Buried Secrets, page 2
She spoke her one truth. “Always.”
* * *
Rob put down the phone and stared at it, frowning. Well, wasn’t that the most inconvenient? Not something he cared to deal with right now. Or ever. So over, that part of his life, and he didn’t appreciate getting called back into the past, for the most part anyway. If anyone ought to call the shots when it came to what he’d do with his time, it should be him.
“What’s up, babe?” Pauly walked into the room wearing only a pair of sport briefs tight enough to highlight his ample blessings. A very deliberate choice of attire designed to elicit a particular reaction on the part of his companions. Granted, he could pull off the outfit with style, but at the moment, Rob didn’t have the time for his games. The effect of that phone rivaled a bucket of ice water over the head.
“Work,” he lied. No need to share the details of his private life with anyone. Ever. Even the sexy and typically accommodating Pauly.
Today wasn’t the day for accommodation. Pauly pouted and put his hands on his hips. “Oh, come on, Rob. You just got here. Don’t tell me you gotta leave already. We haven’t even done the good stuff yet. I spent a lot of time putting this all together.” He waved his hands up and down his body. The movement brought the scent of cologne wafting through the air. The boy did like to smell pretty.
Pauly’s demands were nothing new, and usually he stepped right up without complaint. His enthusiasm and his endless energy were hard to resist. Also liked that he didn’t ask questions. Perfect for his needs and somewhat of a rarity. That Pauly tended to pout did grate on him, although the magic he could do with his mouth typically made up for that minor fault. Today it turned just plain tedious.
“I don’t have to leave until morning.” It would take him at least that long to make plans and start getting the other parts of his life in order. He’d have to go home first and make all the necessary arrangements there. For a long time, he’d kept plans in the back of his head for this day, and now, he’d put them into action. He smiled.
Pauly brightened. “Goody. We have plenty of time for this. He moved one hand to his junk. “I’m hot and horny, big boy, and I know you’ve got something for me.”
Rob reached out a hand, his own smile growing. “Come on, handsome. I do have something special in store for you tonight.”
He laughed, deep and throaty. “Oh, babe, you brought me a present? You are too generous, but I’m not gonna say no.”
“First things first.” He patted his dick.
Pauly winked and licked his lips. “I have just what you need.” He dropped to his knees in front of him and began to unzip his pants. Cool air touched bare skin when he spread the fly open, followed by Pauly’s hot breath.
It wouldn’t hurt anything to spend a little time making Pauly happy, or would that be letting Pauly make him happy? He always went into it with great joy. One of the reasons they were still an item, covert as it might be. A perfect relationship. All hot, rough sex and no entanglement.
Two hours later, showered and dressed, Rob left the bedroom without looking back. He tucked his knife, cleaned and shimmering, back into the sheath as he walked down the stairs and then outside to where he’d parked the rental car in the driveway. All traces of his presence in the apartment were wiped away. No one would ever know he’d ever stepped across the threshold. He hadn’t bothered to lock the door.
Chapter Two
Tuesday glanced over at Tripper. “Yeah, yeah. I get it.” He didn’t move his head off his paws, his black eyes boring into her. Such judgment. “Dude, you know I can’t go back. I’ll find something else for you to do. I promise.”
“You’re talking to the dog again.” Carmen Dehle came in through the back door, grabbed a soda out of her fridge, and sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter. Tripper got up and went out through the dog door to the backyard, his head held high and his back straight. Still judging her.
“Of course, I’m talking to the dog. We live together.” Besides, if she didn’t talk to Tripper, who would she have to talk to most of the time? And he didn’t argue. Well, not in words anyway.
Carmen laughed. “You have to get a life, girlfriend. Pretty sad when you’re holding full-on conversations with your dog.”
She respectfully disagreed. “I have a life, and besides, I’m a catch. Just haven’t found the right woman yet.”
Carmen held out her hand and tilted it back and forth. “Life is more than work and searches. To actually find a woman, you might have to leave the house for a date.” Carmen’s dark eyes turned serious. “Tuesday, I know this thing has changed your life.”
“You think?” Her words were tinged with sarcasm, even though, silently, she acknowledged Carmen’s direct hit.
“I know, I know, and I get it, but it hurts my heart to watch you isolate so much, and you know it’s not right. Tuesday, you’re one of the coolest people I know. What you do, what you did for a living, was incredibly important, and what you and Tripper have accomplished as volunteers is freaking amazing. I hate that this thing has you hiding your incredible light from the rest of the world.”
Tuesday grabbed a soda for herself out of the fridge and took the other stool. “Don’t know about what kind of light I have. The thing is, I need a break.” Need was putting it lightly. After the last few months, an impending explosion had built inside her more and more. If she didn’t give herself time to find her center once again, it wouldn’t be good. She’d been off-kilter since that bullet hit her flesh.
“You do, and I get it. It’s just that I’m having a super hard time believing that moving in with your mom, even temporarily, is the solution. It’s going to put a shitload of stress on you, and in my personal opinion, you don’t need that right now. Not to mention that Tripper is going to be bored stupid.”
She didn’t disagree about poor Tripper. He would be getting the short end of it, yet again. He’d been out of fieldwork since the shooting, and when they made their way to Hunters, he’d be out for however long they ended up being there. She could tell herself she’d make it up to him, but she really didn’t believe she’d ever go back into the field. Not in her profession as a federal probation officer and not as a search-and-rescue, human-remains-detection K9 handler. Life had turned a hundred and eighty degrees since she ended up in the emergency room.
“You’re not wrong, Carmen. It’s probably a horrible idea to do this. It’s just that I have to get out of here for a little while. She’s stage four, so it’s not going to be for very long.”
“But, seriously, your mom?” Carmen’s expression clearly showed her concern, and it wasn’t unwarranted.
Hard to hide anything from a friend who’d been there with her for the last quarter century. They’d met the first year of college and remained close ever since. Carmen had been there for the hijinks of college, through the heartbreaks of first loves, and witnessed firsthand the dynamics of her dysfunctional family. Tuesday didn’t have much for secrets when it came to Carmen.
“You know October will be far too busy to help out. Mother will hound him to come, and he’ll invent a ton of excuses why he can’t possibly make it. Despite everything, I can’t just leave her there to die alone. I would hate myself, and I don’t need anything else piled on.”
Carmen shook her head. “You’re a bigger person than me.”
“I’m not trying to be a bigger person. If you think about it objectively, it’s a chance to get away from here and heal my body. I’ve put up with her crap my whole life. A little bit longer won’t hurt, and then it’ll be over, forever.” An odd thought really. The weight of her mother’s disapproval had always been heavy on her shoulders. Hard to imagine how she’d feel once released from that life-long burden.
“While your mother berates you for not being good enough the whole time, and you know as well as I do, she probably blames you for getting shot. Hell, I bet she even blames you for the fact she has cancer.” She tipped her can at Tuesday. “You have to admit I’m right.”
She’d hit that on the nose. First thing Mom asked her when she’d called from the hospital had been, “What did you do to make them shoot you?” Some things never changed. At least her mother remained consistent, cancer or not.
“Doesn’t matter. It’s less about her and more about me.” And she’d keep telling herself that over and over.
“You’ll heal faster at home.”
True enough, and hard to resist the lure of staying safe and sound in her own home. “But I’d feel guilty, and that won’t help the healing.”
Carmen shook her head as she smiled. “You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”
She smiled back at her and took a sip of her soda. “I do, and I love you too.”
* * *
Addie ended the call and leaned back in her chair. Finally, something broke loose. Way too long with the dry spell this time, and a feeling of defeat had started to tap at the back of her mind. With effort, she’d managed not to go there. Not her style to break a promise, even if the promise had been to herself only and never voiced to anyone else.
For over twenty years she’d been looking for Anthony, and in all that time, she kept hoping she’d find him alive and well. Not very hard to understand why he might have wanted to run away and start a new life. Hell, the idea had snuck into her mind more than once, or if she was being honest, more than a hundred times. Despite its appeal, she’d stayed and followed through on her vision to graduate from college and go into law enforcement. She couldn’t let him down regardless of the fact he hadn’t been around to see her achieve such lofty goals. When they’d played cops and robbers as a kid, she’d been the cop and he’d been the robber.
Despite his criminal role in their childhood games, Anthony’s goals had been even loftier, and with the scholarship to the University of Washington, he’d been well on his way to making graduate school a reality. All without support or encouragement from parents who paid little attention to what either of them did. He’d been proud of that scholarship, though their family had the means to pay for the higher education he craved.
That after all of that, he might run from his lofty goal, had never sat well with her. He’d worked too hard to get there and had almost glowed when word came through that he’d been accepted to the U of Dub. That was why she’d looked for answers year in and year out, and why she’d continue to until she either found them or died trying.
Addie turned her attention away from thoughts of the past and back to the computer screen in front of her. It took less than an hour to make flight and rental-car reservations, then find a short-term house near Hunters to book. These days she could locate a suitable accommodation darned near anywhere she needed to travel. Her job took her all over the country, and hotels didn’t float her boat. Too many people. Too sterile and uninteresting. The isolation and personality of the non-traditional lodgings appealed to her far more.
Despite telling Mary she would drive out West, she’d changed her mind. Logistics took precedence over preference. Quicker to fly, and quicker would be better. She’d have to travel lighter than she cared to and, in particular, would have to leave her handgun at home, but the trade-off was worth it. A few hours of travel versus a couple of days.
The sound of music startled her. “Shit.” She took a few deep breaths before she pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Hello.” No emotion.
“Hey, baby. How you doin’?”
Why the hell couldn’t she text like everybody else these days? “I’m fine, Valerie. What do you want?” Keep calm. Keep calm .
“Can’t I just call my baby girl to say hi?”
Sure. That’s exactly how it sounded to her. Incapable of pronouncing simple words, blasting music in the background, a man’s mumbling voice urging her on. That’s how everybody’s mother reached out to say hi.
“You never call to say hello.” Not a lie. They’d been playing this game since before Addie reached adulthood. Or, she should say, legal adulthood. She’d been the most mature member of the household since about the sixth grade. Anthony had tried but had run, not that she blamed him, leaving her to be the head of the household. Unofficially, of course, but in charge just the same.
“Well.” Valerie laughed and then coughed, the sound grating on Addie’s nerves. “That might be kinda true, and so, you know, if you could help me out, I could use some money. I’m a little short.” She spoke super slow, making an obvious effort not to slur her words. She forgot how well Addie knew her.
A little short? Like her attempt to appear sober, a massive misrepresentation. The end of the month approached, and with it a good bet she’d blown all of her allowance on booze and drugs, as well as her so-called friends. Addie knew them for what they were—mooches. At least her grandfather had been smart enough not to leave Valerie in control of her own trust. When Addie had turned twenty-five, Grandad had changed the terms of her mother’s trust to make her the trustee. Bottom line, she controlled Mommy’s monthly disbursement.
Mother also knew that she controlled Anthony’s trust, and it came as a bit of a surprise that she didn’t bring up Anthony’s untouched money today. More than two decades of no disbursements meant the balance had grown substantially. Every time her mother wanted more money, she usually managed to refer to Anthony’s unused funds.
‘What do you need?” Get it over with and she’d go away. At least for a little while.
“A couple thousand will get me through.”
The next disbursement went out in two weeks. She’d blow through a couple thousand in a day or two. “Are you up to date with your bills?” Addie had paid off her mother’s house years ago to ensure that at least she had a place to live. The rest of the regular expenses needed to be taken care of on an ongoing basis. If her bills were current, Addie would be shocked.
“Well…”
So much for a surprise. “That’s a no.”
She sniffled, and while to some that might sound like the result of tears, Addie knew better. More the side effect of something like cocaine. “I don’t really know. I haven’t paid attention.” The first truth she’d spoken since Addie answered the call. Mommy did love to twist her words to support the fantasy world she created.
She rubbed her forehead. “I’ll make sure they’re paid, and I’ll send you a thousand.”
“But I need more.” Her whine made her sound more like a ten-year-old than a woman who happened to be sixty-plus. When Addie didn’t play to the fantasy world she embraced, her whine grew deeper and more annoying.
She didn’t buy in. Too many times hearing the same story. “It will have to do. I have to go.” Her hand shook as she ended the call. How the hell the woman could still be alive, given the shit she put into her body year after year, remained a mystery. She’d been like this Addie’s whole life—no reason to expect anything different from her. No wonder Anthony had disappeared without a word.
Her phone went off again, and she ignored it. She could take her mother only in small doses, preferably doses spread way far apart. She shoved the phone into her pocket without looking at it. Enough for one day.
* * *
Rob weaved in and out of traffic. This time of day, the freeway could be a pain in the ass, especially when it rained. Didn’t bother him much at the moment, as he liked the challenge. Razor-sharp reflexes had him cutting in close, and the honks of the other drivers only made him smile more and drive faster. It must be annoying to lack the kind of amazing hand-eye coordination he had. Suckers .
Zipping across three lanes of traffic, he laughed at the sounds of horns honking and pulled off the freeway and onto an off-ramp that had a sign promising a Starbucks nearby. The sign didn’t lie, and ten minutes later he sat at one of the tables with a steaming Americano. With his tablet, he logged into work and completed several time-sensitive tasks. The way of the world these days meant he could be anywhere and get things done. No need to sit behind a desk for hours on end. He could accomplish the same thing sitting in a snobby coffee shop while sipping his over-priced espresso.
His phone rang, his other phone, and he pulled it out. “Hi, beautiful.”
“Sweetheart, the Mendlesons called and invited us over for dinner on Saturday. Tell me we can go. This is a big deal. It’s the Mendlesons!”
He rolled his eyes, glad she hadn’t gone for a Facetime call. “I’m sorry, beautiful, but I’m going to be out of town.” Such a caring-sounding spouse, if he did say so. Had he taken his life in a different direction, no doubt he’d have been an award-winning actor.
“Oh, come on. Can’t someone else go in your place? You’ve hardly been home lately.”
This time he smiled. No, he hadn’t been home much lately. Places to go, people to see, people to… “I wish, but you know how it is. Some trips call for the best, and we both know the best is me.”
She sniffed, and he could almost see the tears forming in her bright blue eyes, though she’d dab them away so as not to ruin her makeup. “I really wanted to go.”
“Look. Why don’t you go without me? Explain to them how I couldn’t get out of the trip but you’d love to accept their invitation on both of our accounts. Take a friend with you.”
“You think that would be all right?” She sounded brighter now. The right words usually did the trick with her. “Maybe Iris could go. She’d love them.”
“They won’t mind, I’m sure of it, and you’ll have more fun with your friend. You know I really can’t stand that arrogant couple, and I’m certain they don’t care for me either. Look, I’ll see you in a little bit. I’m finishing up some business right now, and then I’ll be home. I leave in the morning.” Rob could use a good night’s sleep in his own bed. Of course, after an afternoon like he’d had today, he usually slept like the proverbial baby. The high would keep him going for a month or two.
Maybe. Of late the highs wore off quicker and quicker. He’d been steady and consistent for years, but something had changed with the last few projects. Could be his age played into it or, more likely, boredom showing its hand. The game needed something new that would energize his soul.
