Garrett, Kara, Chase and Stephanie watched the bloodhounds romp in the fenced area. Beth lounged in a chair on the porch, probably trying to wrap her mind around the conclusion of the Porter Stone case that her children had spent an hour laying out to her.
“Porter Stone was innocent, all these years. That’s tragic. What will happen to him now?” Beth asked.
Garrett rubbed his gritty eyes. “He’ll face prosecution for abducting Orson and Catherine, and almost killing me at the cliff behind the cabin, but Hagerty will do his best.”
“And so will you,” Beth said.
Garrett sank onto the patio chair across from her. “I’ll advocate for leniency if the judge will take my thoughts into consideration. Porter was a kid when Antonia framed him. He’s lost ten years of his life too. Took him a long time to figure out that the woman he loved had sacrificed him to save herself.”
Chase whistled. “Cold. If you and Catherine had arrived five minutes later, he’d have died and no one would ever have suspected his innocence.”
“Except Gare Bear,” Kara said, tossing a ball over the fence. Tank and Wally watched it fly by, but Chloe and Pinkerton gamely set off in pursuit. “You always knew, didn’t you?”
He sighed. “Suspected. Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?”
“Because you’re thinking about Catherine,” Steph said. “Where is she?”
He looked at the empty trailer, which now seemed barren and unwelcoming since she was gone. “Staying at Orson’s house since he’s rehabbing there, helping plan a service for Linda. She’s reached out to Rudden to include him, but he’s not interested.”
“Rudden’s another victim in all this,” Kara said, “but he’ll have to take the consequences for his part in stealing the IDs for Orson.”
Stephanie nodded. “All right. I’m going to chalk this one up as ‘case closed’ for Security Hounds. Another successful conclusion.”
But it didn’t feel anywhere close to successful for Garrett. He’d assumed from the lack of replies to his texts and phone calls that Catherine didn’t want to speak to him. She required time, or maybe too much had happened between them that they were now permanently torn apart.
“You need a fresh ice pack, Mom,” Kara announced.
“Fresher than the one you gave me fifteen minutes ago?”
“Yep.” Kara laughed. “Fresher than that one. And Stephanie’s going to make you a cup of hot tea.”
“Right.” Stephanie opened the back slider. “For how long do you slop in the tea bag again?”
Kara giggled and the two disappeared inside. Beth tipped her face to the sunshine. Garrett kissed her and let himself through the gate into the field to give Pinky a rub as a reward for at least attempting to retrieve the ball that Chloe had snagged. He felt his brother behind him.
“You’re here to give me a pep talk?” Garrett said.
“No, to invite you to go bowling with me.”
“I’m terrible at bowling.”
“That’s why I invite you. You’re easy to trounce.”
They both laughed.
Garrett sighed. “I know what else you’re here to do, and you don’t have to.”
“How’s that?”
“I love her.”
“I assume we’re discussing Catherine,” he teased.
“And she’s had her world ripped apart and I had a hand in that. She has a million reasons to stay away from me.”
“Yes,” Chase said, “and there are your horrible bowling skills too.”
He ignored the joke. “And I’d be a fool to press her, at this point, with how things are.”
Chase folded his arms, one eyebrow quirked, waiting.
“And I’m going to do it anyway because I’m not going to live with any more ‘what ifs’ or ‘why didn’t I’s.’ What do you have to say about that, Chase?”
Chase smiled, stepped aside and grandly swept a palm toward the gate. “About time.”
Catherine sat on the stones in a lonely spot near Burney Falls, watching the waterfall thundering down, hoping the vibrations would pound away her agony. All the years and the lies and the sorrow. The last decade, her whole life even, she’d failed to see the truth about her sister. Antonia was impulsive, selfish, self-absorbed. While Catherine knew that her sister had loved their father, her own affection had made it impossible to see Tony’s other side, the manipulation, the inability to accept the consequences for her actions, the selfishness that had probably always been there.
Uncle Orson had been equally shocked when she spelled it all out for him. “She let everyone think it was Stone. Killed my wife even,” he’d said. He seemed smaller then, sitting in his own hospital bed as she relayed Antonia’s confession. “I—I think I must have played a part, giving her everything she asked for and not ever trying to rein her in.”
She’d pressed his arm. “What Tony did was not your fault, or my father’s or mine. She made a choice and she could not accept responsibility for it.” And she would go to jail for a very long time. Catherine would do what she could during the trial and stay as connected as possible no matter what the sentence was, but she would never love and accept blindly, ever again.
The mist from the waterfall bathed her face.
She was not totally surprised when Garrett and Pinky appeared around a bend in the trail. Garrett had been trying to contact her in the four days following her sister’s arrest. Or was it five? Six? Everything was still murky and unclear. She’d not been able to think how to respond to his messages, though she’d yearned to. What could she say after what Tony had done? How Catherine had taken her side, stubbornly refusing to hear anything contrary to what she’d wanted to believe.
She couldn’t quite look at Garrett, her mouth suddenly dry.
Pinky hustled over, inviting himself half onto her lap and slopping her with his tongue.
“Aww, come on, Pinky. Let the woman have some personal space, huh?” Garrett said.
Pinky meandered off to sniff at the bushes. Garrett settled on a rock next to her, sliding a foil-wrapped package from his pocket. “Muffin? Kara made some and she wanted me to be sure I got you to eat one. One of her finest weeds-and-seeds according to Chase.”
Smiling, she took it. “Thank her for me. It was so sweet of her, and you. I’m not very hungry, but I’ll have it later.”
She watched the tumbling ribbons of water. “I, um, I should have replied to your messages, but...”
“It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize for anything. It’s been a roller coaster for you lately.”
A roller coaster...or maybe a train wreck. “You were right about Stone,” she blurted.
He shrugged. “Wrong and right don’t matter much. I’m just sorry. So, so sorry for what’s happened.”
He reached tentatively for her arm and the connection was so very tender it made her want to cry. “None of it was your fault, no matter what I accused you of.”
His fingers kneaded her shoulder. “Don’t hang on to that. Please. I’m not.”
And he wouldn’t. He was that kind of man. She picked at the foil. “I wanted to ask you for some help.”
“Anything. Name it.”
“Can you...?” Overwhelmed, she stopped and took a breath.
He waited patiently as she tried to collect herself, his hand now tracing comforting circles on her back.
“Can you arrange for me to see him? Porter?”
Garrett’s eyes rounded. “Yes. I can do that if it’s what you want.”
She wasn’t quite sure what she’d say yet, but the terrible regret about what Tony had done needed to be expressed and if her sister couldn’t do it, Catherine would. “He’s okay now, physically? He’ll be free?”
“He’s still in the hospital and he’ll face charges, but Hagerty’s working on getting it all straightened out. He’s guilty of abducting you and Orson, but your uncle has indicated he would like to ask that Stone be treated with leniency.”
She nodded. “I hope I can figure out what to say to him...”
“God will give you the words.” He reached for her hand and squeezed. “And I’ll be there too, if you want.”
She covered his hand with hers. “You’d do that? After everything I said?”
He chuckled. “What, you think I haven’t heard worse from women? In high school, I was voted Most Likely to Get Dumped.”
She laughed and it felt good.
“See? Sometimes the court jester thing is a bonus.”
“Yes, it is.” She sighed. “I’m sorry for...”
He scooted around and took a knee in front of her so she had to look at him. “Catherine, you’re not going to apologize anymore. You wanted to believe your sister because you love her. There’s nothing to be sorry for.” He kept his hold on her hand.
Pinky barked at a squirrel chittering from a high branch.
“Pinky’s missed you.” He paused. “But not as much as I have.”
“I’ve missed you too,” she admitted. “It’s just... I’m such a mess. Everything is wreck and ruin around me. I don’t know what to hold on to.”
“Me.” He squeezed her hand, his eyes so bright and sincere. “Hold on to God and hold on to me. Together, that’s the way to get through this. Not alone.”
Together...it sounded perfect.
“I love you,” he said in a voice so soft it barely carried over the rushing water.
She stared at him. How could he? After all of it? Tears brimmed in her eyes and spilled out in hot trails. Before she could answer, he continued.
“I love you for the way you love people. You hold on, and give your best, even if it hurts you. I’m so grateful that you called me out on the joking stuff. You asked me to be myself because you valued me and that helped me value myself.” He went hoarse. “What you’ve endured...it’s made you amazing, or maybe you were amazing before.”
She almost did not trust her senses. Could it be happening?
“I feel deep in my soul that God made you for me to adore, if you can tolerate a clown as a partner, that is.”
Dreaming. That had to be what she was doing. But he kneeled there, with an expression of hope wrapped in love. It was real. He was real.
When she could speak, she cupped his cheek and kissed him. “I love you, Garrett.”
His smile was ebullient, dazzling. He stroked her hair and kissed her. Everything came whirling through her soul, a rush of sadness and grief absorbed by something bigger, steadier and lasting.
“But...” she sniffed. “But I don’t know what...or how much I can give you right now. With everything...” She gestured helplessly to the invisible mountain of mess that shadowed her and she started to cry.
“It’s okay.” He held her until her shivering slowed and comfort began to creep in.
“I know you have a boatload of emotions to deal with, and that will continue as Antonia goes to trial.”
Antonia. Trial. Court. Again. The mass of it almost crushed her but she felt his strong touch, the press of his lips on her temple. “I don’t even know how to do this,” she choked out.
“One day at a time and I want to be there for it, to love you through it, to pray for you in it and when you’re ready, if—if you’re ever ready, I’ll be right here, waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For you. For us. For our future.”
Another truth settled over the wound delivered by her sister, the truth that in the midst of the mess, a Godly man loved her and she loved him back. “I love you. So much.”
And it was as if the pieces of her heart she’d sensed before settled together again, the way they were meant to fit. There would always be a few missing—her father, the sister she’d known and the innocence she’d lost—but she knew God was offering her something precious, lasting, real.
She hugged Garrett and cried, unable to believe that love had come out of the ashes.
Pinkerton ambled over and added his sloppy kiss to their embrace. Then he sat down to watch, waiting for the moment he’d lead them home.
If you enjoyed this story in the Security Hounds miniseries by Dana Mentink, be sure to pick up the previous book Tracking the Truth
Available now from Love Inspired Suspense!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Protecting the Amish Child by Dana R. Lynn.