A Carpino Series Collection, Books 1-3

by Brynne Asher

  “Gabrielle Carpino. I’ve known Leigh since we were little. I’ll be here for whatever she needs.”

  Dr. Cline’s face goes soft and he gives me a small smile. “Thank you, Ms. Carpino, that’s good to know.” He looks down at Leigh and laying a light hand on her shoulder, he says, “Leigh, I need to talk with you. Would you like to do that alone or should your friend stay?”

  Uttering her first words, Leigh softly says, “She can stay.” But she doesn’t move, she stays where she is facing me with her back to the gentle doctor.

  “Good,” he replies, like he means it in more ways than one. “We need to talk about your fall, Leigh.”

  “Fall?” I ask.

  He sighs and continues. “Leigh tells us she fell down a half flight of stairs at home, resulting in the injury to her eye, a broken arm, and miscarriage.”

  “Miscarriage?” I gasp again. She was pregnant? And how in the hell did she fall down the stairs? Leigh is one of the most graceful people I know. Every move she makes is graceful. Leigh’s hand tightens in mine, so I hold strong. “How did she fall down the stairs?”

  Dr. Cline sees I’m surprised by everything and gazes at me with knowing eyes, trying to communicate more than he is saying, but rather says the words, “That’s what we are trying to get to the bottom of.”

  It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out what he means. I give him an ever so slight chin lift. “Where’s Preston?”

  Leigh’s breath hitches, trying to control a sob, but she says nothing. Dr. Cline informs, “We understand he’s with authorities, answering some questions. Please talk with your friend, Ms. Carpino. Encourage her to be truthful. We are bound by law to make our own reports and Leigh’s injuries do not happen by falling down half a flight of stairs.” He looks down to Leigh, again touching her shoulder. “Talk to your friend. Tell her the truth. You’re obviously not safe and we need to make you safe. You lost dearly today, Leigh. It’s time to be truthful, you owe that to the memory of your baby if not yourself.”

  Leigh’s body is wracking with sobs. I have to hold on to her hand tight for fear if I let her go I will hunt down her jackass of a husband and kill him myself. He did this to her and apparently killed their baby in the process. I nod to Dr. Cline and he turns to leave. I sit back down in front of her and let her hold on to me for a few minutes. My tears have dried up and have been replaced by a fury so hot and deep I can barely sit here. But my job, given to me silently by the gentle doctor, is to get her to tell me what really happened.

  “Leigh, girlie, you were pregnant?” Still trying to control her sobs, she only nods. “Okay, I wish you would have told me, but I understand. But you have to tell me, Leigh, did Preston do this to you?” She gave her head small but quick shakes. I try again. “Leigh, you heard what the doctor said. They know this could not have happened from falling down stairs. You have to tell me the truth.”

  “I feel so alone,” she squeaks. “I’m not like you. I don’t have a family. My mom is a mess in the next state and my sister is a mess across the country. I don’t know what to do.”

  “I’m here, Leigh. I’m your family and I’ll take care of you. You know my parents loved you and would have stepped in to care for you in a heartbeat. But it’s just you and me, now. I’m going to make sure you’re okay and you are most definitely not okay. But I need your help here, Leigh. I can’t make you safe by myself. I’ll be the strong one but you need to help me. I’ll just ask you some questions, you can answer yes or no. How does that sound?”

  She looks up at me, completely scared and freaked. After staring at me a few beats, she closes her good eye and nods. I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding and say, “Okay, but I need to tell you something first. After you get out of here, our first step in making you safe is moving in with me. You can have the basement all to yourself. It’s a huge house and I can help you while you’re healing. And you know you’ll be safe there, right?” I look down at her and she agrees with a little nod. “We’ve got a plan. Now that the plan is in place, there’s no reason for the truth not to come out, okay?”

  This wins me another nod.

  Thank you, God.

  I take in air and start asking my sweet friend questions. She answers with her head, rarely with words. The tears are streaming down my face again as I learn about the hell she’s been living for years. But no more. Preston will only be a memory for her, but worst of all, so will her baby. Once I finish asking her questions and the truth has been laid out, I have enough to give the doctor to start the ball rolling. She’ll need to be questioned again by the police, but later, after she has had a chance to process everything. A nurse comes in to give her pain medication and I stay with her until it kicks in and she falls asleep.

  I walk out of her room and am surprised to see Jude is still here, sitting on a folding chair. He waited for me. Standing up, he pulls me into his arms and holds me tight. I let myself melt into him as he says into my hair, “I’m so sorry you had to go through that, sugar. I heard it all and you were perfect. She’s lucky to have you.” He pulls back to cup my face in his hands and goes on to growl, “But that fuckwad is going to pay for what he did to her.”

  Oh no. I forgot about Jude’s radiating fury. Being on the other side of the hospital bed this time, I can understand Jude and my family’s wrath when Trevor beat me up.

  “I need to talk to her doctor. I also need to call my Uncle Tony. She’s going to need representation and he specializes in family law. He’ll do it for free.”

  “You know for sure he’ll do it pro bono?” Jude asks as we make our way to the nurses’ station.

  “My Uncle Tony will take one look at her and represent her for nothing. But remember, I am part something-or-other in the firm, so yes, he’ll do it for free,” I say cocking an eyebrow at him.

  “I have a feeling Leigh is going to have the Carpinos at war for her on all sides,” Jude mutters, looking down and pulling me in close to his side.

  I allow this because I am so tired from all that’s gone on the last twenty-four hours, not to mention what I have ahead of me with Leigh. Knowing I shouldn’t allow myself the comfort, I take it anyway and tuck myself into Jude, trying not to think about the future. More importantly, the future I might not get but so desperately want.

  We wait for the doctor and with everything that has gone on tonight with Leigh, I’m so thankful to have Jude here with me. I do my best to not think about our pending conversation. However, trying and doing are two very different things. And when it comes down to it, I just don’t have the energy to push him away. For tonight, I’m going to let him take care of me so I can take care of my friend.

  Chapter Twenty

  I’ve Got A Lot To Say

  I pour chicken stock into my Le Creuset.

  It’s Tuesday—the day after we got back from Colorado, the day after I found out my childhood friend is a victim of domestic violence, losing her baby, and the day after two mostly sleepless nights. I’m pretty sure Jude didn’t sleep much, either. He used his police connections to find out that Preston was arrested for assault with more charges to come, and spent the night in jail. Since all Leigh has is me, I took matters into my own hands and dragged Jude over to Leigh’s house and we packed up everything she could need.

  No, scratch that.

  We packed up every stitch of clothing, personal items and everything else that I knew was hers that she would want out of that house, plus her car. It took three trips with Jude’s truck and my Tahoe and then we lugged it all into my house. I wanted to get it done while Preston-the-asshole was in jail to avoid him at all costs. Not wanting her to be alone, we went back to the hospital around one in the morning and I spent the night with her. Jude stayed for a few more hours before going back to my house to take care of Mia and trying to get some sleep himself. He even came to the hospital over his lunch hour and filled me in on what he could find out about Preston when we were out of earshot from Leigh.

  Now it’s
dinnertime and Jude texted about half an hour ago saying he should be here any minute. Leigh was discharged late this afternoon and I got her settled in her new room in my basement. We’ve been home for two hours and she’s been resting in bed while I’ve been hanging and folding clothes, arranging her things around the room and bathroom so she’ll feel at home. I did all this while she apologized to me about four thousand, three hundred and seventy-five times for everything under the sun.

  Finally, I looked at her and said, “Enough! Would you have done this for me if I didn’t have a crazy family to take care of me after I lost my parents?”

  Her face said a million words and after that she was weirdly quiet. I proceeded to curse myself for saying anything because I think I preferred her apologizing as opposed to the weird silence. I made sure she took her pain medication and even supplied her with my left-over stool softeners. One can never be too careful.

  Now is now and I dump the shredded chicken into the pot, making my mom’s chicken noodle soup for dinner. My mom always made chicken noodle soup when someone was sick. I guess my grandma did the same thing, so when someone turns up ill, I get a crazy hankering for chicken noodle soup. I go to the door at the deck to let Mia in. The weather has taken a sharp turn from fall to winter today and it’s downright cold. Hopefully it will warm up again, I hate it when the little kids have to Trick-or-Treat when it’s freezing.

  I hear the garage door, see Jude turn the corner from the mudroom to the kitchen, and my insides tighten at the sight of him. He’s beautiful, sweet, caring, and a million other things, but one thing I’m not sure of is, if he’s mine. And that’s killing me. I want him to be mine so badly. We haven’t finished our talk and it’s making me crazy nervous to think that’s going to happen tonight. Nothing seems different than it was before our trip to Colorado, he called to say when he would be here after work and even asked how Leigh was settling.

  He brings himself straight to me and pulls me up for a soft kiss. “Sugar.”

  “Hey. Are you hungry? It should be ready soon, it just needs to simmer for a few minutes. I think Leigh is asleep, so she can eat when she wakes up.”

  “I’m good, whatever works. Are you as tired as I feel?”

  “Does it show? I think I’m operating solely on caffeine.”

  He kisses me one more time and goes to my room, probably to put his stuff away. I sigh, trying not to think about him putting his stuff where I want it to stay forever. My head is swimming with emotion right now and being tired doesn’t help that. I decide to go down and check on Leigh one more time.

  When I get back to the kitchen, Jude is leaning with his hips to the island, ankles crossed, arms crossed, and his eyes cast to the floor, deep in thought. When he hears me coming, he looks up. “How is she?”

  “Still asleep. She might be out for a while, she took a pain pill not too long ago.”

  “Come here, sugar.” He holds out a hand for me.

  But instead of following his bossy order, I go to the stove.

  “I need to stir the soup and warm the bread. We should be able to eat anytime,” I explain, trying my best to avoid him.

  “Gabby, it can wait. Come here.”

  Stirring the soup with my back to him, I go on, “We need to eat, I want to go to bed early if Leigh is okay. I still have laundry to catch up on, Mia needs a bath, not to mention the house needs cleaned—” In typical Jude fashion, the spoon is snatched from my hand, he semi-slams the lid back down on my pot and turns off the gas.

  “Hey!” I yell, “What are you doing?”

  “I said come here.” He proceeds to drag me by the hand out of the kitchen and to the sofa.

  “I’m hungry.” I don’t know what else to say.

  “You’ll be fine. We need to talk and we need to do that now before the next catastrophe hits.”

  “Well, I don’t have anything to say,” I continue to argue.

  “Good, you keep your mouth shut and this’ll go faster. I’ve got a lot to say,” he proceeds to pull me down on to the sofa next to him.

  I try one last time to escape. “I don’t know if I can concentrate, I’m really hungry.” Its lame I know, but in for a penny, in for a pound.

  He picks up my legs at the knees, again pulling them over his lap and scooting in close to me as he says, “Quit being ridiculous.”

  I pull in a gasp and realize I am right where I was last night around this same time, boxed in with no escape possible. I cross my arms in what little space I can call my own. “Fine. Talk.”

  Jude lets out a little huff, minutely shakes his head and grins, as if he can read my mind. Using his super soft raspy voice I like so much, he starts. “What happened at the cabin was bad. I hate that you were hurt and found out about my past like that, but I can’t say I’m not relieved you finally know. I didn’t know how to tell you about Julia and the babies, I’ve never had to tell anyone before. Those who know about my past knew it when it happened and no one else has ever earned that from me. But I made a mistake, I should have told you sooner,” he pauses to brush a loose piece of hair out of my face. Looking at me intently, he goes on. “What I would have said to you is that the last nine years of my life have been empty and void of pretty much anything great. I’ve got friends. I’ve always liked my job. I liked serving in the Force and I might not have an army like you, but I do have my family. My life has been decent, so I can’t complain, but it doesn’t compare to the little time I’ve had with you. I’ve been moving through my life for the last nine years because I knew I needed to, not because I wanted to.”

  My chest is beating hard and I’m trying to control my emotions. I unfold my arms and put my hands on each side of his neck to hang on. Jude, of course, takes advantage and pulls me even closer, continuing softly. “Thinking of the future only made me think about what I lost, so I’ve lived day to day, but I’m ready to think about the future again. I’ve been graced with something extraordinary and beautiful for the second time in my life. If you think I’m gonna walk away from that beauty, you’re outta your mind. The first time around I knew what I had was good but didn’t realize how fragile it was until it was taken away from me. I don’t know what I’ve done to be gifted with it twice, but you can sure as hell believe that it’s precious to me and I’m going to take care of it. You’re crazy if you think I’m going anywhere because there’s nowhere else I want to be, and I’m not only talking about today, Gabby. I’m looking into my future for the first time in a long time and you’re in it.”

  I feel the tears burning in my eyes, but this time from relief and happiness. So, when I look at him through my blurry eyes before thinking twice and blurt, “I love you,” it surprises even me.

  Jude, who is still caging me in, goes rock solid. His eyes slowly blink once and regret starts to creep through me when all of a sudden, I’m crushed into his large frame. He barely whispers, “Gabby, baby, I love you, too.” He squeezes me even tighter and I feel his lips on my neck.

  My stinking tears continue and I hold on tight but I manage to mutter, “You’re mine.”

  “Yeah, baby,” he whispers back. “As long as you’ll have me.”

  Trying to take in calming breaths to stop my tears, I try to lighten the mood. “Does this mean I get to decorate your mountain home?”

  Jude throws his head back and laughs out loud.

  “Don’t laugh. I’m serious.”

  “I knew you were decorating my cabin in your head all weekend,” he says. “Yeah, you can do whatever you want with my cabin, just don’t make it girlie.”

  All of a sudden forgetting our recent confessions of love and devotion, I straighten my back. “Jude Ortiz. Do you really think I would make your mountain home girlie?”

  Jude, still somewhat chuckling pulls me in close again and tries to make a deal. “No, sugar, I don’t think you’ll make my cabin girlie. But I’ll tell you what, you can do whatever you want to my cabin—guys like me don’t have mountain homes—if I can clean your garage s
o I can park in it. How’s that for a trade?”

  I immediately feel my face go soft and melt into him. “You want to park in my garage?” Why this makes me exponentially happier than I already was, I do not know, but it does.

  He smiles. “Yeah. Though, you’re gonna need to get rid of some shit.”

  “Okay,” I lie and smile big. He won’t make me get rid of anything. Anyway, I plan on using a lot of it in his mountain home.

  Shaking his head as if he can tell I’m lying, he smiles, leans in and kisses me soft but long. Ending his sweet kiss, he says, “Should we eat?”

  “Yeah,” I whisper.

  But he doesn’t let me go. He pulls me in tighter. “Love you, sugar. Thank you for wanting me.”

  “Jude, I love you more than anything.”

  “Will you tell me about her?” I ask as I outline Jude’s winged tattoo with my fingers.

  We’re naked and tangled up in one another. Jude just made love to me, spending lots of time and attention to many parts of my body. I’ve never thought much about the layout of this house, but right now I’m thankful that the master bedroom is on the opposite side from Leigh’s room.

  Leigh woke up after Jude and I talked, ate a little dinner and went right back to sleep. I told her I’d sleep downstairs with her tonight, but she insisted that she wanted to be by herself so I let her be. I decided to ignore the laundry, the dirty house, and my dirty dog. These were easy decisions, as Jude pulled me into the bedroom and started to do delicious things to me, and even better, telling me he loved me in many different ways.

  “What do you want to know?” Jude asks, lying on his back, his arm around me where I’m tucked in tight to his side.

  “What was she like?”

  “She was quiet, a little shy, not with people close to her but in general. But she loved kids, always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She never wavered on that.”