“I agree with you there. But why are they having the meeting here, in Divine?”
“Because they’ve traced Ralph Baxter to Divine. Anyway, what I wanted to say was, when you think of it, it’s a full circle, you know? Chloe was here and now she’s in Lusty.” Emily Anne stopped speaking, obviously gathering her thoughts. “When Chloe and her sister went to foster care, they were separated. Carrie ended up in a home where the parents were raising a little sociopath. He abused Carrie, and when he got out of prison he came looking for her. If Chloe hadn’t been there, he might have succeeded in his horrible plan. But she was, and because she’d been prepared, she was able to save the life of Sheriff Kendall. She had to kill that awful sexual predator to do it, and even though the man deserved killing, it was a hard thing for her to deal with afterwards. But Grant and Andrew were there to help her through it. I believe with all my heart that those two firefighters were meant to be hers.”
Lucy had to admit, it made it much harder to dislike Chloe Rhodes for what she’d done to Beck, knowing what she’d gone through as a child, not to mention having to kill someone, even if they were in need of killing. Lucy couldn’t imagine what that must’ve been like for her. She sensed that Emily Anne felt a great need to get what she was saying out of her, so she kept quiet and let her continue.
“When I first met Chloe, it was just after she came to town. Did you know that she is an esthetician, and massage therapist, too, just like you?”
“Yes, Beck told me a little about her.”
“Yes, she’s self-employed and has her own place, too. She wouldn’t have anything to do with those two Jessops at first. She was still pretty broken up about having to say no to Beck. She told me that she simply hadn’t loved him enough to say yes, and that it would be worse to accept his proposal and then have it all go to hell in a year or two. I didn’t really understand that at the time, because I had been dumped by my boyfriend a month before and I was still stinging—convinced that no one would ever love me.”
“Beck was more than badly hurt, he was a mess. Even when I was falling for Patrick, and he insisted that Beck, who was always around, was a good guy, I couldn’t figure out why he was so surly, so—” A dry laugh escaped her. “He was a bastard at times. And then came Valentine’s Day.”
“Chloe called him to tell him she was getting married. I know. That was the day her men proposed to her.”
“Yeah. I think that was the moment he went into a free fall, because until then he had hopes she would come back to him. He was devastated.” Recalling again the sight of him sprawled on the muddy ground with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s at his side made her heart hurt. A tear tracked down her cheek and she softly swore as she swiped at it. She’d been determined to not get emotional.
“Chloe isn’t a bad woman, Lucy. She just wasn’t the woman for Beck. But I think you are.”
Not a bad woman? Who lives with a man, shares his bed, pretending to love him and then abandons him when he proposes to her?
It was on the tip of her tongue to say exactly that when the last part of what Emily Anne said to her registered. Just then she caught a glimpse of movement through the front windows and frowned.
Damn it! Of all the shitty timing!
The creepy guy with the bushy salt-and-pepper gray hair and suspicious, squinty eyes walked in with a frown creasing his features. She let out a deep breath and prayed for patience.
“The computer store is down the street, sir, remember? Between Batson’s Grocery and Divine Auto Repair.”
“It’s not the computer store I want, it’s you. Tell your hooker friend to leave.”
Emily gasped in reaction and turned to look at the creep, shock evident on her face. It was on the tip of Lucy’s tongue to inform the son of a bitch that she wouldn’t massage him if he was the last fucking paying customer on the planet…in the universe.
Red-cheeked with indignation, Emily Anne backed up a little closer to Lucy. “I’m not a hooker, and I’m not leaving, unless Lucy wants me to. You’re rude!”
Lucy was reaching for the phone on the reception desk to call Hank Stinson when the stranger removed a revolver from his jacket pocket. “Fine, have it your way. You come with me or I’ll kill you both right here, right now.”
Lucy reached out and pulled Emily Anne back by the arm and edged in front of her. Seth was next door but there was a solid brick wall between them and no way to call for help. Her cell phone was in her office, along with her purse.
“Is it money you want? This is a massage therapy clinic and not what you think it is, mister. All I have is the money from today’s clients but you can have it. I haven’t done anything to you and there’s no reason for you to act like this!”