Night Watch

by Suzanne Brockmann

  “Thanks for driving,” she said. “Thanks for coming with me.”

  He glanced at her again. “Why is it that bad things happen to good people? Andy sure as hell doesn’t deserve this. And I’d bet the bank Dani didn’t, either.”

  “No woman, anywhere, deserves to be raped,” Britt told him. “Not ever.”

  “Yeah, I’m with you on that,” he said. “But still. Why did this have to happen to them? I don’t get it—you know, the way the universe works.”

  Brittany watched him drive, knowing he was thinking about his brother Ethan, dead at age sixteen because of a patch of ice on a wintery road.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Some people flirt with disaster and walk away unscathed. Others just quietly live their lives and end up getting slammed. It’s definitely not fair, but face it, life’s not fair.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I’m well aware of that.”

  And now he was surely thinking about Lana and her cheating husband Quinn and…

  But he reached over and took her hand. “It’s going to be all right, Britt,” he said. “Andy’s a tough kid. He’s going to help Dani get through this.” Bringing her hand to his lips, he kissed her. “And just in case you were wondering, I’m here for you, too. For as long as you need me.”

  There was no doubt about it.

  Brittany may have been a fool, but Lana Quinn was a total idiot.

  “DANI’S GOT TO GO to the hospital,” Lana reported to Wes and Brittany. “The boy was rough with her. I haven’t given her any kind of medical examination, but I think she’s got a broken rib along with, well, a variety of contusions.”

  Britt made a soft sound of pain, and Wes took her hand. Her fingers were icy cold.

  “I’ve advised her to have a rape kit done, too. It’s important she goes to the hospital, not just for her health, but also to have medical records of her injuries,” Lana continued.

  “I know,” Brittany said. “I’ve worked as an Emergency Room nurse.”

  “Yes,” Lana said. “Andy told me. He’s been wonderful, Brittany. He’s incredibly supportive and patient—a real solid rock. He’s exactly what Dani needs right now, emotionally. He’s going to go with her to the hospital.”

  “I’ll go, too,” Britt said. “Of course.”

  “Well, actually,” Lana said.

  At that moment, Andy came out of the back room, closing the door behind him.

  Brittany pulled away from Wes and went toward him.

  The kid reached for her, his face looking a lot like a two-year-old who was about to cry. As Wes watched, they just held each other tightly.

  “She’s amazing,” Lana said softly. “You know, I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of nineteen-year-olds I’ve met who would call their mother for help. You’ve got to be a good mother to invoke that kind of trust from your kid. But good grief, she must’ve had him when she was twelve.”

  “He’s adopted,” Wes and Lt. Jones both said in a near unison.

  “Ah,” Lana said, in that shrink way she had of seeming to comment without really saying anything.

  “Dani’s getting dressed,” Andy said. “She’ll be ready to go in a few minutes.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Britt told her kid.

  But Andy pulled back slightly to look down at her, shaking his head. He had what looked like was going to be one hell of a shiner on his face, along with a swollen lip. “Mom, she’s mortified. We’re just going to go, the two of us. We’ll be okay. I know what needs to be done. Lana went over it with me.”

  “Sweetie, you’re not going to be able to be in the examining room with her,” Brittany protested. “Doesn’t Dani know I’m a nurse?”

  “Yeah,” Andy said. “But—”

  “I can stay with her while the doctor is—”

  “Mom, there’ll be a nurse in the E.R. who’ll stay with her and, you know, hold her hand. A nurse who’s not her boyfriend’s mother. A nurse she doesn’t have to run into in her boyfriend’s kitchen.”

  Brittany nodded. “I understand. I just… Sweetie, who’s going to hold your hand?”

  “Dani will,” he told her quietly.

  Britt nodded. She reached up to gently touch his bruised face. “I’m so proud of you.”

  He touched his own lip and winced. “Yeah, well, that’s the other thing we need to talk about. I think I might’ve lost my scholarship. I’m not sure, but I think there might be a rule or two about scholarship recipients not breaking the starting pitcher’s nose.”

  Brittany laughed. “Thank God,” she said. “I was afraid you were going to tell me you killed him.”

  Andy got grim. “I wanted to.”

  Her smile faded, too. “I know.”

  “He was laughing about it,” he told her, and his eyes filled with tears.

  Wes turned away, his heart breaking for Andy—and for Brittany, too, who would have done anything, he knew, to take away her son’s pain.

  Cowboy had wandered into the kitchen, but Lana was watching Wes with her hazel eyes that were so different from her half sister’s.

  “Love heals all wounds,” she said quietly. Her hair was brown with only the slightest red highlights. Her face was more plain than Amber’s, too. She wasn’t even half as exotically beautiful, but she had a genuine warmth that made her lovelier than Amber would ever be.

  Or so he’d always thought. But next to Brittany’s fire, Amber seemed plastic and Lana seemed cool and distant and pale.

  “I don’t know about that,” Wes told her. “It seems to me that most of the time love’s the thing that makes the deadliest wounds. I mean, if you don’t love someone, then they can’t hurt you when they, like, die. Or when they screw around with someone else. Right?”

  She blinked. Then she smiled, her perpetual calm kicking in. “You’ve been talking to Amber about Quinn.”

  Wes didn’t say anything. What could he say? No, actually, I’ve known Wizard-the-Mighty-Quinn’s been stepping out on you for years now.

  “I spoke to her just this morning,” Lana told him. “I understand congratulations are in order for your upcoming marriage.” She glanced at Brittany. “She seems wonderful.”

  “She is,” he said.

  “I’m happy for you, Wes.” Her smile seemed a little forced. But maybe that was just his imagination. The tired circles underneath her eyes weren’t, though. “You know, it’s crazy, and I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but… I used to think that we would get together someday—you and me. Seeing as how Quinn’s such a jerk….”

  “Why do you stay with him?” Wes asked. He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with her here and now—a conversation he’d dreamed of having for years.

  It was twice as surreal, because even while he was talking to Lana, he found his attention drawn back to Brittany, who, across the room, was still deep in conversation with her son.

  “I love Quinn,” Lana admitted. “I guess I keep hoping that he’ll change. You know, both times it happened, he came to me and confessed and begged me to forgive him. Of course, after the second time, it got a little harder to think that he wouldn’t do it ever again, but…”

  Wes stared at her then, completely unable to respond, totally unable to utter a word.

  Both times. Both times. She thought Wizard had only cheated on her twice.

  Wes could think of seven or eight instances where the Wiz had slept with some random woman he’d scooped up in some hotel lounge. And that was just off the top of his head.

  And those were just the women Wes had known about, just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

  “It’s not real,” he blurted, because he had to tell her at least part of the truth. “My engagement to Brittany. It was just… Your sister was hitting on me, and… I mean, she’s nice and all, but I wasn’t interested in… So Brittany agreed to play my fiancée and…” He shook his head. “It’s not real.”

  “It isn’t?”

  “No.”

&nb
sp; “Your entire relationship with her is complete fiction?”

  “The engagement,” he clarified. “Yeah.”

  Lana looked at him, tipping her head slightly sideways. “Do you honestly expect me to believe you’re not sleeping with her?”

  Wes laughed, embarrassed. “Well, I didn’t exactly say that.”

  “Ah.”

  “It’s, you know, casual. A fling. She was the one who made a point of setting an end date.”

  “And how do you feel about that?”

  He laughed again, but it felt forced. “Don’t try to psychoanalyze me, babe. If you must know, I’m fine with it.”

  “I see.”

  “And don’t I see me either. Jesus.”

  “Dani’s almost ready to go,” Andy said, interrupting them. “Do you mind if we clear the living room so she doesn’t have to walk through a crowd to get to the door?”

  “That’s a good idea,” Lana said. “I think I’ll just get going. I have things to do early in the morning, so…”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “I’LL WALK YOU OUT,” Wes said to Lana.

  Brittany tried to hate her, but she couldn’t anymore.

  Not after meeting the woman. Not after seeing how genuinely, honestly, freaking nice she was, and how very kind she’d been to both Dani and Andy.

  In fact, Lana made a point to take a detour in her direction on her way to the door. And she actually embraced Brittany, surrounding her with a faint cloud of a very subtle yet enticing perfume. She was beautiful, smart, kind and she smelled good, too. Wes sure knew how to pick ’em.

  “It was so nice to meet you,” Lana told her. “If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to give me a call. Wes has my number.”

  “Thank you,” Brittany said. “And thanks for coming over here so quickly.”

  Andy had told her that Dani’s sister was in Japan on business, and Dani hadn’t wanted to call her father, who’d remarried and started a new family after her mother had died. She’d been alone for all those days. Thank God Andy had come looking for her. And thank God both Lana Quinn and Harlan Jones had been able to get over here so quickly.

  “I’m available, too, if the police or the D.A. want to talk to me,” Lana said. “I would love to help nail the guy who did this.”

  “That’s not going to be easy,” Brittany said.

  “I know.” Lana’s gorgeous hazel eyes filled with tears. “I do know. I’ve seen it so many times before.”

  This time it was Brittany who hugged Lana.

  They both had to wipe their eyes as they pulled apart.

  “Don’t let him get away,” Lana said to Britt in a low voice. “He’s a good man.”

  What? Weren’t they still talking about that jerk Dustin Merlero? Or… “Excuse me?”

  But Lana was already heading for the door.

  And Melody’s husband, Harlan, aka Cowboy, was at Brittany’s elbow.

  “Why don’t you come on home with me?” he said in his cute little western accent. He’d slapped a baseball cap on over his hair, and he’d slipped his feet into his sneakers without any socks in his haste to get here. Even dressed down the way he was, with bedhead and stubble on his chin, it was easy to see how Melody hadn’t been able to resist getting busy with him in an airplane bathroom—an event which had led to her first pregnancy.

  Britt watched Wes follow Lana out the door, watched the way his T-shirt fit snugly across the muscles in his back, watched the way he walked, with jaunty self-confidence that was, she knew, part of his whole act. He was taut, he was tense—some might even describe him as being on edge—but she saw him as barely harnessed, limitless energy. A lightning bolt in cargo shorts.

  An all-too-human man who needed a little help learning how to relax.

  She could help him with that. He’d been real relaxed just a few short hours ago, in her bed.

  Oh, God.

  “Mel and Tyler would sure love to see you,” Harlan was saying. “Of course, they’re both asleep right now, but in the morning…”

  Brittany laughed. “It is the morning. Tyler’s going to be up and awake in a matter of hours.” Her nephew, like most little boys, was an early riser.

  “Mel ordered me to bring you home,” he persisted, leading her toward the door. “So I’m not going to take no for an answer.”

  “You’re going to have to,” she said, turning back to Andy. “Sweetie, are you sure you don’t want me to—”

  “Mom,” Andy said, giving her a hug. “I’m sure. I’ll call if I need you.” He shook Harlan’s hand. “Thanks for coming over, sir.”

  “Any time you need me, Andy,” Harlan said, “all you have to do is call.”

  “Andy?” Dani called from the bedroom.

  “Thank you.” And Andy was gone.

  “Come on, Britt,” Harlan said. “Andy’s a big boy now. You’ve got to let him do this the way he and Dani want to do it. They’re going to need some time alone, to talk, after they get back from the hospital.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “He told me he was going to try to talk Dani into coming back to L.A. on Monday—get her to go to the school health offices for counseling. And he’s going to contact some of the other girls this guy Melero mentioned, see if all together they can’t find the strength to press charges. I suspect you’ll get a call from him in a few days, asking for help. But right now I’m pretty sure his priority is to make Dani understand that he’s not going anywhere.”

  “I know,” Brittany said again. “I do know all that. But thank you for reminding me. And thank you for the offer of a bed, but no thanks. Tell Mel and Tyler I promise I’ll come for a visit soon.”

  He was frowning at her. “You aren’t planning to drive back to L.A. tonight, are you?”

  “I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do,” she told him, and watched as he processed that we.

  Harlan laughed and uttered an expression that wasn’t repeatable as he looked at Brittany, grinning at her like the devil. “Really? You and Skelly are a we?”

  “Shh,” she said. “Andy doesn’t know. He may never know. It’s just…temporary insanity. You know, a short-term brain disorder. Promise you won’t tell Melody, okay?”

  Harlan looked pained, and she loved him even more for it. “Don’t make me promise that, Britt. I love you like a sister, you know that I do, but don’t ask me to keep secrets from Mel.”

  “It’s just that…if too many people know about it, it’ll end,” she told him. “I mean, I know it’s going to end before too long anyway, but… Between you and me, Jones, I’m having a heck of a lot of fun. I’m not ready for it to be over yet.”

  “Maybe—”

  She cut him off. “Don’t say it. It’s just a fling. I made that clear to him before it started. I’m not about to change the rules on the man now.”

  “But what if—”

  “No,” she said. “See, that’s what Melody is going to do if she finds out. Start what if-ing the situation to death. And that’ll be it. Way to kill it dead. She’ll freak me out, and I’ll start acting weird and that’ll freak Wes out and… Give me another week before you tell her. Please?”

  He shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know…”

  “Four days. Please?”

  “All right. Compromise. I’ll tell her, but I won’t let her call you or tell anyone else for a whole week.”

  Yeah, like that was going to work. But it was definitely worth a try. “Fair enough. But get it in writing from her before you tell her. And if she does call, I’m hanging up.”

  “You know, Britt, if you really like him that much—”

  “Stop,” she said. “You don’t think I’ve thought about this? Trust me, I have. I don’t know how well you know him, but… Wes is… Well, let’s just say that he’s emotionally attached to someone else. Someone he can’t have.”

  Someone he was out in the driveway with right now. Someone as wonderful as he was.

  Jealous, jealous,
jealous.

  Harlan got grim. “He’s attached, but he’s messing around with you? The son of a bitch. I’ll kill him.”

  “Oh, that’s exactly what I want.” Brittany rolled her eyes. “God save me from testosterone.”

  “Okay, fine. I’ll talk to him.”

  “And the result of your little chat will be that he’ll stop seeing me. Thanks a lot.”

  “All right, I won’t talk to him. For a week.”

  “You can’t glare at him either,” she said.

  “That’s going to be hard.”

  “No, it’s not. He’s on leave—you won’t see him for another week and a half. Just walk out this door, get in your truck and drive away—go home to your pregnant wife and son.”

  Harlan let Brittany pull him out the door and into the coolness of the night.

  Where, out in the street, Wes was standing over by the driver’s side window of Lana’s car, leaning down so he could talk to her as she sat inside.

  Jealous, jealous, jealous.

  “I’ll talk to you in a week,” Harlan said as he headed straight for his truck, completely ignoring Wes, just as she’d asked.

  Except now, standing there, looking at Wes talking to Lana, Brittany was hit with a wave of doubt.

  As Harlan pulled off with a wave, she realized that turning down a chance to sleep at her sister’s house might’ve been a big mistake.

  It was one thing for Wes and Brittany to be together in the nonreality of Los Angeles, but back here in San Diego where Wes lived… Where Lana lived…

  As Brittany watched, Wes straightened up and stepped back from Lana’s car. She pulled away, and as her taillights faded into the night, he rubbed the back of his neck as if it ached.

  Heartache and longing could do that to you. Make you hurt all over.

  Wes sighed, a big, deep, down-to-the-pit-of-his-soul type sigh, and shook his head in disgust or regret. Brittany wasn’t sure exactly which it was, but either way, it wasn’t good.

  He stood there for such a long time, she was a little afraid that he’d forgotten about her.

  She cleared her throat. “So, is there, like, a sofa in your apartment that I could use to catch a little sleep?”