by Black, Tasha
He’s going to grow up. He’s going to grow up and I’m going to miss it.
Her eyes burned with unshed tears, but she set her jaw, determined not to cry. That future had never been hers to begin with. So why did it feel like it was being stolen from her?
Two minutes.
She should have been on this train five days ago. She never would have tasted this life she couldn’t have. It would have been better for her. Better for everyone.
No. That was a lie. It wouldn’t have been better.
Even though her heart was breaking, Delilah was glad she had come to Tarker’s Hollow, glad she had known Noah and Axel.
They had taught her that there was another way to live.
It was going to be a long road, but she was determined to change her life.
If she could forge her way forward without relying on her more unsavory skills, maybe one day she would have a family of her own, one she deserved.
But she couldn’t bring herself to picture that.
All she saw when she closed her eyes was Axel and Noah.
One minute.
She could hear the rumble of the train’s approach.
And someone calling her name.
“Delilah,” Axel’s voice cried hoarsely.
She stepped away from the tracks and scanned the town.
He was on the sidewalk beside the café, running for her like his life depended on it.
When he caught sight of her his face went soft with relief.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“I’m leaving,” she told him, the words like broken glass in her mouth.
“I didn’t mean to freak you out the other night,” he said. “I never should have let you see me like that without preparing you first. But I guess now you know what I really am.”
“How could you think this has anything to do with what you are?” she demanded. “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Then why?” he asked.
“It’s because now you know what I really am,” she said. “I tricked you. It’s what I do. You can turn into a bear, but I’m the one who’s a monster. I’m the one who dropped that car off.”
The train arrived, sending the leaves on the platform dancing.
“I already knew that,” he said, shaking his head.
“How?” she asked.
“I watched the security footage before you swiped it,” he told her.
She blinked at him in wonder.
“All aboard for Philadelphia, 30th Street Station,” a voice said over the speakers.
“I have to go,” she said.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” he told her.
“If you knew, why did you still keep me around? How could you trust me with Noah?” she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
“You’re a good person,” he told her. “That much was clear to me.”
“How can you know that I’m a good person,” she asked.
“I just felt it,” he said simply. “I have better instincts than most.”
He gave her a significant look.
The bear.
Holy crap, the bear knew she wasn’t dangerous?
Somehow, that made perfect sense.
“Why didn’t you ask me why I left the car?” she asked, grasping at straws.
“I figured you’d tell me when you were ready,” he said, looking down at his boots. “It’s not like you were the only one with a secret. The last person I confronted ran off. I couldn’t lose you too. It would kill me. But more importantly, it would make Noah really sad.”
The tears Delilah had held back earlier flew out of her eyes before she could stop them.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.
His arms were around her instantly. “Please don’t go,” he murmured into her hair. “Don’t ever go.”
“I won’t, I won’t,” she repeated, clinging to him.
The train pulled out of the station and the leaves swirled in its wake once again as Delilah relaxed at last in Axel’s arms.
19
Axel
Axel drove home with his hand wrapped around Delilah’s.
He didn’t dare let go of her for a moment. It was still too delicate, too tenuous, this bond between them.
Delilah leaned against her seat, facing him, still teary-eyed.
He hoped he would never see her cry again, except maybe with happiness. It would be his mission to make her happy, to keep his family safe.
He drove all the way down to the cottage and parked in front.
“I’m just going to run and get Noah,” he told her. “Would you mind starting his bottle? I’ll bet he’s hungry.”
He felt terrible using his son to trick her, but he couldn’t let her into the shop again just yet. Not until he was sure she knew how much he cared about her.
“I’ll come with you,” she said. “It’ll only take a minute to make his bottle.”
“Don’t bother,” he said. “I’ve gotta give Bill instructions on Dulcie Blanco’s car, it’s a little tricky.”
“No worries,” she said, heading into the shop. “I’ll bring Noah back for his bottle if you guys have a lot to do.”
Shit, he said to himself, watching her walk through the back door of the shop.
He jogged to catch up with her.
She was taking Noah from Bill when he joined her.
“Hey buddy,” she said tenderly to Noah, who promptly banged the top of her head with his little hand in approval.
“Bah,” he crowed, and grabbed a hank of her hair.
Axel wasn’t the only one who never wanted to let her out of his sight.
He saw the exact moment when she turned and noticed the car was missing. It didn’t take her long to connect the dots.
“Sally,” she said, her face stricken. “Oh, Axel, no.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he told her honestly.
“Of course it matters,” she said plaintively. “Why would you let them take it?”
“Walk with me,” he told her.
She went to him reluctantly and he led her back out to the gravel path.
“You worked so hard on that car,” she said. “It was beautiful.”
“It doesn’t matter, at all,” he told her. “It was a small price to pay to keep you safe.”
“To keep me safe?” she asked.
“They agreed never to contact you again,” he told her. “Which is not to say that you can’t contact them if you wanted to. She’s your family.”
“Not really,” Delilah said, unconsciously brushing the top of Noah’s head with her lips. “Not anymore.”
His heart sang at the sweet gesture.
“Well, in any case, they won’t be asking you to do jobs with them anymore,” Axel told her. “We can relax.”
“I didn’t want you to give up Sally for me,” she said.
He stopped and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Delilah, that car was just an escape,” he told her. “Things in my life were topsy-turvy. The car felt like something I could put back together even when everything else was falling apart.”
Her dark eyes were locked on his, an expression of understanding dawning on her beautiful face.
“Now, when I think about my life, Delilah, I don’t feel so much like escaping anymore,” he told her.
She went up on her toes and wrapped an arm around his neck, cradling Noah between them.
He inhaled the scent of her, trying to memorize the feeling of the three of them all cuddled together.
“Ha,” Noah crowed, and nuzzled his little nose into Axel’s chest.
“Let’s go home,” Delilah said softly.
Home.
“Yes,” he told her. “But I have a feeling that when we do, I’m not going to want to leave again. I was going to run out and pick up some parts for the car we just got in. I’ll do that and get Bill set up for his shift. Then you and I can have the whole rest of the day to o
urselves. Sound good?”
“That sounds amazing,” she said, tilting her head up to smile at him.
He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers gently, loving the softness of her sweet mouth and the tiny sound of satisfaction she made.
The bear groaned with a need to claim her.
Tonight, he promised his other self.
Tonight she will be ours.
20
Delilah
Delilah carried Noah into the house in a happy haze.
She was finally out of the con game - something she hadn’t even known she wanted, but now it seemed like everything to her.
Axel wanted her to stay.
She had been fantasizing about this fairy tale since the hour she’d arrived in the cottage behind the shop. But now that it seemed to be coming true, she couldn’t believe it.
This is my life now, she told herself as she carried Noah into the kitchen and started his bottle.
He leaned his warm head against her chest, and she walked him back and forth in front of the big window that overlooked the side of the property.
A cardinal landed in the bushes and sang long and loud, as if he were celebrating with her.
When Noah’s meal was ready, she fed him with joy in her heart. He fell asleep in her arms as soon as the bottle was empty.
She took him up to his room and her gaze rested for a moment on the rocking chair. She wanted nothing more than to hold him and rock him until he woke up. But she knew she’d better take advantage of his nap to use the bathroom and do a little tidying up.
She was just finishing up in the bathroom when she heard him cry.
“Hang on, buddy, I’ll be right there,” she called to him. “You’re okay.”
She washed her hands in record time and was wiping them off on her jeans as she went back into his room.
At first it took a moment to put together what was happening.
A man was holding Noah.
But it wasn’t Axel.
Sunlight streamed in the window behind the man, illuminating a head of white-blond hair down to his shoulders. He wore an expensive-looking suit that accentuated his long, lean form.
“You must be Delilah,” he said in a measured tone that sent chills down her spine. “My name is Roman Panchenko. I believe you have something that belongs to me.”
Roman Panchenko.
Roman Panchenko, the infamous head of the Glacier City mob. There wasn’t a con artist alive that would dream of getting on the wrong side of the man that now stood before her.
Delilah’s hands began to shake.
“Give him to me,” she said firmly, her icy words belying her terror.
“He was crying,” Panchenko said innocently.
“Mah,” Noah whimpered.
“Give him to me,” Delilah said, holding out her arms.
To her immense relief, Panchenko shrugged elegantly and handed Noah to her.
“I’m not a monster,” he said, the hint of a terrible smile pulling up one corner of his mouth. “I would never hurt a baby.”
The words were less of a reassurance, and more of an implication of all the other things he would be willing to do.
Delilah did not want to find out what they were.
“What do you want?” she asked, holding Noah close.
“Where is my car?” Panchenko asked in reply.
“Your car?” she echoed.
“Come, now,” he said impatiently. “Let’s not play this game. I know you have the BMW. Let’s cut to the chase.”
Delilah’s jaw dropped. “You’re Vinny’s uncle?”
“Please don’t mention that insufferable boy,” he said, rolling his eyes. “He fell for the oldest con in the book trying to impress me.”
“The fiddle game,” Delilah said, realizing.
“The fiddle game,” Panchenko agreed. “And I guess you played it convincingly. The boy really thought I’d be happy to see that ridiculous flute. Did you even pay a hundred dollars for it?”
“Twenty-five,” Delilah said. “But it was another twenty to have it engraved.”
“Give me the car and we’ll end our conversation here,” he said.
He didn’t say what would happen if she didn’t. He didn’t need to.
“Yes,” she told him, her heart crashing in her chest. “Absolutely. Come on.”
She led him up the gravel drive to the shop, her arms locked around Noah, who was uncharacteristically subdued, most likely sensing her fear.
“Bill,” she called out.
“Hey, Delilah,” Bill replied. “Oh- hey. Who’s this?”
He stared openly at Panchenko and his expensive suit. Delilah guessed there were very few middle-aged men in Tarker’s Hollow who looked like a bad guy from Die Hard.
“Can you please take Noah and wait outside with him for a minute?” Delilah asked as calmly as she could.
Bill’s forehead wrinkled and she prayed that he would agree without making trouble. She couldn’t have anything bad happen to Noah or Bill because of her mistakes.
To her relief, Bill came to her right away and took Noah.
“I’ll be right outside,” he told her, giving her a significant look. “Do you want me to call Axel?”
“No,” she practically shouted. “I’m fine.”
He left quietly.
She turned to Panchenko. “The car is right here, let me grab the keys.”
He waited patiently enough while she grabbed the keys off the board behind the desk.
She tossed them to him.
Panchenko deftly snatched them out of the air like a magician.
He pressed the button to unlock the car, but instead of getting in, he opened the trunk.
She watched, fascinated, as he lifted the carpet to reveal a hidden compartment.
Out of the compartment he pulled a small package, wrapped in nondescript brown paper, which he immediately deposited into his coat pocket.
Then he began to pull something else out of his pocket.
Delilah could see metal wink in the sunlight, and she closed her eyes, ready to die, glad that Noah wouldn’t see it.
But there was only silence.
She opened her eyes to see that Panchenko was holding out the flute.
He smiled at her ironically and placed it on the roof of the car.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” he said, and tossed her back the car keys.
“D-don’t you want the car?” she asked, catching the keys automatically.
“I don’t care about the car,” he told her. “Sell it for parts. I got what I came for.” He patted his coat pocket.
“Oh,” she said, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
“You seem like a nice kid,” Panchenko said, turning back. “Take my advice. No more fiddle game. You have a baby and a legitimate business here.”
“No more fiddle game,” she echoed stupidly.
“Learn to play the flute,” he suggested, “It’s a nice instrument.”
And with that, he walked out the front door, sending the little bell jingling as if he were a normal customer.
21
Axel
The bad feeling grew in Axel’s chest from the moment he headed back toward Tarker’s Hollow from the Springton Autobody Parts shop.
Something was wrong with Delilah.
Something was very, very wrong.
The bear was storming in his mind, begging him to pull over and let him out.
Driving is faster, he told the desperate creature, speeding up and praying he wouldn’t be pulled over.
By the time he pulled into the gravel lot of his own shop his heart was pounding and a cold sweat had formed along his brow.
He leapt out of the station wagon and stormed into the shop.
Bill stood in the lobby holding Noah, a troubled expression on his face.
“Where’s Delilah?” Axel demanded.
“She took off in the BMW,” Bill said softly.
“W
hy?” Axel demanded.
“I-I don’t know,” Bill said. “This man showed up here, in a suit. And then he left, and she tore out of here a minute later.”
Axel sank to the floor, head in his hands.
Find her, go after her, the bear demanded.
But Axel was frozen with despair.
She was gone again. He could chase her again, but if she really wanted to leave, he would never tame her spirit. It would be better to let her go cleanly, for Noah’s sake.
She had convinced him that her running away was about her past, but it was clearly about him.
Tears prickled his eyelids and the bear roared in his chest.
There was a screech of tires as a car sailed into the lot and swerved up in front of the shop.
He lifted his face to see a blur of red and a small woman with dark hair burst out of the car, sprinting toward him.
Mine.
He leapt up, arms out for her.
Delilah wrapped herself around him.
“Where did you go?” he asked.
“I had to get Sally back,” she told him, pointing proudly out to the lot.
And there was the car.
She was so pleased with herself that he couldn’t bear to tell her he would rather she had set it on fire than scare him like that.
“I traded the BMW for her,” she told him. “Hank didn’t like it, but the Barracuda agreed.”
“You call your mother the Barracuda?” he asked her.
“Oh, I have so many stories,” she told him with a wicked grin.
“And what do you mean you traded the BMW?” he asked. “Was it really yours?”
“You know, I could explain everything,” she said. “But it would take a lot of time and, personally, I’d rather start on our new life than gossip about my old one.”
“I’ll give you something to gossip about,” he growled and pulled her in for a kiss.
When he pulled away, he was so overcome with lust he was practically seeing stars.
“Are you in any danger over that BMW?” he managed to ask her. “Bill said there was a man here.”
She shook her head. “It’s all taken care of. We’re out of the woods.”