Swept Away (21 page)

Josie tucked the pillows behind Tucker’s back. “Did you want anything else to eat? More to drink?”

“Josie, I’m fine. You need to lie down and get some rest.”

“I don’t need to rest. I’m fine,” she said. “I want to clean the bathroom. I mean it looks clean, but it might not be, and we don’t want you to catch something. I can’t imagine having a cough with all those stitches.”

“The bathroom is fine. Come on, come lay with me. We’ll watch a movie.”

Josie looked around the place as she considered the proposal. The place was in the attic of an old Victorian. It had been converted into a studio apartment, with narrow, angled ceilings and very little natural light. Tucker had questioned Murray’s sanity in renting the place after he made the climb up all the steps, but once inside, he decided it was the perfect place to sleep for days. If only he could get Josie to calm down and relax.

“I’ll just give it a quick once-over. Then I’ll make you something to eat. You need food to elevate your blood count. They said you lost a lot of blood—“

“Josie, come on. You’re making me tired listening to you. Are you all right? You seem…agitated.”

Josie sighed and sat at the foot of the bed. “It’s just…”

“What? Talk to me.”

“When I lay down, I think about…things…”

“I’m going to ask one more time. If you ignore me, I’ll have to get out of my comfy position and drag you here. Please, will you come lay down with me?”

Josie crawled in from the bottom and sat cross-legged across from him.

“Come over here,” he said.

She moved an inch or so.

“Seriously, Josie, get over here. I want to be able to touch you.”

She scooted a little closer. He gave her a look. She said, “What? You have like a hundred stitches.”

“This shoulder doesn’t. Come over here.”

She snuggled next to him, easing her head onto his shoulder like it was made of glass. His hand found his way to her hair.

Josie let out a happy sigh. “This does feels good.”

“Yes, it does.” He kissed the top of her head.

She relaxed against him. His fingers worked to smooth the curls in her hair. He was almost half asleep when Josie spoke.

“My mother killed herself.”

Tucker was instantly wide awake. “How do you know that?”

“A police officer came to the hospital to get my statement about what happened. You were asleep. He said they’d contact you later.”

“Josie…you shouldn’t have talked to them. Not until you have a lawyer.”

“It’s all right. He was nice.”

Tucker took a deep breath, shaking his head.

“I should feel something, but I don’t. I don’t feel relief. Or sadness. I just feel nothing. My mother is dead, and I feel nothing.”

He rubbed her back. “The last few hours have been traumatic. I think feeling numb is completely normal.”

She was quiet for a long time.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. Just listening to your heart beat.”

Tucker’s smile was brief and his eyes burned. Clearing his throat, he said, “We live forward, not backward. All that stuff in the past is over and done with. We have a future to think about.”

“You’re right. We do. I don’t think I’ve ever planned for the future. I suppose we’ll need to decide where we’ll live. We will be together, right? Or are you going to leave me now that I’m a ruined woman?”

Tucker’s laugh was a chesty grumble. “Damn right.”

“Damn right I’m ruined, or—“

“Damn right you’re sticking with me. I want to marry you, Josie McCoy.”

“Hmm. I suppose you’re the best I’ve met while living like a hermit on a tiny island…”

“Whatever happened to us being soul mates, fated to be together and all that?”

“That? Oh, I was just trying to get in your pants.”

Tucker laughed. “You were trying to get in my pants? All you had to do was ask.”

“So, I’m learning…another reason I may want to keep considering the field of availables a little more,” Josie laughed.

“You evil, evil woman. No more choices for you. I’m not asking. I’m telling. You’re marrying me, Josie McCoy. You’re stuck with me for an eternity.”

“Hmm…I suppose the first thing we need to do is make Josie McCoy really exist. I want to get a legal name change. I will never be Ariel Stone again.”

Tucker’s entire body ached as he rolled out of bed. His first thought was that he screwed up leaving the hospital. He went to the kitchen sink and popped a pain pill and his antibiotics.

“You okay?” Josie asked, coming up behind him and touching his back gently.

“I’m fine. Just stiff and sore. Do you remember what the doctor said about showering? Was that good or bad?”

“I don’t remember. Let me check the papers.” Josie ruffled through her purse. She pulled them out and skimmed over them. “Twenty-four hours before you can shower. No prolonged exposure. Just wash them and dry them completely. We should put the antibiotic ointment on them.”

“Now?”

“No time like the present.”

As Tucker pulled his shirt off, Josie went to the sink and scrubbed up more thoroughly than a surgeon. Tucker settled himself on a kitchen chair and started pulling off the bandage in the front. It didn’t look too bad. Eight stitches closed the spot where he fell on the knife. Josie smeared the ointment on those stitches and then wrapped it in clean bandages. Next she pulled the bandage off his shoulder. “Oh, Tucker.”

“What?” He made a half turn toward her.

“No, no. It’s fine. I just can’t believe this didn’t hit anything. A bit to the left and it could have gone through your neck.”

“I’m fine. Don’t think that way.”

“I know, I know.” Taking a deep breath, she added the medicine and the clean bandage. Then she moved onto his side. It was the biggest bandage of them all. Pulling it off carefully, she gasped. “Oh, my God.” The slash went from his hip to midway up his back. “That prick,” Josie said. Grabbing the medicine with shaking hands, she dropped the tube.

“You all right?”

“No. No, I am not all right. Your whole back is sliced open.”

He took her by the hand and pulled her toward him. “Listen to me. It’s over.”

“No,” her voice was shrill. “No, it’s not over. I hate them all. They tried to kill us. Tried to kill our baby. That bastard Jeb killed my friend. He put vile, loathsome hands on me. He’ll walk out of prison. What will he get? Nothing. He’ll go home to his millions, free to hurt anyone else he pleases.  How did he survive prison? I thought pedophiles got stabbed or shivved or whatever. If I had any sort of spine, I’d kill him myself.”

Tucker thought she was joking, but her face looked grim, determined.

“You’re not killing Stone. I can see why you want to, but you’re not going to do it.”

“I know. I’m gutless.”

“No. Because, if you get caught, our baby has no mom.”

She nodded, letting out a long sigh. ”I can’t explain how much I hate him. I hate him more than my mom, and she tried to kill me.”

Tucker didn’t say anything. He didn’t know how she felt. He might not have had it perfect, but he was protected his whole life. 

“It’s over, Josie. We’re planning our future, right?”

Josie nodded slowly. “You’re right. It’s over. I suppose I need to keep reminding myself of that.” She took a deep breath and resumed her work, adding the medicine and clean bandages. When she finished, she slid her hands up his back, to his shoulders. Leaning forward, she brushed kisses across the thick muscles on his neck. “You go lie down, and I’ll bring you a sandwich, and we’ll watch TV.”

“Sounds good,” Tucker said, slowly standing and moving back to the bed. Josie made them each a plate of food. Once they were both settled, plates on their laps, and pillows comfortably behind them, she flipped on the TV.

It was then they realized, Josie’s story did make national news.
…assumed murdered, Ariel Stone, the stepdaughter of millionaire contractor and land developer, Jeb Stone, is alive and well. Mr. Stone has spent the last five years in prison for Ariel’s murder. So, how does a man go to prison for a murder of someone who is still alive? And should she pay for her deception?

Josie turned away from the TV and stared at Tucker with her jaw dropped. “You hear that? It sounds like they feel sorry for him. Poor innocent man went to prison.”             

Tucker grabbed the remote and shut the TV off. “Don’t listen to the bullshit, Josie. You know the truth.”

She wiped at the tears that rolled down her cheeks. “I don’t know why I’m shocked. No one ever cared. No one ever believed me.”

“Forget them. We’ve got each other.”

“I want to pretend it doesn’t matter, but it does. I do care what people think about me.”

“The people who know you will know the truth. None of the rest of the world matters.  They don’t know you, so how the hell can they judge you?” He didn’t wait for her answer. His face felt hot. Of all the crap she’d had to deal with, the media making Stone into a saint was nothing more than bitter icing on a poison cake, and he wasn’t about to let her take a bite.  He answered his question for her, “They can’t. They’re idiots, and I don’t know why you’d let yourself be bothered by idiots. And another thing…this story will be old news in two weeks. They’ll drive by, look over the carnage, gasp a little, say the stupid shit that stupid people like to say, and then move on to the next disaster.”

Josie wiped at the tears with the back of her hand and giggled. “That has to be the worst, best motivational speech ever. Don’t ever leave me, Tucker. I can’t do this without you.”

“No chance of that,” he said, kissing her. “Now, I don’t want you to worry, but I think we need to put going to see an attorney on the top of our to-do list.”

“How am I going to pay for that?” Josie asked.

“Don’t worry about it.”

She shook her head. “You’re paying for the baby, now an attorney too?”

“The baby is mine, and its mom being taken care of is pretty damned important.”

Josie looked pale. Her hands shook as she rubbed the back of her neck. “I have some money. I just didn’t think to bring it. I can call Murray and tell him where—“

”Are you seriously planning to dodge marrying me? Is that it?”

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.  “Of course not. Why would you even say that?”

“You seem awfully resistant to me helping…like you don’t want to be indebted to me or something. Like there won’t be a lifetime of opportunities for you to pay me back.” She sat there, looking small and way too damn fragile. Tucker knew she had to understand she wasn’t in this alone. There was more at risk in the next few weeks than money. A lifetime of hurts and scars were about to be ripped open, and she needed to accept he wasn’t just a guy she dated over a summer. He was a guy who was in it, for better or worse, for the long haul.

“Tucker, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean—“

“It’s all right.” He wrapped her in his arms, his hands running down to the small of her back. Her cheek rested on his chest and she breathed a sigh. Kissing her temple, he said, “Why don’t you take a nice hot bath, and I’ll make some calls.”

“Okay,” she said, without moving.  Letting out a long sigh, she said, “I wish we were back on the island, just the two of us.”

“We’ll be back there in no time. I promise.”

“I felt safer there. It’s so humiliating, Tucker. To know it’s being rehashed over and over. Everyone will call me a liar and worse.”

Tucker made her look at him; his jaw twitched. “You have nothing to be ashamed of, do you hear me? That bastard will burn in hell.”

“He’ll get away with it. He always does. He has money and can smile his way through anything.”

“Take your bath. Stop thinking about it.”

She nodded. He walked her to the bathroom. “You need anything?”

“No.”

He turned to leave, but she caught his arm and pulled him back. “I guess I do need one more hug.”

He smiled as he pulled her in and held her close. Kissing the top of her head, he promised, “It’s going to be all right.”

She leaned up on tiptoes and kissed him.

He called the attorney Ella recommended. Her name was Shae Harper, and she must have been expecting his call, because she didn’t seem surprised to hear from him. She said she’d been following the story on the news. She offered to take Josie’s case pro bono and agreed to meet with them as soon as they could get there. 

Tucker was about to call a car rental place when there was a knock on the door. He looked through the peephole. Murray and Ella. With a grin, he pulled the door open.

“Hey, soldier,” Ella said. “I hear you’re quite the hero. Saved the lady fair and all. I was telling Murray on the way up here, I always thought it was suspicious he had such a gorgeous niece.”

“I coulda had a niece that pretty.”

“Course you could, you old goat.” Ella laughed.

“I wanted to get your car to you, and Ella offered to drive over with me so I had a way back. I didn’t realize the price would be so high,” Murray said with a grin.

“Thank you, Ella. I appreciate it. I called that attorney for Josie. We’re going to go meet with her in a little while. I was just getting ready to rent a car.”

Murray handed him the keys. “Thought you were supposed to rest?”

“I’ll be fine. Josie needs to know what she’s up against.”

“Lied to the doc. Can’t say I’m shocked. Well, here are some clothes and such. There are a few more bags in the trunk, but I think this will hold you until you’re feeling better.”  Murray set the bags on the small dining table.  Stepping back, he said, “Hetty made you some casseroles and fresh bread. She sends her love, of course. Misses Josie pretty awful. Oh, and here’s your cell phone. I took the case off and dried out the sim card and battery. It seems to be working fine now. And I found this here necklace. Thought it might be important.”

Tucker gave him a hug. It was a spontaneous, short-lived awkward sort of embrace. “Thank you, Murray. You’ve thought of everything.”

Murray’s head bobbed. “Well, you know your dad was always there for me. He was like a brother.”

Tucker shook his head, suddenly feeling like he needed to try a little harder to get to know the man Murray and Josie described. “We’ll have to go see him together.”

Murray nodded. “We will, son.”

Murray checked his watch. “Well, I better get going. Hetty’s been bombarded with reporters since we got back.”

“Seriously? Son of a bitch.”

“It’s all right, son. Don’t tell her I said this, but I think she’s enjoying it. I know she’s feeling it’s her duty to tell Josie’s side of things—how she had to run away because her momma wouldn’t help her. Hid her identity for her own safety. Some of them reporters are saying Josie faked her death on purpose. That we were conspiring to keep Stone in jail. Some even want the case turned over to the Attorney General.”

Tucker ran a hand across the top of his head. “Seems like this shit will never stop.”

“That Stone fella?” Ella said. “He’s on TV offering Josie forgiveness, begging her to come home. Makes me want to vomit.”

“So, he’s out?”

Murray shrugged. “I think the interview was done in prison, but he’ll be out soon, if he isn’t already. Stone’s attorneys are putting heavy pressure on the state legislature. News said they were holding a special meeting of the Board of Pardons. I mean it’s obvious the man isn’t guilty of murder. At least not of Josie’s. Bottom line—there’s plenty of people bitching that the man is in prison while the girl he
murdered
is living it up on the beach. And it is election season, ya know. It’s just a matter of time before he’s free.”

They said their good-byes, and Tucker headed to the bathroom to check on Josie. She was resting in the tub with her head propped on a rolled-up towel.

“Josie?”

She opened her eyes slowly. “Mmm, hmm?”

“We need to get dressed and meet with your attorney.”

“Oh,” Josie said, standing and reaching for a dry towel.

“Good thing we’re in a hurry,” Tucker said. “Or I’d have to pop a stitch.”

Josie laughed as she dried off. “I have more willpower than that. Trust me.”

Stepping out of the tub, she wrapped her body in the towel.  “Was someone here?”

“Murray and Ella.”

“You should have gotten me.”

“They were in a hurry. He brought us clothes and my car.”

“Ah Murray. They don’t make too many like him.”

“No, they don’t. I need to shave and wash up, and then I’ll be ready.”

When he finished and opened the bathroom door, Josie was still in her towel sitting on the bed watching the news. “He says I should come home,” Josie said as Tucker walked in the room. “Isn’t that so nice of him to welcome me back with open arms?”

“Turn it off, Josie. There’s no point in it.”

“Seems I’ve also re-opened the death penalty debate. Who knew little old me could create such a national scandal? And they want to put me in jail? Murray and Hetty too?”

Tucker shut off the TV and sat beside her. Taking her hand in his, he gave it a squeeze. “It will all blow over. I swear.”

“That one lady on there said I probably had a crush on him—an Electra complex or something. Stupid bimbo. She probably wants to have sex with him. But Hetty is in my corner.”