“But you don’t understand,” she said again as I closed the door behind me, now certain this was the last time I would set foot in this house.
She was right. I didn’t understand. How could I? Nothing she’d ever told me was the truth.
My entire life had been a lie. Even my last name was a lie.
It was time I learned the whole truth.
Chapter 38
Luke
I’d left for the Harley dealer shortly after Debbie went grocery shopping. I pulled into the drive, and got an odd feeling in my gut when I saw her car next to my house. The feeling was joy. I wasn’t coming home to the empty space this structure had always been—just me and my motorcycle parts. Debbie’s presence had transformed this into a home. With luck it would stay that way, once we got a lawyer involved in getting her a deal.
I turned off the engine and contemplated for a second.
Debbie and I hadn’t spent all that long together, and already I saw us as a couple. It seemed strangely right to feel warm inside that my woman was here waiting for me. Well, maybe she wasn’t waiting, but she was back from the store and here for me at least. This one hadn’t run off like Kaycee. My gut clenched at the thought that she might, if I didn’t treat her right, but at least that meant it was within my control.
My little mechanic business had been all I’d had since getting out of prison, and spending time on it had kept me from noticing what I’d lacked in my life—a person to share it with. I’d spent most evenings at Pete’s, telling myself it was mandated to keep Riggs off my back, but I’d also been avoiding the loneliness of this place at night.
Now I wanted a new routine. I wanted movie nights with my Red. Since when had I turned into a snuggler? A movie on the TV and her up against me allowed a relaxation I hadn’t known before.
A grumble from my stomach urged me out of the van.
“Red, I’m back,” I yelled as I closed the front door behind me.
Silence hung in the air.
I found her on the couch with a glass in hand and a partial bottle of Jack in front of her. That was a surprise. I mean, sure, the FBI call had been a bummer, and I’d need to find her a lawyer, but she’d seemed okay when she left.
“What’s the occasion?” I asked.
She looked up. The redness of her eyes and the smear beneath them didn’t bode well. Crying and drinking wasn’t a good combination. What could have happened?
I settled into the couch and put an arm around her. “What’s wrong? Were they out of broccoli?” It wasn’t an eloquent joke, but it was all I had.
She put the glass down and buried her head against me. “I found out the truth,” came out between sobs.
Crying, drinking, and now not making any sense—this was going downhill in a hurry. I rubbed her back. Angry men I could handle, angry women less so, but with a crying one, I was clueless. This was way beyond me. “Tell me how I can help.”
She sobbed some more. “You can’t undo it. It was all a lie.”
That was ominous. I didn’t remember telling a lie. “Tell me what I did wrong.”
“They lied to me.”
I let out the breath I was holding. “That’s good.”
She pulled away, her eyes on fire. “How can you say that?”
“Sorry, that came out wrong. I thought you meant me.”
Her face softened. The shock had halted her tears. “Not you, stupid.” A smile replaced the scowl, and she returned to her place against me. “You’re the one true thing in my whole pathetic life.”
I wasn’t guessing again. “Tell me about it.”
“I went online to research the kidnapping Josh told me about.”
Now she was back to believing the FBI shill that had called himself Josh. “I warned you that was a trick.”
She pulled back to look me in the eye. “It wasn’t.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I told you how sneaky they can be.”
“No, Sylvia admitted it.” She reached for the half-full glass of Jack.
I put a hand on her wrist. “You’re not making any sense. Hold off on that.”
Her eyes pleaded with me. “I really need this.”
“I’ll join you after you start making sense. Who’s Sylvia?”
She put the glass down, took a deep breath, and straightened her shoulders. “The woman I used to call Mom. She’s not my mother, not my aunt, not anything to me.”
None of the pieces were falling into place. “Go on,” I urged.
“My name is really Deborah Benson, the girl who was kidnapped.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re sure?”
“She was never my aunt, and he wasn’t my uncle. She admitted it. They took me because she couldn’t conceive and wanted a daughter.”
As I listened, my fists balled up. I couldn’t imagine people that cruel, that selfish.
“This whole time I haven’t known my real family,” Debbie continued. “They took away my parents, my cousins, and I don’t even know if I have a brother or sister out there.”
My teeth clenched. I wanted one of them close enough to beat the shit out of. “So this Josh fellow is on the level?”
“The people I called Mom and Dad were the worst kind of criminals. And then she went and married Dominic. I’ve been surrounded by criminals my whole life.”
“And now you’ve got me,” I joked.
She slapped my thigh. “You don’t count because of why you did it.”
That surprised the shit out of me. “Huh?” I was sure I hadn’t told her everything. I never made excuses.
“Brooklyn told me.” She kissed me on the cheek. “I couldn’t be more proud of the man you are.”
My eyes started to water, but I blinked that back. I needed to focus on her, not me.
“I want to call Josh back and learn who I really am, where my parents are, if I have brothers and sisters, all of it.”
“Why don’t you?” I checked my watch. “It’s not too late.”
She rubbed my thigh. “I couldn’t do it without you. I don’t want to do anything without you.”
My eyes watered some more. “Stop it. You say one more nice thing about me and you’re going to make me cry from happiness. I can’t do that.”
“Big, bad, biker dudes don’t cry.”
I choked back a laugh. “Fuck, no.” I blinked away tears. “And don’t you ever tell anyone about this.”
She laughed. “Or what? What are you going to do? Spank me?”
“I’ll make you eat microwaved meals for a month.”
She laughed again. “You would, wouldn’t you?”
I nodded, feeling more in control of my dignity now. “You can bet on it, Red.”
Debbie
Less than a half hour later, we sat in the car behind the library again.
“Before we start,” Luke said, “if I tap my lips like this—” He brought a finger to his lips like he meant to shush me. “—mute it so we can talk for a second, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.” I clicked the button to connect my computer to the number Josh had given me.