Run (Never Waste A Second Chance Book 1)

by Whiteaker, Janice M.

  “I think my son has monopolized every meal for the next week.”

  It was true. She’d asked him the same question earlier and he had taken full advantage. If she wasn’t so sure he loved her, she would think he was just there for the food.

  “You always told me to marry a woman who could cook.”

  Nancy spun in her seat, probably coming close to giving herself whiplash. “Are you going to marry her?”

  Thomas’ face went a little white as his eyes darted between her and Nancy. As much as he was worried about protecting her, he was turning out to need her to save him an awful lot.

  “That is probably a conversation for another day.” She gave him a wink before jumping out of the car. She leaned back in through her still open door to look at her friend. “Don’t give him a heart attack. He’s been under a lot of stress lately and it probably won’t take much.” She blew Nancy a kiss as she shut the door.

  Thomas was out of the car and standing behind her, so close she could feel the heat coming off his body through her coat. She waved as Nancy drove away unable to focus on anything besides the man behind her. He put his hands on her hips and used his grip to spin her to face him.

  “When are you going to let me open your doors?”

  “When you can move faster than I can.” She grinned as she brushed past him, headed to the warmth of the shop. She yelped as a firm grip on the back of her coat, yanked hard, pulling her against the wall of Thomas’ body.

  “Guess, I’ll just have to improvise until then.” Lacing his fingers between hers before tucking their joined hands into the pocket of his coat, he held her at his side, making sure he reached the doors first.

  Mina smiled the whole way. She’d never had a man open a door for her outside the random older grandpa types when the kids were small, let alone a man who insisted he be allowed to open her doors.

  As they headed inside, Mina recognized Thomas’ friend from yesterday walking in from a back door wiping his hands on a rag. “Saw you guys pull in. Got one of my guys pulling the truck around.” He fished an invoice out of the pile on the front desk and slid it across so Thomas could see it, using his finger as he slid down the row of charges explaining each one.

  After they’d settled up, he looked at Mina. “How are you holding up?”

  “Okay.” She smiled. Last time something like this happened, people avoided her like the plague. Nobody asked how she was, if she needed anything and these were people she’d known her whole life. Here she was, relatively new to town and people she’d hardly even met were concerned and offering help, not to mention the people she knew well.

  “I’ll be out for your van tomorrow if that’s okay.”

  She felt those damn happy tears from earlier tingling in her eyes threatening a repeat performance. “That’d be great. Thank you for all your help.”

  “Not a problem. We’ll get you taken care of.” He reached out his hand, giving Thomas’ a shake. “Call me if you need anything.” He didn’t let go and looked Thomas in the eye. “I mean anything.”

  Thomas looked back at him, both men suddenly serious. “I will.”

  Mina looked from man to man. She was fairly certain Jeb just offered to help Thomas kill her ex husband… or Don. At the very least help dispose of the body. Bodies. How in the world did she end up living a life where one person potentially wanted to hurt her, let alone two?

  An hour later, after hitting the grocery and filling up the rear seat of Thomas’ extended cab with enough food to hopefully last a week, they were headed back to Mina’s. As promised, Nancy and the kids were there, homework finished, piled on the couch watching cartoons.

  Everyone came out to help unload the truck making it an easy job. While Nancy and Mina put everything away, Thomas hung out with Maddie and Charlie. Mina stole a few glances into the family room, watching her kids, especially Charlie, get to spend some time with a man who would always have their best interests at heart.

  “He’s always wanted a family you know.” Nancy stood beside her watching as Thomas and Charlie talked sports and video games. “Wanted a chance to be the kind of dad he never had. Give his kids what he was always missing.” Nancy wrapped her arm around Mina’s waist. “I think he’s found the kids who need it as much as he does.”

  The two women watched a few more minutes before Thomas stood and headed their way. “I’m gonna take the truck and park it in the barn. Hopefully keep it from being messed with again until we figure out what happened.”

  He grabbed his coat off the chair and swung it on. “I’ll probably get some more clothes while I’m there and check on the house, make sure everything looks okay. Can one of you come get me in a little while?”

  “Sure.” Nancy was wiping down the counters and putting away the last of the groceries. Mina heard Thomas’ phone ringing across the kitchen and hurried to grab it so he didn’t have to try to rush. She picked it up off the counter and saw Rich’s name across the screen. She watched Thomas’ face as he answered the call, waving to them as he headed out of the house.

  “I’m on my way to mom’s. I should be there for a while. That’s-” He closed the door behind him.

  Nancy looked around the kitchen. “Well if you don’t need anything from me right this minute, I have a couple errands I could run before I go grab him. Give you three a little time to yourselves.” She winked at Mina as she grabbed her purse and keys off the counter. Mina threw her arms around her and squeezed her tight.

  “I can’t thank you enough for all this.”

  Nancy squeezed her back. “Honey, I am more than happy to help. I’ve been where you are and I know what it’s like. It is helping me to help you.”

  She let her go and before Nancy turned away to leave, Mina was almost positive she saw her wipe a couple tears. “I’ve gotta go or he’ll try to walk back here to get to you.”

  They both laughed because they knew it was the truth. Nancy blew her a kiss as she headed into the newly parkable garage.

  Mina and the kids piled under a blanket on the couch and were finishing up the second episode of Teen Titans when her phone rang. Probably Thomas making sure she was okay. She rushed across the house to where she’d left it in the kitchen. A local number she didn’t recognize made her stomach flip a little.

  “Hello?”

  “Mina? It’s Jerry. Is Thomas with you?” The tone of his voice made Mina’s skin go cold and her palms start to sweat. Something was wrong.

  “No. He’s at Nancy’s. What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know that anything’s wrong. I tried to call him a couple times and it went to voicemail. He gave me your number if I couldn’t reach him.” He hesitated.

  “Thomas asked me to see if I could find anything out about your ex and his whereabouts so I called around and talked with some of the guys who work around where you’re from.”

  He took a deep breath she could hear through the phone. “I should tell you in person, but there’s a lot that has me worried so I need to tell you now. Is that okay?”

  If a cop was worried, she knew that meant she should be terrified. Which was good, because she was. “Okay.” She took a deep breath, trying to keep it together until she heard what he had to say.

  “I just got two calls I’d been waiting for. The first was from one of the officer’s I’ve been in contact with. They found your ex-husband. He was dead. He’d been dead a long time, probably since right after he took off.”

  Dead? Since he disappeared? That was weeks ago. Relief washed over her body, but it was short lived.

  “The second call was the fire marshal. That fire at Thomas’ house wasn’t an accident. Somebody tampered with the gas line. With it being cold, the house was shut up tight and it just built up until something set it off.”

  Somebody blew up Thomas’ house on purpose. Was Don capable of something like that? Was anybody she knew?

  Her stomach turned, bile making her throat burn as she identified a feeling she hadn’t quite been
able to put her finger on. Until now.

  What if none of this, none of what happened was ever about her? What if she wasn’t the one who was supposed to get hurt? Nothing was an accident. Not the brakes, not the fire, not-

  “You need to send everyone you can think of to Nancy’s right now Jerry. Tell them to go as fast as they can. Hurry!”

  She hung up the phone and she dialed Nancy’s number.

  “Answer. Please answer.” She could hear the pitch of her voice rising as panic consumed her body. The phone rang, each one seeming to take longer than the last.

  Nancy’s voicemail played in her ear. “Maddie!” Mina grabbed her running coat off the rack by the door. “Get your phone and call Nancy till she answers. Tell her to get to her house as fast a she can.”

  “Mom?” Maddie stood off the couch, eyes wide. “What’s wrong? Where are you going?”

  “You guys are safe, but Thomas is not. I have to go now.” She yanked the door open and looked back one last time hoping she would be able to save someone that had become so important to all of them.

  “Keep calling. I will call you as soon as I can.” She pulled the door closed and took off, praying her time off wouldn’t slow her down. If she’d ever needed to run in her life it was now. She switched her phone to silent and zipped it into her pocket as she went, praying she wouldn’t be too late.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Thomas carefully pulled his truck through the sliding door. It was the first time he’d been in the barn since his fall. It felt like years instead of just under two months. So much had changed in that time. His body. His life. Himself.

  The day of the fall he was living a life stunted by fear. He was scared. Scared of the future. Scared of the past. Afraid he would end up alone. Wanting everything to change so much, but unwilling to give up the control to allow it to happen.

  That day, he lost all control over his life in a matter of minutes. As terrible as it was, it was the best thing that could have happened to him. He’d learned just how weak and just how strong he was. Or how strong he could be with the right motivation.

  All it took was one golden eyed angel and he felt like he could handle anything that came his way. Even if it was only for her.

  He got out of the truck and walked over to a dark patch covering a large area of the concrete floor. He scuffed the sole of his boot across the spot, pushing loose a thin crust of dust caked with his dried blood. He should clean this up. Even though everything turned out okay, it would probably upset his mom if she walked out here and saw it.

  He grabbed a shop broom from the corner of the barn and used the last of the quickly fading light to sweep the loose layer off the spot into a pile. As he bent with a dustpan to brush the pile up, he saw the broken section of ladder propped against the tractor he’d been attempting to siphon the gas out of that morning.

  He didn’t know whether to be mad the ladder had given out or grateful. If the ladder was still standing, where would he be? Would he have changed on his own? Or would he still be spending every morning waiting to let a beautiful woman to run right past him?

  He picked the ladder up from its resting spot. Maybe he should keep it. Give it to Mina as a wedding present someday. Someday soon.

  As he was looking at it, something about the broken rung caught his eye. Before he could get a good look, the blinding light from a set of headlights filled the darkening barn. He headed up the side of the truck, carrying the ladder with him. It was time to have a conversation he should have had a long time ago.

  He used his free arm to shield his eyes as he got to the back of his truck. “Are those your brights?”

  He leaned back against the tailgate as he waited for the lights to switch off. The door of the other truck opened and closed. “I don’t mind the dark man, you can shut the lights off.”

  “I won’t be here long.” He heard Rich before he could see him. The lights made it almost impossible to see anything between him and them.

  “You got plans?”

  “I guess you could say that.” Rich stepped in front of the lights, blocking just enough of the beam so Thomas could see him. “You ready to sell the farm?” He stood between his truck and Thomas’ truck, arms folded across his chest.

  Thomas knew this conversation was going to end one of two ways. Rich would either agree to let Thomas buy the farm for a fair price or their relationship would be over.

  His cousin had become increasingly agitated about the sale of the farm and Thomas was pretty sure Rich was dead set on selling and was going to do everything he could to make that happen. Thomas was ready to fight to make sure the farm stayed where it belonged.

  “Yes or no? I’m tired of dragging this out.”

  Thomas squinted against the brightness of the lights trying to get a good look at Rich. He did look tired. He’d been looking worse and worse every time Thomas saw him.

  “No.”

  Rich began to pace back and forth between the beams of light, his eyes boring into Thomas, never leaving him as he moved.

  “God you’re a pain in the ass. You just can’t make anything easy can you?” Rich’s voice was filled with an icy rage. “All you ever had to do was sign a little fuckin’ paper and everything would have been fine.” He stopped in between the headlights and reached behind his back to pull a gun from the waistband of his jeans.

  “You haven’t left me any options. I tried. I tried and I tried to make you understand, but you just wouldn’t. So I had to find another way.” His eyes fell to the ladder still in Thomas’ hand.

  Thomas went cold. He looked down at the ladder and in the light was finally able to clearly see the saw marks eaten into one of the rungs.

  “You did this?” He held up the rigged ladder in disbelief. They were family. They were going to work this whole thing with the farm out. Tonight. That’s why they were here. That’s why Thomas was here. Now Rich was going to kill him over what? Money? “You almost killed me.”

  “So close. I was so close so many damn times, but that little bitch you found kept fuckin’ everything up.” Rich was flailing as he ranted, the gun in his hand catching the light as he waved his arms.

  “Why would you do this? Just for the money?” It was incomprehensible. Rich tried to kill him and from the situation at hand, intended to accomplish what he started, all over money?

  “I had to do something. You’re too stupid and hardheaded to see an opportunity of a lifetime. ‘I can’t sell grandpa’s farm. It’s a part of our family.’” Rich mocked him. “What about my family, huh? I got a wife’s always got one foot out the door and the bank breathing down my neck. They’re already trying to take the goddamn house. I gotta keep the cars all locked up so the motherfuckers don’t take em.” He ran his hand through the wild hair sticking up off his head. “That money was gonna fix everything for me.”

  Rich staggered a little then leaned against the front of his truck. “All I wanted was for you to sell it but you just wouldn’t fucking give up. Look at you.” He used the gun in his hand to motion at Thomas’ leg. “Can’t even work the farm and you still won’t let it go.”

  Sweat beaded his brow and Thomas could smell the stink of liquor even twenty feet away. “Then I got to thinking how much all the money could do for me. I could save the house, the cars, all of it. So I figured maybe you should just be out of the equation. I tried every way I could think of to get rid of you. You’re like a God damned cat. Got nine lives.”

  He pushed himself off the car and headed toward Thomas. “But it looks like you’re on your last one brother.”

  “I’m not your fucking brother.”

  Rich stopped fifteen feet in front of him and laughed. He was so close Thomas could see the wildness in his glassy eyes. “You don’t know? You’re mama never told you? Hell, maybe she doesn’t know.”

  Rich stood silent for a moment almost as if he’d lost his train of thought. Thomas held his breath as he tried to think of a way out. If Rich was as drunk as he suspected
, he might be able to make it if he ran.

  Before he could move, Rich’s face seemed to clear. “Don’t think about running. I go to the range enough to know I could hit you trying to run on a bum leg.” He swiped the sweat on his face with his sleeve. “Turns out our piece of shit daddy was fuckin’ your mother and mine for years.”

  It couldn’t be true. If it was, he hoped his mother never found out.

  “How do you know?” He needed to keep Rich talking. He needed time to think. He was not going to die. Not here, not now. He was going home to Mina one way or another.

  “I found my mama’s diary when we were kids. He was all she ever wrote about. When he died, she lost it. Went crazy and took off.”

  “And left you to be raised by her sister? Her dead boyfriend’s wife?”

  “Your mother is a saint! She saved me. Took care of me. Loved me like her own.” Rich was on the move again, closing the gap between them. “She deserves a better son than you. You don’t deserve her. You’ve never appreciated her the way I have. Always took her for granted.” He stopped just short of ten feet away, gun pointed at Thomas’ face. “I guess that stops now, huh?”

  Like hell Rich appreciated her. He’d put Nancy through more than his father, their father, ever had, but Thomas wasn’t stupid enough to think pointing that out would do him any favors. “What do you think it will do to her when she finds out you’re the one who did this?” Rich might be too selfish to realize how shitty of a son he’d been, but Thomas didn’t doubt the love he had for Nancy. Maybe thinking of how this would affect her would at least give him time to come up with some sort of plan.

  “She’s not gonna. Your girl’s husband is on the loose remember? Everybody knows a man hates it when another man messes with what’s his.” Rich smirked. “It’s been nice having a heart to heart with you, but I’ve got to get out of here.”