Читать книгу Killer Exposure - Jessica R. Patch - Страница 14

Locke haphazardly punched his steering wheel, sighed and raked a hand through his hair. He needed a haircut, but during storm-chasing season he didn’t pay attention to haircuts or daily shaving. He was parked down the street from Greer’s. It wasn’t hard to find. Not when he’d been here before.

It was after midnight, and the last thing Locke wanted to do was wake up Greer’s mom, especially since she was in bad health. But after going back to the camper park, showering and getting dry clothes on, he couldn’t concentrate on a single thing. He had this ball in his gut that kept signaling red flags.

Locke groaned and went with his gut. He turned his lights off as he pulled behind Greer’s silver CR-V. If she still had the same bedroom, he could tap on her window. Probably terrify her after what happened earlier tonight, but he didn’t want to wake the entire house. He slipped around back and tiptoed to the room Greer had slept in when he visited.

Greer screamed.

Locke’s heart leaped into his throat.

Another shrill scream, but it came from outside. Hurrying, he rushed around the side of the house as Greer bolted through the patio doors.

The killer burst through after her, clobbering her to the ground.

Blood turning hot and adrenaline spiking, Locke flew to the attacker and grabbed him by the collar, then hurled him into the air and two feet from Greer. He landed with a thud and a curse. Stalking toward him, Locke had no intentions of letting this creep get away again.

The guy hopped to his feet and raced behind the house toward the neighbor’s. Locke gave chase. With every stride, he grew angrier. How dare this guy try to come back? No one was going to hurt Greer. No one.

Locke gained on him as he hurdled a chain link fence into a backyard. Locke scaled the fence and turned the corner. Something smacked him upside the head, knocking him to the ground in a daze. He glanced down. The aluminum lid to a trash can was lying beside him. A flash of the attacker sprang over another fence.

Giving his head a good shake, Locke stood and rubbed his cheek. That was going to bring a nice, fat headache in a few hours. Greer might be hurt, and the attacker was now too far away to chase. Locke ran back to her house. This time, he knocked on the side patio door that she’d run through.

Greer opened it, looking worse for wear, hair hanging in knotted clumps. Same wet clothing she’d had on earlier. Dirt, grime and tears streaked her face. Her hands shook uncontrollably. Without thinking, he yanked her to him and crushed her in an embrace. She winced, and he eased up. “Greer,” he whispered. “Are you hurt? Did he... Did he hurt you?”

She sniffed against his chest. She’d always fit perfectly, her head coming right under his chin. “No. I haven’t been home long enough to go through this again.”

“How did he get in?” Locke asked.

“Everything looked fine when I got home, but the window to the laundry room was broken. He got in through there.”

How would the attacker know where she lived if he was a maintenance worker at the carnival?

“I don’t suppose it would be too difficult to find out where I live. It’s a small town. He couldn’t have followed me. He was here when I got home.”

Guess she’d been thinking the same thing. The sound of the shower running caught his attention. “Did you call it in?”

“Yes. Deputy Crisp is out searching for him. I’m assuming he got away.” She didn’t pull away from him, and the familiarity pooled like warm goodness in his stomach.

“He did. Which reminds me. Can I have a couple pain relievers?”

Greer broke the hug and peered up at him. Lightly, she touched his cheek with her quaking fingers. She caught his eye, and their gazes held. Suddenly, she wrenched her hand away and strode to the cabinet by the fridge. “What did he get you with?” She fetched him two ibuprofens and a bottle of water.

“Metal trash lid.”

“Ouch.” She grabbed a pack of frozen peas from the freezer and handed them to him. “You’ll want this.”

Locke scanned the kitchen. The house was quiet. Too quiet. “Where’s your mama? Is she okay?”

Greer looked away. “She—she passed three months ago. Another heart attack.”

His stomach bottomed out. “Greer. I’m...I’m so sorry.” She hadn’t called him, which smarted, but not as much as it hurt to see her breaking. Greer and her mama had been close. The whole family had been after their dad left. He didn’t know the entire story. Greer never spoke of him, but it had been a devastating blow to them all. “I know what you’re going through.” His dad had been gone much longer, but the emptiness was always there. He wished Greer would have called. Leaned on him. He could have helped her.

She wiped her eyes.

He placed his bottle of water on the sink. A wall of awkwardness built between them. “Why don’t you go get dry and warm, and I’ll make us some coffee or something. Then I’ll fix that window.”

Greer glanced behind her and a new wave of fear covered her face.

“Hey, don’t worry. I won’t let him hurt you, and I doubt he’ll be back.” Tonight. But he had a sneaky feeling this wasn’t over. This guy was set on taking out the one witness to a murder, and he didn’t seem to care that Greer worked for the sheriff’s department. That made him brazen. Bold. Locke wasn’t going anywhere.

“It’s not that,” she whispered. “I’ll be right back and—and we should talk, Locklin. A major conversation.”

Locke swallowed down a mountain of nerves. Well, he’d wanted answers. Guess he was about to get them. “I’ll make it strong then.”

“You definitely should.” Worry etched her brow. “And you don’t have to stay. You...won’t want to.” She muttered the last part and he wasn’t sure he heard right. Nothing could make him leave.

“Greer, a man tried to kill you multiple times tonight. Let’s just say what we both know. He has no intention of letting you walk away after having seen him.” He wasn’t trying to scare her, but she was acting delusional. “Your colleagues obviously didn’t solve the case after you left. I’m not leaving you alone. I want to stay.”

“I’m trained.”

“I don’t care.” He wasn’t budging.

“The department is going to do drive-bys every thirty minutes. Fingerprint the window. I’m not scared.”

Liar. She was terrified. He just wasn’t sure why some of that fear seemed to be directed toward him. “Go take care of yourself. The only way you’re getting rid of me is to call the police and say I’m trespassing, and after I saved you twice tonight, that feels like a crummy and ungrateful thing to do,” he jested, trying to lighten her up, to relieve some fear and tension. He would keep her safe. “I may not be a gun-toting cop or Navy SEAL, but I’m more than capable of holding my own and watching out for you.”

Greer inhaled deeply. “I know. Now, you make coffee and I’ll only be a second.”

“Okay,” he offered and slowly moved to the fridge, taking out a carton of eggs. “I’ll be right here making eggs and coffee.” And trying to figure out what on earth was going on.

She rushed from the kitchen.

Locke laid the carton of eggs on the counter, then peeped into the living room and down the hall. The door to a bedroom closed. Back in the living room, a baby swing and toys littered the floor. She’d said she had side jobs. Was she babysitting or running a day care? The wall above the couch caught his eye.

A collage of photos. Those weren’t there the last time he visited. There had been a huge painting of a meadow. He remembered because he’d loved it. It was only missing a tornado right down the middle.

He switched on the lamp by the couch and gaped.

Blood whooshed in his ears, leaving him dizzy. Photo after photo of a baby girl. Newborn pictures. One in a little tin washtub chewing on a rubber duck. But it wasn’t the clever poses that nearly brought him to his knees. It was the black-as-night hair. The blue eyes that stared back at him. The dimple in her right cheek. Locke touched his right cheek, felt the dimple there.

His sight landed on a newborn picture with footprints and handprints beside it and a birthdate.

No. Didn’t take a professor to do the math.

This child was nine months old.

Nine months of pregnancy.

Eighteen months ago, Greer had left him.

Why? Why would she do this? He lifted the most recent photo from the wall. Even without a DNA test, it was crystal clear that this child belonged to Locke.

He was a father.

He had a daughter.

His eyes burned and moisture blurred the photo in front of him. He blinked and focus came back. He trailed his index finger over the baby’s face. She was... She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Mischief in her eyes already. She had Greer’s thick lips and straight little nose.

His lungs squeezed. Emotions swept through him like a roller coaster. Pride. Joy. Fear. Confusion. Despair. Loss.

Anger.

He camped on anger. How could Greer do this? Keep him from his child. From being a dad. Was she never going to tell him? What if he’d never shown up in her hometown? What if he’d come by tonight and she hadn’t been attacked? Would Greer have even let him inside?

“I was hoping to tell you before you saw all this,” she whispered.

He pivoted and held up the photo.

Greer slid her gaze from the photo to Locke’s face and her lip trembled, but she didn’t speak. Didn’t try to explain or toss a weak excuse his way.

“Where is she?” Fear flooded him. “Is she here?” Was she in the house when a killer broke in? His heart galloped, and he stormed down the hall, taking a hard left and flipping on the light in the room Greer had once used.

A perfect pink-and-pastel nursery came into view. He smelled the baby powder and sweet scent, and his knees buckled. But his daughter was nowhere to be found.

Greer stood at the door. “She’s with my friend Tori,” she whispered. “She babysits her some when I’m working and she doesn’t have a shift at the hospital. Sometimes another friend, Cindy, watches her.”

Locke didn’t know what to say first. He was flooded. Overwhelmed.

“How could you, Greer? How could you hide this from me? Do this to me?” With every question, his voice rose and his pulse rocketed.

“Locke, you said you didn’t want children.”

He collapsed into the rocking chair, dropping his head into his hands. He had said that and he’d meant it at the time, but he didn’t have a flesh-and-blood child to see or touch or talk to. Now he did and that changed things.

He was furious for the betrayal. Terrified of what this now meant. How was he supposed to be a dad—not just a dad but a good one? Yeah, he’d told Greer that he didn’t want kids. Yeah, his excuse was his on-the-go lifestyle not being conducive to children. But that wasn’t the deep-down-inside reason. That reason was too embarrassing to reveal. Especially to the woman he’d wanted to pledge his life to. It was too raw, making him too vulnerable. It would have shown her who he really was and she would have left him. She’d left him, anyway, in the end, but not for the truth. Not for the real reason he didn’t want to be a father.

The truth was, Locke couldn’t handle disappointing and failing one more person. Most definitely not his own flesh and blood. He’d been a screw-up his whole life. It was easier to let Greer believe the superficial excuse.

“You said you didn’t want them, either, but here you are. A mama. You didn’t put her up for adoption. You changed gears and didn’t allow me to change them. That’s not fair.”

Greer sighed. “No, it’s not. And that has crossed my mind several times in the past few months. I even picked up the phone to call you...but I didn’t. And I can’t change it now. I don’t know where we go from here.”

Locke wasn’t sure, either. His biggest fear had come true in two seconds flat. Underneath that fear, though, was a powerful need to see his baby. It pulled at him like gravity. He may not have wanted a kid, but he had one now. And he wanted her.

“I want to see her.”

“It’s the middle of the night. She’s asleep.”

Locke worked his jaw, studied the room. “I want to see her first thing this morning, Greer.”

Greer exhaled a shaky breath, but she nodded. “I understand if you want to leave now.”

She understood nothing. “No, I can’t leave. As much as I want to.” He needed to clear his head. Think things out. There was so much to process and his mind was going billions of miles a minute. “Because some crazy is out there trying to kill you. So, I’ll be staying.” He paused beside her. “Make no mistake, though. It has nothing to do with how I feel about you.” She’d hidden a human being from him and if he hadn’t come to town, he still wouldn’t know! That was unfair no matter what he’d said about having or not having kids. It didn’t matter how terrified he was knowing he was a father. This was his baby. His. Baby. “But you’re the mother of my child. So, I won’t let anything happen to you. For my child’s sake.”

At the door, Greer sniffed. A sliver of him wanted to go and comfort her. But he was aching inside and needed to be alone.

“I’m taking the couch.” He marched down the hall and into the living room.

He fell onto the sofa, face in a throw pillow. Greer’s bedroom door quietly clicked closed and everything he felt, everything he’d missed out on, every slice of her betrayal, broke through and washed out his eyes on to the sagging couch.

* * *

When the alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., Greer rolled over and turned it off. She hadn’t slept a wink. After Deputy Crisp fingerprinted the window, she’d spent most of the night sobbing and begging God to help her figure this out. She’d never seen Locke so angry, though he had every right to be. Every right to hate her, to be disgusted. But he’d never understand her reasons. Locke wouldn’t believe he’d ever resent them and walk out one day. Her own dad probably hadn’t even thought that at first. One day it would happen. Locke never looked much to the future. He lived in the now. That was his way. She’d done what she thought was best. Right or wrong. She couldn’t take it back.

Now that Locke knew, Greer feared what he might do. What if he tried to take Lin from her? And do what with her? Take her to live in campers while he chased storms? Just toss her in a car seat with a toy camera as he raced with twisters? Hardly. But he was extremely impulsive to say the least, so Greer couldn’t be sure what he would or wouldn’t do.

When he’d shown up at her house after rescuing her again, she had been terrified, but then he’d taken her and held her against him. All the comfort and warmth she’d needed, he’d provided. His tenderness had been overwhelming. Twice he’d risked his life for her.

But now his protection was only due to the fact they shared a child. Any tender feelings he had were gone. Better that way, anyway.

That wasn’t the only terrifying thing sending her heart into arrhythmia. Locke was right when he said a killer wanted her dead. Somehow, the man in the maintenance uniform had discovered where she lived and she wasn’t safe. Greer had barely gotten free from his grasp a second time. Barely made it outside. If Locke hadn’t been there—again—she might not have made it at all. And what if Lin had been home? Her baby wasn’t safe, either. This guy wasn’t going to stop coming for her.

Today was going to be a long day. They had to find him. Put him away. It was the only way Greer and Lin would be safe. But before she could get to work and do her job, she had to take Locke to see Lin.

After cleaning up, she found him sitting at the kitchen table, eyes red-rimmed and hair disheveled. Didn’t look like he’d slept, either. She wasn’t sure if she was going to get more heat or if he’d blown his top and now would be less harsh. Either way, she’d take whatever dish he served up, whether hot or cold, and eat it without complaint.

“What time does she wake up?” he asked quietly.

“About now. I’ll call Tori and let her know we’re coming. Do—do you want anything to eat or drink?”

“I don’t want anything, Greer,” he murmured. “Just my daughter.”

She swallowed the ache in her throat and nodded, then went into her bedroom to call Tori—the only person in town who knew everything. Tori had been her best friend since third grade. When she reentered the kitchen, Locke had changed clothes and looked like he’d shaved. A duffel bag hung over his shoulder. The fact he’d freshened up to meet his nine-month-old baby girl sent a wave of warmth and grief through her.

He silently followed her outside.

“Do you want to ride together?”

“I do not.”

“Okay,” she mumbled. “Tori lives on a farm on the edge of town. She homesteads.” Now she was nervously babbling. “Just...follow me.”

As she neared Tori’s farm, her stomach knotted, and she felt like she might throw up. She pulled up behind Tori’s car. Locke was behind her in his Ford F-150. He followed her to the screened-in door at the side of the house. Tori met them at the door.

“This is Locke.”

“Hey,” Locke said, devoid of his typical charm and friendliness.

“Nice to meet you. She’s...she’s in her high chair.”

They entered the kitchen; the smell of toast and coffee permeated the room. Greer’s heart swelled when she saw Lin sitting in a wooden high chair with a few rice puffs on her tray. “Hi, baby girl,” Greer cooed.

Lin looked up, gave her that wide grin and banged on her tray, squealing. Nothing made Greer feel more loved and wanted. Locke hung back. His bravado, his anger, gone. He almost seemed nervous. Shy. Uncertain. Greer lifted Lin from the high chair and kissed her chubby cheek. “Mama missed you, baby girl. Did you have fun with Miss Tori?” She kissed her again and slowly brought her to Locke.

“I have some work down in the root cellar. I’ll be there if you need me.” Tori left them alone, and Greer brought Lin to him.

“She’s going through stranger anxiety so she may not warm up very fast,” Greer said.

“And do you know what that feels like, Greer? To be a stranger to your own child?” he whispered. “Does she have a name? I don’t even know my daughter’s name.” Anguish swept through his tone, and regret panged in her heart.

“Locklin, meet Stormie Lin. But she goes by Lin. L-i-n.”

Moisture formed in his eyes. “Lin,” he whispered. “Stormie Lin,” he whispered again. He looked at Greer, blinked back the moisture. His blue eyes were bright. Clear. “What’s her last name?”

Greer’s dream had always been to carry his last name. Her daughter should as well. “On the birth certificate it’s Gallagher. But around here, she’s Lin Montgomery.”

Locke sniffed, studied Lin. “At least you gave her my name legally. Thank you.”

A thank-you. Greer bit her lower lip. Locke reached out, hesitated, then touched Lin’s cheek. “Hey,” he said with a soft baby-talk tone. “Hey, Lin.”

She peered at her daddy, into identical eyes, with a somber expression. He tickled under her chin. “Do you know who I am?” He became more cheerful as if working to draw a smile. “I’m your...daddy.” His voice choked with emotion on the word. “Can you say ‘daddy’?” he asked.

Lin wrapped her pudgy hand around his finger on her chin and blew spit bubbles.

Locke chuckled, and she squealed.

“Can I...hold her?” he asked.

“We can try, yes.” Greer slowly passed Lin to Locke. “Go see your daddy, baby girl. It’s okay.”

Lin swiveled toward Greer but allowed Locke to take her in his arms. Greer had been in those arms many times. Surely, Lin would feel the strength and security in them, as Greer always had. The feeling of protection. She only hoped her baby girl would never have to live with those strong, safe arms leaving her.

Locke took her hand and kissed her baby knuckles. “Hey.”

Bless him, he had no clue what to say or do, but his affection was clear. Burning bright in his eyes. “You are so lovely, little girl.”

Greer turned and squeezed her eyes shut, holding back tears.

“Did you know that? Did you know you were so lovely?” he asked again.

Greer faced them, watched. Lin put her hand on his cheek and squeezed.

“Mmm...you got a grip there, kiddo.” Locke laughed. “Good solid grip.”

Greer chuckled, and Lin laughed with her.

“Well, she likes you.”

“She should. I’m her dad,” he said strongly. “I want to know everything, Greer. I want to know everything I missed. Because I’ve missed it all. You have to understand that, right?”

Greer bit back tears. “I didn’t want us to be in your way. You’d just signed the two-year contract. I hadn’t. You were working your way into your dream. And...”

“And what?”

How did she explain that she knew he’d end up abandoning them? He’d just argue with her. “And, I’m sorry.” Sorry for this whole mess.

“Me, too.” He rubbed Lin’s soft cap of raven hair. “It curls when it’s wet, doesn’t it?” he asked.

“It does.”

“So does mine.” He grinned.

“I know,” she whispered. “I’ll tell you everything. Show you photos. Videos.” Whatever he wanted. But that didn’t make the fear go away. Seeing his gentleness didn’t give her hope. Dad had been fun with her, too. When she was little, he’d called her precious. “But I have to go to work, Locke. A killer is out there, and you’re right. I’m not safe until he’s behind bars.” She couldn’t let Locke see how terrified she truly was. He might try to take Lin away or something. She had to appear confident. Brave. In control. But she had never felt more helpless and out of control.

“New storm system coming in today. Around two. I have to work, too, but I want all the time I have with her. You owe me that.”

“I know.” But what about after? All the time he had. Meaning he wasn’t going to have a lifetime. Her anxiety ramped up and all she felt was her own rejection. Same rejection Lin would feel if Locke thought he could waltz in and out.

Lin wiggled in Locke’s arms and reached for the high chair.

“She wants her juice.” Greer handed it to her. “Let’s go in the living room.” She had about an hour before she needed to be on her way to the carnival. Interviews to conduct. A murder to investigate. She wasn’t sure what scared her most right now.

The killer or Locke.