Part 24 (1/2)

Lucy's spa was right next door to her brother's business, and how cool was that?

Emily Anne placed a hand on her stomach to quell the b.u.t.terflies going berserk inside her. When she thought back on her first meeting with Lucy Carter, she remembered being somewhat intimidated by the woman. Oh, there was nothing Lucy had done to give her that feeling-it was just that the brunette was tall and beautiful and had seemed so self-a.s.sured.

Emily Anne smiled. She herself was feeling more and more self-confident with each pa.s.sing week. She remembered the gorgeous leather outfit that Lucy had bought at Discretion, and thinking that she wished she was brave enough to dare to wear such a thing.

At the rate I'm going, that day may come sooner rather than later. That, Emily Anne decided, was a very nice thought.

As she reached for the door handle she looked in and saw Lucy, her head down, standing by a gla.s.s counter, writing in a book of some sort.

The woman with her hair pulled back and up and her attention focused looked different than the one Emily Anne had seen at Discretion. This Lucy looked professional, but just as competent and kick-a.s.s.

Lucy looked up, met her gaze, and smiled.

Oh, what a great smile! It's her best feature. That smile turned Lucy from seeming slightly intimidating into a woman who looked like she could be a friend. Emboldened, Emily Anne opened the door and entered the spa.

”Hi, Lucy. Thanks for seeing me.”

”Summer thought it would be a good idea if we talked. I agreed for a couple of reasons. I realize that I may have seemed rude to you when we met. I'm sorry for that. I had the feeling at the time that I made you nervous. I'm very sorry if I did. It wasn't intentional.”

”Oh, no, you didn't. Well, not directly. It was all me. You looked so confident and...I guess queenly. I told Summer that my first impression of you was of a beautiful Amazon. Actually, I was in complete awe of you.”

”Wow.” Lucy blushed. ”You just made my day.”

Emily Anne felt her own face color. ”I hope you don't think I'm pandering. I have a habit of saying what I think-especially lately.” She sighed. Her gaze slid to the gla.s.s case that Lucy used as a counter. She could see products for sale, what looked like bees wax body products and...honey? She read the little card by the products and remembered that Beck O'Malley was a beekeeper. The fact that Lucy had his products featured prominently in her spa spoke of the woman's feelings for the man, in her estimation. ”It changes you when you find a couple of men who love you beyond all reason, doesn't it?”

”Yes, I think it really does.” Lucy leaned against the gla.s.s cabinet. ”Summer said you wanted to talk to me about Chloe Rhodes, and that I should listen to what you have to say. Would you like to go and grab some lunch?”

”I'd love to, but my men are waiting for me at The Dancing Pony. They're having a meeting there.”

Lucy looked interested. ”Beck and Patrick are there, too, I think. Does that meeting have to do with Chloe?”

Did Lucy look worried? Emily Anne waved her hand, because she shouldn't be worried one bit. ”Not in the way you think. When she and her sister were just kids, they lost their parents in a tornado. The man who had been their dad's business partner and charged with the duty to see to the estate, stole it. The l.u.s.ty Town Trust hired Mel and Connor-those are my men-to see if that man, Ralph Baxter, could be tracked down. Not that he can be charged with the theft, although I don't think there should be a statute of limitations when it comes to crimes where kids are the victims.”

”I agree with you there. But why are they having the meeting here, in Divine?”

”Because they've traced Ralph Baxter to Divine. Anyway, what I wanted to say was, when you think of it, it's a full circle, you know? Chloe was here and now she's in l.u.s.ty.” Emily Anne shook her head. She needed to tell the whole story. ”When Chloe and her sister went to foster care, they were separated. Carrie ended up in a home where the parents were raising a little sociopath. He s.e.xually abused Carrie, and when he got out of prison he came looking for her again. If Chloe hadn't been there he might have succeeded in his horrible plan. But she was, and because she'd been prepared, she was also able to save the life of Sheriff Kendall.” Emily Anne almost never talked about what Chloe had gone through, because it had been so hard for her. She didn't know why she was doing it now, but Lucy was listening. She lowered her voice. ”She had to kill that awful s.e.xual predator to do it, and even though the man deserved killing, it was a hard thing for her to deal with afterward. But Grant and Andrew were there to help her through it. I believe with all my heart that those two firefighters were meant to be hers.”

Lucy remained silent and Emily Anne wondered if she was making any sense. ”When I first met Chloe, it was just after she came to town. Did you know that she is an esthetician, and ma.s.sage therapist, too, just like you?”

”Yes, Beck told me a little about her.”

”She's self-employed and has her own place, too. She wouldn't have anything to do with those two Jessops at first. She was still pretty broken up about having to say no to Beck. She told me that she simply hadn't loved him enough to say yes, and that it would be worse to accept his proposal and then have it all go to h.e.l.l in a year or two. I didn't really understand that at the time, because I had been dumped by my boyfriend a month before and I was still stinging-convinced that no one would ever love me.”

”Beck was more than badly hurt, he was a mess. Even when I was falling for Patrick, and he insisted that Beck, who was always around, was a good guy, I couldn't figure out why he was so surly, so-” Lucy laughed but it didn't sound humorous. ”He was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d at times. And then came Valentine's Day.”

Emily Anne recognized the look in Lucy's eyes. She was reliving a painful memory. ”Chloe called him to tell him she was getting married. I know. That was the day her men proposed to her.”

”Yeah. I think that was the moment he went into a free fall because until then, he had hope she would come back to him. He was devastated.” Lucy swore as she swiped at a tear.

”Chloe isn't a bad woman, Lucy. She just wasn't the woman for Beck. But I think you are.”

Lucy looked up as if to deny what she'd said about Chloe, and then frowned. In the next instant the door opened and a man came into the spa off the sidewalk. Squinty gaze, salt and pepper eyebrows, and hair all askew, at first Emily Anne wondered if he was a homeless person.

Emily Anne couldn't help but notice how Lucy seemed to go stiff. The tone she used with the man told her as no words could have that she didn't like him one bit. ”The computer store is down the street, sir, remember? Between Batson's Grocery Store and Divine Auto Repair.”

”It's not the computer store I want, it's you. Tell your hooker friend to leave.”

Emily Anne didn't understand what was happening, but her temper spiked. She'd turned to face this stranger, and now she took a step backward, closer to Lucy.

”I'm not a hooker, and I'm not leaving, unless Lucy wants me to. You're rude!”

”Fine, have it your way.” He pulled out a nasty-looking gun and pointed it at them both. ”You come with me or I'll kill you both right here, right now.”

Chapter 23.

Chloe Diane Rhodes, what in the h.e.l.l do you think you are doing?

Chloe's fingers gripped the steering wheel with renewed intensity as her inner voice continued to give her a good chewing out. The closer she got to her destination, the louder that voice seemed to be.

Grant and Andrew are going to be heading home from that conference they went to and they're going to discover you M.I.A. You should be back in l.u.s.ty seeing to your clients instead of on the road to Divine, seeing to the past.

Chloe exhaled and then reached over and turned the car radio on. Maybe Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan could drown out the voice of her conscience yammering away at her.

The truth was, she should be at home seeing to her business. She'd had to feverishly rebook her slate of clients for the day, and she'd begged Carol to take the two that couldn't reschedule. Yes, she should have resisted the urge to come to Divine, but she hadn't. She should have left well enough alone and let those two professional, private investigators handle their case. But she wasn't doing that, either.

Mel Richardson and Connor Talbot had been keeping her up to date on their progress. They hadn't told her that they were taking a meeting in Divine today and hoping to put a plan into motion to bring Ralph Baxter, aka Bruce Smith, to justice. But she guessed they'd held back, unwilling to let her get her hopes up, in case things didn't work out.

But ever since Emily Anne left her spa earlier this morning, there'd been something inside of her nagging and nagging her to make this trip. In a way she couldn't understand, every inner instinct she possessed had begun to scream at her, and only shut up the moment she'd pointed her car down the road to the town she used to live in.

Chloe had never been to The Dancing Pony before, but she knew where it was. She could just saunter in as if she just happened to be in town today-oh, maybe on her way to see Madeleine-and got thirsty, and then, when she saw those detectives there, why she'd just walk over, pretty as you please, and act all surprised to see them. And then she would worm her way in to their conversation. Them being so polite and all, and her being the best friend of the woman they were fixing to marry, she'd bet they would not to tell her to go away. That way, if they were going to be on their way over to arrest the son of a b.i.t.c.h, she'd be there when they did it.

She just wanted a minute or two alone with the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, and she was very much afraid she was never going to get her wish.

d.a.m.n it.

Pay attention to the road, baby. Remember how I taught you to drive. Always be alert and aware of your surroundings. Focus.

Chloe s.h.i.+vered as the voice of her father echoed inside her head, as clear as if he'd been sitting right there in the shotgun seat correcting her. Just like he'd done all those years ago when he'd taught her how to drive.

She was getting married in a few weeks, and he wouldn't be there to walk her down the aisle.

Chloe blinked back the stinging in her eyes and tried to swallow around the sudden ache in her throat. She didn't need a trip through her memories now.

The strange moment reminded her of another strange, almost supernatural moment. Not long after arriving in l.u.s.ty, she had felt her mother so close to her, giving her the words she needed to hear, just when she needed to hear them the most. She'd even imagined that she'd felt her mom's arms come around her and smelled her perfume.