Harlequin Romantic Suspense July 2021 Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  Greg and his parents were planning to lie low the rest of the weekend, catch up on a couple of movies, maybe play some cards. He didn’t say when he’d be calling again.

  She wanted to know if he’d told them about her but didn’t ask.

  He was okay. He’d called her.

  That was enough.

  CHAPTER 20

  Greg had thought he’d at least text Jasmine when he got home Sunday night. He wanted to. In the end, he lifted weights instead. It had been a tough weekend; he hadn’t done any physical exercise for two days and he had a lot to work off.

  He thought of her as he lay in bed, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. His body, which should be exhausted and needing rest, ached for her. They’d had sex once. Once. How long could it take to get over it?

  Because he was pretty sure they wouldn’t be doing it again.

  The weekend, the accident, the way he’d felt when he’d thought he’d lost his father, the way he’d been able to tend to his mother because he loved her that much and had just known what to do... He was seeing himself differently.

  His parents’ words had been rambling around in his head for over twenty-four hours. Finding a home inside of him.

  He’d convinced himself that he had an inability to care deeply. Figured it had something to do with being abandoned in a public restroom as an infant. Kind of hard to live with that your whole life and not be defined by it—at least a little bit. He’d really thought he was permanently detached. Right. He’d been real detached when he’d looked over and seen his father unconscious.

  About as detached as he’d been making love to Jasmine the night before he’d left.

  He still didn’t really remember his mother’s tumor scare all that much. But he was beginning to accept that there might truth in the fact that he did care deeply. His problem was being unable to fix everything. Having things outside his control.

  Like the fact that he was never going to know whom he came from. But his truth was, he didn’t want to know. He had his parents.

  And he wasn’t going to be able to settle for a relationship without a shared home and a family to raise. He needed those things.

  He deserved them.

  He wasn’t going to be as happy without them.

  So Jasmine wasn’t the one.

  Or rather, she was—the one he was meant to save. Not the one he was meant to love.

  Chances were, after her brother’s settlement conference that week, unless Josh did the right thing and admitted what he’d done, she wasn’t going to want Greg anymore, either. She wasn’t going to trust him when she found out that he’d turned up the evidence that was going to get Josh convicted.

  Even if Josh did take a plea agreement, which would require mandatory counseling, Jasmine might still turn on Greg. Josh could, and probably would, tell her that he wasn’t guilty but was taking the plea because he had no choice. With the new evidence, Josh wasn’t going to win this case. His own attorney had agreed with William on that one.

  But Greg would be there for her. As long as she’d let him be. He was already getting her the truth she’d requested. For some reason, hers was the life he was meant to save. And he was damned well going to do it.

  Fate had let his small family remain intact. He wasn’t about to piss her off.

  * * *

  Jasmine was just closing up her classroom on Monday when her phone rang. She practically dropped her bag, she was fumbling so voraciously to get to the cell before the ringing stopped. It had to be Greg. She hadn’t heard from him the night before—she figured he’d gotten in too late and had probably been on the phone with his parents. But he knew what time she finished teaching and...

  It wasn’t Greg. It was Josh.

  “I took the plea agreement, Jas,” were his first words. She sank down to one of the small chairs at the row of desks where she’d been standing, her eyes flooding with tears. Shivering in spite of her almost knee-length, fleece-lined red sweatshirt she was wearing with black leggings, she hugged her bag and listened, trying to determine Josh’s state of mind. To know how to help him. To wipe her nose so she didn’t sniffle and expose the fact that she was crying.

  “Listen, I need to see you. They had all this stuff, and...anyway, I took the agreement because my attorney got them to lift my visitation restrictions,” he said. “He told them that I’m in the process of granting you permanent custody of Bella and asked that I be allowed to visit without restriction or supervision, dependent solely upon your say-so.”

  Her heart lifted a little. She’d do whatever she had to keep Bella wholly in his life. If it was up to her, then they were home free. She could move in with him. Or he could move in with her. Either way.

  “I need to see her. Jas, please? I took the agreement. Please let me see her.”

  “Of course.” It would take a day or several before things were official, she got that. But Josh had sold himself out for strictly one purpose—the freedom to be in his daughter’s life. He’d already missed three weeks. “Come over for dinner,” she told him.

  “I was hoping you’d bring her to the cottage.” He sounded like he was starting to cry. “I’ve signed paperwork, but nothing is official yet, and I don’t trust... I’ll tell you about it when I see you. I just... I think...someone...might be watching your place and will do anything to see me suffer more. But I need to see you two, Jasmine. Please? Just for an hour or so? And remember to turn your cell phone off.”

  The cottage. Their safe place. When they’d been kids, they’d found the abandoned two-room shack not far from the land their father had owned for hunting. During the long hours with everyone together during their numerous California vacations, Josh and Jasmine would head to the cottage when they’d have to stay at their vacation home alone with their dad when he was on a rampage. Jasmine had done her best to clean the place up, in spite of rotted wood and splintery floors. She brought rugs from the vacation home their parents’ had purchased. Some pillows she’d found in the attic. A lantern that ran on batteries. And some blankets.

  When they’d grown and received their settlements, Josh had bought the place. Fixed it up. She hadn’t known until one year for Christmas he’d taken her there. Surprised her with the completely renovated little cottage, complete with electric and running water.

  “I’m on my way,” she told him. He’d just done the unthinkable because he loved his daughter that much. Even if the paperwork wasn’t official yet, the court had agreed to release his visitation restrictions. There was no way she was going to deny him this.

  * * *

  Greg got the call from William shortly after four. He’d been out investigating a barn, an old crime scene from a cold case William had been assigned, and hadn’t had good cell reception.

  “He refused to take the plea,” the prosecutor told him. “We sweetened the deal as you suggested, offering to remove all visitation restrictions, and he still turned it down. Said there was nothing anyone was going to do to get him to admit to being an abuser.”

  “You think he’s a flight risk?”

  “His attorney didn’t think so. Says the man adamantly maintains his innocence and is confident that the truth will win out in court.”

  Starting his vehicle, Greg waited while the phone switched to car mode. Either the man was more out of touch than he’d thought—making him more of a danger?—or he was...

  “You think there’s a chance that he really is innocent?” William asked. “Just asking for your gut response,” he continued. “I know what the evidence says.”

  A moment he hadn’t expected was right there, offering itself to him. If he sided with Josh, would William drop the case? And let an escalating situation get worse?

  Let Josh continue on in denial, either just public or personal, too, until he put someone he loved in the hospital, or worse?

  If he didn’t
, would Heidi get away with stripping a man of everything he held dear, out of spite or revenge?

  “I don’t know.” He told the truth and rang off.

  He had to call Jasmine. Not to talk about the case.

  Just to hear her voice.

  * * *

  Josh and Bella played for the entire hour. He’d greeted her with a hug. They held up their respective cell phones—a ritual of sorts—to show each device was off. Because of their shared need to always know there was somewhere they could go and be completely safe, they always turned off their cell phones before they got near the cabin. She did hers half an hour out. Josh did his when he left town.

  And then he was rolling in the grass with his daughter in his arms. Jasmine had thought they’d have a chance to talk. He’d said he had things to show her. But the time was gone before she even realized it. The cottage was almost an hour from home, and she had to get the toddler fed and then it was bath and bedtime. Still, she hated to stop the fun. The sound of Bella’s giggles while her father played horsey with her, the smile on Josh’s face, were all that mattered.

  “I hungry,” Bella said a few minutes later, taking care of Jasmine’s hesitation. Glancing at her brother as he lay flat on the expensive wool rug with his daughter climbing on top of his chest, she knew he knew it was time, too. His expression had grown serious. “I hungry, Daddy,” Bella said, giving a bounce and giggling.

  “Well, Daddy has just the thing for you, then,” Josh said, taking her with him as he rose, throwing her up in the air but never letting her body leave his hands.

  He was always so careful with her.

  Such a great dad.

  “I’m planning to drive through for some grilled chicken,” she told him. There was a place right by the freeway, not ten minutes away. “You can come with us and we can eat there, if you’d like.”

  “Chicken!” Bella hollered. The little girl loved her chicken. Fried. Grilled. Baked. She wasn’t too fond of vegetables, but she’d eat chicken every meal if she could.

  “How about macaroni and cheese?” Josh suggested, and she frowned. Most chicken places offered the side dish—Bella’s second favorite food—but the one by the freeway did not. Josh knew that. They’d had a meltdown with Bella there about a year before.

  “I’ll be right back,” Josh said. He ran out to his vehicle and came in carrying a sack full of groceries. “How about if we make chicken and mac and cheese here?” he suggested to his daughter, pulling out her favorite frozen meal.

  “Josh,” Jasmine said. He’d asked her for an hour. She hadn’t packed anything for a longer stay for Bella, who, while potty-trained, was still wearing pull-up, disposable diapers at night.

  Looking at her over the top of the bag, Josh said, “Please?” And, of course, when his big brown eyes—just like hers and their mom’s—implored her, she couldn’t deny him.

  He’d had a bad day. The worst. So he could have hours like the one he’d just spent. They could do dinner. And if Bella fell asleep in the car seat on the way home, she could always carry her into the house and put her to bed. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d changed her niece while Bella was asleep.

  Might even be better that way. Bella had cried for several minutes the last time Josh left before she was asleep.

  While Josh and Bella pretended to help her, but really just played silly games in the small kitchen area, Jasmine made dinner for the three of them.

  “You got a whole gallon of milk,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s going to spoil before you get it all the way home.” Giving his shoulder a nudge with her knee as he crawled past her, she capped the container and put it in the fridge. Along with the pound of butter he’d also purchased for the quarter of a cup she needed.

  They kept the refrigerator stocked with essentials that held longer shelf lives, like condiments. There was usually some cheese and a few other things in the freezer. And boxed food in the cupboards. But opened butter and milk...he’d need to take those with him.

  It wasn’t until after they ate and she was just putting away the rest of the dishes—Josh had offered to help, but she’d told him to spend the time with Bella—that she noticed her brother had brought in a couple of more bags. Along with a duffel.

  And she got it. He was planning to stay. Maybe even until his court date on Thursday to officially record his plea before the judge. Her heart lightened a bit more. He was taking care of himself. Coming to their haven because it was where they’d always gone to get healthy.

  To find security and freedom from fear. To remember that they were valuable human beings with rights. That they were strong and capable and would be okay.

  All reminders that she wanted to give him. He’d known how to access them, even before she’d thought of it. That was Josh—dealing with the bad by taking action to bring out the good. She was proud of him.

  They’d get through this. Heidi could be going to jail for her attack on Jasmine. And even if she didn’t, there’d most likely be a permanent restraining order. They were going to be okay. Josh was going to be okay.

  It was just a bump in the road.

  CHAPTER 21

  Her phone went immediately to voice mail. Again. Greg had been trying to reach Jasmine for a couple of hours, and she wasn’t picking up.

  Josh had obviously gone straight to her from the meeting with his lawyer. She knew what Greg had been doing the previous week—the evidence he’d turned up against her brother.

  And she was clearly no longer speaking to him.

  Because she believed her brother was innocent.

  And because she now thought Greg had been lying to her, using her, all along?

  He thought about the way she’d moved on top of him—and beneath him—just three days before and ached like he’d never ached in his life.

  He needed to see her. To explain.

  He couldn’t explain. He worked for the prosecution. The case was going to trial.

  He needed to hold her.

  He needed her to trust him.

  Which meant he had to let her come to him.

  Or not.

  Downing a cold meat sandwich for dinner, along with a protein shake, he went down the hall to his gym, turned on the television mounted to the wall and listened to voices droning on as he worked out. Doing what he could to deal with the frustration of knowing that there were so many things he couldn’t fix.

  * * *

  Leaving the light on over the sink in the clean kitchen to welcome Josh after they left, Jasmine went to find Bella and get her loaded up for the drive home. They could still make it by her bedtime. Which was important; the toddler had to be up the next morning for Jasmine to be able to get them both ready to go to the Stand. Luckily she’d already prepared the materials for the next day’s lessons.

  The cottage had grown quiet, which was saying a lot since it was really just two rooms—the big room that served as the living area with the kitchen divided off with a half wall in one corner, and the bedroom. Josh had had a lovely full bath added on to the back of the original structure, off the bedroom.

  Glancing outside, she didn’t see the twosome in the yard, so headed through the bedroom door, figuring her brother was having his daughter go potty before the drive home.

  The sound of splashing water hit her before she could see inside the bathroom. On his knees beside the mammoth tub, Josh was leaning over, bathing Bella.

  “I thought I’d give her a bath,” he said while Bella grinned up at her and said, “Watch, Auntie JJ!” At which point she picked up a squeezable, colorful letter block toy and pushed it under the water, laughing as it popped back up through the water at her.

  Jasmine smiled. Made some appropriate comment to the toddler but didn’t say much else. She understood. Josh was struggling. She ached for him.

  So much.

  If there was a w
ay they could spend the night...

  But she couldn’t. She had to work in the morning. Bella had daycare. There were no official orders yet allowing Josh to spend the night with Bella, and she wasn’t going to let him screw things up at this point.

  Worrying all of a sudden that she’d already taken way too much of a chance of that, bringing Bella out to the cottage, afraid she’d given in to Josh at a time when he’d needed her to be strong for him, to see the bigger picture, she calmed herself down. No one but the two of them knew about the cabin. It had always been their secret. Just the two of them. That’s what made it so safe.

  Josh had purchased it through one of his holdings as just a piece of land. The cottage hadn’t had running water or electricity. It hadn’t been taxable. She was sure there were permits somewhere for adding the electric, but the water, that was on well.

  Weird, maybe, but when you grew up in a home of terror, you learned to do what you had to do to live healthily in a world with very few guarantees.

  Not wanting Bella to catch on to her changed mood, not wanting to ruin the last few minutes Josh had with Bella, she left them alone and went out to gather her bag and the few things she’d taken out of the backpack full of Bella’s things she always carried anytime she had the little girl. An emergency juice box. A few travel toys. A change of clothes. A couple pairs of big girl panties. Usually a pull-up or two, but the little girl had grown, changed sizes, and she hadn’t thought to put larger ones in. She hadn’t been planning to take Bella anywhere to spend the night.

  They weren’t going to stay the night. She was not going to let her brother convince her to go that far. As much as she owed him, as much as she understood, it didn’t feel right having Bella away from her home overnight.