by Adams, Anna
Simon stood with them while Tessa dressed Maggie in her snowsuit again, but he seemed relieved to lock the office door behind them.
Outside, the sun had disappeared, and icy darkness had taken its place. Tessa and Noah wrestled the baby back into her car seat and scrambled into the car themselves.
“I know you’re relieved,” Noah said, “but if he didn’t talk to David about Maggie, why did David consult a family lawyer?”
Tessa threaded her fingers through her hair. The wind had knotted it, and it kinked painfully. “I don’t know. Maybe David had another client who wanted some help on a family matter. I’ve had that happen since I came here.”
“What did you do?”
She held her hands out to the heating vents, toasting them. “I referred them to Simon.”
“But you didn’t talk to him yourself?”
“I would have if the client had asked me to.”
Noah glanced at her in the dim dashboard light. “Didn’t you and David discuss the cases you worked on separately?”
“Mostly. Sometimes we were too busy. He never mentioned Simon.” She peered into the back seat. “Maggie’s asleep already.”
“Remember how Keely used to fall asleep the second we started the engine?”
She nodded. How she missed her daughter, but the pain was different now, blunted by acceptance. “Noah, I’m grateful you came. Being with you, working with you to keep Maggie safe, I finally understand we can’t bring Keely back no matter how much we refuse to move on.” She allowed herself a brief smile as she swung around to look at him. “And I only feel faintly guilty.”
“You talk as if we won’t be seeing each other.” He turned the car onto a narrow street, remembering the way without her help. “I don’t want to leave you again, Tessa.”
“But one of us would have to make changes. Big ones.”
“So we’ll find a compromise if we want to try again.”
If. Not a reassuring word.
He slid his hand possessively across her thigh. “I mean it,” he said.
“I know you do. For right now. Turn there, into that strip mall. See the hardware store?”
“I see.” He parked the car at the curb in front of the store. “You think I’ll change my mind about us once I’m not afraid someone’s going to kill you?”
“You’re a bright guy, Noah. You haven’t wondered if we’ve been good together because of the situation?”
“You’re the one having second thoughts.” Frustration laced his voice. “You didn’t doubt us this morning.”
“You’ll have second thoughts when you have time to think, and I know how we were before.”
“But neither of us wants to be like that now.” He put the car into Park. “What happened to trusting me?”
“I don’t understand why you’re better at trusting than I am.”
He shook his head. “Because I never wanted you to leave in the first place. I thought we’d find our way back to each other.”
“Without ever talking about Keely, about where we went wrong?”
“We’re talking now, Tessa.” He slid his hand over her shoulder, down the jut of her breast and around her back to pull her close. “All you have to do is commit.”
She wanted to when he touched her as if she belonged to him again. She kissed him, taking her time, relearning the shape of his mouth, the tortured rasp of his breath as she aroused him with her tongue and her need. At last, he lifted his hands to her face, his grip hot and desperate as he pulled back.
“You’re going to get us arrested.” He sucked her lower lip into the moist warmth of his mouth. His slight tug seemed to reach all the way through her body.
She arched toward him, peering at the hardware store’s lights. “Why are we here?”
“We’ll go inside in a second, if you stay on your side of the car.” He reached for her top coat button, but then backed into his own seat. “Who’s not committed?”
She ran her hand over the only part of him she could reach, his slanted thigh in tight jeans. He lifted his leg and pulled her hand higher but then pushed her away with a rueful grimace.
“Do you want to take Maggie out?” he asked.
“No. We’ll wait in the car. Just leave the engine running.”
He studied the darkness outside the car. “I don’t know. You can’t see anyone from here. It’s too dark.”
“A second ago there was too much light. How long will you be?”
He regarded her as if she was his wife, and she laughed. They might work this out after all.
Once at home again, Tessa hopped out of the car. She opened the back door and pulled a sleepy Maggie from her car seat. As the baby rubbed her face, Tessa cuddled her against her own chest, as much out of the cold as she could manage. Noah came around and added his body to the shield for Maggie.
Still she woke fully by the time they reached the house. Noah opened the door for them, and Tessa laid the baby on the sofa to take her snowsuit off.
“Wonder where Eleanor and Joe are.” Noah looked up at their closed door and then went to the kitchen, shrugging out of his own coat. He peered inside. “Not in there.”
“They must be in their room.”
She was right. Joe opened his door and came out, looking tired, holding a piece of paper. “I thought I heard you. Noah, I took this message for you while you were gone.”
Tessa’s heart slowed, but then began to race. “From Weldon?”
“From some guy in Boston. I didn’t quite get his name.” His gaze skidded over Tessa’s face, as if she was responsible for the grief she’d unwittingly caused him and his wife. “He said they have a lead on another guy—a Frank? Frank Edison?”
“Frank Eddings?”
Joe brought the slip of paper down the stairs. “Eddings sounds right. That’s all I got, I’m afraid. Maybe you should call.”
Noah pushed back his sleeve and looked at his watch. “My shift is off duty, but I’ll try to reach Baxton.” He turned to the kitchen. “I’ll call from in here.”
Tessa watched him go, wary, because this was their old pattern, but he’d insisted she trust him. She was willing to try. She looked at Joe, trying to duck his biting gaze at the same time. “How’s Eleanor?”
“Better. How are you? I know telling us and Weldon wasn’t easy after you promised David.”
She paused, her hands full of snowsuit and wriggling baby. Joe’s eyes were careful now. He was trying to make room for her. “I didn’t want to bad-mouth Joanna, either.”
“We know that. We just, well, I’m sure you understand. You’ve lost a daughter.”
“If I’d known she was using drugs again, I would have tried to help her.”
“I don’t want to talk about that. Eleanor and I have decided to talk to Weldon about what he knows before we reach a final decision on what Joanna was doing.”
Noah returned, saving Tessa from searching for an impossible response.
“I couldn’t get a straight answer from the night shift,” Noah said. “I have this case in Boston. A woman named Della Eddings and her children. Her husband has been threatening them, but they were safe as of yesterday afternoon. No one’s talked to her today, and no one in the office knew anything about Frank. They just said Baxton was looking for me, that he absolutely had to talk to me today. I tried his home number, but he’s not there, either.”
“Can’t you call him tomorrow?” Tessa asked.
Joe cut in. “If it was this Baxton who called, he said it was urgent, and he said it was about this Eddings guy. Baxton wanted you in front of him then and there.”
Noah stared at the older man. “That sounds like him.”
“Oh, no.” The words escaped Tessa. She knew what came next. After all his trust talk, he was walking out, handing her the answers to all her fears about their so-called future.
The determination in Noah’s gaze left no room for doubt about his plans. “I have to find out what’s going on,” he said.
“Joe.” Noah stopped the other man. “Could you replace the locks for me? And Tessa, you change the alarm code again and set the system the second I leave. I’ll make sure Weldon parks someone outside this house tonight.”
Tessa wasted no time being shocked. She’d half anticipated this call—not the specifics, but the type of call—an emergency only Noah could resolve. And Noah believed his own press.
“I’ll change the locks,” Joe said. He swiveled his head toward Tessa, his gaze reassuring, clearly calling a truce. “He has no choice, and you’ll be fine with Eleanor and me.”
“You don’t understand, Joe.” And he wouldn’t be able to persuade her Noah wasn’t making a bad decision. Shaking, she turned to her ex-husband. “Think of what you’re doing,” she said.
“I’ll be upstairs.” The older man turned away again, tall, but hunching over the baby in his arms as he climbed. “I need to check on Eleanor.”
“Thanks, Joe.” Noah gazed after him, as if he were evaluating Joe’s possibilities as a bodyguard. Then he caught Tessa’s gaze. “Try to hear me. You’re in no more danger than you were that first night when I went back to get my things.”
“You’ve put me on the back burner too many times.” She pushed her hands through her hair in despair. “Do you think you can run down there and fix things overnight? You can’t, and you know it. If they haven’t arrested him, you’ll have to find him. You won’t be back tomorrow. Lie to yourself if you have to, but you aren’t fooling me.”
He took a step closer, but they didn’t touch. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to beg him to stay with her, but not even begging would change his mind. She knew him too well.
“Tessa, if I can find this man, I can save someone from being killed instead of cleaning up the mess after. And I’m a good detective. If they have a lead on him, I’ll find him.”
“I’m asking you to choose us and let someone else save the day.”
He challenged her with a frighteningly detached gaze, and she realized he had to distance himself or he couldn’t do the job. “Do you feel threatened?” His arrogance almost knocked her off her feet, and she suddenly knew how suspects felt when he interrogated them. “Right now,” he said, “if we take the precautions I’ve suggested, will you feel safe tonight?”
“Yes, except when I remember someone may have come in here and put a file on my computer.” She wasn’t about to admit she felt safer when Noah was with her. Not now.
“I swear I won’t go unless Weldon promises one of his deputies will stay on duty outside. And if Joe changes the locks and you set the alarm, you’re going to be fine until I come back.”
She started to turn away, but he caught both her arms. “If you were in trouble, and I couldn’t get to you, and the police told me I couldn’t take action against the person threatening you until he’d hurt you or our child, I’d want a cop to be as desperate to keep you alive as I am to make sure Della Eddings doesn’t become one of my cases.”
When she thought of a woman in jeopardy from her own husband, Noah made sense. She wanted him to stay because she needed him to prove he cared for her. Her priorities were immature when she thought about Della Eddings.
“But what about tomorrow? What if you don’t find him tonight?”
“I’ll come back by tomorrow afternoon. And I’ll call the whole way down to Boston. If I find Baxton or Della, and they don’t have anything on Frank, I’ll turn around.”
She nodded, grudgingly, shamed by her need to come first with him. He was doing the honorable thing. “Call me the second you find out what’s going on.”
“I will.”
He packed swiftly for one night, stopping every few moments to speed-dial Baxton and the woman in trouble.
Tessa tried not to hover. She took sheets and pillowcases for four from the dryer and began to fold them, but she knew part of her self-confidence would leave with Noah. And his urgent need to put someone else before her and Maggie had shot her confidence in them all to hell.
Tessa was lifting her hand to knock on Eleanor and Joe’s door as Noah came out of his room, his bag gripped in one hand.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m late feeding Maggie.”
“I’d like to say goodbye to her.”
Letting Maggie get used to Noah was a bad idea, but she nodded and knocked on the door. When Eleanor invited them in, Noah followed her. Sprawled on the bed, Joe looked up from his newspaper. Eleanor and Maggie were sharing a rocker and a big storybook. Maggie looked up from Eleanor’s lap and clapped her hands.
“Time for dinner,” Tessa said.
“I lost track.” Eleanor rose, tucking the baby into the curve of her arm. “But I’ll feed her, Tessa. Joe tells me you’re leaving for the night, Noah?
“I’ll be back tomorrow.” He moved to her side to stroke Maggie’s cheek. Then he leaned down and kissed her and she yanked his hair, but Eleanor carefully set him free. She nodded to Joe and they left the room together.
Tessa started to follow them, but Noah caught her arm. He waited, obviously to let Joe and Eleanor descend the stairs and cross the living room. “I don’t want to leave you angry.”
“I am,” she said. “Maybe I want too much from you because you were so distant before, but I have to know I can count on you.”
“You and Maggie matter most to me. If I honestly thought someone was coming after you tonight, I wouldn’t leave you, but how would we both feel if I stayed here, and something happened to Della Eddings?”
Damn him, she believed his press, too. “How am I supposed to risk letting another woman get hurt if you can help her?”
Concern replaced his arrogance. “I wouldn’t risk you, Tessa.” His tone, unbearably tender, stroked her nerve endings, lulling her into a false sense of trust.
Maybe she had to be responsible tonight. Maybe she was destined to love a man who would never put her first, but she didn’t have to like it.
“You should go. The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll be back.”
He cupped her face in both his strong, capable hands. He kissed her, gently at first, barely touching his lips to hers, but then, as if he couldn’t help himself, he nudged her mouth open. With a groan he pushed his hands beneath her sweater, kneading her bare skin.
“I’m not running out on you.” He buried his face in her hair. “If I can get to Eddings before he hurts Della, I can save a life instead of investigating a death. Think of her children.”
“I am thinking.” But she wanted him with her, and she couldn’t help feeling he should turn Della Eddings over to someone else. He confused her this close, with his arousal nudging her belly, his heat bathing her in pure need. She arched into him, sighing as his hands traced a hungry path beneath her sweater. “Don’t you take chances with this guy, either.”
He looked down at her, tracing the curve of her waist. “You forgive me?”
“I’m trying.”
“I’ll be back before anyone here knows I’m gone.”
Wrong promise to make. He’d disappeared too many times. She backed away from him and pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans.
He stared at her so hard she felt as if he was touching every line on her face. “Set the alarm,” he finally said, and then he spun on his heel and was gone.
Tessa stood perfectly still until the door closed downstairs. Then she sagged against the nearest wall, her heart pounding.
She didn’t allow herself to mope for long. She had an alarm to reset and a baby who was at least an hour late with her evening routine.
While she deciphered the directions for changing the alarm code, Eleanor finished feeding Maggie. Tessa called the monitoring company to be sure they called the police if the alarm went off-line during the night, and then she folded another load of the baby’s laundry while Joe occupied her and Eleanor cleaned the kitchen.
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Then Tessa collected Maggie and took her to her room to run a bubble bath. The baby danced in Tessa’s arms as the bubbles piled on top of the water.
Laughing at her excitement, Tessa wrestled her diaper off and dipped her in. Maggie immediately began to scissor her arms and legs through the suds. The door opened behind them, but Tessa was too busy keeping Maggie afloat to turn around.
“Tessa, Joe and I were thinking maybe we should go home tonight—and you and Maggie can come with us.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ELBOW DEEP IN SUDS, Tessa looked up from Maggie’s bubble bath. Maggie puffed a snowball of suds in her grandma’s direction, delighting Eleanor, who knelt at the end of the tub.
“What do you think?” she asked, scooping up suds to blow Maggie’s way.
“Why do you want to go?”
“I’m uneasy,” Eleanor admitted, “after what you said this morning. I know we have the police outside, but what if you were right about someone breaking into the house? It could happen again.”
“I changed the alarm and I’ve set it, and the security company is monitoring. We’re fine.” Tessa turned on the water and adjusted its temperature. “I’m going to rinse Maggie now.”
She turned on the shower and Eleanor helped her hold the baby upright while she sprayed the soap bubbles.
“We could bundle her into her pajamas and snowsuit and just set off. In forty-five minutes, we’ll have disappeared.” Eleanor held out Maggie’s towel and helped Tessa wrap the baby in it. “Say you’ll do it, just to ease my mind.”
“But you don’t have a crib.”
“Sure we do, and a supply of diapers and food. We kept it all for Maggie’s visits.”
“What do you think of our plan?” Joe asked from behind them.
Tessa looked up to where he leaned against the doorway. Hesitating, she sat on her heels so she could see his face. “I’m not that impressed with my security measures. And maybe we would have the advantage if we leave the place where everyone expects us to be.”
