Baby Breakout (13 page)

He wanted her trust, too. And those damn doubts were back in her eyes, as clear as the sky-blue color that had haunted him the past three years. Everything about Erica Towsley had haunted him the past three years. Maybe she had been duped into doubting him once. But if she had really cared about him, she would not have been so easily fooled…

“I think they’re gone,” she whispered, her warm breath feathering across his cheek. And then she squirmed, her hips arching against his.

He swallowed a groan, as his body reacted—hardening and demanding release. Desire hammered at him, pulsing in his veins and tightening all his muscles. They had nearly made love earlier, at her apartment, until the breaking-news bulletin had returned them to their senses. Now the sound of shoes scraping across the cement floor above them drew Jed back to reality.

He couldn’t make love to Erica here. He couldn’t make
love
to Erica anywhere because he could never love a woman who did not believe in him. Having everyone but Macy turn on him and look at him with fear and disgust had destroyed something inside him—his self-respect and maybe his own ability to trust.

And to love.

As he had earlier, he covered her mouth with his hand—holding back any gasps or words she might have inadvertently uttered. Anyone could have stepped back inside the hangar.

Her breath warmed his palm and had a tingling sensation shooting up his arm—straight to his heart. The damn woman affected him as no other ever had. If only she could have loved him…

But she hadn’t had enough faith in him to have had any real feelings for him.

“They’re really gone,” Rowe said. He knelt beside the drainage tunnel and pulled up the grate. “I waited and watched to make certain that they drove away.”

“And knowing you, you probably threw out a few threats and a couple more lies,” Jed said. He tried to get up, but he didn’t want to put any more of his weight on Erica

Rowe reached down and offered him a hand up. As Jed grabbed it and hauled himself to his feet, Rowe said, “I wasn’t lying to the sheriff.”

He had to force it, but Jed grinned at the DEA agent’s semantics. “You didn’t tell him that I was here.”

“That was an omission,” Rowe clarified.

To pretty much everybody else and most especially Jed, a lie of omission was still a lie. Erica not coming forward to alibi him was a lie of omission he might never be able to forgive.

“I was telling the truth about bringing you in, though,” Rowe warned him.

Jed nodded. “Of course you will—once I go through the financial records from my and Brandon’s accounting firm, and I have the evidence I need to prove my innocence. Then you’ll bring me in until my conviction can be overturned.”

That didn’t guarantee his immediate release, though. He would have to do jail time for breaking out of prison. But until he had found out about Isobel, he hadn’t cared that he would have to go back…because he’d known it was for a crime he had actually committed. And then everyone would know the truth—that he wasn’t a killer.

Jed turned back to Erica, reaching one hand down to help her from the tunnel. But the hole was shallow so she was already hauling herself up the cement side.

Cold metal encircled his wrist and then snapped tight around it. The sensation was horribly familiar.

Rowe dragged his other hand behind his back and manacled it, too. “No, Jed, I have to bring you in
now
. I have to arrest you for breaking out of prison. I have to bring you back.”

“Back to Blackwoods?”

Back to Hell?

“There isn’t much left of Blackwoods,” Rowe reminded him. “It’ll take them years to rebuild that prison. Your name will be clear for a long time before the construction is done on Blackwoods Penitentiary. You’ll never have to go back there.”

“I won’t have the chance,” Jed said. “Once you take me in, I’m a dead man. And I’m going to die a guilty man, convicted of crimes I never committed.”

And worse than that, he finally had an idea who was really responsible for those crimes. But until he could prove it, nobody would believe him. However, he wouldn’t be able to prove anything if he was behind bars or dead. “Don’t do this, Rowe…”

“I have no choice,” he replied, all DEA agent now instead of friend and future brother-in-law. “I’m putting you under arrest…”

“You’re putting me six feet under…”

He was definitely a dead man.

Chapter Twelve

“He’s arresting him,” Erica whispered, as she stared through the window that looked onto the hangar. Her stomach clenching with dread and fear, she was as horrified now as she had been when Rowe Cusack had first slapped the cuffs on Jed.

But before he could drag him off, Macy had rushed out and joined them. Instead of staying there to support Jed, Erica had hurried toward her daughter. She hadn’t wanted Isobel to see any more than she already had. So she’d caught the child up in her arms and carried her back inside the apartment.

“You played hide ’n’ seek real good, Mommy,” Isobel praised her. “Nobody found you.”

Too bad Rowe had known where they were…

Not that she had wanted to stay inside that tunnel with Jed forever. The confinement had been overwhelming or maybe that had just been her feelings—her desire—for the man that had overwhelmed her. Being too close to Jed made her lose her objectivity and her common sense. Maybe it wouldn’t be bad if Rowe took him back to jail as long as he could keep him safe.

But she doubted anyone could guarantee Jed’s safety now. Too many people wanted him dead.

“Is it my turn to play hide ’n’ seek now?” Isobel asked. “I want Jed to be my partner.” The little girl followed Erica’s gaze out the window and wrinkled her nose in confusion. “Is he playing a game with that other man now?”

She wished it was just a game. Apparently so did Macy as she yelled at her fiancé. They were too far away for Erica to hear the words she shouted, but her argument must have been effective because he removed the handcuffs.

When Erica had been out there with them, she had heard his words and knew the DEA agent had spoken them with grim determination. He didn’t like this part of his job, but he wasn’t able to ignore his duty to uphold the law. Rowe Cusack was definitely going to bring Jed back to prison.

“I guess they are playing a game.” One neither man really wanted to play, though.

The little girl yawned. “I’m kind of sleepy now. I can hide ’n’ seek with Jed later.”

The child hadn’t really had much sleep—at least uninterrupted sleep—since Jed had shown up at their door.

Erica hugged her daughter, holding her close and rocking her back and forth in her arms. She was already comforting her because, if Jed went back to prison, the child wasn’t going to be able to seek out her father for a while.

Maybe never.

“Damn him!” Macy said, as she stepped back inside and slammed the door shut. Horror and regret widened her eyes, and she lowered her voice. “I’m so sorry. I forgot all about…”

Her niece.

But then, she had just become aware of the child’s existence. “It’s okay,” Erica assured her. “Isobel can sleep through anything.”

“I’ve heard kids are resilient,” Macy remarked with obvious envy. She crossed the room to the brass bed near the fireplace and dragged back the blankets. “You can lay her down here.”

Erica followed Macy to the bed, but she hesitated before releasing her daughter. If the police had discovered Jed and her hiding beneath that grate, she could have lost her child forever.

Macy reached out and squeezed Erica’s shoulder. “She’s safe here. I would never let anything happen to her,” she promised. “I would never let anyone take her or hurt her.”

Had Jed told her about the man in her apartment? If Isobel hadn’t awakened and gone with Mrs. Osborn to her place, that man might have taken Isobel.

“I’m her mother. I’m supposed to be the one to protect her,” Erica said, feeling as though she’d failed miserably.

“She’s a happy, healthy little girl, so you obviously have protected her all of her life,” Macy said. “But I want to help you now.”

“Why?” Erica asked, confused that a virtual stranger could be so generous. “You don’t even know us.”

Macy moved her hand from Erica’s shoulder to Isobel’s cheek. “She’s my niece. My brother’s daughter…” Her voice cracked as emotion overwhelmed her. “When I was growing up, Jed was always there for me—giving me the love and support our parents couldn’t give me. I failed Jed when it mattered most. I wasn’t able to save him from prison. Three years ago—” she glanced out the window and bit her lip “—or now.”

“You got Rowe to take off the handcuffs,” Erica pointed out. And the DEA agent hadn’t put them back on yet.

“I talked him out of arresting Jed in front of his daughter,” Macy said.

When Erica finally settled Isobel onto the bed, Macy’s breath caught as if she feared that her fiancé had been waiting for just that moment before he hauled her brother off to prison again.

“Rowe can’t take him in,” Erica said. All those claims the bounty hunter had made rushed back to her, bringing fear and panic. “He’ll die in custody.”

Because every law-enforcement officer wanted him dead out of vengeance over the death of the young cop. Apparently officers never forgot a fallen comrade.

Macy shook her head, unwilling or unable to consider how much danger her brother was in. “Jed survived three years in the most dangerous prison in Michigan.”

“And maybe that’s how he survived,” Erica pointed out. “Maybe his label of cop killer actually protected him inside the corrupt jail. But now…”

Macy’s breath shuddered out in a shaky sigh. “Now he’ll be sent somewhere else until we can find the real killer and clear his name.”

“Jed knows who the killer is.” Even though he wouldn’t admit it. And why wouldn’t he admit it? Was he actually protecting the real guilty person? Or was he protecting everyone else he cared about? Everyone else but himself…

* * *

“D
AMN
IT
, R
OWE
,
YOU
CAN
’
T
bring me in now.” Not when he was so close to proving his innocence. All he had to do was prove his sanity—to himself—first.

Rowe glanced toward the window leading to that little apartment inside the hangar. “I know it has to be damn hard, just finding out you have a kid and having to leave her again. But, Jed, I can’t have you out here—at the mercy of every bounty hunter and cop with a grudge.”

“I’ll be even more at their mercy when I’m locked up,” Jed argued. “You were in there—you know what it’s like.”

“That was Blackwoods and Blackwoods is gone. And Warden James will probably be locked up for the rest of his life.”

Jed snorted in derision.

“The D.A. made sure his bail was denied,” Rowe said, “he’s not getting out.”

“Not now but anything could happen at his trial.” No one knew that better than him. He had been so convinced that he wouldn’t be convicted of crimes he hadn’t committed. He’d been so naïve. “Plenty of guilty people have gotten off.” Especially if Jed wasn’t alive to testify against him.

Rowe shook his head, unwilling to believe it. “Not James. He’s guilty as hell.”

“And I was innocent. You can’t trust that the justice system is going to work.” There were times a man needed to take justice into his own hands. And if Jed was right about who had set him up, he would mete out his own justice to the bastard who had stolen three years of his life.

Rowe must have misunderstood what justice system Jed was talking about because he asked, “You really think you’ll be in danger in jail?”

“You were the first one who warned me about the shoot-on-sight order out on me,” Jed reminded him. “And now the governor put a big bounty on my head. Do you really think I will ever make it out to see my daughter again?”

“Jed…” Rowe narrowed his eyes with suspicion, as if he thought Jed was deliberately playing on his emotions.

Maybe he was. “I can’t go back inside until I find the evidence that’ll clear me.”

“I’ll find it,” Rowe assured him.

“
You
don’t know where to look.” He wasn’t sure that he did, either.

How did one go about tracking down a ghost?

“So Erica’s right.” Rowe cursed him. “You did recognize the person who tried to force you off the road on your way here.”

He shrugged. “It’s probably the same person who broke into her apartment. If Isobel hadn’t been across the hall at the neighbor’s who was watching her, she might not be here with us.”

“You don’t have to be out of prison to be able to protect her,” Rowe said. “I will protect her for you. I’ll make sure no one threatens or hurts that little girl.”

Some of the weight on his shoulders eased. “I’m counting on that.”

“You have my promise.”

Jed nodded in acceptance. He knew the DEA agent didn’t give his promise lightly and that once he did, he kept it. Or Macy wouldn’t be here yet. Rowe had promised to protect Jed’s little sister, and that was a vow he had nearly died to keep. “Thank you.”

Rowe drew in an audibly ragged breath. “So I’ll take you in now. And I’ll make sure that nothing happens to you in custody.”

“I’m not going in,” Jed argued, desperation clawing at him. “I have to dig up more information to prove my innocence.”

“Tell me, and I’ll get it for you,” Rowe offered.

“Did you find the witnesses from my trial? Brandon’s girlfriend?” She was the key.

“The last person you believe really saw your business partner alive,” Rowe replied, almost as if stalling for time before divulging, “She’s dead.”

Damn it all…

“She was murdered.” Like Marcus Leighton, she’d been a loose end that needed tying up.

“Her death was ruled a suicide,” Rowe said. “She hung herself shortly after the trial. Maybe the guilt over lying on the stand…”

Jed shook his head. That woman had felt no guilt; in fact she’d almost been gleeful when she’d testified, as if she’d been privy to a big joke that no one else had known. “I’d like you to look into it more. I think she was murdered, like my lawyer.”

Rowe studied him for a moment before nodding in agreement. “Okay. I’ll have the investigation reopened. I’ll take a look at the autopsy report myself. If she was murdered, we’ll find out.”

“What about the other witness—the man who testified to my killing the cop?” Jed asked. “Is he dead, too?”

Rowe shook his head. “No.”

Not yet. But Jed had a bad feeling that if they didn’t get to him soon—it would be too late. “Do you know where he is?”

Rowe nodded. “I intend to go see him as soon as I guarantee that you’ll be safe in jail.”

Jed shook his head. “That’s a guarantee you’ll never get until I’m proved innocent. Let me prove my innocence, Rowe.”

“How?” the lawman asked. “By threatening the witness? That’ll just get you in more trouble.”