Queenie's Cafe (17 page)

Settling back in the recliner, she let the sound of the rain lull her back to sleep.

A minute later, it seemed, someone pounded on the door. She woke in a panic, sure it was Earl.

Luke yelled, “Laura? Are you here?”

She let out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
It wasn’t Earl.
“Just a minute.”

The rain had stopped and the power was back on, but what was Luke doing here? He was supposed to be in Jacksonville for a few more days. Laura brushed her hair over the side of her face to hide her bruises and pulled the chair away from the door. She wasn’t ready to see him. Not yet. She hadn’t figured out what to tell him about Earl’s attack.

Opening the door, she said, “Luke, what are you doing here so early?”

“Time to wake up, sleepyhead. It’s a beautiful day and we have lots to do.” He touched her shoulder and she cringed with pain. “Laura, what’s wrong?”

“I bruised my shoulder.”

He pulled the robe off her shoulder. It was black and blue, like her face. “My God, Laura. What happened?”

Laura tried to hold her robe closed, but Luke pulled it all the way open. Embarrassed to be standing before him naked, she tried to cover herself, but her left shoulder had stiffened again and her arm wouldn’t move.

Luke’s eyes filled with sympathy, then fury, as he looked at the angry bruises on her stomach and ribs and the deep scratches on her breasts. He pulled her robe closed and brushed the hair off her face. “Honey, when did this happen?”

“Thursday night.”

“Who did this to you? That creep with Ivy?”

“No.” She couldn’t tell him who’d beat her like this.

“Did you call the police?”

“Rusty called, but they didn’t come.” She held her head high, but she couldn’t look him in the eye. She didn’t want his pity, even if she did look pitiful.

His voice softened. “Tell me who did this to you, honey.”

She shook her head slightly and sat on the edge of the recliner. How could she tell him his father was responsible for her pain? Would he believe her?

He spotted the pile of sheets on the bed and held up her torn, bloody clothes. “Damn it, Laura. Who did this to you?”

She didn’t want to tell him, but he wouldn’t stop badgering until she did. “He said you sent him to collect his payment.”

“For what?”

“The new carpet.”

Luke dropped the bloody clothes. “What are you saying?”

“He said it’s all a girl like me could expect, that I owed him and if I didn’t give him what he wanted, he’d put a lien against my business. He said he’d take it out in trade, since that was the way I was paying you.”

“What trade?
Sex?
”

She nodded.

Astonishment and rage dueled in Luke’s dark blue eyes. “Earl
raped
you?”

“No, I fought him off.” She tried not to cry, but a few tears slipped out. “Jay and Rusty have been helping me. Jay is staying in Florence’s room.”

Luke’s jaw clenched so tightly it hurt to look at him.

“Earl knows Florence is my mother and he’s telling everyone I’m in the same business.”

“I’ll kill him,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Don’t do something stupid.”

His hands were fisted, clenched as tightly as his jaw. “I’m going to show him what it feels like. That’s not stupid. That’s justice.”

Laura sat back in the recliner. “You don’t have to be violent just because he is. Isn’t there another way?”

Pacing like a caged tiger, Luke clenched and unclenched his fists. “Besides a slow, painful death?”

“What would hurt him the most? What does he prize above all else?”

“Reputation. Political influence.”

“And money?” she asked.

Luke stopped pacing. “You mean don’t give him any money?”

The past few days, Laura had given a lot of thought to Earl’s punishment. The police wouldn’t take care of him, if she shot him she’d go to prison, and she wasn’t savvy enough about business to know how to hurt him that way. But Luke was. “Isn’t there some way to take what he has away from him?” A man like Earl didn’t deserve to be free, and he didn’t deserve to stay in business.

Luke raised his fist. “It wouldn’t give me the same satisfaction as punching his lights out.” He stared at her and softened his voice. “Did you see a doctor?”

“Jay took me the morning after it happened.”

“Did he take X-rays?”

“No, Luke. I can’t afford—”

“Get dressed. We’re going out.”

“I can’t go out today. I have to get some rest.”

“Do you need help getting dressed, honey?”

“No, thanks.” He’d seen enough without showing him any more. She hadn’t worn a bra since the attack, and not just because she couldn’t fasten it. Having that strap go across her sore shoulder would just add to the pain.

She dressed and walked outside with Luke. The air always smelled different after a storm, fresher and more alive. The parking lot had been washed clean. Everything looked cleaner and brighter. Lake Whitfield was already shrinking to a puddle when she and Luke walked out to his car.

“I should check the men’s room in the café to make sure the patch held.”

Luke helped her into the car. “I’ll do it later.”

Minutes later they were at the hospital emergency room in Vero Beach, where she was diagnosed with a separated shoulder and a hairline fracture. The doctor put her arm in a sling and handed Luke a prescription for pain pills. “Make sure she gets plenty of rest.”

In the car, she said, “I can’t work with my arm in a sling, and those pills will make me sleepy.”

“Then sleep. You’re not working for at least a month. I’ll take care of things at the café. No arguments!”

“Yes, sir.” She hurt too much to argue. If it all went away today, so be it. She couldn’t work like this, and she couldn’t take another one of Earl Windsor’s beatings. Maybe Carmen could find a buyer right away, so she could leave Kingston before Earl returned for a repeat performance. And he would. He said he’d be back, and she had no reason to doubt him.

Luke stopped at the drug store for Laura’s pain pills. He bought her a bottle of juice and insisted she take one right then. She took the pill, leaned her head back, and dozed off. When she woke, they were parked in front of a beautiful ranch house surrounded by acres of rolling green lawn. “Where are we?”

“My mother’s ranch.” Before she could ask, he added, “Earl won’t come here.”

Luke’s mother was in the kitchen, wearing her robe and sipping coffee. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Mom, I’m glad you’re back. This is Laura Whitfield. Earl attacked her the other night, and her shoulder is in bad shape.”

“Oh, no.” Barbara’s heart went out to the girl. “Did he rape you, too, honey?”

“He tried.”

Barbara pulled out a chair for Laura. “Sit down, both of you.”

Laura sat at the breakfast table and Barbara poured her a cup of coffee. Luke didn’t move. He had a stunned look on his face. He’d wanted to get to know his father, and now he knew him. It was a tough way to find out, to see someone he cared about in pain, but Barbara couldn’t keep quiet any longer. Luke was a grown man, and it was time he knew the truth.

“Did Earl rape you, Mom?”

She looked him in the eye and nodded. If her parents had stood up for her when she was raped, Earl might have served time in prison. But things had been strained between her and her parents in those days. She’d dated Earl twice, against her parent’s wishes, and on the second date, Earl had insisted she put out. He’d become enraged when she refused. She’d been a little wild back then, and her parents hadn’t believed she’d been raped. They hadn’t wanted a pregnant daughter, especially one they couldn’t get along with. Her father shouted, “Don’t you dare give that bastard my name.” So she stayed with a friend until she recuperated from the beating, then left town for good. Because she couldn’t name him Snowden, her father’s name, she named her son after the man who’d raped her. Years later, her father apologized, but it was too late.

Luke was already a Windsor.

“Mom, why didn’t you tell me?”

“It isn’t the sort of thing you dump on a kid. Life was hard enough for us when you were growing up. After you were born, it didn’t matter to me how you came to be. I loved you enough for two parents.”

“I know that, Mom, but you could have told me before I went to work for him.” His fists clenched. “I want to kill him.”

She didn’t blame him for being angry, but she couldn’t let him beat Earl to death. Earl deserved it, but she didn’t want her son in trouble with the law. “Luke, listen to me. There’s no sense in rushing into something you’ll regret later on.”

“Killing is too fast,” said Laura, “and too kind.”

“That’s right,” said Barbara. “He needs to suffer first. Let’s take some time to think about this. We’ll figure out a way to make sure Earl never hurts another woman.” Luke was normally an even-tempered guy. She hoped in time his anger would subside somewhat, so he didn’t go off and do something foolish.

“Can Laura stay here, Mom?”

“Of course.” She couldn’t let the girl go back to her place where Earl could find her again. He didn’t get what he wanted the first time, so he’d be back, and she couldn’t let it happen again.

“That’s nice of you to offer,” said Laura, “but I can’t stay here. I have to open the café in the morning. I’ll keep a knife with me in case Earl comes back.”

Luke’s hands fisted so tightly the knuckles turned white. “If he comes back, he’s a dead man.”

Laura sipped her coffee. “Maybe if I’d let him do what he wanted, he wouldn’t have hurt me like this.”

Barbara shook her head. “He took what he wanted from me and beat me anyway. I still have the scars to show for it.”

“I’ll beat him to a pulp,” Luke muttered.

Laura looked up at Luke. “Not unless I can help, and I can’t beat anyone now. Isn’t there some way we can undermine his business or hurt him in another way?”

“I want to make him lose his arrogance and self-confidence.” Barbara smiled. “Or we could cut off the offending body parts.”

“He asked me if I had condoms, as if I kept them around in case he happened to drop by.”

Barbara rubbed Luke’s arm. “I’ll take care of Laura. Why don’t you check on things in the barn?”

Mom was giving him time to work off his anger. That creep beat and raped his mother. That was why she’d never talked about him, why he’d never paid any child support. And now he’d gone after Laura. For the first time in his life, Luke understood how a man could justify killing another man. He wanted to beat on Earl until there wasn’t anything left to beat.

He’d always wondered why Mom wouldn’t talk about his father. For years, she didn’t talk about his grandparents. Their relationship was still strained. He’d never felt accepted as their grandson. Not really. His grandfather was a rigid man, highly opinionated, and he’d never forgiven Mom for having a child without a husband. Aunt Betty had been married several times and had a child or two from each marriage, but Mom wasn’t married when he was born. He didn’t understand why that should make him any less their grandson than his cousins, but it had in his grandfather’s eyes.

He shouldered part of the blame for Earl’s actions this time. He’d told Earl he was going to Jacksonville and leaving Laura behind.
Damn!
He had that man’s blood in his veins. Did he inherit the cruel genes from his old man?

It killed him to see Laura in such pain. She was a gutsy woman to fight Earl off and get away from him, but to keep working with that kind of injury was just plain foolish. Didn’t she know her health was more important than business success? She didn’t have anything to prove. Hell, hadn’t she already proven she could go it alone and build a successful business?

He walked around the property for several minutes, knowing Mom would take good care of Laura. He felt calmer when he went back inside, but the anger had settled into a simmering rage deep in his gut. He’d use his mind instead of his fists if Mom and Laura insisted, but Earl wouldn’t get away with what he’d done to Laura and his mother.