by Childs, Lisa
Lives were going to be lost—futures destroyed.
And Macy was helpless to do anything to prevent the pending tragedy. She had accepted her role in this horrible play when she’d promised Erica to keep the little girl safe. As she pulled her car up outside the parking garage, she realized that Erica probably wouldn’t consider this the best way to protect the child.
She wasn’t bringing her into the line of fire. But they would be able to hear shots from here. They’d be able to know when it was over…just not whose lives were over…
* * *
CHOKING ON FEAR, ERICA HELD her breath. It wasn’t supposed to go like this, but then nothing had gone according to her plan since she had first met Jedidiah Kleyn. She’d been applying for a job and wound up with a boyfriend. But she hadn’t kept him.
She had already known that she wouldn’t be able to keep him now. But she hadn’t suspected that she was the one who might wind up dead. Of course it should have occurred to her, since she’d run out between two men holding guns on each other.
But still…it wasn’t supposed to go like this.
The look on Jed’s face would haunt her…for however long she lived. Fear and horror darkened his eyes even more, so that they looked more black than brown.
“I’m sorry.” She mouthed the words to him as he’d once mouthed them to her. And she flinched, waiting for the bullet to strike. That little scalpel she carried wouldn’t protect her now. Before she could unsheathe it and stab Brandon, she would be dead.
“You’re wrong,” Jed told Brandon.
The guy laughed. “This should be good. What am I wrong about? Are you going to try to save her? Going to try to hit me? Your bullet won’t be able to hit me before mine tears her brain apart.”
Erica shivered at the coldness of Brandon’s voice. She had once been taken in by his charm. Not enough to fall for him but enough to go out with him even though she had already been in love with another man.
“You’re wrong that I have no friends,” Jed informed him. “That I have no one to help me.”
Brandon lifted the gun slightly away from her head and glanced around. “I don’t see anyone else here. It’s just the three of us. For the moment.”
“You’re not looking hard enough,” Jed advised him. “Look harder…”
“We’re right here,” a raspy voice added, and Rowe stepped from the shadows behind Brandon, his gun trained on the madman’s head.
“And if Kleyn and Cusack aren’t able to get off a shot fast enough to save Ms. Towsley, I sure as hell will,” added another male voice.
Erica glanced up to where Sheriff York stood on the parking level above them, a sniper rifle trained on Brandon’s forehead. And if he doubted the man, he would only have to look in a mirror to see the red laser mark between his eyes.
Brandon sucked in a breath of shock and fear.
“It’s over,” Jed informed him. “They heard everything.”
“And we had the D.A.’s approval to record it,” the sheriff added. “In fact he’s been listening in the entire time…”
Brandon’s breath escaped in a gasp and a curse. “Son of a bitch…”
Erica didn’t relax. It might be over according to Jed and the lawmen. But Brandon was used to calling the shots. He was used to having things go his way. He wasn’t likely to go out how these men wanted him—in handcuffs—but in a blaze of glory. And he would take her with him, caught in the crossfire.
She saw that same fear in Jed’s eyes as he waited, his gun still trained on Brandon.
They might all die yet.
But then Brandon lowered his weapon and stepped back. Obviously he hadn’t wanted to die for real. “Goddamn you, Jed. I thought I’d taken you down. Finally. I’d thought you lost.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Jed told him as Rowe slapped cuffs around the man’s wrists, “you took away three years of my life that I’ll never get back. Three years of time I could have spent with my daughter.”
Three years of time he could have spent with her. Erica wanted to tell him that, but he wasn’t looking at her. Until Rowe led Brandon away, reading him his rights. Then Jed walked up and grabbed her, shaking her gently.
“What the hell were you thinking, woman?” he asked, his voice cracking with rage and residual fear for her safety. “You almost got yourself killed.”
“She was never in any danger,” the sheriff assured Jed as he dismantled his weapon and returned it to the case in which he’d carried it. “From the way he was answering your questions, it was clear Henderson suspected it was a setup. He wasn’t saying anything that the D.A. could use against him in court.”
“But Brandon would never believe that I would let you be part of the trap to catch him.” Jed clenched his hands on her shoulders. “And he was right to believe that. I never would have gone back for you if I thought you would put yourself in danger.”
He had gone back for her, though. But not just her—he had waited for Rowe, who had brought in the sheriff of Blackwoods County. Together, with guidance from the Blackwoods district attorney, they had concocted their plan to bring Brandon to the justice he had eluded for far too long.
She had never been part of that plan until the sheriff and Rowe had realized Brandon was never going to implicate himself until he was certain Jed wasn’t trapping him. Both men had assured her of her safety before she’d run into the garage.
And she had felt safe in the bulletproof vest she wore beneath her jacket—until Brandon had pressed the gun to her head. Then she’d felt stupid and reckless. “You’re right,” she agreed. “I shouldn’t have gotten involved.”
“Remember, it got us what we need to overturn your murder convictions,” the sheriff said as he came down from the higher level of the parking garage.
“But nothing Brandon said will get rid of the charges against me for breaking out of prison,” Jed said. With a heavy sigh, he turned around—presenting the sheriff with his back, his wrists linked behind him for the cuffs.
A squeal of “Mommy” drew Erica’s attention to the entrance to the parking garage. The little girl, still clad in her pajamas and bare feet, ran across the concrete.
Macy followed closely behind her. Rowe must have told her about their plan. “She got away from me. She really wanted to see you.”
Erica caught the little girl up in her arms, holding her close. Her daughter had almost lost her mother. And she would lose her father. Not for life but for however long a judge sentenced him for the prison break.
“And I wanted to see you,” Macy said, as she reached for her brother.
Jed hugged his sister tightly. But he stared over her head at Isobel, his eyes full of longing. He glanced back at the sheriff. “Is it okay if I spend a little time with my daughter before you take me back to Blackwoods County?”
He’d broken out of prison there, so no doubt he needed to return to the local jail in the county where he’d broken the law.
The sheriff nodded. “Your friend will be turned in to the police department here since this is where he committed his crimes.”
His murders. Several innocent people had lost their lives over one man’s greed and envy. Jed tensed, as if the same thought had occurred to him, but instead of blaming Brandon, he seemed to be blaming himself.
“He was never Jed’s friend,” Macy said.
“No,” Jed agreed. “I’ve trusted people I shouldn’t have.” He glanced at Erica now.
Her stomach clenched with regret. She hadn’t betrayed him as he had believed for the past three years. But her believing the worst about him was a betrayal, too. And she had done that more than once.
She wanted to apologize again, but she worried that it was too late for that. That it was already too late for them.
“I’m trusting you to come out to where the cars are parked in the alley,” Sheriff York told Jed.
“I’m done running,” Jed said. “I’ll be out in just a few minutes.”
“I’m
going back to talk to my fiancé,” Macy said. “I’ll see if he can do something about the charges for escaping prison. Maybe he can talk to someone…” She hurried out after the sheriff.
Erica faced her sleepy-eyed daughter. “Honey, this is your father.”
The little girl blinked thick lashes at her, totally confused.
“This man.” She couldn’t look at him when she confessed all to her daughter. “My friend Jed—he is your father. Your daddy.”
Isobel turned to him for confirmation, her chocolate-brown eyes wide with shock and awe. “You’re my daddy?”
Jed’s throat muscles rippled as he swallowed, as if choked with emotion. “Yes, honey, I am your daddy.” He held out his arms for her.
But she hung back a moment, no doubt overwhelmed with the new information. “I—I have a daddy?”
“Yes,” Erica assured the little girl, sick with guilt that she had never told the child about her father.
She continued, “And he wants to spend some time with you, honey.”
Before he had to go back to jail…
Erica handed Isobel over to Jed’s outstretched arms and turned to leave the garage.
“Wait,” he said. “Stay with us.”
Either he was nervous alone with the little girl or he was concerned that the little girl would be nervous alone with him. Either reason had Erica’s heart warm with love for him. Watching him with their child made her see what kind of man he really was, the man he had always been: gentle, honest and affectionate.
She had to say it—this time aloud. “I’m sorry.”
“I know it wasn’t your idea to interrupt my meeting with Brandon,” Jed replied, absolving her of any carelessness and stupidity. “I know you thought you were perfectly safe.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m sorry about…” She glanced at their daughter, who had affectionately snuggled her head into the crook of Jed’s shoulder and neck. “I’m sorry that I didn’t believe in you like I should have.”
“Why should you have?” he asked.
Because she loved him. But she couldn’t tell him that now when her mistrust had already ruined any promise they had once had for a future together.
“I should have known better,” she said. And now that he and Isobel seemed so comfortable together, she had no reason to stay. She started toward the entrance to the garage.
“I never gave you the chance,” he said, again absolving her.
“What?”
“To get to know me,” he explained. “I never gave you the chance.”
Now, for as many years as he would be locked up, she wouldn’t get that chance.
* * *
HE HAD NO RIGHT TO STOP HER, so Jed just watched her walk away. Just as he hadn’t when he got deployed, he didn’t want her waiting for him. His returning from prison was about as likely as his return from Afghanistan had been.
“No.” Erica stopped herself with the word and turned back toward him and their daughter.
“No what, Mommy?” the little girl asked, confused about what she might have done wrong.
“No. I’m not going to do this again,” she said.
Macy started down the slope of the parking garage toward them. “Jed—”
“I need a minute with your brother,” Erica interrupted the young woman. “Isobel, go play with your aunt for a little while. I need to talk to your daddy alone.”
The little girl wriggled down from his arms and whispered, “You’re in trouble now. That’s Mommy’s mad face.”
A smile tugged at his lips…until he was alone with Erica. The little girl was right; this was her mommy’s mad face. Anger tightened Erica’s silky lips and hardened the pale blue of her beautiful eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“No,” he agreed. “The sheriff already talked to the D.A. about making sure charges were not pressed against you for aiding and abetting me. Rowe vouched for you. You won’t have to worry about yourself or Isobel.”
“I’m worried about you.”
“I’ll be okay,” he said. “No place else could ever be as bad as Blackwoods was. I’ll survive my time—however long they give me.” He didn’t dare hope that they’d commute his sentence for the time he had already served for the crimes he hadn’t committed. She walked up closer to him and lifted her hands to his shoulders, which she clasped as she pressed her body against his.
“You will survive,” she said. “And I’m going to be waiting for you.”
“Good,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief that she wasn’t going to try to deny him time with his daughter once he was done serving his time. “I want to be part of Isobel’s life.”
“No,” she said. “I will be waiting for you. I’m not letting you push me away like you did before. I’m going to wait for you to be free.”
Even though his heart leapt with the hope she offered him, he shook his head in rejection of her offer. “Erica, I can’t ask you to do that.”
“Can’t or don’t want to?” she asked. “Will you ever be able to forgive me for doubting you?”
“It’s not so much forgiving as trusting that you won’t doubt me again,” he admitted.
“I should have talked to you,” she said. “I should have gone to the jail where you were being held before your trial and talked to you.”
“But Marcus had told you not to,” he said. He completely accepted that his lawyer had manipulated her.
“I shouldn’t have trusted him over you.”
“I trusted him, too,” he said with a weary sigh. He hadn’t thought Marcus was smart enough to lie, but then he had had Brandon, the master manipulator, coaching him. “We both made mistakes.”
“Then don’t make another one,” she warned him. “Don’t push me away if you really want me.”
He couldn’t have her putting her life on hold any more now than he had been able to years ago. She was a mother; she and her daughter needed more than he could offer them. So he gripped her shoulders and gently pushed her back. “Go…”
She blinked, as if fighting back tears. “I hope you’re pushing me away because you can’t forgive me and not because you think you’re doing what’s best for me. Thinking that you hate me or that you don’t want me—” her voice cracked with emotion “—that isn’t what’s best for me. That hurts me.”
And hurting her hurt him; pain clutched his heart. He loved her. He had always loved her. That was why he wanted more for her than him.
“I can’t…” he murmured, unable to say more.
“Can’t forgive me?” She nodded in response to her own question before he could even form a reply. “I don’t blame you. I can’t forgive myself.”
As she turned for the entrance again, where his sister and daughter waited just beyond hearing, he reached out. Grabbing her arm, he whirled her back to him and pulled her into his arms. “I can’t let you go again.”
Her breath escaped in a shaky gasp of surprise. “Jed…”
“I love you, Erica,” he said, finally declaring the feelings he had denied for far too long, “so I should be unselfish. I shouldn’t ask you to wait for me, but…”
“I would anyway,” she said. “I waited when you went to Afghanistan, and without even knowing it, I waited while you were in prison. There has never been anyone else for me but you.”
He lowered his mouth and took hers in a deep, possessive kiss. Her lips parted as if she breathed him in, as if she needed him for air. As if she needed him as he needed her.
“I love you, Jed,” she said. “And that’s why I never should have doubted you.”
“Maybe that’s why you did,” he said. “Because your love made you vulnerable and scared.” He held her closely. “You never need to be again. I will come home to you and Isobel. I will come back.”
“You never have to go away,” Macy said, her face flushing with embarrassment at getting caught eavesdropping.
Jed flashed back to
all the times, while they were growing up, that his pesky little sister had barged in on him with a girlfriend. She had jealously wanted all his attention back then because their parents had given her none of theirs. But she seemed very willing to share him with Erica. As smart as she was, she would have realized before he had how much he loved and needed to be with Erica.
“The district attorney, Drake Ketchum, waived all the charges against you,” Macy said, her voice shaking with excitement.
