“We need to get word to Erica and Lee that you’re safe, but we can’t let them know you’re with me. It will be easier for them to face questioning if they’re telling the truth when they say they don’t know where you are.”
“How do we do that? If you call them, they’ll figure it out. Lee knows I’ve been here before. He could easily guess I know where the keys are hidden. We also don’t want any direct phone calls between you and them in case the police are monitoring Lee’s cell phone.”
JT couldn’t help but smile. “If there’s one person whose phone can’t be hacked, it’s Lee. But still, we need to be careful. Whoever killed Officer Williams might also be searching for you. I’m sure they hope you’ll be taken care of by an angry cop, but they won’t leave it to fate, because they can’t know if you saw them or not.”
“I didn’t, though. I don’t know if it was a man or woman, or even what kind of car they drove. I was too scared to take a chance at being seen. They had a deep voice, which made me think the person is male, but that’s hardly definitive.”
“I’m pretty sure Lee will dig into the dead officer’s background. Maybe he’ll find some connection between you and him that will make this make sense.”
“I wish I knew if he targeted me specifically or if he was trolling for women driving alone.”
“He didn’t look familiar?”
She shook her head. “He blinded me with a flashlight at first, so I didn’t really see his face until I was out of the car. Honestly, by then I was so panicked, I wasn’t seeing straight, but what I saw didn’t ring any bells at the time.”
“Did you see his official portrait on the news?”
“No. The only photo they showed when I watched was mine.”
Her words brought back the kick to the solar plexus he’d received when he saw her photo on the news. But much as he hated that moment, without it, he wouldn’t have brought Gemma here.
“I think our best bet is Keith Hatcher—CEO of Raptor. I can hire them to investigate what happened in Maryland, and Keith can help you retain an attorney so you’ll be protected by attorney-client privilege. If you have an attorney negotiating with Maryland State Police for you to present yourself for questioning—on neutral ground, preferably Raptor’s Virginia compound—maybe we can get them to call off the manhunt.”
“You can’t tell Keith I’m with you—”
“I’ll say I’m hiring them on my own initiative. He knows…” He paused and closed his eyes, then continued. “He knows I’ll do anything for you. He might guess you’re here, but he’s too smart to ask the question.”
Alexandra glanced at the clock on the stove. “It’s after business hours and tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Raptor—and any potential attorney for me—will charge a fortune, and that’s only if they’ll take your call.”
“I don’t care what it costs. I can afford it.”
She flinched, and he knew why. He’d always been generous with her, but in the end, he’d held even that against her, unable to believe there was any reason she’d stand by him except his wealth. “I’m going to do this for you. I don’t care about the money. I’m not letting you go to prison for a crime you didn’t commit.”
“My fingerprints are on the gun.”
“You didn’t pull the trigger.”
“I know I need outside help, but I’m scared. If MSP figures out where I am…with a warrant, not even these ninety acres will protect me. And I’m sure they have a warrant by now.”
“I trust Keith with my life.”
“We aren’t talking about your life. We’re talking about mine. And Gemma’s.”
Her voice had taken on a hard edge. He had it coming. For years, he’d allowed her to believe he didn’t care about her at all.
He could still see the look on her face when he said the words that ended their relationship for good. He’d been vicious. At the time, he’d told himself it was the right thing to do. While it was true that setting her free was necessary, there was no justifying his method.
He’d wanted her to hurt, for no reason other than he was an asshole and it gutted him that he’d never be enough for her. He’d wanted her to feel the same misery he lived in.
It wasn’t until later, when he broke it down with a therapist, that he could see how much he’d held himself back from Alexandra. Of course he wasn’t enough for her.
“I’m sorry, Lex. I was a total prick, and you never deserved it. You have no reason to believe me, but I’ve never stopped loving you.”
She scoffed. “Listen, JT, I’m grateful for your help, but you don’t need to lie to me. I’m not here hoping to work things out. That ship sailed long ago. You killed my love for you with one brutal blow, so save your apologies that are seven—no nine years too late.”
Nine years. The number was specific. Nine years ago, they were together, ostensibly trying to make their relationship work. It was also when he got a vasectomy and hid it from her.
The shit of it was, he knew he could have told her. She respected his bodily autonomy as much as he respected hers. But he hadn’t told her because he was afraid it would be the final straw that made her give up on him when he was in a terrible mental space and wasn’t giving even a fraction of what he was taking from her for emotional support.
And she was right; now wasn’t the time to discuss any of this. She was in a desperate situation and needed help. From him.
He’d do whatever she needed, no question. Not because of their past relationship. No, it was because she would always be the love of his life, and the only thing he wanted for her was that she get her happily ever after, even if it didn’t include him.
He gave a sharp nod. “Fine. I would trust Keith with Lee’s life.” It was a well-known fact that he loved his little brother, who was his closest friend in the world. It was only thanks to Lee that he had other friends like Keith, Curt, and Alec.
Left to his own devices, he’d have run everyone off the same way he’d shoved Lex away.
If it weren’t for Lee, he’d never have shared his private gym in DC with the others. Hell, he’d bought the place because his, Lee’s, and Curt’s sensei had retired and he couldn’t deal with the idea of finding a new dojo, nor did he want to lose the connection with Lee that had been forged when the kid was a twelve-year-old hacker who needed a hobby that wouldn’t land him in prison.
“Okay, then. I’ll trust Keith too. He seemed nice when I met him at the wedding, and I liked Trina a lot. How do we get in touch with him?”
As the head of a private security and paramilitary training organization that was owned by a sitting US senator, Keith had connections and wildly good security.
“Lee gave me a burner phone. I’ll use it to tell Keith you contacted me, but not that you’re here. He’ll be able to set up a consultation between you and an attorney.”
“Thank you.” Lex rose from her seat at the dining table and cleared their plates.
“I can do the dishes.”
“No. You cooked. And babysat for a day and a half. I can wash up.”
It was weird to be relegated to the role of babysitter, but he supposed that was what he had been. He wasn’t even Uncle Tee. It was a courtesy title for a caretaker.
He looked over to where Gemma sat on the carpet, playing with her stuffed toys and the wooden blocks he’d gotten her, which she was stacking. Building houses for Panny and Tee-Tee?
He gave a half smile. Engineer in the making already.
He and his father had both been engineers. His dad had always wanted JT to have kids to pass on T&D. Keep the engineering dynasty going. Instead, JT was selling it in a week and would be glad to be free from the business that had consumed his life since he first started working there when he was all of fourteen years old.
He looked at Alexandra’s daughter, building towers for a panda and dinosaur, and wondered once again about Gemma’s father.
He knew her last name was Vargas, but that meant nothing. Alexandra hadn’t planned to take the name Talon when they married, and it was her right to give her child her name, no matter who the father was.
Hell, JT’s last name, Talon, wasn’t even his. If Joseph Talon Sr. hadn’t been cheated out of being raised by his birth mother, his name would have been Ricky Guerrero. JT would be Ricky Junior, maybe. But then, JT probably wouldn’t exist. Ricky Guerrero would have had a vastly different life.
Better or worse in adulthood, no one could know, but definitely better than a childhood of being raised in an Indian boarding school, run by a white headmaster who hated the Indigenous children forced to live in his school.
The Carleton School for Indian Boys was one of many Indian boarding schools that was under scrutiny now, especially because it had operated longer than most of the schools that started in the late 1800s with the purpose of erasing Indigenous culture from all tribal children. The graveyard behind the school was vast and dated back to when children had been removed from their homes at gunpoint.
JT wasn’t a tribal member by blood, as he’d thought until he was thirty-seven. He’d been raised within the tribal community, everyone believing he was one-quarter Menanichoch. One of their own. In the end, that was good enough for the tribe, and after processing the rift that undermined his very foundation, he realized it was good enough for him too. They were his family in a way even Lee wasn’t, even though he shared exactly the same amount of blood with the tribe as he shared with his stepbrother. He’d grown up with the tribe’s traditions, straddling Indigenous and white man’s world as his father’s wealth grew.
Now JT was an extremely wealthy man. He was also a registered member of the Menanichoch tribe—accepted in before he was born. In reality, his grandfather had been a dark-skinned Cuban man, his grandmother a pale French-Canadian woman. JT resembled his father, whose ambiguous ethnicity had worked in the favor of the kidnapper who dumped four-year-old Ricky at the boarding school and gave him the name Joseph Talon, along with identifying him as a Menanichoch tribal member.
Alexandra’s daughter was blonde and blue-eyed, like her mother. She’d been born in Switzerland, while her mother was there on a research fellowship.
Did she have a Swiss father?
Staring at the happy toddler, he asked the question he’d never dared to ask Lee. “Where is Gemma’s father?”
“Lee didn’t tell you?”
“I…didn’t want to know.” For the longest time, he’d resisted even finding out if she had a boy or a girl. It wasn’t until he decided to set up the trust fund for her that he’d needed to know her name and birthdate. But now wasn’t the time to tell Lex about the trust.
“Her bio dad is a popsicle. Frozen sperm.”
That surprised him. “You said you’d never do that. You wanted a family.”
“I never found anyone I wanted to have a kid with, and my biological clock was shutting the door. I changed my mind.” She cleared her throat. “It’s a good thing I made the decision when I did. I ended up having trouble conceiving and had to go through fertility treatment in addition to artificial insemination. It took me nearly two years to conceive, and several expensive rounds of treatment.” She looked at her daughter. “She’s my precious Gem.”
Alexandra descended the stairs, baby monitor speaker in hand, walking softly in hopes that Gemma would stay asleep in the portable crib. She could hear JT on the phone and didn’t make a sound as she entered the study, where he sat in a large office chair, facing the dark window with his back to the desk and doorway. She silently settled into the love seat in the corner of the large office and listened to his side of the conversation.
“We need to get word to Lee and Erica that Alexandra is safe without connecting the info to me. I’m sure they’re being questioned daily, so best to keep them in the dark.”
He was silent for a moment, then said, “I appreciate it, Keith. I’ll pay whatever it takes.”
Alexandra silently vowed to pay him back. This was her problem, not his. She’d gratefully take his help now, but wouldn’t be beholden to him in the long run.
It was a relief that Erica and Lee would know she was safe. She hated the stress they must be feeling. In three hours, it would be Christmas Eve. They all deserved peace this holiday.
Alexandra and Gemma had been invited to Erica and Lee’s for Christmas dinner. She had initially declined until Erica assured her that JT wouldn’t be there because everyone attending would have kids. Curt and Mara would be there with their son. Alec and Isabel’s baby wasn’t due until March, but they planned to join the fun.
She’d been so looking forward to it. Once upon a time, she’d been friends with Curt and wanted to get to know Mara, who was close to Erica. The women were tight in a way Alexandra and Erica had been for a time.
The way Alexandra and Kendall had once been. Before Brent. And, to be fair, before JT.
Now Kendall was gone and Alexandra’s future was in serious doubt. Would she ever have a chance to forge new friendships that had felt so promising a week ago?
She wanted Gemma to have the feeling of an extended family, even though she was the only child of a single mother who had also been an only child. Alexandra’s parents were still alive, but both had dementia and lived in a care facility in Delaware.
Like Gemma, Alexandra had been born to a woman of advanced maternal age, and her parents were now in their mid-eighties. Her mother’s mind was sharper than her father’s, but she was only sporadically lucid.
She shuddered at the idea the press might find a way to invade her parents’ peace in their memory care facility, but security was extremely tight to protect the patients, so it was unlikely.
JT said goodbye to Keith, then spun around in his chair to face her. “I’m pretty sure Keith didn’t believe me when I said I didn’t know where you were, but like I figured, he didn’t probe.”
“I’m going to pay you back. I know Raptor doesn’t come cheap.”
JT rose from his seat and circled the desk to stand in front of her. He reached out a hand. She took it, and he gently pulled her to her feet.
His arms enfolded her. He’d held her on the couch, but this was the first time they’d embraced without Gemma between them.
He held her tight. She’d never in her wildest dreams imagined being in his arms again. His embrace was both familiar and foreign.
His grip loosened, and he raised his head. She did the same and met his gaze. “Let me do this for you, Lex.”
She studied his eyes. Deep brown and beautiful. His hair was going gray, and the salt and pepper looked damn good on him. “You don’t understand. I can’t let you, JT. You put your money between us in the past. I don’t trust you not to hold this against me too.”
“I was a complete ass, looking for a reason why you’d stayed with me. I figured it had to be the money because it was never my winning personality.”
His words were shockingly self-aware for a man who’d never exhibited such insight before. “I was with you because I loved you.”
Past tense. Now she was with him because she needed him. And right now, what she needed was his money.
“I wasn’t worthy of your love then. So I was certain you only tolerated me because I was rich.”
“That’s because you’re a dumb fuck. But yeah, you’re right. You didn’t deserve me.” She’d put up with him far longer than she should have. And it was that tolerance that had made him disrespect her more.
It had been a vicious cycle.
“I’ve done a lot of work. I’m not the man I was then. I was working up my courage to reach out to you, to make amends. When I heard you’d had a kid, I knew I’d waited too long to get my shit together, and I didn’t want to intrude on your happiness, even if only to give you closure.”
She pushed away from him, stepping back and pacing away. His words were nice, but even now, it was all about him. He couldn’t bestow closure on her. She’d had to find that for herself. No. He’d wanted to reach out to make himself feel better. Closure for him.
“This isn’t the time to talk about this. I need your help, and I don’t want to fight.”
“I’m making it worse, aren’t I?”
“Not worse, but not better either. You’re still centering you.”
He smiled. “I love that you aren’t hesitating to call out my shit even now.”
“I’ve learned it’s better than stewing in silence.”
“You used to do that. When we were first together. When we were engaged. Even when we were on again, off again. It wasn’t until my life fell apart that you held back.”
“Will it make you happy to know it’s because you were fragile as a wasps’ nest?”
He frowned, his brow furrowed in question.
She spelled it out for him. “Paper thin, brittle, and if you tap it, you get stung. Several times.”
He nodded. “Accurate.”
No man likes to be told he’s fragile, but JT took it in stride. Maybe he really had changed.
But something about his words and manner brought to mind the man she’d fallen in love with once upon a time. Maybe, instead of changing into something new, he’d gone back to being the man who’d swept her off her feet when they first met.