“What is it, Johnny?” she asked a little desperately.
He glanced around the room. “I went by school thinking I’d catch you there after classes were over.”
“I left early. Reed and I had an appointment with Ms. Fipp from the adoption department.”
“Mr. Dunlap said you’d probably be here.”
Reed said, “This isn’t a real good time, Fuentes. If there’s something wrong—”
“I’m more sorry about this than I can say, but I’m here to arrest you, Ann.” Keeping one eye on Reed, he produced a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket. “You have the right to remain silent—”
Chapter Nine
Reed grabbed Johnny by the arm. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Every protective instinct he had was screaming. This was his wife Fuentes was talking about.
“Don’t interfere, Drummond,” John warned. His eyes had narrowed, his lips thinned. “This is official business.”
“You can’t mean you’re arresting me,” Ann protested. She’d turned a chalky white and her eyes were wide in alarm.
The social worker clasped her clipboard to her chest like a shield. “Oh, my…oh, my…”
“Turn around, Ann,” the police chief ordered.
“What in heaven’s name are you arresting me for?”
“A storekeeper in San Luis Obispo where you’ve been passing bad checks identified you from your newspaper picture—”
“The Teacher—of—the—Year Award?”
“There’s some mistake, buddy. You know Ann wouldn’t—”
“My God, Johnny,” Ann pleaded. “We went to school together—”
“I hate this more than I can tell you, Ann.” A handcuff snicked closed around Ann’s wrist. “The storekeeper says you’re into him for a hundred dollars’ worth of bad checks.”
“That’s utter nonsense. Why would I—”
“Don’t cuff her, man. She’s not resisting.”
The social worker sputtered, “I really think I should go.”
Reed shot her a quelling look. “Stay put a minute. We’ll get this straightened out.”
Ann looked at Reed frantically. “I haven’t done anything—”
“I know,” he said grimly. “Come on, John. Give us a break. You’ve known Ann longer than I have. You must realize—”
“There are fingerprints, Drummond. They’re a little smeared but it looks like they’ll be a match.”
“Looks like? You can’t put me in jail because my prints look like somebody’s who wrote a bad check. They have to be identical.”
“At this point, the similarities are pretty convincing. They’re faxing them over from San Luis Obispo.”
“Not good enough, buddy,” Reed said. “Close only counts in—”
“The charge will stick if the shopkeeper IDs her.” Without cuffing Ann with the second bracelet, he took her by the arm. “I’m going to put her in a lineup.”
“A lineup?” Ann gasped.
Reed blocked John’s path to the front door. “How’d you even get Ann’s fingerprints to check? She’s not exactly a convicted felon, for God’s sake.”
“Her prints are on record because she’s a schoolteacher. Now, step aside.”
His hands balling into fists, Reed didn’t budge. “You’re wrong, damn it!”
“It’s all right, Reed,” Ann said shakily. “Once I’m at the police station, I’m sure everything will get cleared up.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“You can’t. You have to take care of Bets. This won’t take long, I’m sure.”
Reed wasn’t so sure. He’d had a few run—ins with the law. To a man, the police were hardheaded and didn’t listen well. If Fuentes thought he had Ann dead to rights on some fraudulent check—cashing deal, he’d be hard to convince otherwise.
Helplessly, he watched as the cop put Ann in the back seat of his black—and—white. This was crazy! Ann was so damn pure, she probably didn’t even jaywalk.
“You do know, Mr. Drummond, that this incident…” The social worker fumbled for words and fanned herself with her clipboard. “If your wife has a criminal record that would certainly affect your petition to—”
“She’s innocent!”
“Yes, well…we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we? But I will have to include this new information in my report.” With an awkward gait, she descended the steps to her car.
“You’d better be sure there’s something in your report about innocent until proven guilty.”
Reed cursed long and low. This screwy mix—up had come at the worst possible time. How could Fuentes be fool enough to arrest Ann for something she couldn’t possibly have done? Damn it all! She didn’t have a criminal bone in her body. Ann had no reason to pass bad checks. Hell, she had more money than Reed did.
But the impact on Bets’s adoption could be disastrous. Now not only would Reed have to get his wife out of jail, he’d have to convince a damn social worker it had all been a mistake in the first place.
HUMILIATION FILLED Ann with icy cold.
She shivered in the stark cell they’d assigned her. She’d been made to place her watch, earrings and gold wedding band in a brown envelope, which the booking officer had carefully sealed with tape, laboriously writing her name on the flap. Then he’d taken her fingerprints. Ann had nearly gagged on the chemical smell.
The camera flash when they’d taken her photo had blinded her, the indignity of the entire process mortified her.
Finally a female officer had taken her shoes, giving her thin stretch slippers as a replacement. Ann thought the woman had had children in her math classes, but she couldn’t be sure. At this point, she couldn’t think clearly about anything.
She had no idea how long she’d been here. Or why someone hadn’t come to release her. There’d been no lineup. As far as she could tell, the entire world had forgotten about her.
Where was Reed? Was he trying to bail her out? Where on earth would he get the money?
She was so cold her teeth chattered. The stainless steel bunk she sat on was hard and comfortless; the pale green bars of her cell mocked her need for privacy.
Oh, God, where was Reed?
The heavy door that separated the holding cells from the squad room swung open.
“Sorry you’ve had to wait so long,” Johnny said. He had her shoes in his hand.
She came to her feet, her knees weak with relief. “Does that mean I can go now?”
“Not yet. The victim had trouble finding someone to watch his shop so he could get away from the store. He’s here now for the lineup.”
“He’ll tell you I’m not the one.”
Without comment, Johnny handed her her shoes. A thousand times when they’d been in school together, she’d seen the quick flash of his smile when he was flirting with other girls. Now he was grim.
After she put on her shoes, he escorted her out of the holding area and into a small room with a big mirror on one wall. Three other women filed in with her, all of them with blond hair, though that’s where their resemblance ended. Ann had watched enough cop shows on TV to know that her accuser was watching on the opposite side of the mirror.
Nervously, she shoved her hair back behind her shoulder.
“That’s her, that’s the one,” an unseen man shouted. “She done that all the time, that hair thing with her hand.”
A door slammed shut, and then the voices were muffled.
The other women looked at her suspiciously.
“I didn’t do it,” she whispered in a choked voice. Her chin trembled. Her whole world had turned topsy—turvy. How could some total stranger identify her as having written bad checks? She’d never done that in her life; she’d never once overdrawn her account. For God’s sake, she was a math teacher! Even if she’d made an error in addition or subtraction, it wouldn’t have been intentional.
Johnny took her back to the holding cell. She sensed in other circumstances he’d let one o
f his officers handle someone who’d been identified as a criminal. She supposed she ought to be grateful for the special treatment.
She wasn’t.
“You know this is a terrible mistake, don’t you?”
“I only wish it were.” He opened the cell for her. “It was a positive ID, Ann. Along with your fingerprints, smeared or not, it looks bad for you. Even the handwriting on the check looks like yours.”
“It’s not.” In spite of her overwhelming fear and humiliation, she squared her shoulders. “As soon as I get out of here, I’ll prove it.”
“I hope so, Ann. I really do.” But he didn’t look convinced it would be possible.
“I keep thinking this can’t be happening to me.”
“Drummond’s got an attorney for you. He’ll have you out on OR in a bit.”
“OR?”
“Own recognizance. I didn’t think you’d be a flight risk.”
A flight risk? Where on earth would she go? This was her home. She’d grown up here. People knew her. She had a reputation to maintain. Since her one slip as an adolescent, she’d been circumspect about everything she did. Everything!
Until she’d married Reed. And then her heart had overruled her caution.
Barely averting the hysteria that threatened, she nodded numbly at Johnny. At least she was grateful that Reed hadn’t had to put up bail, and then wondered how he’d managed to hire an attorney. Most of them demanded a deposit.
She waited for what seemed like another eternity before the door opened and she was finally released. Reed introduced her to an attorney named Marvin Hutch, whose tailored suit and carefully styled gray hair made him look like a million bucks. She didn’t recognize him from town. She was so weak with fatigue and grateful to have been released, she didn’t care where he had come from. He said something about talking with her later, but his words barely registered. She simply wanted to put this awful place behind her.
Cupping her elbow, Reed ushered her to his truck, which was parked across the street from the police station. It was dark now, and the streetlights glowed eerily in a misting fog.
“Are you okay?” he asked, opening the door.
“Where’s Bets?”
“I called your mom. She came up to the ranch.”
Gratitude that her mother had responded when needed mingled with the misery filling Ann’s chest. “Take me home, Reed. Please.”
She sat rigidly on the passenger side as he pulled the truck out of the parking space. Her hands shook as she slipped her wedding ring back on her finger and tried unsuccessfully to put on her earrings. She didn’t want to let go of what small amount of control she’d maintained all afternoon. If she lost it she might never get it back again.
Arrested. Booked. Charged with writing bad checks.
“I didn’t recognize that attorney,” she said, her chaotic thoughts hopping wildly from one impossibility to another.
“He’s from San Luis Obispo.”
“He looks expensive.”
“He is. Fuentes said you’d need a good one.”
Her head whipped around and she stared at Reed. His hat was drawn low on his forehead, his jaw set at a grim angle. “Where did you get the money?”
“I sold a few head of beef. That’s why it took me a while to get the attorney over here.”
“Oh, Reed, you shouldn’t have. You’re trying to build your herd. If you’d asked, I’m sure my father would have—”
“You’re my responsibility, not his.” Reed kept his eyes on the road.
Ann’s desperate effort to control her emotions shattered. Tears welled and spilled down her cheeks. Reed had sacrificed a part of his herd to get her out of jail. In return, she’d very likely put his plan to adopt Bets at risk.
A sob caught in her chest, and her tears began to cascade. “I’m so sorry…”
To her surprise, he hooked his arm around her shoulders and pulled her across the seat so she could rest her head on his shoulder. The tender gesture brought another sob from her throat. Dear heaven! He was such a good man.
“You’ve got nothin’ to be sorry for, sweet sugarAnnie. It’s all some stupid mistake. You’ll see. We’ll get the mess straightened out. I promise.”
She cherished his words and the warmth of his body, the feel of his muscular arm holding her, though she didn’t necessarily believe his promise.
Something had gone strangely, frighteningly wrong with her life. She might never be the same again.
ELEANOR FORRESTER opened the ranch—house front door the moment the truck came to a stop out front.
“I’ve been worried sick, dear,” she said, hugging Ann as she reached the porch. “Are you all right?”
Ann nodded, though she’d never felt less right in her life.
“She’ll be fine,” Reed said grimly, his hand possessively palming the small of her back. “Is Bets asleep?”
“She went down like the little lamb she is,” Eleanor announced.
“Thanks for coming.”
It was a dismissal, and Eleanor took it as such, gathering up her purse before giving Ann another quick kiss on the cheek. “A good night’s sleep, and you’ll be right as rain, dear.”
Ann was too numb to comment. Dazed, she stood in the middle of the living room staring at the miniature Dream Man on the mantel piece, her rogue cowboy and the baby he loved so much.
“What did the adoption worker say about my arrest?”
Reed stepped in front of her. “She’s going to include it in her report.”
“I’m so sorry,” she repeated. Swallowing hard, she looked into his troubled eyes, seeing only a hint of the bad boy he’d once been. “Everyone’s treating me like I’m a criminal.”
“You’re the most innocent woman I know.”
“Then why do I feel so dirty?”
“An occupational hazard that comes from hanging around jails.” Gently, he framed her face between his big hands. “I think I can fix it.”
He lowered his mouth to hers in the sweetest kiss she’d ever known. He’d had coffee earlier, and the smooth, subtle invasion of his tongue brought with it the taste of sugar. The heat of him warmed the cold knot of humiliation that had lodged in her midsection. Her tension eased, and she responded with a soft moan of pleasure. Dear Lord, how much she’d missed him.
With artful skill, he slid her blouse from her shoulders. His fingers slipped beneath her bra straps and his knuckles skimmed the swell of her breast. She drew in a quick breath as her nipples puckered.
“Reed…”
“A shower is the perfect cure for what ails you.”
A shower wasn’t precisely what was on her mind. But she didn’t object as he led her into the bathroom. He reached into the stall shower to turn on the water.
“You don’t have to do this,” she objected. “I can manage.”
“I want to.”
All she seemed able to do was stand patiently while he removed the rest of her clothes. To keep her balance, she rested her hand on his shoulder as he bent to remove her slacks one leg at a time. He’d had his hair trimmed in anticipation of the social worker’s visit, and it lay smoothly at his nape. Where had his gentleness come from? In spite of the way he’d been raised, she’d seen it with Betina. And now with her.
Steam billowed, mixing in the air with his uniquely masculine scent.
“In you go,” he ordered.
“Thank you.” But he wasn’t done with her yet.
He stripped off his shirt and sat down on the stool to remove his old worn boots.
Her eyes widened. “What are you doing?”
His raffish grin said it all.
“Reed, I don’t think—”
“Exactly. You let me do the thinking for now.”
Lathering his hands, he bathed her from head to toe. She was open and vulnerable, unable to escape him in the narrow confines of the shower stall. Not that she wanted to. His calloused hands caressed her with incredible tenderness, awakening thousands of
nerve endings on her sensitive flesh in ways she hadn’t known possible. His ministrations were so caring, so thorough, she felt as though he were worshiping her.
She’d never known such intimacy. Tears formed, and she let them slide down her cheeks. He kissed them away.
When the water began to cool, he wrapped her in thick towels and carried her to their bed, where he made exquisite love to her.
“You are so perfect,” he whispered, his kisses raining down on her flushed skin. “I don’t deserve you.”
“That’s not so.”
Once again he ignored her objection, sweeping her up in a sensual assault that she had no intention of resisting.
For the first time she felt he wasn’t simply using her. He was giving something of himself. Where her other efforts had failed, her arrest had touched him in some inexplicable way. Perhaps it was only that he now felt she needed him. But whatever the reason, there was a crack in his armor that hadn’t been there before.
She relished it. Returning every bit of passion he gave her, Ann sought to widen the path that led to Reed’s heart. If she could do that, she might yet bless the confusion that had made her an accused criminal.
Lifting her hips, he drove into her one final time, and she lost track of all rational thought. The pleasure of her climax burst through her. She called his name, and he shouted hers in reply, throwing his head back as he gave himself over to the experience of total release. “Ann!”
For the first time he’d spoken her name intimately, without a “sugar” coating. At some intuitive level, she suspected that small omission was more meaningful than he was likely to admit anytime soon.
They lay together for a long while, their breathing slowing, their bodies damp.
Reed rolled to his side, bringing her with him, her head resting on his chest. She snuggled closer. Beneath her palm she felt the solid beat of his heart.
“You know, I’m really not perfect,” she said when she’d recovered her breath. If she’d once had doubts about her love for him and the wisdom of her runaway emotions, she had none now. In the way he’d given of himself tonight, her confidence level had gone off the scale—half again more than a ten.
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