Crossing Lines: A gripping psychological thriller (Behind Closed Doors Book 3) (25 page)

“I don’t blame you, Drew.” I hope that saying this will take him off the offensive. It wouldn’t help us here, though I don’t blame him. I place the blame for Faith’s death entirely on Calvin’s shoulders, and I find myself reciting a part of Faith's last letter. “There’s nothing you could have done, and nothing Faith would want you to do now, except keep moving forward.”
For the first time in my life, I believe her.
“And live life without limits.”

“Is that what you’ve been doing? Living with movie stars and stealing flash cars?”

“Admittedly, I may have entered my mid-life crisis. But for the last seven years I’ve had my head so far up my own ass, I didn’t see what was right in front of me. I needed the wake-up call!”

“Well, you certainly got that.” Drew laughs, but it’s empty. “That girl is in a lot of trouble, and you’re not equipped to deal with drug lords trying to do away with a witness.”

“Are you, Drew? I mean, you’re not exactly inundated with crime reports, are you? Seriously, when was the last time you fired your gun?" As he went to speak, I add, “… at a real criminal?”

We sit in a deadlocked glare. It seems like forever before I eventually break the silence. “That girl did something right, and we’re punishing her for it.”

Drew stands up. “Bringing her back home is the best way to keep her out of trouble.”

“This isn’t her home anymore, Drew. It’s with me in New York.”

“You know she can’t go back to New York, right? If screwing up the job wasn’t bad enough, squealing to the pigs is enough to get her killed." He steps off the porch. “Maybe you can explain that to her, because she’s as adamant as you are about going back to New York.”

Actually, I hadn’t thought of it. Maybe I should have. But my mind was on making sure she was safe, and taking her back home with me. I hadn’t thought that far ahead, hadn’t thought of anything, except making things right with Lisa. But her “friends” would want to see her pay for letting them get caught. “I'd never let anything happen to Lisa.”

“But you did.” He scowls again. “This is your fault. You let her get into this mess. So why don’t you let me clean it up? And I’ll keep her out of it from now on.” I want to fight. Actually, I want to tell Drew to go to hell. But deep down I know he’s right. I can't protect Lisa. “Maybe it’s better this way.”

I nod, then watch him walk down that path and disappear in the direction of the main town center.

I look up, watch the clouds floating on the fall breeze. “What would you do?” I sigh, praying for the guidance and wisdom the memories of my sister would bring. But I already know what Faith would do. She’d have laid down her life to protect her children from anyone and anything, but she also knew when to do the right thing for her babies, even though it would kill her to do so.

The house hasn’t changed. I don’t know why I expected it to be different, when no one had lived here for seven years. The hallway still has the family photo gallery with its mismatched frames and haphazard layout.

I climb the stairs two at a time and turn away from the door right at the top. It was Faith’s and John’s bedroom. The door to Lisa's room is open wide. She’s sitting on her bed, staring at a framed picture. As I rap my knuckles against the open door, I ask, “Penny for them!”

Her gaze shoots up from the photograph. “D?” Her eyes widen, like she doesn't quite believe I’m here. “W-what are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you.”

“Uncle Drew said you weren’t coming.”

“That’s because he told me not to.”

She shrugs and looks back at the photograph in reply.

“He thinks you’ll be better off here than with me.”

“Sheriff Dixon knows just about everything, doesn’t he?”

I try real hard not to smile as I reprimand her sarcasm. She knows better than to talk about her elders that way, but her gaze just shoots back up and locks with mine. “Yeah, well, he thinks he does. He has to be right about everything, even when he's wrong. And he
is
wrong, Darryl. I’d rather be dead than stay here. I hate Hawthorne Creek!”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to challenge why she had come to Drew when she needed help, instead of coming to me. But there was something more important to discuss. “Lisa," I lower myself to sit on the edge of her bed, “this is where you come from and where our family live, at least John’s side of the family. Why do you hate it so much?”

I finally get a glimpse of the picture she holds in her hands. It was taken on Faith and John’s wedding day. Faith and John had just opened my gift to them: the deed to this house. I had to tell Faith I hadn’t bought it for her, not really; I told her it was for the girls… and for Caleb and Georgia … and for me. It was … the place to run to when we needed somewhere safe to go, when it seemed the world had crashed around us, when we needed to be around family. It was the one place we’d always be able to find her. It was home. It was something Faith had always wanted.

Lisa, Zoe, and Caitlyn had dived on me, taking me clean off my feet, and I’d thumped my head against the floor when I fell. It hadn’t mattered to me at the time, though. They’d smothered me with kisses. It seemed the photographer had caught the moment.

She still hasn’t answered my question, so I continue.

“You might be better off here rather than in New York. Trouble with a capital T will struggle to find you in this sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere.”

“You really believe that?” She looks up at me with the wisdom of a ninety-year-old skeptic in her eyes. “And you're going to leave me here with Uncle Drew because you do?”

“You want the truth? Or the rulebook answer?”

“The truth.”

“You sure?”

She nods.

“You’re really sure? There’s no sugar coating with it.”

“Yeah, hit me!”

I shake my head, shoot to my feet, and begin to pace her bedroom floor. “I don’t believe you'll be safe, either here or in New York. I don’t think your “peeps” as you call them are going to let you walk away from this. Ever.”

She breathes out a long slow whistle. “Wow!”

“So what should I do, Lisa? Leave you somewhere where you might have some kind of normal life? Or take you home, where you’ll never be able to go anywhere or do anything, ever again?”

“You’re asking me?” She blinks, surprised. Honestly, I understand why, because I hardly believe I’m handing the choice over to her, either. “But why?”

“You’re almost sixteen. You’re old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, and you’re old enough to understand the consequences of your actions. So you’re old enough to make the decision yourself.” I finally stop pacing and look at her. “What would you do if you were me?”

“I hate it here,” she repeats. Then she stands up and walks toward the window. She stops, wraps her arms around her waist, and just stares. But I don’t think she's actually seeing anything at all beyond the glass. Finally, she sighs. “You’re right, D.” She sounds so much more grown-up than she did, just moments ago. “I can’t go back to New York. I… I—”

“I know,” I whisper. Her words kick right in my solar plexus, because now she knows she can’t come home. I either have to leave her, or not return to New York at all. “You upset someone you shouldn’t have.” She looks back over her shoulder. “But you don’t have to stay here. There are other options, other places you can go. Caleb would love to have you in L.A. I'm sure Georgia would want to help out the best she can. I’m not sure I like either idea, though.”

If I’m brutally honest with myself, I don’t want to jeopardize the safety of either of them, nor do I want to trust them with Lisa’s life. It’s a sacrifice I don’t want them to make, even though they would in a heartbeat. “What do you want, Lisa? You know I'll do anything to keep you safe and happy.”

“I…” she begins, but then she shakes her head. “It doesn't matter.”

“I know my track record doesn’t give that impression, Lisa, but I will do anything for you.”

“No. I… I’ll just stay here with Uncle Drew.”

I approach the window, turning and leaning my hips against the sill as I look at her. She doesn’t look back. “Please talk to me, Lisa. Let’s make this decision together.”

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” she shrugs. “You won’t do it.”

“How do you know that? How do
I
know that, if you don’t tell me?”

“I…” Lisa hesitates, and I watch the tears form in her eyes. “I want to stay with you.”

“Hey, Kiddo.” Standing, I pull her into a soothing embrace. “Don’t cry.” Relief fills me like a warm hug from the inside. “We’ll figure this out, Lisa. I promise.”

“I’m so sorry I screwed up.” Her muffled voice sobs into my shoulder as her arms wrap around my waist. "If I hadn’t called the police and then run away, Uncle Drew wouldn’t be so mad at me all the time and I could go home with you. I messed up so badly. I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t be.” I brush a soothing kiss against her head and push back at the lump in my throat; for the first time since Izzy left, I feel like I have my niece back. “Lisa, I want you to know I have never been more proud of you, than I am right now.” She lifts her gaze to meet mine and her tear-stained cheeks crack my heart down the middle. “I am. You’re fifteen. Your friends are the most important relationship in your life right now, and fitting in is supposed to be the biggest issue you face at your age.” She shakes her head. “It is. I know it is. If you so much as trip in the hall, you’re the laughing stock of school and it’s all over the internet and your life is… so like, totally over!” She half snickers in response to my teen mockery.

“All those times I had to come down to the police station because you were in trouble. And then there are the lies you told. The sneaking around. The cutting classes. The shoplifting and joy-riding. And now it’s drugs! Fucking drugs, Lisa! But it never once occurred to me the kind of peer pressure you might have been under because of them. We’re not talking schoolyard stuff anymore, Lisa. This shit is hardcore!”

“And I screwed up again.”

“No darling, you didn’t.” I smile. “You did the right thing and you probably saved that store manager’s life because you didn’t watch out for the cops. Instead, you called them.”

“But no one believes me anyway, D,” she cries. “Detective Dillon thinks I’m lying. So do Uncle Drew and Uncle Robert. You probably think I’m lying too, because that’s what I do. I lie, especially to you, so I don’t get into trouble!"

“I believe you, Lisa,” I promise her quietly. “I do. It's not possible for you to get from that side of New York to Grand Central, if you’d stuck around long enough to be involved. And you were on the phone to me when all this happened, remember? The only thing you did wrong was not tell someone this was going to happen. It could have been avoided if you’d told someone,
anyone
, how much trouble you were actually in!”

“But you were so mad at me for not coming home already, and then you went away.”

“I’m never going anywhere ever again.”

“But they’ll kill me, and I don’t mean the same kind of kill me like when I say you’ll kill me. I mean the proper-dead kind of kill me. They’ve done it before.”

Is it really that simple to walk away? Faith did it when it became a necessity. Could I? It's not as though money is an issue for us. It has never been the issue. But the people who rely on me for their livelihoods. I give them the only means to support their families… I suddenly understood Faith’s escape from her marriage to Calvin, more than I had ever thought possible.

Nothing and no one are more important to me than the safety of my girls. And they are mine, my responsibility, my whole world, and nothing would ever be more important to me, that I’d risk their safety. The reassurance that Georgia is in touch with Calvin, and that she knows Zoe and Cate are safe, is all the faith I need to put Lisa before her step-siblings.

“Then I guess…” My mind spins with all the complications of what I’m about to say. There are hundreds of lives about to be affected by my decision. “We just won’t go back to New York.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely.”

She buries her head into my chest and begins to sob, muttering something I don’t understand. I know this isn’t a permanent solution. I know our relationship is far from fixed, and we’ll have many more humps to overcome. I know that sometime in the not too distant future I’m going to have to return to New York, and that means finding someone I trust to protect Lisa. And my mind is spinning with the thousand and one tasks that have just fallen into my lap, all at higher priorities than anything else I had to do before today. But for now, I hold Lisa in my arms and I smile, a genuine smile, because I finally feel like I’ve done something right when it came to her.

“Love you, bunny rabbit. And I’m sorry if I don’t tell you often enough.”
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever told her that.

“Love you too, Uncle D!”

Chapter Eighteen

26
th
October 2012

I STARE AT AMELIA ROSE,
the assistant district attorney who’s responsible for prosecuting Julia's case. She scribbles on her notepad, for what feels like the millionth time in the last three hours. She insisted we talk before Julia’s trial begins. So here I am. But had I known she was trying to get dirt on Ashleigh, I wouldn't have wasted my time on this.