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The lights pulsed again, undulating, creating ripples of energy that washed over her in the most amazing sensations.
The woman’s free hand rose to her trembling lips as tears spilled over her lashes. “Oh my Lord, I can feel them.” The handcuffs rattled against the metal bar as she jiggled Roxanna’s hand with excitement. “I can feel them. Thank you. Thank you so very much.”
As the energy waves eased, Roxanna gave her a tremulous smile, and they each let go. When the narrow-eyed detective extended a hand for her to precede him from the room, Mrs. Rowan’s aura was a clear, beautiful pink. A tiny measure of peace nestled in Roxanna’s heart. While she absolutely hated what her mother had done, in this moment, she was grateful to have been able to release the grief of the woman her mother had swindled.
Loyal stayed behind with the lawyer, but she was having a hard time finding the courage to look at him. She had her hope of why he was here, at the police station, in this room, with a lawyer he’d clearly gotten for her. But she was terrified of allowing that hope to blossom. She’d worked for the very people who’d scammed him and gotten him dumped at the altar. Cost him thousands of dollars. Left him humiliated. How could he ever forgive her?
“Roxanna.”
His low voice compelled her to lift her head, and the look in his eyes nearly stopped her heart.
“It’s going to be okay.”
Chapter 30
A little over three hours later, Loyal walked Roxanna out to the waiting area a free woman. The moment she thanked Gavin Stowe and the lawyer left, Asher and Honor smothered her with hugs right there in the police station.
He was dying to hold her in his arms, but once she was there, he wasn’t going to want to let go for a long time, so he was biding his time until they got home.
“It’s over. For me at least,” she was saying. “Between what Loyal brought, and everything I told them from when I worked at the hotline, they’ve cleared me with the condition I testify when my mom and Leander Tanner are caught.”
“You going to be okay with that?” Asher voiced the concern Loyal himself had.
“I am. Or I will be.” Roxanna lifted her hands up in a helpless gesture. “She can’t keep doing what she’s doing. If she hasn’t already, she could ruin someone’s life. Messing with their emotions when they’re grieving and vulnerable so she can scam them out of money is wrong. I have to do what I can to stop her.”
Loyal’s chest swelled with pride. If her ungrateful grandparents could see her now. She was nothing like her selfish, self-centered mother. She was kind and honest, gentle and compassionate, good and beautiful.
“And you know how I could never get my accounts to balance out?” she asked Asher. “Loyal figured out Mirela was skimming, and come to find out, she’s a distant cousin of my mother’s.”
“You think your mom was part of that, too?”
“I don’t doubt it for one second.” She frowned, then quickly glanced around the station. It was busy and loud, and dingier than before now that darkness had fallen outside. “Anyway, do you guys mind if we get out of here? I’ve had enough of this place to last me a lifetime.”
“Do you need anything?” Honor asked.
“I just want to go home and go to bed.”
Loyal didn’t even think of sex as he caught Asher’s glance and stepped up to rest his hand at the small of her back with a nod to his brother, indicating he’d take her home. She thanked them for being there, and then they said their goodbyes and parted ways in the brightly lit parking lot.
She was quiet as he held the passenger door of his Land Rover open for her. She slipped inside, but he paused before closing it.
“Roxanna.” His voice graveled out, and he had to clear his throat to start again. “Back at the shop…I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“Loyal, don’t. I don’t blame you,” she said softly, still not looking at him. “How could I? It looked bad, especially since I hadn’t told you. I hadn’t even told Asher.”
“It was only for a moment, and then I knew as soon as you were gone you couldn’t do what they were accusing you of, but I am still so damn sorry. And telling you to shut-up—I didn’t want you to say anything they could twist and use against you.”
She stared straight ahead, her gaze on the police station through the windshield. “I don’t really want to talk about this here. Please.”
He frowned at the dejection in her voice, but decided not to push it. She was exhausted and emotionally drained, and the least he could do was get her home so she could recover and regroup.
Once out of the lot, she remained quiet, and his gut clenched at the gaping hole that seemed to be widening between them. He needed to fix this, but didn’t know what else to say to make it better.
“What is it about me that my own mother can’t love me?”
At her soft, anguished whisper, he glanced over to see her staring out the passenger side window. The light from the dashboard glinted off the wetness on her face, and a golf-ball sized lump lodged in his throat.
Her fucking mother. No, make that her whole fucking family.
