Out of the Dark (16 page)

Sam took her hand as they started toward the house, unaware that they were being watched from the house across the street. But as Jade got out of the car, the hair on the back of her neck began to crawl. She turned abruptly, expecting to see someone with a camera trained on them. Instead she saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It just felt like someone was watching us.”

Sam snorted beneath his breath. “That’s because they probably are. Damned reporters have all kinds of fancy gadgets at their disposal these days. Telescopic lenses and the like. Come along, dear. Don’t give them a thought.”

Jade followed Sam’s advice and hurried into the house. Once the door was shut behind them, the feeling disappeared, which convinced her that Sam had been right.

“What was it you wanted to show me?” she asked.

Sam took her by the hand. “It’s upstairs.”

She let him lead her up the stairs, then off to another wing of the house that she hadn’t been in.

“What’s down here?” she asked, as they started down a long hallway.

“It’s the family wing,” he said. “My bedroom is here.” Then he stopped at a door and pushed it ajar. “This room was yours.”

Jade gasped. “Why haven’t you shown me this before?”

He frowned. “At first, you seemed so hostile at even being here, I was afraid you’d think that I was pushing you to remember.”

“I’m sorry,” Jade said. “May I go in?”

“It’s why I brought you here,” Sam said, and then stepped aside.

Jade walked in and was immediately struck with the sensation of having walked into a sort of museum. The furnishings were obviously for a little girl—a four-poster bed with pink and white decor. The pictures on the walls were of Winnie the Pooh, and there was a rag doll reclining against the pillows.

She picked up the doll, ruffling her fingers through the yarn hair, and then held it to her face. It smelled of furniture polish and age, with a faint whiff of lavender thrown in.

“You didn’t change a thing, did you?”

“No.”

“Why? Twenty years? What were you waiting for?”

Sam sighed, then briefly laid his hand on the back of her head. “I don’t know…. A miracle, I guess. But it’s not this room, precisely, that I wanted you to see.” He crossed to a cedar chest beneath the windows and opened the lid. When he turned around, he was holding a bundle of pink. “It’s your blanket. You never slept without it.”

Jade took it, feeling the softness of the pink flannel against the palm of her hand. It smelled of cedar.

“It used to smell like roses. Why did it smell like roses?”

Sam sat down on the side of the small bed, because his legs suddenly felt weak.

“God. You do remember.” Then he looked up at her. “It smelled like roses because your mother had a favorite perfume called Roses. You always begged her to spray it on your lovey.” He pointed to the blanket. “That’s what you called it.”

Lovey.
She sat down on the bed beside Sam. As she did, a sense of peace began to seep into her soul. For a long, long time, she hadn’t belonged anywhere, or cared for anyone but Raphael. But coming back here had started a chain reaction of memories, memories that reminded her that she’d belonged here first—and to Sam.

She sighed, then slowly pulled the blanket up close to her chest and, without looking at Sam, leaned against him until their shoulders were touching.

It wasn’t much of a gesture, but it was enough to convince Sam that his miracle had come true.

“How about I ask Velma to fix us some breakfast while you shower? Oh, and there are some new clothes for you in your closet. If they don’t fit, or you don’t like the styles, don’t hesitate to tell me. They can go back to the stores as easily as they came.”

Jade looked up. Sam was so earnest—so good. If only he never had to know what his baby girl had endured. If only the bubble never had to burst.

“Thank you for being so good to me,” she said.

Sam put his arm around her then and gave her a quick hug.

“You’re my daughter. If I could, I would give you the moon and Raphael back his health.”

She smiled sadly. “Unfortunately, both are impossible.”

“I know, dear, and I’m so, so sorry.”

Jade relished the comfort of his strength as she leaned against him.

“I can never repay you for what you’re doing for Rafie.”

“The only thing I want from you is something you already have. When you remember it, too, then we’ll both be happy.”

She frowned. “Something I already have? What’s that?”

“To remember how much I loved you…and how much you loved me.” Then he stood abruptly, forestalling a response. “About that breakfast…do you fancy anything special?”

Jade shook her head. “Maybe waffles. She makes really good waffles.”

Sam smiled. “With strawberries, right?”

Jade could tell that, for Sam, the connection between them was much stronger. But he had the memories of a father for his child.

“Something else I always ate, right?”

He laughed. “Mostly it was something I always ate. You sat in my lap and picked the strawberries off of my waffle, as well as your own.”

“Uh, I think I’m too big to sit in your lap, but not to steal strawberries,” she added.

“I’ll be on my guard,” Sam said. “Take your time with your shower. You deserve a little pampering.”

He was gone before she could answer, leaving her alone in the room she’d slept in as a child. She started to get up, then impulsively rolled over on her side, curled her knees up toward her chest and pulled the blanket beneath her chin.

There was sunlight coming through a part in the curtains. She closed her eyes and, as she did, imagined she could hear her mother’s footsteps coming down the hall. Jade pulled the blanket over her head just as she’d done the night that Margaret had taken her away. In the haste to escape, the blanket had been left behind. In that moment, Jade wished with every fiber of her being that she’d been left with it.

From the time the woman and the old man had gotten out of the car, Johnny Newton had had the back of her head in the cross-hairs of his rifle. All he would have had to do was pull the trigger and it would be over. But there was no challenge in spilling gray matter onto concrete and grass, at least not until the victim saw his face. He wanted to see their fear and the knowing in their eyes that their time was up. It was why he did what he did, which meant that a quick bullet through Jade Cochrane’s brain wasn’t going to do it for him. Besides, his first target had to be the man. He’d followed them to the hospital yesterday. It had been easy to learn the identity of the man in the quarantine ward, but not so easy to get inside. He’d had to reassess his plans as to how to get rid of the son-of-a-bitch, although it was his personal opinion that if Big Frank would just bide his time, the man would die on his own. But Johnny didn’t get paid for his opinions, only the fruits of his labors.

So he followed Jade’s progress into the house through the telescopic sight on his rifle. When the door closed, he laid down the rifle, then leaned back in his chair and masturbated. The ritual was an old one, related to power and control, and was Johnny Newton’s only weakness. He would never have admitted to having a sexual addiction, but it was true. Every time he played God by toying with the time and date of a person’s demise, he followed it up by giving himself the ultimate high.

Right in the middle of his orgasm, his cell phone began to ring.

Big Frank expected to hear a hello, not some gut-wrenching groan.

“Hello? Hello? Newton, is that you?”

Still trembling from his sexual release, Johnny glanced down at the phone number displayed on the caller ID screen and knew it was Lawson.

Big Frank cursed. “Damn it, Newton, talk to me. Why haven’t I heard from you? I’m not paying you all that money for nothing.”

The rebuke pissed Johnny off. His parents had always yelled at him. He hadn’t liked it then. He didn’t like it now.

“Don’t ever call me again,” Johnny said. “You’ll know what you need to know when it’s over and not before.”

Then he disconnected. As he turned off the phone, it occurred to him that if by chance he should get killed, there would be no way for anyone to know who’d hired him. And Johnny, being the man that he was, was always ready to shift the blame. Still weak from the climax, he crawled to his feet and dug through a desk drawer for a pen and some paper. He wrote down Frank Lawson’s name, then his cell phone number beneath it, and stuck it in his wallet.

Jade had spent longer in her old bedroom than she’d intended, so she hurried back to her room, then went through her shower, suddenly anxious that she’d left Raphael alone too long. She towel-dried quickly, brushed out her hair, then fastened it at the back of her neck with a large tortoiseshell clip. She was stunned by the assortment of new clothes in her closet. It was more than she’d ever had in her life, but lingering over the soft, colorful fabrics and styles was a luxury she didn’t have.

Choosing a blue short-sleeved shirt and a pair of white, cotton pants, she dressed quickly, then stepped into a pair of gold sandals. As she started out the door, she remembered her purse and ran back to the bed, where she’d tossed it earlier. While Sam had given her a half-dozen new ones in various colors, she’d chosen to keep the old beaded one that Raphael had given her years ago. It was her way of reminding herself of where she’d come from and what she’d survived.

She found Sam in the dining room, reading the morning paper. He gave her an appreciative smile as she entered the room.

“Darling…you look beautiful. I hope you brought an appetite.”

She glanced at the food on the warming trays on the sideboard and was surprised when her tummy growled.

“Yes, I believe I did,” she said.

“Then help yourself,” he said. “I’m right behind you.”

The doorbell rang just as Jade was spooning an extra helping of strawberries onto her waffle. Sam glanced at his watch and then frowned. It was just after eight-thirty. In his opinion, a little early for callers. A few moments later, Luke entered the dining room with an apology on his lips. Jade’s presence took him by surprise.

“Uh…Jade. I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“I came home to clean up and change clothes.”

Luke nodded, while frantically searching for something else to say. Sam saved him by inviting him to eat.

“Luke, have you had breakfast?” Sam asked.

“Yes, thanks.”

“Then have some coffee with us while we eat.”

Luke poured himself a cup of coffee. Sam was sitting at the head of the table, Jade on his left. Luke took the seat on his right, which was directly across the table from Jade. He didn’t think he’d ever seen such a beautiful sight.

Sam could tell Luke was taken with his daughter. Hiding his delight, he took a couple of bites of his food to give Luke time to remember why he’d come.

Suddenly Jade felt awkward and clumsy. She fiddled with the napkin in her lap and then speared a thin slice of strawberry, hoping it didn’t fall in her lap before she got it to her mouth. The last time she’d shared a meal with Luke Kelly, she’d spilled her guts about the sins of her past. Now she didn’t know whether to be humiliated or relieved.

Luke saw the flush on her cheeks and knew she was embarrassed. Then he sighed. Hell, if the truth were known, he was the one who should be embarrassed for what he was thinking.

Finally he remembered why he was there.

“Hey, Sam, you were right about the Dawson Company.”

Sam’s attention quickly focused from matters of the heart, to business. The Dawson Company made valves. When he’d acquired the company, they’d been operating in the red for two years. Within nine months, he had pulled them from the verge of bankruptcy to showing a profit. And even though they were now running in the black, he didn’t trust the general manager.

“It’s Kilmer, isn’t it?” Sam asked.

Luke nodded. “Yeah, he’s taking kickbacks, but even worse, he’s selling you out. The last two jobs that you lost with NASA were because he tipped off your competition as to the amounts of your bids.”

“The bastard,” Sam muttered, then remembered Jade was at the table. “Sorry, honey. I shouldn’t have used that kind of language in your presence.”

Jade almost laughed. If he only knew what she’d seen and heard in her lifetime, he would have refused to sit at the same table with her.

“Trust me,” she said lightly. “I’ve heard worse.”

Sam looked a bit startled, then nodded. “Of course you have. I just wasn’t thinking, but it doesn’t mean you ever have to hear it again. I’m still sorry, okay?”

“Okay,” Jade said.

Sam glanced at his watch. “It’s ten o’clock Eastern Standard Time. I should be able to catch him in the office about now.” Then he turned to Jade. “Dear, will you please excuse me? I need to tend to this now before we lose another bid.”

“Sure. Don’t worry about me. I can always catch a cab back to the hospital.”