by JoAnn Ross
He walked out the door, the heels of his Italian loafers clicking on the tile floor, the other two members of his unholy trinity trailing like sheep behind him.
“The idea of handing Angel over to that man, even for a short time, makes me want to cry,” Charity said as she blinked back tears more born of anger than sorrow.
“I know.” Gabe drew her close and pressed his lips against her hair. “But we’re going to beat the guy. Somehow.”
She wondered if he’d even noticed that he’d said we. As if they were a team.
Which they were.
She needed him. So much, Charity thought.
And he needed her. Along with the family she intended to create. Gabe was too alone. Had been too long. And the saddest thing was that he didn’t even know it.
Yet.
62
It was brutal. That was the only word Charity could use to describe it. Angel screamed bloody murder at being told that she was going to be taken away to live with a father she’d never known, away from her brother.
She struck out, swinging wildly at the sour-faced Mrs. Greene, one small fist connecting with the woman’s jaw. Apparently prepared for resistance, Craig and the lawyer had brought along Kara, who looked as if she’d rather be anywhere else.
“It’s going to be all right,” Kara repeated what Charity had said countless times since she’d returned to the house to find Angel in tears. “This is just a temporary situation, darling.”
“But it is rough,” Charity admitted. She went down on her knees and took hold of the small, trembling shoulders. “And unfair. But here’s the deal. My mom’s husband is a very important man. He’ll figure out a way to fix this. But right now, you have to go with Sheriff Conway and meet your father.” She tried to put a positive spin on this situation that was anything but positive. “Your father’s been waiting to meet you for a very long time.”
“I d-d-don’t want to be with him.” She reached out and grasped Gabe’s hand, which was so much larger that her hand disappeared inside it. “I want Gabe to be my daddy. And I want Shadow to be my dog. And I want to live here and marry Trey.”
Well. No one could accuse her of not knowing her own mind. And actually, Charity thought it all sounded like a lovely plan.
“Shadow?” she asked.
Angel looked up at Gabe. “He needed a name. So I decided that Shadow would be a good one because he’s black and because he always sticks with you and me. Just like a shadow.” Her lower lip, which had been stuck out in a stubborn pout, started trembling. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“I think Shadow is a perfect name,” he assured her.
“Me, too,” Charity said, purposefully ignoring the fact that whatever happened with her foster-care application, by the time Angel was back home under this roof, the dog would probably be in Washington State. With Gabe.
Since the tantrum had stopped, for now, Gabe scooped her up into his arms. “How about I give you a piggyback ride out to Sheriff Conway’s car?” he suggested.
“The police car?” She perked up a bit at that suggestion.
“We brought the limo,” the attorney said.
“I’ll drive her to the inn,” Kara said in a no-nonsense, don’t-even-try-to-mess-with-me cop tone Charity had never heard from her, but bet it had worked really well on perps back in Southern California, where she’d been a cop before moving home to take over her father’s job as sheriff.
They all walked out with her.
Gabe’s hand rested on Johnny’s shoulder as they stood on the sidewalk, watching the black limo glide down Harborview, followed by Kara’s police cruiser. Then both disappeared around the corner.
“This is one more suckfest in a truly rotten week,” Gabe told the teen. “But you can help set things right.”
“Like, yeah. That’s worked real well these past years,” he muttered.
“No. Seriously. Listen to me.”
Charity couldn’t imagine anyone not. His Marine voice, like Kara’s cop one, radiated quiet authority.
“I know what you’re thinking. That you might as well just split. Run to Portland. Or maybe Seattle.”
Johnny scuffed the toe of his sneaker on the concrete. “I was thinking Seattle,” he admitted.
“You’ve been carrying all this crap all by yourself for too long. You’ve got yourself a dream team now. Charity, her mom”—he gestured toward Amanda, who’d been a blessing during this difficult time—her husband, who’s a big-shot judge, and me.
“We’re going to get your sister back and the two of you are going to move into this house and someday down the road, you might even have to warn Trey Conway that if he ever dares to drink and drive with your sister in the car, or treats her with anything less than the respect she deserves, you’re going to have no choice but to rip his heart out and feed it to Peanut as a midnight snack.”
That drew a hint of a smile, which Charity had known was his intent.
“Just because that lawyer is a creep doesn’t mean he’s not good at his job. He’s going to try to find some reason why his dirtbag client would provide a better home for your sister than Charity. Which is where you come in by toeing the line because no way is Angel’s dad’s new wife going to be anything like the supermom this woman was born to be.”
He smiled up at Charity. With his mouth and his eyes.
His words shouldn’t cause her such a rush of pleasure. And, dammit, hope that just possibly Gabe might be including himself in that family portrait. But they did.
“I’ll try,” Johnny muttered.
Gabe squeezed his shoulder. “That’s all we can ask, son.”
63
Charity couldn’t think of anything but what might be going on at the Sea Cottage Inn.
She’d tossed and turned all night long. Despite having claimed that he didn’t want complications in his life, instead of escaping while he could, Gabe had not only stuck around and spent the night; he’d taken Johnny out for the day of fishing and whale watching with the Douchett men on Cole’s crab boat. She knew that the teen was every bit as distracted as she was, but took it as a positive sign that he trusted her when she promised to call Gabe’s cell if there was any news of Angel.
Amanda, meanwhile, was on the phone, calling every one of the judge’s friends and acquaintances, trying to track down her errant husband.
Knowing that her distraction wouldn’t be fair to any animal she might be treating, Charity arranged to have two other vets rotate for her for the next few days until her life hopefully settled down into something resembling normal.
Her nerves already on edge, when her cell phone rang, she scooped it up without even bothering to check the caller ID.
“Hello?”
“Charity?” a familiar, sonorous voice boomed. “It’s Benton.”
“Benton? Where the hell have you been?”
She hardly ever cursed. It was a sign of her mental state that she did now.
“Sailing back from Maui. Is your mother there?”
“Yes, I’ll go get her—”
“Don’t do that,” he cut her off.
“Why not?” Surely he wasn’t leaving her to tell his wife that their marriage was over?
“You’ll see soon enough. Bring her down to the yacht-club dock in fifteen minutes.”
The way he’d stated it, as a directive rather than a request, might have annoyed Charity had it not spoken to the fact that he was a man used to getting his own way. A judge she was counting on to help give Johnny and Angel Harper the family they deserved.
“This had better be good,” she muttered.
“It’s better than that,” he promised before leaving her talking to dead air.
“Are you sure you feel up to going out?” Amanda asked ten minutes later as they walked down Harborview toward the harbor on the south end of the bay. “You know I’m always up for lunch, but you do realize that after what happened at the cemetery, you’re going to end up answering a lot of questions from ev
eryone.”
Assuring herself that the ends justified the means, Charity had lied and told her mother that she was craving the Sea Mist’s smoked clam chowder. Helping her in the ruse was the fact that the restaurant was located right next to the yacht club where she’d been instructed to show up.
“I’m going to have to deal with them someday.” And wasn’t that the truth? “Might as well get it over with sooner than later.”
Amanda nodded, her hair gleaming like polished copper in the sun-shower streaming through the fog that was finally beginning to burn off. “I suppose that makes sense.”
Charity was not surprised when the judge’s timing proved right on the money. The billowing white sails were approaching as they reached the dock.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “That’s one gorgeous sailboat.”
“It’s a sloop,” Amanda said. “You can tell by its single mast, jib, and mainsail.”
“That’s impressive you know that.”
“I told you, your grandfather was a sailor. And since this is supposed to be a fun lunch to take our minds off our troubles, I don’t want to think of any damn boats, because it only makes me think of Benton. I swear, if he ever does show up, I won’t know whether to kiss him or kill him.”
“Well,” Charity said as the man behind the gleaming white yacht’s wheel began waving his arm, “I’d say you have about a minute to decide.”
As it happened, there was no decision to be made. Because Amanda kicked off her pricey Prada heels and took off running, barefoot, hair flying in the salt-tinged breeze, to where her husband was pulling the Amanda up to a slip at that floating dock.
Leaving them to their reunion, despite all the problems she still had left on her plate, despite the fact that her heart was still aching for Angel and Johnny, Charity was smiling as she walked back to the house.
64
Gabe had found Charity’s mother dramatic but amusing when they’d first met. As the days had passed, he’d discovered that, just like her daughter, she was a woman of contrasts. Of hidden depths. Which was what, he assumed, more than her still amazing looks, had so attracted the judge.
He liked Judge Benton Templeton. Who, despite having a reputation for a clear and cool head on the bench, had shown he could be as clueless as the next male when it came to dealing with a woman.
Deciding that he needed to do something drastic to get his mind back to where it had been before his heart attack, he’d cleared his court calendar and flown to Maui, telling Amanda he was attending a legal conference.
What he hadn’t told her, and what he admitted over dinner had been a mistake, was that he’d also left a first-class plane ticket in the study. The plan, which failed big-time when she’d discovered the Viagra in his luggage, had been to call her from Hawaii and instruct her to fly down and join him.
By the time she arrived, he’d have accepted delivery of the blue-water sloop and together they’d take a leisurely cruise back to Washington State, where they’d begin preparing for their grand around-the-world adventure.
“Best-laid plans,” the judge said, shaking his head as he beamed at his wife sitting next to him. Who beamed back like a besotted schoolgirl. Since Charity had reported it had taken them more than two hours to show up at the house after the Amanda had docked, Gabe suspected they hadn’t spent that time sampling the chowder and crab cakes at the Sea Mist.
“Well,” Charity said as she rose from the table to answer the kitchen phone. “All’s well that ends well. I’ll be right back.”
She turned toward the teenage boy, whose face held a touch of sunburn, but much less strain than it had when he’d left the house this morning. “Johnny, I’m dying to hear all about your fishing adventure.”
She was gone less than three minutes. When she appeared in the doorway, she was white as a glacier.
Gabe jumped up, was at her side in two strides, and took her in his arms. What the hell had gone wrong now? “Sweetheart? Who was that?”
“That was Mrs. Greene.” She was trembling. “Angel’s gone missing.”
65
Johnny jumped to his feet so fast, he knocked over the chair. It nearly landed on the newly named Shadow, who’d been lying beneath it, happily receiving the bits of crab he’d been sneaking to the mutt.
“I know where she is.”
“I’d assume she’s on her way here,” Charity said. “To be with you.”
“You already sent her away once,” Johnny said. “She’d never trust you not to make her go back.” He realized, from the stricken look on the vet’s face, that his words had hurt. But he figured he could make up for that later. Once his sister was safe.
“I asked the social worker how that could have happened,” Charity said. “You know what she said? That Angel stole a bike that was in the rack outside the inn.”
Johnny could tell she was even more angry than when the dickhead car dealer had said he was going to take Angel away.
“Forget about the bike,” Gabe said. “How about the fact that they weren’t watching her? After turning her life upside down, they didn’t even care about her that much.”
“That’s exactly what I told her.” She no longer looked like the warm and friendly veterinarian who’d offered his sister and him a home. What she looked like, as she turned toward the judge, was some superheroine from a comic book.
“We’re going to find her,” she said. “Then, Benton, when we do, you’re going to make sure those horrid people never get near her again.”
“Sounds like a plan,” the old guy, who’d taught Johnny how to tie rope knots while they’d been out on the boat, said.
“I know where she is,” Johnny repeated. Then he suddenly remembered the tide charts Fred had taught about. “Oh, fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
“Take it easy,” Gabe said, putting his hand on Johnny’s shoulder.
“Fuck that!” Johnny couldn’t take it easy. Not when his sister was about to die. “She’s in the cave. The one she said she wanted to run away and live in. I talked her out of it, but she’d know I’d come there.”
“The tide!” Charity said.
“It’ll be coming in,” Gabe said, looking grimmer than Johnny had seen him. “We’d better haul ass.” He turned to Amanda. “Call Kara. And have her call the rescue squad.”
They were out the door in a flash. As Johnny piled into the Jeep with Gabe, Charity, and the judge, he realized that as shitty as this day was turning out to be, for the first time in his life, he had a clue what it would feel like to have a real family.
66
The sun was quickly setting. In just a few minutes they’d be working in the dark. Kara was sending out a crew with klieg lights, but Gabe feared by the time they reached the beach and got them set up, it might be too late for the little girl.
“There’s a ledge,” Johnny said. “Halfway up the wall. But I don’t think she could climb up there by herself.”
“We’ll make it in time,” Gabe assured him.
“Absolutely,” Charity said.
Fortunately, having learned the necessity for backup, Gabe had two flashlights in the Jeep. Which, with the emergency one Charity had grabbed from the clinic, at least assured they’d have some light.
“You wait here,” Charity told Johnny as Gabe stopped the Jeep about twenty yards from the sand. He was unfamiliar with this strip of coastline, and didn’t want to risk the vehicle being washed away.
“Hell I will.” Johnny bailed out of the backseat before the judge could grab him.
“It’s his sister,” Gabe said. “He needs to be along.”
She was clearly torn as she looked back and forth between him and the teen. “I understand, but if anything were to happen—”
“I can take care of myself,” Johnny insisted.
“I’d say he’s proven that,” the judge said.
“Meanwhile,” Gabe pointed out, trying not to grind his teeth at the delay, “we’re wasting time.”
“I give up.” She liter
ally threw up her hands. “But I’m coming, too.”
“There’s a surprise.” Gabe figured it would be impossible to keep her away.
Their flashlights cut through the fading light and fog as they made their way over the low, grassy dunes to the water. Every few seconds the sea would brighten from the flash of the lighthouse beam.
Like so many Marines he’d served with over the years, Gabe had a GPS in his head. Fortunately, having come looking for the kids when he’d realized they’d left the others during their beach day, Gabe knew exactly where the cave was located. Unfortunately, the trek over wet, moss-draped rocks was proving the longest of his life.
Not encouraging was the fact that the tide was kneehigh when they reached the opening.
“Angel!” Johnny shouted over the water that had begun surging into the cave.
“J-J-Johnny?”
Gabe knew that the relief that flooded through him was shared by everyone.
“It’s me, Angel!” Johnny called. “We came to get you.”
“I knew you’d come! But I was beginning to be afraid I was going to drown.”
“No way we’d let that happen,” Gabe said. The cave lit up in the glow of the flashlights as they entered through the roiling water.
“Wow,” Charity said.
“They’re d-d-diamonds,” Angel said. “Johnny and I were going to sell them to get money for an apartment. Before that mean man took me away.”
“Well, you’re not going to have to do that,” Charity said with the self-confidence that Gabe found as sexy as everything else about her. “Because you and your brother are going to live with me.”
“But what about Mr. Craig?” Angel asked.
“Screw him,” Johnny said as Gabe scooped the little girl up and deposited her on his shoulders, the same way he’d carried her out to the police car that had taken her away.
