Evil Secrets Trilogy Boxed Set

by Vickie McKeehan

  Quinn looked sympathetic for about two seconds. “Jake wasn’t to blame for John Griffin setting out to lie and deceive his own daughter. What kind of men become fathers only to walk away from establishing that bond with their own blood?”

  All four knew she wasn’t talking about John Griffin at that point, but Nick Tyler.

  “Just remember, Quinn, my own father kept such horrible secrets after doing despicable things.”

  “Will you be able to forgive him?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. But watching him suffer, go downhill a little more each day is…heartbreaking.”

  Quinn squeezed her free hand. “You’ve such a good heart. I wish I could say I’d forgive but I’m not sure I have that in me. We were so young. We were supposed to be able to trust the adults around us. And now…”

  “Quinn, we were caught up in the overindulgences of adults, in their narcissistic pursuits, their selfishness. Don’t you think it’s time to put all that away, put it behind us once and for all and move on with our own lives?”

  “You’re right. It’s just that…I don’t like Ella, let alone love her. I never did. That’s my burden to bear. Growing up, she was…always so…uncaring, even mean. Not like Alana mean but…a child deserves to have caring people around them.”

  Baylee reached over and scooped Quinn into her chest for a hug. “Yes, they do. I know Kit and I were poor substitutes but we did our best.” She grinned. “The minute I looked over and saw you sitting next to me in Mrs. O’Malley’s third grade class I knew we were going to be besties.”

  “That’s only because I had all the answers to the math quizzes.”

  “There was that. How’d you get to be so smart anyway if you didn’t go to school regularly until you came here?”

  She shrugged. “The answers just came to me.”

  “Ah. Genius. Kit and I were always proud of how smart you were.”

  At that moment, Kit and Jake came through the back door holding hands while Gloria and Ben lagged behind. “Where’s John?” Kit asked.

  Quinn waved a hand. “He’s…somewhere. I think he went outside on the front porch to smoke a cigarette.”

  “As long as he didn’t decide to steal the silver and take off,” Kit grumbled as she took a seat at the table.

  “I know you’re upset,” Baylee said. “But at least he finally came clean.”

  Kit sighed. “Yeah, there’s that. He gets points for plotting to steal his own kids right from the get-go, not being able to take a stand with Alana, and faking his own death, letting me believe he was gone from my life for good. Yeah, he’s a prize all right.”

  Baylee laughed. “Ah. Well. I don’t think any of us won prizes in the parent department, except maybe Quinn here.”

  Taken aback, Quinn stared at her friend. “What? Why would you say such a thing? Two decades of neglect is hardly a reason to hand out father of the year awards.”

  “True. But at least he’s here now trying to…”

  “So what if he is?” Quinn exploded. “Twenty years went by and nothing. Now Nick Tyler gets points for showing up? I don’t think so.”

  Kit exchanged looks with Baylee. “What she’s saying, Quinn, is that Nick Tyler might warrant a second chance. From what you say happened at Reese’s office, he thought you were being well-cared for, living a typical rich kid, Beverly Hills kind of life.”

  “And if he’d bothered contacting me just once, he’d have known better, discovered the truth instead of finding out after the fact, after it no longer matters.”

  Baylee shook her head. “It matters, Quinn. No one’s saying it doesn’t. But he believed the lies, lies we all grew up believing. We were surrounded by such evil and deceit and grew up with lies built on top of lies. It’s got to end at some point. It might as well end with us. The three of us deserve better. We’ve got to put an end to this, end this evil that’s haunted our past, put this crap behind us once and for all, and move forward.”

  Kit reached for her hand. “We aren’t saying it’ll be easy, Quinn. But you have a chance with Nick, your father, to make a fresh start. Don’t let all the negative stuff from the past cloud the fact he’s here now, willing to establish a relationship.”

  Baylee clasped hands with her friends, then pointed out, “Quinn, look at the love around this table, what we’ve meant to each other over the years. Don’t let his mistake not getting to know you affect you for the rest of your life. Try to forgive and forget or you’ll be letting it ruin the future, your future.

  “And if all that still means nothing to you, then think of it this way. You’ll only get the one chance at having a father, one chance, Quinn, that’s it,” Baylee reasoned.

  She met Reese’s eyes. “Reese said the same thing. I’m just not sure I can get past his never being there for me. It hurt, damn it. All those years it hurt.”

  “Of course it did. We were there with you. But trust me on this,” Kit said. “You can and you should find a way. The anger and hate will only eat you up inside. Is that what you want? You have a brilliant career ahead of you. Why hold on to all that negative energy.”

  Baylee picked up the chorus. “Haven’t we lived in the shadow of all of this too long as it is? Isn’t it time to let go of the pain? I don’t want to waste a single minute of my precious time with Dylan and Sarah fixated on the lousy way my father treated me any more. I want to let it go and look forward to my future, the future I have with Dylan.”

  “I guess I’ll try, but I need you guys with me tomorrow when we get the DNA results. Just like Kit needed us here today, I want you there with me, all of you.” She looked around the table and into the eyes of each of them. “I can’t do this alone. In fact, I don’t want to do it alone.”

  “And so we will be.”

  CHAPTER 23 Book 3

  By the time she’d reached twenty-one, the smack had hold of Ella Canyon so bad she’d have done anything for a fix. Anything. That included selling out a member of her own family. A small price to pay really to make certain the steady stream of heroin kept coming.

  She didn’t like thinking about that time, so long ago now, it seemed it might have happened to someone else.

  It hadn’t been her fault, she reminded herself. Just because she hadn’t stood up for her cousin didn’t mean what had happened had been her fault. No one dared confront Jessica Boyd and Alana Stevens, even she had known that.

  Oh, but Lisa had. That had been her undoing. Lisa. She’d been so young, so naïve. If only Lisa had kept her mouth shut that day. If only she hadn’t upset Jessica and Alana. If only Lisa had listened to her.

  In her short seventeen years Lisa Redfield had made two huge mistakes. Her first one had been to get pregnant at fifteen, to let a hunky Irish rock singer take her virginity. Her second was to put blind faith and trust in an attorney, especially, it seemed, this one.

  Lisa swallowed hard and glanced up into the cold, hard stare of Jessica Boyd. When she’d first met Jessica she had thought the woman walked on water. After all, Jessica had promised to get money out of the rock star. At the time Lisa had believed the attorney was a godsend, one who had her best interests at heart.

  And why wouldn’t she think that? After all, Ella Canyon, her own cousin, had recommended Jessica personally, family looking out for family.

  She glanced over at Ella, who stood off to the side like a vulture.

  What a poor excuse for family, Lisa thought now. Ella had been looking out for herself and had been since day one.

  Lisa had to wonder if she would ever get out of this mess.

  And how in the world had she not seen Jessica’s dark side that first day? Because she’d been bubbly and upbeat and so sure she could handle all Lisa’s problems.

  If things weren’t bad enough, Lisa hated it when she had to meet with Jessica while Alana Stevens was in the room. Jessica always insisted Lisa bend to do what she wanted. But Alana liked to threaten her with physical violence. The woman flat-out gave her the will
ies.

  Up to now, Lisa had relented and done everything they’d wanted her to do. She’d met Jessica’s demands and then some.

  But now, as she sat in Jessica’s office, there was another lecture coming, another threat of some kind, she could feel it—building to a crescendo. She could tell by the way the two women exchanged sidelong glances.

  Lisa hated these two women with a passion. And she was getting tired of this whole scam. She wanted to take her baby girl, Quinn, and leave L.A. for good, go back to Santa Barbara and the way things were before she’d ever taken that trip to San Francisco to see Shatter in concert, before she’d ever gone to Nick Tyler’s hotel room that warm April night.

  She wanted to get as far away from these two women as she could get.

  Lisa had it all planned out. She would let her mother’s sister take care of Quinn while she got a job, a regular job. She could waitress. She was good with people. Or her mother could help her get a job at the bakery where she worked, just a way to earn a living until she got her artwork to payoff.

  She’d been told she had talent. After all, when she’d been pregnant she’d spent hours and hours drawing and painting, something she loved doing with all her heart. Kind of like Nick Tyler had loved his music—certainly he had loved his music career infinitely more than he’d ever loved her.

  How could she have been so stupid?

  But if she got a regular job she could go back to school and get her GED. She knew that would make her mother happy. All she knew at the moment was that she should never have gotten mixed up with Jessica Boyd or the law firm or, for that matter, Alana Stevens. Unfortunately the two women seemed to go together like two matching halves of one personality. She knew that now with certainty.

  Lisa shook her head and thought about how much she’d grown up in the last two years. That had a lot to do with being a mother, being totally responsible for a thirteen-month-old baby was a lot of hard work.

  She stared into Jessica’s cold, dark eyes.

  “You will do as I tell you, do you understand? If you want the money to keep coming in every month, stop fighting me every step of the way and listen to me. I know what I’m doing.”

  “I know, but it’s just that Nick was so sweet to me when Quinn was born. He even showed up at the hospital and held her for the first time. I know he was moved by the fact that I named her after his mother. I hate to…”

  Jessica’s tone changed. “Lisa, have you forgotten? The man took your virginity. And the law says if a man has sex with an underage teen, he does jail time. Period. Don’t you know by now Nick doesn’t care a whit about you or the baby? He never did.

  “He hasn’t spent another moment thinking of you or the time you spent at his disposal. He used you and nothing more. If you won’t think of yourself, at least think of your baby, who has needs as all children do. And she won’t be a baby forever. As a mother you have to think about a decent place to live, food and clothing, and then there’s college for little Quinn down the road. Surely a girl like you, with your blue collar background, wants a good education for your daughter.

  “The man’s raking in millions and Quinn is entitled to her fair share, as are you.” And didn’t Jessica know the amount of Tyler’s assets to the penny since she’d had to sleep with that old fart Portman to get him to send her Tyler’s account statements every month? The doting little man had been putty in her hands.

  “Quinn’s entitled,” Lisa corrected. She might be young, but she wasn’t stupid. And if she was supposed to be getting so much money, where was it? It was taking a long time to trickle down to her and Quinn.

  “Babies have needs, Jessica. By now I thought I’d be back in school. I thought I’d get the money and, you know, it would be mine to do with what I wanted. But every time Quinn needs something the money has to come through you. And I’m getting tired of my living arrangements, sharing an apartment with Ella Canyon wasn’t part of the deal.”

  Even from across the room, Lisa noticed Ella go rigid with anger.

  “You ungrateful, little bitch. I’m the one who has to babysit this one. Make sure she does what she’s told.”

  Not to be intimidated, Lisa continued, “She uses drugs and she brings men around at all hours of the day and night. I don’t like it. I want my own place to live where Quinn and I can feel safe.”

  Jessica didn’t handle whiny children very well and Lisa was no exception. “Are you saying I don’t take care of you and the child? Is that what you’re implying? Because how dare you question me! I get you everything you need. You have a nice apartment, food in the pantry, a car. Didn’t I fly you to Ireland where the little brat could be born just as you requested, the place where you wanted her to be born just like her father? Aren’t I looking out for you?”

  “Yes but, sharing the place with Ella is…unnecessary. She’s constantly smoking weed, and I found a bag of cocaine in the kitchen.”

  “What are you, a nark? How dare you rat me out!” Ella fumed.

  Right then, how she wished Ella, her distant cousin, had never ever introduced her to Jessica Boyd. It seemed Ella was already hooked on the hard stuff and headed for the gutter.

  “You couldn’t go to Ireland alone, now could you, a young, pregnant girl? Ella acted as your birthing coach and…”

  “Babysitter,” Lisa finished. “I don’t need a druggie babysitting me.”

  Up to now Alana hadn’t said a word, but she’d heard enough. “You’d better listen to Jess, Lisa. She’s helped others out just like you and they’re in better circumstances for it. Stop being an ungrateful pain in the butt. You have a small child and don’t have to work. Money comes in whenever you need anything. What more do you want?”

  Lisa stood up defiantly. “You think because I’m young I don’t know what you’re doing. What’s going on here? I’ll tell everyone what you’re doing, I swear I will.”

  Jessica’s eyes met Alana’s. “After all I’ve done for you, you threaten me?”

  Staring into those cold, black eyes, Lisa swallowed hard. Maybe she’d gone too far this time. “I wouldn’t really.”

  “Don’t think we’ll put up with threats from an ungrateful little tramp like you,” Alana warned. “You get knocked up, your mother kicks you out, and you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. Unless you want to go on the dole for good then you’d better let Jess here continue working things out her way. And if I were you, I’d keep my goddamned mouth shut with threats of any kind.”

  With that, Alana walked over and calmly backhanded Lisa hard across the mouth.

  The sting of the slap caused tears to form in Lisa’s eyes. She rubbed her throbbing cheek and glared at Ella, who stood shaking her head.

  “That’ll teach the nark in you to keep your pie hole shut,” Ella shouted.

  Oh God, thought Lisa, there had to be a way to get these three people out of her life for good.

  If only Ella didn’t hover around her so much, she might be able to sneak out, take Quinn away from these horrible people, maybe buy a bus ticket back to Santa Barbara and get out of this mess she’d found herself in ever since she’d first walked through the door.

  But as she looked around the room, her face still burning from Alana’s hand, she feared she might have waited too late.

  Trembling from the memory, Ella looked over at the tall man who’d busted her out of the loony bin, wondering if she might be hallucinating.

  Was it time for her pills? She really needed her medicine.

  She stared at the big man with kind eyes and wondered if he’d brought her medication. Who was he anyway? This visit he kept asking her a lot of questions about Lisa. Lisa Redfield, her cousin. He kept after her to talk about what happened to Lisa, that’s all he wanted to know. Why was it always about Lisa?

  Her name always brought back memories, both good and bad, along with jealousy, envy.

  Bad times spent around Alana and Jessica when they spiraled out of control meant you never quite knew what to e
xpect. She remembered being afraid. But this big man kept telling her she didn’t have to be scared any more.

  Ella wondered if it was true.

  Because the big man was taking her away from this dump, somewhere she didn’t have to be afraid. He’d told her so. She looked over at the other man, the one who was supposed to be a cop. He looked like one. Cops were bad news, everyone knew that. She would avoid talking to that one, she decided.

  She liked the big guy with the Irish name. He hadn’t been the first Irishmen she’d talked to, but he was certainly the nicest one. As he took her by the arm and led her out into the sunshine and to a waiting car, Ella resolved that maybe she’d see a glimmer of that life of luxury she once had, the one she’d had before the kid grew up and took off.

  Quinn nervously looked around the conference room at her support system. There was Kit and Jake, Baylee and Dylan, and Reese. Her friends and family were here to offer support and love. Nothing she found out now could hurt her, Quinn decided.

  She spared a quick glance at Nick Tyler. She might not even be his. It would be so like Ella to have lied to her all these years.

  Didn’t matter, she thought.

  But oh, it did.

  No matter how many times she reminded herself that she was a grown woman, an adult, not a needy child looking for validation or attention, she wanted—to know, once and for all, where she came from and from whom.

  For some reason, it mattered.

  She looked over at Reese, taking command of the room. So like him to orchestrate this to its conclusion. When their eyes met, he smiled. And her heart simply stuttered in her chest.

  After everyone settled in, Reese eyed father and daughter sitting across from each other. He took out the piece of paper with the DNA results, passed a copy to each one of them.

  “Mr. Tyler, Quinn, as you can see by the results, you two are definitely related, father and daughter.”

  “I know that already. I never doubted it for a second. I knew the moment I walked in here because she’s the image of her mother, the image of that little girl who came to the farm that day so long ago.” He stared at Quinn. “I never forgot about you. I forgot about doing the right thing, being a father.”