Settling Scores (Piper Anderson Series) (22 page)

“Let’s get those boxes in,” Josh sighed, clearly trying to look more reluctant than he was. “I do understand you, Willow. That’s not to say it doesn’t scare the hell out of me, but I do understand you.”

“Well we have that in common at least. Finally understanding myself is scaring the shit out of me too.”

“Light the fire,” Jedda insisted as he stacked a pile of his old things up in his lap. “Make it a roaring one Bobby, because I want to watch all this stuff burn.”

“Are you sure?” Crystal asked holding up an old shirt that must have been Jedda’s when he was smaller.

“I’m positive.” Willow had gone through most of the things that had belonged to her and was starting to agree with Jedda’s plan. Burning it felt right.

Piper, Jules, and Betty stepped back into the circle around the fire pit on the beach. They’d just seen the last of the guests off and now it was just this small group left. Frankie was down for a nap and Betty had the baby monitor clipped to her apron pocket.

“Looks like y’all are making progress. Find anything interesting?”

“Lots of memories, that’s for sure. Clothes, some stuffed animals, and a few books.” Willow pointed at each pile. “Nothing I was hoping for really.”

“And what were you hoping for?” Betty asked as she took a seat next to Willow. “Oh hello there Josh, thought you’d left. Good to see you thought better of being an idiot. I like to see that.”

Everyone snickered as Josh rolled his eyes. “Willow was thinking she might find something she could give to the police in Jersey so they could investigate her parents’ crimes further. So far nothing.” Josh had answered the question and ignored Betty’s snipe, though the look they exchanged followed by a smile from both of them let Willow know it hadn’t been missed.

“What’s this?” Jules asked, leaning down and picking up a navy colored book with a loaf of bread drawn on the front.

“A cook book,” Jedda said seeming to give it no attention at all as Jules flipped through the pages.

“These are all hand written, did your mother cook? Were these her recipes?”

Willow let out a loud and dramatic laugh. “My mother never cooked a day in her life that I know of. That must be someone else’s.”

At that Jedda took more interest, wondering if maybe it was something that could connect Willow and him to someone else in their past. Grandparents they never met? “Can I see it?” Jedda asked and Jules tossed it across the newly lit fire into his lap.

He flipped intently through the pages, as everyone seemed to go on to other conversations and stoked the fire. But Willow’s eyes were locked on Jedda. The expression on her brother’s face was keeping her fixed on him, and Josh was tuning into her as well.

“What is it?” Josh asked in a hushed voice, leaning into Willow. The smell of his cologne wafted across her, carried by the sea air and it calmed the fear growing in her.

“This is her handwriting. Mom’s. She wrote all these out.” Jedda said, flipping through each page. “It doesn’t make any sense. She didn’t cook. Ever. Why would she have all these hand written recipes?”

“Hand it here Jedda,” Betty requested, slipping her reading glasses on. “There’s got to be fifty recipes here. Who would hand write all of these out if they didn’t cook? That doesn’t make any sense.” She scrutinized the first few recipes with a grimace on her face. “Well no one could cook any of these.”

“What do you mean?” Willow asked a knot tightening in her throat. “Are they recipes or not?”

“They’re written like recipes, but you couldn’t cook anything edible with them. The ingredients don’t line up with anything. This recipe is for tamales, but none of the ingredients makes sense. There are no apples in tamales that’s for sure.”

“Can I see it?” Willow asked urgently, practically snatching the book from Betty’s hands. She scanned the page looking for anything that might pull all of this together. “Look the recipes are dated, no one does that. This could be their records of what they were doing with girls. This is a Spanish recipe. The cheese is aged, thirteen years. Could that be describing a person? It says it yields ten servings, maybe that’s the price?”

“That seems like a pretty big leap Willow,” Bobby cautioned, coming around behind her and leaning over her shoulder.

“Well they aren’t recipes,” Betty insisted. “They’re certainly written to hide something. I don’t see why it couldn’t be that.”

“Bobby,” Willow said, flipping the page to the date she recalled from their research in the city. “This is the date that Josephine was taken. Look at the recipe. It’s all her information. The date, her age, it’s all on this page. These could be their records. We’d have something to give Denny that he could actually work with.” She was on her feet and shoving the book in Bobby’s face before anyone could get a word out.

“If it were some kind of record book of the girls they abducted and sold it could certainly help close a lot of open cases.” Bobby agreed as he took the book from Willow’s shaking hands and started looking it over. “This could be a significant piece of evidence.”

“Don’t you people ever just have a normal event? You just got married, and you’re already looking for new trouble,” a voice from behind the group said with a hardy laugh that had everyone turning to face the man.

Willow pulled the book back from Bobby and held it close to her chest. The arrival of a stranger at such a crucial moment was unsettling to her and she felt the urge to protect the book.

“Christian Donavan?” Josh asked, with a look that made the hair on the back of Willow’s neck stand up.

It wasn’t until Bobby and Piper’s face broke into wide smiles that couldn’t be mistaken for anything but true joy that Willow relaxed.

“Christian, I mean Chris,” Piper corrected. “What are you doing here?”

“The two tortured souls finally smarten up and get married? I wouldn’t miss that for the world.”

Piper couldn’t believe her eyes when Christian appeared on the beach out of nowhere. He’d been a person who’d from the first time they met could see right through her bullshit, straight to the truth. It was annoying at times of course but usually he was the kick in the ass she needed to get back on track.

“So how do you guys know each other,” Willow asked, still clutching the book in her hands tightly.

“It’s a long story,” Chris quipped. “A really long story. But we met a while back when we were all trying to either save our asses or save the world. I live out in Illinois with my new wife, my brother, and my son. I used to live in Edenville but,” Chris turned toward Bobby with a devilish grin as he asked, “she’s okay right? I mean she’s one of you guys?”

“She’s one of us,” Piper assured him with a wink at Willow.

“Well then I guess I can tell you I used to live in Edenville until I sold out everyone I worked with and went into witness protection. I was the save my ass part of that equation.”

“No you weren’t,” Piper shot back, waving him off. “You helped bring down some very deplorable people on your way out of town. You saved my life, and I don’t mean that metaphorically. He actually saved my life,” Piper explained, turning toward Jedda, Crystal and Willow. The only ones who didn’t know the story of how her father nearly killed her until Chris came in and killed him before he could finish Piper off.

“You had a pretty notorious reputation in Edenville,” Josh chimed in with a hint of attitude that said he still wasn’t convinced of Chris’s conversion to a good guy.

“Reputations are often blown out of proportion.” Chris said, grabbing a stick and poking at the fire.

“Was yours?” Willow asked, still not completely adjusted to biting her tongue when it was necessary.

“Nope.” Chris admitted, catching the end of his stick on fire and then stomping it out under his shoe.

“Chris got married in Vegas last month,” Bobby cut in, changing the subject as he passed him a beer from the cooler. “Where’s the new wife?”

“It was harder than you think to come out here. You’d be amazed how little the feds appreciate you trying to go back to the state they pulled you out of. I knew I couldn’t be here for the ceremony, but I figured I could catch you before you headed back to Edenville. Unfortunately Sydney and little Chris are back in Illinois.”

“How’s Sean doing?” Betty asked and Piper tried to remind herself that even if Sean had started out as a complete jackass, Chris’s brother had worked hard to reform his old ways.

“Doing great. He’s been sober since he came out of rehab and he’s still doing therapy twice a week. He starts a new job at the beginning of the month. I’m really proud of him.” The look in Christian’s eye was so paternal that Piper couldn’t fight a smirk. They’d all come so far, and worked damn hard to get happy. That was the strangest lesson of Piper’s life so far. Happy was hard work.

“There’s another reason Sydney couldn’t come,” Chris hinted as he took a long swig of his beer, leaving everyone in suspense. “The morning sickness is killing her.”

“What?” Betty hooted almost knocking Willow off the small bench they were sharing. “Congratulations. Oh, the babies! I can’t wait for all these babies. Next thing you know it’ll be Bobby and Piper.”

“Not us,” Piper insisted, regretting the timing of her statement. She and Bobby had a well thought out plan of when to talk about their choice not to have their own children. But like usual Piper’s mouth didn’t check with her brain before she spoke.

“What does that mean?” Jules questioned, as though Piper had just spoken some foreign language.

“We’re doing this now?” Bobby asked, and Piper gave an apologetic shrug of her shoulders.

“I guess we are,” she answered, straightening herself up. “We’ve decided we are going to adopt when we’re ready to start a family. I’ve never really pictured myself having children. Until I met Bobby, I never thought I’d get married. The more I considered what the rest of my life might be like, the more I realized I’d want to adopt. It just feels right with everything we’ve been through. There are so many kids out there who need someone to love them. If Bobby and I adopted them, look at all the people they’d get.”

“But you wouldn’t have any kids of your own?” Betty asked looking like she’d just been struck by tsunami.

“No. We wouldn’t” Bobby answered firmly, sliding his hand into Piper’s as a silent show of solidarity.

“I’ve never heard anything like that,” Betty grimaced as Clay reached out and touched her shoulder gently. His caress was enough to remind Betty that sometimes people need to make their own choices So Betty pulled her face into a smile. “But every child deserves love. If this is what you two want to do, I can’t think of anyone better to do it.”

“Thank you,” Piper stuttered, letting the tears in her eyes spill over. “I know it’s not normal.”

“If I was expecting normal I’d go out shopping for all new people to spend time with,” Betty laughed as she pulled them both in for a hug. “Whatever you do, we’ll be here for you.”

“Never a dull moment with you guys,” Chris huffed sarcastically as he took a seat on one of the chairs by the fire. “But that’s what I like about you. So tell me what’s in this book? I want in.”

“I knew you couldn’t help yourself,” Michael shot back as he tossed another beer in Chris’s direction.

“Can you blame me? She’s holding that book like it’s got a treasure map in it. I’m intrigued. I’ve been out of the game too long. I need to be in on another crazy scheme.”

“You’ve come to the right place,” Piper retorted as she took stock of the people around her. Everyone in this circle had done the heavy lifting that came with real love. They’d worked. Begged for forgiveness. Accepted apologies. Embraced each other’s flaws.

Though all their relationships worked for very different reasons, Piper’s own life with Bobby was what gave her hope for Willow and Josh. Bobby had to work harder than anyone, not just to win Piper’s affection but to convince her she was worthy of his. Of anyone’s really. She saw so much of herself in Willow, though Bobby would likely disagree. They both harbored a similar pain, but they handled it differently. Piper built a wall around herself, and she learned to live behind it. Willow on the other hand didn’t need the wall. She relied on lashing out, launching attacks on people foolish enough to see the real her. It made Willow seem much more hostile than Piper, but in reality, they were both nursing a similar brokenness. 

Piper hadn’t torn down her own wall completely; she found small openings to let people in. If Willow could control the urge to snipe anyone who got close, and Josh was strong enough to keep trying when she failed, then there truly was hope for them.

“I can’t believe you guys rented this house out for another night,” Bobby chuckled as he loaded Piper’s bags into the back of his truck. It was adorned with tin cans and a hand painted just married sign in the back window.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Michael said with a forced seriousness as he waved at Betty and Clay who were pulling out of the driveway with Frankie in the back seat.

“Oh please, you’re just happy to have a night without the baby.” Jules retorted as she drove an elbow playfully into her husband’s side.