Rush of Redemption (Rush Series #2) (11 page)

He had expected a bigger
fight about the additional security, but she’d seemed to have taken it well…
almost too well. With one last glance at his son, he turned and headed back to
Trinity. She was still standing in the middle of the living room with her hands
clasped in front of her. She surveyed him silently as he entered the room.

“Come sit with me,” he
invited as he moved to the couch.

She stood blinking at him
for several beats before joining him. He moved closer to her and brushed the
back of his fingers against her cheek.

“Everything will be okay.
We’ll get through this,” he assured her.

She couldn’t entirely stop
the flinch from his touch. Pulling back from him, she gave him a small, tight
smile. “I know. Listen, I’m fine now. The reporters just rattled me. You don’t
need to stay. I know you have a lot to do at the office.”

Not buying her act, he
stared at her for a long moment. “Trinity, talk to me.”

She swallowed hard, wanting
nothing more than to claw at his handsome face… to inflict a small measure of
the pain she was suffering. But she reined it in. She needed time to think and
plan. She’d only called him to get her son to safety. Now, she just needed him
gone. “There’s nothing to say. I was just rattled before…”

“Yeah, you said that.” He
studied her again before running a hand roughly through his hair. “You don’t
need to worry about anything. I promise you and Blake will be fine.”

“Will we?” she asked softly.

“It’s a learning process.
We’ll just know now to be more careful, right?”

The very thin, fine thread
she was holding onto was beginning to fray. Her chest rose and fell as she
studied him. “This wasn’t my fault,” she said softly but adamantly.

“I didn’t say it was,” he
said.

“No. But that’s what you
think. That I should have known better than to take the baby out of the
apartment. Just go ahead and say it.”

“Baby, that’s not true…” he
began calmly before she jumped up and interrupted him.

“I never wanted this life!
I ran from this life! And now I can’t even take my child to the park without
being mobbed. And do you know the horrible questions they asked me? Did I sign
a 
prenup
; was I forcing you to marry me; and my
personal favorite – was the baby the price for marriage. I told you last night
it’d be this way. That in the long run both you and Blake would be hurt and I
was right. They tried to pull his blanket away so they get a picture of his
face. I nearly dropped him. I couldn’t get away. I couldn’t protect him.” She
sucked in a deep breath and wiped a hand furiously against her wet cheeks.

He rose from the couch and
began to gather her into his arms. “Everything is going to be all right…” he
began before she interrupted him again.

Pushing against him, she
backed up. “How can you say that? It’s not true. Nothing is going to be all
right ever again. Is this the life our son can expect?
Security
details and reporters?”

“Trinity, I think you just
need to calm down…” he began once more.

“Don’t tell me to calm
down! They tried to get at our son in any way they could and I’m supposed to be
calm about that? They mobbed us in front of my home and I’m supposed to be calm
about that?”

“No, I just….”

“I can’t even go back to my
own home to get a change of clothes for myself and I’m supposed to be calm
about that?” She ended on a yell.

Grabbing her shoulders, he
shook her. “Yes, you need to calm down. We will…”

Snatching away from him,
she cried, “Get your hands off me! I don’t want you touching me.”

His eyebrow rose in
confusion. “Trinity, what’s going on?”

“Do you know how classless
it was of you to invite your girlfriend to our engagement party? If you wanted
to continue on with her, couldn’t you at least have tried to hide it from me?
Or do I matter so little to you that it didn’t matter? Was it always only about
Blake. If so, I told you I wouldn’t keep him…”

He interrupted her. “What
the hell are you talking about? I didn’t invite anyone to the party, and the
only girlfriend I have is you. How can you doubt that?”

Rushing to her bag, she
snatched out the newspaper, still turned to page six, and thrust it at him. “A
picture is worth a thousand words, don’t you think?” she said with a mocking
flourish.

He quickly scanned the
pictures and the words. “Trinity, it’s not what you think…” he began.

Trinity reached into her
front pocket and withdrew the small business card. “I found this in the jacket
you wore last night,” she said almost victoriously.

He took the card and glanced
at it, vaguely remembering taking it and slipping it into his pocket the night
before. He cringed when he read the words after seeing the speculation in the
newspaper: 
When you tire of playing house…. Call me.

Balling the card in his
fist, he exhaled before rubbing the back of his neck. “Trinity, while it’s true
Olivia was at the party, I did not invite her. And while it’s also true that we
once had… a thing, it was a while ago…”

“So you didn’t have dinner
with her last week?” she asked, interrupting him.

He stared into her eyes
while his teeth ground together. “Well, technically speaking, no. I had dinner
with her father and she attended the dinner 
with him
… she was with
him… not me.”

Her eyes shifted side to
side and her lips trembled as she tried to read what 
was
the truth
 and what was a lie. Frustration, fear, and jealousy
clawed at her insides. Because she so wanted to believe his words, she was
afraid she was just seeing what she wanted to. Could the explanation be that
simple? “Well, you certainly looked cozy at the party, if the picture is any
indication… and you kept her card. Why’d you keep her card if you weren’t
intending on calling her?”

Sitting down heavily on the
couch, he set his forearms against his thighs and interlocked his fingers. “She’s
the daughter of a business associate. I haven’t been with her – like that – in
several months. She wanted to continue on with what we had, but I didn’t then,
and don’t now.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he closed his eyes tiredly.
“Trinity, I’m sorry I have a past, I’m especially sorry that past keeps coming
back to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you. But at some point you need to trust
me. I love you. I’ve asked you marry me. I don’t know what else to do. I know
our beginning was suspect, but I’ve tried to be an open book to you since.
You’re going to have to help me… I can’t do this alone.”

She lifted soulful eyes to
his. “It 
was
 my fault,” she rasped.

“What was?”

“I was distracted by the
pictures in the paper… you… my father… and I wasn’t paying attention when I
walked into the building. I practically walked right into the middle of the
hornet’s nest before I realized what was going on. I should have been paying
more attention.”

“Honey, it wasn’t your
fault. They are vultures. I don’t blame you. Why would you expect them? I
didn’t. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I should have taken more precautions,
but I didn’t know they could find you. And I certainly didn’t think the
engagement and baby would be leaked this soon. I’m sorry, Trinity, so very sorry.”

She stood looking intently
into his eyes for a long moment before turning away and rubbing her arms
furiously as if cold. She stared out of the window without seeing, trying
desperately to have things make sense. She jumped when she felt his hands on
her shoulders.

Brushing his lips against
the side of her head, he said, “Trinity, I swear, this is real. I need you to
believe that. You can trust me.”

Silently, she nodded her
head. Cautiously, he wrapped his arms around her and drew her back against him.
She held herself stiffly in his embrace but at least she didn’t pull away.

“I was a little girl when
my mother was killed. Whenever my father was and is mentioned in the paper,
there is always mention of the kidnapping and of the ‘tragedy’ of his poor deceased
wife and surviving child. I was never able to forget it,
and neither has anyone else. This is the life we have condemned
our son to. He’ll know and be constantly reminded of our troubled beginning… of
how you were trapped into marriage by a money-grubbing Judge’s daughter.”

“There’s nothing we can do
about that, Trinity. Our history is just what it is. I don’t care what other
people say. I wouldn’t give him up for anything. Would you? If you could go
back and erase that part of our lives that brought us him, would you?”

Slowly she shook her head.
“No.”

“So what do you suggest?”

She lifted one shoulder in
a shrug. “Just promise to keep him safe.”

He turned her to face him.
Tugging her dark ponytail gently, he tilted her face up to his and pressed his lips
softly against hers. “I’ll keep you 
both
 safe, I promise.” He
pulled her even tighter against his body in a firm hug before pulling back. “I
hate to do this, but I have to get back to the office for a couple hours. I’ll
leave Radcliff here. If you need anything, just ask him and he’ll assist.
You’ll be safe here with him. Okay?”

After a beat, she
reiterated, “I never wanted you for your money.”

He ran his fingers over her
jawline. “I never thought you did.” With a smirk, he said, “I thought you were
only after me for my body.”

She gave him a faint smile.

Pressing his lips against
her forehead, he said more seriously, “Everything will work out, you’ll see.
Soon we’ll be married and people will find us so utterly boring, the reporters
will have no choice but to report on other things,” he said with a small smile.

She nodded, but inside she
knew better. She’d lived in the public eye all her life.

~*~

It was really late when Rush finally made it home… much later than
‘just a couple of hours’ as promised. Exhausted from the events of the day,
both at home and at work, he inhaled deeply before opening the door, unsure of
what he’d encounter. When he entered, the overpowering warmth of the house
seemed to hit him in the face. It took a moment for him to realize the source
of the heat. In the living room, a fire was burning in the marble fireplace. It
was the height of summer, why would there be a fire in the fireplace? The room
was illuminated only by the flames and it flickered sensuously over the walls
of the living room.

Looking around the room, he
wondered briefly why Trinity would leave the fire burning. It wasn’t until he
was in the middle of the room that he saw them. Trinity and Blake were lying on
a pallet in front of the fireplace, asleep. She had on one of his T-shirts
which stretched down nearly to her thighs. She was lying on her side and Blake
was nestled up near her belly. The sheet she had draped over them at the
beginning of their night had been kicked off and now laid bunched at her feet.
The frustrations from his day seemed to just melt away as he took in the
picture of his family lying in front of the fire. 
His family
… the
words gave him a catch in his chest and the warmth of the room seemed to absorb
itself into his midsection.

Tugging at the tie at his
throat, he slipped it off and began unbuttoning his dress shirt. He tossed them
onto a chair and moved to the air controller and turned it down cooler to
compensate for the fire. He stripped off his belt, emptied the contents of his
pockets, kicked off his shoes and pants, and peeled off his socks. Lying down
next to Trinity, he turned on his side and spooned her from behind. He pressed
a gentle kiss in her hair and wrapped his arm around her, tucking her up
against his hard form. She sighed heavily in her sleep and snuggled her body
into his. While she might have lingering doubts about their relationship, it
was obvious her body didn’t. He exhaled silently, contentment filling him as he
slowly drifted off. As he sank into the depths of sleep, he wondered why she
was sleeping on the floor.

Chapter Seven

Rush was pulled slowly from sleep. It took him a minute to get
both his bearings on the living room floor and to understand what he was
hearing. With his eyes closed, he originally thought the sounds he’d heard were
coming from Blake, but as consciousness returned fully, he realized it was
Trinity whimpering and thrashing about. He rose up on his elbow and pulled her
body closer to himself and further away from the sleeping baby next to her,
afraid she’d hurt him in her distress. He pulled her onto her back and cupped
her cheek in his palm.

Leaning into her ear, he
called to her softly. “Trinity, wake up, honey, it’s only a dream.” He lowered
his hand from her face to her shoulder and shook her gently. “Come on, baby,
wake up, you’re dreaming.”

Suddenly her eyes flashed
opened and she jerked up trying desperately to get away from him. Her actions
caused them to bump heads. She fell back with a thud. She blinked rapidly and
her chest rose and fell in quick ragged breaths. When she realized where she
was, her lips began to tremble and she launched herself against him, curling
her body against his. He wrapped his massive arms around her and held her close
as he stroked her back in comfort and pressed his lips repeatedly against her
head.