A teasing light flashed in her eyes as they crinkled into a smile. “You’re awfully confident, Mr. Dixon. I might not be that easy to catch.”
“Will did most of the work.”
Her fingers tightened on his. “I think you did it all by yourself. I could have Will without taking you. Divorced parents do it every day. But I don’t think I can live without you now.”
While they were words he’d longed to hear, a dark foreboding warned that things couldn’t be that easy.
Twelve
Jane flipped on a light, more to drive away her own dark thoughts than the murky shadows that descended with the sunset. She arranged the desk chair opposite the sofa in the hotel suite’s sitting room, but she still wasn’t sure her mother would show up. Reid had opened the sliding door to the balcony, and the roar of the waves pounding the rocks seemed to deepen her trepidation.
She inhaled the water’s salty scent and checked her watch. “Any minute now. If she even comes.”
Reid was on the brown tweed sofa, and he crossed his legs as he leaned back. “You were pretty fierce. She won’t dare to ignore you—not if she wants to convince you to stay away.”
At the knock on the door, Jane’s chest squeezed, and her heart rate accelerated. “There she is.”
“I’ll get it. We’ll play good cop, bad cop.” He rose and stepped over to open the door.
Her mother’s face was pale and pinched, and she’d changed into jeans and a long-sleeved top. “Let’s get this over with.”
She brushed past Reid, and he shut the door behind her. Tension and anger vibrated off of her like the scent of patchouli that wafted in her wake.
So that was how Kim wanted to play it.
Jane steeled herself to stand up to the rage that had replaced her mother’s original fear. If she sensed Jane would temper what she’d threatened, Kim would be like a shark smelling blood.
When her mother stopped to face her with her hands on her hips, Jane squared her shoulders and stared her down. “Did you bring what you stole?”
Her mother flinched at the word stole. “You don’t know what you’re messing with, Jane. You’re opening a huge can of worms.” Her mother glanced at Reid. “Who’s your friend? You didn’t introduce him.”
“You would have known him at Mount Sinai as Moose, Will’s father.”
Her mother swayed, and Reid grabbed her forearm. “Are you okay?”
Her mother’s gaze never left Jane’s, and she shook off Reid’s grip. “You never should have come here.” Her bloodless lips barely moved. “You need to leave and forget you ever saw me. I stayed away for your own good. You’ve got to get out of here.”
“Stayed away for me? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“That’s because you don’t realize the danger you’re in.” Her words took on an edge of desperation, and she caught at Jane’s hand. “You have to believe me. You don’t want to get involved in this.”
It was the first time her mother had touched her, and it broke Jane’s heart that it wasn’t inspired by some kind of love.
She pulled her hand away. “It’s too late. Gabriel threatened my family. He doesn’t seem the type to pack up and leave because I ask him to. I nearly lost Will and Reid a few weeks ago, and I won’t ignore a threat now.”
“If he thinks you couldn’t find me, he’ll leave.”
The hopelessness in her mother’s voice stirred Jane’s compassion. “What are you afraid of?”
When her mother swayed, Reid took her arm again and guided her to a seat on the sofa. “You want some water?”
Kim shook her head. “Powerful people are associated with that group who will stop at nothing to make sure what they did is never discovered.”
“What did they do?”
Her mother stared at Jane. “You really don’t remember?”
Jane curled her fingers into her palms. “Was it when we went off to a cabin?”
“You do remember.”
“I have no memory of going anywhere with you, but Gabriel mentioned it. Did you drug me?”
Kim’s reluctant nod came. “I didn’t really think it would work though. I thought you’d eventually remember.”
Jane’s heart was trying to beat right out of her chest, and she felt a little woozy. She sank onto the desk chair opposite the sofa. “What could have been so bad that you’d drug your pregnant daughter? Dad said you hated even regular medicine. What could be so bad that you’d run that risk?”
Her mother clenched her hands together in her lap. “Murder, Jane.” She jerked her chin toward Reid. “His mother’s murder. You helped me bury the body.”
Jane’s vision darkened, and she heard a faint scream from somewhere in her memory. She smelled moist, fecund soil and could almost feel the hard shaft of a shovel in her hand.
“No,” she whispered. She leaned her head in her hands.
“You didn’t want to do it, but I made you. You were screaming for Moose and begging me to call a doctor.”
Jane couldn’t take it in, but it was all so hauntingly familiar, like a melody she used to know but couldn’t quite remember. Clearly she hadn’t wanted to remember something so horrendous.
“You killed my mother?” Reid’s voice was a strangled whisper. He darted a glance at Jane, as if to question whether she’d taken part in the murder too.
She hadn’t—had she? Everything was turned upside down by her mother’s words. What had happened in that woods so many years ago?
Jane blinked the darkness and questions away. “You killed her?”
“Oh no, Denise was my friend. Moses killed her when she objected to his taking another wife. Gabriel helped. They didn’t know we were there, and once they left her for the animals, I made you help me bury her.”
“If they didn’t see you, then why is Gabriel searching for you?”
Her mother sighed and rubbed her head. “Because I was stupid. After everything collapsed following the police raid and the fire, I told Gabriel I had proof of what he did. I promised to turn it over to him if his father made me one of Liberty’s Children’s leaders. He agreed, then tried to have me killed. I escaped and never looked back.”
Jane moistened her dry lips. “What proof?”
Her mother reached into the pocket of her capris and withdrew a brass key. “In the safe-deposit box you’ll find pictures of Moses and Gabriel with bloody knives standing over her body. It’s all in the box. Give it back to him and let it be over, Jane. Leave me to live out the happy life I’ve made for myself here.”
A bitter taste settled on Jane’s tongue and made her shudder. “This was never about protecting me. It was about protecting your life. Your power. If your husband finds out you never divorced Dad, it’s all over, isn’t it?”
Kim wasn’t stupid. She’d know Gabriel wouldn’t truly rest. He’d never stop. Jane took the key. “What bank?”
“Pelican Harbor Bank and Trust.”
“My town? You’ve been to Pelican Harbor?”
Her mother shrugged. “Once. Long enough to take a look at you and your dad. Charles never knew I was there, and neither did you.” She paused as tears pooled in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I knew I couldn’t stay with you and your father because Gabriel would eventually track me down. The best thing was simply to disappear.”