by Barb Han
Alyssa gasped. “I need to call my mother and tell her to go away for a few weeks.”
Blake retrieved his phone and then handed it over.
She stared at it, blinking rapidly. “I don’t have the first idea what the number is.”
“Hold on.” No one remembered phone numbers anymore. He pulled up her mother’s contact in his phone.
“You kept this?” She said the words low and under her breath, but the hint of hope nearly did him in. He didn’t want to give her false hope about where he stood.
“More like I never deleted it.”
“Oh.”
He was beginning to hate that word.
Alyssa took the cell from his hands, their fingers touched, and sparks flew where they made contact. He did what he did best—ignored them.
“Mom,” Alyssa started right in, “where are you?”
A few beats passed.
“Can you go stay with a friend tonight?” she asked. Then came, “Pack a weekend bag. I might need you to...No, I can’t explain right now. I’ll tell you later. Okay?” More beats passed. “Will you trust me?”
Those words must have been magic because Alyssa nodded, and a ghost of a smile crossed her lips. “Good. Thank you, Mom. I’ll explain everything later.”
She looked up at Blake, their eyes locked and his heart fisted.
“Yes, this is Blake’s phone and, in fact, he’s standing here right now if you’d like to—”
She paused for a few beats.
“He’ll understand. We just had to tie up a few loose ends at the townhouse. Has anyone been by lately?” she asked. “Good....No. Don’t answer your phone unless it’s me or Blake calling. And don’t answer the door if the bell rings. Just pack your bag...What?...Yes...The baby and I are fine.” A few more beats of silence passed. “Nothing to worry about here. Just take care of you and I’ll come for you when you can come home. Okay?”
She nodded and the smile returned, brightening her creamy skin. Blake didn’t want to think about how beautiful his ex was. Seeing her pregnant, glowing, she was even more stunning. Looks could get a person only so far with Blake. Intelligence with a sense of humor were high on his list. Kindness. Good looks were icing on the cake.
The question he’d spent too many nights pondering returned—what had he done wrong?
“Remember that thing I was asking about the last time we talked?” Alyssa asked. She must be fishing for information from her mother. “Yeah, when was that?”
She nodded and said a few uh-huhs into the phone.
“Well, get over to Annie’s and enjoy your time with her,” she finally said.
Alyssa ended the call with her mother looking satisfied. “She promised to text as soon as she gets to her friend Annie’s house.”
Getting Alyssa to the office she’d share with her father jumped up higher on the priority scale.
“What about where you live? Is it coming back to you?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“I might have something around here with your address on it.” Would the divorce papers? He honestly couldn’t remember. The whole time period was a blur and, honestly, he didn’t want to recall most of it. But he had the papers somewhere upstairs in his home office.
“We could pull up the picture of your residence and see if it jogs any more memories.”
There was Google Maps. He’d run upstairs and root around for papers he swore he’d never look at again once they were signed and the deal was done. Blake took the stairs two at a time. The master was on this level along with two other bedrooms, one of which he used as an office. The second bedroom was a guest room and several of his brothers had taken turns staying over to keep him company after he’d been served. The master had its own hallway while the bedroom and office were side-by-side.
He hiked down the hallway to the office and moved behind his desk. Then, he remembered the papers were most likely in the filing cabinet behind him. He pivoted and dropped down to one knee before opening the bottom drawer. In the back, he saw the folder marked Divorce. He’d swallowed a bitter pill with that one and the taste soured his mouth now just thinking about it.
The sealed envelope sat there where he tucked it away after being reassured by his attorney everything was signed and in order. The promise he’d made nullified by the words irreconcilable differences. What did that even mean?
He grabbed the envelope. On the way downstairs, he heard his cell buzzing. He picked up the pace. The call rolled into voicemail before he got there in time.
Alyssa met him at the bottom of the stairs, cell in one hand and his laptop tucked underneath her arm.
Again, when their fingers made contact the inconvenient attraction surged. This close, he could breathe in her scent, a mixture of lavender and spring flowers that brought all his senses to life. He hadn’t made the time to toss out her favorite body wash.
“Here’s your phone.” Her voice was low and sexy. Her eyes were glittery. He recognized the look. Hell, he felt the same. Physical attraction had never been an issue for them even right up until the end.
Call him an idiot—and he had been for not recognizing the signs he was losing his wife—but he’d believed their healthy sex life meant they were clicking on all levels. She’d been distracted and different since her father’s death. Quiet. Now, he realized the fact she’d stopped talking to him was a problem. The problem?
Having her show up now was good, he reasoned. Maybe now he’d be able to get closure. It was pure muscle memory that had him tucking the envelope under the same arm as the laptop as his phone stuck in between them. With his free hand, he started to take her by the wrist but brought his hand up to cup her cheek instead. The feel of her creamy skin against his hand sent rockets shooting through him.
It would be so easy to dip his head down and kiss those gorgeous pink lips of hers. He blamed his next actions on muscle memory when he did just that—kissed her. And her lips against his was even better than he remembered.
She tasted sweet and a little spicy, the lingering effects of Tex-Mex peppers as he teased his tongue inside her mouth. She parted her lips for him, and he drew out the sweetness of kissing his wife again. Wife?
The word was the equivalent of a bucket of ice being poured over his head. He pulled back enough to break apart. He rested his forehead on hers, wishing for a life that could never be.
After a few slow breaths to calm his racing heart, he said, “Thanks for bringing my phone to the stairs.”
“Yeah. No problem.” Her breath came out in rasps too. There was primal satisfaction in the knowledge he had the same effect on her as she had on him. It might be fleeting and for all the wrong reasons, but he enjoyed the fact that she was still attracted to him. Call it bruised ego.
He took the phone from her, needing to keep his hand busy anyway because it wanted to act on its own accord and touch her again. Glancing at the screen, he muttered a curse. Colton. His brother, the sheriff, had called. And there was a voicemail he didn’t figure Alyssa needed to hear.
“You want to take these while I check on my brother and make sure he doesn’t need anything this red-hot minute?”
“Um, sure.”
“Feel free to open the envelope. I’m sure you got a copy, so you’ll already know what is in—”
He caught himself right there and shot her a look of apology.
“It’s okay. It’s strange that I don’t remember these last eight months. But I’m not surprised that I would block out the time I spent without you.” Well, those words weren’t going to help him keep a distance, physical or otherwise.
Since responding would only invite more trouble, he bit his lip to clamp his mouth shut and then handed over the laptop and envelope. He took in a breath as she moved to the kitchen table and cleared enough space for two people to sit there. He’d used it mostly a
s a place to stack everything from unimportant mail to folded clothes that never made it upstairs. Considering the laundry room was on the ground floor, he figured he was doing well by making it up at least one flight. Forget the fact a cleaning lady came in once a week and wasn’t due to come until tomorrow.
Last thing he needed was more eyes inside the house or to put anyone else at risk while Alyssa was home. A guest, he corrected, not home.
Chapter Nine
Liz called. Call me back ASAP. That was the voicemail in its entirety from Colton. His brother had found happiness with his new wife, Makena, and this worried tone had everything to do with Blake and not Colton’s personal life.
Blake figured making this call was the equivalent of taking his medicine. He also reminded himself it wouldn’t be a good idea to talk to Liz while he was ready to wring her neck. Did she have to bring his family into this?
First, he fired off a text to excuse the cleaning lady while he was still thinking about it, giving her the day off tomorrow with pay.
Then he returned his brother’s call.
“Everything okay?” Colton skipped perfunctory greetings, which meant his level of concern was at DEFCON 2.
“Depends on your definition of the word. But, yes, I’m fine.”
“What do you need from us? We want to help,” Colton said.
“Nothing right now. Alyssa is here. She’s staying the night in the guest room.” He probably emphasized the last two words a little too much.
“I can be there in a couple of hours.”
That wasn’t exactly true. It would take more than a couple of hours to make the drive to Houston. “I appreciate the offer, but all is well here. Don’t worry.”
“I wasn’t,” Colton said quickly. Too quickly.
“Did Liz bring you up to speed?”
“She said your ex showed up at your door in trouble.”
“Is that all?”
“In a nutshell.”
Blake figured that was just enough to cause a three-alarm panic.
“I was hoping you could fill in the details for me.”
“She doesn’t remember anything,” he started and then quickly told him what happened.
“I can check into similar reports being filed. See if there are any other cases even close to this.”
“She mentioned one of the guys has a pregnant girlfriend.” He wondered how much Liz shared with Colton about Alyssa’s condition. “About eight months pregnant. Same as Alyssa.”
Based on the silence coming through the line, Liz had left that part out. At least she’d given him the opportunity to break the news to his family. He would go a little easier on her for that.
In the silence, Colton had to be doing the math.
“She says the kid is mine, but, honestly, I can’t think about that right now.”
“Really?” Colton’s shock caught Blake off guard. “It’s a big thing to find out you might be a dad. Are you sure you want to shove that aside?”
Colton knew how people in law enforcement worked. Everything had a nice, neat box. Come up on a man beating his wife...emotions went into a box. Being rational kept the peace and made Blake a better officer. As a human, he wanted to take the guy out back and teach him what it was like to have someone bigger than him throw a punch, but that wasn’t his job. His job was to be objective and keep the peace. There was no room for personal feelings. They got in the way and could be dangerous. They also made him less objective. Like the time when he witnessed a two-hundred-pound man put his hands up to a five-feet-four-inch woman. From Blake’s angle, it looked like the guy was about to throw a punch. Blake calmly advised the man to put his hands down and then witnessed the woman smack the guy with the baseball bat she’d been hiding on the side of her leg out of Blake’s view. He’d gone in hot, emotional and ready to save the smaller person who turned out to be the aggressor. The guy was trying to defend himself.
So, yeah, he’d learned to keep his emotions in check and observe before acting.
“The threat to Alyssa is real. Right now, I can’t focus on anything else,” he defended.
“I mean, yes, I understand that. But becoming a parent in... How far along did you say she was?”
“Eight months.”
“In a matter of a few weeks, sooner if the baby comes early, isn’t something easily put off.” His brother’s point was well taken.
“What do you suggest, Colton? I have no idea how to process becoming a father let alone the fact that my ex-wife didn’t bother to tell me she was pregnant until the eleventh hour. I’m more concerned with making sure both of them live before I decide how to process the pregnancy. Plus, Alyssa doesn’t remember leaving. She doesn’t remember walking out or making sure I was served with divorce papers. And I don’t know how I feel about her showing up here other than pissed.” All those words just tumbled out of his mouth, unfiltered. Would he reel a few back in if he could? The obvious answer was a resounding hell yes. He couldn’t, and damned if it didn’t feel a little better to talk to someone.
Colton was quiet.
“Are you there?”
“Yes. Always.” Those words reassured and Blake needed to hear them.
“So, what do you think? Are you going to give me a lecture about inviting Alyssa back into the house?” He didn’t say into his life but they both knew that’s what he meant.
“I think there’s a lot of honor in what you’re doing. Other than that, I’m just here for you in any capacity you need me to be. You want help with the investigation... I’m here. You want someone to listen to you vent... I’m here. You need company... I can be there in a few hours.”
“What about advice?”
“Nope. I don’t have any. I don’t know enough about the situation to render an opinion worth salt. I was glad Liz called because she knew you wouldn’t. And I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to go through any of this alone.”
“Alyssa showed up thinking we were still married. For a split second, I thought she was playing some kind of cruel joke, but no one could be that awful. The doctor mentioned selective memory and that she could have blocked out anything upsetting.”
“I see.” There was no judgment in Colton’s response. In fact, he was being more understanding than Blake expected. That was the thing about being an O’Connor. The family knew how to rally around each other. He realized just how much he missed living on the ranch and being surrounded by family. His job in law enforcement wasn’t providing the bird’s-eye view he’d hoped for in figuring out what had happened to his sister all those years ago. Every trail was a dead end.
“There are some questions as to her family business. She remembers being financially responsible for her mother and feeling the weight of the burden since her father passed away. She ran the business with him and became fully responsible after his death.”
“I’m guessing your next move is to take her to the office.”
“As long as I can do it safely. I thought maybe taking her in the middle of the night with some of my buddies watching out for us would be the best route. There’d be fewer vehicles on the road, and it would be easier to spot someone trying to follow us.”
“It would.” There was a note of approval and a hint of pride in Colton’s voice that reminded Blake of everything he’d been missing. The past eight months living alone had brought home just how stubborn he could be. He had a family to lean on but was too damn proud to ask for help. It was a lot like asking for directions. He had to first admit he didn’t know where he was going. His pride had already taken a huge hit with the divorce—the ultimate sign he had no idea what he was doing in the most important area of his life. He still couldn’t figure out how he’d been so dead wrong about someone.
“She isn’t sure when she was last at work, for obvious reasons, so could you reach out on her behalf and find out if they’
re even missing her?” Blake asked.
“I’ll dig around on my end. See what I can come up with.”
“I’d appreciate it. I’ll take all the help I can get on this one.” He was done being stubborn and fighting the world on his own. “If Cash has time, I’d like him to get involved too. If a crime ring is involved, this could cross state and even country lines.”
“How so?”
“The trailer she escaped from has all the earmarks of being used regularly for human trafficking. Liz is canvassing the neighbors to see what they know or what they’ve seen.”
“If this operation is big, it might be tough to get people to speak out against it. It might help if she has something to bargain with.”
“I’ll have her run the witnesses. See if we can find any outstanding warrants.” His brother brought up a good point. Walking into a crime ring with no bargaining power was about as smart as trying to trade a fish for a horse. It was a deal no one in their right mind would take. “I appreciate the advice.”
“Any time. I’ll bring in Cash and the others. See if anyone has information or resources that can help. In the meantime, be careful. And I don’t just mean take care of her and the baby. Look over your own shoulder too.” Their brothers Cash and Dawson worked for the US Marshals Service. Both would be great resources.
“Will do, Colton.” Blake ended the call with the first feeling of hope he’d had in longer than he could remember. Going home to live and take his rightful place at the ranch just became a priority.
* * *
ALYSSA STARED AT the paper where she was making notes as a text came through that her mother was safe. At least she could breathe a little easier on that front. With one of her worries out of the way, she pushed up to standing. Frequent trips to the bathroom were becoming her new norm.
Blake opened the door as she stood, and then she cramped so hard she sat right back down. He was by her side before she hit the sofa. She doubled over and panic engulfed her.
“What can I do?” He’d never looked more helpless. Not even the time she was on the ranch with him while a calf was being born breech. After pacing a couple of rounds in the stall, he’d rolled up his sleeves, dropped to his knees and helped pulled out the little brown newborn calf while she’d stood there in shock. Alyssa was from Houston, born and raised in the city. She was by all accounts a city girl.
