Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down

by Melanie George

  “So when I’m dead and you’re behind bars, who will be Savannah’s fortress then? Who’ll make sure nothing disrupts the hermetically sealed bubble you’ve put her in? And what’ll happen to my daughter, Frank? Yeah, I see you’re surprised. I know all about Reese, and if I was holding that gun, you might be the one contemplating the afterlife right now. I know it was you who told Savannah she was doing the right thing by keeping Reese from me.”

  The shock quickly wore off and a renewed determination lit Frank’s eyes. “She told you that, did she?”

  “She didn’t have to. I know her better than you think. She would never have kept this secret had you not been breathing down her neck.” Donovan clamped his fingers around the windowsill. “She loves you, you know, though I haven’t a fucking clue why.”

  “I am the only one who took care of Savannah, you asshole. You claimed to love her, but your dismissal nearly destroyed her. I was there to pick up the pieces while you were out screwing every whore you could lay your hands on.”

  “I’m sure that’s what you want to believe, and I don’t doubt that you fostered that notion in Savannah’s head.”

  “Don’t lay your guilt on my doorstep. You got what you deserved. You lost the best damn thing that would ever come your way, and I’m fucking glad. She was too good for you, but you couldn’t see that. It was always all about you, the football hero. The Titan.”

  “You sound jealous.”

  “I don’t want anything you have. Then I’d just be another low-life jock spreading my sperm across the states.”

  “As opposed to what you are now? Farmer in the dell and all that happy horse crap—sure you’re fulfilled? Maybe if you had something going on in your own life, you wouldn’t be so damn interested in your sister’s.”

  “Maybe if you had a sister, you’d have a fucking clue. But you’ve got no one anymore, do you? You left your roots behind you to become someone important, but you’re not so important now, are you?”

  “No, I guess I’m not. So what’s your beef, Frank? Are you blaming me because your bum knee kept you from going pro?”

  “You just can’t believe there’s a life outside of football, can you? That was always your problem. You belonged to this exclusive jock club and no one was good enough to gain entrance, even Savannah.”

  Donovan gritted his teeth. “You know that’s bullshit. My whole life was Savannah.”

  “Really. So you ignored her and then wondered why she would look to another man. She was pregnant and you were too self-absorbed to be there for her when she needed you.”

  “I tried to contact her, and you damn well know it. My letters came back. I suspect that was your doing.”

  “So if you thought all this, why didn’t you tell Savannah?”

  “Because I know she loves you, as misguided as you are.”

  Frank’s grip tightened on the gun. “Misguided or not, you are history. Savannah’s marrying Jake, a man who’ll love her and Reese and treat my sister the way she deserves to be treated. Not fuck her and leave her, like you.”

  Donovan started toward Frank, wanting to wrap his hands around the bastard’s throat and throttle him until he gurgled, but Frank cocked the trigger.

  “Stay right there, unless you’re hoping to be buried beneath the floorboards.” He gestured with the pistol. “Now turn around and hold your hands out behind you.”

  Every muscle in Donovan’s body ached to do injury to Savannah’s brother. He was lying. He had been behind the scenes manipulating Savannah, but she loved him too much to see it.

  Stiffly, Donovan pivoted around, his gaze centered on a picture on the wall as Frank came up behind him.

  “This time I intend to make sure nothing interferes in my sister’s life.”

  Donovan heard the swift rise of the pistol and tried to jerk around, but the gun butt slammed brutally against the back of his skull, his knees buckling as a consuming blackness took him down.

  Chapter Seven

  Savannah sat silently through the ordeal of getting her hair arranged. Marlene, her childhood friend and hairdresser, didn’t notice as she talked a mile a minute, more excited than the bride-to-be about the upcoming nuptials. The bride-to-be had far more pressing concerns. She had not slept a wink; she had been too wracked with guilt and confusion.

  As soon as was feasible, she had called Jake. But she had gotten his answering machine, and his cell phone was out of range.

  She had forgotten that he and his best man, who was his brother, Jeff, had gone out fishing, wanting to have a few hours bonding.

  Savannah summoned a smile and appropriate responses to Marlene’s questions as she showed her friend to the door afterward, but had someone asked what she’d said or what had been said to her, Savannah would have drawn a complete blank.

  Alone, she stood at her bedroom window hoping that Jake would get her message. Until she spoke to him, she had to continue on as though nothing had changed, as though she had not just ruined what could have been a new beginning before she had even gotten the chance to start.

  Savannah glanced to the west, toward the dense woods. Somewhere among the tall pines sat Magnolia Hills. And Donovan. Was he thinking about her? Was he happy that he’d proved she wasn’t over him, as she had so steadfastly claimed?

  Perhaps he had planned this seduction all along. Maybe it wasn’t coincidence that he had appeared the day before she was to be married.

  Savannah turned away from the window and closed her eyes. In the distance, she could hear the church bells chime, a hundred-year-old tradition that proclaimed a wedding would soon be taking place. A reminder that should have brought her joy. Dear God, what was she going to do?

  “There’s my angel,” a male voice said.

  Savannah turned to find Jake smiling in the doorway, but his smile faded as he caught the expression on her face. He crossed the room and gently laid his hands on her arms. It was all Savannah could do not to cry.

  “What’s the matter, honey? Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind?”

  Though he said the words half-jokingly, Savannah felt her heart twist, explanations and apologies choking in her throat.

  “I got your message,” he said, his voice concerned as he tugged her toward the bed and sat her down. “What is it? Has something happened? It is Reese? Is she all right?”

  Savannah couldn’t hold his gaze. “She’s fine. This has nothing to do with Reese.” But didn’t it? Her actions had not only affected her life, but her daughter’s as well. Perhaps, had she been thinking more of Reese than herself, none of this would have happened. “We have to talk.”

  He sat down beside her and cupped her jaw, turning her face to his. “You know you can say anything to me, don’t you?”

  Tears welled up behind Savannah’s eyes and threatened to spill over. “Yes,” she whispered. “You’ve always been a good friend to me. Better than I deserve at times.”

  “I hope to be more than just your friend. I want to be your partner, your confidant. A shoulder for you to cry on. Whatever you need.”

  He was so sweet, considerate, and kind, it was more than she could bear.

  “You may not want me anymore, after what I have to say.”

  He paused. “I think I already know.”

  Savannah stared. “You do?”

  “Does this have something to do with Donovan Jerricho?”

  “How—”

  “It’s simple deduction. He’s come home. I knew that.”

  “But you didn’t say anything.”

  “What was I going to say? ‘Don’t talk to him. I don’t want him here; I’m nervous about losing you. He’s going to want you back. You may want him back. He was your first love.’ Those kind of things?”

  “Yes.”

  “What good would it have done me? I can’t make you love me, Savannah. I understood what I was getting into, and you can’t help who you love. I just wish it had been me. I wanted to take care of you and Reese, love you both the way I
’ve been hoping to for a long time.”

  Her heart ached for him. “Jake…”

  “I never told you, but I’ve had a crush on you since high school.”

  “You did?”

  He gave her a boyish half grin. “I did. But you never noticed. Your eyes were for Donovan only.”

  He was right. Back then, she had seen little else. “I didn’t set out to hurt you.”

  He brushed the hair back from her face. “I know, honey. I know.” He took a breath and said, “So where do we go from here?”

  Savannah rose from the bed and glanced out the window. She saw Frank pulling in, an agitated look about him as he exited his car, glancing back at it several times before his attention was diverted by her aunt Jessie.

  Her aunt darted across the yard and began gesturing toward the house. Savannah didn’t have to read lips to figure out what her aunt was saying.

  As though on cue, Frank’s gaze shot to her bedroom window. He had just learned that Jake was there, despite his order that she was to act as though nothing had happened. But she couldn’t deceive someone she cared for.

  She dearly loved her brother and would always appreciate how he had held her together after Donovan. But she was older now—and hopefully wiser. She had her own ways of doing things; she just couldn’t get him to see that.

  Her brother marched toward the house, and Savannah figured she had about two minutes to say what she had to say.

  Taking a deep breath, she faced Jake. “If you want to call off the wedding, I’ll understand.”

  Jake rose from the bed and walked toward her. When he stood before her, softly dappled in a ray of midmorning sun, he said, “No, I don’t want to call off the wedding. I love you, Savannah. I know whatever happened between you and Jerricho was…” He shrugged, struggling to find the right words. “Let’s call it a onetime mistake that will never be repeated. I don’t want to throw everything away because of one error.”

  The tears Savannah had tried to hold back spilled over her lashes. “You don’t have it in you to hate anyone, do you?”

  “Hate is a waste of time.” He cupped the back of her neck and drew her toward him. “But I don’t hate you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I could never hate you. I don’t blame you for whatever may have transpired between you and Jerricho. I know you love me.” He bent his knees and came down to her level, looking her in the eyes to say, “You do, Savannah, don’t you?”

  It all came down to this, Savannah thought, a terrible, encompassing numbness settling over her skin, the truth welling up inside her, telling her all the things she had already known but refused to acknowledge.

  She laid her palm against Jake’s cheek. “I care so deeply about you. You’ve been a wonderful friend to me and Reese.”

  “But you don’t love me.”

  “Don’t, Savannah,” came Frank’s warning voice from the doorway, his eyes glinting with anger.

  “I have to do what’s right, Frank.”

  “Then think about Reese.”

  “I am thinking about her. Are you?”

  “Are you implying that I don’t care about my own niece? I’ve been a surrogate father to her.”

  “She has a real father. It’s not fair to him. I only wish I’d seen that sooner.”

  “Reese’s father is alive?”

  Savannah glanced up at Jake. He had taken so many blows and had remained faithful to his vow to her. She knew she couldn’t pretend to be what he needed. He deserved so much more.

  “Yes…Reese’s father is alive.”

  “Jerricho.”

  Savannah closed her eyes and inclined her head.

  “Well,” Jake said on a weary sigh, “I guess that says everything.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her throat tight with emotion. No matter how she felt about Donovan, she had given a piece of her heart to Jake. His friendship had meant so much to her. She didn’t want to lose it, but knew nothing would ever be the same.

  “Come on, Jake,” Frank said in a cajoling tone with a forced edge. “She’s just been under a strain. We all have. You two can’t just walk away from each other. Not because of Jerricho. He’s history anyway.”

  His remark sent a jolt through Savannah. “What have you done, Frank? Please tell me you kept your word and left him alone.”

  Frank’s eyes narrowed on her. “He’s the cause of all your problems and yet you’re worried about him? Jesus, Savannah, wake up.”

  “I am awake, Frank. Perhaps more than I’ve been in the last eight years. Whether Donovan stays or goes, I know who I am now, and I know what I want. I can’t spend the rest of my life pretending that things never changed. Reese deserves to know her father, if he wants to know her.”

  “I do.” The reply seemed to come out of nowhere.

  Frank wrenched around and found Donovan standing behind him in the hallway. A single punch to the jaw laid her brother out flat.

  Savannah gasped and knelt down at her brother’s side.

  “He’ll be fine,” Donovan said through a split lip that had undoubtedly resulted from his hitting the hardwood floor in his bedroom.

  He had awoken in the trunk of Frank’s car, a rag shoved in his mouth and his wrists and ankles bound like a convicted felon’s.

  His injured arm hurt like a son of a bitch from throwing his weight up against the trunk lid, and he cradled it protectively in front of him.

  He’d finally been released by Savannah’s aunt, who looked shocked at finding him a prisoner in Frank’s trunk. Donovan would probably never know why Savannah’s brother hadn’t killed him, as he had threatened, why he had driven home, instead. But Donovan took it as a sign he had no intention of ignoring.

  Savannah looked up at him with an accusatory glare, but then her expression suddenly changed.

  “You’re bleeding. And your arm’s hurt.”

  “You can thank your brother for that. You might request that he be a little less zealous in his protection of you. Your future husband may not like it.”

  Jake obviously took that as a prompt. “The infamous Donovan Jerricho,” he said from across the room, looking more curious than intimidated.

  “The infamous pediatrician, Dr. Jake…?”

  “Marshall,” he answered. “And I doubt anyone thinks I’m infamous. My patients only know me as the man who gives them candy after a shot. Nothing nearly as glorious as being a pro footballer.”

  “Ex-footballer.”

  “Ah, yes. It looks like your arm’s still troubling you. If you’d like to stop by my office sometime, I have a hydrobath that’s quite therapeutic.”

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “Not at all.”

  Donovan leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb and shook his head. “Has anyone told you that you’re too damn nice?”

  A half grin tipped up the corners of Jake’s mouth. “It’s a fatal flaw, I suppose.”

  “Are you two finished?” Savannah asked in an exasperated tone as she held her brother’s head in her lap.

  “Here, let me take him.” Jake came over and slid his arm beneath her brother’s shoulders, then attempted to heft him off the ground.

  Donovan reached down and put his arm under Frank’s other side. Together, the two men lifted her brother to his feet, still groggy from the blow.

  “Let’s get him to a bed.”

  Savannah watched as all the men in her life exited the room, leaving her there alone on what was to have been her wedding day. Well, why should anything be any different? She seemed destined to be alone.

  “Can I come in?”

  Startled by Donovan’s voice, Savannah jumped to her feet. “You shouldn’t be here. Jake will be back in a minute.”

  “I don’t think so. He’s taking Frank to his office.”

  Savannah heard the roar of an engine and raced to the window in time to see Jake’s car leaving the driveway, her brother slumped on the seat next to him.

  Donovan gently turned her to
face him. “I still love you, Savannah. I tried to stay away, but I couldn’t.”

  “You managed it quite well for a long time.”

  “I was an ass. A stupid, immature kid who had been handed the world and didn’t know what to do with it.”

  “So you think you know better now, do you?”

  He lightly skimmed a finger along her cheek. “I think so, but I could still use some help. If you tell me that you don’t love me, I’ll leave and never darken your doorstep again.”

  Savannah willed herself to say the words. She could list at least twenty reasons why it was a bad idea to allow him back into her life. She should run as far and fast as she could—but her feet were glued to the floor.

  “I don’t love you, Donovan. I’m sorry. It’s over for me.”

  He said nothing, but she recognized the devastation in his eyes. She had seen that same look in her own eyes for months after he had left. Hurt beyond words. A vast emptiness that nothing could fill.

  She had never thought he would feel it, and she had certainly never believed she would be around to witness it. Instead of any satisfaction, a terrible hollowness sank deep inside her.

  “Take care of yourself,” he said, his gaze holding hers for a long moment before he turned and left the room.

  Savannah stood rooted to the floor, her heart beating wildly, her lie ringing in her ears. She had done the right thing, she told herself over and over as his footsteps echoed down the hallway, then the steps, as the front door opened and closed, as his boots crunched over the gravel drive, heading away from her house—and out of her life forever.

  Suddenly she felt unbearable grief at the thought of never seeing him again and ran from her room, her breath rasping in her lungs as she threw open the front door and flew down the driveway.

  “Wait!” she called out.

  Donovan stopped at the end of the driveway, but did not turn around. Savannah slowed as she neared him, coming to a halt a few feet away.

  “Please look at me.”

  “I can’t.” The hurt was so real in his voice that it struck her like a dagger.

  With tentative steps, she came around to stand in front of him, shocked to find tears in his eyes. In all the years she had known him, he had never cried.