I glanced at my mother who sent me a small smile, but she didn’t comment otherwise.
Which I was glad for.
It was just all too much as it was.
The man grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair he’d been sitting in. “I wanted to fly out here myself, Mr. Grainger, because I owe you an apology. All the people involved with your case do. Sometimes we get it wrong. This time, we got it really wrong.”
I managed a nod, but nothing else. But then Dallas’s words about anger and forgiveness rang in my ear.
Don’t let it change who you are.
“I understand, Officer Cohen. Thank you for coming all the way out here to tell me.”
The man nodded, but didn’t try to shake my hand.
Something else I was glad for.
I was just too damn raw.
“I’ll show myself out,” the officer said and then he nodded at my mother, then Dallas, before he left the house.
The silence in the room grew awkward, but before I could say anything, my mother reached behind her and grabbed a plastic container full of cookies. She placed it on the kitchen table. “You boys should run on along now. I’m sure you’ve got work you need to get back to.”
Her voice cracked a little bit and her eyes were bright as she pasted a too-big smile on her face. “I’m going to go visit at the church a bit. Lorraine mentioned needing some help getting ready for the clothing drive this weekend.” She paused, then grabbed the cookies and handed the container to Dallas. “Dallas, you take as good care of my boy at home as you did when you were here, you hear me?” she said. I didn’t see Dallas’s response, but I had no doubt he’d nodded.
My mother went to grab her purse. She started to walk past me, but then stopped. Her eyes were wet with tears, but none fell. “You drive real safe, okay? Snow’s just starting to fall.”
I nodded and watched her walk to the coat rack to grab her coat.
Don’t let it change who you are.
“Mom…” I waited until she turned to look at me. “You too.”
She smiled tremulously. “I will, honey. See you soon.” She held my gaze for a moment before she left the house.
I knew it hadn’t been much, but it was all I’d had left in me. And when Dallas’s arms wrapped around me from behind and he pressed a kiss against my cheek, I knew it had been enough.
Chapter Eighteen
Dallas
“Baby, wake up, we’re here,” Nolan murmured. His lips skimmed my temple and then his fingers closed around mine. My brain felt fuzzy as I forced my eyes open. I sat up and automatically reached for the bandage on my throat, but Nolan gently grabbed my free hand. “It needs to stay on for a few more days, remember?” he said.
I nodded, though the move made my already pained head hurt more.
“Why don’t you stay in here and I’ll run into the office to get the papers?”
I shook my head, then straightened and tried to clear the cobwebs in my brain. I knew it was just the lingering effects of the pain pills, but I was tired of feeling so out of it. I’d had my surgery five days earlier, and while it had been deemed a success in that my breathing had improved and I was able to swallow the soft foods I was allowed to eat with no problem, it would be several weeks before I’d learn if my voice would return.
Nolan had been at my side both before and after the surgery, making me wonder how I’d ever managed it on my own the last couple of times. I’d also been fortunate to have Sawyer offer to continue handling the center while I was laid up and Nolan was taking care of me. I hadn’t seen my brother again since the day of Nolan’s father’s funeral, and I’d been relieved.
Mostly.
I hadn’t allowed myself to think about the other emotions I’d been feeling.
I took my phone out and typed, It will be faster if I get them.
“Okay,” Nolan said. Not surprisingly, he got out of the truck and came around to my side to help me. I didn’t really need the help since I’d regained most of my strength, and I’d cut the dosage of pain medication in half so I wouldn’t be as off-balance, but I certainly wasn’t going to begrudge Nolan putting his hands on me.
Especially since I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d get the opportunity.
After news of who’d really stolen the violin had been made public, Nolan had been inundated with calls, both from reporters and from former colleagues and friends. After a while, he’d stopped answering the phone. We hadn’t really talked about what Nolan’s plans were, since he was still trying to cope with his father’s death and the things his mother had told him, but I’d inadvertently overheard one of the messages Nolan had gotten on his voicemail when he’d left the phone on the speakerphone setting as he’d played it and I’d been in the bathroom getting dressed.
It had been from someone with the orchestra in London that Nolan had been auditioning for when the theft of the Stradivarius had occurred. They’d wanted the opportunity to talk to Nolan about him joining their orchestra.
The call had come the day before my surgery, so I had no idea if Nolan had called them back, and I was too afraid to ask. In my heart, I knew he needed to go – there was just no choosing between cleaning up after animals in a wildlife sanctuary with a broken man and playing in one of the most renowned orchestras in the world.
But that didn’t make it any easier to know my time with him was running down at a fast clip. I suspected he was waiting until I was fully recovered before he broke the news to me. As hard as it would be to let him go, I couldn’t be the person that held him back. I couldn’t be the reason he didn’t follow his dream.
Nolan put his arm around my waist to steady me as I got out of the truck. As soon as he closed the door behind me, Loki appeared. I knelt down and greeted my friend. He licked my hands, then turned and took off around the corner. As I rose, he reappeared.
But he wasn’t alone.
My gut clenched at the sight of Maddox.
I shook my head angrily and pointed at the driveway. When he didn’t move, I began looking for my phone.
“Hang on, it’s in the car,” Nolan said as he put his hand on my arm. I met his worried eyes. I had no doubt he recognized Maddox and even if he hadn’t, he would have figured it out from my reaction. I’d told him about my encounter with Maddox in more detail just before my surgery, but I’d been too angry to talk about it and Nolan hadn’t pressed the issue. I saw Nolan’s silent message and nodded.
I did need to calm down.
This man might share my blood, but he was nothing to me anymore, and I wasn’t going to give him that kind of power over me.
Maddox kept his eyes on me as Nolan went to get my phone. He handed it to me and I began typing.
“Maddox, I’m Nolan,” Nolan said, but he made no move to shake Maddox’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Nolan. I’m glad my brother has someone looking out for him.”
Maddox’s words only served to piss me off even more. I finished typing, then realized I’d have to get closer to him to show him the screen. Nolan seemed to understand my dilemma because he took the phone from me and began reading the message.
“What are you doing here? I don’t want you here.”
Maddox’s eyes stayed on me as Nolan read.
“Sawyer called me and asked me to help out today. He got an emergency call over in Callas County. He’ll be gone for hours and he didn’t want you guys to have to worry about anything when you got back from your appointment.”
I knew I should have been at least a little grateful, but I couldn’t get there. Not while I had his words about wishing I’d died in place of our mother still in my head.
Nolan handed me my phone. I was about to start typing, but then waved my hand. I just couldn’t do it. I was too damn tired.
And any apology Maddox had for me was just too damn late.
Ten years too late.
I started to head toward the office, but Maddox stepped in my path. “Dallas, please, just
let me say this and then I’ll go. You’ll never have to see me again.”
My body ached and my head was starting to hurt, probably from the pain meds. But I knew Maddox wouldn’t leave until he’d said what he needed to say. His stubbornness matched that of my ornery zebra.
“Baby, let’s go inside the office,” Nolan said as he came to my side. I suspected he knew I was struggling, but I shook my head and pointed to the ground in front of me. I didn’t want Maddox comfortable – I wanted him gone.
“Dallas, when I got that call that night, I was just so damn scared. They wouldn’t tell me anything over the phone…just that there’d been an accident and I needed to come home. I spent hours praying to a God I didn’t believe in that you guys were all okay. But deep down, I knew you weren’t. When I got to the hospital and they told me you and Dad were alive, I was so happy. I vowed that no matter how badly you were hurt, I’d take care of you. I didn’t care what it took.”
Maddox’s voice was uneven, but I tried to ignore that fact.
“Then they told me about Mom and I just…”
He shook his head and fell silent for a moment. “For a whole month you were touch and go. I went to the hospital every day and sat with you. The nurses said you could hear me so if I wanted to talk to you, I could.” He let out a rough chuckle. “The things I said to you, Dallas. I begged, I threatened, I bribed…anything to get you to open your eyes. And then you did and I knew you’d be okay. Our family wouldn’t be the same, but we’d still be a family.”
I hated the pressure that was building in my chest.
“It was hard to hold it together,” he said softly. “But I knew I needed to be the strong one. I didn’t give myself time to think about Mom or the accident. I planned the funeral, I worked on the house so it could accommodate Dad’s wheelchair, I dealt with all the people who kept coming by…there were reporters who kept rehashing the scandal…it was just too much. I wasn’t sleeping, I was emotionally drained from dealing with Dad’s mood swings…”
I knew what he was talking about. Between the loss of his wife and the prospect of being confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, our father had been volatile to say the least. There’d be days where he would be swimming in grief and other days where he’d be cursing me, God, and anyone who would listen. He’d lashed out physically at me on more than one occasion.
“So when Dad told me right after you woke up that you’d been drinking that night and that you’d refused to hand over the keys when he’d told you to…”
“What?” Nolan interjected. My head snapped up at the same time and my brother’s voice dropped off.
“He told you he tried to stop Dallas from driving that night?” Nolan asked.
Maddox looked confused. “Yeah, he said he and mom only got into the car because they were afraid for your safety. He said he kept begging you to pull the car over.”
Pain exploded in my chest and I bent over at the waist to try to quell the intense pressure.
“And you believed him?” I heard Nolan snap. To me, Nolan said, “Baby, let me take you home.”
I nodded because I was done.
I was more than done.
“Wait, what do you mean?” Maddox asked. “Why wouldn’t I have believed him?”
“He was your brother, Maddox,” Nolan bit out. “Did you think to even ask him what really happened that night? Did any of what your father said even make sense? Dallas never drank. He never went against your parents!”
I settled my hand on Nolan’s arm to try to settle him down. He shifted his eyes to me and took a deep breath. “Sorry,” he murmured, then put his arm around my waist.
He was in the midst of helping me back to the passenger seat of my truck when the sound of an engine broke the silence around us. A mustard-colored, late model sedan was making its way up the driveway, though it was struggling a bit in the heavy snow. The car pulled next to my truck. I couldn’t make out much about the driver other than a mop of black hair, but the car was filled to the brim with garbage bags, loose clothes, and a couple of sleeping bags.
There was also a kid in the back.
The driver said something over his shoulder to the kid, then got out of the car. I was taken aback by his appearance. He was young – late teens or early twenties at best. His raven-black hair fell in waves across his forehead and his dark blue eyes were surrounded by heavy eyeliner. There was a hoop piercing of some kind on his lower lip and large gauges in his ears. His fingernails were painted several different bright colors. He was wearing skinny jeans and a long-sleeved purple shirt with some kind of band logo on it. His feet were buried in the snow, but I saw nothing to indicate he was wearing boots.
“Shit, it’s cold,” he muttered as he tucked his hands up under his armpits. He grinned and then looked around at the three of us. His smile faded as he seemed to pick up on the tension in the air. His eyes lingered briefly on Maddox. My brother was staring at the guy like he had no clue what to make of him.
I was in the same boat.
“Holy fuck, is that a wolf?” the guy said as Loki came around the car and began sniffing him.
“Can I see?” a small voice said as the back door opened.
“Hey, no, stay in the car,” the guy said. “It’s too cold out here for you.”
“No, it’s not,” the voice said, and the guy had no choice but to hold the door for the little boy as he staggered out of the car. I estimated him to be four or five years old. He, at least, was dressed for the elements. His parka had characters from the Disney movie Cars on it, and he was wearing rain boots which, though not ideal, at least kept the snow at bay. A red knit cap covered hair that was the same dark shade as the guy’s. Loki immediately went to investigate the little boy. The guy kept a close watch, but he didn’t panic as animal and boy checked each other out.
“What’s his name?” the boy asked.
“Loki,” Nolan said. “What’s your name?”
“Newton,” the kid said without looking up. He was clearly fascinated with Loki because he laughed when Loki licked his face, then began gathering up handfuls of snow and throwing them in the air to see if Loki tried to catch them.
“Can we help you?” Nolan asked the guy.
“Um, yeah, you’re Nolan Grainger, right?” he said as he shifted his eyes to Maddox once more. I couldn’t blame him – my brother looked ready to kill someone. If I hadn’t been pissed at him, I would have told him to stand the fuck down.
“I am,” Nolan said. “Have we met?”
“Um, no, my name’s Blaze.”
“No, it’s not,” the kid piped in. “It’s Isaac.”
“Newt,” Isaac said in exasperation. “Remember what I told you? You’re the only one who gets to call me Isaac.”
“Sorry,” Newt said, though he didn’t seem all that sorry.
“Yeah, um, so Blaze is kind of a stage name,” Isaac murmured. “I guess you can call me Isaac,” he offered. “Anyway, I have something that belongs to you.”
Isaac stepped around Newt and Loki and went to the trunk of his car. Nolan let out a soft gasp when he spied the violin case in Isaac’s hand.
“It’s my violin,” he said softly as Isaac handed him the case. “What are you doing with it?”
Color flooded Isaac’s face and he dropped his eyes.
“It’s you,” Nolan said in disbelief. “You’re the one the cops saw on my apartment building’s surveillance video. You stole the Stradivarius.”
Chapter Nineteen
Nolan
“Yes and no,” Isaac said. His eyes shifted to Dallas who’d tensed next to me when I’d thrown out my accusation.
“Stealing’s bad,” Newt piped in. “Isaac says so.” The little boy sat down in the snow and Loki immediately dropped down in front of him.
“It is,” Isaac said to Newt. “Stand up, buddy. Your pants will get wet.”
“You said I could play in the snow.”
Isaac sighed. “I know I did, but we hav
e to get you some snow pants first, okay?”
“Okay,” Newt responded, but he didn’t get up.
“Look,” Isaac said to me. “I took it, but only because Trey said you wouldn’t give it back to him. Then I saw the news about you being accused of stealing it.”
“You’re friends with Trey?” I asked.
“Friends, sure,” Isaac murmured as he glanced at Newt. “Let’s go with that.”
My stomach sank as I realized what he was saying. So not only had Trey been cheating on me with a woman, he’d been fucking another guy behind my back, too.
“I shouldn’t have taken it, but Trey was pretty convincing and he paid me a lot to get it back for him. When I realized it was a scam, I thought about going to the cops, but I…I just couldn’t,” he said as he glanced at Newt.
I saw Dallas type something into his phone and hand it to Isaac.
“Um, yeah, I sent those recordings to the cops. I started taping Trey when I realized he’d lied to me. I didn’t want to go down for that shi…stuff, you know?”
I didn’t get a chance to respond to Isaac because a couple more cars chose that moment to pull into the parking lot. I glanced at Dallas, who just shrugged. The center could easily go weeks without a single visitor, but for whatever reason, today it was Grand Central Station. If Dallas hadn’t looked so worn out, I would have laughed.
But any thought of humor died out the second I saw the two vehicles that pulled directly behind Dallas’s truck and Isaac’s car.
The sheriff.
And animal control.
Dallas tensed next to me, then straightened from where he’d been leaning against the car door. Isaac reached down to pick Newt up and took several steps back so that he was closer to the front of his car…and Maddox. He seemed panicked and I saw him whisper something in Newt’s ear, causing the little boy to nod his head. I wanted to reassure him the police weren’t there for him, but I didn’t want the sheriff to overhear me.
Sheriff Tulley took his time striding over to us. The smug look on his face was a really bad sign.
Locked in Silence_Pelican Bay [Book 1] Page 21
