by Brenda Novak
Tucker pulled his son against him and ignored David’s hostile glare. For Gabrielle’s sake, he really didn’t want this to erupt into an ugly scene. What they’d shared last night had been too good to let end this way.
“What are you doing here?” David said to him. “Don’t you know what this could do to Gabby’s life?”
Gabrielle quickly interceded. “David, let me explain.”
Her ex whirled to face her. “How could you, Gabby? I’ve given you the benefit of every doubt, taken this whole thing on faith, and now I find this son of a—”
“David, be careful what you say. Tucker’s son is here,” Gabrielle interrupted.
“His son! That child’s been kidnapped!”
“He belongs with his father,” she said.
“Are you crazy? This guy’s been convicted of—” He gestured at Landon, who was watching him with wide eyes, then at Tucker, who let him know with a glance that he might have himself on a leash, but it wasn’t a very long one.
“Like hell he belongs with his father,” David finished. “And what do you think you’re doing, sheltering them? Are you trying to flush your life down the toilet? What about Allie, for God’s sake?”
Tucker’s jaw tensed. He’d been patient with David’s intrusion so far, but he felt too protective of Gabrielle to allow David to rail at her, too protective of Landon to allow him to overhear the things David had to say. “Watch it,” he warned.
Gabrielle laid a placating hand on Tucker’s arm. “He doesn’t understand,” she said.
“I know,” he responded, “but I’m not going to let him—”
“Why don’t you put Landon back to bed and give us a few minutes, okay?” Gabrielle murmured.
Tucker glared at David. He was reluctant to go anywhere, to back down from the confrontation at this point, but the pleading in Gabrielle’s eyes finally penetrated his anger. Taking Landon with him, he left the two of them alone. But their voices came to him in harsh whispers, carrying all the way from the living room and making it impossible for him to relax.
“Dad, who is that guy?” Landon asked, climbing back into bed.
Tucker lay down beside him. “No one to worry about.”
“What’s he doing here?”
“He’s Allie’s father. He probably just came for a visit.”
“Why’s he so mad?”
“Like everyone else, he thinks I hurt your mother. He’s afraid I might hurt Gabby.”
“But you didn’t hurt Mom! I know that. I know you’d never hurt anyone.”
Tucker managed a smile despite the heated argument taking place outside the room. “I love you, buddy. No matter what happens, always remember that, okay?”
“Okay.”
Landon rested his head on Tucker’s shoulder for another few minutes, then slid away. “You can go out and talk to them now, if you want,” he said. “I’m okay.”
Tucker shook his head in surprise and ruffled his son’s hair. “You’re growing up fast, you know that?”
Landon’s smile was so wide Tucker could make it out even in the dark. “Yeah, and when I do, I’m going to be just like you.”
Just like him. Landon had unwittingly given him yet another reason to hold on to his temper. Taking a calming breath, Tucker kissed his son’s forehead, returned to Gabrielle’s room for his shirt and pulled it on over his head. As he headed toward the living room, he wasn’t surprised to hear Allie’s coos mingling with the voices of her parents.
“…I can’t help it, David. I’m in love with him,” Gabrielle was saying. “I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s the truth. I’ve always been honest with you before. I have to be honest with you now.”
“Honest? You’re saying you were honest with me when you told me he was a stranger? When you let me give him a ride?”
“What else could I do?”
“Are you kidding?”
“David—”
“He shouldn’t be here, Gabby. Why would you want to involve yourself with a man like Randall Tucker?”
“I didn’t choose to get involved with him. I sort of…I don’t know, I got attached by accident, I guess. But I’m involved now, and there’s no going back.”
“That’s not true. It’s not too late.”
“I believe in him. I know he didn’t kill his wife. He could never hurt anyone who—”
“From what Hansen says, he’s hurt lots of people.”
“You can’t listen to Hansen. He twists everything.”
“He twists everything? He’s not the one who told me he didn’t know Tucker.”
“Oh, come on, David—”
“No, you come on. Your feelings have made you blind. And now you’re risking your future. God, what’s it going to take to get you to understand what’s happening here? He’s using you, Gabby. He’s using you for a quick piece of ass and a roof over his head. He’s—”
“What?” Tucker interrupted, unable to bite his tongue any longer. “What other vile things could I be doing?”
Gabrielle and David fell silent the moment he entered the room, but Allie squealed and demanded David put her down so she could make her way over to him.
“I don’t know.” David was breathing hard from his anger. “Why don’t you tell me?”
“You seem pretty sure of what you’re saying,” Tucker said. “Sounds like you have me all figured out.” He scooped the insistent Allie into his arms so she’d quit squealing for his attention, but the look on David’s face the moment he touched her caused most of Tucker’s anger to dissipate. More than anything else, more than his concern for Gabrielle’s future, what David felt was jealousy. It was as simple as that. He felt as though Tucker had stolen his wife and possibly his daughter.
With two quick strides, Tucker handed Allie back to him. “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” he said evenly.
“Tell him he has to go, Gabby,” David said.
Gabrielle shook her head. “David—”
“It’s him or me,” he insisted.
“No!” Gabrielle waved for Tucker to remain right where he was. “Don’t make me choose,” she pleaded with David.
“I’ve been patient long enough,” David said. “He leaves or I do. And if I go, this time it’ll be for good. I’ll pick up Allie every weekend but I’ll have nothing to do with you.”
“Don’t say that! After everything we’ve been through…David, we’re too close for that.”
“Close? In what way? You threw away our marriage. And I don’t want to be friends, dammit! You know that.”
Silence.
“Tell him to go!”
“I won’t,” she said. “I don’t want him to leave. Ever,” she added softly.
David winced. “And me?”
“I love you—”
“But—”
“Not like I love him.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I’m so sorry, David.”
There was heartbreak in her voice, real sincerity in her words. But it wasn’t enough, and Tucker understood completely. What she was offering David sounded very much like a consolation prize. It would never have been enough for him, either.
“That’s it, then, isn’t it?” David said. “I’ll pick her up this weekend. Have her bags packed.” Passing Allie to Gabrielle, he gave Tucker one last contemptuous look before he strode out and slammed the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“HE’S GOING to go to the police,” Tucker said softly. “You realize that, don’t you?”
Gabrielle wiped her eyes and turned to face him. They were still in the living room, where they’d stood in silence for long moments after David’s departure. “He won’t go to the police. I know David. He’s not a vengeful person. You’re fine here.”
“Jealousy does strange things to a man, Gabby.”
“Maybe to a regular man. But David’s different. We care about each other. We care about Allie. He knows I wouldn’t stand by you without reason.”
“You heard what he s
aid. He thinks you’re confused, misguided. If they catch me here, you could be in serious trouble. I have to go.”
“Where?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Mexico, I guess.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“You can’t. What about Allie? What kind of life would that be for her?”
Gabrielle closed her eyes. He was right, of course. Allie’s welfare had to come first but, God, it was tearing her apart to think he had to leave already, that this might truly be goodbye. “Will you ever come back?”
“I shouldn’t. You’d be better off without me.”
Fresh tears filled her eyes. “Can’t you stay another hour or two, at least? I can’t say goodbye so soon. Besides—” she took a shuddering breath “—Landon’s sleeping.”
“I doubt he’s asleep, Gabby. And for his sake, I can’t trust David as much as you do.”
“I know,” she said.
Tucker came up behind her, put his arms around her and pulled her against him. He felt so solid, so wonderfully real. And yet she knew that soon, this night would seem like little more than a dream.
“This was the best night of my life,” he murmured in her hair. “I knew before I made love to you that I shouldn’t, that the risks were too great. But—”
“But what?” she prompted.
“It was worth it to me,” he said softly.
His words were tender, but there was finality in the way he said them that confirmed what Gabrielle already knew—he was leaving. There wasn’t anything she could do to make him stay. She’d be a fool to really try because she’d only put them all in danger. “If you ever need anything—”
“No, don’t. I won’t have you holding on, waiting for me,” he said briskly. “Live your life without regrets, love again, marry again. That’s what I want for you, Gabby. Go forward and don’t look back.”
Gabrielle knew she’d never love anyone the way she loved him; she couldn’t even imagine marrying another man. But she wasn’t going to make his leaving any harder on him. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she nodded. “Sure,” she said as bravely as she could manage. “I’ll be fine.”
He kissed her neck, pressed his cheek against hers, then quickly released her.
“Tucker?”
He turned as he reached the hall, on his way to collect Landon.
“Be happy.”
DAVID FELT SICK to his stomach. As dawn began to tinge the east a delicate pink, he sat in his Toyota Forerunner watching Tucker’s beat-up old Datsun motor down the street ahead of him, wondering what he should do. He’d been following Tucker for over thirty minutes. Either he had to let him go, or he had to place the call he’d been dreading.
The light turned red, catching them both at an intersection in Casa Grande, twenty-five miles west of Florence.
David closed his eyes and momentarily rested his head on the steering wheel. He couldn’t let Tucker go. Tucker was a convicted murderer. David had a responsibility to himself, to Gabrielle and Allie, and to the community. Maybe Tucker hadn’t hurt Gabby or Allie yet, but he could. Besides, David had already spoken with Sergeant Hansen a couple of times and, although he found him abrasive and didn’t especially care for him, he sympathized with his tough-on-crime stance. David, too, was tired of all the headlines and news reports of violence. Bad guys always seemed to get away with their misdeeds, while victim after victim continued to suffer. He had a chance, right now, to make a difference. If he made the call, the police would descend on Tucker in a matter of minutes and take him back to prison, and Gabrielle and Allie and everyone else would be safe.
That was what he had to do, he decided. This went beyond his or Gabrielle’s personal feelings or background or future. Gabrielle thought she was in love with Tucker, but that wasn’t the issue here.
Picking up his cell phone, David dialed the prison. Not only did he owe it to Allie and Gabrielle and the community at large to do his duty as a good citizen, he owed it to the little boy in Tucker’s car. He might be Tucker’s son, but the courts had decided Tucker didn’t deserve the right to raise him. Who was David to condone the escape or the kidnapping? Who was Gabrielle, for that matter? Tucker had received his due process.
“Arizona State Prison, Florence,” a woman’s voice answered.
The light turned green. David gave his car some gas and rolled through the intersection, keeping an eye on the Datsun up ahead. “Sergeant Hansen, please.”
“I have him on the schedule for the day, but I’m not sure if he’s in yet. Hold on a second, and I’ll check.”
He tapped the steering wheel while he waited. Gabrielle didn’t mean what she’d said at the trailer, he decided. She had too soft a heart and had just gotten in over her head. She’d realize, once Tucker was back behind bars, that David had been right all along. She’d know his calling Hansen was for her own good.
“Sergeant Hansen here.”
David had halfway expected a reprieve, but now that he had Hansen on the line, he took a deep breath and identified himself. He loved Gabrielle—enough to do what was best for her in spite of everything she’d said and done.
“WHY ARE YOU FROWNING, Dad?”
Tucker glanced in the rearview mirror at his son and tried to smile. In the interests of safety, Landon was riding in the back seat, next to the duffel bag that held the sum total of their belongings. “I’m just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Nothing important,” Tucker said, but he was thinking about something—or rather, someone—pretty important to him. Gabrielle. After last night, after the physical and emotional intimacy they’d shared, living without her seemed almost pointless. If not for Landon, he doubted he would have bothered to run. Even so, he was having a hard time putting any energy or focus into it. He didn’t want to be a fugitive; he didn’t want to leave his country. He wanted to marry Gabrielle and raise a family like the free man he should be. Rationally he knew that was an impossible dream, but there had to be a part of him, deep down, that still believed in truth and justice. Otherwise, he’d be able to reconcile himself to living in a foreign land.
“Can we stop for a burger?” Landon asked.
Tucker turned down the radio he’d been using, ineffectively, to distract himself from his thoughts. “Can’t you eat something that Gabrielle sent?”
“I don’t like egg salad sandwiches. And you said I couldn’t have any of the treats until after lunch.”
“Well, we’ll find a place to eat when we get a little farther down the road. For now, eat some of the carrots, okay?”
“All right,” Landon said, and grudgingly rummaged through the paper sack that contained the food.
“Is your seatbelt on tight?” Tucker asked after a few minutes.
“You always ask that,” Landon mumbled, but Tucker could hear him moving in the seat and knew he was double-checking.
“It’s important.”
“Why?”
Because Tucker was beginning to feel a little uneasy. His mind had been so consumed by Gabrielle, he hadn’t paid much attention to what was going on around him. But for the last few miles, he’d noticed a white SUV that looked suspiciously like the Toyota Forerunner David had been driving the day he’d given him a ride to Wellton.
He checked his mirrors every few seconds, trying to see if it really was David, but when he slowed to close the distance and get a better look, the SUV hung back. Which only made him more suspicious. What was David trying to do? Tucker had expected him to call the police, but he hadn’t expected David to follow him.
“Why, Dad?” Landon repeated.
“What?” Tucker said, still staring into his rearview mirror at the road behind him.
“Why do I have to wear my seat belt all the time?”
“Better safe than sorry,” he said, thinking he should’ve taken that same advice last night instead of staying with Gabrielle. He missed her already. He could still smell her subtle scent on his clothes, and he kept replaying every moment
of their time together. He’d left his heart behind with her, and without it, he wasn’t so confident he’d make it to the border.
DAVID SAW THE RED LIGHTS flashing on the police car coming up behind him, doing at least ninety, and knew Hansen had called out the cavalry. In a few minutes, it would all be over.
“I did the right thing,” he said out loud, but he still wasn’t sure. Tucker’s muscle tone and the hard edge to his eyes certainly made him appear capable of violence. But if he was so violent, why hadn’t he tried to keep David from walking out of Gabrielle’s trailer last night? He would have been wise to do so, looking at the situation from a self-preservation standpoint. For a karate expert, it wouldn’t even have been difficult. David had no training, hadn’t been in a fistfight since grade school.
But he didn’t want to think about that. It eroded his confidence in what he’d done. He tried to turn his thoughts back to the good of the community, the good of taking one more criminal off the streets. But a vision of Tucker handing his baby back to him intruded, and he wondered if Tucker had been trying to tell him something with that one small act—that he wasn’t trying to take anything that didn’t belong to him already. That he had no intention of hurting anyone.
He pictured Gabrielle’s face, pleading with him to understand, and remembered her saying, “I love him, David.”
Shaking of his head, David floored his SUV and easily closed the distance between him and Tucker. Tucker had picked up speed. He was trying to run, but he obviously wasn’t making a mad dash for freedom. David knew it was because he had his son in the car. Surely that indicated something about the kind of man he was. A truly violent criminal wouldn’t care about the child in his car. A truly violent criminal would care more about himself than the safety of others….
The police were nearly upon them. David could hear the sirens, and he knew Tucker could, too. He tried to conjure up some enthusiasm for what was about to happen but the sense of satisfaction he’d felt when he first hung up with Hansen slowly drained out of him. He’d always trusted Gabrielle’s opinions before. Why was he second-guessing her on this? He didn’t know Tucker; he didn’t want to know him. He just wanted Tucker out of his life—and Gabby’s. Which said much more than he wanted it to.
