Those words were a powerful reminder of the real reason she’d wanted to go to this extreme. “Tonight it was as if Garth was standing there in front of me instead of Henry.”
“You’re just now figuring that out, are you?”
“If you’ll just take the time to see my side though, it made sense at the time. No one forced me to take her place. If you’ve never been through anything so horrific like a daily dose of abuse, mind control, manipulation dished out on a regular basis, it’s impossible to understand fully the freedom we felt together when we were in Canada, the bond we forged. For once that brief amount of time was exhilarating. It gave both of us an empowerment we hadn’t known for such a long time. Like me with Garth, Isabella had almost gotten free of Henry a time or two, but she always failed. And like me, she’d already let Henry destroy her soul just as I almost let Garth destroy mine. Men like Garth and Henry squeeze the light right out of a person. The light that once shined so bright is snuffed out. You feel like there’s no place to turn. It’s a sad reality. How can I make you understand that I was a party to my own self-destruction and didn’t even realize it until it was almost too late? It happened to me, Thane, to me. All I was trying to do was to get justice for my friend.”
“I just want to know this. You are divorced from Garth, right? Please tell me you divorced that son of a bitch.”
“Yes, yes, I’m divorced from Garth. He actually divorced me when he couldn’t locate me. But don’t you see it wasn’t Garth who followed me into Canada. Garth didn’t try to kill me there. Henry Navarro succeeded in doing both to Isabella. Henry took her life and I wanted him to pay for it.”
Thane shook his head. It still wasn’t falling into place for him. “I thought I knew you. I thought I’d found the person I could trust.”
For the first time, Isabella took in the resentment in his eyes and began to panic. She began to consider the fact that he really didn’t understand her reasoning at all. “Of course you know me. You know the real me. Now. I just went through the reason for all of it. I didn’t come to Pelican Pointe to fall in love with anyone. But…I didn’t fall in love with just you. I fell in love with Jonah, too. You have to believe that. You can’t take all that I love away from me.”
“It was your decision to put yourself in grave danger. You pulled it off tonight. But I can’t get past the fact that if this asshole had come along when you were with Jonah, what would have happened to my son? How did you intend to handle that? What would you have done then if he’d gone after Jonah or kidnapped him to get to you?”
When he continued to sit there and scowl at her, she said, “I would never have let anything happen to him. You know that. I took self-defense courses, enough so that I could kick Henry’s ass tonight. I learned how to fire a weapon and am fairly accurate at it.”
“So now you carry a gun around with you? What were you gonna do if he’d held a knife to my son’s throat? You say you care so much, but a mother knows she doesn’t put her children in harm’s way out of some misguided revenge. Even a substitute mother knows that. If Logan wanted this guy so badly, why didn’t he take any of the risks that you took? Through this entire explanation of yours, there’s one missing chunk. I don’t see Logan putting anything on the line here. He didn’t put his kids out as bait. He put you out as bait and along with you he put Jonah. Did that ever come up in conversation? So if you cared so much about Jonah at all, surely you understand why I feel as betrayed as I do. That’s the main reason we’re done. We’re done.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“See, that’s just it, I do.” And with that, Thane leaned over past her, lifted up the handle of the door, and shoved it open for her so she could get out of the truck.
“But if you’ll just…”
Thane shook his head when she started to get out of his jacket to give it back. “Keep the coat on, you’ll freeze otherwise. But please, get out now, I have to get Brent’s truck back to him and get back home to my son.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Her medical exam lasted less than forty-five minutes. Doc cleaned her up, pronounced her fit enough to make a statement to Brent and sent her on her way. When she reached the waiting room, Brent was there to take her to the police station where she went through the story again for the record.
It wasn’t until Brent had gone over his final question that she worked up her courage to ask what had been bothering her the most. “Am I in trouble?”
“You were kidnapped and fought back. You stabbed your attacker with one of the knives Cleef had on hand in his own kitchen. There will be an inquest, but you won’t be charged with a crime if that’s what you mean.”
Relief swelled and then ebbed. “What’s the latest news on Henry’s condition?”
“He’s in surgery. He’ll no doubt be well enough to face California charges for kidnapping. He has several assaults in his past in other states that stem from an attack on his mother and another on a university campus police officer for battery.”
“But what about his going back to Canada to face charges there?”
“Sure. Eventually. Maybe even take a scenic route through New York down the road. There are detectives there interested in talking to him about Javier Rialto’s death. But you already knew that.”
Brent’s tone suggested he was just as put out with her as Thane had been. “You’re angry with me, too.”
“I think what you did was incredibly dangerous and ill-advised. You could’ve been killed tonight. Having said that, you got the job done well enough, the job you set out to do initially. Henry’s in custody and looking at prison for the rest of his natural life. So congratulations are in order on that score.”
“But at what cost? That’s what Thane said tonight sitting outside Doc’s before he ended our relationship.”
Brent blew out an exhausted breath. “Look, I wasn’t a father until recently. But after being one for a short amount of time, I know where Thane’s coming from. Someone else might have been Luke’s sperm donor but—in a Darth Vader moment—I’m Luke’s father. I’m the person who reads him stories and tucks him into bed at night. If anyone put him in danger, I’d flip to furious in a heartbeat. Maybe even use my fists to make a point. That’s the world of parenthood.”
“I would never have allowed Henry to do anything to Jonah, or Thane, for that matter.”
“It isn’t me you have to convince. Look, it’s late. You should go home and get some sleep. But keep this in mind. Thane was frantic tonight until he found you. If it hadn’t been for his quick thinking, and heading over to Logan’s when he did, things might have turned out differently, even if you did kick Henry’s ass the way you did. Do you understand how lucky you are that this turned out the way it did?”
“I’m beginning to, since no one sees what I did as a noble or…”
Brent didn’t let her finish. “Now, wait a minute. That’s where I draw the line. I understand how you and Logan thought law enforcement around the world had let you down and you had to do something on your own about it. Noble? You aren’t a vigilante. It’s unrealistic to think otherwise.”
“For most people, I guess it is. I thought I could hold my head up now because I’d found a way to stand up for myself, for Isabella. I see that’s not the case.”
“You did stand up for yourself as soon as Marisa opened the door that night and left and didn’t go back to that environment. You got out for good. That was standing up for yourself. Now, come on, I’ll drive you home.”
“Thanks. Where’s my dog? I never got a straight answer.”
“We dropped her off at Thane’s house.”
“Okay. Great. He has Jazz.”
“Things will settle down, you’ll see. Just give it a few days. Thane’s pretty upset. If you just give him time, I’m sure he’ll calm down enough to forgive the lies.”
Isabella bristled at his using the ‘L’ word. Lying hadn’t been part of her plan. “If you don’t mind, I’ve changed my mind. I
think I’ll walk home.”
“It’s almost four in the morning.”
“With Henry Navarro under twenty-four-hour wraps, I think I’ll be safe enough to walk back home.”
“But I insist on seeing you get there safely. If not, I won’t sleep a wink. If that’s not enough for you, River would have my head if I didn’t drive you home and see you safely inside. It falls under the heading of keeping the citizens of Pelican Pointe from crazed killers.”
For the first time in hours, she smiled. “Okay, Mr. Chief of Police, be my taxi. See that I get home.”
The next morning Fischer woke her up pounding on the front door. He had Jazz on a leash and the dog stretched as far as she could reach to get the chance to dash inside.
“Hey, girl,” Isabella said as she dropped down to rub the pup’s ears. “I missed you. Did you miss me?”
“Thane thought you might want her around today so I was tasked with bringing her home.”
“Isn’t that thoughtful of him?” she said, splashes of sarcasm in the words. “Of course, I want Jazz around today. Thanks for taking the time to bring her back to me. It explains him not answering my text messages.”
“Look, I don’t want to get in the middle of this thing but lying is a big deal to Thane.”
“Lying should be a big deal for everyone. Be sure to give him a message for me, will you? I get it. Jazz and I will make sure to stay out of his hair from now on. It might be a small town but he doesn’t have to worry about a blow-up scene from me.”
“It is a small town. I’m not sure how you’ll manage that.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll be just fine.” With that, Izzy closed the door in Fisch’s face.
Since Thane had made it clear he didn’t want to talk to her or see her or wouldn’t take her calls she spent another rough two nights in misery. But on the third morning she crawled out of bed determined to confront what she’d done head on with Kinsey. The best way to accomplish that seemed to be to sit down with Logan and his wife on their turf for a heart-to-heart.
She fixed coffee, went through the motions of getting dressed, and headed to the Donnelly house around eight. Kinsey answered the door, bouncing Liam on her hip.
“I wanted to tell you how sorry I am for being a party to all this,” Isabella said quickly.
“Come on in,” Kinsey offered, ushering her into the living room. “You don’t exactly look like your usual perky self. Are you okay?”
Logan stood a few feet away holding Leah. He motioned for Isabella to take a seat on the couch. “You look like you didn’t sleep last night. I take it Delacourt is still being an ass.”
“I’m not sure how much longer I want to spend thinking he’s an ass. I’ve had several days to think it over. I keep going over stuff in my head, the times when Jonah and I were together and… I think Thane might have a point. What would I have done exactly if Henry had come after me with Jonah right there the way he did that night? Henry would no doubt have found a way to use Jonah as leverage. After all, he murdered Cleef Atkins, an old man, who never did a thing to him. I can see why Thane’s upset.”
Kinsey sent Izzy an empathetic look. “For Logan’s part in all this, I did get him to agree that the whole plan was rather outlandish. But no one can argue that it got results. It just took three years to do it, a lot longer than you two thought it would. That’s a great deal of time invested in the belief that you could somehow bring this guy to justice, which is exactly what you did.”
Isabella’s mouth dropped open. “You’re the first person to say that to me. I mean, River’s been supportive but…Brent’s not exactly thrilled with me at the moment.”
“My change of heart is Logan’s doing. Since my problem stemmed from the fact he didn’t let me in on any of this once you got to town, I had a snit. Throw in the fact that it was a conscious decision on his part to keep it all from me and...that hurt. I mean, I knew about his trip three years ago to Alberta. But he lied and told me it was for business reasons, which it clearly was not.” Kinsey glanced over at her husband. “He knows he didn’t trust his own wife with the truth. No relationship withstands that kind of dishonesty for long.”
Logan sent his wife an uneasy look. “I didn’t see a reason to tell you and have you worried. Okay, okay, I see the error in that now. My mistake. Maybe I thought you’d try to talk me out of it.”
“Which you knew I would have.”
“Of course, it occurred to me that your lawyer mind would kick in and I didn’t want to be talked out of anything.”
“See, we’ve made up and put it behind us enough to talk it through. Give Thane time and…”
Isabella interrupted her. “How much time do I give him exactly? He won’t even take my calls or answer a text. It’s possible he even blocked me. He sent my dog back home via his friend. He couldn’t even do that one thing. It’s as if he doesn’t even want to look at me. At least you and Logan were able to deal with the issue and talk it out in the same house, occupying the same space. Not so with that stubborn jock mentality.”
Kinsey reached for her hand. “It didn’t come overnight. The fact is Logan couldn’t see that this stupid idea might have put our own children in jeopardy, too.”
“Well, that was Thane’s biggest complaint, that I put Jonah in danger. I have to admit, I didn’t even consider it. What does that say about me or about my ability to become a mother to Jonah?”
Logan shook his head. “You think having kids—whether they get here by the good old-fashioned way or through adoption or whether you become a step-parent to them—comes with a manual? Think again. It doesn’t. Thane knows that. Parents make mistakes along the way all the time.” He cut a look at his wife. “Granted, some are dumber than the norm, but still, mistakes are part of the everyday equation. You do the best you can and move on and hope you learn the hard way not to repeat them.”
When Leah started to fuss, Isabella stood up to leave, but Logan said, “Stay. You need someone to talk to. That’s us. You didn’t get into this mess without my help. I have no intentions of letting you stand alone getting slammed with repercussions by a decision we both made.”
As he bounced the baby in his arms Kinsey added, “I knew when I married Logan that he had a tendency to shoot from the hip when he makes decisions and deals with the consequences later. He’s getting better at thinking as a couple instead of a single guy but… He still does things, makes decisions, without considering all those involved, and that, at times, is what is so maddening for me. A relationship takes work, compromise, honesty.”
“I get it. What I had with Thane is so new there’s no hope for us at all.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Kinsey said. “But it does take time to get over a huge betrayal of trust like this. My advice would be to give him time to…I don’t know…maybe get over the feeling of duplicity. Be patient with him. If your relationship is meant to be…”
“That’s just it…maybe I’m the one who should realize that it was never meant to be and move on.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
He’d had three days to calm down and still it bothered him. After stewing for that long Thane had a few choice words for the man he believed in his heart was the responsible party that had led Isabella down such a foolish path. Logan Donnelly.
So once Thane got Jonah off to school that morning, he went looking for the sculptor. He found him working in the studio next to the museum.
Thane strode through the door and for a couple of minutes watched the guy work on a hunk of marble, chiseling away then smoothing out the stone with a grinder.
“What caused you to move out of the top floor of the lighthouse?” Thane asked, looking for an opening. “Isn’t that why you renovated it in the first place?”
“Tried it, the space didn’t work for me. Besides, I got the lighthouse up and going again because it was something that interested me at the time.”
“You know why I’m here. I didn’t come for small talk.�
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“You’re the one standing there babbling about my studio choices.”
Thane huffed out a breath, got down to it. “How could you let Isabella do something so stupid and dangerous? It came to me last night that it had to be you who fronted her the money for three years in this ridiculous, pursuit of getting at Navarro.”
“You’re certain of that, are you? One of these days when you decide to talk to her, you might bring the topic of money up to her.”
“Who else would have that kind of money, the kind it would take to finance this mess? You should know I came in here to flatten you like a pancake.”
Logan put down his grinder, stepped away from what he hoped one day might be considered a potential stroke of genius. “Take your best shot. You’ve wanted to do that for days.”
Thane sent him a contemptuous glower, the kind he’d used on Sunday afternoons to stare down an opposing lineman. “I outweigh you by forty pounds and have a much longer reach. You wouldn’t last two minutes.”
“Probably. And since I don’t wish to have broken bones or to have to call Kinsey to cart me over to Doc’s just now, I’ll simply tell you that I understand where you’re coming from. I don’t blame you a bit for feeling the way you do—pissed off at the world.”
“No, not the world, just you and Isabella.”
“That’s why I’ll give you first shot.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous. I’m not going to bash your face in. I’ve had time to consider the fact that you have kids. Not to mention my own. I don’t want to spend the night in Cody’s jail waiting for my attorney to show up just for taking you out—although it would feel damn good to do it because your actions could have potentially put my son in danger. You and Isabella did a very irresponsible thing without a thought to how it might impact the safety of those around her, namely Jonah.”
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