The Departed

couldn’t quite penetrate Taylor’s fury.
    But Dez could. She reached up, laid a hand on Taylor’s shoulder. “We need to listen, Taylor. Come on, now.”
    He stared at her. “I can’t do this—I…I can’t.”
    “You can.” She reached up and laid a hand on his cheek. “You can. And I’m right here, I’m staying right here.”
    “She didn’t kill her,” Joshua said again. “I…” He gave Dez a dark look before he continued. “I don’t know what she is telling you, but Jacqui didn’t kill Anna. Anna fell.”
    Anna fell—
    “She fell…” Taylor, stunned, turned his head and stared at Dez.
    Joshua gave her an ugly look. “You’re a fucking user, Lincoln. Maybe you do have a gift, but—”
    He didn’t get anything else out of his mouth beyond that except a strangled ugh . Ignoring the pain shooting up his arm, Taylor pressed the cast against Moore’s throat. “Shut up,” he said gently. “You just shut the fuck up now and maybe I won’t beat you senseless. I’m trying to remember what you’ve been through. I’m trying to remember you don’t know Dez. But if you say anything else…it won’t matter what you’ve been through, or what you don’t know.”
    “Taylor.” Dez curled a hand around his shoulder. “Ease up. Let him breathe.”
    The other man’s breath whooshed out of him as Taylor eased back, staring at him.
    “She’s trying to tell you that my wife killed your sister and you don’t want me to be pissed?” Joshua snarled, his voice ragged and hoarse.
    “I don’t know all of what happened, Mr. Moore. I just knew your wife was involved.” Dez’s voice was cool. Her gaze dropped to the pages clutched in Joshua’s hand. “And she was involved. Wasn’t she?”
    The anger drained out of him. As though somebody had replaced his bones with water, he sank to the floor. “She took her. Right out of the front yard. I…she heard your mother yelling at her, wanted to make the pretty little angel happy. And something scared her. Anna took off running. They were out near the cabin Jacqui’s mother had left her—it’s on Meyer’s Hill, close to…”
    “The field. The well where she dumped my sister. Like she was garbage.”
    “Yes.” Joshua looked up at him. “Yes. Anna ran. She fell. Her neck was broken. It…she kept calling her…”
    “My angel. My pretty, precious angel.” Dez spoke up when his voice trailed off.
    He looked at her, his face white. “Yes.”
    Dez looked over at Taylor. “That’s what her father always called her. She didn’t want to hurt Anna. She…she just wanted somebody to love. I think something inside had been broken since he killed her baby. And when she saw Anna being yelled at, she just wanted to love her. She didn’t realize that Anna already had people who loved her.”
    She cupped his cheek in her hand. “But she didn’t hurt her. I know it doesn’t undo her loss. It doesn’t take it away. But Anna wasn’t hurt.”
    Taylor reached out, hauled Dez against him. Pressing his face against her neck, he struggled not to cry. He wanted to know why—why Jacqueline couldn’t have told anybody. Why she’d hidden it.
    But Dez had already given him that answer.
    That woman had already been broken inside.
    “Anna needed for that woman to find peace,” Dez whispered, her voice so quiet only he could hear it. “Her father won’t ever have the chance to hurt her again, and maybe she can get justice for what he did to the baby. But she didn’t mean to hurt her—in her mind, she was helping her. In her mind, she loved Anna. I think she still does—at least she loves what she thinks she knew of her.”
    Taylor shuddered. She wouldn’t say it. Fuck, he knew she wouldn’t. But he also knew what he needed to do. Not so much for her —Jacqueline Moore. But for Anna.
    Lifting his head, he stared down into Dez’s face. Dark, warm eyes met his. She stroked a finger along his lip. “Are you okay?”
    “No.” He pressed a kiss to her finger. “But I’ll manage. Just…just don’t let me go, okay?”
    She twined her fingers in his. “Don’t plan to.”
    Gripping her hand, his palm pressed tight to hers, he looked over in time to see Joshua finally climbing to his feet. “I can’t say that I can forgive her. I’d be lying. Just…hell. Tell her that I loved Anna—she was a wonderful girl. Tell her that Anna wouldn’t have wanted her to hurt like this.”
    He looked back at Dez. He couldn’t do much else, not without