Gypsy Beach (24 page)

Ryan had spoken to a real-estate attorney in
Wilmington and had an offer drawn up for the full price of the Inn.
It was in his Suburban to be taken to the courthouse the next
morning.

Catching her in another frantic pace down the
hallway, Ryan wrapped her up in his arms. “Everything is going to
be fine. I promise you.”

Sienna wished he would stop saying that.
First of all, no matter how much he might want it to be true, it
wasn’t. He was essentially lying to her. Well, maybe not exactly.
Nana’s voice echoed in her head once again.
There are such
things as false truths, Sienna, and honest lies.

I know that, Nana.
Sienna wondered if
she was certifiably crazy since she’d taken to arguing with a dead
woman in her head. But she did know that. She was well versed in
Gypsy proverbs, but that wasn’t going to save her Inn.

After enduring a fitful night of no sleep
where Sienna would break down in tears that were preceded by
terrible nightmares, Ryan wasn’t surprised that he awoke alone
again.

She’d begged to stay at the Inn despite the
fumes of tile glue that permeated the air. She’d insisted that it
was her last night in her home. Though he’d adamantly refused to
believe that, he hadn’t argued when she’d wanted to sleep there as
long as he got to sleep with her.

He ordered himself from the bed. He had to go
back to his beach house to get his suit and prepare for the
hearing. Locating Sienna took no time at all. She’d returned to her
spot on the deck. Tears were leaking steadily down her face. It
took all of his mighty resolve to keep from revealing his plan, but
she would come unglued if she knew what he was up to.

He tried to get her to eat, but she refused.
The only request she made was that he go back to his house to get
ready. She wanted a little time alone to tell Nana and the Inn
good-bye, she’d explained.

He had to give her room. He could never
smother her. Though she’d more than proven her love and dedication
to their relationship, she would never be free of her Gypsy blood
or that propensity to fly. Ryan knew he must always remember
that.

Squeezing her tightly to his chest, he
whispered kisses in her hair. “You, my baby, are going to cook me
something delicious on your new oven when we get back here tonight.
I have no doubt. This is going to work.”

She managed a half nod, and hugged him
tightly before making what appeared to be a death march back inside
the Inn. Shaking his head, Ryan drove the Suburban back to the
beach house.

Sienna forced herself to make detailed mental
images of the Inn. She ran her hands along each of the old
hand-written cookbooks in the kitchen. Ryan had installed a shelf
for their care. Despite her pleas for him to stop working, the Inn
looked amazing. He’d put so much thought and care in each thing
he’d crafted for her. It wounded her that he was leaving a piece of
himself here. That was one he couldn’t have back, couldn’t share
with her, couldn’t give to Evie. Ted Roby didn’t deserve any of
Ryan.

She travelled through each of the bedrooms,
remembering playing in them as a little girl. Inhaling deeply she
tried to memorize the scents, the infusions of her grandmother’s
cooking, the patchouli oil, and the wildflowers she would pick and
place all over the house.

Tears she was unable to halt were her
constant companion. She would wipe them away as she made her
good-byes.

The old phone in the kitchen gave its shrill
ring. No one had called the Inn since she’d moved back in. It was
probably the bank calling. She was late with her first payment, so
she begrudgingly answered.

“This is Owen Sanders. I was looking for Ryan
McNamara. I know he’s working out there. It’s important I speak to
him.”

“Oh.” Sienna thought the Sanders used to own
a few houses way up the beach. “I’m sorry. Ryan’s not here. Could I
take a message?”

“Do you know how I might be able to reach
him? I need to speak with him about the closing on his beach house.
I’d like to move it up a week or so.”

“Wait! What?” Confusion spiraled through
Sienna’s body.

“I’ll try his cell again. If you see him
would you mention that I called, and that I have the paperwork for
the McNamara’s old place? I’d be willing to pay a little more if
he’ll move out sooner. I’d like to get it on the website as our
showpiece for the summer renters.”

Goose bumps lifted the hair on Sienna’s arms.
Panic sped her heart.
No. No, he couldn’t. This was why he was
so certain she wasn’t going to lose the Inn. He wasn’t going to let
her lose it because he was going to sell his only home to buy the
Inn for her.

“I have to go.” Sienna slammed down the
phone. The ramifications made her woozy. Her heart slammed against
her rib cage. She could not let him do this. If he didn’t have
somewhere to live, somewhere that he could prove he owned, he would
lose Evie! If Alexa found out, it would all be over. NO! She would
not allow this. She had to do something.

Letting her propensity to fly be her guide,
Sienna grabbed her purse, ran past the porch shouting out a plea
for Nana to do something, and leapt in her van. It hadn’t been
cranked it two weeks, so she wasted no time pumping the gas pedal
and coaxing it to start. When the engine finally complied, she
floored it and never let off the gas.

Ryan grimaced as he glanced at his watch. He
shouldn’t have stopped at Mac and Molly’s for eggs. He’d been
trying to give Sienna some time. He knew his shower wouldn’t take
long but then Evie had called.

“Evie, baby, I’m sorry. Daddy has to go, but
I’ll call you tonight and tell you a story, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy. Bye. I love you!”

“Love you too, baby girl.” He whisked through
the kitchen and picked up his briefcase. John was already waiting
on them at the courthouse. According to him, Roby was there,
looking a little too smug.

Checking his rearview, Ryan pressed the
accelerator. He leapt from the Suburban and raced back inside the
Inn, not certain what state Sienna might’ve worked herself into in
his absence.

“Baby, you ready?” He checked the back deck
again, but this time she wasn’t there. Her ancient cell phone, one
she generally forgot to carry with her, was on the kitchen counter.
He’d planned to buy her a newer, nicer one once he got paid for the
work on Sander’s rental properties the next week. The battery on
the phone was dead once again. She hadn’t had the funds to replace
it.

“Sienna?” He headed up the stairs. “Baby?” He
told himself not to panic. She wouldn’t run away from him, though
the hearing might’ve made her feel cornered. He shouldn’t have left
her there.

“Sienna!” he shouted down the long hallway
that contained all of the guestrooms. Checking each of them
methodically, he found them hauntingly empty. Nausea washed over
him. He rechecked the kitchen and her bedroom. The clothes she’d
been planning on wearing to the trial were laid out on the bed, but
she was nowhere to be found.

Dammit, where is she?
This wasn’t the
time to run away. If she didn’t show, Roby would win automatically.
None of this made any sense. This wasn’t Sienna.

She is a gypsy!
John’s derision rang
in his ears.

The harrowing sense of loss that he’d just
barely managed to push away after spending two weeks with her took
over his mind with ease. The tally of all that had been taken from
him, all that he’d endured, every snide nasty remark Alexa had
backhanded him with, every time he’d handed Evie over to her
mother, every collection agency call he’d withstood, his father’s
trial, it all pressed in on him with crushing weight.

Where was she?

His cell vibrated in his pocket. Frantic, he
answered without checking who was calling. “Sienna!” he pled.

“Dammit! Where are you two? The hearing
starts in five minutes. Roby is salivating!”

“I… I can’t find Sienna.” His voice was
distant and hollow. His bones felt like lead. He couldn’t move. He
couldn’t think.

“What?” John spat. “Find her and get her
here! Now!” The call ended, and Ryan paced the hallway once more.
His fists clenched rhythmically. Down the hall and back again. A
trip to nowhere. Where was she?

His temper finally shattered through his
practiced resolve. The heel of his leather shoe met the half opened
drawer on the old chifforobe. As if to rub vinegar in his gaping
wounds, it sprang back open.

In a fit of unmitigated rage he flung the
drawer onto the floor. Before he could spin and land his fist in
the sheetrock he’d just repaired, he saw it. A neatly folded thick
stack of paper half hung in the drawer opening. The drawer
contained ancient spools of brightly colored threads. The paperwork
must’ve been shoved behind the drawer. That’s why it wouldn’t
close.

Ryan lifted the documents and began to read.
His eyes goggled as he saw the names on the final page. With the
evidence firmly in his hand, he sprinted to the Suburban and put it
through his paces. Swerving and cursing the entire way, he drove
the emergency brake to the floorboard and vaulted the railing on
the County Clerk’s office. The courthouse was right across the
street, but he had someone he needed to pick up first.

Steady tears streamed down Sienna’s face as
she flew down the interstate. How could anyone love her that much?
She didn’t know, but there was one thing that Ryan McNamara needed
to survive and somehow she was going to get his precious little
girl for him. Alexa sounded like some form of Satan’s spawn, but
Sienna had to figure out some way to get her to sign those papers
before she realized that he was selling his house. She had to talk
to Alexa before Ryan tried to buy the Inn from Roby.

“Go faster!” She ordered her van, and it
magically seemed to understand. With a quick lurch forward, Sienna
flew past the South Carolina line.

“Look a little nervous there, Upton. You
mother-fucking asshole, did you really think you’d get away with
this?” Ryan grasped Upton’s scrawny body by the scruff of his neck
and half-dragged and half-walked him to the courthouse.

“What the hell? I barely managed to talk the
judge into delaying the trial. He gave me fifteen minutes, so I’m
guessing he’s not feeling particularly generous at this point!” In
his fury, John didn’t seem to notice the fact that Ryan was
dragging Robert Upton.

“Well, then figure out how to submit this
because Roby is a crook and he had help.” Ryan shoved Upton and the
contract of sale on The Gypsy Inn, signed to Ruth Cooper from Ted
Roby and made official by the Assistant to the County Clerk, Robert
Upton, before his best friend.

John made quick work of the documents while
Upton shivered in his boots. “Look there, Nana knew she was
supposed to have the deed.” Ryan pulled out a yellowed piece of
notebook paper from the stack, a note from Nana to Sienna
explaining that she was worried about Upton and the deed. “Roby
went into this seven years ago intending to lay claim to the Inn
when Ruth died. A new deed was issued when Ruth bought it from him
free and clear, but Upton very conveniently never filed it. If no
one legally owned the Inn, Roby could come in pay off the taxes and
sell the land to investors. He was perfectly happy for Ruth to pay
him year after year, but he had to figure out something else when
she demanded that he give her the deed. She probably saved up for
years to pay him off and trusted that the deed would be filed
appropriately. He never knew about Sienna. When she showed up and
took possession, he panicked. Greedy bastard wanted the land,
especially with investors chomping at the bit to buy, and he
couldn’t risk Sienna finding this!”

“You were there the other night!” John jerked
Upton’s head up to meet his eyes. “You were looking for this,
weren’t you? You have some kinda deal with Roby? Gonna split the
profits that came from the highest bidder on property you’d already
sold.”

In his terrorizing fear, Upton managed a
frantic nod.

Mac Montgomery’s tall body rose from a chair
nearby. Obscured in a cowboy hat, Ryan hadn’t noticed him in his
fervor to get to Upton and Roby. “I knew you were up to something,
Upton. Once a rat, always a rat. This is low, even for you. You had
to find those papers because it’d look mighty bad for your
campaign, trying to swindle an old lady and her granddaughter out
of their home, now wouldn’t it? Gypsies can hold a grudge, Upton.
Don’t mess with us. Gypsy blood runs deep, and we never forget,” he
growled.

Thanking God or Nana, or whomever had
arranged it, for making it all the way to Emory Hospital in
downtown Atlanta without getting a speeding ticket, Sienna leapt
out of her van and raced to the elevators.

Short of breath, she all but collided with
the admissions desk. “I’m sorry. Uh, I need to know where Mrs.
Baldwin’s room is.” She didn’t know Alexa’s mother’s first name,
but an idea sprang to mind. She had to try. “Uh, her daughter,
Alexa, asked me to come. Mrs. Baldwin’s had a stroke. It’s looking
bad. I need to be with Alexa now.”

That’s my girl!
Nana cheered her
on.

“Of course, ma’am.” The kind woman smiled and
typed quickly on her keyboard. “She’s been moved out of Intensive
Care so her family can be with her. Her family is probably in the
waiting room on the third floor. You’re welcome to visit them
there.”

“Thank you so much!” Sienna leapt on an
opening elevator, having no idea what she was about to say or how
Alexa would react.

With a deep breath, she stepped off of the
elevator.

The judge narrowed his eyes at Roby. “So, let
me get this straight. You and the bane of the entire Circuit Court
here attempted to swindle Ruth Cooper, a dear woman that once
brought my little girl soup that lowered her fever and might’ve
saved her life, out of her house seven years ago. After spending
years, making her give you her hard earned profits on a piece of
property you’d abandoned, then you tried to take it away from her
granddaughter. You ransacked the place. Breaking and entering
twice….”