One Little Lie Read online

  Reid swallowed the boulder in his throat, but before he could speak, Will stepped forward. “Let me, Dad.”

  Forty

  Jane’s hand trembled as she held the picture, and an overwhelming wave of nausea hit. The reminder of who she used to be hit hard on the heels of her triumph in saving the senator. Why did Reid have this? She’d trusted him, and he’d been investigating her. Did he intend to expose her past?

  The shame of who she used to be circled her, hemming her in and squeezing her chest.

  She gulped in several calming breaths and reached for Parker. He whined and crawled up into her lap as if to comfort her. She rested her chin on his furry head.

  Will clutched his hands together in front of him. “I know this is a shock, Chief.”

  She eyed the boy’s tentative smile and couldn’t return it. What did Reid’s kid have to do with this? Had it been his idea to investigate her?

  She licked her lips and struggled to think past her furiously racing thoughts. “What is there to explain? I think I need to talk to your dad. This is between him and me.”

  Will’s chin came up, and he held her gaze. “Actually, it’s not. You see, I’m your son.”

  Your son.

  The words made no sense. She stared at him. Her son was an infant laid to rest in a hasty grave long ago. Her son was a baby with black hair and dark, questioning eyes. Her son had wound himself around her heart the same way his tiny fingers had clutched her index finger.

  She swallowed. “My son is dead, Will. Is this some kind of mean joke?”

  His dark eyes earnest, Will stared back and gave a small shake of his head. “It’s true. Today is my birthday, just like yours. My dad had those pictures of you. He’s Moose.”

  Moose.

  The long-ago name was like a splash of cold water in her face. Her gaze traveled to Reid standing behind his son. “That’s impossible.”

  “It’s true, Jane. I know I look very different now.” He rubbed his shaved head. “All that hair is gone. You never saw me without hair on my head and face.”

  A trickle of belief began to snake into her heart. No wonder she’d been so taken aback when Reid had kissed her. No wonder her thoughts had drifted to those long-ago days at Mount Sinai.

  Her gaze went back to Will, and she rose on wobbly legs. “It’s true?” She reached out a shaky hand to touch his cheek, a cheek that wasn’t as petal soft as it had been fifteen years ago.

  “I-It’s true. You’re my mom.” Will’s eyes filled with moisture, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he struggled to hold back the emotion.

  “Can I hug you?” she whispered.

  He nodded and opened his arms. She stepped into them and clutched him as he bent down over her in a protective grasp. Where she’d once held him to her chest, he now held her to his. Was this a dream? If it was, she didn’t want to wake up.

  Her little baby was alive and well. Growing big and strong like his father. Most of all, he was a fine young man. Respectful, hardworking, and kind. He’d turned out the way she’d dreamed he would when she first held him in her arms so long ago.

  She pulled away and looked up at him. “How long have you known?”

  “Just a few days.”

  Anger began to simmer again when she realized what all this meant. Such a huge lie had wrecked her. It had left a sense of sadness that had been impossible to overcome.

  Her fingers curled into her palms and she looked at Reid. “You lied to my dad!”

  He shook his head. “That was all Charles. Your mom brought Will to me just before the attack on the compound started. I saw your dad on my way to getting Will to safety. He knew Will and I were fine.”

  The blood dropped from Jane’s head, and she felt faint. Her dad would never lie to her about something so important. Would he? Was this heinous lie what Elizabeth had meant when she talked about secrets?

  The strength vacated Jane’s legs, and she sank back onto the sofa as a flashback of that terrible day swamped her with pain and terror. Fire, screams, gunshots. Her baby. Her mother. So much taken from her that day.

  She forced the images out of her head and looked up at Reid. “He lied to me to get me to leave with him?”

  “I’m afraid so. For a long time I thought you’d died in the raid. Then I saw you on TV about six months ago when you testified in a trial I was following.” His shoulders slumped, and a sigh escaped his lips. “If it’s any consolation, I didn’t recognize you either, but my dad had a list of all the cult members so I’ve always known your real name.”

  A lie of omission, this time from Reid. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth when you first came?” She gritted her teeth so hard her jaw ached.

  He spread out his hands in a placating gesture. “Think about it, Jane. I didn’t really know you during that time. We weren’t together much. And after you left me and our son, I wasn’t sure I could trust you.”

  “Trust me? Of course you can trust me.” Her gaze went to her son again. “Oh, I see. You thought I might try to get custody of Will?”

  “Some women would. They wouldn’t care what it did to the kid or the father.”

  “I would never try to come between you and Will. You two have a special relationship.”

  “I know that now, but I didn’t when I first met you.”

  He sounded tired, and he rubbed his forehead. “We were going to tell you after your nap today.”

  She didn’t know if she believed him or not. How could she trust him or anyone now? Her own father had told the most painful lie imaginable. All these years she’d thought her son was dead. It was almost too much to take in.

  She managed to make her wobbly legs obey her enough to rise to her feet. “I’ve got to talk to my dad.”

  Will held out his hand. “Are you mad at me?”

  She took his hand. “What? Oh, honey, of course not. This wasn’t your fault.” She saw the hurt in his face and pulled him into another tight embrace. Everything in her wanted to sit here and talk with her boy, but she had to find out why her father had done this to her. “I’ll come back later, and we’ll talk about the future. I want to be with you as much as you’ll have me.” She skewered his father with a glare. “As long as I don’t have to be around your dad.”

  Ignoring the hurt that settled in Reid’s eyes, she called Parker to her and rushed for the door. How did she even accept what had happened?

  * * *

  Reid felt as though he’d just escaped from a war zone. Jane’s anger had been everything he’d expected, but it was what he deserved.

  He glanced at Will sitting on the sofa and staring off into space with confusion clouding his dark eyes. “She’s entitled to be mad at me, Will. Things will be fine between the two of you.” He forced a lighthearted note into his voice. “And hey, you’ll get a dog out of it too. Parker already loves you.”

  Will blinked and sat back. “I wish she hadn’t been so mad at you. How am I supposed to handle it if she starts bashing you?”

  “She won’t, son.”

  “She just did.”

  “It was just the shock speaking. She won’t want to make you uncomfortable or do anything to keep me from letting her see you. She doesn’t really have rights unless I give them to her.”

  Will’s brows rose. “You wouldn’t stop me from spending time with her, would you?”

  “Not for anything. But she won’t want open war between us either.” Reid glanced at the clock on the wall. “You hungry? I could make omelets or we could go to the Brew House for coffee and a breakfast sandwich.”

  “I don’t want anything.”

  “I don’t want you to stay home and mope all day on your birthday. We could go out on the boat.” Too late he remembered his boat’s fate. “Scratch that idea. One thing I didn’t mention was that Detective Boulter blew up our boat.”

  That got Will’s attention. “Our boat sank?”

  “It burned, then sank. I doubt we’d find more than a charred board or two in Mobile B
ay. I could rent a boat so we could see if there’s any sign of it.”

  “I don’t think I could stand to find anything.”

  “Basketball? You and I could go to the schoolyard and shoot some hoops.”

  “Yeah.” Will brightened and rose. “I guess I could do that.”

  “But you’ll need breakfast.”

  “Anything to poke food down me?”

  “Hey, you’re a growing boy.”

  Will trailed after Reid to the kitchen. He perched on a bar stool while Reid whipped up omelets and hash browns. The scent of coffee and food made Reid’s stomach cramp, and he realized how hungry he was. Jane had gone off without food. He hoped her dad would feed her.

  What was happening over there? Would Charles lie to her again? Would he try to convince her the consequences of that night had been Reid’s fault?

  “You’re frowning,” Will said.

  Reid started to make an offhand remark, then caught himself. Truth. He needed to let Will inside, to understand what he was going through too. “I’m worried Charles might not tell her the truth.”

  “You have no way to prove what happened that night, do you?”

  “Nope. Her mother isn’t around to corroborate what happened. Charles could spin her a line a mile long. He’s her dad, and she’s more apt to believe him than me.”

  “I don’t know—my mom is pretty sharp. She wouldn’t be a police officer for long if she didn’t recognize lies.”

  My mom.

  Hearing his son say the words lifted Reid’s spirits. While he might be on Jane’s mud list, his son’s life was about to expand in amazing ways. He’d mourned Will’s lack of a mother’s love, and Jane would lavish it on their boy. He vowed not to stand in the way of Will experiencing everything Jane wanted to give him. His son never should have been subjected to Lauren, and his real mother could heal that pain. She would be an excellent mother, and he would give her the space she needed to learn the ropes and find her way to a close relationship with Will.

  He owed her that much.

  He slid Will’s breakfast to him, then picked up his own plate and came around the end of the island to join his son. They ate in companionable silence.

  “Could we stop and get her a birthday present before basketball?” Will asked.

  “Sure. Any idea what you want to get her?”

  “She likes books about Rome. We could stop at the bookstore and see if they have anything new.”

  “I know why she likes books so much. We weren’t allowed to read books in the cult. We could read the booklets we used to reel in new members, but we weren’t even allowed to read the Bible. She had some contraband books she hid in a hole in her closet. I found them once and put them back so she wasn’t worried I’d turn her in.”

  Will pushed away his empty plate. “That’s really sad. No wonder she’s always reading. Would she read a real book? I know she’s always got her e-reader.”

  “Her apartment is full of books. I think she just likes her e-reader so she always has a book with her. She’ll treasure anything you get her.”

  “I want to use my own money.”

  Will earned his own money by yard work, mowing, and occasionally acting as a shrimping assistant for a friend in New Orleans. Reid had no idea how much the boy had saved, but he nodded. “Whatever you want.”

  He ate the last of his omelet and put the plates in the dishwasher. “Let’s go see what we can find.”

  It would be Jane’s first birthday gift from her son so it needed to be special and something she’d always remember. Maybe a book wouldn’t be that memorable, but he had to let Will make that decision.

  No apology from him would be enough to erase Jane’s anger, and he wished he could see her look at him the way she did last night one more time.

  Forty-One

  Jane got out of her vehicle in front of her father’s house and let Parker out of the back to run and chase squirrels. Her dad’s truck was parked at the side, so she knew he had come home once he knew the truth was out. It would take a few days to totally clear his name, but those involved would be turning on each other to plea bargain. The scandal would take months to die down, and even then, people would talk about it for years.

  Her dad wasn’t in the house, so she walked along the tree-lined path to the bunker and pressed the buzzer. “Dad, it’s me.” The heavy metal door clicked to the unlocked position, and she pulled it open and stepped inside to walk down the long incline to the bunker.

  The smell inside was a mixture of gunpowder and steel from all the guns and shelves. The space was huge. Twenty-foot ceilings soared overhead, and rows and rows of shelving held canned goods and other staples. A room behind this one held his armory. It would make the ATF salivate to know how much he’d accumulated down here. All legal, though.

  She found her dad stacking canned goods on a shelf. He looked perfectly normal even though he’d been running from the law for days. Dressed in his usual jeans, boots, and plaid shirt, he worked methodically without looking at her.

  She stopped and folded her arms over her chest. “Rotating stock?”

  “Yep.” He stopped what he was doing to stare at her a long moment. “You did a fine job, Jane. Better than I could have. I’m proud of you.”

  Her eyes burned, and she blinked back the moisture. Too little too late. “I want to talk to you about Mount Sinai and the day we left.”

  He set the last can on the shelf and picked up the box of older cans. “That was a long time ago. What’s the point? Why bring it up now?”

  She grabbed his arm as he started past her. “The point? The point is you lied to me. My baby didn’t die. Moose didn’t die. And what’s more, they are right here in Pelican Harbor!”

  The color drained from his face. “That’s not possible.”

  “Reid Dixon is Moose. His son, Will, is my son. He’s your grandson.” Emotion cut off her words for a long moment. She swallowed down the pain. “He’s wonderful, Dad. Wonderful! And I missed out on fifteen years with my own baby. All because you lied to me.”

  He carefully set down the box and sighed. “I knew you’d never come with me, Jane. I didn’t want you to stay there and be swallowed alive by the false teaching. By then I knew it was all a lie. And even more than that, I really thought everyone was about to die. I had to get you to safety. Can’t you understand that?”

  “We could have taken him with us! There was time. You’d just seen him with Will. You knew where he was.”

  “There was no time to rescue him. And I didn’t trust your mother. She would have convinced you it was the best thing for the baby for you to stay. You know how persuasive she always was.”

  “I can’t believe you’re defending your actions even now.” Her chest squeezed with the need to inhale fresh air, to get away from his self-congratulatory tone. He still believed he’d been right. How delusional. Hadn’t he noticed the fog of pain that clouded her eyes and never left? Did he have any idea how much his monumental lie had cost her?

  All he’d seen was his own desires. He’d gotten everything he wanted—a new life away from the cult and her mother. She’d paid the price for him to have a career and this compound he loved. How completely selfish of him.

  She turned and ran for the door. He called after her, but she ignored him. She couldn’t breathe in there with his deceit choking off her air. Was there no one she could trust?

  She should have asked her father where her mother was now. He probably knew. Maybe he’d known all along where to find Reid and Will. But no, he’d been shocked to discover they were in town.

  She called for her dog as she ran to the SUV, and Parker reluctantly left his squirrel chasing to trot along at her heels. She reached her vehicle and let him into the backseat, then collapsed in her seat. She didn’t know what to do with the emotions churning her gut and making her hands shake. For the first time the thought of faith, true faith, felt like a spring of fresh water to cool her burning cheeks. But she’d left God behin
d long ago, and she doubted he’d care to hear from her now that she was in the worst trouble of her life.

  * * *

  Will was her son. Jane was still processing it and trying to imagine how her life was about to change. She tried to focus on the wonder of that and let go of the rage vibrating just under the surface. She couldn’t dwell on it or it would swallow her whole.

  She entered Pelican Harbor city limits and was driving past the school when she spotted Reid’s SUV in the parking lot. Two tall figures were shooting hoops, and she recognized Will’s rangy form immediately. She whipped into the lot and watched them for several minutes. She was sure she would always feel this jolt of wonder when she looked at her boy.

  Her baby was alive and wonderful. It was hard to wrap her head around how that tiny infant could have been transformed into this handsome specimen of young manhood. Her gaze traveled to Reid, and the smile dropped off her face.

  Lies, so many lies. Her entire life had been shaped and transformed by lies. Her career was all about digging out truth and bringing justice, but it felt like a futile exercise now when she’d discovered how wrong she’d been about so many people.

  Reid stopped and looked toward the lot. He nudged Will, and they both walked toward her vehicle. Her chest compressed, and she blew out a breath, then inhaled several times to calm herself. She didn’t want to spoil this moment with Will. Anger toward his dad could derail their relationship. She’d always despised the way divorced couples trashed each other and the kids had to pay for their unhappiness.

  Parker had seen them, too, and he gave a happy woof, his tail wagging. She got out and opened the door for him. He bounded off to greet Will and Reid. Will petted him, then stopped at their SUV to extract a bag. He smiled her way, a big grin that nearly split his face, and her heart seized at the joy it brought her.

  Several steps ahead of his dad, he trotted toward her, then stopped a couple of feet away. “Hi. Um, Mom. Is it okay if I call you that?”

  Mom. She’d never dreamed she’d hear that word directed at her. Tears gathered in her eyes again, and she reached blindly toward him. She couldn’t speak with such happiness enveloping every cell in her body.