“What do you care? She’s not your daughter.”
“What do you mean?”
He swallowed a groan as he shifted his gaze from Sandra to the partially opened door. Lexy was standing there, wide-eyed and pale, staring from her mother to him then back again. Right behind her, Hallie looked as if she’d rather be anyplace else but here.
Lexy came into the room, circled wide around her mother and stopped near Brady. “What do you mean, I’m not his daughter? Of course I am. I’m a Marshall. His name is on my birth certificate. I have pictures. How could I not be his daughter?”
“Oh, for God’s sake, shut up!” Sandra snapped. “I have more important things to deal with at the moment.”
“No!” Lexy snapped back. “You brought it up, you deal with it! How could I not be his daughter?”
Sandra looked bored as she rolled her eyes, then heaved a sigh. “There’s a chance,” she said at last. “Not a very good one, but…a chance.”
For a time everything was silent. Not even the radio made a sound. Then Lexy turned toward him, the tears welling up making her eyes look twice their size. “And you knew that all along, didn’t you?” she whispered.
He nodded.
“That’s why you left me with her. Why you never wrote or called or asked me to visit.” She turned to Hallie. “Did you know, too?”
Finally Hallie came inside and let the door close. “Yes, sweetie. I’m sorry no one told you.”
Lexy swiped at the tears dripping down her face. “Well, I guess that settles that,” she said in a sad little voice. “I was gonna ask if maybe I could stay with you, but I wasn’t sure you’d let me when I thought you were my dad, and now that I know you aren’t—”
“You don’t know that, babe,” Brady said. Taking hold of her thin shoulder, he pulled her through the swinging gate and wrapped his arm around her. “Look, I was going to ask if you wanted to stay with me. You can go to school here and help me with the new house and do your room however you want….”
“But if you’re not my dad—” Abruptly she looked up, her eyes brightening. “We could take a blood test or a DNA test and prove it—”
“Lexy, I don’t need a test to prove it. You’re my daughter, and no test is going to change that.”
Her lower lip started trembling. “Really? You don’t wanna know for sure?”
“It wouldn’t change the way I feel.” Brady swallowed hard, tried to forget that they had an audience and forced out words he hadn’t said in fourteen years. Oddly enough—or maybe it was fitting—the last time he’d said them had been to the same person. “I love you, Lexy, and I want you here with me.”
Grinning through her tears, Lexy hugged him tightly. “That is so cool! I love you, too, and I’d love to live here—just you, me and Hallie. That’s so cool!”
“And it’s not going to happen,” Sandra said coldly. “You’re not her father. You have no legal claim to her.”
Brady’s muscles clenched at Lexy’s assumption that Hallie was going to stick around, but he ignored it as he faced his ex-wife. “Your husband is a drug dealer who’s going to prison soon for a very long time. He kidnapped your daughter and threatened to kill her. He would have killed Hallie if we hadn’t stopped him. On top of that, as Lexy just mentioned, my name is on her birth certificate, and I’ve paid child support for fourteen years. And, seeing that she is fourteen, any judge in the country is going to ask her where she wants to live.”
“And I’ll tell him with my dad,” Lexy added triumphantly.
“How stupid can you be, Alessan—whatever?” Sandra spat out. “Do you think he really wants you? Do you think anyone really wants you?”
Hurt flared in Lexy’s eyes for a moment, then disappeared. “Yep,” she said smugly. “My dad does. And Hallie adores me.”
Hallie smiled at her and gave her a wink, then looked away before her gaze reached Brady. He wondered what it would take to make her look at him, and how much more it would take to make her stay with him.
Sandra swore. “You’ll stay here over my dead body.”
Hallie couldn’t stand it anymore. She was already edgy enough, because she’d come here with the intention of confronting Brady about their relationship—starting with telling him she loved him whether he wanted her to or not—and finding his ex-wife there hadn’t helped any. Still, she’d stayed as quiet as she could, but enough was enough. “That can be arranged,” she said quietly.
“And who the hell are you?”
“The woman who’s going to smack you if you say one more unkind thing to or about that child.”
“And I’ll have you arrested for assault!”
“Try it,” Hallie replied, smiling sweetly. “The sheriff in this county is my brother-in-law. I sleep with the undersheriff, and I know a number of the deputies. Let’s see who they’re more interested in protecting—you or me.”
Sandra looked at each of them with venom in her eyes. “You people are going to be so damn sorry when I get finished with you. I’ll be back tomorrow with my attorneys to pick up my daughter.” Grabbing her bag from the counter, she swept out of the room, and Hallie would have sworn that suddenly the air was lighter and smelled sweeter.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, then ducked out after Sandra. She still had plenty to say to Brady, but it would wait while she took care of this one detail. Catching up with Sandra halfway to the curb, she spoke her name.
“What do you want?”
“To make a deal. Your husband’s going to prison, probably for the rest of his life, and the government is going to seize every asset he’s got. That means you’ll be left alone with nothing.”
Fear darkened the woman’s eyes. So she could worry about being penniless, but not about her own child’s safety. How in the world had Brady ever fallen in love with such a heartless witch?
“So what’s your deal?”
“If Brady sues for custody of Lexy, you and I both know he’ll get it. He’s respected and admired, he holds a position of authority, and he clearly loves Lexy and is happy to have her, while you’ll never convince anyone you’re a loving mother or that you’ve provided your daughter with a healthy home environment. And with Adam going to prison, you’re going to be getting a divorce and looking for husband number six. You won’t have time for Lexy.”
“So…?”
“How much support does Brady pay?”
“Five hundred a month.”
“Six thousand a year. And that stops when Lexy turns eighteen?”
Sandra nodded.
“Four more years—that would be twenty-four thousand dollars.” Hallie hesitated a moment, then flatly went on. “I’ll give you double that—make it an even fifty grand—if you’ll terminate your parental rights and let Brady have her, free and clear.”
“Why would you do that?” Sandra asked suspiciously.
Because she loved them both and was hoping—praying—that after she talked to him this morning, she would have at least a chance at living the rest of her life with them. Of course she couldn’t give that answer to his ex-wife, of all people. “Because they’re family, and people like you shouldn’t be allowed to screw up families like theirs. It’s your choice. You can go through a court battle, lose Lexy anyway and have nothing to show for it, or you can relinquish your rights and walk away with fifty thousand dollars in your pocket.”
The woman stared off into the distance for a long moment, then curtly asked, “Where can I reach you?”
Hallie pulled a pen and a scrap of paper from her purse and wrote Neely’s cell phone number on it. “Don’t take too long. I might decide I’d rather use that money to hire the best damn lawyers in the country to take you on.”
Sandra tucked the paper in her purse and stalked off to her car.
Tilting her face to the sky, Hallie closed her eyes and let the sun’s heat seep into her. She’d been so very cold ever since Lexy had disappeared, and she wasn’t sure she would ever get completely warm again. But
when she turned to go back inside and saw Brady standing on the steps, watching her, suddenly she felt much too warm. She covered the distance between them, stopping a few feet away.
His first question echoed Sandra’s. “Why would you do that?”
“I have to do something with Max’s money.” She gazed at him, getting lost in his incredible blue eyes, before she realized he was waiting for her to go on. She drew a deep breath of air so hot it could sear her lungs, then blew it out. “I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m good for something, after all.”
“I can think of a number of things you’re very good for,” he said, then one corner of his mouth quirked up. “What’s your conclusion?”
“Negotiating. I made a deal with Napier last night that set Lexy free, and I made another that delayed his killing me long enough for you to get there. And Sandra’s going to accept my offer. There’s no way she won’t.”
“Feeling pretty confident this morning, huh?”
“Hey, Lexy and I are alive and well, and her future’s looking pretty good. I’m Superwoman. So now I want to make a deal with you.” She’d lain awake all last night, listening to the air conditioner and Lexy’s snoring and wondering why the powers that be had named her Queen of Broken Hearts. All she wanted was someone to love who loved her back, a family, a home, a cherished husband to grow old with. Other women had them. Why couldn’t she?
Instead, she kept falling for men who found it so easy to make the switch from wanting her to not wanting her. When Brady had said that he didn’t want her, it had broken her heart. But about five o’clock this morning, she’d realized something important—he hadn’t said, I don’t want you. As in present tense, now, get out of my life.
He’d said, I didn’t want you. In the past. And that was no secret. He’d been satisfied with his quiet life before she and Lexy had come along. He’d been up-front about the fact that he didn’t want any relationships. He’d just found himself in the position of not having much say in the matter. Lexy was forced on him, and her presence in his life required Hallie’s. He hadn’t wanted either of them there, but he’d been stuck with them, and they’d grown on him.
Hey, love at first sight was a wonderfully romantic thing, but she’d settle for it any way she could get it.
“All right,” Brady said, his words quiet, his gaze intent. “I’ll give you anything you want. Just…please…don’t leave me.”
The intensity of his plea boosted her confidence about a hundred percent. She closed the distance between them, and he backed away until the stone wall stopped him. She didn’t stop until there was no place else to go, until she’d thoroughly invaded his personal space. Funny. He didn’t seem to mind at all. “Don’t agree to the deal until you hear my terms.”
“I don’t care about the terms. The answer’s yes.”
“I’m warning you—this will be an iron-clad agreement. The only way out of it will be death.”
He touched her for the first time in too long, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “Sounds like what I’m looking for.”
“I have expectations,” she murmured, leaning so close that her lips brushed his jaw.
“I told you weeks ago you should.” He slid his arms around her waist, then kissed her gently, sweetly—nothing too passionate. Just a little encouragement to go on.
Hallie got serious. “I want to stay in Buffalo Plains. I want to be a part of your life and Lexy’s life. I want strings, a commitment, a future. I know it wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. I know it was supposed to be temporary, and I tried to keep my emotions in check, but—”
He was smiling so tenderly at her that she lost her train of thought. “What?” she prompted.
“Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
The air rushed from Hallie’s lungs, and her stomach gave a funny lurch. “I think almost as much as I love you.”
“So back to the deal….” He brushed a kiss across her jaw, then nuzzled her hair back from her ear. “I have a few terms of my own.”
“All right. Anything you want.”
“Don’t you want to hear them?”
“Do they involve you, me and Lexy living happily ever after?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then that’s all I need to know.” Rising onto her toes, she kissed him possessively, greedily, and he kissed her back the same way. When they were both breathless, aroused and weak, they ended the kiss and for one sweet moment, he simply held her. In his arms was the best place in the world to be.
“Hey, Brady,” she murmured after a while. “You know all those labels my family hangs on me? The ditzy one, the flighty one, the one who could never do anything right?”
“Stupid labels.”
“And wrong. You know which sister I really am?”
He gave her another of those tender smiles that warmed her all the way to her toes. “Besides the beautiful one? The one Lexy and I love? The one who gives my life life?”
“Besides all those.” She grinned with delight. “I’m the lucky one. I have you.”
And that made her the luckiest woman in the world.
Epilogue
On a sunny September afternoon, Lexy walked out of the courthouse with Brady and Hallie, just as she’d done a dozen times before, but this time was different. Oh, not on the outside—nothing obvious—but inside…inside she felt like a whole new person.
Brady had always been her legal father—whether he really was or not, having his name on her birth certificate made it so. But as of fifteen minutes ago, Sandra was no longer her mother. Now she was the legal child of Hallie Madison Marshall. Now she had two parents who loved her and worried about her, when only three months ago she hadn’t had any. That was too cool for words.
She wasn’t supposed to know that Hallie had paid Sandra a bunch of money so Lexy could live with Brady. She guessed they thought it would hurt her feelings to know her mother had basically sold her, but she’d been so happy to be with her dad and Hallie she hadn’t cared how they managed it. Then when Hallie had said she wanted to adopt her…. Too cool.
She loved living in Buffalo Plains. She liked the school, and she’d made some good friends, and she even got along with her teachers. And she liked watching her dad and Hallie together. They were really sappy sometimes—grown adults laughing and making out all the time like kids. Her friends giggled and said stuff like, How embarrassing, but Lexy knew better. Someday some guy was going to fall in love with her, and they were going to laugh and neck all the time, too. They were going to be happy, and she was living with the happiest people she’d ever seen, so she would know a lot about it by the time she got married.
“You’re falling behind, Lex,” her dad called, and she hurried to catch up with them. They had asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate the adoption, and she’d had one answer—get a family portrait. She had pictures of her and Brady when she was a baby, and Hallie took tons of pictures of both of them, but since she was taking them, she wasn’t in them. Lexy wanted a portrait of the three of them on the day they officially, legally became an honest-to-God family.
The photographer’s studio was across the street from the SteakOut, where they were going for dinner tonight. Lots of people were coming—Neely and Reese, Lucy, Deputy Mitch, Deputy Sandoval, her friends from school. Even Hallie’s sister, Bailey, was flying in from Memphis. She’d wanted to be there for the granting of the petition, but work had made her change her flight. Lexy was really looking forward to seeing her, because Bailey was in the business of finding lost people, and now that Lexy had all these aunts by adoption, there was this uncle by birth that she wanted to find.
When they reached the studio, her dad held the door, then followed them inside. The lady at the desk told them to sit down, so they did, with Hallie in the middle. Digging in her purse, Lexy pulled out a not-too-neatly wrapped box, then twisted sideways on her chair to face Hallie. “I, uh…I wanted to get you…Here.”
“Oh, Lexy.”
Hallie hugged her, then tore off the paper, opened the box and laughed.
Lexy’s face turned pink and a lump rose in her throat. “You—you don’t have to wear it.”
“Oh, no, babe, I love it. It’s just—” Holding up one finger for her to wait, Hallie pulled the same size box wrapped in beautiful blue paper from her purse and handed it to her.
Inside Lexy found the same pendant—an outline in sterling silver of a mother and daughter that formed a heart where they joined. Sniffling, she ducked her head, swiped at her eyes, then asked, “Can we wear them for the pictures?”
“I think that would be great. Thank you so much, sweetie.”
Hallie put Lexy’s on while Brady put Hallie’s on. They’d just finished when the photographer came to take them back. He moved them around, tugged at their clothes, told them where to look and when to smile. Keeping her smile pasted in place, Lexy said through clenched teeth, “Hallie, can I call you Mom?”
The flash went off, then Hallie tearfully said, “I would like that very much.”
Still smiling, Lexy asked, “Hey, Dad, if I ran away, would you come after me?”
“With handcuffs and leg irons, darlin’,” he replied as the flash went off again.
“Good. I just wanted to be sure.”
The next question came from Hallie. “Do you think this might be a good time to tell you guys I’m pregnant?”
The flash blinded Lexy, but she managed to hug both her parents before the photographer moved them around again. That was so cool—she had her dad, who loved her even if maybe he wasn’t really her dad; a new mom who loved her like her old mom never had; and sometime next year she would have a new brother or sister.
She was the luckiest kid in the whole world.
But these pictures were going to suck.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7395-9
LAWMAN’S REDEMPTION
Copyright © 2002 by Marilyn Pappano
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
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