by Jen Talty
“Anything but bacon.” Patty followed her into the kitchen. Nana had been trying so hard after their first encounter, and they really seemed to get along. That was good.
Patty sat at the table, looking out the window toward the Heritage Inn. The tree cutters, hard at work now that the injunctions had been settled and the sale finalized. Reese, Doug, and Jim were at the Inn going over some of the plans. It should have been a happy time all around. She believed every word Reese had said last night, and his lovemaking was like nothing they had ever shared. They should be enjoying their future.
But an overwhelming sense of doom loomed over her, making every breath difficult. Reese was still married, and someone was doing their best to cause them bodily harm, or at the very least, scare the heck out of them. It was working.
Nana looked up, pouring coffee into a large thermos. “They will catch whoever did this.”
“I just hope it’s before someone gets really hurt.” Patty’s fear was crushing, and she didn’t like it one bit. She was used to being in control, but in the last year, her life had spun far off the track. She knew what the next step should be, but so many other factors blocked it that it made her head spin.
“Why don’t you take this to Reese and the construction guys. What are their names? They seem like nice men.”
“They are.” Patty took the thermos and did as instructed. It surprised her how warm the air felt when she stepped outside, but it didn’t do anything to make her feel better, and the moment she hit the parking lot, away from the dense trees behind the house or the welcoming water of the lake, she felt exposed. In danger. Fearful. She quickened her pace across the pathway to the Inn.
“Ma’am,” yelled some guy with a chainsaw. “This tree is coming down. Please make sure you stay away from this area.” He pointed to a large patch of grass on the opposite side of the residency, down near the lake.
She nodded, then met Reese at the door to the Inn.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted. “Nana thought you might like a fresh pot.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I don’t want you to worry. We’ve got a good team, and we’re working with other law enforcement. We’re going to figure this out,” he said as if he could read her thoughts. That idea, under normal circumstances, should have warmed her to her core. The man she loved, taking care of something that threatened their very existence.
But it only reminded her of all the obstacles, even after he got full ownership of the hotel. “What if it’s not Holland?”
“It’s Holland,” he said.
“Excuse me,” Doug said. “I left my laptop in the truck. Back in a sec.”
“Go back to the residency,” Reese said. “I’ll be over in a few.”
Patty followed Doug out the door, but passed his truck as she headed for the residency, making sure she stayed clear of the where the tree was to come down on.
Something crackled in the background as the noise of the chainsaw stopped. Patty turned to witness a tree snapping in half. It crashed down on top of the black truck in the parking lot, leveling it to the ground.
The black truck that Doug Tanner had just gotten into.
Reese stared at the smashed truck, wondering how the hell Doug had escaped with nothing but a couple of scratches.
“You’re one lucky man,” Reese said.
“I heard the tree snap, looked up, and just hauled ass.”
“That tree was supposed to go in the other direction,” Patty said, standing next to Nana, who had raced out the moment Patty let out a blood-curdling scream. “At least, the tree guy said so.”
“Glad they were insured,” Doug said. “Damn, I just got that new car smell out of that truck.”
“Then we’ll buy you a used one,” Jim said. “The damage to the porch is minimal, so hoping that’s all that was done to the structure of the Inn. We’ll have to check the foundation.”
“I don’t mean to scare you two,” Reese said, “but I don’t think that was an accident.”
“Trees snap the wrong way all the time,” Jim said. “We’ve seen it before.”
“There have been too many strange things going on for me to believe this was a simple accident. My trailer, burned down. Patty’s house, infested with rats. Her tire, shot with a rifle. Now this? I’m not normally the conspiracy kind of guy, but this is just too much.” He nodded toward Stacey. “By the way she’s talking to those two workers and the local, she’s thinking the same thing.”
“Huh,” Jim said. “She actually looks like she knows what she’s doing.”
“She’s the best rookie I’ve ever worked with,” Reese said. “Since you’ve worked with this tree company before, tell me about those two over there.”
“I’ve never met them,” Jim said.
“Neither have I,” Doug added. “It’s a big company with a large turnover and lots of seasonal workers, so we don’t know everyone. Come to think of it, there was no warning before the tree came down,” Doug said. “Normally, no matter the direction, someone yells a warning, and if it’s going in the wrong direction, they’d say.”
“That’s true,” Jim said. “I’ve been near trees going the wrong way, and it’s quick, but people tend to make noise when it happens, especially if it looks like it’s landing on someone.”
“Anything else out the ordinary?” Reese asked. “I wasn’t paying attention.” Doug walked to the tree and examined it more closely. “The chainsaw marks are on both sides of the tree, which isn’t unusual, but heavier on the side toward the parking lot. It’s cut wrong.”
Reese assessed the situation. The locals were talking with the tree guys and Stacey, who gave him an odd look. No, it was one of those coded-message looks, and he understood she was sending him a message about how full of shit and absolutely scared the tree guys were. So, that’s how that works, he thought.
“Nana,” Reese said, “why don’t you and Patty go back to the house?”
“It’s called the residency,” Patty corrected him.
“Fine,” Reese said. “The residency.”
“You go,” Nana said. “I’ll be right along.” Nana leaned closer to Reese and whispered in his ear. “Patty walked across that driveway seconds before the tree fell. She and Doug came out, then the tree came down.”
“I know,” he said, struggling to think logically and not let his personal attachment to Patty affect his ability to do his job.
Nana scurried off to catch up with a very shaken Patty, while Reese made his way to Stacey and the local cops.
“Doug,” Stacey yelled. “We need you to go to the sheriff’s office and make an official statement. I’ll drive you. Dad, you need to go, too.”
“What?” one of the tree guys said. “It was an accident.”
“We understand,” Stacey said. “We need you to go as well. All standard procedure. Nothing to worry about, and best for the insurance.”
Reese was impressed by the way she worked the tree guys.
“Does it have to be done now?” the other tree guy asked.
“Best if it’s done now,” Stacey said. “Get it out of the way.” Stacey nodded to Reese, and he knew she would follow the crew to the local office and get statements and whatever else she could, because she didn’t believe this was an accident any more than he did.
It was nice to be able to be in on the super-secret glances and actually understand them.
Reese made his way back to the residency. He entered though the back door into the kitchen, making sure to take his muddy shoes off. Patty and Nana were at the table. Patty didn’t even look up, just sat there pushing her food around on the plate.
“I don’t get it,” Patty said.
“Get what?” Reese sat next to her, taking the plate Nana pushed in front of him. He was going to be in for one hell of a long day.
Before Patty could answer, a fancy, loaded SUV pulled down the private driveway. Not the parking lot, but the residency’s private access road.
Reese clenched his fists as he saw Keith Holland and two of his cronies get out of the vehicle. “Why don’t you two go to the other room?” He stood, opening the back door, not paying any attention to Nana standing right behind him. “I think it best if you leave,” he called to Holland.
“Now, now. Let’s be civil.” Holland held his hands up. “I’m here to talk. Work things out.”
“I’m not backing out of this deal.”
“Well, hello there, Elizabeth. Long time no see.”
Reese looked from Nana to Holland. The idea that their paths had crossed before made his stomach turn.
“He’s the other guy who tried to buy this property?” Nana asked. “You didn’t tell me it was Holland Development. Keith Holland.”
“You know him?” Reese looked from an angry Nana, something he didn’t see often, back to a very amused Holland, something that terrified him.
Holland smiled wide. “Boy, you look a lot like your mother, you know that?”
“How do you know anything about my mother?”
“Elizabeth didn’t tell you? Tsk, tsk.”
Reese glanced over his shoulder. Nana was as white as a ghost. “Tell me what?”
“Maybe after she tells her story, with whatever spin she chooses to put on it, you might change your mind about backing out of this deal.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“We’ll see,” Holland said. “I want this for my family. My true family. The one that has stuck by me. Not bribed me or tossed me away like garbage. You get that, don’t you, son?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Reese said.
“Sure, you do.” Holland laughed as he eased back toward his SUV. “Your mother abandoned you like you meant nothing. Wonder what your father did? Why he did it? Ask your Nana about that.”
Reese watched Holland and his crew drive away.
“Nana?” Reese closed the door and stared his grandmother down. “What the hell is he talking about? What does he know of my mother and my father? Is he talking about Allen, or my biological father?”
“I think we all need to sit down,” Nana said.
Reese didn’t like the sound of that.
14
“How do you know Holland?” Reese yelled as he rattled the floorboards, pacing in front of the kitchen table. “Better yet, how does he know my mother? Or anything about my father?”
“Patty, would you excuse us?” Nana asked.
“No,” Reese said. “I’ve excluded her from the truth for far too long. She stays.” He turned to Patty. “I want no more secrets between us. Please stay.”
Patty nodded and continued to stir her tea. She didn’t look happy, but at least she didn’t run off.
Progress.
“I’m waiting.” Reese wasn’t in any mood to try to piece this shit-storm together. Nana was holding out on precious information that could protect Patty and his baby. He was going to get that information if it damn near killed him.
“Sit down Reese,” Nana said. “I hate it when you pace like that.”
“I think I’m fine standing,” Reese said. “No amount of deflecting is going to get you out of this one. So, let’s start with how you know Holland.”
Nana sat across from Patty, stirring her coffee, while Reese paced a path by the back door. He’d always known there were things Nana didn’t share. Things about his mother, all in the name of protecting him. He thought he’d uncovered most of them, like his mother selling herself for drugs. Like the idea that his father was just some young, irresponsible kid. Hell, his mother had only been seventeen when he was born. He accepted the lies by omission, because dealing with his mother had been a living hell, anyway, and he didn’t need to know more about her crazy life. She’d done enough damage. He was sad she died. But he wasn’t sad she’d left him to be raised by his grandparents.
But this didn’t feel like a truth hidden to protect him. This just felt like a lie. He understood now why Patty had been so upset.
“Holland was the contractor for your grandfather’s new building. The one that is currently corporate headquarters.”
“When was that built?”
“Your mother was about fifteen when it started. Holland Development was just getting started, but Keith Holland was a brilliant architect, and your grandfather took a shine to him. It was too late before we put everything together. Grandpa was devastated. Took him years to get over, though not sure he ever really did.”
Reese had already put together more than he wanted to, the clues so obvious it was impossible to deny. “Holland didn’t finish that project, did he?”
“No,” she said. “A year into it, we realized your mother and Holland had been sleeping together. Your grandfather paid Holland quite a large sum of money to go away.”
“You’re saying he bankrolled Holland’s current empire?”
“Essentially, yes. Your grandpa wasn’t proud of it, but he blackmailed Holland to leave you and your mother alone.”
“Blackmailed him how?”
“Threatened to have him arrested. For statutory rape.”
“Jesus,” Patty said. “You let him get away with it?”
Nana shook her head. “Eleanor, Reese’s mother, thought she was so in love with Holland that she would have run off with him. She tried.”
“What stopped her?” Reese asked.
“Holland hit her a few times. Told her to go home to Daddy. That she wasn’t ready. Of course, Holland was already married to another woman. Eleanor was so naïve, she thought Holland would leave his wife.”
“Did he know she was pregnant?” Reese closed his eyes. He had no memories of his mother from before age two or three, but a few good ones lingered in the recesses of his mind. Playing at a playground. Her reading to him. He couldn’t remember if and when she’d changed, but the rest of his memories were of him putting her to bed. Cleaning up her vomit. Making her breakfast. And sometimes, being left alone for days.
He did the same for Allen. He remembered periods when Allen was clean, but not many. Those four short years, until Reese turned seven and moved in permanently with his grandparents, where still etched so deep into his psyche that there was no erasing them.
“Not then,” Nana said. “When we found out, Grandpa went to Holland and paid him off, holding that over his head, since they had proof of statutory rape.”
Reese had seen his grandfather as invincible. This seemed so out character for him to blackmail anyone. Grandpa had always held people accountable.
“Reese was that proof,” Patty said.
“That is pretty fucked-up,” Reese said. “Mom just went along with this?”
Nana nodded. “She wanted you so badly. We worried she was going to try to get back with Holland. And she did. She took you to the city, to his posh new office. You were about a year old.”
“He met me?”
Nana lowered her head in shame. “I don’t know what happened there that day, other than Eleanor came home, packed up her things, and told us to go to hell. Later, we found out he wouldn’t even see her, and sent someone who worked for him down to tell her if she ever contacted him again, he’d destroy Grandpa. He told her we paid him off. She found out what a monster he was that day. But she also believed we were no better. She took you, and we didn’t see you for an entire year, until she came begging for money. We, of course, gave it to her, to take care of you. She’d been seeing Allen. He was a decent enough fellow.”
“This is insane.” Reese sat next to Patty, who took his hand and gave him a supportive look, even though her eyes had filled with tears. Reese found himself crying as well.
“Allen was the first guy she met after she moved out with you. We tried to get her to leave you with us. But she was eighteen. You were her son. We helped her as best we could. Helped Allen get a decent job, but he was into drugs, and so was your mother.”
“I visited Allen in prison after Mom died. He told me he was sorry, but that was about it.”
/>
“He, and your mom, were meth addicts,” Nana said. “Grandpa told them he’d take care of them if they went straight. That didn’t last long. Then Allen was arrested for murder.”
“So you made that go away. Made me think my father just up and left me.”
Nana nodded. “We thought, and that included your mother, it was best for you. You both moved in with us, and we got her help, but she took off a month later, leaving you with us and eventually giving us custody until she was diagnosed with cancer. She waited too long, and it was too late. Stage four, inoperable and incurable.”
“So, my real father is Keith Holland, who is somehow connected to some pretty bad people, who are now, for whatever reason that I can’t even fathom, either trying to kill the woman I love, or scare us enough to run and hide. Do you happen to know why?”
Patty gripped his hand, and for the first time in a long time, he realized he had someone in his corner, no matter what. He squeezed tighter. He was never letting go.
“No,” she said. “For a while, when you were little, we kept tabs on him, but then we realized he was off doing his own thing, had a family, wife and kids, and had long forgotten about the young girl he’d knocked up. Holland took advantage of a girl half his age,” Nana said. “We were glad to be rid of him. Allen was the lesser of two evils, or so we thought at the time.”
“Allen was sent away for murder.”
“He was a meth addict,” she said. “Outside of that, when he was straight, he was decent. Really, he was.”
“He was a shitty father.”
“Your mother wasn’t going to get Mother of the Year, either,” Nana said. “We just wanted to protect you.”
“This is fucking unbelievable,” Reese said. “You’ve known all along who my father was, and when I went searching for him, you discouraged me. Did it cost you a lot of money to stop my search?”
“I was protecting you.”
“All you did,” Patty said, “was encourage a life of lies, betrayal, and distance from people.”
“How dare you? I didn’t do that, Jessica did,” Nana said.
