Page 94 of Keeping Amanda
“Can I help you?” Nash asked the newcomer.
The man didn’t move into the room, correctly reading Nash’s aggressive body language. “My name is John Keegan. You know me as Tex.”
Amanda’s eyes widened. She remembered Tex. He was the man Nash had been working with to try to find Blair. The man who’d notified the authorities that the little girl found in the park in North Carolina was most likely Bibi.
“Tex,” Nash said with a nod of his head, sounding almost…cold.
Amanda frowned. Why was he being so standoffish? Nash had admired this man. Was grateful for his help.
“I know you probably aren’t happy to see me, but I heard Mandy was being discharged today, and I wanted to come down and personally tell her how relieved I am that she’s okay.”
The men stared at each other without saying anything else.
Amanda let out a quiet breath of exasperation. “Thank you for coming, Tex. It’s so good to meet you. I’ve heard amazing things about you.”
His gaze swung to hers, but he still didn’t move from the doorway. “Thank you. I understand you’re doing well. That the side effects from your injury are minimal.”
Nash snorted under his breath.
That was it; Amanda was done with his strange behavior. “Please move over, Nash. I want to shake his hand.”
Nash slowly moved to the side, which seemed to be the permission Tex needed to approach the bed. She shook his hand, studying the unassuming man who was apparently capable of hacking just about any kind of electronic out there.
“Thanks again for donating money to the school down in Guyana.”
Tex nodded.
“And for finding the connection between Blair and the rebels.”
He nodded again.
“And for identifying Bibi.”
He nodded a third time.
The air was thick with tension, and Amanda didn’t like it. Not one bit. “And for finding the cure to cancer.”
Tex began to nod, then stopped himself and gave her a questioning look.
“Just making sure you’re paying attention and not just nodding to agree with me. What’s going on? Nash, why are you acting so strange? What don’t I know?” she asked.
Tex looked at Nash, then back at her. “It’s my fault you were attacked.”
Amanda couldn’t help it. She laughed.
Both men looked a little shocked at her reaction.
“I mean, I don’t remember what happened, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’tyouwho sprang out of the darkness and bashed me over the head with a crowbar.”
Her words were probably a little crude, but she wasn’t going to tiptoe around the details of the attack. What was done was done. She was alive and well, and she planned on staying that way.
“It wasn’t. But I failed in finding Blair. In making sure she could be detained so she wasn’t a threat to you.”
Amanda sighed. These men and their God complexes. Their desire to be protectors at all times, even when doing so simply wasn’t possible. “It’s not your fault,” she said sternly. “It’s not Nash’s fault. It’s not the bar’s fault. It’s not my fault. It’sherfault. Blair’s. You said it yourself, she was mentally unstable. Something clicked in her brain and she snapped. Even if you had found her, and she was taken into custody, she probablystillwould’ve found a way to hurt me.”
“If she was apprehended, she would’ve been in jail for killingBibi,” Nash retorted. “She wouldn’t have been in that parking lot, and you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
“You want to throw blame around? Fine. It wasmyfault, and my fault alone.Iwas the one who accepted that job in Guyana, where Blair met me in the first place.Iwas the one who didn’t fight tooth and nail to get away, when I was grabbed along with the kids when they were kidnapped.Iwas the one who told Blair I wanted to adopt Bibi and Michael. If it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t have kidnapped Bibi at all…wouldn’t have neglected her to the point shedied. If it wasn’t forme, she wouldn’t have been in Virginia, waiting in the Anchor Point parking lot.”
