Page 118 of Night Hawk
Lisa gave a firm nod.
Clay drove in silence, and Toni listened to the conversation going on in the back seat.
“We never had seats like these,” Rachel said.
“That’s because your dad didn’t know about them,” Lisa answered calmly.
Toni looked back to see Lisa’s mouth in a grim line.
“Do we really get to do what we want to do now?” Rachel asked. “No one is going to tell us to stop? Or take us away from you?”
Lisa stared at her daughter. “You’ll still have to listen to me.”
“Yeah,” Rachel said. “But I mean other people.”
Lisa clutched her hands together. “That’s kind of a tricky question. There are some people you need to listen to and obey. Like the police.”
“But Ursula said they’re bad.”
“Don’t believe anything Ursula has told you. She’s wrong, and she was trying to control you. No one can control you like she did.” Lisa brushed Rachel’s hair back from her forehead. “You’ll get it as time goes on, and I’ll be right there to help you.”
“I can help too.” Toni smiled at Rachel, but the child’s expression was filled with distrust.
Toni’s heart shredded even more. How could this happen to Lisa and these poor children? To all the people who were trafficked? Such a horrific crime. Just terrible. Now that it was so personal to Toni, she couldn’t handle this pain every day. Couldn’t keep working in this area.
Clay pulled into the driveway and parked near the house. A light shone through the living room window, and Toni glanced at Lisa. She looked frozen. Unable to move.
“Maybe I should go to the door,” Toni said. “And have them come out here to talk to you.”
Lisa gave a wooden nod.
“Be right back.” As Toni opened her door, Clay squeezed her hand. She smiled at him, but her heart was so broken for Lisa and the kids that she had to force it.
She rushed up the sidewalk and rang the doorbell.
Her grandfather opened the door, his face haggard and tired. “Never expected to see you again.”
“I’m sorry for leaving things the way I did.” Toni searched for the right words. “I’m trying to figure this all out.”
“I understand.”
“Walt? Who is it?” Her grandmother stepped up behind her grandfather.
“Oh, Toni. Oh.” A smile lit her face.
“I have someone in the car I want you to see.”
“If this is about Nolan Wilshire,” her grandfather said.
“I’ll explain about him later, but first, come with me.” She didn’t wait to see if they followed but marched to the SUV and opened the back door.
Lisa slid out.
“Grandma and Grandpa,” she said. “It’s me. Lisa.”
29
On Sunday afternoon, Toni sat in a hotel suite in a place just down the road from Joy’s damaged hotel, listening to the waves curling up on the beach, and trying to forgive her grandparents. She’d attended a beach sunrise service under a cool but misty sky that morning with her grandparents, Lisa, and her children. Lisa had already forgiven them for holding information back on Nolan Wilshire, so why couldn’t Toni? Maybe it was because Lisa had known her grandparents in her childhood and loved them.
