Lyon's Heart (13 page)

“Oh I would love a soda
please.” She smiled wide at me as I turned on the charm,
huh.

“Sure.” I turned to go to
the machine I’d passed down the hall to get her a can of soda. Back
in the room I popped the top and passed her the can. I could’ve
poured it into the cup for her but that would’ve defeated the
purpose so I just passed it to her. She took it and just put it to
her lips and sipped. Shit, I didn’t want to be here that long. At
this rate she would be sipping into the New Year.

“Here, maybe you should pour
it in here.” I passed her the little plastic cup they kept there
and when she was done I took the can with the rest back from
her.

“You don’t mind if I finish
this do you? Should’ve got myself one but I wasn’t thinking.” I
made sure not to touch where her hands had been. If she noticed the
awkward way I held the can she didn’t let on. I pretended to lift
the can to my lips; like fuck. I bullshitted with her for a while
to dispel any suspicion. She played up the feeble invalid angle to
the hilt but I wasn’t biting so I left an hour later with that can
in hand. What? I’ve seen C.S.I. I know this shit works and I knew
just who to take this can to. I need to work fast on this one. My
little girl’s first Xmas is coming up in a few days and nothing was
going to get in the way of that or somebody was gonna get
hurt.

I called Drake as soon as I
got back in my truck after placing the can in the Ziploc bag I had
hidden in my pocket; I came prepared.

“Drake I’ve got that chick’s
fingerprints on a can. Can you do something with it so we can find
out who the hell she is?”

“How the hell did you do
that? Never mind I don’t want to know. I’m at your parents, come on
over.”

“What are you doing there,
don’t you work?”

“Off-day and Tina is over
here doing something or the other with your mom. We didn’t tell
them about last night though so don’t say anything.”

Shit, I really didn’t want
to deal with Daniel and his shit.

When I got to the house, the
three men were in their usual spot, gambling as usual. Dad had his
pipe going, as was to be expected, and the place smelt like nothing
but weed.

“Can’t you arrest him or
something?”

“It’s out of my hands now
son, they made it legal.”

“Dad put that shit out, how
can you concentrate on anything when you’re always
high?”

“Weed doesn’t make you high
boy, it makes you nice.”

“Whatever.” Why do I even
bother?

“So Drake, you think we can
lift the prints off this thing?” I passed him the can in the bag.
Daniel had a coughing fit for some damn reason and I knew he was
going to have some shit to say as soon as he was done choking.
Dumbass.

“You do know these things
take a while right? It’s not like I can just run it down to the
station and get results in an hour. We don’t have those type of
resources here where I can just put it in a national database, and
that’s what you’re going to need. I have to send it to the state
lab and since it’s not priority, they might not even do it, not to
mention it’s the holidays.”

“Figure it out.”

“What makes you think this
person is up to something boy? Maybe she just happened to be in the
wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Oh yeah? You willing to
risk your daughter in law and granddaughter’s lives on
it?”

“Boy, why do you always
expect the worse? It’s Xmas, relax. Here have a hit, it might
mellow you out.”

Mellow fucker, I ought to
chuck him out the chair.

“Dad stay out of it, listen
I have a bad feeling about this. Nothing about it makes any sense.
What was she doing on my driveway? Now she has fucking amnesia, uh
uh I don’t trust this shit.” I turned my attention back to the man
with the badge, the only one who could be of any help as far as I
could see.

“I’ll see what I can do, but
I’m not making any promises. My guys are on it and of course I’m
staying on top of it.” Drake studied the cards in his hands like we
were discussing the weather.

“Boy, you’ve lost your damn
mind, why don’t you relax? Ever since the baby, you’ve been a
loose-canon, seeing danger around every corner.”

“Dad, you’re full of shit, I
don’t see mom running the streets at night in her car alone either.
And don’t forget when we were kids and you wanted to leash
us.”

“You kids were terrors, I
had to find some way to keep your asses where I could keep an eye
on you.”

“Daniel you had your kids on
a leash?” Cy laughed and shook his head.

“Their mother won’t let me
but I thought it was a pretty good idea. It’s not like it was going
to scar them or anything, plus it was a pretty good way to keep the
three of them together in one place when we went out anywhere
together as a family.”

“Thank heavens he wasn’t
smoking back then or who knows what he would’ve come up with then.”
I had to think. If Drake couldn’t help me I was going to have to
figure something else out. My gut told me I didn’t have weeks to
wait around to find out who this woman was or what the fuck she was
doing here. Damn, I hope I don’t have to off anyone before Xmas,
fuck.

I heard footsteps coming
down the hallway and knew we were about to be invaded by the women
at last. Mom was first in the room looking chic in her cashmere
sweater and slacks, not a hair out of place and full makeup on.
Women are nuts; her two henchmen soon followed looking pretty much
the same and I could tell by the looks on their faces that they’d
been up to something. Then again when aren’t they up to something?
I should probably cut dad some slack because if I had to deal with
Elena and her shit I’d probably over medicate too.

“Colton what are you doing
here in the middle of a work day everything okay?” She and her
entourage came into the room all smiles. I glanced at Char but she
didn’t have her crazy look on so nothing there I guess.

“We’re working on
something.”

“Is this about the girl that
Kat ran over last night?”

Fuck, Kat and her big ass
mouth must’ve told them. How could I have overlooked that shit? I’d
decided not to tell mom last night after all because the last thing
I needed was her in the middle of this shit. She’d just get her
gang involved and it would become a three ring circus. Plus like
Kat she seems to have drank the happy juice and I could just
imagine the two of them ganging up on me about it being the
holidays and how we had to take care of this person, the fuck I
will. There was no way around it now that the cat was out of the
bag so all I could do was sigh.

“Yeah, we’re trying to
figure out who she is.”

“We’re on it.” The three
women nodded in unison.

“What? What does that mean?”
I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that look she gave me
did not bode well. That was her ‘I’m about to meddle in your shit’
look.

“All of you need to hit the
pipe and calm down you’re making a mountain out of a mole hill.
What do you wanna bet this turns out to be nothing?”

I ignored Daniel and his
shit and focused on the three women. “What do you mean you’ve got
it?”

“Well according to Katarina
this girl can’t remember anything. No one has come forward to claim
her so we’ve decided to go see about her; maybe we can learn
something. Char’s going to see if she picks up on
anything.”

Dad started humming the
theme from the twilight zone and twirling his finger around. It was
unnerving to realize we had something in common on this
one.

“You hush Daniel you know
darn well Char has a gift; now as for this girl if she’s an
innocent then it won’t be fair to leave her there alone like that
at the holidays. And if she’s guilty of something then we’ll be a
buffer of sorts this way you and Katarina won’t have to deal with
her directly. Kat’s not in any trouble because of the accident
right Drake?”

“No it’s been ruled an
accident for now, she wasn’t seriously hurt apparently except for
the amnesia.”

“Which is about the only
thing you can’t prove one way or the other.”

See Tina has some sense
after all she’s not just a pain in my ass. I’m not sure about them
getting involved though but I know better than to try to stop them,
Elena dances to the beat of her own drum.

“So what do you three plan
on doing? Why don’t you just leave police work to the
cops?”

“Oh come off it Drake we’re
not going to interrogate her, it’s like Elena said it’s the baby’s
first holiday and if Katarina’s focused on this she won’t be able
to enjoy it so we’re just gonna do our part to ease the load so to
speak.”

“And Char’s gonna put the
whammy on her.”

The pothead was at it again,
I was hoping one of them would brain him with something but mom
just kissed him and sat on the arm of his chair. The conversation
got heated as to who should do what and how the women should go
about whatever the hell it was they were doing. I still wasn’t too
sure about letting them loose but what the hell at least if Kat
knew they were on it she wouldn’t run my ass.

“Mom you still haven’t told
me exactly what it is that you plan on doing.”

“We don’t know yet son, we
have to go meet her first then we’ll see which way the wind
blows.”

“Well I’m going to put her
up somewhere in the meantime other than that I’m not sure what else
we can do.”

“That’s a great
idea.”

“That’s very nice of you
Colton you’ve always been such a good boy.” Char pinched my damn
cheek like I was twelve. That was my cue.

“I have to get back home to
my girls let me know what’s going on and mom here take some cash
I’m sure she’s going to need some things.”

“Okay son we’ll take her
shopping for the necessities and try to spruce up the place for the
holiday. Kat said you don’t trust this girl but just in case it
would be nice to have done this for her. Poor thing I can’t imagine
being in her shoes right now.”

Uh huh, I’m still not buying
it no matter what anyone says.

“I’ll take the can Drake I
might know someone who can get this shit done sooner.” Fucking
cops.

“Don’t break any laws son I
would hate to have to arrest my son in law.”

“Uh huh.”

I left them to work out
their shit and headed back to the house, I think maybe I’ll stay
close to home until I figure this shit out in my head. This
couldn’t have happened at a worst time, the shop was busier than it
had ever been, it was Xmas and everyone was going in six different
directions at once. I wish I could relax and take this thing the
way everyone else seemed to be, but I couldn’t shake the feeling
that something was really wrong.

Caitlin’s fever was all the
way down by the time I got back to the house but she was still a
little fussy. I put everything else aside and focused on my wife
and kid.

“How is she?” I picked my
girl up out of her playpen for a hug.

“Hey baby how’s daddy’s big
girl?” She laid her little head on my shoulder and hugged. Best
fucking feeling in the world I don’t care if it makes me a
sap.

“Better, her fever is down
and she’s not as fussy; how did it go at the hospital any change?
Does she remember anything?”

“Nope, your girls are on it
though.” I gave her a look for being sneaky but she didn’t even
have the decency to look embarrassed.

She seemed happy enough with
the fact that her posse was going to see about the victim though so
that was one less worry for me; until she found something else to
harass my ass about.

“I’m making fettuccini and
chicken Alfredo for dinner sounds good?”

“Sounds great, I’ll help
you.” She was busy sitting on the floor wrapping gifts. She looked
relaxed and happy, all that wild as fuck hair tumbling down her
back, clad in jeans and one of my sweaters with thick socks on her
feet. Sexy.

I sat with my daughter while
her mom finished wrapping gifts, shit we had a shit load of gifts
to hand out. My crew had about fifty kids between them. My idea was
to do what I always did, give their parents gift cards to the
toyshop but Kat about had a hissy fit when I told her. Apparently
that was too impersonal.

“Why didn’t you get the
girls to come help you with that? That’s a lot of gifts I’m sure
they wouldn’t mind.”

“Colt they have their own
stuff to take care of. Stacey and Em are busy at their shop and
Carol is off somewhere and the sisters are all busy with their own
families.”

“What about Jared’s new
honey? She doesn’t have any kids why don’t you ask her?”

She didn’t answer me right
away but I heard her mumble something under her breath.

“What was that?”

“I don’t think she likes me
very much.”

“Why’s that?”

“I think she’s jealous of my
relationship with Jared.”