Читать книгу By Request Collection April-June 2016 - Оливия Гейтс - Страница 116

“SO YOU DECIDED TO GO TO Dallas with him,” Shea said, looking as if she hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. That probably had something to do with the fact that she and Jesse had arrived at six-thirty.

Annie had slept surprisingly well in Tucker’s arms. In fact, all they had done was sleep. And although the day ahead frightened her to death, she felt all right. “He’s put himself on the line for me,” she said. “I have to give him the same courtesy.”

“Have to?”

Annie smiled. “You’re the slyest devil I know. No. I want to. If all the rest of this madness weren’t going on, I’m pretty sure I’d be over the moon with happiness.”

“People say, ‘This, too, shall pass.’”

“People can be idiots. But in this case, I hope they’re right. I don’t want to hide anymore.”

“Of course you don’t.” Shea nodded at the suitcase on Annie’s bed. “That’s all you’re taking?”

“That’s all I’ve got. I didn’t leave with much to begin with, then had no place to store anything that wasn’t useful.”

“You should have said. I would have brought some things for you to wear. Maybe not my clothes, because they wouldn’t fit, but we could have come up with something.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You’re right. You will be.”

Annie closed the suitcase and turned to her friend. “I’m only able to do this because of you guys.”

“It’s everyone, Annie. We want you to be free and clear, here because you want to be. In the meantime, I’ve got Melanie and Levi and Kathy to help out. And Will, of course. Then there’s all of them from the Sundance, and Matt’s volunteered a bunch of manpower from the Lone Wolf. So don’t fret. We’ve got it covered, no matter what.”

“Just know that I appreciate it deeply. That I’d hug you so hard if we were huggers.”

Shea laughed. “You are a good friend.”

“Hey,” Tucker called up the stairs. “You need my help?”

“Nope,” Annie called back. “Fair warning, though. If there’s no more coffee, you guys are toast.” She picked up her suitcase and looked around the room, hoping like hell she’d see it, and the people of Blackfoot Falls, again.

DURING THE DRIVE AND ALL through the flight, they talked about school and sports and old friends and lovers. Family, too, but only about the past. Nothing about what they were facing. And they touched. A lot. After they landed in Dallas, he pointed out landmarks on the drive to his downtown condo, but she barely looked out the window, preferring to watch him.

“I’ll give you a quick tour,” Tucker said when they arrived, putting his Stetson on a peg by the door. It was the only overt sign that a rancher lived in his gorgeous seventh-floor condo. The motif was black and white with startling splashes of color and an ebony stone floor. It was so spacious that she could completely walk around every piece of furniture.

She lingered over the stunning view, then admired all three bedrooms and the big kitchen. It didn’t hurt that he had a whirlpool tub that could comfortably hold them both.

Annie felt suspended between worlds. She’d never been to Texas, and already it felt foreign. The accents were strong, the humidity reminiscent of summertime on the east coast, but the air was different. Neiman Marcus was a hell of a lot bigger and ritzier than Abe’s Variety, and while she appreciated the luxury and flash of the city, it was intimidating, as well. Dallas was a long way from the Canadian border.

Despite the lack of Western decor, Tucker belonged there. He eased her nerves with a cold beer and then made a quick call to a nearby Chinese place. She had to admit, takeout was something she’d missed a lot.

When they were unpacked in the master suite and seated at the dining room table, the reason for her visit came to roost. Made it kind of hard to enjoy the dumplings and Peking duck.

“I’ll call Peter, as promised,” Tucker said, “but I’m not expecting miracles. He’s barely had a chance to make it through the paperwork.”

She nodded. “When are you going to your ranch?”

“That depends on you. I’d like to go in the morning. It’s not going to be an easy conversation, and I don’t want to rush it.”

“Okay, that’s fair. I’ll wait, then, to make my decision. But I have to warn you, as much as I appreciate your situation, I’m still having trouble seeing any other solution.”

He inhaled, ready to give a speech that he clearly cut off before the first word. Several seconds passed before he began again. “You know what I know,” he said. “I’ve already made sure that the plane is being serviced and refueled. If you want to go to New York as early as tomorrow evening, that’s fine. I won’t try to persuade you any more than I already have. Except for one last thing…”

She nodded, equally afraid that he’d change her mind and that he wouldn’t.

Tucker put his hand on hers, and she rested her chopsticks on her plate, giving him her complete attention. “Somewhere in that mix of what you need to do,” he said, “and what you want to do, and how you think this needs to play out, please consider the undeniable fact that I’ve fallen in love with you.”

The rug swooped out from under her. Her few sips of beer seemed to have made her drunk, and she forgot, while his eyes peered into her own, that she could breathe.

A moment later, the earth turned as if it had never stopped. “Oh, Tucker,” her voice shaky. “That was below the belt.”

“I know. That’s why I said it. I want you with me, Annie. Somehow. I don’t know what it can look like yet—there’s too much chaff to find the wheat—but I won’t let this end without a fight. I love you.”

“You can’t.” She adamantly shook her head. “You don’t know me well enough.” Of course she’d already admitted to herself and Shea that she’d gone ahead and fallen for him. But that was different. She saw so clearly the kind of man Tucker was. What woman wouldn’t fall for him? He was loyal, thoughtful, smart, great looking….

God, what was she doing here with him. No, what was he doing with her?

“Annie?”

“What?”

“Stop thinking so hard.” He smiled when she sniffed. “Look, I have something else I need to come clean about,” he said, and the fear edged back inside her. “I know you better than you think I do. The files on the embezzlement and your background that I sent to Peter? They’re very comprehensive.” He looked closely at her, waited while she processed what he was saying. “That’s part of the reason I knew right away you weren’t the woman Christian described.”

“How much exactly did that private detective dig up?” She tried to remember if there was anything major in her past she should be embarrassed about.

Tucker smiled, and supporting his claim that he did know her, he said, “Don’t worry. I wasn’t privy to anything that would make you blush.”

Annie laughed a little. “Yes, it crossed my mind.”

He looked serious again. “Those files told me everything I needed to conclude you weren’t a thief. You’re that same woman, even after all the crap flung at you. I love you. Not just because you’ve changed your world to make things right in every way you could, but because I can see the strength in you. You’ve been forged in fire, that’s for damn sure. It’s made you sharp and extraordinary, and still somehow so kind.”

He touched her cheek, a gentle sweep of fingers. “You’re an amazing woman caught in a terrible web. Don’t let it swallow you. Please. You’ve paid your penance.”

Annie blinked back the tears only he seemed to wring out of her. “I’d hate to play poker with you. You’re a ruthless man. But the truth is, I think I love you back.”

His smile made her giddy inside. “You think?”

“Shea and Jesse fell in love in a week,” she murmured, more for her own benefit than his.

“It happens. Not often, but it does.” His calm self-assurance comforted her. Tucker wouldn’t tell a woman he loved her if he had even the slightest doubt.

“It’s been crazy. The past few days…life in general. I can’t keep up with anything.”

His steady gaze lit with a flicker of humor. “And yet some things remain consistent. For example, did you know that Chinese food heats up in a microwave, good as new?”

“Does it?”

He nodded. Rose. Offered her his hand.

Near midnight, they finally ate their reheated dinner in bed, with Letterman in the background. Worn out, they touched from hip to toes. All Annie could think was how incredibly lucky she was.

WHEN TUCKER ENTERED THE HOUSE, his mother was waiting in the foyer. She looked her elegant self, but he was reasonably sure she’d tried calling Christian and was concerned.

She hugged him, smiled, searched his face. “You look tired.”

“It’s been a long trip.”

They walked to the staircase, where Tucker left his briefcase, laptop and hat, then went to the kitchen. It was just ten, and he’d skipped breakfast, knowing Irene would want him to eat with her. Leaving Annie behind had been hard, but she’d assured him she needed the time alone.

“You realize,” his mother said, after they both had cups of coffee, “that you haven’t told me if you found her.”

Tucker looked at the spread on the table, all set out and waiting. A fresh fruit salad, all the fixings for the waffles he deduced the housekeeper had put in the oven to keep warm. Most likely next to the crisp bacon. “Let’s eat,” he said. “I’m starving, and it’s a long story.”

Irene went to the stove and pulled out the platters. He found the pitcher of orange juice in the fridge. They fixed their plates as he tried for the hundredth time to come up with an opening line that wouldn’t upset her further.

Finally, after a few bites and verifying that Martha was upstairs changing linen and wouldn’t overhear, he put his hand over his mother’s. He hadn’t realized, until Annie, that he only did that for two women. “I did find her. She was in Montana running a large-animal sanctuary.”

Irene slipped her hand out of his grasp. “It took you all that time to recognize her?”

“No,” he said. “It took me all that time to figure out what’s been going on. I started out looking for the woman. When I got there, I knew I had to search for the truth.”

Tears came to his mother’s eyes. Of course she knew. Not the details, he’d have to give her those in painful doses, but Irene was an intuitive woman. Bali had likely tipped her off. “He’ll never come back, will he?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’d hoped,” she said, using the linen napkin to dab at her tears. “I wanted so much for this to be someone else’s fault. But I left him with Rory, and for all that I’d once loved the man, he had his demons.”

“Mom, please. You did the best you could. There’s a time in every person’s life where they have to stop blaming their upbringing or the circumstances and take responsibility for their actions. Christian’s a grown man. He knows right from wrong. This isn’t about you.”

She tried to smile at him. “I’m his mother, sweetheart. I’ll always be his mother. And he’ll always be the child I left behind.”

ANNIE HAD TAKEN A BATH, but the jetted water and the space to relax hadn’t helped at all. Her thoughts were going in circles. For every argument to wait for the attorney to come up with a plan, there was a counterargument for her to cut through what would be an unknowable amount of time and take matters into her own hands.

She’d found a leather club chair that fit perfectly when she curled her legs under her, and sipped yet more coffee. The chair faced the big window in the living room, and the panorama of city life spread out before her seemed more like an art exhibit than reality.

It was odd to be alone. How had Tucker become a familiar and comforting presence in such a short time? That she missed him so much surprised and frightened her. Between each chain of thoughts about Christian and the bookies and the law were gaps filled with only one thought on a continuous loop—Tucker loved her.

That was the most astonishing thing of all. It outweighed all the fear and doubt and self-recrimination, and every time she started to think she didn’t deserve him, his voice came to scold her. He was a smart man who knew his own mind. And he knew exactly who she was. All of it. All the things she’d hidden for so long.

Then she’d get back on the cycle of doubt and peddle that sucker until she ran out of steam.

In the end, the deciding factor came down to the fact that he loved her. Ironic, but that was the swing vote. Or perhaps, that she loved him. Either way, she knew what she had to do. For her, for him. For them.

She pulled out her cell, and called the number she’d looked up two years ago but never used.

TUCKER’S EVERY INSTINCT rebelled at what was happening. Ever since Annie had told him her decision to go directly to the district attorney and offer herself up as a bargaining chip, he’d had to work harder than ever to keep in mind that Annie was her own person. And she had a right to do something he considered unbelievably reckless. That was the trap he couldn’t seem to escape. He, the man who would take a bullet for her, wasn’t the one in control.

And now she was the centerpiece in a sting operation to blackmail the two bookies. Money in exchange for her silence. She’d give them recordings they believed Christian had made, then disappear forever this time. That’s how it was supposed to work.

He’d just spent the most nerve-racking three days of his life. And Annie? Jesus, she was a rock.

“You’re going to be surrounded by our people, Annie. Remember that,” the FBI special agent told her.

Tucker knew Doreen Wellman believed what she said. Which didn’t make it true.

Everyone else―Peter, the assistant D.A. in charge of organized crime, the supervisory special agent who ran the task force trying to nail Dave Bell and Mickey O’Brien, the bookies who’d been running roughshod across New York for over fifteen years—had cleared the room while Agent Wellman checked the wires in Annie’s clothes.

It was something new, nothing like what he’d seen in the movies. This wire was literally the size of a fiber-optic strand, so slender it was sewn into Annie’s bra, virtually invisible. Also untraceable by any technology out there. Or so Tucker had been told.

He wanted to sit back and let events unfold, focus on being supportive, but for Christ’s sake, Annie was walking into a viper’s nest.

As Annie lowered her T-shirt, Agent Wellman leaned back against the desk in the meeting room they’d taken over. “You did great on the phone call,” she said. “You shocked Bell when you said Christian told you what happened to Jefferson Hope. Very few people knew they’d put a hit on their own bagman.”

“If you have evidence, why not take them into custody?” Tucker had promised himself he’d keep his mouth shut. Tough. “Why Annie?”

“Because we can’t use the recording of Annie’s phone call in court. These guys are tricky and they’ve run us in circles. I’m not too proud to say that Annie stepping up now is a godsend. We need to get at least one of them to speak. We’ve fed Annie specific questions to ask them.” She smiled at Annie. “You want to reassure your friend that you know what to say?”

Friend? The word was like a slap to Tucker. They were so much more. He saw in Annie’s eyes that she was thinking the same thing.

She gave him a serene smile. “I warned them on the phone that I have a duplicate set of flash drives in a safe deposit box, and that if anything happens to me, the information will go directly to the police. I’ll remind them as soon as I walk in. They know I’ve disappeared once and think I only came back because I’m broke. It’s perfect, really.”

“Believe me.” Agent Wellman nodded her dark head with confidence. “They’d rather pay the blackmail than take a chance on their empire crumbling.”

Screw her authoritative blue suit and her sensible black shoes and her calm demeanor. Tucker was sweating. And he had a few things to say about the “perfect, really” remark. Later. “Unless they decide she’s bluffing and kill her when she walks in the door.”

“If one of them lifts a weapon we’ll shoot him. We have the best snipers in the country armed with infrared scopes at all windows. It doesn’t matter that the drapes are closed. Right this second, we’re watching them move around that old house. In fact, according to the man who’s in a van a few blocks away, Mickey just went to the toilet. To pee.”

Annie captured his gaze. “I can’t give these people any more of my life,” she said. “Neither can you. I heard Bell’s doubt on the phone. I can’t believe someone could be that good an actor with no warning. He was worried about what I might have on them. He wanted more information, and I’ve memorized everything I’m supposed to say. I’ll be out of there in the blink of an eye, and we’ll be long gone before the world caves in on those bastards. It’s going to be fine.”

“I won’t stop worrying until we’re out of New York, and they’re in jail. But I can’t help asking one more time. Please don’t do this. There has to be another way.”

Annie leaned in for a kiss, and when she pulled back, her relaxed expression made him ache.

“I know you think you’re doing this for all of us.” He touched her hair. “But nothing is worth you getting hurt.”

“I won’t be hurt. When it’s over, I’ll have immunity. I’ll be free, for the first time in over two years. And it’ll open the door for Christian to come home.”

“To jail.”

“That’s true, but at least it’ll probably be at a country club prison in Dallas. For so little time, it’ll give your mother a chance to get to know him before it’s too late. Give you a chance, too.”

“There’s nothing I can do to get you to change your mind?”

She shook her head. “Just be waiting for me when I’m finished, okay?”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

Unfortunately, being where he’d promised turned out to be unimaginable torture. He’d suspected it would be, but waiting in the van three blocks away, putting on the headphones that let him listen to what was happening, only to pull the damn things off…and then repeating the cycle until he’d nearly ripped an ear off, was almost unbearable. It was all he could do not to run out of the friggin’ van, get to her and take her away.

But that wouldn’t happen. They’d reached the point of no return, where anything he might do would put her in even more danger.

There was no doubt in his mind that if his prick of a brother ever came back to the States, Tucker would punch his lights out. How dare he put Annie in this kind of danger.

How dare Tucker let her go.

He moaned, and Agent Wellman brushed his arm in sympathy. She had no idea. None. They were all about the case, the people in the van and on the nearby rooftops of this rough neighborhood. Practically every person on the street was an undercover agent. There was more firepower on this residential street than at FBI headquarters. Or so he’d been assured.

Yes, he knew it was an exaggeration, and even though he’d wanted to deck the person who said it, he’d held his fist close to his body. Although he dared anyone to make one smart remark. He wished someone would.

He stopped breathing the second the door opened, and he could have sworn he didn’t start again for the next ten minutes. He barely moved, didn’t blink, thought he was going to be sick, or at the very least have a heart attack.

Annie was amazing. She played her part as if she’d rehearsed her whole life. The two men were disgusting, which wasn’t a shock…that Tucker managed to not rip a seat out of the van was.

Every minute felt like an hour. Nothing had ever frightened him so deeply. He wasn’t even allowed to see her, only hear her when she climbed into the back of a taxi that wasn’t really a taxi.

He shook on the way back to Times Square, where Annie left the cab. She walked to a small hotel almost hidden by a huge marquee, and went up to her room.

He had to wait until the FBI was certain she hadn’t been followed. Thankfully, they’d detected no wires or bugs or worse in the bag that held the cash.

Finally, when he was about to burst out of his own skin, he was allowed into the room with her. He slammed the door behind him, locked it, bolted it, dragged Annie straight into the tiny bathroom, locked that.

Then he kissed her. Held her so tightly she almost choked, but then she laughed until he kissed her again. And again.

It took a long time for his heart to stop pounding as if it wanted to jump out of his chest.