Blood Ties - A Magnolia Novel Read online

  But she didn’t. She took extra time while getting ready earlier. Applied just the right amount of eye shadow, liner, powder and gloss in front of the mirror, stopping every few seconds to check out her handiwork. The look was finished with finger-tousled hair and two squirts of Red between her breasts. It was Cal’s favorite perfume. While driving to the office earlier, Karina felt like he deserved to suffer a bit.

  Bastard.

  Cal’s muscled arm reached past her and opened the passenger door. He was close. Too close. The heat from his body, the smell of cologne and the musk of his personal scent. Cal was playing the same game. Karina bit her lip to keep from biting his. Leaning down, she set the box in the back seat and wished she could just crawl in right behind it and drive away. Instead, Karina stood, snatched the door from Cal’s grip, slammed it, and then stuck out her hand. “She’s all yours now, Cal. Take good care of her—better than you did me.”

  “Shut up,” Cal growled.

  In a flash, Cal pulled Karina to him and devoured her lips with his own. The kiss was long, needy and full of pent up passion. Regret. Sadness. Love. For a few seconds, Karina melted into his strong embrace, reliving their past connection. Swam in the strength of him and the way Cal’s body felt wedged up tight against her own. But then the image of catching him doing the same thing with the bottle blonde whore, Misty Pierce, flashed in her mind, ruining the moment.

  Coming to her senses, Karina pulled back and slugged her balled-up fist into Cal’s mammoth chest. “Be glad I’m leaving the state or I’d make you pay for that,” she said with more gusto than she felt. She stayed true to her nature and hid the sadness from her face, preferring to unleash the pain in a rude manner.

  Cal responded to her smartass reply with a sly smile and a coy wink.

  Bubbling anger rose inside her. Karina was just about to spew her thoughts out when her cell phone rang. “Once again, your ass is spared the kicking it deserves by my mom.”

  Cal blew her a kiss and she flipped him the universal sign for Have a Nice Day—asshole. Karina answered the call at the same time she slid behind the wheel of the Charger. “Hey Mom. I’m leaving the office now. Had to pick up the last box.” Cranking up the V-8, a smile appeared when the duel exhaust growled.

  “Watch out for the gun-toting rednecks. And if you hear banjo music—run!” Cal yelled from the curb.

  “Was that Cal?” her mother asked.

  With a flick of her wrist, Karina slammed the car into reverse and tromped the gas. The tires barked and she smiled again. “Of course. Giving me some last minute advice on how to survive living in the South.”

  “Is that all he gave you? No goodbye nookie? No last hurrah in the hay?”

  “Mom! Really?”

  “Hey, you’re the one who insists on sharing all your intimate life details with me. If you don’t like hearing those kinds of questions from your mother, then tell your secrets to Ranger.”

  Heat blistered her cheeks. Karina didn’t have a quick comeback for that one. Her mom was right. Karina needed to find a different outlet to vent her emotions. A female friend was out of the question because, well, she didn’t have any.

  Karina learned a long time ago most females could not be trusted. They feigned friendship, concern and confidentiality—but it was just that–a farce. The second you looked the other way, wham! the kidney punch arrived. The most recent jab was delivered by her former best friend, Misty Pierce. Their friendship, which began in fifth grade, was over in mere seconds after Karina caught Misty and Cal doing the nasty on his desk.

  Bitch.

  “I’m on my way to get Ranger from the vet. Then, I’ll load up the rest of my bags at the apartment. I should make it to your place around one or so. Okay?”

  “Oh, nice topic switch Karina. Guess the answer is no.”

  Grimacing, Karina drummed her fingers on the stiff leather of the steering wheel waiting for the light to turn green. Though Karina was excited about moving to Arkansas and spending time with Gram and Grampa, the long car ride with her mother to get there made her cringe.

  Karina loved her mom with ferocious intensity, and God help anyone who ever tried to hurt LiAnn Marie Tuck. But sometimes, her mom just dug too deep with probing questions. Her mother was only aware of some of the particulars about the relationship with Cal, but not everything.

  Once Karina began the undercover investigation assignment for the senior abuse wrongful death case at Jubilee Retirement, she went in so deep, there was no time or the energy left to explain her ugly breakup with Cal to anyone. The plan was to change that during the trip, though it would be hard for Karina to relive the pain. “No switch. Just discussing relevant issues and Cal Benson isn’t on that list. So, are you all packed and ready? Was there enough room in the moving van for all our stuff?”

  “Yep. Have been since last week. There was enough room, but barely. And I do mean barely. That semi doesn’t have enough room in it for a blade of grass. Good thing we both had a moving sale before we started packing. I guarantee you, when we open it, everything will pop out.”

  “That should make unloading it easy.” Karina laughed.

  “The movers just left, so I am sitting in an empty house and playing with my cell phone. Made it to level ninety-two in that candy-smashing game. Had to stop because my eyes started to cross. Now, I’m staring at the blank walls. The new owners will need to repaint. My furniture and decorations hid a lot of flaws.”

  Karina snorted. “No kidding. I noticed what a horrible housekeeper I am after everything was removed from my place. You should have seen all the dust-bunnies! I didn’t even remember that my walls were white instead of dirty eggshell. No refund of my security deposit, that’s for sure.”

  “Well, if you would have hired a cleaning lady to come in while you were gone…”

  There was a lot of things I should have done differently while undercover. “I know, I know. But I didn’t. Can’t cry about it now. So, how was your retirement party last night? Did you get a nice watch?”

  “Please. The department stopped that tradition when you were still in diapers. I’m lucky I got a cake and a plaque. I did, however, get one great gift from Crigger.”

  “Ol’ Crig released some cash from his wallet? Wow, Hell froze over and I missed it. Next, you’ll tell me pigs are flying in the sky after they shot out of Cal’s ass.”

  This time, her mother was the one who snorted, followed by a hearty laugh.“Funny girl. Yep, Crig bought two tickets for the Metallica concert in Memphis next month. Front row, baby. And guess who will be sitting next to me?”

  Her mom’s adorable laughter made Karina smile. She was only a few blocks away from the veterinarian’s office, so she ended the call and finished the remainder of the drive in silence.

  After today, Karina knew life would never be the same. The next few days would be full of lots of gabbing, slobber and hair from Ranger. There would also be plenty of head-banging music, courtesy of her 60’s wild child mother and now retired cop, Sgt. LiAnn Tuck.

  It was going to be one of those adventures Karina would tell her children about someday—if she ever had any. With her broken heart still tangled up with Cal’s, a one-hundred pound black lab under her feet, and God only knows what type of responsibilities down on the farm with Gram and Grampa, Karina wondered if her uterus would ever house a baby.

  At this rate, it sure seemed unlikely.

  LiAnn Tuck sighed inside the empty space of her house. It was strange to sit on the floor and stare at the nothingness. Years of memories packed and boxed away, on the highway and driven by a stranger who couldn’t care less about the safety of the contents. She hoped everything arrived in one piece after such a long journey. LiAnn moved over to the window and sat underneath, waiting for her daughter to arrive.

  Though Karina tried to hide it, LiAnn knew the move was harder on her daughter than herself. She also knew the breakup with Cal had been very difficult. Her headstrong daughter had never spilled the gory detail
s, but LiAnn would bet her retirement that the collapse of the relationship was because of infidelity. Calvin Benson was a former cop who looked and acted like a Hell’s Angel more than a private investigator. She knew the type well, for Karina’s father had the same swagger, just with one minor difference. Kirk Summers had been the lead singer and guitarist for the hard rock band The Hellions.

  LiAnn didn’t want to think about her ex. She thought enough about him every single time she looked at her daughter. Except for the fact that Karina was female, Kirk may have well just cloned his child. No, she wouldn’t think about him. The sheltered girl from the ’burbs who fell for the leather-clad, Harley driving guitar player with raven black hair and eyes bluer than the Pacific, didn’t exist anymore. LiAnn buried her the second the divorce papers were signed and she left their ramshackle trailer with Karina in tow. Though only nineteen, she had been determined to raise her daughter in a proper environment, away from all the drugs and violence Kirk and his bandmates and managers were immersed in.

  And so, she did. LiAnn moved back in with her parents, Junior and Ruth Tuck, to her childhood home in Rowland Heights. The suburbs, which seemed so silly and pathetic when she had been sixteen, took on a whole new dimension when LiAnn returned as a mother with her little bundle of joy. Karina, with her mop of wild, raven hair and eyes the same color as her father’s, was the queen of Kingsmill Street and the heartbeat of life for LiAnn and her parents. There was never a worry about her daughter’s safety, for the entire close-knit community, full of people generally around the same age as her parents, doted on Karina the minute she arrived. The three years they spent inside the warm, loving home, allowed LiAnn the chance to move from her position as desk clerk at the City of Azuza police department and on to the sheriff’s academy. Within two years after being sworn in as one of Los Angeles’ finest, LiAnn purchased the small, two-bedroom house eight blocks away from her parents.

  With a sigh of bemusement, LiAnn looked out the window into the bright afternoon sun. It was going to be another gorgeous, sunny California day and here she was inside, stumbling down memory lane. The palm trees towered over the tops of the houses across the street, their tufted branches swayed in gentle harmony with the light breeze. A twinge of regret slithered in LiAnn’s belly when she wondered if she would ever see the stunning scenery again. Not that Arkansas wasn’t a beautiful state, and it did have those two beloved smiling faces awaiting their arrival, but California would always be home. The sun-drenched beaches and the brilliant sunsets would soon be a thing of the past. She would not, however, miss the traffic, smog and crime.

  Especially the crime. God, how much pain and suffering had she seen during the course of her twenty-five year career? Too much, for sure. When retirement arrived, she was more than ready to go.

  LiAnn chased the sad thoughts away and concentrated on the move and precious time soon to be spent with her ailing parents. They had moved back to Arkansas almost thirty years ago and she thought her heart would explode from sadness. Her father had been born and raised in Sheridan, a small farming community about forty-five miles south of Little Rock. After he came home from his stint in the Navy during World War II, Junior Tuck fell in love with San Diego and stayed. He let his best friend and childhood buddy, Cecil Pickard, run the farm and planned on staying in Southern California only long enough to rake in some quick cash as a heavy equipment operator. Soon, the explosion of growth required numerous freeways to be built, and Junior Tuck found his own goldmine. The work paid well and the warm, fresh air convinced him to stay.

  Well, along with one beautiful, redhead by the name of Ruth Stretch. Once LiAnn’s parents met, at least according to the stories they liked to tell, it was love at first sight. Within two years of hitting the shores of San Diego and hanging up his uniform, Junior Tuck married Ruth and moved to Rowland Heights.

  Ruth resigned her secretarial position with Reem Aircraft in Los Angeles shortly after she and Junior were married. She took on the duties of both office manager and coordination expert, helping to run the large construction firm. Junior still loved to be on the job site, operating his big Caterpillar road grader even though he had six employees to run the rest of the construction equipment on the other building jobs his firm was responsible to complete. As soon as one freeway was built or a subdivision was completed, he and his team were off to the next job.

  It was a demanding and grueling pace and the many years of sitting in the open sun, inhaling diesel fumes and working six or seven days a week culminated in the serious heart attack her father suffered. When the union he belonged to, the Operating Engineers Local 310, learned he had a heart attack while operating his ten ton piece of equipment, they informed him his license to run machinery was null and void. Her dad had been barred from working on any construction job site for liability reasons.

  With many hugs and tears, Junior and Ruth said goodbye to LiAnn and Karina to begin their new life in Sheridan, Arkansas. Pop told her it was the best decision, since the farm was still in decent shape and he knew how to run it. LiAnn and Karina would faithfully visit them in the quaint farming community during her yearly vacations, meeting distant relatives whose names they had only previously heard in conversation or viewed in family photo albums. They had been enthralled with the quiet gentleness, infectious sense of humor and spirit of connection they all seemed to enjoy, especially on lazy Sunday afternoons sharing a sumptuous southern meal assortment of delectable food that tends to encourage one’s waistband to suddenly expand to frightening proportions.

  After each visit, LiAnn and Karina both knew in their hearts even though they never openly discussed it, that at some point, they would leave the beauty of their southern California homes to care for Ruth and Junior. It would be their privilege to return the loving gift of care and support that they had received during their young years.

  The past three years left her and Karina mentally and physically exhausted. They worked nonstop on the investigation and were deeply involved in the heart wrenching details they both unearthed in developing a major crime case that culminated in the death of a vulnerable eighty-seven year old woman. As the criminal investigation unfolded, it was discovered that more victims had been similarly brutalized by neglect that was the hallmark of corporate callousness and greed. Karina’s firm had been hired by several family members of victims for a civil suit against the corporation. The investigation was heartbreaking and Karina’s undercover stint at several of the facilities up and down the Pacific Coast left her haunted by the memories. LiAnn thought about how Karina’s once smiling face had changed. The anguish of all the atrocities hung behind Karina’s eyes like a beacon, announcing to the world her anger and sadness at the things she’d witnessed.

  LiAnn’s phone vibrated, pulling her back to the present. Now why is Crigger calling? “Good morning. How’s my favorite ex-boss doing on this gorgeous day?”

  “Tuck, you always were a burst of sunshine in the morning. I am going to miss that. Everyone else around here is as dull as the bottom of a worn shoe. Sure I can’t convince you to stay?”

  “I believe we’ve had this conversation before. My answer has not changed. Besides, I can’t stay now. All my stuff is in a van on its way to Arkansas. Can’t come to work naked.”

  Crigger laughed. “Now that would definitely be a way to perk up the sour pusses around here.”

  “Perk up? Don’t you mean puke up? I’m sure none of them want to see the naked body of a mature woman. Their lockers weren’t full of fifty-five plus year olds–they were plastered with barely legal things parading around in skimpy swatches of material.”

  “Very funny. Listen, though I enjoy your warped sense of humor, that’s not why I called.”

  “Okay, so why did you?”

  Crigger cleared his throat. “Melissa Doster called me this morning. Jubilee filed an appeal, which is no surprise to us, but she wanted me to make sure you and Karina were aware she would be calling you both soon.”

  LiAnn
grimaced but kept her voice light. “Why? She has the case file from each of us, plus the transcripts of our trial testimony in both cases. What else could she need?”

  “How many years did you work for us, Tuck? You know how lawyers are—they dig, dig and then dig some more, hoping to unearth some little hidden treasure they missed the first time. But, in this case, I think she really wants to discuss your testimony rather than read about it. Besides, I think she is going to miss the two of you. I mean, from a bystander’s point of view, it looked like the three of you got real close during the investigation and trial. Who knows? Maybe it’s just a ruse to keep in contact with you both.”

  “Yeah, our bubbly personalities snagged her in our trap. Hmmm, well I don’t think there is anything Karina or I could offer up as help. It’s not like we hid anything or kept pieces of key evidence. But of course, we are more than willing to be of help. You know how involved we both became in the cases.”

  Crigger groaned. “Too much. Way too much.”

  LiAnn’s skin prickled at his tone. “How could we not? When I think about the terrible things those bastards did for money…how they ruined so many lives of those sweet seniors, my blood boils.”

  “Tuck, stop it. That attitude right there is going to put you in an early grave. That temper of yours is going to give you hypertension for sure. You got too close, too wrapped up in it. Never seen you wound so tight inside a case.”

  LiAnn huffed. “I did not.”

  “Then tell me why you retired, huh?” Crigger probed.

  “You know why,” LiAnn whispered.

  “Because you got too involved and are all paranoid the same thing might happen to your parents. The second your father called and made noises about the possibility he and your mother might move into an independent living facility, you flipped your lid. Do you think your reaction would have been as swift and strong if you hadn’t worked the Jubiliee case?”