She was nearly to the door when a deep voice startled her.
“Didn’t you see the sign?”
Her heart jackhammering in her chest, she stammered a bit as she turned, her gaze catching the sign he was talking about. Trespassers Will Be Shot. No Exceptions. She swallowed and got straight to the point. “I’m sorry…I’m looking for Gladys Stemming but she doesn’t seem to be home and I wondered…”
“What do you want with Gladys?”
She frowned at his tone. “I’m Renee Dolling. Uh, well, she’s my aunt, by marriage, and I—” Why was she explaining herself to this man? Renee straightened. “Has she gone on a trip? If so, do you know when she’ll be back?”
“Dolling?” He repeated, a sudden shrewd light entering the hard stare coming at her from beneath a dusty and worn baseball cap. Little ducktails of dirty blond hair too long to be fashionable stuck out from under the hat as if to clearly state he had no time for such niceties as regular haircuts. And his sun-darkened face had a boyish charm that was completely at odds with the stern expression pinching his mouth as he said again, “Did you say your name was Dolling?”
“Yes…do I know you?”
“Name’s John Murphy and, no, we’ve never met, but you’ve sure got some explaining to do.”
“Excuse me?”
“Three days ago your husband dumped your kids with a sixty-seven-year-old woman and took off without so much as a ‘see you later’ and she’d just had surgery for a triple bypass but you wouldn’t know that now, would you, because you dumped your kids before he did.”
“He’s not my husband,” she muttered yet felt heat blooming in her cheeks at his words. At least he wouldn’t be in a few months. The divorce wasn’t quite final in the eyes of the courts but as far as she was concerned Jason could take a long walk off a short pier after the hell he’d put her through. Selfish bastard. Wait a minute…“Did you just say my husband dropped the girls off with Gladys?”
“I did.”
A relieved smile broke through her annoyance at being interrogated and she exhaled loudly. “Oh, thank God. Where is she? I’ve been looking for the girls for months and I’ve been worried sick.”
Her relief was short-lived as the man continued to openly assess her, as if he were weighing something heavy in his mind, and unease fluttered in her stomach. “Is there a problem?” she asked stiffly.
“I’d say so.”
“Which is?”
“You don’t have custody any longer.”
Renee’s knees nearly snapped out from under her as she sucked in a pained gasp. “What?”
“Yesterday afternoon your girls were placed in the protective custody of their aunt Gladys as a temporary measure until things can be sorted out. No mother, no father…Gladys was their closest relative. Simple as that.”
“Well, I’m back so that won’t be necessary, now will it?”
“Doesn’t work that way. Courts are involved. Convince them you’ve decided to be a mom again and then we’ll see. But, can’t say that will be easy. Seems the courts around here don’t take lightly to parents abandoning their kids.”
She bristled at the thinly veiled disgust behind his seemingly mild statement and allowed the building anger to hold the panic at bay.
He didn’t have the right to judge her. No one did. “Not that it’s any of your business but my reasons for leaving my children with their father are my own. I didn’t know he was going to do what he did. Just point me in the direction of my children and we’ll get out of your life.”
“I already told you I can’t do that.” He shifted lazily against the fence he was leaning against, the slow action belying the fierce set of his jaw.
“What?”
“You heard me. The girls are in Gladys’s custody. If you want your kids, you’re going to have to talk to the court.”
“This is ridiculous,” Renee said, her voice hitting a shrill note. “What the hell is going on here? Are you telling me that you’re keeping my girls from me? You’re stealing my children?” Her voice rose to a hysterical pitch on that last question while her heart beat so hard it felt as if it might burst right out of her chest. This wasn’t happening. This had to be a bad dream. A horrific, horrible dream. Total strangers didn’t just get to keep other people’s kids. It just didn’t happen.
“No. The way I see it, three little girls were abandoned by their no-account parents and the law stepped in to protect them. If that’s not the way you see it, then you need to prove otherwise to the judge. Until then, get off my property.”
Chapter Three
JOHN WATCHED AS THE BLONDE marched over to her car. She shot him one last burning look filled with animosity but he didn’t care. Something Taylor had said was still sticking in his mind in a terrible way. Was it possible that their father had put something bad into the baby’s eggs? And if so, did the mom know about it? He watched as the woman, Renee, climbed into her car and slammed the door. No doubt she was wishing his head were caught between the door and the chassis. She sat in her car glaring at him, clearly debating her next move.
The front door opened and Gladys appeared with the children flocked around her, each bundled in an odd assortment of secondhand clothes that looked old enough to earn a spot in a museum somewhere, and John knew that any chance of a peaceful resolution was over.
“Lexie?” The woman had jumped from the car and was now running toward the girls until John blocked her path with a warning that she didn’t heed. “Get out of my way,” she said in a low growl. “Those are my girls and you’re not going to stop me from at least seeing them!”
John turned to Gladys, who was watching the scene with alarm, and instructed the older woman to go back inside with the kids.
“Those are my kids! You can’t keep me from them. I have a right to see them. Let me go or you and I will have major problems that go way beyond your manners and rude disposition. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you just fine. Now you listen to me. I don’t know you from Adam but I do know you’re not going anywhere near those girls until we get things sorted out. They’ve been through plenty without you traipsing into their lives acting like you’re here to pick up lost luggage after a long plane ride.”
She paled and her bottom lip actually trembled slightly but John wasn’t swayed. Where had she been when her girls were going without food? When Chloe got sick and had no one to take her to the doctor? Those little girls needed someone to champion them and right now, he was it.
“You don’t know anything about my life.”
“About that you’re right and, woman, I don’t care to know. You walked out on your kids. Their daddy walked out on them. I didn’t ask for this but it landed in my lap just the same and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let those girls go to the first ditzy broad who comes my way saying she wants her babies back.” She gasped and he gave her arm a little shove as he released her. “Now, the best thing you can do right this minute is to get off my property before I have you arrested for trespassing.”
Tears welled in her eyes but she didn’t let them fall. Rubbing at her arm where he’d kept a firm grip, she sent him a scathing look and promised to return with the authorities.
“You can’t just keep someone’s kids like you would a stray puppy! They’re mine and you can’t—”
“Yack,