Beautiful Illusions Read online

  I hold up my hand. My mind was already there. “Josh was in my room night after night, and—” it hurts to talk about it. I’m not sure why I’m slow with the details, Gavin already knows the worst of it. “Soon there was a baby coming. Nora wouldn’t hear of it. She raced me to some rundown clinic in Brody and had them give me an illegal abortion—I was well over five months.” I swallow hard at the memory. “The baby had already been moving inside me for weeks.” I lower my lashes. I fell deeply in love with my baby. “My heart was full when that child was growing inside me. I wasn’t too concerned about the disturbing manner in which it was conceived. It felt like a butterfly was trapped in my body. It was amazing—a miracle.” I flatten my hand over my stomach just the way I did in those dark, painful days and it feels natural. “The clinic was barbaric. They stuck these pins in me to open my uterus. They cut up my baby and pulled it out of me limb by limb. It was a thing of horror. I had never been in so much pain both emotionally or physically.”

  Gavin tightens his grasp around me. “Shit,” he whispers.

  Dr. Lundgreen nods. “How old were you?”

  “Sixteen. You just said it yourself.”

  “And Josh?”

  “Josh?” I glance to Caleb as his lips expand, and he nods for me to lay the final pearl on the table. “Josh had just turned nineteen.”

  “Statutory rape.” Caleb makes a note.

  “I don’t see how this is going to get my father’s company back where it belongs.”

  Caleb raises a brow. “Did Nora ever take steps to protect you from the predator who was under the same roof?”

  “Are you kidding? Nora turned a blind eye to everything Josh did. Not that what she put me through was any better.” I think back to the last day of my father’s life—Josh parading around with a tool kit. The way he made it a point to let me know he needed to work on a car. He never said his car. “Oh, God.” I touch my fingers to my lips.

  “What is it?” Gavin pulls me in close.

  “I think I found another nail to secure the casket. You mentioned that my father’s brakes went out.” I tell them all about Josh’s lewd suggestions, how he was going to show me his screwdriver and make me his “wrench” but first he had to fix a car. “Josh never fixed so much as a sandwich in his life.”

  “You think Nora put him up to rigging the brakes?” Caleb wants a connection, and for the life of me I wish I could give it to him.

  Dr. Lundgreen tilts his head as if he’s just had an epiphany. “I remember the day your father died as well.”

  “You do?” I wasn’t even seeing Dr. Lundgreen back then—Nora was.

  “I’m not sure I should divulge anything—patient doctor confidentiality prohibits any information shared within my office to leave those walls.”

  “This is your patient.” Gavin slams his palm over the table, and Dr. Lundgreen straightens in his seat. “This is who you need to be protecting.”

  “I was just about to add, my session was officially over—with Nora.” He gives a dull smile my way. “It was a few days before your father passed. She was getting ready to leave the office. She never inquired much from me over the years I’ve known her, certainly she’s never asked my opinion on anything that has to do with the world outside my office, but on that day she did. She specifically asked if I knew anything about cars.” He folds his arms and scowls as if he were seeing her right before him. “She asked if I knew how to decompress the brakes on a newer model SUV. Of course, I told her no, but recommended she call a mechanic. I asked her why she wanted to know.” He takes a breath. “She simply laughed it off. She said it concerned a class project her son was taking part in.” His eyes moisten with tears. “As soon as I heard about your father’s accident, I probed a bit and found out his brakes were the reason he lost control. And I knew. I would stake my life, I knew what had happened. But, of course, I had no way of proving it. It’s eaten at my conscious ever since.”

  God. I spin toward Gavin.

  “Nora did it.” My chest bucks with violent pressure as I pant out the words. “She killed my father and your parents. She’s a murderer. She did this.”

  And for the first time ever, I don’t feel like I’m to blame.

  Sunlight pours in through the window and pierces the room with a violent shower of light.

  My parents—Gavin’s parents, can almost rest in peace.

  Almost.

  Gavin

  We drive back up the mountain—our heads swirling with the possibilities. As much as I hate to admit it, Caleb was right, that quick trip to Hayworth might have been the miracle we needed to get her father’s company back in her hands. Nora is a killer. She stole Demi’s father from her and ripped my parents out of my life and Zoey’s forever. She and her son both deserve to deep-fry in hell.

  We drop off Caleb back at his office. He climbs out of the truck and nods over at me. “Get your shit together. You’ve got a court date Wednesday in Brody. Wear a suit.”

  “I don’t own a suit.”

  “Find one, borrow one, steal it from a corpse. I don’t care.” He looks to Demi. “It’s going to be a rough road ahead, but I think we got this. You’ll want to stay down the hill. I’ll be at the hotel I was at last night. And you two?”

  “We’ll figure something out,” I say. There’s no point in entertaining Winter Haven if her stepmother will be there.

  Demi and I head back to the cabin and throw our things into duffle bags. There’s no sign of Zoey. I’ve texted the shit out of her all morning. I’m half afraid she’s still with Warren. Why can’t she see he’s not the right one for her?

  Ace comes walking up the porch, and I meet him outside.

  “What the fuck happened?” He’s ready for a fight, and it’s all on my behalf. “Reese said Caleb was telling her father some crazy shit.”

  “That about sums it up.” I give him a brief rundown on the turn of events. “Do me a favor—keep an eye on Zoey, would you?”

  “Will do. I’ll pass it onto Kennedy since she’s not heading back to Yeats. It looks like she’s putting off grad school.”

  I give a dull smile as I glance out at the lake. The lack of sleep is starting to wear on me. I don’t really know what grad school is, and, frankly, I’m too tired to care.

  “Tell Ken I’d appreciate that.” I slap him five as Demi comes out ready for the next leg of our adventure.

  “So you two are headed to Brody, huh?” Ace gives me that look that says you got enough cash?

  “We’re headed to Reeva’s first.” Demi drags her sad eyes over mine. “There’s something I left behind.”

  We say our goodbyes and head down the hill again. I guess I’m glad I shook the money out of Warren. Without it we’d never be able to survive in a hotel for a day, let alone weeks. We drive down evergreen-lined roads as their perfume seeps into the truck, and I can’t help get a little high off the scent. I live for the outdoors. I love hacking and stacking. I love hearing the crack as I split the round. I love the hum of the chainsaw in my hand, the way my entire body is needed to chop a forty foot pine to pieces. I love how dog-tired I am at the end of the day—how I feel like I’ve accomplished something. I glance to Demi and land my hand on her knee. But I’d gladly trade all of that for a lifetime of the girl sitting by my side, and, in a way, I did.

  We finally arrive at the ritzy neighborhood that Reeva has her girls stashed away in and drive down to the end of the street. A bright yellow rope cuts off the driveway that leads to the property.

  “What’s up?” I ask as I turn to avoid it.

  “Oh, my God.” Demi presses her fingers to the window. Her heavy breathing fogs up the glass.

  Far in the distance the double door entry is covered with a zigzag of yellow caution tape. There’s a patrol car sitting out front.

  It looks like Reeva is out of business for good. Both Demi and I are stunned as shit.

  “Do you have any way of getting in touch with her?”

  Demi shakes her
head, dazed at the sight.

  “I’ll text Eva.”

  It takes thirty minutes for Demi to learn that Reeva was arrested along with several of the girls. The house has shut down permanently. The DEA came in posing as a group of wealthy investors and busted a drug ring that was moving through some of the girls, Reeva included. All of their belongings, their earnings have been confiscated by this branch of the federal government. The real kicker is it all went down twenty minutes after Demi and I walked out the door. A couple of girls managed to split, and Eva was one of them.

  “Well, we are in a shithole, my friend,” Demi whispers as I drive us toward Brody.

  “We’re going to be just fine.” I offer it up with nothing really to back it.

  No money equals no place to stay, so I call Caleb, and he rents us a room at his hotel for the first few nights.

  I show up in court Wednesday morning sporting a suit that Caleb lent me. The pants are tighter than I like, and I can’t help thinking my shoulders look like they belong on the football field. The judge walks in and dismisses the charges against me as soon as Caleb lets her in on the facts. I was just some pointless dick who kicked Josh on the way out, nothing but a mix up. I glance back at Demi and die a little. If she doesn’t get off for this, I’ll never forgive myself.

  Caleb gets Nora to agree to stay at the specialty clinic where Josh is recovering. It turns out the doctors refuse to be bought, and Josh has to stay put at their facility for the next two months. That clears the way for Demi and I to set up camp at Winter Haven. Demi spends each day trying to resuscitate the place by rearranging sofas to the way she remembered them before Nora came into her life. She pulls her mother’s china out from under the stairwell and makes dinner each night. On a few occasions, Caleb is our guest. He’s nice enough to give us a loan to float us until the end of this fiasco, and that’s something neither of us thought we’d see—the end. But it did arrive, months later on a crisp Tuesday afternoon. Our parents died on a Tuesday, but I refuse to think of that as some bad omen ready to cloud the day in grief. Today would bring resolution, restitution, and, best of all, victory.

  Caleb built his case around Nora’s control issues, her hand in altering the life insurance policy that she took out on her husband just weeks before he passed away, not to mention the rewriting of the will itself. Caleb nailed her to a wall with evidence that she was fostering an environment of insanity. Dr. Lundgreen took the stand and let Caleb wrangle the truth out of him. Nora’s end goal was to have Demi placed under a conservatorship so she could never claim any rights to the mill. But the damning evidence came when Demi took the stand and testified to sexual abuse at the hand of her stepbrother. She was able to prove, without a doubt, that Nora was aware of the fact Josh was raping her nightly. Nora tried to convince the jury she cared for Demi, that she kept her bedroom intact in hopes she would one day return. Nora even made it a point to have Josh wheeled in, every single day, looking that much more pathetic as the case grew against them. Josh’s presence wasn’t mandatory due to his injuries, but, nevertheless, he graced us with his perverted presence. It took everything in me not to jump over the minuscule barrier and finish the bastard off. But, in the end, there was simply too much evidence against them. Caleb offered up the death warrant to their case in his brilliant closing argument when he reminds the jury of Dr. Lundgreen’s testimony regarding the brakes. Josh refused to take the stand and so did Nora, painting themselves guilty by their unwillingness to refute the fact. Caleb bowed as he finished his closing remarks. It was all I could do not to applaud.

  The jury foreman reads from the notecard in his hand. “We, the jury, find Nora Easton Brookhurst guilty on charges of murder in the first degree for conspiring and detailing plans to manipulate Bradley Brookhurst’s automobile. And under the felony murder rule we find Nora Easton Brookhurst guilty of the deaths of John and Lena Jackson.”

  My heart stops. I don’t hear anything else. Demi and I hold each other long after Nora and Josh are hauled away. The steel mill is reverted back to Bradley Brookhurst’s only surviving heir, his only daughter, Demi. The sale to the overseas investor is halted in escrow. The mill belongs to Demi free and clear, along with Winter Haven.

  The judge and jury yielded to the evidence, and both Nora and Josh are sentenced to seven and fifteen, years respectively. Of course, they won’t be hitting any hardcore prisons, this is camp cupcake, camp bring-your-racket-and-irons. In the end, all they were in for was some serious R and R at their respective minimum-security prisons.

  Soon the circus is over, and it’s just Caleb, Demi, and me in the parking lot.

  “How should we celebrate?” I spin Demi in a circle under a navy sky. Her hair floats out in long blonde ribbons, her lips curved in a smile the entire time.

  Caleb considers this. “Tonight should be about the two of you. I’ll take a rain check. In fact, I’ll take you both out for a nice dinner back in Loveless sometime next week. As for me, I think I’ll head back up the mountain.” He slaps me five, and Demi is quick to pull him into an embrace.

  “I owe you everything.” She swallows hard, fighting back tears.

  “You owe me nothing.” He pats her arm and nods over to me. “You owe me six hundred bucks. I’ll see you both back at the lake.”

  “So you’re really sticking around?” I’ve never seen Caleb more than six weeks at a time. He was summer stock on the hill. He came and went with the tourists.

  “Looks that way. I’m having a good time at my uncle’s law firm.” He glances in the direction of the mountain. “Not to mention, I’ve got some unfinished business.” His features sour as if his unfinished business isn’t going as planned.

  He takes off, and it’s just Demi and me.

  I press my lips to her forehead. “What’s next?”

  “I think maybe we should head up the mountain, too. It’s time to go home.”

  “Home.” I pull her in so hard I’m afraid I might break her. “Now that’s something I can wrap my head around.”

  Loveless glows in a patchwork of pink and gray clouds. The evening sun squats low over the horizon turning the water into a golden mirror.

  Zoey’s car is out front. The lights are on in the cabin, and there’s smoke puffing out of the chimney as fall barrels over summer and takes her seat on the seasonal throne.

  “You’re going to love fall at the lake.” I pull Demi in as we make our way up the steps. I bury my face in her hair and just take in her scent. It’s Demi and me from now on. That’s exactly how I want it—I’m sure our parents would have wanted it that way, too.

  “Just fall? I’m pretty sure I’ll love winter, spring, and summer, too. In fact, I believe I already have.” Demi jumps on her tiptoes and runs her tongue from my lips to my ear. “But what I love most of all is you, Gavin Jackson.”

  Zoey presses her face against the glass and gives a wild wave from inside.

  “You ready to deal with my sister?” Hell, I’m not sure I am.

  “We’re family, remember?” She gives my stomach a scratch. “She’s my sister, too.”

  I melt at her words. I’m dust. This is exactly why she’s the perfect woman for me. Anyone brave enough to claim Zoey as family has my respect and all of my heart to go along with it.

  Zoey runs out screaming as if the roof were on fire.

  “I love you! I’m sorry I’m such a pain in the ass! Please don’t leave me like that again.” Her arms coil tight around me. “You’re not going to prison are you?”

  “Not this time. Do I have to kill Warren?” I pull back and examine her. I haven’t seen her in what feels like years even though it’s been ten weeks. Her hair is cut short around her shoulders, and she’s wearing bright red lipstick that makes her look far more like a woman than the little girl I’ve been trying to shelter under my wing.

  “Warren and I are just friends.” Her face sours as she says his name. “Demi.” Zoey wraps her arms around the woman I’m about to make my wife, and it warm
s me. For the first time since we lost our parents, we’re starting to feel like a family again. “I missed you. I’m sorry about those horrible names I called you.”

  “It’s okay.” She looks to me and nods. Demi and I have given Zoey the briefest of updates on the trial. I asked her not to pay too much attention to any coverage. In a small way, I wanted to shelter Zoey until Demi and I were home and could give her a play by play ourselves. Demi wants the whole truth spilled out for Zoey tonight. She wanted to wait until we could tell her in person about the role Demi’s father played in our parents’ lives that fateful day. But first, the scent of something fantastic is coming from the stove—fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

  “So what’s up with school?” I pull Zoey in on one side and Demi on the other as we head inside. “Shoot straight with me.”

  “I’m taking a gap year. Mr. Westfield says that Caleb might need an assistant, so I’ve already sort of got a job.”

  “Caleb, huh?” I look over at Demi, and she shrugs. I guess it could be worse. It could be Warren she’s still wagging her tongue after.

  “But don’t worry”—Zoey zips to the oven and pulls out a batch—“I’ve got my sights set on a few boys in the office. So many to choose from, so little time.”

  Crap. Demi shakes her head, so I don’t say a word.

  We sit Zoey down and tell her all about the tragedy that unfolded all those years ago on a dark road when a sports utility vehicle met up with a Chevy Malibu in the most horrific way. Tears are shed. Zoey pulls out the family albums, and we share pictures and old memories with Demi. This time she doesn’t run. This time we heal our wounds, sew them up and bind them with love.

  We’re finally healing.

  Together we’re already healed.

  12

  Love at the Lake

  Demi