The Outsider Series: The Complete Omnibus Collection

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Diana was an incredible woman, and as Andy watched his cousin, his godson, and the unspoken bond that linked them together, he realized it was envy that burned his heart, not jealousy. Jed made her happier than he’d ever seen, and he’d never seen Jed so head-over-heels in love with a woman as he was with Diana.

Laura on the other hand sat quietly in the corner, scared and weary. Her cheekbones seemed even more pronounced than before. Diana slid her arm around her waist and talked to her as she walked her down the hall for a shower and gave her a change of clothes. Laura was the same height as Diana but was much thinner, and Andy couldn’t imagine what it was like to go without food as he realized she may have been starving herself, and it wasn’t by choice. He’d never had to live hand to mouth and had wasted more than his fair share of food every day, which he was sure she would have gladly eaten. He wondered now as he watched her if any of their other staff were going hungry.

Andy had never given a second thought to those who couldn’t afford to feed themselves, and even though he realized and saw the hunger in Laura, not just for food but for her child, he wanted to tell her it would be okay, but the words fell short on his lips.

Andy paced the tiny living room while he listened to the shower just down the hall. Diana phoned the social worker before Laura got in the shower and left a message. She picked up the phone again and dialed, shrugging off her coat and dumping it on the kitchen chair.

“This is Diana Friessen. This is the second time I’ve called for Hank Walker. I am a lawyer representing Laura Parnell.…” Diana let out a sigh of frustration and held the phone away from her ear. “I’m on hold again,” she muttered. “Yes, Mister Walker, I’m Diana Friessen. I am a lawyer representing Laura Parnell. You took her son, Gabriel, from her this morning in a shopping mall parking lot. They were in their car.”

Diana picked up a pen from the table and sat down, sliding her open notebook towards her and pointing her pen to handwritten notes. “Look, my client would like to see her son.” Diana started scribbling something below all the notes she’d written and then shook her head and appeared irritated, as if something the man was saying was making her angry.

“I understand how it works, but keeping a child from his mother is not okay. She has every right to see him.”

“What?” she barked into the phone, and Jed started hovering, his hands on his hips. Andy was pretty sure that if the man on the end of the line were in the room, Jed would be having a word with him about not upsetting his wife. “I have never heard anything so ridiculous: getting him settled, giving him time to settle in. What the hell kind of ridiculous system are you running? He misses his mother. He wants to see her. You’re wrong; kids don’t just settle…”

He must have cut her off, as Diana slapped her hand on the table and stared at Jed with a fire in her eyes that made Andy pretty sure she was holding back a few choice words for this worker.

“I want an emergency hearing scheduled for my client. You had no right to take her child the way you did. She has a job and a place to stay now…”

The man must have cut her off again.

“Well, you make sure you get back to me today.” Diana hung up the phone. The long cord was stretched from where she sat.

“Well?” Jed asked.

Diana scribbled something down on the page of notes and then dropped the pen on the table. “That prick is stonewalling me.” She then pulled out her day timer and started thumbing through a list of phone numbers.

“What are you doing?” Jed asked as he hovered over Diana.

“Someone I went to law school with. I know he’s with a firm in Seattle. He specialized in cases like this, family law. I’m going to call him.” Diana dialed the rotary phone.

“Could be here a while, Andy,” Jed said. “You want some coffee?”

Andy shrugged and followed Jed into the tiny kitchen. Jed finished pouring a cup for Diana and set it in front of her, and he leaned in and kissed her as she waited on hold again.

Andy poured his own cup and walked around the corner into the tiny living room, Jed with him. “Sounds like Diana’s getting jerked around. Do you want me to call my lawyer? He can make things happen.”

“I don’t want any help from you.”

Andy hadn’t heard Laura approaching, but there she stood in the cluttered hallway of this small bungalow, her eyes red and her wet hair combed and hanging straight down her back. She was wearing a pink sweat suit that looked two sizes too big for her. Her face was thinner, drawn, as if she’d lost another few pounds while showering, and she stared at Andy with so much anger she was shaking. “I needed that paycheck to pay my rent, to buy food. I was sent away with nothing. Your mother saw fit to keep it, so I don’t want your help.”

Jed stepped around Andy and right into Laura’s space like he would a horse that was so spooked it would most likely bolt. “Laura, don’t put that on Andy. That’s not fair. He’s been looking for you to find you another job. He even went to where you lived, and you were gone.”

For the first time, Andy was ashamed of where he came from. “Laura, what my mother did was not okay. And you’re right: Maybe it was my fault.”

She stared at him with hatred. “You’re damn right it was. I was so tired of the bullshit between you and your mother. She demanded the tree go in your library, and you yelled to get rid of it, and then you sat there watching me, just like your daddy, as if you expected me to just lie on my back and spread my legs for you. I just wanted a job with peace so I could feed my son. And now he’s gone.” She was crying again.

Diana hung up the phone and hurried over to Laura, wrapping her arms around the girl, hugging her. “Oh, Laura, it’s okay, but blaming Andy isn’t going to solve anything. He really was trying to help you. Now, come sit down. I’ve just contacted another lawyer I know in Seattle, and he’s sending me the forms to file for an emergency hearing. He’s going to walk me through the process. Andy, I did hear you offer your lawyer’s help. Family law’s not my specialty, but I could use the resources, if your lawyer would be willing.” Diana led Laura to the kitchen table. “Laura we will get your son back, and we’re going to use all the help we can get.”

“Consider it done. Whatever you need, I’ll call them and get the ball rolling.” Andy took a step toward Diana and Laura, cutting his hand in the air, but this time, Laura refused to look at him.

“I have to go check the horses, Andy.” Jed motioned to the door. Diana and Laura sat at the table. Ever so slowly, Laura looked up at him and just stared and frowned. Not a spark of life appeared in those mesmerizing green eyes.

“Okay.” Andy opened the door, and Jed followed. As he strode beside Jed to the barn, Andy couldn’t help feeling responsible for this mess. The way Laura had looked at him with such hatred, it tore at his heart, and he wanted to shake her, to make it right, to go and get her kid for her, just so some of the life he knew was there deep inside of her would return to those amazing green eyes.

Jed must have sensed this, as he gripped his shoulder. “It’s not your fault.”

“Well, that’s the thing. It is partly my fault. I made a promise to someone, and I dropped the ball.” Jed stopped and watched him just outside the barn, saying nothing. At times like this, Andy thought his silence was unnerving, the way Jed could read people and look into his soul and call out all his bullshit. “I got a call to make for your wife. At least I can do that much.” Andy walked away with the cell phone pressed to his ear and Jed’s all-knowing gaze burning a hole in his back.