by Jami Alden
But as she met Danny Taggart’s coolly assessing stare, she knew she was going to need all the help she could get, alcoholic or otherwise.
“Nice to see you, Talia,” Danny said with a nod. Talia nodded back and gratefully accepted her drink from the server. “You’ve met my wife, Caroline, and the rest of this ragtag crew at one time or another.”
Talia smiled and said hello to Danny’s wife. Even in the late stages of pregnancy, Caroline Taggart somehow managed to look elegant in a dark red dress that gorgeously showcased her pregnancy-enhanced curves and contrasted with the thick, dark brown hair that fell nearly to her waist.
Talia also recognized Ethan Taggart, as tall and handsome as his brother with his dark blue eyes and gold-shot brown hair. Next to him was his wife, Toni, looking like Snow White meets alterna-chick with her pale skin, red lips, and almost black hair. She was tall and slender despite the fact the baby she cradled wasn’t more than six weeks old.
Jack greeted the men with the handshake half hug that guys did, kissed the women, and, in a move that made Talia’s heart jump for no good reason, nuzzled the baby’s head. “How’s little Joey tonight?” Jack said, his face creased in a grin like Talia had never seen before.
“Oh, he’s all right,” Toni said with a little smile.
“He’s already increased his body weight by twenty percent,” Ethan said, unable to keep the paternal pride out of his voice.
“Considering he was almost ten pounds when he was born, that’s saying something,” Jack said, impressed.
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Caroline groaned. “You Taggarts with your monster babies—”
She was cut off by a crash and a childish howl.
“Speaking of monsters,” Danny muttered, and darted off. Caroline followed, the elegance Talia had so admired obliterated as she hurriedly waddled after him.
“Anna just pulled over the ice sculpture,” a breathless feminine voice broke in.
Talia turned and recognized Alyssa Miles Taggart, followed by her husband, Derek.
“Oh my God, is she okay?” Talia asked, nightmare scenarios of crushed skulls and broken limbs racing through her head.
“She’s fine,” Derek said, shaking his dark head, “but the caterer is ready to roast her up and serve her with barbecue sauce.”
Marcy hid a laugh behind her hand. “We heard the crash—Danny and Caroline are on their way. I’ll go smooth things over with Betsey.”
As Marcy rushed off, Joe removed his wire-rimmed glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. “I swear to God, that girl is going to be the end of Danny. You boys gave me a run for your money but I’d take a dozen of you boys over one girl.”
Ethan and Derek laughed and exchanged knowing looks. Talia had been shocked when she’d first met them and Jack informed her they were twins. Though they were both tall, almost as tall as Jack’s six foot four, and heavily built—having arms roughly the circumference of her waist must run in the gene pool—the similarities stopped there.
While Ethan’s dark hair was streaked with gold, Derek’s hair was a dark, coffee-colored shade. Where Ethan’s blue eyes were bright with humor, and his smile flashed easily, Derek’s expression was guarded, his dark eyes revealing nothing about his emotions.
Except when he was looking at his wife. Then his whole face changed, his eyes softening with a warmth that seemed to come from the center of his soul.
Alyssa was oblivious as she launched herself at Talia with a hug that was as enthusiastic as it was genuine. “Talia, it’s so great to see you,” she said, her slender arms winding around Talia’s back. “I’ve been traveling so much lately I haven’t been able to get to Suzette’s to catch up with you and Susie.”
Talia returned her hug, touched by the sincere warmth of Alyssa’s greeting. She was pleasantly surprised to find that, other than Danny’s reserved greeting, the rest of the group was welcoming.
Talia found herself fascinated as she watched Jack. His laugh was loud and easy, his smile broad. He looked more relaxed and happy than she’d ever seen him.
He’d always struck her as a loner, keeping to himself, but she saw now that he was part of this group. His line about Joe Taggart being like a father to him wasn’t spouted just to guilt her into coming to the party.
There was genuine love and affection between Jack and Joe, his sons, and their wives. It made Talia wonder about Jack’s real family, which, now that she thought about it, she’d never heard him mention. And she’d never asked.
Watching him laugh and joke good-naturedly with his friends, she was struck again by how little she knew about Jack, what he did with his real life when he wasn’t busy trying to save hers.
Chapter 13
Soon their small group dispersed to mingle. Jack introduced her to Marcy’s daughter, Kara, a tall, stunning blonde who looked to be in her early twenties. “You look great, kiddo,” Jack said, and gave her a brotherly hug.
Kara turned to Talia and offered her hand. “Nice to meet you,” she said distractedly. Though she smiled, Talia noted a slight downcast pull to her mouth as she looked at something—or someone—past Talia’s shoulder.
Talia looked and saw Ben Moreno, handsome as sin, teeth flashing whitely against his dark skin as he chatted up a brunette whose dress left no detail of her surgically enhanced curves to the imagination.
She felt a surge of sympathy as she turned back to Kara. Nothing but trouble could come from pining after a player like Moreno.
Kara’s face morphed into a hard smile. “Let me introduce you to some people,” she said, taking Talia by the arm and leading them into the crowd, away from Ben and his latest conquest.
Talia smiled and made small talk as Kara introduced her and Jack to what felt like dozens of guests. Everyone was friendly enough, but Talia couldn’t get past the feeling that they were looking at her, assessing. Judging.
Jack must have read her tension. He curled his hand around her arm and bent his head close. “You okay?”
His warm breath tickled her ear, sending a tingle of awareness through her. “I’m fine,” she said, her mouth gone suddenly dry. “I just need to excuse myself for a minute.”
Following Kara’s directions, she hurried to the restroom. On the way back, she made a detour at the bar to grab another cocktail. But instead of going back to Jack’s side, she lingered on the edge of the crowd, watching.
“Having fun?”
Talia turned, automatically returning Alyssa’s warm smile. “It’s great.”
Alyssa nodded. “Sometimes these things get overwhelming, though. So many people. I start to get maxed out after a while.”
“I can relate,” Talia said. She took a sip of her drink and moved next to Alyssa.
Alyssa waved off an offer of a shrimp skewer from a passing server. “I heard through Derek about the trouble you’ve been having. Are you any closer to catching whoever is harassing you?”
Talia shook her head. “It has to be someone who knows about my relationship with David,” she said, pitching her voice low so the other guests milling around them wouldn’t hear. Alyssa nodded in understanding. She knew enough about Talia’s sordid past not to need clarification. “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s someone close to Margaret—David’s widow—if not Margaret herself. But so far she’s clean, and it’s not like I didn’t ruin a lot of lives and careers when I helped Krista Slater take him down.”
Alyssa wrinkled her nose and looked so adorable it would have been annoying if Talia didn’t like her so much. “That sucks, to say the least. I know exactly how that feels, always looking over your shoulder, never knowing who to trust. Well, except for Jack, of course,” Alyssa said, a sly glint in her green eyes. “Just like I had Derek.”
“I think that was a little different.”
“You know that’s how Derek and I met, right? My uncle hired him as my bodyguard—actually more like my watchdog.”
Talia’s fingernails dug into the wooden armrests. Right now, being here with but n
ot really with Jack, getting a glimpse into his inner circle of close friends that he never would have offered up if it hadn’t been absolutely necessary, Talia didn’t want to be reminded of the vast differences between Alyssa’s relationship with her once bodyguard and her own relationship with Jack. “I’m not his client,” Talia said, trying to keep her tone light. “I’m his charity case.”
Alyssa cocked an eyebrow, a knowing look in her green eyes. “Jack’s got a generous streak a mile wide, but he doesn’t drop everything to play hero for just anyone.”
Talia stiffened. “I’m nothing special, believe me.”
Alyssa leaned toward her, her expression grave. Talia flinched but didn’t jerk away when Alyssa covered her hand. “I know exactly where you’re coming from. Before I got my act together, I felt exactly the same way. I made big mistakes in the past and I knew exactly what people thought about me—it was all over the news. But that didn’t stop Derek from loving me. And that won’t stop Jack—”
She broke off as Derek appeared at her side and she took the drink he offered.
Talia gave a silent prayer of thanks for the interruption.
She liked Alyssa and knew her intentions were the best, but she didn’t really want to get in a big discussion about her mistakes, and her damage was way worse than anything Alyssa had ever gotten herself mixed up in.
A couple of tabloid scandals were nothing compared to having a long-term affair with a man she knew was a criminal. They couldn’t hold a candle to helping to put a man on death row.
Still, as she watched Derek hover around his wife, it was hard not to feel a pinch of something that felt a little like envy.
Derek leaned in for a kiss hello, but it quickly turned hot enough that Talia had to turn away, her face burning.
And her heart—and other parts of her—aching.
She didn’t have faith she could have something with Jack that even approached what Alyssa and Derek clearly shared, but dammit, didn’t she deserve a taste?
She spotted Jack walking toward one of the buffet tables as Danny waved him over, and her stomach gave a funny little flip at the sight of his tall, strong body moving through the crowd.
Hadn’t she suffered enough for her sins?
She started after him.
Jack surveyed the wreckage of the ice sculpture while the catering staff rushed around, picking up glasses and trying to keep about a thousand custom-printed cocktail napkins from fluttering away in the wind that had suddenly kicked up.
Off to the side, Danny and Caroline were issuing a stern lecture about being careful and the dangers of running near massive blocks of ice carved into the shape of a swan to almost three-year-old Anna. Tonight the little heartbreaker was in a white and pink dress with a ruffled skirt. A matching pink bow was threaded through her dark curls, and her gray eyes that matched her dad’s were huge and spilling over with tears at her dad’s scolding.
“It was a assident, Daddy,” she said, her little chest heaving with sobs. “I d-didn’t mean to mess up the ice.”
“Nevertheless,” Caroline said, “we told you when we got here that you were not allowed near the ice swan. That means no cake tonight.”
To her credit, Anna didn’t scream or yell. Little shoulder’s stiff, bottom lip pouted out, she sniffled, her chest heaving in silent sobs.
It was heartbreaking.
It was also, apparently, very effective. Though Danny did his best to keep his expression stern, Jack saw the second he cracked. “Aw, sweetie, you can’t have cake, but I bet Grandpa still has some of that rainbow sherbet in the freezer from last time.”
The tears dried up as though a switch had been flipped, and a bright, glowing smile replaced the pout. “Okay! C’mon, Mom, wet’s go get ice cweam.”
Caroline glared over her shoulder as Anna tugged her away. “You are such a p-u-s-s-y,” she said, spelling it for Anna’s benefit.
“Damn, and you think I’m too much of a sucker for a pretty face,” Jack said.
“She’s got me right where she wants me, all right,” Danny said with a rueful shake of his head, “but at least she’s mine.” When Jack ignored the pointed comment, Danny shrugged out of his jacket and pointed his chin at the ice swan, which was on its side on the flagstones. “Help me get that thing out of the way.”
Jack shrugged off his own jacket and followed Danny’s lead. “Where do you want to take it?” Jack waited as Danny did a quick consult with one of the caterers.
“Kitchen.” Danny scored several cloth napkins from a server and handed some to Jack.
The swan was mostly intact, though the spindly neck had snapped. Jack wrapped his hands in napkins to block some of the cold. He righted the thing and squatted on one side as Danny took position on the other. Grunting, he and Danny stood with the sculpture, which had to weigh at least one hundred fifty pounds, balanced between them.
The crowd that had gathered parted as they made their way slowly and carefully toward the door.
“Speaking of girls who aren’t yours, do you have any leads about who’s bugging Talia?” Danny said, his voice straining a little under the weight of the ice.
At the mention of her name, Jack did a quick scan of the crowd. He didn’t see the bright greenish blue of the dress or the honey glow of her skin, and figured she must still be helping Alyssa. Probably for the best, considering he was going to have to concentrate to maneuver the block of ice through the house and Talia in that dress was hell on his equilibrium.
“Not really,” Jack said, swearing a little as one of the napkins wrapping his hand slipped and the side of his right palm went flush with the ice. He blocked the discomfort, carefully stepping through the sliding glass door that led into the Taggarts’ living room as he waited for the numbness to set in. “We know it has to be someone connected to David Maxwell—everything goes back to him.”
“Except that fucked-up DVD.”
“Yeah, but since David’s connection to Nate Brewster was what got Talia on Nate’s radar in the first place, it’s still connected.” But Danny had a point. Up until the DVD, the tokens, or whatever you wanted to call them, weren’t related to the violence. Like the giver had suddenly snapped, losing patience for the light torment and going straight for the jugular.
Still, escalation wasn’t unusual when you were dealing with predators. Jack knew too well a man could go from giving a woman flowers to stabbing her in the heart in the blink of an eye.
“The obvious one to look at is Margaret Grayson,” Jack continued, referring to David Maxwell’s widow, released from prison after serving only eighteen months because she agreed to give up all of the details of her husband’s illegal activities, which spanned the globe. “Cole’s been checking up on her but she’s keeping a low profile, hiding out at the family estate on Bainbridge Island.”
“Doesn’t mean she didn’t hire muscle to harass Talia.”
Jack paused as a guest squeezed past them in the hallway that led to the kitchen.
“True, but so far we haven’t been able to find any links,” he said as they finally backed through the door of the kitchen and sidled up to the sink.
“On three,” Danny said, and started the count. On three they lifted the bird over the lip of the sink and lowered it carefully into the stainless-steel basin.
Danny grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and offered one to Jack. Jack shook his head. “Until we find this fuck, I’m on the clock twenty-four-seven.”
Danny just rolled his eyes and took a long pull on his bottle.
“Thanks for letting us use Toni, by the way. I know she doesn’t have much time, with the baby and all, but with her digging around in Margaret’s dealings, if there’s something to be found, she’ll find it.”
Danny tilted his beer at Jack. “It’s not generosity. I need you to figure this shit out so you can get back to work. The Blankenthorns are covered, but I’ve had five calls from clients in the Seattle area that I’ve had to turn down.”
Jac
k felt a surge of guilt. “You know I don’t want to let you down. But what would you do? What if it was Caroline?”
Danny cocked a dark eyebrow and folded his massive arms across his chest. “Caroline’s my wife. I love her more than anything. But as far as I can tell, you and Talia aren’t even bumping uglies so—”
Jack was on him in a second, the collar of Danny’s shirt twisted in his fist as he shoved him up against the stainless-steel refrigerator. “Don’t fucking talk that way about her.”
Danny’s mouth tilted into a half smile. “Nice to see you got that temper of yours under control.”
Jack felt a vein pulse in his forehead and forced himself to release his grip on Danny’s shirt as he stepped back. As he returned to awareness, he realized several of the servers had frozen, eyes wide as they wondered if the two men were going to throw down.
Danny rolled his shoulders and smoothed his shirtfront. “You want to go, we’ll go, just not at my dad’s engagement party.”
Embarrassment heated Jack’s face as the full magnitude of what he’d been about to do hit him. Shit, he’d been about to start a brawl with his best friend at a party celebrating Joe’s engagement.
“And I shouldn’t have talked like that,” Danny conceded, “but you’re not some dumb fuck just out of basic anymore. You can’t throw everything away on some woman who doesn’t even appreciate you. Look at what happened with Gina—”
Jack closed his eyes, trying to block out the memories. “She’s not Gina. It’s nothing like that.”
Danny was silent for a few seconds. “Maybe not. All I know is I remember how you were then, and I remember what happened after, and I don’t want to see you fucking yourself all up again for another one of your broken birds.”
Jack flexed his hand. He didn’t want to argue with Danny about how what he was doing for Talia had nothing to do with his mother or with Gina, or how he wasn’t using her to fix anything that had gone wrong in his past.
It was about Talia herself, and keeping her safe and whole so she could have the life she’d worked so hard to build.
