Finding Freedom (Book 4) (Piper Anderson Series)

by Stewart, Danielle

  “What’s on your mind?” she asked, tilting her head up in empathy at him. “You can talk to me about it. Having some memories of your childhood, remembering something about your parents?”

  “I wish you wouldn’t do that.”

  “Do what?”

  “Smile the way you do. Offer to listen to me. Smell so good. I just wish you wouldn’t.”

  “I can skip a shower tomorrow morning if that helps.”

  “Great, I’ll add sense of humor to the list, too.” Jedda groaned.

  “What list is that?” she asked, and Jedda could tell she was fighting to not be insulted.

  “The list of things that make you perfect and make it hard for me to remember why I shouldn’t kiss you. I don’t want this, Crystal,” Jedda said, gesturing back and forth between them with his hands. “I don’t want us. All I want is for my sister to be okay, and this is distracting me from that. It’s the same thing that happened when we were kids. I took my eyes off her, and I almost lost her forever because of it.”

  “I’m not trying to distract you,” Crystal said, the smile fleeing from her face, something that rarely happened. “You act as though I’m throwing myself at you.”

  “I know you’re not.” Jedda leaned up against the old stone wall that lined the driveway. “I just hear Piper talking about how Bobby helped her through her stuff and I feel like everyone is just waiting for something to happen between you and me. Like you’re just waiting.”

  “I told you I wasn’t.”

  “I know what you said, but I look at you and it’s an actual battle not to give in to it, to the desire to hold you and kiss your lips. I can’t lose focus on Willow again. I can’t get distracted.”

  “I understand that she’s your sister and that you love her but at some point you need to start seeing that your life is worth something also. You weren’t put on this planet solely to protect her. You deserve some happiness too.”

  “I can’t be happy if she isn’t safe. If you can’t understand then there really is nothing here for us.” Jedda stared at the branches of an oak tree.

  “I’m not saying you should throw her to the wolves, and I’m not saying you should run away with me and we should live happily ever after. You’re twisting things around. Seeing you out here yesterday with Brad, watching what you were on the verge of doing was frightening and I just want to know you’re not going to jeopardize your future.”

  “I can’t make that promise. I don’t know what will happen.”

  “You’re saying it as if you don’t get any say in it. These are your choices to make. You can’t go acting as though you have no say in how you act. You’re standing on the edge of the same decision you had to make all those years ago, and I want to believe you’d handle it differently. Judging by yesterday, that’s not the case.”

  “I warned you that you’d be let down. I tried to tell you the odds weren’t in your favor,” Jedda reminded her as he stood and turned his back on her.

  “You’re talking about this like it’s some self-fulfilling prophecy. Like you’ve already decided to take care of Brad yourself.”

  “I have,” Jedda said, shrugging and heading back to the house. “If he comes near her again, that’ll be it for him.”

  “So that’s it. Nothing else matters to you? You don’t care about your own life? You don’t care enough about anyone else?” Even without turning around, Jedda could tell Crystal’s eyes were wet with tears, her words catching in her throat.

  “You should go back to New York,” he said as he headed for the house. “There’s no point putting yourself through this.”

  “That’s the difference between you and me. I don’t give up on anyone I care about. I’m not leaving here until I’m damn well ready,” Crystal said, picking up her pace and passing Jedda on the way back to the house. “You can find a different way. I believe in you.”

  Jedda stopped in his tracks as he watched Crystal stomp up the steps to the porch and act as though nothing had happened. She picked up a rag and started helping Betty. He’d just shot a cannon straight across her bow. He’d told her to go. A lesser woman would have grabbed her bag, hopped in her car, and angrily left, putting him and Edenville in her rearview mirror. But not Crystal. She was the kind of person who loved who he might be, rather than who he was. He wasn’t sure if that made him the luckiest man in the world or if it made her the owner of the most defenseless heart he’d ever met. Either way a warmth of relief spread across his chest as he realized she wasn’t leaving. He’d said what he felt needed to be said, and luckily she ignored him.

  The sound of a car sent him stepping quickly to the side. It was Michael and panic about keeping the surprise sent everyone scattering like cockroaches when a light switch flipped on. Betty slammed the front door shut tightly as Piper pushed the cleaning supplies under the porch swing.

  Jedda jogged up past Michael’s car and joined everyone on the porch, forming a human shield from all the food that was wrapped and prepared in the house.

  “I thought you all had the stomach bug.” Michael looked them over. That was the lie Betty had told to keep he and Jules from popping in the house, but it clearly hadn’t worked.

  “We do,” Betty said, clutching her stomach. “You best go on. I don’t want you catching it and passing it to Jules and the baby.”

  “I wish I could go. But I need to talk to Jedda and Crystal. Now.” Michael’s face had a steely stare that shook Jedda’s confidence in the security of his freedom.

  “Everything okay?” Bobby asked, leaning himself against the porch railing and giving Michael a look.

  “No,” he replied dropping his eyes to his shoes.

  “What’s going on?” Betty asked folding her arms across her chest and tapping her foot expectantly.

  “It’s better if we talk in private,” Michael said, waving for them to follow him. Jedda began down the steps but Crystal did not.

  “No,” Crystal said, her voice shaking.

  “If you don’t tell him I will,” Michael asserted, his eyebrows high, daring her to test him.

  “Tell him what?” Willow asked as she stepped out behind them. “What’s going on?”

  “I will tell him,” Crystal managed to say. “But I’ll tell him right here. I want everyone to hear my side of the story.”

  Jedda paused at the bottom of the porch steps and looked up at her as though he was staring at a stranger. What could she possibly have to admit? What secret had she been keeping from him?

  “Suit yourself,” Michael said, stepping behind Jedda and giving him a nudge forward. “I’m interested in hearing your side of the story too.”

  “What’s happening here?” Piper asked, her face full of worry.

  “I got a report yesterday that I’d been waiting for,” Michael said, standing sternly in the corner of the porch. “I requested a list of anyone who’d received copies of the transcripts of Jedda’s original trial or his history in foster care. I wanted to see if Brad’s father was working against us. Crystal’s name popped up on that list.”

  “So?” Jedda asked, looking over at her downturned face. “She was helping us. That’s not a big deal.”

  “She requested the files, absolutely everything about your life, Willow’s life, and your parents’ life weeks before I ever bumped into her in the cafeteria of the courthouse. But she acted as though she knew nothing about any of it. She pretended you and your trial were news to her.”

  Jedda swallowed hard as he tried to reason away the information he was getting. So she lied about knowing more about him. Maybe she didn’t want to come on too strong in her attempts to help.

  “I’d like to hear why that is,” Michael said, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at Crystal. Everyone was silent, waiting for her to speak. As she looked up, her eyes glassed over with tears.

  “Who is it you were working for? What were they trying to do, get inside information about the case? Was it the news? Are you the one who led them t
o Willow?” Michael asked, sounding more like the one Jedda had grown accustomed to in court rather than the one on the porch.

  “Are you serious?” Willow asked, charging forward. “You did this? You ruined my life? For what, they paid you or something? Is that why you’re still here, feeding them more information? I knew there had to be a reason you were so interested in Jedda.” Willow was nose to nose with Crystal looking ready to strike. Betty stepped forward and rested a hand on Willow’s shoulder.

  “You let her explain,” Betty said decisively. “We aren’t judge and jury here and the girl has a right to say her piece.”

  “I didn’t talk to the news. No one was paying me anything,” Crystal admitted as she used her thumbs to brush away her tears. “I heard your case was being reopened. I took interest in it at first because I remembered it from when I was a kid. I grew up a few miles from where you did. Just on the other side of Wheaton Park.” Crystal fiddled with her necklace as she struggled to choke out her words.

  “The nice houses?” Willow asked, and Jedda remembered it the same way. On the other side of the park were houses that were significantly better than their childhood home. It was a much nicer neighborhood of working class people.

  “Yes,” Crystal admitted, “I guess compared to where you guys grew up it would be considered nice. I remember when you killed your parents. So I started listening to the chatter going on about your case. Rumors started to go around about the trafficking ring your parents were involved in. After that I got all the records I could find on them and the both of you.” She gestured to Jedda and Willow. “And then I made sure I stayed involved as more information came out.”

  “Stayed involved?” Jedda asked. “You mean you pretended to give a shit what happened to me. You acted like you cared?”

  “I do care,” Crystal said with a fierceness to her voice.

  “You still haven’t said why,” Michael reiterated. “If not for money or because someone put you up to it, why did you need to get so close to this case? To Jedda?”

  Crystal reached into her bag and pulled out a tattered photograph. “She was fourteen. My sister Erica. They called her a runaway but I never believed it. My sister told me everything, and if she were going to run away I’d have known about it. Back then there weren’t abduction alerts. Things like this didn’t make the news. No one cared that she went out one night and never came back. She’d been in trouble a couple times, shoplifting or something, and that was enough for them to write her off.” Crystal ran her thumb across the edge of the picture and Jedda felt her pain even from the distance between them. “I dug into everything. Every case, every lead, all through my childhood I looked for an explanation. That’s why I started interning at the courthouse and then got the job I did. I wanted access to information. I wanted to network with people who could help me when the time came. When I heard the details of your parents’ crimes, the timeline fit. The location fit. My sister was spending all her time in your neighborhood, hanging with people who lived a few buildings away from you. I thought maybe there was a connection.” Crystal turned the picture so Jedda could see it.

  “Please tell me, do you recognize her? Was she ever in your house? Did you ever see her around there?” The tears were falling like a river from her eyes and Jedda felt his heart well into his throat. Crystal turned and faced Willow. “Please, I’m sorry that I lied to you but I need to find her. I need to know what happened.”

  Willow shook her head, looking to everyone else for help, as though she wished she weren’t the closest one to Crystal anymore. “I’m sorry,” Willow said, focusing on the picture. “I don’t remember her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her.”

  Crystal looked over to Jedda with a pain in her eyes he wouldn’t wish on anyone.

  “I’m sorry too,” he said, examining the picture. “I don’t know her. I’ve never seen her.”

  Crystal held the picture to her chest and collapsed back into the chair with a sob that couldn’t be calmed. Willow stepped back tentatively with a look that said she thought the sadness could be contagious, and she didn’t want to catch it.

  “It’s okay, dear,” Betty said, pulling Crystal into her arms. “I know you were counting on that. I’m sure that felt like your last chance, but as long as you keep up hope there is always something to hold onto.”

  “I really thought th-this c-c-could be it . . .,” she stuttered out as she tried to catch her breath. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I was afraid of what you might think. People—they’ve called me crazy over the years—they say I’m obsessed. I just need to know she’s alive.”

  “If you’d have told me, Crystal,” Michael said, clearly shaken by her emotion but trying to stay on track, “I would have gladly shown them both the picture. I would have listened to you, and helped you. You didn’t need to go through this whole charade. Did you really get fired, or was that a ploy to come down here?”

  “I really got fired, but I planned to come down in a week or so anyway even if that didn’t happen. I didn’t know what else was going on down here, what Brad had going on. But for me it wasn’t an act,” Crystal said, gathering herself and trying to speak with a steady voice. “I did care about what happened to Jedda. I do believe he deserves to be free. Every minute I’ve spent with you has not been some show I’m putting on. All of you have to believe that.”

  Betty stroked her hair and nodded her head. “I believe you, sweetheart. You’re a very genuine girl, but you’ve got a lot of pain in there that can make you do reckless things. I understand, and I believe you.”

  “I don’t understand,” Michael said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “But I also don’t think you’re a terrible person. I just wish you’d have told me.”

  Willow, Piper, Bobby, and Clay remained quiet as every eye, including Crystal’s, turned toward Jedda.

  “You should go,” he said flatly as he headed back into the house. “You asked what you needed to, got your answer, and now you should go.”

  “Jedda please, I care about you. You have to believe me,” Crystal called, but her words were cut short by the slamming of the door.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “It’s wedding day!” Betty chirped as she danced around the kitchen scooping grits onto everyone’s plate. The tension in the house since yesterday’s revelation was thick and unavoidable in the small space.

  The arbor in the field out back had been erected and woven with flowers and paper-white tulle. The chairs were stacked and ready to set up. The food was all prepped and waiting to heat and serve. No guests had canceled, which Betty said she was taking as a good sign. That meant twenty-seven of their closest friends were overlooking the jabbering jaws of Edenville and pledging their allegiance to Betty. It wasn’t even close to the ninety-five who had originally been invited, but Betty kept saying she was happy that they’d weeded the garden and pulled out all the snakes as well. Jedda liked that metaphor and he felt like, as of yesterday, his own garden had been cleaned out.

  “I wasn’t going to say anything, young lady, but I haven’t heard you practicing any songs. Should I be worried?” Betty asked as she slid bacon onto Willow’s plate then quickly snatched it back remembering she was a vegetarian. “Oh, my mistake, I forgot you don’t eat anything that tastes good.”

  “I worked at a piano bar for two years. I can play every love song known to man and I can sing them in my sleep. You just make sure the guitar is ready for me to tune and I’ll take care of the rest,” Willow said, clearly attempting to lighten the mood of the house.

  “I’m looking forward to hearing you sing,” Clay said, as he poured everyone another round of coffee. He too had spent his morning trying to keep things from getting too tense. He did a lot of that. Either trying to rein in Betty or defuse some volatile situation. “It’s going to be great having your help out there, Jedda. I was really impressed with your skills in the kitchen yesterday. You’ve got a gift, and when Betty and I get our restaurant up and goi
ng, there will certainly be a place for you there.”

  “Thanks, Clay,” Jedda said, sipping at his coffee. He looked over at the empty chair Crystal had been occupying the last few days and felt a knot in his stomach. He was struggling to separate the ghost of a broken-hearted woman who fell to pieces on the porch yesterday from the person who’d lied in order to get close to him. He shook off his conflicted thoughts and tried to remember today was a day for celebration.

  “Hurry up and shovel that food in, y’all. We have a full day of work and setup to do. Bobby and Piper should be here any minute.” Betty was buzzing with energy as she started pulling plates out from under still-moving forks.

  * * * *

  The morning seemed to fly by as everything started to fall into place. The group, now joined by Piper and Bobby, had accomplished all they had set out to do. The tent, which was larger than they had anticipated, was the most difficult task so far. Bobby had been slapped across the face with a pole that had come loose from its slot. The welt by his eyes would surely look worse by the time he’d need to stand up as best man, but he continued to refuse the makeup Betty kept trying to smear across his face.

  As Jedda stepped into the beautiful field, alive with the birth of spring, he saw his sister strumming the strings of a guitar Betty had pulled down from the attic. It had belonged to Stan. He could tell earlier that morning as Betty handed it over to Willow the connection she had to it. He was relieved that, in spite of Willow’s mood, she was kind about it. She let Betty know how beautiful the guitar was and that she’d take good care of it while it was in her possession. It was a small insight into the person Willow truly was.

  “Hey, kid,” he said as he took a seat in next to her, “I think it’s really nice that you’re going to sing. It’s going to be a special day for them. I feel badly that they’ve had to put if off as long as they have for me.”

  “Should be great,” Willow said with more attitude than Jedda had hoped to hear. She rested the guitar across her chair and stood, looking as though she was trying to escape.