Run from Fear

by Jami Alden

  Though her bravado was dimmed by her embarrassed flush, her cocked eyebrow said she wasn’t buying it.

  “And I wanted to see you,” he said simply. Screw it. She already knew exactly how he felt, so why bother trying to play it cool in anyway? “See for myself you’re okay.”

  Oh, God, she was dying inside, splintering apart and so far from okay it was a joke. “I’m fine,” she said tightly. “So now that you’ve seen that, you can go.”

  Instead he took a step closer, the T-shirt dangling from his hand. He was so close now she could smell him, soap and spice and musky man skin. He was so warm she could feel the heat radiating off him, feel his need rolling off him in waves.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” he said.

  She saw him raise his hand and even as she knew it would be disaster to let him touch her, she stood, frozen, unable to force herself away. The light brush of his fingers jolted her straight to her core, sending a wave of heat rushing through her. “Don’t.” Even as she said the word, she was leaning into him, into his touch like a cat craving a stroking hand.

  “Please, give me another chance,” he said.

  She squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn’t have to see the pain in his eyes, the yearning that matched her own. She felt his breath on her cheek, and even as she called herself an idiot and told herself to stop, to shut him down and get him out of here before she lost control, she tilted her mouth to his. Parted her lips on a moan to let his tongue rub against hers.

  His hand splayed against her back, pulling her close until they were practically glued together as Talia rapidly spun out of control. She kissed him hungrily, savagely, as her hands tore at his clothes with a will of their own.

  She could feel him, straining against the front of his jeans. She reached between them and rubbed him up and down. While the other night she’d done the same move in an effort to cheapen what they’d had, tonight she was desperate to feel him, hot and hard in her hands. She tugged clumsily at the button at the top and jerked the zipper.

  “Easy,” he breathed, “don’t—” His words choked off in a surprised hiss as she shoved his jeans and boxers off his hips and closed her fingers around him. “I want you. I want you so much,” he groaned.

  She had no idea where this would lead, no idea if she had it in her to forgive him. Right now she was only certain of one thing. “I want this,” she said, stroking him, pausing to swirl her thumb around the sensitive head. He pulsed and jerked in her hand, and she felt a rush of answering heat between her legs. “I want you inside of me.”

  Jack didn’t waste any time. Taking his mouth from hers just long enough to pull her shirt over her head, he unhooked her bra and brought them both to the floor. He peeled her jeans and underwear off her legs, hooked her knees over his elbows, and settled himself between her legs.

  He reached down and she quivered in anticipation of the first deep thrust.

  But instead of squeezing inside, he circled the head of his cock around her clit, rubbing, stroking, bathing himself in her wetness until she couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop teasing me and fuck me already,” she moaned, too turned on, too desperate to be embarrassed by her own bluntness.

  Jack obliged her with a sound that was half moan and half laugh, and she felt her body stretch to accommodate him as he entered her in one sleek thrust. She threaded her hands in his hair and pulled his mouth to hers, tasting his moans as he took her with deep, pounding strokes. Within seconds she was coming, squeezing and pulsing around him as her body shook with pleasure.

  He was right there with her, his face pulled into a savage mask as he came, spurting deep inside her. He collapsed on top of her, bracing his weight with his elbows on either side of her head. “I love you,” he breathed. “I love you so much, Talia.”

  As Talia came back down to earth, shame at her own weakness settled over her. And with it came the panic. God, one touch and she’d lost all control. She’d thought David Maxwell had controlled her with fear. But fear had nothing on what she felt for Jack.

  With Jack, she wouldn’t be vulnerable.

  She’d be powerless. “Let me up,” she said, shoving at his shoulders.

  “Talia, please,” he said, not budging.

  Panic chased away the lingering tendrils of pleasure. “Let me up, I can’t breathe. Let me up.”

  He rolled away and she scrambled for her clothes, aware that she was being irrational, that there was a better way to deal but unable to snap herself out of it.

  “What are you so afraid of?” Jack demanded as he yanked his pants up his legs.

  You. Me. Everything about us.

  Before she could answer, a firm knock sounded at the door. She did a quick check to make sure all of her clothes were in place and went to see who it was. On her doorstep was a man in his fifties, medium height with a thick shock of salt-and-pepper hair. He wore a dark sport coat over a button-down shirt and jeans.

  “Can I help you?” she called through the door.

  “I’m Detective Carolla, Palo Alto PD,” he replied, and held his badge up to the peephole so she could see. “I’m looking for Jack Brooks. We have reason to believe he’s here.”

  Talia’s blood ran cold. “Hurry, I’ll stall them while you go out the back,” she breathed.

  Jack shook his head. “Let them in. The sooner we clear up this nonsense, the better.”

  “I’ll tell them you were with me all day. I’ll say—”

  “No, you won’t. I won’t let you lie for me,” Jack said tightly. “Whatever they ask, you tell them the truth. You worry about yourself.”

  Before she could protest, Jack opened the door, then held his hands out to the side to show he was unarmed. “I’m right here, Detective.” He didn’t resist as the detective cuffed him and placed him under arrest for the murder of Greg Sutherland.

  Talia watched in shock as Jack was escorted out to the waiting police car. “Call Danny,” Jack called over his shoulder. “He’ll know who to send.”

  She ran back into the house, grabbed her phone, and dialed Danny as she ran for her car.

  “Jack’s been arrested,” she said when Danny picked up.

  “For Sutherland?” Danny asked.

  When Talia confirmed, Danny let out a low curse. “Shit. Jack seems to have a knack for getting himself into sticky situations, doesn’t he?”

  Because of her. Even though Danny didn’t say it, she knew he was thinking it. “I never meant to cause him any trouble,” she said as she turned to follow the police car.

  “No one is saying you did. It just worked out that way,” Danny deadpanned.

  “Can you help him or not?” she snapped.

  “Absolutely. I’ll give my attorney a call and have him meet Jack at the police station. Don’t worry. We’ll have him out on bail in no time.”

  It was small consolation. It was the weekend, so it was likely Jack was going to spend at least a couple nights in jail. Worse, if they didn’t realize soon they had the wrong man, they might actually go as far as putting Jack on trial.

  She couldn’t stand the idea of him going through all that because of her. And the worst part, she thought as she pulled up in front of the police station, was that unless she somehow stumbled across the real killer on her own, there was absolutely nothing she could do right now to help him.

  Still, she went into the building, hoping to at least offer moral support. Predictably she wasn’t allowed to see him. But the police were interested in talking to her about the events leading up to Sutherland’s attack on her as well as the murder.

  She answered every question as truthfully as she could, though she chose her words carefully.

  “You’ve been involved with Mr. Brooks for how long?”

  “Do you mean involved, romantically?”

  “Have you been involved otherwise?”

  She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I’ve known Jack for a little over two years. I first met him when we worked together at a nightclub in Seatt
le. He… helped me and my sister out of an unfortunate situation.”

  “That would be your involvement with… who was it…” He scanned down the page on the table in front of him. “Ah, yes. David Maxwell?”

  “Yes,” Talia said. “I assume you’ve read the reports about David’s criminal activity?”

  The detective nodded.

  “I was aware of some of his illegal businesses, but I was afraid if I told anyone or tried to get out of the relationship, he’d hurt me and my sister. Jack helped get my sister to a safe house and protected us both until David was killed two years ago.”

  “And he was protecting you again after Sutherland began harassing you as directed by Maxwell’s widow.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Several people we spoke to the night Sutherland was arrested were pretty certain your relationship with Brooks went beyond professional.”

  “That’s true,” Talia said. “I guess you can say we’ve been friendly for the past two years, but recently we’ve become romantically involved.” God, it sounded so tepid put that way, relaying nothing of the depths of the passion that had her tearing at his clothes and falling to the floor in the middle of the afternoon.

  “Are you in love with him?” he asked her, point-blank.

  “Yes.” No use denying the truth.

  “Do you believe he loves you?”

  “He’s said as much.”

  The detective sifted through the pile of papers. “Brooks has a bit of a history of violent physical altercations. Are you aware of that?”

  “I know Jack’s not the type to back down from a fight.”

  “At least one of these incidents involved another woman, a wife of one of his teammates?”

  “Her name was Gina. Her husband was beating the crap out of her and her son.”

  “Says here Jack nearly sent him to the hospital. Sounds pretty similar to what he did to Sutherland.”

  “Who was trying to kidnap me at knifepoint,” Talia snapped.

  “He’s very protective of the people he cares about. Doesn’t it seem likely to you he’d be capable of killing Sutherland in revenge for what he did to you?” he asked, leveling her with a hard stare.

  Talia met his stare and held it, not giving an inch. “I’ve known a lot of bad people, Detective. Some of them cold-blooded killers. There’s a big difference between beating the hell out of a man in the heat of the moment and committing premeditated murder.”

  “We have him on videotape entering Sutherland’s hotel the day of his murder.”

  Talia felt her stomach drop at the revelation. It ultimately proved nothing, but it was damning enough to make the charges stick for now. “I know he didn’t do it,” Talia said. “Jack wanted to nail Margaret for coming after me. He’s not stupid. He knows that would be almost impossible without Sutherland’s testimony against her.”

  “Were you with him the day Sutherland was killed?”

  Talia licked her lips, the lie poised on the tip of her tongue. It would be so easy to give Jack an alibi, to say she’d waited in the car at the hotel for him to return, that there was no blood or any other evidence of his murder. But Jack’s admonishment echoed in her head. She could lie all she wanted, but if Jack didn’t give the same story she did, she’d only get them both into worse trouble.

  “No,” she said quietly. “After Sutherland was arrested, after we got back home, Jack and I got into a fight.”

  “About what?”

  “I don’t think that’s relevant.”

  “Why don’t you let me judge that.”

  Talia wasn’t about to tell Detective Carolla about the covert surveillance, aware it might make Jack look obsessive and possibly unstable. “Relationship stuff,” she said with an exasperated toss of her hair. “You know, where is this going, what happens now. I got angry that Jack was planning to move back to Seattle and I asked him to leave.”

  “When did you next see him?”

  “Today. We spoke on the phone a few times in the past couple of days, and today he came by my house to try to patch things up. That’s when you came in.” Well, not exactly, she remembered with an inappropriate burst of warmth. First there was a lot of stripping of clothes and rolling around on the floor.

  Detective Carolla started to rise from the plastic chair across from her. “He didn’t do it,” she said again. “You’re wasting your time when you should be looking for the person responsible.”

  Detective Carolla gave her a patronizing look. “And who might that be?”

  Talia told him Jack’s theory about Margaret hiring someone else to silence Sutherland, and her own theory about one of the alleged rape victims getting her revenge. Detective Carolla left her with a promise to look at every angle.

  Talia left the interrogation room feeling worn down from the intense questioning, shaken both from Jack’s arrest and what had taken place in her house just a few short hours ago. She walked to the waiting area, surprised to see Danny there.

  “Hey.” He looked up with an expression that was surprisingly friendly, given his past behavior. “You’re still here.”

  “They wanted to ask me some questions.” Danny hit her with a sharp look, and she said, “I was careful. And I didn’t want to leave until I know what’s happening. Have you seen him?”

  Danny shook his head. “The only person they let in is the attorney I hired for him. He’s in with Jack right now.”

  Talia took a seat on the chair across from him. “Is he any good?”

  “The best,” Danny said with a grin. “He better be for five hundred an hour.”

  Talia’s stomach churned as she mentally added legal fees to the tally of thousands Jack had already spent on her. “Can he get him released tonight?”

  Danny’s mouth pulled in a grim line. “Earliest they can arraign him is Monday morning.”

  Crap. As she feared, Jack was going to have to spend at least two nights in jail. Or even more if they refused to set bail. “They’ll set bail, right?” she asked, knowing Danny had no more control over it than she did but needing the reassurance.

  “It’s always tricky with murder. If they think he’s a flight risk…” He shook his head. “I think chances are good that he’ll be out Monday.” He chuckled. “At least no matter how high they set bail, the poor sucker will be able to pay it.”

  Talia didn’t think there was anything remotely funny about it. “I feel so awful that he’s going through any of this,” she said, to herself as much as to Danny.

  “Just give him a hummer in the parking lot as soon as he’s released and he’ll forget all about it,” Danny said, chuckling at Talia’s no-doubt-disgusted look. His expression grew serious. “Jack loves you, and any man worth his stripes would go through this and a hell of a lot worse for the woman he loved. Hell, I took a bullet for Caroline once and I’d do it again in a heartbeat to keep her safe.”

  Talia grimaced. “God, I hope it never goes that far. Even Jack has his limits.”

  “You’d be surprised.” Danny’s phone rang and his face lit up with a bright smile that shocked Talia with its pure sweetness. “Speaking of the love of my life…” He held the phone to his ear. “Hey, sweets, what’s up?”

  She watched as all the blood drained from Danny’s face and he shot up from the chair. “How much? When did it start? No, call the ambulance and I’ll meet you there. Don’t worry about Anna.” He pinned Talia with gray eyes gone dark with worry. “I’m here with Talia. She can watch Anna.”

  Talia nodded fiercely. Whatever Caroline was saying it was enough to make one of the toughest men she’d ever known look like he was about to break apart with fear.

  Danny hung up and hurried outside, moving so fast Talia had to jog to keep up with him. “Caroline started bleeding and she has really bad abdominal pain,” he explained.

  “When is she due?” Talia asked as she followed Danny to his car.

  “Not for another eight weeks. So the baby should be fine, but she’s losing
a lot of blood.”

  Talia shuddered. “I’ll meet you at the hospital and watch Anna as long as you need.”

  She followed Danny to Stanford’s emergency room, polishing up her race car skills as she struggled to keep up. Caroline was already there, her skin alarmingly pale against her dark hair.

  Anna, usually a ball of nonstop energy, stood quietly at her mother’s side, sucking her thumb and clutching her mother’s hand.

  Talia watched as Danny squatted down to his daughter’s level and had a quiet conversation. Fortunately there were only minimal tears as Jack handed her off to Talia. He gave her his house key and told her to make herself at home. “You’re a champ,” he said, and gave her a quick, fierce hug.

  “It’s no problem,” Talia assured him. “And after today, I could use the distraction.”

  She took Anna back to Danny and Caroline’s house, and after about a hundred assurances from Talia that her mommy and the baby brother in her tummy were going to be just fine, Anna settled in with a pile of dolls and demanded Talia play family. For the next several hours, Talia was too busy racing around after an almost-three-year-old to dwell too much on Jack’s unpleasant accommodations for the weekend.

  Finally, around 8:00 p.m. they were both starting to yawn, so she dug out a pair of jammies for Anna and settled into the rocker for stories. Her phone buzzed just as she was starting to read a story about a Siamese cat who thought he was a Chihuahua.

  It was a text from Rosie. Pigging out on weenies and s’mores by the fire. I’ll call when I get back tmrw.

  “Athat?” Anna asked.

  “That’s a note from my sister. Her name is Rosie.”

  “She your big sister?”

  “No, she’s my little sister. I’m the big sister.”

  Anna sat up straight and put her thumb to her chest. “I going be a big sister!”

  “You sure are!”

  The little girl looked around the room as though searching for something. “Why your wosie not here?”

  Talia sighed. “Rosie is on a camping trip with her friends.” At Anna’s befuddled look, Talia clarified, “You know, like when you sleep in a tent?” At the little girl’s nod, she continued. “She’s in a place with big beautiful mountains and tall trees. I bet she’s having a really good time right now.”