Along Came a Husband (11 page)

Although his gunshot wound was healing well and he was quickly regaining his strength, he was no closer to solving this issue with Stein. He needed some answers. A diversion wouldn’t be so bad, either.

Sliding his gun into a shoulder holster and slipping on a jacket, Jonas went outside. The day was overcast and the sun had almost set, but for anonymity’s sake, he slipped on a baseball cap and surveyed the perimeter. A few blocks down the hill, people walked along the main street, but except for a man mowing his lawn a few houses away this residential area was deserted. He made his way down the hill slowly, taking care not to stretch his side too much.

People nodded or raised hands in greeting, but Jonas ignored them all, heading instead to the shore. As he walked, he pulled another disposable cell from his jacket pocket, blocked his number and dialed, hoping the old extension hadn’t changed.

The call was answered after two rings. “Special Agent Reynolds.”

“Louis, I don’t have time for lengthy explanations, so let’s make this quick.”

“Who is this?”

Jonas paused. It was possible the calls of Jonas’s friends—if he’d ever really had such a thing—were being monitored. It was even possible he could no longer trust Reynolds, but he had to take this risk. As long as Reynolds didn’t know where Jonas was, no harm no foul. In any case, it was better for Louis to figure this out offline. “We need to talk. You know what to do. Be careful.” He hung up.

While he waited to call Reynolds back, he sat down on a bench set away from people some distance from the marina and took in the sights at Mirabelle’s shore. No wonder this place attracted all kinds of tourists. There was so much to do. People were enjoying sailing, windsurfing, riding Jet Skis, not to mention fishing.

Nice-sized sailboats and yachts were docked amidst the smaller crafts, but none were as large as those he’d seen off Chicago’s shores on Lake Michigan, a playground of the Midwestern rich and famous. Even Delgado owned a yacht large enough for a helicopter pad.

Jonas eyed a charter boat in the marina and watched the captain, an old guy, putz with his gear. Not a bad way to retire, if that was your inclination, but Jonas had no intention of ever slowing his pace. He’d die before he’d retire.

Glancing at his watch, he figured he’d given Louis enough time. He dialed the pay phone where Louis would, hopefully, be waiting.

Louis answered on the first ring. “Jonas? Is this you?”

“You alone?”

“Now I am. Someone tailed me out of the office, but I shook the asshole. Is this really you?”

“You know it is, otherwise you wouldn’t be in front of the Last Drop coffee shop.”

“Jonas, you died. I was at the funeral.”

“Staged. For an undercover op.”

There was a slight pause on the line as if Louis was assimilating the information. “You couldn’t even tell me? The closest thing you had to a best friend. You son of a bitch.”

“You know the drill. Besides,” Jonas said, taking a deep breath, “I didn’t expect to live through this deal, but what do you know? Here I am with a measly bullet wound in my side.”

“What happened?”

“I need your help to find out. You in?”

There was a long moment of silence before Louis said, “Tell me what you need me to do.”

“First. Who followed you out of the office?”

“I don’t know. Never seen him before. He was a pro, though. Took a while to shake him without letting on what I was doing.”

Jonas quickly filled his friend in on an abbreviated status of the case, giving him a bit more detail about the Chicago situation. Antsy now, he stood and walked the beach as he talked. “See if you can access Mason Stein’s computer files. E-mail me anything you can find labeled Greenland.” Jonas gave him the address he’d set up last night, a location he could access without being identified.

“Why Stein?”

“This mission’s his baby. Mason and Kensington are the only ones who know I’m alive.”

“That’s not protocol.”

“At the time I didn’t give a shit.” Jonas had had nothing except a failed marriage on his plate.

“You should’ve. You really put Missy through the wringer.”

Jonas grunted. “Right.” He kept walking and found himself on Main.

“I’m not shitting you, man. She was really broken up. At the wake she looked as if she’d been crying for a week straight. The funeral was worse. Your dad had to hold her up for the entire ceremony.”

“You must be remembering the wrong man’s death.”

“I was there, Jonas. I know what I saw. Whatever Missy’s reasons were for wanting a divorce, not loving you wasn’t one of them.”

Jonas hung up his phone. Missy wouldn’t have cried over his death. No way. No how. His gaze landed on the name of a gift shop on the other side of the street printed in large, flowing purple letters above the front door.
Whimsy.
Missy’s store. Had to be. Avoiding a horse-drawn carriage clip-clopping down the cobblestone, he crossed the street.

The woman was done hiding for tonight.

Jonas again. No matter what she did or didn’t do, she couldn’t get him off her mind. Only a couple nights and already this was getting old.

Making jewelry with this degree of internal discord was never a good idea. She closed her eyes, searching for a quiet place in her soul. Only there wasn’t such a place. It seemed Jonas had touched every piece of her. If only she could confide in Sarah.

“I need to talk to you.” Jonas. He was behind her, somehow coming through her front door as quietly as a wolf. From the sound of his voice, he was angry.

Pushing back from the desk, she straightened her shoulders and prepared herself for what she knew would be an onslaught of emotions. She spun around and lost her breath. Nothing could’ve prepared her for the sight of him. He was so beautiful in this state. Energy and passion vibrated off him in intense waves. Facing the man head-on had just gotten much, much harder.

Good. Time to see exactly what Missy Charms is made of.

“What’s up,” she asked.

“I just got off the phone with Louis Reynolds.”

“You’re moving forward. That’s good. Is he still with the Bureau?”

Nodding, he moved toward her, his intent unclear. “That’s not what I want to talk about.”

She waited, a sense of dread churning in her stomach.

“He had a lot to say about the funeral.
My
funeral.”

At that she stood and prepared herself.

“He claimed you were pretty choked up. Especially for a widow who’d been planning a divorce.”

She moved away, turning her back on him. “That was a very strange time for me, full of all kinds of conflicting emotions.”

“I want to know, Missy.” He was right behind her, his breath on her neck. “If you cared so much about me, then why were you divorcing me?”

“Why not? You were rarely around as I recall.”

“Maybe there was a reason for that.”

“Like what?” She spun around, all the hurt and anger of those days filling her up as if it were yesterday and she was lonely and miserable and dealing with a miscarriage all on her own because her husband was too focused on work to give a damn. She’d lost more than a baby that day in the hospital. She’d lost all hope for her marriage.

The words to try and explain were on the tip of her tongue, but what would telling him solve? She already felt incredibly vulnerable around him. The only thing saving her was his animosity. Lose that, and she might just find herself back to square one, loving a man who didn’t love her.

“You know it wasn’t easy being married to a Camden,” he bit out.

“What does that mean?”

“Trying to live up to your father’s expectations. And yours. The more I tried to take care of you, the more you complained. Apparently, your dad wasn’t the only one I wasn’t good enough for.”

“That’s not fair. All I ever wanted was for you to be there for me.” She pushed past him, but he followed.

“Then why file for a divorce?” Fury sparked in his eyes.

“The fact that you have absolutely no clue ought to be clue enough.”

“Missy—”

“You were never around, Jonas! I’m not sure why you ever married me. You were married to your job long before I ever came around.”

“Then why did
you
marry
me?
”

“Because I loved you! Because I thought once we were married, I’d be your priority.”

He didn’t say a word. For a long moment, they quietly faced each other. Suddenly, his features softened. “You were my priority, Missy. Always. Every day.”

“You sure had a funny way of showing it,” she whispered.

He backed up, as if he didn’t trust himself to remain close to her, and turned away. “You have no idea what it’s like to be without money,” he replied softly. “Can you even imagine coming home and finding out that your father’s lost his third job in as many weeks? To see your mother get sick and worry over paying the medical bills? To get kicked out of your apartment because your father couldn’t pay the rent?” He turned back, glanced at her and then quickly looked away again.

“I know you’ve never respected your father, but I didn’t know how bad it was.”

“I was ashamed of him.”

“He’s your father.”

“We were homeless for a time, Missy. You can’t possibly imagine what it’s like to not know where you’re going to sleep the coming night.”

No. She couldn’t. She had absolutely no frame of reference, and she’d had no idea his pain over his issues with his father ran so deep. God help her, but she wanted to reach out and hold him. “Jonas, if I’d known… If you’d shared.” She moved toward him.

In an instant, he shut down. As if closing a door on his soul, his features hardened, his eyes turned guarded. “I swore that would never happen to me. Get it? No matter what, I would always provide for my family.”

She reached out. “But, Jonas—”

“Don’t touch me, Missy.” He pushed open the door. “I can guarantee you won’t like where I’ll take it from there.”

He couldn’t believe he’d dredged up those old memories of his father. He should have felt relieved to have shared an inkling of his past with Missy, but all he felt was vulnerable and weak. He’d exposed himself. With a few choice words, she could cut him to the quick.

She wouldn’t, though. Not Missy.

Or would she? Who filed for a divorce?

He would never be able to forget being rocked to the core when she’d come to him with those legal papers. The one person in the world he’d trusted had turned on him. And then cried at his funeral. Why?

Was it as simple as Missy claimed it to be? She’d felt lonely and unimportant? For the first time since she’d blindsided him with those legal documents Jonas realized that maybe he had given her cause. Maybe he was simply incapable of loving her back.