I Got You, Babe (30 page)

Tom inched closer to Paula. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss that made her knees weak. Not only did she suddenly feel inclined to tolerate just about anything out of Rhonda, she was having a tough time even remembering who Rhonda was.

Tom nuzzled her neck, sending little shivers of delight racing down her spine. “Why don’t we continue this in the bedroom?”

“Now? With them still here?”

“They’ll barely notice we’re gone.”

He took Paula by the hand and led her back to the living room. “Hey, Steve. Paula and I are going to bed. You and Rhonda watch whatever you want to and lock up on your way out.”

Rhonda ignored him completely, still focused on her systematic nacho dismemberment. Steve merely grunted.

Tom led Paula by the hand into the bedroom. She closed the door behind them. “Why do I get the idea that they only love me for my big-screen TV?”

“Come on, Paula,” Tom said with a smile. “This isn’t like you. You always give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Even sleazy, drug-addicted smart-asses like Rhonda.”

Paula couldn’t help smiling back. He was right. She’d always been one of those excessively optimistic people who tried to see the good in any situation. But lately, since Renee’s arrest, she’d had the feeling that maybe things didn’t always work out for the best.

“Do you remember how we used to watch the Rangers last summer?” she asked Tom. “You and me and Steve and Renee?”

“I remember.”

“I had this crazy idea that we’d all be together forever.” She sighed with regret. “I wish that had worked out. Not that I would have wanted Renee to stay with Steve, but—” Paula stopped short, then expelled a breath of frustration. “I’m sorry, Tom. I don’t mean to put Steve down, but—”

“It’s okay. I know Steve has his shortcomings. I’m just hoping someday he gets smart enough to find someone like Renee rather than someone like Rhonda.”

Paula sighed. “I miss Renee so much. Do you think she ever made it to New Orleans?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she’ll call soon.”

“But she can never come home. She’s the closest thing I’ve got to a sister. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her.”

“Will you stop thinking about Renee? It only makes you crazy.”

Tom sat her down on the bed and grabbed his guitar from where it rested in the comer of her bedroom. She settled back against the pillows, sighing with pleasure as Tom sang for her. He had such a beautiful voice, and every time he shared it with her she felt like the luckiest woman in the world. She closed her eyes, letting the sound of his voice flow over her like a gentle tide on a deserted beach, washing away all her worries....

“Hey! You people wanna keep it down in there? We’re trying to watch a movie out here!”

Paula’s eyes sprang open. Rhonda. Shouting at the top of her coarse, vulgar lungs.

Tom’s fingers froze on the strings. Then he smiled at Paula, and in spite of Rhonda, or maybe because of her, they started to laugh. Tom set his guitar aside and took Paula by the hand, pulling her around until she fell onto her back on the mattress. They laughed harder, and then he was kissing her as only Tom could, and she wondered how she’d ever gotten through life without him.

From the living room, she heard the rumblings of
The Creature from the Black Lagoon,
laced with Rhonda’s theatrical squeals of fear.

“Hey!” Tom called out. “You wanna keep it down out there? We’re trying to have sex in here!”

“Tom!” Paula said.

He gave her a wicked grin.

“You’re
so
bad.”

“Actually, no. I’m good. Very, very good. You want me to show you?”

And then he kissed her again, and she saw that he wasn’t exaggerating in the least. But as he started to make love to her, Paula felt the old doubts come creeping in again. No matter how good things were between them, Renee’s warnings were always in the back of her mind.

He cheats on you. Get a clue, will you?

Tom had always had a reasonable explanation in response to Renee’s accusations—a friend dropped by, or maybe some woman had come to the wrong apartment and was just leaving. And Paula believed him. She loved him. How could she not believe him?

When does he plan on paying back the money you’ve loaned him? Like, never?

Paula refused to think about that anymore. After all, hadn’t they talked about it just a few days ago? And what had Tom said?

I have this feeling I’m going to come into a little money pretty soon.

Paula didn’t know exactly what he meant by that, only that he hadn’t forgotten he owed her, and he had every intention of paying her back. And in the end, that was all that really mattered.

When Renee awoke the next morning, she felt disoriented, and it was a hazy moment before she remembered where she was. Then she turned and saw John. His head rested against the pillow, a stubble of a beard on his cheeks and chin, his dark hair sleep-mussed. She had a sudden, intense flash of how incredible things had been between them, how she’d felt things with him she’d never felt with anyone before.

Right before it had all fallen apart.

She looked at their wrists bound together by the cuffs, and she had to swallow hard and grit her teeth to keep from crying. How could he have done this to her? How could he have made love to her, then handcuffed her again, as if what they’d shared together had meant nothing?

Because he didn’t believe she was innocent. Oh, he said he did, and that this was for her own good, but when it came right down to it, telling him she had a juvenile record had changed the way he looked at her. For all she knew, she’d be in jail before the day was out.

She lay back against the pillow, tears coming to her eyes. Turning to gaze at the sunlight peeking in through the blinds, she wondered if this would be the last sunrise she’d see as a free woman. Then she glanced at the nightstand.

And saw the key.

She stared at it for several seconds, her heart going crazy. The key to the handcuffs lay only an arm’s length away.

She glanced back at John, who still lay sleeping.

In the next breath she realized what she had to do, and her heart turned somersaults.

Just like that moment out at the cabin when she’d spied John’s car keys on the kitchen counter, she knew she was looking at her only means of escape. And she had to take advantage of it now, before any more sunlight spilled through the window and woke him up.

She slid the key off the nightstand, turned back over, and waited, clutching it in her fist. Still John slept.

She looked quickly around the room and spied her jeans and sweatshirt. In her mind, she mapped out the shortest route to grab each piece of clothing. Her strategy in place, she slid the key into the lock and turned it. The resultant click sounded like an explosion to her ears, but John kept on sleeping. Slowly, slowly she pulled the cuff away from her wrist, her heart beating like a jackhammer.

She started to lay the cuff down on the pillow beside his wrist, when he stirred beside her.

No, no, no...

He shifted, turning his head on the pillow until he was facing right toward her. His eyelids fluttered. She gripped the handcuff, frozen with panic. He was waking up. She wasn’t going to make it. He was going to see her trying to escape.

John blinked. Still groggy, he didn’t focus on her right away. In a mindless rush, she did the only thing she could think to do. She wrapped the handcuff she held around the spindle of the headboard and clicked it shut.

At the sound of that tiny click, John’s eyes flew wide open. He lunged for her, but she was quicker, scrambling naked out of the bed and backing against the dresser. He hit the end of the cuff, swinging his other arm in a wide arc, trying to intercept her. He missed.

“Renee! Get back here!”

She quickly scooped up her jeans and sweatshirt and held them up in front of her. He eyed the handcuffs with total disbelief, then gave them several hard yanks. When they didn’t budge, he whipped back around.

“Renee. You can’t leave. It won’t solve anything!”

“Yes, it will! It’ll keep me out of prison!”

“You’ll be running forever. Is that what you want?”

“If it means I won’t go to prison, then yes! That’s what I want!”

He bowed his head in frustration, then snapped it back up again. “Look. You’ve got a chance of getting out of this if we can just hunt up a little more evidence in your favor.”

“But you won’t help me. Not anymore. Not when you think I’m guilty.”

“I never said that!”

“No. You let your handcuffs do the talking for you.”

John held up his palm. “I know you’re scared, sweetheart. But I told you I’d help you, and I will.”

“You think I’m guilty! You wouldn’t have handcuffed me last night if you didn’t!”

“That’s not true! Damn it, Renee! Will you listen to me?” “I have to go.”

She wiggled into her jeans, sucked in hard and zipped them, then put on her sweatshirt. She grabbed the car keys out of his jeans.

“Renee. You’re not going to go to prison. Not if I can help it. Unlock me, and we’ll talk about it.”

She started for the door.

“Renee! Stop!”

She turned back, hating the indecision she felt when she knew this was the only thing she could do, hating the fact that he was sitting there so gorgeously naked, a life-size reminder of how wonderful last night had been. She knew she was doing the right thing, but that didn’t stop the tears from forming behind her eyes or a feeling of intense regret from welling up inside her that threatened to tear her apart.

“No, John,” she said, her voice quavering. “It’s better this way. For both of us. You don’t have to make a decision about taking me to jail. It’s out of your hands. You can blame me for escaping, and your conscience will be clear.”

“Damn it, Renee! Don’t do this!”

She wanted to stay. Desperately. She was right on the verge of believing every word he was telling her, because she had absolutely nothing else to believe in. But she couldn’t. The handcuff she’d worn last night said he didn’t trust that she was innocent, no matter how much he argued to the contrary.

If only she could go back to those few precious moments they’d spent together last night, when the rest of the world had disappeared and he’d shown her just how incredible lovemaking could be. She’d never known. She’d never even had a clue it could be like that. And all she’d wanted afterward was to fall asleep next to him, then wake up this morning by his side and have him tell her one more time that he believed in her and he was going to help her, and that maybe, just maybe, her whole life wasn’t going to hell.

Then he’d destroyed it all by clamping that cuff onto her wrist.

“I won’t leave you here like this,” she told him. “I’ll call Sandy later and tell her to come over.”

John closed his eyes. “Oh, that’s just great.”

“I’ll tell her we had a fight or something, and that I got so mad I handcuffed you there and left. She’ll believe it.”

“No, she won’t. She likes you, Renee. She won’t believe—”

“I’ll make her believe it. And I’m sorry about your car, but I’m going to have to take it. I know that makes me a car thief, but I don’t have any choice. I’ll get it back to you soon, though. Somehow. I promise.”

She started out the door.

“Renee.”

This time his voice was soft, pleading, reaching right inside her and wrapping around her heart. She stopped, her back to him, her hand on the door frame, and wished to God this could have ended any other way.

“Didn’t last night mean anything to you?” he said.

Don’t do this to me, she begged him silently, tears starting down her cheeks. Just let me go and forget you ever knew me.

She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand, then turned and met his eyes.

“It meant everything to me, John. I just wish it had meant something to you.”

She walked out of the room. She heard him curse loudly and bang his fist against the headboard. She flinched hard at the sound, stopping to put her hand against the wall because she wasn’t sure her knees were going to hold her up. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she collected herself again and grabbed John’s car keys off the kitchen counter, laying the handcuff key in their place.

She had to get to Paula’s apartment, borrow some money, then get the hell out of town.

Chapter 15

T
wenty minutes later, Renee pulled into the parking lot of Timberlake Apartments. As she drove down the east side of the complex, she remembered how excited she’d been the day she moved in. It had been such a step up from the vermin-infested rat hole she’d just moved out of, the only place she’d been able to afford at age eighteen on the meager salary and tips she earned at Denny’s. This apartment had a built-in microwave and mini-blinds and carpet with no stains, and even though the other tenants weren’t the cream of society, at least they weren’t trying to sell her drugs in the lobby or throwing up in the hall.

Now, six years later, she could see that it really wasn’t the palace it had felt like back then—the parking lot was potholed, the trim needed paint, and the awnings along the front of the complex were tattered and faded. But still she loved it, because it had been the first tangible proof she’d ever had that hard work paid off.

But as of today, she’d never be coming back here again.

She parked John’s car as close to Paula’s apartment as she could, then checked the area for any signs of life. Fortunately, the only activity she saw was a stray cat peeking out from behind a shrub and a flock of starlings chirping in the branches of a nearby live oak tree.

She got out of the car, slipped through the lobby door, and trotted up the back stairs. She knocked softly on 214, praying that Paula was home, because she had no idea what she was going to do if she wasn’t.

Finally, after so much time had passed that Renee had almost given up hope, Paula opened the door. The moment she saw Renee, her sleepy eyes snapped open wide.