“No, I just got here.” She looked around, her forehead creased in confusion. “Riley told me he couldn’t make it, but I thought Cynthia and Bobby would be with you.”
Shane immediately retreated behind his facade of calm control. “No. I guess we got our signals crossed. They have other plans.”
Isabelle and Shane were shown to their table at the popular steak house by the hostess. “Angelica will be your server this evening. Enjoy your meal.”
As soon as the hostess was out of earshot, Isabelle leaned across the table toward Shane. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “I suppose you’ve heard the rumor about Angelica Dodd and Riley. When Brad told me—” She stopped midsentence when she saw Angelica approaching their table.
Shane was glad for the interruption. He’d already heard the story from Cynthia. He really didn’t want to participate in what was clearly gossip. He was worried about Riley. He’d tried to get through to his brother, to make him accept the seriousness of the situation, but his words had fallen on deaf ears.
Shane and Isabelle enjoyed a leisurely dinner and were finishing their coffee when Link Templeton approached the table.
Link nodded curtly at Shane. He cast an almost shy glance at Isabelle before focusing on Shane. “I thought you’d want to hear this from me personally, rather than secondhand. We’ve just arrested Riley for Mike Dodd’s murder.”
“You what?” Shane jumped to his feet, anger surging through his veins.
“I’m sorry, but my hands are tied. The evidence is just too damning to ignore any longer.” Link turned toward Isabelle. “I’m sorry it had to go down this way. The DA’s office issued the warrant, and I had to follow through.”
Angelica had been standing behind Link. She grabbed his arm. “You...you’ve arrested Riley?” Her features registered stunned disbelief. Then she crumpled to the floor.
Shane immediately hunkered down beside her. He checked her pulse and her breathing. A minute later she came to. Her bewildered gaze darted from face to face. She tried to sit up. “What...what happened?”
Shane put his hand against Angelica’s shoulder, holding her in place. “You fainted. I want you to stay right where you are. I’m going to call for an ambulance.”
She shook off his restraint and sat up. “No, I’m all right.”
“Don’t argue with me, Angelica. I’m a doctor, which makes me in charge of this. I want you to go to the hospital and get checked out.”
Angelica’s voice bordered on the edge of panic. “I’m fine, honest. It’s Riley—you’ve got to do something!” She grabbed the front of Shane’s jacket, her eyes pleading with him. “You’ve got to get him out of jail.”
As soon as Shane had satisfied himself that Angelica was okay, he turned his commanding presence to Isabelle and barked out orders. “You’re coming with me. You watch Bobby. Cynthia and I are going to the sheriff’s station.”
He drove straight home, pulled up in the driveway, charged in the front door and yelled, “Cynthia!”
The urgency in Shane’s voice carried throughout the quiet house, startling Cynthia. She set her book on the nightstand and hurried out into the hallway to the top of the staircase. She looked down and immediately spotted the distress on Shane’s face and Isabelle’s. A jab of apprehension darted through her body. She rushed down the stairs. “What’s wrong?”
“Isabelle’s going to watch Bobby. You’re coming with me.” He grabbed her hand and started for the front door.
“Wait a minute!” Cynthia tried to free her hand from his grasp. Something was terribly wrong. She’d never seen Shane so upset and unglued. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain en route.” He dashed out the door with Cynthia running to keep up with his long-legged stride.
A minute later they were in his car and headed down the street. Shane’s words were clipped. “They’ve arrested Riley for Mike Dodd’s murder. You’re an attorney. You’ve got to do something. You’ve got to get him out of jail.”
She sat in stunned silence for a moment, then asked, “When did this happen?”
“Just a little while ago. Link Templeton located us at the restaurant right after Riley had been taken in.”
“Shane...” She tried to choose her words carefully. She could see how distraught he was and she didn’t want to add to it. “I’m a corporate attorney. I did a little bit of criminal litigation in Illinois, but I’m not a criminal lawyer, and that’s what you need.”
“There’s got to be something you can do. You said you passed the Arizona bar exam, so you’re licensed to practice law in this state.” He turned his anguished gaze on her for a moment. “There has to be something you can do, Cynthia. Something.”
She heard the panic in his voice and saw the plea in his eyes. This was a completely different Shane Fortune. He was totally distressed and seemed to be emotionally scattered. A sharp contrast to the normally dynamic, controlled and self-contained man she’d always known. This Shane Fortune was reaching out. He seemed to genuinely need her help. She’d never known him to ever truly need anyone before.
She projected a confident manner and a comforting smile, hoping to ease his obvious anguish. “I’ll do everything I can.”
He pulled into the parking lot at the sheriff’s station, and they rushed inside. Shane started making demands. Cynthia put a calming hand on his arm to stop him.
“You brought me here to do something, so let me do it. Riley is entitled to have an attorney present before they question him. I want you to sit down, take a deep breath and let me handle this.” She turned him in the direction of some chairs and gave a gentle shove.
When she was satisfied that he was going to stay seated, she switched her attention to the desk sergeant. Her voice and manner told of her professionalism. She spoke with conviction, without being antagonistic. “My name is Cynthia McCree. I’m the attorney representing Riley Fortune. I want to see my client immediately.”
Ten
Shane nervously paced the living-room floor, pausing every few minutes to check the time. It had been a miserable night of tossing and turning without much sleep, only this time Riley had been the cause, not Cynthia. And now the morning seemed to be going by at a snail’s pace.
By the time he and Cynthia had arrived home from the sheriff’s station, it had been well after midnight. The arraignment had been set for ten that morning. He’d allowed Cynthia to convince him to stay home and let her handle it—and that now seemed to him to have been a very bad idea. He checked his watch again. His raw nerves touched off his barely contained apprehension. He clenched his jaw and took a deep breath in an attempt to bring some sort of control to his raging anxiety. It was nearly noon and there hadn’t even been as much as a phone call.
Just then he heard the sound of a car. He yanked open the front door and hurried out to the porch. His spirits sank. Cynthia was alone.
“Where’s Riley? What happened?”
“Calm down, Shane.” He looked as if he’d been running on pure adrenaline. “Riley’s been released on bail.”
Shane followed her into the house. The urgency still clung to his words. “Then where is he? Is he still at the sheriff’s station?”
“I tried to bring him back here, but he insisted that I take him home. He said he wanted to be alone and that he’d give you a call later.” She saw some of the distress leave his face.
“That’s a relief. Is he okay?”
She set her attaché case on the table. “Other than being tired and understandably depressed, he’s fine.” She took off the jacket of her business suit and draped it across the back of a chair, then turned around. She studied him for a moment before speaking.
“Listen to me, Shane. You need to hire a top-notch criminal attorney to handle Riley’s case. I was able to get him out on bail, but I’m not qualified to mount a defense in a first-degree-murder trial. I’ll help you find someone if you’d like, but you need to do it quickly. This case is scheduled to go to trial in sixt
y days, and that’s not much time.”
Shane expelled a sigh of relief. “Thanks for everything you’ve done. I really appreciate it. I never dreamed they would actually arrest Riley. The whole thing is absurd.” He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “But thanks to you he’s out of jail. I’m sure everything’s going to be fine now.”
He may have been putting up a good front, but she saw right through it. He was being pulled in too many directions. His medical practice, the Children’s Hospital construction, his volunteer work with the Native American community and his rounds on the reservation took a lot of his time. He’d also single-handedly taken on the battle to regain control of Lightfoot Plateau. And now there was Riley’s arrest and upcoming trial to add to the list. It was too much to expect of anyone. She refused to allow her thoughts to wander to the added stress of their as-yet-unfinished confrontation about his being Bobby’s father.
“I was at a real loss about what to do and there you were.” He pulled her into his arms and held her. She felt his need. She put her arms around his waist and responded to the honest emotion. It was a shared moment of tender caring, quite unlike the incendiary desire that usually resulted from his touch.
She knew that no matter how strong a man was, there came a time when he needed someone he could depend on, someone he could lean on for emotional support. It was the first time he’d allowed her to see his vulnerability, to touch the man inside. In spite of all their difficulties, it made the love she’d been refusing to acknowledge grow even more.
And it also frightened her.
She broke off what was quickly moving away from the moment of tender caring and toward a sensually comfortable interlude. “I need to change my clothes, then fix Bobby some lunch. I’m sure he’s starved by now.” She grabbed her attaché case and jacket, then hurried up the stairs.
She closed the door to her room and sat on the edge of the bed. The emotionally charged atmosphere surrounding Riley’s arrest had momentarily taken the focus off her duel with Shane over Bobby. Now that Riley was out of jail, she feared the battle would be resurrected full force. A cold shiver told her she had no stomach for a fight, but she could not let down her guard. She quickly changed into a pair of shorts and a pullover shirt.
She went straight to the kitchen to start lunch. Bobby followed her. “I’m hungry. Shane said he was going to fix lunch, but he just kept looking out the window. He kept asking where you were. Were you lost, Mommy?”
“No, I wasn’t lost. I was doing some business with Shane’s brother, and it took longer than we thought. Shane was worried about his brother and anxious to find out what happened.” She knelt down next to Bobby. “I’m sure he meant to fix you lunch.”
Shane entered the kitchen carrying his car keys. “I’ve got to go to the hospital. I had meetings this morning that were rescheduled for this afternoon. I can’t put them off any longer.”
“What should I tell Riley if he calls? Should I have him call you at the hospital?”
“I’m wearing my pager, but I’ll be pretty much unreachable unless it’s an emergency. Would you tell him I should be home by eight o’clock and will call him then?”
“Sure.”
She watched as Shane disappeared through the door into the garage. Her tensed muscles relaxed a little. He would be gone all afternoon and part of the evening. They wouldn’t be engaging in another battle of wills over Bobby—at least not today. They both needed a break from the stress and tension.
She fixed Bobby lunch, then they spent a quiet hour together reading a new book she’d bought for him. She listened to him carefully sound out new words as he read each sentence. He was such a bright and well-adjusted little boy. And now he was in danger of having his entire world turned upside down.
A wave of sorrow washed through her. Bobby’s question about her argument with Shane had continued to circulate through her mind. He obviously knew something was wrong. How could she keep him from being hurt? She had to do something. Perhaps if she could manage to set the emotional aspect of things aside—approach Shane with logic—they would be able to come to some sort of amicable agreement about Bobby. A tremor made its way up her spine. Her innocent son had to be protected at all cost, but she didn’t know how to do it now that Shane knew the truth.
Bobby read the last sentence in the book, then looked up at her questioningly. She gave him a warm smile. “That was very good. Your reading gets better every day.”
“Can I go swimming now, Mommy?”
“You sure can.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool, part of the time in play and part in instruction. And all the while Cynthia continued to run everything through her mind as she desperately searched for a workable plan to present to Shane when he got home. She fought to keep her soaring anxieties under control. She could not let Bobby sense her distress. Whatever she and Shane came up with, it would have to be presented to Bobby in an atmosphere of agreement and cordiality. There could be no hint of animosity.
A wave of sorrow washed over her. She loved Shane very much, yet she found herself in the horrible position of having to treat him like a hostile witness at a trial. If only her love could be reciprocated. They could be a family—a real family just as they should have been all along. She shook away the inappropriate thoughts. Wishing would not make it so. She had to deal with reality.
In spite of the brief interruption caused by Riley’s arrest, it was something that could not be put off until a more convenient time. There was no such thing as a convenient time to introduce her son to his father and determine what the future held for all of them. A sick feeling lodged in her stomach. She sent up a silent prayer that Shane would continue to keep their personal conflict to themselves.
She kept a close eye on Bobby during the afternoon and evening, but he gave no indication that anything was bothering him. He didn’t make any further comments about the argument that had woken him or his concern about Shane and her being mad at each other. She tried to convince herself that Bobby had forgotten the incident, but it was a waste of time. Bobby was a very bright, perceptive child. She wanted to believe he had forgotten, but in her heart she knew it wasn’t so.
It had been an emotionally exhausting day for her, starting with Riley’s arraignment and carrying through an afternoon and evening of building trepidation. It had taken an additional toll on her nerves to present an upbeat carefree front to Bobby. She was finally able to relax a little after she had him tucked safely in bed.
It would serve no purpose for Shane and her to continue arguing about Bobby’s care and upbringing. There had to be some middle ground they could reach, some way to resolve things in a rational adult manner. She tried to pack her runaway emotions into some form of logic. She dealt with legal matters in a dispassionate way as part of her job. Surely she could apply that same ability to her personal life.
Shane had come under a lot of stress with Riley’s arrest, and she didn’t want to add to that pressure. A nervous jitter made its way through her body, then settled in her stomach. She couldn’t spend every waking hour in terror of what might happen. It wasn’t good for her and it certainly wasn’t good for Bobby to have the air filled with that type of tension. The uncertainty surrounding Bobby’s future had to be stopped. She sat quietly in the den, trying to formulate exactly what she would say when Shane returned home.
It seemed only minutes later when she heard him enter the kitchen from the garage. She looked at her watch, surprised to find that she’d been sitting there for an hour. A cold shiver darted up her spine. She felt his gaze and knew he was watching her. A tremor preceded the sick churning in her stomach. She took a calming breath, then looked up.
He stood in the doorway, staring at her. His drawn face showed stress lines. He looked as if all the resolve had been knocked out of him and he didn’t know where to turn. In a heated instant her own fears disappeared and her heart went out to him. She wasn’t sure what to say. “You look tired.”
> He sank onto the couch next to her and emitted a weary sigh. “My meeting just kept dragging on and on. I finally told them we’d have to finish at a later date.”
“I didn’t hear from Riley.”
“He paged me at about five o’clock. We talked for half an hour. He said to tell you he really appreciates your getting him out on bail.”
She gave a soft chuckle and at the same time expelled some of the tension building inside her. She was relieved that Shane didn’t seem to be any more anxious than she was to renew their argument. “I know. He must have told me at least a dozen times on the way to his house.”
“I think the seriousness of all this is finally beginning to sink in for Riley.” Shane turned toward her and cupped her chin in his hand.
His touch sent a warm tingle of pleasure through her body, causing her a sharp intake of breath. It took all her reserve strength to keep from putting her arms around him. She looked into his eyes and saw his conflicting emotions, but couldn’t find anything negative. Her heart beat a little faster and her pulse quickened.
Shane’s voice dropped to a soft intimacy. “I want to thank you, too. I guess I wasn’t thinking very clearly last night when we arrived at the sheriff’s. I would have ended up making a mess of things. I don’t know what I would have done without your help.” He stroked her cheek with this fingertips. “Without you.”
She tried to quell the little ripples of delight that danced across her skin in response to his touch. His words sent a ray of optimism through her. “I’m glad I was able to help.” Did she dare believe that this was a sign they could work out their conflicting positions concerning Bobby in an amicable manner?
He glanced around the room. “Where’s Bobby? Has he already gone to bed?”
“Yes, he’s been asleep for almost an hour.” Her hopes crashed. She braced herself for the inevitable. She had thought for a minute that they could postpone the discussion until morning or at the very least ease into the discussion. But apparently not.
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