Chapter 3
Kelley stood in her kitchen, glad to be home even though it would be some time yet before the doctor cleared her to go back to work. A couple of days in the hospital had nearly driven her out of her mind.
Now that she was back, she would figure out what she could do from home to find Taynor and Belle. Kelley shook her head. How had he eluded the police so well?
She rubbed her temples. She was exhausted from the little sleep she’d had. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Laura’s body…and Belle’s, too.
And then there were the nightmares.
Laura’s funeral had been yesterday. The fact that Belle’s birth father had murdered her mother hit so close to home that Kelley felt almost shattered from it. It was all she could do not to let it affect her in a way that might cripple her ability to do her job and find Laura’s killer.
Kelley’s phone rang. Since her right arm was in a sling, she had to pull the phone out of her pocket with her left hand and she almost dropped the device. She looked at the number and scowled. Her grandmother again—she’d called twice while Kelley was in the hospital. She had no desire to speak to her paternal grandmother, so she pressed the button to send the call to voicemail and then pocketed the phone again. Dolores Petrova lived in Phoenix, which wasn’t far enough away as far as Kelley was concerned.
The fact that her father’s mother had been calling made Kelley think about the past, something she tried not to do. She wandered into her sparsely furnished living room. She’d never been much of a decorator or creature of comfort. She wasn’t a homebody or a collector, and she only had one memento of her childhood—with the exception of the scar.
She moved to an end table and used her left hand to pick up the Christmas globe that Kelley’s mother had given her when she was five. The scene inside the snow globe was of Santa and a sleigh with nine tiny reindeer pulling it. Rudolph was in the lead with his shiny red nose.
Kelley smiled wistfully at the globe that reminded her of the times she and her mother had spent together, while Isaac was at work. Every Christmas, Jill would find a moment to give Kelley a snow globe when they were alone. Over the years, Kelley had accumulated quite a collection and had kept them hidden from her father.
Now and then, when the house was quiet and Isaac had drunk himself into a stupor, Kelley would get out the snow globes and dream of visiting the magical places inside the globes. Some were Christmas scenes, others with characters and lands from fairytales. The globes had included Cinderella and her prince next to the pumpkin coach, the Little Mermaid under the sea, Belle and her Beast, and several others.
Those were all gone now with the exception of the very first one, which Isaac hadn’t found. He had discovered her hiding place and had thrown all of the other globes at the wall. He had shattered them, leaving her in tears while she cleaned up the broken pieces and the destroyed worlds.
She gripped the snow globe she was holding so tightly her knuckles hurt. Her mother had been a kind and gentle person who had been taken in by Isaac and his charm. He’d wooed her with flowers and other romantic gestures, until she married him. They weren’t too far into their marriage before he’d started abusing her.
The only time Isaac hadn’t beaten Jill had been when she was pregnant because he’d been so sure they would have a son. Not long after Kelley was born, he started beating Jill again, blaming her for not giving him a boy. He didn’t start abusing Kelley until she was five, and even then he always made sure the bruises were out of sight.
For a long time, Kelley had blamed her mother for not leaving Isaac. But Jill had felt trapped. She hadn’t gone to college, had never worked, had no money, and no way to support her daughter.
Kelley closed her eyes tightly before opening them again, and carefully set the snow globe down beside the others. Collecting them had been a way of remembering her mother. Kelley purchased a globe every Christmas that reminded her of one of her mother had given her.
The doorbell rang, catching Kelley off guard. She wasn’t expecting anyone—unless Nikki was early, and Nikki was never early. As it was, Kelley always had to tell her friend to pick her up twenty minutes earlier than she really needed to leave, so she knew it couldn’t be her.
Kelley glanced at the entryway table. She kept her Glock in a drawer in the table when she wasn’t carrying the weapon. She wasn’t as good left-handed as she was using her right, but she could still do a damned good job of protecting herself if she needed to.
She moved quietly to the door and peeked out the peephole. Shocked, she drew back, feeling a mixture of surprise, pain, and anger so hot it felt as if her skin might burn off. What was she doing here?
Gritting her teeth, she unlocked the doorknob followed by the bolt lock, and jerked the door open. For a long moment she and the sharply dressed older woman stared at each other.
“Aren’t you going to tell your grandmother hello?” Dolores Petrova said in a disapproving tone.
Kelley tried to school her expression but no doubt it looked as hard and angry as she felt. “Why are you here, dear grandmother?”
Dolores gave a pained smile. “Invite me in and I’ll tell you why I’m here.”
Kelley scowled but opened the door wide enough to let her grandmother in. Kelley wasn’t in the mood for Dolores to make a scene in front of her neighbors. The older woman was good at making scenes.
After closing the door behind Dolores, Kelley stood in the middle of the living room and clenched the hand of her good arm into a fist. Her shoulder ached from the tension in her whole body. “Why did you come here without an invitation?”
“If you’d answer your phone, you’d know,” Dolores said dryly.
Kelley ignored the response. “What do you want?”
Dolores brushed an imaginary piece of lint off the tailored jacket of her expensive taupe business suit and schooled her tone. “Is that any way to talk to your grandmother?”
“You haven’t been my grandmother for fifteen years.” Kelley was having a difficult time controlling her temper. “What do you want?” she repeated.
Dolores tilted her chin. “Your father is dying from lung cancer.”
A confusion of feelings came over Kelley, shock being the strongest. “So?” she finally said. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“He’s your father,” Dolores snapped, some of her cool slipping.
“I don’t have a father.” Kelley’s jaw tightened. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a shame that man is dying only because I’d like to see him rot for eternity in that prison.”
Dolores’s face seemed to whiten. “You’re a stupid girl, just like your mother was.”
Kelley clenched her free hand into a fist. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother.”
The older woman gave a sniff. “You know your father didn’t kill her and you lied about him hitting you.”
“You can leave now.” Kelley pointed toward the door. “I don’t even know why you bothered to come here.”
“You should see your father before he passes away.” Dolores’s gray eyes were like flint. “And beg his forgiveness.”
Kelley’s jaw dropped. “You’re serious? You want me to beg forgiveness from that monster who killed my mother and physically abused me?”
“Still lying, I see.” Dolores narrowed her eyes. “I thought perhaps you would feel some guilt for what you did to Isaac. You’re just as delusional as you always were.”
“Get out.” Kelley struggled to calm herself and knew she was losing the battle. “And don’t ever come back.”
Kelley grabbed the door handle with her good hand and jerked the door open. “Go,” she said, her whole body taut with anger. “Don’t bother to ever come back. Ever.”
Dolores raised her chin. When she stood in the doorway, she paused to look down her nose at Kelley. “You’re just as bad as your mother was.”
Kelley barely kept from slamming the door into her grandmother’s face. It took every bit of her control to not say anything and shut the door quietly but firmly behind Dolores. She turned around, looking for something to throw. Instead, she grabbed a throw pillow off the couch, buried her face against it, and screamed her fury.
When she dropped the pillow, she didn’t feel any better. No, she needed to shoot something. That would make her feel better. A whole hell of a lot better. She had a couple of paper targets at the shooting range with her father’s and grandmother’s names on them.
By the time the doorbell rang again, Kelley was so worked up that she was wishing she had taken a quick jog on her treadmill. The only thing that had stopped her was the pain in her shoulder.
Nikki Carlyle was on the doorstep, Kelley’s closest friend. Nikki frowned when she saw Kelley’s expression. “Are you all right?”
Kelley pinched the bridge of nose with her thumb and forefinger. She took a deep breath then let it out slowly. When she looked at her friend she managed a strained smile. “Yeah, fine. Just had an unwelcome visitor.”
Nikki was still frowning. “Want to talk about it?”
Kelley shook her head. “I might kill something or someone if I talk about it now.”
“Okay.” Nikki offered Kelley a supportive smile. Nikki was the opposite of Kelley in so many ways. Nikki was tall and dark-haired while Kelley was petite and blonde. Kelley wasn’t trusting, not very social, didn’t date much, and kept mostly to herself. Nikki, on the other hand, was sanguine, what one would call a social butterfly, and a heartbreaker on top of that. She didn’t break hearts on purpose—her ADHD personality just made it difficult for one man to keep her attention for very long.
Nikki shook back her long dark hair. “Let’s get you to your physical therapy appointment.”
With a groan, Kelley said, “The PT appointment went straight out of my mind. Let me grab my purse and my phone.” She hadn’t been cleared for driving and Nikki had insisted on getting Kelley back and forth to PT as often as she could. Nikki owned an elegant antique store on Gurley and her schedule was flexible. Kelley hadn’t wanted to impose, but Nikki had insisted, and she definitely could be persistent.
A few moments later and they were climbing into Nikki’s sporty little two-seater BMW. Her wealthy father had given it to her for her birthday—he gave Nikki all a girl could ever want and then some. She admitted to being spoiled, but she was a sweetheart and Kelley liked everything about her.
The entire trip to the physical therapy office, Nikki talked while Kelley quietly seethed over her grandmother’s visit. Nikki’s enthusiastic chatter meant that Kelley didn’t have to do much talking, and she was grateful for that.
When they reached the PT office, Nikki said, “I’m going to run a couple of errands and stop by the store. Call me when you’re ready for me to pick you up.” She got out and hurried to the passenger side of the low-slung car as Kelley tried to climb out one-handed. Grudgingly, Kelley took Nikki’s hand, allowing her friend to help her out. She scowled. She hated being helpless in any way.
Damn it, she was not helpless.
By the time she reached the physical therapy office, she was worked up about her grandmother’s visit, with no outlet. She was afraid she was going to blow up. She waved goodbye to Nikki and headed into the office.
“You’ll be working with Johan,” the PT director introduced her to a tall, muscular blond man who looked and sounded Swedish when he spoke. He was one gorgeous hunk of male.
“How is your day, Kelley?” Johan asked as they walked into the little gym used for physical therapy. “You look as if something is bothering you.”
Kelley gritted her teeth. “You don’t want to know.”
“Try me.” He grinned as he helped her take off her sling. “Talking with your physical therapist is like talking to a bartender. It is good.”
She shook her head. “That’s one I’ve never heard before.”
He began her therapy session by asking questions about her injury before moving her arm and finding out what she could do now and what she needed to work up to.
Two other therapists were working with clients while Johan worked with Kelley. He showed her exercises and then had her do each exercise in sets. Some of them hurt but she was determined to do everything. The sooner she got her arm back to full strength, the better.
As he worked with her, she learned that he had come from Sweden alone when he was twelve to stay with an uncle in Prescott after his parents died in small plane crash. He worked hard in school, excelled at American football, and got a full ride scholarship to Arizona State University for football after he’d graduated from high school.
His second year at ASU he’d had a career-ending injury. After having worked with physical therapists to recover from his injury, he’d decided to become a physical therapist to help people in the same situation as his—people whose dreams had been interrupted or altered thanks to a life-changing injury.
As he told her about his own background, he got Kelley to tell him a little bit about her childhood. Surprisingly, she was finding that it wasn’t hard to open up to him.
“Ten times,” he instructed her as he showed her another exercise to strengthen her shoulder. “Now why don’t you tell me?” he said once she started the exercise.
She grimaced as her shoulder ached from the movement as she did the exercise. “Tell you what?”
He met her gaze. He had kind eyes. She was an excellent judge of character, and she could tell he genuinely cared as he asked the question. “Why were you upset when you arrived?”
She thought about it for a moment. What would it hurt to tell him? He had nothing to do with her line of work and it wasn’t like she would be seeing him anywhere outside of physical therapy.
And considering she refused to see a shrink or other therapist, maybe it would help to get it out to someone who was impartial.
“Well,” she said slowly, “the grandmother from hell showed up on my doorstep today.”
“That bad?” he said.
Kelley nodded. “Worse.”
“Tell me about it,” he said as he showed her another exercise.
She sighed. “It’s a long and not so nice story.”
“Go on.”
She found herself telling him about her grandmother’s visit from the moment she arrived until Kelley made her leave, and about her father, too. Johan felt safe…and so far removed from her everyday life that it wouldn’t matter how he looked at her after telling him. He was right—it was a little like telling a bartender her woes.
As they did the exercises and she told him about her grandmother and father, he didn’t look at her with pity and she didn’t sense that he thought any differently of her than he would have when she walked in the front door, and he didn’t see her as emotionally weak. There was sympathy and understanding, yes, but not pity. He asked her questions as she told him of her past, but his questions didn’t feel intrusive.
To her surprise, after talking with Johan her heart felt lighter and she felt more able to process her anger about what had happened with her grandmother.
“Thank you for your point of view and the conversation,” she said with a smile.
“My pleasure.” He smiled at her in return. “Now let me show you a couple of relaxation exercises that will help clear your mind and help you deal with some of the chaotic thoughts and feelings you have going on inside.”
He was remarkably intuitive and had great bedside manner.
When they finished with the exercises, she was sore as Johan put his arm around her shoulders. She smiled up at him as he walked with her out to the waiting room to find Reese watching and waiting.