Just One Kiss (26 page)

His father was older. Grayer, but still strong, with a straight back and cold eyes.

“Why aren’t you dead, old man?”

“I should be. They thought I was. You did, too, and you should have known better.”

“How’d you do it?”

“Fake my death? Easy. There was a man in prison just my size. I made friends with him, convinced him to escape with me. Got the dentist to forge the dental records. I was declared dead. And here I am.”

“You killed him, too.” It wasn’t a question.

“The dentist? Sure. Why not? Killing’s the best part. He thought he was going to make a shitload of money off my little trick.” Bart kissed the top of Lillie’s head. “To be honest, I can’t decide what I should do. Kill her first and let you watch, or kill you first. Then you’d die knowing you didn’t protect her from whatever I decide to do.”

Justice knew his father wasn’t interested in young girls, at least not sexually. Lillie would be spared that. But if Bart made good on his word, then Lillie would die and not quickly. Bart had always enjoyed the process.

“A quality problem,” his father said with a cackle.

“I’m getting all this,” Felicia said in a low voice. “So are the others. They’re moving in. They only need a few more minutes.”

Justice knew they wouldn’t be here soon enough. He wasn’t sure anyone was a trained sharpshooter, and with Lillie so close, she could easily be hit.

Justice took aim.

Bart picked up the girl and held her in front of him like a shield. Lillie screamed. He lowered the gun and Bart lowered the girl.

“You see how this is going to be,” his father told him. “I’m glad of that. I thought you were too far gone to play the game. What were you thinking, son? It was one thing when you were in the military. You belonged there. But this town? With folks like her?” He shook Lillie. “You can’t. It’s just not right.”

Justice watched and waited. Bart would make a mistake. He had to.

“You’ve got too much of me in you, boy.”

“You’re right about that,” Justice said. “You fooled them all and you found me. How’d you do it?”

“You got your picture in the paper, boy. Guarding some fat-cat banker in Europe. From there I got your name. Justice. What the hell?”

“One of the marshals suggested it. I like it.”

His father glared at him. “You’re my son and you’ll take my name. You hear me?”

“I want nothing from you.”

Bart was getting angry. The tactic had risks, but Justice knew how fast he could fire. At this distance, taking out Bart was a sure thing. It was all going to be about the timing.

“You never were right in the head,” his father said angrily. “Siding with the cops. That was wrong. You had too much of your mother in you. Too much of her weakness. I tried to beat it out of you, but I wasn’t hard enough on you. Damn you, boy.”

Bart stepped to the side. For a second, he released his hold on Lillie. The girl spun.

“Lillie, get down!”

The shout filled the quiet, but Justice hadn’t been the one to call out. Before he even got his rifle in position, a shot rang out and Bart dropped to the ground.

Not knowing who had intervened, Justice was already moving. He crossed the clearing and grabbed Lillie.

“It’s me,” he told her, peeling away the blindfold, even as he carried her into the woods and away from Bart. “You’re okay now.”

He removed the gag next and she gasped for air, then started to cry.

A tall, dark-haired man stepped out from behind a tree. Ford Hendrix shrugged. “I had the better shot,” he said. “So I took it. Hope you don’t mind.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

P
ATIENCE
WATCHED
HER
daughter sleep. For the first two nights, her daughter had slept fitfully, but now she was more relaxed and settled.

The past couple of days had been a blur. Once Lillie had been rescued, there had been a whirlwind of conversations with the police and counselors. She’d been checked out by her doctor and hailed a hero by the town.

Patience slipped out of the room and returned to the living room. She’d finally convinced Ava and Steve it was okay for them to leave. Patience knew she would be sleeping in Lillie’s room for however long it took for her daughter to feel safe.

From what she could tell, Lillie was healing. Patience wished she could say the same for herself. Every time she closed her eyes, she was back in the horror of what had happened. She was so tired of talking about the kidnapping, yet nearly every daylight hour brought another concerned friend or neighbor stopping by with food and good wishes.

The front door opened and Justice walked in. She crossed to him knowing he would hold her and make all the scary parts go away. He’d been there for her constantly, stepping between her and the authorities, directing everyone. He’d been the one Lillie wanted to talk to.

“How’s she doing?” he asked, stroking her hair.

“Better. She’s really asleep and she seems calmer.” She managed a slight smile. “I think she’s enjoying being a celebrity. Everyone is calling her a hero.”

“She was very brave.”

“I know. I’m glad school’s out. She doesn’t have to deal with telling the same story over and over again. By the time summer camp starts on Monday, most kids will be done talking about it.” She looked up at him. “You missed dinner.”

“Didn’t you get my message? I had a meeting.”

“I did get the message. And I saved you some mac and cheese. It’s homemade and really delicious.”

“The casserole brigade.”

“You can mock it all you want, but this town comes through for people. Based on the rate casseroles are flowing into my freezer, I won’t have to cook for at least a month. I kind of like that.”

He touched her hair, then the side of her face. His blue gaze seemed to be studying her. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m okay. I go from terrified to numb and back about fifteen times an hour.”

“That’s normal. It will get better. The mind heals.”

“How are
you
doing?”

He shrugged. “Fine. I wasn’t the one who took Bart out.”

No, that had been Ford Hendrix. Patience couldn’t believe he’d simply arrived in town, heard what was happening and gone off to help.

“You would have,” she said, knowing it was true. “You would have killed your father to protect Lillie.”

“Don’t make it sound like more than it was. Bart should have died years ago.”

“Still.”

He dropped his hands to her shoulders. “I’m not a hero. Don’t make me into one. Bart was an evil man. I’m glad he’s gone.”

She was, too. Maybe it was wrong, but she was willing to live with the flaw.

“You saved us and I’ll never forget that.” She grabbed his hand. “Come on. Let me feed you. We’ll both feel better after you eat.”

She expected him to smile or make a joke. But he did neither and he didn’t move.

“I can’t do this,” he told her.

“What? Did you eat already? That’s fine. The casserole will...”

His dark eyes had a distant expression. As if he was really somewhere else. And then she knew. He wasn’t talking about dinner. He was talking about leaving her.

“No,” she said, careful to keep her voice low so she wouldn’t wake Lillie. So she wouldn’t cry out, because once she started, she would never stop. It was too soon, she thought desperately. She didn’t have anything left to get through him leaving. “No, you can’t. You can’t.”

She knew she was pleading, that when it came to the man in front of her, she had no pride. “You said you loved me.”

“I meant it. I do love you, and Lillie. But I can’t risk hurting you.”

“You won’t.”

“I will.” He lowered his arms to his sides. “Somehow, somewhere, I’ll drop my guard.”

“You’re not your father. You’re nothing like him.” She had to convince him. He had to understand; otherwise, he would go and she didn’t think she could survive that.

“I won’t take the chance.”

She felt tears forming. She would have sworn she was cried out, but obviously not. Pain tore through her, making her want to fall to the floor. She folded her arms across her chest, holding herself together as best she could.

“We need you,” she whispered. “Doesn’t that mean anything? I love you and Lillie loves you and we need you.”

He stiffened, as if he’d been struck. Or stabbed. She wanted to be grateful for his obvious pain, but she was suffering too much herself.

“Justice, don’t. Please, you can’t walk away. This is where you belong, with us. We’re a family.”

He drew her against him. For a second, she thought she’d won. She allowed relief to relax her as she breathed in the scent of him.

He drew back and stared into her eyes. “I will love you forever,” he told her.

Anger joined pain. She hung on to the rage because it was strong and right now she needed that strength.

“You’re lying,” she said coldly. “If you loved me you would stay.”

“It’s not that simple,” he told her, then turned and walked out of her life.

* * *

“W
HAT
WAS
I thinking?” Ford asked as he leaned back against the sofa in Justice’s suite and sipped his beer.

When his friend had arrived, Justice had taken a break from packing. When they were done, Justice would throw his suitcases in his car and leave town. It didn’t matter that it was ten at night. He liked the dark. And he needed to be gone. Now that he’d told Patience the truth, he owed it to her to disappear. He didn’t want her to have to worry about running into him.

Justice picked up his own beer and sat across from his friend. “You grew up here. What did you expect?”

A muscle in Ford’s jaw twitched. “Not a hero’s welcome. I can’t step foot outside without someone running up and welcoming me home. Old ladies are hugging me and I swear one of them pinched my butt. My mother checked on me five times last night. Do you know what it’s like to come awake and find your
mother
hovering over the bed? I’m thirty-three years old, for God’s sake. She needs to leave me alone.”

Under other circumstances, he would have found his friend’s pain amusing. Just not tonight. Not when he’d left Patience earlier that evening, had lingered outside long enough to hear her start to cry and to know he was the cause of her pain.

He wanted to make it better. He wanted to tell her he wasn’t worth it. Only why should she believe him? All he’d done since arriving was screw up her life. He’d allowed her to believe in him. He’d fallen in love with her and let her think it was safe to love him back. Because of him, her daughter had been kidnapped by a madman.

Ford took another swallow of his beer. “She wants to help me find an apartment,” he said with a shudder. “I’ve been on my own for, what, fourteen or fifteen years, I’ve been all over the world, I’ve been to war and my mother thinks I need help finding an apartment.”

“She loves you.”

“She’s smothering me. This has got to stop.”

For the first time since the kidnapping, Justice managed a smile. “It’s been forty-eight hours, bro. You need to suck it up.”

Ford gave him the finger. “She’s one of the many reasons I didn’t want to come back. Having to deal with her and my sisters.” He swore. “They’re growing up to be like her. Dakota and Montana have both offered me a place to stay. Only Nevada seems to get that I might not want to be treated like a runaway ten-year-old.”

“Life is pain.”

Ford looked at him over the bottle. “You’re not very sympathetic.”

“I have my own troubles.”

“Why? You’re a hero, too. You took on your old man and won.”

“You shot him.”

“We can’t all be lucky.” Ford’s dark eyes studied him thoughtfully. “Well, hell. You’re leaving.”

“I can’t stay.”

“Sure you can, but you don’t want to.” He frowned. “No way. I thought people were just talking, but they’re telling the truth, aren’t they? About Patience. You know, they’re saying she’s in love with you.”

Justice tightened his grip on his bottle of beer. “I know,” he said, trying not to flinch. “It’s my fault. I let her think things could work out.”

“Instead you’re going to run.”

Justice looked at his friend. “You saw my father. You know better than most what kind of man does that. You’ve seen what I’m capable of. How thin a line separates us. Would you risk it?”

Ford put down his beer and raised his arms so he could link his fingers behind his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess it depends on how bad you want it. Being with her, I mean. You’re the most controlled guy I know. You’re cool in a fight, deadly in an op. You’re not ruled by emotion. Bart lived on hate. It ate him up until there was no humanity left. You’re not like that.”

“I could be.”

“You could. That’s up to you. Do you love her?”

A question Justice didn’t want to answer. But he was also unwilling to deny his feelings for Patience. He nodded.

“Then think long and hard before you walk away. Once it’s done, it can’t be undone. There’s no going back. From what I hear, Patience is a sensible woman. She raised a kid, started a business. She’s not going to be made a fool of twice. When she’s over you, it’s finished.”

* * *

P
ATIENCE
LEFT
WORK
at her usual time. It was warm and bright and she couldn’t figure out how the sun could look so happy. As she walked toward her house, she noticed the children playing in the park and the flowers in the planter boxes in front of the various businesses.

Life had gone on. Justice had left two days before and life continued. Look at her. She kept on breathing, kept on moving. She got through her shift, restocked shelves, took Lillie shopping to get ready for camp, cooked dinner and even chuckled at a well-meaning joke or two. She could fake being alive, but on the inside, she was long past dead.

When Ned had left, she’d assumed that was the worst thing that would ever happen to her. Abandoned by her husband. That she would be a single parent with a baby daughter.

She remembered the days had been hard, but more so because she was embarrassed—a failure at marriage. She’d known everyone was feeling sorry for her, and that was difficult. But nothing compared to Justice walking away.

She didn’t care what anyone else was thinking. She didn’t care if people talked or pointed or even laughed. What she cared about was the hole where her heart used to be, the ache that hadn’t finished growing, let alone started fading. She hated the questions in Lillie’s eyes and the sympathy in her mother’s. She wanted it to be a year from now, so she could be over him.

She would never stop loving him—she accepted that. She’d given her heart fully to Justice. Even the most secret places she’d kept from Ned, she’d handed over to Justice. He’d believed in her and encouraged her. He was good and gentle and funny and kind. He was an honorable man, and a case could be made that he had left her for honorable reasons. But that didn’t make the situation any easier to stand.

“There you are!” Felicia hurried up to her, breathing fast. “You left work a few minutes early and I was afraid I wasn’t going to catch you. Come on.”

Before Patience could protest, Felicia was leading her down a familiar street. “We’re going to Isabel’s house.”

“We are? Why?”

“She needs to, uh, speak to you about something. It’s important.”

Patience nodded. In the past few days she’d neglected her friends. She simply didn’t have the strength. But maybe talking about someone else’s problems would help, she thought. Distract her for a few minutes.

Isabel had grown up in a low, one-story ranch house. The kind that sprawled in all directions. Back in school, it had been one of the newer houses in town, with a modern kitchen and big rooms off long hallways. There was a garage to one side and a small apartment above it.

Felicia herded Patience up the walkway. The door opened before they reached it and Isabel stepped onto the long porch.

“How are you doing?” she asked, her voice and expression sympathetic.

“Not great, but I’ll survive.”

Isabel moved close and hugged her, then put her arm around her and led her inside.

It took Patience a second to adjust to the dimness of the living room. When she did, she stared blankly at the dozen or so women sitting on sofas and standing around, talking.

Noelle was there, along with Pia and Charlie, Annabelle, with her baby in her arms, and an even more pregnant Heidi. Evie Stryker was talking to Liz Hendrix. Montana, Dakota and Nevada were clustered together, but looked up when she walked in.