Sins of the Father (19 page)

I’m pretty sure he worried about what I
meant, specifically how I planned to
take care
of my oldest
but most recent former-friend in Darkwater Bay.

Chapter 17

There would be some people waiting for us
when we landed. Wasn’t that what Johnny said? Some turned out to be
more than two. Chris Darnell, Crevan Conall, Devlin Mackenzie, Tony
Briscoe, and last but by no means least, David Levine composed the
somber group in the hangar.

While the others had the good sense to stand
back while I adjusted to what felt like a very tough crowd, David
exercised no such restraint. He bounded forward and shoved space
between Johnny and me with a crushing embrace.

“Thank God you’re all right. Oh Helen, I was
so worried about you. When we came back and saw what had happened
at the house, I was out of my mind.”

“I’m fine, David. I’m sure Johnny already
explained –”

“I didn’t,” Johnny said. “I simply figured
out your location from the phone call and went to bring you back
home where I know you’ll be safe.”

David blinked. “Excuse me? What are you
saying, Johnny? We were all under the impression that you followed
a lead that led to where Helen was being held again.”

He glanced at me and cleared his throat.
“Helen eluded her captors, panicked and felt that going into hiding
was the best option at the time.”

“Helen! What on earth were you thinking? You
put yourself at incredible risk doing something so reckless.”

I stared at the tarmac. “I see that a little
bit better now, David, but I’m not entirely convinced that coming
back here was the right move, all things considered. I was targeted
a second time. Now that they know where I am again, what’s to stop
another attempt?”

Johnny pulled me against his side, not so
gently. “
I’m
what stops another attempt. I doubt anybody
will disagree with my commitment to remain by your side, at least
until David resolves the case he’s investigating.”

“Johnny, that could take months,” Crevan
said. “Do you honestly expect Collangelo to sign off on that?”

Twenty-nine weeks was my estimate. Then
Johnny would have what he wanted, no doubt complete with an
epiphany that his soon-to-be ex-wife was nothing but a criminal
too.

“I’ve worked from home before, so yes. I
expect him to sign off on it or accept my resignation.”

“John, we’re all thrilled that Helen is home
and safe, but I think you need to give this some additional
thought,” Chris said.

My anger muted the curiosity that Crevan and
Chris’s objections should’ve sparked. Frankly, I didn’t care about
whatever OSI fall out might occur, though I abhorred the notion of
Johnny sticking to me like glue for the foreseeable future.

Devlin inched forward. Our eyes met. “Are
you all right, Helen? You weren’t hurt were you?”

I started to go to him. Johnny’s arm snaked
around my waist and held me back. I thought I heard his teeth
grind.
Get used to it, buddy. If you don’t want me anymore, I’ll
find somebody who does.

“Where did you find her?” David asked. His
eyes roved critically over my face.

“Long Island. I’m sure she thought that the
old family home was the last place anyone would look for her.”

“Helen, I wasn’t aware that you kept that
house,” David said.

“Precisely why she felt it would be the last
place anyone would look,” Johnny said.

David shifted his attention. “Johnny, did
you tell her what happened? The other thing –”

“No, and I don’t think that’s something we
need to share with her until she’s had a chance to settle in at
home.”

“Nonsense,” David said. He clasped my hands
in his. “My dear girl, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you,
and I’m so sorry to break it to you this way. I know you’d never
forgive me for withholding it simply because you just stepped off a
plane.” He glanced in judgment at Johnny. “Thursday night, we
became aware that your father was critically ill –”

Panic strangled me. My audience read
something else of course. How would they know I feared that news of
his prison break had spread coast-to-coast a mere twelve hours
after the event?

“They summoned emergency services for him of
course, but I’m so sorry, Helen. He died.”

My jaw dropped. Tears sluiced down my
cheeks. Dead? What happened? Oh God!

“He was taken to a local hospital and
pronounced –”

Skid marks burned on the sulci road of my
brain.
What
?

“Unfortunately, the hospital seemed to…
misplace his remains.”

How? What had… I turned my tear-stained face
up and right. Johnny. He recognized the rage and immediately
slammed my face, the rest of me too, against his chest.

That sneaky, double dealing… what a stroke
of genius! His hand stroked through the wig and almost pulled it
off.

“What the –?”

Our eyes locked. I mouthed
not
now
.

“I need to get her home.”

“Johnny, you can’t take her home! She was
attacked. You need to get her to the hospital right now,” Crevan
protested.

“No. No hospital.”

“See what I mean?” Johnny said. “I’ll get
her to a doctor if she doesn’t bounce back by tomorrow. Is that
good enough?”

Everyone but David seemed like they inched
back from his irate words.

“Crevan, I’m fine, really. I wasn’t injured
in the attack. I’ve been perfectly safe since I left Darkwater Bay.
Being in a hospital right now would leave me feeling more
vulnerable and exposed than ever. I just want to go.”

Go as far away from Darkwater Bay as humanly
possible.

Johnny understood the unspoken message. He
adjusted my position, the literal handcuff restraining my upper
arm. “We’re going home. Come on, Helen. The Expedition is outside
the hangar.”

Inside the car, I barely gave a thought to
the five men watching the spectacular fight unfold. “I’m the liar?
At least I didn’t leave a trail of witnesses all over upstate New
York who could testify to the fact that Dad never came through an
emergency room, was never pronounced dead and certainly wasn’t lost
by some incompetent morgue attendant! Have you lost your mind?”

“Here I thought you might be grateful for
this unanticipated development. Nobody’s going to hunt for Wendell
now. Or did you completely gloss over that fact?”

“Hospitals do not lose bodies, Johnny. The
fact that they just happened to lose one who was serving a life
sentence at Attica is going to raise more than a couple of red
flags.”

Johnny shook his head. “No, not really. If
the hospital pronounced
Wendell
dead and lost the body,
there’s no problem.”

“How did you manage to pull that off?”

Johnny glared at me. “You’re not the only
person with friends and connections. Forgive me if I don’t feel
compelled to share information with you.”

“I don’t believe this.”

“As long as you remember that spousal
privilege works both ways, we’re good.”

“Yes it does. You’re forgetting one crucial
point, Johnny. You took me away from the only person I truly love.
What happens to me now matters very little.”

“I’d think you could channel a little bit of
that fondness toward your children. Then again, maybe you were
right about your motherly instincts all along.”

The barb stung. I felt bloody and raw
inside, shredded to tiny bits of flesh and bone held together with
nothing more than a skin bag on the outside.

I lapsed into stony silence. Johnny followed
me through the house when we got home. Whatever mess I’d made
before leaving, the resulting search for evidence completed by
Forsythe and his men, was gone. Someone had returned my home to its
formerly pristine condition. Other than a couple of missing lamps,
there was no hint that something untoward happened here.

I stomped toward the bedroom with Johnny hot
on my heels. I slammed the door in his face. Of course that didn’t
stop him.

An immediate detour into his closet surely
would give him pause. I grabbed hangers draped with suits and
started throwing them at him.

“I am not leaving this house, Helen.”

“Your rules, right? Does that mean you plan
to rape me too? You’re just as bad as the men who abducted me and
planned to sell me into slavery. Maybe I should tell David that you
think I’m your personal property. He might adjust the focus of his
investigation to include you.”

“You don’t mean that. And that’s not what I
meant anyway, Helen. We made vows. You
gave
yourself to me
freely.”

“Consider the gift revoked. I realize I
can’t make you leave, but behind these walls, there will be no
question that the only thing I still feel for you is contempt.”

Johnny brushed past me and retrieved the
rest of his suits before I took a turn for more vengeful and
started destroying them. His voice was muffled over the thick mound
of fabric. “You need to remember that when we took those vows, I
gave myself to you too, Helen.”

“Well I feel so much better now,” I sneered.
“You took it back first.”

My brilliant retreat involved locking myself
in the master bathroom until all activity audible through the door
ceased. Cautiously I peeked outside. Nothing. Silence. Very loud
silence. I slipped out of the bathroom and surveyed Johnny’s
closet. It was completely empty. Drawers stood open. Not even an
empty hanger hung on the spindles.

“Good riddance,” I huffed. If only it were
that easy to get him out of the house altogether. If karma is real,
surely this is my payday.

I pushed the thoughts out of my head and
drifted to the kitchen. Even though I’d eaten less than two hours
ago, pangs of hunger jabbed at my ribs. My stock of frozen
strawberry milkshakes was undisturbed. I pulled one out and fished
through the drawer next to the sink for a straw.

Now what? Run around the house avoiding my
husband? Snipe at him whenever avoidance didn’t work? Suddenly, 29
weeks felt like a life sentence. If I weren’t so fond of fresh air
and freedom, I might be tempted to pick up the phone and confess
all to David Levine.

Johnny was right, dammit. The last thing my
children deserved was gestation in a mother living behind bars.
They were innocent, deserved a healthy mom who got plenty of fresh
air, exercise and what little sunshine Darkwater Bay had to
offer.

My hand drifted over the slight protrusion.
It wouldn’t be long now. The bump appeared overnight. Soon, it
would become even more noticeable.

“I don’t care what he thinks,” I said. “I
do
love you. And I’ll be a better mother than Marie Eriksson
and Kathleen Conall ever dreamed of being.”

If.

If Johnny let me.

If he didn’t turn me in from the delivery
room and snatch my babies away from me.

If he allowed me to be part of their lives
at all.

The next 29 weeks might be all I had with my
children. I vowed something new. I wasn’t sharing a single precious
moment of my borrowed time with anyone, certainly not Johnny
Orion.

I heard Johnny’s footsteps on the back
staircase from the second floor. Quickly, I zipped to the front of
the house and climbed the main staircase. Let him brood, let him
hear a message loud and clear without a single word spoken from
these lips.

The sofa in the media room beckoned. I
curled up at the end of it, flicked on the television and drifted
off to sleep without a care that Johnny would follow. Surely he
understood that now was not the time to force this issue or any
other.

It set the precedent for the next ten days.
What little we said to one another was unkind. Mostly we occupied a
single structure and spent the majority of our time avoiding one
another. He conducted business from my office, and I had no
interest in what he was doing, so long as he kept our Faustian
bargain to keep the truth of my paternity quiet.

Dad was free. My purpose was fulfilled. As
for fear of Gillette’s assertion that I was already owned, I felt
it, from my husband, not some unknown quantity out there in the
world waiting to snatch me again.

After the first call from someone to hear
from me directly that I was truly fine, I refused to speak to
anyone. What was the point? Johnny listened to the entire
conversation from an extension across the room. I cut the call from
Chris Darnell abruptly short and stormed out of the room.

Not before I threw a few choice epithets
Johnny’s way.

Clearly, curiosity Monday morning propelled
me behind him when the doorbell rang. I never even heard the
intercom from the gate. Maybe that was Johnny’s plan in the end.
Desensitize the world to his lax security measures and allow me to
be sold into slavery after the babies were born.

He swung open the front door. At the first
glimpse of the guest on the other side, I promptly yanked the door
out of his hand and slammed it in Maya’s face. I stomped off
through the dining room, a shortcut to the kitchen. Voices behind
me drew me into the butler’s pantry to eavesdrop instead.

“Guess she’s still not ready to see you,
Maya.”

“This is ridiculous. I only told you what I
knew because I was worried about her.”

“Gee, that helps.”

“Can’t you talk to her? Make her listen to
me?”

“Sure, if you want to make sure that she
never speaks to you again, I’d be happy to intercede on your
behalf.”

“Why is she angry with you?”

I muffled the snort. This should be good.
After all, Johnny’s certain I’m the proficient liar under this
roof.

“It’s complicated,” Johnny said.

I’ll say.

“Then uncomplicate it.”

His heavy sigh dropped like a rock. “She
doesn’t think she’s safe here, and is highly displeased that I
insisted she come home immediately.”