Dark Legacy Jen Talty (all ebook reader txt) 📖

“I love you, too.”

Shannon let out a long breath, tapped the red circle on her cell, turned, and gasped. Wrapping her hands around her middle, she stared at Jackson, holding two mugs.

“Oh, shit. I’m sorry.” He turned. “I just thought you might like some coffee.”

“I do.” She snagged an oversized T-shirt and pulled it over her head, then hiked up a pair of sweatpants. “I’m decent.” She plopped herself onto the bed and took the cup he offered. “I owe you an apology for how I just reacted.”

“No. You don’t.” He leaned against the window and brought the coffee to his lips and blew.

“When I asked you to find my little girl, I never expected what the next few days would bring up.”

“You have a great view of my sailboat.” Jackson opened the curtains. “I have a lot of things swirling around in my brain and...” He let his words trail off while he ran a hand over his face. “My youngest sister is the only one of us that has a relationship with her birth mother.”

“What does—”

He held up his hand. “All of us had questions about where we came from—at least the biology. But Jeanie, my youngest sister, when she went looking for her birth parents, she had just turned eighteen. All my other sisters had relatively positive experiences, and my birth mother hadn’t come gunning for me yet.”

“You make it sound like your mother was a predator.”

“She was.” Jackson took another long sip of his coffee. “But you’re not, and neither is Hannah.”

“Who is Hannah?”

“Jeanie’s birth mother.”

“Why are we talking about this?” Not that Shannon didn’t appreciate the reprieve from her problems. It gave her strength to form the words she hadn’t spoken outside of therapy in years.

“Just let me finish.” He caught her gaze. His dark eyes captivated her in a way made her feel cared for and understood.

The only person who’d ever looked at her that way was Annette.

Shannon nodded.

“Jeanie was born with a congential disability, and she always thought that’s why her parents gave her up. She wanted them to tell her she was glad they had. That she had a wonderful life with a great family.”

Shannon let the tears flow. “That’s all I want for my baby.”

Jackson nodded. “So, it came as quite a surprise when Jeanie found out that her mother hadn’t even known she had been born with problems and that Hannah had only been fourteen when she gave birth.”

“Oh, no.” Shannon set her coffee on her nightstand and inched across the room. “Hannah was raped, wasn’t she?”

“By her stepbrother. For a long time, that messed with my sister’s head.”

Shannon placed her hand on Jackson’s shoulder. “I hope Jeanie understands that how she came to be has nothing to do with who she is.”

“It took a good therapist—one like you—for her to figure that out.” He kissed her temple. “I don’t need to know the dirty details, but I hurt for what your father did to you. If he were still alive, I’d kill him with my bare hands.”

She wrapped her arms around his middle and rested her head on his strong shoulder, staring at Sweet Freedom. For him, the boat represented a new chapter in his life. But for her, it was all about everything she wanted to erase from her mind, and yet it held onto the one thing she never wanted to forget.

Her daughter.

No matter how she came into this world, she was a precious gift. Even if she wasn’t meant to bring that joy into Shannon’s life, she was for someone else.

“The reason I reacted so negatively to your boat was because my daughter was conceived on one just like it.”

He reached out and set his coffee on the dresser and hugged her tight.

She’d never felt safer than in his arms.

“It happened right out there on Lake George, up by Paradise Bay. I was sixteen, and my dad liked to bring some of his buddies out and have me act as the galley wench. He thought it was hysterical to call me that.”

“It’s not funny at all.”

She let out a slight laugh. “There were five men that day.”

“Jesus. I don’t think I want to hear this.”

Glancing up at him, she managed a smile. “Alex Angler was one of them, and he could be the father.”

“What about the other four?”

“One is dead. The rest don’t live anywhere near here and aren’t messing with my patients or me.”

“And what about Ned?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen or spoken to him in years. My father hated him after he got arrested. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I think either Ned embarrassed the group or left. Or both.”

“How do you feel about giving him a call and finding out what he wants?” He cupped her cheeks. “I’ll put him on speaker and be with you every step of the way.”

“Why are you doing this? Whoever hired you to find Belinda, besides me, doesn’t need your services anymore.”

He brushed her bangs from her eyes, leaning closer, his mouth only an inch from hers. “Isn’t it obvious?”

She swallowed her breath before his lips brushed gently across hers in a tender, caring kiss. It wasn’t a romantic or sexual kiss.

But it still made her heart race.

“I’m falling for you. Hard.”

There was no point in fighting her feelings, which she’d been doing her entire life, but Jackson was special.

She rubbed her fingers across his shoulders, clasping her hands behind his neck. “I’m kind of falling for you, too.”

Chapter Nine

Jackson leaned against the hood of his truck with his arms folded across his chest. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell Shannon this.”

“Like you’re ripping off a Band-Aid,” Katie said. “Are you sure that’s her uncle?”

“Positive. And that’s Alex Angler.”

“They look pretty chummy.”

“A little too much.” Why the hell would Shannon’s uncle be having coffee with Alex? Considering the history and what Jeromy said about Ned, it didn’t add up.

Unless Ned was playing both sides of the fence.

The question was…why?

Jackson