Because You're Mine(85)

She unclenched her fists. “Barry killed his mother, then tried to kill all of us. The gun went off in a struggle, and his body is in the water.” She swallowed hard. “At least what’s left after the gator was done.”

Adams winced. “I checked some stuff after I got your message. Kavanagh has been treated for psychotic episodes ever since he was in his teens. His mother managed to hush it up when he was kicked out of school for attacking another boy when he was fifteen. He nearly killed the kid for speaking to a girl Kavanagh liked. His parents paid quite a sum of money to kill the story.”

“Patricia covered up many things over the years,” Grady said. “If she’d let him take the consequences, maybe he could have been helped.”

Adams nodded and swallowed another benne. “There were at least two more incidents in college, I found, both over women.”

“What about Neila?” Alanna’s voice broke at the mention of her sister. She would never have that reunion she had dreamed of for so long. Would Paddy care when he was told, or was he too bitter? She understood bitterness. It had nearly ruined her too.

“No sign of her, but we’ll dredge the lagoon and see if we can find any trace of her body.”

“Patricia said they fed her to the gator.” Alanna shuddered and watched the paramedics work on her husband. They were loading him onto a stretcher.

“Then we’ll likely never find the evidence.” Adams’s gaze lingered on Liam. “You’ve got your memory back?”

Liam nodded, his face pale. “I remember the crash, everything. Barry said he’d killed me once, so he must have planted the bomb.”

Adams swallowed the last of his bennes. “The darkness that can lurk in the human soul still astounds me.”

“You don’t seem surprised that he’s not Jesse,” Alanna said.

“I was starting to have my doubts. If the second DNA test confirms the first, I’ll be a convert. Too bad they take so long.”

“Well, I don’t need a test,” she said.

The paramedics carried Liam past them. “We’re ready,” the blond one said.

“Where are your friends?” Adams asked.

The sooner she left this dark house, the better. “They got a hotel room last night when the storm started. They’re at the Charleston Place.” She hadn’t told them the circumstances, just that they’d come through the hurricane all right. The full story could wait until they were together in person.

Adams grabbed the bags at the top of the steps. Alanna called to Prince, but the Irish Setter stayed hidden. She’d be coming back for him in the car. They boarded the helicopter and were soon airborne. She stared down at the mansion surrounded by live oak trees and black water. From up here, it appeared a beautiful home, free of the darkness that lived there.

She scooted as close to Liam as she could get. A bit of his color seemed to be coming back. The chopper lifted into the air, and she leaned over to the window. Debris littered the grand estate below. She caught a glimpse of the gator in the water, then a red streak as Prince raced to hide under the porch. Grady sat with his face pressed against the glass and stared down at the place.

Adams nodded to the estate spread out below them. “This is all yours now, Alanna.”

“What?”

“The rest of them are dead. Your marriage to Barry was legal since Liam was officially declared dead.”

Alanna didn’t want anything of this dark place, only Prince. Maybe Hattie could be coaxed into taking some of it. “It should go to Grady, not me.” Liam squeezed her hand, and she leaned down so she could hear his words above the whup-whup of the chopper blades.

“I have to talk to Jesse’s parents yet,” he said. “I’m dreading it more than you know. Especially Mom. She was good to me. I got to know who Jesse was much better by walking in his shoes.”

“And your own parents. We’ll call them.” In spite of their differences, she smiled at the thought of their joy. Whatever their faults, they loved Liam. She hadn’t told him what they’d tried to do.

Liam squeezed her hand. “Makes you wonder how much upbringing has to do with evil, doesn’t it?” he asked. “And how much is ingrained.”

She nodded. “You were reading my mind.”

“You might have grown up barefoot and motherless, but you overcame,” he whispered. “The person God made you to be stood up under adversity. Maybe he knew you needed to have that stress to realize your full potential. You wouldn’t be the same person if you’d grown up in a different environment.” His other hand went to her belly. “Makes the responsibility for raising our child so important. He’s put our baby with us for a specific reason. We have to do our part, then trust him with the rest.”

Though Liam had tried to tell her this over the years, Alanna understood it now. She placed her hand over Liam’s on her belly. “Feel him? He’s moving.”

Liam’s smile was all she needed. They’d be getting him on his feet, then manage the next few days of explanations and trauma.




The audience rustled out beyond the heavy velvet curtains. This would be Alanna’s last concert for a few months. Her belly hung low with the weight of their son, due in another three weeks.

Ena gave a test tweet on her pennywhistle. Liam picked up his bodhran and sticks. “Ready, my love?” he asked.