Captive Hearts

by Gina Leuci

  I licked my lips. He didn’t answer my question. What kind of ramifications would the town council slam on these two officers for their part in our escape?

  “I don’t trust Roger,” I whispered. “He’ll make your lives miserable for helping me; for helping his precious Hope’s husband to escape.”

  His fingers tightened slightly on my chin, almost as though to punctuate his words. “Don’t you worry about me, sweetheart. I can handle him.”

  I pressed against his chest and knew he could. Knew Roger no longer held any power over Caleb. I pushed away to look at Brent. “What about you? You have a family to consider, as well.”

  He nodded. “I have a duty to uphold, whatever the cost.”

  I looked back and forth between the two men. Both officers of the law. Both willing to step in the line of fire in a town steeped in strong beliefs fostered by fear.

  I worried my lip as another thought crossed my mind. “Do you think he’ll try this again next year? Another work program?”

  Both men shook their heads. “Won’t happen. We won’t allow it.” Caleb assured me.

  I believed them. “Thank you, both of you. If you believe you can do this without bringing in an outside police force than, yes. Let’s do it.”

  Brent nodded. “Be ready. It will be on a day when I have duty outside of Wellington. This weekend will be too soon, but my guess is sometime next week.”

  Caleb reached out a hand, and Brent took it. The two men stood in silent communication. This was still risky. The GPS trackers were still on high alert and getting to the gates of the city would be a challenge, even with help from Brent.

  And though Caleb hadn’t mentioned his discussion with Randy, I knew the person who had the ability to lower the security levels wasn’t on board to help.

  The mood from earlier was lost. As the door shut behind our visitor, I was at a loss for words. Brent had offered a solution to get me home, and my husband was on board. This was what I wanted. Wasn’t it?

  Caleb kissed my forehead. When had he moved back across the room to me? I was going home, but I’d fallen in lo…

  Oh, dear God, no. I can’t go there. I can’t say the word. No. He’s just a man I’ve enjoyed a few weeks with over the summer. That’s all. He can’t be anything more than that. But I stared up at him as my stomach clenched. Our day-by-day was coming to an end. Very soon.

  “Sweetheart, don’t cry.”

  I didn’t know that I was. Caleb swept me in his arms and carried me to the bedroom and pulled me close. I curled into his chest and let silent tears fall.

  I’m going to miss this. I’m going to miss him.

  I clutched his shirt as his hand stroked my head until I drifted to sleep.

  ****

  I barely ate the dinner Rita made Thursday night. Caleb noticed, which didn’t surprise me, but I noticed he didn’t eat much either. The last several weeks with him have been great. I actually enjoy being married to him, and that’s not something I ever thought I’d feel.

  We stayed at his parents until after the kids were tucked into bed before heading back to our apartment where I couldn’t sit still. There were no televisions to pretend to watch. My mind was too occupied to sit long enough to read, like Caleb was doing—or not. His eyes followed me around the room. I’d already baked cinnamon rolls with the kids after supper, so I didn’t want to be in the kitchen.

  “Why don’t you put the radio on and come sit with me,” he suggested. It wasn’t a bad idea so I fiddled with the stations, but I couldn’t find one with music which suited my mood. After five minutes of fiddling, I shut it off and began my pacing again.

  I needed a distraction. I needed Caleb. I practically stomped across the room to lean down and forced my lips against his. I knocked the book out of his hands and straddled his lap.

  When we came up for air, he put his hands on my face, holding it back so he could look at me. “Don’t try to figure me out, Caleb. I need you right now, so let’s do this, okay?”

  After yet another few seconds, he capitulated. The couch, though, was not made to be comfortable. He stood, and I kept my legs around his waist as he carried me to the bedroom. I tried to move things along. I wanted fast and hard. I needed to forget some things. I needed to remember others. I needed this moment.

  But he took his sweet time, damn him. When I wanted to rip our clothes off, he held my hands together and instead kissed me wherever my skin was exposed. When I wanted our mouths to come together, he moved his to my neck, melting me slowly instead of the fuse of fire I craved. When I let out a grunt of frustration, he kissed the tears from my cheeks.

  My tears were flowing when we finally came together. I was going to miss this man more than I wanted to admit. My feelings for him—No. I still refused to admit it. If I did, it would make leaving so, so much harder.

  I eventually curled into him as his hand stroked my back under the sheet he’d pulled over us. “Thank you.” It was a whisper. “I needed this tonight.”

  He kissed my forehead. “I think we both did.” For being as close as we were, we were both a million miles away.

  My hand pressed against his chest as I settled my head into his shoulder. “Thank you for agreeing to help us leave. I know there will be fallout.”

  Caleb turned onto his side and gave me a long kiss. “I would do anything for you, Grace.”

  My heart did a quick leap at his words. We’d never taken time to shut off the bedroom lights, and I saw the intensity in his blue eyes. I nodded.

  He ran a hand down my disheveled hair as he spoke softly. “I never planned on marrying again after Jill. And while our relationship is a little unorthodox, I don’t regret a moment of it.”

  “I don’t, either,” I admitted. “This wasn’t exactly the summer I’d imagined.”

  I saw the regret in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  I gulped. “Don’t. Please.” I reached up to trace along his firm jawline, reveling in the softness of the scruff of facial hair. “I’m glad it was you.”

  His lips curled up in a hint of a smile. “Ditto. I think I fell for you the first day here, when you got off the bus and couldn’t have coffee.”

  “When I told you no?”

  He gave a half chuckle. “I found you entertaining and challenging. Your antics over those first couple weeks kept me on my toes. Police work here is monotonous at best. You are anything but. Like you said early in the summer, you’re as mercurial as the moon.”

  I curled my hand to give a gentle thump to his torso. “Glad I amuse you.”

  He grinned. “You did. But you got under my skin, too. I discovered quickly, while I wanted to keep you here, I also wanted to protect you. I hated knowing you were so sad all the time.”

  I felt an overwhelming need to reassure him. “It wasn’t all the time. You guys play baseball. I do love baseball.”

  I knew it was coming. I sensed it. I saw it in the way he looked at me. While my heart leaped in joy, my brain went into total panic.

  “Grace, you know I…”

  “No!” I pushed him away and sat up. “Don’t. Don’t say it.” I scrambled from the bed, grabbing clothes to put on. “You can’t say it. I’m leaving. Next week maybe. You can’t do this to me.”

  I didn’t even bother with a bra as I pulled a tee over my head and turned to look at him. Caleb sat up, watching me as I rushed around the room. His hair was mussed from our lovemaking. The sheet was at his waist, leaving his chest bare. I never grew tired of looking at him.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” I demanded. I didn’t really want to go for a walk, but the room felt too small. Hell, the entire apartment was closing in on me.

  “Grace, let’s…”

  I cut him off again with a hand up. “Please, Caleb?” I practically strangled on the words. “Please, can we get some air?”

  With a nod, he swung his legs off the bed and stood to get dressed. I watched. My breath caught in my throat as he walked naked around the room to gather his
clothes. Damn, he was perfection. And he felt the same way I felt about him.

  Those feelings which I couldn’t say or hear right now.

  Chapter Twenty

  The outside temperature outside had dropped to a comfortable mid-seventies. The heat wave we’d had brought lots of humidity, but at this time of night it felt good to be outside.

  “Where are we going?” Caleb asked as he walked beside me.

  “I don’t know.” I turned left, heading toward the center of town. The streets were empty, and the street lights glowed brightly under the starry night. “The stars are brighter here than at home.” It was a stupid thing to say, but I needed a different topic. “Maybe because it’s flatter. More open. In Vermont, all we have is mountains and trees. Lots of trees. I like hiking the woods with you. It reminds me of home.”

  “Uh, huh.”

  The best thing with Caleb, he knows when to be quiet. Okay, maybe not the best thing, but in this case, it’s near the top of the list. “Even though we’re in the center of town, it still seems bigger, like there is nothing to block the moon or stars at night.”

  We walked another block, and he walked silently beside me, his hand grasping my much smaller one.

  “Do you know the first thing I am going to do after I get home?” I rambled as we continued to zig zag through the empty streets.

  “Have an extra-large, dark roast coffee?”

  My mouth twisted up at his sardonic comment. “Ha. Well, maybe. No, I’m taking my sister to the movies. Sarah loves the movies. She dumps a box of M&Ms over her buttered popcorn and eats them combined.”

  “You miss her.” I gave a single nod and skipped ahead a few steps. “Are we going to discuss what happened at home?” Caleb’s long legs kept him in step with me, despite my trying to move ahead.

  “No.” I rushed forward again.

  “I find it adorable how you run away from any talk of feelings,” he called out and I finally stopped to turn back to him.

  “Well, I find it annoying how you always say what’s on your mind.” I put my hands on my hips as I confronted him. “A macho guy like you isn’t supposed to talk about feelings. You’re supposed to just…just…grunt, then roll over and go to sleep.”

  I saw his mouth twitch, and I knew he was amused again at my expense. “Grunt, huh?”

  “The first time I saw you I thought you were completely stoic. Emotionless. A stone wall. Then I got to know you and realized I was completely wrong. You’re more of a big softy. Can’t you go back to being the stone wall?”

  Caleb pulled me to him. “I’m not all soft,” he murmured. “There’s at least one part of me that is still hard.”

  I snorted and punched his shoulder. “Again?”

  “With you? Always.” He kissed me, and I kissed back. Everything I wanted to say and couldn’t I put into the kiss. I clung to him as my body trembled.

  “Oh, sweetheart.” His lips brushed away the tears on my cheeks. “I’m dying, seeing you like this. You don’t have to go, you know.”

  My heart jumped. Part of me wanted to stay. I could adapt. Eventually. I put my forehead against his chest as his hand stroked my hair. “I can’t stay.”

  I heard his sigh. “I know.”

  The flash of headlights illuminated the street, and Caleb tensed as he straightened and turned, waiting for the cruiser to come to a halt. He held me to his side as Brent rolled the window down.

  “Hey, Chief.”

  “What’s up, Brent.” Caleb’s voice was casual and controlled. I will never understand how he can switch his emotions so quickly.

  “It’s Roger. I guess his tracker is pinging, and he sent me to find out what you two are doing.”

  I felt the tightening of his hand pressing against my waist. “I’m taking a stroll with my wife.” My heart did a zippity-do-da at the endearment. “If that controlling son of a—” He caught himself, barely. “If he doesn’t like it, tell him to shut the damn tracker off.”

  The officer pulled out his phone and dialed, and we listened onto his side of the conversation. “Roger. They’re out for a walk. Yes, I know it’s late. I’m not telling the police chief he has a curfew. No, sir. It’s, Caleb, sir, he’s not going anywhere. Since when is taking a midnight walk through our town an issue? My suggestion, sir, is to shut it off for the night.”

  Brent put down his phone. “This might work to your advantage, Caleb.”

  “How so?”

  The officer nodded to me. “If you keep going out every night, maybe Roger will turn the tracker off on his own, and it will be clear sailing when it’s time to move.”

  I hitched in a breath. Caleb reached out to shake Brent’s hand. He was right. Those were the cards we needed to play. Being the loving couple was no longer an act, but getting past the tracking alerts? Brent had a point.

  I was suddenly tired. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. Home was calling me. It was so close. Only days away. But the closer to Vermont I got, the further away from my husband I’d be.

  Friday night Caleb had duty at The Hall. For once I was in no mood for dancing, so I sat with Caroline at a corner table, talking over the music. She glowed as she watched her husband up on the stage. While I was happy for her, I wished I could confide what was happening in my life, but I couldn’t tell anyone, even her, about our plans for escape.

  “Have you seen Jake this week?” I asked her and was surprised at her nod.

  “He’s not doing well, Grace.” She sighed. “He came by last night, needing a place to hide for a few hours.”

  “I’ve been a lousy friend.” I took a sip of my soda, ah, pop. “Caleb and I are getting along so well, I keep forgetting that Jake isn’t so lucky.”

  Caroline slid the cross at her neck back and forth on its chain, a sign she was bothered by something. “He said that if he ever gets away, he is swearing off relationships.”

  While normally that wouldn’t sound like our hometown Romeo, at this point I could understand.

  “He said between what happened here with the deceitful Hope and the crazy antics of his last girlfriend, he is going to be a monk until he meets the right woman.”

  I scoffed. “While I get he’s unhappy, I can’t see him being a monk or actually committing to one woman.”

  “He’s loved you for a long time, Grace,” Caroline stated matter-of-factly, and my heart sank that I’d been oblivious. “Now that you are off the market, and well, I guess he is, too, he doesn’t know what to do.”

  Little did she know, but Jake would be heading home soon, and his little wifey would not be coming along. He’d recover and meet someone new.

  “I don’t know who was harder on him,” Caroline was still talking as I took another sip of my drink. “Hope, who connived him into marrying him, or Leila, who tried to get pregnant by poking holes in his condoms.”

  I slowly put the can down. “She did? When? I never heard about that.”

  “Her roommate told Jake about it the morning we left. She called to warn him that Leila was on her way to Bennington to seduce him, not knowing he was heading out of town. I guess she’d poked holes in every third condom, a sort of Russian roulette to trap him into marriage, except he broke up with her before they had sex again.”

  I looked across the room to Caleb who stood by the door in uniform. He took his job seriously. He said if he sat with me tonight, he’d be distracted, so he stood guard. What would he do if he’d heard this conversation?

  We’d already finished the first box of condoms. The box that had already been opened. The box I could only assume had been tampered with by Jake’s obsessive ex-girlfriend.

  Where was I in my cycle? I had to be close but surely not close enough. We’d opened the second box only a few days ago, but that would mean anything after that first box should be okay. Right?

  But what if I was already pregnant?

  I excused myself and headed to the restroom, knowing a certain, very observant, officer watched me cross the room. I couldn�
��t look at him, though. Eagle Eyes would know in a flash something was wrong.

  I pressed my hands against the counter and stared at my reflection. Despite the heat in the building, I had gone pale.

  Pregnant? The odds were—hell, what did I know of odds? Unless I looked at a calendar, I couldn’t be sure when I was due for my monthly visit, and with the way Caleb and I can’t keep our hands off each other, if Leila had truly played Russian roulette, the odds were not in my favor.

  I was days away from going home to Vermont, but if Caleb knew there was even a remote possibility that he may be a father, would he let me leave?

  Shelby came in, and I gave her a quick smile and said hello. I needed to get back before Caleb began to worry and search me out.

  We were last to leave because the officer on duty always ensured everyone was dispersed before closing. The streets were empty as he ushered me toward his cruiser. “You and Caroline talked a lot tonight.”

  I heard the underlying question. “Mmm. She’s worried about Jake. He came to see her last night. It was hard not telling her we’d be leaving within the week, so I kept her talking about him and how he’s doing.”

  Maybe it was only the passing shadows of the streetlight, but I thought I spotted a hint of sadness in his eyes. Caleb reached over to take my hand. “I’m sure he’ll bounce back to his old self once he’s home.”

  With that, he led me to the bedroom. Once we were inside, I didn’t stop him. We were on the second box of condoms. At this point, we were safe. I had to believe that because I didn’t want to miss out on a single moment with this man.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Saturday, we played baseball and I was ferocious. I played second like the World Series was at stake. I swung at the ball, and it hit so hard it cracked the bat. I tossed aside the broken shards and ran to first base like there was no tomorrow. But once I was stopped, Caleb, playing first base, leaned in to me. “Easy, sweetheart. You’re going to wear yourself out, and I have plans for us later.”