"I think I"ve decided ignorance is bliss. I don"t want to know more about my past with you people," she said, standing to grab her coffee cup from earlier. She was done with this conversation and this man.
As she reached the door he spoke again, "It wasn"t completely a lie you know."
"What wasn"t a lie, Mr. Del Grande?" she asked, her voice full of anger.
"When I said I was a widower, I partly meant it. I thought my wife was gone. She had been out of her mind for months. You"ve talked to her. She is better, but a part of her died with that baby. The day I met your mother I honestly thought she was gone forever. I swear that to you, Emma," he said.
She didn"t know how to reply to that so she stood there for a moment with her back to him and said nothing. After a quiet moment, he spoke again.
"There is nothing I can do to make up for my past or my absence from your life when you needed me. But I can tell you that you do have other family. Not just the Del Grandes, but your mother"s family, the Sloan"s. You are not alone. They are still alive and live in Kentucky. I can help you find them when you are ready."
Emmie jerked her head around, saying on impulse, "My mom has family members still living?"
He nodded. "Yes, near Louisville."
Emmie chewed her lip. "Will you take me now?"
He stepped away from her and sighed. "Emma, I"ll take you but I"m not sure now is a good time."
Emmie swallowed hard and found the courage to speak. "Please," she pleaded in a softer voice, "take me to meet them. I need this Marco."
Lord help her, she was being a user. She had no intention of meeting her mother"s family on this trip. If there was one thing she"d learned about the choices her mother had made in the past, it was if her mother kept her away from people, she must have had a good reason for doing so. Emmie was not ready to learn about any more skeletons in her mother"s closet. Marco Del Grande rubbed his chin and thought for a moment before he spoke. Just when she was sure he was going to say no, he nodded in agreement.
Chapter Thirty-seven.
Emmie couldn"t remember the last time she had packed so quickly. She knew she was leaving things behind, but she didn"t care. As she walked out of the bedroom, she noticed an envelope on the floor in the middle of the doorway. Silas had mentioned leaving her a note. He must have slid it under the door thinking she was still asleep before he left the house. A small part of her wanted to leave the letter where it rested, but she couldn"t bring herself to do it. She dropped it into her purse and left the bedroom.
She made it downstairs before Marco. She found that waiting on a bench in the entry hall gave her too much time to doubt herself. She toyed with the idea of reading the letter but wasn"t ready to hear his excuses for leaving her yet. She stood and paced the length of the hall. Something inside her shouted she was a fool for leaving the safety of this house. Her heart beating faster, thinking of the last time Silas had been worried about her safety. She wasn"t eager to be shoved in the back of a car again but, with Mr. Thomas gone, she doubted she was at the top of anyone"s folks to kidnap list. As afraid as she felt to go, she was more scared not to go. Something in her gut told her she needed to get back home. These men had burned-down Silas"s businesses and she probably would have let him go down and handle that one alone. But these guys had messed with her friend"s property. What if Bo or his sister had been in that cabin? What if Spotty had been in there?
Marco met her after only a few minutes. Neither of them spoke on the drive to Chicago. She wished there weren"t so many miles between her and her friends. She figured it was just as well because she needed time to think of how she was going to get from Louisville to Bowling Green. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the seat. Nothing came to her. She was going to have to tell Marco the truth at some point but she couldn"t do it yet. He might turn the car around and take her right back to Ava"s house.
When they arrived at the station it was busy and crowded. Fortunately she and Marco had missed the earlier train and wouldn"t be on the same one as Silas. She was sure if he caught sight of her in the station, he would have been furious. She didn"t plan to give that man a piece of her mind until they had reached Kentucky.
Somehow Marco Del Grande had managed to secure a fairly nice private car on the train. The same awkward quiet they had experienced in the car continued on the train. They had spoken little more than an excuse me or thank you since leaving the house. Emmie bit her lip as she watched the world speed by her from the window of the moving car. Guilt was settling in her stomach. She was going to have to tell him the truth about why she"d run off with him. Emmie had always been this way. When she had done something bad as a child she"d never gotten away with it. She"d always told on herself. She looked over at Marco. Wrinkles creased his eyes and two deep lines formed in his brow as he picked at a loose thread on his pants. She didn"t have to ask him to know that taking some kid he barely claimed as his own to Kentucky to meet her family was not something he wanted to do today.
Emmie sighed and looked up at her father. "I"m just going to say this because I"m sitting here feeling bad about it."
Marco"s eyebrow arched in question but he didn"t say a word.
"I don"t know for sure if I want to meet the Sloan family," she said, skirting the truth.
"I would say that"s to be expected. It makes sense you"d be nervous about meeting them. They will be surprised to see you. I am not sure if they ever knew your mother had a child. They aren"t bad people exactly . . . your mother just . . ." She could tell he was searching for the right words.
"What do you mean they aren"t bad people exactly?" Emmie frowned.
"Your mother just didn"t want you around any kind of unpleasantness and they could be a rough sort. Ironically, in the end it was the same reason she gave for taking you away from us," Marco said, lost in his thoughts.
Emmie rubbed her eyes. It was barely noon and she was exhausted. Whatever the Sloan story was, her mother was protecting her from something. She wasn"t saying she never wanted to meet these people but she didn"t want to meet them right now. Her plate was full. Looking down at her hands, she wondered how she was going to tell Marco that she had used him as a means to get back home. She twisted the promise ring on her finger, as she thought.
"Did Silas give you that ring?" Marco asked.
"Yeah," she answered truthfully.
He didn"t say anything but she could see his brain working. He just nodded.
Emmie realized Marco Del Grande was the first person to ask her about the promise ring Silas had given her. How odd. Not that it mattered much because, judging by how she felt right now, the next time she saw Silas she might shove his ring and his promises right up his nose.
Silas tilted his neck to the side and popped it in an attempt to ease the tension that had built up since he left Chicago. He was stiff, tired, and angry that he couldn"t get the image of Emmie standing in Ava"s driveway out of his head. How was he supposed to focus when she cluttered his thoughts? He stood and held on to the wall of the small car as the train finally rolled to a stop. He felt like he had spent all eternity on this train.
They grabbed what few bags they had and departed the train. A car had been left for them at the station, just as he had requested. Trick lifted the hood and Vincent looked under it before they climbed in and started the engine. He couldn"t be too cautious right now. Emmie might have found out about the fires and the lost moonshine, but there were quite a few things she didn"t know. One being that just last week one of the butcher brothers" trucks had exploded in front of their store. That was how the shop eventually burned down. They couldn"t put out the blaze before it spread to the front of their shop. While the men in the shop had managed to escape, the seventeen-year-old delivery boy behind the wheel of the car hadn"t been so lucky. Whoever had rigged the explosive might not have gotten the person they had meant to, but their meaning had come across loud and clear. Silas was not starting the engine to any car that hadn"t had a good look-over first.
"It"s clear," Trick said, opening the door.
Silas released a breath he hadn"t realized he was holding.
"Any idea who the rat might be?" Vincent asked as they pulled out of the train station.
Al answered, looking at Silas, "He"s got a pretty good idea. I hate to say it, but I think he might be right."
"Who?" Trick looked at Silas, surprised.
Silas rubbed his jaw before glancing at his brother. "There"s one body from that cabin we never saw."
Trick frowned, "What are you talking about? We killed them all . . . well, minus the one Emmie took care of before we made it in."
Vince grinned at Trick"s comment but Silas never cracked a smile.
Al said, "I"ve worked with him off and on for a while now. He was one you could never completely trust, but I didn"t think he would be so this stupid."
"Will someone please tell me what the h.e.l.l you guys are talking about?" Trick asked with an angry look at his brother.
Silas knew why he was angry. If he had something to share he usually told his brother first. But he couldn"t tell Trick this. He"d put himself too close to their family. It was partly why his father hadn"t let the boy come back down here. His idea of joining the police force had actually been a pretty good one. They could use a man on the inside. It was an idea Silas hadn"t crossed off the list. He had faith that in the end Trick would do the right thing and put his personal feelings aside.
"Answer my question, Trick. We didn"t see everyone dead, did we? Think of the bodies," Silas said, turning to glance at him again as he turned the car onto a gravel road.
He could see his brother thinking and then suddenly realized what Silas was saying. Trick gave him a sideways grin, but it didn"t meet his eyes, "Come on, Si, you know that Steven Johnson is dead. Mr. Johnson took care of it. I heard the gunshots in the woods."
"Hearing and seeing aren"t the same," Silas said, taking another turn.
"So are you saying that Johnson took pity on his son-in-law, let the man walk, and now Steven has partnered with that dead revenuer"s family in this little vendetta against us?" Trick asked.
"First off, make no mistake. This isn"t just about avenging Jim Parbour. Don"t forget they messed with the butcher brothers" still the night of the Halloween party. They were attempting to make us buy their moonshine and that wasn"t the first time they had messed with our suppliers. They were trying to strong-arm us into being partners, and we shoved the idea right up their a.s.s. Remember when the butchers sent that man back to them in a box? They were after us before Parbour died. That may have added a little fuel to their fire, but this was already an unfinished fight," Silas said, pulling up to a house.
"And secondly," Silas added, "I don"t think it was only Steven Johnson working with him. You know as well as I do that the Johnsons aren"t an easy clan to pull one over on. How do you think all of those people got in that cabin? The cabin that Emmie was working in every day. The cabin where they only kept her apple pie moonshine. They also had their man working at that store with Paul Thomas. Why was that grown man loading goods for Paul Thomas? You know as well as I do the Johnsons weren"t hurting for money. And there"s not a thing going on in that house that Mr. Johnson doesn"t approve of first." He turned off the car then turned to look at his brother.
"You think the Johnsons burned down their own cabin?" Trick frowned. "I don"t think so. When I talked to Millie yesterday she was really upset."
"Do you really think he runs his plans past his nineteen-year-old daughter, Patrick?" Silas asked, using his brother"s given name.
Trick rubbed his chin and hit the back seat of the car with his fist.
Silas looked levelly at his brother. "Don"t let your attachment to the girl blind you, brother."
Trick frowned, looking out the window. A moment of silence pa.s.sed before he turned back to his brother. "Do you think Bo was involved too?"
"How could he not be?" Silas asked, looking straight ahead.
Trick shook his head, "I don"t know if I agree with you on this. He cared for Emmie. I don"t think he"d have used her like that."
Silas snorted and rolled his eyes at his brother in reply.
"I"m serious. This better not be your jealousy leading you to believe this. Just because you don"t like Bo doesn"t mean you should go accusing his family of things," Trick said.
"Are you a McDowell or a Johnson, Patrick? Because you might need to pick a side here," Silas said coolly.
"Easy boys. Now I didn"t want to believe it either, but Trick, Silas"s logic makes sense. So none of you actually saw Steven dead?"
All three shook their heads and then Al spoke again, "So, we will proceed cautiously. Your father tells me you have been seeing the Johnson girl?"
"d.a.m.n it," Trick said as a reply, "she is not involved in this."
Silas smirked, "I"m pretty sure I said the same thing about Emmie back when she was turning our moonshine into apple pie a few months ago."
"She is not involved," Trick said, crossing his arms.
"Even if she isn"t, her family is. Can you do what we need you to, or do you need to go home?" Silas asked.
"How can you even ask me that? Of course, I"m here for my family," Trick said, giving his brother a pointed stare.
Silas nodded and then opened the door to the car.
"Where are we? Is this the butcher"s new place?" Trick asked, following his brother up the path.
"No. I needed to stop in and check on a friend," Silas said without turning to face his brother.
The old man stepped out of the house, hooked his thumbs under his overalls, and pulled a long wooden pipe out of his mouth.
Silas nodded at the older man as they walked closer to the porch. "Walter, I need to talk to you about a few things."
Trick muttered to his brother under his breath, "Oh, so we are on a social call to Emmie"s surrogate grandparents? I"m glad to see we aren"t mixing business with pleasure, Silas."
Chapter Thirty-eight.
"Come on in, boys," Mae called from behind the screen door. "It"s mighty chilly out there. I"ve just pulled a pumpkin pie outta the oven. My kitchen is smelling like heaven."
"Thank you, Mrs. Jones," Al said and kissed her on the cheek as he entered their house.
Walter gave them a little more than a grunt of a welcome as they moved past him. His gaze was focused mainly on Silas. He grabbed the younger man"s arm to stop him from entering the house.
"We can talk out here for a second. Surely it ain"t too cold this evening for a northern boy like you," Walter said, taking another puff of his pipe.
Silas nodded in agreement and fished a cigarette out of his vest pocket. The two of them stood there in silence, smoking on the porch. Walter spoke first.
"Something ain"t right at home, boy," he said.
"I"m here to work that out," Silas said.
"Is my girl safe somewhere?" Walter asked.
"Do you honestly have to ask me that?" Silas said, exhaling loudly.
Walter grunted in reply before adding, "She sure has been in a lot of trouble since meeting you. From what I hear of it, you didn"t keep her too safe the day that Mr. Thomas took her."
Silas rubbed his jaw and tried his best to swallow his anger. The truth in the old man"s words burned him to the core.
"She"s in Chicago. Miles and miles away from the Parbor family," Silas paused for a second before adding, "and the Johnsons."
To Walter"s credit, if he was surprised to hear Silas accuse the Johnsons of being involved, he didn"t show it. Maybe he knew something.
"Do you trust them?" Silas asked.
"I never knew a Parbour," Walter answered.
"I know you don"t know the Parbour"s. You know that I"m not talking about the revenuer"s family."
"I don"t guess you are . . ." Walter bit his lip, causing the tiny patch of hair on his chin to stand straight up. He sighed and looked right at Silas as he finally answered, "I trust them as long as my interest and theirs are the same."
"I"m not sure how to take that, Walter. Emmie loves you and I think that family may have been involved in using her as bait. I need to hear what you think before I act. If I take care of that family, I"ll need your backing if she"s ever going to forgive me."
Walter laughed.