Time to Heal (Harlequin Heartwarming) (20 page)

“Fail—” The look in his eyes shook Rachel. “Jake, what’s the matter? What is it?”

Turning from her, he clasped the back of his neck. “It’s—it’s nothing.” He paused momentarily. “But don’t you worry. I’ve got everything and everybody going flat-out to find them both, Rachel. Believe me, I—”

“Jake.” Before he could say another word, she reached up and put her fingers over his mouth. “Don’t do that anymore, Jake. You promised.”

“Sorry, baby. I forget.” Shaking his head, he laughed harshly. “No protecting my woman anymore. No pulling my punches at home. No more pretending to take care of everything.” His mouth twisted bitterly. “There shouldn’t be any problem there. Up to now, I sure haven’t taken care of much. My whole world is falling down around my ears and I’m helpless to do a thing about it.”

Her heart aching for him, Rachel searched for something to say to comfort him. She noticed for the first time the weary look about him. He usu
ally seemed so tireless, so confident, but tonight there were lines of strain and worry etched on his face.

“The fact is, Rachel—” he hesitated, meeting her eyes bleakly “—I’m thinking of dropping out of the race.”

“Jake, you don’t mean that!”

“Yeah, I do.”

“But you can’t!”

“Why not?”

“Because… Well, because law enforcement is what you do. It’s what you love. You’re the best sheriff Kinard County has ever had. You’re the best man—”

“The best man?” He walked away from the window and stopped at his dresser. On the top was his badge. He picked it up. “That’s a laugh. That’s rich.” With a snort, he dropped it and looked at her. “Open your eyes, Rach. Take a look at my county. Drugs are everywhere, the town is poised to become a major distribution center, my six-year-old has been snatched practically out of my own yard, my other son vanished—I know something bad happened there. Mike wouldn’t just take a hike like that.”

Some of his rage seemed to fizzle. “What kind of lawman am I if I can’t keep my own sons safe? What about keeping other kids safe on the streets? How can you possibly say I’m the best man to hold
the office of sheriff?” He shook his head. “Wake up and smell the coffee, baby.”

“But you are, Jake,” she said softly, as though he had said nothing of significance. “You are the best man.”

He raised his gaze to the ceiling and kept it there. “Why? Give me one reason.”

“I know you.”

“I know me, too,” he said with disgust.

“Okay. I know your integrity, your deep sense of responsibility, your basic goodness. I know how you hate injustice and I know you’re not afraid to lay your life on the line for all your principles.” In her earnestness, she put both her hands on his arm. “Where else can the citizens of Kinard County find a man like that?”

He studied her in silence. The clock she’d given him for his birthday chimed the half hour. Next door, the dog barked. Somewhere in the night sky, distant thunder rumbled.

“You really believe all that?”

“With all my heart.”

After a minute, Jake sighed. “Well, J. B. Gonzales certainly isn’t the answer.”

“Right!”

With a deep sigh, he put his arm around her. “What if I don’t find them, Rach?”

She remembered her dream, how vivid it was.
How certain she’d been that it had meaning. Clinging to that belief now, she rubbed her cheek against Jake’s arm. “We’ll find them.”

R
ACHEL STOOD
at the kitchen counter and poured coffee into two cups. From the bedroom, she heard the familiar sounds of Jake’s morning routine. The slam of the shower door meant he’d finished showering and would begin shaving at the sink on the right side of the double vanity. His side. Hers was on the left. Carrying the coffee, she left the kitchen and headed down the hall. It was the first time since she’d banished him that Jake had showered and shaved in the master bedroom. She didn’t plan for him to use the guest bathroom ever again.

“Ready for coffee?” she asked, placing the cup near him on the marble top.

“Morning, sweetheart.” Freshly shaved, he was sleek and masculine. Specks of foam still clung here and there, but he ignored them and leaned over and kissed her sweetly. “Mmm, you taste cool and tart.”

“Orange juice,” she murmured. “You like it?”

“Uh-huh.”

When he stepped back and began wiping the foamy residue off his face, she leaned against the
vanity to watch him. She’d always enjoyed their time together before he left to go to work. During their months of estrangement, these moments of intimacy had been missing. She’d tried hard to tell herself she hadn’t felt the loss. But she had. Oh, she had.

“Still planning to resign today?” he asked.

“I’ve got the letter all typed and signed. Anything special on your agenda today?”

“Lou Frank,” he said succinctly, pulling on a pair of white briefs.

“You will be careful.”

“I will be careful, baby.” As he reached into the closet for a shirt, he looked at her over his shoulder.

“I may be late getting home,” Jake said a few minutes later, securing the belt on his pants. “Rick Streeter’s in town.”

“From the DEA? That Rick Streeter?”

“Yeah. They’ve got this whole area of the coastline under close surveillance, and Kinard County in particular. Something major’s in the works.” He looked up, sliding his wallet into his hip pocket. “Don’t worry. It’s DEA all the way. We’ll have to stand by, that’s to be expected. But they won’t want us locals mixing it up with the bad guys any more than I want us to get involved in it.”

She stared thoughtfully at a spot beyond him.
“That would explain the epidemic of drug activity here in Tidewater, wouldn’t it?”

“It might.” He was completely dressed, but he didn’t make any move to leave the bedroom. Instead, he paused for a moment, studying her with an odd look on his face.

“What is it?” she said.

“Is that all you’ve got to say?”

“About the DEA thing?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean where’s the tearful lecture on the danger of anything connected with Rick Streeter? And, oh, the checklist of dos and don’ts if Rick should just happen to need you and your people?” She shrugged, smiling. “I’m trying not to nag so much.”

Cramming his keys into his pocket, he reached out and pulled her against him. “A little nagging makes a man feel loved,” he said, rubbing her nose with his.

“I have other ways to make you feel loved.” She planted a kiss on his neck, just under his ear.

He was reaching for his tie when the phone rang.

He jerked up the receiver. “Yeah?”

Frank Cordoba said, “Sorry, Jake, but we need you here.”

“What’s up?”

“The DEA thing. Streeter’s arrived.”

“Loaded for bear?”

“Loaded for bear.”

“Give me ten minutes.” He hung up, fishing for his keys with his other hand.

“Complications?” Rachel asked, knowing the signs.

“Looks like it. I’ll call you when I get a chance.”

She put her arm around his waist and walked with him to the door. When he pulled it open, he drew her forward and kissed her.

She smiled against his mouth.

“I love you, baby.”

“I love you, too.”

S
HE WAS ALREADY DRESSED
to go to work and was standing in front of the aquarium feeding the goldfish when the doorbell rang. Her heart jumped and she ran from the room, hope springing to life as she hurried toward the door. Every time she looked at those dumb goldfish it was as though Michael stood right at her shoulder. She was almost at the door when she realized it couldn’t be Michael. Why would he need to ring the doorbell?

It was Todd Stewart.

“Todd!” In spite of herself, she looked hopefully beyond him, but there was no one there.

“’Lo, Miss Rachel.” He grinned with a winning mix of diffidence and brass.

“Hello, Todd.” Her smile came spontaneously. She realized, with some surprise, that she was
glad to see him. Very glad to see him. His hair, as usual, was stiff with gel and colorful dye. The last time Michael had brought him home, the left side had been bright purple. Today it was tangerine. The earring, she noted, was different. Instead of the macabre skull and crossbones, a pewter circle with the word
peace
inside it dangled from his left earlobe. His parents must have been activists in the sixties, Rachel thought. But then she remembered the absolute dearth of parental influence in Todd’s life, and her own loss rose in her like an unexpected thorn in a bouquet.

“Can I come in for a minute, Miss Rachel?”

“Oh, Todd, of course.” She stepped back, opening the door wide. “I’m sorry. I was just—” She managed a smile. “When I saw you, I thought of Michael and it…he…”

“I know. He split.”

“I’ve been trying to find you for two days,” she said.

“My mom made one of her pit stops,” he explained, shrugging as though a visit from his mother was insignificant.

“I know.” She’d learned that much from his caseworker. “Is she staying?”

“Nah, she’s already gone, headin’ for Atlanta this time. At least, that’s the plan. She’s travelin’ with her agent. They said they’d try to send for
me if this gig works out. She’s a singer, did you know that?”

“Not really,” Rachel murmured, struck again by the hardships some children suffered. How could Todd’s mother bear to leave him to the care of the state?

“Todd, I wanted to ask you about Michael. I’ve talked to most of his other friends, trying to get some clue as to where he might have gone.”

“He told me he might have to do something like this.”

“Have to?”

“His thinking was a bit messed up, Miss Rachel. And I told him so. But he was not in a listenin’ mood, if you get my drift.” He looked beyond her to the den and the doors that led to the patio and pool and shook his head wonderingly. “I could tell he was wrestlin’ in his mind with a lot of heavy stuff. He said it was mostly personal, but it had to do with you and the sheriff. That day the two of you went to Orlando and the little kid didn’t turn out to be—what was his name? Sammy?”

“Scotty,” she whispered, her hand resting at her throat.

“Well, that day he was down, man, really down.”

“Todd, did he tell you anything?” She caught his arm eagerly and began to urge him toward the den.

“Well, that’s what I’ve been wonderin’ about.”
He sank down on the couch, obviously thinking back on his conversation with Mike. “When I heard he’d split, I got to thinkin’ about what we said, goin’ over and over it in my head. Mostly I was mad at him for even thinkin’ about tossin’ all this away.” He looked again at the pool, where late-afternoon sun shone like Fourth-of-July sparklers on the blue water. “I told him he was dumb to think you didn’t love him.”

Rachel pressed her fingers to her mouth, stung by guilt and a sense of remorse. “I do love him, Todd, but I’m so ashamed that he had to run away before I realized just how much. Before I could tell him. If only—”

“I’m not sure he ran away, Miss Rachel.”

“Why?”

He drew in a breath and stared at his hands. “This is gonna sound crazy.” He laughed shortly. “But hey, my kinfolk are crazy. At least, most of them, from what I’ve seen.”

“Todd, you’re not making sense. What does your family have to do with Michael leaving?”

He leaned back, giving her a sideways glance. “I’ve got some relations living out in the boonies, Miss Rachel. Cross Corners. You ever heard of it?” When she nodded, he hunched one shoulder. “Man, it’s like a swamp out there. Anyway, they’re… Well, let’s just say they’re not your kind of people.”

“And—” she prompted. This was not the time to dwell on her past snobbery. She’d make it up to Todd later. To Michael.

“I was talkin’ to Mike about them the other day. I never go out there if I can help it because…” He shrugged. “Face it, they’re mean types. Really low-down, you know?”

He looked at her and continued. “Nah, I can see you don’t know. Well, anyway, the last time I was there, they had this little kid. He just sort of hung around, didn’t say much. They said he was a cousin or something.”

Rachel sat down simply because her legs wouldn’t hold her another moment.

“Y’see, up to the time I met Mike, I’d never noticed those pictures of your little boy. Scotty? Even when I did, it still didn’t click, y’know? But once me and Mike got to be friendly, I couldn’t help but think about Scotty. Man, Mike was always,
always
dreamin’ up schemes to find him. He was gonna flush out the porn people in case they were the ones who took him. Or he was hitchin’ to Miami because they have the most street people….” He shook his head. “Like he was gonna spot one little six-year-old in a place with a coupla million people.”

“Todd, please—”

“Oh, yeah, well… The more I thought about that
little kid out at Cross Corners, the more it seemed to me he looked like the kid in the pictures.”

For a second, Rachel thought she would not be able to breathe. Hope and fear were a painful tangle in the place where her heart was beating madly. “Oh, Todd.”

Todd looked directly into her eyes. “I told Mike about him that day.”

“You think Michael went out to…to Cross Corners?”

“I don’t know nothin’ for sure, but it could be.”

“You think the little boy could be…Scotty?”

“Oh, now, ma’am, I don’t want to get your hopes up. I—”

“And if he is, and if Michael just showed up…” She stopped, frowning. “How would he have found the place? That swamp is huge. People get lost in there.”

“I got a cousin hangs out at a bar on Highway 6,” Todd told her. “He lives out at Cross—”

“Lou’s Bar?”

Todd gave her a surprised look. “Yeah, Lou’s. You talk about mean… Those dudes are the worst. They like to mix it up with knives and whips and—”

“Jake.” Rachel came to her feet abruptly. “We’ve got to call Jake. No, we’ve got to go and
see
Jake.” She wheeled toward the bar, where her car keys
were. “Todd, do you know where these people live?”

Todd stood up. “Yes, ma’am, but we can’t just head out there blind. They might be my kinfolk, but they’re still mean people, Miss Rachel.”

She put a hand to her throat, resisting the thought of what Scotty might have been forced to endure for six months. “In what way?”

“Just mean,” Todd said darkly, as though that explained everything. “It may be Scotty or it may not be, the little kid out there. But I’ve been thinkin’ about Mike. If he did go out there, where is he now? How is it he just disappeared?” He pulled at his T-shirt. “To tell the truth, Miss Rachel, I’m real worried.”

J
AKE WAS STANDING
with Rick Streeter in front of a map of the county when he heard the commotion outside his office door. When he recognized Rachel with Todd Stewart, his breath caught in his chest. Michael! They’d found Michael!

Seeing Jake’s expression, Rick stopped mid-sentence, his gaze following Jake’s to the woman hovering in the doorway. A teenage boy with tangerine hair stood behind her.

“Jake!” Rachel’s tone was enough to make Jake move involuntarily toward her, his arms opening. She flew to him and let herself be enfolded and held close for a fervent moment before pushing
back and looking up at him. “I’m sorry to barge in like this, but you have to hear what Todd…” She swallowed and began again. “Todd thinks—Todd told me…”

“Is it Michael?” Jake asked, giving her a little shake.

She nodded frantically. “And Scotty! Both of them!”

He sent a quick look at Todd, who shuffled his overlarge feet self-consciously but held his gaze. “Todd?”

“I’m not sure, Sheriff. I told Miss Rachel it might not be Scotty.” He shrugged. “But he sure looks like those pictures.”

With his hand on Rachel’s arm, he reached for Todd’s shoulder and ushered them both into his office.

“How are you, Rachel?”

Jake had forgotten Rick. At his greeting, Rachel gave him a quick, distracted smile and introduced Todd. Jake plowed his hand through his hair. “Rick, how about a break here? There should be fresh coffee.” He glanced at the clock on the wall, even though the last thing on his mind was a coffee break.

“Sounds good,” Rick said, moving obligingly to the door. “Nice seeing you, Rachel. Todd. Take your time, Jake. I’m going to brief my team and try to work out some logistical snags. The terrain
out there is rugged. We have to keep in mind that they’re in their natural habitat and we’re not.”

Nobody sat after he left. As soon as the door closed, Rachel and Todd spoke simultaneously.

“Jake, you have to—”

“Sheriff, I could be—”

Jake raised a hand. “Wait. I can’t listen to you both at once. Rachel, you tell me what’s going on.”

Looking at him, she pressed her fingers to her lips, trying to gather herself together, but she couldn’t prevent her hand from trembling. “Jake, this is… You’re not going to believe this.”

“Just tell me and let me decide that,” he said, hanging on to his patience by a thread.

“Todd has seen a child who looks like Scotty, living with some of his relatives.”

Jake shot a quick look at Todd. “Why didn’t you say something before now, boy?”

“It wasn’t intentional,” Rachel said quickly, wanting to protect Todd. Jake could be intimidating if riled. “He only put it together today.”

“Put what together?” Jake demanded, his attention centered again on Rachel. “And what does this have to do with Michael?”

“Todd never thought much about this little boy suddenly coming to live with his relatives until he met Michael at school and they became friends. According to Todd, Michael was concerned about Scotty. Since his picture is all over town, when he
and Todd were together, Michael talked about it frequently.”