All for Hope (6 page)

He shook his head. “I can't sleep there.” He peered at the sleeping girl, surrounded on all sides by pillows. “I might roll over and suffocate her.”

Hope smiled then snorted in amusement. “I promise she'll let you know if you roll onto her. Besides, that bed's big enough for you to have your space and Michelle to have hers.”

“
Hope—”

“
Please don't argue with me now, Bren. Just take the bed.” She turned away and took her hamburger to the table. “I just want to eat and sleep so we can get on the road tomorrow morning.”

Brennan stood from his seat and moved to the bed, sitting himself so far from the baby that he nearly tumbled over the edge. He looked up to see if Hope had seen his near fall. She kept her eyes averted, hiding a smile, and after a moment he grabbed the television remote. He began flipping through channels, stopping abruptly when he saw a baby’s picture flash onto the screen. He looked down at the infant sleeping beside him then back at the screen.

“
Hope—” he murmured, and she turned quickly.

A memorial for infant Michelle Taggert began at 4:45 this afternoon, the exact time the child was born in May. Family, friends and strangers all gathered, candles in hand, to grant prayers and remembrance to the infant abducted from her home.

A teary-eyed bear of man appeared, and Hope recognized Justine's father.

“
I can never forget or forgive this tragedy. My innocent young granddaughter was—”

He stopped suddenly, choking on his anguish, and shaking his head.

“
She took that poor baby girl and tried to excuse her crime with vicious accusations. I loved my granddaughter and my daughter with all my heart and—”

He shook his gray head again and placed his hand up to stop the cameras.

Her expression rigid, Hope watched as her own mother's face, pale, tear-streaked and sunken with grief, appeared on the screen. The woman fought against the reporters to get into her home, and that was when Hope quickly got up to flip off the television.

Bren rose and approached her.

“
Hope, I—”

“
Maybe you should get your shower, Bren,” she interrupted. “I'm gonna eat then get some sleep.”

He took several moments to stare at her, then turned and moved to the bathroom, not saying a word. Hope dropped her hamburger and groaned, feeling her stomach cramp, the muscles seizing over mixed feelings of helplessness and rage.

Brennan woke up with a start, jumping up and sucking in a loud breath. He flipped on the light and peered down at the baby beside him, thankful she was still asleep. Glancing at his watch, he saw that it was three o'clock in the morning, and he groaned, wondering what on earth could have made him wake up so early.

He heard a sound to his right and turned to find that Hope was no longer curled up asleep on the chair near the bed. He scanned the room for her then realized the sound he had heard was coming from the balcony.

When he slid the door open, he found her standing against the railing, looking out intently into the darkness. She did not turn to him, but her back stiffened when she heard him. His hand gently touched her shoulder, and a shiver passed through her body.

“
Are you okay?” Bren murmured near her ear.

Hope swallowed a sob and nodded her head in a jerky motion. Her chest rose as she inhaled deeply, and he could see she was struggling to pull herself together.

Finally she found the ability to speak. “Did the baby wake you up? Is she crying?”

“
No, I almost forgot she was there. I don't know why I got up. I just felt like something was wrong.”

“
Everything's fine.”

Brennan shook his head. “Why do you refuse to let me help you? Why won't you let me be here for you?”

She chuckled. “I don't remember you ever being so eager to help.”

He was quiet a moment. “I know. I was pretty much a stubborn dick.”

“
Are you saying I'm being stubborn?”

“
No, Hope, but you—”

Without warning she burst into tears. Brennan wasn't sure what to do then, so he just pulled her back against his chest and held her as if both their lives depended on it. She shook and sobbed for a few moments then dropped her head back against his shoulder and sighed as if in relief. Her hands clasped his tightly, like she was afraid to let go, and Bren suspected she probably was.

“
They all think I'm a monster,” she whispered in a husky voice. “All of them are pitying
that
man, and they all believe that I'm the monster. Am I, Bren? Should I have done this differently? Should I have just left her there until we could get an appeal?”

“
I don't know, Hope. I don't know anything about laws and courts, but I do know that you did what you thought was best. I think you're probably the most courageous person I know. You gave up all you had just to take care of that tiny little person in there. I don't know anyone who would have sacrificed that much for another person.”

Hope looked up at the stars and smiled. “Flattery. You were always good at that.”

She turned and took a step back from him. He knew she was looking for that “space” they always kept between them. Something pulled his blue eyes deep into her brown ones, and Brennan felt a warmth curl up inside his chest.

He didn’t know why he hadn’t told her he would be leaving her just as soon as she was settled. It wasn’t fair to keep her guessing, wondering what he would do. Still, he comforted himself, Hope knew him like no one else. She must know that he couldn’t give his whole life up for her forever.

Swallowing hard, consumed with an emotion that he had never felt and couldn’t identify, Brennan gave himself over to something he was familiar with, lust. Before she could protest, he erased the distance between them, and his lips covered hers. It wasn’t a hungry, smothering kiss, but it was filled with enough passion to set his pulse raging.

When they came apart, both were too stricken by what had happened to speak. Hope touched two fingers to her mouth and tried to move past him, but Bren grabbed her and forced her to look at him. His finger reached up to trail the line of a tear on her face. She shook her head and pulled away. Hurrying back inside, she curled herself into her chair, not saying a word. Bren did the same, hiding himself in his bed and refusing to think about the things going on inside him.

Sleep was just about to take him when he heard movement in Hope’s direction. He opened his eyes and flinched when she turned a light on in the entryway of the little hotel room. She crouched down beside the bed and looked at him with a resolute expression.

“
That’s not going to happen again, Bren. We know where we stand. We’ve known for a long time how things have to be between us, and I’m not going to let that sexy smile of yours suck me in again. You know what I mean, don’t you?”

He sat up on one elbow and scratched at his shoulder a minute. “Yeah. I know.”

“
Brennan Rawley, I mean it. I can’t—” Her voice cracked and she swallowed before continuing. “This is too hard without playing games with my heart. I know you’re not in this for the long-haul. You care, I get that. But you’re not the ‘playing for keeps kind.’”

She knows me like no one else.
He chided himself even as he felt a twinge somewhere in the right side of his chest. No truer words could have been spoken about him. He wasn’t the “playing for keeps kind”, and Hope deserved someone who would keep her— forever.

He chewed his tongue a moment then nodded. “You’re right. No games. We’re in this as friends. We’re in this to take care of her.” He glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping baby. “Okay?”

Hope smiled, but it was the sort of smile that made her look small, frail and alone. She nodded, placed her hand atop his and squeezed it, then stood and turned away from him to switch off the light. He heard her nestle into the chair again but as exhausted as he felt he couldn’t get his mind to stop churning. It was a bitter irony that Hope was the only person who knew and understood him for who he was. She loved him without question, and yet he still never managed to measure up to the man he believed he should be for her.

Officer Robert Guillory was an imposing man, tall of stature and with a wide chest and broad shoulders. He didn’t scare easily, he didn’t back down, and he didn’t take crap off anyone. He also could sniff out a worthless piece of shit from a mile away. Harold Taggert fit the bill.

The man was here in his office
again
. That wasn’t unusual in and of itself. His baby granddaughter had been taken from his own home. The kidnapper had walked in the back door, wrapped the baby up in her own bed covers, and gone right out through the same door.

But that wasn’t what seemed to have Harold Taggert fit to be tied. It was that Hope Sheffield had sullied his name. During the first interview the morning the child showed up missing, the man raged on and on about how he was not a molester. The grief that should have been within his brown eyes was missing.

Officially, the investigation into the kidnapping was over. Sheffield and the child were gone, lost to the sea. The bodies weren’t recovered, but the late season tropical storm hadn’t left much of the boat to find either. Clearly they couldn’t have survived.
Surely.

“
What can I do for you, Mr. Taggert?” Guillory asked, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands against his stomach.

“
When am I going to get some answers?”

Officer Guillory sighed and said nothing for a moment.

“
I’ve given you all the answers I have. See my desk. The file with your granddaughter’s name isn’t here. The case is closed, Mr. Taggart. I’m sorry because I know this is difficult for you, but Ms. Sheffield and the baby are dead.”
Bullshit
, Guillory’s mind insisted.

“
I want the file. I know you’ve investigated that woman, and I want to know everything about her. I want you to tell the media what you know so that my name will be cleared.”

Guillory had a look he liked to use. His first wife had called it the “cold, dead look.” When they were still happy, he used to joke with her about the meaning of those words.
Does that mean I look like I’m dead?
She said it meant his eyes were so cold, a person felt like they would rather be dead than to have him glaring at them.