A/N: Thanks to insomnia this story is over. I hope you enjoy the ending. Thanks again for your love and support and I don't own anything or this story would have more criminal procedures and crime actually included. I love the romantic suspense genre the most. Other stories bore me. I need to see if I can solve the mystery before it's revealed. I am sure most of you half-way solved this one, I had to change the ending from the original author's work to correlate with the earlier changes I made and the only trigger warnings are those that accompany any criminal TV show so rating is T-14. So, some of this chapter actually comes from me...I actually wrote something. Bye for now...
Chapter Twelve and Epilogue
Sam slipped his hands into his pockets and felt his phone vibrate. He was a little busy at the moment and ignored it. He was staring Dakota Stanley down and grinned at him. "It was so hard for me to get ahold of you. Was this all I needed to do to set an appointment?"
"I'm not involved in anything illegal," Stanley sneered. He was a short man with a broad chest shrouded in a tailored suit. Slick black hair and matching beady eyes gave Sam the impression that the lawyer was as seedy as the clients he served.
"Let me make that decision." Patrick swaggered over to the lawyer, boots thudding against the ground. "I find it suspicious that you represented D.H. in his parole hearing and now you're here for Rick Nelson."
"Are you arresting me for doing my job, Detective?"
"You understand if I have some questions."
Stanley lifted his chin, not a hint of fear on his face. "My client and I will only answer questions related to the charges."
Sam fisted his hands. Stanley was being stubborn. The lawyer had too much experience worming his way through loopholes. What could he say that would get the man to cooperate?
Penny.
What if Mercedes was right? What if Penny was involved somehow? Rick wouldn't have the money to hire a lawyer alone. It made sense. He knew it was a long shot, but he took a chance and trotted toward Stanley until he was only a few inches away. Patrick gave him a surveying look but allowed him to speak.
"You realize," Sam tugged at his ear, "that Penny's missing."
At the sound of her name, Stanley flinched. "I don't know whom you're referring to."
"You don't?" He held the man's shoulder. "So I suppose Rick's another pro bono case? You seem to like those. Huh. I didn't pin you as the type."
Stanley swallowed. "May I use the bathroom?"
Patrick pointed down the hall. "It's that way."
As the lawyer shuffled off, Sam sighed. "Maybe I was wrong."
"You think he's in cahoots with Penny now?" Patrick gritted his teeth. "What kind of person was I harboring in my house?"
"We know nothing for sure. I saw a shot and I took it. If we have a chance of getting Rick to talk, we need to get through his shield first." He scratched his head. "It's just fishy. The lawyer connected to my dad is now connected to Rick who's connected to Penny."
"Rick," Patrick glanced out the windows of his office at the man pacing behind bars, "he sure can't afford someone like Stanley."
"Dad can't either."
"So the only person with access to money and her full faculties is…"
"Penny!" Stanley burst into the office, suit rumpled, hair mussed. "I know her. She came into my office two months ago, tossed a suitcase of money at me and asked me to represent D.H. Evans. It was a simple deal with enough dough to make it sweet."
Patrick's eyes widened. "What's with the sudden cooperation?"
"I tried to call her." Stanley thrust his phone at them. "She didn't answer, but she did send me a text."
Sam and Patrick crowded over the phone and read the message that said:
He's on his own.
Stanley whisked his hands over his arms. "That means I won't get paid. That means my work here is done. Whatever she's involved with, I can't be complicit. Serving prison time won't look good on my website. Look, I've told you all I know. Can I leave now?"
"Stay close." Patrick handed the phone back. "We might need you to answer more questions."
Stanley dashed out of the station while Patrick and Sam shared a concerned glance. "Looks like Mercedes was on to something," Patrick grumbled. "Any idea why Penny would want D.H. out of prison? Did she say anything to you? Anything about why she was in town?"
He stiffened. "Her father."
"What?"
"That's what she told us the first time we met. She wanted to meet her father."
"That means…?"
Sam shuddered. He'd flirted and had coffee dates with his sister? He'd even seen Penny half-naked when she came out of the shower. Why had she given him the impression that she was interested in him romantically? Sam felt like throwing up.
"Sammy?" Patrick grasped his arm. "You don't look so good. Maybe you should head home. I'll handle Nelson."
"I'm good." Sam gathered his strength and wobbled to Rick Nelson's jail cell, still reeling from the shock of Penny's connection to his family. He didn't have time to process what having a sister meant. Not yet.
Rick Nelson stood alone in jail. He bent his neck at an angle and smiled at their approach, curling his fingers around the flecked bars. Sam wondered if he was still high on something. Would they be able to trust anything that came out of his mouth?
"Your defense just skated out of here," Patrick said.
"I saw." Nelson rubbed his nose against the bars. "Now who will play with me? Will you?" He looked at Sam. "Will you?"
Sam frowned. "This won't work."
"I'll leave him to sleep it off." Patrick turned around and Sam followed him to his office. The detective strutted to the desk and jotted down notes. "We've got him on the drug charges and without Stanley, it will be easy for the charges to stick. You can go home."
"What about Penny?"
"Legally, she's done nothing wrong. Lying to the police about her assailant is a problem, but the press would have a field day if we charged the victim of an assault for not being upfront. Paying for a lawyer to bail out D.H. and her ex aren't exactly criminal offenses either."
"But—"
"Look. I want answers just as much as you do. I invited her to stay in my house. I think I deserve them. But for now… we wait."
Sam nodded once. His phone buzzed. He waved Patrick goodbye and stepped toward the exits to answer the call from his editor. Yes, he needed to send in that manuscript. Yes, he'd lose sleep until he did.
Sam sighed and made to slip the phone back in his pocket when he spotted a message from Mercy. It was sent over half-an-hour ago. Curious, he opened it up. His eyes skimmed the words and his heart pounded. Sam called Mercy's number and charged back into the station.
"I'm sorry. Your call cannot be connected at this time…"
"Patrick! Patrick!" Sam shot into the detective's office and stretched the phone into his face.
Patrick read Ray's text and vaulted out of his seat, mumbling, "That crazy girl!"
"I have a bad feeling about this." Sam paced. "She's not answering her phone."
"Let's not panic yet. All we can accuse Penny of is a little dishonesty. It's not like she's a threat. Mercy can handle herself."
"Penny knows my father. Our father." The words stuttered off his tongue. He still wasn't used to having a sister yet. "She's the one who sprang him out of prison. Who do you think he'll go to now that he's out?"
Patrick grew very still. His nose flared, but his voice was even when he said, "Check out that address. I doubt Penny will be anywhere near there if she's smart, but we never know. I'll try to get a lock on her phone and see if Nelson can give us something to work with."
"I will."
"And Sam?"
He froze, already halfway to the door. "Yes?"
"If you find her or your father, call me. Don't charge in alone." Patrick gave him a hard stare. "I can't lose either one of you."
"I'll be careful." Sam ran out of the station and climbed into his car. As he drove to the warehouse district, his mind retraced every memory he had with Penny, straining to pick up on any clues she might have left to their connection.
On their initial introduction, Penny had gone right for the jugular and told him she liked him. Sam shuddered again but tried to focus on the road and figure out what her angle was.
"Alright, after that… what did she do? What did I do?"
Sam went over the memories of his meetings—not dates—with Penny with a small-toothed comb. There was genuine admiration in her eyes when she kept pushing for him to open his heart to her. What was her game plan? To seduce him away from Mercy and leave her vulnerable to D.H.?
Fury spiked up his spine and he pressed harder on the gas. He'd find Mercy first and then he'd ask his questions. At the end of the day Mercedes' safety was all that mattered.
Mercedes heard the sound of rattling window panes. A train whistled, a screech that rang loud enough to convince her she was tied to a train track. Her eyes burst open and her chest contracted with relief when she realized she was inside and away from the large trains.
Her celebration was short-lived when she took stock of her surroundings. The room was dark and damp. No windows. Water dripped into a puddle, echoing against the colorless walls. Mold hovered in the air, tainting her nose with the fragrance of rotten wood and damp tiles.
She strained to get up and realized her hands were bound with rope. It was better than being tied to a train track, but it still wasn't a very good place to be. Mercedes fought against her restraints, but the movement sent a wave of dizziness through her skull.
A piercing pain struck the back of her head from where D.H. had hit her. "Hello?" she cried. "D.H.? Penny? Can you hear me?"
She heard someone cough and strained to sift the shadows until her gaze landed on a figure sprawled on the ground. He was face down and for a moment, she feared he was dead and that she'd imagined the sound.
"W-who are you?" Something about the man seemed familiar. Panic snaked around her heart and pulled it tight. Tears cropped in her eyes. Mercedes struggled even harder to get to the man but the ropes only chaffed her skin. "Sam? Sam, is that you?"
"Shut up."
She froze, her hands falling limp. That wasn't her boyfriend. "D.H.?"
He pulled his head up. Even though it was dark, she could feel him glaring at her. "Screaming won't help. No one will hear us."
"What are you…? What happened?"
He groaned and sat up. She saw that his hands were bound too. "I'm an idiot."
She bit her tongue to keep from agreeing with him. "Where's Penny?"
"I don't know." He huffed. "She's crazy. Absolutely insane."
"Calm down," Mercedes said. "Tell me what happened when I was out."
She'd rake him through the coals for smashing an object against her head later. For now, Mercedes needed to know why D.H. was locked up beside her and how they could escape.
"Penny told me to pack you up in the car. We started driving. I fell asleep." He rubbed his forehead. "I woke up to a splitting headache and ropes on my hands."
"Wow." She scoffed. "Your evil partner turned on you. I'd be laughing if I wasn't in trouble right along with you."
"You can hate on me all you want later. Right now we have no choice but to work together. That girl is coming back and I don't really feel like sticking around to find out what plans she has for us. You have a cell phone?"
Mercedes slid her hands down one side of her pocket and shook her head. "It's gone."
"Penny must have taken it."
"How did you end up getting involved with her anyway?"
D.H. sounded sheepish when he said, "Six months ago, someone started writing me letters. She wanted to know about me, about my family. I figured it was one of those Christian organizations that reach out to inmates and figured it was harmless to respond. I laid it all out, my childhood, my crime, my—" his voice warbled, "my wife."
"Your pen pal was Penny," Mercedes said, putting the pieces together.
"We got close and two months ago she sent me a letter offering to help spring me out of prison. I took her up on that."
"Weren't you suspicious? She was a stranger."
"You don't know what it's like in prison. There's no hope. No life. Only hardship and struggle. I wanted out. Bad. It didn't matter who she was as long as she could deliver on her promise."
"Great. Look how well that turned out for you."
"I don't need your attitude, Ms. West-Jones."
Mercedes sighed and mumbled, "So Penny wasn't here to find the father she'd lost, she was here to spring him out of prison."
"F-father?" D.H. sounded genuinely surprised. "What are you talking about?"
The door burst open, cutting off their conversation. Penny stood bracketed in the light. Her straight hair curled down her shoulders. She wore a black T-shirt, black pants and a pair of disposable plastic gloves. A large black bag was slung over her shoulder.
The hair on the back of Mercedes's neck stood to attention. She and Mercedes were about the same stature, Mercedes was bigger, but unless she got free from her ropes, she and D.H. would be at Penny's mercy.
Come on! Think, Mercedes! Think!
She had to distract her. Get Penny talking enough to spare Sam and her dad enough time to find her. The thud of footsteps echoed in the room as Penny stepped closer. Light chased the shadows and Mercedes took note of Penny's determined expression.
Distracting her wouldn't be easy.
"Hello, Penny," she said. "Mind explaining what's going on?"
Penny ignored her and set her bag on the ground. She unzipped it and slid a long, silver object from the bag. The sharp tip of the knife glittered in the light. The scrape of her chair against the ground reverberated in the room as Mercedes kicked and flailed.
"Penny!" she yelled. "Penny, what's going on? Use your words! Hey!" She lowered her voice when Penny swung to look at her. "Please, talk to me. We're friends, right?"
Penny narrowed her eyes. "Don't pretend to care about me now. I know exactly who I am to you."
"And who is that?" she asked, swallowing hard when Penny stepped toward her.
"Your rival. Your unwanted houseguest. Your annoying acquaintance."
"That's not true!"
"It is true!" Penny spit. She paused. Gathered herself. "You think you know me, but you know nothing about me. Now shut up before I use this on you instead of on him."
"Me?" D.H. squirmed. "What did I do?"
"You'd really stab your own father?" Mercedes gasped.
She realized too late that she had no right to ask that particular question. Sam had tried the same thing that morning. It said a lot about D.H. Evans that his children both wanted to kill him in the most personal way possible.
"F-father?" D.H. stuttered. "I'm her father? That's impossible."
Penny threw her head back and laughed. Mercedes wondered what was so funny. At least she'd succeeded in distracting her. For now.
"Did you think he was my dad?" Penny laughed again. For a longer period this time. She blinked, feeling a little awkward despite the gravity of the moment. Nobody liked being made fun of, even if they were strapped to a chair in a mysterious building waiting for a psycho to stab them.
"Didn't you say you were looking for your father? Isn't that why you came to town?"
Penny strutted toward her, filled with confidence and dark swagger. She knelt in front of Mercedes, the knife scraping the tiles. "I said I was here for my father. Not that I was looking for him. You interpreted that on your own."
"Wait, wait, wait." D.H. shook his head. "This is all a big misunderstanding. I may have made a lot of mistakes, but I loved my wife. With all my heart. No other woman caught my eye. Just let me go and I'll help you find your real father—"
"You can't." Penny turned. The humor seeped out of her voice, leaving determination behind. "Because he's dead."
Great, D.H... You had to open your mouth and mess things up.
"Penny—"
"You killed my dad by allowing him to die. He was in a prison fight and you were right there witnessing it and you could have stopped the bleeding when the fight was over but you didn't. The paper said a fellow prisoner with medical training tried to stop the flow of blood but wasn't able to! That my dad just bled out before being taken to the infirmary. That you pronounced him dead before the prison medical staff did. I researched his wounds and your experience. You could have saved his life but you didn't. You only care about your life and your son who can't love you because you killed his mom. You spent more time hating Patrick Jones for arresting you for a crime that you did commit and taking your son from you, than doing the job you trained for and took an oath for. You are so self-absorbed and your self-absorption is the reason why another person is dead by your evil hands." Penny shot her finger at D.H... "I spent my life always feeling afraid, feeling less than. No one cared about me. No one wanted me. So I pretended my father did. I dreamed of one day meeting him and telling him he had a daughter. Loving him and letting him love me the way I wanted to since I was a little girl."
"Please…" D.H. trembled as Penny approached and tipped the knife under his chin.
"But when I finally gathered the courage to look him up, I only found news articles of his arrest, sentencing, and subsequent death." She chuckled dryly. "He was 'killed' quote unquote. By an inmate in prison. Supposedly, there was a doctor in the prison who tried to save him but didn't even though it wouldn't have been impossible to do. Now, something about you being unable to save my father really got on my nerves. You stole my happy ending."
Her heart beating out of her chest, Mercedes tried to calm Penny down. "Penny, you don't want to go to prison like your father did. Put the knife down."
"I'm sorry." D.H. trembled. "I'm sorry but I didn't have anything to staunch the flow of his blood. I did try to do a tourniquet but we were outside in the yard and by the time I unzipped my jumpsuit and took off my tank top underneath and ripped it and tied it around his thigh it was too late. The femoral artery is nothing to play with it took me a couple of minutes to get to him and it was just too late. I couldn't save him."
Penny wasn't listening to a word Mercedes and D.H. were saying she was just looking vacant until she heard his last words which seem to bring her back to focus and continue what she saying earlier while allowing the knife to rasp against D.H.'s skin. "I knew I needed to kill you. I needed revenge. But I couldn't get to you when you were locked up."
"Is that why you hired the lawyer and helped him to petition for parole again?"
"Yes." Penny flung her hair over her shoulder and gave Mercedes a proud look.
That's right. Keep her talking.
Mercedes exchanged a glance with D.H. She didn't even know if he'd understood her. She didn't have time to confirm. Penny had lost her mind and if they both didn't do everything in their power to save themselves, they would die.
Sam's feet crunched against the fallen leaves littering the ground outside the abandoned warehouse. The weathered building stood a couple of miles from Artie's band room. The sun burned like a red flame in the sky, turning the roof to an ugly orange-rust color. A cool breeze blew, tugging at his shirt. Sweat beaded on his chest anyway.
He'd begged Patrick to come along. After the detective yelled at Nelson in the interrogation room convincing him that he would be tried for murder without a lawyer, he'd given up the location to Penny's hideout. Patrick would have left him out of the loop if he hadn't called in time and rushed to meet the team of officers here.
"Stay back." Patrick leveled him a look.
"Do I at least get a gun like everyone else?"
"Should I handcuff you to a chair so you stay out of my way?"
"No, sir. I don't need a gun, sir."
They filed into the warehouse. The air was dank and dark. The warehouse was empty save for the rusted hull of a huge ship and a few boxes. A train rattled and hissed down the track nearby. Sam was glad for the noise as it covered the sound of their approach.
Patrick held up his hand and waved them down, indicating the stairs leading to the basement. He then wound his hands in a circle and immediately, a section of officers broke formation and headed outside to circle around the back.
They tiptoed down the stairs and heard voices. Sam almost whooped in relief when he heard Mercy's voice through the thin wooden walls.
"If you were after D.H. all along, why get involved with me at all? What did faking the assault that night do for you?"
"I gained your trust and easily inserted myself into your life. I needed Sam and Patrick distracted. I'd been watching your family for a while. I saw the way you and Sam were both tiptoeing around your feelings. All I had to do was nudge him along and get you to see what everyone already knew."
Mercedes gasped. "You were playing with us. Manipulating us. That's why you clung to him. You didn't like him."
"Hell no, that dork is definitely not my type of man. I only date men like my father. Drug dealers who know how to take care of a woman and are easy to manipulate because they use their products," Penny said. "I simply wanted a clear path to D.H.."
Sam had so many questions. They were almost there. The team cleared the last step and landed in a hallway filled with doors. Patrick waved his gun in the direction of the first door and pressed his ear against it. After shaking his head, he waved them forward.
Sam was glad when Mercy and Penny started talking again. They followed the conversation like a beacon, moving more urgently than before.
"Rick Nelson was your minion," Mercy said. "I should have known."
"He found creative ways to procure funds for the lawyer. He stole Sam's letter from the court so he wouldn't know about D.H.'s parole until it was too late. The whole I left my contacts, Sam will you please go and pick them up, was a ruse to keep Sam from going home. Rick also tried to run you over. A matter of miscommunication I didn't ask him to do it. Sorry about that. I wouldn't do that to Fran. I actually liked her."
The letter! He'd forgotten all about it with everything that had happened. Nelson had broken into his house and tried to kill Mercy. Sam was taking note. As soon as this was over, he'd round up Nelson and Penny and make them pay.
Penny's voice broke him out of his thoughts. "If you hadn't meddled today, I would have finished D.H. off and no one would be the wiser. But it looks like I'll have to kill you too—ah!" The scream followed a loud thud.
"Good job!" Mercedes yelled at D.H. as he ran into Penny trying to get the knife from her.
Abandoning all attempts at subtlety, they raced down the hallway and burst through the doors in time to see Penny falling to the ground. The knife in her hand skidded across the floor. Mercedes was tied to a chair, but she fearlessly rose and hopped over to Penny.
"Mercy!" he yelled, but she didn't hear him over the sound of her labored grunt. Just as Penny pushed herself off the ground, Mercy spun and let the chair legs slam against the other girl's jaw. The girl keeled over and lay still.
"That's for plotting to kill me," Mercy said.
They skated into the room. Sam got to her first. He quickly undid her ties and then wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the ground. His heart pounded a rhythm of joy. He would never let Mercedes out of his sight again.
Mercedes melted against him. The rage he'd seen when he'd first run in slinked away to leave exhaustion in her eyes and around her mouth. He rubbed his hands across the back of her neck and murmured, "What were you thinking, Mercy baby. You could have been hurt. What were you thinking?"
"I'm fine," she said.
"Sam," his father called.
Sam stiffened and looked across the room to where Patrick and the officers were tending to D.H. and Penny. Patrick helped D.H. to his feet. The man took a shaky step toward him, but Sam made no moves to draw closer.
D.H.'s moan of distress pierced the air. "I thought I was done for. I thought I was going to die. And I… I know it doesn't mean much, but it's good to see you, son."
Mercy tightened her hold on him and smiled. He looked into her face and accepted his father's words without comment.
Patrick handed D.H. over to another officer and strode toward Penny. "Young lady, you're under arrest for kidnapping, assault, fraud, intentions to harm and anything else we can make stick." He nodded to a nearby officer. "Read her rights and take her away."
"I'm not going! No! No!" She shrieked and wrestled with the officer. "He killed my father! He killed my father! Noooo!"
Patrick ignored her and trotted to Mercedes. "Baby girl, I'm so glad you're alright." He took her away from Sam and he felt a moment of irritation before reminding himself that, as her father, Patrick had dibs. "We'll talk about you going to meet a dangerous suspect on your own at home. You are going to school and training to become a criminal psychologist at the most a profiler, not a cop young lady."
"Yes, dad." She glanced up at Sam and smiled again. He loved that smile. Those eyes. That nose. Mercedes shook off her dad and sailed back into his arms where she belonged. He kissed her temple and rocked her lightly.
Everything was going to be okay now. Mercedes was here. He could close his eyes and…
Bang!
The room froze. His eyes popped open. He saw everything in slow motion. Penny removing the gun from the unsuspecting officer's belt, then with a gun in her hand aiming and shooting at his father, smoke firing from the barrel. D.H. eyelids flung apart. Blood spurting from his side. Falling. Falling. Falling. He hit the ground and time returned to its normal speed.
The officer restrained Penny and grabbed the gun from her. Patrick raced to D.H.'s side and yelled for them to call the ambulance. Mercy held his hand and asked if he was alright. Through it all, Sam kept staring at his father.
He'd wanted this. Wanted it so bad he could taste the blood in the air when he imagined paying his father back for all the hardship he'd endured. But the moment was not triumphant. It was dark. Chaotic. Tragic.
"Dad?" he croaked. Mercy let him go and Sam stumbled to his father's side. "Dad?"
D.H. held out his hand and Sam hesitated a moment, glancing at Patrick. He nodded and Sam sniffed before reaching out and grasping his father's bloody fingers. They were shaking. Incessantly. Uncontrollably.
"I never got to tell you," D.H. said, struggling to breathe and speak. "I'm sorry."
"No…" Tears cropped in his eyes. He always thought he'd hated his father. Then why was he crying? "The ambulance is coming, Dad. You'll get help. You'll be fine."
In a faint voice, D.H. murmured, "Break the family curse, Sam. Break it until it's… in a million pieces. Take your happiness by the horns. Don't let go. Don't."
"I won't." He sniffed, embarrassed when a tear fell from his eye but too upset to wipe it away. "Dad, hold on."
"I'm sorry." D.H.'s hand slipped from his and thumped to the floor. His eyes fell shut.
"Nooo!" The scream tore out of his throat, mingling with Penny's laughter as they carted her out of the room.
Patrick put a hand on his shoulder and then stood and led his team through the door to meet the ambulance. He stared at D.H.'s pale face, hating him and missing him all at once. Mercy got down by his side and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, saying nothing.
There was nothing to say.
Sam couldn't yet forgive his father or his mother. Not now. Maybe not ever. His parents were the catalysts of tragedy, but they were his. They shared the same blood. The same DNA.
He was glad Mercy had stopped him from killing his father. Glad that she was in his life. Even now, at the brink of another crisis, she was there. Holding him. Gently. Firmly. He soaked in her strength, the way he always had as a young boy with nightmares. The way he always would.
And as the paramedics flooded the room, carried his father out on a stretcher and disappeared, he held her tightly. She was his gravity. With Mercy by his side, he could overcome anything.
Epilogue
Mercedes blew Sam a kiss before grabbing the neck of her guitar and plucking the notes for the introduction of their last song. When she glanced up again, she saw him bobbing his head to the rhythm. She smiled, admiring his face and arms in his plaid shirt and white t-shirt underneath.
Her parents were somewhere around the park. They claimed they were too old to jump up front with the 'young folks' and left the partying to Sam. She grinned and flung her hair to the music, letting the freedom of the moment twine with every nerve in her body.
Mercedes didn't want the song to end and neither did the crowd, but her band was opening for the main event and couldn't prolong the performance. Artie thanked the crowd and they all bowed before filing off the platform. The roars and cheers of approval thundered in her ears.
Mercedes could get drunk on the sound.
She wobbled off the stage, still on a high after their performance. Sam was waiting for her in the grassy enclosure guarded by a yellow rope. Workers wearing orange vests buzzed to and fro, preparing for the next concert.
This space was reserved for performers only, but her boyfriend had waltzed right in and no one told him anything. Mercedes grinned eagerly when Sam's sparkling green eyes landed on hers. He looked so handsome she couldn't resist flirting a little.
"I'd kiss you if I wasn't so sweaty."
"Why do you think I'd care about a detail as tiny as that?" He gathered her up and kissed her, his hands diving to her lower back. Sam touched her body like an artist shaping a sculpture and she never got tired of how awe-struck he was by her.
"Okay, okay. Break it up, love birds."
Mercedes spun and shot a grin at April. Her arm was still in a sling, but she wore a flowered romper and heels, rocking her outfit like a model anyway. Matt trudged behind her. He still wasn't happy about her relationship with Sam or her decision to cut him off, but he'd accepted it.
For April's sake, Mercedes sincerely hoped they worked out this time. They probably wouldn't, but she didn't want to think like that.
"Great set, guys," Artie said. He drew abreast of them, wrapping his arms around Tina's shoulders. "We keep on going like this we might actually make some money one of these days."
"You never know." Mercedes arched an eyebrow.
"Hey, Sam." Tina blinked. "How's your dad?"
Mercedes stiffened, ready to defend Sam if he was uncomfortable fielding questions about D.H. and Penny. The media had a field day dragging his family history back to the light after the scandalous news of Penny's arrest.
"He's fine. He'll need to walk with a cane from now on, but he's determined to make it. He is still serving a sentence for his part in all of this, but when he gets out this time, I think he will be okay." Sam had been in a lot of therapy since everything went down and he was slowly but surely learning holding unforgiveness was hurting him more than it was hurting his father. He had forgiven him and his mom for cheating, but he still hadn't forgotten what they did. Sam was learning to move on and trying to help D.H. facing death had changed the old man, and he was almost the father that Sam remembered from his youth.
"I can't believe I nearly tried to set you up with Penny of all people." Tina made a face. "I hope she and her crazy boyfriend learn their lesson in jail."
"Let's not talk about that on a pretty day like this," Artie said. "Sam, if you need any help," Artie offered a hand, "don't hesitate to call."
Sam shook it. "I appreciate that."
Mercedes smiled and inhaled a breath of the crisp evening air. "April, we still on for that bowling date on Friday?"
Matt's eyes bugged. "You two are hanging out now?"
"You have a problem with that?" April arched an eyebrow.
"Can I come?"
"Nope." Sam rested his chin on top of her head.
"He's right," April said. "No boys allowed."
"Can I come too?" Tina asked. "I love bowling."
Mercedes grinned and agreed, soaking in the beauty of the sunset, the thump of good music and the warmth of her friends.
Sam pulled her tighter to his chest. She rubbed her cheek against his shirt. Her soul thrummed in contentment as his heart beat a steady rhythm in her ear. She'd always loved Sam. She would always love Sam.
He kissed her cheek and she grinned. The perks? Well, they were just a bonus of his being crazy in love in love with her. She had told him repeatedly he was crazy and his steady response was that he was crazy about her, Mercedes West-Jones...
THE END
