A MAN TO TRUST

by Justine Davis

It was every parent's nightmare. The wild-eyed young man from the mug shot had Sam by the hair, the sunny blond mass yanked back from her head so hard that Kelsey knew it had to be hurting. And an ugly knife was clenched in his right fist, the long, dirty blade pressed to Samantha's delicate throat.

  * * *

  Chapter 19

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  Kelsey suppressed the scream that rose to her throat. Samantha was silent, her eyes fastened on Cruz, and the utter faith in them made Kelsey quiver inside. Sam had absolutely no doubt that her father would save her.

  "Melissa comes with me and I let the kid go," Doug said.

  "You let her go," Cruz said, his voice so low and harsh Kelsey felt a shiver creep up her spine, "and then we'll talk."

  "Not a chance, cop. Melissa comes with me or I'll slit the kid's throat right now."

  "If you so much as leave a red mark on her," Cruz said with lethal intent, "I'll gut you with your own knife."

  For an instant, Kelsey thought she saw fear in the glassy eyes, but bravado immediately took over.

  "Big talk, pig. Without a gun, you're nothing but a stinking pig coward."

  "Don't you call my daddy names!"

  Sam's shout was punctuated by a solid kick delivered to her captor's shin. Sutter yelped, and Sam elbowed him sharply.

  "You tell her to knock it off or I'll kill her right now!"

  Kelsey felt the barely perceptible tremor that shook Cruz, but his voice was dead calm.

  "And lose your only bargaining chip? I don't think so."

  Inspired by her success, Sam continued to kick and claw and elbow, doing everything she could to get him to drop her. In a moment that seemed oddly slow-motion, Kelsey realized that the child was trying to get her feet on the ground, and she wondered if she would then neatly toss Doug over her shoulder in some kind of trick karate move. It seemed entirely possible.

  She heard Melissa sob and couldn't help contrasting the weeping, shaking teenager to the intrepid Sam.

  Cruz, she thought. He was the difference.

  And she'd brought this down on him, him and his precious little girl. She had to do something.

  "Let her go," she said suddenly. "Take me instead. I'll … cooperate."

  She heard Cruz's sharp intake of breath, but she didn't look at him. She kept her eyes on Doug, praying, but he shook his head as he struggled to keep his hold on the feisty little girl.

  "I want her, bitch." He waved the dirty blade at Melissa, who wailed in horror. "She's the one who's going to be gutted here. I'm going to slice that baby right out of her, teach her to think she can cheat on me and get away with it."

  Melissa continued to wail loudly. Kelsey wished she would be quiet. There was obviously no point in an explanation of the failure rate of condoms. The boy was well beyond rational thought, if he'd ever been capable of it in the first place. There had to be something…

  Cruz was moving.

  Slowly, so slowly she hadn't even realized it until she noticed that the space between him and the workbench behind him had lessened. He had a plan, of some sort

  Maybe it was time for that condom lecture.

  "It's your baby, Doug," she said.

  "Like hell. I made sure. Didn't want no bitch coming after me, tryin' to make me give her money for some kid I don't want. Happened to a friend of mine, and he had to run or pay till the brat was eighteen."

  "Condoms fail, Doug. Are you going to kill your own baby?"

  "It's not mine," he insisted. "She's a slut, and she's going to pay for it!"

  Kelsey heard the faintest of sounds. At the very edge of her vision, she saw Cruz reach behind him.

  "All right," she said suddenly. "If you let Sam go, you can have Melissa."

  "No!" Melissa shrieked.

  Sutter looked at the panic-stricken girl. Kelsey moved sideways a half step, to shield Cruz's action. She heard a sharper noise. And then Cruz moved suddenly, quickly. He tossed something. Something that hit Sutter and then slid down his body, landing in a writhing black-and-white scroll at his feet.

  Slither.

  Sutter recoiled violently, shouting a pungent curse.

  Cruz exploded. Heedless of the knife, heedless of the hated snake, he launched himself at the man who threatened his daughter's life. Kelsey stared, taken aback by the cold rage on his face; he was focused on only one thing, Sam's safety. She knew she was seeing the fury of a quiet man stirred to defend the one he loved, and there was no hesitation in him.

  They careened into the front of the truck. Kelsey saw Cruz wrest Sam free with a powerful shove of his right arm. The girl stumbled to her knees, but quickly got to her feet. Kelsey saw her move, as if to jump into the fray to help her father, as the two men hit the garage floor.

  Kelsey leaped forward, grabbing Sam and pulling her back. She heard a low, throttled grunt; she didn't know from whom. She heard the sound of blows, dull thuds as flesh hit flesh. She looked around wildly for something, anything, to use as a weapon. Hanging on to the protesting Sam, she desperately searched the workbench. She grabbed the best thing she could find, a heavy wrench. She took a step toward the entangled men. She raised her arm, ready to strike the first instant she could be sure she wouldn't hit Cruz.

  It was over before she had the chance. Suddenly Cruz was on top and Sutter's head was pressed to the garage floor. His glassy eyes widened as the snake slithered past his face, headed for the more peaceful space beneath the workbench.

  "Kelsey… Top drawer of the bench… Two of those plastic zip ties."

  He sounded a bit breathless, natural after such a fight, she thought. She turned hastily, then stopped when Sam started to move toward her father.

  "Not yet, Sam," she said sharply.

  The child stopped, looked at Kelsey, then back at her father, considering. Then she nodded and stayed still. Gratified for a reason she didn't stop to analyze, Kelsey dug into the drawer Cruz had indicated until she found the narrow white plastic ties generally used to hold hoses on engines. She handed Cruz two, and he quickly fastened one around Sutter's left wrist, looped the second through the first and then around the right wrist, making a highly effective pair of makeshift handcuffs.

  Sutter protested at the tightness, but quieted when Cruz said, "You just keep quiet and hope I don't think too much about what you almost did here."

  Cruz straightened then, still astride Sutter. Sam started toward him. Cruz stopped her with a shake of his head. "Get the snake, honey. Before he hides someplace where we can't get at him."

  Seeing the wisdom in that, Sam scampered to obey, seemingly unflustered by all the high drama. Melissa's wailing subsided to quiet weeping at last as she huddled near the door to the house.

  Kelsey's brows lowered as she watched Cruz get slowly to his feet; there had been an edge in his voice that she didn't understand, now that it was over. She took a step toward him just as Sam, her mission successful, returned Slither to his cage. The girl again started toward her father, and again he stopped her.

  "Go ahead and … take him inside. I think he's earned it."

  Pleased with the pardoning of her reptilian friend, Sam smiled brightly. "Thanks, Daddy."

  The "Daddy," Kelsey guessed, was a sign the girl was still feeling a bit shaken, but she disappeared inside with Slither's cage carefully clutched in her hands. The moment she was out of sight, Kelsey swiftly turned back to Cruz; his voice had been far too tight, too controlled. And he was holding his right hand over his side.

  "Cruz?"

  "Get me … the phone, will you? I have to—" he winced suddenly before finishing "—make some calls."

  "Damn," Kelsey swore softly, moving toward him. "You're hurt."

  "Nothing serious. I have to call Trinity West."

  "Cruz!" It broke from her when she got close enough to see the blood seeping through his fingers. She pried his hand away. "That's why you wanted Sam out of here."

  "It's just—"

  "Don't you dare say it." Kelsey cut him off sharply as
she inspected the ugly gash. "You've been hero enough for one day, throwing snakes when you hate to even be near them, fighting a knife bare-handed. Just shut up."

  "Yes, ma'am," he said meekly.

  "You … could have been killed." It was Melissa, speaking at last, in patent amazement, although still through gulping sobs.

  Kelsey turned on the girl, about fed up with her whining. "Yes, he could have. But that's what parenting is all about, Melissa. Being willing to die for your child if necessary. I know neither one of us knows much about that kind of father, but we just had an object lesson. I hope you don't forget it."

  I know I never will, she added to herself.

  A couple of hours later, she was shaking her head in amazement. She had never seen anything like this. Cruz had made only two phone calls, one to Trinity West and one to Gage Butler at home, and yet the activity had yet to stop. Cops had an amazing grapevine, it seemed.

  And Cruz had a lot of friends.

  She had the feeling she was seeing the true reach of Cruz's generous spirit. Shortly after the uniformed officers had arrived to cart off Sutter, Ryan and Lacey, announcing they'd canceled their long-awaited weekend plans, arrived to take care of Sam. Kit, clad in sexy evening wear and chuckling about her not-too-reluctantly abandoned date, arrived, promising to take care of the zoo if necessary. Gage was on the heels of the paramedics he'd called, guessing Cruz was playing down his injury, and insisting he sit still and let them patch it up.

  Others came, too, including an impressive tall lean man with patrician features, dark hair silvered at the temples, and light gray eyes that seemed to peer into her, probing far past the surface. She wasn't surprised when Cruz introduced him to her as Chief de los Reyes, but she was surprised when, instead of being angry at Cruz—at least publicly—for not going by the book, the man simply said he understood and appreciated that, with his officers, people and getting the job done came first.

  Others called, and whoever was closest answered, assuring the caller that Cruz was alive and upright.

  For Kelsey, who, since having to give up contact with her stepmother, had never depended on anyone but herself, it was a revelation. This was a man everyone trusted, she realized. And, she added to herself as she watched the group ebb and flow, a man everyone loved.

  Including, she admitted at last, herself.

  She loved him. God help her, she'd fallen in love with a cop. Not that it was surprising, she supposed. He was everything she'd never expected to find in one man; strong yet gentle, tender yet tough, steady yet passionate…

  She shivered, shying away from heated memories she couldn't risk indulging in among this crowd of people. Better to concentrate on the impossibility of it than to dwell on how Cruz's undeniable courage and capacity for love had affected her.

  And it was impossible. Wasn't it? After all, she'd spent years of time and lots of money trying to get around the very system he represented. While he'd surprised her with his flexibility when it came to Melissa, and she'd come to realize things had changed since she was forced to go back to her father's tender care, she doubted very much if he could openly support what she was doing at the inn. It could get him into trouble of all kinds, she supposed.

  Although it could be academic; if word got out that there was always a cop around, she doubted she would get many kids willing to take that risk.

  She sighed. There didn't seem to be any solution. Unless she gave up her dream, unless she quit trying to help kids like the kid she herself had been.

  Of course, that was assuming Cruz wanted there to be a solution in the first place. And that was an assumption she didn't dare make.

  * * *

  He needed sleep, Cruz thought wearily as he moved the truck into the right lane. His side was aching where the medics had put him back together with a string of butterfly bandages after he refused to go in for stitches—one look at Sam's white face had convinced him; she'd never really seen him hurt before, and he didn't want to add that to the burden she was already carrying from tonight's events. They'd topped it off with a tetanus shot, a suggestion that he see his own doctor immediately for antibiotics, judging from the state of that blade, and a glum prediction that he was going to wish for more than aspirin before morning.

  Cruz didn't doubt it, but he knew he couldn't be doped up, in case Sam woke up scared. He glanced at Kelsey, who had insisted she go with him to pick Sam up from the Buckharts. The child had gone unwillingly; only Ryan's coaxing promise that he was almost through with a carving of her beloved raccoon, and Cruz's promise that he really was all right and would come get her as soon as things calmed down, had convinced her.

  As if she'd felt his glance, Kelsey looked over at him. He knew she knew he was hurting; it had been clear when she'd eyed him with concern and said that she wished she could use a stick-shift so he wouldn't have to drive. But all she said now was, "Do you think Melissa and her parents will work it out?"

  "I don't know."

  He wasn't sure he cared, either. Not right now. When everyone had finally cleared out, and after Chief de los Reyes's pointed observation that he sincerely hoped he wasn't going to be dealing with another cop who had a tendency to run alone, that curing Ryan Buckhart of the habit had been quite enough, all Cruz had wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for a week. Instead, he'd wound up at Trinity West, trying to broker a peace agreement between Melissa and her parents.

  "Thank you for … dealing with it. I know you're tired and hurting, and the last thing you wanted to do was negotiate a truce between them."

  He shrugged, regretting it when the movement tugged at the rather neat incision that Sutter had left him with along one rib. The blade might have been dirty, but it had also been razor-sharp.

  "I promised her," he said.

  "I know. But not everyone would have kept that promise, under the circumstances. Nobody would have blamed you if you hadn't."

  There it was again. No one would blame you. No one to blame.

  He felt his jaw tighten and forced himself to relax. He knew this was at the crux of his weariness, despite everything else that had happened. He knew that the pain in his side wasn't the real problem, it was the pain he was still staving off.

  Sutter was in custody, charged with enough felonies to keep him under wraps for a long while. Melissa had, albeit warily, gone home with her mother and her finally chastened father. He was on his way to pick up Sam. In essence, it was over.

  And that was what scared him. Foremost was the fear that now Kelsey would drop back out of his life, that they would be reduced to the week a year he spent at Oak Tree. If he could even bring himself to go back, if that was what happened.

  He knew part of his fear was based on the fact that they hadn't had any chance to talk about what had happened between them. His instinct was to assume that they would simply go on from here and work out any problems as they came up. But watching Ryan and Lacey had also taught him the truth of something his father had tried to tell him long ago, that sometimes women needed the words, as well as the actions.

  But he knew the fear went deeper than that. Even if she didn't disappear now, he didn't know what would happen. The harrowing story she'd told him had made him want to hold her, protect her, had made him proud of her courage and endurance, had made him admire her tenacity and strength … but now that he'd had time to think about it, he couldn't help wondering if Kelsey, like Ellen, would one day decide she'd never really had a youth of her own and take off to find it. Given her history, he wouldn't blame her.

  And there it was again. No, he wouldn't, couldn't, blame her. But he knew now that this fear was at the core of his own retreat, the mixed feelings he hadn't been able to understand before. He also knew he couldn't go through that again. Nor would he put Sam through it again. The child already liked Kelsey; if she was to become truly attached to her, and then it went sour because of something they couldn't help…

  And it was that bone-deep fear that kept him from bringing it up no
w, although it seemed to be hovering in the air between them. And then Ryan was handing him a sleepy Sam, a perfectly carved little replica of Bandit clutched in her hand, and the child's presence made the topic safely impossible.

  Sam seemed content to snuggle on Kelsey's lap on the drive back home. And Kelsey seemed content to hold the child, cuddling her as gently as if she were her own. The picture they made caused something to tighten in Cruz, tighten until it hurt and he could barely breathe. He had to look away.

  "Why do people run away," the child murmured into the silence, "and cause so much trouble?"

  Cruz swallowed tightly, knowing words were beyond him now. He stared at the road, as if he could find the answer in those yards of pavement lit by the headlights. When he didn't say anything, Kelsey did, gently, quietly, hugging Sam as she spoke.

  "Sometimes things go all wrong, honey, so wrong that it seems like it's the only thing to do. And sometimes it is. But some people are lucky, like you, and have somebody they can always tell the problem to, who will always love them and help them no matter what."

  "You mean my dad?"

  "Yes. There's nothing you could ever, ever do that would make him stop loving you. You know that, don't you?"

  "Yes," Sam said simply.

  Cruz felt his eyes begin to sting at Kelsey's heartfelt words. And at his little girl's immediate and confident response, his throat tightened until he could barely breathe.

  "Will Melissa stay home now?" Sam asked.

  "I don't know," Kelsey said honestly. "I hope she can. But it's not going to be easy, for any of them."

  Sam shifted a little, looking up at Kelsey, and with that wisdom that was sometimes so uncanny, she asked, "Did you ever run away?"

  Cruz held his breath, wondering what she would say. Then he realized he already knew. She would be honest; it wasn't in her to lie to the child.

  "Yes," Kelsey said, proving him right. "I did. I had good reasons, but it was still awful. I should have been home, playing, enjoying just being a kid, but instead I was running, being scared all the time."

  Cruz found his voice then, and before he could stop the question he didn't really want the answer to, it was out.