Mission--Colton Justice

by Jennifer Morey

  Jamie looked bashful, as though he’d been caught doing something wrong. He wouldn’t tell him there was nothing he could do that Jeremy would call wrong, not for a long, long time. He was just so happy and thrilled to see him again, to have him back in his arms.

  “Come on, buddy. Let’s go home.”

  Jeremy stood and offered his hand, but Jamie had caught sight of Adeline in the living room next to Julie.

  “Mommy!” Jamie yelled, and ran toward Adeline.

  Adeline looked stunned as Jamie neared, but she knelt in time to receive the same crashing hug as Jamie had bestowed him. She held him tight to her, closing her eyes briefly and turning her head in for a kiss and sniff of the boy’s head. She’d smelled him as Jeremy had.

  Jeremy chuckled low, unable to stop himself and not having any desire to.

  “Jamie.” She leaned back and took the boy’s face between her hands. “It’s so nice to have you back. How are you feeling?”

  “Good.” With Jamie’s back to Jeremy he had to picture him beaming at Adeline, but he knew his son enough to know he was smiling right now.

  Adeline smoothed his hair, maternal instinct likely making her wonder if he’d been cleaned.

  “Can we go home and have pancakes?” Jamie asked.

  “Yes.” Adeline smiled. “Then we’ll get you cleaned up and tuck you into your warm, cozy bed.”

  “I miss my room. Chrissy’s room is fun but I miss mine.”

  Adeline stood. “Your room is fun, too.”

  Chrissy appeared beside Jeremy, looking forlornly at Jamie. “You have to go home now?” she asked.

  Jamie turned his head to her. “Yeah. We can play again.” He looked up at his dad. “Can’t we, Daddy?”

  “We’ll see. Right now we need to bring you home. You’ve been here too long.”

  “They’ve become quite good friends,” Julie said. “My daughter is a bit of a tomboy, which Jamie latched on to.”

  Adeline took Jamie’s hand without acknowledging the woman. “Let’s go home.”

  Jamie skipped along beside her to the door.

  Jeremy saw the woman standing in discomfort as she looked on.

  “I didn’t know,” she said.

  He paused before leaving. “Thank you for taking good care of my son.”

  Her tension visibly eased. “He was a delight to have. You have a wonderful son.”

  While that warmed him and he appreciated her observation, he’d let the police handle her from here. The only thing he cared about right now was Jamie.

  Hearing sirens, he felt reassured she wouldn’t be going anywhere until she answered a lot of questions.

  * * *

  After taking Jamie to the hospital to have him checked just in case, Jeremy drove him and Adeline home. Jamie fell asleep on the way. Adeline sat on her left hip in the front passenger seat and watched him all the way there. Rather than wake him up, Jeremy carried him up to his bedroom. He was already in pj’s. Adeline pulled the covers back and Jeremy eased him down, drawing the soft covers up to his chin. He pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek and straightened.

  Adeline stood beside him near the foot of the double bed. Having Jamie back felt so good she didn’t want to leave him. She suspected Jeremy felt the same, since he hadn’t moved away from the bed and watched Jamie with the same rapt attention.

  Not caring how she appeared or if she overstepped boundaries, Adeline crawled onto the bed and curled up next to Jamie. She just could not leave him alone tonight. Careful not to wake him, she moved as close as she could without touching him, content to be near his warm little body and have the back of his sweet blond-haired head in sight.

  Jeremy moved around to the other side of the bed, behind her, and she felt him lie next to her. She closed her eyes to pure heaven when he draped his arm over her waist and his hand rested with hers.

  “I can’t leave him, either,” he said close to her ear.

  “He doesn’t seem to have suffered,” she said quietly.

  “No, but he missed home.”

  “We’ll take care of that. I just hope this doesn’t affect him later in life.”

  “We’ll make sure it doesn’t.” He rubbed her hand and propped his head on his other, watching Jamie sleep as she did.

  “Emily and her neighbor seem to have taken care of him.”

  “Other than feed him junk food and let him stay up late, yes.”

  “And play with Julie’s daughter.” He could have been treated worse. Adeline would be thankful he wasn’t.

  She nestled her head on the pillow. Jeremy continued to caress her hand with his thumb. Closing her eyes, she breathed in Jamie’s smell that mingled with Jeremy’s much manlier one.

  “Why do you think he called you Mommy?”

  Adeline popped open her eyes. She hadn’t forgotten that. When she heard Jamie call her that, her entire body had reacted, stunned at first, then with a powerful wave of pure love.

  “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully.

  “I heard you talk,” Jamie said. He opened his blue eyes and smiled and laughed. “You said I was your son.”

  “When did you hear that?” Jeremy asked.

  “When Adda was packing.” He looked at her. “You were going to leave.”

  “Where were you?” she asked.

  “In the hall,” Jamie said.

  “What were you doing sneaking up on us like that?” Jeremy asked.

  “I didn’t sneak. I heard you fighting.”

  “We weren’t fighting,” Jeremy said.

  No, they’d argued over Adeline leaving.

  “You were fighting about something and I didn’t go in the room,” Jamie said, eyes closing sleepily.

  He’d gone back to his room—after he heard Adeline say he was her son.

  “Go to sleep, Jamie,” Adeline said. He seemed all right with his discovery, but had he struggled up until now? At such a young age, he might not fully grasp what it all meant.

  “Adda?”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t leave.”

  She absorbed the sight of his sweet face, his tired eyes finding hers and then closing against the weight of exhaustion.

  “You can keep calling me Mommy if you want,” she said instead of responding to his sweet request.

  * * *

  The next morning, Adeline woke before Jamie and Jeremy. She eased from the bed, climbing off the end to avoid rousing either. She left the room and walked down the hall to her bedroom, seeing a cloudy day through the windows on the way. It must be about noon.

  Feeling rumpled and grimy after a long day in the same clothes and having slept in them as well, she walked into her bedroom and then into the bathroom for a shower. She undressed while the water warmed and steam gathered.

  Stepping under the spacious, rainfall-style showerhead, she basked in the warm spray. The glass door slid open, startling her and ending the bliss. Another kind of bliss stirred when she saw Jeremy stepping into the shower with her. Water rained down on them both, wetting his dark hair and slickening his skin. He moved close behind her.

  “What are you doing?”

  He ran his hands up and down her arms, slow and sensual. “I don’t know.”

  She could tell him he wasn’t playing fair. He knew how she felt about this, about staying with him with the ever present threat of feeling more and more for both him and Jamie.

  “Jeremy...”

  With eyes closed, he put his face beside hers. “I don’t want the magic to end. Let’s just shower together. I promise it won’t go beyond that.”

  How could he promise that? They hadn’t planned on having sex and that had happened anyway.

  His warm, wet body and gentle kiss on her cheek made h
er abandon any more protests. Magic, indeed.

  He soaped a sea sponge and began to slowly scrub her, starting with her arms; he was extra careful around her healing gunshot wound. He moved on to her back and Adeline fell back into wonderland. He spend the longest on her front, going from her breasts to her stomach, trailing the soapy sponge with his other hand.

  Did he give that area special attention because he remembered when she carried Jamie? The sentiment became infinitely more poignant now that they had Jamie back home, safe.

  When he finished with her, she faced him and rinsed, enjoying his engrossed attention. Then she took the sea sponge from him, rinsed that, and then added more soap. She started with his chest because that had captivated her first. Then she soaped his arms, going over the muscles and then sliding on to his back. Her breasts pressed against him as she reached around to cleanse him all the way down his butt.

  Running out of breath too quickly, she stepped back and handed him the sponge. He would have to do the rest, lest her self-control fail her as had happened before.

  “I’ll get dressed and get Jamie ready for pancakes.”

  He grinned and let her get out of the shower without any more temptation. “Looking forward to it.”

  Every second with Jamie today would be that way, something to cherish and remember forever. They were so grateful to have him again. Everyday routine was no longer routine but something special.

  By the time she dressed in jeans and a thin, long-sleeved blue-and-green sweater, Jamie had gotten out of bed. She caught him about to leave his room.

  “Shower time, Jamie.”

  “Aw. Do I have to?”

  “Yes.”

  “The babysitter didn’t make me.”

  “Well, she should have.” Adeline didn’t like imagining how he must have been left on his own much more than he should have.

  She managed to get him in the shower and picked out some jeans and a blue sweater. He chattered with her nonstop while she helped him get dressed. Chrissy liked playing dress-up and he didn’t like that much, but she had lots of Play-Doh and other toys.

  She took him downstairs, where Jeremy had already prepared their lunch-hour breakfast. Pancakes steamed from plates at the table. A bowl of strawberries beckoned, along with whipped cream.

  “One last meal of too much sugar and fat and then it’s healthy time for you, buddy,” Jeremy said, putting a glass of milk down in front of Jamie.

  Adeline sat to Jamie’s right and Jeremy took the one to his left, a cartoon playing a little loud. She couldn’t keep from bursting on the inside over how good this felt, to be part of a family.

  Halfway through the meal, Jeremy’s cell phone rang. He took it to another room so Jamie wouldn’t hear, Adeline following. He doubted he’d listen, as engrossed in the cartoon as he was. In the living room where he could still see Jamie, he pressed the speaker button.

  “How is your first day with Jamie back?” Knox asked.

  “We’re eating chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.”

  “Syrup, too,” Adeline said.

  Knox chuckled briefly before growing more somber. “We’ve questioned Julie Smith and those close to Emily. Everyone corroborated both their stories. Julie didn’t know anything. Emily is working with us in exchange for a lighter sentence. Bad news is, we haven’t found Sigurdsson. We think he’s fled the county.”

  “No surprise there,” Jeremy said.

  “I’m concerned he’ll try to go after you.”

  “We did thwart his plans to collect a second ransom,” Jeremy said. “But if he so much as sets one foot on my property or anywhere near Jamie or Adeline again, I’ll...” He stopped and glanced at Jamie, who continued to devour his pancakes.

  “Yeah. It’s what I’d want to do. I just called to warn you. And ask that you be careful. Protect your own, but don’t cross the line.”

  “I will.” As he said that, he looked right at Adeline.

  “We’ll be searching for him, Jeremy.”

  Chapter 16

  A few days later, Adeline received a call from the bank regarding the ATM that was close to the location of Tess’s accident. She hadn’t yet heard from the other businesses she’d contacted, asking to have a look at their surveillance video from that night. The bank manager had finally located it and had it available for her. Tess might have run some errands before she met Oscar that day. Adeline hadn’t told Jeremy yet because he might not respond well to her checking for evidence to support the idea that Tess had not been murdered.

  She brought Jamie with her to the bank. The manager met them in the lobby. A five-foot-seven-ish man with a bald strip from his forehead to just above his neck, he exhibited more exuberance than appropriate. Adeline had the impression he must put on that face every day when inside he felt the opposite, like not smiling at all.

  “Mr. Harris?” she said.

  “Yes. Right this way, Ms. Winters.” He turned and led her to a conference room, where someone had set up a projector.

  In the open space before that, a small playroom had been set up with books for kids.

  She helped Jamie put his backpack on a chair there and told him to wait for her. She unzipped the center compartment so he could retrieve his drawing book and colored pencils. When he was all set, she went into the conference room and looked at the screen, which Mr. Harris had turned on and started the video.

  “I’ll fast-forward through the customers using the ATM,” he said.

  She watched several people go up to the machine, do their business and leave, all fast. Then Mr. Harris slowed the video. Adeline could see the road in the background. Light from a convenience store across the street put passing vehicles in more detail. A couple walked along the sidewalk that passed by the bank where the ATM had been installed.

  Seconds after they passed, Adeline saw Tess’s car approach. She swerved in and out of the center line. Adeline searched for a dent on the side of Tess’s car but the image was grainy.

  “Can we zoom in on any of this?”

  The car veered too far to the right as though Tess had overcorrected and crashed into the pole.

  Adeline jerked her head, not wanting to see Tess’s crash. When she looked back at the video, though, she couldn’t see the car. The camera hadn’t captured it hitting the pole. She could only see the taillights.

  “I’m afraid not.”

  The bank manager stopped the video. Tess had died as a result of an accident. No one had driven her off the road. No one had deliberately caused the dent in the side of the car. Going to Jeremy with this would be difficult. He needed closure for Tess’s death. He wanted Livia to pay.

  But she needed irrefutable proof before she presented him with her findings. For that she’d have to have the video analyzed by another expert.

  “Can I have the video?” she asked Mr. Harris.

  “I made you a copy.”

  “Good. Thanks.” She almost asked Jamie to put his things away when she saw the couple stop and turn when the car crashed.

  She recognized Oscar right away, and the woman with him looked a lot like Holly Bridgeport.

  * * *

  Seeing Jeremy later that day caused Adeline an attack of conscience. Had she made the right decision, not telling him about what she saw at the bank and that she had contacted an FBI agent who had agreed to have the video analyzed? Would he be angry when she told him everything later? Yes, especially if she had proof that Tess hadn’t been murdered.

  Now she had to come up with a way to leave the house without him so she could go talk to Oscar. He’d witnessed Tess’s accident and hadn’t revealed that to anyone, in particular, the sheriff’s department. She’d called his office and was told he’d gone home for the day. Jeremy had decided not to fire him.

 
“I ordered a cake for Jamie,” she said. “I need to go and pick it up.”

  “We’ll go with you.”

  Adeline glanced over at Jamie, who had the family room floor cluttered with toys and was deep into play. “I’ll go. I want it to be a surprise.”

  “You’re throwing him a welcome home party?”

  “Why not? I still feel like celebrating.” That was true. She didn’t have to lie about that.

  Jeremy looked at his son with an amused smile. “Okay, but be careful.”

  Evan was still on the loose.

  “Always.” She stepped to him and leaned in for a quick kiss, not knowing why she’d done so. The action was partly natural and maybe partly out of awareness that she had another reason for leaving and was keeping that secret.

  His eyes flared with warmth and question, which she ignored. Giving him a coy smile, she left him with Jamie.

  A few minutes later she arrived at Oscar’s building. He told the doorman to let her in and up to his apartment. A short elevator ride and a few doors down the hall and she reached Oscar’s home.

  “Adeline.” Oscar had his apartment door open. “What brings you by?”

  “Tess’s accident.” Entering, she faced him in the foyer. This wouldn’t take long.

  He looked confused.

  “I obtained video footage of her accident from a nearby ATM,” she said. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what I saw.”

  His mouth pinched in dismay and he sat down. After a moment, he raised his eyes.

  “I kept that to myself because I didn’t want my wife to know I was with Holly,” he said.

  “I gathered that much. But your wife knows about your affair. Why didn’t you come forward after that?”

  “To be frank, I didn’t see the point. I expected Jeremy to fire me. I still do. Now that he has his son back, he’ll be able to attend to business here. That includes dealing with me.”

  “You haven’t been honest with him. You made him believe you were a forthright man with integrity. He was disappointed to discover you were the opposite.”