Shelter in the Tropics

by Cara Lockwood

She took in his sickly appearance, his pale skin and slightly blue lips, and was glad she’d gotten up from that waiting room couch and stepped into the room. She decided she couldn’t let Tack do this alone. This was her fight as much as it was his, and it was long past time for her to join in.

  She took in Rick’s withered body, amazed at how much he’d changed since the last time she’d seen him. He had wasted away. Literally. His blue eyes glared at her, pure hatred and menace. She could feel how badly he wanted to hurt her, even lying there on the hospital bed.

  “Plug me back in.”

  He looked down at his morphine drip and nodded to the wall. For a second, his rumbling voice put her right back into walking-on-eggshells mode. The old Cate would’ve apologized and scurried to plug the morphine back in. She was surprised by how strong the urge was to cave, to do his bidding. It was almost like a Pavlovian response. He shouted, “Jump,” and her body wanted to ask, “How high?” But those days were gone. She was a different person now, a stronger person. She’d been on her own a long time, taking care of herself, and she wasn’t about to stop now.

  She glanced at Tack, who watched her carefully, as if waiting for his cue to pounce on Rick. She didn’t need that. Not yet. She was okay. She could do this.

  “I said, put my line back in.”

  Now, she thought, he sounded just like a petulant child. And she wasn’t going to give in. Not this time. Cate had no intention of making him comfortable.

  “This is how this will go,” she said, ignoring his request as if he were a toddler throwing a fit. “You’re going to tell me where Avery is. You’re going to let me see him, and you’re going to give me custody. Then you’re going to make the call you need to make so that Tack gets that visa his friend needs.”

  Rick laughed weakly. “You’re delusional. You think not giving me morphine will make me do that? I’m calling the police.” He struggled to raise his arm for the phone.

  “Go ahead,” Cate said. “Tell them how you bribed police officers, how you lied about the abuse. I bet you even lied to the FBI. I’d bet money you didn’t want kidnapping charges filed. You wanted to find me yourself. You didn’t want them to find me first.”

  “Lies,” Rick croaked, but his voice was weak.

  “Tell them how you wanted me dead so that you wouldn’t have to pay me half your estate, which, by the way, you still owe me. I’ve confirmed it with my lawyer. It doesn’t matter that a judge granted you a divorce decree in my absence, because that decree grants me 50 percent of everything you have, if I am ever found. I’ve already filed a motion to freeze your assets.”

  Now Cate started to see real fear on his face. She’d hit him where it hurt: his wallet. “No.” He shook his head.

  “Documents don’t lie, and I have a copy of the decree right here.” She held up her phone to show him the email Mark had sent her. She was entitled to 50 percent of everything he had, will or not.

  “I’ll fight you. I’ll sue. I’ll contest everything. You’re not getting my money.”

  “I don’t want your money.” That stunned Rick into silence. “What I want is for you to give Tack the visa he needs.”

  Tack whipped his head around and glared at her in shock. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I do,” Cate said, resolute. She had never felt so sure of anything. Tack’s friend needed that visa. He’d served a country not even his own well, and it wasn’t right to abandon him.

  “The visa isn’t worth five hundred million dollars,” Rick growled. “You’d sign away your part of my fortune?”

  “You give Tack the visa. You agree to let Avery live with me, though I will bring him to visit you every day in the hospital as long as you live.”

  “How can I trust you won’t just run again?” Rick struggled in bed. “You’ll run.”

  “You promise not to pursue any charges against me. We get it in writing, all past offenses forgiven, on the condition that I bring Avery to see you as much as possible in your last days.” Cate took a step forward, feeling more and more confident that she was doing the right thing, that Rick would never be able to hurt her again. She was finally standing up for herself. This was different from running. This was making a stand.

  “And...you do not pay out the reward money you offered to Derek Hollie.”

  “That’s a long list of things. Why should I agree?”

  “You’re going to do what I ask,” Cate said, her voice sounding suddenly powerful in her own ears, “because you have no choice. Because I will fight you with your own money. Because you know as well as I do that you can’t get custody. You’re too sick, and you won’t survive a legal battle that will take months, if not years. You will do this now because it’s the right thing to do, and for once in your life, before you die, you’re going to do the right thing.” She took a breath, her hands shaking with emotion. “You tried to kill me. To take away my will to live, but I am going to survive you. And I am not just going to survive. I promise you, I’m going to thrive.”

  And then, just when Cate thought Rick would start yelling, throwing a fit, threatening to kill her, he simply started to cry.

  The man she’d been so afraid of was crying. The man who’d kept her under his thumb for years sobbed like a baby. Tears slid down the man’s cheeks, and for a second, all Cate could do was stare. What was this? A trick? The painkillers in his system?

  “I’m dying, Cate. You don’t care that I’m dying.” She heard the hopelessness in his voice, the sorrow. Cate just stared at the man as he sniffed. “Don’t you love me at all? Don’t you care?”

  Cate glanced at Tack. Had he heard this? Was this actually happening? She expected something far different. For him to be furious, for him to want revenge. The angry Rick was the one she was expecting. Not this sad, blubbering mess.

  “You lost the right to have her empathy the moment you laid a hand on her,” Tack growled.

  “You stay out of this,” Rick snapped. “Cate, can we talk...alone?” He glared at Tack, but Tack simply glanced at Cate, unsure.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “Let me talk to him.”

  Reluctantly, Tack left. “I’ll be right outside. You need anything, just yell.”

  Rick blinked at Cate, looking tired and worn out.

  “Sit down,” he commanded. When she didn’t budge, he added, “Please.”

  Cate took a seat, but kept herself out of reach.

  “I loved you, Cate. I still love you even though you did this to me.” He sniffled. “I just wanted to see you again before I died.”

  “Is this some kind of trick?” Cate couldn’t help but ask. “Because...”

  “It’s no trick. I love you. I thought you loved me. We have a child together. But you don’t even seem to care about that. You’ve treated me so badly, Cate. And all I wanted to do was love you.”

  Cate snorted. “You hit me.”

  “Cate. You know you drove me crazy sometimes, I loved you that much. Don’t you love me at all? You’re so cold, Cate. Don’t you care, even a little? It seems to me that you don’t care about me at all.”

  Cate had a flash of memory then. About how he would be just like this after one of his episodes. About how he’d be apologetic with a splash of passive aggressiveness. This was part of the cycle. Anger, then guilt—it was exactly how he’d controlled her so well. He’d take away her ability to be mad, because he’d make her feel guilty for not being good enough or not loving him enough. All she’d had to do to prove it was forgive him, take him back, let the cycle start all over again.

  “You never listened to me, Cate. If only you’d listened, you would’ve known how not to make me mad. I told you so often what you needed to do, but you wouldn’t listen.”

  There it was—the blame. This was all her fault. Cate had heard it before. So many times. It had worked, to
o. That’s the part she was ashamed of.

  “It’s not my fault that you hit me.” She wasn’t budging from that.

  “I’m not saying that. I’m saying I loved you, and you didn’t love me enough or you would’ve been obedient.”

  “Obey you? That’s all you really wanted. You never cared about love. You only cared about making me do what you wanted. You have a messed up sense of love.”

  And that was it, in a nutshell. He was twisted and broken and unable to be anything else but selfish, thinking only of himself, unable to understand or care about anybody else’s needs.

  “Cate, why don’t you love me? Why?” Rick looked so sad then, so forlorn.

  “It’s too late for us,” Cate said. “It was too late the first time you hit me.”

  “Can’t you forgive me? I don’t want to die knowing you don’t love me. How can you be so cruel?”

  Cate thought she’d feel anger and indignation welling up in her chest, but instead, all she felt was pity and...indifference.

  Rick only cried harder. “I’m dying. How can you talk to me like that?”

  “Because it’s the truth.”

  “All I want is to see my son before I die. And I don’t want you to tell him you hate me. That I’m a bad person. I know...I didn’t handle everything as well as I could.”

  She felt strangely detached. She almost...pitied him. She thought about her son, about how she didn’t want him to know his father was an evil man. How that would affect him. She didn’t want him to feel badly about his father, or himself. “I won’t talk badly about you when you’re gone.”

  “You really don’t love me, do you? Did you ever?” Rick sniffled.

  “At one time, I did love you. If you wanted to keep me, you should’ve treated me better.” She said that without anger and without emotion. It was a fact, plain and simple.

  “I know.” Rick blinked fast. “I can see that.”

  “I’d like to see my son today.”

  Rick nodded. “Okay.”

  Cate felt her heart lift.

  “And the visa for Tack’s friend?”

  Rick frowned. “Why do you care so much about that man?”

  Because he’s amazing in all the ways you’re not. Because he loves me in a way you never could.

  “The visa is the right thing to do, Rick. I know you’re not a religious man, but do you really want your last act on earth to be one that condemns a man and his family to die?”

  Rick thought about that a moment.

  “I’ll do it,” he said. “But I’ll do it for you.”

  * * *

  “MOMMY!” AVERY RAN from the elevator at the hospital and straight into his mother’s arms. Cate hugged him so tightly Tack thought the poor boy might burst.

  Derek was right behind him. Tack felt his whole body tense.

  Derek smirked as Avery jumped into his mother’s arms.

  “I missed you, Mommy!” he cried.

  “I missed you, too, sweetheart.” Cate wiped tears from her eyes. “Are you okay? Did everyone treat you okay?”

  “I rode on a plane with a huge TV!” he exclaimed, a little excited. “I watched cartoons.”

  Tack thought the boy would be just fine.

  At one end of the waiting room stood vending machines, and Avery caught sight of them. “Can I have a snack?” he asked, bright-eyed.

  “Sure, let me take you to the vending machine.”

  Cate sent Tack a worried look, but he ignored it. He was going to deal with Derek, once and for all.

  “You should know that Adeeb will be coming to the States,” Tack said. “So, your sick and twisted revenge didn’t work.”

  “You’re pathetic, First Lieutenant,” Derek said. “All these years and you’ve still got your panties in a bunch about a translator? Who cares? They all knew what they were getting into when they helped us. It was their choice.” Derek slouched against the wall near the elevators, looking bored. Tack wanted to punch him right there, but managed to contain his rage.

  Don’t hit the man.

  “We promised them asylum, and you broke that promise. But it’s done. You’re done.”

  “No, I’m rich.”

  “Really? Because Allen won’t be paying you the reward money.” Tack grinned, watching all the blood drain from Derek’s face. The SOB deserved it. God, but he loved delivering bad news to this man.

  “That can’t be.” Derek scurried to Rick Allen’s room, and Tack couldn’t help but laugh a little. He got what he deserved, the weasel.

  Cate came back, with a happy Avery munching on cheese-flavored crackers.

  “You okay?” Tack asked. Cate nodded, sniffing, but beaming with happiness.

  “More than okay,” she said. Avery sat in a nearby chair.

  “I’m proud of you, you know that?” he said. “What you did wasn’t easy.”

  Cate smiled through her happy tears. “Looks like you got your visa, and I got Avery. A happy ending.”

  He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Cate, you shouldn’t give up a fortune for me. For Adeeb. We can work on finding another way, maybe.”

  “I want to do this. I want to bring Adeeb home.”

  Tack pulled Cate into his arms. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” she said, and Tack felt a rush of emotion—surprise, shock and then delight.

  He felt a huge grin spread across his face. “You do?”

  “I really do.”

  Tack dipped his head and kissed her hard, leaving her breathless. There was no place else he’d rather be.

  * * *

  CATE KEPT HER PROMISE. She took Avery every day to visit his father. None of those visits were easy, and Cate battled her own little flame of guilt, knowing that Avery’s only memories of his father would be as a sick, dying man. Rick Allen died three months later, and Cate, Tack and Avery attended the funeral. Cate kept her promise not to fight for Rick’s money, but in the end, he surprised her by setting up a trust for Avery worth millions. She sent some of that money to Mark on St. Anthony’s, ensuring the resort would be up and running for a long time to come because Avery had so many memories there as a young boy, and in some ways that would always be Avery’s home.

  Cate and Avery settled into an apartment in Chicago in Tack’s own building, and the three spent much of their time together. They also planned to spend every winter on St. Anthony’s Island.

  Now, Cate, Avery and Tack stood together in the baggage claim of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, waiting for their guests to arrive.

  “What’s the girl’s name again?” Avery asked, excited.

  “Medeeha,” Tack said. He craned his neck to search the crowd as people filed in from Customs. A slim man, his young wife and three-year-old daughter walked out then. Cate watched Tack as he ran to his friend and gave him a bear hug worthy of a brother.

  “How the hell are you?” he cried, clapping him on the back.

  “We’re glad to be here,” Adeeb said, grinning. Cate took Avery by the hand and they began introductions all around. Medeeha shyly waved at Avery, and the two became fast friends, as Avery showed her his little Matchbox car.

  Cate could see the joy on Tack’s face, and on Adeeb’s, and she felt her heart swell with emotion. She was so proud of Tack for not giving up on his friend, and she knew then that the man’s stout loyalty knew no bounds. She knew he’d never give up on her, either.

  She’d spent so much of her time feeling like she was a lost cause. Tack helped her see that she still had her whole life ahead of her, and she planned to live it with him.

  He put his arm around her, and for the first time, she felt truly loved, and 100 percent safe. She’d finally found the shelter from the storm she’d been looking for all these
years. She leaned into him, and for the first time, truly let herself feel happy.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed this story by Superromance author Cara Lockwood, you’ll also love her most recent books:

  THE BIG BREAK

  HER HAWAIIAN HOMECOMING

  Watch for her next book, coming in

  February 2018.

  All Available at Harlequin.com.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from UNEXPECTED ATTRACTION by Stella MacLean.

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  Unexpected Attraction

  by Stella MacLean

  CHAPTER ONE

  ANDREA TAYLOR’S SUV swerved as she swung the wheel, changed lanes then headed down the exit ramp. She was late for an appointment to show a house to a new client. She had loaded her smartphone with a tentative viewing schedule for other properties to discuss with the young couple when they met at this first house, which would be in a few minutes if all went as planned.