Aaron was still chuckling as he finished the alfredo and pasta, adding diced up chicken and checking the clock. He tossed in the small spears of broccoli after a brief debate. Getting to know someone…not just someone…the one…who was in definite need of someone in her life.
He liked working from home occasionally and knew Anna had a lot of things in her freezer he could safely steal. He checked the logs and she didn’t make it home last night, so Carter evidently took her safety as seriously as he did. He’d spent a lot of time between appointments staring and trying to figure out why anyone would want to have him pounded with a baseball bat, but there was absolutely nothing came to mind.
Aaron had left the window near the front door up a bit, the humming sound of her sports car making a warm spot begin in his stomach and he grinned. Like a school boy, he thought, going to pull the door wide as she stepped from the low level car. For the briefest of instances, a picture, a moment flashed into his brain.
Catherine, pregnant and unable to get off the low seat of the sports car. Stubborn and sitting there, struggling for leverage until she finally let out a yell for him. For no known reason, he suddenly burst out laughing, a rich happy sound that rippled in the clouded afternoon.
“Well…that must have been some joke,” She came slowly around the back of the car, chirped it and tucked the keys into a wide pocket of her loose khaki pants.
“I’ll share it with you in a few days,” he promised, still chuckling as he stepped to the side and let her come inside. He made sure the locks were set and the alarm before escorting her into the social area. “How was therapy?”
“Annoying. Makes you grit your teeth and curse the idiot that got you there,” she grumbled, sinking into the padded, armed chair he escorted her to. She looked over the laid out table and then up at him. He still had pants that looked like they belonged to the suit he’d worn that day, the pale blue shirt open a couple buttons at his throat and the sleeves rolled to his elbows. And he didn’t have stuff splattered on it. “You did all this?”
“Amazing…isn’t it?” He set a plate of mozzarella cheese with sliced tomatoes between them and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. “I probably should have asked what you didn’t like before I did this, but what the hell, there’s always the pizza people.”
She made a face at him, her leg stretched out as she reached for one of the cheese slices and tomato, biting down and sighing happily.
“Hmm…why do I have a feeling the best thing you ate today was the smoothie?” Aaron sat across from her, his lips tilted at the sudden memory to be pissed that filed her glare.
“How’d you get into my car? I’ve got a top of the line alarm on that baby,” she demanded as she reached for another thick slice of tomato and cheese.
“Can’t reveal my sources, sorry,” he answered, taking a bite of his own, unflinching at the continued glare.
“That’s a journalist. Not a financial planner,” she sulked, taking a bite and looking around the small area beside them, a large desk set up with a computer and diplomas hanging on the wall. “You’re a lawyer, too?”
“Boggles the mind, huh? So I can defend myself if you ever find proof that I’m behind the rash of break-ins on your personal belongings.”
“Seriously…you have a masters in financial analysis and planning…” Catherine pushed herself up and wandered to the wall, leaning on the cane and reading to herself as she walked. “Business law…and business…” She turned to stare at him, noticing the faint tinge of color in his cheeks. “You don’t hang these in your office because you don’t want people to know.”
“I got tired of explaining myself to people,” he said after a quiet minute of thought and another bite of the appetizer he’d prepared.
Catherine moved slowly back to her seat, her palm out and touching his where it rested on the table. “You don’t owe anyone explanations, Aaron.”
“That’s why they hang there instead of my office,” his hand flipped, their palms vertical and fingers twining. He smiled. “I figure I’ll explain one more time in my life…and that’ll be to you.”
“You don’t pull punches when you make up your mind, do you?”
“I haven’t seen a stop sign, Catherine. I haven’t…felt…a stop sign. You have that power, whether you know it or not,” Aaron stood up and went into the kitchen. “Given your eating habits, I hope you like pasta.”
“Secret powers didn’t give you that answer?” She teased, relieved when he carried a grin along with the plates he set on the table a few minutes later. “Oh, wow…you wage a serious campaign, Carson.”
“Find the weak point and exploit it, basic business,” he told her, returning to the fridge for the cold wine. “I wasn’t sure about this, though, since you’re driving and taking medication…”
“Unless I’m ambushed…the medication is at my apartment,” she tasted a forkful of the pasta with a long sigh. Then she caught the gleam on his face and frowned. “I…did you…you lifted my meds?”
“I haven’t said a thing. But I don’t guess a glass will make a difference,” he said with a shrug, pouring the sweet white wine before sinking down to enjoy dinner.
“Even the vegetables taste good,” she murmured, the crisp flavorful broccoli crunched on with a grin. “You did, didn’t you? You lifted my meds with intent…” Dark lashes narrowed over brilliant violet specks studying him.
“So…on with our peaceful date…” Aaron offered only a grin, lifting his glass to her. “To your continued good health.”
“Huh…”
“Even cops need a little mystery in their life now and again, Catherine,” he chuckled at the wrinkled nose she offered.
“Alright…then we return to the mystery you were going to tell me about over dinner,” she began casually. “How a four year old was involved in something drug related.”
“Hmm…I was…” He looked over at the empty plate. “There’s more…if you’re still hungry.”
“Will I look piggy if I say I’d love more?”
“I’m pretty sure a little extra meat on the bones wouldn’t be harmful in your case,” he said with a laugh, carrying her plate for the remaining pasta and cheesy crème sauce.
“That’s what the doctor said…a little more meat and he wouldn’t have sliced so much into your muscle,” she intoned in a deep voice, pale eyes rolled expressively.
“Doctors…wha’do they know…”
“Exactly,” she answered before catching herself on the humorous sarcasm.
“Since I had lunch with a client because you were otherwise engaged, I’m not nearly as hungry as you,” Aaron finished his pasta and took another medallion of cheese and tomato, dredging it in the vinegar before popping it into his mouth.
“I’m sure somewhere along there is a dig,” she murmured, but since he did feed her, she’d ignore it. For now.
“Never. Insult a girl with a weapon?”
“I’m not armed…” she said cautiously.
“Please. I have a sister. You girl’s find weapons in things that normal people would never consider,” he said with enough sincerity that she was laughing at his expression. “You went out after your rehab…” He didn’t think he’d ever tire of those wide violet circles watching him. “Your phone was off, but it left a location, Catherine,” he told her.
“Some girl urge…can’t shower and wanted my hair washed,” she took the final bite of pasta and set her fork down with a long sigh. “They give amazing feet massages,” she gestured to the freshly polished toes. “Same color as my car.”
“Ahh…another weakness…” Aaron poured more wine for them both, vaguely wondering how much was to steel himself to talk about times that he’d only ever shared with Anna. He quickly had the table cleaned, dishes in the dishwasher and only half a plate of appetizers remaining. He lifted one when he came back to the table, biting it in half thoughtfully. “I like the braid…Anna made me learn how to do that…I don’t think she got her haircut until she was about twelve. So she found this book at the library when we’re four and had it laid out on the floor…” He laughed at the memory, staring at the creamy cheese between his fingers. “There we were…on this faded carpet in the kid section of the library in the middle of the day. She’s holding this big book on her lap and pointing to how they said you should do it…one of the librarians felt sorry for me and came over to help. I’ve gotten longer fingers since then.”
“No parents?” Catherine asked gently. She saw so much love in his eyes when he spoke about his sister.
“We were birthed, if that’s what you want to call our parents,” he couldn’t keep the dry, contained anger from his voice and never tried. “I’m sure we had someone keeping us clean and fed until we were about two. We learned to read and write about eighteen months…and talk…lots of educational shows to watch for that. We absorbed stuff like little sponges. Once we figured out reading, nothing was out of limits. We didn’t know the words, the uses, the meanings…not quite then in all cases, but we collected information nonstop. Between a computer and books…” His head shook slowly and he drew in a long, deep breath.
“Aaron…you don’t have to talk about this…” She straightened up without thinking, the groan low and turned into a growl.
“Easy…” He pulled himself up, standing and going to her side. “How about the livingroom? Sofa is long and you can stretch out your leg while we talk. I think I do need to talk about it…we’ve talked about it…not in a long time, but I think we had to get past something…the few times someone asked, they felt sorry for us. And we weren’t abused…and we never felt sorry for ourselves,” he lifted her arm and helped her to her feet, walking with her into the other room. He left her next to the sofa, turning a lamp on across the room and tapping the fireplace into life. He was too accustomed to keeping it cold but he’d felt the tiny bumps on her arm when she shivered next to him.
“I…I guess I can’t understand…two little kids…four years old…” She moved to the corner and stretched her right leg along the inside of the sofa. It was large, with high, well cushioned arms and deep pockets of comfort. “And adults who allowed it to exist…but that really shouldn’t be a surprise to me after some things I’ve seen.”
“I guess we had pockets of…I wish…you know, when you see people, families or a mom or dad with a child…we wondered what it would have been like,” he sat on the edge of the sofa, her foot tucked neatly behind him when he leaned back, both long legs stretched out before him. “But with the exception of what we saw on television, until we were four, we didn’t know it should have been different. Our birthday is in March…just come April, we figured out how to get out the window. “He laughed at the look on her face.
“The house we lived in then was…god, memories from when you’re four are weird…it seemed nice. I remember the outside…I remember a three car garage off to the right. The room we had was on the first floor, on the left side of the house. It was big, hell when you’re four everything’s big…huge, massive shelves that reached the ceiling. I’m pretty sure it was a library or den…our bed was in there…microwave and fridge with a big freezer…we learned to take care of ourselves very early.”
Catherine wasn’t sure her action would be taken the way it was meant, but she bent her knee and gave his back a nudge, her eyes meeting his as she nudged him again, smiling when he took the message and slid a little closer. She pulled his palm from where it rested crossed over his chest and wrapped her hands around it.
“That explains the diplomas…a bit of a prodigy, were we?”
“Hmm…we refused testing, even in school,” a small laugh and he shook his head. “Not sure why. Some in high school and college were adamant…it was important…but not to us. So…here we were…Anna read this story book,” his eyes rolled and his laughter was genuine. “Thought she could hang her hair out the window….”
“Oh, god…you didn’t?” Catherine could picture two small children plotting.
“I wasn’t quite that naïve…I knew how it hurt her head when…” He stopped when another memory intruded. “When someone grabbed her hair,” he said softly. “The main door to the room was usually kept closed. But when it was open, there was a gate…typical kid gate, I guess…she tried climbing over it once…we learned fast…only tried that once…anyway…we kept a book…we had a clock and knew when it was safe…that no one would look for us. Then we learned to stuff the pillows beneath the blankets and that bought us all day out in the world.”
“Is this where you learned the breaking and entering skills?” She teased, trying for a little lightness. She had his much large palm trapped between hers, resting on her thigh.
“Those are much more sophisticated,” he said with a small chuckle. “I kind of knew the hair thing wouldn’t work…so we got the screen off and hung upside down awhile, trying to figure out a way down. We were ground level, but we weren’t that big. We managed to wrestle a chair with cushions…like a dining chair without arms…through the window and position it right under it…then it was easy. So armed with warm clothes and some money, we snuck out and found the library and discovered a convenience store. I think we were seriously sick that first time…but we couldn’t have been happier.”
“The people watching you…your parents…”
“We found out later that the house was owned by our paternal grandparents,” he said slowly, pulling memories together. “When we learned to read and write…we kept a journal. Anna’s kept hers…still has it…I had a burning party when I was eighteen. Some things a guy should be wiser about putting into writing,” he said, his head shaking ruefully, his fingers folding around hers with a smile at her laughter.
“Hmm…a man who learns from his indiscretions.”
“Self-preservation. Honesty about crazy girl behavior can get you serious pain. Being killed would be a mercy at that point.” He admitted easily. “So…the house belonged to the grandparents…we found out the parents and us lived in it at their benevolence, to which, they were provided regular photos of us and once a month, we were bundled into the back of a limo and taken to their house. That stopped when we were about eleven…they didn’t know what to do with us and I think we were at the anger stage then for a short time. Educational toys appeared in boxes, we figured from the grandparents…just set inside the room along with clean clothing. The fridge and freezer were kept stocked, even fresh fruit and finger vegetables,” he shrugged. “Seemed normal to us. Anyway, we found the library and it was…like unreal…there wasn’t enough time in the day. Once the librarians got used to us, they just helped us with what we wanted from the shelves and we sat there…laid in the middle of the kid section, devouring everything we could get our hands on.”
“And you gravitated to money? Anna?”
Aaron drew in a long breath. “We didn’t know what the words meant…things we heard around us at the house. Not until much later. We watched tons of people come and go. Anna can draw. Like a master…she’d make portraits in her journal of people she saw…she was always peeking through the door, just holding it open a tiny crack so she could see and draw…and she’d make little marks next to each portrait when they returned so she didn’t redraw them. There was a lot of money…another of those things we didn’t know what it was, but from their behaviors, we knew it had to be important. So we’d collect it…at night…when it was quiet. No noises…no people…we’d sneak out and take some. Not enough to ever be noticed. If it was important, we needed to have some of it…and we’d hide it in one of the little learning toys…a cash register…and our stuffed animals.”
“They were dealers,” she said quietly, the confirmation in his eyes.
“We never touched the stuff we saw lying around. Just collected money.”
“Why does Anna have medication?”
“Sleeping pills,” this time his breath was ragged. “One afternoon the door was open and I was in the connecting bedroom…not sure doing what…she was sitting next to the gate, like she usually was, a big book open on her lap and her drawing journal underneath. Somehow…we knew they’d make us stop if they saw what we were doing…so we didn’t. It’s been a long time since I read her page about this…it was a couple days before she could even write it down. A young guy came in…talking to the dad, she said…and he came to the gate…leaned over and touched her face. We also learned very early never to talk and once they spot you, don’t move. He talked to her but more to the dad, she said…”
“Aaron…” She saw the strong mixture of anger, frustration and fury in his eyes, his hand and the pulse at the side of his throat tensing.
“I can see her writing…god, we had awful handwriting when we were little…he told the dad that she was a cutie…that he knew lots of guys interested in…interested in getting off inside a pretty little thing like her…she was the perfect age for training…” He let his head fall to the back of the sofa for a long minute. “At four, we didn’t know what he meant. Anna wrote it down a couple days later when she calmed down. All she knew was the feeling…the aura…the vibration of his voice…she said the dad told him she was worth more to him untouched, shoved the guy aside and closed the door. I don’t know how long before I came in…and I couldn’t find her. She was always…if the door was closed, she was dancing around, singing…geeze, she rarely shut up…but I couldn’t find her. Then I heard a little noise from the closet. We never went in there. Nothing in there…but that day…curled up in a tight little ball, was Anna…trying to hide beneath a pile of coats. I’d never seen her eyes like that before…so big and so…terrified…red and…I couldn’t get her to stop crying.”
“Oh god…at four that would stick…”
“She tried to justify it…nothing happened to her. It was just words…yet she still has nightmares from it. I spent the night in the closet with her, just two little kids holding each other. We dragged stuff from the other room after that and outside of the bathroom, weren’t apart. It was the middle of July when we were coming back from the library…the house is surrounded with guys in jackets blazing FBI and DEA…as soon as we were spotted, we were thrown into the back of a limo and taken to another house. We never saw the parents again. All our stuff was there, though…and we threw enough of a fit that we got the large family room on the lower level, across from the bathroom and down the hall from the kitchen. We were about ten when we started researching to find out what had happened…but all the news had was a large drug bust.”
“You don’t know where they are?”
“I’m not ten any longer, Catherine. I know exactly where they are,” he said coldly. “We don’t have their last name. This new house…it was all still being run by the paternal grandparents. I don’t think they knew about the drugs…they’re too disconnected to know. But we were family and they took care of us, in their own way, I suppose. We had a housekeeper and cook, Missy…and there was a guy, Danny, her husband, he took care of the grounds. We had tutors that came in each day…but no one monitored them and we pretty much did as we pleased once we had their lessons out of the way. We found another library…”
“You’re very good with computers, too, aren’t you,” it was more a statement than a question, and he met the teasing smile in his eyes. “Which accounts for being able to find only what you wanted found about Aaron Carson.”
“We were able to manipulate one of the tutors. Got registered in public school…used the excuse about socializing. I don’t know if the grandparents knew and approved or not. Anna…she’s always had these feelings…not sure how to describe it. She was convinced we had to start making plans. This came about ten…we got these insane allowances, and got Missy to help us open a bank account. We’d just deposit money. Anna was very good at getting increases out of the grandparents…we were teenagers…always new stuff to have and as long as we kept our grades high, we got money,” he shrugged dismissingly. “And she had us putting stuff into a storage unit. Anything we wanted to keep. She was adamant. I’d been exposed to her feelings for so long, I didn’t question. One Thursday…after the tutor left…three guys in suits came into the house. We were fourteen…a couple months past…we didn’t recognize them. Dark glasses…suits…I thought maybe we had papers to sign…the grandparents had been sending people for our signatures for a couple months, we know it had to do with inheritance but never gave it much thought.”
Catherine sat up a little straighter, her mind too long accustomed to dots that needed connected.
“Anna went frantic when she looked at them. I mean…within five minutes, we had things in our packs, jackets on and out the door. We were a block and a half away when she says she saw the big SUV drive past. We kept to side streets, so no one saw us…then there was a massive explosion…” He had to work to keep his fingers from crushing the smaller hands holding his. “I swear, I could feel the heat…the ground shaking…they said it was a gas leak…Anna called Missy’s name and almost went to her knees in the middle of the sidewalk. I kept her on her feet and then she just grabbed my hand and pulled.”
“No one found you? No one went looking?”
“No one knew, Catherine. If the grandparents looked for us,” he shrugged. “As far as anyone else knew, we went up with the house. We didn’t contact anyone. We had a plan…went to a couple different hair cut places, I got a crew cut and Anna went to a pixie…we tinted it blond and started at the high school full time. We were so far ahead…”
“Is Anna into finances, too?”
“God, no…woman used to drive me batty until I took her checkbook away and set her up online and always keep a buffer there,” he laughed. “She discovered botany I guess just after our fifth birthday. She had things growing in the yard around the house….wild exotic flowers and vegetables…we had a budget from the grandparents just for landscaping. It’s what she does now. She opened a nursery and landscaping service a little over ten years ago.”
“I saw her…the newspaper on Sunday…”
Aaron straightened up slowly. “Where?”