Hearts & Minds | WATTY Winner

Chapter 21 | Red Handed | Part 3

     In the living room, Sam paced back and forth in front of the windows. He'd forgotten to give Ginger back to his niece; thus, he held the rat in his hands, petting its ears. Bart watched with interest. After all this, Sam would have to head over to his sister's place in the Marina to drop off the critter. She would be annoyed, but that was too bad.

Part of Sam thought he should be elated, but in fact he was too disgusted by the notion to even entertain it. Some might be happy that the woman they loved who loved another had been disappointed by that very same cad. Sam wasn't capable of such thinking. Rainey was suffering and he felt—no, he knew—he was to blame in part. He could have prevented this from happening—but he'd been too indecisive, too passive. Not that it made a difference now. She was in pain and he wanted it to stop. That's all that mattered.

Nora entered the room with a small sigh.

"How is she?" Sam asked.

She clasped her hands together under her chin. "She'll be okay now that she's with our mother. She has this soothing effect on Rainey. I think it has to do with all the profanity."

Sam allowed himself a small smile before sinking back into self-recrimination.

"I should have known something like this would happen."

"What do you mean?"

He didn't answer.

"You knew about Will and that woman he was with. Didn't you?"

"No. But I'm...I'm not surprised."

"How? Male intuition? Journalistic sixth sense?"

Nora was starting to get upset. Sam held up his hand, gathering his thoughts. She crossed her arms and waited.

"I did a story a couple of years ago on horse racing and its economics around the globe. One of the tracks I visited was Santa Anita. I interviewed Will Jones there because he's a professional gambler."

Nora's arms dropped to her side. "Are you serious?"

Sam gave her a look that told her everything she needed to know on that front.

"Why didn't you tell us? Or at least tell Rainey?"

He lifted his hand hopelessly. "Would it have made a difference in her decision to be with him?"

Nora looked away. "I doubt it."

Sam nodded. "He had this girlfriend, one of the bookmakers I had befriended—another source for the story. This girl would have done anything for him. And she did."

Nora looked at him questioningly.

"He sweet-talked her into making some of his debts disappear. She obliged him. Then...Will disappeared. The girl wound up losing her livelihood and had to make herself scarce, so to speak. But she got off lucky. She could have lost a lot more than that."

Nora sat down on the couch and Bart, resting on the floor, put his chin on her lap. She petted his head absently. That poor girl, she thought, risking everything for nothing.

"That's terrible. I wish you would have told us, Sam. You should have told us. Even if Rainey didn't believe you—or didn't want to believe you—I would have. We could have talked her out of being with him." Maybe. Probably.

Sam looked her right in the eye with an intensity she could not ignore.

"Nora, you can't decide whom you fall in love with, and love isn't just blind. It makes people blind. Will Jones is a user, and he gets away with it because he's charming and—so women keep telling me—good looking. I'm not making excuses. You're right, I should have told her. Or you. But I didn't think there was anything I could do because I could see she loved him. And I really believed that he loved her too."