NY State Trooper- The Complete Box Set

by Jen Talty

  “I’ll take care of that,” he said.

  “I don’t want your money.”

  “Okay, it’s not for you, it’s for our baby. Your need for health insurance is for the benefit of our baby, and if that asshole is going to fire you and I can’t make you fight it, then you have to at least let me pay for that. Can I do that?”

  She bit back a giggle. She could get used to this Reese. “Yes,” she said, but her relief was quickly squashed. “There’s something about Mr. Holland I don’t like...and the guy that shot Matt used to work for Holland.”

  “We’re on the same page about that.” Reese leaned forward, resting one hand on his knee, the other rubbing his neck. She knew that pose, and it frightened her. “We’re still doing background checks on that guy. Seems Conrad found out he was skimming off a construction site, and Holland fired Terry—the perp who broke into your office and held you captive.”

  “Holland said he’d never met the guy.”

  “Possible, in a large company like that, but for now”—Reese wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in tight, leaning back on the sofa—“just tell them I wouldn’t back down, take the severance package, and don’t look back.”

  She raised her feet onto the sofa and rested her head on his chest. Things were different. And that was good. She wasn’t ready to go full-swing, but this was nice, a start in the right direction. “Who the hell is going to hire a pregnant woman?”

  “You’ll find a job,” he said. “Come to think of it, I’ll need a manager for the hotel.”

  “I’m a paralegal, but thanks for the offer.” She tilted her head and looked into his eyes. “This is nice, but don’t go getting ideas.”

  “Too late.” He kissed her softly.

  “Slow. As in we date. Like real dating.”

  “I guess that means I’m not sleeping here tonight.”

  “Nope.”

  A pounding at the door startled them both. It was Frank, and he looked none too happy.

  “What are you doing here?” Patty asked. “Don’t you have that thing with Andy?”

  “Something came up.”

  His tone indicated that whatever suddenly came up was pretty unpleasant. She also sensed it was about her. “Good. Reese is here. I can kill two birds with one stone.”

  “What does that mean?” Reese asked.

  “I know Patty’s pregnant. The whole town knows, thanks to your drunken ass.” He turned to Reese. “I was fine with it until I found out what a total asshole you are.” His voice was eerily even, though the words cut through the air with a dark edge.

  “He’s one of your best friends,” Patty said. “Why would you say that?”

  Frank turned to Patty, taking an envelope out of his coat pocket. He looked only at Patty. His lips pursed, and he clenched the envelope in his hands with such anger it flowed through the room like the wind ripping in off the lake.

  “He’s not the stand-up guy I thought he was.” Frank held up his hand when Patty opened her mouth. “As a matter of fact, he’s a lying bastard and has had us all snowed.” Frank shook his head, his eyes closed and his fists balled tight. He opened his eyes. They were on fire, but there was something else that flickered behind that rage, and Patty recognized it immediately. Betrayal. “I was okay with this until I found out who that man really is. If Reese had been honest up front, things would be different, but he’s a liar, and not worthy of you or that child.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Reese asked.

  Frank handed the envelope to Patty. “He’s never been honest with you, and I’m not sure he would have told you about this, ever.”

  Reese stepped a few feet closer. “What are you talking about?”

  Patty ignored the two men yelling at each other while she opened the contents of the envelope. There was one picture and one document, but they spoke a thousand words. “Where did you get this?”

  “It was delivered by messenger to the station today,” Frank said.

  “What is it?” Reese reached for the papers, but she jerked them back, looking at them again. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “It’s your marriage license,” Frank said, “and your wedding picture.”

  Patty’s heart sank. She blinked a few times, but the words on the document didn’t change. Nor did the picture of Reese all decked out in a tux next to some redhead.

  And what was worse, Reese just stood there, shock registering on his face, then slowly turning into shame. He looked like a man who knew he was busted, and there was no point in trying to deny it. Guilty as charged, but only because he was caught.

  “So it’s true,” she whispered. Her voice trembled. This was worse than when her mother had left. Her best friend had just stabbed her in the back.

  “Bastard,” Frank yelled, inching closer to Reese.

  “Who sent these to you?” Reese didn’t back down, the look of shame turning to a rage she’d never seen on him, and it was beyond horrifying.

  “No idea,” Frank said, “but someone who gives a shit about Patty, unlike you.”

  “Both of you shut up,” Patty said, but Frank lunged toward Reese with a right hook.

  Reese’s head snapped to the side and he stumbled back, tripping over the ottoman, knocking over the lamp, then finally landing on the floor. He wiped his lip, now split and bloodstained. “You should have come to me first,” Reese said. “Let me explain.”

  Patty pushed in front of Frank as he was about to hoist Reese off the floor and most likely hit him again. “I need you to leave.” She held Frank’s shoulders, feeling them tremble with rage. “I appreciate your defense, but I need to talk to Reese alone.”

  “I’m not leaving you with this lying, cheating bastard.”

  “Yes. You are.” Patty escorted Frank to the door, leaving Reese on the floor to lick his wounds. She hated to admit it, but considering the recent turn of events, she was glad Frank had punched him. Though she still considered giving him a good sucker punch in the gut, but not until after she told him exactly where he could go.

  “I’ll be right downstairs.”

  “Thanks.” She closed the door and watched Frank until he disappeared into his apartment before unleashing her own rage on the father of her baby.

  6

  “You’re fucking married?”

  Reese wasn’t sure if he’d ever heard Patty drop the F-bomb before. The words echoed in his ears, cutting straight to his aching heart. He had hoped to take care of the situation before having to tell her anything of his sham of a marriage. Then again, she probably would have reacted just as she was right now.

  He hoisted himself to the ottoman, feeling a trickle of blood roll down his chin. He wiped it with his sleeve. He had managed to collect the license and wedding picture from Patty. He’d had his reservations about marrying Jessica. Hours worth of lectures from Grandpa and Nana about her being a gold-digging hussy had been painful to hear, because part of him thought it was true. The day he married her, his grandparents changed their wills, leaving him nothing. That same day, they tore up those wills.

  Nana was going to have his head.

  “Jessica—”

  “I take it that’s your wife’s name.” Bitterness dripped from her words, far more painful than Frank’s punch.

  He nodded. “It’s not what—”

  “I’m sure it’s exactly what I think,” she said.

  He knew he didn’t deserve any compassion from her. And maybe telling her the truth wouldn’t garner any, either. But it was time to put all his cards on the table. “I married her because she was pregnant—”

  “That does not help,” she said. “Please don’t tell me you have a child out there somewhere who you never see.”

  “Jessica never had the baby.” Reese sat on the edge of the ottoman, dabbing the blood from his chin. The moment he walked out on Jessica, he’d never looked back. He got over the pain and shock, and eventually he stopped thinking about her altogether.

  But he
never forgot what she had done.

  He looked up at Patty. She stood in front of the picture window, her back turned.

  “Did she miscarry?”

  “I met Jessica when I returned from my first tour in the Middle East, when my mother was dying. I was barely twenty years old.” He paused, waiting for any kind of reaction. He got nothing. “I was young and stupid, and more importantly, angry.”

  “About what?”

  “About having been lied to about who my father was,” he said. “My mother had been in and out of my life for years, leaving Nana and Grandpa to take care of me. I was already resentful of my mother, but her last words cut deep. She said the man I called Dad was in federal prison, serving two life sentences for murder, and my real father would have been worse. She slipped into a coma and died a few days later.”

  “That’s cruel.”

  “It was,” Reese said.

  “What does this have to do with your wife?” Patty’s tone was as cruel as his mother’s words. Only this time, he deserved it.

  “Jessica was a waitress at a bar where I met the PI I hired to find my real father. If there was any truth to the story my mother told.”

  “Didn’t your Nana know?” She still refused to look at him.

  “She said she had no idea. I did a paternity test, and sure enough, Allen McGinn was not my father.”

  “Did your dad…Allen…know?”

  “That he wasn’t my father? I don’t know. I guess so. I visited him once after my mother died. He didn’t have much to say, just that he was sorry for everything.”

  Patty finally turned, briefly made eye contact, and then sat on the sofa, where she stared at her thumbs as she twirled them on her lap. “I can see this deeply affected you, but still don’t know what it has to do with the fact you are married, or why you never told me, especially after I told you about the baby. Especially after last night. More importantly, that you married a woman just because she was pregnant.”

  “For two months, Jessica was always there when I needed her. I thought I was in love with her, so when she told me she was pregnant we got married. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

  Patty snapped her head up. “Like sticking around here, being all honorable because of a baby.”

  He shook his head. “I was thinking about sticking around here before I knew about our baby. I was just too scared, and you didn’t seem to want me anymore.”

  “Don’t put all that on me.”

  “I’m not.”

  “So, how long after she lost the baby did you run out on her?”

  “She didn’t have a miscarriage. Nana hated Jessica and thought we were moving way too fast, and after everything with my mother, Nana hired her own investigators who, about six hours after we’d gotten married, let me know at my wedding reception that a week before the wedding, Jessica had terminated the pregnancy.” He closed his eyes, remembering that day more vividly than he wanted to. When he had confronted Jessica, she accused his grandmother of doctoring the records, but Nana would never stoop that low.

  “I’m sorry. I really am. It doesn’t change the fact that you chose not to tell me. That hurts.”

  “I’ve never understood why Jessica did it. Aborted our baby before our wedding, and still married me. I never asked. I volunteered for another tour of duty, and that was that. I never looked back. Until now.”

  Patty went green then raced to the bathroom. It was a small apartment, so he could easily hear her vomiting. The only other person that knew, besides Jessica, had been his Nana and her investigators, but no one ever talked about it. The few times Nana had brought Jessica up, the details had always been buried so deep he couldn’t allow what Jessica had done to their child to surface.

  Bile hit the back of his throat with such force that his only recourse was to punch the wall. He left a small dent in the drywall, and now blood speckled his knuckles, but the action didn’t elevate the sense of dread he felt. He should have told Patty a long time ago.

  “You’re going to pay for that.” Patty stood behind him, hands on her hips.

  “I suspect I will,” he said. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “I suppose morning sickness of some kind.”

  He supposed the shock of his confession just made her ill. “I’ve never told anyone about Jessica before.”

  “No one?” She touched his arm, a soft touch that could have meant anything or nothing, and yet it meant everything to him.

  He shook his head. “I did another tour of active duty, but Nana drove me nuts with her worry, so a year later, I came back and became a cop and started making my way through various stations. She still drives me nuts, but she worries less.”

  “I’m so very sorry about what Jessica did,” Patty said, “but it doesn’t excuse not telling me.”

  “I know.”

  She laced her fingers through his and drew him back into the family room. “I understand a lot more about who you are, that’s for sure.” Her words were soft and tender.

  “I should have divorced her years ago.” He was grateful to sit on the sofa next to Patty, holding her hand, feeling her thumb caress his rough skin. They had something. Something special, and he was going to make it right. “I avoided it because I can’t stand to think about her or what she did to our… Well, I can’t change what she did.”

  “No, you can’t,” Patty said. “So, where is this wife now?”

  He shrugged. “I have no idea, but I hired someone to try to find her. This guy Brad. You might remember him from Lacy’s case. Nana is also checking in with her family to see if they still live in New Jersey.”

  “This is a lot to process.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, pulling her in closer, resting his head on top of hers, smelling the fresh melon scent from her shampoo.

  “I believe you. Still need time to process.” She ended the embrace long before he was ready to let go. If he was being honest, he never wanted to let her go. The knowledge he’d just broken her heart put a pain in his gut that he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to get rid of. “Why don’t we have dinner or something tomorrow?” she asked.

  “That sounds nice.”

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  He nodded, letting things settle into perspective and feeling better. Now, on to deal with this Holland asshole, and divorce his wife.

  With only one boot on, he flew down the stairs, two at a time. He wasn’t surprised to find Frank waiting by the door, arms down by his sides, but puffed out like a rooster ready to fight.

  “I should beat the shit out of you,” Frank said.

  “Probably,” Reese agreed. “But we need to set that aside, because Keith Holland—”

  “I don’t give a shit about your stupid hotel.”

  “Shut up and listen to me.” Reese shook his head. “Holland put the squeeze on Patty. Threatened her, without threatening her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Conrad tried to fire her. Holland gave her a day to change my mind about buying the hotel.”

  “And if she doesn’t?”

  “She gets fired. He made an implied threat about her ‘condition,’” Reese said. “So, can you put aside your anger for five minutes and help me figure out how to connect all this? Because if that Terry guy was slimy, I bet his former boss is worse.”

  “We haven’t identified any connection other than working for Holland Development, which is a huge company. Holland didn’t even know that guy.”

  Reese arched a brow.

  “Okay,” Frank said. “I get it, but once we figure that out, I’m going to use you for a punching bag.”

  “I’m sure there will be a long line of people waiting to follow your lead.”

  7

  “What did you find out from the FBI?” Jared asked.

  “They’re looking into Holland,” Reese said, “but they won’t fill me in. Something about how it’s not a State matter.”

  “My c
ontact at the State Attorney’s Office,” Stacey said. “She has a different perspective. They tried to build a case against Holland a few years ago and came up way short, but he’s always on their radar.”

  “Who is your contact?” Jared asked.

  “A classmate from undergrad,” Stacey said. “Her name is Bethany Ingrid, and she’s sending us everything she can, which isn’t much. I’ve been able to pull tons of information about Holland and his employee, Terry. It’s all printing now. I’ll share it when it’s done.”

  “Wow,” Reese said. “The little girl has contacts. Impressive.”

  “You don’t want to be pushing my buttons,” Stacey said. “I know all about your little wife, and I think Frank over there should have done more than split your lip.”

  “This is not the place,” Jared said. “I don’t want any personal crap brought in here. It happens again, someone will be taking a long leave, got it?”

  “Yes, sir,” Stacey said.

  “Frank?” Jared asked. “I’m good.”

  Reese nodded. He knew Frank was still pissed, but he also knew that Patty had given him the entire story. Not all was forgiven, but the emotions were less raw, and they agreed to put any personal shit on hold until all this stuff had been cleared up.

  “That’s really weird,” Stacey said as she compiled some of the paperwork Jared’s secretary had brought her.

  “What?” Jared asked.

  “Nothing, just that Reese sort of looks like Holland. The chin is the same. So are the eyes, well the color, not so much the shape.”

  “No, I don’t,” Reese said, but Stacey held up the picture and the resemblance floored him. It was subtle, but it was there. “I guess I do.” He looked between the two pictures, noting the similarities, then focused on the differences.

  “Everyone has a twin,” Stacey said. “I’m always told I look like Kelly Ripa.”

  “You do,” Reese said. For some reason, that knowledge made him feel better.