Don't Catch Me Page 11

  For a minute, as she took in Chase and saw he really meant what he said, she couldn’t stop herself. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his. It was a soft kiss, tender, and she pulled away, tasting him on her lips. “He said he’d kill me. How would you stop him from coming here?” she said. She had carried that fear for so long, living under the thumb of a monster, believing he could do anything to hurt her.

  “He won’t risk you going public with what he did to you. There are medical records. He can’t make those go away. He’ll give you your divorce, and he’ll never bother you again, because I’m here now, we’re living together, and I know what he did to you. He’ll know I know all the details, the threats. He’ll deny it, but it won’t matter, because he knows enough about me and who I am that he won’t fuck with you again, because if he does, his career in politics will be over.”

  Was it really possible that she could stop hiding?

  She leaned in and kissed him again. His hands were running over her hip and her bottom where she sat on his lap, and she pulled away, running her hands up over his shoulders. “Where’s Billy Jo?”

  “Sleeping, she was tired. The stress of the day. I’m not sure she believed I’d actually help her friend.”

  “Of course you did. You fixed her problems too, didn’t you?” she said, and she could see a hint of a smile, but he didn’t say anything. “And your brother?”

  “Gave him my bed. He crashed. Just us adults up,” he teased. His hand was so light as it skimmed up her back and down, and she lowered her head and kissed him again, tasted him. Good Lord, could this man kiss. She rested her hand over his cheek, feeling the roughness, and then she broke the kiss, slid off his lap, and held her hand out to him.

  She said not a word as he took it and stood, looking down at her, knowing what she was offering.

  “You want to take me to bed,” he said.

  She said nothing at first as she took him in. Her feelings were threatening to drown her. She wanted him, and she didn’t want to think it to death. “Yes,” she finally replied, wondering what he’d do.

  He took her hand and led her into the house, stopping to lock the doors and turn off the lights before he took her upstairs and into her bedroom. He was leaning against the closed door, and she lifted her shirt over her head. His gaze tracked her every movement as she unhooked her bra. She knew the appreciation he had for her body. She could see it.

  He pushed away from the door and had his hand around her waist. He pulled her to him, his hands around her butt as he lowered his head and kissed her deeply. It was not a soft kiss; it was deep, personal, something that connected him with her, just the two of them.

  He lifted her and had her on her back on the bed. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it. It was a frenzy as he pulled off her sneakers, her socks, her jeans, and she reached for his belt buckle and slid open his fly. He was hard and ready for her as he stepped out of his pants and yanked hers off. Then he was on the bed, over her. He was kissing her deeply again, his hand running over the flat of her stomach, tracing lower. Then he stopped and lifted his hand to her cheek, his light blue eyes taking her in. There was so much there. She didn’t know how to make sense of this.

  “I want you, Rose,” he said and dropped his head as if reconsidering what he was doing, thinking maybe this wasn’t a good idea. He rolled over onto his back, and she went with him, leaning against his side. His arm went around her, holding her to him as he ran his hand over her ass, touching her, a motion that had her wanting him.

  She pressed a kiss to his chest. “I want you,” she said and felt his hand touch the back of her head.

  “I don’t want it to be awkward, Rose. We live together. We have Billy Jo. We have to make this work,” he said.

  She rose up and straddled him, his hands to her waist to guide her, and she did something she’d never thought she’d do again. She took him inside her, and his hands covered her breasts, and she moved.

  Chapter 25

  Billy Jo had waited until she thought they were asleep. For a moment after she realized Chase had gone into Rose’s bedroom with her and shut the door, she realized that Chase would be okay, and so would Rose.

  Rose had saved her today. No one had ever done that for her before. Chase too had done more than anyone in her entire life, and maybe that was why she was so sad as she slipped down the stairs in the dark, her shoes in her hand, fifty bucks in her pocket that she’d lifted from Aaron’s wallet. She already had her coat on.

  She tiptoed to the back door and slid open the sliding glass, slipped on her shoes, and quietly closed the door behind her. She stood for a second, wondering if this was the right choice, when she heard someone clear his throat.

  A flashlight clicked on, and she nearly crapped her pants when she saw Aaron holding the light. “Out for a midnight walk?” he said.

  She said nothing as she tried to think of something, but he was waiting, and his face, from what she could see with the only light coming from the flashlight, was that of someone who gave nothing away.

  “Where you off to?” he finally said and gestured with the light for her to step down.

  “Does it matter?” she said, and she didn’t miss his smile—his humor, maybe. Was he laughing at her? It was hard to tell as she took a step down and then another until both feet were on the uneven ground. He fell in beside her, shining the light at the ground so she could see the rocks, the holes in front of her.

  “Yeah, actually, it does. Seems you’re ready to clear out. You’re running because you’re scared shitless that you might just have something good here and you don’t know how to handle that.”

  She said nothing as she walked beside him. He was wrong. “No, this is just temporary to get me out of jail, to get me out of a jam.”

  “Really? You know what I know about Chase? It’s that he doesn’t do anything temporarily. He believes he has to fix everyone, help everyone, and he’s the one arranging and fixing and solving everything. He’s always there, always.”

  She was walking in the dark past Chase’s BMW and Aaron’s dark truck. “I don’t want to go back there to the Humboldts, and I’m afraid that will happen. He’ll come back again, you know, and next time it could be Chase who’s hurt, or Rose,” she said.

  “What makes you think you’ll end up back there? I understood you’re with Chase and Rose now.” Aaron was still there beside her, walking. She wondered a lot of things about him—who he was, why he was there.

  “You don’t look like your brother,” she said.

  “Nope, we were adopted, all of us. Chase, too,” he said, stopping at the edge of the driveway where there was a stump. He rested one of his feet on top of it. “I was five when I showed up on the doorstep. By that time I had been through too many foster homes, you know, where no one wants you. You show up with a black garbage bag filled with all your belongings, because that’s how it works, and you wonder how long this is going to be, how many kids live here and how bad or not so bad it is. You get a bed, a meal, but God help you if you cause any trouble. You know you’re not wanted, you know you’re not loved, but when I showed up at that small house, Chase was there and Vic, and Luc, and their mother and father, and you know what they said to me, how they looked at me?”

  She stared up at Aaron, waiting for what came next.

  “They said I was wanted, and this was going to be my forever home. I didn’t believe them at first, because who wants a scrawny kid who’s walking trouble? But they did, and they adopted me, and we’re a family. A screwed-up one, mind you.” He laughed, and she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

  “Did you ever wonder about your mother? Who she was, where she was?”

  The look he gave her said nothing. It was hard, unreadable. “Of course, just like you do, I’m sure. But ask yourself this: If your mother wanted you, wouldn’t she have found you and come for you? It’s not up to you to go find her.” He pointed his flashlight to the house. “Sometimes family finds us, and that brother of mi
ne in there will never abandon you. He’ll never mistreat you, and he will love you. Guarantee you’ve already found a way into his heart, so don’t skip out thinking you can find something better or go looking for a mother who couldn’t look after you. It’s a fairy tale that will end badly. I know. This here is something really good.”

  She didn’t know what to make of Aaron, and she looked to the darkened driveway and back to the house. “Bad things have happened to me,” she said and didn’t look his way.

  “Mm-hmm,” he said so casually as if they were having a polite conversation, “but they won’t anymore, not with my brother. I think you know that already.”

  She waited, feeling a tightness in her chest that she didn’t know how to handle.

  “Your choice, Billy Jo. Am I driving you into town so you can hop a bus for somewhere, or are you going back into the house to that new family of yours?”

  She reached her hand into her jean pocket and lifted out the money. “This is yours.” She held out the fifty. “Sorry I took it from your wallet.”

  He reached out and took it from her. “Was wondering if you’d give it back,” he said, stuffing it in his pocket.

  “You knew?”

  He shrugged. “You’re good, kid, just not that good.” He waited a second and shone his light at the ground. “Ready?” he said, and she took in the darkened house and this mysterious brother of Chase’s, and she realized she really did want to give it a chance.

  Chapter 26

  Waking up with Rose nestled against him, Chase remembered the night he’d spent loving her, touching, tasting, and exploring every inch of her. Her long legs had wrapped around his waist as he drove into her, and the way she had held on to him, the way she made those soft noises just before she came around him, had been amazing.

  He kissed her shoulder now and heard her groan in appreciation. He took in the smile on her lips even though her eyes were closed.

  “I’ll go and make coffee,” he said and slipped out of bed, stepped into his pants, and zipped them up. Pulling on his shirt, he opened the door and started down the stairs but stopped when he saw Billy Jo and Aaron sitting at the table, talking over two bowls of cereal. “You’re up,” he said.

  “Yeah, for a while,” Aaron said. “We didn’t want to wake you two, so we raided the pantry, ate all the tutti frutti cereal.”

  “It was really good. Sorry about that,” Billy Jo said, and Chase took in the filled pot of coffee that was already made. “So when is your next fight?” she asked Aaron.

  Chase had to take another look at his brother and Billy Jo, who were sitting at the card table and having a normal conversation, which was something Billy Jo never did. Then he heard a car, put the carafe back on the burner, and started to the door, where he lifted away the piece of wood he’d jammed there to keep it closed until they could fix the lock. He opened the door to find the sheriff stepping out of his cruiser.

  “Good morning,” Moss said. “Sorry to drop by so early in the morning, but I wanted to tell you that I paid Marty Humboldt a visit yesterday after the ruckus he caused over here.”

  Chase wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the sheriff giving some excuse as to why Marty Humboldt wasn’t going to be charged for anything. “Sheriff, seriously…”

  “Already talked to the DA. He’s been arrested—in jail,” he added.

  Chase wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly. Moss looked past his shoulder, and Chase turned to see Rose, a housecoat pulled on, a lightness in her eyes he’d not seen before, and Billy Jo beside her.

  “The DA is dropping the charge of robbery against Billy Jo, and the gun charge. He’s letting it slide, considering the ATF showed up at the Humboldts’ and found the guns they were selling. CPS came in and took the kids. The mister and missus are just waiting for the Feds to take them into custody. So I wanted to drop by and share the good news in person.”

  Chase just took in the sheriff and the way he was standing by the cruiser, watching him. “So how did the ATF know about the guns?” he asked, and why was the DA suddenly willing to drop everything? There was more to the story here, and the sheriff knew way more than he was letting on.

  “Anonymous tip came in, or so the ATF said, telling them exactly where they’d find the guns. You know, it’s a funny thing about those tips. You never know who’s calling them in,” the sheriff said, and Chase took a second to get it. It had been him, the sheriff. So he’d known all along.

  He wasn’t sure what to say, what to think. As he turned again, he saw that Rose had her arm around Billy Jo, who had an odd look on her face, but she wasn’t pushing Rose away.

  “That’s great. So…” What could he say to the sheriff? Gee, thanks for deciding to finally do the right thing? Or should he call him out for the miserable excuse for a man that he was, having known what was going on all along? He said nothing.

  “The DA will be in touch later to finalize things, I’m sure, but thought I’d stop by and tell you and your family,” Moss added before stepping back to his car and climbing in. Chase waited for him to leave.

  “So it’s over,” Billy Jo said to him, standing at the front door as they watched the dust rise down the driveway from the sheriff’s car.

  “Yeah, it appears so,” he said, looking back at this girl who’d come into his life and turned it upside down.

  “Coffee?” Rose gestured and went into the kitchen with Aaron. He wondered for a minute whether it was to give him time alone with Billy Jo.

  “And they can’t come back and try and—”

  “Hey, no.” He reached out, touched her shoulder, and squeezed. “I keep my word. It’s done, it’s over, but you still haven’t told me everything, and a deal is a deal. Even though it appears the charges are being dropped, you have to stop keeping everything to yourself. No more hiding, no more going it alone. I saw your friend. I’ll have her out. I’m making it happen,” he said and saw the way she worked her lip before looking up to him.

  “I stole five guns from the Humboldts, from a crate they had in their barn. I sold them to Roy, and he never paid me. That’s why I was there, to get the money he promised to pay. I didn’t have sex with him,” she said.

  He knew how important a step this was for Billy Jo. “Who hurt you?” he asked, hoping she’d trust him. He waited, and she looked up at him. He wondered what she’d say.

  “I’m not ready to tell you,” she said, “but I will. Just give me some time.”

  He slid his hand to her shoulder and squeezed again, taking in this kid who’d steamrolled right into his life. “Well, we have a lifetime to wait, don’t we?” he said, taking in Billy Jo in front of him and Rose, who was now standing there, watching him, her eyes filled with love and the future he’d never planned. He knew this would grow into something good.

  A McCabe Reunion

  Chapter 27

  Billy Jo was sleeping. That wasn’t unusual, but for her to drift off as she had, her head resting against the car door, her hoodie scrunched up as a pillow, showed how exhausted she was. As Chase glanced again into the rear-view mirror at the image of the young girl who’d walked into his life and was now in his care, he realized how truly vulnerable she was under her tough exterior. How long had she been holding herself together? Too long. She was absolutely exhausted. He wondered whether she’d ever truly had a moment in her entire life to let her guard down and rest.

  He was determined from this point on that she’d never have to go it alone, never have to feel as if the entire world were against her.

  Rose was softly snoring, she too sound asleep in the passenger side. He wondered how soon it would be before he could tease her about it. Another woman in his life who was deeply scarred. He realized that even though neither Rose nor Billy Jo had said so, because neither was too free with words, they were trusting him with their everything, and that alone was more than he’d ever expected. Also unexpected was the fact that they’d both been game for a road trip to meet his totally dysfunctional family, his par
ents and brothers.

  “How long was I asleep?” Rose sounded groggy, and she yawned.

  “Oh, a couple hours.”

  Her blond hair was loose and hanging in soft waves over her shoulders, down past her breasts. She wore a soft blue shirt with cap sleeves and a rounded neck. Her jeans were white, and her figure was perfect. She looked over to him, and the blueness in her eyes seemed to have lightened with a teasing glint that hadn’t been there before. “So how much longer, do you figure?”

  “An hour tops, I think. Won’t be long.” Then they’d be in Henderson, and he didn’t have a clue what to do first. “I’m thinking it may be best to check in at the hotel first, and then I’ll drop in and see my dad while you and Billy Jo get settled.” That way he could assess the situation and get a feel for the emotional shit storm he would be walking into with his parents and his new sister before bringing Rose and Billy Jo around.

  “Why?” Billy Jo asked from the back seat, now awake.

  Chase glanced into the rear-view mirror. “Why what?”

  “Why do we need to get settled? Or is it that you don’t want us tagging along to see your dad?”

  Right to the heart of the matter. He wondered whether his expression gave anything away.

  Rose said nothing, but he could feel her staring him down, maybe trying to figure him out, what made him tick, what he was thinking.