DAMON CROSSE WAS DEAD AND TAYLOR DIDN’T KNOW HOW to feel about it. On the one hand, she was thrilled that she and Jeremy were able to come out of hiding and that her child was now safe from Crosse’s reach. On the other hand, she wanted him to suffer in prison, to have to atone for all he’d done. And a part of her had hoped for a confrontation where she could vent all her rage at what he’d done to her life. His suicide had left her in a state of emotional limbo.
Malcolm’s funeral had been last week. Everyone had asked why her father wasn’t there, and she and Evelyn had made up a story about his being down with the flu. How could they explain that they had no idea where he’d gone after almost killing Taylor? The masquerade was the worst, everyone saying such wonderful things about Malcolm—what a great man he was—the asset he had been to Congress. She had wanted to scream: It was all a lie! She was still angry and didn’t want to forgive him, to feel any understanding about what he had done. It hurt much less to hate him. But then she let herself remember the good he had done. In the end, he had sacrificed his life for her and their child. Despite the lies, she believed that she had known him, a part of him, anyway—the part that hadn’t been completely corrupted by Crosse and his brainwashing. Finally she was able to come to terms with Malcolm’s betrayal and look upon his final actions as a sort of redemption.
Even with Taylor’s testimony, it had taken Jack’s lawyer almost a month to get him out. The kidnapping charges had been dropped right away, but that was in Maryland. The New Hampshire state’s attorney was not so easily convinced to drop the murder charges, even with Taylor corroborating that it was self-defense. A few years before, she’d met Senator Polk from New Hampshire through Malcolm, and so she had gone to him for help with Jack. She didn’t tell him the truth about Malcolm, of course. The story she and Jeremy had agreed on was that Malcolm had confessed to Taylor that he’d been harassed by Damon Crosse and had received death threats if he didn’t vote the way Crosse demanded, and that Malcolm had asked Jack to intervene if anything happened to him. In their version, Malcolm was a hero, refusing to be bullied and paying the ultimate price.
She was scheduled to appear on the Karen Printz show next week, and that would be the story she would tell the world. Malcolm had made the right choice in the end, and she saw no reason for her child to have to live with a legacy of shame. She had no idea whether Senator Polk was in Crosse’s pocket, too, but she had a feeling he would help her regardless, to make sure he came out looking clean.
She was waiting outside for Jack, thinking that the modern brick building looked more like a high school than a jail. She didn’t want to think about what the inside was like. His release papers had been signed yesterday, and she had overnighted him some clothes so he could feel like himself again. She checked her watch, and movement caught her eye. There he was. As he walked toward her, everything seemed to slow down, and she was afraid that if she blinked, he’d disappear.
“Hey, you.” He pulled her to him and covered her lips with his own.
She melted into him, feeling her body respond.
He cupped her face in his hands. “I love you so much it hurts. I am never letting you go.”
She smiled. “You just try to get away.”
She took his hand as they walked to the parking lot. “I have a surprise for you.” She couldn’t wait to see his reaction. She stopped in front of the car.
His eyes widened, and he smiled in delight when he saw the red Mustang.
“Sorry it can’t be the original. But it’s the same year and color,” Taylor said.
He ran his hand over the hood.
“She’s a beauty.”
“We can’t change the past, but I didn’t see any reason we couldn’t recapture the good memories.” She threw the keys to him. “Just do me a favor, and don’t get us killed. No faster than sixty-five.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah, that’s gonna happen.” He got behind the wheel. “Where to?”
“Back to the old neighborhood.”
“Put your seat belt on. It’s gonna be a long ride.”