When a resounding affirmative response resonated inside of him, he tensed. That removed, his relationship with Lucy had a striking resemblance to Darcy and Avery’s.
Darcy chuckled as he observed Thad. “Maybe we should plan a double wedding.”
Thad pushed the office chair back and stood. “I’m not getting married.”
“Fine. Don’t get married, but you’re falling in love, my friend. There’s no stopping it. The same is happening to me, so I know.”
That only instilled fear and panic in Thad. And then he wondered why. Why did falling in love with Lucy give him the instinct to run the other way?
Because she wanted a family. A traditional family. Thad wasn’t against sharing part of his life with someone. “Till death do us part” wasn’t realistic. And he was a realist when it came to marriage. Marriage didn’t last. Period.
“Easy, there, fella,” Darcy teased. “You should see your face.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re more than okay. You’re falling in love.” He chuckled some more. “I can’t believe it’s happening to us at the same time.”
“It’s not happening to me.” As the words tumbled out, he wondered why he felt he had to say them. He wasn’t against falling in love. It was the same principle. Enjoy it while it lasted; that was his motto. But would Lucy force him into marriage if he did fall in love with her?
Darcy patted his shoulder. “You go ahead and keep telling yourself that.”
“Thanks for being a friend, Darcy. I have to go.” He walked away to more of Darcy’s chuckles.
This morning his mother had mentioned she needed the house in Carova Beach prepared for a visit and needed someone she could trust. She suggested he take Lucy there. All this talk about falling in love had him tempted to agree. Take Lucy somewhere isolated and let all his guard down with her. Spend an entire day naked in bed...
In the hall leading to the exit, his cell rang. Not recognizing the number, he answered. “Winston.”
“You don’t know when to back off,” a man’s voice said. He didn’t recognize it.
“Who is this?”
“Someone who’s going to teach you when it’s time to back off.”
Thad stopped walking as he realized Jaden had said those exact words to him. Back off.
“Jaden?” he asked, but the connection had already been broken.
As he put his phone away, he spotted Wade Thomas through the glass wall of his office. He was staring at Thad. He’d seen him talking to Darcy and he didn’t like it. More than a chief of police trying to keep his men in line, Wade looked at him as though he knew who had just called him.
Thad contemplated going into his office and asking him point-blank. But what good would that do? If the chief was innocent, Thad would only push an already thin boundary. If he wasn’t and he knew more about this investigation than he was letting on, he would simply deny it.
* * *
Thad entered the estate, plagued by the threat he’d received. What would the caller do to teach him when it was time to back off? Making his way deeper into the home, Thad climbed the stairs to go to the bedroom where he was sleeping to change into something more casual. Unlike Darcy, he preferred soft shirts and jeans over the dress pants and shirts with strangling ties. He removed his jacket on the way. At the top of the stairs, he almost bumped into Lucy.
She wiped her eyes, tears springing from them. When she saw him, her quiet sobbing broke into something more wrenching and she flung herself against him, arms going around him.
Thad dropped his jacket and wrapped her in his arms. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.” What had happened? Had Cam gotten to her again?
Her outburst calmed as fast as it had come on. She sniffled and leaned back. “I’m sorry.” She moved to step away but he kept her firmly where she was.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Lucy wiped her eyes again.
Reaching into his front pocket, he retrieved a handkerchief and hung it up in front of her.
She took it from him. “Really? You carry a handkerchief?”
“Crime scene investigator. It gets used at least three times a week.” He grinned when she moved the cloth away from her face with a grimace. “I have a rotation and this one is clean.”
She blew her nose. “Who uses them? You?”
“No. People I talk to who know the victim.”
“Oh.” She kept the handkerchief and lowered her hands, curled and now resting on his chest. “Sophie is here.”
“Here?” The bedrooms were filling up fast. Pretty soon there wouldn’t be any left. Kate in the master, Sam in one, he and Lucy in two more, and now Sophie. There was only one more room left.
“Rosanna called.” Lucy explained how Sophie had come to stay here for the night. “She seemed so scared when I picked her up, and Layne...”
Rosanna’s husband. Soon to be ex-husband. “What about him?”
“I didn’t like him. Sophie doesn’t, either.”
“Why don’t you like him?”
“It’s just a feeling. And he seemed to hit on me.”
Thad ignored the instant jealousy that information inflicted on him. “Rosanna is the one who filed for the divorce. Maybe he’s not happy about having to move out.”
“Maybe.” She didn’t seem convinced.
“That’s why you’re crying?”
“No.” Her eyes bloomed fresh tears but they didn’t spill over. “Sophie asked about her mother. She doesn’t understand where she went.”
“And you had to try and explain.” That would be hard on anyone. Sophie was an innocent child.
Thad kissed Lucy’s forehead. “She’ll be all right.” Especially while she slept in a room that was right next to his and across from Lucy’s. A real family affair...
Just then his mother appeared at the end of the hall, using the wall for support. Seeing them, she stopped.
Thad set Lucy apart from him. “Mother. What are you doing up?”
“I heard crying.”
“Lucy was upset over Sophie’s situation. She’s okay now,” Thad said.
“Yes. I’m okay now.”
“I can see that.” Kate wore a triumphant smile.
Now she’d never leave him alone until he agreed to take Lucy with him to get the Carova beach house ready for her visit.
* * *
Late that night, Thad woke to the cries of a young child. Waking the rest of the way, he realized it was Sophie.
Leaping off the bed, he ran into the hall. No one else had gone to see to Sophie. Going by instinct, he went into the girl’s room. Sophie sat up in bed, her face a contortion of misery, mouth open with a long wail ringing through the room. She’d wake everyone in the house with that set of lungs.
He went to her and sat on the bed. “What’s the matter?”
She reached for him with her tiny hands. A child seeking comfort from him was a new experience. He gathered her in the blankets and lifted her onto his lap, where she snuggled close, her wails easing a bit but still crying.
“What happened, Sophie?” he asked, bringing his face down so he could see her teary one. The sight touched something deep inside of him. He wiped her face with his fingers.
“Layne came to get me.”
Thad glanced around the room. Had he broken into the house? Impossible. Security was tight. Then he thought of Jaden.
“He was hairy and had green eyes.” Sophie sniffled, no longer crying and now intent on impressing upon Thad what she’d seen. “They glowed.”
“You had a nightmare?”
“He came after me,” she said, traumatized by the realness of her dream.
“Layne can’t get you here. You won’t see him anymore. When you get home, he�
�ll be gone.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
She relaxed on his lap, leaning back to look up at him. “I don’t like Layne.”
“Yeah, neither does Lucy.”
“He fishes.”
That’s what the girl didn’t like about him?
“I don’t like the fishing house,” Sophie said.
The fishing house must be a rental or second home Layne frequented. “What don’t you like about it?”
“It smells like fish.”
Thad smiled. “Do you like Rosanna?” The investigator in him made him ask. That and an inexplicable protectiveness.
Sophie didn’t answer.
“Do you?” he pressed.
“I like Lucy.”
“Who doesn’t like Lucy?” Thad couldn’t stop his chuckle. “But what about Rosanna?”
“She’s okay.”
“Better than Layne.”
The little girl nodded emphatically, eyes big with certainty. “Lots better.”
“Well, that’s good. You won’t have to live with Layne anymore, just Rosanna.”
The animation faded from Sophie’s face and she looked down.
“What’s the matter?” Thad asked.
She raised her eyes, so solemn and full of gravity no child should have to bear. “I want my mommy.”
A spear drove through his heart at her declaration, followed by a fierce impulse to do something about her sorrow. He’d never felt anything like it before.
Thad rubbed her back gently. “I know you do. I wish I could bring her back to you.”
Sophie snuggled closer to him again. “I like you.”
She liked him. He watched her eyes close, a gesture of utter trust in the adult who held her. Thad didn’t want to let her go. He waited while she drifted off to sleep, staring at her sweet face, overwhelmed by her loss, wishing he could find a way to fill the void. No child should lose their parents, the only family they had. Sophie had been thrown into a cold world and desperately sought warmth.
Thad was concerned over her aversion to Layne and her increasing withdrawal from Rosanna. Rosanna’s situation may have been suitable when she’d first taken Sophie into her home, but that was no longer the case. This poor child was adrift and in need of a soft place to land. And damn if Thad didn’t entertain giving that to her.
Lifting her, he set her down on the mattress and adjusted the blankets so they weren’t twisted. She made a little groaning sound and then fell into deep sleep again. Thad stood and looked down at her, torn apart inside.
His rational side argued that he’d never been against kids. He was only against bringing them into a family that was doomed to break apart. But what was his answer to Sophie’s situation? Her mother had died. Her father hadn’t stuck around when she was born and would never claim responsibility for her. She had been brought into a dysfunctional family and now had no family at all.
Thad could turn away from marriage and babies and prevent an emotional breakup of his own, but what was he supposed to do when a child who wasn’t his was left motherless and the foster home where she lived was no longer a safe haven?
“Now you know why I cried,” he heard a woman’s voice say from behind him. Lucy.
She stood in the doorway. How much had she witnessed? Enough. His wall shot back up into place. “She had a nightmare.” With that he walked to the door. Lucy stepped out of the way, and he passed her.
In his room, he closed the door, but not before seeing Lucy once more. She knew what comforting Sophie had done to him. The lock to his heart had been opened, and his beliefs questioned.
Chapter 10
The next day, Thad drove Lucy and Sophie to Rosanna’s house. It had been pure drama getting Sophie into the car. She didn’t want to leave. Thad was supposed to meet Darcy, but he’d called to push the time back so that he could go with Lucy to drop the child off. Just one look at Lucy confirmed that she felt the same as he did. Were they doing the right thing by taking her back to her foster mom? Lucy said Rosanna had sounded stable on the phone. Happy, revived, relieved. Layne was gone. She’d reclaimed her life and was eager to get Sophie back.
He looked in the rearview mirror as he had several times already. Sophie’s eyes were red but she’d stopped crying. Such a young mind didn’t understand what was happening to her. She was being yanked from one home to another, never having time to adjust, settle in and feel safe. He couldn’t shut off the nagging instinct to do something. The more time he spent with Sophie, the stronger that instinct became.
He pulled to a stop in front of Rosanna’s house and got out. Lucy did, too, and opened the back door.
“Come on, Sophie,” Lucy said.
“No!” Sophie whined. “I don’t want to go!”
Thad opened the other back door and retrieved Sophie’s overnight bag.
“We have to do this,” Lucy said.
“I don’t want to live here!”
“Out of the car, Sophie,” Lucy said in a sterner tone, but it sounded forced. She didn’t like doing this.
Sophie began crying again, but she climbed out of the car.
Lucy knelt down with her hands on the child’s shoulders. “I’ll come and see you.”
Thad walked around and stood over them, torn apart inside. A couple of tears ran down Lucy’s face.
Sophie cried, deep and genuine. This was more than a childish tantrum. Sophie was hurting.
When she reached her little arms up toward him, wailing unintelligible pleas, he dropped the bag and lifted her up into his arms. She cried against his shoulder while he rubbed her back.
“It’ll be all right, Sophie,” he tried to comfort her.
“Take me back home,” she sobbed, leaning back to look at him. Her wet face and sad, red eyes broke him.
He looked down at Lucy, who stood up and wiped her tears, crying outright now.
“Why can’t you take me home?”
Thad looked at her. “I would if I could.”
“Is everything okay?” a woman asked.
Thad saw Rosanna standing on the sidewalk, worriedly observing the scene.
“Rosanna’s here, Sophie,” Lucy said. She’d regained control, although it was obvious she’d been crying.
Sophie’s cries eased and she looked back.
“Hi, Sophie,” Rosanna said. “I baked some cookies for you. And I thought we could watch a movie together.”
Sophie turned back to Thad. Her sweet eyes heavy with innocent despondency.
“Lucy and I will come and see you,” he said, wondering what had made him.
“Promise?”
“Promise.” He kissed her temple, and then she hugged him, her tiny arms squeezing him around his neck.
Touched more than he could handle, he put the girl down, and she all but dragged her feet toward Rosanna.
Rosanna took her hand. “Things are going to be so much better around here. You’ll see.”
Until she had to be yanked out of this home and into another once she was adopted. Thad didn’t know what to do with the helplessness he felt.
Lucy knelt to hug her and then stood beside Thad.
Rosanna tugged Sophie toward the house. The little girl’s lower lip quivered as she looked back at them.
When she disappeared inside, Lucy turned to him and cried. He held her and for the first time noticed a car parked across the street. A man was inside and he was taking pictures.
* * *
Late that night, Lucy couldn’t sleep. Piling all the pillows behind her, she gave up and sat up on the bed, turning on the TV with a remote. Not only did Sophie’s heart-wrenching tears haunt her, so did the man who’d taken pictures of them. As soon as Thad had noticed him, the m
an had spun the car around and sped off. Who would do that and why?
Flipping channels for several more minutes, Lucy gave up on finding anything that would take her mind off Sophie and the strange man. Letting her head fall back, she stared up at the ceiling.
Thad barging through her bedroom door effectively changed her focus. Fully dressed in jeans and a leather jacket over a white T-shirt, he had an urgency about him. What had him so wound up? Cam? His mother’s shooter?
“I just got a call from the station. A 9-1-1 call was placed by Rosanna...”
Sophie.
9-1-1.
That was something she hadn’t expected. Lucy sprang out of bed as Thad went into her closet.
“What happened?” She quickly dressed in what he started throwing at her. A pair of jeans came first.
“Rosanna’s been murdered.”
Murdered? He threw a thin, soft sweater at her next. No bra. The shock of his announcement sank in.
“Where’s Sophie?” she asked.
Finally his eyes met hers, helpless and grim with bad news.
The stab of apprehension took her next breath. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“She’s missing?” Oh, God...
“It appears that way.”
Kidnapped? “Why would anyone take her?” And who? It didn’t add up.
And then she recalled the stranger parked in the car and taking pictures of them...of Thad holding Sophie. Of Lucy crying. Sophie crying...
Clearly Sophie and Lucy meant a lot to him. Lucy was harder to get to at the estate, with all the Secret Service agents roaming around. Sophie, on the other hand...
* * *
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