The Kidnapped Christmas Bride (Taming of the Sheenans Book 3) (5 page)

“Because your mom loves Lawrence.”

“But you’re my dad.”

“Yes, and I’ll still be your dad, even when—” Trey broke off, took a deep breath, finishing, “—they’re married.”

“I don’t know why they have to be married if you’re here.”

Trey clasped TJ’s face in his hands and pressed a swift kiss to his forehead. “When you’re grown up, you’ll understand.” He stood, and looked at McKenna. “I’m going to want to see him, Mac,” he said roughly, using his nickname for her. “I need you to promise me that you won’t keep us apart.”

“I’d never do that.”

“Or let Lawrence keep TJ away,” he added.

“He wouldn’t do that, either.”

Trey’s laugh was low and mocking. “I don’t believe that for a second, and neither should you. I want a promise. A cross your heart promise.”

A cross your heart promise.
That was the promise they used to make to each other…

Cross my heart, I promise to always love you…

Cross my heart, I promise to one day marry you…

Cross my heart, we’ll raise our baby together…

She swallowed hard. “I promise. Cross my heart.”

He nodded, apparently satisfied. “Now go inside before the two of you freeze to death.” And then he was off, walking to his truck at the curb, his black dress shirt billowing from an icy blast of wind.

*

Trey was halfway
down the front steps when TJ let out a shriek and came running after him, his shoes ringing on the pavement. “Daddy, wait! Wait!”

“Stop, TJ!” McKenna’s voice rose, short, sharp, firm.

“Daddy, don’t go!”

Trey kept walking. He couldn’t stop. Couldn’t turn around. Couldn’t look at his son or see his face, or those bright blue eyes. Couldn’t let himself remember how good it felt to hold TJ in his arms, his son safe warm and good and still so very innocent.

TJ’s innocence mattered. He was just a little boy. He deserved good things, and good people. He deserved to be protected. Which was why Trey had worried all these years, worried that while he was in prison McKenna and TJ were vulnerable. He’d worried about their safety, and their financial security. He’d worried that without him there to protect them, something horrible might happen, just as it had happened on the Douglas ranch when McKenna was just a thirrteen year old girl.

Trey shuddered at the curb’s edge, his heart and mind in conflict.

McKenna needed Trey to walk away now. But did TJ?

Would leaving now be the right thing for his son?

He hesitated on the curb, hearing TJ’s fast light steps behind him. The boy was running, his breathing ragged.

It tore at him, wounding him.

His boy running after him, wanting him, and he just leaving…

“TJ!” McKenna shouted again, louder, more frantic.

Teeth grinding tight, Trey stepped off the curb and into the street. He had to honor McKenna’s wishes. He had to respect her. He had to be a man of integrity—

“
Dad
!”

TJ’s panicked scream filled the air as Trey opened the truck door and climbed inside the cab even as he wondered how did a man live like this? Survive a life like this? He felt cursed. Broken. He loved McKenna and TJ but it didn’t matter. He’d screwed up. Messed up. And he was always going to pay…

“Daddy!” TJ’s voice rose higher. “
Wait!
Wait for me
!”

Trey had just put the keys in the ignition but now he froze, shoulders hunching.

Wait
.

Wait for me.

But that was all Trey had done, the past four years. Wait, and wait, and wait.

The pain roared through him, hot, blistering. This was hell….pure hell…

And then suddenly TJ was there, climbing into the truck, his arms wrapping around Trey’s neck.

“Don’t go,” TJ begged, voice trembling, “not without me.”

Prison was bad, Trey thought, heart on fire, but this was so much worse.

This…there were no words for this…

Trey held TJ tight, breathing in his son’s warmth and sweetness, aware that TJ belonged with his mom. By law, TJ belonged to his mom. There was nothing he could do at this point. Nothing he could do but reassure TJ that he loved him, and would always love him. “I can’t take you now, son,” he murmured, “but one day it’ll be different. One day we will be together and do fun stuff together. Hiking and fishing and camping. Sports, too—”

“Not one day. Now,” TJ said, arms squeezing tighter.

“I can’t,” Trey said.

“Why not?” TJ pulled his head back to look at Trey.

McKenna was there now, in the street, shivering, teeth chattering. “TJ, get out of the truck right now. I’ve tried to be patient. I’ve tried to be understanding, but I can’t do it anymore. You can’t do this now. We have everybody waiting. Lawrence is waiting—”

“I don’t care!” TJ shouted at her. “I don’t like Lawrence. I don’t want Lawrence. I want my dad. He’s my real dad.”

McKenna paled. Her gaze lifted. She stared into Trey’s eyes. “Trey, tell him he has to come with me. Make him listen to you. I’m sure he’ll listen to you. Tell him he has no choice.”

McKenna’s eyes were a brilliant green, shimmering with emotion. She was angry and scared and he understood, he did. But at the same time, she had no idea what he’d been through, living without TJ these past four years. She had no idea what it was like to love someone so much and then be completely cut out…

Trey held her gaze, his voice soft. “Why doesn’t he have a choice?”

Her lips quivered. She pressed down, thinning them. “He’s five. He doesn’t know what’s true, or right, or real—”

Trey’s brows flattened. “Real? Am I not real? Is my love not real? Am I not here, fighting for him, fighting for a chance to be his father?”

“That’s not what I mean!”

“What do you mean?”

“He just…He just…” she took a quick breath, shivered, arms crossing over her chest, “doesn’t
know
.”

“Know what?”

She shrugged helplessly. “
You
.”

“Then maybe it’s time he does.”

‡

M
cKenna suppressed a
shiver as Trey’s dark head jerked up, his narrowed gaze locking with hers. For a split second she could see his shock. She’d hurt him. But in the next moment, the surprise disappeared, replaced by fury.

Mistake,
she thought, inhaling sharply, she’d make a big mistake. Perhaps even a critical error.

You didn’t really want to make Trey angry. Not truly angry.

When pushed too far, Trey didn’t bend or yield. He didn’t compromise, nor was he a man of words.

Trey Sheenan was a man of action, and she could see from his hard, shuttered gaze that he was done talking. Done playing nice. Trey had tried diplomacy and he was reverting to what he did best: taking control.

Fighting.

And this time he was fighting her.

McKenna’s heart pounded. Her legs shook. She took a step toward him. “No, Trey, no,” she choked, seeing him place TJ in the middle of the truck’s bench seat. “Don’t do this.”

He clicked the seatbelt around the child’s waist and then turned the key in the ignition. The big truck roared to life. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the powerful engine. “I won’t have him thinking I don’t love him, Mac. I won’t have him believing I don’t care—”

“But this isn’t the way, Trey. This isn’t the answer.”

His brow creased, his jaw thickening. “He thinks I don’t love him. He thinks I don’t want him. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Take him out of the truck.”

“And put him on the curb and drive away like he isn’t my whole world? Like he’s not the most important thing in my life?” He drew a swift, shallow breath. “TJ’s the only reason I survived in that place. He’s the only reason I’m still here.” His deep voice dropped as he spit the words at her, each syllable sharp and rough. “He’s five and I’ve only had one Christmas with him and I want more. I want more with my son. And I deserve at least one Christmas with him before he becomes part of your new family with this other man.”

“TJ will always be your son, Trey.”

“Then you shouldn’t mind him spending one Christmas with me.” He slammed his door closed and shifted gears.

She pounded on his door. “You’re not taking him! You’re not—” She broke off as he swung the door back open. She fell back a step, tripping over the hem of her gown. “You can’t, Trey. It’s wrong. It’s illegal. You’ll be charged with kidnapping!”

“I’ve been charged with worse,” he retorted grimly.

She shook her head frantically. “But not this, Trey.”

“I don’t want my son to grow up without me.”

“You can’t just take him from me.”

“Fine. Then you can come with us, too.” And with stunning ease, he stood up, picked her off the ground and dropped her onto the truck seat, next to TJ. “Buckle up, darlin’. We’re heading out of town.”

*

Trey had done
a lot of stupid things in his life, but this might just be the stupidest.

But had no choice. He had to do something. He couldn’t just stay there on Church Street fighting with McKenna in front of TJ and St. James.

She wasn’t fighting fair. Women never fought fair. They argued. They yelled. They cried. They used torrents of words, endless words, words that drowned a man in sound and nonsensical emotion.

He’d tossed her into the truck because he wanted TJ, and he knew very well he couldn’t take TJ from his mom, not on Christmas.

What kind of man would he be to separate a mother and young child on Christmas?

So he was bringing her along. Letting her come. He was being generous and thoughtful.

Magnanimous.

Not that she’d see it that way.

Nor would her groom, who they’d just left in the church with the guests and her brothers and his brother and good old Aunt Karen…

Aunt Karen would be the one to call the sheriffs. Aunt Karen would be delighted to hear he’d been arrested.
Again.

Something hard and sharp turned in his gut. Regret filled him.

He’d just screwed up badly, hadn’t he? She sat beside him, a blur of white in his peripheral vision and didn’t say a word, but he didn’t need her to. He knew it. He knew what he’d done.

He flipped on the truck lights as he approached Highway 89, steering with a tight knuckled grip that made his hands ache. It was dark out. The wind whistled and howled.

He fiddled with the truck heater, the truck interior almost as chilly as the frigid temperature outside. But the biting cold was nothing compared to the ice in his heart.

He’d made a terrible mistake just now.

What was he thinking? Taking TJ, and McKenna, too?

What kind of madness had taken over him back there at St. James?

Merging onto the highway, easing into the traffic, he kept his gaze fixed on the road, while McKenna’s silence felt as huge as her gown.

He’d thought he’d finally grown up. He’d thought he’d changed. He was wrong. He was still stupid and impulsive, and what he was doing now, heading north on 89 with TJ and McKenna, was illegal. McKenna was right. This
was
kidnapping.