Liberty House Page 20

  Only once did he ever love before. He had gotten too close to a northern redhead girl, Lisa Pepper. More physically than emotionally. He had regrets on how he handled that relationship. He courted her for about six months and was going to propose. He loved her but he felt guilty of how he acted. Well, he did propose, and she said no. She couldn’t bear to have his child. Couldn’t imagine having a Mexican child. It had taken months to heal from that, but he realized now looking back on it that God had his hand on Cole’s future. God didn’t want a wife like that for him and He wanted Cole’s full attain and He did. Cole started a closer walk with the Lord again. He decided then with God’s help, the next relationship the girl would become his wife.

  He had never taken in thought if Tommy would reject him by not wanting to have his child. He didn’t know if he could have two rejections like that. Everything about Tommy told him she wouldn’t, but knowing it was possible was scary. It was a chance he might be wrong.

  “Lord, what do you want me to do? Help me do what is right.” He continued to pray as he ended back to town.

  When he entered the office, Matt greeted him, “Hey, Cole. You mind watching the office tonight? Owen and Frank are both busy.”

  “Sure,” he hid his disappointment. He wouldn’t be able to see Tommy after all. Which probably was good for his emotions at the moment.

  Matt patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Texan, you will see your love tomorrow.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “I can see love when love’s in the air,” Matt chuckled.

  Cole shook his head. “And here I thought what I was supposed to do was protect her and I give her my heart instead,” he drawled.

  “I will pray about it.” Matt knew how serious that was.

  “What do you think I was doing today?”

  “I’ve been praying for you both for a while now. That God will show you what He wants.”

  “Thanks, I need it.” Cole looked away. “You know your sister can steal a man’s heart without even knowing it,” Cole amused groveled.

  Matt laughed at that.

  “Miss Starry, can I ask you something?” Lucia asked the first morning being there, she was just about to go in the dining room, but she wanted to catch Gloria alone for a minute.

  “Sure,” Gloria told her.

  ”How long have you known Tommy?”

  ”Since she was nine, I was eleven, we met at the orphanage. We were in a room full of other girls, but I stayed in the same bed with her.” Gloria felt like she could open up to Lucia. It was something about her that said she would understand. “Tommy would shake in bed and cry out in her sleep; I never knew why until now. We went to the Silkwood though and loved it with Missy and then with Ellen. Ellen is so important in our life. I don’t know what we would do without her.”

  ”God blessed y'all with a wonderful mother.”

  Gloria nodded and asked quietly, looking away, “Do you think orphans will ever heal? Move past things in their past?”

  “Gloria, honey, look at me.” She took Gloria’s chin gently in her hand and made Gloria look at her. “With God anything is possible. Even being healed from the worst past. Never give up and have faith.”

  “It’s hard. So hard sometimes with Tommy. Sometimes she’s not so lovable all the time, she lied for years and years,” Gloria was close to tears now. She thought she was past this part, but it all came out talking to her. “I trusted her with my past and she never even told me a bit of it.”

  Lucia led Gloria to the reading nook and sat down. “Oh, honey. Tommy was wrong. All the people aren’t so lovable all the time. But I’ve learned when they are the least lovable that’s when they need it the most. But did Tommy ask you to forgive her for not telling you?”

  She nodded.

  “Gloria, you want to show Tommy God’s love and His forgiveness?”

  She nodded again.

  “Then how can you expect her to see God’s love and forgiveness when one of His children won’t forgive her. Tommy was wrong but she needs to be forgiving fully. And that means to never look back to her sin, her lie. You can forgive her with God’s help. If you don’t, you only hurt yourself and drive a wedge between you and God and Tommy. And by forgiving you can help her with God, but also yourself.”

  “You’re right. I’ve been actin’ like Jesse. He has been bitter towards her. He thinks he’s been hidin’ it, but not well enough. I never should have done that.”

  “And Gloria, I’m not making excuses for Tommy, but put yourself in her shoes. She was loved based on her actions as a child. Kidnapped, watched her best friend be killed, had to stay with the Feds, which I can say destroys lives by itself, and some were alone with no guardian, or someone loving just her and just a scared brother all alone. I can see why she never told anyone. You have to understand that fear goes so far in your heart where it controls you and I know that fear is still there, especially as a child.”

  “You’re right.”

  Katrina walked up. “Children that go through that, do they heal? Will Tommy heal?”

  “Oh, you were listening,” Lucia said, surprised.

  “Sorry for interrupting,” Katrina said. She was forward about it, but felt comfortable with her. “I was just wondering, do people heal?”

  “Like I told Gloria, with God anything is possible. She will have to ask God to heal her, He is the only One, and He will help her in every way and never leave her, it will take time. I look at it this way, when Tommy was at the Feds before she came here.” She paused. “She broke a heart cookie and she said this is her heart. Sawyer, being the older brother, tried to fix it. Only God can fix that broken heart. He will day by day, He will put it back together; adding icing and making it whole, but there may always be a crack. Family and close friends staying are adding more icing.”

  “Like Cole to help Tommy?”

  “No, she is too close to Cole. She likes him too much.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I can tell," she said dryly, “She’ll need to want it with her whole heart. What she needs to realize; is that time in her life, the kidnapping and the orphanage, it was just a hard time in her life. Yes, a very horrible, terrible past that has changed her, but that is what it is. It can carry with her the rest of her life and make it a whole lot bigger, or she can leave it as it is the past and move on to the future not letting it shape her outlook on life and her actions. It's okay to live with a scar, but stop picking at the scar; let it go and move on.”

  Gloria knew Lucia was talking of Tommy but that could apply to her as well. She had years to get over what happened to her as a child. Maybe she should try what Lucia said. Letting it go and move on with Jerry. Trusting God would take care of the rest.

  Cole came out to the lawn; the roses and flowers were in full bloom. The moss hung on the trees around the circle porch, where Lucia, Sophia, and Tommy were sitting on chairs on the lawn. Matt had told him his friends from Texas were here. He let his gaze go to Tommy. She looked like an Angel sitting in the sun like that. She was even wearing a light blue dress. He walked up to Lucia and Sophia and greeted them.

  Then he turned to Tommy and grinned, “So I see you are livin’ here for free and doin’ no work?”

  “Only yesterday. I did some work this morning,” she defended herself. “I’ve gotten to know your friends and I’ve gotten to know some very interesting secrets about you in the meantime,” she laughed.

  Oh, how he missed her last night. He missed that smile, “Oh, really? And what do you think I’ve been doing working with your brothers.”

  “You and the family found out all my secrets.”

  “All of them, huh?” He grinned.

  “Okay, maybe not all, Texan. You have more to learn.”

  He deepened his gaze and whispered, “I’ll enjoy the challenge, Yellow Rose.

  Her face showed surprise.

  Cole just realized what he called her.

  As Cole held Tommy�
�s gaze, he heard the first gunshot.

  By the time the second one went off, Cole was on Tommy. He heard Maverick come running. Cole was covering Tommy’s body. He couldn’t see what happened or who had been shot. He prayed they would be okay. Still covering her with his body, he pulled out his gun and shot, even though he didn’t know where the shots had come from. He could see both Sophia and Lucia laying in their own blood.

  He stopped shooting to tell Tommy to go to the house. It was only a few feet away by now. He covered her, kept shooting where the first shot came from. She moved along on her hands and knees till she literally fell into the house.

  Guards were now pouring out of the house and shooting in the same way. Cole took a chance and ran into the house. He knew where she would be in the safe room, Mr. Runyan had done for her and for children in need. He ran to the door, finding two guards by it. Opening the door, he saw Tommy and Gloria holding each other. Their faces both hidden.

  “Tommy, Darlin’,” Tommy looked up and ran to his arms. He put his arms around her and held on. “Oh, Darlin’.” He put a hand on her hair and that is when he felt something wet. He looked at his hand and it was bright red. “Tommy, let me look. You are bleeding, hon.” She looked up at him like in a daze, blood was coming down her face along with some of her blonde hair.

  He took his handkerchief and put it to her face.

  Gloria stepped next to her, a concerned look.

  Cole looked at Gloria, “Where’s Susan?”

  “She’s at a dress fittin’,” Gloria replaced her hand on Tommy’s head, “I’ll stay here. Go see if you find that man.”

  Cole took Tommy’s face in his hands, “You all right?” He had to get a response from her before he left.

  Tommy looked in his eyes with a look of horror. She lowered her eyes and nodded.

  Cole knew she was far from all right, but he could do nothing about it now. He had been too late again.

  He walked out and trusting the guards to keep her safe. Outside he saw the shooting had stopped. A couple of men were around Lucia. He ran to her side. He could see the men had tried to stop the bleeding. Her eyes were open, her breathing was low. He tried to get the bleeding to stop. “You’ll be all right.”

  “Cole.” Lucia gasped.

  “Yes?”

  Her eyes lightened despite the pain, "Cole, when this job ends, follow your dreams. I want to see you live out your dreams."

  “Lucia, you can help me live my dreams.”

  “Promise me.”

  He nodded, let the tears run not caring if the men saw. “I will.”

  “Lucia, I love you. You are my big sis, Lucia.” The tears that now flowed; it was with her he had cried with first and shown her it wasn’t a sign of weakness to cry. Now he openly cried for his dear friend.

  She mouthed, “I love you, my dear little bro.” She let a tear fall, “Tell Iz I love her.”

  He saw her take her last breath.

  He shook his head, the bleeding had to be stopped.

  Andrew came up behind him, put a hand on Cole’s shoulder. “Sophia is gone.”

  “No,” He cried. Why oh, why? They did so much good on the earth, why take them? He wasn’t ready for them to leave. He shut off his emotions for the moment and got up, seeing Andrew and Maverick trying to find the shooter.

  What was he going to do without those two women? He knew them since he was a young boy. They had run Liberty House since it started. Lucia was the one to get it to run right and she helped with them all. He missed them already. How would Izzy do with this? Oh, Izzy, he had to tell her. He knew this news would break her. Lucia and Sophia were her best friends and had been for years. He looked up at Heaven, his heart cried, God how are we going to get through this?

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Maverick rode back to Daphne Estate, knowing he would find nothing. He tracked the shooter for miles until he came up with nothing. He had finally run into Owen. He wanted to cry. Or shoot someone. He should do the latter.

  Two helpless women died. He walked a few feet to where they were shot sitting on the patio.

  But why not shoot Tommy or Cole? The shooter could have done them all fast enough and still gotten away. But maybe he got scared and decided not to finish them both off and get caught.

  He walked back to the fence and went back to the other side where the shooter had been. Maverick could see where the shooter had knelt on one knee.

  Maverick would choose to do it on his stomach, both ways would have worked.

  Suddenly, he heard someone behind him, and he turned as he pulled his gun. It was Andrew. Andrew, as big he was, was normally so quiet.

  “Who do you think did it?” Andrew asked.

  He walked back to the patio before answering. Andrew expected the truth even if it was hard, “The men,” he said. “We both know how many people want to kill these ladies. They messed up a lot of men's lives, includin’ outlaws and bandits. It’s not like they don’t have a boatload of enemies to hire the men to kill them. It’d also throw us off the men or it could be a warning, it’s getting’ more dangerous. They are stepping up their game.”

  Andrew agreed. “What do we tell Tommy?” He frowned. “Or Cole? They were close. He’s going to feel like this was his fault since they didn’t have protection coming down here.”

  Maverick looked over the beautiful estate turned ugly fast. “They had protection on the train and comin’ here. I told them while stayin’ here, their bodyguards could go somewhere else.” He shook his head. “If I hadn't done that, maybe they would still be alive.”

  Andrew watched him. “Don’t do that. It's not your fault. But I reckon the men found out where Tommy was by following them. They led them right here.”

  Maverick felt sick. Isabella was going to be sick over this. Lucia and Sophia were what ran Liberty House. They were the ones that kept it going when everyone wanted it gone. Bella, her telegram name, was going to be in such grief. He hated what it would do to her. She didn’t deserve this. She had been through so much already. He looked around once before going inside to check on Tommy. The men had won again. When would they stop taking from this family? A family could only put up with so much. Maverick didn’t know how much more they could take.

  Izzy walked to Phoenix, mounted, and took off at a run. Feeling the wind on her face, she blocked all thoughts out. She was good at not feeling. Sometimes she wished she could feel more. She really wished Cole was here. Maybe she should head to Colorado.

  She rode to her cousins’ house. No one was in the yard. She dismounted and walked up to the door. She knocked and when no one answered, she walked in and called Maria’s name. She went to the kitchen, no one was there. She heard someone knock on the door. She went to get it. It was Joe from the telegrapher office. “Here, it’s from Cole.” He handed it to her, she could see the concern on his face, but he left after she thanked him. She opened the telegram and read it and after that, her world was shattered.

  The news hit her like a ton of pounds on top of her. She fell, hit the wall, and slid down. How could they be dead? She was in too much shock to feel anything. How? Were their bodyguards at the time of the murder? The men killed them. Could have been to get to the Starrys? Could have been paid to do it? Many people wanted those two ladies dead. Why them? So many questions. None of them would matter. Her friends were dead.

  She wanted to run, hide, she didn’t want to feel anything. She got up and moved to the door, not really feeling or seeing anything. When her boots hit the grass, she just started to run, and just ran. But she didn’t care or stop. People were going to ask her questions and she just wanted to be alone and mourn. She knew when she got scared or hurt. She had one reaction. Flee. Run. If she ran far enough, people wouldn’t hurt her. Tears started pouring down her face. She couldn’t see. She kept running as she ran along the beach. She needed her brother. Where was Cole? She wanted him, she needed him. Her heart was broken, and he wasn’t here to help her.

  She fina
lly stopped at the water and landed on her knees. Crying out to the only One who heard her when her cries got to the deepest part of her soul.

  They were now at the doctor’s office and Tommy had passed out from the loss of blood. She was resting for some time now.

  Cole loved this family almost as much as Tommy. They were so loyal to each other. They hit a crisis and they just figured out how to handle it. Like nothing faced them. Tommy needed this family, this family needed her. She might have doubts about herself but when it came to others, she loved them and protected them. They all needed her. He looked around the room, they needed her to get well. And their actions said that. Gloria looked terrible. Maverick was deciding on how to stay with her all the time, but Cole knew under that soldier he was just as hurting for his sister.

  “Cole, did you tell Izzy?” Sawyer asked.

  He nodded. "I won’t be able to go back for the funerals. I wouldn’t be able to make it and I hate to leave right now." He added, “I wrote a telegram to read at the funeral.”

  "Who’s in charge of that?"

  "Not Izzy,” Cole reassured them. “A cousin’s doin’ the funerals for both of them.” His face crumbled. “The children are going to be so broken. Though they have Liberty parents, the ladies meant so much to them.”

  "Is Izzy going to tell the children?"

  "No. I’ll have Jaun Jose tell them a few days before the funerals,” he paused, “Does anyone know why the ladies were here?"

  "To do work at the Home here, but they hadn’t gone yet because they decided to rest at Mr. Runyan’s. They had done that before Lucia told us," Gloria told him.

  He nodded, "I wish I had spoken to them." He needed to see his sister. He knew what this must be doing to her. He looked grimly at Maverick, “We need to talk.”