Harlequin Romantic Suspense July 2021 Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  No one had said he couldn’t contact his daughter. Thank God for modern technology that made it so easy to almost be in the room together.

  She had the detective’s attention now. He’d leaned forward, turned his head slightly. Wasn’t patting her on the head anymore.

  “How do you know this?”

  “Because I know her wrists. The fingerprints fit the sprain, but if you look at the picture with the prints, before the bruise appeared, you’ll notice a freckle just beneath the wrist bone. You won’t be able to see it in the bruising, I’m sure, but you look at her left wrist, you’ll see it there.”

  “A freckle.”

  “Yep. Bella has one, too. In the exact same place. It’s more like a little birthmark, really, but so small you wouldn’t notice unless you saw it on a baby who’d never been exposed to the sun and had no other freckles anywhere on her body.”

  He wanted facts. She’d give them to him.

  And...had that been a brief twinge of admiration in his eyes? She’d pleased him?

  She smiled. “If you want the truth, Detective, if you want the real facts, then we’re on the same side here.”

  His shrug was beginning to annoy her. Partly because it drew her attention to those big, protective shoulders.

  Protective over someone else.

  Not her.

  She neither needed, wanted, nor would accept protection. She couldn’t, lest she fall prey to bad choice number four. A woman could only stay strong through so many unhealthy relationships.

  “You’re saying you’ll give me the truth?” he asked.

  “Of course.”

  His gaze was compelling in the softness of the outdoor lamp as darkness fell. “Have you ever known your brother to lash out in anger?”

  “No. I’ve seen him put himself in between my face and my father’s backhand. I’ve seen him grab me up and leave a room with my father’s belt slapping against his back. A belt that had been meant for me.”

  Because she’d dared to talk back when her father had told her that she didn’t know what she needed. She’d said she wanted to start babysitting and earn her own money. She’d been fourteen.

  “And I’ve seen him take Heidi’s pummeling without raising a hand to stop her because he knew she was fighting herself, and her past, as much as him. He’d turn his back to her slaps, put distance between them, but he wouldn’t walk out on her. He really loved her.”

  “She says she really loved him. But that, now that she’s been through counseling, she knows she has to get her daughter away from him.”

  “Bella’s the reason Josh left. Heidi picked her up in anger, started to shake her one evening when she was crying. Thank God Josh was there. He got the baby away from her before she did any damage. And just kept on walking. They came here that night, and I can guarantee you, my brother was devastated.”

  “Did you know they were seeing each other again?”

  “For Heidi’s supervised visits, yes. A counselor was there. Josh didn’t stay. But he allowed the visits in his home so Heidi could be around Bella with all of her things. So Bella could be at home to see her mother.” She’d worried every time. “I wasn’t happy when the restraining order was dropped, but Josh thought it was the best thing for all of them. As long as Heidi was healthy, and he believed she was, Bella needed her mama.”

  “And you witnessed him turning his back when Heidi attacked him?”

  “Yes. I also saw her slap his face. Until then he’d kept her abusive outbursts to himself. When I questioned him about it, he said it wasn’t a big deal. He could handle it. He understood that she didn’t mean or want to hurt him. She’d grown up in a violent home and just reacted without thinking sometimes.”

  Feeling really good about the detective now, as he actually sat there and listened to the truth, Jasmine started to relax again. He could help them.

  He could let the prosecutor know they had no case and get him to drop the charges.

  He could smile at her and she’d smile back.

  But he didn’t. He stood up. “Thank you for seeing me,” he said. “I’ll be in touch if I have any other questions.”

  She didn’t want him to go. Didn’t immediately hear the alarm bells in the back of her brain, at that. But she stood, too. She had to get Maddie back, then bathe Bella and call Josh for his daughter’s bedtime story and virtual hug before bed.

  “So...you think the prosecutor is going to be willing to drop the charges?” she asked, to prolong the moment anyway.

  “He can’t.”

  Of course he could. That’s how the system worked. No evidence. Charges dropped. “Why not?” She was cold all of a sudden, out there in the dark on her porch with a man whose throat was above her head.

  “Heidi has an eyewitness to Josh grabbing her.”

  It was a lie. Another one of Heidi’s ploys.

  “You’ve talked to this witness?”

  “Not yet,” Josh said. “We’re going to try to do this without her.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s only three years old.”

  It took her a second to get it. But...wait... “Bella? You mean Bella?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  “You think you’re going to question a baby? My three-year-old niece?”

  “I won’t be. But if it comes to that, someone with the proper training will do so.”

  This couldn’t be happening.

  “And there’s nothing you can do? This prosecutor, can’t you talk to him? You said you wanted the truth. I swear to you, whatever Heidi’s telling you is a lie. Or her own made-up variation of a small piece of truth. Like Bella saw the two of them together, or something.” Bella’s imagination was remarkable. Wonderful. And...imaginative. She’d thought squiggly lines were her and her father riding horses to dinner. She’d never even been near a horse, as far as Jasmine knew.

  Could she be led to think she’d seen her father hurt her mother?

  Oh God. If Josh had even held Heidi’s hand, the child could be convinced to say he’d grabbed her wrist.

  No.

  She couldn’t panic. All those years... Josh had fought her battles with Jasmine and even taken his own beatings. He was her earth. Her water. She wasn’t going to let him down now.

  “I know Josh didn’t do it,” she blurted before she could think. And then couldn’t stop the next words from emerging.

  “I know he didn’t. Because...I did.”

  CHAPTER 4

  “You want to rethink that?” Standing on the deck, facing an ocean he mostly couldn’t see due to the darkness that had fallen outside the reach of the lights, Greg did what he could to force Jasmine to meet his gaze.

  She held her own for a few long seconds. Then looked away.

  Swallowing disappointment that had no place in his system in that moment, in that situation, he noted that she’d lied to him.

  He’d wanted to trust her.

  “Because, you know,” he continued, “I can check alibis and probably prove, pretty easily, that you weren’t present when Heidi’s wrist was...damaged.”

  She glanced back at him, and for a second there he saw Liv’s eyes, imploring him. Needing something from him that didn’t exist. He felt compelled to help people. Needed to help her. He understood the reasons behind her struggles. He just wasn’t a guy who was good with so much drama in his home.

  “I didn’t do it, and that was a ridiculous thing to say.” Her words were soft and yet...strong, too. Nothing like Liv’s needy tone that generally accompanied that vulnerable gaze. “Please, please, don’t put that on the record, or whatever. In your report. If I’m a suspect in any way, I could lose Bella, and...”

  He had her. The gift was right there for his taking. She needed him to keep quiet. He needed her to talk.

  The fact that he’d nev
er risk a child’s life on something as innocuous as a nonsensical statement made out of desperation to save a loved one didn’t have to play in here. She didn’t know what he was and was not capable of. What he would or wouldn’t do to help get a conviction.

  She didn’t know that while he served at the pleasure of the prosecutor’s office, he was there to see justice done, not to get convictions.

  He’d earned enough of those all on his own, when he’d been the county’s lead prosecutor. And he carried the burden of them, too.

  “I’ll make a deal with you,” he said, speaking slowly as he did a quick mental check on the idea as it occurred to him. Giving himself the go-ahead, he continued. “You agree to speak nothing but the truth from here on out, you cooperate with me every step of the way, and I’ll forget I ever heard you implicate yourself.”

  She loved her brother. He needed the real abuser to take accountability or, chances were, the abuse would escalate.

  “Since I’ve had every intention from the very beginning to cooperate and to speak the truth, I agree with your stipulations,” she said.

  Nodding, he turned away, figuring he’d done his job there for the moment.

  His hand was on the knob of the French door when she said, “But I have a stipulation of my own.”

  Slowly rounding to face her, he waited.

  She seemed to have no trouble whatsoever meeting his gaze then. “If I’m going to give you everything I might have or find out, I need to be able to trust that you’ll keep an open mind about Josh. That you’ll weigh everything against the possibility that he’s innocent. Not just what I give you, but everything you get. That you entertain other theories...”

  What the hell? He had her on the hook, and she was...

  “Because I know that Josh didn’t do this. And I also know that he and I aren’t enough this time. If Heidi is losing it to this point—willing to see her sweet baby go to Child Protective Services just to hurt Josh—there’s no telling what she’ll do. Giving her a voice, as the prosecutor has now done by charging Josh, gives her a strength she’s never had before. Josh and I have been fighting her illness for years. We know her. We know the signs. But this is bigger than just us now. With her having support of the system, we’re going to need professional help to stop her. None of us are safe until she’s exposed as the liar she is.”

  He heard her passion. But he’d learned through his years with Liv that passion didn’t always come from a place of truth. Sometimes it was born of other emotions, like fear. And versions of facts that, while believed by the speaker, weren’t always as real as they seemed in the moment.

  “I know that somewhere there is evidence that will prove Josh’s innocence and show Heidi for who she really is. You’re the one doing the investigating. You have the authority to go places and ask questions we can’t. You’re the one with the prosecutor’s ear. We need your help,” she told him.

  His gut dropped like lead.

  Another woman asking for empathy. Greg didn’t tell her he wasn’t her guy. That his ex was proof that he’d been grossly shorted in the empathy department.

  To the contrary, he let her believe that he’d comply with her request. He needed her cooperation.

  He’d keep an open mind, follow whatever theories presented themselves, because that was what he always did. He did not want a preconceived ending. But she was asking for more than that. She wanted him to prove her brother’s innocence.

  And Greg believed, without doubt, that her brother was guilty. Not because Heidi had played him, but because she hadn’t. There’d been no needy plea for sympathy when they’d met. She’d looked him in the eye and spoken with conviction.

  Heidi Taylor loved her ex-husband.

  And he’d physically hurt her.

  * * *

  Grabbing a sweater off the back of a chair, slipping into it, Jasmine followed Greg toward the front door.

  She had to tell her brother not to give up. That they had someone on the inside willing to look for the truth. Bella’s existence made him more vulnerable than he’d ever been before. Heidi knew that and was determined to kick him in the knees. Over and over again.

  Josh had been through so much, had stayed strong and rock-solid through most of it. He didn’t deserve any part of what Heidi was handing out. He’d loved the woman faithfully. Had put up with years of growing abuse—would have continued to do so if she hadn’t turned on Bella.

  “He chose Bella over her,” she said aloud as the detective, reaching for the front doorknob, turned back to her. “That’s why she’s doing this. He put up with her abuse, loved her through it, until she turned on Bella. It’s eating her alive, that his loyalty switched from her to someone else. That he’d protect someone else over her. She’ll do whatever it takes to get her away from him.”

  Even at the toddler’s expense. Heidi’s own child.

  Greg had said he wanted the truth. That he’d listen to it, look for other theories. This wasn’t just a theory. It was the only truth. “She’s jealous of her own daughter.”

  It was up to Jasmine to help Josh. She’d been shown the way.

  The big man in her hallway wasn’t the least bit intimidating as he met her gaze. “I need to hear about the past. Everything you can tell me. I need the whole picture.”

  “Of course.” It wasn’t a smiling moment. She felt like smiling anyway. She’d been given a way to make things right.

  His long look settled her nerves even more. “I know you have to get your sitter back, but can you make some time tomorrow?”

  “I’m out of class at three. Bella can play at the daycare until five.”

  “You’re all right with that? Being apart from her that long?”

  The question was odd. Had her studying him for a second, as though she should be on guard.

  “I just...don’t want to make things harder on you,” he said. “With her being newly separated from her father and all.”

  Right. He’d been being thoughtful. She had to watch her trust issues or she was going to blow this.

  “I have lunch with her,” she told him anyway. Just in case he’d been questioning her care for her niece. As though she’d be willing to just brush the toddler off, leave her in the company of others during this trying time in her life. And then, to assure him that his demand on her time wasn’t going to be a detriment to either her or Bella, she added, “And it’s not all that uncommon for Bella to spend a few days with me. Each time, she always goes to the daycare at the Stand. I keep her any time Josh has a late meeting or needs to be overnight in LA or farther afield on business. That’s why she has a room here.” She motioned behind her. “And the people at The Lemonade Stand...we’re all family. And Maddie works at the daycare and she’s taken Bella on as one of her own.”

  Detective Greg Johnson was watching her, standing there in his light gray suit like he had all kinds of authority.

  Which he did.

  And he’d made a deal with her. At the moment, he was their hope.

  While she stood there babbling out of both sides of her mouth. In case she could trust him, and in case she couldn’t.

  Time to get a grip. Josh had been the strong one for her so many, many times in their lives. It was time for her to carry the weight for both of them.

  Her brother was one of the good guys.

  No way she was going to let him fall now.

  * * *

  Greg almost sent someone else to meet with Jasmine at The Lemonade Stand the next day. Almost. The woman was getting to him, but sending someone else would require him to admit that he wasn’t up to the task. That he wasn’t able to do his job.

  So he showed up. In suit and tie—lighter brown this time, short-sleeved tan shirt on under his jacket, brown dress shoes shined. He’d shaved just after six that morning, in the shower after his workout, but by three the growth was shadowi
ng his jaw again. He chose not to do anything about that.

  While Greg had worked with the High-Risk Team—a group of professionals who pooled knowledge and information to help prevent domestic violence deaths—it was the first time he’d ever actually been to this shelter. Hidden as it was between the cliffs and ocean and the innocuous street of shops that fronted it—shops that he knew were all owned by the Stand’s founder and there to service its clients with everything from computer training to jobs—The Lemonade Stand wasn’t hard to miss unless you knew what you were looking for.

  He knew to take the mostly hidden drive into the nondescript parking lot that fronted a single, plain door giving entrance to a small, plebeian reception area. He’d been told to wait there—the only unrestricted area—for someone to come get him.

  He’d been cleared for entrance onto the grounds of the shelter, but clearance didn’t give him access. And he was ten minutes early.

  There were a few seats along one wall. Plastic chairs with metal legs. His chose to explore further while he waited. Generic linoleum. Plain walls. He made a second pass. Noticed the same crack in the wall on the third time by, too. His legs needed a little stretching after being boxed up in his vehicle—a blue SUV purchased expressly because he could push the seat back far enough to drive comfortably.

  So...he had energy to expel. And another seven minutes to wait. To not think about the woman who’d been on his mind most of the previous night. And a good part of the current day, too.

  Stood to reason—his mind always got wrapped up in whatever case he was working, and hers was the current one. One of them. It wasn’t like a first offense, a noninvasive domestic charge that the prosecutor was willing to plead out, needed his full day’s attention.

  Jasmine Taylor was the one who’d upped the stakes on this one. Challenging him to keep an open mind. As though he wouldn’t always do so.