by Katie Ashley
“No problem,” Dad replied, opening the door on the SUV.
Colt was already on the other side and helped Emmett slide across the seat. Once Emmett was inside, Remy closed the door. He gave me an angry shake of his head before he hopped into the driver’s seat.
Dad turned back to me. I’d never seen him so livid at me. “I’ll have your mother come pick you up. I’ll meet you back at her house.” He then climbed into the passenger seat as Remy cranked up. Before he closed the door, he said, “We have a lot to talk about.”
Oh God, this was so very, very bad! What in the world possessed me to try to help Emmett Marshall escape? It was one thing to withhold the information, but to actually be sneaking him out the backdoor of the Brandewine Institute, it went against everything I had been taught. I shuddered.
As the car lights faded in the distance, Jackson turned back to me. Before I could protest my innocence, he shook his head. “It’s all right, Jules. I know you kept your word, and I thank you for it. I better go back in. I’ve got to come up with some excuse to Evan as to why Dad left.”
Then he left Wyatt and I alone. The night’s emotions crashed down on me, and tears blurred my eyes. When Wyatt stepped forward, I shook my head. “You gave me your word!”
“I know I did. And I swear to you I had nothing to do with them showing up tonight. It had to be someone else.”
“I trusted you, Wyatt!”
His face clouded with anger. “Dammit, Jules, why won’t you believe me? Have I ever given you one reason not to trust me?”
What he said made sense, but at the same time, he was the only other person who knew about the dance and the potential for Emmett to be there. “Just leave me alone,” I murmured. At his wounded expression, I turned and started walking away.
Chapter Twenty
When I whirled around the corner of the building, my legs turned to rubber and could no longer support me. I stumbled over to one of the iron benches and collapsed. While my breath came in frantic pants, I tried desperately to calm myself down. Dad hates me. The boys hate me. Wyatt sold me out. Those words kept echoing through my head and made it hard to get a grip. Hot tears streaked down my cheeks.
For the first time in a long time, Mom came through for me. Instead of sending Andrew, she screeched up in Granddaddy’s Mercedes. “Jules!” she cried, hopping out before she barely had the car in park. “Oh sweetheart,” she said when she saw my face.
Using the back of my hands, I swiped away my mascara blackened tears. “I screwed up and Dad hates me. Oh and so do Remy and Colt….Wyatt...”
She shook her head. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think.
I gave a short, almost maniacal laugh. “Oh yeah, it’s that bad.”
Taking my hand, Mom pulled me to my feet. “Come on, let’s get back home.”
I didn’t say a word on the drive back to the house. I just stared out the window, watching the mansion of the Historic District go by in a blurry mess. When we got back to the house, Aunt Vivian and Andrew were waiting on us in the foyer. “Julianne, honey, are you all right?” Aunt Vivian asked, drawing me into her embrace.
“No, I’m in the 7th ring of Hell,” I murmured against her neck.
She pulled away and gave me a reassuring smile. “It’ll be all right. You’ll see.”
Andrew patted me on the back. “Vivian’s right. You hang in there.” He then headed down the hall to go park the car. Guess he didn’t trust Mom to do it.
I sunk down on the marble stairs. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I don’t think it’s possible for everything to be all right.”
“Would you like something to drink, Julianne?” Aunt Vivian asked.
“No,” I murmured, keeping my eyes trained on the door.
Mom came up the first step. “Don’t you want to take a shower and change?”
“No,” I repeated.
“Well, at least come in to the sitting room to wait on your dad.”
I shook my head. “I want to stay right here.”
With a sigh, Mom turned and then went into the sitting room with Aunt Vivian on her heels.
I don’t know how long I waited. Time seemed to crawl to a standstill. And just after it seemed an eternity had gone by and my butt had gone completely asleep on the hard marble stair, the doorbell rang. I raced down and flung it open.
Dad and the boys stood on the doorstep. We stared each other down for a moment before a voice behind me caused me to jump. “Julianne, have you forgotten your manners? Ask your father inside,” Mom commanded.
I held the door open wide to allow Dad and the boys to step inside the foyer. Tension hung heavy enough that you could have cut it with a chain saw. It wasn’t just about me and my major screw-up. It was also Mom and Dad seeing each other face to face for the first time since their divorce.
The silence was broken by Aunt Vivian sashaying in from the sitting room. “Well, hello there, all you handsome St. James men!” she exclaimed before grabbing both boys in a hug. “It’s so nice to see you both.”
“Nice to see you, too,” they echoed with a smile.
She turned to Dad. “And Nathaniel, it’s been a long time.”
“Yes, it has. It’s nice to see you, Vivian,” Dad replied.
“Why just how long has it been? I do declare the years just seem to have flown.”
With Aunt Vivian and Dad occupied, Colt turned to me and hissed, “What the hell were you thinking, Jules?”
“Don’t you start in on me, too!”
“Oh, we have just as much reason to be pissed as Dad does. You sold us out, Little Sis!” Remy said.
“That’s not the whole story. If you would let me explain—”
“I’d love to see you try to talk your way out of this one,” Colt countered.
“Boys!” Dad barked, causing the twins to jump.
Aunt Vivian cleared her throat. “Colt, Remy, strong, strapping young men like you must be hungry. Why don’t you two come into the kitchen and we’ll see what lovely leftovers Alice has for us?”
The boys reluctantly followed her down the hallway. Mom glanced between me and Dad. “Why don’t we go into the sitting room?”
“Jeez, you and the sitting room,” I muttered under my breath.
“That sounds fine,” Dad replied, motioning me across the hall.
When we got inside, he pointed to the tapestry settee. “Sit down, Jules.” I shuddered at the hard edge of his voice. I don’t think I’d ever heard him use that tone with me before.
I eased down on the settee. When Mom started to leave the room, Dad gave a slight jerk of his head. A surprise look flashed on her face before she came to hover behind me.
“So would you like to explain what happened tonight?”
“I know it’s hard for you to understand, but--”
Dad snorted contemptuously. “Well, let’s take a look at it for a moment. My daughter, who has been a part of my Apprehension Team for over a year, aided a known fugitive. Exactly what part don’t I understand?”
“The reason why I did it.”
“Oh, I think we all can surmise what your motivation was in the situation.”
“Nathaniel,” Mom cautioned.
I narrowed my eyes at Dad. “You think that I could just fall head over heels for some guy, and forget everything I’ve ever been taught about bounty hunting?”
“Do you deny that you have feelings for Jackson?”
“Why are you even asking me that? You know Wyatt and I are together!”
A vein throbbed on Dad’s forehead, and he seemed to be struggling to keep from absolutely losing control. “You could have momentarily forgotten about that. I know all too well the charm and hold the Marshall men have over the women of this family!”
My head snapped back like I had been slapped while Mom let out a strangled cry behind me. Dad’s livid expression momentarily softened. A wounded look replaced it. “Jules…Annabel, I’m sorry.” He eased down on the settee beside mine. �
��Here I am trying to blame everyone else when I’m the one who let feelings get in the way.”
“When I asked Big Mama if you knew about Mom and Emmett, she said you didn’t.”
He shook his head. “No, I did know about your Mom and Emmett when I gave you this case.”
I gasped. “I can’t believe it…so you used me?”
“It’s not something I’m very proud of. After Raye called and told me Emmett had jumped bail, there was a part of me that wanted to be the one to lock him up. I wanted, in some warped way, for him to suffer for what he had done to me and my family.” He ran a shaky hand through his salt and pepper hair. “But when my usual methods came up with nothing, I knew I needed to take a different angle.” He gave me a sad smile. “The opportunity for you to spend time with your mom while hunting Jackson presented itself, and I acted on it. I’m sorry.” Dad then turned to Mom. “But the truth is, it wasn’t all Emmett’s fault. It isn’t anybody’s fault. It just happened.”
She reached over to rub his shoulder. “Nathaniel, you’re far too forgiving when it comes to what I did, and you know it.”
“We both know things hadn’t been working for awhile. I was too busy with work, and you were never really happy in Texas.”
With the conversation getting pretty heavy between the two of them, I made a t-sign with my hands. “Time out guys. I’m still here, you know.”
Dad chuckled. “Okay, Jules, we hear you. We’ll save the personal talk for later.” Mom nodded in agreement.
“So why did you help Emmett?” Dad asked.
“It’s true that I care about Jackson—but it’s strictly as a friend. What I did…it was for Evan.”
“Who is Evan?”
“Jackson’s half brother who has Down Syndrome,” Mom answered for me.
I then filled Dad in on meeting Evan at the Brandewine Institute, Jackson’s drunken revelation, and then his request. His face softened. “That’s truly admirable, Jules. I can’t fully agree with it, but I can see what motivated you.”
“So what happens now?” I asked.
“You mean with you and the Apprehension Team?”
“Yeah,” I murmured.
“I don’t know, Jules,” Dad said, rubbing his eyes. “Part of me realizes that I put too much on you to handle at your age, while the other reasons that this is the only way of life you’ve ever known, and you should have known better.”
“I know, but—”
Dad held up his hands. “You aided and abetted a fugitive, Jules. That part is very, very serious.”
I cringed. Hearing Dad say my crimes out loud made them seem ten times worse.
“So, I think the only fair thing is to take you off the Apprehension Team for the next two weeks.”
Ouch. I wasn’t expecting it to be that severe. I tried to fight back the tears that threatened to cloud my eyes. “I guess that sounds fair.”
“You can do office work for Raye—filing, making coffee, answering phones, but no leg work or jumper research.”
The thought of being off the Apprehension Team was horrible, but the thought of having to see Wyatt was even worse. At my expression, Mom laughed. “It’s not so very bad, Julianne. After all, you could have had to give up Raye’s completely and go to Garden Club meetings with Aunt Vivian and me.”
“No, it’s just I never want to see Wyatt again after he totally sold me out.”
Dad’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“He told you about Emmett, didn’t he?”
“No, it was your cousin, Bryn, who called us.”
The next thing I knew I was sprinting up the stairs. Mom and Dad shouted my name, but I ignored them. All I could focus on was getting to Bryn. I threw open her door with such force it banged into the wall.
She was lounging on her bed, flipping through a magazine. Her phone lay beside her, and she must’ve been talking on speakerphone. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What am I doing? What were you doing when you called my dad about Emmett?”
Her dark eyes widened. “I don’t have to talk to you about this.”
“Excuse me?” I stalked over to the bed. “When Jackson told me that you were good to Evan, I couldn’t believe it. I mean, how could it be possible for someone as self-centered and selfish as you to actually be decent to anyone? But then you go and prove me right by totally turning on him and Jackson. You knew how important tonight was to Evan, but all you could care about was trying to get back at me and Jackson! In case you missed the memo, I’m not with Jackson anyway. I’m with Wyatt.”
With a smirk, she asked, “The one who kissed me at Jackson’s party?”
That did it.
I lunged for her. I had just gotten in a perfect right hook to her face when Mom appeared in the doorway. “No, Julianne!” she cried. It took both Colt and Remy to pull me off of her.
“God you are such a freak! You could’ve have killed me!” she screamed.
“Yeah, well, remember that the next time you try to screw someone over that I care about,” I snapped, before shoving away from Colt and Remy. “And just for the record, you kissed Wyatt, and he refused your hook-up invitation!”
She shook her head wildly at me. “I’m so out of here. I’ll stay at my dad’s until you’re gone.”
“Good riddance,” I grumbled before heading out in the hallway. Once Mom and the boys were out of the bedroom, Bryn slammed the door. I glanced up to see Colt and Remy grinning at me. “Oh, so you’re not pissed at me anymore?”
Colt shrugged. “Maybe we didn’t have all the details.”
“Uh-huh, or maybe you were just wrong?”
“Us wrong? Never,” Remy said, with a grin.
I couldn’t help but laugh. When I dared to look over at Mom, I was surprised to find she wasn’t completely horrified and appalled at my behavior. Instead, she looked like she was about to laugh. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that,” I said.
“Just don’t let it happen again, okay?”
“Seriously?”
She nodded. “Now go wash your face and go to bed. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
Inwardly, I groaned, but I trudged on down the hall to my room. As I closed the door behind me, I slid down onto the floor. All the evening’s emotions converged on this moment, and I broke down. I fell asleep crumpled in the floor in my ruined fancy dress.
Chapter Twenty-One
Seven days, fourteen hours, and sixteen minutes later…
I glanced down at my phone for the hundredth time, but no text message from Dad or Wyatt magically appeared. Mom sighed beside me. “Julianne, if you would rather go work at Raye’s, just let me know. We can do this another time.”
“No, I’m fine,” I murmured, shoving my phone back into my pocket.
Mom and I moved forward with the other tourists in line for the Juliet Gordon Lowe house—or the place where the lady who started the Girl Scouts lived. We’d been spending several Mommy and Me days, as I liked to joke, exploring some of Savannah’s hotspots. Mom had been trying to fill my days with fun things since I’d been taken off the Apprehension Team.
I needed something to fill my time since I refused to go to Raye’s. The fact that I hadn’t been out on another call with Dad and the boys was killing me, so I totally welcomed the days out of the house and out of Raye’s office. I’d even broken down and gone with her to a garden club function. I thought she’d died and gone to heaven having me there with her.
Of course our little excursions were not just for filling my time away from Dad. They were also about getting my mind off of Wyatt. If not being on the Apprehension Team was painful, being without Wyatt was excruciating. I hadn’t heard anything from him since the night Dad had busted Emmett. Not a phone call, a text message, or even a smoke signal. When I had told him to leave me alone, he had done the totally unmale thing and really listened.
The sucky thing was that even though I knew he hadn’t ratted Emmett out, I still couldn’t br
ing myself to call him or go to Raye’s. Call it stubbornness, call it being relationship deficient, or just plain stupid, I couldn’t do it. In the end, I just couldn’t swallow my pride, and I was in complete and total agony.
Mom adjusted her purse strap on her shoulder, and then she smiled. “Actually, I don’t know why I brought you here. You hated the Girl Scouts when you were in it.”
“I did not!” I protested. At Mom’s amused expression, I quickly added, “Okay, I loved it until it started interfering with my karate lessons.
“Thank goodness ballet didn’t interfere, and you at least did that for several years.”
“True. And all those leaps and plies did help me in karate, too.”
Mom laughed. “Well, that’s good then.”
Suddenly, my pocket buzzed, and I realized I had a text. I scrambled to get my phone out. When I read the message, I gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Mom asked.
“Dad says they’re going out this afternoon on some cases, and did I want to come!” I was so incredibly excited I actually did a little happy dance right there in the middle of the Juliet Gordon Lowe house. “I’m back! I’m actually back on the Apprehension Team!”
With a laugh, Mom patted my back. “Good for you, honey.” She glanced behind her. “Come on, let’s get you to an exit before you completely explode from pure happiness.”
I was never so happy to leave any place in all my life. I could barely contain myself on the drive over to Raye’s. It was hard to believe that Mom was actually encouraging me with bounty hunting and all. But she and I had come a long way in our relationship since I’d first arrived in Savannah.
She dropped me off with a smile. “Have fun, and be careful.”
When I blew through the door, Sherry beamed at me from the front desk. “Hello there, stranger. Glad to see you back.”
I returned her smile. “It’s good to be back.”
She motioned to Raye’s office. “They’re waiting for you.”
When I got to door, my hand hovered over the doorknob. I had to draw in a deep breath before I could push it open. Dad and Raye were at the white board writing down stats while Colt and Remy flipped through stat sheets. Wyatt hovered over his laptop. They all glanced up at me.
