“At what cost?” Aurore said.
“Do you think you’ve done better here?” Dylan asked her. “Drugging Serena to keep her quiet? Keeping Tammie away from her family her whole life?”
“We did what we had to do.”
“Well, it wasn’t enough because they’re still here. Still in this house controlling and threatening you all!” His anger had gotten the best of him, and Tammie could see that he knew it.
Dylan closed his eyes, as if the realization of what was happening to his brother hit him. Colombian gangsters weren’t kind, and Tammie guessed he had a clear image in his head of what might have happened.
Dylan had spent years in the military. He’d probably seen more horrors than Tammie could ever imagine. He knew that if Cash had gotten in over his head with people like Turgis, there was no reason for them to spare his life. Or the baby’s.
#
Chapter Fourteen
The stair creaked beneath Tammie’s bare feet as she quietly took each step down. She didn’t bother to look at the portrait of her mother. Eleanor. The painting haunted her.
She should be falling-down tired, giving in to sleep. But her emotions were at war with each other. One part of her told her to run, that nothing here was safe. Another told her she had no choice but to stay and fight to the end. She wondered if her parents had felt that way when they made the decision to leave with her.
She hadn’t left the house for two nights. Aurore had invited Dylan to stay at the house, rather than at the campground. It made sense. There were too many strangers in town for the auctions. Too many people who could easily hide their motives. Even though no one had said anything, Tammie knew they all felt safer with Dylan in the house. She certainly did.
In the past two days, Dylan had been in constant communication with his sister and his friend in Providence, Jake Santos, trying to get more information they could use to find Cash and Ellie. As he did, Tammie would look at Dylan from across the room when he was busy talking on the phone. It was hard to imagine that she hadn’t known him a week ago. It seemed as if he’d always been in her life.
In the evenings, when it was quiet, she’d sit with him in the living room and he’d hold her. Despite the seriousness of what they were facing, he remained lighthearted during those quiet moments. She loved his laugh, and the stories he told about his brother and sister.
Every once in a while, when he got quiet, she’d turn to look at him and see the pain on his face. A quick kiss and hug were enough to erase it. At least for the time being.
It was hard to expect more than that. Her feelings for Dylan were growing beyond measure. There were times when she’d climb the stairs to her bedroom and wish he’d follow her upstairs to her room so he could hold her all night. It was all moving so fast and yet, so much of what was happening made her feel as if they were standing still in limbo. How could anything move forward with so much in their lives a mess?
She would lay in bed and think of Dylan downstairs. He insisted. He wanted to be where he could hear and see what was happening and move quickly if someone somehow managed to get into the house. But what she wanted was for him to be in her bed with her. She wanted to feel his naked flesh against her skin and feel herself burn with him. She wanted him. Wanted so much more than the quiet moments they shared.
But it would have to wait. There was too much at stake. For now, she’d have to be content to have these quiet moments with Dylan.
As she walked through the house, the moon shone bright through the large picture window and the French doors at the back of the living room, giving Tammie a clear view of the backyard. Slowly, she moved toward the window, only to be startled by the large, dark form sitting back in a wing chair that faced the backyard.
“Dylan, you scared me,” she said, putting her hand over her heart.
“Did I? I didn’t think anyone was awake.”
His voice was low, but seemed to boom in the quiet room.
“What are you doing up?” he asked.
“The same as you, I suppose. I wanted to be with you.”
Tammie didn’t have to see his face to know how the day had worn him down. He was slumped back in a large chair that overlooked the garden that Sam Watson had so painstakingly taken care of.
He opened his arms for her to sit with him. There wasn’t much room in the wing chair, so she sat on his lap, and he immediately wrapped his arms around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. They weren’t naked in her bed. They weren’t making love the way she’d dreamed they someday would. But the world didn’t seem as scary when Dylan was holding her like this.
“Do you think they’re still alive?” she asked, her voice cracking. They hadn’t spoken of it and yet, somehow, she knew that was what Dylan was thinking of now.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I hope they are. But I know what we’re dealing with here, and that doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.”
“My heart breaks for Serena. To lose both of them...” Tammie bit her lip, tried to compose herself.
Unable to sit, she lifted herself to her feet, out of Dylan’s embrace, and walked to the window. The night was still. Not even a stray cat was scurrying outside in the yard.
“It’ll never be over, will it?” she said, finding her voice again. “Manuel Turgis will never leave this family alone. I’ve only lived with this for a week, and already I can’t stand it.”
Dylan came up behind her. She was wearing a heavy terrycloth robe that probably made her look like a big polar bear, but vanity was the furthest thing from her thoughts. Her sister’s baby had been taken from her. Her sister’s husband, Dylan’s brother, had gone after the baby. He’d walked right into the lion’s den to fight the beast, and the chances of finding them at all, never mind alive, were low.
Dylan’s gentle hands on her shoulders made her want to weep all over again. But instead of saying a word, Dylan remained still behind her with his arms draped around her shoulders, allowing Tammie to take the same comfort she’d felt earlier.
She leaned back against him, felt a connection that wrapped around her like a lifeline. Without words, she placed her hand over his, letting him know how much his comfort meant to her.
Two hands connected. Wasn’t that what life was about? A merging of souls through love. It startled her to even think of it, but she knew that was where she was headed with Dylan. He’d touched her heart so deeply by just being...Dylan. His strength and his love of family showed with every breath he took.
Oh, what it would be like to wrap herself in the strength that he had, to feel the power of a man’s love who could make a woman feel like this with just a simple touch? She ached for him deep in her soul.
And yet, part of her wanted desperately to tell him to run. Run as far as he could, away from her, this family, and the pain being with her could bring.
“You’ve got a lot spinning in that head of yours,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.
“I’ve forgiven my parents. They did what they had to do. I just wonder if I can ever forgive myself.”
He turned her around to look at him. “What are you talking about?”
“I doubted them. That I could ever doubt their love for me, even for a second, is horrible.” A tear slid down her cheek. “My parents were killed because of me, Dylan.”
“You can’t think that way.”
“Oh, but I can. All this time, I’ve been so angry with them for not telling me the truth.”
“It’s hard not to question something that seems so unfair.”
“Yes, I know. But the truth is, they put their lives on the line for me my entire life. It was because of me that they died.”
“Manuel Turgis is responsible for their deaths, Tammie. Not you.”
She shook her head. “I know it was nothing I did intentionally and it wasn’t in my control. But the fact remains, Turgis was targeting me that day we were supposed to leave on that boat trip. Not my parents. I was supposed to be on
that boat with them. I didn’t make it to the boat on time and the captain decided to fuel the tanks while waiting for me to arrive. If I hadn’t been late—”
“You’d be dead, too. Is that what you want?”
The abrupt remark hit her as hard as Dylan had meant it to. He’d shocked her. Wide-eyed, she looked up at him.
“Don’t you see the crime in that, Tammie?” he asked, his voice low and steeped with emotion. “I can’t stand the thought that they could have succeeded in ending your life, too. Of never having had you in my life. Of never having had the opportunity to hold you in my arms.”
He pulled her into a tight embrace, and she closed her eyes, allowing the tears to fall.
“Don’t say that, Dylan.”
“Why not? It’s what I feel.”
“Then you need to stop. Don’t you see that whatever it is we’ve been feeling can’t go anywhere?”
“Too late. It’s a done deal.”
He put his arms loosely around her, allowing her to flee if she wanted. But she held fast, resting her hands on his shoulders. Though her heart was in turmoil, she had to see this through.
“My parents spent their life protecting me from something I didn’t even know existed, raising me without the fear they must have had the entire time I was growing up. They died because of me.”
“And you think that’s going to happen to me?”
“Yes.”
“You’re wrong.”
Tammie shook her head. “You don’t know that. Manuel Turgis and his cohorts have hurt too many people. Fear has kept Serena from living a normal life, from being able to love her husband and raise her baby without fear. These people don’t care who they hurt.”
“I don’t care what kind of threats they pose, Tammie.”
She pulled out of his arms. “Well, I do. It’s because of the threat they could hold over me that my parents died. I won’t let them hurt you.”
“I don’t want to lose you. Before I met you, I was consumed with finding my brother. I couldn’t think of anything else. But now, all I think of you. Of course I want to find Cash. But you’re all I think about. When I’m not with you, I’m thinking of you. When you’re here, I can’t keep my eyes off you. I look at you across the room and watch your hair fall to one side as you tilt your head. I could stare for hours at your beautiful eyes when you’re looking out into the garden and you don’t think I’m watching. I just want to be with you.”
She covered her face with her hands. “Don’t you see? What kind of life could we ever have living under the threat that Aztec Corporation and Manuel Turgis has held over this family? So what if Serena pays Turgis the entire family fortune? That doesn’t mean it will end. You know that.”
“I can’t just walk away, Tammie. I can’t.” He leaned down and kissed her mouth, letting his lips linger on hers, tangling his fingers in her hair at the nape of her neck. When he pulled away, he left his hand in place and looked deeply into her eyes. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
“Do you want to live your life like Serena and Cash? Do you want to worry about what might happen every time we walk out the door? I don’t. I don’t want to look into a stranger’s face and wonder if that person means me harm or not. I have to live with that but you don’t have to. You can walk away from it right now.”
“If you believe that, then I don’t know where you’ve been this past week. Whether you wish it or not I do have to live with this. Because the day I met you on that street is the day I stopped thinking about my life as being just about me and what I want.”
She looked at his face and saw the raw emotion there.
“Yeah, that’s right” he said. “And I can’t believe that you’re not thinking that very same thing.”
“That’s a luxury I won’t allow myself,” she said, turning away from him.
What Tammie had seen in Dylan was something she’d longed for without even knowing it. He was the kind of man that made her think of a lifetime together.
But Tammie wouldn’t go there. There was too much at stake.
“Why won’t you just walk away from me, while you still have the chance to have a normal life?”
He closed his eyes. “Because I can’t. For the first time I feel like there’s something more to wake up to every day than just me. I used to think that being a Marine was enough. And for a long time, it was. But you changed that.”
He tilted her chin up to look at him.
“How can that be? If we allow our relationship to go any further, there’ll be no going back. What if we end up married?”
He smiled. “I don’t know where this is going, Tammie, but that’s a nice thought. I’m willing to see how far we can take this.”
She shook her head. “How can you say that? Any children we may have together will be a target for Manuel Turgis. You know that. What kind of life would we have if we had to hide like Serena has done her whole life? I don’t know how my parents were able to stand it.”
“Then we don’t hide. I’m all for getting right in Turgis’s face if I have to. I mean to make some real noise, Tammie, and I mean to tell him that as of right now every single member of this family is not going to stand for it anymore.”
“This hasn’t stopped for nearly thirty years. What makes you think they’ll stop coming after us?”
His eyes glinted with a hardness that would have frightened her if she didn’t know it wasn’t directed at her.
“Let them. I want them to come after us. And I want them to know that I’m coming after them. I want them to know this family is not going to run and hide.”
She wrapped her arms around him and held tight.
“That’s right, Tammie. You just stay here in my arms. It’ll be all right.”
“I can’t do this, Dylan. I just can’t let you do this.” Tammie pulled away and backed up slowly. Then she ran from the room and up the stairs.
* * *
“Tammie?” he called after her. But she didn’t turn around, and he didn’t follow.
Instead, he stood rooted in place as he watched Tammie disappear into the darkness. He could barely see her as she moved, but his eyes searched until he could no longer see movement at all.
Sitting back down in the chair by the window, he closed his eyes. There’d been many nights when he was out on an op that had gone bad and he thought for sure he’d die. He’d accepted it. His service to his country was important to him, both as a Marine and as a police officer, and if he meant he’d have to lay down his life to save another, then so be it.
But Tammie was different than any woman he’d ever met before. She was special. What he was feeling for her right now was overwhelming. He’d lay down his life for her.
He sat in the darkness as the tears came. His heart swelled with emotion that he hadn’t allowed himself to feel. He wanted to talk to his brother. He wanted to tell him about Tammie, about this amazing woman who was turning him inside out. He wondered if Cash had felt that way when he’d fallen for Serena.
Fear. Love. Hate. They were all mingled into one.
Aztec Corporation was big enough to get lost inside. From what Sonny had uncovered, it was a tangled mess that led to no one in particular. Manuel Turgis was just one part of many. It was a smart way to keep people from discovering those really responsible for the art thefts. And it made it almost impossible to know where to start to find who took the baby or how to find Cash.
He wouldn’t let up, Dylan thought. A few days ago he’d felt defeated. But inside, he felt himself growing stronger and stronger. Not born of anger, but of resolve.
Aztec Corporation had already taken his beloved brother and the niece he had never even known existed before he came here. He wasn’t going to let them take the only woman he’d ever duly cared for. And he did care deeply for Tammie. It almost amazed him that in such a short time his feelings had grown the way they had.
Yeah, he was going to make some noise, all right. And he knew just where t
o start.
#
Chapter Fifteen
The morning had come much too early, Tammie thought as she pulled herself out of bed. To say that she felt as if a Mack truck had run her over would have been an understatement.
She felt worse.
After a quick shower that did little to rouse her more, she pulled on a favorite pair of jeans and an oversized college sweatshirt. Her hair needed serious attention, but she didn’t give it anything beyond putting it in a clip in the back of her head.
Serena had been quiet last night. Too exhausted to cry any more for her baby and her husband, she’d slept through the night, even without a sedative to calm her.
After pulling her sneakers on, Tammie decided to check on Serena to see if she was up to eating breakfast. As tired as Tammie was, she couldn’t sleep. She didn’t feel much like eating, either, but she could make pancakes and toast for whoever was up. Serena needed to keep up her strength, especially now.
Tammie stood at the top of the stairs and listened for movement downstairs. She didn’t hear any, and figured everyone else must be still asleep.
As she turned and walked back toward the bedrooms, she thought of the way Dylan had held her last night, making her feel as if everything he said were possible. That he could fight against the seemingly invisible threat of Aztec Corporation, that they could be together without fear.
Oh, how she wanted to believe him. But how could she, if the very man responsible for bringing this cruelty to his family hadn’t been able to?
She opened the door to Serena’s room and walked inside, pausing only long enough to notice that the door wasn’t locked. The blankets on the bed were disheveled, but the bed was empty.
“Serena?” she said quietly, walking toward the bathroom. The door was open. A tube of toothpaste lay uncapped on the vanity. A hairbrush had fallen into the sink instead of being put in its place. Two white towels were crumpled on the floor by the tub.
Reckless Hours: a Romantic Suspense novel (Heroes of Providence Book 3) Page 19
