Leslie hated to sacrifice time with Conner, but she couldn’t wait to get home and call her mother. She asked him to give her an hour, then if he wanted to see her later, the price of admission was takeout from the bar.
“Why didn’t you tell me Greg’s been pestering you?” she said when she got her mom on the phone.
“Oh, I thought I mentioned…” Candace said.
“I knew he called or something to ask where I’d gone when he couldn’t find me in Grants Pass, but I had no idea he’d continued bothering you.”
“Well, I knew it wasn’t your doing, Leslie. I didn’t want you to worry about it. And I thought I finally got rid of him.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Oh, really since you moved,” she said. “At first I thought he was only stopping by because he wanted to know where you’d gone, but then when he kept it up after he finally knew where you were, I was a little confused. I finally told him, in a nice way, that he just couldn’t drop in on us anymore. I said it was a requirement that he call ahead. In which case I always said we were just on our way out. But the doofus just kept calling.”
“What is up with him?” Leslie asked.
“Well, at first he said he didn’t want his relationship with us to be lost just because the marriage was over, but I knew that wasn’t true. The conversation always came around to you very quickly. He wanted to know how you were. So I told him you had never been better, that you were seeing a wonderful man and were so happy.”
“When did you do that?”
“Just last week,” Candace said. “Why?”
“He came down here to Virgin River. Again!”
“What on earth…”
“He wanted the details about this man I’m seeing. He wanted to help me through the rebound crisis because he’s certain I’m devastated over losing him.”
Candace laughed into the phone.
“What’s funny?” Leslie asked.
“He has such a high opinion of himself, that’s what’s funny. How’d you get rid of him?”
“I shot him with the fire extinguisher. This time I got him good.”
“That’s getting to be quite a habit, isn’t it, sweetheart? I just had the scariest thought—you might be getting more like your parents….”
She sighed. “That wouldn’t be all bad, especially if I could have as much fun as you do. I’m going to get a fire extinguisher for the house. You know, if I weren’t afraid of the message it might send to Greg, I’d call Allison and ask her if she can keep him home.”
“Hmm. Maybe the new marriage isn’t working out so well—have you thought of that? He has far too much time on his hands.”
“Oh, please be wrong,” she said. “I need him to be happily married and not my problem.”
“There was a time such a thought—that his marriage was on the rocks—would have filled you with joy,” Candace reminded her.
“Well, I’ve discovered something very important over the past couple of months. The only thing worse than feeling rejected and devastated is feeling like a damn fool.”
The second week in May, Conner received a message from Brie to give her a call when he had a minute. She told him she had information for him and to come to her house around six in the evening, by which time she expected to be done working for the day. To kill time, he went to Jack’s for a beer.
If Conner had any fantasy of flying under the radar in Virgin River, it was gone by now. He was made as the man in Leslie’s life. It only took one bartender, one cook, a couple of local guys sharing a pitcher and one general contractor whose loose lips had the story all over town. Within a week of Greg’s visit and the fire extinguisher dousing in the bar, it was a legend. Virgin River, he realized, loved a good story. They had plenty of them, too. There wasn’t a lot of entertainment in town besides those stories, and they lapped them up.
“Small town,” Jack said. “We live for stuff like that.”
“And the latest story on me?” Conner probed.
“Nothing all that interesting. Just that you’re gonna have to get Leslie away from her ex-husband to have her.” And then Jack grinned.
Conner eyeballed him for a moment while he considered the grim truth—that he had much more interesting facts still under wraps. “You people,” he said, shaking his head, “need to get a life.”
“This is the life, man. As a rule we like as little excitement as possible.”
Conner could relate to that.
“Where is the little lady tonight?” Jack asked.
“I believe tonight is yoga night,” Conner said.
“And what do you do on yoga night?”
“A little computer time and early to bed. Being gossiped about is very tiring.”
Jack laughed. “I guess you’re not as tough as you look.”
Conner went from the bar to Brie’s house. She’d said he was to come to her front door at six, not her law office door which was an addition to the side of the house. When she let him in, he was struck by how much she reminded him of his sister. Brie was tiny in her snug jeans and bare feet. Her sleeves were rolled up, and she had a child’s cup in her hand. Her hair was loose and long, and she looked so much younger than she was. If he was correct, she was over thirty-five.
“Come in,” she said. “I’m giving Ness her dinner.”
He followed her to the kitchen. He watched her pull a bowl of mac and cheese from the microwave and blow on it. Ness was seated at the small kitchen table on a booster chair, squealing and reaching for her dinner. “All right, all right, hang on to your britches,” Brie said, putting the bowl in front of her. She filled the cup with milk and put it on the table, then leaned against the kitchen counter and let out a breath.
He chuckled and shook his head. “It’s sure hard to picture you kicking butt in a courtroom,” he said.
“She was terrifying, too,” Mike Valenzuela said as he came into the kitchen. He didn’t look like a cop in his denim shirt, jeans and boots. But then as Conner had learned, he didn’t want to. He rarely carried a sidearm, though he kept a rifle in the rack in his truck. “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked, opening the refrigerator.
“No, thanks. What’s up?”
“Couple of things,” Brie said. “First of all, they’ll be starting jury selection soon—looks like they’re running close to the time frame Max suggested. I bet you’ll be called by late May. Possibly sooner. That should come as good news. And this was forwarded to you from the D.A.’s office to me.” She handed him a white envelope.
He looked at the handwriting and return address and handed it back to her. “This is my ex-wife. I’ve gotten letters before. I don’t read them.”
“Read this one, please,” Brie said. “We’d like to know how she knew to send it to the D.A.’s office, if she mentions that.”
He pressed it on her. “Go ahead, knock yourself out. Read it.”
“It could be personal, Conner,” she said as she took the envelope with reluctance.
Of course the D.A. knew the story even if Brie didn’t. “No, it couldn’t be. We’ve been divorced almost two years and we divorced because she had a problem with sex, as in she had a great deal more of it than I did. With many, many partners.”
“Oh,” Brie said. “Sorry.”
“So go ahead. It’s probably one of those amends letters—there were quite a few before the fire, before the murder in my back alley.”
“Amends?” Brie asked as she ripped open the envelope. “I take that to mean…?”
“Some kind of program,” he answered. “A very long, expensive program. My parting gift to the lady.”
“Wow,” Brie said under her breath, unfolding a long letter. “Wow,” she said again, taking in the neat, close, tightly constructed and lengthy penned letter—three pages, both sides. It was written so densely. Obsessively. “This could take a while.”
“Take as long as you like, it’s all yours.”
“You’re not wondering how she tracked you down to Max? The D.A.’s office?”
“Not really. She was a smart woman. About most things.”
Brie scanned the first page. “Well, we’re in luck—it’s up front. After she heard about the killing and your store being burned down she decided to take a chance and see if the D.A.’s office might know where you could be. She’s very worried about you and hopes you’re all right.”
“That’s Samantha,” he said. “She was worried about me before all this happened, too. She wants dialogue—it’s not going to happen.”
“Maybe she wants to be forgiven,” Brie suggested.
“That, too, so I told her that I forgave her, but that we weren’t going to have a relationship. It just isn’t a good idea, not for either one of us. I wish she’d quit writing me letters.”
Brie scanned some more. “She says she’s been straight for a long time and that she’s sorry and that she misses you.”
“Hmm,” he said. “Good for her. That she’s fixed, I mean. So, there are a couple of things I need to talk to you about. First of all, when do you think I’ll be asked to go to Sacramento?”
“A few weeks, I think. Give or take.”
Ness tried to get her cup of milk, just out of her reach, and Conner automatically slid it closer to her. “There you go, honey,” he said. “That’s good, isn’t it?” he asked her gently. Then he straightened and looked at Brie. He was glad they were all in the kitchen together with Ness eating her dinner. That alone would probably keep Brie from having a little hissy fit.
“Before I testify, I’m going to see my sister,” he said. “I’ll drive to San Francisco, leave the truck in the long-term lot and fly to Vermont. I haven’t asked her if I can visit yet, but I’m sure she’ll be happy to see me. We’re very close. I’m close to the kids.”
“Not recommended,” Brie said, shaking her head.
“I wasn’t asking for a recommendation,” Conner said. “I don’t know what you know about me, Brie, so let me fill in some gaps. Our parents died when we were young—both of them were gone when Katie was twenty and I was twenty-three. We took over a family business we didn’t know how to run, and although she thought she was all grown-up by then, I had to be a parent to her. She married a great man, Charlie, when she was twenty-six—he was like a brother to me. Less than a year later, a couple of months before Katie’s twin boys were born, he was killed in Afghanistan. That was five years ago. I took care of her and my nephews right up to the day the D.A. sent her in one direction and me in another.
“Now I talk to Katie every day, and guess where we are? She likes where she is. There’s someone she’s starting to care about there. She’s talking about staying there. She thinks she and the boys might have a future there. She was kind of hoping I’d end up there, near them. But what do you suppose happened? After all these years, after all the crap, I find myself wanting to give a little more time to the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Conner, look, I’m totally sympathetic, but—”
“I don’t know what your concept of family is, Brie, but Katie and I and the boys are tight. We’ve always known we might not live in the same town all our lives—hell, she was married to a military man. She was going to be moving around as an army wife—I can live with that. We can make do on visits. But like I said, we’re tight. The boys don’t get why they haven’t seen Uncle Danny—that’s how they’ve always known me. And before I testify, before I put my life on the line or make another major change in my life, I’m going to do two important things. I’m going to tell Leslie what I’m up against and that I’ll come back here after the trial if she thinks she can handle that. And I’m going to go see my sister to be sure she and the boys are all right. And that they’ll be safe and happy if they stay there.”
Brie looked down. She slapped the effusive blue-inked letter against her thigh. She looked up at him. “Now look—”
“Brie,” Mike said. He didn’t say it loudly or sternly, he just said her name and she looked at him. He lifted his cola can, and on the way to his lips, he gestured toward Conner.
“There are risks. No matter what I do. That son of a bitch could have me capped as I’m walking up the courthouse steps. In fact, that’s the only thing that makes sense. And I bet he’d still get convicted.”
Mike gave a shrug that was nearly a nod.
“I’ll keep the new name, all the new ID, and if the D.A.’s office will help, I’ll sell everything and start over. I’d be willing to sell it all, but it probably makes more sense to put it all in crated storage in Sacramento until we have a destination. The houses…?” Conner shrugged. “We’ll have to sell them. We know we’re not going to live in Sacramento again. Not after what happened there. I’ll pay for the truck I’m using or get a new one, whatever. Katie’s share will give her a fresh start. But that’s it, that’s all I’m doing. I’m not going to run for the rest of my life. If Regis Mathis doesn’t get me before I can help lock him up for life, I find it hard to believe he’s going to go to too much trouble and expense to scour the entire frickin’ United States for me or Katie. Not just for revenge. His money would be better spent on lawyers for his appeal.”
“Think about this,” she said. “Please.”
“Thought about it. I’ve seen you with your brother, your husband, your daughter. There’s no way you’d do what I’m doing. You’d have Mike wearing his pistol to bed every night before you’d go through this.”
“I’m not sure how Max is going to take this,” she said.
“Well, he’s a good man,” Conner said. “He might get a little unhappy with me, but he’s not going to retaliate by giving my current address to Mathis. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Brie took a moment to turn her back on him as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She turned back to him. “You really thought about this. What did it? What changed your mind? Made you put together all these plans? Leslie?”
“Leslie is so awesome,” he said. “But seriously, it’s not like we’re ready to make a commitment or anything—we haven’t known each other too long and we both have some pretty kinky exes to overcome. That’s why I want more time with her—I’m not tossing this away before it’s had a chance. It was your husband,” he said. “Mike.”
“Mike?”
“Decorated police officer. According to Jack, not only a bunch of medals in the Marine Corps but a commendation as a sergeant in the gangs unit. Here’s a guess,” he said, looking at Mike. “You’ve testified against a lot of bad guys. And you didn’t go into hiding.”
Mike gave him a small smile. “A ton of bad guys. And I did keep a very discreet profile. Still do. But I do agree with you about one thing—if Mathis doesn’t stop you before you testify—I think the revenge factor is fairly slim. He might be that kind of criminal, but I’m sure he’ll have bigger things on his mind. Mathis is a businessman, not a psycho. Killing you afterward isn’t going to get him much—just maybe scratch an itch. He might be too busy for that.”
“You face the same threat every day,” Conner said. “The revenge possibility.”
“As does Mrs. Valenzuela,” he said. “She put away a lot of felons.”
“There you go,” Conner said.
“One of them escaped conviction and attacked me,” Brie said. “Remember that.”
“I’ll never forget it,” Conner said. “I’m so sorry that happened. I really am. And I still think my plan is a good one.”
“Everything changes, of course, if he somehow gets another trial and you are once again the only witness that can hurt him,” Mike said.
“I guess I’ll have to count on Max to run a tight prosecution and make it stick then, won’t I? I’ll take my chances. I’ll let you break it to Max.”
“Oh, gee. Thanks.”
“We just gotta get this over with,” he said. “Really.”
“Well, how about this compromise—wait till after the trial to visit your sister….”
He was shaking his head. “Sorry. She’s my only family. Those boys are like my sons. The risk is now, not so much after the trial. I need to see them before something…” He dropped his chin and didn’t say, before someone gets to me to keep me from testifying. “Now. Before the trial. Who’s gonna know anyway?”
“At least do this for me—fly out of an airport that isn’t real high-profile. A smaller airport—Redding, maybe. Avoid the big airports if possible, especially the ones near Sacramento where associates of Mathis’s might happen to be.”
“I can do that.”
Conner emailed Katie. He asked her to email him her address, using their new, secure email handles and accounts. Katie was in Burlington, Vermont. And then he called her.
“But you can’t come here, Conner! You’ve been told not to do that!”
“I’m going to slip out of here in a couple of weeks,” he said. “I’ll let you know when to expect me. I’ll spend a few days to a week with you. By then it will be time or almost time for me to go to court. After that it will be over and we can get on with our lives. But, Katie, you and I have things to talk about. Where we’ll get on with our lives, for one thing. There are so many things to think about. The boys being a first priority.”
With a little catch in her throat, she said, “You are so wonderful. No matter how complicated things get for you, you always put them first.”
“It isn’t hard to do that, honey. I’ll always do whatever I have to do to make sure they’re in the best possible place.”
Their conversations were always pretty brief, so after a few minutes on the phone, they said their goodbyes, leaving Conner time to think about the future. Despite the fact that it caused a little ache in his heart to think of his only family living on the other coast, if they were happy there, he’d manage. He might end up spending more on travel expenses than he could afford, but the most important thing was that his sister and the boys have a good life.
The second most important thing was that he tell Leslie the truth and give her some time to consider the fact that she was lied to. He gave himself permission to wait until the weekend, when there would be time to talk it all out. While she went to her Saturday yoga group, he went to her house, cut the grass and watered her flowers. He bought himself a steak and the sea bass he knew she loved, along with all the other dinner trimmings that would please her.
When she got home and saw what he’d done, she smiled and said, “Someone wants something….”
“Understanding, that’s what I want,” he said. “Les, I’ve never lied about my feelings for you—they’re real and they’re real powerful. But a lot of the rest of my personal history is a lie.”
“Oh, God,” she said. “Oh, Conner…what?”
“It’s actually Danson Conner,” he said.
Conner was surprised by the weight it lifted off his shoulders just to be able to tell Leslie the whole story, even though she was shocked. Stunned. Pretty much blown away.
They were seated at her little kitchen table, facing each other, because this wasn’t a conversation for bed or for the porch, where they might be overheard. When he got to the part about being the only witness in a murder trial, thus the name change and low-profile existence in Virgin River, she let her head drop to the table with a groan.
“I’m sorry, Les,” he said.
She lifted her head wearily. “It’s not like you planned it….”
“When I said I had baggage, it was more than a divorce and those trust issues.”
“No kidding.”
“You would probably be smart to cut your losses here and now.”
“What does that mean? You mean kick you to the curb?”
He gave a little shrug. “The reason no one knows where I am or who my close friends are is because I’ve been threatened. My store was burned down. And the reason no one but me and the D.A. knows where Katie and the boys are is because we can’t take the chance that they would be threatened to get to me. We won’t be going back to Sacramento, where we’ve lived almost our entire lives, because we’d make too visible a target in the unlikely case of revenge.”
“Where will you go?”
“Not sure. Katie likes it where she is, but that’s not a final decision. I like it here, but that’s not a final decision, either.”
“And after the trial? Is your life in danger after the trial?” She wanted to know.
“Always possible, if you consider revenge. But I’m not a mobster testifying against mobsters…. I’m just a guy who was taking out the trash. I’ll keep this new identity and start over, but I’m not planning to hide in deep cover like secret witnesses in a marshal’s program. You know—like never make a phone call to friends or visit them. Every witness to any crime faces the possibility of revenge, I guess. But if the guy is locked up, getting rid of me won’t help him. Might even make things worse for him. I think I’m at risk before the trial. Which is why I’m going to visit Katie and the boys before I have to go testify. While I can…”
“You should,” she said.
“It would be hard to give you up, but like I said…”
“Right—cut my losses. Well, not before you cook and serve me that sea bass, that’s for sure.”
He smiled at her. “Maybe after I finish the dishes?” he asked.
“Maybe after you finish me,” she said. “But unlikely. If you decide to go away, I won’t try to hold on to you. You’re free to go, you know that. But I’m not going to give you up just because you come with a few complications. You’re too good in the kitchen.”
“I don’t want to put a strain on you….”
“Oh, I think we’ll manage. Now before we enjoy a splendid meal and some wild monkey sex, is there anything else you should tell me?”
“You mean other than a crazy ex-wife and a murderer who could be after me? No, that probably covers it.”
