by Janie Crouch
Scott’s rueful smile had her feeling better. She walked back to the kitchen to place their order.
But when she looked over her shoulder, creepy guy was staring at her again.
* * *
“ARE THE CONSTRUCTION workers giving your lady friend a hard time?”
Tanner watched as Bree walked back into the kitchen then glanced over to find that the man in question was indeed watching her.
He’d told her the truth about the talk he’d had with the guys—it had been friendly, neutral. No threats, veiled or otherwise.
But it had been a reminder that Tanner was here. Was always around. That anything that happened in this town was going to go through him. And he especially wasn’t going to let anything happen to Bree.
He didn’t think the creepy, thin guy had any dubious intent toward her, but he made Bree uncomfortable, which was enough for Tanner to make his presence known. Since there weren’t any laws he was breaking just by looking at her, there wasn’t much more Tanner could do other than that.
Sticking close to her hadn’t been a problem. True to his word in that bathroom two weeks ago, Tanner had made sure he was around.
He knew she hadn’t told him the full truth that day. There were still huge chunks of info about her situation he didn’t have. But trying to force or bully the truth out of her would just cause her to shut down and withdraw. She would revert into that thick shell of hers.
So for the past two weeks he’d been trying to gentle the truth out of her.
This prickly woman had plenty of defenses against someone trying to force her to do something, but she seemed clueless when it came to someone being kind to her.
Of course, he should probably put her in protective custody. That would be the safest thing for both her and the babies. And he still might have to do that.
He grimaced at the thought. Bree would hate it. Would hate him.
But at least she would be safe.
“Tanner?”
Tanner brought his attention back to Scott. The younger man looked concerned. Having anybody shadowing the department was an annoyance, but at least Scott was easygoing and likable so far.
Tanner shook his head. “The construction guys aren’t going to be a problem. Bree is just a little skittish.”
Scott took a sip of his coffee. “She said she just moved here a few weeks ago. She running from something?”
Tanner sipped his own. “What makes you say that?”
“I may have only been on the force for eight months, but my deductive reasoning works just fine. A new mother, a little shaky. Maybe an abusive situation she got out of when the twins were born?”
“Bree pretty much keeps to herself. I don’t know that much about her.”
That was both true and not true. For someone who was so amazingly gentle and tender with the babies, she seemed to have no idea whatsoever how to interact on an emotional level with other adults.
Every time he came in here and got those green eyes of hers to finally meet his, he counted it a win.
“Oh.” Scott took another sip of his coffee. “I thought you two were an item. My bad.”
“No, not an item. She’s a friend.”
And if Tanner could figure out how to get through to her, maybe so much more than that.
Chapter Twelve
When Bree stepped out the back door of the Sunrise later that evening, Tanner was waiting. He took Beth’s carrier from her, leaving her with only Christian. They were almost getting too heavy for her to carry both of them in their carriers. Soon she’d need to purchase a double stroller.
There were a lot of things she’d put off purchasing, not knowing how long the twins would be hers. If Melissa was successful, it would only be a couple more weeks.
If Melissa wasn’t successful... Bree had no idea what was in store for any of them.
“Thank you,” she whispered to Tanner.
As they walked toward her apartment on the outskirts of town, Tanner told her about his day. Then another funny story about his family—this time about how he broke a window in his parents’ house while competing with his brother, Noah, for who could twirl the baseball bat around the most times.
Tanner had won. But they’d both spent their entire spring break doing chores to pay for the window.
“How about you?” he asked. “Got any brothers or sisters?”
“No, no siblings for me. My cousin, Melissa, was the closest thing I had to a sibling.”
“Did you two ever do anything stupid to get in trouble?”
Yeah, right now. The kind where they’d both be dead if the Organization found out Melissa was trying to shut them down, and Bree was not only alive, but doing whatever she could to assist Melissa.
But she just shook her head. “No, I moved away before either of us got to the rebellious age. And I’ve always been more of a keep-your-head-down kind of girl.”
“Ah, smart. If I’d been like you, I would’ve gotten into a lot less trouble.”
“Seems like you’ve done okay.”
His gorgeous grin had her almost forgetting how to walk. “Depends on who you ask. Linda Dugas might say otherwise.”
“Linda Dugas from the Sunday School frog incident?”
He threw back his head and laughed. “I should’ve known you were too smart not to remember. Yes, Linda eventually forgave me for said frog incident. She and I even dated for a few months in high school.”
“It didn’t work out between you two?” The thought of him with someone else shouldn’t bother her at all. Who he dated in the past or might date in the future was none of her business. She refused to even acknowledge her clenching stomach.
“No. We both went off to college. She met some accountant or something, fell madly in love and moved to somewhere completely insane like Philadelphia.”
She couldn’t stop her own chuckle. “Philly. Yeah, man, some people just go hog wild.”
“Yes! See? I knew you would understand. Why would anyone ever want to leave Colorado?”
“Why indeed?”
He nudged her with his shoulder. “How about you, anybody special in high school or college?”
She wondered what he would say if he knew she’d never finished high school, much less gone to college, but that she had an IQ higher than ninety-nine percent of the world’s population.
Yet another thing that made her abnormal.
“No, I pretty much kept to myself.”
Fortunately, before he could dig into that information, they arrived at the apartment. Risk Peak wasn’t that big, even walking.
“Thanks for your help. You know you don’t have to do this every day, right? I mean, what are the chances of something happening between here and the diner? It’s probably not necessary.”
She took Beth’s carrier and handed him the key, as had become their habit, and waited as he checked out the tiny apartment for possible intruders. A moment later he was back. Her apartment wasn’t that big.
“All clear?” she asked.
“Yep.” He took Christian’s carrier this time, the baby thankfully asleep, and followed her inside.
“I just feel like I’m wasting your time. I know you have a lot of responsibilities, and walking me from one safe place to another safe place down a perfectly safe street seems like a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Tanner set Christian’s carrier down on the table and gently unbuckled him. “Playpen?”
“Yes, please.” So far, Tanner had been the only one who had the magic touch with Christian, able to soothe him and, more importantly, move him from the carrier to the playpen that served as his crib without waking him up.
Watching Tanner’s big hands carry the baby so tenderly and securely, his attention entirely focused on the tiny body in his care...
Her breath caught. If Bree
had ever let herself dream about what the perfect future would look like, this would’ve been it. A strong, gorgeous man, holding a child with such care and concern.
But these weren’t her children. And he definitely wasn’t her man.
And letting herself dream was only going to make all of this so much worse when she finally woke up.
Bree moved Beth into the playpen next to her brother. That little angel never made a peep, even though her big eyes blinked open once before closing again.
She closed the door to the bedroom and walked with him toward the kitchen.
“Like I was saying, it’s not a good idea for you to walk me home.”
He raised an eyebrow. “We’ve gone from ‘probably not necessary’ to ‘not a good idea’ in under a minute.”
“I just...” She let out a sigh. “You’ve just got to have better things to do than to walk here with me every day. Dan could do it, or that other deputy...”
“Ronnie.”
“Yeah, Ronnie. He could make sure I was okay.” Her voice was getting a little loud and higher pitched, so she forced herself to rein it in. Why was she getting upset when making this simple request?
Tanner leaned against the wall with one shoulder and crossed his arms over his chest. His head tilted to the side as he studied her. “Do you lie when we talk, Bree?”
“What?”
He shrugged with one shoulder. “Just wondering if you tell me the truth when we talk. I know there’s stuff you don’t tell me, and while I don’t like it, I do understand. Like today, when I asked if you have brothers or sisters and you said no, was that the truth?”
“Yes.”
“So you tell me the truth when you can?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yes. But I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“Twenty-four. Teal. Strawberry. Venice. A Wrinkle in Time. Security gate guard. The Matrix.”
“What?” Was he having some sort of nervous breakdown or something?
Tanner pushed off from the wall and took a step closer. “Ballerina. Dogs. And, quite unfortunately, in my opinion, pop.”
She stared at him, brows furrowed. “I don’t understand.” It was like some sort of code that seemed familiar, but that she couldn’t decipher.
“Your age. Favorite color. Favorite flavor ice cream. The city in Europe you’d most like to visit. Your favorite book as a child. The worst job ever. Best movie.”
“I—”
He took another couple of steps until he was standing right in front of her. “What you wanted to be when you grew up. Which is better, dogs or cats. And favorite genre of music. Sadly.”
These were the things they’d talked about on the way home from the diner each night.
“Every day I can get the answer to one question out of you. Sometimes one and a half.” He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I walk you here because, yes, I want to make sure you’re safe. But also because each day I get to learn something about you I didn’t know the day before. And that is very definitely not a waste of my time.”
“Oh.”
His fingers trailed down her cheek. “I know all those little things don’t make up the whole of who you are. But I still want to know them. And hopefully you’re learning about me as well...although not all involving frogs and Linda Dugas.”
He bent down until his lips were hovering just over hers, his other hand coming up to cup her other cheek. “Walking you home is the highlight of my day. So don’t try to give my job to someone else.”
She was completely lost in those brown eyes. “Okay.”
And then he kissed her.
His lips were soft against hers. Light, feathery brushes, but definitely different than the brief kiss of camaraderie he’d given her when they’d been hiding out in the bathroom in Denver.
When he began to nibble her lips gently, her eyes slid closed with a sigh. Her hands came up and wrapped around his wrists at her face, and she leaned into him.
But all too soon, it was over and he was pulling back, giving her a moment to regain her bearings.
“Thank you for allowing me to walk you home, Bree Daniels. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
And without another word, he was gone.
Chapter Thirteen
Bree wasn’t even going to be able to blame the babies for her lack of sleep tomorrow. That dubious honor fell directly on Captain Tanner Dempsey’s wide shoulders.
And lips.
She’d stood staring at the door for a good five minutes after he’d left, just trying to process what had happened.
Now here it was, after two o’clock in the morning, and she still was trying to understand it all. And stop replaying the feel of his lips on hers.
She’d fed the babies when they’d woken up around midnight and normally would’ve been fast asleep, getting as much rest as she could before they woke up again between four thirty and five.
But she wasn’t. And whose fault was that?
Captain hot lips, that’s who.
Why did he remember all that stuff they’d talked about over the last couple of weeks as he walked her home?
And why did that make her feel all soft and gooey in the middle?
She rolled over on her double bed and punched the pillow next to her. When she heard something rattle against her nightstand, she thought it was from her anger management session. But then it happened again.
The phone Melissa had given her was vibrating.
Bree shot up in bed and grabbed it, opening it when she realized it was a call.
“Hello?” Her voice was tentative. She didn’t want to give away any information before knowing who it was.
“Bree? Get out now!”
“Mel?”
“They found you.” It was definitely Melissa. “Get the kids and get out of wherever you are. Destroy the phone. Hurry!”
“Mellie, are you safe?”
“Yes, they don’t know it’s me who gave you the phone, but they know it’s someone from inside the Organization. I didn’t realize they were tracking you already. Go now!”
Bree jumped up and pulled on her jeans and shoes. “But how will we get in touch if we don’t have the phone?”
She took Beth out of the crib and rushed her to the carrier.
“I don’t know. I’ll be at the symposium. We’ll have to find a way to get a message to each other there. We’ll worry about that later. They’re going to be there soon. I love you. Kiss them for me.”
The phone went dead.
Bree threw the phone on the ground and stomped on it until it broke into pieces.
They had to get out now. Get to her car and leave town immediately. She refused to even think about having to leave without any sort of word to Tanner. What would he think, especially after that kiss? She forced those thoughts away or she would never make it through this.
Grabbing Beth’s car seat carrier, she brought it over to the front door and set it down on the ground. Careful not to be noticed, she moved to the window and slid the curtain over just slightly so she could peek out. Her blood turned cold when she saw not one but two men walking toward her apartment in the darkness.
She darted to the back door and was pretty sure she could see someone in the darkness there.
Either door was going to spit her directly into their hands.
The only possibility would be climbing out the low kitchen window out the side of the building—maybe none of them would notice that. But the car seat carriers definitely wouldn’t be an option that way.
She darted over to the bed and grabbed the baby carrier one of the ladies at the diner had lent her a couple days ago. She’d said it might help with Christian’s fussiness. Bree prayed that would be the case now, because if he started howling before she made it to her car, the men would immediate
ly be able to pinpoint her location.
She slipped the straps over her shoulder, wishing she’d paid more attention when the lady had shown her how to use it, and when it felt secure enough, she darted over to the crib and picked up Christian.
“Hey, sweet baby boy. Bree needs you to be nice and quiet, okay?”
Christian, of course, immediately began to fuss as she lifted him, but thankfully he settled back down when he was tucked up warm against her with the carrier.
“That a boy,” she murmured kissing the top of his head.
She ran over to Beth and unhooked her from the car seat. “I’m counting on you to be your normal sweet self, baby.”
Bree didn’t know what she was going to do when she got them to the car without their car seats, but that was the least of her worries.
Taking Beth in one arm, she pried the window open as quietly as possible. When she heard someone try the doorknob on her front door, she knew she was out of time. Abandoning all attempts at quiet, she began trying to fit herself through the large window while carrying two babies.
Getting through from the inside was easy, but there were bushes on the outside. As she heard the doorknob rattle again, she propelled herself through the window, twisting to land on her back in the bushes, protecting Beth and Christian. She swallowed a cry of pain as something sharp ripped into her shoulder, but immediately got up as best she could with arms full of babies. She heard the men, now inside her apartment, say something to each other and knew it was just a matter of seconds before they figured out where she’d gone.
She sprinted toward her car, wincing at the pain in her shoulder, afraid she might run into the third man at any moment. Deciding on stealth rather than speed, she slowed down and tucked herself into the shadows. She sucked in her breath silently when the third man passed by not ten feet away from her. He was watching the streets, obviously the lookout guy.
His phone rang, and he answered it, turning his back to her.
“What?”
She was too far away to hear what the other person said, but whatever it was, this guy wasn’t happy about it.
“Well, she damn well didn’t come through here. Are we sure she was even in the house in the first place?” He muttered a curse and began walking away from her, toward the front of her apartment.