Annie had become a nurse practitioner and was considering medical school and pediatric medicine when she’d met Gavin Stone. Gavin, a renowned plastic surgeon fifteen years her senior, had been handsome, charming and obsessed with Annie. So much so that Soledad had gotten a bad feeling about him from the start. He’d been jealous of their friendship, purposely distancing Annie from as many friends and family as he could manage. On their wedding day he’d told Soledad to tell her best friend goodbye, that things would change now that Annie was his. As if Annie were a fragile possession that he planned to tuck away in a drawer far from public view. Soledad had wanted to warn Annie but wasn’t sure what to warn her about. And she’d been happy. So much so that Soledad hadn’t wanted to do anything to spoil her day or put a damper on the future Annie had seen before her. Soledad had kept her concerns to herself, instead making sure Gavin knew that nothing and no one would ever break the bond the two women shared. No matter how hard he tried.
Gavin’s abuse had started slowly, emotional at first and then turning physical. Annie had been made to quit her job at the hospital, Gavin controlling their finances. He told her what she could and could not do and who she could and could not see. He rarely allowed her out of his sight, and even when he was at the hospital working, he would call with regularity to ensure she was home, abiding by his lengthy list of rules. The name-calling had gone from the occasional nasty slur to spitting rages that left Annie in tears. Open-palmed slaps when she had tried to defend her position or said something he didn’t like became closed-fist punches that had left her bruised and battered. And each time Gavin had hurt Annie, Soledad had been furious.
With haunting regularity, Annie had cried on Soledad’s shoulders, the weight of her problems feeling like a boulder that neither woman could move. Frustration that there was nothing Soledad could say or do to distance Annie from the situation had been devastating. Soledad’s suggestions to call the police and report him had fallen on deaf ears, Annie petrified that outside help would only make things worse. She’d been devastated when she’d discovered she was pregnant but had hoped the birth of their child would push Gavin to be a better man. Instead, he’d been furious that their first child together would be a girl when he only wanted a son. He’d proclaimed it Annie’s fault, just another in a long list of wrongs he attributed to her.
Soledad’s apartment and Dream Bakes had become Annie’s sanctuary, the only places where she could run and hide when the abuse became too much. Gavin had tried only once to stall his wife’s lifelong friendship with Soledad. It was one of the few times Annie had openly gone toe-to-toe with him, threatening to publicly expose him if he dared impede their bond. Soledad had stood arm in arm with her, ready to show him a world of hurt to protect her friend. Gavin had backed off, but not before leaving Annie with a black eye and bruised clavicle. But Annie had gone back to being a dutiful wife and Soledad had become her refuge. Too often, Soledad had been angry with the world, that Annie was unable to see herself free of the man, and she’d been riddled with guilt that there wasn’t something more that she herself could do for her friend.
After the birth of Lyra, Annie had finally agreed to get out of her situation. Soledad knew that the first step was to take Annie as far from her husband as she could run. Therapy and support would follow, and Soledad had put everything in place to ensure as smooth a transition for Annie as she could muster.
Together, they had dedicated weeks to planning each step, considering every fathomable possibility until every detail of Annie’s escape plan was committed to memory. Once Annie and the baby were safe inside her Toyota Camry, Soledad would drive them both upstate to a shelter for battered women. The drive would take a few hours and put them at the front door. From there, mother and child would be escorted to their new home and Soledad would be sent on her way to worry about her friend from afar. Cell phones were prohibited, but Annie would be able to call Soledad weekly from a private line in her counselor’s office.
Soledad couldn’t know her friend’s final destination and Annie would be forbidden to disclose her whereabouts, lest she put other sheltered women in danger. Telling anyone of her whereabouts would get Annie evicted from the shelter and the program’s many protections. But more important, Gavin wouldn’t be able to find her until Annie was ready to be found.
Soledad tapped her hand nervously against her leg, her anxiety beginning to reach peak levels. Annie was ten minutes late. Soledad was tempted to sneak up to the home to peek into the windows, but she didn’t want to risk setting off the sensor lights Gavin had installed around the property. They didn’t have much time before the security car would make its regularly scheduled drive-by. But there had been contingencies for that, too. Soledad just prayed they wouldn’t be necessary.
Panic was just about to set in when the rear passenger door of her car was thrown open and Annie slid inside. She carried little Lyra against her chest and had a designer baby backpack hoisted over her shoulder. She looked like Soledad felt. Scared!
“Drive!” Annie ordered as she slammed the door closed. “Go! Now! Drive!”
Soledad shifted the vehicle into gear and pulled from the makeshift parking space onto the cul-de-sac. Behind her, the Stone family home was suddenly awash with light, looking as if every bulb in every room had come to life. Instinctively knowing that wasn’t a good thing, Soledad turned her eyes to the road, hit the gas and peeled off as if someone were already chasing them.
* * *
“We’re going to stay off the main road until we get into the next county,” Soledad said, glancing into her rearview mirror to the back seat. “Hopefully, Gavin will get lost trying to figure out what direction we’re headed.”
Tears were streaming down Annie’s face. It was one of the few times her friend had allowed her vulnerability to show. She looked lost and frightened.
Annie shook her head. “He’s going to find us,” she whispered.
“He’s not,” Soledad said firmly. “We won’t let him. Did you toss your cell phone?”
Annie nodded. “I left it in the dog food bag.”
“Then we’re good. Because I wouldn’t put it past him to have some sort of tracking device installed to keep up with you. In thirty minutes, we’ll be far enough away that there’ll be no way he can find you.”
Annie forced the slightest smile to her face, but Soledad knew her dear friend wasn’t as confident.
Soledad shifted her gaze back and forth between her side mirrors, her rearview mirror, the back seat and the road. Annie had drifted into thought, nuzzling six-month-old Lyra gently beneath her chin, her arms wrapped protectively around the infant. The little girl was wrapped snugly in a cotton blanket, completely oblivious to the lengths her mother and Soledad would go to keep her safe. It was bliss, and Soledad wished she could be so lucky to know that kind of peace and be as unaware.
Annie eased the baby into the infant safety seat, latching it securely around the tiny body before tightening her own seat belt.
They drove in silence for a good little while. The local radio station was playing Shy Carter’s newest release. Soledad bobbed her head in time to the beat, singing along with the song that had risen swiftly to the top of the country charts. The service roads were dark, lights nonexistent. Barely a sliver of moonlight peeked through the cover of clouds. It had also begun to drizzle, the threat of heavy rain preceded by a trickle of moisture that was most annoying. And the rising fog was getting thicker with each passing minute.
Annie broke the moment of reverie, her usually poised tone a loud whisper that rippled with tension. “I need you to make me a promise, Soledad.”
“Anything. You know that,” Soledad responded, shooting her friend a quick glance in the rearview mirror.
“If anything happens to me, I want you to promise that you’ll take care of Lyra. I need you to keep my baby girl safe.”
Soledad raised her brows. “Don�
�t talk like that, Annie. Everything is going to be fine. You’re going to—”
Annie interrupted her, her voice rising ever so slightly. “Promise me, Soledad. I need you to promise!” Annie’s stoic expression was disconcerting, the determination in her eyes feeling almost final.
She nodded. “Whatever you need. You know that!” And Soledad meant that with every fiber of her being as the words slipped past her lips. Soledad understood the fear that gripped her bestie because it rippled down the length of her own spine. It felt corporeal, a thick, viscous energy with the stench of doubt and anger wrapped around it. Stepping into the unknown came with its own set of consequences and proved formidable when you had to worry about someone other than yourself. Annie had her daughter, and fearing for herself was nothing compared to fearing for her child. Soledad was scared for them all.
“I need you to make sure nothing happens to Lyra. That she grows up to be a happy, healthy little girl and a confident young woman. I need you to make sure Gavin doesn’t ever get his hands on her. So, please, promise me. I need you to say it!”
“I promise, Annie. I would never let anything happen to Lyra. I’d protect her with my own life!”
“Good,” her friend said. “Because I went to see my attorney this week. I left a letter with him to be opened if something happens to me. It details all of Gavin’s abuses and points at him if I’m killed. It also names you as Lyra’s legal guardian. I’ve left you two insurance policies, also. One that should be put into trust for Lyra’s care. I imagine you’ll have to use the other to fight Gavin if he tries to take Lyra from you. It should be more than enough for legal fees or whatever else you might need.”
Soledad rolled her eyes skyward to help defuse the tension. “First, please stop being morbid. Things will never get to that point. Nothing is going to happen to you. And, second, you need to stop worrying. I will never let anything happen to my goddaughter. I promised you that, and I will keep that promise.”
Annie seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as she gave Soledad a nod. Her eyes shifted to stare out the window at the rain that had started to drop heavily. Another quiet moment passed as Soledad slowed her speed, fighting to see the road that lay ahead of them.
“What happened back at the house?” Soledad asked, her voice rippling through the silence like a pebble skipping across a quiet pond of water.
Annie took a deep breath. Lyra had begun to stir, the faintest squeak rising to a crescendo wail. “She’s hungry,” her mother muttered softly.
Soledad eyed them in the mirror as Annie lifted the baby from the car seat and undid the top buttons of her blouse. She discreetly covered herself with a blanket as Lyra latched on to her breast to nurse.
“I think he knew,” Annie finally said. She shifted her body around to extend her legs so that baby Lyra rested comfortably against her chest. “He’d been ranting all evening about what he would do if I ever thought about leaving him again. He said he had two bullets with my name on them. He said he’d make sure Lyra never knew who I was. That he’d find her a new mother.”
“Did you put the sleeping pills in his coffee?”
Annie nodded. “Just like we planned. I made his regular cup after dinner, like I always do. But he barely drank it. When I cleared the dishes away, his cup was still half-full. He was drinking bourbon instead, and you know he rarely drinks. I thought the alcohol affected him harder than I realized, because he fell asleep sooner than I anticipated. I figured he was just drunk enough that he’d be out of it long enough for me to stick to the plan. Once he was snoring, I threw on my clothes, grabbed the diaper bag and Lyra, and sneaked out of the house. But just as I disengaged the house alarm, he was screaming my name. I just ran!”
Soledad realized Annie was crying again, her tears falling on the blanket wrapped around the baby. Annie had tried leaving Gavin once, before Lyra had been born. She’d packed her things and had gone to her mother’s, determined to make a go of it without the husband who had promised her the world. Gavin had been relentless in his efforts to get her back. There had been promises of being a better man and trying harder. Assurances they would go to counseling to resolve the problems in their marriage. Every pronouncement had included some lavish gift: huge bouquets of Annie’s favorite white roses, gold and diamond baubles, and an excursion to Paris to profess his love. Promises that had held no weight once Annie had given in and gone back to him, every pledge a well-tuned lie.
Despite Soledad’s admonishments for Annie to not trust Gavin, nothing she said could convince her friend the good doctor wasn’t good at all. Annie desperately wanted to believe him, and Soledad’s frustration with the situation increased tenfold. That frustration had been so tangible that Soledad had actually feared the potential demise of their friendship.
Weeks after their reconciliation, Annie discovered she was pregnant. Eight months into her pregnancy, she’d walked in on Gavin and one of his many mistresses in their marital bed. Lyra came days later, and it was as if a perfect storm had converged on her best friend’s life. Postpartum depression, a colicky baby and Gavin’s emotional battering had left Annie bruised and broken. When Soledad had stepped in with a game plan, pleading with her bestie to choose herself and her daughter, Annie hadn’t hesitated. Now here they were, both women questioning if they’d be able to see those plans to fruition. Neither wanting to voice their concerns aloud.
Because Soledad had concerns, starting with the headlights that had been following them for the last few miles. She’d chosen this road because traffic was minimal at that hour. The vehicle behind her tonight, though, seemed to mimic her moves—slowing when she slowed, speeding when she sped. She didn’t recognize the vehicle, the car looking like a late-model sedan, a Cadillac, maybe even an Audi, and she was fairly certain it wasn’t Gavin. But fairly certain wasn’t certain enough. Under any other circumstances, she wouldn’t have given it a second thought. However, she knew what they were up against, and whoever followed behind them had her suddenly feeling anxious. Then, almost as if she’d spoken out loud, the distant lights disappeared from her view.
* * *
A wave of relief flooded Soledad. Outside, the rain had finally stopped. Lyra had drifted back to sleep and her mother was no longer shaking. They had only been driving some thirty minutes, but it felt like hours had passed.
“We’ll be out of the county in a few minutes,” Soledad said. “Now that the rain isn’t coming down in buckets, I can pick up the speed.”
“Don’t get another ticket, Soledad.”
Soledad joked, “I like my bad driver certificates.”
“Well, the state is going to like taking away your license if they have to give you another.”
The two women laughed, seeming to relax for the first time since their night had started. The local radio station was digging through its oldie-but-goodie song box, playing Rissi Palmer’s popular “Country Girl.” By the second verse, they both were singing loudly together, the baby lulled back to sleep by their voices.
For the briefest moment, it felt like old times, lost in a good time. For a split second, Soledad had not a care in the world, letting herself forget why they were traveling in the middle of the night, fleeing from a past that threatened a joyous future. Laughter rang warmly through the space. Then, just like that, their moment was stolen from them.
Copyright © 2021 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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ISBN-13: 9780369713599
Colton 911: Secret Defender
Copyright © 2021 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Marie Ferrarella for her contribution to the Colton 911: Chicago miniseries.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Colton 911: Secret Defender Page 23