Harley Read online

  Her mother looked back at her with a bright smile and a completely vacant look. “I’m fine, dear.”

  Jasmine nodded. “In that case, I think I’ll go make a cup of tea.” She stumbled to the kitchen, choking back a cry of pain.

  Harley stood at the front door, watching her retreat in the opposite direction. “I’ll go outside and take a look around.”

  “You do that.” She waved her hand dismissively at him.

  He hesitated.

  She glared. “Go. That’s what you do best. Just go.” She was immediately sorry for snapping because his gaze narrowed, as if to say something, then nodded, turned, and walked out. She watched him go—resentment, anger, and regret in her heart.

  Well, Jasmine had certainly left Harley with no doubt about how she felt, although she was under a lot of stress with her mother. Whatever the hell had just happened here with the damn bullet added to it. And that’s the part that pissed him right off. Somebody had shot into her kitchen. She had had a child eleven years ago and had been looking after her mother and son ever since. Her life was not the way she had wanted it to go; it’s not the way she had planned it, and nothing ever exciting happened. This is just what it was.

  And he could tell that she wanted to change it, to get out, to live differently, to make it more exciting, but more exciting didn’t mean getting shot at. It was also telling when she had mentioned that the only difference was that Harley had arrived in her world today.

  What possible reason could there be for somebody—if somebody had known that Harley was here and had actually known that he was here at this house—to have shot her? He’d made more than a few enemies on missions, but they’d had plenty of time in the last couple years to locate him and to take him out while he was an invalid. It didn’t make any sense to try something like this while he was now on his feet and in better health than he had been in years.

  Jasmine hadn’t yet made any comment about his arm, but then he had a glove on it too. He stared down at the prosthetic. At least it was his left side; he could still do an awful lot with his right. He also had on a jacket, so she probably hadn’t seen much. And that would explain a lot too.

  He slipped outside and moved to the far side of the house and up alongside the wooden fence. The fence was only four feet tall. He was pretty sure that the line of sight had been direct and clear from that back corner. As he walked to the area where he thought the shooter could have been standing, he confirmed no sign of an intruder’s footprints inside the fence, but, at only four feet tall, it would have been easy hop.

  He made the jump himself without too much effort, and, as he landed, he stopped and looked around. This was a corner lot, and so there was traffic on both sides, and the shooter could easily have pulled up, walked to the fence, made the shot, got back in the car, and left. It was also possible that a passerby could have just done it. It was not a very long distance, so a handgun might have taken care of it too.

  He frowned at that because, if so, no great skill had been required then. He walked the fence along the backside but returned where his earlier assessment was. No footprints. A gravel path ran along the road. Anybody could have stopped and not been seen because of even a short wooden fence. He turned to look around. It was a wide street. Even if security cameras were on a neighboring house on the far side, this happened at the back of Jasmine’s house, and chances were any security cams wouldn’t register anything this far over. He hadn’t checked but assumed that no security cameras were here on Jasmine’s home, and, if there were any street cams, they wouldn’t be this far out from the main avenues.

  In other words, somebody had managed to come in, taken a shot, and left without being seen. With that, he hopped the fence again, walked the entire perimeter, came back to the front of the house, looking for street cameras, but there were none. It was a small town, and this area was a small set of blocks back off the main street. He walked back inside the front of the house to see Jasmine sitting in the kitchen, huddling over a cup of tea. Matilda was sitting in the same chair with the same placid look on her face, a cup of tea cooling at her side.

  Harley walked through to the kitchen and heard a bit of sniffling. His heart ached for the situation Jasmine was in. He pulled up a chair, sat down, and, not giving her a chance to argue, quickly picked up one of her hands in his. “I think you need to find another solution.”

  “Any solution I find racks me over with guilt.”

  “I know. Change is hard. Letting go is hard, even in bad relationships. You just have to look after yourself and your son. When is he due back?”

  “I’m not sure,” she murmured and looked up at the kitchen clock nearby. “Probably in the next twenty minutes or so.”

  He nodded. “It’s almost dark out. The shooter chose a good time.”

  “Meaning that he’d be hidden or that we’d be in the kitchen?”

  “It’s possible he was there for a while, waiting for somebody to go into the kitchen.”

  She looked over at him. “Where are you staying?”

  “I have a room above the pub.”

  She snorted at that. “Wow, that’s just like old times.”

  “It is in many ways, yes. I’d like to meet Daniel’s family, but other than that I don’t want to interfere in his life too much.”

  “When you walked, you walked away from all of us, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did. It was easier on me to have a clean break.”

  “And I guess we’re always supposed to do what’s easier on us, huh?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I think it’s a case of trying to do what you need to do to survive. I had to leave here. Otherwise you would end up pregnant with my baby,” he declared bluntly.

  She looked up at him and gave a quick nod. “Well, that was the hope at least.”

  “I couldn’t look after you. I couldn’t afford to keep you, much less a baby. and I’d already made a promise to your father—and to myself—which I had no intention of breaking.”

  “You never really liked living here, did you?”

  “With you, yes. You were the light of my life,” he murmured, squeezing her fingers. “Your parents, not so much. I was here because they were getting a paycheck. Other than that I knew perfectly well I’d be on the street. I was smart enough to toe the line to finish high school and to get into the navy, but I didn’t forget you. Never you.”

  “Oh, you forgot,” she stated. “Every time you got busy doing something fun, you forgot about me. I didn’t have those distractions.”

  He bowed his head. “Maybe. Temporarily yes. As life has a habit of doing, things interfered. Yes, I had other relationships, but I certainly didn’t have anything that matched the same care and affection that we had.”

  “So why didn’t you come back?”

  “Because so much time had passed that I figured you’d moved on, and, to be honest, I didn’t want confirmation of that. It was a blow when I found out from Daniel that you’d had my child.”

  “Yeah, after the initial confrontations, I didn’t even bother trying to explain myself.”

  He nodded. “It was quite a shock. Because, of course, the only two people who would know that it’s not my son are you and me. Believe me. A part of me wishes he was.”

  She looked at him in surprise and then shook her head. “What crazy webs we weave,” she murmured. “Back then I was so young that I had no clue what having a child would mean. I would have seduced you, if I thought I could have. But you kept turning me away.”

  “Because of the promises I made. You were also very young. You didn’t have your parents’ permission to wed, even though I talked to your father about it.”

  She stared at him, shocked. “You did?”

  I did,” he admitted. “Even though we were young, and it probably wasn’t the best idea, he was very adamant about the fact that absolutely no way in hell he’d accept me as a son-in-law. And I knew I needed to leave. Because he wasn’t just talking about then, he was talking also in the future.”

  “Wow,” she murmured. “I guess rejection is still a big part of your life too, isn’t it?”

  “Always has been. It’s one of those little bits and pieces of your personality that you have to watch out for when you get into situations. But the navy accepted me. And that acceptance was complete and total. I went into it, knowing that who I was would work out. And I dove into it full force and made a very good life for myself. … But believe me, that rejection is something that always sits with you.”

  “But I didn’t reject you.”

  “No, you didn’t,” he agreed. “At the same time, you were also very young, and I couldn’t count on you feeling the same in a couple years, particularly if I didn’t have a job and you were with a child at your young age.”

  “I didn’t want to stay here, even before you left. You have no idea how hard it was to remain here, even under these circumstances.”

  “Honestly, I can easily imagine that they made your life hell.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, that’s … that’s a good word for it. You can bet that they made me pay in so many ways for my infraction.”

  “And, of course, your father would see it that way, so it was better for him to believe his daughter was a wayward loose woman,” he noted sarcastically, “than an innocent victim of likely a date-rape drug.”

  “Yes, I think so. Because there was shame in both, but, with the one, he could insulate and blame you, and the other one he couldn’t.”

  “And, of course, I made a great scapegoat.” Harley nodded. “Always did. Everything that went wrong in his life was because of me.”

  “He really did that, didn’t he?” she said, marveling. “I forgot. Even at dinnertime, if he’d had a shitty day, it would have all been because of something that you did that set him off first thing in the morning.”

  “I remember. I spent a lifetime trying to avoid him. But my options were another foster home or leave on my own, when I wasn’t quite old enough to take care of business.” He shook his head. “Even now I often consider that, thinking that I should have just left. Any other foster home would have been better.”

  “But it might not have been, … at least we were the devil you know.”

  “It had nothing to do with the devil,” he stated quietly. “It had everything to do with the angel that you were.”

  She looked at him in surprise and then gave him a gentle smile. “Now that’s really nice to hear. I didn’t realize you were staying for my sake.”

  “For at least the last two to three years here. Before that, I really wasn’t old enough to make much in the way of decisions at all.”

  “He did talk about getting rid of you at one time too,” she murmured.

  Harley nodded. “He told me that. Told me that I was only here short-term, and, if I crossed that line one more time, I was done.” He smiled. “I didn’t realize they needed that paycheck. That makes more sense than anything.”

  “If that makes sense, well, I guess we can park that for now.” She rubbed her face, looked up at the clock again. “Jimmy should be home any minute.” She withdrew her hand from his.

  “Do you want me to leave?”

  She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’ll only introduce you as my foster brother anyway.”

  “Well, you could, or you could just say I’m an old friend.” At that, the front door opened and a tall, skinny streak of a youth stormed into the kitchen. “Mom, I need a snack before bed.”

  She snorted. “Of course you do.” She smiled. “You’re never full.”

  “Hey, I’m growing up. Have to be big and strong.” At that, he stopped and stared. “Oh, I didn’t know you had company.”

  “This is Harley”—she pointed—“and he spent much of his childhood years here with Grandma and Grandpa.”

  “Oh, he was the foster kid.” Jimmy reached out a hand. “I’m Jimmy. I can’t imagine you were here the whole time.”

  “Actually I was taken away twice. More as a warning.”

  At that, Jasmine looked at him sharply. “You were?”

  “I was. It was your father’s way of keeping me in control.”

  She winced. “Yeah, Grandpa wasn’t the nicest of people.”

  “See? And he died long enough ago that I don’t even know him,” Jimmy said. “But I haven’t heard a whole lot of nice things.”

  “Everybody’s got a nice side, but everybody has that ugly side too,” Harley explained.

  “Right.” He looked back at his mom. “Food?” he asked hopefully.

  “There’s still some leftover spaghetti in the fridge.”

  “Oh, right.” He immediately dug into the fridge and pulled out various covered dishes, and, while they watched, he mixed up noodles and sauce and put it in the microwave.

  “Feeding him is a never-ending job.”

  “I think that goes for all kids.” Harley nodded.

  “As I recall, my parents weren’t generous with food for you,” she noted. “Maybe that’s why Jimmy’s appetite here is a surprise.”

  “I was always hungry, even when I had a part-time job. One of the reasons I went into fast food was so I could get meals for free.”

  “Well, it also gave you money.”

  He looked over at her, smiled with a lip tilt. “Which I paid your father half.”

  She stopped and gaped at him. “What?”

  “Yep. He commandeered half of my wages for room and board because I was eating more and causing them more pain and trouble than he was getting paid for to look after me.”

  She sat back in shock. “You never told me. I imagined you had all this money when you left.”

  “I didn’t have very much at all. The navy was a really good answer. Believe me. I took it and ran.”

  “Jesus. I didn’t realize how bad my father was.”

  “Or your mother,” he murmured. “She’s the one who used to sit here on payday, with her hand out.”

  She was so ashamed of her parents. “She took even more, after my father demanded half? I just …” And then she stopped and shook her head. “No wonder you left. I can’t imagine that you stayed as long as you did.”

  “I needed my high school education because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I was determined to get at least that much.”

  “I’ll say,” Jimmy added, “but I probably would have told them both to f-off.”

  “Jimmy, stop that.”

  “I know, Mom. You don’t like swearing, but, jeez, there’s a time and a place. I mean, it’s hard to imagine that empty Grandma was that kind of a terror, but, with mean ol’ Grandpa to back her up, maybe.”

  “And that empty Grandma is still your grandmother. You will talk about her with respect.”

  “Sure.” Jimmy shrugged, completely uncaring. He popped more of the spaghetti into the microwave to heat it and put away the rest of the leftovers.

  At that, Harley stood, looked down at her. “I think that’s enough reminiscing for tonight. I’ll head back to the pub, and then I’ll go look for the dog.”

  “Right. At least you’re not going tonight.” He just gave her a quiet smile and didn’t say anything. She groaned. “You are, aren’t you?”

  He took one look at her and then her son, shrugged. “Pub and to bed sounds good too.” And, with that, he smiled. “Nice meeting you, Jimmy.”

  And he turned and walked out.

  Chapter 4

  “Wow, he’s really nice,” Jimmy said. “Can’t believe Grandpa and Grandma were that mean to him.”

  “I can,” she replied tiredly. “Anytime I took on babysitting, they demanded half that money too. But it never occurred to me that they were doing that to him. They were already getting paid for him, getting paid money by the government, getting free education for me, free health care for everybody,” she noted. “It was just terrible that they did that. I wish I had some money to pay him back.”

  “Do we have any money?” Jimmy asked.

  She looked at him, smiled, and shook her head. “Essentially no. We are living on the little bit of money to look after Grandma. She owns the house, which is paid for, thank goodness, so it’s more or less groceries.”

  “And if Grandma goes?”

  “I’ll have to find another job—like this.”

  “And if you sold the house?”

  “It will give us a little bit of money, yes. But we’d still have to then pay rent or to find another place to live.”

  “Right. In other words, money is an issue.”

  “It’s really an issue,” she agreed, “and it’s one of the reasons why I can’t put your grandmother in a home.”

  “Harold says that his grandparents are in a home. And the government pays for it.”

  “And I don’t know if that’s possible or not. I haven’t looked into it. It’s on my list of things to do.”

  “Maybe you should. Might be the answer. Then you could get a job and stay here at the house.”

  “Which kind of sounds like I’m putting her in a home so I can have her house.” She frowned. “And that’s not who I am.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way. but there’s not a whole lot of Grandma left.”

  Jasmine winced. Because out of the mouth of babes came the truth; just it was a hard truth. “And, as long as we don’t look at it that way,” she said, “maybe it’s easier.”

  He grabbed his plate of spaghetti and sat beside her and wolfed it down.

  She reached over. “Slow down,” she cried out gently. “The food isn’t disappearing. It’ll be there in the next five minutes too.”

  He grinned. “Sure, but I’m hungry.” He stopped, looked down at the food. “I can’t believe Grandpa wouldn’t have fed him properly.”

  “He was a big boy too, back then,” she murmured. “And I remember him always being hungry.”

  “And did you help him?”

  “Sure I did, but we also didn’t keep a ton of food in the house.”

  “Probably so that nobody could go take it without asking. We always have granola bars and cookies and stuff.”

  “We didn’t have those when I was growing up. … If Mom could make it, then we had it. Otherwise we didn’t spend much money.”