“You okay?”
Mac startled her, made her jump and let out a gasp. She hated that, too. She never wanted to be afraid of him. His arms felt wonderful. Safe and perfect.
“I’m okay. I just… Stan’s mom is out there.”
“Oh, damn, I forgot she’s a teacher.”
“It’s okay.” He gently coerced her into his embrace. “I just needed a few minutes to catch my breath.”
“Take all the time you need. And if you need to go upstairs and leave all this down here, feel free. I know it’s going to take some time for you to get over what happened to you.”
She relaxed in his arms and leaned into his embrace. He smelled of outdoors and apples. And Mac. Just Mac, like a cool evening in the woods. She took a deep breath, her chest feeling lighter.
“I’m feeling better already,” she said. “With a little more fresh air before it starts to rain, I’ll be good as new.”
“I’ve got one more trip driving the tractor and hauling the wagon full of kids out into the orchard.”
“That sounds like a ride I need to take.”
He held her hand as they strolled toward the waiting tractor and wagon. Already, kids were piling on, finding places to sit while teachers and chaperones instructed them. Seeing no sign of Stan’s mother, she raised her chin and relaxed. Sunshine was warm on her face as she took in a deep breath and listened to all the sounds of normal. The laughter of children, birds singing, the rustle of the breeze through the trees. She breathed in deep again. The fresh air that smelled like apples was cleansing and warm and wonderful.
She would get over what happened with Stan, put it completely behind her.
And she could.
She leaned closer to Mac for a kiss. His mouth felt perfect on hers.
His kiss healed her heart like a tiny needle making stitches that sewed the horror of Stan’s actions into the back of her mind. She knew she’d get over this. She had a lot of support in the way of her family, her brother. She had friends. She had Mac and his parents. She had the business she worked to build. She just needed some time. And some patience. Mac helped her onto the wagon. Then he met her gaze before he climbed onto the tractor and checked his passengers.
“Everyone ready?”
All the little kids screamed out, “Yes!”
They headed toward the apple trees, the tractor puffing and chugging along, while the kids started singing about how the wheels of the tractor go round and round.
Mac stopped in the middle of the orchard. Kids scattered happily.
“Clouds are coming in,” she said.
He studied up at the sky. “Yep, they better pick apples fast.”
There were several, “Look at this one! It’s the biggest!” And, “Oh, I stepped on a rotten one!” Or, “I got one more in my bag than you did!”
She stood next to the wagon and watched him as he spent the next several minutes helping a few of the children pick higher apples or again showing them how they should pick by turning the apple upside down.
“Are you doing all right?” he asked a short time later.
“Yes, much better. I just needed some fresh air. And to be here with you. Thank you for today. If I’d been in the bakery, I might have suffocated.”
“You’re welcome. This is the last load for today. Even though there may be customers who come out to pick, there aren’t any more classes of kids until tomorrow.”
Distant thunder rumbled. Mac directed his attention toward the kids and chaperones who were still picking apples. Lizzy listened as he gave everyone instructions to pick up the pace so they could get back before it started raining. The smell of approaching rain mingled with the scents of apples. The day was warm, but the breeze held a hint of blowing in cooler air as the warmth of the sun was disappearing behind dark clouds. Lizzy fought back a shiver on the wagon ride back to the barn where buses waited to take the children back to school.
Amazing, she thought, as she contemplated all the changes in her life in the past three days. And to just think, less than a month ago, Stan had asked her what kind of engagement ring she’d like to wear forever on her finger. She had thought that romantic. If she’d left the bakery ten minutes later, she might never have seen this bad side of him. The cat might be dead. If Mac hadn’t come to town, she might have been eating tacos with Stan, Elliot, and his mom, never suspecting anything. She might have married into the morass of violence, although she was sure she wouldn’t have let things go that far with Stan.
She told herself she should be grateful. It was true she and Mac were moving fast, maybe too fast, but he’d obviously saved her from a lifetime of misery. Anyone, including her parents, would tell her to slow down, that she needed to get to know him. He was, after all, no longer that boy she remembered who danced with her. The truth was, she was certain her soul knew him. Her heart knew him. She wanted to spend the next sixty years getting to know him better.
Three days ago, she would never have believed she’d be here with Mac. But she was. Out of something so horrid came something so wonderful.
She and Mac… She liked the idea of that. She had told him next time he could be gentle, and he was more than okay with the idea of a next time. He stopped next to the barn. The kids were well behaved enough to follow the rule of waiting until they were excused to jump off the wagon. Mac climbed off the tractor and offered her a hand stepping off the wagon. She smiled down at him. Desire filled his gaze. She grinned, thinking he might as well have the words I want you stamped on his forehead.
Beside him, she watched the kids head toward the buses. Several choruses of “Thank you, Mr. McLane!” or “Thank you, Mrs. McLane!” rang out before they climbed onto the bus.
Lizzy watched his mom and dad and waved to the kids. “Your parents live for this. Look how much they love it.”
“I know,” his whisper was warm in her ear.
Lizzy took a deep breath of the clean, apple filled air. She knew they had to take this one day at a time, but she couldn’t help but wish time could stop right now, right here where she and Mac could stay in this perfect moment. She thought about what Mac said about stepping forward. She couldn’t do that until she took care of things regarding Stan.
Ginna stepped away. “I’m going to go make us a late lunch.” She smiled at Mac and Lizzy. “You two will eat with us, won’t you? I can make some sandwiches, and we could eat out here in the barn.”
Lizzy smiled. “Sounds like a picnic. Thank you.”
They watched her head into the house. Mac’s dad headed toward the tractor.
“Do you want me to put that away, Dad?”
“Thanks, but I got it.” He climbed on. Before he started it, he shifted and gazed at Mac. “Hey, have you seen Ozzie today?”
“No. Now that I think about it, I haven’t.”
“I think I’ll take a ride around before I put it away and see if I see him.” He started the engine, and the tractor slowly chugged down the lane toward the shed where equipment was stored.
“What are you thinking?” Mac asked, stepping closer to her.
“It’s probably for the best that I file charges.”
“Probably,” he agreed. She shivered again and molded against to him. “Cold?” he asked.
“Yes, and I didn’t think to grab a jacket.”
“My denim jacket is hanging on a hook up in the loft. Do you want me to get it for you?”
“Such a gentleman,” she said, drawn to him even more. “Thank you, but I can get it. I’ll be right back.” She headed toward the stairs that led up to the apartment.
The loft was dark and filled with shadows now that the sun was no longer shining. Lizzy, however, didn’t need a light to find Mac’s jacket, which was just inside the door hanging on a hook. She slipped it on and held it around her, not so much because she was cold, but because she was comforted by the masculine, woodsy smell of him.
She heard the distant sound of the tractor as she retraced her steps to the open room of
the barn, now empty of people. Although with the doors still open, it grew dark with the coming storm.
She followed the sound of the tractor to the far door to see where Mac or his dad were before she gathered up the left-over paper cups from the little apple pickers. A flash of motion caught her attention off to her right.
She thought perhaps it was Mac. Before she could even comprehend, even see it was a person, he was on her. And he knew exactly how to grab her and hold her to keep her from fighting her way free.
Chapter Sixteen
“Don’t…”
His breath hot in her ear, he dragged the words out. “Don’t make a sound. Don’t make a move. Don’t try any of that Judo crap. Or I will…cut. Your. Face. Off. And then I’ll cut up Mac’s mother. She’s in the kitchen, making what looks to be really yummy sandwiches.”
“Stan, please—”
The cold, sharp point of a blade poked her right cheek while with his other arm he held her around the neck in a crushing hold. “After that, I’ll pay a visit to that cute woman helping out your brother at the bakery today. What’s her name? Tiffany? Funny how she and Tony seem really chummy. I can’t help but wonder what her husband, Dane, thinks about that.”
Her eyes watered. Icy terror clenched her stomach. She envisioned a huge hand with claws for fingernails tightening around her lungs as she tried to suck in a breath but only managed a gasp.
On top of all the terror gripping her, there was the tidal wave of disbelief. If anyone had told her last week that sweet, soft-spoken, napkin-folding Stan was really a raving lunatic bent on cutting her face off, she would never have believed it. And to be so bold as to threaten it in the barn owned by the former Chief of Police, he must be really desperate.
“Stan, don’t do this. Let me go.”
“I said don’t make a sound.”
Jabbing pain in her cheek where the blade poked made his position clear. Cold terror snaked clear to the pit of her stomach. She bit her lip and tried to breathe while her heart raced painfully in her chest.
“Now you’re going to do me a favor,” he said.
“Why?”
“Oh, Lizzy, can’t you be nice? Because if you don’t, I’d have no choice but to hurt you. And hurt the people that are close to you.”
No one threatens the people I love. “What do you want?”
“Go to Chief Daniels and tell him yesterday was just a misunderstanding.”
Yeah, right. I suppose everything right now, including the knife thrust to my face, is a misunderstanding, too.
“You see, Lizzy, I need to be in the shop, working, putting food on the table for Elliot and my mom. With this little misunderstanding between us, I can’t do that. I don’t want to hurt anyone, especially you. I really care about you. We could have been good together.”
And how do you ever expect to let me go and walk away because I really am going to kill you as soon as I’m free?
“Without the shop and my work, I’ve got nothing left to lose. Now, I understand with Mac back in town, I’ve pretty well lost you. Of course, I think you and I both know I never really had you. Your heart has always been closed off, at least to everyone but McLane. Anyone with a brain and pair of eyes could see that. I must admit though it was kind of fun while it lasted. And let’s face it, you are the light against my dark. With you as my girlfriend, no one ever saw anything beyond that or noticed anything about my odd fetishes. No one even thought I had any fetishes.”
Antonio did.
“With you, I could be normal.”
Lizzy closed her eyes for three seconds, feeling her own heart beating, hearing the roar of blood rushing in her ears, wishing more than ever she could close her eyes to the horror. She had to do something, something that wouldn’t put anyone else in danger.
“You can let her go.”
The sound of Mac’s voice startled her, sent her heart racing faster, terrifying her to the point that, if there was a needle on a gauge, it would clearly be far into the red. At the same time, it sent a dose of relief skidding through her.
She didn’t turn her head, didn’t even breathe. She shifted her gaze just enough to take him in. He was not far away, so terribly close that he would feel the sting of the knife if Stan decided to turn and lash out. Mac held his gun a few feet from the right side of Stan’s head.
Oh, my God…
Again, she couldn’t breathe.
“Oh, Mac, my best friend since second grade, my co-football captain. Don’t you just wish we could go back to high school? I caught almost every pass you threw my direction, didn’t I? Those were the days.”
The sickening sweet way he spoke sent her stomach doing a somersault. Lizzy swallowed against the bile burning in the back of her throat.
“I said let her go.”
The authority in Mac’s voice was low, even, frightening. There was no way in hell she ever wanted to deal with the man behind that voice.
“Are you really going to shoot me over a sweet piece of fluff, an airhead woman who doesn’t understand what she might have seen yesterday, a woman who obviously doesn’t understand a man’s needs?”
The sound of Mac drawing back the hammer of the gun was his reply. It sounded unusually loud as it echoed through the empty barn. Unable to breathe, she closed her eyes again. She didn’t want to watch this, couldn’t bear to see what might be coming.
Then she heard Robert McLane. His voice held the same ring of authority. “If he doesn’t shoot you, I will.”
The strangest thought passed through her mind. She’d gotten to make love with Mac and feel his hands on her body. She’d gotten to experience Mac…
Stan let out a heavy sigh and let her go.
Feeling her knees buckle, she wondered how she managed to stay on her feet. She felt something warm on her cheek. She felt strong hands move her several steps away.
Stan’s voice. Calm, too calm, oddly wondering in tone. “Wow, handcuffs? Are you into that kinky stuff, Mac? Did he handcuff you to the bed, Lizzy? I sure didn’t notice that when I sneaked up into the loft last night and watched the two of you sleeping together. It took almost a half box of sleep-aid to put that stupid dog of yours to sleep so he didn’t try and bite my leg off.”
Mac’s voice, harsh but controlled. “You have the right…”
Nothing registered, nothing made sense. It was like a connect-the-dots picture with several numbers missing. There were only the cool breeze blowing through the barn and pitter patter of drops of rain that began to hit the roof.
Chapter Seventeen
Mac stepped into the bakery where the air was heavy with the aromas of flour, yeast, and fruit. He stopped short at the sight of Tony sitting at a nearby table. He couldn’t help but notice the way Lizzy’s brother positioned himself in a strategic location, sitting where he could see whomever entered through the front door and still keep an eye on his sister as she worked in the kitchen. Tony wasn’t alone. At the far end of the room, while Dane Kizer reshelved books, his wife Tiffany wiped down the counters.
Through the open door, Mac studied Lizzy for a long moment as she never paused in her routine. Either she ignored the bell over the door that signaled his arrival, or she never heard it. Given the intensity of her hands as they prepared a few dozen donuts on the table before her, he assumed she didn’t hear him.
“Has she kept busy like that all afternoon?”
“Yep,” Tony replied. “She’s made enough pies to take us clear into next month. I have no idea how many loaves of bread she’s got rising. And we’ll have to give away donuts in order to get rid of them all before they turn stale. I would have slipped one of the sedatives we got at the clinic into her drink to slow her down, but so far she hasn’t taken a drink of anything. Tell me that bastard’s been locked up for the rest of his life.”
“As of right now, he’s in County. They’ll hold him until he can be arraigned before a judge who will decide if he can be released on bail or remanded to custody.”
Tiffany stepped up. “There’s even a chance of that?”
Mac didn’t like it any more than anyone else. “There’s always a chance.”
“Will the judge know he threatened her and others with a knife and cut her face?”
Mac heard the frustration Tony tried to keep buried. Mac felt the same way. Every time he allowed himself to picture Stan holding a knife to Lizzy’s face, a tornado of boiling fury cut a path of destruction through his gut.
“He’ll know.” He didn’t tell them Stan had already retained the services of Stella Hendricks, Attorney at Law. She was known to be a piranha in the courtroom.
There was more he couldn’t say just then. It all tumbled around inside, a roller coaster of confusion that left him with more disturbing, unanswered questions. He’d had to pull rank, show his badge, and threaten to call in colleagues from the nearest FBI office to get Stan “processed.”
Chief Daniels opposed him every step of the way, defending Stan in a manner that left Mac wondering if maybe the two were lovers. At least with Stan at the county lock-up and not in one of the two cells at the town department, he would not be let out before the appointed time.
Daniels simply wasn’t to be trusted, but Mac had yet to see the reason.
“So he’s probably only going to be locked up for a day or two until he goes before the judge?” Dane asked.
“Chief Daniels doesn’t know this, so keep it mum for now,” Mac said, addressing the trio. “As we speak, I’m waiting on a search warrant. Maybe we’ll find something that loads up the evidence against him. Right now, he’ll say he was distraught at knowing ‘his girlfriend’ was with another man. Me. Which won’t help my case against him. And since it’s a conflict of interest, I thought it best to call in a few non-biased colleagues. They are now sifting through things, and they’ll be taking over.”
“I see your point,” Tony said. “That’s probably for the best.” He shook his head. “What do you think you—or they—might find with your search warrant? And what made you even think to try for one?”
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