by Pamela Clare
“Can I get the keys to these cuffs?” Terry called.
Tanner tossed them then sliced the plastic covering the last man.
Jay St. John sat up. Tears brightened his light brown eyes. Jess’s eyes. “Thanks,” he said. “You didn’t have to do that, but I…I thank you for getting my family out of there. I owe you.”
Tanner knew what he wanted, but Jay couldn’t give it to him. Only Jess could. After what he’d put her through, the chances of her talking to him again were pretty fucking slim.
Tanner faded back as more paramedics stepped in. Another ambulance pulled up followed by more police cars. The eerie silence as police and EMTs worked to sort out the situation set Tanner on edge. It seemed like another calm before the storm. Jess reunited with every family member. The tears on her face were happy ones as she gave them her smile.
Leaning against the hood of a cruiser, Tanner turned his back on the scene and lifted his face to the warm sun. Once upon a time, he had a family. People who loved him, whom he loved back. But he’d disappointed them and he couldn’t undo history. He’d thought he’d found something with Jess, a connection. She hadn’t run from him or judged him. After a while, she’d trusted him. He liked that feeling. Liked knowing that someone counted on him. He’d forgotten what that felt like.
But his past showed that he was a fuck up. How could he have let his guard down with Jess? How could he let someone break down his walls without him even realizing it? Not that it mattered.
It was over. The whole fucking thing was over.
Maurice was dead. Tanner didn’t mourn him. But he hated that Jess would have to face the music. Unless he took the fall. God, the thought of prison made him sick. He’d wanted out of there so badly and he’d vowed to never go back. But Jess didn’t deserve to be there. Hell no. Just thinking about her being locked behind bars made his stomach turn. She deserved to be with her family. Happy. Look at the hell she’d gone through the past few days. She’d saved his life, so wasn’t it up to him to return the favor? Didn’t he owe her that much? His gut cramped just thinking about what he had to do. But he only saw one option. The least he could do was take the fall for Maurice. He hadn’t wanted to go back to prison, but for Jess… For Jess, he would.
A hard blow smacked into his bicep and Tanner turned. Jess stood beside him, her eyes red-rimmed.
“You bastard,” she croaked. Her bottom lip quivered and Tanner readied himself for the rest of her onslaught. He deserved it. Her tears ripped him apart and the fact that he’d made her feel this way chewed up his insides. Instead, she threw herself into his arms, held him tightly, squeezing the hell out of him.
Relief nearly knocked him to his knees. His breath stopped as he wrapped his arms around her. Holding her set him free. He pulled her closer, buried his face in her neck and took in her scent. Emotion long suppressed geysered up his chest and his eyes stung knowing how much pain he’d caused her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I had no way to tell you. I wanted to.”
She didn’t say anything, just held him tighter. Her silent forgiveness meant everything to him. So did the woman herself. He could stay like this, holding her, for a very, very long time. The longer they held each other, the easier Tanner’s decision seemed. Jess had been through too much to face any more heartache in the future. He’d do whatever was necessary to make her happy.
Maybe this wasn’t the reaction he expected, but the whole thing was over. Facinetti was probably in custody by now and Jess had her family back and would go on with her life. A life he didn’t fit into. At all.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered in his ear. “I should’ve trusted you. I should’ve—”
“Shh. Stop. Don’t.” God, how could she be apologizing when he’d just shot her father?
Holding her only made life harder. She was everything he wanted and he had to let her go, so Tanner gently set her from him. Jess studied his face, held his gaze. He loved the soft brown caramel of her eyes. No doubt about it, he could fall for a slip of a girl like Jess. Hell, he already had. Everything about her attracted him and she was everything he’d ever fantasized about. Besides the great body, she had a brain. She also had spirit and unrelenting will. In just a few days, she’d slipped under his skin in a way he’d never expected.
“I realize what you did back there, but I don’t know how you did it.” She folded her arms across her chest. “You got to the office, got the computer and…”
“I ran into your prop man, Ron, from the last film. He brought in two boxes filled with squibs, blood packs, blanks and a couple of guns that Maurice planned to unload somewhere. He was nice enough to give me a lesson on the use of it all.”
“When that creep took me into the bathroom, you used that time to place the blood packs?”
Tanner nodded. “I didn’t want to waste time once Facinetti had his hands on the computer. I didn’t know if he’d get one of his own guys to do the job. I didn’t want to take the chance.”
“So you worked fast.”
“Real fast,” Tanner agreed.
“When did you call the police?” she asked.
“I didn’t. I wasn’t sure they were going to show up. I called your friend Troy Mills, but he didn’t answer. I left a message. I wasn’t sure he’d help me or not. When I saw the cruisers, I wasn’t sure if they were the good guys. Facinetti could’ve been setting me up, by having his cops arrest me. When they went after the guys with the guns, I realized they were reinforcements.” He spotted two officers talking and pointing in their direction. If he wanted to save Jess, she had to play along. Tanner pulled her close again, looked right into her eyes. “When the cops start asking questions, we tell them that I killed Maurice.”
Her brows pulled together in a soft pucker and she shook her head. “No…no.” She backed up a step. “We’ll tell them the truth. I did it.”
Tanner stood, loomed over her. “Let me do this, Jess. I don’t want you to take the fall. The guy is dead. Let me handle it.”
“You’re nuts! You’ve already served seven years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit. Why the hell would you go through that again?”
“Because…” Tanner stroked her soft cheek with his thumb. “Because I don’t want you to have go through it. I’ve been there. I can handle it.”
“Well handle this, tough guy.” Jess put her hands on her hips. “We’re telling the truth.”
To hell with that. The truth had never gotten him anywhere. “My word against yours. I’ll tell them you’re protecting me.”
Jess shot a look to the ambulances surrounding the truck. “My whole family heard you say that I killed him.”
“I’ll tell them I was lying. Just like I lied to Facinetti about killing them. It was just a plan to get them out. I wiped down my gun. Only my prints are on it.”
“No.” Jess shook her head. “Get it out of your mind right now. I killed Maurice and I’ll face the music. It was an accident. You’ve done nothing wrong.” She smacked his arm hard. “Do you really think I could live with myself knowing you were in prison for something I did? Especially after everything you’ve already gone through?” Her eyes darkened, stormy and bright at the same time. “Let me answer that for you.” She barely took a breath. “No! Not for a second. I think you’re an honorable man. A man who deserves a break. You deserve a family and a life and all the things that were taken away from you seven years ago.”
Tanner felt an ache in his heart. He couldn’t remember a time when someone had stood up for him so fiercely. Jess had been there for him since the night at Juneau’s house. She’d saved his life more than once and the way she stood looking up at him with fire in her eyes made him want to hold onto her forever.
Yeah, he could see forever with this girl. She was that kind of girl. Dependable, smart and sexy as hell.
Do I deserve you? The question was on his tongue, but he didn’t ask. He knew better.
She deserved a guy who didn’t have a record. A guy who could get a well-payin
g job and keep her in a safe, comfortable environment. He didn’t have a college education and was seriously behind the curve when it came to finding a decent job. In short, he couldn’t give her what she deserved. Even if he managed to pull his life together and make something of himself, it would take years of struggle.
His thoughts took a different route when two men in suits approached with another man behind them. Every instinct Tanner possessed screamed, “Cop!”
“Are you Tanner Bryant?” The closest asked. He was a tall son of a bitch. And wide. He flashed a badge. “Detective Patrick. This is my partner, Detective O’Kelly. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
Even if he didn’t take the fall for Juneau, he and Jess were guilty of kidnapping. A federal offense, if he wasn’t mistaken. With his record, he’d definitely be seeing jail time. It was crazy to think he could have any future much less one with Jess. Since when did he live in a dream world?
The third man tapped Jess on the shoulder. “Miss St. John, your mom asked me to tell you that your brother’s ambulance is leaving. She’d like you to go with him to the hospital.”
Jess’s gaze shifted from the waiting ambulance to Tanner and the cops.
“Go,” he told her. “I’m fine.” He glanced at the detectives. “You know where I’ll be.” Another jail cell, no doubt. How the hell had he gotten himself into this? He’d sworn not to go back. But if it kept Jess out…he’d do it in a heartbeat.
“We need to speak with you too, Miss St. John,” the smaller detective said.
“Can you talk to her at the hospital?” Tanner asked. “C’mon, let her be with her family. She’s been through hell the past few days.”
The detectives shared a glance before O’Kelly nodded. “Okay. Go ahead. We’ll talk at the hospital.”
“Look,” Jess said, backing up toward the ambulance. “We’ll both cooperate, but not before we talk to our lawyer.” She saw Tanner’s raised brows and pointed to the departing ambulance carrying her father. “Our lawyer just left and we’ll both talk to you after we’ve talked to him at the hospital.” She disappeared inside her brother’s ambulance and it moved down the street with sirens blaring.
Tanner was right back where he started, with someone telling him who his lawyer would be. The circumstances hadn’t changed much either. He didn’t doubt Jay St. John would do everything in his power to make sure his daughter stayed out of prison. Tanner didn’t blame him. At least they felt the same way. But Jess wasn’t the type to let either one of them run the show. She was honest to the core. So did Tanner start talking now and take the fall or did he wait until he talked to Jess’s father and play the game his way? He faced the three men, still deciding what the hell he was going to tell them.
“Who are you,” he asked the third guy, hoping to stall another few minutes. The truth really had never done him any good. Chances were good that no one would believe him anyway.
The man put his hand out. “Troy Mills.” They shook hands. “I called for reinforcements after I got your message. You can trust these guys,” he said, gesturing to the detectives. “The more information I uncovered on Facinetti, the more I thought you could use some extra help.”
“You were right about that. Thanks.” Tanner studied the two detectives watching him. “Jess didn’t know who to trust. Facinetti had a couple of cops keeping an eye on her. They did a good job of scaring the crap out of her. Jess should go through a list of LAPD officers so she can ID the creeps working for Facinetti. I’m pretty sure she’ll be more than willing.” It didn’t get past Tanner that had they not scared her, he never would’ve had the time to get to know her.
But Tanner had already wasted too many years and now he wanted this over with. “You might want to check out the St. John’s garage. Aside from that, unless you want to offer immunity to Jess, I think I need to wait for my lawyer.”
The beginning of the end.
Chapter Twenty-Three
So much had happened in the three months since Tanner had rescued her family that Jess felt as if she’d fallen into a Robert Altman film. Most of the time, she’d been so busy that the weeks had flown by but other times, like now, the seconds ticked along so slowly they almost hurt.
Tanner and she had both been arrested and released on bail posted by her father. She’d nursed her family back to health, which had given her something to do since she no longer had a job.
Only as she spoke to the dozens of crew members from past films and some of Maurice’s investors who’d called after the news went public did she realize that she was much more than just his assistant. Maurice had done such a good job of keeping her down that it hadn’t dawned on her she was practically doing his job.
Jess toed the skin under the ankle monitor that had become her mandatory jewelry the last several months. Despite the comfort of house arrest on manslaughter charges, she still hated the implication of the monitor. She’d never run. Especially since her dad had put the house up as collateral for her bond.
Alone, sitting at the large round table in the new solarium of her parent’s home, Jess stared unseeing at the flashing icon on her computer screen and took a deep breath. There was no more to add. She’d gone over it multiple times and she was officially done. Typing the end should’ve given her a sense of pride or fulfillment, but it hadn’t. Because finishing the screenplay was only a fraction of her battle. The screenplay wouldn’t mean anything if she went to prison. Her cell phone rang, but she didn’t recognize the number so she let it roll over to voice mail. It felt as if everyone who’d ever done business with Maurice had learned of his death. Rumors and conjecture ran rampant, and the publicity surrounding the trial was nearly harder to bear than the actual crime.
She’d come to grips with what she’d done. The fact remained that she hadn’t killed Maurice on purpose and it didn’t matter how many times she replayed the scene in her head because the outcome would never change. For the thousandth time, the question ran through her brain, “Would I have shot Maurice if he’d fired at Tanner?” Although she thought the answer would be yes, she wasn’t a hundred percent sure that she’d have been in the state of mind to pull the trigger. Knowing the way she froze in panic situations, Maurice might have just as easily gunned her down after Tanner. Of course none of it mattered. What mattered was that she had three months before the trial. Thanks to her father’s reputation—and a few pulled strings, she didn’t have to wait a year or longer to know her fate. She’d had twelve weeks to enjoy home cooked meals or take out from her favorite restaurants. Ninety days to soak up the love from her family. She swallowed back the knot in her throat and shook out of her stupor.
The house was quiet for the first time that Jess could remember since her house arrest began. She looked around the new room that had been added on to the back of the house. Her parents had been talking about an addition for years, and after the whole Facinetti incident they’d decided to go for it. “Life was too short to put off living,” they’d said. The side and back walls were made of tinted glass that kept out the California summer sun, but gave the room a feeling of being outside. A comfortable sofa and two extra wide chairs filled the main space. Though the room had only been finished for two days, Jess had moved her computer and files in here and made it her unofficial office.
She should’ve been happy to have the place to herself, but the silence was unnerving after the all the noise she’d lived with for the past two months while the room was being built. Up until now, it was as if her family had made a point of someone being home with her. Not because they were afraid of her running, but because they were afraid of her being alone. Alone with her thoughts? Or alone to consider what being in a cell might be like? Either way, there’d always been someone at the house with her.
The kitchen door squeaked. “’Lo?” Tanner. Her parents had given him a key a few weeks ago.
Her heartbeat picked up the way it usually did when she heard his voice. He’d become a regular fixture in the house, part of
the family. At first she didn’t think he’d stick around once her dad managed to get the charges dropped against him. Why hang around a town that had only caused him misery? But Tanner had promised to testify on her behalf and do whatever they needed. Still, the trial was another three months away and he could’ve moved somewhere else. He hadn’t. He’d chosen to stay. Jess wasn’t sure if it made her happy or sad. Happy, because she got to spend time with him and sad because she worried that her life was a dead end and he was simply wasting time being around her.
“In here,” she called. Jess saved the final draft on her laptop and closed the lid as Tanner entered. He looked gorgeous in a ribbed, black, long sleeved shirt that couldn’t hide the definition of his muscled chest. Dark jeans and black boots completed the picture. He was the ultimate male. Strong, confident and full of sex appeal.
“Where is everybody?” he asked, looking around the room.
“Out.” Avoiding eye contact, she methodically stuffed her notes into a file. She had a ton of calls to make tomorrow regarding a location, but it was too late to do any more work tonight.
It was hard to look at him and not want him. Despite the intense physical relationship they shared months ago, they’d hardly touched since. When they did, the contact was electric. At least it was on her part. Maybe he didn’t feel the same. Granted they hadn’t been alone together, but he’d shown very little interest other than friendship.
“Out?” The surprise in his voice made her smile.
“Yep. Dad’s buried under paper work at the office. Mom volunteered to serve dinner at the local women’s shelter, but they had some kind of power outage so she’s waiting there. Eric and Danny are unpacking the last of the boxes in their new place. Mom can’t believe they really moved out—she’s not taking it too well.” Jess grinned sympathetically. “And the twins went to a Seger Hughes concert in Anaheim. Aside from some leftovers in the fridge, you’re stuck with me. But don’t feel obligated to stay.” She got the feeling he sided with her family when it came to her being alone. Everyone worried about her. It should’ve made her mad, but it only made her realize how much her family loved her.