life their protectin’ means more to them than their own.” He looked at Knox then back at Poppy’s aunt. “They sacrifice watchin’ their child grow up, so that child has a chance at growin’ up. They don’t”—he leaned forward and growled—“bring unknown men home then leave their child unprotected while they sleep off a night of overindulgin’.”

  Her face paled at Nate’s revelation: she’d come home drunk, leaving Poppy helpless to defend herself. She shook her head in denial, turning pleading eyes to Knox. “That only happened once or twice. I was just lonely.”

  Knox lunged then, and Devin jumped in front of him, holding him back. Nate had wanted to keep the worst of it from Knox if he could, hoping Shirley would help once she knew what had happened to Poppy. The cat was out of the bag now.

  “I trusted you!” Knox shouted, struggling against Devin. “Trusted you with the most important thing in my life.”

  “Get him out of here,” Bo ordered.

  Shirley stumbled back, fear shrouding her like a second skin. “You were supposed to come back!” she yelled in return. “I waited and waited, and you never came back. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Be her fuckin’ mother,” Nate growled. “She was an innocent, and you put your needs before hers.”

  Nate moved to intercept Knox when he tried to shove Devin to the side. They each grabbed an arm and held on as he bellowed, “Who the fuck is Dragon?”

  Shirley jerked back at his outburst, one hand going to her neck as if to protect her, the other reaching for the chair to keep her legs underneath her. Fear and guilt had a smell that was pungent, and Shirley reeked with it. Nate could tell she didn’t believe for a second that Poppy was lying. She was only trying to cover her ass against Knox’s wrath.

  They wrestled with Knox, leading him inside Nate’s bedroom. “You need to calm down,” Devin ordered. “She won’t talk if she’s afraid.”

  Knox grabbed his hair and began to pace. “I trusted her.” Pain and guilt flooded every syllable. “I trusted her with the only thing I cared about, and she let a monster inside the house.”

  “And that’s on her not you. You did the best you could in a fucked-up situation.”

  Knox continued as if Nate hadn’t spoken. “She left my baby unprotected and fed her fucking lies about why I went away. Told her I left before she was born. Let Poppy believe I never wanted her. Said I abandoned them both.”

  “She was in love with you and took it out on Poppy.”

  Knox stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder, shock written plainly on his face. “What did you say?”

  It was his only theory for why Shirley acted the way she did, but it made the most sense to Nate. “It’s clear to me when Shirley looks at you; she’s in love with you.”

  Knox glanced at the door then his face fell. “What?”

  Devin seemed to understand where Nate was headed. “If you love someone and they leave, you feel abandoned.”

  Knox’s face turned incredulous. “I abandoned my daughter, not my sister-in-law.”

  “You protected Poppy. You didn’t abandon her,” Nate acknowledged. “But in Shirley’s mind, she was abandoned by you and left to raise your child.”

  “I told her to find a man and I’d run a background on him to keep Poppy safe. She could have moved on and had a family of her own. Given Poppy a family to grow up in, but she refused. Even if she did love me, like you say, that doesn’t justify what she did.”

  “Not for a minute,” Nate stated, his own temper flaring at the thought of what Poppy went through. “She was a shit mother. Poppy deserved better.”

  The air left Knox’s sails and he slumped to the bed. “It was only supposed to be a few years at most, but I could never pin Chrissy’s death on her father. One year turned into five and soon it was ten. I should have given up. Should have come for my daughter and none of this would have happened.”

  “What’s done is done,” Devin said. “You can’t go back.”

  It tore at Nate to know that without the pain Poppy had endured, he wouldn’t have had the chance to find her. She would have grown up thousands of miles away from him. A part of him would argue, when two people were meant to be, something like a few thousand miles wouldn’t stop them from finding each other. He planned to thank his lucky stars for the gift he’d been handed. His beautiful
, crazy woman.

  Bo opened the bedroom door and stuck his head in. “She’s gone. She’s still adamant Poppy wasn’t abused. Said Poppy is tryin’ to get payback for lyin’ all these years about bein’ her mother.”

  “She’s a piece of work,” Devin growled.

  “She’s in panic mode,” Nate said. “She screwed up and it’s all comin’ out, so she’s deflectin’.”

  “She had to know it would eventually,” Bo sighed.

  Knox closed his eyes and hung his head. “This is my fault.”

  Defeat hung on Knox like a shroud. “Maybe,” Nate agreed. “But all that matters now is findin’ this guy and rightin’ the wrong done to your daughter. We don’t have time for self-pity.”

  Knox shot Nate a scowl that would have intimidated most men. Nate stood his ground. After his father’s rampages, the only thing that could shake Nate’s resolve was the thought of his mother or Poppy in danger.

  “All right, hot shot,” Knox bit out. “Where do we go from here?”

  “Tap Room,” Nate, Devin, and Bo rumbled in unison.

  “Tap Room?”

  “It’s Shirley’s huntin’ ground. Someone might remember him,” Bo informed Knox.

  Knox considered their reasoning and nodded. “I know the owner. I’ll call him on the way over.”

  _______________

  “Do you see any cameras?” Cali asked.

  We were sitting across the street from a rental agency. Sienna had an actual Rand McNally map out so anyone watching us would think we were charting a course for our next destination.

  I looked up and down the street to keep an eye out for the cops and noticed sign after sign for weekend getaways and monthly rentals. “Cali, how many rentals agencies are there in Tybee?”

  She pulled the binoculars from her eyes and looked at me. “Roughly twenty.”

  I bugged my eyes out. “Are you plannin’ to break into all twenty?”

  She cast me a look that said I was an idiot and put the binoculars back to her eyes. “Don’t be silly. I checked with them all today and asked if they had rentals on 18th Street. Only three did.”

  Well, that was a relief, but still . . . would our Wallflower luck hold up to breaking and entering three times?

  “Incomin’,” Sienna whispered.

  We donned our sunglasses, in an attempt to disguise our features, as a couple walked past. I doubted they noticed us, but then again, it was nighttime and three women rapidly throwing on sunglasses then hiding behind a map didn’t scream innocent either.

  “I’d like to point out again that I look hideous in orange,” I reminded them. “It will clash with my skin tone.”

  “It clashes with everyone’s skin tone,” Sienna agreed.

  Cali slid her sunglasses down her nose and looked at me over the top. The move was intended to intimidate me. She’d done it a few days ago, and I have to say, it kinda worked. “You can sit in the car when the time comes. There’s no disgrace in bein’ cautious.”

  Interpretation: I will skin you alive if you back out.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” I half-chuckled, half-gulped.

  Thankfully Sienna’s phone rang. Who knew Cali had a Guido personality?

  “Hey, Bo,” Sienna answered all sweet and sugary. She must be buttering him up for something.

  She listened as he spoke then her eyes grew huge. “Natalie stole your phones,” she blurted out. “They caught her spyin’ on them and got them back. They read her the riot act and sent her on her way.”

  How in the . . . “But I lost it when a man bumped into me.”

  Sienna relayed that to Bo. “Poppy says there was a man involved in takin’ hers.”

  She listened some more. “Okay. The Tap Room?”

  The Tap Room was a biker bar we’d visited the week before when Sienna needed a drink. We’d discovered the joys of green magic fairy potion that day. Heck, if it weren’t for Larry Dwayne Daniels, the time spent playing pool and getting Sienna drunk would have been a great memory. Well, maybe not great. More like eventful, memorable. Yeah, memorable. Who could forget Sienna telling a bar full of bikers she wanted to be tied up? Good times!

  Sienna hung up, with a promise to keep in touch. I shook my head. Those boys were paranoid.

  “So Natalie?”

  “Bo said they were meetin’ with Knox when they tried to call you and Cali. When your ringtones went off, they caught Natalie tryin’ to run from the bar.”

  “But why?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Apparently she was pretendin’ the whole time to want Nate. She was after a bigger story. Somethin’ to do with Knox and you.”

  I blinked. “Shut up.”

  “Right?”

  “She is an evil genius.” I hated to admit it, but it was kind of brilliant what she’d done.

  “Why would she steal my phone?” Cali wondered.

  Sienna shrugged. “Maybe she thought bein’ Poppy’s friend you discussed somethin’ in text.”

  “So who was the guy? The jogger who took my phone?”

  “Boyfriend?” Cali considered.

  I nodded. I could see that. But something still didn’t feel right. I’d have to think on it more.

  “So they’re at the Tap Room?” I wasn’t sure how that played into finding the dragon. Maybe they were done for the night and needed some downtime.

  Sienna nodded. “He said they’re headed to the Tap Room to speak with a friend of Knox’s.”

  Really? Nate and my father were together, and they weren’t killing each other?

  This I had to see.

  “Are we done here?” I asked.

  Cali nodded. “I’ve seen all I need. It should be easy enough to walk in right before closin’ time like we planned.”

  “Wanna go to the Tap Room and surprise the guys?”

  Excited smiles lit their expression. “We could play pool with them,” Cali answered.

  “Awesome! First round’s on me,” I threw out.

  “Heck. Yeah! Dilly. Dilly!” Sienna whooped and started the car.

  _______________

  The Tap Room was crowded when we entered. We knew the boys were still here because Bo’s truck and Nate’s bike were parked out front. I scanned the crowd, looking for our men. Nate should be easy to spot because of his size, but two glances around the room said he wasn’t in the main bar.

  “Do you see them?” I asked the girls.

  They shook their heads, peering around the room as well, confirming I wasn’t blind. “Not hide nor hair,” Cali stated.

  “I bet they’re in that office we came across the last time we were here. If Knox knows the owner, that seems a likely place to have a meetin’, don’t you think?”

  We turned and looked at the hallway where the office was located. “I bet you’re right,” Sienna said.

  We were starting to get looks from some of the patrons of the fine establishment, so I pulled Cali and Sienna by the arms up to the bar, where we could keep an eye on the hallway that led to the office.

  Sienna seemed to be lost in thought as we sat down. She glanced in the area of the hall and her eyes lit up like a light bulb had gone off. “That’s why Knox seemed familiar to me the first time I saw him.”

  “What do you mean?” I questioned.

  “When I opened the office door, thinkin’ it was the bathroom, Knox was one of the men inside.”

  I remembered there were two men inside the office, but I hadn’t paid attention. “Knox was here when Larry the Loser tried to kidnap us?”

  Cali bit her lip and looked away, acting mighty suspicious if truth be told. “What? Do you know somethin’ we don’t?”

  I gave her my best intimidating glare to get her to talk. She smiled like I was funny or something.

  “That depends,” she replied.

  “On?”

  “Whether or not you’d be mad if you found out that Knox was the man who put Larry the Loser in the hospital.”

  I double blinked at that. �
�What?”

  Cali leaned and whispered under her breath, “Devin told me that Knox overheard Larry complain’ rather rudely about losin’ a meal ticket. Apparently, when Sienna said she was me and signed the credit card receipt, Larry was close by and recognized my name. He thought she was me and wanted to hold me-slash-Sienna for ransom. Knox was highly incensed, as any good parent would, about Larry almost harmin’ his daughters and put him in the hospital for it.”

  “Wow,” Sienna mouthed. “Well, that explains why he was so focused on gettin’ me out of the car.”

  “Is it just me, or have our lives altered dramatically after becomin’ friends?” I asked. “Before we became the Wallflowers, I spent most of my time at home. Without a kidnapper or dead body in sight, that I was aware of. What is it about us that brings out the crazies?”

  We pondered this for a moment.

  Then another moment.

  “I got nothin’. You?” I asked them.

  “Full moon?” Sienna threw out.

  “Poor health care,” Cali added.

  A reason finally came to me. “Not enough people gettin’ you know what!”

  We threw back our heads and laughed.

  “What can I get you?” a deep voice asked.

  We looked up from our conversation at the bartender. He was mid-fifties with graying hair and a pock-marked face. He might have been handsome once, but he’d let himself go and didn’t care that he had. A large belly hung over his belt, proving he had partaken in years of fast food consumption and copious amounts of beer. His hair looked like it needed to be washed, his teeth hadn’t seen a dentist in more than ten years, and something about him made me instantly uncomfortable.

  “Three beers,” Cali ordered.

  “I remember you ladies from last week,” he said, reaching below the bar. “Bet Larry remembers you too,” he chuckled.

  I glanced at the girls. They were gawking at the man in shock.

  Three American beers were placed in front of us, but nothing else was said, so I pulled out my wallet and handed him my debit card. His fingers brushed mine when he retrieved the card, sending a flurry of unease through my body. When he walked away to run my card, I rubbed my hand on my shirt to erase his touch.