A Twist of Betrayal (17 page)

“Hell,” he muttered again, as the realization flooded through him like an out-of-control river. In hopes of venting his frustration, he fired the positive pregnancy test back into the trash can as hard as he could throw it. He thought his frustration at not being able to help his wife was overwhelming. He thought it couldn’t get any worse.

He stared at the positive pregnancy test and knew that it just did.

Justine’s words had stunned him.

Seeing that positive pink line knocked the wind from his lungs.

How should he handle this?

His most dreaded nightmare?

Could he see it as a gift?

He thought of a child with Justine. It would be a child to love unconditionally, a child who would look up to him. Could he give the necessary guidance and teach this child in a way so that he never had to become one of those helpless parents?

Control. Dan had to get control of himself. He had to do
something
, but suddenly he couldn’t move. All he could do was force himself to breathe and think about his wife and the baby. He suddenly couldn’t help but wonder if it would be a boy, a boy who might remind him of one of Justine’s brothers, or a girl, as sassy and beautiful with dark eyes like her mother. All he could do was think about the two people who now meant everything in the world to him and how their lives were in the hands of a man with a gun, a man who in one swift move had turned his life to hell. The funny thing was, he’d thought he’d been in hell already until that moment. He just hadn’t known how much further into hell he could fall.

He pushed the thoughts of Deke from his mind and again thought of the baby, a baby who would someday call him
Daddy
.

He groaned out loud at the thought. How could he ever protect a tiny, helpless person, when he wasn’t able protect his wife, when he wasn’t able to keep himself from falling to pieces?

But he could and he would. He had no choice not to do so. It was a huge obstacle to overcome, but he could do it. For Justine. Because of how much he loved her.

He knew it might be a stupid thing, but he reached into the trash can again and pulled the test out, setting it on a tissue on the counter. Justine might want to keep it or look at it again. It was a stupid thought, but somehow this was a connection to her, and he wasn’t quite ready to trash it.

Then he covered his face with his hands. “Oh, Justine,” he said softly. “I love you. I’ve always loved you. I will always love you. Can you hear me? I hope you can hear me. I’m so sorry.” He took several deep breaths. His voice grew stronger. “Counselor, I’m coming for you.”

Chapter 19

Justine tried to tell herself this was no different than addressing a rough judge. But she couldn’t forget that this ‘trial’ was for her life. Her assailant was her judge and jury and executioner, and she was up against him without any help.

“Dan robbed a bank,” he replied to her.

She nearly burst out laughing. She practically choked on the cracker in her mouth. “Impossible,” she said.

“Not nearly as impossible as you think. Your wonderful husband, the same one who makes love to you at night and wakes up beside you in the morning was my get-away driver for a great bank heist. Not quite three million dollars. The only problem was he managed to get away with all the money.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said softly. At the same time, a cold little monster gnawed at her insides. There was a part of Dan that he always worked to keep hidden from her, a part of himself he never allowed anyone to see or get near.

But Dan was good. Dan upheld the law. Dan took an oath to serve and protect.

After he drove a get-away car filled with three million dollars?

“Believe it or not, I don’t care,” Deke said. “But you can’t deny your wonderful hubby knew who I was yesterday despite my disguise. He must know me from somewhere.”

“You’re probably one of his many arrests,” she said.

“No, I can’t say I’ve got his name on my record anywhere,” he replied.

“If it’s true, and I’m only saying if, when did this take place?”

“Nine years ago, almost to the day.”

“And Dan’s supposedly had your three million dollars all this time?” Despite her wish to not waste her time talking to him, she couldn’t seem to stop the questions.

“Well, he better have, because I want my cut. And if he can’t get it to me, I’ll just have to take it from somewhere else—or perhaps from someone else.” He looked hard at her as he spoke.

“Why did you wait so long to collect?”

“Things got a bit hot for me. It seems the authorities got my fingerprints. It didn’t help that things went bad inside the bank and an off-duty cop was doing security that day. I kind of hurt him. I thought it best to skip town for a while. Actually, I skipped the country. I would have liked to come back sooner, but well,” he shrugged, as this was all nothing, “things happen.” He cocked his head slightly, explaining in an easy manner that sounded as if he were talking merely about how to set up a garden or something equally as trivial.

He didn’t elaborate on what things happened.

“Did you kill the security guard cop?”

“No, but I did hit him pretty hard, adding an assaulting a police officer charge to my armed robbery charge. I didn’t think it was a good idea to stick around to see how it all panned out. But now that things are a little more settled, I thought it would be safe to contact my old comrade in arms and collect my just rewards.”

Justine thought his only ‘just rewards’ would be a padded cot in his jail cell, but she said nothing, especially since she knew first hand just how hard he could hit. The last thing she wanted to do was provoke him further. She also didn’t comment on the fact that Dan couldn’t possibly have had three million dollars stuck somewhere. She’d helped him move his stuff, and she knew his bank accounts. There was no sign of that kind of money anywhere. Of course that didn’t mean he couldn’t have buried it somewhere. The room was quiet while she ate another cracker, feeling better and stronger with each one.

“So, you want to get your money from him, but then you decide to shoot him?” she asked. Her heart raced at the thought, and she tried her best to keep her emotions in control.

“What do you think I am, stupid? I know where to shoot a guy and not kill him. I don’t even think I hit him. I’m smart enough to know that if I killed him, there probably wouldn’t be anyone else to get my money for me, because you don’t know where it is, do you?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, this is the first I’ve heard about any of it.”

“And there probably wouldn’t even be anyone else to care to get you back, now would there?” His hostility slowly returned with each word.

So Justine knew she had to tread carefully with her next statement, do her best to keep him talking but keep away the anger. “No, and I never thought you were stupid, either.” she said truthfully.
Crazy, maybe. Dangerous, definitely yes.
But she would never use the word stupid, not to his face.

She was quiet for another moment. After all, for as smart as he was, she probably didn’t need to tell him that kidnapping could hold a sentence worse than a few years in prison, maybe even worse than the robbery and assault on a police officer charge.

“So what now?”

“Now we wait,” he said.

“Wait for what?” she had to ask although she pretty well knew.

“We wait for Dan. He’s dependable. That’s why I chose him for my get-away driver. He’ll be here,” he looked at his watch, “probably within the next hour.”

“What if he’s not?” It was another question she had to ask even though she was just as certain as Deke that Dan would soon come for her.

“Your darling husband was pretty desperate to get you back, so desperate he was willing to offer himself as a hostage. He’ll do whatever it takes to get you back unharmed.”

That was the thought that frightened her most, given the present situation of their marriage, she didn’t know that the man she loved would do whatever it took to get her back. If he did, which she thought he might after his near rescue of the day before, she knew he probably would even go so far as to put himself in the line of fire or turn himself in with a bag filled with three million dollars.

Justine shivered, thinking of how Dan would put himself into danger for her. In her chest, her heart pounded almost painfully. True, she wanted nothing more than to escape, be free of this man, but at the same time, she didn’t want Dan coming to her rescue. It only gave this man more leverage.

Dan had offered himself as a hostage without any hesitation, and she was terrified at what more he was willing to offer when it came to getting back his own wife. At least he was over his anger at her for being pregnant. For now. She hoped she didn’t have to confess to him what she thought happened or that there had been not one, but two nights where she didn’t take her pill.

Now that she was pregnant, she was glad about it. She had a right to her happiness despite the mistake she’d made, didn’t she? And that’s what it was—a mistake. She wished she could remember. Whatever it was classified as, she intended to spend the rest of her life making up to him.

She thought about the money. What if he didn’t have any money? If he had been involved in a bank heist, what if he’d done something with all the money to atone for his sin, like donate it all to charity?

What if he didn’t show up?

The nagging little questions wouldn’t go away. This baby might be something she wanted and refused to give up, but it wasn’t the same for Dan. Wouldn’t this be a nice, little convenient way for him to end his problem?

Justine shook her head at the very idea.

That wasn’t the Dan she knew and loved. That wasn’t the cop she knew. That wasn’t the man she knew.

How many times had Dan put himself in harm’s way for someone else?

More than she could count.

He might walk away from her later, but he would never turn his back on her now. Not when he’d already offered himself in her place.

“You’re pretty sure he’ll come, aren’t you?”

Deke watched her closely for a long, uncomfortable minute. “Yes. I’ve watched him with you for a long time.” He raised a brow at the memory. “I’ve watched you. He’ll come. I know I would.”

A shiver slithered up her back. The idea that he’d watched her, stalked her, spied on her sent the crackers she’d just eaten into a somersault.

“Do you know what I learned watching you?” he asked, his voice dropping into a seductive tone.

She didn’t want to know. She wanted to run. Her insides were shaking with the need to move away from him. Just what had he seen by watching her? That she and Dan made love on the living room sofa? That she made her morning coffee wearing nothing but the sexy panties she wore just for Dan?

The invasion she felt was raw and cut through her with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel.

“I learned you’re pretty smart.”

His words didn’t ease the cold feel of assault left at knowing he’d watched her. Before she could move away, he reached across the table and brushed her cheek with his fingertips. “And pretty soft.”

Justine flinched and moved out of his reach. “Don’t touch me,” Justine said evenly, forcing her words out through her suddenly tight throat.

“But then you’re just plain pretty, everywhere. Don’t you get cold setting the coffee maker in the morning in nothing but little polka dot panties?”

She was going to throw up. She stood up so suddenly the chair toppled backwards behind her. She ignored it. She had every intention of running into the small bathroom to put a closed door between herself and Deke Rynolds, and to put her head between her knees and breathe deeply until her stomach settled.

She would have preferred to race to the door and get out of the damned cabin, but Deke was between her and the exit. So the bathroom was her next best option. She could only hope there was a lock on the door.

She didn’t make it past the small counter. He moved like a quick, fluid snake striking and grabbing her, forcing her up against the old, wooden, unforgiving counter.

“Don’t worry about Dan,” he said, his words rancid and hot against her ear, “he and I have shared women in the past.”

“Stop it. Get off me!” she said through clenched teeth, forcing her voice to stay strong, forcing the tears to stay out of her eyes, and working to force down the bile that burned her throat. He would not make her cry, she vowed.

“What’s to stop me?” Deke asked.

“I’ll do whatever I have to, to stop you,” she replied.

“You think you’re strong enough? Think you have the right moves?”

She thought she did. She closed her eyes for three whole seconds and took herself back five months to another time in her life when she felt threatened. In those few seconds, the memory of Dan teaching her escape and self-protection moves flooded through her so strongly it was almost as if he was right there with her, coaching her on what to do. His voice giving her instructions was loud in her thoughts. As she breathed in, she could actually smell the familiar scent of his aftershave.

What she felt most was the warmth of him as he coached her and guided her moves. As if she shared some mental communication with Dan in that span of a few heartbeats, the memory of his touch gave her strength and courage.

Chapter 20

Five Months Ago

“Are you beginning to doubt his innocence?” Dan asked.

Justine slowly shook her head. “No, I really believe everything he’s told me. It all seems to pan out, too.”

“Then what’s the problem? I can see this case has you up on your toes.” Dan noticed.

“It’s made me think about future cases,” she said. “The next guy I have to provide counsel for may be guilty. Or may come after me because he thinks I didn’t do my best in defending him.”

“That’s just a chance you always have to take,” Dan said. It was truthfully blunt, and he reached across the supper table and took her hand.

“Am I just thinking this way because it’s my first murder case?” Justine asked softly.

Dan shrugged. “It could be.”

She could tell he was careful how he talked to her about her work. “You’re going easy on me, I can tell,” she put in.