Authors: Tamara Larson
Theresa peeked up at him from over her arms and gave him a dirty look. “She destroyed my life.”
Duncan
was losing patience now. He was used to interrogating criminals, not young girls. He suddenly felt nostalgic for the intimidation tactics he used at work. Keeping his tone even and sympathetic, he asked, “Theresa, what did she do?”
“She bought my boyfriend.” Theresa said flatly.
Duncan
looked at her incredulously. He must have misunderstood. Why would Evelyn have to pay anyone to date an attractive girl like his sister? “What? How did she do that? You mean she paid someone to date you?”
Theresa stared at him like he was the village idiot. “NO! Why would she have to pay someone to do that? What am I? Quasi Modo?”
Duncan
held up his arms apologetically. “No, that’s just what it sounded like you meant.”
“It’s not!”
“Well, what did you mean then?”
“She paid Cameron—the love of my life—to dump me.” Theresa said. Her eyes became glassy with tears that quickly overflowed and trickled down both cheeks dramatically.
Duncan
wasn’t laughing anymore. He wished he could be surprised by Theresa’s revelation, but it sounded like pretty typical behavior for Evelyn. According to his wife, the matriarch had used a similar technique to sabotage his engagement to Kerry ten years ago. “How did you find this out? Could it be a mistake?”
Duncan
asked gently, wanting to comfort her, but unsure what was appropriate, he buttered some toast and put it on her plate.
Theresa took a shaky breath and rubbed a fist across her eyes. “No, it’s not a mistake. I saw the check stub myself.”
Duncan
narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “And how did you see that exactly? Don’t tell me she left it lying around.”
“No, I went through her desk.” Theresa said defiantly.
“Theresa—.”
She interrupted him, sounding desperate. “I had to. I needed confirmation. He dumped me and I was miserable. When some girl I hardly knew—she’d been after Brandon for months, the cow—called me up and told me why he’d done it, I needed to know for sure.”
“He told her?”
“He told a bunch of people.” Theresa wailed. “That’s part of why I had to leave. He was bragging about it because he suddenly had enough money to cut a demo.” As an afterthought, she said, “He was in a band. That’s why Grandmother just had to get rid of him.”
Duncan
could just imagine Evelyn’s horror at discovering that Theresa was involved with a musician. He pictured a young punk with a blue Mohawk, and a multitude of piercings and tattoos. Not exactly the future grandson-in-law she had in mind, he thought almost grinning at the irony. The old lady had been dismayed when he’d introduced Kerry because his bride-to-be had been raised in a trailer park. He couldn’t imagine the epileptic fit she’d have over Cameron. “Did you confront her? Did she have an explanation?”
“No, I just left the check sitting out on her desk, packed a bag and left. I couldn’t stand to live with her anymore after that. I took the first bus west and called my girlfriend Nathalie who’d moved to
Calgary
the year before. I stayed with her for a while, but then things turned bad.”
Duncan
was afraid to ask. “What happened?”
Theresa sighed and said, matter-of-factly, “Her boyfriend made a pass at me. I scratched him to get away and he told her I did it when he rejected me. She believed him and I was out on my ass. Again.”
Duncan
shook his head in disbelief and fingered the scratches on his own neck. So much had happened to her in such a short time. She’d gone from leading a pampered, but very controlled existence with Evelyn to surviving by her wits on the streets. It was amazing that she was so casual about it. Wouldn’t most teenagers be traumatized? Or was she? Should he get her into counseling? A psychiatrist? He had no idea. “What happened then?”
“Not much. I stayed with different people I’d met through my friend. One of them played guitar on the street for money. He showed me how to panhandle.” Noting his horrified expression, she said, “It wasn’t bad really. Most people are pretty polite and civilized about it.”
“So nothing terrible happened. Nothing scary?”
“Not really. Nathalie’s boyfriend was drunk when we had our little confrontation and he was kind of scary, but I handled it. Then, living with Diego had some weird moments. When he had my papers made up, I told him how old I was and he seemed disappointed when I told him my real age.” Theresa looked genuinely puzzled.
He was glad she was puzzled. She was better off not knowing that Diego’s usual victims were much younger than seventeen. In fact,
Duncan
was pretty sure that her age had prevented her from real harm. As a rule, the men Duncan had encountered who liked little girls were usually intimidated by older women. “Did he say how old he thought you were?”
Duncan
asked, dreading the answer.
“Thirteen. Can you believe he thought I was that young?” Theresa sounded scandalized.
Duncan
tried to disguise the disgust and anger on his face. Thirteen? That animal had approached her because he thought she was thirteen? Under the table, he clenched his fist until his short nails made angry half-moons in his palms. Right then, he vowed to make sure that Theresa would be the last girl that pervert cultivated. Thank God she was too old for Diego’s twisted taste.
Looking at her now,
Duncan
could actually see why Diego had mistaken her for a much younger girl. For one thing, she was tiny—5’2 at the most, with a very lithe and small-boned frame. Without the gaudy makeup, and high heels from last night, she could easily pass for thirteen. Especially with her shoulder-length yellow hair in short braids as it was now.
She seemed to be waiting for his exclamation of disbelief, so he tried to sound suitably shocked. “No way. Not thirteen. If I didn’t know better I would have said you were twenty, maybe twenty-one. Was he blind?” She smiled brightly at that and he beamed back at her. “Seriously, I understand why you wouldn’t want to talk to Evelyn, but we have to at least let her know you’re all right?”
She looked at him like he’d struck her. “But that won’t be enough for her. She’ll come here and take me back. You know she will.” Theresa said morosely.
He did know that and suspected Theresa was right. Their grandmother would come. He hadn’t been thinking clearly last night. After all, Evelyn was Theresa’s legal guardian. He was actually violating the law by keeping her here without at least informing Theresa’s grandmother. If Evelyn found out, she wouldn’t hesitate to slap kidnapping charges on him and his career would be over. “I’m afraid that’s the chance we’ll have to take. I could get into a lot of trouble for keeping you here,” he said ominously, not wanting to get into specifics.
“You don’t understand,” she said, putting her face back on her crossed arms. Her voice was muffled when she said, “I can’t go back there. Everyone knows she paid him twenty thousand dollars to stay away from me. That’s how much I’m worth. I gave him everything, and all it took was the price of a Volkswagen Beetle to get him to abandon me.”
Duncan
didn’t want to know what ‘everything’ entailed, but he suspected it was more than her heart. He decided to focus on the money. Actually, twenty grand didn’t sound like very much to him either. According to Kerry, Evelyn had offered her a half million dollars to move away without talking to
Duncan
again. Wouldn’t inflation affect bribes as well? Or maybe Evelyn had shrewdly figured that it wouldn’t take much to discourage Cameron. He wasn’t going to share that theory with Theresa though.
“I’m really sorry all this has happened to you Theresa, but we’ve got to call her,” he said, standing up and walking over to the massive wall hutch that separated the kitchen from the dining room. He picked up the phone again and scrambled through the papers on the desk, looking for Evelyn’s number. He didn’t trust Theresa to give him the correct one.
He was so busy leaning over the desk and digging through his scraps that he didn’t hear her get up. She was directly behind him when she said quietly, “I meant it. What I said last night. I’ll run away. This time no one will find me.”
Duncan
turned to look at her. Her arms were crossed and her tears were gone. She was dead serious and the direct gaze told him that she knew she had him over the proverbial barrel. He was actually impressed until he realized that he was the one being manipulated. “Theresa, that’s not fair. I’ve tried to help you here and this is how you’re going to pay me back? By blackmailing me?” He asked angrily.
“I have no choice,
Duncan
. I’m not going back there,” Theresa said with a shrug of her delicate shoulders. “I didn’t want to bring you into this, but I trusted you last night when you said you wanted me to come stay with you.” Her tone wavered slightly, but she carried through on delivering her trump card. “Are you going to betray me too?”
Duncan
didn’t know what to say to that. She clearly had all the cards and wasn’t afraid to play them to get her way. Vaguely he wondered how a seventeen-year-old managed to get the best of him when he was immune to the manipulations of criminals. She was more like their grandmother than he would have ever suspected by looking at her angelic exterior. “I’m not betraying you. I’m just trying to do what’s right,” he said, setting down the phone firmly.
Theresa watched him hang up and then ran to him, wrapping her arms exuberantly around his waist. She squeezed him tightly and said against his chest, “Oh thank you
Duncan
. I’m so sorry I had to be so nasty about this. I don’t want to get you in trouble. I really don’t. I just can’t deal with her anymore.” Her voice broke and she suddenly sounded very young.
Duncan
felt his heart melt as he patted her awkwardly on the back.
He was reminded of one of the last times he’d seen her. It had been her sixth birthday party and his grandmother had hired a clown for the occasion. At eighteen,
Duncan
had been pressured to attend, and he and Kevin had snuck some beers in under their jackets. Pleasantly sloshed, they’d laughed at the clown’s acrobatics on the thick green lawn, and balloon animal creations that all looked like poodles. They hadn’t even noticed that Theresa cringed every time the clown came within ten feet of her. When Pennywise attempted to pick up the birthday girl for a pony ride, she’d screamed shrilly, bashed the painted face directly in the red nose, and ran tearfully into
Duncan
’s unsteady arms.
Looking down at her fuzzy yellow head now, he felt like her last hope for salvation, just like that day eleven years ago. Maybe if he took a few days to concoct some kind of plan, Evelyn wouldn’t swoop down on them like a flying monkey when she discovered he had Theresa. If he talked to a lawyer and found out his rights where Theresa was concerned, and had her registered for the Fall Semester, maybe the old woman could be convinced to let Theresa stay. It was unlikely their grandmother would mildly give up her rights to the girl, but he had to try. He didn’t want Theresa to end up a missing person again, and it was clear that the only way she would stay with Evelyn was if she was put under house arrest. He couldn’t bear to see her spirit stomped on like that.
Theresa looked at him and grinned through her tears. “Hey, if I’m staying, maybe we should do something about my wardrobe. Want to go shopping?”
Duncan
couldn’t imagine anything worse, but it gave him a perfect excuse to go to Jessie’s shop and make sure she was all right. “Sure,” he said casually, moving away from her to start clearing the table. “But let’s start at that bookstore you were telling me about last night. It sounds interesting.”
“Cool,” Theresa said, and ran off to her room to change.
“Cool,”
Duncan
muttered to himself as he placed the heavy black frying pan in the sink, noting that she hadn’t bothered to even offer to help with the dishes. Apparently, acting as maid and cook was included in the big brother job description.
Chapter
17
Diego Savares sat at the coffee shop patio across from Forgotten Treasures. He was enjoying a cappuccino and waiting for Theresa to make a re-appearance, when he spotted Jamie leave the store. Theresa had dragged him there to check out the books a few nights before and he was currently watching for her. Eventually, she would come back to visit and he would be there to have a little chat with her about repaying debts and abandoning the people who kindly offered assistance. He had unfinished business with that particular little blond whore and no one was going to get in the way of that, including that pretty boy cop who had taken her away from him.
Diego eyed the redhead distastefully as she walked away from him. Several men she passed turned to stare at her swaying buttocks, but Diego just shook his head in bewilderment. She was so obvious, so overtly sexual. He couldn’t see why other men gawked at her so. He preferred his women much more demure, not to mention much younger. He liked them before they took on that bold, independent defiance that enraged him and made him feel intimidated—like less than a man.