Chapter 23

"Sir, I cannot let you go in unless you are checking in for a night, and it doesn't look like you need that," the lady at the desk told Luke.

Ryker started forward before Luke put his hand up, stopping him. Paisley was glad because she didn't think that this was a place where trying to intimidate people was going to work. The woman behind the desk didn't even appear annoyed. If anything, she looked bored.

"Would it be possible to have someone check if Mary is willing to come out and talk to me?" Paisley stepped around the men. "I'm her sister." She gave her name and the lady agreed to ask if she was here and if she wanted to talk.

"Well done," Mr. Smith told her.

She flushed. Luke stepped next to her and dropped his arm around her shoulders. "Thank you."

"Sometimes we men need to remember that the women have the right of things when it comes to delicate situations especially." Mr. Smith smiled at her.

They waited quietly in the hallway while the woman had someone else check for Mary. It felt like it was taking hours even though it could only have been a minute or two.

"Paisley?" Mary's worried voice reached her.

"Mary?" Paisley left Luke's embrace and went to her sister.

"What's all this?" Her eyes bounced nervously to all the men standing behind her.

"This is Luke," she explained. "Everyone else here are friends. We wanted to ask you a few questions about the person that visited you the other day, and we also want to see if there is any way we can help you."

Mary's dry laugh ended on a cough. "The last man that visited me was in a suit too. He wanted to give me drugs in exchange for information about you. I didn't know how to reach you and tell you about it. I didn't tell him anything, I swear." She coughed again.

"I wasn't accusing you of anything," Paisley reminded her. "Do you need a doctor?" She didn't like the sound of that cough.

"Can't afford it. I'm sure this will pass. I need to work." Mary waved her off.

Luke, who was standing quietly next to them, stepped in. "Mary, we can get you to the doctor. Nothing needs to be repaid for it."

She shook her head. "Can't do that without missing work and I need the job." Facing Paisley now, she swore to her. "I'm working on getting clean. It's been ten days since the last time. I'm trying to get my shit together."

Paisley waved her hand toward Dr. Jones. "Mary, this is Dr. Jones who works at a rehab facility. It's the best of the best and she's offered to help, along with Mr. Smith, who is helping us too."

"Why?" Mary asked, skepticism clear. "What do you want from me?"

"I just want my sister back. I want her to know her nephew and get to meet him."

"All this just because a man in a suit wanted dirt on you? There's nothing to even tell him. You don't do bad things."

Paisley sighed. "I promise it's not just that. I didn't know where you were until he came to see you. Yes, that's an issue, but I promise all I want from you is to be better. There are no strings attached to any of us."

"Why all the muscle then?"

She had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing at that comment. It was good that Mary hadn't run yet. Typically, all conversations that included rehab were immediately shut down when Mary walked away.

"They're friends. They just want to make sure that we are safe," Paisley explained.

Ryker stepped next to her now. "We also want to make sure that the other man, a lawyer, doesn't come up with a story about why we are here or show up again to bother you. You seem to be doing well, and we are just offering to help you out."

Mary studied him, eyes squinted. Ryker didn't waver under her gaze, instead waited for her to size him up.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Mary asked. Her gaze scanned everyone in the entrance.'

"I can help with that," Dr. Jones said. "I have flyers and all that about our facility, but I can also assure you that you don't have to talk to anyone, including the people in this room, ever if you don't want to. It's not about them. It's about what you want," Dr. Jones explained. "We don't want to push this on you, but the success rate is much higher for people that attend a rehab."

"May I see those?" the woman who had been at the desk asked.

Dr. Jones cut her gaze to Mary, who nodded, before handing them over.

She whistled. "Mary, this place is nice. I've heard of it." She handed them back. "I think you should take these folks' offer."

"I'm trying hard to be better," she confessed. "I feel like this is me getting into a debt that I can't pay back. This is too much for me." She handed the flyers back.

"Not a single one of us here is asking you to pay us back. We don't want that. All we want is to help you get better and to be there for our son as his aunt," Luke told her.

Paisley held her hand out to show her ring. "I'm getting married to Luke. He wants this for all of us and, trust me, he can afford it." She laughed. "They all can."

"It's a lot." Mary still hesitated.

Paisley nodded. "It is. No one is arguing that. We are arguing that you are worth it."

Cade and Mr. Smith stayed silent, watching the exchange.

"I think you should take this chance, Mary," the woman from the desk said. "Not many people will ever get one like this, and it's what you want already but with support instead of being around the temptation of your old life."

Mary stayed silent. After a minute, tears began to fall and she nodded. "Okay."

"My dear." Mr. Smith approached. "I know that you don't know me, but you are making the best decision you can here. We will help you every step of the way and between the lot of us and the ones that didn't come, we will help you find a good job when you are ready to leave."

Tears fell in earnest now. "Why are you all being so nice to me? I don't deserve any of this."

"Everyone deserves chances to make things right," Ryker said. "I wasn't always this rich, and I don't fit in with any of these people, even my friends, but we work. You are getting your chance and it's going to be better than you could have imagined,"

Everyone except for Mary turned to stare at Ryker like he had two heads. No one, least of all Paisley, had expected that motivational speech from him.

"What?" he grunted. "I told you I knew what to say." With that, he shrugged and took a step back.

"He's right though," Paisley encouraged.

"When does all this happen?" Mary asked.

"Right now, if you're ready," Dr. Jones answered.

She nodded.

"Go get your stuff and we will get you out of here." Paisley hugged Mary tight, happy she had agreed and even happier at the prospect of having Mary back in her life.

"Okay," she whispered, disappearing back into the doors they weren't allowed through.

"I don't know any of you, but I promise that if you mess up her recovery at all, I will hunt you all down one by one." The woman from the desk stood with her hands on her hips and a severe look on her face.

"Yes, ma'am," they all said together.

"Here's my card," Mr. Smith told her, handing it over. "If you have any other cases that are just as motivated and worthy, you give me a call and we will see what we can do."

She took it, looking it over before pursing her lips and studying him. "I'll see how she does first." Without another word, she turned and went back to her post behind the desk.

Ryker walked over to her. "I'm in the security business now. If things ever get out of hand, you give me a call and we will have someone over here to help."

She nodded, taking the second business card offered to her and setting it on the desk. She didn't thank anyone, just as untrusting and skeptical as Mary, but Paisley had a feeling that if the time came, she'd use those cards.

"I'm ready." Mary joined them again.

"Can we ask you a few questions before you go?" Paisley asked.

Mary nodded as they left the building.

"What exactly did the man want that came the other day?" Cade finally spoke.

"He offered me money and drugs, but mostly drugs, for dirt on Paisley. I didn't take any," she reiterated. "He was mad when I told him there was none. Paisley was nothing like me, ever. There simply wasn't anything to say even if I had wanted to."

"Did he ask anything else?" Cade pressed.

She sighed. "He said he'd hook me up with all the drugs I wanted if I told him and the press and some other people that Paisley did drugs while she was pregnant. I refused." She took a deep breath. "Then he told me that I could come up with any story, even just about how my closest thing to family dumped me off when a rich guy wanted her."

"Did he say why?" Cade continued to push.

Mary shook her head. "He didn't and I didn't ask. If I'd had a way to tell her, I would have. I even went to her old apartment but no luck there. I knew that wasn't what happened. I had pushed things too far with her, taking advantage of her, and I'm sorry. I also know that you weren't around before or after she found out she was pregnant."

Luke frowned.

"I'm happy that you two have found each other now, though. You seem happy, Paisley. I love that for you."

"I am. I'm so happy it's obnoxious. When you're up for it, I'd love for you to meet my son." She hugged her again.

"You aren't going to ask what's going on?" Cade wondered.

"No. I have a feeling that I don't want to be involved in it and you all seem to have her back. I'm trusting you with not only myself but her as well. Take good care of each other." She turned to Dr. Jones. "I'm ready to go."

"This way," Dr. Jones said, leading her to a black sedan.

"Thank you for this." Paisley hugged Mr. Smith, too.

"You're welcome, dear. You'll see she will be in the best care." He hugged her back lightly.

Paisley nodded and stepped back.

Everyone said their goodbyes and they watched as the car drove off.

"I'm glad that she agreed," Luke told her.

"I just hope it works," Paisley admitted.