“That we could be good together? Could have something special?” He touched her hand. The sadness in her eyes pulled hard at his chest. “I feel the same way about you, okay? But now, even more than before, I don’t dare get in any deeper with you. Surely you understand why? These new photographs are a threat against you and Daisy. She needs my protection one hundred percent. I don’t know that I can be everywhere for both of you, all the time.” His suppressed fury threatened to choke him. “If these bastards don’t see us together again, there’s every chance they won’t target you. The same can’t be said of Daisy.”
Leah drew in a long breath, then slowly exhaled. “You’re right. Of course you’re right.”
“I really care about you, but even before Anna came back, relationships were on the back burner. They always have been. I just want to do my best by Daisy, and I can’t do that if I have other things or people in my life.”
She stared at him. “You really believe that, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
She leaned back. “Then it’s sad you feel that way. Nobody should have to be alone if they don’t want to be. Everyone deserves happiness. Don’t you think Daisy wants that for you?”
“Maybe, but when you’re a parent, your child’s happiness comes before your own. Always.”
What he’d said to her, he’d said to himself a hundred times and always believed he was right. Now, with Leah sitting alongside him, his fingers itching to take hers and his mouth aching to kiss her, the words felt wrong and depressing.
She filled the mugs with coffee, stood and took some milk from the fridge. “If Cat Garrett calls about the pictures, I’m sure she’ll tell us the best way forward.” She returned to the table and sat, gripping the milk in her hands. “I promise to keep my distance from you and Daisy once this is over, but I can’t step back until I know you’re both safe. The pictures came to my home, and right now I’m a target as much as you, Anna or, God forbid, Daisy.” Leah poured some milk into one of the mugs. “I’m so glad she’s at your mum’s.”
A horrible feeling of loss came over Ethan as she poured milk into the second mug. When she’d promised to keep her distance from him and Daisy, her decision had sounded so final. Something that should have gladdened rather than saddened him. He swallowed hard and straightened in his seat, shaking off the wish that he could feel differently about Daisy’s welfare and his attention to every detail of it. “You were right to let the police know about the pictures. If these people are in the Cove, DI Garrett needs to know.” He picked up his coffee and took a sip. “The sooner she calls, the better.”
They lapsed into silence, and Ethan surreptitiously glanced at Leah as she drank her coffee with a dazed expression. He hoped he hadn’t hurt her, that she didn’t feel his words were rejection, because they weren’t.
She put down her mug. “I’m not really tasting this coffee.” She met his gaze. “Shall we go to the station? I won’t be able to concentrate on anything else until we’ve spoken to DI Garrett.”
He nodded. “Sure. Let’s go.”
“I’ll just grab my purse and car keys.”
She brushed past him and he inhaled, wondering when he’d next get to smell the musky, sexy scent of her, or look into her beautiful eyes. He breathed deep. Distance was for the best.
“You know something?”
He turned as she reentered the kitchen. “What?”
“What if distance isn’t the best way to keep me and Daisy safe?”
“Leah...”
“I’m serious. These guys must assume I know as much about the drug dealing as you do. They don’t know how long we’ve known each other. They don’t know we aren’t dating. Surely, if we’re together, we’re safer? Two heads and two pairs of hands has to be better than one if anyone shows up here.”
He stood and came toward her, taking her hands in his and fighting the need to kiss her one last time. “You’ll be safer away from me. Anna always said I bring negativity into every situation. Look at everything that’s happened since we met.”
“Hmm. That’s a funny coincidence.”
“What is?”
“People say I bring positivity to every situation, and I bet I’m a damn sight more positive than you are negative. So, in effect, it’s highly possible the power of my positivity will override your negativity.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Is that supposed to be logic?”
“No, but it works for me. We can put an end to this. Together. Now, let’s go see Cat. Make sure you slam the front door behind you.”
Before he could argue, she made for the door.
Maybe the fact he didn’t run to catch up with her was because, deep down, he wanted to keep seeing her, wanted to know where she was day and night so he could do all he could to protect her.
As he walked toward the front door, his phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out. “Hello?”
“Ethan, it’s me.”
He tensed, on high alert. “Anna? Are you okay? We’ve had another delivery.”
“We? Who’s we?”
“My...” His girlfriend? His friend? “My friend had a couple of photographs delivered to her home.”
“What sort of photographs? I don’t know anyone in Templeton. What has your friend got to do with this?”
“I’ve been spending a bit of time with her lately. The photographs are of me, her and Daisy. One at my friend’s home, the other at the local caravan park where they had a fund-raiser the other night. Someone’s following her...following us. I think whoever’s delivering the photos is in the Cove and likely to stay here until they’re sure you’re not going to say anything about the drugs. Clearly, they think this is the first place you’ll come. Where are you now?”
Silence.
He gripped the phone tighter. “Anna?”
“I’m here already.”
“Where?”
“In Templeton.”
He stilled. “Whereabouts?”
“I’m just about to go into the library. I was too scared to come to your house in case something happened to Daisy.”
Making a snap decision, Ethan took a deep breath. “Leave the library and come meet us at the police station. We’re heading there now.”
“What? No. I don’t want the police involved unless they really have to be.”
“They do have to be, Anna. For once in your life, stop thinking about yourself and think about your child. I’ll see you there in fifteen minutes.”
He ended the call and hurried outside, where Leah waited in the car. How did he tell her she was about to come face-to-face with his ex-wife?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LEAH WAS ABOUT to press her car horn to hurry Ethan along when he emerged through her front door and headed to the car. Once he’d snapped on his seat belt, she put the car into first gear and pulled away. “What kept you back there? I thought you’d lost your way out.”
“I had a phone call.”
She noted the concern in his voice. “And?”
“And Anna’s here.”
“Here in the Cove?”
“Yes.”
“Right.” Leah tightened her hands on the steering wheel as dread knotted her stomach. A dread she had no right to feel, having never met the woman. “So what’s her plan? Your plan? I’m assuming you’ve told her about the latest pictures?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
He shifted in his seat, his voice quiet. “That she can’t understand why whoever sent them would make contact with someone who has nothing to do with her. I told her you have something to do with me and that is likely reason enough.”
“Right.” She drove farther into town, fighting to keep her concentration on the road. “Are you going to see her after w
e’ve spoken to Cat?”
“I’ve asked Anna to meet us at the station.”
“What?” Alarm shot through Leah and she flicked her gaze from his to the road and back again. “I need to pull over.”
“Leah, it will be all right.”
“No, Ethan, it won’t.” She turned off the main road and into a side street. “I don’t want to meet her.”
He frowned. “Why not? She’s not going to cause you any harm. Are you worried about the knife incident? I’m pretty confident that was a one-off. She isn’t going to try anything—”
“It’s not that.” She pulled the car to a stop and twisted in her seat, fighting to keep her irrationality under control. “Look, I care for you and Daisy. Clearly, too much, if the trepidation I’m feeling is anything to go by. Anna’s gotten mixed up with dangerous people, and now they could be in the Cove, could endanger her daughter.” Shame heated her cheeks. “Having said that, I know Anna didn’t deserve to be beaten up just for witnessing something others would’ve preferred she hadn’t.”
Leah turned away from his dark blue eyes and stared along the street, ashamed of her lack of forgiveness. “I hate that she left you and Daisy the way she did.” She faced him. “I hate that she abandoned her child and now she’s putting her at risk. But maybe Anna has reasons to come here and those reasons justify everything that’s happening.”
His jaw tightened. “Nothing can justify what is happening.”
“Really?”
He frowned. “What?”
Leah sighed. “Look, I’ve had cases at the hospital where things are happening mentally with a patient that lead them to do things that, on the surface, seem incredible. If a person is depressed, suffering from anxiety issues, agoraphobia... Anything like that can cause someone to act irrationally. What was Anna like when you married her? What happened for her to see no other alternative than to walk away?”
“She was just unhappy. She—”
“She must have been more than unhappy, Ethan. To walk away from your husband and child takes thought, planning. Where did she go? What did she do next?” Leah exhaled and dropped her shoulders. “In order for me to meet her, I have to believe there was a reason, a strong reason, that made her leave.” She stared at him, willing the defensiveness from his eyes. “Her leaving might not have had anything to do with the reasons you seem to believe.”
Ethan held her gaze for a moment, before looking past her out the car window. “She made her reasons pretty clear, believe me. Every one of them was about me and what I failed to do for her or Daisy.” He turned, looked into Leah’s eyes. “I love that you want to find a reason outside of me, but it isn’t there. Anna left because of me.”
“Or Daisy.”
“No, not Daisy. Anna certainly named her as part of the problem, but when Daisy was born, Anna adored her. Her unhappiness happened weeks, maybe months later.”
“As many cases of postpartum depression do.”
He shook his head. “You’re good to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I asked her about that. She was angry. Lashed out. She listed everything she wanted to do with her life. She had a vision. A vision that didn’t include Daisy or me.”
“That doesn’t mean she was thinking straight, Ethan. That could’ve been her way of getting through, moving on.”
He took her hand, squeezed gently. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe she was depressed and I didn’t see it, but her depression isn’t there anymore and hasn’t been for a long time, as far as I can tell. Look, I’m not happy about seeing her again myself, but I’ve got to help her. One abandonment doesn’t deserve another.”
Leah sighed. “Abandonment that has nothing to do with me. There is no reason for me to meet her. Not when everything is so stressful. Surely my being there will only exacerbate her already fragile state.”
The care she had for Ethan battled with her own self-preservation. It was one thing having Anna be a faceless factor in what Ethan was dealing with, but something entirely different to actually see her. If Leah suspected for one minute that Anna’s motivations for walking away from her family weren’t entirely based in selfishness, she would sympathize with her, want to help her share what she was feeling then and now. In other words, she would become more emotionally involved in Ethan’s family than she already was. What then?
She took a long breath and lifted her chin. “You said back at the house that distance between us is the best way forward. That being around me is only going to put me, as well as you and Daisy, in danger. Well, now I’m giving you distance.” She pulled her hand from his and faced front. She started the engine. “I’ll drop you at the station. You can tell Inspector Garrett to call me if she wants me to come in for a statement.”
He put his hand on the steering wheel. “Just wait.”
She turned, her stupid heart swelling once more. “What?”
“Don’t you trust me to ensure nothing happens to you and Daisy?”
“My decision has nothing to do with your ability to look after me and Daisy.”
“It clearly has everything to do with that. It’s important you trust me, Leah. I had years of Anna accusing me of not caring, of not being enough for her and Daisy. If you trusted me, you wouldn’t be feeling this way about Anna. She’s my ex-wife for a reason.”
“A reason you can’t be one hundred percent sure of.”
“She left.”
“And neither of us can be absolutely sure why.”
“You’re looking for something that isn’t there, and that only makes me like you more.” He took her hand again. “It’s just been Daisy and me for a long time. If Anna was depressed and got help, wanted me or even Daisy back, she could’ve contacted me at any time. She didn’t. We’re over and I want it to stay that way. I’m reaching out to you here. I’m trusting you to help me keep Daisy safe. Don’t you understand how much it means that I’m finally reaching out and inviting someone else into our lives after all this time? No matter how much I want to fight your being there, because it scares the hell out of me that I’ll fail you like I failed Anna, I’m beginning to think you and I are worth that risk.” He cupped his hand to her jaw. “You’re a special woman, Leah. The more I’m with you, the more I become a better person. Because of you. We’re good together. I know it. You know it.” He smiled. “Even Daisy knows it. We can make this work. Can’t we?”
Leah’s heart beat faster and she turned to look out the windshield. He wanted her in his life. From the way his eyes burned with passion and desire, he wanted her. She swallowed and faced him. “I can’t see Anna, Ethan. Not yet. If this horrible situation is sorted out and you still want to see me, then who knows? But right now, Anna reminds me too much of how easily my parents turned away from my grandmother. If Anna was in a healthy state of mind and she walked away from her two-year-old, when Daisy would’ve needed her so much, that makes me as mad as I was when my parents turned away from my grandmother when she needed them most. How I feel about that kind of abandonment has pretty much driven my career...my life.”
The ensuing silence seemed to shrink the car until only Ethan’s breathing and the spicy scent of his aftershave filled her senses.
His study lingered on her mouth before he raised his gaze to hers. “Go home, and I’ll come back to your place when we’re done at the station.”
She shook her head, putting every ounce of determination she had into her next words. “There’s nothing else for us to say to one another while Anna’s here. She’s your priority now. Let’s wait to see why she has come back. What she wants to do.”
“Anna’s safety is one of my priorities. The first is keeping Daisy safe. The second is keeping you safe. Daisy is at my mum’s. You’re here. Which means I’m not leaving you to be exposed to any more danger.”
“Anna is in a lot more danger than me. You should be with her. Just
don’t bring her to my house. Not yet.”
“Of course not. I’m hoping once DI Garrett hears her story, she’ll find Anna somewhere safe to stay.”
A little of the tension eased from Leah’s shoulders. “Right. Good idea.”
“Once she has somewhere to stay, I’ll come to your place and we’ll talk. Okay?”
Whenever Ethan looked at her, Leah weakened. Every time he spoke, she wanted to lean into him rather than away. Her traitorous heart undermined her resolve over and over again. “Okay.”
He shifted toward her, his gaze once more on her mouth. Everything inside her screamed for him to stay back, not to have her relive the experience of how his lips felt on hers. But she didn’t. She inched forward and gently sighed as he kissed her, one hand sliding onto her thigh.
She returned his kiss, her heart yearning for this wonderful man who had found himself in such a horrible situation. He tilted his head and eased her closer, kissed her deeper, until she met his desire with every inch of her own.
Slowly, they parted, and she turned in her seat. “We should get you to the station. The sooner you and Anna speak with DI Garrett, the better. I’m so worried for you.” She inhaled, her mind’s eye filling with the image of his daughter’s beautiful face. “For all of you.”
“I’ll be as quick as I can. Leah?”
She faced him. His gaze was somber, his jaw tight.
“I think there’s every chance I’ll keep hurrying back to you for a long time to come.”
She smiled, pleasure whispering through her. “Do you really mean that?”
The apprehension melted from his brilliant blue eyes. “Yes.”
Leah faced front again and pressed on the gas, as fear of what lay ahead rose and lingered in her heart, warning her of the dangers of falling in love with this man. Was she really prepared to take the risk of him somehow being taken from her just when she came to need him?
* * *
ETHAN STOOD NEAR the front steps of Templeton’s police station and scanned the parking lot and beyond. Shifting from foot to foot as his impatience escalated, he glanced at his watch. He’d spoken to Anna over half an hour ago and there was still no sign of her.
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