After Dark (10 page)

    "Lane?"

    He closed the distance between
them, but when he reached for her, she sidestepped him and stood rigidly
at his side, her stance daring him to touch her. Lane possessed a solitary
strength, as if during the past fifteen years, she had learned that she
could rely on no one except herself. He could see that strength in her cold
eyes, in her tightly coiled body,in the aura of self-assurance that surrounded
her. This woman wasn't the girl he had known. She was as much a stranger to
him as he was to her.

    "I made a deal with Sharon."
Lane swallowed, clearing her throat. "If she wouldn't get an abortion,
I'd adopt her baby."

    ''And she agreed, knowing you were
just a nineteen-year-old kid yourself?"

    "We-we concocted a
plan," Lane explained. "Sharon had been sleeping with Kent, after
you left town, after she suspected she was already pregnant. We thought
that if she told him the child was his, he might believe her. And if I agreed
to marry him and adopt his child, then-"

    "Then he'd want the kid for sure,
if you were part of the bargain!" Johnny Mack slammed one big fist in
the palm of his other hand. The slap reverberated in the nighttime
stillness. "Damn! But why? Why marry a man you'd refused to marry a dozen
times over just to keep Sharon from aborting her baby?"

    Lane swiped the tears from her cheeks.
"He was your baby. All that I had left of you. I wouldn't allow anyone
to harm him! Not then and not now."

    Figuratively brought to his knees
by her admission, humbled to the point of wanting to prostrate himself
in front of her, Johnny Mack remained silent. His throat closed tightly.
He'd known Lane had had a crush on him for years before he'd left town, but
he'd had no idea the depth of her feelings for him. She was probably the only
woman in his entire life who had ever loved him. And loved him so unselfishly.

    He wanted to reach out and take her
into his arms, to hold and comfort her, to thank her for such a precious
gift. But he could tell by her wary stance that she didn't want him to touch
her. She had loved him fifteen years ago, loved him enough to make a tremendous
sacrifice for his child, but how did she feel about him now? How much had
the passing of fifteen years, marriage to Kent and a lifetime of lies
changed Lane? She probably hated him now. If she did, he couldn't blame
her.

    "I was very foolish back then,
wasn't I? I've grown up a lot since then. I've learned a great deal about
love. What it is and what it isn't." Her voice softened and trailed
off quietly. "I was so infatuated with you." Sucking in air,
she tilted back her head and stared up at the starry sky.' 'Will is the only
thing that matters to me now. I would do anything to protect him."

    "Even murder Kent?"

    The moment he saw the hurt look in
her eyes, the silent gasp form on her lips, he wished back the words. But it
was too late. Just as it was too late to go back fifteen years and change
the past. All he could do now was accept the blame for what he had done-
for all the harm he had caused. He had known, somewhere in the darkest,
most private recesses of his soul, that the day of reckoning would come.
Sooner or later, a man always paid for his sins.

    "Yes, even murder Kent,"
she admitted.

    Her voice was so whispery quiet
that he barely heard her over the drumming roar of his own heartbeat.

    "Do you have a good lawyer?"
He broke off a willow limb and began stripping the leaves, avoiding eye
contact with Lane.

    "James Ware has been handling
everything for me."

    "Kent's stepfather?"

    "After James Ware, Sr.'s, death,
James, Jr., became my father's lawyer as well as the Graham family lawyer,"
Lane said. "He doesn't think there's enough evidence for a grand
jury to indict me, but then James isn't a criminal lawyer. If I'm indicted,
I'll hire someone else. An expert."

    Johnny Mack tossed the bare willow
branch into the Chickasaw River and watched it float away downstream.
"I can afford to hire you the best criminal defense attorney in
the South. One phone call from me and Quinn Cortez will be on the next plane
to Alabama."

    "You must be very, very rich,
Johnny Mack, if you can pay Mr. Cortez's fees." Lane nodded toward
the path that spiraled along the riverbank. "Let's walk. I'm too jittery
to just stand here."

    He fell into step beside her and
noticed that their bodies formed a connected shadow. One tall. One
short. Side by side, joined together without physically touching.

    "Want to tell me what happened?"
he asked. "I'm here, Lane, because I want to help you. I want to try
to make things right, if I can."

    Her brittle laughter tore at
his gut, like the talons of a falcon ripping apart its prey. Without saying
a word, she had told him that he was offering too little, too late.

    "Will hiring Quinn Cortez to
defend me ease your conscience?"

    She knew him too well. Even after
all these years, she could still see inside his soul. Lane had been the
only person who had ever been able to see past his cocky, bad boy exterior.
The only woman who had ever cared enough to search for the good in him.

    ''Yeah, it would be a start. After
all, you know better than anyone that I did a lot of damage before I
left this town. I have to start somewhere to make it up to you… and to
Will for-"

    "He doesn't want to have anything
to do with you."

    "What?" Johnny Mack stopped
dead still. "Are you saying he knows that I'm his father?"

    Lane halted and turned to face
Johnny Mack. "Yes, he knows. And I'm afraid that, right now, he hates
you.’’

    "Did you tell him about
me?"

    "No, but I wish I had."
She keened softly, as if trying to ward off some impending disaster.
"Kent told him. And he didn't do it kindly. He took out all his anger
and hate on Will."

    "That bastard!"

    "Kent was a bastard all right.
He enjoyed hurting Will because he was yours. And he enjoyed hurting me
because… Kent Graham wasn't a very nice man."

    Saying that Kent wasn't a very nice
man was a gross understatement. It was like saying Alaska was cool in
the winter. "How did Kent find out I was Will's father?" He grabbed
Lane's shoulders, but stopped himself just short of shaking her.

    "Sharon wrote a deathbed
confession." Lane's forced smile hardened her face.' 'She told
Kent everything. How we had duped him, making him believe Will was his.
Sharon was doing some conscience easing of her own." Lane pummeled
her fists against Johnny Mack's chest. "That stupid, stupid woman! All
she'd cared about was money. But when she found out she was dying, her conscience
started bothering her. She never thought about what the truth would do
to Will. Not once did she put her child's welfare first."

    He manacled Lane's wrists in one
hand, halting her pounding assault. She glared at him with pure loathing.
Like a blinding flash, a cold, bitter truth hit Johnny Mack. "How much
did you pay Sharon?"

    "What?"

    Gripping one shoulder, he shook
Lane. Gently but forcefully. "Tell me the truth. How much did you pay
Sharon for my son?"

    "Oh!" Her mouth formed
an astonished oval. Tears glistened in her eyes. "Fifty thousand
dollars. I asked Daddy to give it to me for a wedding present."

    "She sold you her baby."
Johnny Mack released Lane. Anger exploded inside him like bottle rockets
on the Fourth of July. He needed something to hit. A punching bag. Kent
Graham. Buddy Lawler. "Why didn't Lillie Mae tell me about Will? She's
known where I was for nearly ten years now."

    "I have no idea why she didn't
tell you about Will or why she never told me that she knew where you were.
But I assume Lillie Mae did what she thought was best for Will, just as I
did. When you left, you swore you'd never come back. You washed your hands
of Noble's Crossing and everyone in it. We got along just fine without
you. We didn't need you."

    "But you need me now, don't
you? At least Lillie Mae thinks so."

    "She's afraid that I might be
indicted for Kent's murder, and if I'm-"

    "You will not be convicted of
killing Kent, even if you did murder the son of a bitch." Johnny Mack
gripped Lane's chin between his thumb and forefinger. "Do you hear
me? Quinn Cortez has never lost a case. And I'm calling him tonight."

    Lane stood on the porch and watched
Johnny Mack get in his car and back out of the driveway. He was coming to
lunch tomorrow to meet his son. He had invited himself, showing her that
a part of the brash, unmannerly boy he had once been still existed somewhere
inside him. All her protests had fallen on deaf ears. Short of calling
the police when he showed up tomorrow, she didn't know how to stop him.
And at this point, involving the local authorities wasn't an option.

    Like a hurricane wind, Johnny
Mack had stormed back into her life, wanting, needing and demanding. And
making promises. In the past he had never made promises to her, and yet
he had broken her heart all the same.

    / want to meet Will… I'll call Quinn
Cortez and have him on standby, ready to take the next plane to Alabama
when we need him… You won't be convicted of Kent's murder, even if you did
murder the son of a bitch… I'd never hurt you, Lane. I'd never hurt you…

    He would never hurt her again and
not because he had said he wouldn't, but because she would not let him.
Kent had destroyed her naïveté, her ability to easily trust in the goodness
of others. And Johnny Mack had taught her the foolishness of loving with
blind devotion. She had once loved with all her heart, completely, holding
back nothing. But now she loved no one, except Will and Lillie Mae. Trusted
no one, except Will and Lillie Mae. Johnny Mack couldn't hurt her-not any
longer. But he could hurt Will.

    Lane glanced up at the second
story of the house and noted the light shining in the windows of Will's room.
She had to talk to him, explain about Johnny Mack, make him understand
that he wasn't the horrible human being Kent had said he was.

    But just how much about Kent and
about Kent's death did she dare discuss with Will? How much could she dredge
up without renewing Will's nightmares? She had believed it was a blessing
that he couldn't remember Kent's murder, whether he committed the crime
himself or had simply been a witness to it. If Will had killed Kent, if he
had taken his baseball bat and bludgeoned Kent to death, wouldn't it be
better if he never remembered?

    If only she had been there. If
only she could have stopped Kent from spewing his putrid hatred and torturing
Will with a distorted version of the truth. But Lillie Mae had been there
and hadn't been able to prevent disaster. Or had she? Was it possible
that Lillie Mae… No! She had to stop speculating about what happened the
day Kent was murdered. It didn't really matter who killed him. All that
truly mattered was keeping Will safe.

    Lane took one step at a time, preparing
herself for the confrontation with her son. What could she say to him?
How could she make him understand that regardless of what Kent had said
about Johnny Mack, the man wasn't a monster. He was simply a guy who had made
some bad choices, a man who had made up his own rules as he went along and
had been hellbent to snub his nose at local society. She couldn't defend
most of the things Johnny Mack had done, but she could paint a more honest
picture of Will's biological father. Even if she hated Johnny Mack, she
didn't want Will to hate him.

    Lillie Mae met Lane the moment she
entered the house. A frown marred her wrinkled face. Lane had known Lillie
Mae long enough to recognize the look as one of agitated concern. Is
she worried that I'm angry with her because she sent for Johnny Mack?

    "You and I need to talk,"
Lane said. "But first I'm going upstairs to see to Will. I have to
explain some things to him about Johnny Mack and make him understand-"

    "Will's gone."

    "What?"

    "Miss Edith called right after
you went out." Lillie Mae grimaced as if the mention of Kent's mother
left a bitter taste in her mouth. "She asked Will to come over there
and see Miss Mary Martha. Seems she's been calling for Will."

    "Calling for him by name or
just calling for her baby?"

    Lane hated the way Mary Martha often
referred to Will as my baby. Since the first time her sister-in-law held
Will, Lane had felt a certain uneasiness every time Kent's sister had lavished
attention on him. Mary Martha had an almost unhealthy attachment to
Will, but whenever she had mentioned that fact to Kent, he had dismissed
it as foolishness.

    "You aren't jealous of Mary
Martha are you, sweetheart?" Kent had said. "She's just being
a devoted aunt. No need for you to concern yourself."

    "I don't know if she asked for
him by name. Will didn't say. Just told me that his aunt was calling for
him." Lillie Mae nodded to the door. "Did Johnny Mack leave?"

    "Yes."

    "Will he be back?"