Pushed Too Far: A Thriller (19 page)

Grace said nothing, and Val couldn’t tell if she was following or too upset to even think about seemingly random medical details. She’d never talked to anyone outside of doctors about her disease before, and she knew her description sounded like something she’d read in a pamphlet she’d picked up in a specialist’s waiting room. “Sometimes I have problems, and sometimes I feel perfectly normal.”

“What kind of problems?”

This was the part she really didn’t want to get into. Not only was she afraid she’d scare Grace, but there was no list she could rattle off, no definitive symptoms she could recite. “Lots of things. Almost anything. Right now, I have some numbness in my right hand.”

Her narrowed eyes flew to Val’s right hand. “Just numbness?”

“Mostly.” Before her dip in the river, she’d thought the hand was improving. Since she’d awakened in the hospital, the fingers again felt like rubber, like something other than her own flesh. She hadn’t been able to get them to move at all, not something she wanted to describe to Grace.

She decided to skip telling her niece about the spasm in her neck, too, which had also grown worse, and the hint of blurred vision on the road home that hadn’t abated. “The individual symptoms aren’t the important thing. MS can show up just about anywhere. But it also goes away.”

“You mean it can be cured?”

“Well, not really.” There was a fine line between reassuring her and outright lying. Val didn’t want to lie. “But I could go years without any sign of it. I
have
gone years.”

“Then just let me help you when you are having problems.”

“And you’re going to do what? Drop out of school to babysit me?”

Grace turned away as if Val had slapped her.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I don’t mean to be cruel. But you have to realize, the most important thing to me is—”

“Not needing anybody. I know.”

“Is that what you think?”

“Isn’t it?”

“No. I need you, sweetheart. I love you. That’s why the most important thing to me is you going to college, living your life how you want.”

“What if what I want is to take care of you?” If she’d been a few years younger, she would have stamped her foot. “It’s always like this. I want to keep the horses, so you buy a farm. I mention fashion, you take me shopping. I want to give back, too.”

Val had to remember, Grace was just a kid. As smart and caring and pulled together as she seemed, she was a teenager.

And she was her mother’s child.

“I didn’t just develop MS out of the clear blue. It runs in our family. Your grandmother had it, too.”

Her eyes sharpened, and she leaned forward.

“She was diagnosed around the time I was leaving for college, a little older than you.”

“Did she tell you, at least?”

“Yes. She told me.”

She pursed her lips and nodded, as if Val had just proven her point.

“And I went to college anyway. And after I graduated, I attended the police academy. I went home during breaks, visited. I saw her getting worse over the years, but I never moved back home. I didn’t give up my life to take care of her.”

“And you think you did the right thing?”

Val had to answer honestly, and it was perhaps the hardest word she’d ever uttered. “No.”

Grace stared at her a long time without speaking. When she did open her mouth, her voice was a whispered plea. “Then why do you want that for me?”

“I didn’t stay home. I didn’t watch my mother’s body stop working. I didn’t take care of her on the days she couldn’t walk or couldn’t see or couldn’t speak. I wasn’t with her when she finally died. Your mom did all that, Grace.”

A minute ticked by, maybe two.

A phone rang at the nurses’ station. Rubber-soled shoes squeaked on waxed floors. A machine beeped out a steady rhythm next door.

Finally Val managed to clear the thickness in her throat and summon the strength to go on. “Melissa never lived her life. She never went to college. She never got to enjoy parties and dating and dreaming about her future. I think when she met your dad, she just wanted to be normal so desperately, wanted to have a romance, wanted to fall in love …”

“And he was married.” She didn’t say the words with bitterness, but as fact.

Val had never met Grace’s dad, but unlike Grace, she
did
judge. He’d taken advantage of her sister, played around with her, then went his merry way. The only thing she couldn’t hate him for was the baby he’d left behind.

“But she got to have you. To keep you. After you were born, she was so happy. It was the happiest I’d ever seen her.”

The corners of Grace’s mouth turned up a touch, then the smile fell away as she remembered the rest. The part Val didn’t have to tell her, because she was there.

More there than Val.

And that was the bottom line, wasn’t it?

“You’ve already had to spend so many years of your life taking care of your mom. I won’t have you spend more of them hovering over me.”

“But you’re … you’re all I have, Aunt Val. I want to help.”

Val shook her head. “I owe her, Grace. I took from her. I won’t take from you.”

“And buying a farm so I could keep my horses, is that paying her back?”

“I did that just because I wanted to.” Val gave her niece a heartfelt smile. “I always wanted horses, too. Didn’t I ever tell you that?”

Grace’s frown deepened. “I’m serious.”

“I am, too. I’d give you everything in the world, Grace, if I could. What I can give you is a place to keep your horses, an education for your brilliant mind, and freedom to live your life without taking responsibility for me.”

She swallowed into an aching throat, her eyesight not only blurred by the MS, but by tears. “I want to see you blossom the way your mom never could.”

M
onica really hadn’t had that much to drink, but the beeping of the slots, the jingle of a jackpot of tokens pouring from the machine, and the hormonal buzz she felt whenever she was around Derrick must have intensified the booze content of the casino’s cocktails.

She leaned against the solid strength of her man, the brightly patterned carpet swirling in front of her. “Whoever is tending bar tonight makes some kind of strong whiskey sours.”

Scooping the latest haul of tokens into his plastic cup, Derrick grinned.

Monica melted.

He might not be George Clooney handsome, but that didn’t matter to her. Hair was overrated. So was a washboard gut. What Derrick had was more special. Whenever he looked at her—like his grin now or a glance across the room or gazing deep into her eyes while they were making love—she always felt he wasn’t seeing her as she was, flaws and all, he was seeing the woman she wanted to be.

Another gambler bumped into her from behind.

She staggered forward, and Derrick wrapped an arm around her, keeping her on her feet.

Normally she’d be pissed. She might even spin around and lecture the stranger on watching where he was walking. Tonight she appreciated the gentle shove closer to Derrick’s side.

“You okay?” her prince asked.

“I’m thinking I’d like to go back to the room.”

“I’ve never known you to tire out quite so early.”

“I’m drunk, honey. I never said I was tired.”

That little twinkle she loved lit his eyes. “So you don’t want to go to bed, Monica?”

“Bed? Sure. Or maybe floor or shower or whirlpool tub. Hell, maybe we won’t even make it to the room.” She moved her hand down to his crotch and gave him a little feel.

He didn’t have to tell her he liked the way she was thinking, she could see his excitement in his face … and feel it stir in her palm.

They made it to the elevator. As soon as the door closed behind them, they were kissing like teens. Derrick skimmed his hands under her sweater, unhooked her bra and had her bare breasts in his hands before the car started its ascent.

Okay, so a little more efficient than any teen.

Monica had his belt open, fly down and was just pulling him out when the bell chimed. Giggling, she pulled her sweater down and he attempted to cover himself with his shirt tail as the door slid open. He didn’t succeed.

Luckily the corridor was clear.

She sagged against the wall, trying to catch her breath. “Let’s make a run for it.”

“My shirt’s stuck in the zipper,” Derrick said, his words slurring, too.

Monica couldn’t contain her laughter.

“Hey, it’s all your fault.”

They laughed all the way down the long hall. Derrick was still trying to adjust himself when they reached the room, and he was still failing.

“Don’t bother. We’ll be inside in a second.” Monica dipped her hand into the back pocket of her jeans for the key card.

The pocket was empty. “Where’d I put it?”

“It’s right here.” Derrick turned to the side, his shirt doing nothing to hide him.

Another wave of laugher took Monica. “‘The key card, Derrick. Please. I must have left it in the casino or something.”

“Should I go down like this and look for it?”

She had to get him inside, but not with the intention of covering him up. “I think you should just use your key and let us into the room, so I can take care of that problem for you.”

“Deal.” He pulled a card from his pocket, and they stumbled into the room.

Monica pulled her sweater and bra over her head. Her jeans and panties came next. She left them in a heap on the floor and perched on the edge of the bed naked.

Derrick had gotten his shirt off, but was having a tough time getting his shirt tail unstuck from the zipper.

Of course, he had an exuberant obstacle in the way.

“Come on over here.” The room felt like it was swaying, like a small boat on a rough sea. How in the world did they manage to drink so much? Any minute she might fall over in a naked heap. But even though she knew she’d have one hell of a hangover tomorrow, she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity for wild, drunken, monkey sex tonight, if she could possibly stay upright for it.

Or even if she couldn’t. “Let me do that for you, baby. I’ll rip it out with my teeth.”

Grinning Derrick staggered toward her and stepped between her open thighs. She’d just taken him deep into her mouth when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

“Have to admit, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do to you, but inspiration strikes at unexpected times.”

She turned in the direction of the voice and stared into the eyes of Dixon Hess.

W
hen Lund got back to Val’s room, he was more than a little surprised to see Grace perched awkwardly in a chair next to her bed. “Hi, Grace.”

“Hi.”

He shot Val a questioning look.

She answered by holding out her hand. “Can I use your cell phone?”

He handed it to her.

Her conversation was brief, and while she talked, he tried to coax a little information out of her niece. “So you heard about your aunt’s accident?”

“That’s why I came back. I had to make sure she was okay.”

Good kid. He would imagine some nieces might be concerned about having their car submerged in a river, but apparently that wasn’t anywhere near the top of Grace’s mind.

Hours had passed since he’d found Val in the Wisconsin River, but it would have taken a good chunk of time for Grace to make the drive, especially on treacherous roads. She must have found out about the accident almost immediately. “How did you get here so quickly?”

“The police called me about the car.”

“And you flew up here? Or did you just beam yourself?”

The girl didn’t crack a smile. She also didn’t answer.

“She stole my friend’s car.” Val handed him back his phone.

“Didn’t see that one coming.”

Val eyed Grace. “Why don’t you run down to the vending machine, sweetheart? You must be starving.”

The girl’s eyes filled with tears. “I really am sorry I took the car. I didn’t know what else to do, and I didn’t want you to be all alone.”

“I know.” Val seemed exhausted.

Understandable under her circumstances, but Lund got the feeling he’d missed more than the revelation that Grace had stolen a car. Once Grace left to plug the machines for food, he’d find out what. He dug into his pockets and pulled out a few dollars and some change. “Do you have cash for the machines?”

Grace nodded, but he slipped a few bills into her hand anyway. Thanking him, she scampered from the room. And he turned his full attention to Val. “Everything okay?”

“Jack said she would have put out an APB for the Nova, except she was secretly hoping not to get it back.”

“I’m not talking about the car.”

“Grace? No, she’s decided she’s going to take care of me.”