by Christi Snow
The iron grip on her hand tightened and she tried not to wince. He nodded with a haunted look to his eyes. He needed her touch. She wasn’t going to make him feel bad about it. Honestly, even if it hurt, she was relieved to feel his very alive touch, too.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. He looked toward the window, and swallowed hard.
“Hey.” She tugged at the hand he continued to hold to get him to turn back to her. When his gaze met hers, she said, “This was not your fault. You did nothing wrong. In fact, I’m so proud of you for standing up for what you believed in. So many others would have bowed under the pressure of such a successful man. You didn’t. That’s huge. You’re a good man. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.” She swallowed against the huge lump in her throat. “I’m so glad to have you in my life and that you’re safe now.”
“No, you don’t understand. Not only did I bring all this trouble to your doorstep, but I screwed up and that’s how they found us. I wasn’t thinking and used a really old gaming user profile the other night when I was playing online. I didn’t think anyone could still trace that one to me. I was wrong. I’m so sorry. It’s my fault you got hurt, no matter which way you look at it.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “Hey, no, that’s not right.” She gave him a fierce look so that hopefully he could see how seriously she meant this. “First of all, you were online that night for us. We are as much to blame for that as anyone, but honey, none of us are at fault because a greedy, awful man made some horrible choices. This is not your fault. This is not Brian’s fault. This is not my fault. This all lies on Andrew Berg’s head and his head alone.”
Nathan’s chin quivered.
“Is it okay if I hug you?” he asked. With tears filling his eyes, he looked so lost and alone and so damn young.
She nodded and reached for him. “I wish you would.”
His sobs were muffled against her shoulder and his back shook under her hands.
“We’re all okay, kid. It’s all good, I promise.”
She asked the question that had been burning ever since she opened her eyes. “Where’s Brian?”
Another flash of remorse flitted through Nathan’s eyes which sent her stomach plummeting.
Surely, he wouldn’t have left already. She knew he was just protecting them and she fully expected him to disappear soon, but he wouldn’t have done that while she was still in the hospital, right?
“Has he already gone back to Texas?” she asked, dreading the answer.
Nathan’s eyes widened in alarm. “No! He wouldn’t do that to you. You should have seen him when he knew they had you. He was like a man possessed. Toni, he really cares about you.”
“I don’t understand then. Why isn’t he here?”
“It’s Sam.”
Her stomach plummeted once again. She hadn’t even thought about the dog that had saved her life. He was her baby and he was hurt. She was afraid to ask. “Is he okay?”
“I haven’t seen him, but from what Brian told me, he has a ton of stitches and looks god-awful, but it’s all just superficial. He’s okay. But he attacked Andrew Berg and his lawyers are throwing a fit so they have him locked up in doggy jail. Brian’s trying to get him released. He’s been up all night trying to get everything taken care of. He’s down there trying to get Sam freed right now.”
She sagged against the pillow. If anyone could sort it out, it would be Brian, but the thought of Sam hurt, scared, and locked up sent a dizzy sensation through her aching head. Gulping in air, she searched for equilibrium.
* * *
As Brian scowled at the man in the uniform, Trevor placed a restraining hand on his chest. “It won’t do you a bit of good if you knock the good officer’s head in. Relax, Brian, he’s just doing his job.”
They were at the vet clinic where Sam was being detained. Dr. Felicia Parks was in charge of Sam for the moment.
Brian simply could not go back to that hospital room and tell Toni that her beloved dog was hurt and likely to be euthanized after he saved both their lives. He refused. His frustration at the system paired with lack of sleep made him ready to punch someone, namely the New Mexico sheriff’s deputy in front of him.
The deputy lectured the pretty veterinarian on the ins and outs of the dog’s quarantine. She seemed to know Brian was on the verge of losing it and kept glancing at him worriedly from behind her studious glasses. The dark circles under her bloodshot eyes testified to the fact she’d been up most the night stitching Sam’s multiple lacerations. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was the one holding Sam incarcerated, he would feel pretty good that the dog was in her care. She obviously took her animal care seriously.
She interrupted the deputy. “Listen, Mac, you know me. I know the rules. Come on, we’ve all been up all night. Go home to Tessa, so I can go home, too. I’m just going to let Mr. Barnes see his dog.” As the man began to interrupt, she held up a hand to stop him with an annoyed tone. “I know. He will only see the dog through the cage. I won’t open it. Besides the dog is still sedated. He couldn’t attack even if he was vicious, which I can one hundred percent guarantee, he’s not. I promise you, nothing is going to happen.”
Finally, the deputy seemed satisfied and with another warning look toward Brian and Trevor, he left the vet’s office. It was just another example of the victim paying more than the offender. Brian ran a hand through his hair. Goddamn, how was he going to explain this to Toni?
He began to speak to the vet, but she held up a hand to forestall him as she watched the police car leave the parking lot. After the tail lights faded down the road, she turned back to the two men with a determined smile spread across her face. “Let’s go get your dog for you, Mr. Barnes.”
“What?” He looked at her in disbelief. Surely he misunderstood. Was she actually going to let him take Sam out of here?
She walked over to him and placed her hand on his arm. “Your girlfriend’s dog risked his life to save you both. When I first began doctoring him, he was still conscious because I was trying to get ahead of the bleeding and didn’t have time to wait for the painkillers to take effect. He didn’t even growl at me although I know he felt every bit of pain as I cleaned and stitched at first.” Her eyes gleamed with warmth. “Tell me, do you think he would ever hurt anyone without provocation?”
“No, of course not.”
“Neither do I. That’s why you’re taking him out of here tonight. Andrew Berg is a very powerful man and that dog did some very real damage to him. You don’t have a chance against his power and money when it comes to that dog’s rights. No matter what kind of threat the man was, people tend to take the person’s rights over the animal’s. I won’t risk Sam’s life like that. You need to get him out of here. Tonight.”
“But what about you and your practice? This is a huge risk to you.”
“Don’t worry. I know how to play the game. No one will ever know where the dog went. As far as the state of New Mexico will know, he died from his wounds. We lucked out today. I have a way to cover my tracks on this one. He’s safe, I promise, but you all need to get him out of here before Mac realizes what I plan to do.”
They’d loaded a very sleepy Sam into Trevor’s truck. The plan was he’d take the dog back up the mountain and to their cabin while Brian went back to the hospital to pick up Toni and Nathan. He hated that he hadn’t been there when she’d awakened. Nathan had continued to text him with her status, so he knew she was okay. She would understand. He was just thankful that she would have Sam to come home to now, too.
As he closed the door to the cab of the truck, he turned back to the doctor. “Thank you so much for all of this. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, call me.” He passed her his business card.
“Detective?” she asked after seeing his credentials on the card.
He shook his head ruefully. “No, not anymore. I’m no longer a detective, but I still have some connections if you ever need my help.”
“Thank
s, but for right now just take care of that wonderful dog. He’s going to be sore for a while and the stitches need to come out in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, you’re going to need to keep the cone on him to keep him from messing with them.”
Brian nodded, but Trevor wasn’t quite done with the pretty doctor. He also handed her a piece of paper.
“What’s this?” she asked.
He gave her a slow wink. “That’s my phone number, darling. I think I may just need to adopt a dog, or something.”
She pressed her lips together and gave him a slow nod. “I see. I could see how a man like you might need some companionship to warm his bed at night.”
Trevor gave her a half-hooded sultry look as Brian looked on with interest. The boy was about to get body-slammed and he had no clue.
She continued, “But I think you’re shooting a little high on the scale, aren’t you? If you need something to keep your bed warm at night, I recommend an electric blanket. It has all the warmth but with none of those pesky little emotional needs.” She gave him a placating pat on the head. “Bye-bye, now.”
Brian got into the truck chuckling under his breath.
Trevor scowled at him. “I don’t want to hear a word. Not a fucking word.”
Chapter 10
Two days later, Brian and Toni lounged in bed after an incredible night of lovemaking. Toni’s headache had finally let up and she’d been insatiable, not that he had any complaints about that. He knew she felt the real world pulling them back to Texas, but he wasn’t willing to give up their romantic mountain retreat yet.
She traced the lines of his tattoo across his bicep. His cock took interest as her hands stroked him, but he didn’t want to get side-tracked. At least, not quite yet.
He tilted her chin up and gave her a slow, lingering kiss. “I was thinking. Next week is Thanksgiving. How about we stay here through this weekend and the holiday?”
A small smile flitted across her lips and her eyes lit up. “I think I like that plan. Will Hudson and Rand be okay with that? They aren’t planning on using the cabin for the holiday?”
“Hmm…” He flipped her over onto her back and kissed down the perfect slope of her neck. “No, I called yesterday afternoon. They’re fine with us staying. I also talked to Colton. Mad Rob is closed all next week, so he’s fine with you taking more time off, too.”
“You just have all…” She gasped as he sucked on the tip of one puckered nipple. “Mmm, all the bases covered.”
“I sure as hell am trying,” he growled and dove under the covers.
* * *
Later that morning, Brian’s cell phone rang. “Hey, Zach,” he answered. Brian had called Zach the day before to let him know about the developments with Andrew Berg. Now Zach was trying to find the evidence to tie Andrew to the payments made to Matt Hunter. “Tell me you have good news.”
“I do have good news.”
Zach’s voice held a ‘but’ in the tone that set Brian’s teeth on edge.
“But, that’s not all the news I have. Is Nathan around?”
“No, he’s outside. With the snow, he’s been going a bit stir-crazy so he’s out building a snowman, if you can believe that.” Brian chuckled wryly. “What’s the news?”
“I imagine this will be hitting the news wires soon, so you may want to just stay up there in the mountains while the fervor dies down. James Marshall shot and killed his father and himself late last night. Right before he did it, he put up a huge post on Facebook explaining everything that happened. I sent a copy of it to your email account.”
Brian began to power up the laptop as Zach continued talking.
“James was gay, and it sounds like Senator J.J. Marshall spent most of his life trying to beat and sodomize it out of him. It was really bad. He goes into a lot of detail in the letter and if even half of that is true, it was horrific. Mark Hunter was his lover and from what he says in the letter, his father was responsible for Mark’s death.”
That explained some of what Andrew Berg had told Toni in his ramblings. Somehow he managed to manipulate and use J.J.’s son’s sexuality to get the senator to commit murder. Unfortunately with his extremely conservative leanings, it probably wouldn’t have taken much coercion.
“James talks specifically to Nathan in letter, too, apologizing for everything. There’s no way the focus won’t shift to him during all this. My recommendation is you stay put and hopefully the reporters won’t figure out where you are, although with the Andrew Berg stuff happening there, I’m not sure how long you all are going to be able to stay anonymous.” Zach sighed.
“But I do have some good news on that front. I got it. I found the connection between the off-shore bank account and Andrew Berg. The name on the account was a great aunt on his mother’s side. She’s still alive, but in a nursing home. She’s been in a vegetative state for over eighteen years, although the account has been active for the last fifteen of those. He’s not going to be able to buy his way out of this one, and it looks like the account may link him to some other criminal cases. Once I found the connection, his fingerprints are all over it.”
More sounds of a keyboard clicking echoed through the phone. “Andrew Berg, via his aunt’s account, was also one of the largest contributors to J.J. Marshall’s campaign. It looks like Mr. Berg liked to keep a tight hand on all the Texas politicians.”
Brian rolled his eyes. “One of those, huh?”
“Yep,” Zach answered. “He was definitely not averse to calling in a favor from his favorite senator. As a result, he had done enough digging up dirt on the senator to know about James’ sexual orientation. Through that, he discovered the twins. It was just icing on the cake that Matt’s muscle could be bought. What he didn’t count on was Mark finding out about it all so early in the plan. Mark discovered the payoff’s to Matt and planned to confess it all to you. He was turning on his brother to save his lover from the possibility of prison, but Andrew Berg was worried that would lead back to him. Instead, he saw it as a way to pin everything on the senator.”
Brian interrupted, “Why would he do that? There’s some serious power with having a politician in your pocket.”
“The senator fell out of favor with Andrew, unbeknownst to him, last year when he placed a vote to limit technology company freedoms. He planned for J.J. Marshall to take the fall for everything. He convinced J.J. that it was in the best interest of his political campaign to get rid of Mark before the facts about James came out. He wanted to have the senator’s fingerprints all over every aspect of the case. The entire thing is dirty from whatever angle you look at it. I’m sure there are more connections, so I’ll continue to dig. But there’s no doubt about it. Everything ties back to Andrew Berg.”
“It looks like at first, he thought he could simply ruffle Nathan’s life and as any normal seventeen year old, Nathan would forget his responsibilities. But when that didn’t work, things ramped up and spun out of control quickly.”
Relief flooded Brian. The bad guys were going to pay this time. “Great investigative work, Zach. I can’t thank you enough.”
“Actually, you can. I have a request of you, now.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I’ve also been checking up on you and I like what I see. I’m swamped with my case-load at Z Investigations and Sylvia has been after my ass to bring someone else on. It involves long hours with lousy pay, but I promise you, it will be better than you’re used to at the police department and Sylvia keeps us stocked in way better coffee. Would you be interested?”
“I…I honestly don’t know what to say.” Brian had avoided thinking about his future, or lack thereof, with the police department while they’d been in Snowcroft. The idea of doing something else was very alluring, but he wasn’t sure about becoming a PI. He’d have to get his license and he wanted to talk to Toni about it. He wasn’t sure where they were headed, but he couldn’t imagine his life without her.
“Think about it,” Zach urged. “This will b
e a big change for you. I emailed you the info about licensing, but with your police background that will be no issue. Call me after the holiday and let me know. I think we’d make a good team.”
“Thanks, Zach.” Toni’s arms reached around his waist from behind as she pulled him into a hug. “You’ve given me a lot to think about. I’ll definitely be calling you after Thanksgiving. Have a good holiday, man.” He disconnected the phone and turned to pull Toni into his arms.
“What was that about?”
“It was Zach. He offered me a job, but there’s also been several developments on Nathan’s case. We have a lot to talk about, but first…” He swung her up so that she sat on the edge of the counter with her legs around his hips. This was where she belonged, wrapped around him. He slid a hand around the nape of her neck and pulled her to him so he could graze her lips with his.
“There’s something I want to tell you. So much has changed in the last few weeks, but there’s one thing I never saw coming.” He gazed into her eyes. “That was you. I know it’s still early days for us, but I’m falling in love with you, Toni. I want the decisions I make from here on to involve you because I want you there with me. Whatever happens. I didn’t even realize it, but I was living a half-life without you. I never want to go back to that. You and Nathan and Sam…you’re my family.”
Her eyes softened and she traced the crease of his lips with her fingers on her right hand and intertwined the fingers of her left hand with his. “Hmm, you sound pretty sure about this, Mr. Barnes.” She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him with a mischievous smile. “I have to admit, I’ve gotten pretty attached to you, too. I think I can live with making some decisions together. Besides, I have Nathan to protect me. He will totally kick your ass if you break my heart again.”
“Not gonna happen. I promise to never break your heart again.” His lips on hers sealed the promise.
THE END
Author's Note