by Eve Gaddy
SCHEMING HOW TO SEDUCE his own wife was more difficult than Tucker would have thought. He hadn’t said anything or made a move since she’d been shot. First because she’d been hurt, and later because he wasn’t sure how to approach her. He’d never expended so much time and energy on getting a woman into bed in his life. “Hey, how about a roll in the sack?” wouldn’t exactly cut it.
So he decided to bring it out in the open. One afternoon they took a walk, with Tucker pushing the baby stroller and Maggie walking beside them. The weather was perfect, neither too hot or too cold, something that didn’t occur often in this spot on the Texas coast.
One of the neighbors waved to them and Maggie waved back. “Tucker, my arm is fine now. I think you should go back to work tomorrow.”
He glanced at her. “To tell you the truth, I’ve enjoyed the break. But I do need to get back. Janice has been phoning me daily with dire predictions of all my clients jumping ship if I don’t come back.”
“There you go. Your secretary doesn’t strike me as the alarmist type.”
Tucker laughed. “You don’t know her very well, then. It’s par for the course for her.” They walked along in silence for a moment, then turned back for the house. “Grace is nodding off,” he said. “We’d better go put her down for her nap.”
“All right. I’ll go to the store after we do. Otherwise we won’t have anything for dinner.”
“Why don’t you wait on that? I want to talk to you.”
She shot him a suspicious glance, but didn’t protest. Once they’d put Grace down and left her room they went to the den. He noticed she’d grabbed her bag and was ready to head out the door the instant they finished talking. He had other plans.
“What do you want to talk about?” she asked when he didn’t speak.
“Have you seen the doctor about your arm?”
“I told you, it’s fine now. But yes, Lana looked at it for me. She says it’s fine, too.”
“Good.” He walked over to her and before she could give him any flak, put his arms around her and pulled her close. “Because I wanted to be sure you were all right before I did this again.” He kissed her. Her lips had parted in surprise and he took full advantage, slipping his tongue in and enticing hers to answer. After stiffening initially, her body softened and she leaned into him.
For a brief moment, she answered in kind. Her arm came around his neck and she kissed him back, blasting his resolve to go slowly into a zillion pieces. He put his hands on her bottom and pressed her against him, deepening the kiss when he did so. He left her mouth and trailed his lips to the pulse beating rapidly at her throat. Wild images filled his mind of stripping her where she stood and taking her, on the floor, on the couch, against the wall. Anywhere, as long as he finally, finally had her.
“Tucker, stop.”
He hesitated, trying to wrap his mind around her words. But he couldn’t. So he moved to her jaw and tasted her there.
“Tucker, we have to stop.”
She wanted him to stop? Now? He raised his head and looked at her then. “Why?”
She pushed at his chest and he reluctantly released her. It gave him little satisfaction to see her hand was unsteady when she reached up to brush her hair out of her face. “I—we—we can’t do this. We can’t make love.”
“We nearly made love the other night,” he reminded her. Maybe she could forget that, but he sure as hell couldn’t. He’d never forget the sight of Maggie, lost in passion.
“I know.” She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them. “And it would have been a mistake.”
“That’s a matter of opinion.” He reached for her, making sure to take her uninjured arm because he knew the other was still tender. “Maggie, look at me and tell me you don’t want me. Tell me you don’t want to make love with me. Do it, and then I’ll leave you alone.”
She looked at him with tormented eyes. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”
“Then what’s stopping you?”
“It’s just sex, Tucker. Hormones.” She paced away and waved a hand. “We’ve been living together and we find each other attractive and neither of us has had sex in months now. It’s just convenience, that’s all it is. Our marriage is temporary and if we give in to this…urge, it will just make divorcing that much harder in the end.”
Did she really believe what she was saying? “What if that’s not all it is?”
She stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“What if what we have between us is more than sex? For both of us.”
“It’s not. It can’t be.”
“You sound very sure of that.” He studied her a minute. “Tell me something, Maggie. What exactly is it about the two of us making love that scares you so much? Because you don’t trust me…or because you don’t trust anyone?”
“You don’t understand.” She twisted her hands together, gnawed on her lip before she squared her shoulders and faced him. “I don’t want to want you. And I can’t afford to trust you. Not about this.”
His mind blank, he stared at her. He felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. And then her cell phone rang. “Goddamn it,” he snarled. “Isn’t that just typical.”
She didn’t bother to say she was sorry. She checked the number, then flipped open the phone. “This is Maggie. What’s up, Chief?”
Tucker watched her face turn ashen as she listened. Devastated. He’d heard the word, used the word, but this was the first time he’d seen what it looked like.
“Here? In Aransas City? How do you know—” She listened impatiently, then said, “You’re positive it’s her? She has proof?” She gestured with her hand as if to cut him off. “I don’t see how you can trust anything she says. You didn’t tell her anything, did you? No, never mind, I know you didn’t. I’ll be right down. I want to question her myself.” She didn’t wait for an argument, just slapped the phone closed and looked at Tucker with pure terror in her eyes.
“What did he say?” Tucker asked, though he hardly needed to. Even what little he’d overheard didn’t give it away as much as Maggie’s demeanor. What she’d feared the most had finally happened.
Maggie passed a hand over her eyes and took in a deep breath. “Grace’s mother—Carol Davis is down at the station right now. She just walked in, off the street, about half an hour ago.”
“Are they sure it’s Grace’s mother?”
“They’re sure. She had proof of her identity, and of Grace’s.” Eyes anguished, she looked at him. “Tucker, she wants Grace back. She said she gave up her baby to protect her, and now the threat is gone and she wants her back.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE CHIEF STOPPED her at the door to the station house. “You just turn right around and go on home, Officer. Ralston is handling this case and you’ve got no call to be here.”
“No call?” Maggie stared at him in disbelief. “I’m the child’s foster mother.”
“Which is exactly why this isn’t your case. You can’t be objective.”
She bit off the hot words that bubbled on her tongue. She had to prove to the chief she could be professional. Calm, cool. Because she had every intention of seeing Grace’s mother and questioning the woman herself. There was no way she’d trust that job to Ralston. He was a decent enough cop, but he wasn’t very experienced, and certainly not in a case like this.
“Chief Corbitt, could we discuss this matter in your office?”
He eyed her for a moment, then jerked his head toward his office and turned around. Maggie followed him, formulating how she was going to convince him to let her question the woman. Grace’s mother. God, the thought itself had her in a panic.
Chief Corbitt took a seat, steepled his fingers on the desk in front of him and said, “Go ahead.”
“I know this case better than anyone else, and certainly better than Ralston. She won’t know that I’m anything more to Grace than the cop who found her. You know me, Chief. You know I’m a professional.”
“No
rmally, yes. But this is different. Maggie, you’re crazy about that baby. That makes you just about the worst person to be involved.”
“No, it makes me the best. Please, just let me question her. You can sit in and if I step over the line you can cut me loose.”
He pondered that, then sighed. “All right. You’ll just badger me until I give in. But mind you keep it professional and don’t let your feelings get in the way. Any tiny sign I see that you’re going to lose it and you’re out of there.”
“Yes, sir.”
A short time later Maggie and the chief walked into one of the conference rooms. A thin, pale, young blond woman, about eighteen or nineteen, sat at the battered table dressed in threadbare jeans and a T-shirt. She looked down on her luck, but her clothes had obviously been washed recently and her hair was clean, so she’d made an effort to look decent when she came in. And while the way she twisted her hands together suggested nerves, she didn’t show any telltale signs of drug use. Not at first glance, anyway.
Okay, so Carol Davis might not be a junkie. She’d still abandoned her infant, which didn’t exactly make her an upstanding citizen. And since the child in question was not a newborn, the safe haven law didn’t apply.
“Carol Davis?”
“Yes.” She looked at Maggie and then her eyes lit. “You’re the officer who found my baby. How is she? No one will tell me anything. Is my baby all right?”
“I’m the officer who found an abandoned infant beside my patrol car, yes. We haven’t established that you are, in fact, the mother of that infant.”
“Please.” She reached out and touched Maggie’s arm. “Is Grace well? Is she all right?”
“The baby is fine. She’s with Child Protective Services.” And me, Maggie thought. At least for the present. “We’ll assume for now you are the mother of the infant I found. Are you willing to explain why you abandoned your child?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get Grace back. You—you hate me,” she said, faltering. “I can see it in your eyes. You can’t understand how I could leave my baby the way I did. How I could abandon her. I don’t blame you. But I swear, I did it for Grace. To keep her safe.”
“Do you understand that you could be charged with abandonment and possibly child endangerment as well? Those are very serious charges, Ms. Davis. Felonies.”
She paled even more but she made an effort to hold herself together. “I understand. I know it was wrong, but I was desperate and I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t protect her any other way.”
Maggie felt a pang of sympathy, but she hardened her heart. Carol Davis hadn’t proved yet that she deserved any sympathy for abandoning her child. “You dumped your child like so much garbage, Ms. Davis. You left her sitting out in the open in the middle of February in a parking lot, for anyone to take. That could hardly be called protecting her.”
“No! I saw the patrol car and I thought the police could protect her. I thought they’d take her to CPS and find someone to care for her. And then I saw you go inside the building, so I—I put her beside your car for you to find when you returned. I hid in the bushes. I stayed right there and watched until you came back.”
Maggie glanced at the chief, who hadn’t said a word. “Why don’t you tell us your story, Ms. Davis?” he said. “Start at the beginning and take it slowly.”
Maggie sat down and opened her pad. She had a sick feeling in her gut that the woman’s story was going to make her sound extremely sympathetic. And if that happened, Maggie stood no chance of retaining custody. If at all possible, CPS would side with the natural mother. As long as the child hadn’t been abused…and Maggie knew full well that she hadn’t.
“Grace’s father left me when he found out I was pregnant. My parents had long since kicked me out. They didn’t like Gerald and to be honest, they were just as glad to have an excuse to get rid of me. The morning sickness—” She shrugged and continued, “After I lost my job the only work I could find was at a bar in Corpus. A lot of bangers went there. It was bad, but I couldn’t afford to be picky. Anyway, that’s where I met Armand. He was nice. He tipped me and wouldn’t let any of the others hassle me. At first, I just thought he was being nice. At first.”
“This bar have a name? The gang have a name?”
She shook her head. “It’s not important.” She gave Maggie a sharp glance. “Besides, you know what happens to people who rat on bangers.”
Yeah, she knew. “Go on.”
“About six weeks after the baby was born, I was evicted. I found out later Armand had pressured the landlord to do it. He asked me to move in with him and I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I did.” She halted, looked at Maggie and asked, “Could I have some water?”
The room doubled as a snack room, so Maggie got up, pulled a bottle out of the refrigerator and gave it to her before returning to her seat. She watched while Carol drank, then set the bottle down.
“Thank you.” She drew in a breath and began again. “If I’d known what he would be like I would have chosen the streets. He didn’t like the baby. He got angry every time Grace cried. He started talking about how he didn’t want no ‘other man’s brat’ around. I told him I’d leave. That’s the first time he hit me. He told me I was never leaving him. If anyone left it would be ‘that goddamn squalling brat.’” Her voice broke and she looked at Maggie with loathing in her eyes. “That’s what he called my precious baby. I knew what I had to do. It took me two weeks to plan how to get away. During that time I did everything he wanted me to. I let him use me, I let him hit me, I let him do whatever he wanted as long as he didn’t hurt my baby. I prayed every day that Grace and I would get away. And finally, we did. I stole money for bus fare, took Grace and went to a friend, here in Aransas City. I guess I was stupid, because I didn’t think Armand would bother to track me down.”
Maggie could see it. All her words rang true. Carol Davis wasn’t the monster of selfishness Maggie had imagined. She was an abused woman fleeing her abuser. Desperately afraid for her child. “What happened when he found you?”
“He said I was coming with him and that he was going to take care of my brat once and for all. He said he was going to kill her,” Carol said stonily. “And he would have. I begged him to let me leave her with my friend, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He—he wanted to kill her. To punish me.” She stopped, drank more water, inhaled deeply and continued. “Angela wasn’t home when he got there. She worked the late shift, so it was just Armand, me…and Grace. He said if Angela interfered, he’d kill her, too. And nobody could touch him, he said, because of his boys. He got really drunk and—” She halted, looking down at her hands clasped in front of her. “He raped me,” she said flatly. “When he was finished, he passed out. I took Grace and walked out the door. That’s when I saw the police car. So I left Grace there, and waited for you to come out. Once you did, I went back to the apartment and waited for him to wake up.”
“Why didn’t you wait for me and tell me what had happened? I would have helped you.”
“He said he’d told his brothers where he was. If he didn’t come back, they’d come find me and Grace and kill us. And Angela, too.”
“You believed him,” the chief said.
“Of course.” Her voice was dull, unsurprised. “Killing us would be nothing to them. Killing, that’s their life.” She was silent, then said fiercely, “I wished I could be like them. I wanted to kill Armand. To just make him disappear. He was lying there, passed out and stinking drunk. I could have done it. But I was afraid. Afraid of what they’d do to Grace, to Angela. To me. So I left Grace by your patrol car. And I went back with Armand. I told him I left Grace with a neighbor because if he killed her he’d get in trouble. He didn’t care by then, he was just glad she was gone. Besides, he knew he had me to torture.”
The chief didn’t speak. He got up and left. And Maggie knew she’d already lost Grace.
“How did you get away this time? Aren’t you afraid he’ll come after you
again?”
“He’s dead. He died in a gang fight. The minute I heard the news, the minute I knew it was true, I left and came here for my baby.” She touched Maggie’s arm again. “Are you going to arrest me?”
“No.” Even if Maggie had been inclined to, there wasn’t a prosecutor in the world who’d take that case. Carol had been desperate, and she’d saved her child in the only way she knew. No one would condemn her for that, even if she hadn’t chosen the best way to do it.
“And Grace?” she said quietly. “Will I get to keep Grace?”
“I don’t know,” she said, amazed she could sound so calm when her heart had been torn in two. “That’s up to CPS.”
Carol was openly crying now. “Do you think they’ll give her back to me? I love her so much. It’s been killing me, not knowing what happened to her.”
“You’ll have to prove you’re a fit parent. That you can take care of her and that you won’t put her in danger again. You’ll have to prove to them you won’t be in a gang situation again.” And she was going to have to prove it all to Maggie, as well, though she didn’t know that yet.
Carol wiped her sleeve across her eyes. “I won’t. I swear I won’t. Angela said I could stay with her. She needs someone to share the rent. She has some leads on a job, too.”
“I’ll go call CPS and see if they can send someone over as soon as possible. I don’t know what they’ll say, but I recommend you be honest with them. Be sure and let them know you’re looking for work and out of your previous situation. And you’d better mean it, because they won’t just take your word for it. And neither will I.”
“I do mean it. Thank you for your help, Officer—” She stopped and laughed. “I don’t even know your name and you’ve been so kind.”
“Officer Barnes,” Maggie said. She’d never changed her name at work, knowing the marriage wouldn’t last. But now it looked like it was going to be over sooner than even she had expected.