Beautiful Broken Promises(19)

Raegan began taking in deep, calming breaths while she ran her fingers through Braden’s hair. He had passed out too, and his little body somehow managed to stretch across three chairs. This gang was exhausted.

I watched as Raegan slowly sat down at the table and then rubbed her hand over the bandage above her eye. I was pretty sure I spotted her pressing down roughly and when she winced, she took a few more breaths. What I wasn’t sure was what the hell was going on and whether or not I should be bracing myself for an impending storm.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re placing some kind of blame on me?” she asked.

“Well, you were hired to take care of my child, and well... here I am four years later meeting her again. Take care not take. There’s a difference.”

“Lane! Cut that shit out,” Charlie scolded.

She physically recoiled from my words, and as much as I hated doing that to anyone, I just couldn’t help it. This was my daughter we were talking about and I’d missed years of her life, thanks in part to the woman seated in front of me.

“Mr. Parker, you think...” She paused and popped her knuckles fretfully. “You’re telling me that you never stopped for one moment to think that maybe, just maybe, Braden and I were abducted too? All this time you thought I had something to do with this...” She waved her hands erratically, indicating the kids, the police station... the entire situation. “Are you out of your mind!?”

“I didn’t think you were involved at first. And I never would have accused you until I found video footage of you talking to Mrs. Camilla Flores. You were speaking to her on a park bench the day before the kidnapping,” I ground out.

She visibly flinched when I said Mrs. Flores’ name, but then she caught herself and said, “Mr. Parker, where is Ash? She’s much easier to talk to. Why isn’t she here?” She looked at Kate in my arms when she spoke of her mother.

Charlie shifted nervously on his feet and turned his back toward us to “read” paperwork. Coward. I would have loved to avoid this awful conversation at all costs, but I had to tell her at some point.

“Ash passed away last year.”

She must have been expecting me to say something like that. She had to have. That was the only way I could explain the almost instant sob that ripped through her chest. Her misery almost brought me back to that time. I almost allowed her to bring me down with her, but I quickly locked down my defenses and kept the emotions at bay.

“How?” she squeaked.

“Car accident. She and her boyfriend were intoxicated. They were both ejected from the car.” I spoke to her as if I were reading the police report. For a moment, I could almost feel the papers shaking in my hands again.

Her eyes cleared for an instant and she glared at me, probably because of my cold manner. “Ash had a... boyfriend?”

“We got divorced, Raegan. We could barely look at one another after...” I glanced down at the beauty in my arms and was struck by an overwhelming sadness that Ash couldn’t see her right now. She would have groaned about Kate getting her nose, but I had always thought her nose was adorable. She would have loved that Kate still had my hair color. And she would have laughed at how outgoing Kate was—we’d always wondered what her personality would be like.

“So, no, Ash won’t be joining us. It’s just Kate and me now. I’m not a cop anymore either, so I think my new job will allow me to be at home more often with her.” I was rambling and I quickly zipped my lips. She didn’t need to know anything about me.

I brought my arm up to brush some stray hairs out of my daughter’s face, but my shoulder pulled painfully. For the first time since Kate had kissed it, I remembered the wound. The pain had been nonexistent, or more likely I had been too wrapped up in her to notice.

Speaking of pain, I wanted to get back to what caused all of this in the first place, but based on Raegan’s reaction, my theory now seemed less and less solid. There was only one way to find out. “Were you and Mrs. Flores friends? Did you have this planned out for awhile?”

“You know what, Mr. Parker? I’m glad you’re not a cop anymore because you sure as hell are a terrible one!” she seethed back.

“Terrible? I’m the one that found the camera footage! We would have never known where to even begin searching for you guys. I think that’s the sign of a pretty damn good cop.”

“Yes, but blaming me because of some park camera recording is not! I’ll bet that footage didn’t even have sound!” When my eyes shifted away from her for only a moment, she jumped on it. “I’m right, aren’t I?”