What? No...wait.
What about now
He hit Send. Waited. A minute. Ten.
Talking now I mean
More waiting.
Had she gone to bed? Put her phone on charge and left the room? Gone out to sit on that private deck and let breeze from the waves caress her skin after a long, hard day?
Dropping his phone on his nightstand, Greg decided waiting to speak was a good idea and went in to take a cold shower.
* * *
Jasmine didn’t sleep well that night. She spent a lot of the time in a rocker lounger in Bella’s room wrapped in a fleece blanket, dozing on and off. Being close to the baby girl she’d defend with her life was her only priority during those dark hours.
Josh was scared to death. He’d already resigned from the board of Play for the Win. The idea that scandal might make parents and guardians leery of letting kids participate in activities or be associated with the organization disturbed him. But even then, he knew that he could always start again, somewhere else, with the same idea. It wasn’t like the charges against him, if they stuck, would get him jail time. Not likely. Not on a first offense.
What was sending her younger brother into panic mode was the idea of losing Bella. He just couldn’t fathom life without her. But more than that, the idea that his precious baby might become a ward of the state...
Jasmine had promised him, from the depth of her soul, that she wasn’t going to let that happen.
Which was why protecting Bella was her first priority the next afternoon when she sat, cell in hand, waiting for it to ring. Bella needed to be at home with her father.
Not with her aunt. Not being questioned by child psychologists who would use her answers to try to convict her father of a crime he didn’t commit.
Greg Johnson was the surest way to make that happen—and maybe the biggest stumbling block to it happening as well. He was coming to her for answers.
Somehow she had to capitalize on that to secure Bella and Josh’s future.
The thought made her slightly sick. She didn’t use people.
But what if he was using her?
The thought had occurred to her every time she’d jolted awake the night before. She’d had a brief conversation with Wynne before Andrea got home and Wynne had to go. Wynne had warned her not to fall into her old pattern. Not to trust until trust was earned...
Her phone rang.
“I have something to show you,” Greg said in response to her polite “hello.” “I’m almost to The Lemonade Stand. Can you meet me outside and take a little drive with me?”
She already had her bag packed up and on her shoulder, in preparation for collecting Bella as soon as the call was through. “I’ll stop at the daycare and meet you outside,” she said before second-guessing herself. He was the key to her family’s future. Whether he was trustworthy or not.
Giving Maddie the fruit snack pouch she’d packed for Bella and letting her know that she’d be back as soon as she could, Jasmine stopped at Lila’s office to let the director know where she was going.
She wasn’t getting in the man’s car without letting someone know. Detective or not.
Greg was waiting for her in the dark blue SUV she’d seen in her driveway both times he’d been over. When she saw his jeans and flannel shirt, she wondered if she should have asked where they were going. Her leggings and long-sleeved, midthigh-length sweater had been fine for the mid-September Santa Raquel morning, but the wedges she had on weren’t going to make it if he had anything athletic in mind, like a walk...
He didn’t get out and open her door. She opened it herself. Climbed in. “Where are we going?”
The car was warm. Smelled of him. A wave of sweet goodness washed over her. She basked in it for a second. Then she buckled her seat belt.
“I have something to show you,” he said. “It’s not far.”
She liked the mystery. And heard Wynne telling her not to fall...
She liked not having to deal with Josh and Bella and losing her family for a second. They’d have their talk. She had no doubt about that. They both were determined to get what they wanted and needed. His want. Her need.
But if he was open to being friendly with each other, or doing something nice, in the midst of taking care of business, if he was experiencing any of the same personal pull that she’d been fighting the past two weeks, then...she was game. To a point.
He had classic rock playing. Not booming. Just playing. She looked around. The car was clean. No bits of shoe grit on the floor mats. No spare clothes or wadded receipts anywhere to be seen. The console’s two cup holders were empty. No pencils or other paraphernalia collecting there.
The dash system was touch screen.
She loved hers.
He turned and turned again. Seeming not to notice that she was sitting there. And still, she felt comfortable. Glad for the odd moment to spend with him without having to be on guard.
Curious.
Maybe they were going to get a coffee or something, or sit by the ocean in some scenic layover he’d noticed on his way in from Santa Barbara.
If that’s where he lived.
It occurred to her she had no idea.
“You work in Santa Barbara,” she said. “Do you live there, as well?”
“I have a place just outside town.” He was watching the road. And she felt her first fissure of tension.
He made another turn. Slowed. They were nearing a park by a large cliff that looked out over the ocean. She knew the place. Had been there once for a picnic with Josh and Bella. And knew that though there was a cliff face, the other side wasn’t a straight drop to the water. It was a wooded hillside that was angled enough to get down with relative safety.
Not in wedges, probably, and there was no reason for them to—
Greg slowed the vehicle more, and she thought he was going to turn in. Getting outside, talking in the park, was maybe a good idea...
He didn’t stop, though. Just slowly drove past. She looked at the park, wondering what on earth he was doing. Looking for. She was done playing his game.
“What’s going...” The word on never made it off her tongue. A vehicle was parked in the last spot, behind a dumpster. She recognized the Play for the Win logo on the door. And then saw the couple sitting across from each other at a picnic table made out of stone. They were in earnest conversation.
And she knew what they were talking about.
* * *
“I’m part of the High-Risk Team’s crew doing extra drive-bys at Heidi’s place.” Greg started with the spiel he’d rehearsed as soon as they were past the park. He hadn’t been sure she’d just ride with him without an explanation, but he’d needed her to see for herself.
No explanation on that one forthcoming. He could have just told her what he’d seen. If she were any other possible witness he suspected of hiding information, he’d have just told her, as part of a shock interrogation attempt to get information from her.
She’d know about the drive-bys from being familiar with the High-Risk Team. Though she might not have known that they’d taken Heidi’s case.
“I saw your brother parked, his car running, far enough down the street to not be seen with her, but, of course, I couldn’t ignore his presence. Before I could park and approach him, ask him what he was doing there, I see Heidi coming down the street in her car, toward him. He pulled out in front of her. She followed him. So I followed them.”
Not one to fall prey to tension, so much as to be prepared for others’ possible over-the-top reactions to it, Greg pulled over at another, much smaller, cliff-side layby and waited. Would she start to cry? Turn on him—the messenger—with anger?
He wanted to reach out to her. Pull her to him. Let her know she wasn’t alone and... What the hell? Bothered by his reaction, he pictured Josh and He
idi back at the park, sitting across from each other. Wishing Heidi hadn’t made that particular choice. Just as William had been adamantly against Heidi not getting a permanent restraining order.
Without her cooperation, there hadn’t been enough evidence for the judge to order one for her own protection. Josh Taylor had physically harmed his wife. Once that they could prove. That made a bad day. A man who perhaps grabbed her arm too hard in the heat of the moment. Still punishable. Worthy of record. Not yet an ongoing threat. That they knew of.
That Heidi was ready to say.
Something that, unfortunately, wasn’t all that unusual in domestic violence cases.
Until Josh hurt Heidi again, all the court could do was handle the one charge.
And chances were, based on statistics, and on the extents of Josh’s subterfuge, he would hurt his wife again.
And someday, maybe even his daughter, too.
“Josh wants to give me permanent custody of Bella before his rights are possibly severed.” Jasmine’s voice cut the car’s silence, slicing through him. She was staring out the window toward the horizon beyond the cliff’s edge—the ocean they couldn’t see from their vantage point. She hadn’t looked his way since she’d buckled her seat belt.
And suddenly the confines of his vehicle, the scent of her, was...uncomfortable to him. “You want to get out and walk?” he asked.
She shrugged, unbuckled, let herself out. And leaned back against the front end of his car, facing the ocean. Not the walking—the expulsion of physical energy—he’d envisioned. But he leaned with her. Next to her.
Close enough to touch her if the need arose. A ludicrous thought. Left over from Liv days—without the sense of suffocation he’d felt back then. Must mean he was finally getting rid of some of the guilt his ex had saddled him with.
“So he admitted to you that he’s guilty?” he asked softly. Wishing the situation had turned out differently even though he’d known all along how it was going to go. He’d seen the way Josh Taylor’s glance had darted around the room when he’d asked the man about the morning that Heidi had been hurt—the varying versions of the story.
“No!” She turned then, standing upright, facing him. The afternoon sun put glints in the long dark hair tumbling over her shoulders to cover her breasts. “Of course not!” She studied him, eye to eye. “I thought you were open to the truth. All along, you’ve just been using me to get a conviction?” she accused, but without the drama he’d been expecting accompanying the anger.
The anger wasn’t really there, either. More like disappointment. Bitterness.
Vile things to have slung at him. He didn’t want to hurt her. To add his name to the crushing list of people who’d let her down in her life.
And as he met her gaze, he grew confused. Using her? That had come a bit out of left field. She was upset about their growing relationship when her brother was almost convicted?
Their relationship. Like they had one.
“I want the truth,” he told her, looking her straight in the eye. Leaning in so she could feel the strength of his words. Know their validity. Then he added, “You said you talked to Josh last night. Let’s start there.”
“What about him and Heidi back there?” She nodded toward the direction from which they’d come. “Shouldn’t we go make sure things are okay?”
He shook his head. “I alerted an officer I know on the High-Risk Team. They’ll have someone drive by and check things out, but legally, we can’t stop them from talking to each other. Your brother canceled his restraining order six months ago and, as you know, Heidi refused the one offered to her yesterday.”
“Yeah, didn’t you wonder about that?” she asked then, turning back to face his side, while he continued to lean against the SUV, his hands on the hood on either side of him. She crossed her arms over those breasts. “She’s accusing him of abuse but isn’t afraid of him?”
“She doesn’t think he’s a permanent threat. Doesn’t think he’ll seek her out to hurt her. She says he only gets violent when they’re fighting, and she doesn’t plan to fight with him. She doesn’t want to ruin his life...”
He stopped when he realized she’d heard most of it in court the day before and realized her question hadn’t been about the legalities. “I think Heidi cares about Josh,” he told her. “She truly doesn’t want to hurt him. At the same time, she needs to send a strong message to him that hurting her—or anyone—isn’t okay. For Bella’s sake as much as her own. And for his sake, too.” He’d been in the room when William had talked to her before court—trying his best to get her to go for a permanent restraining order, explaining that doing so would strengthen their case.
“She’s going for sympathy with the court,” Jasmine said and then shook her head, her mouth turning downward, like she wasn’t expecting to be believed.
He was losing her. He couldn’t lose her.
Didn’t matter that she wasn’t proving to be a source of information to help William’s case. She was involved. She needed the truth.
And for some ungodly reason, he needed to help her see it.
CHAPTER 13
Jasmine didn’t really see what good talking with Greg was going to do. He’d made up his mind that he had his proof. That Josh was guilty. While she couldn’t find any reasonable explanation for Josh to have misled her, she knew there would be one. An explanation. She just had to talk to her brother. And she couldn’t trust Greg to be open-minded. The way he’d jumped automatically—with a tone of expectation—to the idea that Josh had confessed guilt to her the night before...
Wynne’s words rang in her ears. Because they’d been in her own mind, too. She knew herself. Knew her weaknesses.
Greg Johnson played to them perfectly—whether he meant to or not. Wanted to or not. Just thinking about how she’d felt climbing into his car—like it was a tiny oasis of good feeling—made her cringe.
Had Josh risked everything, having this meeting with Heidi?
Confused, hurting for her brother, afraid for all of them, she shored her defenses.
“Why does Josh want you to take full custody of Bella?” Greg’s question was soft, his expression looking like he really cared, pulling her out of the muck into which she’d sunk and back to the problem at hand. Back to what really mattered.
She had to be honest with him if she had any hope he’d see the truth.
“He’s afraid that Heidi’s going to be successful at manipulating the court, that he’s going to get convicted. While the sentence probably won’t amount to much, it sets a pattern that he doesn’t see ending. He doesn’t want his daughter to grow up in a home that is disrupted every time her mother comes after her father. He also fears that if he’s convicted, the court will determine that he’s not a fit custodial parent, even though there’s not one bit of evidence that he’s ever, or would ever, hurt that baby girl...” Her throat clogged, and she swallowed. Then continued.
“Despite what Heidi might have convinced herself to believe, even if Josh gets convicted, she’s not going to be eligible to take custody of her daughter. Because of the charges against her before, and the proof that she hurt Bella, she has to wait a minimum of five years before she’ll even be considered as a safe parent. And if Josh is deemed unsafe, Bella could become a ward of the state. If I have her, they can both talk to her every day, video call with her, have their visitations, get to spend holidays with her and go to school functions... We’re still a family, and providing Bella with a secure and stable home life at the same time.” Josh had it all worked out.
And as much as she’d love to raise her niece full-time, as badly as she wanted to be a mother/aunt to the toddler, her heart broke every time she considered her brother’s home without his baby girl.
“Josh knows that I’ve decided to remain single, and he sees this as a win for me, too,” she continued. If there was a chance Greg was open
to the truth, she was going to put it all out there so he could get it. For Josh and Bella. “I’ve always wanted children...”
The man had turned to face her, his gaze so warm she shivered like she did when she first stepped into a deliciously warm bubble bath. She wanted to immerse herself. To soak in it. And know the peace that came from being able to just relax and feel good for a moment.
“What did he say when you asked him if Heidi had been living with him?”
His gaze was inches from hers. His face inches from hers. She desperately needed to know if he was digging for dirt or sincerely looking for truth—she just couldn’t tell.
Didn’t trust herself to be able to tell where he was concerned.
And wanted him to hold her, regardless. To just squeeze her up against that body and do things to her that made them both feel so glorious that the world and its troubles didn’t seem so all encompassing.
“He said that she’d asked to be allowed to spend the night sometimes, so that she could be there when Bella went to bed and when she got up in the morning. So her daughter had a sense of her being a real part of their home life.”
“So he let her move in?”
“No.” It was important that he get this. That he get that Josh—both a victim and a survivor—was a very capable, loving father. “He just let her spend the night sometimes, for Bella’s sake, because he agreed that it could be better for her to know her mother in a more normal light, once or twice a week, depending on his schedule and Heidi’s emotional state. She slept in a downstairs guest bedroom. His and Bella’s rooms are upstairs. And he installed a motion-sensor light that would alert him immediately if she tried to climb the stairs during the night.”
“She could have tampered with the light.”
“She’d have had to do so from upstairs, and he checked it before he went to bed each night. He always sleeps with his door open. And, just in case you’re wondering, he also has a child safety gate at the top of the stairs in case Bella gets up.”
Harlequin Romantic Suspense July 2021 Box Set Page 75