Under the Gun

by HelenKay Dimon

  The press, public and prosecutor still saw her as a criminal. The arrest warrant had been issued while she ran around the Virginia countryside trying to track down Phil and prove he was alive. He wasn’t dead when she got charged. He was very dead now.

  She tried to care but couldn’t. He had destroyed so much, stolen from everyone and wrecked something very precious about her belief in her own instincts. Innocent people in his company would wake up in a few days and find out that not only was their employer out of business, but their money was gone. Some would blame her, but they would learn the truth eventually.

  Adam said it could be months or longer before law enforcement and a host of computer specialists would track down the funds. Even then, most of it could be gone. No one knew how much Phil and Steve had spent, and Steve wasn’t talking.

  That wasn’t true. He kept babbling, insisting that she was in on it with Phil. That he was the aggrieved and innocent party. The man could lie without blinking. He’d tried to kill her and acted as if that little piece of information didn’t matter.

  But Steve wasn’t the man she was thinking about right then. If she could manage it, she planned to never think of him again.

  She wanted Luke.

  Strapped to a gurney, he had disappeared into an ambulance as the police dragged her away. She could still hear his desperate calls for her as the ambulance door shut. Just thinking about him, about them, about all they had survived and the slogging road to recovery still ahead, brought tears to her eyes. She couldn’t let them fall. If her new bunkmates saw her as scared or weak, they’d attack. And she had been battered and bruised enough to last a lifetime.

  “You asleep in there?” Luke’s voice carried a touch of amusement.

  But that couldn’t be. He was in the hospital under anesthesia and observation. Adam told her about the surgery and the long recovery ahead. All while she was awaiting transfer to the cell that would become her home until her trial.

  She raised her head, prepared to see nothing but bars lined up before her. But the fantasy remained. What greeted her made everything else slip away. Luke. Standing there in jeans and a clean shirt. Leaning against the open cell door with a sexy, stupid grin on his face.

  She blinked a few times to make sure he didn’t vanish like the vision she’d had of him so many times during the long night. “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s visiting hours.”

  She looked down but she didn’t have a watch. “Isn’t it after midnight?”

  “Yeah.” He pushed away from the door and came closer.

  She’d forgotten how big he was. His broad chest blocked the view of everything behind him. But that handsome face had never left her memory.

  “You’re supposed to be in the hospital.”

  “Holden broke me out.”

  “Adam said—”

  “I’m fine. And this time I mean it.”

  “Are you allowed to be here?” she asked because she didn’t know what else to say.

  He had cleaned up and showered. She had fire refuse poking out of her hair and a mix of grass stains and soot caking her pants. Her fingernails were filthy. Basically, she was the least attractive person in the jail. Ever.

  He walked into the cell and didn’t stop until the tips of his shoes tapped against her sneakers. “I have to say this isn’t exactly the response I expected when I paid your bail.”

  She laughed even though the joke wasn’t all that funny. “It’s set at a million dollars.”

  “It was. Not now.”

  “You’re serious.”

  “I know some people.”

  “Sure you do.”

  “You doubt me?” He dropped down next to her, ignoring the catcalls from the cells around them.

  “What are we talking about here?”

  “You getting out of here.”

  The words sounded so good to her ears. “Is that ever going to happen?”

  “It can happen as soon as you stand up.”

  He wasn’t kidding. She felt that certainty through every vein. “What’s going on? I’m supposed to switch to the prison. You’re supposed to be resting with nurses buzzing all around you.”

  “Nurses are overrated. I prefer strong beautiful women who know how to create a distraction in a crisis.”

  Her mind still couldn’t process the barrage of information hitting it. “I don’t get it.”

  “There’s a judge who owes me a favor.” Luke rubbed his good shoulder against her dirty one. “Found his niece last year, kept her out of trouble and her name out of the news.”

  “Really?”

  “He returned the favor with a reduction in bail.”

  She didn’t understand much about the legal system, but she knew nothing worked that easily. Not at midnight on a Tuesday. “The prosecutor agreed to that?”

  “He’s not dumb.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, since he’ll be on the other side of my case.”

  “When I gave my statement, when Holden and Adam chimed in, it was hard for the prosecutor to hold on to the theory that you’re the bad guy in this scenario.”

  Hope jumped to life inside her. “He believes I’m innocent?”

  “He trusts me, and for now, that’s good enough.”

  “Does that mean he dropped the charges?” She was afraid to hope for such a fantastic ending to such a tragic series of events.

  “No. Apparently I’m not that convincing.” Luke laid his hand over her knee. “But he will. He just needs a little time to check into everything. He’s satisfied that you’re done running.”

  “I am.”

  “Good.”

  With those simple words, something important passed between them. Something strong and binding that she grabbed on to and held tight to her heart.

  The brush of his thumb on her leg lulled her into a certain peace. “That feels good.”

  He smiled. “It will take some more time to ferret things out. Steve is still a powerful man. The prosecutor will want everything set before he leaves you alone and turns on Steve.”

  “But he will?”

  “I promise.”

  She wove her fingers through his and laid her head on his shoulder. The familiar snuggle gave her the security she needed to believe the court might someday untangle the mess the Samson brothers had made. And the touch of Luke’s skin against hers took the final edge off her frazzled nerves.

  His sling rested against his stomach. She skimmed her fingers over it, careful not to press too hard. She had inflicted enough damage and didn’t want to be responsible for one drop more.

  “What did the doctor say?” she asked.

  “He thinks I got shot in the shoulder.”

  She squeezed Luke’s hand. “I meant the prognosis.”

  “It’s fine.”

  She heard the edge to his voice and stared up at him, really looked into those intelligent green eyes. His smile looked forced.

  She knew he had fallen back on old habits. “Tell me the truth.”

  “I guess I can’t convince you this isn’t important.”

  “The fact you’re trying so hard not to answer is my first clue that it is.”

  He blew out a long breath. “Well, it would appear that running around with a shoulder injury and hanging off the side of a building are not good things. Who knew?”

  “You did.” She played with his hair where it curled at his ear.

  “It was worth the risk.”

  “I’m not convinced that’s true.”

  He shifted until she could see every inch of his handsome face. “So that we’re clear, I would do it all again if it meant that you lived. That was my only goal.”

  A chorus of ahhhs sounded from behind them, but Claire tuned them out.

  “Funny, but I had a similar goal.”

  “Then we agree.”

  She saw the tactic and blocked it. “You’re stalling. Tell me what this injury means for your future.”

  “Even in ja
il I can’t throw you off the scent.”

  “No.”

  “It’s nothing serious.” He toyed with her fingers. “Some physical therapy.”

  There was more. With them there was always more. “And?”

  “There’s a possibility of some loss of use. Slight.”

  “Oh, Luke.” An unexpected sadness surged through her. He hadn’t taken care of himself, hadn’t thought his injury was a big deal, because he’d been too busy taking care of her.

  “No, it’s okay.”

  But it wasn’t. “I’m so sorry.”

  She felt the apology with every cell of her body. If she could give him back a whole shoulder, she would.

  He frowned at her. “Don’t do that.”

  His change of tone to something harsh and unbending surprised her. “What?”

  “Take the blame.” He lifted their joined hands to his mouth and kissed her fingers. “I was where I wanted to be.”

  “You didn’t ask to be shot.”

  “You didn’t ask to be framed, so we’re even.”

  He just kept giving and she didn’t know how to accept it. “How can you say that?”

  “Because the injury doesn’t matter.”

  That wasn’t true. His job defined and motivated him. She remembered the day he’d started this position. Their dating had moved from casual to something much more, and then his work life fell into place. At the time she thought it was a desk job in antiques and couldn’t understand why shuffling papers filled him with such energy. Now that she knew his real job, she knew the real man needed the thrill and the rush.

  “The job, my shoulder, none of that is really about my future.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He rolled his eyes. “You really don’t know?”

  “Apparently not.”

  “You are my future.” He said it emphatically, as if daring her to test him.

  She could feel the force of his will. See the determination in his eyes and hear it in his rough voice. This promise meant more than the proposal and the beautiful diamond he’d once slipped on her finger.

  Now she needed him to understand. “When I apologized, it was for everything.”

  “I know.”

  “For leaving.”

  He shook his head. “I pushed you away. I grew up with a certain set of rules and understandings. My dad did his work and I didn’t question it. I thought that’s the way it should be.”

  “I could have kept trying.”

  “I wanted to blame you for all of it, but we both messed up. We both need to own that and learn from it.”

  “Then I apologize for coming back and dragging you into this huge mess of a life of mine.”

  “No, you’re wrong on that one. Returning to me is the best thing you ever did.”

  She gnawed on her bottom lip, trying to find the right words. When they didn’t come, she went with what lived in her heart. “I can’t promise that the nerves won’t come again, that I won’t get angry and demand you give me more. The need for trust and stability is ingrained in me. For so long I was denied both. I just don’t want to live like that again.”

  There. She’d said it. She knew what she needed to stay grounded. Now he knew.

  He gave her a blank stare. Seconds ticked by as she waited for him to say something. Anything.

  “Will you leave me when I act like a jerk?” he asked.

  The breath she was holding burst out of her lungs. “No. Never.”

  “That’s all that matters.”

  Wave after wave of happiness crashed over her. “So you’re willing to wait until I break out of here to start something special?”

  “We already have something special.”

  When his lips met hers and the women in the cells cheered, she lost the last tethers to her control. Playing it cool didn’t suit her. She wanted him to feel how much she loved him.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Kissed him with all the feeling and joy she had bottled up for the two years they’d been apart. Kissed him for all they would have and for the hurts of the past. Kissed him in a promise of forever.

  When she eased back, letting their mouths gently pull apart as their breaths still mixed, she whispered her vow. “I love you.

  He brushed his thumb over her lips. “I’ve always loved you. I’ll love you forever. When you act smart or stupid, when you yell or we make love, I’m going to keep on loving you.”

  She couldn’t stop the huge smile that formed on her face. “I think we found something else we agree on.”

  He pressed a second, less heated kiss against her mouth before coming back up for air again. “And now I’m going to take you home and show you.”

  “I can leave?” She hated to hope just in case the police officer in charge said no. But Luke’s smile told her he had worked out every angle. “What did you do?”

  “Didn’t I tell you?” He brushed her hair out of her face. “In addition to the bail decrease, the prosecutor released you into my custody.”

  She loved how that sounded. “So I’m your responsibility now.”

  “That’s what they told me.”

  “You think you can handle that?”

  Luke winked at her. “With you I can do anything.”

  “Then take me home.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-5035-6

  UNDER THE GUN

  Copyright © 2010 by HelenKay Dimon

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