The fault was Roman’s for abandoning his resolve to remain isolated. He couldn’t backslide into getting involved. He already felt too exposed simply being with all those people today, being introduced, having them pay attention to him. The irregular popping of the nail gun, reminiscent of small-arms fire, had his every nerve on edge, and all the talking…
He was more comfortable as a creature of the night. He’d spoken to others so seldom since his return that occasionally he’d wondered if his voice still functioned.
He never should have come out of hiding. He wasn’t ready to be friendly. If not for Jenna, he’d still be enjoying his solitude, and for that, he couldn’t thank her.
As for letting himself get boxed in by sympathy for the kid, well, apparently he’d needed a reminder that nothing good ever came of that.
* * *
“A GOOD DAY, friends,” Teo said. “Let’s wrap it up.”
Lucia, who’d only arrived two hours before because her job ended at three, paused in her painting. “I could work another hour.”
Jenna could see the concern on her face. She desperately wanted to be in her home by November first, as planned. She’d told Jenna what it would mean to her to celebrate Día de los Muertos, then Thanksgiving and Christmas in her first home.
“Teo? I could stay with her,” Jenna offered.
“No,” said the new man’s deep voice, one she’d hardly heard all afternoon. “Not a good idea.”
She whirled, hands jammed on her hips. “Excuse me?”
“You heard.” He turned away.
“You just started today. What do you know about anything?”
“I grew up not far away. A woman shouldn’t be in this neighborhood at night.” He disappeared around the corner.
“Hey—” She started forward, but Teo intervened.
“Lucia, it’s a school night, right?”
Lucia nodded. “But—”
“One of the things I admire about you is how you’re there for your children.” He smiled reassuringly. “We’re on schedule again—a little ahead, actually, thanks to Roman here.”
All three of them glanced over, but Roman was nowhere in sight.
“Where did he go?” Jenna asked.
“He’s getting in his truck,” said one of the other volunteers.
Another Houdini, like the man from the other night.
Jenna frowned. The other night… For a second, Jenna was struck by the notion that he was her rescuer, though it was surely a stretch. Still, she mentally tried to superimpose this man over her memory of the other… . Roman Gallardo was clean shaven where she recalled a heavy beard on the other man, but both were tall with powerful builds. She’d been so unnerved, plus it had been very dark.
The only thing she could say the two definitely had in common was that both liked to give her orders.
But that could describe all the men in her family. Half the men she met, actually, simply because she was vertically challenged.
“I hope he’ll come back,” Teo said fervently. “He finished all the wiring and even improved upon what had been done, plus he secured the broken windows, since the new ones won’t be here until tomorrow. Then he climbed onto the roof and inspected the flashing.” He leveled a look at Jenna. “He’s really good. We’d be lucky to have him. Anybody got an idea where he lives or how to contact him?”
Every head shook.
“He said he grew up not far away,” Jenna said. “That’s not much help.”
“Well, we’ll just have to cross our fingers,” Teo said. “At any rate, what he did today was fantastic.” He returned his attention to Lucia. “So we’re in good shape. Shoot, if that guy comes back, we might finish in record time. And I happen to know that this little girl here—” he pointed toward Jenna, who stuck her tongue out at him “—has plans with her friends every Tuesday night. So you’d be doing her a favor to go home, Lucia, and be with your family.”
“We’re really doing all right, in spite of…?” Her quandary was evident.
“We really are,” Teo assured her. “Now everybody take off, and I’ll see you in the morning, bright and early.”
“He’s a good man,” Lucia said after he walked off.
“Teo’s the best,” Jenna responded.
“But you are no little girl. You help so many, Jenna. We say prayers for you every night, my family.”
Jenna gave her a hug. “Thank you, Lucia.” Then she grinned. “My family will be relieved that someone besides them is praying over me.”
“If they understood the good you do, they would know that the Lord watches over you already.”
Jenna wasn’t sure what to say to that except, “Thank you.”
“We will add Roman Gallardo to our prayers tonight. He is an answer to them, is he not?”
Jenna stared out the window, wondering about the elusive stranger who’d arrived like a blessing. “He certainly is.”
Then she shrugged and started picking up her tools, so she could go home and clean up for Girls’ Night Out.
* * *
A COUPLE OF BLOCKS down the street, Roman rolled his shoulders, fingers tapping on the steering wheel. He was sweaty and tired, edgy from trying not to react to each sharp noise or the sound of so much blasted talking.
He wanted an hour-long shower and a cold beer and endless days by himself.
Then he spotted Freddie. He slammed on the brakes and launched himself out of the truck. “Why the hell didn’t you—”
The startled boy’s gaze shot up. His nose was bleeding, and he had a split lip; a gash over one eyebrow was running blood, as well. His threadbare shirt was torn, his jeans streaked with dirt and grease.
“What happened?” Roman closed the distance between them. Freddie’s eyes darted to the side. He poised himself to run.
Roman held up his palms. “Hey, easy now. Who did this to you?”
“Nobody.”
“Well, nobody did a hell of a number on you. Where else are you hurt?”
A slight shrug. “Nowhere bad.” But he wouldn’t meet Roman’s gaze. “Man, I gotta go.”
Roman halted him with one hand lightly on his shoulder. “Not just yet. Talk to me. Who did this?” At least now he understood why Freddie hadn’t shown up for work.
The boy’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed convulsively. He still wouldn’t look up.
A teenage boy’s pride was fragile at the best of times, and Roman was only too familiar with the humiliation of having the crap beat out of you. He hadn’t always been this big. He took mercy on Freddie and dropped the subject.
For now.
“Come on. Let’s get you fixed up.”
“I don’t need no doctor.”
Kid, you probably need that and more. A whole lot more than Roman wanted to get stuck with providing. “That’s good because I’m not one.” Though all Special Forces soldiers had some medical training, and Roman could manage a lot more than simply cleaning him up.
Roman gestured to his truck.
Freddie hesitated.
“I can probably still catch Jenna. Want her to get involved? You’ll be in the emergency room before you can say boo.”
“No. Don’t need your help, neither.”
“I’m not offering much. I’m not your nanny.”
That generated a tiny smile. “Ow,” the boy said as his cut lip flexed. But some of the stiffness left his frame.
“C’mon, kid. Sooner we get you cleaned up, the sooner you get the hell out of my hair.” He guided Freddie to his truck, and the boy showed only token resistance as Roman opened the passenger door and gestured him inside.
CHAPTER FOUR
“SHADY GROVE ROCKS! I do so love Austin,” enthused Violet James, the newest membe
r of the Girls’ Night Out group. She clinked her margarita glass against Jenna’s, then settled into her chair with a sigh. “Live music under the trees, sinfully good nachos, wonderful family and friends…ah, the joys of normal life.”
Delilah Montalvo, married to Jenna’s brother Jesse, grinned. “Yeah, and you’re so normal and all.”
The most famous actress in America stuck out her tongue and shoved the sunglasses she was using for disguise back up on her nose. “Sophie promised I could be one of the girls.”
“And I meant it.” Sophie cast a reproving glance at Delilah, but the sultry redhead’s mischievous grin didn’t falter. “Violet is family now, or the next thing to it, since she’s with JD. And she is normal.”
“Because normal is the byword of all MacAllisters and anyone in love with them.” Jenna snickered. Her brother Zane was Violet’s male counterpart in Hollywood—two-time Sexiest Man Alive and top box-office draw. Diego was a former Special Forces medic and now a curandero, a practitioner of a healing tradition dating back to the Aztecs. Jesse was once an FBI agent and now an artist commanding thousands per canvas, and Cade was a world-famous adventure photographer.
Only she was just…Jenna. Kid sister.
Normal. Disgustingly so.
“On the topic of love,” Delilah said. “How’s Patrick, Jenna?”
“Patrick?”
“Cute guy? Legal Aid lawyer? Been dating a couple of months?”
“I know who you mean.” But she shrugged. “He’s okay. We went out last week, but I’m not sure if I’ll see him again.”
The others exchanged looks.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?” Sophie asked.
“Not you, too, Sophie. You were my best friend before you became my prospective sister-in-law.”
“I still am, sweetie.”
“Look, I can’t help it if no one measures up. I’m not going to settle.” She had lived all her life with the knowledge of what love could be, beginning with the deep and true bond between her parents. Her brothers had taken their own sweet time, but they, too, had found their soul mates. If she couldn’t have that, she would prefer nothing at all.
She wanted it, though, more than she would ever let on.
“And you shouldn’t,” Violet concurred. “You’ll find him, Jenna.”
What did Violet know? She was gorgeous and famous, the object of fantasies.
Jenna was…sunny. And plucky. Everyone said that.
Big whoop.
She dated. She tried. She didn’t compare men to her remarkable brothers—they were freaks of nature. She didn’t expect that from a man. But she did expect that zing, that click of a key in a lock, and she had yet to meet a man who spoke to her heart at that depth.
She was beginning to worry she never would.
But she had a good life, didn’t she? She was doing work that mattered, she was helping people. She had lots of friends and made more every day. She would be fine. It wasn’t that her life wasn’t filled with love, just not that kind of love.
“I pity the man,” Delilah said. “Whoever it is will have to run the whole he’s not good enough for our baby sister gauntlet.”
“No kidding,” Jenna muttered. She’d had that up to her eyeballs since her first date. Who could stand up to the pressure of being with a girl who had a ring of giant redwoods surrounding her? Glowering giant redwoods, to boot?
She couldn’t stand the subject anymore and switched topics. “Just over three weeks until the wedding, Miss Sophie. Everything on target?”
Violet snorted. “On target? It’s micromanaged within an inch of its life.” She lifted her glass in salute. “You are a wizard, Sophie. You can take over planning my life anytime.”
“Dealing with the hotel and Cade’s travel schedule is enough, plus…” Sophie lightly touched a hand to her pregnant belly.
“You’re feeling all right?” asked Chloe Coronado, another member of the extended family. Her sister Caroline was married to Jenna’s eldest brother, Diego, and Chloe’s detective husband Vince was on the Austin police force with Delilah.
“Couldn’t be better. Once the morning sickness left, everything smoothed out.” Sophie made a moue. “But this baby’s growing so fast that I can only hope I’ll still fit in my dress by the day of the wedding.”
“There was a cure for that, you realize—you could have put my brother out of his misery long ago,” Jenna reminded her.
“Cade wasn’t ready, either,” Chloe remarked gently. “And it’s not that simple for those of us who didn’t grow up cradled in the loving arms of the remarkable MacAllister family. Trust doesn’t come so easily to everyone, Jenna.”
Subtle shame pervaded her. Jenna had thought she knew how lucky she’d been to grow up surrounded by love—even overprotective love—but the incident at the job site had been an awakening. It was one thing to care about others who were touched by violence, but even her relatively mild scare had her looking at its toll in a new light.
Delilah had been held hostage by a madman twice, once as a teenager, then again when she was working undercover trying to hunt down a serial killer. Chloe had been taken prisoner by men who were after Vince. Just recently, Violet had been captured by human traffickers to use as leverage, and JD had nearly died trying to save her. Even Sophie’s life had been altered forever by tragedy when she’d lost both her parents and then her own young family not many years later.
Only Jenna had skipped through life without even a brush with harm, at least until the other night. And still she’d escaped anything serious, thanks to her mysterious savior. She had no scars to compare to any of theirs, but for a moment she really wished she could talk the experience through with these women who were like sisters to her. Wished she could speak of what had happened, about how she felt.
But they were the last people she could confide in, not only because they’d be worried and want to take some kind of action, but because they would spill their guts to the very same overprotective males she did not want learning about the incident. Her family counted on her to be okay, to be sunny and happy and carefree.
She was okay, really. She might not have saved herself, but she hadn’t panicked, either. She had taken action. And she was dealing with the aftermath.
But she also wasn’t in the habit of hiding things from her beloved family. Thanks to her savior, though, nothing really bad had happened, and she would be more careful next time. And she planned to drive past the job site as she went home because she refused to let one bad experience cow her. But if she saw anything, she wouldn’t leave her car and would instead call for help.
“Jenna? Hello?” Chloe prompted.
Before she could blurt out anything she’d regret, Jenna jumped to her feet, seizing the music for a distraction. “Hey, check it out—the band’s coming back from break. Who wants to dance?” She grabbed Delilah’s hand and headed for the dance floor before any more questions could be asked.
* * *
ROMAN COULDN’T TAKE the boy with him to Abuela’s. Wouldn’t. That was his place, his refuge.
Instead he pulled in at a nearby drugstore, next to the neighborhood convenience store.
“What are we doing here?”
“Getting supplies. You coming or staying?”
Freddie glanced around, then froze. “Coming.”
Roman followed the direction of his gaze but didn’t see anything. “Fine. Get a move on.” He stalked inside, grabbing adhesive bandages, butterfly bandages, peroxide and antibiotic ointment. He found some hand wipes and added them to his stash.
Freddie was alternately dogging his heels and falling far behind.
Roman kept his eyes peeled on the glass of the front door. The kid was spooked, and they weren’t that far from where Roman had found him.
&nb
sp; He paid at the cash register, on impulse throwing in a candy bar. The boy might need a reward by the time he was through.
Freddie clung to him like a shadow as they left, putting Roman between him and a group of gangbangers loitering between the two stores.
Roman faced them straight on. Most bullies were actually cowards, he’d long ago learned. He easily picked out the leader in this group and stared him right in the eyes, lifting his brows.
The leader stared back.
But the punk looked away first. The group huddled, shooting glances back at Freddie, both posturing and threatening…but from a careful distance.
“Get in,” he told Freddie. “But don’t you look away. They don’t get to win.”
“But they—”
“No,” he snapped. “You’re either predator or you’re prey. That simple.” He cast back one last stare before he opened his door.
The group was gone, in search of weaker foes.
He started the truck. He’d intended to do the bandaging right here, but that would embarrass the boy. Instead, he headed to the nearby hike-and-bike trail along Lady Bird Lake. After parking, he emerged from the vehicle and sought the shelter of trees and a big rock just off the path. He set out supplies. “You want to clean it yourself?”
Freddie shook his head. “Can’t see to do it.”
“Then don’t cry when it hurts.”
“As if.” Freddie snickered, and Roman found himself grinning, too.
But when he started cleaning, Freddie’s face was replaced by Ahmed’s.
No! Don’t do this. Focus on now.
The Iraqi boy had been smaller, if close in age, and the last time he had held him, Roman had stupidly tried to clean the dying child’s face of the blood, even as he knew there was nothing he could do to save the boy.
“You okay?”
Freddie’s voice jolted Roman back to the present. He grappled for balance. For sanity. I’m here, not there. It’s over.
A Life Rebuilt Page 5
