Page 39 of Refuge for Ailsa

Tavish closed his eyes and sighed. “Prescription painkillers.”

“Yeah. He swallowed them by the handfuls. Anything he could get his hands on. I sent him to rehab twice. We lost our home, our cars, and I lost my job. But then one night when he was having a lot of trouble, I told him that I’d given him chance after chance and if he didn’t get himself under control, I was going to have to leave. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital.”

“What?”

“He hit me. He hit me so hard that I fell back and cracked my head on a table. Blacked out immediately. Had no recollection of any of it. My dad was fit to be tied and went to find him. I think Dad would’ve killed him, but he was nowhere to be found. A couple of people told me they’d seen him on the street in Louisville and couldn’t believe it was him. We managed to track him down to a shelter there, but he never came back. Eight months after he disappeared, I got a call from Louisville Metro Police Department. They’d found his body under an overpass on DixieHighway in Pleasure Ridge. ODed on Fentanyl-laced heroin. And that was that.”

Tavish closed his eyes. It was almost as though he could feel the agony in her soul, but it wasn’t from missing Eric. It was from being unable to save him. He knew that feeling well from all his years in law enforcement. When he opened his eyes, she was sitting there, motionless and silent, her hands palms up in her lap. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

“Thanks. I can’t even cry anymore when I think about him. I cried so many tears that where Eric is concerned, I’m all cried out. When I talk about him, I just go numb. And then, just a couple of years later, we lost Mason. It took me two years to dig myself out of the hole I fell into when he died. I worried constantly that something would happen to Donovan until I actually made myself sick. Some of my hair fell out and I chewed my nails until they were bloody. I spent two years in therapy, trying to figure out how to get my life back, when I realized I couldn’t. I just had to make a new one. It was all I could do.”

“That’s true. It’s best to just accept what happens and keep going. There’s really nothing else to do.”

“I agree.” She turned to look at him, and he reached for her hands. When she grasped his, she squeezed them. “I don’t want to drag you down into all my mess.”

“It’s not a mess. Life’s messy. You’re not dragging me down. I’m going to lift you up. How’s that? Will that work?” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. The scent of her shampoo soothed him as he breathed it in, and he sighed. For all her stubbornness and strength, Ailsa was fragile too. “We’ll hold each other up, angel. That’s what it’s about.”

“Tav?”

“Yeah, babe?”

She sighed. “Can we just sleep tonight? It’s been a horrible day.”

“Of course. Go get in bed and I’ll be there in a second. I’ll take Starlight out and then I’ll be in.”

“Okay.” She lifted the hand still holding hers from her lap and kissed the back of it. It was a sweet gesture that stood to remind him of how much he wanted to make what they were growing work. “See you in a minute.”

It took Starlight five minutes of discussion with Jesus to determine the exact spot where she needed to pee, and when they stepped inside, he pointed at the towel. “Place.” The dog walked straight to it, spun four times, and settled right down. “Good girl,” he cooed to her, cradling her muzzle in one hand and scratching behind her ear with the other.

By the time he got finished in the bathroom, Ailsa was snoring lightly, so he slipped in and wrapped his arms around her. Spooning her there, he kissed the back of her neck and heard her sigh. She was perfect or, at the very least, perfect for him. As he drifted off to sleep, he thought about the man she’d talked about earlier, the one from the store. Maybe he should try to find out who the bastard was.

Or maybe not.

* * *

Something had been botheringTavish all morning, and he finally figured out what it was. He waited until Ailsa had gone down the gangplank to the store, accompanied by her new furry best friend, and he made the call. It only rang twice and a voice said, “Well, hello there, RangerBob.”

Tavish snorted. “You mean ConstableBob, right?”

“Oh, yeah, with theJustifieddigs again. Right. What’s up?”

He proceeded to tell Harley all about the visit Ailsa had the previous day. He kept expecting the deputy to interrupt and ask him questions, but Harley didn’t. When he was almost finished, he said, “Oh, and he asked her if she knew anything about Mr.Bentley being in hock to organized crime in Chicago.” There was silence. “Harley, did you hear me?”

“Yeah. I hear you. And we knew about that, but we hadn’t said a word to anybody, because we’re not even sure that’s true.”

That was confusing. “So if you guys knew but you haven’t told anybody, how?”

“He couldn’t. Unless it’s true and they sent him.”

Tavish felt like somebody had knocked all the wind from his lungs. “Oh, shit. Oh, shit, shit, shit. You don’t think?”

“I don’t know. But I do know we need to try to find out who that guy is.”

“Agreed. She has a camera in there, so I’ll try to get the video footage.”

“That would be helpful. Let me know. And Tavish?”

“Yeah?”

---