Harlequin Superromance September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: This Good Man\Promises Under the Peach Tree\Husband by Choice (25 page)

“I had coverage through work. For my kids, it was whoever had an opening. The work was expensive on a cop's salary, so I tried to find the best deal.”

“Yet Caleb seemingly
had
a regular dentist, until he needed work subsequent to having a tooth knocked out,” she murmured. “At that point, you took him to an entirely new clinic when he needed a bridge.” She made a production of flipping through papers on her desk. “Let's see. That was in November of this last year. Right after he alleges you gave him the last beating ‘he was willing to take.'”

Reid rested his hand on his brother's arm. He used the action as an excuse to look over his shoulder.
Oh, hell,
was his first thought. Alec Raynor sat at the back. But then he saw who else was there, in the seat right beside the door. His gaze locked with Anna's, and he froze. His father was talking, but he didn't hear.

“Reid?” Caleb whispered urgently. “What are you doing? What's wrong?”

He gave his head a small shake and turned back around. “Nothing.”

How had she known about the hearing? Why had she come? His heart was pounding as if he'd just brought down a suspect after a multiblock chase.

The judge was talking again.

And he needed to be listening. There'd be time for Anna later.

She's here.
The knowledge sang in him. She had to care, or she wouldn't have come. Would she?

“Your oldest son was able to provide a number of X-rays showing broken bones, too,” Judge Valdez remarked.

“He was clumsy.”

“Children and teenagers are rather resilient, Mr. Sawyer. I'm told their bones don't break as easily as those of adults. It takes quite a lot of force to do the damage I see on these X-rays.”

The judge carefully lifted the glasses from her nose and let them fall. Her gaze pinned the man on the witness chair. “You should know, Sergeant Sawyer, that I also requested your first wife's medical records from multiple clinics and hospitals in Spokane.” She paused. “Since she, too, apparently felt she couldn't be seen more than once by any doctor given the rather suggestive nature of her injuries.”

Reid gaped.
What?

“Given the hurried nature of this hearing, not all arrived, but some did,” she continued.

Dean half rose from his chair. “Those are completely irrelevant! You had no right!”

“I think I did.” Her voice cooled. “I believe they are entirely relevant. If your second wife hadn't already left you, I would seek out her records, as well.”

Face beet-red now, he stood up, shoving the chair back. “This is bullshit!”

“Please sit down, Sergeant Sawyer.”

He glared at her for a moment long enough to have her exchanging a significant glance with the bailiff. Then he reluctantly resumed his seat, his movements angry.

Dean's attorney was on his feet, protesting the inclusion of records relating to an individual not properly part of the proceedings. One look from the judge sliced him off midword.

She eyed Dean again. “Have you anything you'd like to add, Mr. Sawyer?”

He did. He'd been shaken from his game, though, by her obvious skepticism and by the united front against him. This courtroom wasn't packed with his uniformed cronies giving their support. The judge wasn't one he'd appeared in front of a dozen times when he was on the right side of the law.

He talked about raising two boys and doing his best for them. About just wanting his youngest home again. About how there had been bitterness between him and Reid, and he blamed Reid for influencing Caleb to make up these lies.

“You check with anyone back home, ma'am. They'll speak highly of me. I'm a decorated law enforcement officer. I may have taken a hand to my boys a few times when they needed it, but nothing that was out of line. I love my boy. I don't even know how all this blew up.” Did he look genuinely confused? “I just want to take him home.”

“Is that all?”

He shot a look of vitriol at Reid. “My oldest son is new in town here. You don't know him. People are taking him at his word, but they shouldn't be. He broke the law when he stole Caleb from me. He's been hiding a minor for months. You can't tell me that's right.”

“Have you proof that in fact Captain Sawyer has had his brother with him?” she asked sharply.

His jaw muscles spasmed a few times. “He was too smart to have the boy at his house.”

“In other words, no.” She waited for a moment, then nodded. “Thank you, Sergeant Sawyer. You may step down now.”

Looking less than happy, Dean scraped the chair back and lumbered to a seat next to his attorney.

“I believe I've seen enough.” She looked at Reid's father. “You ought to know that I did take the precaution of speaking to two people in Captain Sawyer's previous department in California, his captain and an undersheriff. Both spoke extremely highly of him and were pleased to forward his records to me. Are you aware that in recent years he served on the Family Protection detail with a focus on domestic violence?”

His father said nothing.

Now her gaze touched briefly, unreadably on Reid before softening as she nodded slightly at Caleb. “I had intended this to be a preliminary hearing,” she said. “However, the evidence overwhelmingly supports the allegations of child abuse brought against Sergeant Dean Sawyer. It's apparent that Caleb's mother is not in a position to take him into her home. Therefore, without hesitation I remand custody of the minor child, Caleb Sawyer, to his brother, Reid Sawyer. I see no reason to revisit this decision.” She lifted a gavel and brought it down with a sharp rap.

Caleb's body lurched in a wracking sob. Reid wrapped his arms around his brother, stunned to discover his own cheeks were wet. He squeezed his eyes shut, choosing not to see the scuffle taking place on the other side of the courtroom as his father bellowed invectives.

“We're done with him,” he murmured to Caleb. “The son of a bitch is out of our lives.”

Caleb cried in enormous gulps that shook his whole body. Reid turned his head enough to see the back of the courtroom, hoping Anna would be walking down the aisle to them. He'd never needed her more. Instead, all he saw was her back as she slipped out the door.

The emptiness inside him expanded, the pressure feeling like a giant, dark vacuum.

He had Caleb. At least he had Caleb. Thank God.

Reid laid his cheek on his brother's head and closed his eyes.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

L
EANING
AGAINST
HER
kitchen counter, Anna was waiting for the microwave to beep when the doorbell rang. She stiffened, her heart leaping and then hesitating before resuming a seminormal rhythm.

Reid? Or Hector Ramirez, deciding now was the moment to confront her?

Would Hector ring the doorbell to announce himself?

It had been two days since the hearing. She'd half expected Reid to show up, but he hadn't. No calls, either. She'd told herself she was relieved, even as she knew she wasn't. She had this awful fear that he had given up on her. She couldn't blame him if he had. Why was she being so stubborn in refusing even to listen to him?

All she knew was that a terrible conflict still raged inside her. When she slept, her dreams were of her little sister. Cuddling close and whispering, tremulous, “I'm scared, Anna. Are you scared?”

Yes. Yes!

Waking and sleeping, Anna saw Molly's dead face. The terrible angle of her neck.

Yes. Yes! I'm scared.

I'm still scared,
she admitted to herself. Afraid to trust. Unable to forgive. No promise should ever be broken.

He didn't break one. Look what he
has
done for his brother.

She was being unjust, and she knew it. Unforgiving. Unreasonable. She knew all that, too. Listening to the horror Reid and his brother had suffered, she had felt something completely unexpected: fierce gratitude to the Hales for doing what no one else would. Sitting there in the back of that courtroom, Anna would have given anything to go back in time and protect the boy Reid had been.

Stung by shock, she asked herself: Did that mean she'd do anything for him now? Including aiding and abetting him in shielding a shelter that violated
her
bone-deep principles?

Or...had her principles begun to quake and crumble?

The microwave dinged, making her jump. The garlic chicken on rice smelled good, but she stayed rigid, listening hard. If it were Hector, would he circle the house looking in windows? What if he appeared in the kitchen window?

Anna made herself draw some deep breaths and tiptoed to the front room. No peephole in her door, so she sidled up to the window and lifted a slat of the blinds enough to peek through. Reid's SUV was parked at the curb, and he stood beside it, looking back at the house, not moving. An air of resignation and maybe sadness surrounded him. For a moment, it seemed as if he were staring right at her, as if he knew she were there, huddled inside, watching him.

He shook his head and got into his Expedition. A moment later, he drove away. By that time, she felt sick. The freshly warmed leftovers didn't smell as good anymore.

* * *

R
EID
DIDN
'
T
LIKE
knowing that Ramirez was lurking in town and had followed Anna a few times, but so far they hadn't been able to do anything about it. Ramirez hadn't confronted her and was keeping his distance. Nobody had figured out how he'd discovered it was her who'd been responsible for placing Diego in a home. He had a right to stay in Angel Butte if he chose, considering the hearing he needed to attend was next week. Until then, they were in a state of limbo.

Jane talked regularly to Anna, who was very sensibly staying away from Diego. They were all waiting Hector out. Jane was also keeping Anna informed about the manhunt for Randal Haveman, which frustratingly had failed to locate him. He had to have guessed that he'd been identified, even though Renner had managed thus far to keep his name from the press.

Haveman's wife—TJ's mother—had become hysterical when her husband failed to come home from his last business trip. His personal vehicle, a white Yukon Denali, was located at a Dodge dealership in Bend, which had reported a black Dodge Ram pickup with canopy stolen. Everyone knew the bastard was still around. Unfortunately, the weather had taken a turn for spring, which meant he could be camping out—and in this country, the options were almost limitless. Alternatively, this in-between season offered him a whole hell of a lot of choices of vacant homes and cabins if he wanted to break into one.

Nobody thought it was safe to leave TJ with the Hales. Reid would have taken him home, but he'd been too visible visiting Caleb in the hospital. To Reid's surprise, Clay Renner offered his home with his wife's blessing.

His wife, who the day after Caleb's court hearing had let Reid know she was indeed pregnant and intended to keep working as long as possible. She was due around the first of October. She wanted to come back to work after a maternity leave, but possibly part-time. Not willing to lose her, Reid had promised to make that happen, although he didn't yet know how.

Promised,
he thought wryly, with a last scan of Anna's town house before he drove away. He'd been making a lot of those lately. If she'd give him a chance, he was ready to make the kind of promises to her he'd never believed he could or would. Pretty clearly, though, she wasn't going to give him the chance.

Living with that constant ache of emptiness, he tried to convince himself he just had to give her time. He had unknowingly—no, God damn it, why lie to himself?
knowingly
—violated a tenet so essential to her, she'd fashioned her entire life around upholding it. No, he hadn't known about her sister, but he could have guessed something like that lay in her past. And he'd lied anyway.

What else could I do?

He still didn't know.

So far, both the sheriff's department and Angel Butte P.D. officers knew the Hales had been shielding a boy on the run. Renner hadn't yet come out with the whole story. Reid appreciated the fact he was trying to protect them, although Roger and Paula were resigned to letting all the boys go once it was safe to make plans. So far, there was no indication Anna had reported them, either. The fact she hadn't was extraordinary enough to give him hope, even if she was still refusing to talk to him.

Reid was pulling into his own driveway when his phone rang. Frowning, he saw that the number was the Hales'. Speak of the devil. He set the brake, turned off the engine and answered.

“Reid?” The strain in Roger's voice sent Reid into cop mode. Something was very wrong.

“Roger. What's up?”

“Haveman is here. He's demanding that someone bring TJ to him. He's holding us hostage until that happens.”

Reid tried for calm. “Us?”

“Paula, me and three of the boys. Isaac, Damon and Truong.” He paused. “Damon's hurt, Reid. He tried to take him on.”

Jesus.
“He asked you to call me specifically?”

“Yes. He apparently saw you out here. He...knows you placed Caleb here and have been protecting us.”

Haveman had been off before, but still managed to function well enough to have an outwardly normal, financially successful life. Now he'd derailed completely. He couldn't possibly imagine he'd be able to return to that life. If he wanted TJ delivered to him, it was so he could kill him and then probably himself—and very likely the Hales, whom in his rage he would blame for “stealing” his son. A crazy like him would see no reason to spare the other boys, either, who in his eyes had sinned by running from their own fathers.

“Can you tell me what kind of weapons he has?”

“Guns.” Roger's voice shook. “He's, uh, got one pressed to my head.”

Reid kept the expletive he was thinking to himself. “Okay, Roger,” he said calmly. “Ask him if he'll talk to me himself.”

Roger's words became muffled.

“I want my son.” The craziness seething in his voice raised Reid's hackles. “Bring him. One hour, or I'll kill someone. The scrawny kid.” He sounded as if he was thinking it out. “Yeah, him.” Decision made.

“I don't know where TJ is. I'll have to make some calls.”

“Sure you don't. One hour.” He was gone.

The shit had hit the fan. Struggling to maintain his usual cool-headedness, Reid called Clay Renner and told him what was happening.

“I'm on my way out there,” he said. “I'll try to talk to him.”

“I'll call out SWAT and get a negotiator.” Renner hesitated. “No way in hell am I bringing his kid, even to tempt him out.”

“Hell, no!”

“Do you know where the other boys are?” Renner asked. “The ones he doesn't have?”

“That's why I'm going there as fast as I can. We can't let him get his hands on any more of them, and if they don't know what's happening...”

“I've probably got a deputy closer.”

“They'd hide from him. You know they would.”

Renner swore. “Do you have tactical gear with you?”

“No.”

“I'll bring it.”

Dead air told him Renner was gone.

Caleb had been looking out the front window, probably wondering why he was sitting out here talking on the phone instead of coming in. Reid had no choice but to tell him.

He moved swiftly. The moment he was inside, he said, “TJ's father is at the lodge. He wants his son.” He hesitated. “He's holding Roger and Paula and some of the boys at gunpoint. I have to go out there.”

With his good hand, Caleb gripped the arm that was cradled in the sling. “Can I come? If I stay in the car? Please?”

“You know you can't.” His voice grew rough. “I'm not risking you. Stay inside with the doors locked. I'll check in when I can.”

“He'll kill them, won't he?”

“Yeah.” Reid caught his brother in a quick, hard hug, one that was careful of his damaged shoulder. “We won't let him.”

Caleb only nodded, although stark fear filled his eyes. “You'll be careful?”

“I'm always careful.”

Reid paused on the doorstep long enough to hear the dead bolt slide home, then ran for his Expedition.

He backed out, turned on his flashers and pushed every speed limit. “Careful” wasn't something he'd often thought about before, but he hadn't had much to lose before, either. No one to leave behind. That had changed. He wanted to call Anna and say,
Take care of Caleb for me if something goes wrong,
but he knew she wouldn't answer. Knew she'd do it without him asking anyway.

He desperately wanted to hear her voice, but the distraction would be dangerous for him.

Focus on what you're going to do and how you're going to do it.

* * *

A
NNA
HAD
JUST
scraped most of the garlic chicken into the garbage and was pretending her kitchen needed cleaning when her phone rang. The caller wasn't in her address book and she didn't recognize the number.
Not a crisis in a foster home, please.
Right this minute, she was running on empty.

“Ms. Grant?” It was a man's voice that cracked halfway into a boy's. Scared. “This is Caleb Sawyer.”

Her adrenaline surged. “Caleb. What's wrong?”

“It's not me. It's Reid.”

She thought her heart might stop. “He's hurt?”

“Not yet. But I think he might, like, I don't know,
trade
himself or something.”

“What are you talking about?” she said sharply.

So he told her. TJ Haveman's father was holding hostages at the lodge, including both foster parents and some of the boys. Reid was on his way out there to get the other boys to safety and then to talk to Haveman.

“Did you know TJ's not there anymore? One of the cops took him home to stay.”

She had known, although that placement, too, was unofficial.

“Reid says he wants TJ,” Caleb continued, “but they can't let him have him.”

Of course they couldn't. Dear God, that poor boy. If other people died in his place—

“Reid's not going out there alone, is he?”

“He says they've called out the SWAT team. But I'm scared. Paula and Roger are like Reid's parents. And he feels responsible. I think he'll do anything to save them and the other guys, too.”

Yes. He would. Because that was the kind of man he was, one who'd spent his entire career trying to save the battered women like his mother and the hurt kids like he and his brother had been.

The man she loved.

“Where are you?” she asked, even as she tugged on a down vest and grabbed her handbag and keys.

“Home. I mean, his house. He made me stay here. I wish he'd let me go so I'd know what was happening,” he exclaimed in frustration.

“No, he was right. But I'll drive out there, Caleb. I'll...I'll try to keep him from doing anything too risky. Okay?”

“Will you call me?”

“I will,” she promised, running across the backyard to the detached garage behind her town house. “As soon as I know anything.” Behind the wheel, she had a thought. “How did you know to call me?”

There was a momentary silence. “He told me about you. I mean, a while back. He said he'd met a woman. I could tell... You know. And, well, he talks about you sometimes.”

If she weren't sitting, she might have crumpled from the agony. He'd told his brother about her, as if—

As if he loved her.

She had to talk to him.

She backed out of the garage and shot through the alley with reckless speed.

* * *

R
EID
HAD
BEEN
involved in a hundred situations like this before, and he always felt a sense of incredulity at how the official response mushroomed so ludicrously. Official vehicles now lined the Hales' driveway: several SUVs, his own being one of many, squad cars with flashing lights, fire truck, aid cars. Police radios crackled. Dusk was approaching, after which it would all look even more surreal, surrounded by woods as they were.