Close To The Heart (Westen Series Book 5) Read online

  The door opened and a nurse dressed in pink scrubs came in. She chatted away as she checked the IV and gave Melissa a shot of something for pain. Funny, it made her sleepy and took away the ache in her stomach, but the pain would never go away. The monster’s most recent beating had taken away the small life she’d been cherishing in secret. Worse, he’d destroyed the dream of being a mother. She wish he’d just killed her.

  Tears stung her eyes and she dashed them away with the heels of her hands. She’d given enough damn tears to Frank in pain, fear and heartbreak. She wouldn’t give him more in anger. And dammit, she had every right to be angry with the man. When she’d testified in court, she thought she’d put him out of her life forever, but like a cancer he just kept coming back. Because of him, she could never marry or have a normal relationship with someone like Daniel. Someone who deserved to be a father.

  A knock on the back door startled her out of her self-pity.

  As if her thought had conjured him out of the darkness, Daniel stood in the light on the back porch.

  With a quick glance at the clock to see it was almost midnight, she hurried over, wondering why he’d come back.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked without preamble as she opened the door and saw the tension in his face and the worry shrouding his eyes.

  Motioning for her to step back, he followed her inside, closed and locked the door behind him. “We need to talk.” He looked around. “Are the kids all in bed?”

  “Yes,” she said, her nerves picking up on his wariness. “Why? What happened?”

  “It’s Lexie’s mother,” he said, stepping closer and laying his hand on her upper arm. “We found her back at their home. She’s dead.”

  “Oh, no. Poor Lexie. How am I going to tell her?” Instinctively she covered her mouth and fought back tears. “I feel so terrible.”

  “Why? You didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  “I know. Even though I didn’t know Rose Cochran at all, I have to confess I disliked her for abandoning such a sweet little girl like Lexie. And I was secretly hoping she wouldn’t appear at the courthouse tomorrow. I didn’t want her to take her daughter back. Now she’s dead.”

  Daniel drew her in against his body. “Your wishes had nothing to do with what happened to Rose. Her own decisions and lifestyle did. You have nothing to feel guilty about. In fact, you weren’t hoping for anything different than what I and most of the people who know Lexie were wishing—that Rose’s abandonment was permanent.”

  “I wanted Lexie to stay, but I never wanted her mother dead,” Melissa mumbled into his shirt, the heat of his body easing some of the trembling coursing through her.

  “Of course you didn’t,” he said, his hands rubbing slowly up and down her body. Even though it felt good to be in his arms, she felt the tension in his muscles. Something else was wrong.

  Slowly, she leaned back, unwrapping her arms from where she’d clenched her fists into his work jacket. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

  “Let’s go sit in the living room.”

  She led him into the front room and stood waiting while he shucked off his deputy’s jacket and draped it over one of the arms of the oversized chairs. Next came his gun belt, which he laid on the table next to the sofa. Within easy reach. A shiver of dread coursed through her. Something besides Rose’s death had him worried.

  Taking her hand, he drew her down to sit beside him on the sofa. Without asking permission to touch her this time, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him, slowly stroking one hand up and down her upper arm in a steady, comforting rhythm.

  As much as she wanted to prove how strong she was since leaving her ex’s abuse behind, the heat of Daniel’s body drew her closer. She sank into him, letting his quiet strength sooth the anxiety nipping at her.

  “You know,” she said after a few minutes and her nerves had relaxed, “I’ve learned over the years it’s easier to meet trouble head-on when you can see it coming. Seeing my ex’s rage and his fists build in front of me made the punches easier to dodge, or at least brace for them. It was the surprise blitz attacks that were the worst.” She smoothed her hand over Daniel’s chest as he tensed beside her. “I’m trying to tell you that whatever you are trying to find a way to tell me, I’d prefer it straight up, just the facts. Don’t try to soften it. I don’t want to be blindsided.” She leaned back to look him in the eyes. “I prefer the unvarnished truth—always.”

  In the dim light coming from the kitchen, he stared into her eyes. She read the concern in them as he tried to decide something.

  “The truth it is,” he said, cupping her face with one hand. “But first I really need to kiss you.”

  The memory of those first kisses still fresh in her mind, she didn’t resist as he pulled her to him and claimed her mouth. This time his kiss was different from the gentle one they’d shared earlier.

  Deeper. More intense. Needful.

  Their tongues met and danced. Melissa wanted more. Another first for her. She wasn’t submitting to Daniel’s needs as she had Frank’s. Instead she was meeting him with her own desires.

  Before the passion between them progressed to something even more intimate, Daniel dialed it back. Once again, he showed her he controlled his emotions and she had nothing to fear from him. He tilted his head, continuing to kiss her, but more like a connoisseur sampling a fine wine than a drunkard overindulging on cheap beer. Finally, he leaned back, heat in his eyes as he gave her a small lift at the corner of his lips.

  “Kissing you can be quite distracting.” He reached up to smooth his hand over her hair, his countenance growing serious once more. “And as much as I would love to spend the rest of the night indulging myself, we have more important things to discuss.”

  “Something to do with Lexie’s mother?”

  He nodded. “We think there might be something more going on than just the heroin epidemic finding its way into Westen.”

  “Another drug?”

  “We do know the heroin’s been mixed with fentanyl. But there’s evidence that child trafficking may be involved in all of this.”

  Shock and fear for Lexie hit Melissa in the center of her chest. She clasped her hand over her mouth to keep from moaning loudly. Last thing she wanted to do was wake up any of the kids. “Dear God,” she finally managed to whisper. “Rose was going to sell her daughter for drugs?”

  Daniel shook his head, taking her hand in his. “Addicts have been known to do that, but we don’t believe that’s this situation at all. There’s no evidence that Rose had gotten so desperate that she’d sell her child. By all accounts from Cleetus and what Lexie’s told us, Rose loved her.”

  “But she did abandon her in a blizzard to go out for a fix. Maybe she’d crossed the line.”

  “Can’t argue with your logic,” he acknowledged her thoughts. “But we’re seeing a different pattern emerging.”

  “What pattern? Emerging from where?”

  “The three drug overdoses we’ve had this week, the man and woman last Thursday, and now Rose are all connected in more than just their death by highly potent heroin.”

  Melissa tilted her head a little and narrowed her eyes. “Connected how?”

  “All three of them had school age kids.”

  God, she hated to ask. “What happened to the other children?”

  “Two of them are safely in the custody of their father, Hank Powers. He’s the bartender and part owner of the Wagon Wheel. Their mother, his ex, was one of the two bodies we found in the trailer on Thursday.” Daniel paused to take a deep breath, as if bracing for a body blow.

  “And?”

  “The other victim had a twelve-year old daughter who went missing after her mother OD’d about a year ago. They found the girl in a raid on a massage parlor fronting for a brothel.”

  “The poor thing.” Tears stung Melissa’s eyes and she leaned into Daniel’s side once more. “How could someone do that to a child?” Then another thought poppe
d into her head. “Both parents were addicts?”

  “Sadly, yes.”

  “So which parent was responsible for selling their child?”

  Daniel shook his head. “We don’t know if they did. The father disappeared about the same time as his daughter. Gage is wondering if there might be another reason she ended up in such a dire situation.”

  “Like what?”

  “We think whoever is supplying these drugs is targeting people with an addiction to opioid pills who have kids of a certain age. They get them hooked on the heroin at stronger and stronger dosages until the person dies of an apparent overdose, only it’s not an overdose.”

  Confused, Melissa leaned back in his arms to study him. “I thought you said Rose and the others died from heroin?”

  “They definitely died from heroin. Whether it was self-induced or not, is what we’re questioning. Gage suspects it may be a hot shot.”

  “What’s a hot shot?”

  “It’s when someone intentionally gives an addict a lethal dose of heroin or heroin laced with something that can kill them. Most of the time those go undetected because most cops chalk the death due to sloppiness on the addict’s part. Easy to close the case and move on. Rarely do law enforcement want to make more work for themselves by considering it a homicide.”

  “The sheriff thinks they were murdered? For the kids?”

  Daniel nodded. “Gage worked undercover in the drug world for years. Saw things that would make you sick. Thinks people would do to themselves or others just to get a fix or make money. Since we’ve noticed a pattern in our cases and all three were so close together, he’s treating them like homicides until proven otherwise. And we’re not taking any chances where Lexie’s concerned.”

  Fear lanced through her. “That’s why you’re here. You think someone killed Rose and are coming to get Lexie. To traffic her.”

  “Like I said,” he tightened his arms around her. “We’re not taking any chances. I’m going to spend the night here and we’ll regroup tomorrow to figure out how best to keep her and all of you safe.”

  She popped up to sit on the edge of the sofa. “What about the custody hearing tomorrow? What if the judge puts her in some facility where they’re so overcrowded, she gets lost? Or some home where someone isn’t paying attention? What if the killer finds her there?”

  “Let’s not borrow trouble,” he said, his hand once more rubbing slowly over her back, easing some of her tension. “Like I said earlier, no one wants to move her out of Westen House. Gage believes that now, more than ever, it’s best she remains here with people who care about her, like you and me. She’s safer with us than in some big system where such a tiny little thing can get lost or overlooked. We’ll have a talk with Judge Rawlins tomorrow.”

  Melissa settled back against his side. “She is such a special little girl, isn’t she?”

  “Smart as a whip,” he said, a smile in his voice. “Determined, too. Did you see how quickly she learned to throw the baseball? I’m going to teach her how to hit next. Got a bat for junior players in my SUV.”

  “You’re going to be a good dad someday,” Melissa said after they sat in quiet for a bit.

  He stiffened beside her just a bit. “I can’t.”

  “Oh, not that I meant you and I… That I thought there was something more between…” she stammered, rushing to reassure him she hadn’t meant there was something in the future between them, heat filling her face. She tried to push away, but he just tightened his arms to hold her still.

  “That’s not what I meant,” he said, slipping a finger beneath her chin and raising her face to look into her eyes. “The way I’ve been kissing you, I do want there to be more for us, but I have to be honest with you first.”

  That sounded so ominous.

  “You’re already married?” God, she hoped not.

  Some of the tension in his face eased and the corners of his lips raised just a little. “No and I never have been.”

  Relaxing just a little, she returned his half smile. “Good. I don’t think I’d make a good other woman.”

  “You’re the only woman I’m interested in.” He dipped his head to give her a brief, soft kiss. Then he grew serious once more. “When I said I can’t, I meant I can’t be a father. You need to know that up front.”

  “Oh.” Then it hit her. He meant he couldn’t father children. “Oh, I see. Were you ill?”

  He shook his head. “No. I chose to have a vasectomy when I was twenty.”

  That surprised her. “Why?”

  Silence settled between them. She itched to press him but understood this hadn’t been an easy decision and not something he’d talked about with anyone before.

  “My father died of Parkinson’s when I was in high school.”

  She laid her hand on his chest, but didn’t interrupt, knowing he had more to tell her.

  “His father, my grandfather moved in to help my mom care for him. He said he’d done it before with his father. There wasn’t as much known about the disease when he was young, and his father had died by the time Granddad had kids. My father and his brother both developed the disease in their thirties, after they’d had kids.”

  “And you were afraid you’d have it, too.”

  “By the time I was in college, I was able to do some research. At the time, they felt that only ninety-five percent of people with Parkinson’s got it by heredity. I was tested, and as far as I know I’m clear. No symptoms, and I’m well past the age both my dad, uncle and great grandfather began showing symptoms. And theirs was a very quick moving form of the disease. Of course, there’s still a lot about genes that scientists have yet to discover.”

  “But given the fact that you know it’s happened in your family over generations—”

  “I wasn’t willing to take the chance of passing it on to my kids. It’s such a debilitating disease.” He paused and wiped the moisture from his eyes, blinking hard.

  Melissa leaned her head back against his shoulder and wrapped her arm around him, comforting him in the only way she knew how. Her mother had abandoned her when she was in elementary school, leaving her to be raised by her grandparents, who had both died not long after she’d married. She could only imagine how devastating it must be to watch someone you love slowly wither away until they died.

  Again, silence settled between them. Not an uncomfortable one. More like a bond was forming between them, a small ribbon of trust two people have when they share something deep from their past. Trust. That’s what she had with Daniel. A trust she’d never felt with anyone else.

  “I can’t have children, either,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Daniel tightened his arm around her but didn’t say anything. Which was good. She couldn’t tolerate the standard platitude of I’m sorry. Not from him. Not after what he’d just shared.

  “It happened a year before that last beating—the one where he broke my eye socket and broke my ribs.” She paused to inhale slowly, wanting strength to tell her story. “I was just about three months along. I was so happy to finally be having a baby. I’d made a beautiful dinner to surprise Frank with the news. Only, he wasn’t as happy to hear I was pregnant. Normally I’d know when he was going to get violent. Could gauge his temper by the number of drinks he had. This one came out of nowhere.”

  A shudder ran through her. The memory of her ex’s anger that night still gave her nightmares.

  “You don’t have to tell me more,” Daniel said, stroking his hand over her arm. “Not if it gives you pain.”

  Once more he put her welfare above everything. But after he’d been so courageous to share his secret with her, could she be any less brave in sharing hers? And just like that she felt stronger.

  “He shoved the table over. Food flying around. China and crystal shattering on the floor. I was so shocked I couldn’t defend myself when he grabbed me by the arm. He twisted it and the snap of both bones sent me to my knees with pain. That’s when he started
kicking me with those steel-tipped cowboy boots he loved so much.” She paused to swallow the bile that suddenly rose in her throat. Dammit, he wasn’t going to hurt her anymore. “The blood scared him. It’s why he took me to the hospital in the next county.”

  “How did he explain your injuries?” Daniel’s question was quiet, but she heard the controlled anger beneath the words.

  “Oh, you know the standard. Clumsy wife fell down the stairs.”

  “And they believed him?”

  She shook her head. “No, the nurses were too smart for that. A social worker came to see me the day after my surgery, asking me about abuse. I’d just been told I’d lost the baby and that they’d had to do a hysterectomy to save my life. The pain of knowing I’d never have children on top of the surgical pain…I’m afraid I was too stupid to tell them the truth.”

  “You weren’t stupid, love. You were protecting yourself in the only way you knew how.”

  “It took another beating and almost going blind for me to get the courage to stand up to him.” Tears flowed down her face. “If I’d done it sooner, my child might have lived.”

  Daniel wrapped both arms tightly around her and pressed her body into his as she quietly cried, finally grieving for the child she’d lost and the children she’d never have.

  17

  Four very serious faces stared across the table at Daniel. He’d heard the boys come down the stairs before dawn. Used to the boisterous sounds his baseball team members were capable of just walking into a locker room, he’d marveled at how little noise this quartet made. Then again, given that two of them had learned the art of stealth at a young age when they repeatedly ran away from foster homes, he shouldn’t be that surprised when he heard the bottom of the stair creak just slightly half an hour ago.

  The creak hadn’t been by accident. They’d wanted his attention.

  So, here he sat, having only hours of dozing sleep on a sofa in a strange house, listening for someone trying to break in, drinking coffee—and thank God, Melissa had a regular coffee maker so he could make an entire pot—about to be questioned by four worried teens. Gonna be a great day.