Tall Dark Defender

by Beth Cornelison

  The cop was clearly unmoved by her denial of guilt. He fired a few more questions before finally flipping his notepad closed and eyeing her dispassionately. “All right. That’s it. You can go for now, ma’am. But don’t leave town. We may have more questions for you in the next couple days.”

  Annie nodded and wrapped her arms around her stomach, feeling she had to physically hold herself together or she’d shatter.

  She glanced down the sidewalk to the spot where Jonah stood patiently waiting for her. Why turning to Jonah in this crisis felt right, she couldn’t say, but when she’d seen him at the window of the police car, her relief had been immediate and immense. She’d held her breath as he fought to get past the officers blocking his path. She’d needed his calming comfort, his reassuring strength, and hadn’t questioned why she’d instinctively known he’d come. As soon as the initial shock of finding Hardin dead had morphed into a bone-chilling fear for her own life, Jonah’s had been the face she’d sought as the police gathered and morbidly curious crowds clogged the sidewalk.

  Now he tucked her trembling body under his chin, his arms folded securely around her, and she let the tears she’d been holding at bay throughout the policeman’s questioning wash down her cheeks.

  His embrace was firm and reassuring without crushing her. The soothing strokes of his wide hand on her back eased the chaos and terror of the past hours. Nestled close to him again, she allowed her thoughts to drift back to the jolt that had shot through her when he’d surprised her with his kiss. More unexpected than the kiss itself was her body’s electric reaction. If his intention had been to scramble her thoughts and distract her from the situation, he’d succeeded nobly for several breathless seconds. The tender caress of his lips had spun a soothing warmth through her terror-chilled blood.

  “When you’re ready, I’ll take you home,” he murmured, his warm breath stirring the hair at her neck.

  Home. Her children.

  A fresh wave of icy horror flashed through her. She stiffened and jerked back to stare at Jonah in dismay. “My kids! What if the people who did this go after my kids?”

  Nausea swamped her gut. If anything happened to Haley or Ben…

  Jonah’s grip tightened slightly, and he took her chin between his fingers and thumb. “That’s not going to happen.”

  Frowning, she pulled her chin from his grip. “You don’t know that. They could be at my apartment now!” She glanced to the cluster of policemen half a block away and lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. “I’m the one who lost that money. If they did this to Hardin, then why wouldn’t I be next on their list?”

  “I’m not denying that you could be in danger. But I promise you, I won’t let them hurt you or your kids on my watch.” The rough edge to his voice, the penetrating heat of his dark eyes rippled through her with concentric waves. Another tiny piece of her trust surrendered to his firm persuasion.

  Jonah had bulldozed his way into her life and appointed himself her counsel and guardian. She knew so little about him, and what she did know was conflicting and confusing. By all rights, she should be running in the other direction. She’d had enough of bossy, controlling men.

  Yet Jonah’s concern for her and her family seemed genuine. That alone was novel in her experience. Walt had been selfish, cared little for what his drinking and cruelty were doing to her and the children.

  And Jonah had encouraged her to become self-reliant, empowered, confident. Walt had preyed upon her through fear and intimidation.

  He nodded his head toward the parking lot. “My truck is over here.”

  She followed him to his pickup and climbed inside. As they drove to her apartment in silence, Annie’s head pounded with questions, terrifying images of death and a numbing fear that she’d once more lost control of her life.

  Jonah parked in a visitor’s spot on the far side of the parking lot, and she climbed out of his truck. Relief poured through her when she spotted Rani and her children playing on the grassy quadrant between apartment buildings.

  Jonah placed a proprietary hand at the small of Annie’s back as they started across the crumbling asphalt.

  Haley noticed her first, and her daughter’s face brightened. “Mommy!”

  She ran across the parking lot to intercept her mother, and Annie stooped, catching her little girl in a fierce, protective bear hug. Holding Haley, knowing her kids were safe, melted a layer of the chill in her bones.

  “How come you’re home, Mommy?”

  “I…just got the day off.” Clinging to her daughter, Annie inhaled the sweet scent of the baby shampoo Haley still used, and a rush of tender emotion washed through her. Her children were everything to her, and if she had to go into hiding again to protect them, so be it.

  Haley pushed back from the hug. “Does that mean you can play with us? Can we play with my Barbies?”

  Excitement and hope laced Haley’s voice, and joy lit her eyes.

  “In a little while. I need to…take care of a few things first.” Annie stroked her daughter’s hair and kissed her forehead. “But later, I promise to play Barbies with you.”

  Her daughter grinned her satisfaction, then turned a curious look to Jonah, who’d stayed back as she greeted her daughter.

  “Who are you?” Haley asked, wrinkling her nose.

  Annie sent Jonah an apologetic glance. “Haley, if you want to meet someone, you introduce yourself politely. Remember?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Haley scratched her nose and gave Jonah a measuring look.

  Annie watched Haley’s reaction to him closely. Jonah was the first new man she’d brought around the kids since the ordeal with Walt came to a head more than a year ago.

  He stepped forward and held his hand out for Haley to shake. “I’m Jonah Devereaux, a friend of your mom’s. Nice to meet you, Haley.”

  Jonah’s hand swallowed her daughter’s smaller one, and an uneasy tremor fluttered through Annie, a reminder of how vulnerable her children were.

  Rani had reached them with Ben in her arms, and she gave Annie a worried look. “Ms. Annie, is everything all right?”

  “Well, yes and no. The diner had to close today unexpectedly. I can watch the kids today.”

  Rani gave her a brief update on what the kids had eaten and when Ben had woken up that morning as she passed the toddler over to his mother.

  “I’ll call you when I know what’s going to happen tomorrow. My plans are kinda up in the air right now,” Annie said. She sighed as Rani told the kids goodbye and headed toward her apartment.

  If fearing for her life and her children’s weren’t enough, Annie hated the uncertainty this turn of events cast over her future. Would she have a job tomorrow? Would the diner close indefinitely? Would she have to leave Lagniappe to protect herself from the person who murdered Mr. Hardin?

  As she herded Ben and Haley back toward their apartment, Haley stopped to play with the neighbors’ cat. Eager to get the children inside, out of view of any eyes that could be watching her, stalking her, she opened her mouth to chastise Haley for dawdling.

  But Jonah crouched beside Haley and joined her in stroking the cat’s back. Annie paused, watching her daughter give the cat solid thumping pats.

  “Gently,” Jonah murmured. “See how he put his ears back? That means he’s unhappy. You don’t want to hurt him, right? Kitties like soft pats.”

  Haley gentled her touch and tipped her head. “Like this?”

  “Yeah, good.”

  The lesson in kindness to animals caught Annie off guard. His concern that Haley not hurt the cat contributed to her confused feelings toward Jonah. She tried to reconcile Jonah’s fighting skills with this protective and loving attitude toward animals.

  A shiver raced over her skin remembering how safe she’d felt in his arms when he’d gotten her out of the police cruiser. How could someone who sparred as a hobby, who didn’t hesitate to take on another man in a dark alley in hand-to-hand combat have such a gentle soul? The contradiction flew in
the face of everything her personal experience taught her. She was risking a lot bringing Jonah home, exposing her children to him.

  She prayed she didn’t regret taking the chance later. But she needed answers from Jonah, and the diner wasn’t safe for this particular discussion.

  “Do you have a cat?” Haley asked. Her wide-eyed innocence twisted in Annie’s chest.

  Jonah blinked his surprise, then chuckled. “Well, no. Do you?”

  “No, sir. Me and Mommy want one, but she says we can’t. She says maybe we can someday.”

  Jonah arched an eyebrow and divided a smile between Haley and Annie. “And when is someday?”

  “Haley, take Ben and go on inside. I’ll fix you a snack when I get upstairs.” Annie waited until Haley had led her toddling brother up the steps and closed the door before turning back to Jonah. “I don’t know when someday will be. It can’t get here soon enough for me.” She gripped the railing to steady herself, recalling the darkest days of her life. “Someday is when I don’t have to worry that my husband will hurt an innocent animal to scare or control me. I couldn’t justify exposing a pet to Walt’s volatile temper and cruelty.”

  Jonah’s expression inexplicably tensed and softened at the same time, anger and empathy clearly battling for dominance.

  “Someday,” she continued, struggling to keep her voice steady, “is when I’m not on the run, living in hiding to escape the murderous intentions of my husband. I didn’t know from day to day where we’d sleep at night, if Walt would find us and make good his threat to kill me. A cat would have been impractical.”

  Jonah nodded, his dark eyes boring into her. Rather than rattle her as his intense gaze usually did, his focused attention encouraged confidence and soothed her frayed nerves.

  She cleared the knot of emotion clogging her throat and added, “Someday is when I don’t have to stretch my paycheck so thin you can see light through it. I can barely keep a roof over our heads and food in my kids’ stomachs with what I earn.”

  The neighbors’ cat wound through her legs, rubbing, and Annie bent to pick it up. Cuddling the feline close to her chest, Annie buried her face in the cat’s soft fur. “I would love to let my baby have a pet, but cat food and vet bills aren’t in the budget.”

  Jonah reached for her, but instead of patting the cat, he stroked Annie’s cheek with his wide palm. “Someday may be closer than you think.”

  She scoffed and set the cat back on the ground when it squirmed. “How can you say that after this morning? Even if the diner reopens and I still have a job, Hardin was murdered because of that stolen money. How do I know I won’t be next?”

  Conviction and determination blazed in Jonah’s eyes. “Because I won’t let that happen. Hardin’s isn’t the first life lost because of these bastards, and if it is the last thing I do, I’m going to find the people responsible and see that they pay.”

  As Annie fixed her kids an early lunch, the bone-deep chill returned when Jonah’s remark replayed in her head. Who else had been killed? How had Jonah become involved in investigating the gambling and money laundering?

  Her children’s restless squabbling drifted in from the living room where she’d left them watching TV with Jonah. She hurriedly finished draining the boiling water from the macaroni, eager to get back to the children and quiet their bickering. Jonah had to be uncomfortable around her fussy kids. Even the most stalwart soul could grow edgy around cranky children. Lord knew, the kids crying had been enough to set Walt off.

  She shuddered remembering how often she’d had to run interference, bend over backward to keep the kids quiet when Walt was in one of his moods. And the backlash when her efforts hadn’t been enough.

  With those dark memories haunting her, Annie set the macaroni aside and rushed to the living room to break up her children’s latest squabble.

  “That’s the way! Punch it again. Harder,” Jonah said as she stepped around the corner from the hall. He held a sofa pillow in front of him, egging Ben to jab the cushion with his tiny fists.

  Outraged, Annie snatched the pillow away, her temper spiking. “Stop it!”

  Both Ben and Jonah lifted startled looks.

  “Annie?”

  “How dare you teach my son to fight! I risked my life getting away from my husband so that my kids wouldn’t learn his abusive ways. I will not allow you or anyone to teach my son it is okay to hit!” Anger and hurt raised the level and pitch of her voice. Her body shook, and tears bloomed in her eyes as she glared at Jonah.

  He raised a placating hand and rose from the floor to face her. “Your son already knows how to hit. I was trying to teach him to punch something other than his sister. I told him hitting a girl was never okay. I wanted him to redirect his frustration on an inanimate object.”

  Annie stared at Jonah, dragging in air and needing a moment for his explanation to pierce the skin of her anger. With her heart thundering, she recalled seeing Ben punch Haley in a fit of anger more than once. She’d asked Rani to do all she could to squelch the behavior when she saw it.

  Her gaze darted to Haley, who blinked at her, wide-eyed and pale. Compunction plucked at Annie. She’d assessed the situation at face value and unfairly jumped to a biased conclusion. Now she choked down the bitter fear and resentment that strangled her and worked to calm her runaway pulse before addressing her daughter. “Ben was punching you?”

  Her daughter bobbed her head.

  “Why?”

  Haley poked out her bottom lip and looked away. “I took his truck.”

  Annie inhaled a slow, deep breath. Counted to ten. “Go to the time-out chair. You know not to grab your brother’s toys from him.”

  Her expression contrite, Haley sidled over to the chair in the corner of the room. Feeling Jonah’s gaze on her, Annie steeled her nerves and schooled her face before facing him. Rather than accusation, his expression was patient, forgiving. Her awkward guilt grew. “I’m sorry. When I saw you—”

  “I understand.”

  She tipped her head, studying him. “Do you? Do you have any idea how much it scares me to think of my son following his father’s example? He was a baby when I left Walt, but not a day passes that I don’t worry that Walt’s abusiveness could be genetic.”

  A muscle in Jonah’s cheek twitched. “Behavior is learned, not inherited.”

  “I wish I could be sure,” she murmured, shifting her gaze to Ben, who’d toddled over to cling to her leg. He whined and raised his arms to be picked up. Annie lifted Ben to her chest and bear-hugged him. “Oh, Ben, what am I going to do with you?”

  Slanting her a lopsided smile, Jonah stepped closer and stroked a hand down Ben’s wavy baby hair. “You’re gonna be all right. Aren’t you, little man?”

  The loving gesture stole Annie’s breath. Walt had claimed to love their kids, but she’d never seen him show his affection with a tender touch, a softly spoken encouragement or a warm smile.

  Ben lifted his head from her shoulder and, grinning impishly, wagged a finger at Jonah. “No hit.”

  Chuckling, Jonah caught Ben’s finger in his hand and gently squeezed. “That’s right, pal. No hitting Haley.”

  Annie’s throat tightened, and she struggled to assimilate her new impressions of Jonah in the wake of the horror and gore she’d witnessed this morning at the diner. How did this caring, conscientious man fit in the landscape of violence and illegal activity she’d become embroiled in at Pop’s? How did she reconcile this gentle side of Jonah with the violent skill she’d seen him employ firsthand?

  Her mind spinning, Annie nodded toward Haley. “Once she’s been in the chair two more minutes, will you bring her into the kitchen to eat?”

  He tweaked Ben’s chin. “Sure.”

  She backed out of the living room, knowing something fundamental had shifted in her relationship with Jonah, but too overwhelmed by the events of the morning to examine the change closely.

  Their relationship? The word clanged in her head and made her stomach whirl.
She didn’t have a relationship with Jonah. He was a customer at the diner, nothing more.

  But you don’t kiss a man who is nothing more than a customer.

  No, he kissed her. Annie’s lips tingled from the mere memory of that brief kiss. Warm, sweet, breath-stealing.

  And totally off-limits. She had enough upheaval in her life at the moment without complicating matters with a new relationship. When she was ready to become involved with a man again, assuming she ever was, she’d want someone stable, safe, considerate.

  Not a man who’d elbowed his way into her life, for whom hand-to-hand combat was a sport, and who turned her emotions topsy-turvy with his soul-piercing eyes.

  After settling Ben in his high chair, Annie finished mixing the cheese sauce into the pasta. She was just about to check on Haley when Jonah carried her into the kitchen on his hip.

  Her daughter gazed at him with such implicit trust and admiration, Annie’s heart hammered. She’d expected Haley to be much more circumspect around men following Walt’s frightening behavior both before and after Annie had left the marriage.

  Not that Haley hadn’t been exposed to positive male role models, too. Riley Sinclair, her counselor Ginny’s husband, for one.

  Jonah situated Haley at the table and took a bowl from the counter. “Can I help serve?”

  “I—” Before she could answer, Jonah had scooped a spoonful of mac and cheese in the dish and carried it over to Haley.

  “It’s too hot,” her daughter complained without tasting her lunch.

  “Can’t have that.” Jonah stepped up behind Haley and bent low over the table. “Help me blow out the fire.”

  Together they both blew on the bowl with their cheeks puffed, and Ben giggled.

  “Me, too!” Ben’s attempt to cool his food resembled a raspberry more than a puff of breath. Now both children giggled, and Annie’s heart swelled. Her children’s mirth sang through her blood, a lyrical, magical melody that she treasured more than gold.

  When Jonah peeked up and winked at her, Annie’s joy over her children’s laughter and Jonah’s rapport with the kids morphed into a knee-weakening skip in her pulse. Her children had trusted and bonded with Jonah quickly and easily. Did they sense something about him that she’d overlooked, or was he preying on their innocence and naivete to get to her?