From the Heart: Romance, Mystery and Suspense a collection for everyone

by Eckhart, Lorhainne

  Richard smiled at his boy and then faced the house as if he knew she watched. And his smile disappeared as he stared at her with a look that had her taking a step back. Richard yelled something at Ryley before heading straight for her. He leaped up the stairs and yanked open the screen door.

  “No more lies, Richard, no changing the subject. No blowing me off. I want to know the truth.” She shoved papers in the air. “What’s this?”

  “Dan’s registration. He signed it over to me.”

  “Why?”

  He let out a sharp breath and she knew his patience was thin.

  “Maggie, leave it alone.”

  “No. Not this time. By God, you’ll tell the truth. Is he dragging you back into business with him?”

  “No. There are some things you don’t understand. And I’m asking you to please trust me and leave it alone.”

  “Richard, that’s a lot for you to ask of me after what he did.”

  “No, I don’t think it is. I’ll tell you this though. There’s stuff going on I don’t want you involved in. And sometimes there are things you don’t need to know. It’ll be all right. I promise you.”

  Sometimes when Richard decided on something, it was as if he erected a steel wall. One she couldn’t budge. Why was he shutting her out? Was he protecting her? She didn’t know, and it didn’t calm her by any means. In fact, her unease increased.

  Richard brushed past her and hung his light brown coat on a hook by the door. “Ryley wants pizza for dinner. Can you order one, and I’ll go pick it up?” He changed the subject so neatly, walking away with the registration. She was about to follow and demand answers, but when she glanced out the screen door, Ryley looked up and smiled at her. She stepped closer, pressing her hands against the screen, and what he did next nearly brought her to her knees. He stood up and waved.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “We’re investigating a stolen truck reported by a Dan McKenzie seven days ago in Seattle. A search and rescue team discovered the truck at the bottom of Buckhorn Lake when flying overhead during training. And this morning, a team of divers went down and discovered the truck fits the description of the stolen truck… the serial number matches.”

  Maggie stood in the open doorway facing two Sequim deputies. “Come in, please.” Her heart raced, and her hand trembled as she held the screen door open. Richard, what are you doing?! She wished he were here, because right now she was fighting the panicked urge to ramble. But he wasn’t; because he’d driven Ryley to school while she was getting dressed this morning.

  “Richard’s not home right now. I’m not sure how I can help.” Call Diane.

  “What can you tell us about this stolen truck?” Maggie felt her face heat, and she knew her eyes widened. Both officers glanced at each other. Why don’t you just tattoo the words “she knows something” on the middle of your forehead and be done with it. She closed her eyes to shut out that voice.

  “Ma’am, if you know something and withhold evidence, you can be charged as an accessory.”

  “I don’t know anything.” She cringed and wondered how pink her face was.

  “Where did you say your husband is?”

  “He’s not my husband, we’re divorced.” This was not their business. She wanted to take a step back. She wanted to pinch herself, anything to stop her mouth. Both officers glanced at each other again. One opened his notebook and scribbled something down. The sound of Richard’s truck pulling in should have made her breathe easier, and she was calmer, sort of, if she could just get her damn hands to stop trembling. So she jammed them in her back pockets.

  Richard hurried up the steps, and both officers turned in the doorway. Richard glanced once at her, his hard eyes giving nothing away as he walked around the officers and slid his arm around Maggie’s shoulders. “Why are you talking to my wife?”

  The cute young deputy with the million dollar smile and sun-streaked blond hair crossed his arms. “Well, she said you’re divorced.”

  Maggie wanted to kick the arrogant deputy who grinned again.

  “She’s confused. We’re back together, and we’re not divorced.” Richard spoke to the deputy, but glanced down at Maggie with a look that said he was done with this subject. This was the second time he said they weren’t divorced. She wanted to clarify and find out everything. Because she couldn’t believe he’d told the lawyers they were back together, and they’d simply believed him.

  “Mr. McCafferty, that’s obviously a bone of contention between the two of you and does not concern us. We’re here about a truck reported stolen by Dan McKenzie, yet the registration appears in your name, sir.”

  Richard dropped his arm from Maggie’s shoulders and somehow moved her away from the deputies. “Maggie, can you please excuse us.” He didn’t ask, he dictated again.

  She wanted to refuse outright. She even crossed her arms and opened her mouth to say so, but instead she beamed up at him and batted her eyelashes, “Why, absolutely darling. I’ll just go powder my nose like a good little girl.”

  Richard stiffened and glared at her. She knew she’d be hearing about it later.

  One of the deputies smirked. The way the other watched her let her know he’d do anything to talk to her alone. She hurried up the stairs and leaned against the wall outside her room where she could hear everything. But Richard, that sly bastard, must have known because the next thing she heard was the screen door slap closed as the men went outside. Maggie raced to Ryley’s room at the end of the hall and stepped over his pile of clothes scattered on the floor, glanced at his unmade bed, and leaned over the cluttered desk against the window. Richard stood with the deputies beside their cruiser. He was talking, motioning a couple times with his hands as if to emphasize something. He shrugged and shook his head a couple of times. She would give anything to listen in.

  What was Richard up to? What was he hiding?

  She darted out of Ryley’s room and grabbed the portable phone from the narrow hall table. She dialed as she raced back to the window and peeked out from the side. It went right to voicemail. “You’ve reached Diane. I’m not here so leave your name and number, and I’ll get back to you.”

  “Diane, it’s Maggie. I really need to talk to you. Can you call me back? I’m at Richard’s.” Why did she keep saying that? This was home. Wasn’t it? She hung up the phone. She knew with her head clear, she really needed to address several things, her house in town, and her and Richard, but first things first. What was Richard up to with Dan?

  The car doors slammed shut. The deputies were leaving. Maggie blinked and looked down as they pulled away. Richard was watching her. Maggie hurried down the steps determined to get some answers. He was good at avoiding, why even last night, he managed to evade her questions about Dan.

  Maggie raced into the kitchen just as Richard grabbed the phone and turned to leave. “Richard, what’s going on? First Dan calls. Now the cops show up here about that truck. What are you doing?”

  He reached out to cup her cheek, but she smacked his hand away and stepped back. “No way are you going to distract me or change the subject. And just so you know. My head’s clear. So start talking.”

  He breathed deeply and gazed briefly out the window as if deciding something before meeting her gaze. “You’ve been through a lot, babe. I don’t want to put this on you. I’ll handle it.”

  “No Richard, you need to talk to me and tell me what’s going on.”

  He firmed his lips and shook his head. “I need to go out. I’ll pick up Ryley from school on the way home.”

  She felt her jaw slacken and held up both her hands in disbelief. “Richard, I’m not some mindless ditz. You don’t trust me. That’s it, isn’t it? After everything we’ve been through, how could you not trust me?” She stepped back and pressed both palms over her chest.

  Richard shut his eyes and appeared to clench his jaw for a second before he spoke. “I trust you with my life, Maggie. But there are some things I don’t ever want you to know. I�
��m cleaning up a mess. So stop worrying.” He didn’t move. In fact, he didn’t try and touch her.

  “No, Richard. I won’t let you brush me off. You need to tell me. I expect no less, or else I’m walking out that door and going home.”

  The way he glared and stepped toward her, she wondered what he was about to do. So she stepped back again until she bumped the fridge. “I took care of your house in town. You no longer have possession. I had all your things moved out.”

  “What! You can’t do that. I rented that house. It’s in my name.”

  He closed the distance between them. “You’re not leaving. This is your home. This is where you belong, so get it through your head.”

  “Then I’ll stay in a hotel. You’ll not dictate or tell me what to do. You want to share a life with me? Then you need to be honest and share everything. What you think, you feel, and if you’ve done something wrong.”

  He tried touching her again, but she pushed him hard with both hands flat on his chest. “Don’t touch me. This is your last chance, and then I’m leaving.”

  He crossed his arms in front of him. Maggie sighed and slipped past him, grabbing her coat off the hook and shrugged it on, rummaging her pocket for keys, but they were empty. She touched her forehead with her fingers. She didn’t have her car. It was the broken heap in her driveway. The driveway that wasn’t hers anymore. So where was her car? She refused to look at him as she walked around the kitchen island and pulled out the telephone book from the kitchen junk drawer and flipped through the pages.

  “What are you doing, Maggie?”

  She did her best to ignore him and punched in the phone number for the town taxi. It rang once before the telephone was ripped out of her hand. “Stop. Maggie, please stay.”

  She wanted to cave. She loved him, she really did. But some strength poured from inside, and she knew trust was more important. She couldn’t have it any other way. “Will you tell me the truth?”

  His answer was another wall of silence.

  “I’m calling a cab, and I’m leaving, and you can’t stop me. I’ll walk if I have to.”

  He must have sensed her unbending resolve. “No, you’re not taking a cab. I’ll drive you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  She always loved Richard’s truck and nestled in the soft leather seats while the whisper of jazz hummed from the CD player. Richard has stashed her overnight bag behind his seat. He convinced her only to pack essentials. With his sunglasses hiding his eyes, she was unable to read him through his stony silence. He had a way of blanking out what he was thinking. He’d always been a mystery, one of the many things attracting her to him.

  Richard cleared his throat before pulling into the parking lot of an oceanside restaurant specializing in chowder. “Humor me, Maggie. I’m hungry, and you need to eat.”

  She shook her head and gazed out her window. This was so like him, deciding everything all the time. “This needs to stop, Richard. I have a mind of my own. I realize over the last little bit I was in trouble, and you helped. But you can’t make decisions for me.”

  “Please Maggie, it’s just lunch.”

  Maggie wanted to bang her head against the glass to knock some sense into herself because, against her better judgment, she opened her door and stepped down. She needed space and distance from Richard. She hid for so long behind a chemical haze that numbed everything so she didn’t have to face up or deal with anything.

  Richard stopped in front of his truck, and took off his shades, tucking them in his front coat pocket.

  Maggie hesitated a minute. “Just lunch, and then you promise to take me to a hotel?”

  “Lunch and hear me out, and then I promise, if you still want to go, I’ll take you to a hotel for tonight.” She wanted to reach up and touch the faint lines on his face that made him so damn good looking. He must have seen it because something softened in his rock solid features. Vulnerability? Maybe.

  “Fair enough.” She walked ahead of Richard, but he was so close, in her personal space, she could feel his heat. There was a time when this was all she wanted.

  She chose a seat away from other customers at a small window table for two. A skinny young waitress brought them menus and promised to return in a moment to take their order. She stared at the menu, determined to stand her ground with Richard because she knew all too well his powers of persuasion. They didn’t speak. The waitress returned, took their orders and menus and promptly returned with coffee for her and a beer for Richard. She tapped her fingers on the table, gazed at the ocean and then lifted her cup and sipped.

  “I don’t want you to leave.”

  She set her cup down. “Ah Richard, look I told you—”

  He reached out and touched her hand, the one resting on the table.

  “Maggie please, just hear me out.” His voice softened as he squeezed her hand tenderly. “Please.”

  Maggie finally looked up at him, and what she saw melted a bit of her resolve.

  “I’m trying to protect you. I feel like I let you down. Because I never knew you got hooked on some pills, and after that last week watching you through that sick and hurt, getting that crap out of you, I swore I wouldn’t turn my back on you again. I love you, Maggie.” He pulled her hand closer and linked his fingers with hers.

  “I love you, too. But this isn’t why I’m leaving, and you know it.” She pulled her hand away.

  “We’re barely holding it together to create a sense of balance for Ryley. What do you think this will do to him? You taking off? You may have an issue with me and my need to protect you, but you mark my words. You scared the hell out of Ryley. He knew you were taking pills. He told me he found them in the bathroom. We talked about it last night. I told him you were off them and home for good. His heart was broken from what happened to Lily and then being ripped away from his home. His family torn apart. If you leave, you’re not taking Ryley. I won’t let you, and he won’t go with you now. You two are on shaky ground. Your focus needs to be repairing the relationship with Ryley. You two used to be close; he was a mama’s boy. But you terrified him. He couldn’t reach you.” Richard tapped his index finger on his head. “Did you know during one of his night terrors, he tried to wake you when you were living in that God awful rental in town? He couldn’t. And I have no idea how long ago it was. He never told me. Not until last night.”

  She shut her eyes and squeezed her fists. This was not what she wanted to hear.

  “Maggie, open your eyes. I’m not saying this to hurt you. You need to understand what Ryley saw. You just did things. He’d ask you something, and you wouldn’t respond. How many times did you forget to pick him up at school so he walked home? Do you understand what I’m saying? Your anger at me is going to hurt Ryley.”

  She shivered as if ice water flowed through her veins. Her determination to stand up to Richard evaporated. Because he was right. She’d not begun to repair the bond with Ryley, and leaving wasn’t the answer—even for one night.

  “I need to think Richard… alone, without you around.”

  The waitress delivered their sandwiches, and they ate in silence. After a few bites, she pushed her plate away. “I need to take a walk on the beach. Can you let me be for a bit?”

  “I’ll wait for you.”

  She slid out her chair and started to leave. But stopped and looked down at him, and when he reached for her hand, it felt different, more caring instead of his usual possessive manner.

  “Maggie, I didn’t say this about Ryley to confuse or trick you. I don’t want to involve you in my crap, and I’m asking you to let me handle it. Ryley and you are the most important things in my life. He needs us both. I’m asking you to stop running and help me… focus on Ryley. He’s not okay, and I think you know that. Don’t make me go home without you, not again. Don’t do that to Ryley.”

  She pulled her hand away, and slipped out the door.

  She wandered the gravel beach in front of the restaurant and gazed out over the waves ripp
ling and splashing against the shoreline. The tide had changed and was higher today. She shoved her hands in her wool coat pockets as the wind whipped her dark hair all around. Richard was hiding something. But to force her point and leave would hurt Ryley. He needed his mother. She’d only made baby steps in reconnecting with him. Damn Richard, he was right. But she still needed to know what shady scheme Dan dragged Richard into this time. She turned away from shore, picked her way cautiously over the big rocks, and paused when she spied Richard standing on the bank watching her.

  Richard popped on his shades as she climbed back up the narrow path, and held out his hand as she stepped up beside him on the grassy hillside. “What have you decided?”

  “Let’s go get Ryley.”

  Richard smiled and appeared to relax as he let out a heavy sigh. But that wasn’t all Maggie had decided. After they were home, she was going to make some calls and find out what mess Richard had gotten himself into.

  Chapter Twenty

  Diane tossed a ball for Daisy across the grass. Daisy raced for the ball, picked it up in her mouth, sauntered back tail wagging, and dropped it at Diane’s feet. Richard parked the truck beside Diane’s SUV, and glanced at Maggie, before hopping out. “Diane, what are you doing here?”

  Diane raised the brim of her dark ball cap and lifted her sunglasses peering first at Richard and then Maggie.

  “I called Diane.”

  Daisy barked and yipped with her tail wagging and trotted toward Maggie, bumping her leg and hand, demanding her attention.

  She bent down and scratched behind her ears, smoothing her hand over her thick coat and hugged her around her neck as she covered her face with doggie kisses. She didn’t realize how much she missed her dog. “Thanks for bringing Daisy back.”