by Karen Leabo
Jenn started to make a strenuous objection, then stopped herself. “I guess I can’t blame you for thinking I’d do something like that, but no, she’s just fishing.” She looked at her watch. “They’ve been gone several hours, so they could be back anytime.”
Joe nodded. “Sorry, but I had to ask.”
As Jenn packed up the few belongings that weren’t already in shopping bags, she peppered Joe with questions about Tammy and her family.
The children hadn’t been at home, he explained. He’d only seen a picture, so he didn’t know that much, not even their names. But Tammy and Hank had a teenage girl, a preteen boy, and another little girl perhaps a bit older than Cathy. They all had brown hair, like Hank’s.
“Do they live in a nice house?” Jenn asked wistfully. “She always liked nice things, like china tea sets and silkcovered pillows.”
“It’s a nice, middle-class house with a yard and a dog. It appeared clean and in good repair. That’s about all I can tell you.”
“I guess I’ll see it for myself pretty soon,” Jenn said, feeling more optimistic than she had in a long time, although her heart grieved for the years she and Tammy had lost. How many times had she wished for a sister to confide her problems to? She wondered if Tammy had ever felt the same way. From what Joe had said, it sounded as if she didn’t miss having a sister at all.
It didn’t take Jenn long to pack. It never did, these days. When she finished, she looked at her watch again. Only fifteen minutes had passed since she’d pulled up to the Connallys’ house, fifteen minutes that had changed everything. Tammy was alive. Even though the sisters hadn’t seen each other since they were children, Jenn felt familial love welling up inside her.
The rush of long-dormant emotion made her woozy, and she swayed on her feet. Joe was right there with an arm around her shoulders to steady her.
“Hey, you okay?”
She nodded. “I just need to sit down for a minute.” She teetered to the bed and sank onto it, then stuffed a couple of pillows behind her back and propped her legs up. She took slow, deep breaths, and after a minute she stopped seeing spots.
Joe walked around to the other side of the bed and stretched out beside her. When she started to object, he smiled indulgently and slid his arm behind her neck. “Simmer down, I’m not going to try anything. I just want to hold you.”
And she wanted, needed, to be held. She relaxed, resting her head on his shoulder, absorbing his strength. She’d experienced incredible passion with him and nothing could equal that. But there was something to be said for this quiet togetherness, the gentle touching, communicating without words. She’d never been this comfortable with any man before, and again she was amazed things could be this way.
For a short time, anyway. When she started to consider what it might be like to share moments like this every day with Joe Andresi, she ruthlessly squelched the thought. Odd circumstances had led to the closeness they now shared, but she couldn’t expect their “relationship”—if she could even call it that—to continue once they’d returned to Rhymer. She would be busy rebuilding her life, dealing with all the loose ends she’d left hanging after the accident. Or she would be in jail.
Joe would be on to the next case, keeping his distance, reestablishing the emotional independence that had characterized his adult life. She couldn’t expect him to change just because she’d fallen crazy in love with him.
Joe stroked her arm in a soothing rhythm. His touch wasn’t meant to be provocative, she was sure, but nonetheless her blood started to heat just thinking about his big, warm hands stroking other parts of her body.
They couldn’t, of course. Aside from the usual, sensible objections she could come up with, Cathy and the Connallys would be home anytime.
“Maybe we should start dinner,” Jenn said in a weak attempt to put an end to their temptation.
“And maybe we shouldn’t,” Joe countered, moving his hand to caress her midriff. Her T-shirt had ridden up, exposing a strip of bare skin.
“Joe...”
He teased her ear with his tongue, and she shot off the bed like a spring. “I’ll start making tacos,” she announced before literally sprinting out the bedroom door. Joe’s laughter followed her down the stairs.
By the time he appeared in the kitchen, she was up to her elbows in shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes. She handed him a block of cheddar cheese and a grater, indicating a bowl for him to fill.
“Tacos, huh?” Joe said as he gamely started to work. “Not fresh fish?”
She shook her head. “Zig and Fran catch and release.”
“Ah, I see. Are you still afraid of me?”
The question caught her off guard, and she very nearly sliced off the end of her finger. “I’ve never been afraid of you,” she said with false bravado, “even when you were playing the big bad bounty hunter.”
“Liar,” he said, flashing her a grin. “You’re still afraid of me, or at least of going to bed with me again.”
“Again? We never went to bed,” she quipped. “We did it on the hard ground.”
“‘Did it’?” he repeated incredulously.
“Made love,” she corrected herself, ashamed that she’d trivialized their encounter, even if she did need to downplay it. “And I’m not afraid...maybe for the first time in my life.” She spoke honestly now. “But I have a lot to think about. My plate’s pretty full. I can’t really offer you anything, since I don’t know where I’ll be in a week or a month.”
“I didn’t ask you for anything,” he said candidly. “Except to be with you, here and now.”
She couldn’t believe they were having this conversation! “It’s not practical,” she ventured.
“It never is.”
She put the knife down and wiped her hands on a paper towel. “Joe, you may not need promises and pretty words and plans for the future, but I do. I’m not much for casual flings. I have my daughter to consider—she’s already very attached to you. I asked her what she thought about going back on the road, starting somewhere fresh, and you know what she said?”
“What?”
“That she didn’t want to go unless you’d come visit us.”
Instead of reacting with concern, as she’d thought he would, he smiled with obvious pleasure.
“Then there’s my own feelings to think about.” She could see that she was disappointing him, but she continued anyway, while the words were there in her mind. Another few minutes and they might slip away, unspoken.
“Being with you was fabulous. I can’t deny that, and I don’t want to take anything away from it. But you can’t expect me to just jump into a physical relationship with you on the spur of the moment like this.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, holding up his hands to halt her tirade. “I guess I wasn’t thinking about it in those terms. You do have a lot going on in your life right now.”
“Understatement of the year,” she murmured.
“I’ll back off. I didn’t mean to pressure you. But just promise me one thing.”
“What?” she asked warily.
“That you’ll come to me if you want me, if you change your mind, and you won’t let silly pride stop you.”
“That’s fair enough,” she said, hoping that, with an open invitation like that in place, she would find it in herself to be sensible. “I promise.”
“Okay, then.” He went back to grating cheese. “So what did you do while I was gone?”
She was unutterably relieved to move to a safer topic of Conversation. “Mmm, not too much. I read a book about Lake of the Ozarks that I found in Zig’s study. And I called Mrs. Valenti, just to let her know we were okay. She was really relieved to hear from us. Oh, and I also called my mother.”
Joe froze. “You what?”
“I called my mother. Strangely, I found myself missing her. I truly believe she loves me, and that she wouldn’t condone what Dennis did to her daughters if she’d known about it. I wanted to let her know that, no mat
ter what I say or do in the near future, I’m not trying to hurt her. That was okay, wasn’t it? I mean, I’m not a fugitive anymore.”
“You didn’t tell her where you were, did you?”
“No, not a hint. But even if she found out where I am, she wouldn’t tell Dennis. In fact, she told me she thought Dennis had carried things too far, sending someone to track me down and drag me back home to face criminal charges. I was so tempted to tell her the truth about her husband, but I held back. She’ll find out soon enough.”
Joe shook his head. “That’s nice, Jenn, but I wish you’d asked me first. Dennis has a tracing device on his phone. He had the police install it when you first disappeared, in case you called home.”
Alarm bells rang in Jenn’s head. “But he has no need to trace the call now. I’m turning myself in.”
“Yeah, well, Dennis doesn’t believe that. I talked to him yesterday morning. He realizes I’ve gone over to your side, and he accused me of helping you evade arrest, to the point that he wants to have me charged with aiding and abetting.”
Jenn felt the first real prickling of apprehension. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to worry you. I never imagined that you would call your mother. Just the same, I think we should get the hell out of here as soon as possible.”
“Yes, the moment Cathy gets back,” Jenn agreed.
“We’ll take the rental car. They might be looking for the Monte Carlo.”
“Good thinking.”
The Connallys returned with Cathy a few minutes later. Knowing Cathy would be hungry, Jenn already had tacos assembled and wrapped up for the road. Although the little girl wanted to regale her mother with tales of her fishing expedition, Jenn and Joe hustled her out to the rented Buick, explaining things to Zig and Fran as they went.
Jenn hugged the Connallys and thanked them for their hospitality, and especially for their understanding. Then she and Joe took off like thieves in the night.
“What about your car?” Jean asked.
“Zig will take care of it till I can get back to pick it up.” She thought for a moment, then wondered out loud, “If we’re not doing anything wrong, why do I feel like we’re sneaking around?”
“We’re not doing anything wrong,” Joe insisted, though he held the steering wheel in a white-knuckle grip. “The longer I hang around you two, the more certain I become of what the right thing really is.”
The conviction in Joe’s voice reassured Jenn. “You’re right. It was a dumb question, just something silly that crossed my mind.” She relaxed.
Five minutes later she realized she’d let down her guard too soon. Flashing lights and the whoop of a siren announced the presence of a police car behind them. They hadn’t even reached the highway yet.
“Joe, were you speeding?” she asked hopefully.
“Not a chance.” Joe’s face was grim as he pulled over to the shoulder. “I thought we’d be safe in this car, but I’ll bet you anything someone was watching the Connallys’ house. They were waiting for us to leave so they could take us with no witnesses. Damn Dennis Palmer to hell.”
“I think he’s already going there,” Jenn said forlornly. “But that doesn’t help us right now.”
Chapter 14
Damn, Joe thought again. Another few minutes and they would have been on the highway, a safe distance from the Connally house. Now they were in serious trouble. Joe harbored no illusions that this was some routine traffic stop. His only hope was to talk to this peace officer, whoever he was, cop to cop, and convince him that he was already on his way back to Rhymer with Jenn.
His hope disintegrated when he got a look at the rotund sheriff’s deputy who climbed out of the car. The guy had Good Ole Boy Network practically tattooed on his forehead. Dennis Palmer was a card-carrying member of that crowd; Joe wasn’t.
“Evening, sir,” Joe said as the deputy swaggered up to his open window. “Did I do something wrong?”
“Don’t know yet,” the deputy said lazily as he shone his flashlight into the car’s interior. “You on a little family vacation?”
“No, sir,” Joe said, sensing that the deputy already knew exactly who they were. “I’m a private investigator. Mrs. Montgomery, here, is a fugitive from Rhymer County, Alabama, and I’m taking her back there to face criminal charges.”
“Is that a fact?” The deputy turned his head to spit.
“Yes, sir, that is a fact,” Joe replied, struggling to hold on to his temper. “I have all the appropriate paperwork in my trunk. Would you like to see it?”
“Don’t need to,” the deputy said. “Whatever warrants you got, mine supersede yours. I need for both of you to step out of the car and put your hands on the roof, please. Nice and slow.”
“You want to tell me what for?” Joe demanded, though he opened his door nice and slow, just like the officer had asked. He didn’t aim to be the victim of an unprosecutable police brutality case.
“There’s a warrant out for your arrest, Mr. Andresi. Aiding and abetting. You being a former cop and all, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.”
Jenn, who had remained mute during the exchange, suddenly spoke up. “What are you talking about? Who’s he supposed to be aiding, anyway? He’s dragged me across the country because of this trumped-up interfering with child custody charge—”
“Uh-uh,” the deputy said, his face cracking into an unpleasant smile. “Charge has been upgraded to kidnapping.”
Kidnapping? Oh, God, Joe thought. If convicted of the original charge of interfering with child custody, Jenn would probably have gotten probation. With a kidnapping conviction, she was looking at two to ten in the penitentiary.
“Who cares what the charge is?” Jenn said impatiently. “The point is, Mr. Andresi is taking me back to Rhymer. He’s convinced me to go willingly. I don’t see how that makes him a criminal, too.”
The deputy held out his hands in a pantomime of surrender. “Hey, I’m not the judge here. All I know is, I got warrants, and I’m going to serve them. Now,” he said, returning his attention to Joe, “the deal is, no one really cares about the charge against you. As soon as I take the Montgomerys into custody, you’re free to go. Unless you see fit to cause trouble. Then you’ll get mighty well acquainted with the inside of a cell at our county jail. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal.” Joe gritted his teeth to keep from adding to his succinct answer. There was nothing he could do, short of assaulting this clown and making a run for it, and that wouldn’t even buy them much time. Law enforcement officers from all over the South would be on them like ducks on a june bug.
The deputy patted Joe down, then moved around the car to repeat the performance on Jenn. It was all Joe could do not to dive over the hood of the car and physically remove the man’s too familiar hands from Jenn’s body.
She grimaced and trembled during the process.
“Look, deputy,” she said when he was done, “there’s a reason I ran with my daughter.”
“I’m sure there is,” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm.
“My stepfather is a child molester. I had to get my daughter away from him before he hurt her, and all the legal things I tried didn’t work.”
“Save it for the judge,” the deputy said without an ounce of sympathy. He pulled her arms behind her and cuffed her—a bit too vigorously, Joe thought as his hands again itched to flatten the guy’s nose.
“Do you have any children?” Jenn tried again. “Can’t you imagine the things you might do to keep them safe?”
“No kids,” the deputy said as he led her to his squad car. “Not even married.”
That didn’t surprise Joe. He looked in the car window at Cathy. She was uncharacteristically still in his back seat, her eyes huge with fright. His heart went out to her. First she’d had to deal with Joe handcuffing and manhandling her mother. Now, just when she’d started to trust Joe, another bully had come along to inject more trauma into her life.
“I’ll follow you,” he called to Jenn just before the deputy slammed the door closed and locked her in the back seat.
“Won’t do you much good,” the deputy said, clearly enjoying the plight of his new prisoners. “A deputy from Rhymer County is on his way to pick up the lady and her kid. She won’t even be magistrated here, so there’s no hope of you bailing her out, even if she could get a judge to set a reasonable bail.”
Joe ignored the other man’s mean smile. He’d follow Jenn to the jail, and if he had to, he’d follow her all the way back to Rhymer. He couldn’t abandon her now, not even for a moment. After securing Jenn, the deputy returned to retrieve Cathy. He did so without the slightest sensitivity, even though Cathy began kicking and screaming bloody murder the moment the stranger laid a hand on her. He seemed oblivious to her outburst.
Joe wanted to offer Cathy some words of comfort, but he couldn’t even think of any. A lump rose in his throat, choking off anything he might have said as the deputy stuffed the child into his squad car. He offered Joe a sarcastic salute before squeezing his girth behind the wheel and screeching off.
Joe jumped into the rental car and followed the squad car’s taillights as he formulated a plan. He couldn’t do much until Jenn reached Rhymer, where she would be brought before a judge and formally charged. The judge might set bail—probably a very high bail, given Jenn’s history as a fugitive. That would at least give Joe a place to start.
Then there was Cathy. He supposed his first responsibility—even before freeing Jenn—would be to contact Protective Services and convince them to listen to Jenn’s accusations. At the very least, Protective Services would be required to put Cathy in foster care until the charges could be investigated. Once he was assured of Cathy’s momentary safety, he would see about confronting Dennis Palmer and talking some sense into the vile man.
