“Is that because of what happened between us the other night?” His gaze was wary.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I had an amazing dream the other night, and then I woke up.” She frowned at him, wondering what was going on in his head. “Gabriel, don’t read anything into it. I was just trying to be nice to you.”
He stared at the far wall for a long moment and then looked back at her. “I’m not used to people being nice,” he replied.
“Then you’ve been running around with the wrong kind of people,” she observed. Sensing that he wanted to be alone, that further conversation would only make him more wary, she told him good-night and then went into the kitchen to sit with Andrew for a few minutes at the small kitchen table before turning in for the night.
“Tough day,” she said.
Andrew dug a fork into an oversize piece of the leftover pie she’d made that day. “The worst. We were sure that those canvases covered the bodies of your friends. None of us wanted to come back here and tell you that we’d found them in that storage unit.” He paused to shovel a large bite into his mouth and washed it down with a sip of milk.
“You like him,” he said.
“Who?” she asked, although she knew exactly who he was talking about.
“Gabriel. The air practically snaps when the two of you are in the same room.” He eyed her sympathetically. “Just a little word of warning. I’ve been partners with Gabriel for a couple of years now. He’s a tough nut to crack, and he doesn’t do love. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Trust me, I know exactly what kind of person Gabriel is. You don’t have to worry about me,” she said, warmed by his attempt to let her know Gabriel wasn’t a man looking for a future with any woman. “What about you? Do you have a girlfriend or wife back in Baton Rouge?”
“Girlfriend, soon to be fiancée,” he replied, his eyes lighting as if merely mentioning her caused his heart to soar. “Her name is Suzi, and she’s the love of my life. We’ve been together for two years, and I’m just about ready to put a ring on her.”
“That’s nice. She’s a lucky woman,” she replied and then got up from the table. “And thanks for the warning about my own love life, but it was completely unnecessary. I have no illusions about anything, and now I think I’ll say good-night. Just put your dishes in the sink when you’re finished.”
“Good night, Marlena, and thanks for taking such good care of us.”
“My pleasure,” she replied and then went into her private quarters.
Minutes later, as she got into bed, her thoughts naturally drifted to Gabriel. Despite Andrew’s warnings, and what Gabriel had told her himself, she could love him if he’d let her, if she allowed herself to.
But she couldn’t, and tomorrow she intended to ask him if it would be okay for her and Cory to move on, to leave Bachelor Moon and the bed-and-breakfast and begin their new lives. She’d already told Cory to prepare to leave, that their time line had been moved up by the Connellys’ disappearance.
She wasn’t sure what would happen to the bed-and-breakfast if she left. She assumed Pamela would step in to manage the business until something broke with the case.
Marlena awoke early as usual the next morning, and as she sipped her coffee, she made a list of things she’d need to do to transition from this place that had felt like home for the better part of the past two years to a new city, a new location to start over.
Although she knew Cory would hate to leave here, she also knew he’d do well with the move. He was a friendly kid and would make a circle of friends easily, especially once he was enrolled in a trade school.
She had enough money tucked away to pay for a year of college tuition for herself, and she knew that Cory had enough money in savings to pay for trade school. She could get a job waitressing to pay their living expenses, and life would go on.
Without Daniella. Without Macy and Sam. Her heart ached with their absence, but if there was one thing Marlena had learned over the years, it was that she couldn’t control fate and could only deal with the consequences of her own actions and whatever fate cast her way.
Fate had taken away Sam and Daniella and their little girl, and after this much time, deep in her heart she didn’t believe they were ever returning.
She stopped her list making to fix breakfast for the men, who were quiet and somber. Even Andrew appeared subdued as he ate his usual big breakfast.
Gabriel barely met her gaze, appearing distracted as he ate quickly and then waited on the front porch for the other two to join him.
Once they had left, Cory and John appeared at the back door looking for breakfast, as well. She fed them bacon and eggs, and then watched at the window as they left the house to get to work in the yard.
With breakfast taken care of, and assuming the men wouldn’t be home for lunch, she pulled some thick steaks out of the freezer and washed potatoes for baking for dinner that evening.
By that time Pamela had arrived to do the Monday cleaning. Marlena went into her own quarters to stay out of Pamela’s way. There she did a little cleaning of her own, pulling out the dusty old suitcase that she’d brought with her to Bachelor Moon from Chicago and opening it in the storage area to eventually begin to pack.
Pamela worked until one o’clock and then left, her chores taking less time since the only guests were the three men. Once she was gone, Marlena was surprised and a bit dismayed when a knock came at the door, and she looked out to see Thomas Brady on the porch.
“I’ve been thinking about you all week,” he said as she let him inside and gestured him toward the sofa in the great room. “How are you holding up?”
“As well as I can.” She sat on the far side of the sofa from him, aware that the agents hadn’t yet cleared him off their persons of interest list.
“Is there anything I can do? You must be worried sick about Sam and Daniella and little Macy.”
“I am worried,” she replied.
“You know I’m here for you whenever you need me, Marlena.” His gaze was soft and caring. “I just don’t know how to help you through this difficult time.”
Even though she felt no personal fear of him, she couldn’t help but notice again how much at ease he seemed without Sam and Daniella’s presence in the house. His arm was flung across the back of the sofa as if he owned it, and he appeared completely relaxed.
“Maybe what you need is a nice dinner out. Surely you aren’t responsible for feeding the FBI agents seven nights a week. How about this Friday you take some time off for yourself and let me take you out and wine and dine you?”
Marlena realized it was past time to put an end to this romance that never was. “Thomas, I’ve appreciated your friendship over the past year, but my feelings for you are always just going to be as a friend, nothing romantic.”
“Ouch.” His smile crumbled and his brown eyes darkened. He pulled his arm from the back of the sofa and leaned toward her. “Are you sure with more time the friendship wouldn’t develop into something romantic? Because I have to tell you the truth, Marlena. I definitely feel very romantic feelings toward you, and I have since the moment we met.”
“I’m sorry,” Marlena replied, truly meaning it. She knew all about unrequited love, about the pain of rejection, but she also knew she couldn’t allow Thomas to go on pretending that they were in any way involved in a romantic relationship.
“This isn’t something that’s going to build into a romance with more time,” she replied. “Besides, if the FBI allows it, I intend to move away from here in the next week or so. I’m sorry, Thomas, but you deserve to find a wonderful woman who will love you with all her heart. I’m just not her.”
“I knew it,” he finally replied. “I knew you didn’t feel the same for me as I did for you. I feel it when we’re together, but I had hoped with more tim
e it would change.” He shrugged and stood. “This place won’t be the same without you and Cory around, but I guess I’ll be leaving you alone now.”
He walked toward the door, and when he reached it, he turned back to look at her. “I hope you have a great life, Marlena. Wherever you go, whomever you wind up with, I wish you only happiness.”
“And the same for you,” she replied.
She remained on the sofa for a few minutes after he’d gone. Life might have been easier if she’d fallen head over heels in love with Thomas. She believed he was a good man, and found it hard to believe that he might have had anything to do with whatever had happened to the Connelly family. Thomas was a hard worker who lived in a nice ranch house that had more than enough room for a wife and a brother-in-law young enough to be considered a stepson.
Cory could have remained here, working with John. She would have been able to maintain the friendships she’d made in Bachelor Moon, and she knew Thomas was a man who would have been satisfied with her being a homemaker and mother.
But instead she found herself precariously close to loving a man who would never love her back, a man she’d already had steamy-hot sex with and a man who would probably never think of her again once they parted ways.
She could only hope that the beginning of finding true happiness and love was just around the corner, that starting fresh with new purpose and drive would bring different things and exciting people into her life.
Nobody could be as exciting as Gabriel, a little voice whispered in her head. Nobody will ever match the way he loved your body, that voice taunted.
“Shut up,” she said aloud, and got off the sofa, deciding that maybe she’d cut some fresh flowers for bouquets for the house.
The late afternoon air was hot and humid as she walked down to the gardening shed, and grabbed a wicker basket and cutting shears. She schooled her mind to blankness as she went about the pleasure of picking out the most colorful blooms that would make the prettiest bouquets.
Daniella had loved to keep the house filled with fresh flowers, and John kept the flower beds blooming throughout the heat of the summer.
By the time she had her basket full, it was almost three o’clock. She put the shears back in the shed and then hurried into the house, hoping to get the bouquets made before it was time to start supper preparations.
As she worked on arrangements, not only for the center of the dining room table but also smaller ones for the bedrooms where the men slept, she found her thoughts drifting to Gabriel.
He’d given her just enough of a peek into his childhood to understand how he felt about love and about loving. She got it, and yet she had responded to her own mother’s abandonment by wanting love more than ever. She and Gabriel were flip sides of the same coin.
She would guess that they both suffered abandonment issues, but they had responded in diametrically opposite ways. She could only hope that someday in the future he would discover the desire to love and be loved. Maybe someday a very special woman would be able to break through the shield he’d erected to keep himself from any more pain when it came to love.
It hurt her more than she expected to know that she wasn’t that woman. It surprised her to realize how badly she wished she could be that woman for him.
Carrying the two smaller arrangements of flowers up the stairs, she decided to place the one with sweet peas in Gabriel’s room. The heady scent of the blooms might please him. He wouldn’t know that she’d specifically chosen the prettiest of the arrangements for his room.
Once she’d delivered the flowers, she started down the stairs, but paused on the first step as she heard a noise from someplace behind her.
Before she could turn, before she could consciously assess what kind of sound it had been, hands shoved her back. Just like the night at the pond, she had a moment of weightlessness, only this time there wasn’t a dark pond to fall into—there were thirteen steps that in the span of an instant she knew she was going to hit.
* * *
GABRIEL, ANDREW AND Jackson stood in Sheriff Thompson’s small office as he filled them in on the details of the debacle in the storage unit with the dead gators.
Thompson sat back in his leather chair behind his desk and scratched his protruding belly, then leaned forward with a deep frown cutting across his broad forehead.
“Carl Gifford is a stinking slimy swamp rat whom I’ve suspected of illegally poaching for years. That storage unit and the banking records finally confirmed it.” Thompson shook his head and uttered a small laugh. “Only an idiot would put his illegal goods in a storage unit paid for every month out of his own bank account.”
“I’m sure he never expected anyone else to open up the door to that unit. Where is he now?” Gabriel asked, his stomach knotting as he thought of those first moments staring at the bloody canvases.
“He’s been in my custody for the past two nights. Got himself drunk and stupid and assaulted one of my deputies, so I locked him up. Apparently the gators were supposed to be sold to another party the night that I threw him behind bars. He’ll be in my jail for a while since I’ve got all I need now to add the additional charge of poaching.”
“So the mystery of the alligators has been solved,” Jackson said.
“But it moves us no further in our own investigation,” Gabriel added in frustration.
“I wish I could be more help to you all, but I just don’t have anything else to give you,” Thompson said.
“We appreciate you calling us in to let us know about the gators. It was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” Jackson said, and shook his head in disbelief.
“Let’s get out of here,” Gabriel said. “I think it’s time we call it a day.” He thanked the sheriff, and then the three of them headed for their car.
It had been another fruitless day of interviews and walking the streets, and Gabriel was ready to get back to the bed-and-breakfast, out of the heat and humidity.
He was tired. It was the bone weariness of failure, a weight he wasn’t accustomed to carrying. He was supposed to be leading this team investigation, and he’d never felt more helpless.
He was out of ideas and out of energy. At the moment the only place he could lead his team was back to the B and B where they would talk over the facts they didn’t have, eat without appetites—except for maybe Andrew—and dream about the family they couldn’t find.
They rode home in silence, the kind of silence that filled the interior of the car like a pool of stagnant water. Gabriel breathed a deep sigh as he pulled in front of the house. It was early, just before four in the afternoon, but as far as he was concerned, their day was done.
Gabriel was the first one through the door, and he froze at the sight of Marlena sprawled face down on the floor at the foot of the stairs.
Although his heart remained stopped, he raced to her side, relieved to see that she was conscious, but scared to death as he crouched down next to her.
“I fell,” she said, and tears began to course from her eyes.
“From where?” he asked as Jackson and Andrew joined him by her side.
“From the top stair.”
“Call for an ambulance,” Gabriel said urgently. His heart banged painfully against his ribs. Who knew how many bones she might have broken? What kind of internal damage she must be suffering?
“No, I think I’m okay. I’ve just been afraid to move without anyone here in case I’m not all right.” Despite her words, her voice was filled with a pain that rattled through his bones.
“Make the call,” Gabriel said.
“Really, I don’t think anything is broken.” Her green eyes held a wealth of emotion as she gazed at Gabriel. “Just help me sit up and I’ll be fine.” With a deep moan, she rolled over from her stomach to her back.
Gabriel held up a hand to halt the
call Jackson had been about to make, and then he took Marlena’s hands in his and pulled her to a sitting position.
“Anything feel broken? Can you move your legs?” Her face was bleached of color, and she winced with the movement. Gabriel didn’t release her hands as his heart pounded a million beats a minute. The tightness in his chest eased a little as she managed to move both of her legs.
“I don’t think anything is broken. Just help me up off the floor,” she said, her gaze never leaving his. It was as if she were tapping into his strength. She didn’t realize how little he had. She couldn’t know that the sight of her unmoving on the floor had sapped all his energy and had weakened his knees.
He stood and pulled her up. She got to her feet and instantly leaned against his chest, deep sobs escaping her as he ran his hands down the length of her back to assure himself he felt nothing broken.
“I’m taking you to the emergency room,” he said as he stared up the staircase that suddenly appeared horrifyingly steep and endless. If she’d fallen from the top, she was lucky she wasn’t dead. “You need to be thoroughly checked out by a doctor.”
With his decision made, he gently lifted her up in his arms, terrified that he might hurt her more than she already was, yet needing to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible. Andrew opened the front door and then hurried ahead of them to open the passenger side of the car, too.
Gabriel eased her down onto the seat as gently as possible, then went to get behind the wheel. “We’ll be back after she’s been examined from head to toe.” Andrew nodded and stepped away from the car.
Gabriel shot out of the bed-and-breakfast entrance and headed to the small hospital he’d seen in Bachelor Moon. “How long had you been lying there?” he asked, his heart tied in a painful knot as he thought of her on the floor, all alone and hurting.
“Not too long. I never lost consciousness or anything. I tucked and rolled. When I knew I was falling, all I could think about was, if my head hit a stair, I would probably die.” She raised her hand to her face and began to quietly weep again.
Scene of the Crime: Return to Bachelor Moon Page 10