“Something like that.”
“Then what is the truth?”
“You’re not like my other clients, Jude.”
“What were your other clients like?”
“Predictable.”
“You mean boring?”
“No, I mean predictable. I knew what to expect from them and what not to. With you, I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen next.”
“What’s going to happen next is that we’re going to walk into church, and we’re going to listen to Pastor Avery’s sermon. We’ll worry about anything else after I figure out who’s trying to kill me.” He opened the church door, nudging Lacey inside.
“Just so you know, I’m still not sure there will be something else.”
He didn’t try to convince her. There’d be time to discuss what was happening between them, but now wasn’t it. “Come on. The sanctuary is this way. If I know my brother Grayson, he’s already there and wondering if he should come back to the house and drag me here.”
“Would he really do that?”
“He’d call first. Then he’d drag.” That had been how he’d gotten Jude to church the first week—called him up, told him he’d be at the house in five minutes, and then arrived with Honor and her too-cute kid.
Jude hadn’t had any choice but to get dressed and get moving. Grace Christian wasn’t the church he’d grown up in, and he had no claim to it, but when he was there, he felt almost as if he belonged. It was a good feeling. One that had convinced him to return week after week.
“Jude! You’re here. I saw Grayson come in without you and I was sure something terrible had happened. That you’d had a relapse. I was completely prepared to come over with my famous chicken-noodle soup. It’s sure to cure just about any ailment.” Millie Andrews glided toward him, her wide brown eyes filled with anticipation.
“No need for that. I’m doing fine.” He attempted to sidestep her grasping arms. Newly single after five years of marriage, Millie was desperate for a relationship. Apparently, she’d decided Jude would fit the bill.
A couple of months ago, her sharp good looks would have interested him, and he would have been happy to take her up on her offer. Now he was more interested in a woman of substance and strength. A pretty blond woman of substance and strength.
“Some good chicken soup will still do you good. Why don’t I bring it by this afternoon? We can have lunch together.” Her smile was filled with sweet charm, but her eyes had a predatory gleam.
“Thanks, but I have plans for this afternoon.”
“With who?” She pouted prettily, showing her subtly pink lips to their best advantage.
“Jude and I are having lunch together. I’m Lacey Carmichael.” Lacey offered her hand, smiling just as sweetly as Millie had, real amusement in her eyes.
“Oh. I see.” Millie frowned, giving Lacey a once-over that couldn’t have been more obvious. “I’m Millie Andrews.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Millie.”
“Likewise. Though I had no idea Jude was seeing someone. Have you known each other long?”
“Just two days, but it seems like so much longer. I guess when it’s right, it’s right.” Jude draped an arm over Lacey’s shoulders and pulled her into his side, only half pretending. Being with Lacey did seem right, and that was something he’d never felt with another woman.
“I thought the same thing when I married my ex-husband. It didn’t take me long to realize that what I’d thought was right was more wrong than I could ever have imagined. See you two lovebirds later.” Millie’s teeth flashed in what might have been a smile or a grimace before she stalked away.
“Nice. I’m surprised you haven’t taken her up on her very obvious offer by now.” A hint of laughter colored Lacey’s words and sank deep into Jude’s heart.
“I guess I was waiting for an offer from someone a little more special.”
“Who could be more special than a woman who makes homemade chicken soup and delivers it with a smile?”
“A crocodile smile. Millie is ready to snap her jaws down on any man who gets close.”
“That’s a perfect description.” Lacey laughed and took his hand, pulling him toward the open sanctuary doors. “We’d better get seated before church starts. I wouldn’t want your brother to think I’m not doing my job.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that. You saved my life. There’s nothing you could do that would get you on anyone in my family’s bad side.”
“I didn’t save your life.”
“Then what do you call taking a knife that was meant for me?”
“Stupid?”
It was Jude’s turn to laugh, and he led her into the sanctuary, feeling better than he had in months. Maybe that came from being with Lacey. Maybe it came from being in church. Jude thought it was a combination of both. Walking into the sanctuary with Lacey made him feel alive and renewed in a way he hadn’t in much too long.
“Isn’t that Honor and Grayson?” Lacey pointed to a pew near the front of the sanctuary, and Jude nodded, bracing himself for his family’s curiosity. They wouldn’t ask questions in front of Lacey, but there was no doubt they’d ask eventually.
“Honor’s daughter Lily is in children’s church. Her sister-in-law Candace attends church at Liberty University. The couple sitting next to Honor is Tristan and Martha. My brother and sister-in-law. My sister and her husband are out of town. You’ll meet them next week.”
“Your parents aren’t here?”
“They live in Forest. It’s a half hour from here.”
“Maybe I should sit somewhere else, Jude. I hate to intrude on your family.”
“Intrude? You’re going to be eating lunch with them in a couple of hours.”
“I know, but sitting in church with them seems too much like…”
“What?”
“Family.”
“That’s what they are, Lacey.” He stopped a few feet from the pew, trying to read her expression.
“Your family, Jude. Not mine.”
“We’re in church. Aren’t we all the same family?”
“There’s a difference, and you know it.” She frowned uneasily, her gaze shifting to the pew where Jude’s family waited.
“What’s different?”
“They’re yours, that’s what. I’ll be a fifth wheel. No one wants to be that.”
“Then it’s good you could never be that.” He draped his arm across her shoulders, turning her toward the pew as organ music filled the sanctuary.
His cell phone vibrated as he reached his family, and he accepted hugs from Honor and Martha before glancing at the caller ID.
It was Jackson.
He’d have to take it.
He shook his brothers’ hands, urged Lacey to take a seat and then excused himself, limping back up the aisle, knowing that Jack wouldn’t have called if he didn’t have news.
And knowing deep in his gut that the news wasn’t going to make him happy.
FIFTEEN
Lacey had always loved attending church. When she was a kid, she’d loved it because it was the one time during the week when her stepfather wasn’t feet away, when she could blend in with a crowd and disappear for a while, lose herself in daydreams and make-believe.
Once she’d left home, she’d enjoyed the serene atmosphere and the camaraderie that came from sharing a common faith. During the years she’d spent traveling from town to town and client to client, the one common denominator had been Sundays spent with people who honored God and trusted in Him. No matter the troubles she was going through, Lacey had never failed to find peace at church on Sunday morning.
Until now.
Squeezed between Grayson Sinclair and the end of the pew, she waited anxiously for Jude’s return. Five minutes. Ten. Every second that ticked by felt like an eternity.
Who had the phone call been from?
Why hadn’t Jude returned?
Should she go look for him?
She gla
nced at Grayson, then farther down the pew at Tristan Sinclair. Neither man seemed concerned by his brother’s absence. Didn’t they understand that Jude was still recovering from his injury? That someone wanted him dead? That at any moment a knife-wielding lunatic could attack him again?
“Keep frowning like that and you’ll get wrinkles.” Jude nudged her over, dropping into the pew beside her.
“Is everything okay?” She leaned close to whisper in his ear, inhaling cold air and Jude. Something deep in her soul shivered in response.
“No, but we’ll discuss it after church.” He shifted so that his arm was lying against the back of the pew, his hand resting on her shoulder. Casually connecting them.
Ignore it.
Ignore him.
But she couldn’t ignore Jude any more than she could ignore a hurricane-force wind.
The pastor began to speak, but Lacey’s mind wasn’t on the message. It was on escape. She wanted to jump up and run from the church. Run from Lynchburg. Run from Jude and all the feelings he’d sparked to life inside her.
“Relax,” Jude whispered in her ear. His hand stroked down her shoulder then back up to rest lightly against her neck. Warm flesh against chilled. Quiet confidence against anxiety. Obviously, Jude had no problem believing in dreams and happiness. And sitting there next to him, his arm heavy against her back, his hand light against her neck, she wanted to believe, too.
Stupid. That’s what you are, Lacey Beth. Asking for trouble. Begging for trouble. And that’s exactly what you’re going to get.
The voice from the past hissed its poison, the memory of it like ice water in Lacey’s veins. She shivered, shifting away from Jude and bumping into Grayson. He glanced her way, lifting an eyebrow.
“Sorry.”
But he’d already turned his attention back to the sermon, his hand linked with Honor’s, his thumb caressing her knuckles. A couple enjoying church together and preparing to make a lifetime commitment to one another. That was the way it was supposed to be, right? A man and woman found each other, fell in love and spent their lives building dreams together.
As easy as one, two, three.
But not so easy for Lacey.
She shivered again.
“Cold?” Jude moved closer, oblivious to Lacey’s discomfort.
She shook her head, but didn’t speak.
What could she say?
That the past still haunted her? That no matter how much she might want to believe she’d put it behind her, she had never quite let go of the pain she’d suffered?
When she’d been a kid, one of Lacey’s chores had been to whitewash the fence that surrounded her stepfather’s property. Over the years, the old wood fence became warped and rotted, but Uriah refused to replace any of the boards. Instead, he sent Lacey out with gallons of white paint and a brush and set her to work in the hot summer sun. One stroke of paint after another hid the warped and rotted wood, but nothing could change what it was.
Sometimes Lacey felt like that old fence. Shiny and new on the outside, but littered with holes and rot underneath.
“We are called to live for God. In this moment. Not in the past or in the future. Whatever you are clinging to today, let it go and step forward into what God has planned for you now.”
The pastor’s words seeped into Lacey’s thoughts, hit deep in her soul where the ugliness of the past dug its sharp talons.
Let it go.
If only it were that easy.
If only she could wish it away, pray it away, believe it away. Maybe then she could find what Honor and Grayson had. Maybe then she’d finally have a place to go home to.
The final notes of the last hymn faded away, and Jude took her hand. “Ready to go?”
“Sure.”
“Gray?” He leaned past Lacey, pulling her closer as he spoke to his brother, his heat seeping through Lacey’s sweater dress, warming the chill that had taken up residence in her soul.
“Yeah?” Grayson replied.
“I’ve got to go to the Lynchburg PD station. I have some information McKnight is going to want. Tell Mom and Dad I’ll be a little late, but I’ll be there.”
“You going to tell us what this is about?” Tristan Sinclair scowled at Jude, and Lacey had the feeling he wasn’t the kind of man anyone would want to tangle with.
“I’m sure McKnight has already filled Grayson in. I’ll let him tell you.”
“That someone is trying to kill you and you didn’t bother mentioning it to us?” Tristan growled the words, and Jude stiffened.
“News travels fast in this family.”
“It would have traveled faster if you’d had the decency to tell us what you suspected, bro.” Grayson’s tone was more controlled than his siblings’, but there was no mistaking his anger.
“I didn’t want to drag you into my mess.”
“Drag us? We would have jumped in feet first and looked to see if there was something under us later. I can’t believe—”
“Tristan?” His pretty, blond-haired wife put a hand on his arm. “Why don’t we talk about this at your parents’ place after everyone has had time to think about what he wants to say?”
“If by ‘everyone’ you mean me, that’s probably a good idea.” Tristan dropped a kiss on his wife’s forehead, and turned back to Jude. “We’ll talk later. In the meantime, be careful.”
“That goes without saying.”
“Apparently, a lot of things go without saying with you.” Having made his parting shot, Tristan waved goodbye to Lacey and stalked away. Grayson and Honor followed seconds later.
“Sorry about that.” Jude’s scowl was so like his brother Tristan’s, Lacey smiled.
“Sorry about what?”
“My brothers can be overbearing.”
“But they mean well.”
“Yeah, they do.”
“There are a lot of people who would give everything to have people who care about them the way your brothers care about you.”
“Are you one of them?” He pressed his hand to her lower back, urging her out into the aisle where a hundred or so people were moving toward the door.
“I don’t think there is anyone alive who doesn’t want someone to care about her.”
“You’re good at avoiding my questions.”
“And you’re good at asking them.”
“I’m interested in you, and I’m not going to hide the way I feel.”
“The way you feel? We’ve only known each other a couple of days. How can you feel anything?”
But she knew, because she felt it, too. The tug of awareness, the electricity in the air when they were close to each other.
“Look.” Jude stopped short, his eyes blazing. “I understand that you’re scared. I understand that you’re not ready for a relationship. But I won’t let you lie to yourself or to me. You feel the same thing I do. Whether or not something comes of it, whether or not you want something to come of it is a different story, but at least admit you feel it.”
She couldn’t lie. Wouldn’t lie. “You’re right. I do.”
“I knew you had it in you.” He grinned and started walking again.
“What?”
“Courage.”
“Courage? An hour ago, you said I saved your life. A coward wouldn’t have done that.”
“I didn’t say you were a coward. You’re plenty brave enough when it comes to fighting for other people. It’s fighting for yourself you have a problem with.”
“I—” But he was right, and Lacey fell silent as they stepped outside into the cold gray afternoon.
“There’s no need to look so grim,” Jude said, as he opened the car door. “I’m not going to kidnap you and hold you hostage until you agree we’re meant to be together.”
Lacey froze, half in the car, half out, her heart beating so hard and fast, she was sure it would burst. Did he know about her past? “Why would you say that?”
He’d been smiling, but it fell away, his gaze sharpening, his
jaw suddenly tense. “It was a joke, but I can see you don’t think it’s funny.”
“You’re right. I don’t. Too many stories in the news about people doing stuff like that.” She tried to lighten her tone and her expression, but the damage was already done.
“When did it happen, Lacey? Who was it?” Jude’s eyes flashed with anger, and Lacey knew that she couldn’t avoid the questions. This time Jude would keep asking. If she wasn’t willing to answer, he’d find someone who was.
“A long time ago. So long ago, I barely even think about it any more.”
“Liar.” He growled the word, but there was pity in his eyes. Pity Lacey didn’t want or need.
“My stepfather was a sociopath. He liked to control everyone and everything in his life. I was a rebel who refused to be controlled.” She shrugged. “It got ugly, but I survived. Now, if we’re done discussing my past, we’ve got to get moving. You said you needed to go to the Lynchburg police department, and your parents aren’t going to want to hold lunch forever.”
“What happened to your stepfather? Is he still alive, because if he is—”
“You can stop the macho protective thing. When I needed help, there wasn’t any. It’s too late to change that now.” She’d spent four days in a sweltering barn, handcuffed and chained to a wooden post, yanking and pulling at her bonds until her wrists bled, the fetid sores weeping tears Lacey had refused to shed.
“Is. He. Still. Alive?”
Jude’s anger took her by surprise and knocked the breath from her lungs. She remembered a lot of things from the day she’d finally broken free. She remembered yanking one last time at the chains, praying God would help her and knowing that if He didn’t she would die. She remembered the wooden post giving way, falling toward her and pinning her beneath its weight. Then her mother coming from the house, screaming that Uriah would have Lacey’s head for destroying his barn. Everything else was a blur. The paramedics and police coming because Lacey’s mother couldn’t pull her free from the rubble. The police staring at her with shock and pity. The feeling of hot sunshine and fresh air. Of freedom.
What she didn’t remember was anyone being angry for her.
SB03 - The Defender's Duty Page 13
