Darby's Decision, page 4
Even though it should have. He and Darby had been together, intimately, for over a year.
But knowing the truth put everything that had happened six years ago into perspective. As upset as he was at uncovering Darby’s secret, he was proud of the difficult decision she’d made.
She’d chosen to get clean for the baby’s sake. Turning him in so that she could enter rehab. And she’d stayed clean all these years later. He’d heard of some drug abuse success stories, but not many. More often than not users went back to their old ways.
But Darby had pulled herself together, creating a nice life for herself and their son. He knew she could have easily given the baby up for adoption. And if she had, he’d never know his son even existed.
He was fiercely glad Darby had found Edith. The fact that the woman had taken Leo away for the rest of the week told him that she was extremely loyal to Darby.
He had no doubt that Edith would keep Leo safe.
On the heels of that thought came another. Edith would keep Leo safe, but her actions would be hampered by the fact that she didn’t know what Tyrone Reyes looked like. If Reyes was the one doing the dirty work.
He began to pace the length of the living room. They needed to get a copy of Reyes’s mug shot to Edith so she could be on the lookout for the guy. And if Reyes had hired a stranger to run him off the road and to tamper with the zip line? He winced and realized there was nothing they could do about that.
He and Darby would be equally hampered by that scenario.
“I’m ready to go.” Darby emerged from the bedroom carrying a small duffel bag. She’d changed out of the blouse and into a plain T-shirt.
“Great.” He met her halfway, taking the bag from her fingers. “I was thinking it would be a good idea to get Edith a copy of Tyrone’s mug shot. It would be helpful for her to be on the lookout for him.”
She blanched and nodded. “That’s a good idea. I personally have never seen the guy, so it would be good for me too.”
“You don’t happen to have a computer, do you?” A quick glance didn’t reveal any such device.
“No. I use the library if I need computer access.” She moved past him to the door. “But we might want to make that another stop tomorrow so I can text a copy to Edith.”
“Yeah.” He followed her out of the townhouse. “What’s Edith’s last name?”
She frowned as she locked the door. “Why do you want to know?”
“I’m just curious. She seems almost too good to be true.”
That got Darby’s back up. “She’s a wonderful woman who lost her own daughter to a drug overdose. She was a volunteer at the halfway house and super supportive of me and Leo.”
He lifted a hand in protest. “I didn’t mean to insinuate she wasn’t a good person, Darby. I just wondered why she was living with you and Leo, that’s all.”
She relaxed and led the way back to the car. “It’s more like me and Leo are living with her. At least, that’s how it was at first. Now it’s more of a partnership. We split the rent, she uses the social security money from her deceased husband. I pay the grocery bills and pay for Leo’s clothes and preschool while she pays the utilities. We don’t lead a lavish lifestyle as you can see. We don’t even have cable TV, although I’m already hearing about that from Leo as his preschool friends all do.”
“I’m very glad you and Leo have Edith,” he said sincerely.
“Me too.” Darby slid behind the wheel.
After storing her duffel in the back, he settled into the passenger seat. “We could swing by the library tonight. I would think it’s still open.”
She shot him a glance, then nodded. “Okay. And her last name is Schroeder.”
“German?” he guessed.
“Yes. That’s why she’s asked Leo to call her Oma.” She backed out of the driveway of the townhouse.
“I like that.” He was deeply grateful to know his son had a woman he could love like a grandmother. His own mother had turned a blind eye to the physical abuse his stepfather was bestowing on him. Gage hadn’t seen the woman since he’d left home at fifteen. By the time he’d tried to find her after prison, the place had been sold to a young couple with a new baby without any sign of where his mother and stepfather had gone. And he knew Darby had been in foster care, so it wasn’t like there would be grandparents on her side either.
It bothered him to hear that Darby didn’t believe in God, especially since he knew full well God had sent Edith to help her. But he wasn’t about to disturb the fragile truce between them.
The most important thing right now was for them to work together to figure out if Reyes was the one behind these attacks. And to get the police to take the snapped cable at the adventure park that could have killed Darby seriously.
The trip to the library didn’t take long. Ironically, it was located squarely between his studio apartment and Darby and Edith’s townhouse. He was secretly amazed he and Darby hadn’t run into each other there over the past year. Although he normally stopped in late, after a long day of work, whereas she probably went in with Leo on her days off.
Within minutes, they were huddled in front of a computer. “How do we find Reyes?” Darby whispered, her fingers hovering over the keyboard.
“Search on his name and add the word arrest and see what comes up.”
Darby typed in Tyrone Reyes’s name, and several links popped up. He tapped a finger over the link halfway down the page. “This looks like it’s an article about his arrest.”
She clicked the link. Sure enough, a reporter from the Knoxville News had written about Tyrone’s arrest, including a picture of his mug shot. Darby manipulated the picture to make it larger, then pulled out her phone. After snapping a picture of the grainy photograph, she sent a text to Edith.
“Let’s print this out,” Gage suggested. “Might help to show the cops.”
“There’s a fee for printing, but I agree it’s worth it.” She punched the print key and then walked over to the desk to pay.
He continued looking at Reyes’s face on the screen. It seemed to him that Reyes stared back at him with cold, dead eyes. A flash of regret hit hard. How had he allowed himself to get mixed up with Reyes in the first place? Yeah, he needed money to survive on the streets, but he was also old enough to know better than to get involved in selling drugs.
“Gage? Is there something more you think we should try to search? Any other names you think might be involved?”
“Huh? Oh, no. Not that I can think of offhand.” He shoved the mistakes of his past aside. There was no point in dwelling on them.
Pastor Davies had convinced him that God had forgiven all of Gage’s sins. Most of the time, he believed that to be true. But every so often the magnitude of what he’d done allowed the deep-seated doubts to creep in. He’d sold drugs, likely contributed to drug overdoses. Maybe even to deaths, like Edith’s daughter.
With an effort, Gage turned his attention back to the computer. Other names? “Wait a minute, there is one other guy who I ratted out. Niles Archer.” He worked the keyboard, bringing up Archer’s arrest, which had taken place a few days after Reyes’s. When Archer’s mug shot bloomed on the screen, he gestured to it. “Does he look familiar to you?”
Darby studied the photograph. “He does,” she admitted. “But I can’t say for sure when I saw him. Not recently, but back when we were together.”
A surge of adrenaline kicked his pulse into high gear. “Maybe Reyes and Archer are working together on this. They would both have a good reason to seek revenge. I wonder if Archer was released at the same time as Reyes hit the street.” Archer didn’t scare him as much as Reyes. “We need to print this article too. I can pay for it.”
“I’ve got it. But let me snap a pic first.” She blew up the image and used her phone again, taking the picture and texting it to Edith. Then she headed back to the desk to pay the fee.
With both articles in hand, Darby led the way out of the library and down to the parking lot where she’d left her car.
Gage felt good about having two potential suspects. Especially if Archer had also been recently released from jail. Surely with this additional information the Knoxville police would take Darby’s concerns seriously.
“Do you think it’s worth it to take these straight to the police?”
Darby had a point. Eyeing the clock, he noted it was just after eight. “We’d get the second shift, and your cable incident happened during the day.” He shrugged. “I personally think it’s better to wait until morning. That way we can talk directly to the guy in charge of the investigation.”
“I can go with that,” Darby agreed. “So back to the motel?”
“Yeah.” It was still early, the sun bright, but he figured she was stiff and sore from her fall. They climbed into the car. “We can meet for breakfast in the morning, they offer it free to guests from six to eight.”
The corner of Darby’s mouth tipped up in a smile.
“What?” he asked.
She gave a rueful shake of her head. “Before I knew you, my foster sister Hailey and I used to sneak into motels to help ourselves to the free continental breakfasts.” Her smile faded. “Yeah, it was wrong to steal, but we were young and couldn’t get decent jobs because we didn’t have IDs.”
“I don’t blame you, Darby. You did what was necessary in order to survive.” He wasn’t innocent in that respect either. But her mention of an ID brought up another question. “Is your last name still Walsh?”
“Yes. The staff at the halfway house helped me get the proper paperwork so I could get my ID and driver’s license.” There was a long pause before she added, “Although if you want the truth, I’m not really sure what my last name really is.”
“You’re not?”
“Nope.” She pulled into the parking lot of the motel and parked near the lobby. “I was placed in foster care at an early age. I’m sure that I had a last name at some point, but I was only seven when I went to live with the Preacher and his wife. If they had paperwork on me, I’m sure it was lost the night of the fire.”
“Fire?” This was the first he was hearing about the Preacher and the fire.
“Long story.” She waved him off and slid out of the car. He followed, coming over to stand beside her. “And irrelevant. I vaguely remembered the name Walsh, but I can’t swear it was mine or just something I heard along the way.”
He could easily see how that might happen. “Well, Darby Walsh, it’s nice to meet you.”
She gave him an odd look.
“This is the first time we’re meeting as law-abiding citizens of Knoxville, Tennessee.” He held out his hand. “And I’m really glad to meet you.”
She shook her head as if he’d lost his mind but reached for his hand. Their fingers entwined, sending a shaft of awareness stabbing through him. “Nice to meet you, too, Gage Killion.”
He didn’t let go of her hand for a long moment. When she gently pulled away, he let out a deep breath, reminding himself to stay cool.
A flash of movement caught the corner of his eye. He instinctively grabbed Darby, protectively pulling her down and curling his body around hers a nanosecond before the sound of gunfire echoed around them.
“Oomph,” Darby said as they hit the ground.
“This way,” he urged, pulling her toward the narrow space between the building and her car. He waited for another round of gunfire but heard nothing but the sound of their gasping breaths.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
“Yes. You?”
He nodded and took a moment to drag in a ragged breath. “We need to call the police.”
“How did Reyes find us?” Darby asked.
“It’s my fault,” he admitted hoarsely, his gaze landing on his white pickup truck, the crumpled bumper in plain sight. He should have gotten a rental car rather than using his own vehicle.
The shooter must have recognized his truck and had waited for him to return to the motel.
His lapse in judgment had almost gotten Darby killed.
Chapter Four
Gage had saved her life.
Darby crouched beside him, humbly grateful for his strong presence. If she’d had any doubts about Tyrone or Archer coming after them, they were gone now. No way was the gunfire aimed at them outside the motel an accident.
Scary to think of how close they’d been to being injured or killed. Those seconds were a blur, but it seemed as if Gage knew what was going to happen, the way he’d dragged her down just before the gunshot rang out.
“Gunfire at the Knotty Pine Motel.” Gage was speaking into his phone. “We’re not hurt, but we’re pinned behind a car. We need the police here, ASAP.”
She’d been so shaken by the gunfire it hadn’t occurred to her to call 911. Darby was doubly glad she’d insisted that Edith take Leo away for the rest of the week. He was probably having a great time at the water park.
She and Gage needed to make sure Reyes and Archer never got near their son.
“I’m sorry, Darby.” Gage’s expression was steeped in guilt. “This is all my fault.”
That was the second time he’d said that. “How is it possibly your fault? You don’t own a gun, do you?”
“No. But don’t you see? Reyes or Archer must have recognized my truck, along with the damaged rear bumper.” He ruefully shook his head. “I should have used a rental car.”
“That would have been expensive,” she pointed out. “And your rear-end collision didn’t happen on this side of town, right?”
“No, it happened on my way home from work, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t track me down.”
“How could they do that?” They were huddled so close together she could see the tiny flecks of gold around the irises of his green eyes. “I mean, even if they had your license plate number, tracking you here would have been difficult.”
“I don’t know.” Gage looked sick to his stomach, and she found herself wanting to comfort him. No matter how they’d been found, she didn’t blame Gage. Especially after the way he’d risked his life to save hers. “Maybe they followed me here.”
“When did you get into town?” she asked.
“Last night.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “My plan was to come talk to you this morning. It’s why I was at the adventure park when your cable snapped.”
“That’s a pretty tight timeline,” she pointed out. “There wouldn’t have been enough time for Reyes or Archer to have discovered my routine. Especially since I rotate jobs at the adventure park. I do a week of zip-lining, then a week on the balance bridges, then a week on the hiking trails.” The more she thought about it, the more she felt certain these guys had been in the area longer than a day or two. “This isn’t your fault, Gage.”
“Yeah, it is—” He stopped abruptly when the police cruiser came barreling toward them with lights and sirens.
She gave him a quick hug, then watched as two uniformed officers wearing vests emerged from the squad. Since there hadn’t been any more gunfire since the initial shot, Darby felt certain the shooter was long gone.
But she and Gage didn’t move from their hiding spot until the police officers approached. “Gage Killion?” one of them asked.
“Yes.” Gage slowly stood, taking her hand to draw her up beside him. “And this is Darby Walsh.”
So much for going to the police department in the morning to tell their story. Looked as if they’d be in for a long night of answering questions.
Clinging to Gage’s hand, she was profoundly grateful she wouldn’t be going through all of this alone. Not that she wanted Gage to be in danger, but having him at her side gave her the strength she’d need to get through this.
It was during times of stress that she struggled with. Not that she intended to break her sobriety, but it wasn’t always as easy to ignore the temptation when your world was crumbling around you.
Darby vowed to remain strong for Leo’s sake. And her own. After the officers took their names and statements, the cops fanned out to search the immediate area. She and Gage went into the motel lobby to wait and watch. It didn’t take long for one of the officers to find the slug embedded in the side of the motel.
Proof that the gunshot had been meant for them and wasn’t a story sprouted from their fertile imagination.
“I’m not sure we should stay here tonight,” Gage murmured in a low voice. “It’s not worth the risk that Reyes and or Archer might come back to finish the job.”
“Okay, but where can we go?” She hesitated, then suggested, “We could take a rideshare back to my townhouse. You can sleep in Leo’s room.”
He offered a wry smile. “As much as I’d love nothing better than to sleep in our son’s room, I’m not sure heading back to your townhouse is any safer.” His smile faded. “We’ll definitely take a rideshare to minimize the possibility of being followed, but we need to find somewhere else to go.”
She knew he was considering another budget motel. Which was fine, aside from the cost. “Okay,” she agreed, trying not to wince at the dent this would put in her meager savings.
The officers returned, and the older guy took the lead. “We’d like you to come down to the station to discuss this further.”
“That’s fine,” Gage agreed. “Although it would be nice to know what your investigation into the Great Outdoor Adventure Park cable incident revealed. Did you find proof that someone tampered with it?”
The cops exchanged a look. “I don’t have that information.”
“The cable breaking was the first attempt to hurt me, and this gunfire was the second,” Darby said, doing her best not to sound accusatory. “If you guys can’t figure out what’s going on, I may not live through the third attempt.”
“She’s right,” Gage agreed. “And I was run off the road two days ago too. I think it’s pretty clear someone is coming after us.”
“Which is why we’d like you to come to the precinct,” the older cop said.
“Fine. Let’s go.” Darby couldn’t deny being anxious to get out of there. “I’d like to grab my duffel bag.”
