Once Forbidden.... Carla Cassidy

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      The Inferno Trailer Park was not such a place. Rather it had been, and continued to be, a den of iniquity, a dark place peopled with miserable souls, bad choices and the torment of hopelessness.

      Reluctantly Jerrod left his car. Although he knew the interior of the trailer would smell of booze and stale cigarette smoke, he also knew the air conditioner would be a welcome relief from the heat.

      “Ah, my saintly son has returned.” Jerrod’s father sat at the small burn-scarred kitchen table, a bottle of beer in front of him. From the look of his red-rimmed eyes and the slur of his words, it certainly wasn’t his first drink of the day.

      “Have you eaten today, Pop?”

      “Not hungry.” Mack McCain finished his beer and shoved the empty bottle aside. “Did you get all settled over at the church?”

      Jerrod shrugged out of his suit jacket and grabbed a skillet from the cabinet. “Yeah, starting in two weeks, I’m ready to begin converting the sinners of Inferno every Sunday morning.” He withdrew a stick of butter and a carton of eggs from the refrigerator.

      Mack leaned back in his chair and rubbed a hand across his grizzled jaw. “Still can’t believe it. My son—a preacher. Wonder what your ma would have made of it.” He frowned and stood unsteadily. “Think I’ll have me another beer.”

      “Why don’t you have some eggs and toast with me, instead?”

      Mack fell back into his chair. “I suppose I could eat a little.”

      Dinner was a silent affair, and once again Jerrod’s thoughts returned to Johnna. Since coming back to town last week, he’d driven by her law office a dozen times, cruised by the small house where she lived just off Main Street, to catch a glimpse of her. He should have spoken to her then—before Erin had been arrested, before he needed Johnna.

      There had been a time when Johnna Delaney had been his lamp, the shining beacon that had pierced the darkness that was his life. He’d been nineteen and she’d been eighteen, and neither had been prepared for the passion, the wealth of emotion that had exploded between them.

      He shoved the thoughts away, not wanting to remember the Johnna of his youth—so soft and warm, so sweetly giving. She’d been needy, and so had he. It had been a need greater than mere sex, stronger than loneliness. For a while they had assuaged that need with each other, and for a while it had been wonderful.

      He cleaned up the dinner dishes, then realized his father had fallen asleep—or passed out—in his easy chair. Some things never change, Jerrod thought as he helped his father from the chair to the bedroom.

      His father had been a drunk since the day Jerrod’s mother had walked out on them. Jerrod had been seven, and he’d watched his father crawl into the bottom of a bottle and never crawl out.

      He’d hoped things would change in the years he’d been gone. He’d written his father often, sent money on a regular basis and hoped the man would find the strength to build a life for himself. Instead, Mack had merely continued to mourn for a woman long gone and a love that hadn’t lasted.

      “You shouldn’t have come back here, boy,” Mack muttered as Jerrod covered him with the sheet. “This place will suck the life from you. You should have stayed away.”

      Jerrod started to reply, then realized Mack had fallen back asleep. He left the bedroom, fixed himself a glass of iced tea, then stepped out the front door and into the simmering evening air.

      The old wicker chair on the porch gave a familiar creak as he sank into it. He sipped his tea, his gaze focused on the trailer across the way. At one time it had been where Erin McCall and her mother had lived. During the time Jerrod had been away, Erin had surprised everyone. She’d finally made her way out of the trailer park by marrying Richard Kramer, one of the most affluent businessmen in town.

      Jerrod had received a wedding announcement from Erin, along with a chatty letter telling him she’d finally found happiness. And now she was facing life in prison for the murder of her husband. What on earth had happened?

      He took a long swallow of his tea and smiled as a dusty old Ford pulled up in front of the place. He set his glass down on the porch and stood as an old man climbed out of the car.

      “Uncle Cyrus.” He greeted the man with a warm embrace.

      “I go away for a week and return to find my favorite nephew has finally come back home where he belongs.”

      Jerrod motioned to the wicker chair across from where he’d been sitting. “Want something to drink? Some tea or lemonade?”

      Cyrus shook his head and eased himself down into the chair. “Nah, I’m fine. How you doing, boy? You look good.”

      “Thanks.”

      “You seen Johnna Delaney yet?”

      Jerrod laughed dryly. “You never were one to waste time or mince words, Uncle Cyrus.”

      Cyrus McCain was the only person on earth who knew everything that had happened between Jerrod and Johnna so many years ago. It had been with Cyrus’s help that Jerrod had left the trailer park, Inferno and Johnna behind.

      “I’m seventy years old, boy. I don’t have time to mince words.”

      Jerrod leaned back in his chair and picked up his tea. “Yeah, I’ve seen her.” A vision of Johnna filled his mind.

      For a moment he remembered her as he’d known her nine years ago. Then her hair had been long and thick and her eyes had been a soft ash-gray, which only hardened when she spoke of her father, Adam.

      Today there had been no hint of softness about her. Her hair was almost boyishly short, and yet the style emphasized the sharp angles of her face, the fullness of her lower lip and the beauty of her eyes—eyes that no longer held any softness or vulnerability.

      “She looks good,” he finally said.

      Cyrus nodded. “She’s got that strong Delaney bone structure. I imagine she’ll always be quite an attractive woman.”

      Jerrod frowned. “Have you heard about Erin?”

      “I stopped in at the diner for some supper on my way back into town, and the whole place was buzzing with the news.” Cyrus shook his head. “Somebody should have seen that marriage was a train wreck waiting to happen. Everyone in town knew Richard beat the hell out of Erin on a regular basis. I suppose she just decided to give it right back to him.”

      Jerrod took a sip of his now tepid tea. “She says she didn’t kill him.”

      Cyrus raised a white eyebrow. “And I’m a fairy princess,” he said.

      Jerrod ignored him. “I asked Johnna to defend Erin today.”

      Cyrus stared at him in disbelief. “Tell me you’re kidding.”

      “No, no kidding. Erin wants her.”

      “Did she tell you to kiss her—”

      “She told me no,” Jerrod said before Cyrus could finish.

      “What СКАЧАТЬ