Whispers in the Night
Page 24
He knew all about that, didn’t he.
When Hank was done, Paul yanked him up, dragged him out of the hole, twisted his arms behind his back and led him through the church. Kayla was huddled by the door, waiting for him. She looked relieved to see him.
“Did you call the cops?” he asked her.
She nodded.
“Come on. I’ll walk you to your car. Turn on the heat. I’ll be there in a minute.”
She nodded again.
After he’d seen her settled in the Mercedes, he continued on to Brian’s car, where he found handcuffs in the glove compartment. He cuffed Hank to the hitch Brian had put by the tailgate to haul his boat, then sat him down on the muddy ground, in the rain. The son-of a bitch wasn’t going anywhere.
He walked back to Kayla’s car and opened the passenger door. The minute he slid into the seat, she threw herself into his arms and wept.
Chapter 14
Much later, after Kayla and Paul had told their stories several times, and after the police had left, taking Hank with them and leaving crime-scene tape around the church, Paul was back at the house, sitting on the porch with Kayla. Hank, in his need to exonerate himself, had insisted that the few cuts he’d made in the wooden posts surrounding the porch weren’t meant to endanger the structure, only to scare Kayla. As she’d said, the foundation was solid—it would take an earthquake, an extremely strong one, to shake it loose from its concrete moorings.
Even so, Paul really didn’t want her to be out here. She was cold and tired, had been through way too much, had a large bump on the back of her head and needed to see a doctor, but no, she wanted to sit on the porch. She needed to sit on the porch, she’d told him.
One stubborn woman.
And so they sat, wrapped in blankets and staring out at the droplets of rain that fell steadily on the shrubbery below and beyond.
He reached across the small table that sat between the Adirondack chairs, took her hand in his and held it. Turning to him, she smiled. She looked so drained, and his heart hurt for her.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” she said. “Again.”
“It’s my job,” he said dryly.
“I think that job is over now.”
He lifted a shoulder. “I couldn’t be happier, believe me.”
They sat and looked out some more, on the gray mists, the ghostly outlines of the mountains, at the tiny lights glowing in homes nestled among the trees. After a while, he said, “I’m not sorry for what I did to your brother, but I’m sorry I made you so scared of me. It’s the last thing I’d want to do.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
“And I know I need to work on my temper, Kayla. I wasn’t always like this, I promise. It’s just the time I spent in jail, it made me someone else.”
“Hush,” she said. “I know. It’s me who should be apologizing to you.”
“But—”
“No. Just listen to me. You were right. About Walter and my feelings for him.”
“I shouldn’t have said all that.”
“And I didn’t want to hear it. But sometimes we need to hear things we don’t want to. And you were also right about my asking you to get over your anger. I wanted you to wipe out all that had happened to you, to change, right away, because I needed you to. That’s not fair.”
“But it’s reasonable. I came out of jail a walking time bomb.” He sighed, shook his head. “But, you know, I think I got a glimpse tonight of how it could be. Back there in the church, I wanted to beat Hank to a bloody pulp, but I didn’t. Your voice, in my head, it stopped me. My own guardian angel.”
She chuckled. “Not even close.”
He drew their clasped hands up to his mouth, kissed the top of hers, then lowered them onto the table again. “Yeah, you are. I think you were put into my life to help me heal. It’s going to take a while, but I hope you’ll be patient.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.”
He thought about what he wanted to say next and how to say it, and then just decided to come out and say it, get it over with.
“About that other thing,” he began.
“What other thing?”
“The love thing. It’s, um, mutual. I love you, too.”
“Good.”
Smiling, Kayla leaned her head back, closed her eyes and let the simple words and the depth of their meaning wash over her.
Yes. Paul did love her. He’d proved it a thousand ways, since the day they’d met. And how hard it must have been for him to say it out loud. How hard all of this must be, for this strong, macho man to strip off layers of himself, and to allow exposure.
Opening her eyes, she angled her head to meet his gaze. His heart was right there, in his silver eyes. “I love you, Paul Fitzgerald, so very much,” she told him.
“Then that’s all I need,” he said.
He squeezed her fingers. Then, as one, they both turned their heads to stare again at the mountains.
In time, she knew, Paul would be all right. He would find his way. They were, each of them, beginning a journey. In time, the scars of the past—both their pasts—would heal.
As long as they were together, their world would be complete.
It was a beautiful spring day. Flowers bloomed all around, and the smell of new blossoms and budding leaves filled the air. They were all there, all the important people in his and Kayla’s life. Champagne glasses in hand, they chatted with one another while he stood beneath the Memorial Arch and waited for his bride.
Lou was there—without her mother, who had died shortly after the night Kayla had come upon Hank digging up the bones.
Joe and Terri and the kids were also in attendance, but not Steven.
Paul’s family—his dad, stepmother, brothers, uncles, cousins—were all beaming. They loved Kayla and she loved them.
Even Melinda, in her dark robes, had shown up with her niece, the two of them looking shy and slightly out of place. Melinda’s obsession with “the bones” had begun twenty years before when she’d silently witnessed Hank burying his wife and lover; she’d been haunted by it ever since. But her fear had kept her silent until she saw Hank with Kayla at the church.
Kayla’s new associates chattered excitedly among themselves. She’d used Walter’s money to endow a medical clinic in a town near Susanville, one mostly populated by recent immigrants and families who lived below the poverty level. Kayla was happy; her life had purpose, she had a place to go every day.
As did Paul. He’d taken over Hank’s business, expanded it to include restoration work. As he’d been cleared of all criminal charges, he’d been offered his old job back, but he’d lost his taste for police work. He wanted to put distance between him and potential violence; he wanted peace. He chose instead to stay in Cragsmont, way up high in the mountains.
He’d worked hard to repair the damage done by four years in jail. He’d attended anger-management classes, even though it hadn’t been easy to swallow his pride and sit in the same room with alcoholics, wife beaters and child abusers. Still, he’d gritted his teeth and done it, learning techniques to stop the impulse to take out his rage with his fists.
Every morning, he went to the Old Stone Church and sat there, listening to the quiet. He even prayed sometimes. He still didn’t believe in God, but he prayed to whatever energy was out there in the universe, to help heal his angry heart.
Kayla had deeded her one-third share of Walter’s house over to Joe and Terri’s kids, realizing that it needed to stay in the Thorne family and she was no longer part of that.
Paul was building her a house of their own. There would be a porch there, too, maybe not as wide as the one at the Thorne place, but with a nice view of its own, one where they could sit, the two of them, for eternity, watching the clouds change shape and the hawks fly overheard.
He was shaken from his musings by the sound of Bailey barking once, then again, which set the puppy to barking, too.
She was a sm
all golden Lab with huge paws—one of Dr. Lou’s rescue animals—and even though older dogs usually hated interlopers, Bailey had decided to take the youngster under his wing. They began to chase each other around and around the Memorial Arch, but Dr. Lou stepped in, rounded them up and herded them into a corner, where she produced chew toys for each of them.
A stirring among the gathered guests made him look up to see his bride walking toward him. His heart swelling with more love than he’d ever imagined it was possible to feel, Paul watched as she moved forward, her steps slow and graceful, on his father’s arm. Dad had taken her in as the daughter he’d never had, and Kayla had blossomed under the old man’s attentions.
His bride looked even more beautiful than usual; she wore a filmy, lilac-colored, long dress and had flowers in her hair. She was carrying his child, but it was early on in the pregnancy so it didn’t show yet, and nobody but the two of them knew.
As he met Kayla’s steady gaze, his entire being swelled with pride and gratitude. Over the months, he’d begun to focus on giving thanks for what he had, instead of being enraged about what he did not.
In just a few moments, he would be saying “I will” to the love of his life.
There was no doubt about it. When it came to being blessed with riches, Paul figured he was the luckiest man in the world.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7372-0
WHISPERS IN THE NIGHT
Copyright © 2004 by Diane Pershing
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14