Page 44 of Shattered Dreams

I frown. “Do you know him?”

“I don’t remember him well, but the night I was using Peggy’s computer, I researched him and some of the staff at Quiet Meadows. When I saw his picture, it triggered a few memories. He would push me down to the basement and he always smelled like peppermint and cigarette smoke.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did, but there’s been a lot going on and you must have forgot.” She screws up her face, teasing me. “Who’s got the bad memory now?”

“I guess that’d be me,” I say, smacking her butt.

She laughs.

“But why would you be under the care of a dementia doctor?” I ask, not liking any explanation anyone could come up with.

“I don’t know. Why was he at the place where Ingrid was murdered?”

“I don’t know, but in a few days Zane and I are going to talk to him.”

She stops. “Is that a good idea? Shouldn’t you tell the police?”

“We want to keep this to ourselves. Zane said we don’t have many people we can trust, and that’s true. Besides, we don’tknow where all this points to, and if the police start going in and arresting people, then it’s a little hard to get answers, isn’t it?”

“If hekilledsomeone, he might hurt you, too.”

“Zane and I will be okay, and I have other things I want to ask him now. Like what exactly he was doing to you while you were at Quiet Meadows. If he was involved in your abuse, he should go to prison. I don’t know how this Dr. Pederson managed to find a get-out-of-jail-free card, but anyone who hurt you, they’re going to pay for it.”

“I just want to get better.”

“I know you do. How do you feel after your appointment today?”

“I’m not on the lower dosage yet. I start that tomorrow. Zane called Mel and let her know, but she remembers how I used to be. We’ll be fine.”

“Good. I’d like to meet her someday. We can talk shop.”

Zarah tugs on my arm and leads me deeper into the woods. “I would like that, too.”

The dogs sniff around the trees and we find the log we always sit on. I brush a layer of snow off the bark the best I can and straddle it, and Zarah sits between my legs and rests her head on my shoulder.

I wrap my arms around her. “This afternoon I went through a little more of what Max left me. Rourke was doing more than just sleeping with Willow. He was helping Black sell weapons. He’s in DC now, but I’m going to talk to him when he’s back in the city. Max was doing a lot of digging, and I don’t like what he found.”

“Then he should be in prison.”

“Yeah, he should be. This goes deeper than what Stella and Max found out about your parents, and I’m sorry I waited so long to do what he asked.”

“I’m not.”

Her answer surprises me. “Why? Ingrid would still be alive. Zane and Stella would have been married a long time ago, andmaybe,you would have been off those drugs completely by now. We don’t know all that they were doing to you at Quiet Meadows, and it could be the key to your recovery.”

“All that’s important, but if you had gone to see Max’s lawyer right away, we wouldn’t have been ready to meet. You hated me, remember? You blamed Max’s death on us.”

“I was angry and didn’t know any better.”

“But the waiting gave you time to forget you hated me, and you fell in love with me instead.”

“That’s not as important as your future.”

She twists on the log. “You are my future, Gage. Without you, I have nothing.”

Scowling, I pull off my gloves and trap her face between my hands. “I don’t ever want to hear you say that again. I will never be more important than your health. I love you just the way you are, but off those drugs, you’ll be so much more. You have such a bright future ahead of you, baby, and if I had to choose between leaving you for good and you getting better or staying with you and you never having the future you deserve, I would leave, just like that. You could always find another man to love.”

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