by Val Welch
“Ahhh,” Gabe said. “What are you going to do now, Shelby?”
“I’m thinking about getting my Arizona license and hanging out my shingle.”
“What kind of law would you practice?”
“I’m not sure. I just know it needs to be socially relevant.”
“There’s a domestic violence shelter in Pine Ridge that could always use legal help, pro bono of course.”
“That’s a great idea. Who should I talk to there?”
“Robin Brown. I’ll give you her number later. She’s a real nice lady. She started the shelter about ten years ago when her best friend was killed by her abuser.”
“Maybe Eden could do some of her community service there. She’s got experience evidently,” Shelby suggested.
Gabe’s face lit up. “Yeah, I could see that working out. The two of them used to work together at the hospital. Robin has always been a good friend to Eden. Despite everything that happened, she never gave up trying to get both Eden and her mother Janie out of Nick Malone’s grasp.”
“What was he like?” Carson asked.
Gabe slowly shook his head. “Bad news, real bad news. Eden refuses to speak of it, but from the time they were little kids it was a revolving door of drug deals and sex parties out there at the Malone shack. Her mother, Janie, was incapable of protecting those kids from it. I’m pretty sure a lot went down out there that contributed to where Eden and Will are today.”
Looking at Gabe’s face as he spoke of the horrors of Eden’s life made Shelby understand why he’d never been able to let her go. It was obvious that he deeply loved her.
Fifteen
The next morning, after an early breakfast at a nearby diner, Carson left for William Malone’s arraignment and Shelby took Gabe shopping for Eden.
The mall was a few minutes from opening when they arrived. Gabe pulled into a parking slot and they waited. “What do you think she needs?” he asked.
“Everything. Do you know what size she is?”
“I have no idea. What do you think?”
Shelby bit her lip. “Probably a size three will do it. We’ll get her a few things and I’ll pick up more later on after we’re sure what she needs.”
He laughed. “Thanks for your help with this. I’d be lost.”
“Gabe, are you worried at all about putting yourself out there again?”
He glanced over at her and grinned. “Yeah I am, but this is also the most alive I’ve felt since she left. Is that how you feel about you and Carson?”
She laughed. “Yeah, you nailed it. It’s funny. I’m suppose to be this highly trained investigator, I can’t believe I couldn’t see how much we’d come to love each other.”
“Sometimes we see what we think we need to.”
“You mean self-preservation?”
“I think we’re all capable of deluding ourselves, and having a true perspective of your life is almost impossible to achieve.”
“Holy shit! That’s the longest sentence I’ve ever heard you speak.”
He laughed. “Yeah I know. But I’m an expert in the area of self-delusion.”
“I think you just told me I was too.” She laughed, opening her door. “Come on, let’s go shopping.”
An hour later they had a basic wardrobe for Eden and they left to pick her up and take her to the halfway house.
“Are you sure she’s going to handle me being there all right?” Shelby asked, watching Gabe as he drove.
He glanced over at her. “We’re not going to coddle her. She needs to learn how to cope with life and the fact that you’re going to be in ours.”
“Okay, only if you’re sure. Because, the other day in the interview she really didn’t respond to me well.”
He shrugged. “She loves Doc and has always been jealous of you.”
Shelby frowned. “What do you mean? She doesn’t even know me.”
He glanced at her again. “She’s seen your picture in Doc’s office. We all have. Doc talks about you and your career constantly.”
“Constantly?”
He grinned. “Oh yeah, believe me, it’s constantly.”
“Damn, I haven’t told him yet that I resigned. Do you think he’s going to take it hard?”
Gabe pulled off the road into an empty parking space and turned toward her. “Are you kidding me?”
“No. Oh shit. I did something so stupid. Why didn’t I just take my lumps with the suspension and move on. No, I had to write a four page tirade about all that was wrong with the division, mouth off on how to fix it and walk out. I’m so screwed. What am I going to do now? And who’s going to take care of Carson when he goes John Wayne and gets lunatic ideas about running in with guns blazing?” She looked at Gabe’s concerned face and burst into tears.
He opened his arms and she moved into them. “Ah, come on Shelby, it’s natural to be upset. You changed your whole life in a day. Just give yourself a break here and let it all shake out for a week or two,” he said, hugging her.
She looked up at him, he ruefully smiled, slid his hand up into her hair and his lips touched hers.
She closed her eyes and let him kiss her. It was sweet, simple and utterly earth shattering.
They slowly parted and she laid her head on his shoulder. “This is so wrong.”
His arms tightened around her and his lips moved at her hairline. “Shhh...”
She took a deep breath, moved away from him and slowly shook her head as a lone tear tracked down her face.
He turned, checked the mirror and pulled out onto the street while Shelby got herself under control.
They carefully avoided looking at each other until Gabe pulled into the jail parking lot, turned off the truck and sat looking forward. “Shelby, let’s try to keep what happened back there in perspective. We’re both dealing with a lot of change right now. It’s just going to take time to get our feet under us.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good mutual delusion to me.” She opened the door and slid out of the truck.
He was laughing as she closed the door.
Eden walked out of the jail door and straight into Gabe’s arms. They all cried. Shelby was pretty sure her own tears were for an entirely different reason though.
After hugging and kissing Gabe, Eden hugged Shelby and said, “I’m sorry if I was rude to you. I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Doc’s daughter in that room.”
“It’s okay, Eden. It’s been a tough time for all of us lately.”
“Shelby, thank you. I know you lost your job getting me out.”
“All the thanks I want are for you and Gabe to have a happy life.”
Eden took Gabe’s hand in hers and smiled up at him. “I promise I’m not going to blow this chance.”
The next two hours were sheer torture for Shelby. Seeing Gabe and Eden together as they got Eden settled into the halfway house was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. By the time Gabe dropped her at the condo and awkwardly said good-bye, she was beyond exhausted.
Sixteen
Shelby knew Carson was concerned. She hadn’t gotten out of bed for two days and she couldn’t tell him why. On the third day he appeared at the door of the darkened bedroom, grinned and jumped on the bed with her. “Okay. Enough. It’s time to face the facts here and move on.” He gathered her into his arms and kissed her.
She tried not to respond to his gently roaming hands. “I smell.”
“Shelby …” he whispered, slowly moving his hand to cup her breast as his tongue massaged her nipple.
She pulled his face up to hers, ran her fingers down his jaw line and he smiled as their eyes met. She loved the tiny crinkles at the corner of his hazel eyes and the way his always too long sandy hair hung over his forehead when he made love to her. “I love you, I’m sorry,” she whispered fighting back tears.
He got off the bed and began unbuttoning his shirt. “Shhh, it’s okay.”
She leaned back against the pillows and watched him undress be
fore he joined her back on the bed. She rolled over into the curve of his arm and stretched her body against the full length of his. “Hmmm, I love you naked in bed with me,” she whispered.
He pulled her to him, running his hand down her side and over her hip. “You know there’s no place I’d rather be,” he murmured, their bodies moving together as his mouth found hers.
Shelby sat with the phone in her hand as Carson watched from across the table, their take-out dinner strewn on the table between them. “Shelby, it’s not going to dial itself.”
“I know. I’m just …” She took a deep breath. “I’ve never failed before. How can I tell him this?” she asked, sadly shaking her head.
“You didn’t fail. You stood up for something you believed in. He’s going to understand. You’ve got to do it before he hears it from someone else.”
“What’s the word in the unit about it? How is Morgan treating you?”
“He’s treating me fine and the word in the unit is that you’ve got one big set of brass cojones. Now quit stalling and dial the phone.”
She took a deep breath and found Doc’s number in her contacts while Carson started clearing the table.
“Hello, Shelby,” Doc said.
“Hi, Dad,” she said, tears running down her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. What do you mean?”
“You called me Dad. That’s usually bad news.”
She laughed. “Okay, I do have some news. Please try not to freak out.”
“I’m listening.”
“I resigned from the FBI, rather than be suspended for going over Morgan’s head and entering into unauthorized plea agreements with William and Eden Malone.”
“Why?”
“Morgan was going to hang Eden out to dry and let William walk because he had the information they needed regarding the EFA leadership and she didn’t. In fact, she wasn’t involved in any of the EFA attacks.”
“So what was the deal you did?”
“William gets ten years and Eden gets intensive probation. She’s out of jail and in a halfway house right now. Dad, she’s innocent and I couldn’t let them do it to her. She’s drug free and has been living and working in a domestic abuse shelter in Tucson since she left Pine Ridge. Gabe’s going to take her home after she gets out of the halfway house.”
“So they tried to suspend you and you quit?”
“Yeah, that’s the gist of it.”
“Shelby, it sounds like you stood up for what was right and I’m proud of you for doing that. I know you’ve been disillusioned with the agency’s inability to change in answer to the 9/11 attacks. But, how can you contribute to change from the outside?”
“I don’t know. At the time it felt right. Now, it just feels stupid.”
“Did Richard know this was going on?”
“No, not really.”
“Is some of this about your past relationship with Morgan?”
Damn, he’d always had an innate ability to zero in on the real problem. “Yeah, I guess now that I’m thinking about it, you could say that he pushed my buttons, and as usual I reacted like an idiot.”
Doc laughed. “Well, you could always swallow your pride and ask Richard to rein Morgan in.”
“You’re right. The worst Morgan could have done is a slap on the wrist for not going through channels.”
“Well, it’s your call, Shelby. But, you should consider it. In the meantime, what are your plans?”
She laughed, looked across the table at Carson and grinned. “Carson and I are very busy working on a little science project.”
Doc laughed. “Okay, that’s probably more information than I needed. When are you coming back up here?”
“Let me ask Carson.” She looked across the table. “Doc wants to know when we’re going back to Pine Ridge?”
He looked up from his laptop. “I’m free this weekend if you want to go up.”
“Doc, we’ll be up Saturday, okay?”
“Well, Friday would be better. Lydia’s having a reception to celebrate our engagement at her house, and we’d love it if the two of you could be there.”
“Okay. We’ll be there Friday evening.”
“See you then, and don’t forget to call Robert.”
“I will. Bye, Doc, love you.”
“Love you too, Shelby.”
She ended the call and set the cell phone on the table. “You were right. He took it fine.”
Carson closed his laptop and pushed it away. “Come here.”
She got up, wandered around the table and sat on his lap. “I think the term is insatiable,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.
“I need to tell you something,” he said, as she planted quick little kisses all over his face.
“Oh yeah? What?”
“You have to promise me, it goes no further and you do nothing about it. We can’t make babies if I’m in Leavenworth.”
She stopped the kisses and looked up. “Okay. You’ve got my attention.”
“Do you promise?”
“I hate blind promises. But, yes, I promise.”
“I hacked into Morgan’s case notes. He’s assembled a team who are systematically putting a case together against Gabe. There is actually some very compelling evidence that Gabe is heavily involved in EFA.”
“That’s crazy.” She moved to the seat next to him. “What kind of evidence?”
“Large cash withdrawals from his bank account a couple of months prior to the power plant bombing, along with video of him buying the same type of explosives used in the bombing from a store in Albuquerque.”
“That’s insane. Have you seen the video?”
“Yeah, I copied it,” he said, opening his laptop.
They watched the grainy black and white footage of a man walking in, talking to a clerk and turning toward the camera as he waited. He looked right into the camera for a few seconds before quickly turning away.
She pulled her chair closer. “Play it again. Can you zoom in?”
“On what part?”
“His fingers and hands first, then his face.”
They watched it several times, zooming in on different aspics of the footage. “It’s not him,” Shelby pronounced.
“Shelby, you just don’t want to believe it’s him.”
“No, it’s not him. A dead ringer, but not him.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Zoom back in on his hands. Look at the ring finger on his left hand. See right there? It’s a wedding band. Gabe doesn’t wear one or have an indentation on his finger from wearing one. Also, zoom in on the face. It gives the general impression of Gabe’s face, but when you look at it feature by feature there are some distinct differences. Gabe’s nose is wider at the bridge and his chin more squared. If they ran this video and a picture of Gabe through facial recognition software I doubt it would match.”
He looked at her and then back at the picture frozen on the screen. “Okay, now you’re making me have doubts too.”
“What else was in the case notes?”
“Initially they believed he was involved in the attempt on your life. But, now they’re kicking around the idea of your involvement on some level because of the plea deal.”
She shook head. “That’s crazy. This is all just Morgan’s petty revenge.”
“Yeah, I agree. But, on paper … it’s pretty convincing.”
“Why did you decide to hack in after all?”
“There were too many conversations abruptly ending when I walked into the room.”
“So, what can we do?”
“Nothing for the time being. I’m going to keep an eye on the case notes.”
“I think we need to …”
“No.” He sharply cut her off. “You promised. We’re not doing anything except keep an eye on it and think about a possible plan.”
“Damn, I can’t believe this is happening.”
Seventeen
>
The following week was torturously slow for Gabe. He found himself constantly thinking about either Eden or Shelby. The word of Eden’s pending return to Pine Ridge and the role Shelby had played in it was now a full-blown controversy around town. He’d caught a lot of strange looks and several heated comments during the week. The general opinion seemed to be that he was crazy for allowing a drug crazed terrorist back into his life and their town.
Friday morning, after a long sleepless night, he walked into the station to find Helen talking with Doc Ryan.
“Good morning, Doc,” Gabe said. He hung his hat and jacket on the rack and then took a cup of coffee from Helen.
“Hello, Gabe, I was wondering if you had a minute.”
“Sure, come on in.” He led Doc into his office and closed the door behind them.
Gabe sat down at his desk, took a sip of coffee and looked across the desk at Doc. “What’s going on?”
Doc removed a large ziplock bag containing an envelope from his coat pocket and laid it on the desk between them. “Someone left this at my door.”
Gabe gestured toward the bag. “You put it in the baggie?”
“Yes. I didn’t want to touch the envelope in case there were fingerprints.”
Gabe looked down through the clear plastic, and read the carefully printed words. “Shelby Ryan beware.”
Gabe sighed. “Probably about Eden. Can’t say I’m surprised. I’ve been getting a lot of flack all week myself.”
Doc gestured toward the envelope. “Are you going to open it?”
“I’ll take it over to the county crime lab, and let them open it. There may be prints or DNA evidence. In the meantime, I’m going to increase patrols in your area. When’s Shelby coming home?”
“Tonight for the engagement party. I guess I’ll have to tell her about this.”
“Oh yeah,” Gabe said. “She needs to know so she can stay alert. Not that I think this is anything more than a pissed off citizen with too much time on their hands. I’m beginning to doubt if bringing Eden back here is such a good idea. A lot of people have been out of work since the power plant bombing and most think she’s responsible. Add that to the meth dealing done by her family in the past and you’ve got a lot of pissed off people who are not going to be happy with her living here.”