Captured Again (28 page)

“Who is it?” Dusty barked out.

“Says his name's Rick,” Jump yelled back through the crack. “I found him hiding in the house. When you yelled at me before you took off through the woods, you scared him—scared me too. I swear your scream would wake the dead, dude!”

Dusty felt his heart drop. He'd assumed Emma wasn't with Rick when he'd only found her and the guy whose face he busted up in the woods.
Are you freakin' kidding me? He hid in the house and left Emma alone to deal with that nut? I was right about him. He is a wuss. No wonder her sister had no faith in him.
He clenched his teeth, his anger at the coward drowning out his jealousy.
When this is over, Emma will have to see what an asshole he is now.

“Tell him hell no. Go get his own damn ride!” Dusty yelled, hoping it was loud enough for Rick to hear him.

Emma struggled to sit up, but she was strapped in. “No! Let him in!” she yelled.

Dusty slowly shook his head, his lips squeezed tightly together. He felt the blood rush to his face. She made her choice, and he wouldn't stand in the way, even if it was killing him. He put Emma's hand gently on her chest and let go.

“Officer Rowan, we’ve got to pull out. What do you want me to do?” The EMT asked, still waiting with the door cracked open.

He stood up, crouched over in the small space. “Do as the lady says. Let him in. I'll get out,” he said sadly, feeling the sting of rejection dripping with embarrassment.
God, I wish I could backspace and delete that little speech, he thought. Maybe she won't remember it...

Emma grabbed for his hand before he could step away. “No! Stay with me.”

What the hell? Does she seriously expect me to sit by and watch that pansy ass get close to her? Didn't she hear what I just told her? I love her, dammit.
His emotions shifted to anger.
To hell with this.

“Emma, I’ll meet you at the hospital and check on you. I’m sorry, but you can't expect me to ride with that sorry piece of—”

“Mommy?”

Dusty's head whipped around in surprise. Jump smiled ear to ear as he lifted in a little boy—maybe four years old—wearing a too-big South Carolina Gamecocks ball cap. The little boy pushed it up out of his face to reveal tear-stained cheeks below a set of wide-open, big blue eyes—eyes that were identical to the blue Emma and her sisters all shared, along with their same dark brown hair.

Jump patted him on the head, the same gesture he'd seen Emma's shadow give hours ago. “There ya go, little man!”

Emma let go of Dusty's hand and held her arms out.

“Rickey! Come here!”

The little boy looked at Dusty, having to tilt his face almost straight up. Dusty’s lips bent into a self-conscious smile of encouragement, and the kid threw himself into Emma’s arms.

“I saw you peeping out the window, baby. I’m so sorry I ran from you. But Mommy had to keep a bad man away,” she said through fresh tears. “He’s gone now. Dusty captured him for us. The bad man is gone.”

CHAPTER 32

Three months later...

Emma
heard a siren and looked through her rearview mirror.
Shit! Blue lights!

“I wasn’t speeding,” she said aloud to herself. The street wasn’t wide enough here to safely pull over to the side and still allow traffic, so she turned into the next parking lot, rolling her car to a stop in front of a huge, glass, L-shaped building. The patrol car pulled in behind her, his headlights blinding her.
Did I roll through the stop sign a block back?
Her mind had been on Dusty, and she was in a hurry to get home from work. She couldn’t remember if she’d felt that pull on her seatbelt that Dusty warned her to always wait for, showing she’d come to a complete stop.
Maybe I did roll through it? If I get a four-point ticket, that’s gonna sting.

This is so not what I need tonight,
Emma thought as she hurried to find her driver’s license and registration.
Tonight is supposed to be special, dammit.

As she fumbled trying to slide her license out from the see-through slot in her wallet, she realized this was almost the exact same spot Dusty had arrested her before and delivered her to her first—and hopefully only—night in jail. So much had happened since that night.

After Dusty had rescued her from Gabby’s stalker, Emma had been released immediately from the hospital with just a bump on the head and some scratches and bruises. Dusty had seemed in shock that she actually had a kid and had stayed unusually quiet while he waited with them. He’d waited until Olivia arrived to pick Emma and Rickey up at the hospital, and through Olivia’s long, dark hair and smothered hugs and tears, she’d watched him silently walk away. He’d gone home alone without saying good-bye.

All night, the memory of the night at the restaurant flashed back to stab her, where he’d made it clear what he thought about young girls and their
baggage
. It dug into her heart like a knife. She’d thought she’d never see him again—at least outside of the class they still had together. But that was a whole weekend away. She’d lain awake in her bed the entire Friday night, with her arms wrapped around Rickey. She’d let him sleep with her that night; neither of them wanted to be alone after their ordeal. She’d cried soundless tears and hushed herself, comforted at least by the still-baby smell of her son’s hair as he slept.

But she’d been wrong. Dusty had been back the next day, acting as if nothing had changed... and the next, and the next. He was still interested in her and seemed fascinated with Rickey. Even with their crazy schedules of college and work, Dusty made an effort to spend time with them nearly every day, even if it was just to say goodnight and help tuck Rickey into bed. Their dates included Rickey from then on, except for the nights Daniel—Rickey’s father—had him.

Rickey had been over the moon when Dusty took him to his first real baseball game—the Charlotte Knights—and was thrilled when Dusty caught a foul ball and handed it straight to him. He’d gone to sleep every night since with that ball pressed up against his pillow.

They were regulars at all the parks in and around town now, and in the evenings, more times than not, they were together, curled up on the couch, watching animated movies or cartoons.

Dusty had help now in teasing Emma, trying to figure out which characters wore her voice. But she’d never tell. At least not until Rickey was old enough to not care about cartoons anymore. She felt like him knowing which characters used his mama’s voice might ruin the magic of cartoons for him.

Rickey adored Dusty—and so did she—but she remained stoic or evasive whenever Dusty brought up anything that had to do with the future... always noncommittal when he mentioned taking Rickey somewhere like the beach or Disney next summer. She’d learned to just smile and
mm-hmm
and change the subject. She didn’t want to get Rickey’s hopes up, or her own. Dusty didn’t need to hitch his wagon to hers. When he graduated college next month, he’d probably find a girl who he could settle down with and start his own family, maybe eventually have his own babies.

It wasn’t fair for her to expect him to want to settle down with her and Rickey, especially since she had to share Rickey with his dad half the time, and she had no intention of ever changing that. Rickey loved his daddy... even if Emma never had.

So she avoided making plans more than a few days ahead. She didn’t want him to feel tied down to her and Rickey; she didn’t want him to feel obligated. She encouraged Dusty to go out with some of his buddies and have some guy time, hoping he’d meet another girl; although that would break her heart. But it was bound to happen sooner or later, and with Rickey in the picture, sooner was better than later. But Dusty kept coming around.

Soon, he’d run into Daniel picking Rickey up for his weekend and they’d resumed their friendship where it had left off years ago. Emma was glad everyone got along but kept feeling maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have Dusty around Rickey so much. Rickey would probably take it as hard as she would when the time came for Dusty to move on.

But she couldn’t bring herself to break it off; her heart wouldn’t let her.

Tonight was their three-month dating anniversary, and Daniel was keeping Rickey so she and Dusty could go out to dinner and celebrate. This stop was going to make her late, and she hated to be late. It wasn’t only her pet peeve, but Dusty’s too. They both were notoriously punctual, whether for school, their jobs, or just plans with each other.

She heard a tap at her window and looked over to see an officer’s uniform blocking her view. He wasn’t bending over. She couldn’t see his face.
Well, that’s rude,
she thought. She pressed the button to roll down her window, halfheartedly apologizing for not having done so already even as the window was still moving.

The officer still stood straight up. All Emma could see was blue uniform. “Officer? Are you going to
talk
to me?” Emma asked evenly, trying—but failing—to keep the frustration out of her voice.
If you’re going to give me a ticket, then just do it and let me go
.

Finally, he bent over and leaned into the window. “Yes, miss. I’m going to have to ask you to come with me please.”

Emma smacked him on the arm. “Dusty! You scared me!” she said, laughing. “I thought I’d run the stop sign or something. What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be on duty.”

Dusty gave Emma a serious look. “No, really. You’re going to have to come with me.”

Emma felt a cold chill run down her spine. “What is it? Is it Rickey?”

“Rickey’s fine. Come on. Step back to my vehicle please,” Dusty answered in a clipped voice while pulling Emma’s door open and holding out a hand for her.

Emma’s mind whirled. Relief that Rickey was okay
—
Dusty wouldn’t lie about that—but who did that leave? Gabby, Jake, Olivia, Nick...? Was there something wrong with someone else? Hadn’t this family been through enough? “Tell me, Dusty. What is it?”

He ignored her as she hurried beside him to the passenger side of the patrol car. He opened the door and she sat down, leaving her feet still planted on the asphalt outside. “What is it, Dusty? Tell me now, please.”

“Get in,” he answered, not meeting her eyes.
This must be bad. He won’t even look at me.

Her feet felt like bricks as she pulled them in and turned to sit in the seat. She crossed her arms and wrapped them tightly around her chest. Dusty closed her door and slowly walked around the front of the vehicle to the driver’s side. He got in and closed his door, looking straight ahead, still not meeting Emma’s eyes.

The blue lights were still spinning, reflecting off the glass panes of the building in front of them, duplicating the image to look like she was surrounded by a dozen police cars. The world around Emma seemed surreal. She felt her stomach start to flip and looked at Dusty. He didn’t seem anxious or panicked. She stared at him, waiting.

Finally he turned and looked at her. His face was unreadable.

She gave him a pleading look. “What are you waiting for? Just tell me, Dusty,” she insisted in a quiet voice.

“Just a minute. Let me check the radio.”

He reached over, turning on his police radio, and Emma fumed.
For real? He wasn’t even supposed to be on duty tonight. Dammit! Can’t that shit wait? You got me freaking out here, Dusty!
she thought. She and Dusty hadn’t ever had a spat, not yet anyway, but it looked like this would be their first. Just as she was about lose her temper and go off on him, a voice broke through on the radio.

“To all oonits... to all oonits, peeze.
Mommy?
Are you dare?” a little voice squeaked.

Emma quietly exhaled and then looked at Dusty and laughed. Dusty finally smiled back and answered for her. “Mommy has been located and is in custody. Go ahead, Officer Rickey.”

“What is this, Dusty? Is Rickey at the station?” Emma asked, letting her arms uncross and running her hand down her face. She turned in the seat, facing Dusty, and reached for the radio, smiling. She wasn’t worried about Rickey. He was with his dad.
But what are they up to?

Dusty waved away her hand. “
Shh
... listen,” he said, holding a finger up to his lips.

The radio screeched and squawked a few times, as though Rickey didn’t quite know how to use it, and then he came back. “Mommy, you’s been
captured
! You hav’ta surrender. Officer Dusty,
secure
the pwisoner!” he yelled too loudly through the radio, making Emma cringe.

Dusty answered him, “Securing the prisoner now, Officer Rickey. Please stand by.”

He pulled a small box from the floor under his feet and turned toward Emma. He opened it, pulling out a ring. The diamond sparkled and glimmered, surrounded by tiny blue sapphires—the color of her eyes.
Oh my God,
Emma thought as little shivers broke out all over her skin. Her eyes were glued to the ring, her thoughts racing frontward, backward, and sideways.
He’s seriously going to ask me to marry him? I gotta get a dress! Omigod, Olivia and Gabby are going to freak out! With school and work and Rickey, when am I going to have time to plan a wedding?
She unconsciously leaned away from Dusty and the ring.

“Hey, I see your mind flipping somersaults.
Stop.
Just think about here and now. Me and you. Are you going to accept this, or are you going to resist?” he asked.

Emma’s eyes filled with tears as Dusty slowly reached for her hand. “I’m not resisting anymore, officer,” she answered around the lump in her throat.

The ring twinkled bright, seeming to compete with the flashing blue lights still swirling around them. Dusty slid it onto her finger and then took both of her hands into his and pulled her to him. “I hope you don’t mind. I wanted Rickey to be a part of this, but I didn’t want him to see this part.”

He put his finger under her chin and tilted her head up. Emma moaned and closed her eyes. She felt lightheaded. He wanted her—them. He wanted the whole package. She felt her pulse race.