The Fugitive Bride

by Margaret Watson

  He stared at her for a long time. Finally he said, “Why did you do it, Shea?” The words sounded as if they’d been torn from his throat. “Did you need money that badly? Had something gone wrong, something you didn’t want to tell your brother? Is that why you did it?”

  “Did what?” she whispered, grabbing the edge of the table to support herself. The anger and distaste in his face made a slippery sickness gather in her stomach. “What are you talking about?”

  His face filled with a weary disgust. “The innocent act won’t work anymore. I’ll admit you do it very well, but it’s too late. I know.”

  “You know what?”

  A flash of rage crossed his face. “You want to play the game? All right. I’ll play it with you. I was at the cabin this morning. I know all about what you’re doing”

  She felt the blood drain from her face. “What were you doing up at the cabin?” she whispered. “I thought you and Joe were going into Cameron to pick up parts for the truck.”

  “I sent Joe into town alone. You’ve been acting so strange that I wanted to see what you were up to. I followed you to the cabin.”

  “Why would you do that?” She stared at him, confused. “And why are you so angry? Is it because I didn’t tell you about it? I thought you would agree with what I’m doing.”

  “Agree with you?” An incredulous look crossed his face. “Did you think I needed money so badly?”

  “What does money have to do with it?”

  He made a sound of disgust and jumped to his feet. “I figure it has everything to do with it. Why else would you have gotten involved?”

  Jesse stood before her, but he was a total stranger. His eyes were harder than she’d ever seen them. His mouth was tight with anger and disgust. And strapped to his shoulder was an empty holster.

  For the first time, real fear shivered through her. “What’s going on? Who are you, Jesse? And why are you wearing a gun holster?”

  Instead of answering her, he pulled out his wallet and flipped it open. Inside was a gleaming badge and an identification card. She sank into a chair, her legs suddenly trembling.

  “That says FBI,” she whispered. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I’m an FBI agent.” His voice was cold and distant. “I came here because of a tip from an informant that you were smuggling illegal aliens into the country, men who were wanted criminals in their own country. And now I know that it’s true.”

  “Kyle Diggett.” She stared at Jesse, wondering where the pam and fear had gone. “That’s who your informant was. I should have known he’d try to get even with me.”

  “I’m not at liberty to reveal that information.” His voice sounded stiff.

  She didn’t understand why she didn’t feel anything. Staring at Jesse, at the stranger who stared back at her, she felt nothing but a huge emptiness that seemed to swell and grow inside her. The pain would come, but now there was only numbness.

  “Why didn’t you just ask me what I was doing?” she finally said, staring at the empty holster.

  He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “And you would have told me exactly what was going on, right?”

  “I was going to tell you.” She swallowed, feeling the first shards of pain stabbing into her at the sound of his laugh. “Next week, after this group was gone.”

  “How convenient.” His mouth curled into a sneer. “I can’t tell you how many criminals tell me the same thing, after they’re caught. ‘I was going to tell you. I was going to become an informant.’ It’s amazing how many people get religion when there’s no other alternative.”

  Only the width of the table stood between them, but it might as well have been an ocean. This wasn’t the man she’d given her body to, the man she’d trusted, the man who’d taken her heart. This was a stranger, a cold, unforgiving stranger who mocked her with eyes as hard as granite.

  “It’s not like that at all.”

  “That’s what everyone says when they get caught.”

  The contempt in his eyes broke down the last of her defenses. The pain came quickly, overwhelming her. It squeezed her heart and stole her breath, leaving her reeling from the agony. “What happens now?” she managed to ask.

  “Everyone in the cabin will be sent back to San Rafael. And you’ll be taken into custody.” For the first time, a flicker of emotion crossed his face. “If you cooperate with the investigation, I’ll try to make sure you get a lighter sentence.”

  “A lighter sentence?” she whispered. The pain inside her grew and grew, until there was room for nothing else.

  “You can make this easier for both of us. I cared about you, Shea,” he said, his voice gruff. “And I’d like to think you genuinely cared about me.”

  His words were like a slap across the face. Then, thankfully, a red mist of anger filled her mind, masking the pain. “What are you saying, Jesse?” She stood up to face him, her fingers gripping the edge of the table. “Are you saying that I came on to you, seduced you, so you would go easy on me when you eventually caught me in the act? Is that what you think this last week was about?”

  He had the grace to flush. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I thought I knew you, Shea. I thought I knew what kind of person you are. And now I find I didn’t know anything about you, after all.”

  “I’m the same, exact person I was yesterday, but you’ve been deceiving me all along,” she cried, feeling her heart crumble into little bits. “You lied from the very beginning. You came to my home and made me think you were someone else, someone I could care about. You betrayed me from the first day you stepped onto the Red Rock.”

  “I was doing my job,” he said, his face hard and closed again.

  “Your job. Is seducing your suspects part of your job, too?” she asked, her voice hot and scathing.

  “I told you I didn’t want to get involved with you.”

  “And I was supposed to believe you when you were kissing me?” He opened his mouth to answer, and she cut him off with a knifelike motion of her hand. “I’m a big girl, Jesse. I went into our affair with my eyes open. I wasn’t expecting hearts and flowers and forever after.” But deep down inside, she had been, and her heart shriveled a little more. “But I was expecting the truth from you.”

  “And I couldn’t give it to you. That’s part of my job, too. I didn’t want to hurt you, Shea. And after I got to know you, I didn’t want to believe that you were doing anything wrong. But my job comes first.”

  “Is your job that important to you? More important than what we had?” she whispered.

  She thought she saw a flash of pain across his face for a moment, but then he was cold and impersonal again. “It’s all I have.”

  “Then I feel sorry for you, Jesse.” She drew herself up and stared at him, trying to keep her pain out of her eyes. Her heart felt exposed and raw, bleeding from the wound he’d struck. But she wouldn’t beg, wouldn’t shame herself in front of him. “Or is your name a lie, too?”

  His lips tightened. “It’s my own name.”

  “No wonder you acted strange in Cameron the other night when we ran into Damien and Abby. You and Damien are probably old buddies.”

  “I know Kane slightly. And he knows better than to compromise me or an undercover operation.”

  “That’s all it was for you, wasn’t it, Jesse?” she whispered. “An ‘undercover operation.’ That’s all it will ever be. I thought there was some warmth in you, some feeling. But the only feelings you have are for your job.”

  “What’s more important than justice?” he demanded.

  “Love and caring. That’s more important than justice,” she answered swiftly.

  “Without justice, love doesn’t have a chance.”

  “Without love, justice is harsh and uncaring. There can’t be true justice without love.”

  “You can’t justify what you’ve done, Shea. And all the talk in the world won’t change a thing. You were wrong, and I’m going to do what needs t
o be done to make it right.”

  He was not sending those children back to San Rafael. She thought of little Rafael, so frightened by what had happened there that he wouldn’t even give them his real name. And she thought of the others, their relatives already on the way to pick them up.

  “You can do whatever you want to do to me. But I won’t let you harm the innocent ones in my care.”

  “Who said anything about harming them? I’m going to send them back where they belong.”

  “They belong right where they are.”

  She spun around from the table and ran into the kitchen, grabbing her car keys from the counter She heard Jesse behind her, scrambling to catch up, and as she ran out the back door, she saw Maria move into place in front of the door.

  Jesse watched Shea’s truck disappear into the distance, and called himself every foul name he could think of. He should have realized that she’d do something crazy. He should have realized that Shea would never meekly give in to him.

  He should have realized how much he’d hurt her.

  It would be a scar on his soul for a long time, but he couldn’t think about it now. He had to catch up with Shea before she disappeared with the illegal immigrants she was harboring. Turning, he headed back into the house.

  “Maria,” he called, “I need the keys for Devlin’s truck.” It was the only vehicle still in the yard, and he knew they kept the keys in the kitchen. Dev’s truck didn’t get used often enough to leave the keys in the ignition.

  The housekeeper stood in the dining room with the keys in her hand. She glared at him out of stone-cold eyes, then dropped the keys down the front of her blouse and into her ample bosom. “If you want them, you’re going to have to take them from me, FBI agent.”

  “Maria, you’re not helping Shea.” He tried to be patient.

  He was afraid that Shea would be gone by the time he reached the cabin, but her truck was still parked next to it. “Thank God,” he whispered. If she had managed to get away with the illegals that were in the cabin, he wouldn’t have had any bargaining power with his bosses. Now at least he had a chance of making things a little easier for her.

  As he edged toward the door, preparing to step inside, he heard Shea speak.

  “No!” she said, and he heard the frantic note in her voice. “I won’t let you do that. I won’t allow it!”

  Jesse heard the rumble of a man’s voice, but he couldn’t hear the words. Then he heard Shea again, her words sharp and tinged with fear.

  “I don’t care, Miguel. He’s staying.”

  Jesse had heard enough. It sounded as if Shea was in danger, and he wouldn’t stand here and build his case at the expense of her safety. Pulling his gun out of the holster, he pushed the door open and stepped into the little cabin.

  Shea and an old man turned to face him, and behind the two of them, he saw a group of children, none of them more than eight or nine years old. Fear and terror filled their young faces at the sight of his gun, and they cringed away from him.

  Slowly he replaced the gun in his holster. A sick feeling gathered in his stomach as Shea pushed the children behind her. One child, a boy with a pale face and huge, dark eyes, clung to her for a moment before she gently shielded him with her body.

  “Are you happy, Jesse?” Shea asked. “Are you proud of how you’ve terrorized these children?” She stared at him, her eyes fierce. “Do you know what these children have gone through, what they’ve seen in San Rafael? And now you’ve just brought it all back to them.”

  “Why are there children here? Where are the men you’re smuggling?” he asked, but the sick feeling in his gut only grew as he watched the children behind Shea.

  “There are no men,” she said, her voice full of scorn. “There’s only these children. There’s always only been the children.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Shea turned to the old man and said something in Spanish, then she turned and crouched down to face the children. Gathering them close, she murmured something to them, her Spanish too rapid and too low-pitched for him to understand. Finally, after a while, she stood up and faced him again.

  “It would be better if we went outside. The children are frightened of your gun.”

  He turned and exited the cabin without another word. Shea led him to a group of trees a few feet away from the door, then stopped.

  “If you try to touch one of those children, I’ll kill you myself,” she said, and he didn’t doubt her for a moment.

  “I’m not going to hurt them. My God, Shea, what kind of man do you think I am?”

  “I don’t know, Jesse.” She watched him with somber eyes, and her expression was unreadable. “I have no idea what kind of man you are.”

  “I thought you were hiding men in this cabin.”

  “I know what you thought. You took the word of a thief about what I was doing, didn’t you?”

  “We had no idea he was a thief when he came to us And he had lots of details. We had to take him seriously.” He reached out for her, but stopped and let his hand drop to his side when she flinched away from him. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

  She stared at him for what seemed like a long time, then she sighed. “I suppose it doesn’t matter if you know the details. We’ll have to figure out another method anyway, now.”

  “Are you telling me you’re not going to stop?” he asked, incredulous.

  She tilted her chin in a familiar gesture that made his heart ache. “There are children who need homes, and they have relatives in this country who want to provide homes for them. Of course I’m not going to stop.”

  “What are you doing, Shea?” He wanted to reach out for her, but he kept his hands at his sides. She wouldn’t welcome any kind of touch from him.

  “The children are from San Rafael.” She lifted her chin in defiance. “They’re all orphans who’ve lost their families in the fighting. They have relatives in this country who want to provide homes for them, but because of the war in San Rafael, they’re having a hard time getting visas into this country.”

  “So you bring them into the country illegally, then reunite them with their family members.”

  “That’s right.”

  “How do they get across the border?”

  She gave him a smug smile. “In a car, with Miguel driving them, at night. He has a legitimate visa issued for a family with six children. When he crosses the border, the guard only sees that the visa is for a family of six. He doesn’t bother to count the children, or wake them to ask them to verify what’s on the visa.”

  “Very clever. What happens after they get here?”

  “I call their relatives, they come get them, and they live happily ever after.”

  “How can they live happily ever after if they’re in the country illegally? They need documentation.”

  Shea shrugged. “Most of them have birth certificates. Parents sent a lot of documents out of the country after the war started. Everything else they need, they’ll get it after the war in San Rafael is over. Until then, it’s hard to get anything out of the country.”

  “Why are you doing this, Shea?” he demanded.

  Her face softened, and for a moment she was the Shea he’d known before he shattered her world. “Isn’t it obvious? They’re children, and they were all alone. They need families, and there were families here that wanted them. It seemed pretty obvious to me.”

  “How did you get started?”

  She slanted him a look. “It started with Maria. She’s from San Rafael. I don’t think you need to know anything more than that.” Her face hardened again. “You haven’t given me my Miranda warning. You can’t ask me any questions.”

  “I just have one more for now. I heard you arguing with the old man, and you sounded upset. That’s why I came barreling in with my gun drawn. I thought something was wrong.”

  “There was something wrong.” Her face filled with anguish. “One of the boys doesn’t have any family in this
country. He lied to Miguel to get out of San Rafael. Miguel isn’t sure what happened to him, but it had to be awful. The boy wouldn’t even tell us his real name. Anyway, Miguel said he has to take the boy back to San Rafael. He’s afraid that the child will jeopardize the whole operation if there is no one to take him.”

  “And you were telling Miguel that you wouldn’t stand for it.”

  “That’s right.”

  “What are you going to do with the boy if he doesn’t have any family here?”

  She gave him a fierce look. “I’ll think of something. But that’s another thing I’m not going to tell you.”

  “I’m not your enemy here, Shea.”

  “Oh, yes, you are. You want to take those children back to San Rafael.”

  “That was before I knew they were children.”

  He saw the hope spring into her eyes. “Does that mean you’ve changed your mind?”

  “That means I have to think about what to do next.” She looked at him, the hope gone. “In that case, you can do your thinking back at the ranch. It’s going to take me a while to make the children comfortable again.” She turned to go back into the cabin.

  “I’m not going to leave, Shea.”

  She rounded on him. “Yes, you are, Jesse. Haven’t you scared those children enough? What do you think is going to happen if they see you again?”

  “I’ll wait out here.”

  “They know you’re here. How can I make them believe they’re safe if they know the man with the gun is waiting for them just outside the door? Go back to the ranch, Jesse. I’ll meet you there.”

  “Do I have your word on that?”

  She watched him steadily. “You have my word.”

  Before he could say anything else, she spun around and disappeared into the cabin. He waited for a moment, then turned and walked over to the truck. Shea was right. He would never forget the look of fear and terror on the little faces inside that cabin when he’d burst in with his gun drawn.

  Sick at heart, he headed back down to the house. Everything had changed. He felt as if his world had been tipped on its side. He had to regroup and think this out before he could act. And he didn’t want to do anything in front of the children.