Seeking Shelter (19 page)

Gavin stepped right up to the edge of the bed. Before Jace could think or react, he’d clapped a handcuff on his wrist and attached it to the bed rail.

“What the— Gavin, unless you’re arresting me, take this damn thing off.” Jace knew better than to jerk his arm, though the gut reaction was there. Where did this guy learn to be a sheriff? Weren’t there requirements for the job?

Maybe it was a good thing he was cuffed to the bed. The urge to kill Gavin was strong right now.

“That’ll keep you here until I get back.” Gavin left and pulled the door shut behind him.

Alone, Jace stared at the door, mentally using the vocabulary he’d polished years ago. He let his head fall back to the pillow and closed his eyes. What the hell was he supposed to do? Where had this idiot gotten the idea that he’d done anything to Katie?

Gavin had judged him the moment he’d ridden his bike into town, deciding Jace was something he wasn’t without even knowing him.

And where was Amy? Or Rick? Or Hank...okay, maybe not Hank. What was going through their minds right now? Did they really think he could have done this?

Was Katie okay? What if her injuries were worse than he’d thought? What if she couldn’t tell them what really happened?

He’d believed there was something different between him and Amy. She’d let him make love to her.... His mind ached with the memories of that night.

And of the whole trip to the Grand Canyon. He realized that night had done more for him than he wanted to admit. He’d started to heal. Had even slept inside without nightmares. He’d begun to believe he’d found a place to belong.

But this? He’d been treated better on the streets. Finally the anger hit, and he wasted several minutes abusing his arm as he yanked at the handcuff.

He’d get out of here, out of this backwoods world. He’d been stupid to think that a street rat like him could belong here. No, he had a place. He had the streets. He was going back to L.A. Back to the place he knew.

As soon as he figured out how to get loose and out of here.

An hour later, when the nurse came back to give him a toilet break, he took his chance. He felt only a mild twinge of guilt as he locked her in the bathroom and disconnected the call light. She wasn’t hurt, but she wasn’t going to sound the alarm anytime soon.

Now all he had to do was get over to the B and B and to his bike. It was late. Most of the townspeople were in bed by now. He’d crept out of worse places than this small town.

The harder part was going to be escaping the memories of this community, of these people, which he knew were going to follow him no matter where he went.

* * *

E
XHAUSTED
AND
RELIEVED
,
Amy walked into the small waiting room and stopped. It was after midnight and every chair was taken. Hank, Caryn, Rick, Lynne...they all stood and came over, questions flying. “Is she okay? What’s going on?”

Amy answered them, reporting that the tests had come back fine. Just the broken leg, bumps and bruises. Nothing serious. Katie would be able to go home once they were sure the dehydration had been treated.

Amy couldn’t help but smile. These people were her friends—her family. It felt good to know they were here. Even Hank. Looking at him now, she realized he’d done things in life she didn’t agree with or approve of. But what was done was done, and she couldn’t erase it.

He looked at her, his eyes sad. “I’m sorry, Amy,” he murmured.

She walked over to him and gave him a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For being there when I needed you.” She couldn’t absolve him of his sins, but she could start rebuilding their relationship.

“Oh, now there I go again.” Amy wiped her eyes. This time she didn’t mind; these tears didn’t hurt. She glanced around. “Where’s Jace?”

Suddenly everyone looked everywhere but at her. “What happened? Is he okay?” What if he’d been seriously hurt? Her heart started pounding again. “Where’s Jace?” she repeated.

Now that Katie was out of danger, panic and adrenaline no longer clouded her mind. She could see things more clearly. She remembered seeing him fall. Though she didn’t yet know the details, she knew he’d taken a big risk going in to get Katie.

Caryn stepped forward, and Amy frowned, seeing the relief that flashed on the rest of their faces.

“Uh, Amy. Gavin called an Amber Alert. He reported that Jace took Katie.”

“What?” Amy cried.

“Jace is downstairs in the E.R. The state police are there.”

Without a look back, Amy raced to the elevator. “Is Gavin crazy? Don’t answer that.” She kept pushing the lit button. That didn’t make the elevator move any faster, but it made her feel better.

“Now, Amy—” Hank stepped forward and tried to stop her.

She pulled away. “You all know Gavin doesn’t like Jace. He’s caused trouble ever since Jace came to town.” The elevator arrived and Amy pivoted, holding the doors open with one hand. “And none of you stopped him?”

For several seconds, she could only stare in shock. How much had Jace shared with these people? Nothing, she realized. She was the only one he’d trusted with the details of his past.

“Do you realize what he did for Katie?” She let the elevator close behind her, needing her friends to understand the importance of this. “His father died in a mine accident. He suffers from nightmares about it.” Her voice broke. “He can’t even sleep indoors.”

“Yeah, he sleeps out in the hammock in the backyard,” Hank offered, as if it suddenly made sense to him.

“He’d
never
hurt Katie.” Amy’s voice was thick with conviction. “And I know he’d never, ever let her go underground, much less take her there.”

Amy looked at each of them. “To go in and get her like that? Without him, I wouldn’t have Katie now.”

The fact that she’d fallen head over heels in love with him was something she kept to herself.

When the elevator returned, she wasn’t alone in climbing on.

The emergency room was quiet, though she doubted that was the norm. She heard voices behind drawn curtains, and a few staff members moved in and out of rooms and down the hallways.

Two police officers leaned against the far wall and she headed straight toward them. The taller of the two turned to face her first. “Evenin’, ma’am. Folks.”

“Hello. I’m Amy Grey. My daughter was the little girl rescued from the mine tonight.” She hoped they’d heard about it, that she was talking to the right guys.

“Yes, ma’am. That case is still under investigation.”

“Then, Officer...Wade?” She squinted at the name badge on his jacket. “You’ll let me talk to the man who saved my daughter’s life?”

The taller man shrugged and both men looked at each other in confusion. “Jace Holmes? We’re finished with him for now. Actually, we have some questions for you, Ms. Grey, and your daughter.”

Amy stepped closer to the officer. He was well-built, as well as big, which meant he could probably physically stop her. She’d take her chances that he was an honorable cop. “I’ll help however I can. I know he didn’t take her, no matter what Gavin said. Katie told me Jace saved her, and she’s not one to lie.” Amy sucked in a deep breath.

The officer nodded and gestured to the nearest room. “Come find us when you’re ready.”

“I will.”

The door was closed, so Amy hesitated. “Is the doctor with him?”

“Uh, no. The doctor will probably be back any minute, though,” Wade explained.

She passed the younger officer and pushed open the door. “Jace, it’s Amy.”

She found nothing but silence. There wasn’t anyone in the room. “Jace?” She looked over at the bed. The sheets and blankets were rumpled, and a hospital gown was discarded at the foot.

The bathroom door was closed. Suddenly, a loud thud sounded on the other side. Concerned, Amy yanked it open. Instead of Jace lying on the floor, she found a nurse sitting on the toilet, looking very perturbed. “Took you long enough,” she grumbled.

“Son of a...” one of the officers said behind her. Jace was gone.

Only a pair of handcuffs dangling from the bed rail remained.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

J
ACE
ROARED
ACROSS
the desert, his bike at full throttle. He pushed the Harley, watching the needle climb well past the 100 mph mark. The flat highway provided the perfect release to all the tension eating him from the inside out.

He heard the engine power up as it climbed the slight incline toward the hills.

He cursed and took the next curve. Time to leave all this behind. He had a life he needed to get on with. A life that had nothing to do with the Arizona heat.

Maybe if he drove fast enough he’d outrun more than just the rising cloud of desert dust...like maybe his busted heart.

He hoped to be out of here before the sun got too high and baked him and everything in the world around him. He topped the next rise and stared.

Jace braked and the tires squealed on the pavement. The bike rumbled in the desert quiet, patiently waiting for his next command. None came. He killed the engine and let the silence melt over him.

The green road sign told him he was leaving Arizona and entering California. Ahead lay miles and miles of empty desert, broken only by two strips of black highway. There were no other vehicles, no signs of life between him and the horizon. Nothing. He’d never seen anything like it.

The landscape looked as empty as he felt. It occurred to him that if he just kept going, no one would ever know what happened to him. Would they even care?

Your fault.
Amy’s last words to him cut through him again. How many times had he repeated them in his mind since leaving Rattlesnake Bend, feeling the cut of them on his soul? She hadn’t spoken to him at the mine, hadn’t seen him at the hospital, and if Gavin’s actions were anything to go by, hadn’t spoken up for him, either.

What was Jace even going back to? Mac was gone. Jace didn’t have a job anymore. Or an apartment. A storage space full of junk didn’t count. Hell, he’d given Amy the key to the safe deposit box, so he didn’t even have much money. That wasn’t anything new, but somehow it felt different now.

Jace would be going back to who he’d been ten years ago. A runaway on the streets, with nothing and no one. But this time, he wasn’t a kid. He’d grown up, fast and hard. He knew running away wasn’t the solution.

He had several choices, something he hadn’t had back then. He could keep going, and disappear from everyone’s life. Or he could head back to Pennsylvania to visit his family and see if he could find a place there. Linc and Julia would welcome him, but that wasn’t his home anymore. Or...

Or he could go back to Rattlesnake Bend and fight for what he wanted. What he needed. And what he needed was Amy. He just had to find a way to convince her that she needed him, too.

He’d had never needed anyone before. That road was filled with potholes and disasters. He’d never let himself head that way before, but now? Somehow he’d taken a wrong turn and here he was.

Parking the bike on the edge of the road, he started walking. He had to move, not passively ride. He headed into the desert, where cactus and sand were the only things in sight. The purple-shadowed mountains in the distance beckoned, simmering enticingly, but he knew it was an illusion. There were no answers for him there.

Suddenly, something moved—a tiny animal the same color as the dirt beneath his boots. It screeched in protest.

Jace cursed. And stopped. The creature was gone before he could identify it, but its message was loud and clear.

Leave. Not welcome here. Go home.

He almost swore he heard the words echo around him. Home. Where was home? Wasn’t that what he was trying figure out? What he’d been trying to figure out for a lifetime.

Amy’s image came easily to mind, from the night he’d spent in her arms. He closed his eyes to savor it—the sound of her laughter, the heaven of having her body next to his. The strength of his need surprised him, and he whispered her name, tasting the rightness of it on his lips.

More slowly this time, Jace headed back to the road, back to the bike, back to...

He paused, staring again at the long strip of highway. He could still go to L.A. To the anonymity there.

Nothing in Rattlesnake Bend had changed. Gavin would still be a jerk. The state police wouldn’t be happy that Jace had left without their permission. Amy would still have a store to run and Katie would still need her mother.

Yeah, a lot of people and things would still make demands. But who and what did Amy need? Her words that night at the Grand Canyon came out of the heat, as if carried straight to Jace by the desert wind. “No one else listens to me.”

No, nothing had changed.

Except him.

Jace kicked the bike to life, enjoying the rumble beneath him, savoring the hunger the powerful engine telegraphed up his spine. He cut across the median and settled in the center of the lane going east, heading back the way he’d come, doing something he’d never done before.

Something no one else had ever done for Amy, either.

He was going back.

* * *

A
MY
HEADED
OVER
TO
Hank’s bed-and-breakfast. Katie was at the diner with Caryn, having lunch and eating up all the attention. Everyone in town seemed to understand why the store was closed today. Tomorrow, though, she was sure they’d need something. She smiled, treasuring the people here.

Hank didn’t know she was coming over, and he looked up in surprise when she knocked. “Come on in.”

She joined him at his favorite spot, the kitchen table. The perpetual cup of coffee sat at his elbow, next to his crossword puzzle. A pot warmed on the counter. He didn’t offer her a cup, as he would have in the past.

Would she and Hank ever have the easy relationship they’d had before? She hoped so. She definitely hoped so. “I...do you have any idea where he might go?” She wondered if she sounded as pathetic as she felt. They both knew which “he” she was talking about.

“Who’s asking? A curious mom or a friend?”

Amy swallowed. “More than a friend,” she whispered.

“You love him?”

She didn’t want Hank to be the first person she told. She owed that to Jace—if she ever got the chance.

Hank didn’t wait for her answer. “About damned time. What are you gonna do about it?”

“I don’t know what to do. How do I find him?”

“You open your eyes and look,” he said.

“Philosophy is no help.”

Hank laughed. Maybe there was still hope for their friendship. “No, but it sounded good, didn’t it? Got you to smile. Maybe he left some stuff upstairs that’ll help.”

“What stuff?” Amy shot to her feet. “Did he say he was coming back?” Her hopes skyrocketed, but the frown Hank gave her made them plummet again.

He shrugged. “No, he didn’t say anything.”

“Can I go look?”

Hank nodded and Amy bounded upstairs. Jace’s room was empty, as if he’d never been there. He’d never slept inside, she knew, because of the claustrophobia. But what about now? He’d slept that night with her. And he’d gone into the mine for Katie.

Would Amy ever know what happened to him? He could go anywhere in the world, be whoever he wanted. No obligations. No rules.

Her eyes burned and she turned to leave. It had been stupid to come here. Stupid to think he’d leave some clue behind as to how to find him. Even stupider to think he’d
want
her to find him.

She’d reached for the door when a flash of color caught her eye. In the trash can. A postcard. She leaned down and pulled the bright picture into view. It was from their trip to the Grand Canyon. An early morning photo of the South Rim. She could almost see Jace standing there, his arms spread, embracing the freedom he so craved.

She turned the card over and frowned. Suddenly, she realized she’d never seen his handwriting before. It was strong, bold, the pen flowing easily, a mixture of old-fashioned cursive and print. He’d written, “Linc, you should see this place. I think I finally found where I belong.” He’d signed his name in a wide scrawl.

It was addressed to his brother in Pennsylvania. Amy remembered Jace telling her about Linc, about how they’d been estranged for years, but that a near-fatal mine cave-in had brought them back together. She remembered the news stories about the mining accident back East.

Jace was trying to stay connected through the postcards. He’d bought a couple from her that first day in her store. It was part of what had brought him into her life in the first place.

The last time she’d talked to him, she’d taken her anger out on him. When he’d rescued Katie from the mine, she hadn’t even thanked him.

Oh, what had she done? Why couldn’t she trust people? She couldn’t keep blaming her past. This was her fault. All her fault. It had nothing to do with her parents, or Matt, or Katie. No one was to blame in this—no one except herself.

Amy had to fix it. But how could she when she couldn’t even find him?

If his brother hadn’t been able to locate Jace for ten years, what made her think she could now? If he didn’t want to be found, she’d never see him again.

A tear slipped from between her closed eyelids despite her efforts to stem the flow.

Then her eyes flew open.
She
might not be able to find him, but he would stay in touch with his brother.

For the first time in what felt like days, her hopes rose and stayed there. She had to find him. Had to explain. Had to apologize.

Amy flew out the door and down the stairs. She didn’t even stop when Hank called out to her. She had too much to do and she had to do it fast, before her courage failed her again.

* * *

K
ATIE
HAD
COME
HOME
from the hospital with a pink cast and a pair of crutches that Amy was convinced would be the death of them both.

“Mama!” her daughter yelled from the front of the store, where she’d set up court. Katie’s friends came by at regular intervals and the townsfolk checked on her as they entered the store. Everyone had to sign her cast, of course. No princess party could hold a candle to this celebrity status.

“What?” Amy stuck her head out of the office door—again.

“He’s back. Mr. Jace came back.”

Amy knew better than to get her hopes up, but the painful hitch in her chest told her it was too late. She’d already been fooled a dozen times by the roar of a motorcycle driving through town. “I don’t think so, sweetie.” Rattlesnake Bend didn’t exactly entice people to come back, much less stay, not people who weren’t originally from here, anyway.

She had too much to do to keep running to the window every time a motorcycle roared past. Which was a lot more frequently than she’d thought before. So far, none of them had been a denim-blue Harley Fat Boy with the tall, leather-clad man she wanted astride.

And no phone calls had come from Jace’s brother, Linc. She’d found a number easily enough, but all she’d gotten was an answering machine. Sitting here staring at her phone probably wasn’t going to make it ring.

The front door of the store opened, but Amy didn’t hear any footsteps entering. Had Katie gone outside? Amy stepped out of the office and heard the throaty roar of the motorcycle Katie was talking about. The engine revved again. Concerned that someone a lot rougher than the usual crowd might be out there, she followed her daughter. Amy was halfway to the front of the store when she caught sight of him.

He came back.
Jace sat at the curb across the street, straddling that monstrous bike. He hadn’t climbed off, though he had shut down the engine. Katie was struggling to get to him. “Stay there, sweetie,” he was saying. “This street’s too rough for those crutches.” Surprisingly, Katie stopped and settled on the window ledge.

Amy couldn’t move. She stood in the open doorway, letting most of the air-conditioning out. He looked dusty and tired—and too good to be true. She wanted to run to him, just as Katie had tried to do.

Slowly, Amy let the door close and took several steps forward.

After all, he hadn’t told
her
to stay put.

He came back.
Why?

Stopping a few feet from him, Amy met his gaze through the shimmering heat. “You, uh, left too quickly for me to thank you.”

He tried to smile, but didn’t quite manage it. “Yeah. About that. I was in a bit of a hurry. And you’re welcome.” He glanced over at Katie and bestowed a genuine smile on her. Amy actually felt jealous of her daughter. “She looks fine.”

“Yeah, thanks to you. The cast should be interesting over the next few weeks, though.”

“I’ll bet.”

The small talk stalled.

Seated on the bike the way he was, their eyes were level, and Amy found herself caught in the intensity of his gaze. She heard people shuffling around them, but didn’t look away.

She’d bet half the town was watching her make a total mess of her life. “You came back,” she whispered, surprised she even said it out loud.

Slowly, Jace stood and swung his leg over the bike. She had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact. He started walking toward her, almost stalking her. She refused to back away, and with each step he took, her heart picked up its pace.

Oh, God, he was here. He was really here...and she had no clue what to say or do. She just wanted him to decide....

And then he did just that. His rough palm cupped her cheek. “Don’t say anything. Don’t argue. Just—” He leaned in. His body heat scorched her already overheated skin and she felt the brush of his breath across her mouth. And then his lips met hers.

He came back.

* * *

G
AVIN
CHARGED
OUT
OF
the sheriff’s office. If this had been the old days, Jace was sure he’d have had his guns blazing. Except this wasn’t the Old West, just a town left over from that time.

“You stay right there, Jace Holmes,” the sheriff yelled.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Jace gave Amy a gentle squeeze, then stepped away. He’d known coming back would involve facing Gavin and the possible charges against him. Jace also knew that Katie would be able to set the record straight, so he wasn’t worried.