Safe Haven

by Lisa Mondello

  “Cameras? I don’t think I like the idea of someone looking at me,” Daria said. “I don’t want people watching me while I’m in my house.”

  “Oh, you only have cameras on the outside and they’ll record to a digital system that only you can access inside the house. The alarm itself signals the station if it’s tripped. But no one will be able to see anything until they access the digital recording on the system here.”

  “That sounds expensive.”

  “I’ll buy the damned system myself if I have to,” Kevin insisted.

  Ski added, “The payment plan really is affordable. Even for the best system.”

  “Then life will go back to normal?” she asked.

  Kevin stared at her, knowing somehow life would never be normal for him again.

  “Yeah, sure,” he said.

  “And there will be no need for you to sit outside every night in your vehicle?”

  He hesitated. “If you insist.”

  Crossing her hands over her chest, she said, “Okay, let’s call Ski’s dad before I change my mind.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The fresh air would do her good, Kevin decided as he drove to the marina with Daria. Unlike the night Daria had found the bird on her door, she hadn’t quite recovered from the breakin. It had taken the rest of the day after the breakin to clean up the mess. After that, they sat with Ski’s dad and figured out which system would be installed and what walls would be broken into to run the wires. Daria was very vocal about what she’d allow them to do to her house.

  She’d been terrified when she’d seen the flowers in the vase. He’d hoped she’d have felt that way after he’d told her about George. But the flowers had sealed the deal. And that was a good thing, he decided as they walked the oiled wooden planks at the peer. She needed to be scared to understand just how much her life was in danger.

  Ski’s dad and his crew would be at Daria’s all day installing the new security system. When the crew had arrived that morning, Daria had immediately gone out to the garden. Kevin had watched from the kitchen door as she tilled the earth and replanted the bulbs that had been uprooted and dumped on her kitchen floor. Every once in a while, she would turn her face to the house.

  It broke his heart to see her torn expression. Oh, how he wanted her sweet smile to return.

  The alarm wasn’t going to be enough. He knew that. Even she probably knew that. She needed to relocate to truly be rid of this threat that George posed. This security system was simply a way to make her feel safe inside her house if she insisted on staying. But the thought of her leaving didn’t settle with Kevin the way it had that first morning. As much as he’d pushed for it, it would be a dark day for him if Daria decided to pack her bags and drive out of town now.

  As they walked along the pier to where he moored his sailboat, Kevin decided that pulling her from the garden and insisting she come with him to the marina for the day was the right idea. It would be good for her to be away from the crew working on the house she’d prided herself on fixing up herself. The look on her face when they pulled out drills and started tearing into work she’d only just finished gave her the expression of a person who’d just been violated yet again.

  “The water’s pretty choppy today. It’s really too early in the season for me to bring her out. I still have a few little odds and ends inside the cabin to finish.”

  He glanced at her then, saw the vacant look she’d had earlier had been replaced by anticipation and intrigue.

  “You’ve been fixing your boat up yourself?”

  “Yeah, since the day I bought it almost four years ago. Tyler—he’s the guy you met earlier at the office—used to be a cop.”

  “And now he manages the marina?”

  “Yeah, but when I met him and Jake, they were partners. Anyway, he’d just started working here when this old girl came sailing in. She was barely seaworthy then.”

  Daria stopped and stood on the wooden pier just as Kevin stepped into his pride and joy, Her Gypsy Heart. He turned to extend a hand to help her board, but instead of coming toward him, she put a hand on her hip and took the length of the boat in with a long, slow, perusal.

  “She doesn’t look very old to me,” Daria said with a crooked smile. Her lips lifted to one side, a simple thing that did incredible things to his peace of mind.

  “Old girl or not, she’s my pride and joy,” Kevin said with a smile. “One of these days I’m going to sail her down the coast to the Florida Keys. See how she does.”

  Daria was looking at him in a way that told him she understood. And for the first time, he realized he understood something about her too. Her connection to her home was similar to what he felt for this boat. It was just an object, not a person or a loved one. But the joy it gave him was something he felt deep in his soul just the same.

  “You’ve got some gypsy blood,” she said, her lips curling into the most delicious smile.

  “Nomadic, maybe. I really don’t know if I’ll ever do it. It still remains to be seen if Her Gypsy Heart can even handle a voyage that long. When I’m working on her though, and I’m staring out into that vast ocean beyond the bay, I have these fantasies of sailing her around the world.”

  “Really? You’d give up everything you have here just to sail around the world alone?”

  “Well, maybe not alone. But it’s not like there is a whole lot keeping me here anymore. My parents have moved Down South. My sister is married to a Navy man and hasn’t been back to Rhode Island for any length of time in years. I mostly go visit her and the kids wherever Larry’s stationed. It’s just me and my little apartment here now.”

  She was quiet a minute and he wondered what had brought it on.

  “Come on board. I’ll show you around.”

  *

  The sailboat was beautifully restored. Daria walked carefully around the cabin, admiring all the little things Kevin had done to make it his. Having worked these last months renovating her own house, she could appreciate the little details a true craftsman would take pride in. And there was much to be proud of where Her Gypsy Heart was concerned.

  Still, Daria had a hard time keeping her mind on the little things Kevin showed her. Within a few minutes of arriving, he put her to work and she was glad for the distraction. She helped him stain a cabinet that would hide some of the control panel when not in use. Kevin was much calmer here on the boat than when he was sitting outside on the curb by her house. Being in his own element made the difference.

  They took a quick break, having a cold beer while sitting on deck, looking out into the bay. The water wasn’t as choppy as it could be this time of the year, which was probably a blessing, Daria decided. She didn’t have a cast iron stomach and really didn’t relish the idea of getting seasick just sitting on the boat while they were moored at dock. Keeping herself busy, she’d been okay. Watching the horizon swell and sink, mixed in with the beer she was drinking was taking its toll.

  Instead, she concentrated on Kevin’s expression as he told a story, which really wasn’t too hard to handle at all. She liked the way he looked. He wasn’t drop dead gorgeous, but had enough roughness about him to make his face interesting.

  “How did you get that scar over your eyebrow?” she finally asked when he caught her staring. She’d noticed it the other night while he slept. She’d even brushed her finger over it because she couldn’t help herself. Now her curiosity got the better of her.

  Kevin lifted his eyes as if he could actually see the scar and then smiled. “You don’t want to know.”

  “Now you have to tell me,” she said with a quick chuckle.

  He finished the rest of his beer and set the empty bottle on the seat next to him.

  “It’s no big deal.”

  “Then you should have no problem telling me.”

  He sighed as if telling her was this big chore, but she could tell he really wanted to. “I was tryi
ng to climb the trellis on the side of the house and, uh, didn’t make it.”

  “Oh, my goodness. How far did you fall?”

  “Far enough. I needed eight stitches.”

  “Ouch.”

  “You don’t know the half of it.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I remember the emergency room doctor wanting to shave my eyebrow to get a nice clean stitch and my mother arguing with him that she didn’t want me to end up like those movie actresses who shaved their eyebrows and then didn’t have them grow back.” He laughed, loud and rich. “All she could imagine was me walking around with one eyebrow for the rest of my life.”

  Daria couldn’t help but laugh too.

  “So she took her tweezers out of her purse and started plucking the hair around my wound. My stepfather got all hot under the collar and started screaming about how he drew the line at lipstick and eye shadow.”

  “All for climbing the trellis. What were you doing up there, saving a kitten or something?”

  His expression changed just a fraction. “No, I wanted to check on my sister.”

  “Spying on your sister got you eight stitches? I hope it was worth it.”

  He shrugged, but Daria could tell they’d just touched on a sore subject.

  She allowed the silence to linger and not push Kevin in a direction that was uncomfortable. If he wanted to talk about it then so be it, he could. This was his safe haven, the place he went to find his peace. Lord there had to be some place on this earth that was safe. When it seemed the time had well passed on the subject, Kevin looked at her, his eyes serious and intense.

  “In a way, you remind me of Lucy,” he said quietly.

  There was just a hint of a smile on his face that let her know Lucy, whoever she was, had been something special to Kevin.

  “I thought your sister’s name was Judy.”

  “Lucy was her best friend.”

  “Ah, the picture is starting to come into view now. So you had it bad for your big sister’s best friend and you climbed the trellis to spy on both of them.”

  But Kevin didn’t laugh or even crack a smile. He just looked at her the way he had that first morning when he’d asked her to pack her things and move far away where George couldn’t find her.

  “It was right after Lucy was killed by her ex-boyfriend. Judy locked herself in her room and Mom was afraid she was going to do something drastic. They’d been such good friends. I figured I could handle climbing up the trellis and getting into the window. I mean, she wasn’t going to push me away. Not if I made it all the way up there. I didn’t have any place to go but down. Knowing Judy, she’d have been really ticked off and yelled at me, but at least I’d have made it into the room. I figured I’d talk to her, help her through what she was feeling. I mean, we were all going through it too.”

  He smirked then and shrugged. “I did have it bad for Lucy. She was kinda cool. She didn’t push me away like I was some geeky kid, which I was at that time. All feet and arms.”

  Daria couldn’t imagine it. But there had to have been a time before Kevin had grown into himself, gone from boy to man.

  “Anyway, I only made it about halfway up the trellis before it started to break away from the house. I lost my grip and fell into a shrub.”

  “That probably got your sister out of her room,” Daria said quietly.

  “I’ll say. It wasn’t the way I’d expected, but she ended up flying out of the house and running out to the front lawn. As soon as she realized I didn’t break my neck, she stood up and yelled at me for scaring her. I felt like a real idiot, not only for falling but for scaring the daylights out of her. I mean, she’d just lost her best friend.”

  “What happened?”

  He looked at her directly. “Do you really want to know?”

  Daria nodded, not sure if she did. But she’d come this far and she wasn’t about to turn things around now.

  *

  Kevin tried not to stare at Daria and see the grim reality of that day long ago. She wanted to know what had happened to his sister’s best friend, but it wasn’t pretty. What was worse was thinking that Daria could end up the same way.

  “Lucy had broken up with her boyfriend of three years. All through their relationship, Jimmy had been what she’d called a “gentle soul.”

  Kevin glanced out at Narragansett Bay, heard the bottle he’d placed on the seat next to him roll around as the boat rocked.

  “It starts like it always does. Innocent. He’s never hurt you, you’ve never seen him angry and then something inside him snaps. I remember Jimmy standing out in the rain one night after they’d broken up, just staring at her window and crying like a baby.”

  “He loved her.”

  Kevin tried not to groan. “He murdered her, Daria. That isn’t love.”

  “I know. But he just came after her? Just like that? No warning?”

  Daria leaned closer to him and God, how Kevin needed that. He’d always hated talking about Lucy. But he would if it made Daria understand just how much danger she really was in by staying in Providence. As much as he would hate for her to leave him now, it would be better for her. Safer. She should just leave, get a new address and not tell anyone who can trace it back to George Carlisle.

  “Jimmy just stood out in the rain and kept yelling for her until her parents called the police. I remember thinking the guy was so pathetic. Part of me had some stupid kid fantasy that if Jimmy were out of the picture it would open the door for me. Lucy was real nice. Not just pretty, but a nice girl who actually took the time to sit with me and talk to me like I was something more than her best friend’s geeky younger brother. God, how pathetic does that make me?”

  He laughed just thinking about it, but he didn’t feel the humor of it. He’d never feel it again where Lucy was concerned.

  “It’s not pathetic. You were a kid and Lucy was your first crush. No one ever forgets their first real crush.”

  “She was always over the house because she lived right next door. When Judy’s boyfriend would call, she’d stay on the porch and eat Cheetos with me instead of going home for the hour my sister spent talking to Larry.”

  His brother-in-law, Larry. Now there was a guy who’d hung on and done it right, Kevin thought. For months after Lucy’s death, Judy wouldn’t even leave her bedroom. His parents were so afraid Larry’s desperation to see Judy would drive him to the same lengths as Jimmy.

  But Larry had hung back and waited for Judy to come around in her own time. She did eventually. And when she did, he’d let her lead the way. They got their relationship back on track and eventually married.

  “She liked you.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, for the geeky kid I was.”

  “You keep saying that, but I can’t imagine it.”

  “Remind me to bring you a few pictures I haven’t burned yet.”

  Smirking, she said, “You don’t strike me as the type to be vain.”

  “Nah, I guess I’m not,” he said with a shake of his head. “But most of the pictures of my childhood moved down to Florida with my parents.”

  “So Lucy’s ex-boyfriend came back after the police left?”

  If only that had been the case. If Kevin could hit the rewind button and replay that horrible day, do what he felt in his gut, he would. But that was impossible and no amount of wishing was going to change what happened now.

  “Jimmy waited about a month after that night before he stopped by the high school we were attending to see Lucy again. Judy didn’t want me walking home with her and Lucy because she didn’t want her cool friends to see me with her.” He shrugged. “Me and my friends had played some pretty wild tricks on her, so she had good reason not to want us around.”

  Daria chuckled and he felt his heart lift just a notch. He liked that about her, the way she could make him feel good when everything inside him felt raw and just plain awful. Like the morning he’d let her ex walk out of the station a free man, knowing he was going to go right afte
r Daria. Tired and frustrated as he was, she’d lifted him that morning and for a moment at the market, it was easy to forget the reason he’d sought her out in the first place.

  “Anyway, the two girls were walking ahead of us. My buddy and I figured we were in a good position to eavesdrop on whatever conversation they were having. Keeping a respectable distance to pretend we weren’t tailing them, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “And then Jimmy pulled up along the curb. I remember the smile on his face. He seemed harmless. Not at all the pathetic guy he was that night on the lawn. But looking back I’d always wondered if he was smiling because he knew right then he was going to kill Lucy.”

  Kevin sighed, thinking of how things could have turned out if he’d only done something. No, the idea of him and Lucy hooking up was just a kid’s dream. He knew that. But she probably would have gone on to grow into a stunning woman, married, and had a family. All that was snuffed out that afternoon.

  “Jimmy said he just wanted to talk, to let her know he was okay. He was going to drive her to work at the market. Judy said goodbye and kept walking.”

  He looked down at the bottle next to him, which was spilling the dregs of beer left in the bottom. As the sailboat rocked, the glass clanked against the back of the seat.

  “They found Lucy later that night in the dumpster behind the market. She’d never even made it into work.”

  “That is truly horrible. For all of you.”

  “Well, for us life went on. Eventually. For Lucy, it didn’t. She trusted the guy. After that night Jimmy wouldn’t leave her house, the police and her parents urged Lucy to get a restraining order, but she thought everyone was overreacting. She trusted Jimmy. He’d never hurt her. Until he killed her.”

  Daria sat up straight. “That’s why you want me to leave.”

  He nodded. He couldn’t make it any more plain than he had. And Daria’s situation was a thousand times worse because George had given them a warning sign as big and bold as a highway billboard. Daria just wasn’t looking at it for the danger it was.