Lullabies and Lies - By Mallory Kane Page 0,3
a lot quieter, and a whole lot less trouble.
But nothing she’d ever done in her life gave her the rush she got from snatching a kid from under its mother’s nose. And she was good at it. Her nondescript features and colorless appearance made her nearly invisible.
She’d never even come close to being caught.
Her cell phone rang. She glanced at the ID, sighed and pressed the speaker phone. “Hi, Eddie.”
“Janie, where are you? I thought you’d be back by now.” Eddie’s voice was tight and high with tension.
“I’m on the road. I’ll be home in a couple of hours.”
“How was your mom?”
Janie almost laughed. As if she’d ever visit her mother. Eddie was so gullible. He knew how much she hated the woman who had given birth to her but never wanted her, and still he bought her lies about visiting the old hag.
“She’s fine. Said to say hi.” No way was she telling her husband where she’d really been, or what she’d done. He’d panic again, and screw things up even worse than he already had.
He’d just wanted to help, he’d said.
Janie took a long drag and let smoke drift out through her nostrils. Eddie’s help was what had set all this in motion in the first place. If he helped any more, they’d be in jail.
He needed to focus on getting elected. Which reminded her—she glanced at the time. “Shouldn’t you be filming those new campaign ads?”
“We’re on a break. I’m sick of saying ‘I’m Edward A. Gross, and I approved this message.’”
“Well, you just keep saying it, and come November you can say ‘I’m Congressman Edward A. Gross, from the great state of New York.’”
“Janie? I can’t stop thinking about that private investigator and the client she was representing. Maybe we should meet with the girl. Admit she’s our biological child. Maybe it could be a positive thing—you know, reaching out to our long-lost daughter—”
“No!” Janie angrily whipped the Lexus into the next lane, and a car swerved, its horn blaring.
Why couldn’t Eddie just stick to what he was good at—glad-handing and pandering—and leave the thinking to her? She lowered the window a crack and tossed out the cigarette butt, then lit up another one and took a deep drag while Eddie named all the politicians who had gone on to success after admitting an early indiscretion.
“But Janie, if she is one of our babies—”
“Eddie, shut up! You never know who’s listening. We don’t have any kids. Never change the story, remember?”
She’d drummed the phrase into his head for fifteen long years, ever since the day she’d snatched the first kid. They’d fled Nashville that night, leaving everything behind, including their own two babies whom they’d sold at birth to eager childless couples. It had always been laughably easy to find people willing to pay for a kid.
“But Janie,” his voice lowered to a coarse whisper. “The Loveless woman showed me a picture. The girl is eighteen. That’s how old our daughter would be. She looks like you.”
Janie’s ears burned with rage and a dull, throbbing ache started in her temple. “We don’t have any children, remember? The story?”
She consciously relaxed her face and throat. She had to calm down. If Eddie thought she was angry at him, he’d fall apart. “Go look nice for the cameras, Mr. Future U.S. Congressman. Concentrate on that bright future. I’ll take care of the past.”
She flipped off the phone, pounded her palm against the steering wheel and cursed loudly.
Damn that Loveless woman. This was all her fault. A month ago, when Eddie had told her about the private investigator who’d shown up at his office looking for her young client’s biological mother, Janie had nearly passed out from shock. Until that moment she’d never spared a thought for the two babies she’d birthed and sold while Eddie was in law school in Nashville. She’d never wanted kids. They were a commodity, nothing more.
The idea that those kids were now teenagers, nearly adults, had never crossed Janie’s mind. If the truth about illegally selling their own kids came out, Eddie’s future would be down the toilet. They might even go to jail.
Eddie had a real chance to win that House seat. It was what he’d always wanted and whatever Eddie wanted, Janie made happen. She’d worked hard to get them where they were today. Nobody was going to spoil her plans.
The Loveless woman had shown up at the worst possible time.
To give him credit, Eddie had handled her pretty well—for him.