{"id":1349,"date":"2012-05-30T22:21:45","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T03:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theproviso.com\/?page_id=1349"},"modified":"2026-03-31T20:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:50:09","slug":"stay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/thebooks\/stay\/","title":{"rendered":"STAY"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"eddsection\">\n<div class=\"eddfloat_dl\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"eddcover_dl\">\n<figure class=\"b10mwx\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/b10mediaworx.com\/covers\/stay\/stay-200x300.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"b10mwx\">Tales of Dunham #2<br \/>\n\u00a92009 Moriah Jovan<br \/>\n119,000 words (332 pages)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<article>\n<p class=\"eddtitle_dl\">Book 2 in the Dunham universe<\/p>\n<div class=\"linksbuyblock\" role=\"group\" aria-label=\"Buy Stay\">\n<p class=\"linksedd\">Buy direct:<\/p>\n\t<form id=\"edd_purchase_8251\" class=\"edd_download_purchase_form edd_purchase_8251\" method=\"post\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"edd_price_options edd_multi_mode\" >\n\t\t<ul>\n\t\t\t<li id=\"edd_price_option_8251_epub\"><label for=\"edd_price_option_8251_1\"><input type=\"checkbox\"  checked='checked' name=\"edd_options[price_id][]\" id=\"edd_price_option_8251_1\" class=\"edd_price_option_8251\" value=\"1\" data-price=\"4.99\"\/>&nbsp;<span class=\"edd_price_option_name\">EPUB<\/span><span class=\"edd_price_option_sep\">&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"edd_price_option_price\">&#36;4.99<\/span><\/label><\/li><li id=\"edd_price_option_8251_pdf\"><label for=\"edd_price_option_8251_2\"><input type=\"checkbox\"  name=\"edd_options[price_id][]\" id=\"edd_price_option_8251_2\" class=\"edd_price_option_8251\" value=\"2\" data-price=\"4.99\"\/>&nbsp;<span class=\"edd_price_option_name\">PDF<\/span><span class=\"edd_price_option_sep\">&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"edd_price_option_price\">&#36;4.99<\/span><\/label><\/li>\t\t<\/ul>\n\t<\/div><!--end .edd_price_options-->\n\t\n\t\t<div class=\"edd_purchase_submit_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<button class=\"edd-add-to-cart button has-edd-button-background-color has-edd-button-text-color edd-submit\" data-nonce=\"819cd7bb29\" data-timestamp=\"1775823175\" data-token=\"a67f514d741a3c53b396a4c0bbd51a8a94aca365056f7d635579985786be3d9e\" data-action=\"edd_add_to_cart\" data-download-id=\"8251\"  data-variable-price=\"yes\" data-price-mode=multi data-price=\"0.00\" ><span class=\"edd-add-to-cart-label\">Add to Cart<\/span> <span class=\"edd-loading\" aria-label=\"Loading\"><\/span><\/button><input type=\"submit\" class=\"edd-add-to-cart edd-no-js button has-edd-button-background-color has-edd-button-text-color edd-submit\" name=\"edd_purchase_download\" value=\"Add to Cart\" data-action=\"edd_add_to_cart\" data-download-id=\"8251\"  data-variable-price=\"yes\" data-price-mode=multi \/><a href=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/checkout\/\" class=\"edd_go_to_checkout button has-edd-button-background-color has-edd-button-text-color edd-submit\" style=\"display:none;\">Checkout<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"edd-cart-ajax-alert\" aria-live=\"assertive\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"edd-cart-added-alert\" style=\"display: none;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<svg class=\"edd-icon edd-icon-check\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" viewBox=\"0 0 28 28\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<path d=\"M26.11 8.844c0 .39-.157.78-.44 1.062L12.234 23.344c-.28.28-.672.438-1.062.438s-.78-.156-1.06-.438l-7.782-7.78c-.28-.282-.438-.673-.438-1.063s.156-.78.438-1.06l2.125-2.126c.28-.28.672-.438 1.062-.438s.78.156 1.062.438l4.594 4.61L21.42 5.656c.282-.28.673-.438 1.063-.438s.78.155 1.062.437l2.125 2.125c.28.28.438.672.438 1.062z\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAdded to cart\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!--end .edd_purchase_submit_wrapper-->\n\n\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"download_id\" value=\"8251\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"edd_action\" class=\"edd_action_input\" value=\"add_to_cart\">\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/form><!--end #edd_purchase_8251-->\n\t\n<p class=\"linksedd\">&nbsp;<br \/>\n<span class=\"small85\">Amazon<\/span> <a class=\"stay\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B002WN34WE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kindle<\/a> \u2022 <a class=\"stay\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0981769632\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">paperback<\/a><br \/>\n<span class=\"small85\">Barnes &#038; Noble<\/span> <a class=\"stay\" href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/stay-moriah-jovan\/1102726789?ean=2940012358677\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nook<\/a> \u2022 <span class=\"small85\">paperback<\/span><br \/>\n<a class=\"stay\" href=\"http:\/\/books.apple.com\/us\/book\/id1147037065\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple iBooks<\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"stay\" href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details?id=CwGPCTD2gf0C\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Play Books<\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"stay\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/stay-tales-of-dunham-2-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kobo eBooks<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"eddstaytag_dl\">You Sail Away \u2026 Far on a Summer\u2019s Day<\/p>\n<p class=\"eddsum_dl\">At 12, Vanessa Whittaker defied her family to save 17-year-old bad boy Eric Cipriani from wrongful imprisonment and, possibly, death. She\u2019d hoped for a \u201cthank you\u201d from him, a kiss on the cheek, but before she could grow up and grow curves, he left town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eddsum_dl\">Fourteen years later, Vanessa is a celebrity chef at the five-star Ozarks resort she built. Eric is the new Chouteau County prosecutor on his way to the White House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eddsum_dl\">Four hours apart and each tied to their own careers, their worlds have no reason to intersect until a funeral brings Vanessa back to Chouteau County, back to face the man for whom she\u2019d risked so much, the only man she ever wanted\u2014<\/p>\n<p class=\"eddsum_dl\">\u2014the only man she can\u2019t have.<\/p>\n<div class=\"navblock\">\n<p class=\"leftnavblock\"><a class=\"arrowsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/thebooks\/theproviso\/\">\u2190 Book 1<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"rightnavblock\"><a class=\"arrowbig\" href=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/thebooks\/magdalene\/\">Book 3  \u2192<\/a><br \/>A Mormon bishop. An ex-prostitute.<br \/>The unlikeliest of soulmates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wingding\">\u203b<\/p>\n<div class=\"top100\">&#160;<\/div>\n<p class=\"excerptdate\">December 14, 1994<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">\u201cPEOPLE VERSUS ERIC Niccol\u00f2 Cipriani. Charges of statutory rape, sexual assault in the first degree, and forcible rape in the first degree.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMs Leventen, how does the defendant plead?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHilliard?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemand, your honor. The victim is thirteen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo ordered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"staypart\">The Poor Get Their Ice in the Winter<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">1: SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">HE LAUGHED AT the college girl as she scrambled for her clothes, half drunk and pissed. He tipped his head back and swallowed a mouthful of warm, flat beer from the bottle he\u2019d left on the bedside table.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re a prick, Eric,\u201d the girl\u2014he didn\u2019t remember her name\u2014snarl-slurred as she misbuttoned her blouse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, you didn\u2019t mind so much when I was fucking you with it, did you? What, did you think I was going to tell you I loved you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, but I didn\u2019t expect to get insulted, either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever. You\u2019re twenty. I\u2019m seventeen. You came to a frat house looking for good college-boy sex and you got better than you expected. What\u2019s the problem?\u201d She curled her lip at him. He shifted to sit more comfortably in the bed, his back against the wall, and gestured at her midsection with the hand that held his bottle. \u201cDidn\u2019t you learn how to dress yourself when you were five?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She screeched and threw her shoe at his head. She was too drunk to hit him, though, and he watched it land three feet away. He laughed harder. She opened her mouth to say something else equally scathing when the door burst open, startling them both\u2014badly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat the fuck\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShut up,\u201d snarled a Chouteau County deputy, who hauled all six feet three inches of naked Eric out of the bed by his hair and shoved him up against the wall, his arms yanked behind his back.<\/p>\n<p>He was too shocked, too suddenly terrified to make a sound when he heard more than felt his rotator cuff pop, just drunk enough not to feel the pain of having his dick and face slammed against plaster and woodwork, and not drunk enough to be able to laugh it all off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re under arrest for statutory rape and sexual assault&nbsp;\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>His mind shut down immediately, completely unable to process the combined assaults on his body, his senses, or the college girl\u2019s sudden hoots of delighted laughter, her taunts.<\/p>\n<p>Statutory rape and sexual assault? Of <em>whom<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>His mind then spun to life, turbocharged in spite of the numbness he sought. How would he get out of this? He already had a juvie record with nothing to offset it but a 4.5 average in his Advanced Placement classes, and a job as a manager at a feed store.<\/p>\n<p>He had no money and he\u2019d never had good luck with the public defenders.<\/p>\n<p>Statutory rape and sexual assault?! He couldn\u2019t possibly have fucked a girl that young&nbsp;\u2026 could he? Whowho<em>who<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>Still naked except for a ratty blanket, he got stuffed in the back of a squad car. Cold. So cold. The deep freeze of a Missouri December at two a.m. was just another insult. He saw the frat house from which he\u2019d been dragged, alight but still and quiet, all its occupants clustered together on the sidewalk at the foot of the concrete stairs that led up to the house. Sober, clustered together, shivering in various states of undress, they tried to keep warm while they watched Eric hauled away so spectacularly. He blinked. Glanced away, unable to look back at the people he had blithely called \u201cfriends\u201d for the night.<\/p>\n<p>None of them would bail him out. They barely knew him, much less cared. He was just known to be a hard partier and a good fuck.<\/p>\n<p>He gulped.<\/p>\n<p>No one to call. His mother, out of the question. She would believe that he had fucked an underage girl and let him rot, not that he could blame her. She\u2019d bailed him out enough.<\/p>\n<p>Couldn\u2019t call old Jenkins. He\u2019d told Eric that one slip-up would get him the boot straight out of the feed store.<\/p>\n<p>Statutory rape and sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p><em>I didn\u2019t do it!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Wouldn\u2019t matter. No one would believe him innocent.<\/p>\n<p>They had no reason to.<\/p>\n<p>The squad car finally began to move toward the courthouse. He knew the routine; he\u2019d been through it enough times, but not for a year and a half now. He\u2019d tangled with almost every one of the prosecutors in that office, Hicks more than most. He closed his eyes and collapsed in on himself. Please, no. Not Hicks.<\/p>\n<p>The man was vicious and, unlike most of the attorneys in that office, was not on the take. Eric could only hope to get the new prosecutor, that fucker straight out of law school who\u2019d offed the serial killer and skated. That was a man who\u2019d appreciate a bundle of cash to overlook whatever bullshit Eric was said to have done.<\/p>\n<p>Only&nbsp;\u2026 Eric had no money, so it didn\u2019t matter who ended up prosecuting him.<\/p>\n<p>No money, no payoff.<\/p>\n<p>And for this, he\u2019d be tried as an adult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">HE REGRETTED HIS WISH for the newest, youngest prosecutor immediately upon staring into Knox Hilliard\u2019s cold, hard face\u2014the face of a killer with nothing to lose and a raging thirst for justice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimone Whittaker?!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric shot to his feet, jolted out of his shocked numbness into a rage of his own when Hilliard told him his alleged victim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSiddown,\u201d Hilliard snarled, so Eric sat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can\u2019t be,\u201d Eric said, desperate for him to understand. \u201cShe came on to me and I told her to get lost. I don\u2019t do little girls at all ever. Never. Second, even if I did\u2014which I <em>don\u2019t<\/em>\u2014I wouldn\u2019t have touched <em>her<\/em> with a ten-foot pole. She\u2019s a disgusting, lying little bitch and who the hell knows what diseases she\u2019s got.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was the wrong thing to say. He knew it by the chill in Hilliard\u2019s ice blue eyes, knew it even before his court-appointed attorney hissed, \u201cShut up, Eric.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m done with this asshole,\u201d Hilliard murmured, calm and cold, staring Eric down until Eric had to look away. Cold. That was the only word Eric could apply to the man who\u2019d murdered another man in cold\u2014well, not so cold\u2014blood, who sat there on the right side of the law like he had a right to be there.<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s attorney did manage to get him seen for his torn rotator cuff, but no one much cared beyond giving him a steroid shot. His life was over, over before it had begun.<\/p>\n<p>Simone Whittaker, thirteen going on twenty-three.<\/p>\n<p>He knew at least two dudes in his class who\u2019d fucked her, but Eric? No way. He\u2019d been creeped out enough to look at a girl that young dressing, talking, acting like an oversexed college girl.<\/p>\n<p>He resigned himself to his fate, although his attorney, a lady Hilliard\u2019s age, also straight out of law school, was actually doing a pretty decent job of defending him. He wouldn\u2019t get off, though, because he could clearly see Hilliard was better\u2014and motivated.<\/p>\n<p>Thirteen-year-old girls.<\/p>\n<p>Even ones who looked and acted ten years older, who spread her legs for any male who\u2019d have her. No matter Eric was smarter than his cohorts: valid picture ID and condoms. Always, every time, without fail.<\/p>\n<p>Shit, yeah, Hilliard had made his opinion known loud and clear what he thought of that particular crime. The man had a roar that could be heard all the way to St. Joe. A lion, his attorney had called him; then, after Eric had caught her checking out Hilliard\u2019s ass, he wondered if she was fucking him on the sly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLord, no,\u201d she breathed, aghast when he asked her point-blank. \u201cKnox doesn\u2019t like blondes and he doesn\u2019t like women my age.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you telling me he\u2019s a closet pedophile?\u201d Eric asked slowly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, Eric,\u201d she said dryly. \u201cHe\u2019s not letting loose any self-loathing on you. He likes women older than he is. And no, I wouldn\u2019t sleep with him while I\u2019m defending you anyway. That\u2019s just a little too kinky for my taste. In any case, I doubt any prosecutor anywhere would go any lighter on you. These crimes are\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yes, he knew. Universally despised. \u201cI didn\u2019t do it,\u201d he protested. Weak. It was weak. Nobody ever believed a defendant who said \u201cI didn\u2019t do it\u201d because they all said that.<\/p>\n<p>She patted his hand. \u201cI know you didn\u2019t. I\u2019ll do the best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apathy: The only emotion Eric could muster.<\/p>\n<p>Except when&nbsp;\u2026 put in general population, at which point, he didn\u2019t hesitate to make his opinion known about some other inmate\u2019s assessment of him. For the first time, Eric cursed his looks. The term \u201chottie,\u201d applied by a male, didn\u2019t seem like such a compliment. It was a relief when he was thrown into solitary confinement for damn near killing the fucker with his bare hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this point, all I care about is managing to get myself in solitary for the rest of my life,\u201d he said to his attorney the next time he saw her.<\/p>\n<p>She pursed her lips in commiseration.<\/p>\n<p>She knew she was losing. Eric wouldn\u2019t live to see his nineteenth birthday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">2: LAZY, LOUSY, LIZA JANE<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptdate\">April 1995<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">VANESSA SQUEEZED tight into herself, watching from across the street, waiting for him. She sat on the sidewalk, her back against the stone wall of the caf\u00e9 and furniture store, a small book hidden between her upraised knees and her chest.<\/p>\n<p>There he was, striding purposefully into the courthouse like he owned it: tall, blond, hard, and very cruel. She could see it in his face. She knew what he\u2019d done\u2014the whole county knew. And trembled. She didn\u2019t know which was scarier: approaching the man who\u2019d gotten away with the murder of her mother\u2019s boyfriend or going home to her mother after having done so.<\/p>\n<p>She <em>could<\/em> just forget the whole thing and go back to school, but Laura would be disappointed in her if she left now, so Vanessa tried to screw up her courage and go see the man every person in the county feared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe could snap again,\u201d went the whispers. \u201cWho knows what\u2019ll set that crazy bastard off now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He had more than one reputation in town, for sure. Whenever Vanessa and the rest of the sixth graders ate lunch in the narrow quad between the elementary school and high school, she would overhear the older girls talking about him as if he were a rock star. Even a couple of teachers would whisper his name and giggle. She supposed he was kinda sorta good looking, but he was way old\u2014like, twenty-five or something\u2014and terrifying.<\/p>\n<p>Her heart in her throat, she still couldn\u2019t make herself move.<\/p>\n<p><em>What would Laura do?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Laura would march herself on in there and do the right thing no matter what. \u201cVanessa, that boy didn\u2019t rape Simone,\u201d she\u2019d say, or so Vanessa imagined she might say. \u201cYou\u2019re the only person who knows that besides your mother and sister, so it\u2019s <em>your<\/em> responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa knew what would happen to her when LaVon and Simone found out she\u2019d blown up their scheme\u2014and they <em>would<\/em> find out.<\/p>\n<p>Dirk, the only protector she had ever had, was gone all the way around the world to New Zealand, to talk to people about his church. She\u2019d had no one to protect her for a year and this would seal her fate. Perhaps it was time she packed her bags and set out on her own.<\/p>\n<p>The crowd of people going to work had thinned out quite a while ago and then only the intermittent flow of deputies coming and going kept her from entering. She supposed it was now or never if she was going to do this, because eventually someone would approach her to find out why she wasn\u2019t at school.<\/p>\n<p>Reluctantly she stood and shoved the book up her shirt, then hugged it to her tight. With leaden feet she crossed the street and headed up the long walk to the courthouse doors. Once inside, she didn\u2019t know what to do. Everybody looked at her strangely but no one asked her her business.<\/p>\n<p>She looked up at the building directory and looked for his name. There. Second floor. She stared up the very high, wide staircase and took a deep breath. One step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time, and then she was in front of the door she was looking for:<\/p>\n<p class=\"staysign\">PROSECUTOR\u2019S OFFICE<\/p>\n<p>Her hand reached out for the doorknob as if it were on a string and she was a puppet\u2014wait, no, a&nbsp;\u2026 She searched for the right word. Marionette. That\u2019s right. A marionette. And while she\u2019d been thinking of the right word, her feet had gone ahead and taken her through the door and into the office.<\/p>\n<p>Ancient wood and metal desks were crammed into an open area any which way. Men stormed around the obstacles, cursing, yelling, and generally filling the air with much anger and lots of bad words. She swallowed. In front of her was another door:<\/p>\n<p class=\"staysign\">CLAUDE NOCEK<br \/>\nPROSECUTOR<\/p>\n<p>A young black man stopped short and looked down at her. She stepped back, her eyes wide, because now she would actually have to talk to one of those men who were cursing and yelling and being angry.<\/p>\n<p>She bit her lip.<\/p>\n<p>Tightened her arms over her body, over the book, its vinyl cover stuck to her skin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, uh, hi,\u201d he said after a long few seconds. \u201cMy name\u2019s Richard. What can I do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She gulped. \u201cI came to see Mr. Hilliard,\u201d she whispered. \u201cI have something for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A bemused smile swept across his face and she knew then that he was nice and he\u2019d help her. \u201cReally? What would that be?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA book,\u201d she breathed. \u201cI really need to talk to him, please.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He turned a bit and gestured that she should step ahead of him. She shrank from the curious glances of the other men as their conversation first lowered and then stilled in her presence. She felt Richard\u2019s hand lightly on her back but didn\u2019t pull away; she didn\u2019t like strangers to touch her, but she had come here by herself for a reason. She tucked her head down and let her brown hair fall to cover her face. Finally, she took one step and then another, Richard\u2019s hand guiding her across the floor to a dark corner in the back. Mr. Hilliard sat hunched over his desk, engrossed in his work. She blinked when he jotted a note. He was left-handed, like her. Somehow that made her think that maybe she didn\u2019t have to be so afraid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnox, this young lady says she has something for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Hilliard raised his head and looked first at the man, then at her. She tried to hide how afraid she was but knew she couldn\u2019t. Then the most amazing thing happened.<\/p>\n<p>He smiled. And it was a nice smile.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHi. What\u2019s your name?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVanessa,\u201d she whispered. She didn\u2019t want to tell him her last name because his smile might go away and then he might not be nice to her anymore. Her mother badgered him enough as it was and she was sure he was sorry he\u2019d ever heard the Whittaker name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow old are you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwelve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy aren\u2019t you in school?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have to give you something. It\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked up at Richard and nodded, which she figured meant he was to go away. Mr. Hilliard reached behind himself and pulled a wooden chair toward Vanessa, setting it next to his desk. He patted it. \u201cHave a seat, Vanessa. What do you have for me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She approached warily because of what he\u2019d done. It was wrong and bad and horrible. Yet&nbsp;\u2026 Vanessa felt safer at home because of what he had done (honestly, she was secretly <em>glad<\/em>, which Laura would say made her as evil as Mr. Hilliard) so she bit her lip again as she sat down on the chair. She slowly drew the book from under her shirt, making sure not to show any skin, and without a word, she handed it to him.<\/p>\n<p>He took it from her gently, turning it over and over again. She knew that book by heart: pink plastic with a small lock that didn\u2019t seem to work very well. The key had been lost\u2014she didn\u2019t know when. The book was decorated in pink, red, and white hearts, glitter, and silver flowers. She also knew every word in it, which was why she had come.<\/p>\n<p>He opened it and looked at the beginning of it, where its owner\u2019s name was written, the \u201ci\u201ds dotted with hearts. Then his mouth tightened and he looked at her from the corners of his eyes. She didn\u2019t think that was a nice look.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, he began to read. It wouldn\u2019t take him long to get to the important part, so she decided to make herself as small as she could. She curled into herself then, hooking her heels on the edge of the seat. She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.<\/p>\n<p>Her stomach rumbled loudly, earning her another, longer, glance.<\/p>\n<p>She knew that look.<\/p>\n<p>More than a few people had been mean enough to say it.<\/p>\n<p><em>When was the last time you ate?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Then he tipped back his chair and, putting one foot on the edge of his desk, he read page after page with what seemed to Vanessa to be lightning speed.<\/p>\n<p>Then he was done and he looked at her for a long time. He was chewing on the inside of his mouth. She didn\u2019t know what that meant, either.<\/p>\n<p>He threw the book on his desk and linked his fingers behind his head. \u201cWhy did you bring me that?\u201d he asked. She still couldn\u2019t tell if he was mad or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause it\u2019s the truth,\u201d she whispered. \u201cPeople were burned at the stake because no one told the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Hilliard got a funny look on his face. \u201cWhat people?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe witches. In Salem. A long time ago. People died because mean girls told a lie. I read about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see,\u201d he said slowly and looked down at the book. He pointed to it. \u201cHow do I know this is the truth?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She hadn\u2019t thought about that. To her, it was so clear. Her forehead crinkled. \u201cI guess\u2014 Well, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, you know I\u2019m going to have to ask about this and that I\u2019ll have to say how I got it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa nodded. \u201cYes,\u201d she said, and gulped again. She began to tremble because now that Mr. Hilliard hadn\u2019t shot her in the head like he did Tom Parley, she knew her mother and her sister would make her wish he had.<\/p>\n<p>He wiped a hand down his face and didn\u2019t talk for a long time. Finally, he handed her a pen and paper. \u201cWrite down your grade and teacher\u2019s name, Vanessa.\u201d She did, and then he took a business card, turned it over, and wrote on it. When he handed it to her, he said, \u201cIf anything happens to you, if you\u2019re afraid at home for any reason, you call me and I\u2019ll come get you, even if it\u2019s three o\u2019clock in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere would you take me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo my cousin Giselle\u2019s house until social services could come get you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Foster people. That sounded worse than home, if that was possible. She bit her lip yet again in indecision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, okay. I can see that might not seem fun. Right now, I\u2019m going to take you to school. Have you had anything to eat this morning?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She shook her head again, understanding what he intended and that it would mean a ride in a car with a strange adult man, yet she was too hungry to let the possibility of a free meal pass her by.<\/p>\n<p>So she went with him and she stood by his pretty dark green car while he unlocked and opened the door for her, then closed it once she had climbed in. She didn\u2019t think much of it until he parked at McDonald\u2019s and murmured, \u201cStay there.\u201d Now simply curious, she watched him get out of the car, walk around to her side, and open her door for her. He offered her his hand as if she were an adult! A real lady! And then he opened the door of McDonald\u2019s for her!<\/p>\n<p>He let her pick whatever she wanted and eat at the picnic table (he didn\u2019t say much because he seemed to be busy thinking), bought her more (enough for dinner tonight, breakfast tomorrow, and possibly lunch too, if she hid it well enough), then took her to school. The high school girls were outside because it was their lunchtime and they could go off campus if they wanted. She was very conscious of them because they thought Mr. Hilliard was handsome and dangerous, and they had stopped to stare when they heard, then saw, his car.<\/p>\n<p><em>What would Laura do?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Laura would hold her head high and ignore the people who stared.<\/p>\n<p>They parked and she reached for the door handle. \u201cStay there,\u201d he reminded her, and again she waited, feeling very grown up and sophisticated. The senior girls watched Mr. Hilliard open her door for her and help her out the same way he had at McDonald\u2019s. A strange, nice feeling went through her, like how the word \u201cdignity\u201d might feel. They watched him walk her across the lawn away from the lunch quad to the entrance of the elementary school. They watched him hold the front door open for her, again, as if she were an adult and a lady.<\/p>\n<p>The school secretaries gasped when they saw him walk in behind Vanessa and they shrank away from him. He seemed not to notice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVanessa Whittaker\u2019s been at the courthouse for an interview,\u201d he said to the principal, who came out of his office to see what the commotion was all about. \u201cI\u2019m sure you won\u2019t put her down as tardy for today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, of course not, Mr. Hilliard. Of course not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wow. She had never thought Mr. Roberg could be afraid of anything.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Hilliard stepped away from her then. He looked down at her and smiled again that really nice smile. \u201cThank you, Vanessa. You\u2019re probably the bravest person I\u2019ve ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa grinned back at him then, big enough she felt her eyes crinkle at the corners. Now she knew that everything would be okay. Her mother wouldn\u2019t dare do anything to her as long as everyone knew that Knox Hilliard was Vanessa\u2019s friend. He patted her shoulder before he left.<\/p>\n<p>She was walking down the street toward her mobile home after school when the cop car whizzed by and stopped at her trailer. By the time she got there, her sister was being hauled out in handcuffs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou little bitch!\u201d she screamed when she saw Vanessa. \u201cYou lying little bitch!\u201d She lurched toward Vanessa and Vanessa instinctively stepped back, but the deputy hauled her back toward him, then shoved her in the back seat of the squad car, a hand on her head.<\/p>\n<p>Her mother came out on the deck and looked straight at Vanessa, taking a puff of her cigarette. \u201cSo what\u2019d that bastard do to you to get you to lie for that sonofabitch who raped your sister?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t lie,\u201d she murmured as she climbed the steps, the deputy\u2019s car pulling away from the curb and disappearing down the street. She pulled out Mr. Hilliard\u2019s business card and showed her the back, where he had written the word \u201chome\u201d and his phone number. \u201cMr. Hilliard is my friend. He thinks I\u2019m brave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Laura was brave.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Her mother stiffened, and after a long pause, she went back in the house without a word.<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">3: BLACKSTONE\u2019S FORMULATION<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">ERIC HEARD HILLIARD\u2019S voice in his head now, in his dreams\u2014and he had nothing better to do but sleep\u2014accusing him of things he hadn\u2019t done, presenting evidence so clearly, so indubitably that now even Eric believed he\u2019d done it. The clang of jail cell doors, ever present, didn\u2019t disturb his sleep until he awoke in a panic, Hilliard standing over him in his cot&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Looking at him completely differently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat,\u201d Eric snapped, deeply offended that the asshole had invaded his meager space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re free to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUh\u2014\u201d He looked at his attorney, who had a pleased smile on her face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEric, we couldn\u2019t have asked for better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He sat up slowly, looking back up at Hilliard suspiciously, certain this was a trick, some cruel thing Hilliard would do because Hilliard was cruel.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps he was just dreaming. There was nothing of the rage, the hatred in Hilliard\u2019s face now. A smile that bordered on\u2014relieved?\u2014threatened to ruin Eric\u2019s image of him, then he turned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBring him to my office when he\u2019s ready to go,\u201d he finally said over his shoulder. \u201cMake everything official. He doesn\u2019t belong here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks, Knox.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t thank me,\u201d he said as he maneuvered his way around Eric\u2019s attorney to leave the cell. \u201cThank one brave little girl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric waited until Hilliard left, then looked up at his attorney. He knew his confusion showed and he didn\u2019t care. He was broken. At seventeen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimone confessed?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She smiled and shook her head, but would say nothing until Eric was attired in the suit she\u2019d provided for him to wear for the trial. They were the only clothes he had that weren\u2019t neon orange.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t worry about your hair now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric knew he was vain. Vain enough to want to keep his hair long, vain enough to risk tucking it down his shirt collar for his trial so as not to give off the stink of half-breed-bastard-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks, vain enough to fight for it.<\/p>\n<p>When he was ushered into the Chouteau County prosecutor\u2019s private office, he was shocked to see its six other occupants. He stopped and looked around, obeying his hard-won instincts for suspicion. Nocek, the head prosecutor, had disappeared. That really shook him up. Nocek ran the office and the county with an iron\u2014albeit crooked\u2014fist and without ever leaving his office. Was it possible Nocek himself was afraid of Hilliard?<\/p>\n<p>His mother, tears in her eyes. Eric hadn\u2019t seen her since before he was arrested four months ago.<\/p>\n<p>Jenkins, his boss, the owner of Chouteau County Feed and Tack. He hadn\u2019t bothered to show up at the courthouse, even to tell Eric he was fired.<\/p>\n<p>Rayburn, the principal of Chouteau County High School.<\/p>\n<p>Two of his advanced placement teachers, science and English.<\/p>\n<p>Hilliard, leaning back against Nocek\u2019s desk relaxed, as relaxed and at ease in his boss\u2019s office as if it were his, his ankles crossed, his hands in his pockets. He had that same strange expression on his face that Eric didn\u2019t trust for a minute.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought you said I was free to go,\u201d Eric finally muttered when no one seemed inclined to stop staring at him or to speak.<\/p>\n<p>Hilliard inclined his head. \u201cYou are. But. I have a proposition for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric cast a wary glance at his attorney whose mouth crooked in a relieved smile, then back at Hilliard. \u201cI\u2019m not fucking you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hilliard laughed then\u2014roared\u2014his laugh no less deafening than his most enraged bellow. He finally wound down to a chuckle and wiped his mouth. \u201cAh, no. That\u2019s not what I had in mind. I want to send you to college.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s mouth dropped open. College!<\/p>\n<p>A vague hope before his arrest, one he had worked toward in spite of his unwillingness to let the hope gel into a dream or, even worse, a goal\u2014the one he hadn\u2019t dared think about while he was in jail, on trial.<\/p>\n<p>But Hilliard kept talking. \u201cI\u2019ve been watching you, looking through your record, wondering how a smart kid like you managed to fuck up so badly when what you want is crystal clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy am I here?\u201d Eric demanded. \u201cWhat happened? Something happened and I want to know what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hilliard\u2019s mouth pressed a bit, but not, apparently, in anger. In thought. As if he didn\u2019t know whether to say or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found proof of your innocence,\u201d he finally said. \u201cSomeone who knew something came forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Thank one brave little girl.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For the life of him, Eric couldn\u2019t figure out who could do that other than Simone, and his attorney had already said she hadn\u2019t done so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCollege,\u201d Hilliard said, jerking Eric\u2019s attention back. \u201cMr. Rayburn and your teachers have vouched for your willingness to work, to improve your station in life. Mr. Jenkins has told me how you\u2019ve managed his store for the last year, part-time, taking a heavy course load and getting straight A\u2019s. So. I\u2019m willing to pay for your education provided you work as hard during your senior year as you have in the past and provided you go where I send you and obey their rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything,\u201d Eric breathed, willing to go to all the way across the other side of the northland to William Jewell in Liberty, at least twenty-five miles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t you want to know what the rules are?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMmmm, you might. No drinking, no smoking, no drugs. No fucking around. At all. You\u2019ll have to get rid of the earrings, cut your hair. Short. Your course load will include religion classes.\u201d Eric blinked. \u201cThose are their rules. You need an attitude adjustment and you need to learn some propriety. I don\u2019t have time to kick your ass constantly, so the deal is, you spend this year working on getting into Brigham Young University.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric had no idea what or where that was, and apparently his face showed it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMormons. Utah. You go there, you do a good job, you follow their rules. You stay there until you graduate\u2014and I don\u2019t give a shit what you study\u2014then you stay another three years for grad school, because I think you can do it. That\u2019s the deal and I\u2019ll give you a free ride all the way through. Any scholarship money you come up with is fine, but your job is school and don\u2019t even think about working during the school year. I\u2019ll give you what you need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric knew nothing about Mormons, though he knew where Utah was on a map. It was a long way away, but he sure as hell was not going to pass up this opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, sir,\u201d he breathed, wondering how his nemesis had turned into his mentor in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll help you, Eric,\u201d said his science teacher. Eric turned to the man who\u2019d spent the last year torturing him with physics and who\u2019d spend next year torturing him with chemistry. \u201cBYU is a prestigious university and difficult to get into, especially for a non-Mormon who\u2019s not an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut,\u201d Hilliard murmured, \u201cyou\u2019re half American Indian and that trumps everything else in that admissions office. With your grades and ACT score, there won\u2019t be a question.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ll need an ecclesiastical endorsement,\u201d added his English teacher, who was also his guidance counselor, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll have a problem rounding up a preacher somewhere. Do you have a church?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is Osage,\u201d his mother said, her tone sharp, \u201cas Mr. Hilliard just said. He doesn\u2019t go to any white man\u2019s church.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe won\u2019t have to,\u201d Jenkins said gruffly, the way he said everything. \u201cMy pastor owes me a favor. He\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hilliard nodded then, satisfied. \u201cThank you, everyone,\u201d he said, and Eric knew it was settled. Had settled. All around him. Like the snow in a snow globe. Eric felt as if he\u2019d been inside it and gotten his head rattled around. \u201cEric, you stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone took this as their cue to file out. The door closed quietly after them.<\/p>\n<p>Eric swallowed, not sure how to treat this man, only barely able to look at him, wondering what obeisance would be required, willing to walk away from the deal if Hilliard wanted&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Whittakers,\u201d he said, low, and Eric snapped to attention, looking Hilliard square in the face. \u201cYou know the family?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told you everything I know,\u201d Eric replied, still wary, still suspicious of a trap. \u201cSimone dresses up older than her age and puts out to anybody who\u2019ll have her. I\u2019ve seen her sister. Seen their mother here and there, shootin\u2019 her mouth off, slappin\u2019 the little girl around.\u201d That woman was plain evil.<\/p>\n<p>Hilliard nodded slowly, looking at the floor, his tongue stuck in his cheek. Eric knew that look by now. Thinking. Eric waited long moments before Hilliard decided to speak again; even so, it startled him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimone had planned it to the last detail and was stupid enough to write it down. I don\u2019t know if her mother was in on it, but I suspect so. Simone seems to get vindictive when she doesn\u2019t get what she wants and what she wanted was <em>you<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric swallowed. For once in his life, he\u2019d done the right thing, and it had nearly destroyed him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVanessa. The little girl. Simone\u2019s sister. She brought me Simone\u2019s diary. It was all there. Not only did Simone not get you, she lost the rest of her playmates, too. She named names. I\u2019m rounding them up right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s breath stuck in his throat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTell me something. Would <em>you<\/em> want to go back home to LaVon Whittaker, knowing you\u2019d gone against her? Go back to school knowing that half a dozen <em>male<\/em> juniors and seniors, a teacher, and a couple other grown men with their own families are going to prison because you coughed up the evidence?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFuck no,\u201d he whispered, horrified. LaVon Whittaker, all Eric\u2019s burly classmates and their fathers, the families of the other men who\u2019d done Simone Whittaker\u2014versus one little girl.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, me neither. So you think about that. Think about what a twelve-year-old girl did for you just because it was the right thing to do. Don\u2019t let her down, Eric. Don\u2019t let what she did for you be in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">4: YOUNG MR. WILDER<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptdate\">May 1996<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">AND THERE <em>HE<\/em> WAS again. Tall, dark, and very dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>The senior girls had always flocked around him because he was \u201chot.\u201d They said he knew things\u2014things about girls and how to make them feel good.<\/p>\n<p>Well, Vanessa felt good every time she looked at him.<\/p>\n<p>She had watched him for the last year, since she\u2019d gone to see Mr. Hilliard, silent, invisible, wondering when or even if he would see her and acknowledge her. Eric Cipriani would graduate in a month. After that, she would probably see him around town and in the feed store he managed, but she wouldn\u2019t see him all the time, like she did now. Every day, she woke up wondering, <em>hoping<\/em> that today would be the day he approached her to say:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you, Vanessa. You\u2019re probably the bravest person I know.\u201d And then maybe he would kiss her. Maybe on the lips, even.<\/p>\n<p>The thought made her catch her breath and get a funny little sensation in the pit of her belly, which always happened when she thought that maybe, just maybe he would like her a little bit more than just as a brave person. Maybe he would come to like her, you know, <em>that<\/em> way.<\/p>\n<p>Because once he graduated, unless he had <em>that<\/em> reason to seek her out, she would have no such easy access to him as she did now, no reason to go to the feed store, no reason to cross his path at all. Vanessa was running out of time.<\/p>\n<p>She stood behind a tree, peeking around it, to watch him. He and his friends sat on the picnic tables just off campus, drinking beer out of longneck bottles and smoking cigarettes while they watched the senior girls, and pointed at a few of them here and there, laughing. Although she didn\u2019t know what was funny about the senior girls, she loved his laugh. His smile made her want to smile, too, so she did.<\/p>\n<p>At that moment, his gaze met hers, and he stopped laughing. Stopped smiling. Hurt began to blossom somewhere deep inside her chest and she bit her lip, hoping his expression didn\u2019t mean what she thought it meant.<\/p>\n<p>He turned away from her then and his beautiful long black hair floated on the breeze. He didn\u2019t respond to the talk going on around him anymore and he took a long drink from his bottle. He threw his cigarette down on the ground and stubbed it out with his silver-tipped cowboy boots the high school girls said had retractable knives in the toes.<\/p>\n<p>He walked away from his friends\u2014away from Vanessa\u2014without a word. Her attention caught on the way his tight ripped jeans moved over his butt with every step, and there was that funny little feeling in the pit of her belly again.<\/p>\n<p>No \u201cthank you\u201d for Vanessa today. No kiss. She whirled and, her back to the tree, she slid down its trunk to curl in on herself, tamping down the sharp pain in her chest. She managed not to cry about it for two whole months, until cheer camp that summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVanessa,\u201d drawled Annie Franklin, captain of the squad. \u201cDid you invite Knox to our camp closing exhibition?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d she lied. She hadn\u2019t dared, though she knew very good and well that her access to \u201cthat hot prosecutor Knox Hilliard\u201d was the only reason the cheerleaders, prodded by their mothers, had reluctantly recruited her for the varsity squad. Considering Vanessa wasn\u2019t eligible to cheer varsity for two more years, their mothers had lobbied the Alumni Association for an exemption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell? Is he coming?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has a family thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you give him that note?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d she answered truthfully. That was why she hadn\u2019t dared ask him anything else.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Is she out of her fucking mind?! <\/em>\u201cHe was in a hurry. He just put it in his pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Annie looked through Vanessa, her mouth pursed. \u201cMaybe he\u2019s gay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Uh, no. <\/em>\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHey, Annie!\u201d called the vice captain. \u201cWhat happened to your Italian stallion?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Annie\u2019s face darkened and Vanessa\u2019s heart beat a lot faster; she hadn\u2019t seen <em>him<\/em> in almost two months. Anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe left,\u201d Annie snapped back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeft? Left where?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeft town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere\u2019d he go?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAsk his mom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s gone, too. It\u2019s like they disappeared off the face of the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"staypart\">And the Rich Have Their Ice in the Summer<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">5: PLATINUM LININGS<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptdate\">January 5, 2009<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">THE CHOUTEAU COUNTY, Missouri prosecutor fought his way through the crowd of people lining the sidewalk to the courthouse. He shoved aside the cameras and booms, shouldered past disembodied hands holding out micro-recorders, and attempted to shield his eyes from the lights aimed ruthlessly at his face. Out of the din around him, he could understand only his name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Cipriani\u2014!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Cipriani\u2014!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Cipriani\u2014!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo comment at this time,\u201d he barked intermittently, trying not to grin. He\u2019d worked and prepared and waited for this moment. He\u2019d woven his web, caught his prey, and rolled them up in silk, right here in front of the courthouse.<\/p>\n<p>Time to start eating.<\/p>\n<p>He reached the steps that led up to the doors and turned to face the crowd of bloggers and reporters. At six a.m. in January, the sky didn\u2019t show even a tinge of pink, making the bright lights from the cameras against the darkness blinding. He held his hands up for silence and got it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich part of \u2018the press conference will be held at ten a.m.\u2019 didn\u2019t you all get?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That accomplished nothing except to restart the shouting, as he had intended.<\/p>\n<p>They were so easy, especially that prick Glenn Shinkle from the <em>Chouteau Recorder<\/em> who hadn\u2019t realized that newsprint was dead. He\u2019d kept his little twelve-page rag alive for years on Knox\u2019s back, always striving to be the next Bob Woodward. He would have succeeded if he\u2019d just realized that every bit of Knox\u2019s reputed corruption was an elaborately constructed fa\u00e7ade and had figured out a way to prove it.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, yeah, Eric had plans for Shinkle.<\/p>\n<p>He shook his head with a chuckle, turned, and opened the door to go in the courthouse. He jerked his head at the deputies on duty and they went out to control the crowd. He bounded up the grand walnut staircase to the second floor, then through the outer door of the prosecutor\u2019s office\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u2014only to stop cold at the sign stuck on the closed door of the private office toward the back of the bullpen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"staysign\">ERIC CIPRIANI<br \/>\nPROSECUTOR<\/p>\n<p>Knox must have had that placed as a surprise for him, his last act.<\/p>\n<p>He flinched when the lights flickered on and a hand clapped him on the back. \u201cCongrats,\u201d Patrick Davidson said as he brushed in behind Eric, walked to his desk and dropped into the chair to rifle through his files.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t congratulate me yet,\u201d Eric said over his shoulder. \u201cI still have to get through the press conference this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davidson shrugged. \u201cJust keep your eye on that,\u201d he said, pointing to the white board hanging on the wall behind Eric\u2019s old desk, its to-do list printed in Knox\u2019s precise block lettering:<\/p>\n<div class=\"left12\">\n<div class=\"tb30\">\n<p class=\"ericgoalliststrike\">GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE 5\/99<\/p>\n<p class=\"ericgoalliststrike\">GRADUATE FROM LAW SCHOOL 5\/02<\/p>\n<p class=\"ericgoalliststrike\">TAKE OVER PROSECUTOR\u2019S OFFICE 1\/09<\/p>\n<p class=\"ericgoallist\">START CAMPAIGN FOR CC PROSECUTOR 1\/09<\/p>\n<p class=\"ericgoallist\">START CAMPAIGN FOR MO AG 4\/10<\/p>\n<p class=\"ericgoallist\">MO AG 2012 \u2013 2016<\/p>\n<p class=\"ericgoallist\">MO GOVERNOR 2016 \u2013 2024<\/p>\n<p class=\"ericgoallist\">1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE 2024<\/p>\n<p class=\"getamoveon\">GET A MOVE ON!!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Eric felt a deep growl of satisfaction welling in his chest. If he stayed on track, he\u2019d be forty-seven when he hit the White House, the perfect age\u2014old enough to quash credibility murmurs and young enough to avoid questions of senility.<\/p>\n<p>As for the public scrutiny that had begun the minute Eric had abruptly taken over as interim prosecutor the month before, well, it\u2019d take him a while and some savvy PR to sort that out. His refusal to distance himself from Knox would make the task more difficult, but Annie had hired a top-notch firm to help. On the other hand, Knox\u2019s relatively powerful family had already put its political and financial wheels in motion to get Eric where he wanted to go\u2014and where they wanted him.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Connelly huffed and puffed his way into the office, then to his desk. \u201cWhy the long face? You still worried about your juvie record?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, yeah, he was, and Connelly interpreted Eric\u2019s silence correctly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody cares,\u201d he said flatly, \u201cas long as you keep hanging it out there for everyone to see. You <em>are<\/em> the American dream.\u201d Davidson made a noise of agreement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got lucky,\u201d Eric muttered, ever mindful of the fact that he <em>couldn\u2019t<\/em> have done it on his own because he wouldn\u2019t have known where to start. \u201cKnox just&nbsp;\u2026 handed it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, he gave you help and guidance,\u201d he said. \u201c<em>You<\/em> did the rest. You set your goals and you\u2019ve worked at them. More importantly, you\u2019ve kept yourself squeaky clean. Nobody did that for you. You have an impeccable education from a religious university. Your politics are consistent, even though you\u2019re as full of shit as Justice is.\u201d Eric laughed. \u201cYou have an extremely photogenic fianc\u00e9e who\u2019s as well educated and smart as you are. Future First Lady.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe next President and Mrs. Obama, Republican version,\u201d Davidson intoned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, you\u2019re not planning to run on a Libertarian ticket, I bet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI might.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ll split the conservatives right down the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLibertarian does not equal conservative,\u201d Eric reminded him. \u201cI\u2019m not on board with the entire Libertarian party platform, either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Connelly grunted. \u201cThe Republican leadership\u2019s dying. You could take all the conservatives with you and win as a Libertarian if you make sure to clarify where you differ from the party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd they know that,\u201d Davidson added. \u201cAll other conservative issues being equal, they might vote for a candidate who\u2019d decriminalize marijuana and prostitution, but they\u2019ll never go for an isolationist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich I am not, which is why I haven\u2019t decided yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it means the Republicans need you more than you need them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric didn\u2019t bother to respond to that because it was true. The political landscape was shifting like quicksand underneath the old guard\u2019s feet. Eric was young, outspoken, and had a growing nationwide blog audience. He represented real change, and he intended to capitalize on it. \u201cI have a meeting with Tye Afton next week in Jefferson City.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davidson looked at him warily. \u201cYou better watch out for him,\u201d he said soberly. \u201cHe\u2019s a snake in the grass.\u201d Eric blinked. Davidson turned to Connelly. \u201cDo you remember? About fifteen years ago? Afton was involved in some cover-up of real estate acquisition and funding when he was on the state House appropriations committee? The governor was livid because he couldn\u2019t prove it, and then that was about the time Knox went nuts, so he had to deal with that, too? Two scandals going at the same time and he couldn\u2019t nail Afton <em>or<\/em> Knox.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReally,\u201d Eric drawled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReally,\u201d Connelly said. \u201cMissouri\u2019s version of Whitewater. And then he went to Washington. He\u2019s been chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee for so long, it\u2019s like nothing can touch him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess it\u2019s a good thing the FBI likes me, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKeep your friends close and your enemies closer,\u201d Connelly said. \u201cI refuse to vote for you for anything but attorney general, but if I wanted to sabotage you, I\u2019d tell you to get on his bandwagon. Afton\u2019s not your friend and I don\u2019t care how powerful he is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice Hilliard dragged in unexpectedly, dark circles under her eyes and a can of Red Bull in her hand.<\/p>\n<p>Eric, Davidson, and Connelly all stared at her, shocked on two levels. \u201cUh, Justice, aren\u2019t you supposed to be in the Ozarks tending to Knox?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said I was getting too bossy,\u201d she growled. She thunked the can down on her desk and turned to face them, her hand on her hip. \u201cIt\u2019s not like he <em>died<\/em> last month or anything, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All three of the men burst out laughing, but Justice scowled. Her sense of humor usually didn\u2019t show up until after lunch, but that didn\u2019t keep her from being funny by default.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo&nbsp;\u2026 you\u2019re here on time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEarly, even.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy an hour and a half. What\u2019s the occasion?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She plopped down in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. Glared. \u201cFor your information, I can\u2019t sleep without Knox, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJustice,\u201d Connelly said. \u201cYou can sleep standing up with your eyes open. When did that get to be a problem?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince my house was broken into, my baby was shot at, my home was burnt to the ground, and my husband was killed,\u201d she snapped, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. \u201cAll of which I would\u2019ve slept through if Knox hadn\u2019t been there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric reflected that now might not be the time to tease his predecessor\u2019s wife, all things considered. Nobody wanted to think about the details of <em>why<\/em> Eric had had to take over as Chouteau County prosecutor a month sooner than anybody planned.<\/p>\n<p>Knox\u2019s death and resurrection was still too fresh for gallows humor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSorry,\u201d Connelly finally muttered when he spotted the moisture on her cheek.<\/p>\n<p>She sighed. \u201cMe, too, Richard. I\u2019m just\u2014\u201d She raised a hand helplessly and dropped it on her desk. \u201cI\u2019m kind of lost right now, you know? Too many changes in too short a time, too many things to think about, too many plans to make. This whole last year, being pregnant and planning a wedding\u2014 Having a <em>baby<\/em>, for God\u2019s sake. Then Knox getting shot\u2014 Leaving Mercy with Giselle this morning just killed me. She\u2019s three months old and it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve been away from her since I had her. And we\u2019re supposed to be moving to Utah in May\u2014not like I <em>want<\/em> to go, but it\u2019s important to Knox\u2014and I just don\u2019t know how&nbsp;\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t have anything to move, Justice,\u201d Davidson murmured. \u201cIt\u2019s a lining. Not much of one and fairly tarnished, but Knox and Mercy <em>are<\/em> alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t forget the cat,\u201d Eric teased to see if he could get a smile out of her. It worked. Barely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI swear, I\u2019ve done nothing but cry for a month,\u201d she muttered, and pulled a box of Kleenex out of her desk drawer.<\/p>\n<p>Eric figured she was perfectly entitled, but he had his doubts about her ability to remain cool and collected in front of a judge today. Or any time in the near future. If he had to send her home, he would.<\/p>\n<p>But he kept his mouth shut about that for the time being. \u201cI\u2019m assuming you left Knox with a bunch of nurses and physical therapists?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice huffed and blew her nose. \u201cYes. But he wouldn\u2019t let me stick around to supervise them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTerrorize them, you mean.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what he said, but it\u2019s so not true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her cell phone rang and she snatched it open without looking at the caller ID. \u201cWhat,\u201d she snapped, but then her pixie face lit up. \u201cOkay. I love you, too.\u201d She clapped it shut and stuffed it in her purse, picked up her things and scampered out the door, a hurried, \u201cHe can\u2019t sleep without me, either,\u201d floating back to them. \u201cBe back later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davidson chuckled. \u201cLater meaning in a couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf ever,\u201d Eric muttered, staring at Justice\u2019s desk, and wondering if she\u2019d ever be back and how fast he could get some new lawyers hired. He was down to four at this point, not including himself, and their docket was full to bursting. Discussing political strategy with his staff wouldn\u2019t get the business at hand done, and the business at hand was his ticket to the next step of his master plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll tell you something,\u201d he said, pointing from Connelly to Davidson and back again. \u201cWe\u2019re getting some admins in here. And no more Chouteau County residency program. I\u2019m hiring experienced attorneys from now on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He took in their amazed stares. \u201cOh, is that right,\u201d Davidson said, and Eric grinned when he heard the approval in that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2014 <em>We<\/em> are done training newbs. If I hire any new grads, they\u2019re going to have to pass the Justice McKinley Hilliard test.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, hell, <em>I<\/em> wouldn\u2019t pass that test,\u201d Davidson grumbled, and turned his attention to his latest case. Connelly chuckled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, boy,\u201d said another deep voice from the doorway of the common area. Eric looked up to see Judge Wilson. \u201cYou\u2019ve finally come into your own. Congratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember when you were standing in front of me in shackles.\u201d Eric\u2019s mouth tightened a bit. \u201cHow long ago was that, anyway?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Suck it up, princess. Hold your head high. Face \u2019em all down and dare \u2019em to find fault. You aren\u2019t going to get anywhere in politics if you let that drag your ass.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He couldn\u2019t count the number of times Knox had said that to him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know. Twelve, thirteen years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat long! Well, I\u2019m telling you now. If you pull anything like what Knox pulled, I\u2019ll have you disbarred. I\u2019m tired of all that bullshit and you know every one of his tricks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAw, Wilson, that\u2019s not fair. I don\u2019t know every trick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He pointed his age-gnarled finger at Eric. \u201cDon\u2019t push me or you\u2019re going to find out what it\u2019s like to have your political career go up in smoke before you really catch fire.\u201d He looked at Justice\u2019s desk, which was as clean as it had been when she left for maternity leave four months before. Adam and Lesley hadn\u2019t come in yet, but it was early. \u201cI\u2019m really gonna miss that crafty bastard,\u201d Wilson muttered, a catch in his voice, as he left.<\/p>\n<p>Eric turned and opened the door to the office that Knox had occupied for fourteen years after he\u2019d deposed <em>his<\/em> predecessor at gunpoint. Now it belonged to Eric. It seemed so&nbsp;\u2026 lifeless&nbsp;\u2026 without Knox\u2019s overpowering personality, but it was his now. He would turn it upside down and pull it inside out, starting today at ten o\u2019clock.<\/p>\n<p>He had a nasty past that had caught up to him and a brilliant future within his grasp.<\/p>\n<p>He meant to meet them both head-on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">6: TOO BIG TO CRY<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">THE ONLY TELEVISION Vanessa \u201cGranny\u201d Whittaker had ever bought for her inn hung in the kitchen for the staff. She had no time for pleasure viewing and she got her news from the internet, but her chief financial officer had had a TV installed in his suite the day before. He\u2019d already read everything in the Whittaker House library, and his own library had gone up in flames last month.<\/p>\n<p>His doctors had restricted him from most of the inn\u2019s chores, his love-struck nurses all made sure he complied, his unsympathetic physical therapist controlled nearly every move he made, and he\u2019d sent his wife home because she ran roughshod over his medical team. Since he couldn\u2019t carry anything as heavy as a baby, the wife had taken their daughter with her. Since he wasn\u2019t allowed to drive, he couldn\u2019t go anywhere because no one at Whittaker House had the time or inclination to take him.<\/p>\n<p>In the five days since he\u2019d moved into Whittaker House, he\u2019d caught up on all the accounting, sent all the quarterly reports to their corporate partner, compiled the financial data they needed to embark on Whittaker House\u2019s next expansion, sent the paperwork to the county for zoning permissions, and filed and paid their taxes. Daily bookkeeping only took an hour if he was caught up, so he had to wait until tomorrow to do anything further.<\/p>\n<p>One possibility for his entertainment, the Mormon missionaries who lived in one of Whittaker House\u2019s cottages, were always busy. At the moment, they were doing their laundry and wouldn\u2019t have time to talk to him until after lunch, if even then. The rest of their week was booked solid, which left them no time to indulge him in the deep theological discourse he enjoyed.<\/p>\n<p>Ol\u2019 Curtis Lowe wanted no truck with him; in Curtis\u2019s opinion, any man who refused to fish and hunt was completely immoral.<\/p>\n<p>Two of Whittaker House\u2019s permanent residents had their own routines, which did not include him, and the third one, his chess partner, was in a meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The production crew for Vanessa\u2019s cooking show, <em>Vittles: Gourmet Weeds and Roadkill<\/em>, wouldn\u2019t arrive until Saturday, which meant he had to wait almost a week for something different to occupy his mind and time.<\/p>\n<p>So he was bored.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa didn\u2019t think there existed anything more dangerous to her peace of mind than a wounded and bored, spouseless and childless, inn-bound Knox Hilliard roaming around Whittaker House with nothing to do and no one to talk to.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019d warned him against fiddling with the food. Normally, he wouldn\u2019t dare, but today&nbsp;\u2026 Alain, Whittaker House\u2019s executive chef, had already blown up at him once for being in the way and a second time for daring to suggest that a delicate gooseberry curd needed pepper.<\/p>\n<p>And it was only ten o\u2019clock in the morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSister Whittaker?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She looked up from a half-butchered animal to see the pair of elders clad only in jeans and sweatshirts shivering in the doorway of her butcher shop. Knox thought it funny to request that the missionaries address her in that manner and, being simpatico with Knox, they obliged.<\/p>\n<p>Obnoxious bastard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s he done this time?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlain said to tell you to get him out of the kitchen before he goes on strike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, shit,\u201d she breathed. She dropped her knife, ripped off her paper coverall and surgical gloves, and ran to the mansion to keep her normally even-tempered executive chef from leaving for the day or, worse, quitting altogether. She burst through the back door into the kitchen, but stopped when she noticed the stillness amongst the skeleton kitchen staff, who had all stopped to watch television. Knox leaned against a stainless steel table, his attention as riveted as everyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>She looked up at the screen, then stiffened when she saw a face she hadn\u2019t seen in thirteen years, and could have gone the rest of her life without seeing\u2014the face of the man she\u2019d spent the last several months thinking about.<\/p>\n<p>Couldn\u2019t stop thinking about.<\/p>\n<p>Wrapped up in a fine black wool coat, he stood on the top step of the Chouteau County courthouse while snow fell around him, onto his broad shoulders and into his short black hair. Mr. Connelly and Mr. Davidson, looking much older and grayer than she remembered, flanked him, and two very young attorneys stood off to the side. None of the prosecutors held any papers or hid behind a pedestal of any sort.<\/p>\n<p>He had a narrow, closely trimmed line of black facial hair along the sharp edges of his jaw and chin from sideburn to sideburn. His dark expression was tinged with the slight arrogance of success and power. Her breath caught in her throat at the changes time had wrought in his features, the changes that made him more beautiful than she remembered, than she could have imagined.<\/p>\n<div class=\"lr8\">\n<div class=\"italic\">\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">\u201cYes, Mr. Shinkle?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Cipriani, since you started your political blogging alongside Justice McKinley Hilliard, you\u2019ve gathered quite a following of self-proclaimed libertarians. Do you see yourself as the man capable of making the Libertarian party a threat to the Republican party?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCapable of it? Yes. Do I want to? I don\u2019t know yet. I\u2019m meeting with Republican leaders at their invitation so I can find out if they can change enough to rebuild its base\u2014the conservative right and libertarians\u2014or even if they want to. But I\u2019m not sure that the conservative right will abandon Republicans for the Libertarian party once they understand the sheer diversity of libertarian thought. A lot of people who live their lives by libertarian philosophy don\u2019t like parts or all of the Libertarian party platform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo you would be open to an alliance with the Republican party?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m open to it, but don\u2019t count your chickens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWould you classify your viewpoints as socially liberal and fiscally conservative then?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI classify them as common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGlenn, give somebody else a chance to ask a question. You can read my blog or walk into my office and talk to me any time you want, which you do anyway. Yes?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Cipriani, two questions. You came to blog popularity on Ms McKinley\u2019s coattails. First, did you hire her specifically to help further your own political ambitions and second, does she influence your viewpoints?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst, I wasn\u2019t going to hire her at all. Knox did. Even if I had hired her, it wouldn\u2019t have been for her influence, but it sure as hell doesn\u2019t hurt to have her on my side. Second, my opinions were formed well before I began reading her work, before I ever met her, before she began working for me. When she figured out what my opinions were, then she started nagging me to blog.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve opened your criminal record to the public with almost nothing redacted. Why?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this point in my career and with where I want to go, I can\u2019t afford not to. I\u2019m ushering in a new era in this office, which begins with total transparency. I\u2019m able and willing to put my cards on the table for you and the voters to see that my juvenile criminal record isn\u2019t indicative of my career in this office, nor is it harmful to the office. My conviction rate is eighty-two percent. For the last six and a half years, I\u2019ve managed the office itself as well as having a half-time trial schedule. For the last month, I\u2019ve been acting prosecutor while Knox recovered from his gunshot wounds. If people believe in me and want to vote for me, the least I can do is respect them by telling them everything there is to know about me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe press kit we\u2019ve prepared contains my CV, full disclosure of my personal and business finances along with tax returns, and my connection to everybody of import in the metro. Dirk Jelarde, one of the county\u2019s public defenders, is my business partner; his CV and financial records are also included. You\u2019re free to compare and contrast my criminal history with my academic performance, and my service to Chouteau County and the state of Missouri to date. Copies of the transcript of my trial up to and including the dismissal are available for purchase in the clerk\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo you\u2019re not willing to be that transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not using taxpayer money to do it, no. If you want it, you pay for copying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Simone Whittaker is still part of your life?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe will always be part of my life and I am grateful to her every day for what she did for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top60\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>Vanessa clapped both her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide, feeling as if her chest had been kicked in, unable to breathe. She sprinted across the kitchen and up the stairs to her office. She knew Knox was watching her go, but he wouldn\u2019t follow. She dropped in her plush office chair and whirled to stare blankly out the fourteen-foot floor-to-ceiling Palladian windows, a knot so deep in her soul she didn\u2019t know how to untangle it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat about what <em>I<\/em> did for you, Eric?\u201d she whispered. \u201cSimone took your life away from you, but <em>I<\/em> gave it back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But really, Vanessa knew she should have no need for Eric Cipriani to be grateful to her for what she had done; she lived in her reward:<\/p>\n<p>Acres and acres of rolling hills currently covered in brownish lawn and stripped trees that would grow emerald and lush come spring,<\/p>\n<p>A large lake with a manicured island and lacy white gazebo in the middle of it connected to the shore by an arched concrete gothic revival bridge,<\/p>\n<p>A collection of little gothic revival brick cottages arranged in an artfully scattered pattern and connected by cobblestone walking paths interspersed with random flower beds,<\/p>\n<p>A carefully camouflaged playground and swimming pool toward the southwest edge of the property, and<\/p>\n<p>Decorative placement of peach, apple, and cherry trees, and more strategically arranged flower beds.<\/p>\n<p>Though she couldn\u2019t see it from the office, across the highway lay the construction site for another collection of gothic revival buildings: shops for the selling of local handcrafted goods and food, hunting and fishing gear, and other high-end goods and services, including a spa.<\/p>\n<p>In Vanessa\u2019s office hung a bona fide Dal\u00ed. On another wall hung Whittaker House itself in oils-on-canvas, painted by the architect who\u2019d built it and had risen to prominence in her field by doing so. Downstairs in the grand parlor hung another valuable painting done by superstar artist Ford, whose day gig consisted of raiding corporations. Owning those paintings gave her a great deal of cachet and somewhat of a nest egg should she need to sell.<\/p>\n<p><em>I am grateful to her every day for what she did for me.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So Vanessa should also be grateful for what her sister had done, but she couldn\u2019t muster it at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVanessa?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She sighed at the soft female voice from the threshold behind her. \u201cI should\u2019ve locked the door,\u201d Vanessa muttered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sorry. Um, Knox said&nbsp;\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oh, how Vanessa hoped Knox didn\u2019t know or suspect. She\u2019d taken his inability to read body language for granted so long that it surprised her when she caught flashes of insight in his expression. \u201cI didn\u2019t know you were coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa heard the footsteps, the snick of the door closing, the poof of the leather sofa as Justice settled in, and the snuffs of an infant warm and safe in her mother\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe never thanked me,\u201d Vanessa whispered, hoping Justice couldn\u2019t hear her, but she couldn\u2019t <em>not<\/em> say it aloud. Her eyes blurred with moisture and her nose stung. \u201cHe\u2019ll publicly thank Simone, but what about <em>me<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe can\u2019t,\u201d Justice said carefully. \u201cYou were a minor and you testified in a closed courtroom for a reason. Your name and all identifying information were redacted from the transcripts to keep you safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed. Simone\u2019s diary had destroyed many men\u2019s lives that day\u2014except for the only life Simone and LaVon had intended to destroy. With only one simple goal in Vanessa\u2019s twelve-year-old mind, it had never occurred to her what could happen to her, and without Knox to protect her both legally and physically, she may not have lived this long.<\/p>\n<p>But that didn\u2019t make her feel any better. Eric could have referred to her anonymously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not going to say anything to remind people that you\u2014whoever <em>you<\/em> are\u2014exist,\u201d Justice reasoned. \u201cIs there something you haven\u2019t told me? About Eric and you, I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Only the one pertinent detail she didn\u2019t want <em>anyone<\/em> to know, which Knox would probably be able to deduce from her shocked reaction and melodramatic exit.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa drew a deep breath. \u201cDoes he remember me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She hesitated. \u201cI don\u2019t see how he couldn\u2019t. He has to deal with your mother and your sister nearly every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa thought about that a minute, unable to discern what that might mean. \u201cYou know,\u201d she said after clearing her throat, forcing herself to sound halfway normal. \u201cUntil you started planning your wedding last year, I hadn\u2019t thought about him in years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was the absolute truth; she only wished it could have remained so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, I should have at least gone to see Knox in the hospital. It\u2019s not every day your dad dies and then wakes up right before his autopsy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo&nbsp;\u2026 your real reason for not coming to the wedding was so you wouldn\u2019t have to see Eric.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It sounded so damned stupid\u2014and selfish\u2014when someone else said it aloud, but&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. I couldn\u2019t possibly have come,\u201d she murmured. \u201cIt was just another reason to say no. I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice sighed. \u201cOh, Vanessa, don\u2019t. You have no idea how much Knox depends on you, Whittaker House, to be here, solid. No drama. He needs to know there\u2019s one thing in his life that\u2019s always status quo. You being <em>here<\/em> running Whittaker House, not at the hospital hovering and crying\u2014 It gave him a sense of security, like there was one normal thing in his life he could count on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa looked around her chair at Justice then. \u201cAre you serious?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVanessa!\u201d she said with an irritated scowl. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t lie about something like that just to make you feel better. If I thought you were being a bitch about it, I\u2019d tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She would, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI already suspected,\u201d Justice grumbled. \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure why or how deep it ran. He\u2019s never said anything about you. You\u2019ve never said anything about him. Simone and LaVon don\u2019t even mention your name because they\u2019re so terrified of Knox.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>LaVon, you or Simone do<\/em> anything <em>to that girl or open your mouths, I got a bullet with your name on it and already nineteen reasons to use it. Vanessa knows to come to me immediately for any reason.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like none of them know you, like it never happened, like you have no connection to Eric or to LaVon or Simone Whittaker. I\u2019m not even sure any of them have ever seen <em>Vittles<\/em> or even know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa\u2019s mouth tightened.<\/p>\n<p>A brisk rap on the thick wooden door made Vanessa sigh again, even as it opened to admit the one man she didn\u2019t want to see right now. \u201cGood morning, <em>Mister Thompson<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMornin\u2019, Vanessa. Justice.\u201d Vanessa\u2019s third permanent resident sauntered in with the languid grace of a man accustomed to prancing around on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans, then sat on her desk. \u201cDid I interrupt somethin\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou always interrupt something, Nash,\u201d Vanessa returned dryly. \u201cGo find somewhere else to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSee, this is why I like you. You\u2019re prickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn\u2019 why is that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t like you. Never have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you hated me that much, you\u2019d either rat me out to the tabloids or kick me out and you ain\u2019t done either yet. Gives me hope I can weasel my way into your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t rat you out because I don\u2019t want the paparazzi down here any more than you do. Which you know. I haven\u2019t kicked you out yet because I charge you three times what I\u2019d charge anyone else. And yet, you stay. More dollars than sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAw, c\u2019mon, Vanessa. Tons o\u2019 women want my attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrepubescent girls and old ladies, you mean.\u201d And no wonder. Nash Piper\u2014<em>Mister John Thompson<\/em>\u2014was striking: black hair, hazel eyes, ruddy skin, and carved features mostly hidden by the full mustache and beard he wore in an effort to render himself unrecognizable. He had a sinfully seductive voice and an otherworldly talent on any stringed instrument ever made\u2014particularly a banjo. \u201cGo play chess with Knox. He\u2019s as bored as you are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot in the mood for <em>chess<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ah.<\/p>\n<p>Nash looked over at Justice speculatively. \u201cYa know,\u201d he said, \u201clately, I\u2019ve been thinkin\u2019 about both of you at the same time, all naked and on me. An\u2019 each other.\u201d He shivered. \u201cThe way I look at it is it\u2019s y\u2019all\u2019s duty to arrange that for me, seein\u2019 as how you\u2019re all about givin\u2019 the guests what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice began to laugh and Vanessa couldn\u2019t help her reluctant chuckle. No matter how annoying Nash could be, his outrageous behavior did seem to cheer her up when she least expected it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cC\u2019mon, neither one of you can tell me you wouldn\u2019t like to be able to say you had sex with Nash Piper. An\u2019 Justice, I\u2019m a helluva lot cuter than that old man you married for his money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat \u2018old man\u2019 is forty. You\u2019re thirty-seven. <em>He<\/em> gets me hot and bothered. You&nbsp;\u2026 don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nash curled his lip at her, then cast Vanessa an expectant look. She waved toward the door. \u201cNot interested in being another notch in your bedpost. Get lost, Studmuffin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He got to his feet and sauntered to the door. \u201cYou know what? That\u2019s it. You ladies have insulted me for the last time. Vanessa, I\u2019m gonna go sit in the grand parlor in front of your paintin\u2019 and jack off in front of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay. Don\u2019t get your thing caught in your zipper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He flipped her off and slammed the door behind him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFeel better?\u201d Justice asked, still chuckling.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa nodded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKinda makes you wonder why you\u2019re sitting here pining over a small-time prosecutor when you could be sleeping with a smart, funny, handsome man who happens to be a country legend, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa blinked. Glanced at the door Nash had just exited. Pursed her lips.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not pining,\u201d she finally said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUh huh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no reason to pine. I mean, we\u2019ve never even <em>spoken<\/em> to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that appears to be the problem, right there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa sighed, unable to understand it herself, much less find a way to explain it. \u201cLook, it just\u2014 It caught me off guard, okay? Knox has always wanted to keep his Kansas City life separate from his Mansfield life. Since I don\u2019t want to hear about my family it\u2019s never been a problem. I don\u2019t ask. He doesn\u2019t tell. It works for us. But then\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut then I asked you to be a bridesmaid and told you Eric would be your escort&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd found out that he works for Knox and has for\u2014\u201d She waved a hand. \u201c\u2014years. I\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFreaked out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa took a deep breath. \u201cBad. My watches melted. I mean, he left town when he was eighteen and I never\u2014 He just\u2014 He left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&nbsp;\u2026 don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa sighed. \u201cNever mind. It\u2019s stupid. Least said, soonest mended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leather creaked. The baby snuffed. Justice arose from the couch and went to the door. \u201cWell, time to go put the husband down for his nap and bolt him to the bed in case he starts channeling Emeril again.\u201d Justice paused at the threshold. \u201cI\u2019ll lock the office door. If you want to talk&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No, she didn\u2019t. She\u2019d pretty much spilled her guts, and whatever she hadn\u2019t spilled, Justice would be able to deduce anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Dammit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The door closed quietly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe doesn\u2019t remember,\u201d she whispered, as if staring at her holdings, her wealth, her dream that she\u2019d built here in the heart of the Ozark Mountains, could make that all better for her. \u201c<em>How<\/em> can he not remember?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps she would go visit Laura today as she always did when her spirit flagged and Nash couldn\u2019t tease her out of it.<\/p>\n<p>She hauled herself out of her chair and went to immerse herself in her to-do list before she completely broke down.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa finished butchering the porcupines, cleaned the butchery, and headed to the back of the property, where her cottage sat a little away from the others. A fragrant bouquet of pink flowers on the counter in her kitchenette surprised her and she buried her nose in them briefly.<\/p>\n<p>She went up the stairs to her bedroom, not surprised to see Nash sprawled over her bed, playing Tetris on a cheap hand-held. Naked. She went right past him, entered her enormous walk-in closet, dug out her whites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s got your knickers in a twist, doll?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing,\u201d she muttered, not sure if he could hear her through the wall, amongst the clothes. \u201cThank you for the flowers. How\u2019d your meeting go?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, fuck that. You don\u2019t care. C\u2019mere and lemme love on ya.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She pursed her lips as she held one of many double-breasted chef coats in her hands and stared at it blankly. It wouldn\u2019t help. It hadn\u2019t helped. Not for the last eight months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNash, how long have we been sleeping together?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI dunno,\u201d he answered absently as the tinny music from his Tetris game got faster and faster. \u201cWhen\u2019d I crash my plane? Two years ago? Took me almost two months to get here, so&nbsp;\u2026 Yeah. Not quite two years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou want to get married?\u201d she blurted, startling herself even as the Tetris game blipped off abruptly. She heard the rustle of her bedclothes and the pad of bare feet on Persian rug, then that hippie face atop that ripped and cut rodeo body appeared in the threshold of the closet. She noted his rugged beauty absently, the habit of a longstanding, comfortable relationship where nothing was a surprise.<\/p>\n<p>She preferred him this way, with carefully dyed shoulder-length black hair instead of his natural\u2014and all-too-recognizable\u2014dark blond hair, immaculately cut, and clean-shaven face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you?\u201d he asked quietly. \u201cYou been spacin\u2019 out on me for months and now you\u2019re wantin\u2019 to get married?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She flinched.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Hell<\/em>, no, I don\u2019t wanna get married,\u201d he said. \u201cParticularly to <em>you<\/em>. An\u2019 <em>you<\/em> don\u2019t wanna get married. Particularly to <em>me<\/em>. What if I\u2019d said yes?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she murmured. \u201cI just\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nash reached into the closet and caught her hand, tugging her out and sitting on the edge of the bed. He pulled her down onto his lap so she straddled his hips. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back. \u201cWhat happened? Somethin\u2019s had you all knotted up for months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa\u2019s mouth tightened because she wanted to cry again, but how low had she sunk that she\u2019d cry over a man\u2014a boy\u2014she\u2019d never spoken to, while being held by her lover?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUm, the\u2014 Let\u2019s just call it the fish that got away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He started. \u201cTaight?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She huffed. \u201cNo! Not Sebastian. With him, it was like\u2014 Well, like you and me. Only shorter. And public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about it, Nash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He pursed his lips. \u201cDoes this mean I\u2019m not gettin\u2019 laid right now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to Laura\u2019s, so I need to make some cookies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said nothing for a moment, then, \u201cYou been doin\u2019 an awful lot of that lately.\u201d Yes, she had. The ladies over at Laura\u2019s house were beginning to worry and wonder, too. He sighed. \u201cThen I guess it\u2019s back to chess, but damn, Hilliard\u2019s beginnin\u2019 to bore me stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was a lie. He was waiting for Knox to wake up from his nap so they could get back to the game they\u2019d had going for days\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh. Your Raumschach boards came in today\u2019s delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nash\u2019s face lit up and he practically dumped Vanessa off his lap to jump into his clothes. \u201cHe know yet?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That made Vanessa chuckle in spite of herself. Two years now, any weekend when Knox could spare a minute away from inn business, they\u2019d played chess, both men on equal footing, neither able to get the advantage of the other. At first, Knox had thought playing chess with an uneducated country music stud from the wilds of Montana would waste all of five minutes. Nash had never found a casual player who could beat him, so he\u2019d assumed Knox had no more skill than any other opponent he\u2019d ever had. They were brilliant, perfectly matched, very competitive\u2014and they were both happy to have an equal to play without getting involved with chess clubs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing out to Rocky Ridge?\u201d Knox asked an hour later, shuffling into the kitchen as she pulled the last cookie sheet from the oven, dodging her scurrying kitchen and waitstaff like the pro she was.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa didn\u2019t bother to answer; she only made peanut butter cookies for one reason.<\/p>\n<p>Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him wipe his hand across his mouth, as if troubled. \u201cAh, Vanessa. About this morning\u2014 Eric didn\u2019t mean\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you see your chess boards?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, thanks but\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProbably better go find <em>Mister Thompson<\/em> before he has a fit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVanessa, he only meant\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her mouth tightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just that your mother and sister\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStop. Just stop talking. Right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut he\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnox! Shut up! You can go on back to Justice and gossip and theorize all you want, but I don\u2019t want to hear it. I don\u2019t want to know. And don\u2019t make Alain yell at you again or I\u2019ll kick you out of the kitchen completely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knox sighed, but then winced in pain when he took a step. She looked at him fully then and for the first time since he\u2019d taken up temporary permanent residence to recuperate from his injuries, she noticed how pale, how thin and gaunt he looked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am apparently not feeding you well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His mouth twitched. \u201cI don\u2019t dare get corn-fed around you and your knives. As far as I know, human is the only meat you haven\u2019t put on the table yet and you\u2019re as likely to serve <em>me<\/em> for dinner as porcupine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith a dandelion and mustard greens salad under a rose-petal and blackberry vinaigrette. I think Granny Clampett would approve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Hannibal Lecter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd <em>why<\/em> is he the bad guy? He\u2019s just <em>epicurious<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knox snorted.<\/p>\n<p>She handed him a breadbasket and he piled a dozen cookies in it. \u201cOrange juice?\u201d she asked sarcastically.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour doctor told you to lay off the sauce a while back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know what? As long as Justice doesn\u2019t know and you keep your mouth shut, what my doctor wants doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa pursed her lips. \u201cDon\u2019t you think the suicide-by-sugar plan\u2019s kind of stupid now that you got your inheritance and that family you always wanted?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, you\u2019re probably right about that, but until I decide to get on the wagon, you don\u2019t breathe a word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She signaled a server to take the food out to the grand parlor so Knox wouldn\u2019t try to carry it himself. \u201cSo. <em>Dad<\/em>. You think you can handle the phones and play chess at the same time?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He smirked. \u201cYeah, I think so. Give my love to Laura.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSure thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">7: LOW-RENT RENDEZVOUS<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">BY MID-AFTERNOON, the office teemed and thrummed with the comings and goings of attorneys, county deputies, Kansas City cops, state troopers, criminals, and witnesses\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u2014just another day in a prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Eric sat at Knox\u2019s\u2014<em>his<\/em>\u2014desk sorting through a handful of very old r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and wondered if he should try to get in touch with any of these people.<\/p>\n<p>A state trooper burst through his door, dragging a blond twelve-year-old boy who turned the air blue with profanities he\u2019d learned direct from his mother and grandmother. Eric sighed and pointed to one of the wooden chairs in front of his desk.<\/p>\n<p>The officer snarled at the boy and cuffed him to the chair without having to be told. With one slap upside the kid\u2019s head, he stalked out, his dignity offended by having to wrestle with the brat.<\/p>\n<p>The boy spat at Eric, but it missed his mark; it was an old tactic and every cop knew to park the kid far enough away from any available human target.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019d you do this time, Junior?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His nostrils flared. \u201cFuck you, Cipriani,\u201d he returned. As usual.<\/p>\n<p>What a waste of skin, doomed from birth. It wasn\u2019t the kid\u2019s fault; he hadn\u2019t chosen his family. When he still wouldn\u2019t answer the question, Eric went back to reading r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, knowing his phone would ring at any moment\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCipriani.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to file charges on that boy of yours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, not bothering to correct the assertion, considering \u201cthat boy of yours\u201d was county shorthand for \u201cSimone Whittaker\u2019s kid, you know, the kid with the same name as the prosecutor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Yes, it is true that Simone Whittaker had a son approximately ten months after I left for college and claims that I am his father. DNA testing has confirmed that I am not. Your press kit includes copies of the lab tests and all court documents, including his original and amended birth certificates.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo something with him. That\u2019s the fifth time in two months he\u2019s taken off with something he could pawn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was it this time?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBrand new CB radio.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey still make those?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEric!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSam, I don\u2019t even know why you bother calling. Just send me the damned bill. As usual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He hung up and looked at the boy, who stared off to his left, out the window at the bleakness of winter. He did that a lot, Eric had noticed, as if he were far away, perhaps on a pirate ship or the space shuttle on his way to Mars. Maybe in a car running two hundred on a NASCAR track or pumping a bicycle in France, a hundred other cyclists on his tail. He remembered those fantasies, the escape, the need to get away from his life. Too bad the kid couldn\u2019t read; there were whole libraries available to lose himself in.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-two-year-old Eric Cipriani looked at the twelve-year-old Eric Cipriani, wondering how many more Whittaker-spawned issues would crop up today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hate your mother,\u201d Eric said matter-of-factly. That got the kid\u2019s attention and his eyes narrowed at him. \u201cLook, tell me what you need. I\u2019ll give it to you. Food? Money? Clothes? A place to stay besides juvie? What? Just tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He stared at Eric stonily.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDammit. What do I have to do to get you to act like a normal human being? You can<em>not<\/em> keep stealing shit to pawn, and I\u2019m about this close to getting social services out to your house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The kid swallowed, but otherwise showed no reaction.<\/p>\n<p>Eric sighed. \u201cBetter the devil you know, eh?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric Junior still wouldn\u2019t answer, but Eric knew. Living with Simone and LaVon had to be hell, but at least it was familiar. And Eric Senior had to tread lightly; his life was inextricably woven with those women\u2019s lives. Any action he took against them, legal or otherwise, could be seen as retaliatory\u2014and he was in the power position in a county with a corrupt reputation.<\/p>\n<p>It would look bad and for the sake of his career, Eric couldn\u2019t allow himself to get caught up in their drama any more than they forced him to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeputy!\u201d he bellowed finally, and a deputy showed up in a moment or two. He gestured to Junior, and the deputy unlocked the bracelets to haul him off to the juvenile facility, not a word between them.<\/p>\n<p>None were necessary, but the baleful glance the boy shot back at Eric made him catch his breath with the memory of a little girl who had looked at him that way long ago. Her eyes were just that color of brilliant turquoise and told him everything that was in her heart.<\/p>\n<p><em>Please talk to me. Please don\u2019t make me go back home to my mother and my sister with nothing to show for what I did for you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Guilt hit him in the same place it always did, low in his gut, sharp, a white-hot fire poker piked into his belly.<\/p>\n<p>He hated dealing with Simone\u2019s kid. Two or three times a week, he lived through the day he had walked away from his savior, the little girl who\u2019d begged for some acknowledgment from the big badass of Chouteau High. He owed her so much, not the least of which a simple \u201cthank you,\u201d but he\u2019d turned his back on her, too humiliated that a twelve-year-old girl had done what no one else could or would, too afraid to talk to her in case someone accused him of rape again, too aware that she had saved his life\u2014<\/p>\n<p>It never went away, that vile concoction of shame and regret, humiliation and fervent gratitude that had pooled in the bottom of his soul for the last thirteen years.<\/p>\n<p>That kid needed something from him or he wouldn\u2019t go to such lengths to get his attention, but Eric couldn\u2019t figure it out. Apparently, he continued to fail whatever test the boy kept giving him and it frustrated Eric to no end, but if he wouldn\u2019t speak&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s phone rang again. He didn\u2019t have to wonder who would call so soon after his namesake\u2019s arrest, but he checked the name on the display anyway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLaVon, good afternoon,\u201d he said, affecting a cheer he didn\u2019t feel. \u201cWhy are you up so early? Shouldn\u2019t you be hung over or something?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou half-breed bastard,\u201d she snarled at him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave I thanked you yet today, LaVon?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nothing else drove Simone and LaVon Whittaker madder than when he rubbed their noses in the fact that their machinations had only served to make him fairly powerful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, fuck you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo are you calling about the press conference or Satanette\u2019s spawn?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019d you do with him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know where he is and you know I\u2019m going to keep him at least overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou think he can suck you off <em>all<\/em> night?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric yawned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimone\u2019s on her way up there to get him and you better have him ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLaVon, you know the drill. He stays until I say he can go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He hung up in the middle of one of her tirades questioning his parentage, which wasn\u2019t an entirely unreasonable thing for her to question. He questioned it often enough himself.<\/p>\n<p>Another knock at his door and Eric looked up to see his youngest prosecutor poke her head in his door. \u201cSimone\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>No shit.<\/em> \u201cGet rid of her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEric, let me get a restraining order on her and be done with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric cocked an eyebrow at her. She sighed and disappeared, closing the door behind her. Poor Lesley, always having to deal with Simone and LaVon Whittaker since Justice had passed that chore onto Adam, who had passed it on as soon as he could get away with it. It\u2019d always been the low man\u2019s job.<\/p>\n<p>He heard Lesley\u2019s stern voice, then the inevitable screeching. She had little patience for the entire business and would have Simone dragged out by a deputy the minute Simone dropped the first f-bomb, which usually took under ten seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Eric shook his head and wondered what it would take to get Simone Whittaker out of his life, then decided that nothing short of her death could solve the problem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">8: NEEDS MUST, WHEN THE DEVIL DRIVES<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptdate\">April 2009<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">VANESSA LOOKED AT the printout of the obituary Knox had sent to her via email with the entire message in the subject line: <span class=\"texting\">GO TO THIS<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There were very few things in which he brooked no argument and she knew from experience that this would be one of them. She nearly told him where to shove it, but his head would explode and that was never pretty.<\/p>\n<p>Knox\u2019s motives bothered her. He never had just one reason for anything he did and he almost never explained himself beforehand, so she could only assume he had put some scheme into motion that involved more than simply attending a funeral.<\/p>\n<p>Well. If he had any bright ideas about using Simone\u2019s death to force Vanessa back to Chouteau County so Eric could conveniently run into her, then she would make sure that backfired on him.<\/p>\n<p>There were <em>ways<\/em> around Knox Hilliard.<\/p>\n<p>When she\u2019d finished packing a duffle and garment bag, she clattered down the stairs and out the front door of her cottage. She had packed carefully, as she had very little trunk room and absolutely nowhere to hang her garment bag. She briefly considered hitching the trailer to her car, but then decided that wouldn\u2019t be necessary for a short stay in a town where she wouldn\u2019t be socializing.<\/p>\n<p>Had to be on a weekend, too.<\/p>\n<p>Dammit.<\/p>\n<p>Well, better now, in April, than June, she supposed. Whittaker House had no guests other than her permanent residents. Nash had holed himself up in his suite for the past week \u201cto work,\u201d he said (whatever that meant), and would not tolerate disruptions other than room service. Her only concern was for Friday and Saturday dinner and how her absence would affect the mood of the diners who came as much for Vanessa\u2019s celebrity as her food.<\/p>\n<p>She went to her office to make a to-do list for Knox, hoping he could plow through some of it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDamn,\u201d she muttered when she checked her calendar. \u201cHe\u2019ll have to go to that zoning meeting by himself if I\u2019m not back.\u201d That wouldn\u2019t earn her any points with the zoning board, considering a special meeting of the county government had to be called every time Vanessa wanted to do so much as plant a daisy. Everyone loved Knox, true, but Vanessa was the face of and driving force behind Whittaker House; the next thing she wanted to do would affect a lot of people\u2014and a lot of those people didn\u2019t want things to change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the drive, she waited for traffic to clear off the highway. Looking in her rearview mirror, she was struck again with the stately, elegant beauty of her home, her life\u2019s work, her vision come to thriving and prospering life.<\/p>\n<p><em>She will always be part of my life and I am grateful to her every day for what she did for me.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Vanessa clenched her teeth. \u201cSo help me, if this is about what happened in January&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d she muttered as she pulled off her property.<\/p>\n<p>Chouteau City, Missouri, the Chouteau County seat.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019d left it at sixteen, emancipated, graduated, matriculated, and headed for Indiana. She hadn\u2019t been back to it in years and would never have gone back but for Knox\u2019s imperious command.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa\u2019s mood did not improve during the four-hour drive northward. She made phone calls to her allies on the county commission to warn them that she might not be able to make the zoning hearing Wednesday. She couldn\u2019t estimate how long she\u2019d be gone, but there were going to be a lot of unhappy people around the Ozarks, and she would hear every syllable of it, loudly and with much repetition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI might as well have gone to the wedding,\u201d she snarled at no one. Her jaw clenched tighter and tighter as she neared her exit and then there it was: Chouteau City.<\/p>\n<p>She sucked in a tortured breath as she zipped through town to a motel close to the courthouse. Once she\u2019d parked and sat for a moment, hearing her engine click as it cooled, she allowed one moment of indulgence to wonder what <em>he<\/em> was doing right this very minute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">9: TIPPING POINT<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">\u201cI THINK I\u2019M going to lose my mind, right this very minute,\u201d Eric muttered to himself as he surveyed the chaos of his dojo, crammed with students and their parents. How had he lost control of his life so fast? Knox had been gone a mere four months, and already Eric was in over his head. He looked at the clock; only half an hour to go before it would be time to close up shop and go back to the courthouse for the rest of the evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEricEricEric!\u201d squealed six little girls as they scrambled toward him. Dressed identically in white karate gis, their waists wrapped with little white and yellow belts, they jockeyed for position around him, which was kinda cute in a kitten sort of way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, ladies?\u201d he asked gravely, giving them his full attention. Kids. What a mess.<\/p>\n<p>Too bad teaching kids\u2019 karate was as close as he would ever get to being a father. He regretted that a bit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWill you come see us in our school program Saturday night?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He pretended to consider that and watched them get antsier and antsier as he dragged his thinking out. \u201cWell,\u201d he said, wondering if Annie would blow her top, \u201cI\u2019ll have to check my calendar, but it\u2019s a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They all bounced up and down and squealed yet again. He supposed that in the world of ten-year-old girls, that was as good as a yes. Which, in this case, it was, and they knew that as well as he did. The six of them damn near knocked him on his ass with their enthusiastic hugs, then they bolted off to tell their parents that Sensei Eric would grace the hallowed halls of Chouteau Elementary with his presence come Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDude, you can\u2019t keep this up,\u201d said his partner as he brushed past Eric with gloves, foot pads, and other assorted equipment on his way to the back room.<\/p>\n<p>Eric said nothing. His business was going to go down the tubes if he didn\u2019t change something and fast. \u201cHey,\u201d he called finally as he followed Dirk into the back. \u201cWhat if we changed up our hours?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo what? Sunday between one and one-thirty in the morning? Because that\u2019s about how much time you seem to have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dirk tossed foot pads in their bin. Once that was done, they began working together to put the rest of the equipment away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve only been in that office for three months. Four if you count the interim. It\u2019ll shake out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s all it takes for some of these kids\u2019 parents to get nasty. Too bad you can\u2019t quit your job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric grunted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did Knox do it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnox had a bad case of insomnia, that\u2019s how he did it. Well. Until he started sleeping with Justice, that is; after that, things started slipping. And <em>I<\/em> don\u2019t have a photographic memory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did you do it when Knox was in the hospital?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDirk, think about that a minute. It was December. How much does <em>your<\/em> office have to do between Thanksgiving and New Year\u2019s, especially considering county government pretty much shut down waiting for news on Knox?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dirk stopped what he was doing and looked at Eric as he wiped the sweat from his dark brown brow. \u201cPoint taken. But now it\u2019s April and you\u2019re drowning and it\u2019s time to figure something out. It might not matter so much if the economy weren\u2019t kicking our butts, but it is and these people pay for <em>you<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s lips pressed together. \u201cYou know, maybe they\u2019re going to have to deal with it. Twelve classes, six classes each kids and adults\u2014and every one of those people knows where I work. Why should any reasonable person expect me to teach every single one of them <em>and<\/em> do my job?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, but we both have staff\u2014and they know that, too. They expect the bosses to be able to cut and run when they need to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re fully staffed. I have exactly six attorneys\u2014one of whom is a new grad and another who is moving to Provo in a month. I should have ten attorneys and I <em>still <\/em>don\u2019t have any admins. I just don\u2019t have time, Dirk. I\u2019m too busy hauling water to dig a well.\u201d He paused, then grumbled, \u201cI barely have time to kiss Annie goodnight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dirk very pointedly said nothing, which said everything. Eric sighed. \u201cWell. I <em>do<\/em> have one trick up my sleeve. If she\u2019ll agree to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiselle Kenard. She\u2019s a black belt and she trained with Mill, same as us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dirk grunted and walked back out to the dojo floor. \u201cWon\u2019t make a bit of difference, though, if you\u2019re not here\u2014and that\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric said nothing. Dirk directed his two oldest children to start on their dojo chores, then Eric and Dirk went to take their places in front of the class of adults who were just finishing up. Their highest-ranking student had taught the entire class (no one seemed to mind who taught as long as Eric was actually <em>in<\/em> the building during class), but stepped aside to allow the owners to close the session. Eric and Dirk dropped into meditation stance, at which point, so did everyone else. Finally, they straightened, stood at attention and Eric bellowed, \u201cWhat style are we?!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKenpo!\u201d The roar of twenty adults reverberated through the studio. Eric and Dirk bowed.<\/p>\n<p>Class dismissed. Eric had to get back to work\u2014and he had a lot of it to get done.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, hey,\u201d Dirk said once he\u2019d corralled his kids and locked up, heading out into the chill of an early spring night. \u201cYou going to Simone Whittaker\u2019s funeral?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat the hell do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou might want to go just to make sure she\u2019s really dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d seriously considered that. \u201cTrust Simone to get herself killed in a bar brawl in Raytown. Are you going?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaven\u2019t decided yet,\u201d Dirk said. \u201cI might go just to make LaVon mad, because you know, a black man crashing <em>that<\/em> redneck party&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA <em>Mormon<\/em> one. Take your wife with you. That\u2019d be hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFunny thing is, I\u2019ve defended half those blockheads.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the other half knows you\u2019ll end up defending them eventually, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dirk burst out laughing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpeaking of that,\u201d Eric said. \u201cIf you do decide to go, be sure to ask Wilson for a recess on the Blakely case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I\u2019m winning and you know it. You\u2019d love that extra day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was the truth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell,\u201d Dirk said when Eric didn\u2019t answer. His voice, laced with humor, floated back from the dark as he walked off to his car, one tired child in his arms and the other dragging against him. \u201cTempted as I am, I guess that\u2019s one funeral I\u2019m <em>not<\/em> going to\u2014just so you can\u2019t have your extra day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was, at times, inconvenient to be business partners with a public defender.<\/p>\n<p>Eric jogged across the street and into the courthouse, up the stairs, and into the office he\u2019d practically lived in for the last three months. He dropped in his chair and dug out a pile of r\u00e9sum\u00e9s.<\/p>\n<p>He was not having a good time.<\/p>\n<p>Eric had assumed that with no fa\u00e7ade to keep up, no elaborate schemes going on, no FBI making extra work for him, and no extra legal work to do for Knox, he would have a lighter schedule than he\u2019d had as executive. Considering his managerial style and the fact that he\u2019d been managing the prosecutor\u2019s office since he\u2019d graduated from law school, it should have been a piece of cake.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, it was a piece of something, all right.<\/p>\n<p>Knox had never had any patience with bureaucratic paperwork and no compunction about tossing everything in the shred bin; he\u2019d figured if it was that important, someone would come bug him until it got done. He could afford to do that: Nobody was going to walk into Knox Hilliard\u2019s office to tell him to sign this or that or some other thing\u2014except Eric, which was why Knox had hired him, only&nbsp;\u2026 after about a year of trying to manage Knox with one hand tied behind his back, Eric had finally decided he\u2019d had enough of Knox\u2019s pigheaded bullshit and had started signing Knox\u2019s name to everything himself, daring Knox to say a word about it.<\/p>\n<p>Knox had smirked and Eric went about doing his boss\u2019s job\u2014except for the massive amounts of paperwork Knox hadn\u2019t bothered to pass along to him at all, thus fell on top of Eric the minute Knox wasn\u2019t around to field it.<\/p>\n<p>Eric couldn\u2019t count how many times a day in the last three months someone had come to him for help or a signature, but ended the conversation with, \u201cWell, that\u2019s not how Knox did it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course it wasn\u2019t. Knox hadn\u2019t done it at all.<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s resolve not to allow the office to maintain its reputation as a trainer of baby litigators proved difficult, since the law school advisors had disregarded his memo and metro area attorneys either didn\u2019t believe he wanted to hire experienced personnel or didn\u2019t believe Knox had not, in fact, been on the take. More than once he\u2019d heard, \u201cAre you sure there was never anything crooked going on up there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot since Knox ousted Nocek, no. Don\u2019t you pay attention to the news?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As far as Eric could see, the taint of corruption in Chouteau County might never go away, no matter what he did.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice McKinley Hilliard test hadn\u2019t worked completely on the sole attorney he\u2019d managed to hire\u2014a new grad\u2014who had correctly answered all of Eric\u2019s pointed questions designed to determine if she could do everything she was given the first day without help.<\/p>\n<p>Either Eric\u2019s test was flawed or the woman misunderstood how much work he expected her to get through the first day; she hadn\u2019t done badly, really, but she hadn\u2019t performed the way Justice had. As one of her last duties before she left for good, Justice made sure Eric knew she found his expectations unreasonable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou did not assign me that much work my first day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did, too. You have selective amnesia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf <em>you<\/em> had lived through my first eight weeks in this office, wouldn\u2019t you develop amnesia, too?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric had to concede that point and took a third of the new attorney\u2019s assigned work off the top. He could breathe a lot easier when she plowed through it with quality work.<\/p>\n<p>Which also meant Lesley got to pass the \u201cWhittaker Problem\u201d off on the new person, too\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u2014until Simone had died Sunday, whose funeral Eric was only too happy to pay for over his mother\u2019s objections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMom, all the better to plant her as fast as possible, in a casket she can\u2019t get out of. If I have to hot rivet that fucker closed myself, I\u2019ll do that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric suspected it was a revenge killing for one of the men she\u2019d named in her diary, but he didn\u2019t give a fat rat\u2019s ass if she\u2019d been stabbed by accident, on purpose, or by whom. It was the Jackson County prosecutor\u2019s problem and Eric was just glad she was permanently out of his life.<\/p>\n<p>He briefly wondered if Simone\u2019s sister would be at the wake tonight or the funeral tomorrow, but then dismissed that. If she hadn\u2019t come back before now, she probably never would, which was fine with him. He didn\u2019t want to look at her or talk to her, especially through the filter of his guilt, embarrassment, regret\u2014whatever it was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His phone rang then and he looked at the ID. Annie. \u201cHey, baby,\u201d he said when he answered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCourthouse. Sifting through r\u00e9sum\u00e9s. Where are you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn bed, reading. Got a ton of review copies today and I have about four reviews to write and post. Plus, you have not serviced me in days. One more day, and I turn from bitch to \u00fcberbitch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>True enough, and Eric had an equally dire need for some good sex. He looked at his desk and decided work could wait another day. \u201cOkay, let me\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Mister<\/em> Cipriani!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric groaned at the sound of <em>that<\/em> voice from the doorway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t tell me,\u201d Annie said in his ear. \u201cGlenn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGlenn, I was about to go home and fuck my future First Lady. Can it wait until tomorrow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. I have a paper to put to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShit, Eric, just talk to the little cocksucker. You can service me later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric sighed. \u201cAll right. Night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo,\u201d Glenn whined smugly as he settled into the chair across from Eric\u2019s desk. \u201cTell me about Simone Whittaker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you going to the wake?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course. So?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the funeral?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEric!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat about her?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to know who ratted her out and got you off the hook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know I can\u2019t tell you that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou said you were going to be transparent. Simone\u2019s dead. LaVon\u2019s still not talking. It\u2019s been fifteen years. What could it hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric pursed his lips and stared at the little toad, still unable, after all these years, to reconcile himself to looking at a living, breathing stereotype of the Greasy Newspaperman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou covered Knox for fifteen years,\u201d Eric finally said. \u201cYou were the one who outed him as the most likely suspect in Parley\u2019s murder. You were the one who broke the story that Knox kicked Nocek\u2019s ass out.\u201d Glenn preened in his chair. \u201cYou were the one who found all the \u2018evidence\u2019 that Knox was on the take, but you could never prove it. Oh, look. You weren\u2019t any smarter than anybody else was, but you kept your paper alive off him. Bye bye Pulitzer for not catching on to the scam.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Glenn\u2019s smugness turned into irritation. \u201cThe FBI couldn\u2019t do it and they had all the access in the world. Why would you hold me to a higher standard?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric grunted. \u201cWell, okay. You got me there. But you have the answer to this problem right under your nose, buried in your own morgue. All you need is about a week, a shitload of caffeine, and some better deductive reasoning skills. I\u2019m sure as hell not doing your job for you, especially on this. Your cash cow went on his merry way smelling like a rose. You can\u2019t dig any more dirt up on me because it doesn\u2019t exist. You\u2019ve turned Annie\u2019s life inside and out and came up with bupkis besides her crazy-ass mother. You better find something pretty sensational to wank over or your little rag\u2019s going to die like the rest of newsprint. I\u2019d politely request that you not reveal this person\u2019s identity just for his or her own safety, but I highly doubt you can figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The man stood with a huff and went to the door, then stopped. \u201cYou don\u2019t give me enough credit for what I know versus what I don\u2019t print. I\u2019m a <em>responsible<\/em> journalist. I back up my facts and then I print them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith a little editorial spin on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know Knox murdered Parley, but I never printed that because I couldn\u2019t prove it. What I printed was that he was caught on video at Texaco at 1:17 a.m. on June 9, 1994. I also printed that the videotape was mysteriously erased while in the property room, because it did. That\u2019s a fact. I printed it. I can\u2019t help the conclusions people draw from the <em>facts<\/em> that I print.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric had to concede that point, too, but that still didn\u2019t make him any less of a tool.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGet lost, Glenn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The outer office door slammed hard enough to rattle the glass, but Eric only rolled his eyes and checked the clock: 9:45. It was still civilized to call people at 9:45 at night, wasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiselle? Hi, it\u2019s Eric. Didn\u2019t you tell me you trained with Miller Evanston when you were at BYU? And you\u2019re a first black belt, right?&nbsp;\u2026 Uh huh. I know you just had a baby, but I\u2019m calling because I\u2019m in a bit of a bind since Knox left and I wanted to ask you if you\u2019d be interested in a part-time job&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An hour later, with memory lane having been well trod, he got to cross that thing off his to-do list, making his burden seem a little bit lighter.<\/p>\n<p>Next thing on his list: an administrative assistant or two. Eric knew the value of good administrative assistants and he was going to get a couple or die trying. He picked up a pile of r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and began to sort through them again.<\/p>\n<p>Too much to do and too little time to do it in.<\/p>\n<p>Too few resources.<\/p>\n<p>Too little sleep.<\/p>\n<p><em>Eric, you need to ditch your life for a couple of hours and go do whatever it is you do when you get all wound up. Meditate or whatever and then re-prioritize your to-do list. I\u2019ve never seen you scattered like this. You\u2019re losing it and we haven\u2019t even started officially campaigning yet.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Annie\u2019s voice rang in his head. Between the court docket, regular office business, his dojo, campaign tasks, and all the meetings he\u2019d had with the Republican and Libertarian leaders who vied for his attention, he hadn\u2019t had a chance to turn around twice in the same spot. But&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Annie had taken it upon herself to deal with quite a few campaign details.<\/p>\n<p>Giselle had agreed to a meeting to see if she would care to take over some of Eric\u2019s karate class load.<\/p>\n<p>He did have one new lawyer, but one fresh grad didn\u2019t hope to meet demand, and he\u2019d stalled out on hiring administrative assistants.<\/p>\n<p>If he couldn\u2019t get everything under control, he wouldn\u2019t have time to start actively campaigning for attorney general.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHell, I won\u2019t deserve the job,\u201d he muttered, then looked at the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s in his hand. \u201cScrew that. I\u2019ll call a temp agency tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric trudged through the sheriff\u2019s office and walked home. It was twelve-thirty when he climbed into bed. Annie was asleep, so he wouldn\u2019t be getting laid tonight even if he weren\u2019t completely exhausted.<\/p>\n<p>Still, he lay awake, churning through his to-do list, nagged by his inability to prioritize effectively. Then his mind rolled back around to Glenn\u2019s visit, and Eric felt a little bit of unease that perhaps the man could suss out the identity of the little girl who\u2019d given Eric everything he had.<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">10: MORE DOWN CELLAR IN A TEACUP<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">VANESSA SHOWED UP at the wake, attracting every eye and dropping every jaw as she strutted by with purpose, feigning obliviousness to the looks. She\u2019d known this would happen. She\u2019d wanted it to happen; it was a power play and she\u2019d learned about power from the best.<\/p>\n<p>Her mother raked her with her gaze, head to toe and back again. \u201cWell, aren\u2019t we uppity?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, I certainly am. You could use a little class yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A snicker caught her attention and she saw a blond boy, not much shorter than Vanessa, standing next to Vanessa\u2019s mother. She flinched when her mother cuffed the boy in the back of the head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019d you do to your hair?\u201d LaVon demanded. \u201cYou look like a zebra.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went out in the sun to do productive things. What did you do to yours? Mix four different brands of discount bleach?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The boy snickered again, and again her mother cuffed him.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa\u2019s eyes narrowed and she was no longer amused, remembering how little a child had to do to earn one of those incredibly frequent painful slaps. \u201cMa, if you do that again, I\u2019ll have you arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LaVon\u2019s jaw worked, but she said nothing and Vanessa felt free to leave her there and find a seat where she could watch people in relative peace. She did have to admit that being here, not forced to be gracious, being able to let loose, was fabulously cathartic.<\/p>\n<p>Knox had finally explained why he demanded she go to her sister\u2019s funeral. \u201cYou\u2019re in the power position now and you need that closure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it\u2019s not about Simone?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>It\u2019s not about Eric?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. It\u2019s about your mother. Trust me. My mother was a bitch, too, and I want you to go give her hell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa hated it when he was right, which, well, he was <em>always<\/em> right. Besides, she knew how much Knox had hated his mother and that put her fears about any other motives he might have to rest.<\/p>\n<p>Vaguely wondering who the boy was, she started to watch him. It only took a few seconds to figure out he was Simone\u2019s son. Possibly twelve years old and Vanessa had not known of his existence. He didn\u2019t seem too terribly heartbroken over his mother\u2019s death and she couldn\u2019t blame him.<\/p>\n<p>She felt the first stirrings of pity for the child; she had had protectors in Dirk, then Knox, who\u2019d kept LaVon off her back. Vanessa couldn\u2019t begin to imagine how miserable this boy must be with both LaVon and Simone over him.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa refused to stand in the family line at the wake that night, refused to sit with the family up front during mass the next day, and refused to drive to the cemetery at the front of the line after the funeral. She stood about fifty feet away from the tented gravesite, observing the whole mess, and wondered how LaVon had managed to come up with the money for the funeral and grave, much less the nice casket.<\/p>\n<p>Somebody else must have paid for it. LaVon would have left Simone to be buried in a potter\u2019s field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa looked at the stranger who had sidled up next to her, an otherwise smallish man but for a little bit of a pot belly. He seemed&nbsp;\u2026 dapper. That was the word. His clothes\u2014straight out of film noir\u2014weren\u2019t expensive, but they were of good quality material and they\u2019d been altered to fit him well. He removed his fedora to reveal a regrettable comb-over of mixed brown and gray strands, and his eyes bugged a little behind his stylish glasses. He wore a decent cologne, not overwhelming and not so thin as to be considered cheap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHello,\u201d she murmured, wondering which way he would approach this and how fast she\u2019d be tomorrow\u2019s headline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re Vanessa Whittaker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast time I checked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re Simone\u2019s little sister?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd you\u2019re the TV chef. <em>Vittles<\/em>, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa sighed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m Glenn Shinkle, from the <em>Chouteau Recorder<\/em>, and I was wondering if I could get an interview? Apparently,\u201d he said wryly, \u201cno one here knows who you are, except me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat does seem to be the case, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He pursed his lips. \u201cOr at least of your mother\u2019s crowd. Why is that, do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She laughed for the first time since she\u2019d hit the county line.<\/p>\n<p>If LaVon <em>didn\u2019t<\/em> know about Vanessa\u2019s life, it would be a result of her complete disinterest in computers or the internet, even if she could afford such, and a complete disinterest in Vanessa\u2019s whereabouts or doings. While LaVon had always lived and breathed celebrity gossip, Vanessa didn\u2019t occupy the realms of celebrity LaVon would follow. LaVon had never cooked, so Vanessa couldn\u2019t imagine she\u2019d watch cooking shows.<\/p>\n<p>If LaVon <em>did<\/em> know about Vanessa\u2019s little corner of fame or anything about Whittaker House, she\u2019d have kept it to herself, ever mindful that any misstep would bring the wrath of Knox Hilliard down upon her head.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa suspected the latter. After all, LaVon could keep a secret better than a dead man if she had sufficient motivation.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, she cast a vague gesture toward all the people gathered under and around the tent set up over Simone\u2019s grave and said, \u201cI have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His eyes narrowed slightly. \u201cMiss Whitta\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Shinkle,\u201d she murmured, laying her hand gently on his arm. \u201cI\u2019m at my sister\u2019s funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a reproof, it was a gentle one, but he seemed the sort to understand and respect it. He flushed a little, but nodded and put his fedora back on his head before trotting off.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. She turned back to watch the mourners gather and chat and disperse in small, ever-moving clusters, then glanced at her watch. Noon. If she left now instead of staying for the family meal, she could make it home for dinner with more than an hour to spare.<\/p>\n<p>But. When Nephew approached her with some stealth and muttered, \u201cAunt Vanessa, will you come to my school tomorrow night? There\u2019s a program and I\u2019m in it&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d she hadn\u2019t the heart to refuse him. He\u2019d spoken to her as if she were a regular, sympathetic part of his life, not a random relative he\u2019d just met.<\/p>\n<p>A whole lot of people Vanessa didn\u2019t know spoke to her that way, which meant he\u2019d watched her on TV enough to feel as if he knew her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSure, kid. What time do you want me to pick you up?\u201d He told her, then scampered off before she could ask him his name, in case LaVon caught him talking to the family traitor. She knew exactly how much he\u2019d risked to do so. He probably saw her as his protector now simply because she\u2019d stood down his grandmother.<\/p>\n<p>Very few women and only a handful more men could make LaVon Whittaker back down, and now Nephew knew Vanessa was powerful enough to do that. LaVon wouldn\u2019t dare do anything to that boy while she was in town.<\/p>\n<p>Too bad she\u2019d start in on him again once Vanessa left.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, Vanessa decided to go back to the mobile home after the burial just to see if she could get a few licks in at her mother, but the conversation she\u2019d imagined didn\u2019t come to pass the way she\u2019d intended. Instead, she saw her father in a broken-down wheelchair, on oxygen, trying to wheel his way through a fog of cigarette smoke and people who didn\u2019t notice he existed, much less make room for him to pass by.<\/p>\n<p>She shoved through the tight cliques, trying to go to him and wheel him out to the deck.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMa,\u201d she snapped when she realized LaVon was right in front of her father, ignoring his distress. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you get Pops an electric wheelchair?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LaVon flushed and her jaw worked. Vanessa had embarrassed her in front of her friends. Good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2019Cause we don\u2019t have the money for it, Vanessa,\u201d she finally said, nasty as always.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, hey, here\u2019s a thought: Quit smoking and maybe A\u2014Pops wouldn\u2019t have to have so much oxygen and B\u2014you\u2019d have the money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LaVon slapped her face.<\/p>\n<p>The entire assemblage fell silent and stepped back to watch this. Nephew observed Vanessa warily, as if he were afraid her power over LaVon was just an illusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow\u2019d\u2019ja like that, Vanessa?\u201d she sneered. \u201cAin\u2019t no Knox Hilliard in town to protect you no more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, that\u2019s true enough,\u201d Vanessa drawled. \u201cWhat, exactly, do you think the <em>new<\/em> prosecutor would do with you if I went to him to have you charged with assault?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The tension was suffocating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd wouldn\u2019t Dirk laugh his butt off when you needed an attorney?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LaVon\u2019s mouth tightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then Vanessa turned and continued with her self-appointed task of getting her father outside for some fresh air. LaVon didn\u2019t wait until she was out the door before starting in on the new prosecutor.<\/p>\n<p>That was a show for Vanessa\u2019s benefit, to drive home the point that LaVon had not forgotten her betrayal, much less forgiven her for it. Vanessa still wanted to curl up in a little ball of humiliation whenever she remembered watching Eric, waiting and hoping for some kind word, some sign that he knew what she\u2019d done and felt some gratitude. A mere \u201cthank you\u201d would have thrilled her thirteen-year-old heart beyond reason.<\/p>\n<p>But he\u2019d given her <em>that<\/em> look and walked away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;ting married to that bitch Annie Franklin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen\u2019s the wedding again?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDecember something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa didn\u2019t stop, didn\u2019t betray in any way how unexpectedly hard that news hit her behind her breastbone. She wasn\u2019t sure her mother actually knew of her little-girl crush of so long ago, but it didn\u2019t matter. Any news about the prosecutor that could be used to trash him would get the point across to Vanessa.<\/p>\n<p>She wasn\u2019t sure why she cared. After all, she was sleeping with a man half the women in the country had wanted\u2014including LaVon, judging by the Nash Piper shrine that covered the main wall of the trailer\u2019s living room. The wreckage of Nash\u2019s plane deep in the Smoky Mountains had been found readily enough, but his body had never been recovered. Yet here was LaVon, still keeping vigil two and a half years later.<\/p>\n<p><em>Why<\/em> didn\u2019t it surprise her LaVon would have built a shrine to a dead man?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTypical,\u201d Vanessa muttered.<\/p>\n<p>With great determination, she finally got her father out on the deck, where he hacked and choked, and she pulled up a dilapidated lawn chair to sit next to him and look at the twilight sky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNessie,\u201d he rasped once his coughing fit had wound down. \u201cI want you to know how glad I am you came back for your sister\u2019s funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t have a choice, Pops. My business partner made me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh?\u201d he asked, his forehead wrinkled. \u201cIf she\u2019s your <em>partner<\/em>, how does she make you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe. And he\u2019s got a bit of a temper. It gets nasty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy did he make you come?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo make sure Simone was really dead. In case you didn\u2019t notice, I don\u2019t care about Simone. She got what she deserved. Live by the sword, die by the sword. And LaVon\u2019s even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her father\u2019s nostrils flared, but since she had no investment in being warm and gracious at this moment, she had no qualms about stating her opinion. That harshness, that refusal to be cowed or apologize, which she\u2019d learned from a master, was something she very rarely needed to break out. Today, with her family, she felt not only justified but obligated to push the envelope, shred it, and set it on fire.<\/p>\n<p>Not Laura\u2019s modus operandi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it\u2019s the truth, it should be spoken. If it\u2019s not the truth, may I rot in hell. Pops, really. Let me take you home with me. I have a good setup. Fresh air, good food, pretty land. You can have your own little cottage or live in the main house, whatever you want. I can find things for you to do\u2014one of my tenants is going to be a fly-tying shop and there\u2019s a sharecropper on the back of my property who\u2019d like to chew the fat with someone his age. I have a big lake with bass and channel cats and bluegill, and a clear stream with plenty of trout. You could fish all day long if you wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked at her, his face ancient, his turquoise eyes cloudy and bloodshot. He was only fifty-two, but he wouldn\u2019t live much longer. Vanessa sighed and tried to hold back unexpected tears.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI won\u2019t leave your mother, Vanessa,\u201d he murmured, a note of reproof in his voice. She didn\u2019t know when he\u2019d divorced himself from reality, but she couldn\u2019t remember a time he hadn\u2019t stood by her mother.<\/p>\n<p>She didn\u2019t know if that was admirable or pathetic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I don\u2019t like the way you\u2019re talking about her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A wave of resentment hit her when, in a flash, she remembered all the times he could have rescued her from her mother\u2019s cruelty but had turned a blind eye, always leaving it for someone else to do. Granted, he had attempted to assuage the pain once LaVon had finished with her, to kiss her and hug her and sing to her, but he couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t stand up to LaVon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay, Pops,\u201d she said quietly, before she said something she\u2019d regret to this kind but weak man. \u201cI\u2019m leaving now. Here\u2019s my number\u2014\u201d She wrote her number on the back of an old to-do list she found in her purse, and tucked it inside his shirt pocket. \u201cCall me if you need anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He caught her hand. \u201cI watch you on the television, Nessie,\u201d he whispered, surprising her. \u201cThe boy, too. I\u2019m proud of you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She stared at him in wonder. \u201cYou\u2014 But Ma\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe don\u2019t know about <em>Vittles<\/em>, about Whittaker House. It\u2019s my own little secret,\u201d he confided. \u201cYou an\u2019 me. I can&nbsp;\u2026 pretend&nbsp;\u2026 I had a hand in raisin\u2019 you, but I know who really raised you an\u2019 I\u2019m ashamed o\u2019 that. I wouldn\u2019t take your charity now \u2019cause I don\u2019t deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t deserve to be abused the rest of your life, either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWon\u2019t be much longer,\u201d he said matter-of-factly. \u201cI\u2019m just waitin\u2019 to find out if heaven\u2019s as purty as that place you got. Just to know you\u2014my little girl\u2014<em>built<\/em> that. It\u2019s all I need to die happy, Nessie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She found herself walking around the town square at midnight because she couldn\u2019t sleep with her father\u2019s fatalism echoing around her head, and she couldn\u2019t get the cigarette smoke out of her expensive clothes. <em>How<\/em> had she forgotten that little detail?<\/p>\n<p>Sunday. She\u2019d leave Sunday. She would\u2019ve left the next day and been home in time for dinner if she hadn\u2019t promised Nephew\u2014dammit, what <em>was<\/em> that kid\u2019s name, anyway?\u2014she\u2019d go to his program. None of the rest of his family would be there.<\/p>\n<p>Her attention was caught by the glint of glass panes reflecting the street lamps when the courthouse doors opened. A tall man with short black hair, in black pants and a loose black kimono-type jacket locked the door behind him. He rolled his head one way, then another. He rolled his shoulders over and under, then cracked his neck. He seemed to have some sort of black strap slung around his neck. He turned and walked slowly, rather bowleggedly, across the lawn\u2014away from her.<\/p>\n<p>Again.<\/p>\n<p>And she wouldn\u2019t go begging for&nbsp;\u2026 what? Exactly? A \u201cthank you\u201d?<\/p>\n<p><em>Kinda makes you wonder why you\u2019re sitting here pining over a small-time prosecutor when you could be sleeping with a funny, handsome man who happens to be a country star, huh?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With a choked sigh and a shake of her head, she went back to her motel room and stripped off her smoke-saturated clothes, stuffed them into a plastic bag, wondered if her housekeeping staff could get out the stink\u2014the same stink that wafted from her hair. She got under a stream of hot water as fast as she could and scrubbed her zebra hair until her scalp was raw.<\/p>\n<p>Her hand swept down her chest, over her breast, and stopped, her thumb playing with her hard nipple and she closed her eyes, caught her breath, wondering how and why she had let so many years pass before taking a second lover.<\/p>\n<p>Had she been that busy? That focused?<\/p>\n<p><em>Let\u2019s just call it the fish that got away.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Or had she simply been pining?<\/p>\n<p>It was easy to say that her first lover had spoiled her for other men, because it was true; no one else had approached his level of sheer sensuality. Unfortunately, the kinds of men who attracted her were intimidated by the fact that she had been a famous artist\u2019s model\u2014with the nude proof hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was easy to refuse those who couldn\u2019t match Sebastian and even easier to ignore those who let their intimidation get the better of them.<\/p>\n<p>It was easy to claim that she was busy and she was young yet, because it was true. Knox had set her up for early success and financial independence for a reason. Sebastian had calculated his grand unveiling of <em>Wild, Wild West<\/em> to coincide with her last four months of culinary school to make Vanessa a hot commodity the minute she graduated. Still, she hadn\u2019t yet reached that point in the process where she could just let go for a while. She had a grand vision for Whittaker House and not only was she far from attaining that, she\u2019d just gone into a heap of debt to effect the next phase in her plan. If all went well, she\u2019d have to go to the bank next summer for the final phase and it would take her years to climb out of that hole.<\/p>\n<p>It was easy to fall back on years of religious training, both Catholic and Mormon, catechism class and Young Women\u2019s. Giselle\u2014the closest thing Vanessa had ever had to a real mother\u2014had lectured her endlessly on the pragmatism of being, if not chaste, then savvy and discriminating. She\u2019d warned Vanessa about strangers, about the emotional tricks men used, about getting drunk to lose her inhibitions, about disease and abuse and coercion and rape and drugs designed to enable rape. Giselle had taken Vanessa to the doctor to get her on birth control. Vanessa had had time to observe and learn without undue pressure, and years of watching her roommates at Notre Dame succumb to one or more of those had only reinforced Giselle\u2019s opinions as truth.<\/p>\n<p><em>Frat boys are pigs. Just don\u2019t be stupid. If you want to have sex, wait and be very careful about who you choose. Do it sober, while you have your head on straight. When you\u2019re out, always make sure your drink is covered. Whatever you do, don\u2019t have sex without a condom and don\u2019t forget to take your pill. Ever. Remember this: Men use love to get sex and women use sex to get love. Don\u2019t<\/em> ever <em>mistake sex for love because that\u2019s when girls start getting stupid. And whatever else you do, don\u2019t lie about your age. That should be enough to put most men off until you\u2019re eighteen, and it\u2019s not like you don\u2019t know what happens to men who fuck underage girls, right?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With Giselle\u2019s warnings in Vanessa\u2019s ears and a ton of bad examples in front of her eyes that validated every word, it was easy to refuse. Without the temperament or taste for hookups, without a man as fascinating as Sebastian to tempt her into an affair, with a cornucopia of ideas crowding her head and a constantly rotating laundry list of things to do, it had been easy to refuse\u2014until a well-disguised country star on the run from his management, his fans, and his career had shown up at Whittaker House alone.<\/p>\n<p>When <em>Mister Thompson<\/em> had imperiously informed her upon check-in that he expected her to bring his dinner to his suite <em>personally<\/em> at <em>precisely<\/em> ten p.m., she had done so as a matter of course. Personal service by the celebrity chef owner was one of her gimmicks, and though she had not expected to become the entr\u00e9e, he\u2019d made her eager enough to serve herself up.<\/p>\n<p>Now, two years into a discreet, comfortable, monogamous affair with another famous man, Vanessa knew she was spoiled: Her dream had blossomed under her and Knox\u2019s careful nurturing, and it continued to gain momentum. She also had an intelligent, low-maintenance, and fabulous lover to scratch her itch with no expectations on either side.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026&nbsp;<em>ting married to that bitch Annie Franklin.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>But still&nbsp;\u2026 possibly&nbsp;\u2026 pining.<\/p>\n<p>For a <em>thank you?!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cScrew that,\u201d she muttered, furious with herself and making a mental note to call a therapist when she got home. \u201cSmall-time prosecutor. Bite me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">11: WEB OF KNOWLEDGE<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\"><em>THIS COULD WORK.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Eric and Dirk sat on the floor putting Giselle Kenard through her paces, watching her, refreshing her memory, teaching her, updating her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI warn you,\u201d she said, \u201cI haven\u2019t had a lesson or class since I left Utah, and I know Mill is constantly refining his curriculum. It\u2019s probably changed several times since then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neither of them had ever taught a black belt before, and it was as challenging for them as it was for her, especially considering she\u2019d had a C-section four months ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m still kind of stiff and sore,\u201d she apologized, as if she had anything to apologize for.<\/p>\n<p>Giselle\u2019s husband Bryce had come, curious, he said, because he\u2019d only seen her do this once. It was a very, very brief once, a twenty-year-old memory that had made his expression flash with pain and regret. \u201cBut then she converted to the gospel of the gun,\u201d he muttered wryly.<\/p>\n<p>Their son was a cute little devil, squiggly, jolly, inching and rolling his way here and there, a mop of bright orange curls bobbing around.<\/p>\n<p>After two hours, Eric called a stop. He and Dirk could have watched more because her old training intrigued them, but\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnnie and I have a date with six ten-year-old girls,\u201d he pronounced, and the Kenards laughed. \u201cIs this something you think you\u2019d like to do, Giselle?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, I would <em>love<\/em> to. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The four of them gathered in a huddle on the floor, the baby gleefully rolling over crossed knees from one adult to another like a glass pop bottle. Once Giselle snuggled up against her husband and he draped his arm around her shoulders, Eric got down to business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWould you rather teach adults or children?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere do you need the most help?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem,\u201d Dirk interrupted, casting a glare at Eric, who rolled his eyes, \u201cis that people pay for Eric to teach them. It\u2019s his name, his brand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we need help with is the six-thirty to nine-thirty time slots on the weekdays,\u201d Eric said finally, tired of this, tired of being reminded of his life of relative leisure before he became the Chouteau County prosecutor. \u201cI began building this dojo when I came home from Utah. When Dirk figured out he couldn\u2019t make a living in Provo and he came back, it was a perfect setup for both of us, but\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut now Dirk\u2019s trapped by your brand,\u201d she finished. \u201cAnd because you have to be here so he won\u2019t take the hit, you don\u2019t have time to start on the next step in your career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight and I have the same problem with the prosecutor\u2019s office. Not enough lawyers and my new one needs to be trained. I have a couple of temporary admins coming Monday, but since we\u2019ve never had any, I\u2019ll have to start training them from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric could feel the chaos and fatigue settling over all of them at once, because lately, he spread exhaustion like a disease everywhere he went.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEric,\u201d Bryce rumbled. \u201cYou know many of my attorneys are from your office, right? Would you like me to see if one or two of them would be willing to come back up here for a while to help you out until you can get some more attorneys hired?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric felt hope surge through him. \u201cAre you kidding me? Absolutely!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bryce shrugged. \u201cNow, it\u2019s up to them. I pay them four times what they made here\u2014and I won\u2019t pay them if they\u2019re not working for me\u2014so I can\u2019t promise anything. But they may like to get back in the game since, well&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody in that firm goes to court anymore,\u201d Giselle muttered with a smirk. Bryce chuckled and tugged gently at her braid.<\/p>\n<p>Eric blinked. Stared.<\/p>\n<p>The way Bryce Kenard looked at his wife was&nbsp;\u2026 unreal.<\/p>\n<p>And Giselle returned his look with a shy smile, communing with her husband in a way that suddenly made Eric wonder if he were missing something.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d never had a reason to look at a woman that way\u2014and he knew for a fact Annie didn\u2019t look at him like that: love, lust, trust, and respect all rolled up into one lingering glance.<\/p>\n<p>Six years navigating the dating waters and religious culture of BYU had convinced Eric that \u201csoul mate\u201d was a myth, that there was no such thing as fate. He\u2019d learned that a marriage based on shared goals, intellectual and sexual attraction, and a commitment to working on the partnership\u2014not \u201cromantic\u201d love\u2014was far more desirable than bashing one\u2019s head over finding The One.<\/p>\n<p>Eric didn\u2019t fear marriage. He never had. He\u2019d left BYU without a wife, although he\u2019d dated seriously and twice nearly popped the question. Then he\u2019d come home to find a grown-up Annie, who had a grand plan. Being his wife would get her where she wanted to go, and with more prestige than she could get on her own. And Eric\u2014well, he couldn\u2019t ask for a better partner to walk his career path with him. Ambitious and pragmatic to her core, brilliant and street savvy, beautiful and good in bed, Annie also shared his politics, more or less, if she deigned to think about it.<\/p>\n<p>Neither of them had ever pretended their relationship was anything but an efficient way to pool resources and strengths until they\u2019d each achieved their goals, at which point they\u2019d part company. They were the epitome of the sexy power couple; the voting public loved nothing better, and they intended to exploit it without mercy.<\/p>\n<p>Eric had never had a reason to question his view of marriage.<\/p>\n<p>Until now.<\/p>\n<p>Watching a husband and wife share&nbsp;\u2026 something&nbsp;\u2026 he didn\u2019t understand or know how to get.<\/p>\n<p>Giselle\u2019s voice shook him out of his reverie. \u201cI can commit to two nights a week, your kids and adults. I\u2019m staying home with Dunc now and it\u2019d be nice to get out and back into something I love.\u201d She grabbed the little boy and blew raspberries in his belly, making him giggle. After a moment or two of play, she cuddled the baby and said, \u201cI want to raise this kid up properly\u2014in a gi. How you handle marketing is up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric nodded and Dirk looked pleased. \u201cNow, about pay\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ll be teaching me as much as I teach the students. You\u2019ve each got five stripes on your belts and I\u2019ve only got one. I\u2019ve been out of it for years and I\u2019m still recovering from getting Dunc here in one piece, so&nbsp;\u2026 I\u2019ll teach in exchange for being taught. How \u2019bout that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a sixty-mile round trip for you. At least let us pay for your gas and mileage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She shrugged. \u201cWe can talk about it later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric could feel his burdens lightening even as he sat there chatting with the Kenards and he couldn\u2019t believe his good fortune. Two good attorneys (maybe) who knew him and Chouteau County inside out because he\u2019d hired them and Knox had trained them, <em>and<\/em> a new karate teacher who could take over four classes a week. Of course, Dirk-plus-Giselle still wasn\u2019t <em>Eric<\/em>, but campaigning had to become his next priority; he couldn\u2019t do that and teach six classes a week, too. With Giselle on board, he could begin to phase himself out without upsetting everyone at once, while conditioning everyone in the county that he\u2019d be gone to Jefferson City in three years. Hopefully, he could do it so subtly the citizenry would take his absence for granted.<\/p>\n<p>Dirk took care of outfitting Giselle with a gi, belt, patches, front door keys, and scheduling her for Mondays and Tuesdays, while Eric thanked Bryce over and over again for the possible loan of attorneys he didn\u2019t have to train until Bryce finally laughed and held up his hands. \u201cIt\u2019s okay, Eric. I get it, I get it. You golf?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bryce grinned. \u201cThe Deuce at National next Saturday morning, then. Six-thirty tee time. It\u2019ll give you a chance to plead your case to a couple of my buddies, get the word out about what kind of labor you need. Let the city know you\u2019re not Knox and you\u2019re serious about what you want to do up here. Get a start on collecting cash for your next few elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Golf. With Bryce Kenard and two of his rich friends who could help Eric do what he needed to do: flip Chouteau County\u2019s reputation upright, find experienced attorneys, and make connections that mattered to an up-and-coming politician.<\/p>\n<p>Eric figured his luck had finally turned around&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026&nbsp;until he saw the Kenards walking to their car hand-in-hand, their baby lying quietly against Bryce\u2019s shoulder, murmuring together as they rounded the opposite side of the vehicle to put Dunc in his carrier. He didn\u2019t realize how much he\u2019d missed seeing such sweet, innocent relationships like that since leaving BYU.<\/p>\n<p>Being in one.<\/p>\n<p>He didn\u2019t have that with Annie, but he had exactly what he wanted with Annie, so why had he turned melancholy all of a sudden?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou won\u2019t get that with Annie,\u201d Dirk muttered as he walked up to Eric after handing a set of keys to his oldest child and instructing him to take his sister around the corner to the office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, fuck you.\u201d Eric\u2019s jaw ground, then it dropped as, through the windows and over the top of the Kenards\u2019 SUV, he saw the Kenards\u2019 gentility vanish: The man lifted his wife and slammed her against the truck, kissing her brutally\u2014and she responded in kind, wrapping her legs around him so tight she would\u2019ve broken a smaller man in half.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Well<\/em>,\u201d Dirk breathed, \u201cthat goes a long way toward explaining the bruises around his wrists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric blinked. Shuddered. \u201cToo kinky for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dirk grunted and turned to catch up with his kids at his office. Eric dropped into step beside him but he wasn\u2019t sure why, since he knew that what had been brewing for a while was coming. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to say anything,\u201d Dirk began, \u201cbut I saw the way you looked at Bryce and Giselle. It\u2019s like you\u2019ve never seen people in love before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He had, but he didn\u2019t remember it looking so&nbsp;\u2026 genuine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, you know Annie and I are friends, so I\u2019m not slamming her. But you\u2019re both deluding yourselves by thinking you can have a marriage like a business arrangement that\u2019ll last long enough for you to do what you need it for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJelarde, you have no room to talk. You and your wife function like a well-oiled machine, just like me and Annie. Shit, you\u2019re a fucking bishop and you can still do your job and teach class. You couldn\u2019t do that without her. You work well together, you\u2019re committed, none of that sappy shit I can\u2019t stand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen you aren\u2019t paying attention. Ten years Steffie and I have been married, okay? Four kids and one on the way, okay? I love her. I\u2019m <em>in<\/em> love with her. But all you see is the \u2018well-oiled machine,\u2019 and you admire that so much you miss the rest of it. You don\u2019t see what there is underpinning it. You don\u2019t see the spontaneity and fun and laughter. You don\u2019t see the sex. You don\u2019t see the fights. You don\u2019t see the crying. You don\u2019t see us wrangling our kids constantly until we\u2019re too tired to have sex at all. You don\u2019t see how much time we spend apart because I\u2019m always at church when I\u2019m not here. You don\u2019t see how much we miss each other, and I\u2019m here to tell you\u2014being <em>in<\/em> love is the sugar that makes <em>that<\/em> medicine go down. We couldn\u2019t do it if we weren\u2019t <em>in<\/em> love. You aren\u2019t seeing how it all works together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want all that drama,\u201d Eric insisted. \u201cNo fights, no crying. That\u2019s why we\u2019re together. That\u2019s why it works.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know what?\u201d Dirk said, exasperated. \u201cYou\u2019ve never been in love so you have no idea what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApparently, I paid more attention at BYU than you did. It\u2019s <em>your<\/em> church leaders saying there\u2019s more than one person you can be compatible with and make a life with. I didn\u2019t come up with that, but it makes a whole lot of sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than one person who is compatible with you that you can also <em>fall in love with<\/em>,\u201d Dirk corrected. \u201cThere\u2019s a big difference. I bet some time before or after you marry Annie, you\u2019ll fall in love with another woman. Then you\u2019ll understand, but it\u2019ll be too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot possible. If it didn\u2019t happen at BYU, it\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, you know, there\u2019s a reason it didn\u2019t happen for you at BYU, and it wasn\u2019t because you aren\u2019t a member of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, it is, too. Heather told me that outright.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHeather had your number from the get-go. Why do you think you couldn\u2019t get her out of the library, much less on a date? The girls you bought rings for didn\u2019t dump you because you weren\u2019t a member of the church. They dumped you because you weren\u2019t<em> in<\/em> love with them the way they were with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the biggest crock of shit I ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you know how many times <em>your<\/em> girlfriends came crying their hearts out to <em>me<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd you got plenty of dates out of it. You\u2019re welcome.\u201d With that, Eric turned and jogged home to get ready for his date.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnnie,\u201d he said when he opened the door to their apartment. \u201cDid you get the flowers?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Annie, in her favorite set of navy lingerie, her blonde hair clipped up on top of her head haphazardly, sat on the couch, her feet propped on the coffee table, a romance novel in one hand and a glass of Scotch in the other. Jill Scott purred from the sound system.<\/p>\n<p>She turned to look up at him over the rim of her glasses. \u201cWhat flowers?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked around. The rolling suitcase she used to cart her drug samples around to doctors\u2019 offices was nowhere in sight. She had the bottle of Scotch and a stack of novels on the table between her feet. Obviously, she\u2019d settled in for a weekend of well-deserved relaxation.<\/p>\n<p><em>Oh, shit.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d obviously forgotten to tell her. He carefully explained about the school program\u2014 \u201cYou know, kind of an end-of-the-year exhibition to justify the arts budget.\u201d&nbsp;\u2014and that he had wanted to take flowers for the girls.<\/p>\n<p>She stared at him stonily for a long time after he\u2019d stopped speaking. Finally, she said, \u201cYou\u2019d rather go spend two hours watching a bunch of little kids singing and playing instruments off key, looking at their bad art, than spend a quiet evening at home?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When she put it that way&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, I wouldn\u2019t <em>rather<\/em>, but it\u2019s good politics and every opportunity counts. We can be quiet at home after.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh, I see. This is your way of poking at me about having kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He sighed. \u201cNo, it\u2019s not. I promised them I\u2019d come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her mouth pursed. \u201cAll right, Eric.\u201d Then her eyebrow cocked. \u201cFuck me first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s mouth stretched in a slow grin. \u201cYes, <em>ma\u2019am<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After a brief stop at the store for a bouquet of pink daisies, Eric and Annie strode into Chouteau Elementary that evening like the power couple they were. Seeing as how half these kids\u2019 parents kept his dojo in the black, and three quarters of them might actually vote for him come his first election next year, he felt it was wise to schmooze whenever he got the chance.<\/p>\n<p>The program was an agonizing affair, that was for sure, but the auditorium was dark and cool, so he dozed through most of it (time well spent, all things considered). The girls liked the flowers he handed out amongst them and the boys preened with Eric\u2019s effusive praise. He spoke with parents either as their kids\u2019 karate teacher and\u2013or the Chouteau County prosecutor, as he and Annie strolled around looking at all the bad art.<\/p>\n<p>Constant schmoozing kept him in the citizenry\u2019s good graces. Most of those who knew his history liked the romance of his reformation, and those who didn\u2019t know the story got it from Eric\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t hurt that he\u2019d been handpicked and trained for the job by the same man who\u2019d tried him for Simone Whittaker\u2019s rape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">12: LONG-LEGGED SNIPE<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\">IF VANESSA HAD KNOWN <em>he<\/em> would be at Nephew\u2019s exhibition\u2014and why?\u2014she would have flat refused. She saw him in the lobby between the auditorium and the gym, and her heart thudded in her chest and ears. She couldn\u2019t catch her breath. She hadn\u2019t seen him so clearly since the televised press conference in January and not at all in the thirteen years before that, give or take. He was more beautiful in person than on TV.<\/p>\n<p>Tall. Six foot three on a short day.<\/p>\n<p>Lean. A body hardened by karate and whatever other sports he was into.<\/p>\n<p>Dark. Equal parts Italian and Osage. Black eyes. Silky black hair that lost nothing for being excruciatingly short instead of halfway down his back. Thin, close-cropped, elegant Donegal beard that emphasized the sharp angles of his chin and jaw.<\/p>\n<p><em>Very<\/em> expensively dressed. If she had to guess, she\u2019d peg that as Ralph Lauren; not too flashy for a school event. Just flashy enough to call attention to his status in this county. He certainly had come up in the world, especially with the gorgeous blonde on his arm, dressed just as expensively.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa turned away when she saw him flash a smile at whatever Annie had said. Vanessa could barely look at him at all, much less see him snuggling with a woman she\u2019d semi-idolized, the cheer captain, four years older than Vanessa and unfailingly kind to her. Eric and Annie very graciously chatted up his constituency.<\/p>\n<p>Smart man, that one.<\/p>\n<p>And Annie, well, she\u2019d always been practical about her education and her future, wanting to make her own way in the world without depending on a man. Annie\u2019s relentless and very vocal ambition had molded Vanessa\u2019s outlook on her own future as much as Knox\u2019s benevolent tyranny had, as much as Giselle\u2019s pragmatic philosophies had, as much as Sister Jelarde\u2019s kindness had.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa needed to get out of here. Fast. Before she puked.<\/p>\n<p>Out of Chouteau Elementary, out of Chouteau County, back to the Ozarks where she belonged\u2014and in bed with Nash <em>immediately<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026&nbsp;<em>small-time prosecutor&nbsp;\u2026 country star&nbsp;\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cShit,\u201d she muttered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAunt Vanessa?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nephew\u2019s mutter startled her. She looked over her shoulder to see him hunched over, his head down and his hands shoved in his pockets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHi, Nephew,\u201d she said, because she still didn\u2019t know his name.<\/p>\n<p>When she\u2019d picked him up at her parents\u2019 house, only her father had been home, naturally. Pops had been asleep in his decrepit wheelchair in front of the TV and she hadn\u2019t had the heart to wake him. It was probably the only moment of peace he got.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019d nosed her way into Nephew\u2019s room, which was surreally filthy. Cat shit. Mouse shit. Clothes everywhere, none clean. And he\u2019d stunk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGo take a shower. Now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The boy had taken one look at her face and obeyed without a word. She rummaged around his room holding her nose, looking for something fairly clean and found it on the floor, protected by the mounds of relatively clean items on top of it.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019d opened the bathroom door and tossed the clothes in, not particularly caring that he squeaked with outraged modesty.<\/p>\n<p>And while he did as instructed, she\u2019d picked her way back into the living room to that ridiculous shrine, the largest uninterrupted wall in the house covered in glossies and magazine shots and newspaper clippings, over which a large hand-lettered banner proclaimed:<\/p>\n<p class=\"staysign\">R.I.P. NASH PIPER<br \/>\n3\/15\/72 \u2013 1\/1\/07<\/p>\n<p>Under the banner hung a spiral-bound deck of three-by-five cards that served as a primitive counter for how many months, weeks, and days it had been since Nash Piper had disappeared. With a wicked chuckle, she\u2019d whipped out her phone, taken a picture, and sent it to the enshrined.<\/p>\n<p>Once Nephew had finished showering and was dressed presentably with minimal odor (she\u2019d made him use the deodorant), they\u2019d left.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in the middle of a school hall teeming with vivacious children chattering at their parents, Vanessa looked at this twelve-year-old boy who was Simone\u2019s legacy to the world. Turquoise eyes, olive complexion. Except for the blond hair\u2014and who knew where that had come from\u2014he was a mini-Simone, complete with shattered ego.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly she wondered if she would go to hell for leaving him here with her mother.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you\u2014 Uh, how\u2019d you like it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou did really well,\u201d Vanessa lied, and was rewarded with a cautiously hopeful expression. She didn\u2019t really know how well he\u2019d done; he\u2019d been buried somewhere in the middle of the sixth-grade \u201ctenor\u201d section. Such as it was. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His shoulders came up a bit. \u201cDo you\u2014 Uh, you wanna go into the gym and see what I did in art class?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Oh, hell no.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSure, after you tell me your name,\u201d Vanessa said. \u201c\u2019Cause I sure don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh. Um, it\u2019s Eric,\u201d he muttered and looked down at the floor.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa\u2019s throat stopped up. \u201cSimone named you Eric?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCipriani,\u201d he added, low enough that she thought she\u2019d misheard, then he sighed and she knew she hadn\u2019t misheard.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling as if she\u2019d just stepped back into the trailer park. She would definitely go to hell if she left this child here with her mother. She couldn\u2019t repay Dirk or Knox for their protection, but she could\u2014and should\u2014pay it down the line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou want to come home with me and live?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His head popped up and his eyes sparkled like Fourth of July fireworks. \u201cFor real?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou understand I\u2019m not your mother or your grandmother, and I\u2019ll ride your ass if you screw up, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She could see the sudden doubt in his expression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUh huh. That\u2019s the way it is with me. You won\u2019t be able to get away with anything, much less whatever it is you do here. But. I also won\u2019t slap you upside the head for no reason and you won\u2019t live in filth and you won\u2019t go hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nephew stared at her for a moment, as if wondering how much worse his life could get with Vanessa demanding decent behavior. \u201cI guess I could try it out for a while,\u201d he finally said.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa shook her head. \u201cNope. No tryouts. You stay or you come with me, but whichever you choose, it\u2019s a done deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was silent for a moment, then, decisively, \u201cOkay, yeah. Why not?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause she\u2019s not your guardian, that\u2019s why not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nephew groaned at that stern male voice, and Vanessa stiffened. She hadn\u2019t heard it since January. Real, not out of a speaker system, it was deeper, richer.<\/p>\n<p>She slowly turned to face the Chouteau County prosecutor and Annie.<\/p>\n<p>His eyes widened and he gulped. \u201cVanessa.\u201d It was a whisper, a caress, and she felt it all the way to the depths of her soul.<\/p>\n<p>She looked at an equally stunned Annie and nodded slightly in polite acknowledgment of her presence before turning back to <em>him<\/em>. \u201cEric.\u201d She <em>would<\/em> remain calm and collected\u2014no joy, no bitterness. Pride. Keep the chin up. Don\u2019t think about the trailer park. \u201cWhat would I have to do to become his guardian?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric hesitated for a moment, his expression of astonishment changing slowly to one of assessment, as if her motives might not be pure, then he looked down at his namesake. She wished she could tell what he was thinking. She was sure he knew how she\u2019d felt about him way back when; after all, she\u2019d been just thirteen. He\u2019d been eighteen and laid half the girls in town by that time. He\u2019d have known all the signs.<\/p>\n<p>Now she could only hope to hide her emotions as an adult woman who was looking at an incredibly handsome, successful man who had a knockout fianc\u00e9e on his arm, a woman Vanessa had always respected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJunior,\u201d he said. \u201cDo you want Vanessa to be your guardian?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything to get away from <em>you<\/em>,\u201d the boy grumbled. \u201cAnd grandma.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric Original Recipe pursed his lips, then looked back at Vanessa. She could feel the familiar heat gather within her, as it had done from the first moment she had ever seen him\u2014but now she knew what it was: desire.<\/p>\n<p>She couldn\u2019t afford that and she flashed a politely apologetic smile at Annie to ground herself. Unlike Eric, who seemed oblivious to Vanessa\u2019s distress, Annie appeared to know exactly what was going on and simply watched, waiting patiently to see how it would all shake out.<\/p>\n<p>Annie was probably used to watching women drool over her fianc\u00e9, anyway, and Vanessa couldn\u2019t hope to compete with her classic Scandinavian beauty.<\/p>\n<p>Even if she wanted to.<\/p>\n<p>Which she didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t see your mother letting him leave,\u201d Eric said finally. \u201cShe uses him like a knife against me and he suffers more for it than I do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yes, Vanessa knew very well how her mother reveled in such nastiness. \u201cShe smacks him around. His room is disgusting and he hasn\u2019t had laundry done for him in\u2014 Well, I couldn\u2019t say. Months, maybe. He\u2019s probably malnourished. I was at that age.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She felt, rather than saw, Annie\u2019s start of surprise. No, Annie wouldn\u2019t have known how miserable Vanessa\u2019s home life had been. Four years older than Vanessa and immersed in her ruthless pursuit of her goals, Annie would\u2019ve had no reason to know or care how her youngest cheerleader fared at home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know how Simone was,\u201d Vanessa continued calmly, refusing to allow the toxic stew of emotion inside her to bubble up. \u201cMy mother\u2019ll turn him into Simone, Boy Version. Probably sooner than later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric nodded. \u201cYou\u2019re right about that. When are you leaving?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTomorrow morning. I would have left this morning, but he asked me to come tonight, so I stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She felt Nephew move closer to her when she said that, and, surprised, she looked at him, then wrapped her arm around his shoulders to pull him into her.<\/p>\n<p>Eric had not missed the gesture and said, \u201cListen, can you stick around a few days? I may be able to whip something up for you. Get it fast-tracked through family court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wow. Not only were they actually having an adult conversation, he was offering to help a boy who had to be a thorn in his side. It was remarkable they were having any kind of conversation at all. She wondered what difference it might make if Annie weren\u2019t there listening, observing.<\/p>\n<p>But she had to know. \u201cUm\u2014 Is he\u2014?\u201d Vanessa could feel herself blush. \u201cEric Two, is he&nbsp;\u2026 yours?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d Eric snapped, his face suddenly hard, his nostrils flaring. \u201cHe\u2019s not mine, and <em>you<\/em> should know that better than anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa gasped, feeling as if her chest had caved in.<\/p>\n<p>Annie stared at Eric in shock. \u201cOh. My. God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His mouth tightened and he looked at the floor, shoved his hand in his pocket. He took a deep breath. Held it. Let it go. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he muttered. \u201cYou have a right to know if the court grants your request.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was all Vanessa could do to keep her composure, though her nose stung and she wanted to curl up into a ball in some dark corner somewhere. But she couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hi. I\u2019m Chef Granny Whittaker and it\u2019s time to whip up some Vittles!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Her alter ego wouldn\u2019t let her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he said again. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing he and I both haven\u2019t heard ad nauseam since I started working in the prosecutor\u2019s office and it\u2019s just gotten worse in the last four months or so. I\u2019m sick of hearing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Especially from you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Vanessa started when her phone buzzed. \u201cExcuse me,\u201d she murmured, and pulled out her phone to check the text message: <span class=\"texting\">I GOTCHA SHRINE RIGHT HERE DOLL-CUM SUCK IT<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Still fighting tears, it took her a long moment of staring to process it, but once she had, she began to laugh, feeling a strange combination of relief and irony and affection wash over her.<\/p>\n<p>Trust Nash to make her laugh right when she needed it. She quickly thumbed a smart-ass reply, then put her gadget back in her pocket, but her smile faded when she looked up at Eric again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a meeting Wednesday afternoon I <em>must<\/em> go to,\u201d Vanessa said, trying to stay on some sort of emotional level. \u201cCan we get this done by end of business Tuesday or so? Or will I need to come back to get him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope so, yeah,\u201d he replied, clearly chagrined. He swallowed, then said with forced decisiveness, \u201cSo, uh, yeah. All right. Yeah. Uh, come on up to my office Monday morning. I\u2019ll send a deputy out for your mother and Junior.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric cast Vanessa a short nod without actually looking at her and turned, his hand splayed out over Annie\u2019s back.<\/p>\n<p>But Nephew reached out hesitantly to touch Original Recipe, halting him. \u201cThanks, Eric,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n<p>Eric One finally smiled as he looked at the boy\u2014that genuine, wonderful smile that had always made Vanessa catch her breath and want to smile, too. \u201cYou\u2019re welcome, kid. Now you won\u2019t have to get yourself arrested to get a hot meal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa saw Nephew\u2019s face redden, and she bit her lip. Looked down. Blinked away the tears.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNice to see you again, Vanessa,\u201d Annie said with the exactly appropriate tone of voice to extricate all of them as gracefully as possible from this tangled moment in time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou, too, Annie.\u201d Again polite nods between Vanessa and Annie. Again Vanessa feeling like she\u2019d just crawled back into the Darwinian goo of the trailer park.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026&nbsp;<em>you should know that better than anybody.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>She hadn\u2019t felt that low, that inferior\u2014that <em>classless<\/em>\u2014since she\u2019d left this godforsaken town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerptchapterhead\">13: NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON<\/p>\n<p class=\"sectiontop\"><em>DAMN SIMONE.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Eric escorted Annie toward the exit, which was where they\u2019d been headed when he\u2019d stumbled into that conversation. Eric hadn\u2019t recognized the woman from behind, and had only meant to head off a possible abduction. <em>Damn Simone to hell.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And damn Vanessa for having turned into the most beautiful woman he\u2019d ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>Eric slid a look at Annie, whose demeanor confused him. He didn\u2019t think he\u2019d ever seen Annie so positively livid\u2014and never at him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll right, Annie,\u201d he sighed, \u201cwhich part pissed you off the most?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She grabbed a handful of his lapel and dragged him off the school\u2019s sidewalk and across the lawn toward the parking lot. Once they were alone in a copse of trees, she stopped, planted her hands on her hips and started to pace, her head down. Eric waited, because whatever she had to say, he deserved. Finally she stopped, held up a hand, and said, \u201cI want to make something very clear right up front. I like Vanessa. I\u2019ve always liked her. I have no quarrel with her. Per se.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay,\u201d Eric said warily.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou and me,\u201d she said pointing between them. \u201cWe don\u2019t love each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe get along and live together without fighting. We have good sex. We think alike and we\u2019re both very well educated. We have history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou need a trophy wife to get elected, and I need to be First Lady so I can get a head start on my early globetrotting retirement.\u201d She stopped. Thought. He braced himself for whatever she meant to throw at him. \u201cAll this time,\u201d she said, \u201cyou never said a word. I knew you had issues about whoever it was that proved you were innocent, mostly because of that fucking guilt trip Knox put you on to make sure you did something with your life. But I never thought\u2014 And you never told me\u2014 What, did you think I was going to go to Glenn and give him her name?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that\u2019s what you\u2019re pissed about?\u201d he demanded, immediately incensed. \u201cThat I kept it to myself? Because I was obligated to? <em>Legally<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, I\u2019m upset that you kept from me that it was <em>Vanessa<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric stared at her, suddenly confused. \u201cOkay&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her nostrils flared and her voice was tight with anger when she spoke. \u201cI want,\u201d she ground out, \u201csomething of <em>my own<\/em> without having to take the crumbs off Vanessa Whittaker\u2019s table.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s head spun. A\u2014it wasn\u2019t what he\u2019d expected her to say and B\u2014it seemed she was talking about a lot more than the fact that he\u2019d wanted to kiss Vanessa in front of Annie and Junior and God and everybody.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo she\u2019s pretty,\u201d he began, trying to sort out what the hell Annie was getting at. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen her since I left for college and she surprised me. That shouldn\u2019t make any difference between you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Surprised<\/em> you?\u201d Annie screeched. \u201cWhat the fuck? You know, I wouldn\u2019t even care if it weren\u2019t Vanessa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re <em>jealous<\/em> of her?\u201d he asked, incredulous. Jealousy wasn\u2019t part of Annie\u2019s emotional repertoire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes! Yes, I am. But not because of this. This is a just another in a long line of reasons, and then I find out she\u2019s the one who\u2014 That you of all the people in my life\u2014\u201d She took a deep breath and then began. \u201cMy entire adolescence was spent listening to my mother talk about how to cozy up to Vanessa Whittaker so she could have an in with Knox.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s jaw dropped. \u201cVanessa? How was <em>Vanessa <\/em>your mom\u2019s key to Knox?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She stared at him. \u201cYou don\u2019t know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnow <em>what<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, my God,\u201d she whispered, covering her mouth with her fingertips, incredulous. \u201cHe never told you. You don\u2019t know anything about her, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. I haven\u2019t\u2014 I have no reason to. She\u2019s just\u2014\u201d He spread his arms wide, unable to make sense of this conversation. \u201cShe\u2019s the girl who\u2014 Yeah, saved my ass. What else am I supposed to know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She took a deep breath. \u201cEveryone in town knew that if they so much as looked at Vanessa wrong, they\u2019d have to answer to Knox. He also made sure Vanessa showed up at the prosecutor\u2019s office after school or practice and stayed until she had her homework done\u2014to his satisfaction. If she didn\u2019t show up on time, he went looking for her. You know how Knox collects people and makes projects out of them? Because it\u2019s his fucked-up way of atoning for his sins? That\u2019s what everybody thought it was with Vanessa, and who could blame him? With a mother like LaVon?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell. My mother decided that the easiest way to get to Knox was through Vanessa. She made me recruit Vanessa for the varsity cheerleading squad when she was <em>thirteen<\/em>\u2014because she thought Vanessa would be so grateful to me that she\u2019d bend over backward to hook her up with him. When that didn\u2019t work, she went out of her way to make Vanessa late for Knox\u2019s version of study hall as often as possible just to get his attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s mind blew all to hell.<\/p>\n<p>All this time. Knox had never said a word.<\/p>\n<p>But Annie recommenced pacing and muttering to herself. \u201cOf course, it\u2019s all <em>my<\/em> fault that he never asked her out and she still can\u2019t shut up about it. And what\u2019s worse\u2014 She\u2019s pissed at <em>me<\/em> that after all the older women in Knox\u2019s life, he ends up marrying a woman four years younger than me. And she still dyes her hair red in case his marriage doesn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that\u2019s why Knox hates your mother? Because she was using Vanessa to get to him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She stopped pacing and glared at him. \u201cYes. Which I thought you knew.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But no. Quite a few of the older women in the county had done ridiculous things to get Knox\u2019s attention. It was just a way of life in Chouteau County. It wouldn\u2019t have occurred to Eric that Knox\u2019s aversion to Donna Franklin had any more depth than his aversion to the rest of the women who\u2019d thrown themselves at him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo is this really about Knox and your mom?\u201d Eric asked carefully.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. It\u2019s about the fact that not only have I been hearing about Vanessa nonstop for the last fifteen years, but the minute she reappears, my <em>fianc\u00e9<\/em>\u2014Mr. Pragmatic\u2014takes one look at her and falls head over heels in love. One shot. Boom, done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat the fuck?!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t yell at me. I\u2019m not mad at you. I\u2019m not mad at Vanessa. I\u2019m mad at my mother and the situation. Besides my job, you were the only thing in my life that had nothing to do with Vanessa Whittaker. As far as I knew, you didn\u2019t even know Simone had a little sister, and now I find out that not only is that not true, you probably wouldn\u2019t even be alive without her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric flinched.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are so messed up. It was all you could do in there not to get on your knees and kiss her feet. Gratitude. Hero worship. Whatever you want to call it, but you\u2019ve got some other neuroses mixed up in there besides a hard-on and being\u2014\u201d She made air quotes, which he hated. \u201c\u2018\u2014in love.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnnie,\u201d Eric growled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShut up. That\u2014\u201d She stabbed a finger in the direction of the school. \u201c\u2014kicked me in the teeth, watching you get all flustered so much you were mean to her. I cannot believe I never saw it before. <em>You<\/em> are a romantic. What, did you catch that disease at BYU, and it\u2019s just been in remission all this time?\u201d She paused. \u201cBy the way, why <em>were<\/em> you mean to her? You only get that way when you know you\u2019ve screwed up.\u201d His jaw tightened and he looked away. Annie threw up a hand. \u201cOf course! What did you do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never thanked her,\u201d he muttered reluctantly. \u201cI\u2019ve never spoken to her before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo wonder she looked like you\u2019d just killed her dog.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric said nothing while he stared at the ground and worried a twig with his foot. \u201cOkay, Annie,\u201d he murmured, guilt-ridden. \u201cI\u2019m <em>not<\/em> in love with her, but I get your point and I\u2019m sorry. What do you want to do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Silence stretched between them. \u201cI was offered a promotion yesterday, up in Omaha,\u201d she said finally, low, her voice full of what Eric heard as resignation. Regret. \u201cRegional director of sales. I didn\u2019t get a chance to turn it down before my boss had to go, but now I think&nbsp;\u2026 I don\u2019t know. I need to think about this, with you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat about globetrotting and collecting cabana boys?\u201d Eric asked, grasping at straws.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, the only thing being a former\u2014<em>divorced<\/em>\u2014First Lady will get me is prestige and swag and freebies along the way, but my privacy\u2019ll be history. And you know I think it\u2019s a shit job anyway. So it\u2019ll take me a little longer to get to financial independence, but at least I won\u2019t be obligated or accountable to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric nodded slowly, seeing half his life crumble in front of his eyes, but strangely detached from it, as if it didn\u2019t really matter.<\/p>\n<p>That disturbed him.<\/p>\n<p>Neither spoke while Annie breathed deeply to calm herself. After a moment, she said, \u201cI liked Vanessa way back when. I think I\u2019d still like her because she\u2019s obviously successful at whatever the hell she does, and you know how much I like hanging out with powerful women who know what\u2019s what. But I\u2019m tired of being compared to her and coming out second best. You\u2019ve spent the last fifteen years horsewhipping yourself over her and I really don\u2019t want to know you\u2019re thinking about what could have been with her when you\u2019re married to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand.\u201d He did, and he couldn\u2019t promise he wouldn\u2019t do exactly what she\u2019d predicted. Annie knew him too well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll walk home,\u201d she murmured, taking his hand for balance while she pulled her shoes off. \u201cI need time to think. Whichever way this goes, it isn\u2019t going to be easy for either one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric sighed and dug his gun out of the back of his waistband and traded it for her shoes. She checked it carefully, then stuck it in the waistband of her skirt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe careful,\u201d was the only thing he could muster.<\/p>\n<p>She strode off then, gorgeous as always, he noted absently, all that blonde hair and blue eyes, that tall, lissome supermodel body: the quintessential country beauty complete with cheerleading, 4H, and barrel racing credentials, and oh, by the way, an Ivy League education and a bank account far bigger than his.<\/p>\n<p>Eric ambled toward his Corvette, his head low, one hand stuffed in his pocket and the other absently swinging Annie\u2019s shoes. He dropped into the bucket seat. Sliding down, he let his head fall back and he couldn\u2019t help the thought that breaking up with Annie might be&nbsp;\u2026 a relief.<\/p>\n<p>That shocked the hell out of him, but what shocked him more\u2014<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t surprise him that she\u2019d instantly deduced his Vanessa-related angst. It was the \u201cin love\u201d part that killed him.<\/p>\n<p>In love? No, but Annie knew less about love than Eric did and dismissed it just as easily. However, Annie did know his tastes and his history and his habits, so he could see where she\u2019d interpret an instant hard-on as falling in love.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa Whittaker, all grown up with curves worthy of a Varga pinup.<\/p>\n<p>Average height, maybe five feet six, seven inches, much shorter than Annie\u2019s five-eleven. Thick, professionally cut mid-back-length chestnut hair randomly streaked with blonde. Slight tan to her golden skin, even this early in the spring.<\/p>\n<p>She had an air of primitive sexuality about her that her expensive grooming couldn\u2019t camouflage. Her voice was husky, her perfume sultry and&nbsp;\u2026 <em>dark<\/em>, earthy. She had those piercing turquoise eyes that held the same deep hurt they\u2019d held when she was thirteen and had only deepened when he\u2019d snapped at her. But before he\u2019d \u201ckilled her dog,\u201d he\u2019d seen&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Desire.<\/p>\n<p>And now&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Eric might be free.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa was an adult.<\/p>\n<p>Those facts seeped into Eric\u2019s brain and he wondered if he had any competition, but decided it didn\u2019t matter. Boyfriend or lover or husband be damned, Eric knew she wanted to get him in bed.<\/p>\n<p>But she was still hurt, still wary, and she couldn\u2019t hide that any better than she could hide her blatant sexuality.<\/p>\n<p>And he\u2019d hurt her feelings. Again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGod, Vanessa,\u201d he whispered into the dark, his hand over his arousal, pressing, rubbing until he forced himself to stop. It really wouldn\u2019t do for the Chouteau County prosecutor to fog up his windows and get caught jacking off in front of Chouteau Elementary.<\/p>\n<p>And another thing&nbsp;\u2026 where the hell did she live?<\/p>\n<p>Really, the last thing he needed in this town was to be involved sexually with a Whittaker girl. He\u2019d already been punished for <em>not<\/em> being involved sexually with a Whittaker girl.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, between Simone and LaVon\u2019s scheming and Vanessa\u2019s rescue, Eric had a life he had never hoped for. At seventeen, he\u2019d been desperate to hide his course load and grades from his party pals, desperate to hide his dreams from everyone, including himself. If the Whittakers had not happened to him, he would still be managing the Chouteau County Feed and Tack, probably with kids by a few different women and no way to pay child support, his wispy aspirations dissipated with the first garnishment on his paycheck.<\/p>\n<p>And Vanessa&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026&nbsp;willing to take in \u201chis\u201d kid, the kid he hadn\u2019t known how to help, except to pay for whatever he stole.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026&nbsp;the way the kid had snuggled up against her at the slightest kindness.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026&nbsp;the way she had overcome her surprise instantly to pull the boy close and give him comfort.<\/p>\n<p>Eric found that incredibly attractive.<\/p>\n<p>Annie would\u2019ve never done that, and he wondered&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>No. He couldn\u2019t go down that road no matter how much he wanted to. Too many issues, too many problems, too much water that had passed under that particular bridge.<\/p>\n<p>With those depressing thoughts, he heaved a sigh of great disappointment and drove home to await Annie\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere\u2019ve you been?\u201d he asked when Annie came in the front door at three a.m. \u201cI was about to go looking for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI,\u201d Annie said calmly as she put the gun in its place and began to undress, \u201chave been at my mother\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His eyebrows rose. \u201cVoluntarily?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was down to her lingerie when she dropped on the couch beside him. \u201cWell, you know,\u201d she said matter-of-factly, \u201cit was an experiment. By the time I got there, I\u2019d decided it was no big deal, your thing about Vanessa. I mean, therapy\u2019s always an option and shit, I don\u2019t care if you fuck her as long as you\u2019re discreet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUh&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOr, hey! All three of us could have a little party, if she\u2019s into that. She\u2019s hot. I\u2019d do her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUh&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;\u201d His mind shut down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, Eric, I have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy don\u2019t I know that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t find it interesting enough to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His curiosity took over. \u201cSo, girls&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA couple of times,\u201d she replied airily. \u201cIt just isn\u2019t the same without a real penis. But for her? Yeah. So my mother,\u201d she went on, \u201chit me up about Knox the minute I walked in the door, and I\u2019m listening to her going on and on and on, thinking about all the times Knox told me to cut her off, wondering why I\u2019m sitting there like a naughty little girl allowing myself to be yelled at over a fifteen-year-old situation that\u2019s not my doing and not in my power to fix, even if I wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I decided she\u2019s too toxic and I can\u2019t take it anymore. I got up and walked out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust like that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust like that. Just like I\u2019m going to walk on up to Omaha to take that promotion because I\u2019m not going to live that way, caught between her obsession and your angst. I\u2019ll sleep in the other bedroom tonight and pack up tomorrow. I would suggest that you talk to Vanessa as soon as you can and apologize for killing her dog. Poor girl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric sighed. \u201cMonday, I guess. She\u2019ll have to talk to me then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thus, he wasn\u2019t sure why he found himself at Vanessa\u2019s motel room door early the next morning to ask her out for breakfast. She answered the door in a thick robe, shocked to see him there. He grimaced when her shock gave way to contempt and bitterness, no trace of desire to be found.<\/p>\n<p>He knew he\u2019d gone down in flames just by showing up, but he made his request anyway and almost flinched at her sneer. And then\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you out of your <em>fucking<\/em> mind?!\u201d she growled just before slamming the door in his face.<\/p>\n<p>Though deeply embarrassed and feeling his confusion, his guilt, even more heavily than usual, it did actually occur to him that at the moment she\u2019d spoken, she\u2019d looked and sounded exactly like a female brunette version of Knox Hilliard.<\/p>\n<p>And no wonder.<\/p>\n<p><em>Everyone in town knew that if they so much as looked at Vanessa wrong, they\u2019d have to answer to Knox. He also made sure Vanessa showed up at the prosecutor\u2019s office after school or practice and stayed until she had her homework done\u2014to his satisfaction.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Eric went home to find half-packed boxes strewn about the place, but Annie sitting on the couch with her laptop in her lap, her mouth agape. \u201cEric, you\u2019ve got to see this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And it was like nothing had changed, like he and Annie hadn\u2019t broken up. He plopped down beside her, intending to autopsy their relationship a bit more, but his attention caught when Annie turned her screen toward him.<\/p>\n<p>Then <em>his<\/em> mouth dropped open.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa Whittaker, on the cover of <em>Esquire<\/em>\u2019s \u201cWomen We Love\u201d issue, bending toward the camera, her glossy pink lips in a pouty kiss, eyes half closed. Her long, thick, blonde-streaked chestnut hair floated out behind her.<\/p>\n<p>She clutched an unbuttoned chef\u2019s coat to her sternum with her left hand to keep it from blowing off completely, leaving the lower curve of her breasts exposed. With her right hand, she held a chef\u2019s hat over her lower abdomen, but left none of the rest of her golden skin and magnificently lush curves to the imagination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"staysign\">America\u2019s hottest chef<br \/>\nserves up gourmet<br \/>\nroadkill and weeds<br \/>\nin the Missouri Ozarks<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, my God,\u201d Eric breathed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYummy,\u201d Annie purred.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is too fucking surreal,\u201d he muttered, rubbing his forehead. \u201cTurn the page.\u201d With a couple of touches, she found the feature article.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Ford muse catapulted to food stardom, then left New York glamour for Ozark simplicity to build a five-star resort,\u2019\u201d Annie read. \u201cFord, shit. She had an affair with Sebastian? He turned me down flat; said I was too skinny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnnie!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat? He\u2019s gorgeous. That was before he was outed as Ford, mind you. If I\u2019d known, I would\u2019ve tried harder because he <em>has<\/em> painted skinny women and everybody knows he loves blondes. Let me see if I can find that painting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric didn\u2019t know what was worse: finding out that his financial advisor had had an affair with and painted Vanessa Whittaker (he didn\u2019t have to see the painting to know she\u2019d be nude) or that his fianc\u00e9e (<em>ex<\/em>-fianc\u00e9e, he reminded himself) had propositioned same financial advisor.<\/p>\n<p><em>Are you out of your fucking mind?!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I\u2019m going to puke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pause. Key clicks. \u201cWhoa,\u201d she breathed.<\/p>\n<p>Eric thought he might have a heart attack, but he couldn\u2019t look away.<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa lounged nude on a magenta velveteen chaise in a classic odalisque pose, her back to the viewer, looking over her shoulder with one eyebrow raised cockily. Her skin was flushed and she wore a self-satisfied, heavy-lidded gaze that made no secret of her relationship to the artist. Eric barely kept himself from reaching out to touch the screen over her bare buttocks. Her long streaked chestnut hair fell in tiny haphazard braids and dreadlocks to pool on the floor. An enormous gray long-haired cat crouched on the chaise by her feet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s Knox\u2019s cat,\u201d Eric croaked, feeling betrayed.<\/p>\n<p>Crowding the chaise was a vast array of paraphernalia more suited to the lair of a voodoo priestess brewing up potions and assembling gris gris bags than to a celebrity chef with an obscure specialty.<\/p>\n<p>They both stared in stunned silence. Looked at each other in disbelief. Looked back at the painting.<\/p>\n<p>It was titled <em>Wild, Wild West<\/em>, \u201can homage to the stereotypical American frontier saloon paintings,\u201d according to Wikipedia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat resort she\u2019s got, Whittaker House,\u201d Annie said slowly, unsympathetic with Eric\u2019s misery, \u201cdo you s\u2019pose that\u2019s the inn Knox owns?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric had his cell out, speed dialed, and on speaker before she finished her question.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes or no,\u201d he barked as soon as Knox answered. \u201cWhittaker House is yours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHalf,\u201d Knox corrected with alacrity. Annie chortled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you ever tell me that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy should I have?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause I\u2019m your lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing my lawyer doesn\u2019t entitle you to know every single detail about my life,\u201d Knox retorted. \u201cI have a whole \u2019nother life at Whittaker House, which I like a whole lot, and I wasn\u2019t about to mix that one with this one, which sucked a big fat cock about ninety-five percent of the time. And I sure as hell wasn\u2019t going to expose her to my taint and all the financial scrutiny I\u2019ve had to deal with for the last fifteen years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWait a minute. Why didn\u2019t Whittaker House show up in any of the financial records we turned over to the FBI?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFunneled it through my cousin Morgan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour family is the fucking Mormon Mafia,\u201d Eric grumbled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo what\u2019s with the sudden interest?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe ran into Vanessa last night,\u201d Annie offered, \u201cand he had an instant hard-on, so I dumped his ass. He went to ask her to breakfast this morning and since he\u2019s back in record time, I\u2019ll assume she shot him down cold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric slouched and glared at Annie, but Knox began to chuckle, which turned into a rolling guffaw. \u201cShit. That\u2019s the funniest thing I\u2019ve heard in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s on the cover of <em>Esquire<\/em>,\u201d Annie said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, and <em>Maxim<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Annie immediately turned back to the computer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Sebastian painted her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe sure did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich means he fucked her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t put it that way,\u201d Knox mused. \u201cSebastian never had <em>lovers<\/em>. He had models. Vanessa was his first and last <em>lover<\/em> before he met Eilis. They broke up when she went off to New York.\u201d Eric felt like he\u2019d been punched in the gut. \u201cBy the way, both of them think I\u2019m too stupid and\u2013or oblivious to have figured all this out, so I allow them to continue to think that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Annie sat back and began to laugh in earnest and Eric thought this must be the next-to-worst day of his life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re taking this awfully well, Annie,\u201d Knox said politely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLittle bump in my road, is all. Does Vanessa switch hit possibly? Say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d really rather not think about those things, but I don\u2019t believe so, no.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDamn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, uh, Eric, do you have anything to contribute to this conversation or am I stuck with trying to fix Annie and Vanessa up?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFuck you,\u201d Eric muttered. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t even talk to me this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, no wonder,\u201d Annie said, \u201cafter what you said to her last night. Damn near made her cry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did you say to her, Eric?\u201d Knox asked calmly, although that sudden edge to his voice meant he\u2019d gone into protective mode.<\/p>\n<p>Eric reluctantly began to relay the conversation\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s taking Junior home with her?\u201d Knox asked incredulously. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that? It\u2019s the perfect solution for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then he insulted her when she asked if Junior really was his kid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knox groaned intermittently throughout Annie\u2019s recitation. Eric had never felt like such a bastard in his life, but it had all been so sudden\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, Hilliard,\u201d he burst out, angry and frustrated beyond bearing, \u201cthis bites. The girl saves my life and you just&nbsp;\u2026 never tell me any of this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook,\u201d Knox said, \u201cI don\u2019t know why you\u2019re mad at <em>me<\/em>. You never said a word about her, so I assumed you didn\u2019t want to dig up old history. I was respecting your privacy. If you\u2019d told me you had something you wanted to get squared away with her and would I grease the wheels a little bit, I\u2019d\u2019ve helped you. But you didn\u2019t. You\u2019ve got deputies and troopers and the FBI available as your personal Google and you know how to work a computer. And it\u2019s not like she\u2019s a nobody. She\u2019s fucking famous and if you\u2019d googled just <em>once<\/em>, you\u2019d have found all this out on your own, so I thought you were deliberately avoiding her. But then you got an eyeful. Don\u2019t call me up on a Sunday morning to yell at me for not reading your mind and anticipating your needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, that\u2019s on you,\u201d Annie agreed, now staring at the cover of <em>Maxim<\/em> that Vanessa graced, lying on wet grass, her eyes closed, her hair\u2014again in those braids and dreadlocks\u2014all her most interesting parts covered by pink and white blossoms&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026&nbsp;her pouty mouth around a hot pink popsicle.<\/p>\n<p>Sucking it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy wasn\u2019t she at the wedding?\u201d Eric demanded.<\/p>\n<p>There was a slight pause. \u201cWe, uh, put on a masquerade on New Year\u2019s Eve,\u201d Knox said almost reluctantly. \u201cIt brings in a third of our yearly revenue. Celebrities go, the \u00fcberwealthy. They go for her, so she has to be there. Part of what makes Whittaker House so popular is that a famous chef\u2014who also happens to be a Ford model\u2014meets and greets, serves personally, parties with everyone else. Her fame was about half our collateral when we started out. The painting itself was the other half.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, okay, I\u2019ll buy that, but there\u2019s something you\u2019re not telling me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deep breath. \u201cJustice wanted her to be her third bridesmaid and I wanted you to be my groomsman,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n<p>Annie gasped. \u201cThat would\u2019ve put her and Eric together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes. And she declined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eric felt pain slice through him and he closed his eyes. Now, the only version of Vanessa he saw in his mind was the little girl who\u2019d saved his life, who\u2019d only wanted a little attention from the bad boy of Chouteau High.<\/p>\n<p>The look of devastation on her little face.<\/p>\n<p>The hurt in her turquoise eyes last night.<\/p>\n<p>The anger this morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, could you\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, I couldn\u2019t. I\u2019m not going to. You\u2019re going to have to figure out what you want to do about it and how. If anything. And good luck with that if you try. She\u2019s not the most accessible woman who ever lived. If she has a love life at all, nobody knows about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShut it, Eric. You\u2019re pissed \u2019cause you got caught with your pants down and your dick in your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Click.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEric,\u201d Annie said with a chuckle, arising to continue packing. \u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve been doing with women all these years besides putting it in and pulling it out, but you better get a clue before you can\u2019t even do that anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wingding\">\u203b<\/p>\n<div class=\"navblock\">\n<p class=\"leftnavblock\"><a class=\"arrowsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/thebooks\/theproviso\/\">\u2190 Book 1<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"rightnavblock\"><a class=\"arrowbig\" href=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/thebooks\/magdalene\/\">Book 3  \u2192<\/a><br \/>A Mormon bishop. An ex-prostitute.<br \/>The unlikeliest of soulmates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"date\">20260331<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tales of Dunham #2 \u00a92009 Moriah Jovan 119,000 words (332 pages) Book 2 in the Dunham universe Buy direct: &nbsp; Amazon Kindle \u2022 paperback Barnes &#038; Noble Nook \u2022 paperback Apple iBooks Google Play Books Kobo eBooks You Sail Away \u2026 Far on a Summer\u2019s Day At 12, Vanessa Whittaker defied her family to save [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":18726,"menu_order":22,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1349","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1349"}],"version-history":[{"count":389,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25641,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1349\/revisions\/25641"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}