Someone Like Her (6 page)

“If you’re going to tell me you’re making dinner tonight, then I’ll know the apocalypse has arrived.”

She thought that was funny. “No, you’ll wake up tomorrow to the same old world. I need to get Mouse some food and cat litter. But speaking of dinner, what would you like for lunch?” His grin, forming at the pace of a snail, sent her heart into a fluttering frenzy. “What?”

“Speaking of dinner, what would I like for lunch?” His grin grew wider. “Only you, Maria.”

She didn’t get it, and shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He glanced in the rearview mirror, then turned the car toward Florida State, a smile still on his face.

During the next three hours, she scheduled a makeup exam; arranged to get class notes from Gina, who fortunately took almost all the same classes; and caught a few minutes with her professors during class breaks. All the while, Jake stood quietly by her side, ever alert, ever supportive.

Maria hadn’t missed the way Gina’s gaze had appreciatively roamed over Jake from head to toe when introduced to him. After promising her friend she’d call later that night to explain what was going on, Maria slipped her arm around Jake’s and pulled him away before the word that was dancing on the tip of her tongue spilled out:
Mine.

By the time she’d finished all her tasks it was after one. Way past time for lunch. “Come on, I’m starving,” she said, grabbing Jake’s hand and heading for his car.

His big hand engulfed hers, giving her a sense of safety, as if there were a wall around her that couldn’t be penetrated by anything bad. Only one other man had made her feel protected and that had been Logan. But he was her brother and Jake was not.

Halfway through their lunch at a popular pizza joint near the college, Jake’s phone rang. Maria listened to his end of the conversation as she finished off her double-cheese loaded pizza.

“Was that Detective Nolan?” she asked when he clicked off.

He took a bite of his spinach-and-goat-cheese pie. “Yeah, he had some info on Fortunada.”

“Well?” she said when he hesitated. “And don’t hold anything back.”

“They still haven’t found him, but the man has a long record.” His gaze speared hers. “Especially for domestic violence.”

Maria shuddered, wondering how many women he’d hurt the way he had hurt her. What if she hadn’t been able to get away?

“He spent a year in jail for breaking the arm of a woman he lived with. He’s also done time for breaking and entering, and car theft.” Jake glanced down at his pizza, then pushed the remainder away before meeting her eyes again. “One of the women accused him of fondling her teenage daughter, then refused to testify against him. The girl denied anything happened. The cops think he threatened them, and they were too afraid to press charges.”

Oh, God.

“Tells us he’s far from a model citizen, but the disturbing thing is, he was picked up about six months ago for suspicious behavior. The police couldn’t prove anything and had to let him go.”

“And this suspicious behavior was?” The uncomfortable look on his face sent a warning that her fear for the girl was justified.
Oh, and please, God, don’t let Fortunada be my daddy.

“They picked him up outside the high school we were at this morning. A teacher reported seeing him watching the girls’ softball team on three different days. He had a camera on him, but there was nothing on the memory stick so they couldn’t hold him. After they got a warrant to search his house, they found pictures of some of the girls on the team. Nolan wants you to come in and look at them, see if your girl is one of them.”

After a quick glance at her watch, Maria nodded. “We have time to squeeze in a quick stop by the station and still make it to the grocery store before it’s time to be back at the high school.”

“If the girl is in one of the photos, then we don’t need to go back. We can let the cops take care of it.”

As if she could leave the girl in the hands of people who could never understand a child being at the mercy of a predator. For years she’d lived in Lovey Dovey’s house, hiding like Logan had taught her when her mother brought men home. Men who thought nothing of hurting an innocent little girl. It was impossible for her to walk away without knowing the girl was safe.

She shook her head knowing it was the last thing he wanted to see. “Sorry, no can do.”

“Hell,” he muttered with the resignation of one who’d expected her answer.

Maria just shrugged.

Her girl hadn’t been in Fortunada’s photos, but Maria now worried about the four who were. Although Detective Nolan said he would pay a visit to each of them, Maria still watched for their faces as the students filed out of the school. Thirty minutes ticked by and as the stream of kids coming out slowed to a trickle, she was about to give up. As she turned to tell Jake they could leave, a girl walking with a gangly boy caught her eye.

“There she is.” Maria grabbed Jake’s arm. “What should I do?”

Jake turned the key in the car’s ignition and backed out of the parking space. “Sit tight. We’ll follow her until she’s away from the school. We don’t want some alert teacher calling the police.”

“We can’t lose her.”

“I won’t.”

Maria breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the two halfway down the block. “How are we going to approach them? What if she tries to run? What if—”

“Hush and listen. I’ll get us ahead of them, then we’ll get out and walk toward them like we’re just a couple out for a stroll. When we reach them, ask where Bradford Avenue is. I’ll take it from there.”

The plan worked and Maria, wearing her ball cap and sunglasses, stopped when they were alongside the girl. “Hey, is Bradford Avenue somewhere around here?”

The boy pointed to the left. “Yeah, just one street over.”

Jake had positioned himself next to the girl. He wrapped his fingers around her upper arm. She narrowed her eyes and tried to pull away, but he held on.

“Easy. We’re not here to hurt you. Maria, take off your hat and sunglasses.”

“Hey, dude, let her go,” the boy said, and stepped toward Jake.

Maria put herself between the kid and the girl. “Remember me?”

“I’ve never seen you before,” she answered, her eyes wide and on Jake.

“Look at her, not me,” he said, gesturing at Maria.

“What’s going on here, Angie?” the boy asked.

“I don’t know,” Angie said, turning her gaze to Maria. “I’ve never seen . . . Oh, it’s you.”

“Yeah, it’s me. Like my friend said, we’re not here to hurt you, but we need to talk. I’m Maria Kincaid, and this is Jake Buchanan.”

“Let go of me. I don’t have anything to say.”

The boy bounced on the balls of his feet, his wary gaze on Jake. “Angie?”

“You got a name, kid?” Jake asked.

“That’s a stupid question, dude. Who doesn’t have a name, and I’m not a kid.”

“Then give me something else to call you. Make something up if you want.”

Indecision crossed his face. He clearly wanted to protect Angie, but no doubt understood he wouldn’t win a fight against Jake.

Maria placed her hand on his arm. “Angie’s in trouble, and we can help her. Please, what’s your name?”

“Why you wanna know?” he asked.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, his name’s Eddie,” Angie said. “Now that we’ve all been introduced, let me go. I got nothing to say.”

“I think you do,” Jake said. “We can do this the easy way, or I can call the cops. Who’re looking for you, by the way.”

Angie paled, turning an accusing eye on Maria. “You called them?”

Maria gently touched the bruise on Angie’s cheek. “What did you tell your parents about how you got this?”

“She got up to pee in the middle of the night and smacked into her bedroom door,” Eddie said. Maria raised an eyebrow, and he turned to Angie. “Isn’t that what happened? That’s what you said.”

Angie’s shoulders slumped as the fight went out of her. “No, that’s not what happened.” She gave Maria a pleading look. “Can we talk about this somewhere else? My mom might drive by, and I don’t want her asking who you people are. There’s a park on the next block. Eddie and I will meet you there.”

Jake snorted. “And I’m the Easter Bunny. We’ll walk with you.”

To keep Eddie from trying to snatch Angie away and running, Maria positioned herself between them. Finally, she would find out why the girl at been in Hernando Fortunada’s house.

CHAPTER SIX

J
ake stood next to Eddie, his gaze on Maria seated on the park bench next to Angie. “You her boyfriend?”

Eddie shuffled his feet. “Sorta.”

How were you a sorta boyfriend? Either you were or you weren’t. He supposed the girls thought the kid cute, but a haircut wouldn’t be amiss.

“Why were you in that house, Angie?” Maria asked.

The girl clasped her hands so tightly her knuckles were white. Maria pried Angie’s fingers apart and wrapped her hands around one of the girl’s. “You can trust me.”

“Whose house?” Eddie asked.

Angie raised her gaze to Eddie’s. “Hernando’s.”

“Dammit, Angie, I told you not to talk to him. Did he do that to your face?” At Angie’s nod, he turned to leave.

Jake caught his arm. “Where’re you going?”

“To kill that bastard.”

“No, you’re not. Besides, he’s not at his house, and no one’s seen him for the past two days.” Jake turned to Angie. “Let’s start at the beginning. What’s Fortunada to you?”

“My mom’s boyfriend . . . I mean, he was her boyfriend. They broke up after he stole some money from her. Now she doesn’t have enough to make the mortgage payment, and she can’t stop crying because she’s afraid we’re going to lose our house.”

Jake did the math. “So you went to see him to try and get the money back?”

Her eyes filled with misery, Angie nodded. “She’s going to ground me for a month if she finds out. She told me to stay away from him. He was nice when they first started dating but at the end . . . well, he just got real mean. Now she’s all worried and crying a lot, and I-I . . . You know, I just thought I could help.”

Kids could be so stupid. She wasn’t going to like what she was going to have to do, but that little revelation could wait until she finished her story. “What happened when you went to see him?”

Her shudder answered Jake’s question, and he exchanged a glance with Maria. She’d seen firsthand how some men treated women and could guess what had gone on between Angie and Fortunada. A hardness he’d never seen before glinted in Maria’s eyes and he could read her thoughts as if she spoke them aloud. She wasn’t going to let this go until the man was dead or behind bars.

“What happened, Angie?” Maria asked.

Angie’s gaze shifted to Eddie. “I think you should go home now.”

“The hell I will. What did he do to you?”

“Easy,” Jake said to the agitated boy. He put a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “It won’t help her if you get crazy.”

“I know. I’m okay.” The kid swiped a hand through his hair. “But I’m not leaving.”

“Look at me, Angie, and don’t pay them any mind. Just look at me and tell me what happened,” Maria said.

The girl took a deep breath and then trained her eyes on Maria. “He said he’d give me some money if I’d do things to him. I told him he was disgusting and it was no wonder my mom broke up with him. ‘Who needed some old lady when I can have a fresh young thing like you,’ he said and laughed. I realized I’d been stupid to go there and turned to leave. He grabbed me and was ripping off my shirt when you rang the doorbell. He let go and I ran out the door.”

She shuddered again. “You saved me, and I wanted to thank you, but I was just too scared. I was worried about you, though. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I am,” Maria said.

But she almost hadn’t been. Jake glanced at Maria’s cheek. She’d done a good job of covering her bruise with makeup. You could see it if you knew it was there, but Angie was too caught up in her problems to notice.

“What’re we gonna do about this? The asshole needs to pay for hurting Angie,” Eddie said.

“You need to leave Fortunada to the police.”
And me
. Jake looked at Eddie and hardened his gaze. “You stay far away from the man. If you feel like you need to do something, then just be there for Angie and her mom.”

Jake knelt in front of Angie. “You’re going to have to tell your mom about this.”

She gave a vigorous shake of her head. “She has enough to worry about already.”

“Angie, I doubt he’ll appear on your doorstep, but if he gets desperate . . .” He didn’t want to scare her any more than she already was, but she needed to be warned. “You just never know what a desperate man will do. Your mother needs to know. Tomorrow, Maria and I will come by with Detective Nolan. You’ll like him, I promise.”

Angie slapped her hands over her face. “Oh, God.”

While Maria comforted the girl, Jake nudged Eddie away and had a brief conversation with the kid before sending him and Angie home.

“Are they going to be safe? Shouldn’t we have found out where she lives?” Maria asked, her gaze intent on the couple walking away. Eddie had his arm around Angie, and her head rested on his shoulder.

“Angie Davis, mother’s name is Carol, 127 Marbury Avenue.”

Maria blinked and turned wide eyes on him. He grinned and took her hand. “Come on, we’ll follow ’em, make sure they stay safe.”

Maria sipped her wine as she watched Jake unwrap the cheese. She was helpless in the kitchen, but grating cheese was probably something she could do.

“Want me to do that?”

He sent a quick look of mock horror over his shoulder. “So you can slice your fingers on the grater? No thanks.”

Because he was probably right, she didn’t take offense. “I still don’t understand why you’d rather have a boring piece of fish and broccoli than tacos.”

“My body is my temple.”

She couldn’t deny his body was meant to be worshiped, but God forbid the day would come when she had to eat broccoli to stay in shape. Logan never ceased to scold her about her choice of food. That Jake would willingly cook two different meals and not insist she eat healthy did something funny to her heart.

Her gaze slid over his back, over the broad shoulders, down his spine to the trim waist, and below that to his lean hips. What would it feel like to slide her hands over his hard body, his taut butt? She marked the moment she decided, one way or another, she’d find out.

“Here you go,” he said and put a plate on the table.

Three tacos and refried beans smothered in cheese appeared in front of her. Four tacos would’ve been better, but who was she to complain when she’d contributed nothing to their dinner?

He chose the chair next to her and when Mouse stood on hind legs, his paws on Jake’s knee, his nose sniffing the air, Jake rolled his eyes. “Why’s he bothering me and not you?”

“Cause you have fish.”

He cut a sliver of the fish and tossed it across the kitchen. “Now go away, cat.”

Mouse raced to the food, swallowed it in one bite, and in seconds was back with his paws on Jake’s leg.

“Well that didn’t work as planned,” he grumbled.

Then Jake’s hazel eyes focused on Maria as his fork, with a piece of fish on it came at her. She pressed her lips together and shook her head.

“It’s just one bite. Come on, just a little taste.” One side of his mouth curved in a sly grin, and he snatched her plate away. “If you want your tacos back, all you have to do is open your mouth.”

The man knew just the right threat to use. Giving in with a sigh, she squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

As much as she hated to admit it, the fish was pretty good. It tasted buttery and lemony. Nothing like the cheap, smelly catfish her mother used to fry . . . when she remembered she had children to feed. “It was okay, but I’m not eating any broccoli, so don’t even try.”

His amused chuckle didn’t reassure her there would be no greens in her future. “I’ll have you eating healthy yet.”

Not if she had anything to say about it. She helped him clean up the kitchen, then excused herself to bathe. When she came out, he was on the sofa, his hair damp from a shower. Like her, he’d put on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt. His bare feet were propped on the coffee table, and Mouse was curled up on his lap, asleep.

“Looks like you’ve made a friend,” she said, taking the other end of the couch.

He glanced down at her cat. “It wasn’t my choice.”

“You fed him fish. He’ll love you forever now.”

“Wish you’d told me that before I gave the furry demon any.” His deceptively innocent eyes turned to her. “Want to talk about it?”

She didn’t have to ask what he meant and no, she didn’t want to talk about it. Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow she’d have her feelings sorted out. Or not. “Other than I pray Fortunada’s not my biological father, what’s there to say?”

“Even if you find out he is, it’s no reflection on you.”

Easy for him to say; he had June Cleaver for a mother. His father had probably been perfect, too. “Do you remember your dad?” she asked to change the subject. The wistful, fond smile that appeared on his face confirmed her guess.

“Just bits and pieces. Him giving me my first little-boy baseball glove and not yelling at me when I couldn’t catch half the balls he tossed at me. I remember how he would carry me around on his shoulders and I’d feel like the king of the world. Things like that.”

Of course, she was happy he’d been so lucky to have great parents, but she couldn’t help feeling a little envious and resentful, too. Maybe it had been worse for him though, losing a perfect father at such a young age. When Lovey Dovey had died, all Maria had felt was relief.

It was just all so confusing. She’d worked hard to make something of herself, to be as different from her mother as possible. Now, she had the clues that might lead her to her father, and the yearning she’d long ago quashed to have a mom who loved her had returned. Except this time, it was a dad she pictured affectionately smiling at her. God, her head was so screwed up.

“Where’d you go?”

She blinked, Jake’s face coming into focus. “Huh?”

“You were a thousand miles away. Listen, I know you must feel overwhelmed by everything that’s happened. Why don’t you give yourself a night off, stop trying so hard to figure it out. Let it rest and maybe tomorrow it’ll all be clearer.”

Doubtful, but her brain was threatening to go into meltdown, so she’d try to put her thoughts aside for a while. The long, elegant fingers lazily stroking her cat’s fur made her wish it was she those hands were caressing. That would help soothe her, for sure. His fingers slowly skimmed down Mouse’s spine to his rear end and then back up. Mouse gave a loud purr, and Maria resisted joining him.

“Want to watch a movie or something?”

No, she wanted to lay her head on his lap and be the one he petted. “Sure. Want a glass of wine?”

“A beer for me, please.”

She grabbed the remote and handed it to him. “Here, find a movie. No baseball.”

“I only watch baseball when I want to fall asleep.”

“You better not fall asleep.” She went to the kitchen, poured a glass of wine, got a beer from the fridge, and returned. Jake was flicking through the channels, and she caught a glimpse of some kind of space movie. “Wait, what was that last one?”

He turned back to the channel. “Looks like
Alien
.”

That movie should be able to divert her attention. She handed him his beer. “I’ve never seen it. Let’s watch it.”

“You like scary movies?”

“God, yes. But only if I’m watching them with someone, and I have to sit next to you so I can grab hold of you when the scary parts come on.” His expression blanked and she thought he would refuse. Why didn’t he want her sitting next to him?

Finally, he patted the space at his side. “Then I’m your man.”

She liked the sound of that but wished he’d said it with a little more enthusiasm. Nestling against his side, she felt his body tense. Really? What was his problem?

The spaceship landed on a planet and she forgot everything but the movie. The astronauts were in a creepy cave with even creepier egg-shaped pods when Jake took her empty wineglass out of her hand and set it aside. She didn’t remember drinking it. By the time goo-dripping aliens were popping out of people, Maria had her face pressed into Jake’s chest, her hands gripping his shirt.

“Want me to turn it off?”

“No!” She had to know if somebody saved the cat.

He chuckled and his arm circled her shoulders, pulling her close. “Your eyes are closed, you’re not even watching it.”