by Ember Leigh
Garrett’s throat seized up at thrown into a cell. His Rose languished back there, behind bars? Kook or not, he wanted to make headway on this. The faintest hint there existed a ready explanation for the whole thing sent relief cascading through his body. Maybe, just maybe, this had been a big misunderstanding.
“When will you know?”
The officer shrugged. “Last I heard, they were looking into it.”
“If it checks out…can she leave?”
“Probably.” Dale shrugged, crossing his arms over his belly and leaning back into the chair. “Don’t bet on it, though.”
“Listen, I don’t know how to explain this, but I really think it will check out.” Garrett ran a hand through his hair. “I’m going to wait here until it does.”
Dale showed a modicum of surprise as Garrett took a seat on a bench near the door.
“Be my guest, Garrett. I’ll let you know if I hear anything. But be warned, you might be signed up for a long wait.”
“That’s not a problem, Dale. This lady might be a kook, like you said, but my gut is telling me she’s not. I need to see it through.”
Because if he didn’t, he’d spend the rest of his life wondering what might have been.
****
By hour four in the holding cell, Rose had exhausted all of her options for entertainment. Pacing the cell turned into impromptu push-ups and crunches, which turned into jumping jacks and squats. Once her workout regime had been mostly completed, she resumed pacing and wondering, trying but failing to divert her mind from Garrett.
She made damn sure to sprinkle happy thoughts throughout all the relentless thinking, hoping against all hope Emmy’s mother worked to drop the charges and rescue her ass.
One thought had become painfully clear: this line of work might be one worth taking a break from.
She’d been at it for six years. More than enough time to consider herself a professional. So how had she allowed the situation to spiral so far out of control? Maybe she wasn’t cut out for the hazards anymore. When she first started, misunderstandings like this were possible, and even expected. But now? This mishap had sucked several years of career out of her. The heart strain had been too great—bonding with Emmy so quickly and knowing the weight of her mother’s distress while time ticked interminably forward, was a burden too great to bear again.
A new chapter might be waiting for her.
She’d rescued hundreds of kids in silent and nameless glory for long enough. And perhaps she should turn her efforts toward something else that both helped and uplifted.
Something that allowed her to maybe consider the possibility of having a relationship with a man, sometime, too.
Five days on a mountain and four hours in a jail cell and her whole life had been turned upside down. What might happen from here? Rose wanted to not just turn over a new leaf, but climb a whole new damn tree.
The door around the corner swung open for the first time since she’d been locked up. She jumped to attention, wringing her hands as she prayed for good news.
A different officer from before rounded the corner and approached the cell, fumbling with keys. Her heart soared, and she plastered a cheery smile, as though the last four hours hadn’t been spent locked behind bars.
“Hey, there.”
The officer glanced at her and continued searching for the right key. Finally, he opened the cell door and jerked his head toward the hallway. “It’s time for you to get outta here.”
She stepped out of the cell cautiously, waiting for handcuffs. “So…did everything check out?”
He nodded again, seeming a bit miffed. “There’s a bit of paperwork for you to finish in the front office. I’ll take you there now.”
Rose bit back a squeal of joy, relief flooding her body. She’d used her literal Get Out of Jail Free card, and she highly doubted she’d be so lucky twice in her career.
Her brain kicked into high gear, lists appearing and organizing themselves with methodical precision. Feeding her and Emmy would be step one, along with a jubilant confirmation call to her mother. Then they’d get the rental car—any make, any model, as long as it ran. Once they were all snug and snapped in, ready to go, she’d ask around for the brothers’ number. She needed it for insurance reasons anyway…and, well…something had to be said to Garrett.
She couldn’t leave it on this note. Rose had to at least throw a bone, for her own sake. So the brothers wouldn’t be left wondering if she were actually a kidnapper or not, based on what they might hear from the townsfolk. Word would travel here. And from what happened today, she doubted the truth would circulate as quickly as the kidnapper theory.
The officer guided her toward the front office. When the door opened, the scene before her nearly brought her to her knees.
Garrett stood in the reception area, a black winter jacket zipped up over his broad frame, hair shrouding his face as he signed something at the front desk. A bright-eyed Emmy squirmed in his arms, though not trying to escape nearly as much as she might have at the beginning of their relationship. Outside the confines of the hotel, finally appearing to her in real life, he commanded even more of her attention. She couldn’t blame it entirely on psychosis caused by being snowed-in.
Tears sprang to her eye, and she wasn’t even ashamed. Though he stood there in plain sight before her, she couldn’t believe it. “What…what are you doing here?”
Garrett smiled at her and used Emmy’s hand to wave. “Hi there, former inmate.”
Rose cleared her throat and straightened her back. A few officers behind the front desk watched her with very curious expressions. She strode toward Garrett and Emmy, trying her damnedest to maintain composure, but then decided to drop the act.
She raced toward them and threw her arms around them both in a great bear hug.
Garrett laughed and eased his arm around her and Emmy shrieked, begging to be picked up by Rose. Garrett handed the baby over to her, watching with a knowing smile.
“Do I dare ask why you’re here?”
He sighed, looking at his hands, feigning nonchalance. “Well, I was in town randomly and thought I’d spend a few hours at the police station for no reason, and then you came wandering out…”
She sent him a stern look as an officer behind the desk directed her to sign some papers. “I thought you turned me in.”
“Oh, no.” He held up his hands. “Not me. Don’t go blaming me for that.”
Her mind spun with more levels of happiness than she could comprehend. She didn’t know a person could be so happy.
“Totally Wes,” he added. “He’s gonna feel real stupid once we tell him what’s up.”
Rose signed the paper with a flourish and turned back to Garrett. He beamed back at her, and for a moment, they watched one another, saying nothing. Despite all the hem-hawing and confusion about this man since she met him, one thing became clear—he had a very startling effect on her, and it was not a figment of her imagination. Energy pulsed in the air between them, thrown back and forth like a game of catch the longer they looked at each other.
“So my secret’s out, huh?” She pursed her lips as she watched him, hoisting Emmy on her hip.
Garrett nodded, looking pleased. “Yeah, it is. But I knew it all along.”
“Oh, please.” An officer handed over her personal effects—the cell phone, her jacket, and a wallet. She pocketed these gratefully and slipped the jacket on with Garrett’s help.
“How long have you two known each other?” One of the officers directed the question toward Garrett.
They shared a long glance and then Garrett said, “Five days.”
The officer laughed. “Coulda fooled me. You guys seem like you’ve been together forever.”
“Come on, guys. This is only our first date. Don’t rush things.” Garrett winked at her.
“Some first date,” Rose muttered. “What’s our second date gonna be, a tour of the morgue?”
Garrett feigned offense. “List
en, if you’re going to shoot down all my ideas, then maybe I won’t take you to the morgue.”
Rose smiled up at him, bewildered yet blissed out by the confusing mix of emotions telling her to kiss this man, put her hands all over him, and never let him out of her sight again.
“Are we all good here?” Rose turned back to the officers, eager to get this show on the road.
“You’re free to go.”
Rose and Garrett moved toward the front door, and they rushed toward the truck, already rumbling and warm inside.
“You are something else, Rose.” Garrett helped snap Emmy into the car seat and then slammed his door shut. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“I do.” She rubbed her hands together and blew on them, mind racing with ideas. “Priority number one is getting Emmy back to her mom. Which means I have a little road trip to make.”
She paused, wondering how she might bring up the idea that had occurred to her in the five minutes spent blissfully relieved to see Garrett and Emmy again.
Garrett examined the steering wheel for a moment and then asked quietly, “Can I come with you?”
Her breath flooded out of her in a fast gush. “I wanted to ask you the same thing.”
They shared smile as devious as teenagers. “So, I really can?”
“Well, only if you want to. I know you have to work at the hotel, but tell Wesley it’ll be two days, tops. It’s about a seven-hour drive from here. We can go drop her off today, spend the night there, and then get you back tomorrow.”
Garrett wrung the steering wheel between his hands, nodding as he contemplated the plan. “That’s perfect. I can get two days off, no problem.” His eyes were wide and wild, the adventure pulsing in the air between them.
Rose smiled so hard at him her cheeks might pop. “Well, good God, Garrett. Let’s go rent a car, because this truck looks like a gas hog.”
“It is. I’ll take us to the next town over, and have someone drop this truck off at the hotel.”
He switched into gear and as they rumbled out of the police station parking lot, Rose enjoyed a particular brand of contentment that had never before graced her life.
Chapter Fifteen
Garrett sighed into the phone and repeated himself. “Yes, Wesley. She bounty hunts babies…”
His brother had a hard time wrapping his mind around the turn of events. Poor Wes couldn’t compute where Garrett had made the leap from driving into town to ditching the truck at a rental company and heading to Delaware.
“Well, what did the babies do? Why is she bounty hunting them? I thought bounty hunters captured criminals.”
“It’s a street term, she said.” Garrett bit back a grin, unsurprised to find his brother echoing the exact questions he’d asked during their ride to the car rental place. “It’s actually a subset of Child Protective Services. Like, you know, mostly legal.”
“You have lost your mind,” Wes told him. “Are you pussy whipped?”
Garrett laughed. “Do you even know what that means?
“Yes, of course I do. I just used the word.” Wes groaned. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—you are the impulsive brother of us. And I, for one, would never find myself in a position like this. Ever.”
“Well, maybe you need to live a little.”
Rose eased into gear and maneuvered their rented gray sedan out of the company parking lot. She flashed him a smile, checked on Emmy in the backseat, and then pulled onto the main road.
“As long as you’re back in two days, I couldn’t care less what you get into in Delaware. Go join a drug ring. Hire prostitutes. Steal more babies, shit, I don’t care. But show up here in two days, alive and well and without the baby.”
“Roger that.”
“And, for God’s sake, do some background checks on this lady.”
“She came back clean,” Garrett said. “I’ve got friends at the station. We already did her criminal check. She’s totally clean.”
“Well, most con artists are. That’s why they change their names so frequently.”
Garrett laughed again, loving this bloated brotherly concern. He knew Wesley believed the turn of events, just wanted to hassle him a little. He’d take it. He’d take anything, now that life had given him and Rose a few more hours by each other’s side.
When he hung up, Rose eyed him suspiciously. “So, am I allowed to come visit the hotel again someday, or am I on his Do-Not-Visit list forevermore?”
“You’re cleared. He says sorry, by the way.”
“I’ll take that apology in person.”
Garrett grinned, settling into his seat. The next two days with Rose would be an unexpected yet very welcome, if untraditional, vacation for him. With little more than his cell phone and his wallet, Garrett didn’t mind roughing it like she’d been doing for almost a week, either. It somehow made their little trip more romantic to him.
“I have to get to know you all over again,” Garrett said, eying her as she drove. “Now, at least, I know the test-tube story was a sham. Good thing we have two days.”
She grinned. “Among other reasons.” The smile fell a bit from her face and she added, “But you realize I couldn’t tell you, right? I really wanted to. Believe me.”
“I can imagine.”
“I’ve been doing this for six years,” she said. “I’ve never almost spilled the beans like I did to you. I wanted to tell you so many times. Especially last night…”
Garrett’s eyes misted over. “Mmm…we had a great night last night, huh?”
She sighed. “Yeah, actually. Really amazing night.”
He watched her closely, trying to glimpse any reflection of his own inner turmoil. Though this whole situation seemed too bizarre to be real, the traditional rules still took precedence. Like keeping his mouth shut about these thoughts of his. Maybe after these next two days went by, he’d be able to understand the whole thing a bit better.
Like decide if he’d gotten wrapped up in pure, fluff fantasy or if something unnervingly real unfolded here.
“How did you even get into this business?”
She shrugged. “Contacts. I was on track to join the CIA at one point. I’ve always been into stealth and recon. Since a young girl. I wanted to take my career in a new direction after the Marines. And somehow, I found the right person who led me to my boss…”
“You are such a ninja,” he said, watching her triceps flex as she gripped the steering wheel. “I didn’t even know one could choose this profession.”
“It’s not a bad job. It pays really well.” She flashed a grin. “I work with a reputable guy, though. There are definitely people who get hired to do it the other way around—to actually kidnap children. But they’re a different story. I get hired by parents who are trying to retrieve their children from the spouse on the wrong side of the law. That’s the only way I’d do it.”
“But how do they find you?”
“Really specific scenarios lead people to me. Emmy’s case is a good example. Her mom, the custodial parent, lives in Delaware, but Emmy’s dad lives in Michigan. Well, he never returned her after Emmy’s last visit, and Mom has been trying to get Emmy back any way possible. She’s filed complaints, she’s tried to sue, she’s even gone to Detroit to get Emmy herself. Nothing has worked. So, what’s left? Police jurisdictions have weird limits, and the FBI can’t do much for these situations. Believe me, there’s too many. So people reach out to us. We’re the last resort.”
“Do you have any kids?”
Rose shook her head, pulling a face. “No way. Never.”
Garrett laughed and pointed. “I knew it. I didn’t peg you as a mother.”
“Oh, come on. Me and Emmy have the same eyes, you said so yourself.”
“You sort of do, though. At any rate, that makes me feel better.”
“Why’s that?” She lifted a brow.
“Because now I don’t have to feel guilty about not wanting children either.”
&nbs
p; She bit her lip and he saw her cheeks flush. Maybe she felt exactly the same thing. With the way it had been from day one, he wouldn’t be surprised.
“I wouldn’t have judged you even if I had wanted children,” she offered.
“No, it’s more than that.” He struggled to find a lighthearted approach to the heavy words trying to leap off his tongue. “Society somehow expects men to not want children, or it’s somehow okay that they don’t. But I commend you for taking your choice seriously, and not backing down. It’s easier when both partners in a relationship don’t want kids.” He paused. “I’m saying it’s a good thing we got this conversation out of the way now, so we can go full steam ahead.”
He watched her, a playful smile on his face as he awaited her reaction. Her brow creased as she mulled over his words.
Okay, so he sounded like a creep. He tried to laugh it off and knocked her lightly on the shoulder. “I’m joking, kind of,” he said.
“Garrett, I…” She paused, mouth open, but no words coming out.
“Rose, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be. I wanted to say, let’s at least wait a week. Then we can start planning the wedding.”
Garrett let her words sink into him, a glorious buzz spreading through his limbs. They shared a playful smile that reinforced she knew exactly what he meant.
He sure as hell didn’t know what would come of this, but with Rose at his side, he would cast reason to the wind and go with it.
****
A few hours later, Rose and Garrett were well on their way out of the mountains and headed for Delaware. They stopped at a small roadside joint for some underwhelming cold-cut sandwiches and coffee. Emmy gobbled up the applesauce and the slightly warmed green beans Rose had convinced the single employee to whip up for her, grabbing plenty of dried cereal for the rest of the trip to tide the small one over.
By her calculations, based on Garrett’s knowledge of the countryside and from talking with Emmy’s mother, they had about three more hours of driving. Meaning hand-off would occur at roughly one in the morning.
