A Gift of Time (The Nine Minutes Trilogy Book 3) (25 page)

Chapter Forty-Three

Grizz

2001,
Fort Lauderdale

“
She said that
? She said those exact words?”

Carter
looked down at the table. She was sitting in the rear booth of a fast food
restaurant. Grizz sat with his back to the wall facing the patrons that came
in. He’d never sit with his back to a crowd, in spite of the slight risk that
he might be recognized.

She’d sent
him a message some time ago that Ginny no longer needed him, but he’d stayed
around. She hadn’t told him in that message the other harsh words Ginny had
said much later, words she told him now: That Grizz could relieve Carter of her
duty to summon him. That Ginny would never send for him.

Carter was
right in feeling he wouldn’t leave without further explanation, but even though
she knew he’d been hurt by the details she’d just relayed, she also knew she
wouldn’t lie.

“Yes.”
Carter chanced a glance at him. “But I don’t think she means it. She’s coming
from a place of pain and anger. Look at what she’s been through, not just since
Tommy died, but knowing beforehand about your secret. Finding out you were his
father. It’s just too much. She needs more time.” She took a quick sip of her
soda and avoided eye contact with Grizz. Ginny had recently confided to her
that Grizz was not Tommy’s father. Should Ginny ever decide to see or talk with
Grizz, it would be her story to share. Not Carter’s.

This was the
first time Grizz had actually met with Carter face-to-face since his return.

“I shouldn’t
have just smashed that bitch’s face into the table. I should’ve fucking killed
her!” The memory of the prison interview with Leslie was still fresh in Grizz’s
mind. It was her fault Ginny was having to deal with so much right now.

Carter
quickly changed the subject.

“So how has
it been for you? What are you doing with yourself, and where are you living?”

He explained
in as few words as possible that he worked on a landscaping crew. He’d moved
out of an efficiency apartment on the beach and was renting a furnished
three-bedroom house in a little subdivision called Laurel Falls. He was
surprised how much development there had been in South Florida since he went to
prison.

“Every
fucking house looks the same. So does every neighborhood. If there wasn’t a
sign in the front that said Laurel Falls, I wouldn’t know where the hell I
was.”

Carter
nodded. “I’m sure it’s changed a lot since you’ve been here. A car dealership
sits where your motel used to be.”

“Yeah, I saw
that. I can’t believe how far west the development has spread. It’s a fucking
concrete nightmare.”

“How are you
doing with staying off the grid?” Carter knew the temptation to visit his old
bars and biker hangouts must be difficult.

“Not as hard
as I thought, but I still keep a hat on and wear sunglasses as a rule. Fucking
crazy that I’m being forced to live by the same rules I placed on
Kit—errrr, Ginny—all those years ago. Karma is biting me in my
ass.” He took a bite of his hamburger.

“At least
you have an ass to bite. I don’t know how you pulled this off, but you did.”

He stared
intently at Carter, slowly chewing his food.

“You’re not
asking me how I did it, right?”

“Wouldn’t
dream of asking,” she said honestly, then smiled. “I’m sure it’ll make a decent
book one day.”

“I still
don’t know why she’d send for me after Tommy was shot.” The bewilderment in his
tone was obvious. “My first thought was that he’d been targeted, and she felt
threatened in some way. Or maybe she thought the cops would never get the guy,
and I might still have an ear to the ground. Hell, she could’ve just gone to
Blue or Anthony for that. But I guess my gut wanted to believe she needed me
because maybe she still loved me.”

He said the
last part over Carter’s shoulder. He wouldn’t look at her.

Carter gave
him a funny look. “Grizz?”

He met her eyes.
“Yeah?”

“Ginny was
wearing the bandana the day before Tommy was shot. I paged you within minutes
of seeing her. Are you telling me you didn’t get it until after he was shot?”

Grizz sat up
straight and focused on what Carter was telling him. She could see the wheels
begin to turn.

“I’d
accidentally turned my pager off. I got the page the day after Tommy was shot.
I was actually sitting in a diner somewhere in Louisiana watching it on the
national news when your message came through. I assumed it had been sent after
the shooting.” He frowned. “Do you know why she was wearing it the day before
he was shot?”

“No. She
told me she’d forgotten it was a way to signal you and she just happened to be
wearing it that night.” She paused, then leaned over the table toward him. In
almost a whisper, she added, “But I know she wasn’t being honest.”

**********

He sat in his car, fighting
the temptation to march into the club and stake his claim on the only woman
he’d ever loved. It was killing him.

He’d done
everything within his power to stay away from her and keep a low profile as
he’d slowly immersed himself back into society. It wasn’t easy. The pull to go
back to his old life was strong, especially since he didn’t have her to anchor
him. He had dark thoughts about reinventing himself underground, bringing his
gang back to its glory days, but he knew those thoughts were as misguided as
they were ridiculous.

He hadn’t
tried to see her since the day of Tommy’s funeral. The last couple of months
had been hell. Knowing she was out there. Knowing she had needed him. Wondering
why she hadn’t asked Carter to arrange a meeting.

He figured
the initial message that he was no longer needed was because of her grief, so
he’d stayed hoping she would come around. He was almost ready to accept she’d
changed her mind after Tommy died.

But hearing
from Carter that she’d been wearing the bandana the day before the shooting
fueled his need to see her, to talk to her even further. To ask why.

For two
days, he’d sat in a strip mall that faced the entrance to her neighborhood
before finally seeing her. But when he finally did, it wasn’t what he’d
expected. He’d had to blink twice to see if she was really in the car with the
man he’d seen at the funeral. She was smiling at something he’d said as the
streetlight illuminated her face. His blood began to boil with fury.

Grizz had
followed them to a club and felt the darkness start to invade. He hadn’t felt
anger like this since she’d given birth to Jason and he’d had to beat another
prisoner to death. He knew there was only one thing he could do. He would have
to drive away from the club before he did something stupid. He would have to
find another outlet to quench his darkest fury.

No, not
tonight. He’d have to patiently wait for the right time to approach her. He
wanted to know why she'd worn the bandana and he didn’t know how he would
control himself until he got the answer. But one thing he did know for certain.

He wouldn’t
be leaving South Florida until she looked him in the eyes and told him to. And
maybe not even then.

Chapter Forty-Four

Ginny

2001,
Fort Lauderdale

Surprisingly, I enjoyed
myself the night Alec took me to a
club. He’d found the perfect venue with a band that played nothing but
seventies music. The place had a retro-hippie feel to it, and I absolutely
loved it. I even agreed to go again the following Saturday night.

Alec was a
perfect gentleman, and I hadn’t expected anything different. I remembered
feeling a slight high from his compliment the day I’d gone to the office to surprise
Tommy, but there was nothing in his actions during our night out that indicated
he was interested in anything other than an evening without the kids. During
the band’s breaks, he filled me in on his time away from civilization. How he
and the boys had bonded while living in North Carolina, away from the noise and
busyness of city living.

“Being away
from technology for those few months was the best decision I ever made,” he
said. “I felt closer to my boys, and I got them to open up about their feelings
of abandonment by Paulina. It wasn’t easy, but I had to explain some things to
them.”

**********

A week later, I was slicing
carrots at the kitchen counter when Jason came in and was digging through the
refrigerator.

With his
back to me, he blurted, “Caleb wants you to marry his dad.”

I stopped
slicing and turned to look at Jason, who was drinking milk from the carton. I
was too stunned to reprimand him. Caleb was Alec’s youngest. I just stared.

“He wondered
if you were doing kissing things. That’s what he called it.” He rolled his
eyes.

“Well, if it
ever comes up again, you can make sure he knows that I’m not doing kissing
things with his father. We’re just friends.”

“I know. I
told him that. I guess he thinks because he doesn’t have a mother and I don’t
have a father, we would make a good family.”

“He’s young,
and I can understand why he would think that, but I think you should continue
to discourage him, honey. It’s not going to happen.”

“Good, Mom.
I’m glad you said that. I don’t want another father. Not even Alec.”

He tossed
the empty carton of milk in the garbage and, swiping his arm across his mouth,
he left the kitchen.

“Good,” I
whispered to myself. Because I don’t want another husband.

I made sure
Mimi would be home so I could sneak over to the church and work on my Sunday
school lesson. Even though I’d prepared the actual lesson, I wanted to update
the bulletin boards to coincide with the new unit I’d be introducing. I sat in
one of the tiny chairs with my knees higher than the table.

Somehow, I
was immediately reminded of being in the exact same position last year, when
I’d made the right decision to go back to Tommy. I remembered the call I’d
received from him, telling me Jan had been murdered. I shook off the sad
memories and went back to cutting out letters from bright red construction
paper.

I was
wondering if I should cancel seeing Alec later that evening. Jason would be
staying overnight with his friend, Max, and Mimi was going to be babysitting
for Daisy, Anthony and Christy’s little girl. I knew she genuinely loved little
Daisy, but there had to be a part of her hoping she’d somehow run into Slade.

But now,
after Jason’s comment in the kitchen, I was seriously reconsidering my
friendship with Alec. Not because I was having any feelings toward him or
sensing he had feelings toward me, but because I was concerned about how our
friendship might seem to the children. Our friend date the weekend before went
smoothly, but I didn’t want to give our kids the wrong impression. Maybe I’d
talk to Alec about it tonight.

I was in my
church classroom and standing on my tiptoes, trying to get a stubborn tack in
the wall, when I sensed a shift in my surroundings. I couldn’t place where the
feeling was coming from; I just knew something had changed. I listened
carefully. It wouldn’t have been unusual for someone else to be in the building
with me. I wasn’t the only person with a key, nor was I the only teacher to
work on my lessons the day before class. But what did seem unusual was that
they hadn’t made themselves known. I swallowed.

I’d used my
key to come in the side entrance and up the back staircase, but that didn’t
mean someone couldn’t have come in through the church, which was kept unlocked
on weekends, and found their way up through the front stairs.

I stepped to
the small CD player on the windowsill and turned down the volume. With my back
to the classroom door, I slowly scanned the side parking lot, leaning up and
over to peek at the other parking lots. Mine was the only car.

I turned
around and stopped myself from gasping.

My right
hand flew to my heart.

Grizz.

Oh, dear God
in heaven.

He stood in
the doorway of my classroom. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I willed myself
to be calm, to not think, as I slowly scanned him, starting at his feet and
finally coming to rest on his eyes.

Those eyes.

He looked
like an older version of the Grizz I’d been married to. His hair had grown in
and showed what I thought were slight streaks of gray, barely noticeable
against his dark blond locks. The long scruffy beard I’d remembered from his
execution was gone, replaced with a neatly trimmed one. He looked more
muscular, if that was even possible. I also realized his arms sported different
tattoos. I could recognize Grizz’s ink in my sleep, knew every detail of every
tattoo, and these were different. He’d had them worked on.

You’d think
I’d have a million things to say to him. A million things to ask. But instead,
I blurted out the first asinine thought that came to me.

“So. You’re
not naturally bald. I guess you’d been shaving your head all those years. Lucky
for you it grew back.” Of all the things I could have said, I picked that? I
forced myself to breathe, to act natural.

If I’d have
been watching a movie, this would be the part where the heroine ran to the hero,
threw herself into his arms, and thanked God he was still alive. But not me. I
was standing in front of a man who was supposed to be dead, discussing male
pattern baldness.

His
expression was casual, unreadable. A beat passed.

He raised a
brow. “I read somewhere that we inherit our tendency to be bald, or not, from
our maternal grandfathers. I guess I had a grandpa with a decent head of hair.”

I nodded
like we had this conversation every day, like my heart wasn’t beating straight
out of my chest. I couldn’t think of a reply, so I said nothing. I clenched my
fists and stood straighter, waiting for him to say something else.

“When did
you stop wearing your bangs, Kitten? You know how much I love them,” he said in
a quiet voice. His eyes were pleading with me. For what, I didn’t know.

“I stopped
caring about what you love a long time ago,” I snapped. “Remember? I was
following your orders.”

He stood
there and just nodded.

A full
minute must have passed, and finally he muttered, “You must be wondering how this
is possible—”

But I’d
heard enough.

“I already
know how this is possible. Tommy and I didn’t keep secrets.” Of course Tommy
did, they both had, but I felt the need to go for the throat.

All he did
was raise a questioning eyebrow and waited for me to say something else.

I huffed out
a breath. “Fine. So you’re alive. Well, I’m happy for you, Grizz. I hope you
can carve out a nice life for yourself somewhere. Just do me a favor.” I
narrowed my eyes. “Make sure it’s as far away from me and my children as possible.”

My heart
thudded as I scooped up my purse and keys. I had to get out of here. Now. Had
to distance myself before I lost control of everything, even the places in my
brain.

“I guess you
didn’t get Carter’s message that you’re no longer needed.” My words came out in
a high-pitched squeak. My body was betraying my actions. I looked at the keys
in my hand, saw it was starting to shake.

He stepped
fully into the room now. “You’re shaking, Kit. Are you afraid of me?”

I heaved my
purse onto my shoulder. “I’ve never been afraid of you, and I don’t go by Kit
anymore. Never call me that again. Oh, wait.” I lifted my chin. “That won’t be
a problem. Because we’ll never be speaking again.”

“Don’t
leave. Please. Let me talk to you. Let me explain some things.”

“Oh,
twenty-five years later and now you want to ‘explain some things’? You know
what, Grizz? You could’ve done that in 1975, but you didn’t. And now it doesn’t
matter. None of it.” I stood up straight. “It’s over. Done. You’ve accomplished
whatever it was you set out to do. The almighty Grizz has somehow beaten the
system.”

He didn’t
address my sarcasm, but asked a question instead.

“Why did you
wear the bandana?”

A million
possible answers flashed through my mind. I could’ve made something up.
Tortured him with some ridiculous story. But I decided the truth would hurt the
most. And right now I wanted him to hurt.

“It
definitely wasn’t my idea. Tommy asked me to wear it. After I told him you were
still alive and left a way for me to signal you if I ever needed you, he asked
me to wear it so I could make a decision. But I told him it wasn’t necessary. I
was with him, and seeing you wouldn’t change that. But he insisted and so I
wore it, and Carter sent the signal.” I let out a harsh laugh. “And as you can
see, it no longer matters.”

He stared
back at me, the hurt in his eyes suddenly replaced with something else,
something I couldn’t read.

I stared at
him hard. “I’ll ask this only once, and if you have a decent bone left in your
body, you’ll tell me the truth. I will absolve you of every lie and half-truth
you’ve ever told me or allowed me to believe for twenty-five years. And keep in
mind—I’m not the naïve teenager you married in 1975. I’ll know if you’re
telling me the truth.”

He never
broke eye contact.

“The police
caught Tommy’s murderer, and they believe it was random. Did you or they have
anything to do with his murder?”

“No.” His
voice was even, quiet.

I nodded
slowly, believing and accepting his answer. I let out the breath I’d been
holding and started to walk past him. I stopped when my shoulder brushed his
bicep. I could feel his head turn toward me, although I stared straight ahead
at the open doorway.

His arm came
up then, and he softly caressed my cheek with the back of his hand. I froze,
but his touch sent a jolt I hadn’t expected.

I shook him
off and kept walking, calling out over my shoulder, “If you’ll excuse me now, I
don’t want to be late for my nail appointment.”

I knew he’d
turned to watch me leave, and I stopped in the doorway, turned around to look
at him.

“I have to
get ready for my date tonight.”