He imagined her sexy mouth curving into a smile when he gave her the news. She had her own child; she'd understand. He wouldn't touch her. He just wanted to tell her.
But when he didn't see her car in the driveway, he realized she must be at work and decided to leave well enough alone. For the good of everyone, he had to be satisfied with the life he led, had to relegate himself to relationships like the one he'd had with Beth Ann. Maybe he'd grown tired of the emptiness--and maybe those relationships had their pitfalls--but superficial associations were better than having no love life at all, weren't they?
Braking for the light at Fourth and Main, he glanced to the left, which led to his farm, then to the right, which would take him to the trailer park where Beth Ann lived. If he relented and started seeing her again, would he get over Allie?
Probably not, but at least he'd be able to fill the empty hours so he wouldn't think of her so often.
Remembering the plaintive sound of Beth Ann's voice when she'd asked to see him earlier, he turned toward her house. He knew better than to sleep with her, refused to let her trap him. But there were still ways she could help him forget....
"Mommy, what are we doing?"
"Just taking a drive, baby." Allie reached behind the seat to adjust the blanket she'd brought to cover Whitney. She hated waking her daughter and dragging her from bed in the middle of the night. Whitney wasn't quite over her cough. But Allie couldn't leave her home by herself and Clay wasn't answering his phone. She had to rouse him from bed if he was sleeping, or find him if he wasn't at home. She didn't want her father's appearance on his doorstep in the morning to come without warning.
Once she told him what was happening, and he understood the odds stacked against him, maybe he'd skip town. Allie hoped so. Why should he stay? He wouldn't get a fair trial. And she preferred not to watch what the Vincellis and their friends had in store for him.
"Mommy?" Whitney said.
Allie turned onto Main Street. "What?"
"Can I take off my seat belt? I want to lie down."
"No."
"But I'm sleepy."
"Sorry, sweetheart. We won't be long, okay?" Allie tapped the steering wheel with her fingernails while she waited at the next light, eager to reach Clay's farm. But then she realized that the pool hall was still open and decided to check there before heading out of town.
"Is this where we're going?" Whitney asked in confusion when Allie turned down the narrow side street that led to the back parking lot.
"No," she murmured. "I'm looking for a black truck."
But Clay's vehicle wasn't among the fifteen or so that remained. Allie was about to turn around, when Joe Vincelli and his brother Roger came out of the building.
She paused, watching them. They swayed as if they'd had too much to drink, then Joe pivoted to shout at someone who lingered in the doorway.
Allie frowned as he laughed. He was certainly in high spirits. Had he heard about Clay?
Were he and his brother out celebrating their victory?
Joe's gloating turned Allie's stomach. She turned her car around, but Joe noticed her before she could drive off. He waved to Roger to block the road so that she couldn't exit the lot.
"What the hell are you doing?" she asked, rolling down her window.
He put a hand on her roof and leaned in. "I was hoping you had your boyfriend with you."
"I don't have a boyfriend."
"Jeez, does that mean you'll sleep with me, too?" he said, and he and his brother laughed uproariously.
Allie clenched her jaw. "Do you mind? I have my kid in the car."
"What, you don't want her to hear what Mommy's been up to? Can't say as I blame you."
"You've been enough of an embarrassment to your parents," Roger chimed in.
"Get out of my way," she said. "Both of you."
Joe challenged her with a haughty smirk. "What if we don't want to?"
"Then you're going to wind up getting yourselves arrested."
"Not by you, babe."
"Last I heard, you no longer had a badge," Roger added.
Joe leaned closer, close enough that Allie could smell the beer on his breath. "You must've wanted Clay pretty bad, huh? Tell me, was it as good as you hoped?"
Allie forced a cocky grin. "As good as it gets."
Joe's eyes narrowed. "Well, I hope that'll be enough to tide you over, then, because there won't be any more where that came from. Clay's going to prison. For life."
"Says who?"
"You know it's true."
"Maybe you'll join him there," she snapped.
The smile disappeared from Joe's face. "Why do you say that?"
"Attempted murder is a serious crime."
"It wasn't my cap you found in the woods," he taunted.
Allie's heart skipped a beat. No one knew about the cap except Hendricks. He must've called Joe the moment she hung up.
Or maybe that cap was a plant. An attempt to get rid of Clay and the one man who'd tried to protect him for the past nineteen years.
"If you're behind that shooting, you'd better watch out," she said.
"Because..."
"Because I'm going to nail your ass to the wall."
"Is that a threat?" He glanced at his brother. "I think that was a threat, don't you?"
Allie longed to wipe the smug expressions from their faces. "It's the truth."
"You're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy." Joe pounded the roof of her car.
Keeping her foot firmly on the brake, Allie punched the gas at the same time. The sudden revving of her engine and the powerful lurch of her car frightened Joe enough that he stepped back and Roger dived to the side.
Laughing for the Vincellis' benefit, Allie drove away.
"Who were those men, Mommy?" Whitney asked, sounding frightened as their tires squealed around the corner.
Allie rolled up her window. "They're bad guys, honey."
"Are they going to hurt us?"
"No. If I have my way, they're going to jail."
"Oh."
Allie checked her rearview mirror to see Whitney snuggling deeper into the blanket.
"Can we go home now?" she asked with a yawn.
"In a few minutes," she replied.
She drove to Clay's house, but when she arrived, she found all the lights out and his truck gone. Where was he? She drove by his mother's duplex, Grace and Kennedy's historic mansion, Madeline's quaint cottage, even the small retail space Madeline leased for the newspaper--all with no luck.
At that point, Allie couldn't think of anywhere else to look. She sat, letting her car idle in the church parking lot, until she realized there was one more place. The thought of finding Clay there made her ill. But it would certainly explain why she hadn't heard from him.