I Got You, Babe (41 page)

Alex leaned away from her slightly, a look of utter astonishment on his face. He turned his gaze to John, then back to Renee. Finally he rubbed his wrist and let out a breath of disgusted resignation.

“Jesus, John,” he muttered. “She’s as insane as you are.”

John glanced back at Renee, who was still huffing from her attack on Alex. That microscopic red dress made her look like a little blond devil who’d risen up from the underworld to give his brother holy hell. She was actually an angel in disguise, but it was going to take Alex a while to figure that out.

“We can consider this matter closed, then,” Renee said, her angry gaze still boring into Alex. “Is that correct?”

“Oh, all right,” he muttered, then glared at John. “But I swear to God, if you tell a solitary soul what happened here tonight, nothing will be able to save your ass. Not even your crazy girlfriend.”

John smiled. “I wouldn’t think of it.”

“Yeah, I’ll just bet you wouldn’t.” He started toward the door, shooting them both nasty looks. “I’ve had to pee for the last hour. If you’ll excuse me?”

He left the room, and John turned slowly to face Renee. “Does this mean I’m forgiven for last night?”

She walked over and slid into his arms, and John felt such an outpouring of relief that he could barely contain it. He held her so tightly he was almost afraid of hurting her, but when he thought about how close he’d come to losing her, anything less just wasn’t enough. He couldn’t believe they’d actually found the person who committed that robbery. He couldn’t believe she was back here with him again.

He couldn’t believe she’d stopped Alex from murdering him. “Thanks for sticking up for me, sweetheart. If you hadn’t, you just might be taking me to the hospital right about now.”

“Nah. He’s not so tough.”

No, he’s not. Not compared to you.

After what she’d been through in the past several days, still she managed to go to that club tonight to try to prove her innocence, and he felt nothing but shame that he hadn’t stood by her. That was a mistake he intended never to make again.

John heard the bathroom door open, and then Alex stomping down the hall toward the living room. The front door opened, then slammed so hard the pictures rattled on the walls.

“I guess he’s still a little mad, huh?” Renee said.

“He’ll get over it.” John took Renee’s face in his hands and kissed her gently. “I need to go to the station. Make sure we get that confession out of Steve. You’ll stay right here until I get back, won’t you?”

She leaned close and whispered in his ear that yes, she would, and precisely where in his house she’d be, and that it had just become and would forever remain a no-handcuff zone.

When John returned home an hour and a half later, he found Renee asleep in his bed. That hot little red dress was tossed on his dresser, along with those pink undies of hers, and the purple hat was in the trash can. He sat down on the bed beside her. She stirred and turned over, and that was when he realized that she hadn’t bothered to put on one of his shirts. She hadn’t bothered to put on anything.

A very nice surprise.

He touched her shoulder, and her eyes blinked open. She smiled up at him.

“Everything’s okay, sweetheart,” he said, brushing a strand of blond hair away from her cheek. “Steve confessed.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. He wasn’t too sure he wanted to, but then Tom came down to the station and added a little extra persuasion. You’re off the hook.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her body going limp with relief.

“I owe my life to you,” she whispered.

He felt a shiver when she said that, thinking about how anything in the past few days could have taken a wrong turn and maybe they wouldn’t have discovered the truth. Renee might have run so far that he never would have found her, or she’d have eventually gotten caught and he’d have had to live with the knowledge that she was inside prison walls and he hadn’t been able to do anything to stop it.

“Come on, sweetheart. You were the one who took out a rabid bounty hunter and extracted a confession from an armed robber. You didn’t need me.”

“Yes, I did. I needed a man who couldn’t take me to jail when he knew I was innocent, no matter what the rest of the world said.” She laid her palm against his cheek. “I love you, John. I know that’s hard to believe after so short a time, but I do.”

He didn’t realize until this moment how desperately he’d wanted to hear her say that. But still he felt uneasy. “Are you sure it isn’t just gratitude?”

He’d asked her that once before, when they were on the verge of making love for the first time, and that same doubt was creeping in again. He was afraid to ask the question. Afraid to find out it wasn’t really love on her part, because he’d fallen so hard for her that if she didn’t feel the same, he wasn’t sure he’d ever pick himself back up again.

“No,” she whispered. “It’s not just because of what you did. It’s because of who you are. It’s because you were willing to risk everything that’s important to you. For me.” She lay back against the pillow, smiling sleepily. “Now, will you please take off your clothes and come to bed?”

She didn’t have to ask twice.

Epilogue

R
enee had survived a false criminal accusation and three run-ins with a bounty hunter who was out for blood, then single-handedly choked a confession out of an armed robber, but going to Aunt Louisa’s house the next Sunday for lunch was still one of the most nerve-racking experiences of her life. Even though John assured her that he’d told his family the whole story, Renee still felt uneasy.

“This is so weird,” Renee whispered to John as they took their places at the table.

“Relax,” he whispered back. “I told you everything’s fine.”

“Alex is giving me the evil eye.”

“That’s the way he looks at everybody.”

“Are you sure they want me here?”

“Trust me, sweetheart. Everything’s okay.”

The family had greeted her in a perfectly gracious manner, but now that they knew everything about her, she couldn’t help but think they’d never again look at her as favorably as they had the first time they’d met her. Did they still think she was the woman for John? Or did they hope he’d eventually come to his senses and dump her?

Everyone stuck their napkins in their laps, and Aunt Louisa started the mashed potatoes around. Brenda picked up the platter of fried chicken, took a couple of wings, then handed it to Alex.

“Hey, Alex,” she said offhandedly. “Been meaning to ask you. Where did you get that bruise around your wrist?”

Alex froze for a moment, then grabbed three or four chicken legs and deposited them on his plate, saying nothing.

“Yeah,” Dave said. “I was looking at that myself. I cuffed a guy once who was resisting arrest. He flipped out. When I finally turned him loose, his wrists looked just like that.”

“Handcuffs?” Sandy said, looking bewildered. “It couldn’t be. I mean, when’s the last time you saw a cop in handcuffs?”

“I’ll be over tomorrow evening to help you fix that door frame,” Eddie told John. “It’s a shame it got beat up that way. What did you say happened again?”

“Oh, all
right
” Alex turned to glare at John. “You couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?”

John shrugged. “Something may have slipped out.”

“Thanks one hell of a lot,” Alex muttered. “Now I suppose the whole world is going to know about it.”

“Nope,” Sandy said. “If we tell everyone you were outwitted by your brother and spent three hours handcuffed to his weight bench, we’d also have to say
why
you were handcuffed to the weight bench, which means we’d have to tell the world what was going on with John and Renee, and we’re not going to go there, are we?”

“But that doesn’t mean it can’t become family legend,” Brenda said.

“Of course not,” Sandy said. “We reserve the right to give him a hard time about it at every family gathering from now until the end of time.”

“Especially the part about Renee wearing the purple satin hat when she slapped Alex down,” Brenda said. “I
love
that part.”

“With pearls,” Sandy added.

“Of course,” Brenda said.

The tight knot of anxiety Renee had felt since she walked in the door slowly unfurled, exposing a sense of belonging she’d wanted desperately to feel. She glanced at Sandy, then Brenda, and they both smiled at her. She smiled back. Furtively, of course. It wouldn’t do for Alex to see that she was enjoying this.

“Well, we’re certainly glad to have Renee with us again, aren’t we?” Aunt Louisa said.

Everyone nodded. Enthusiastically, even. Well, almost everyone. She thought Alex kind of twitched a little, but she couldn’t be sure.

Then Aunt Louisa got a bewildered look on her face. “But you know, John, you told us something about Renee growing up, something about when she was a teenager....”

Renee frowned, feeling all that anxiety crawl right back inside her again.

“But for some reason,” Aunt Louisa went on, “I just can’t seem to remember what it was.” She shook her head. “I suppose I’m just getting old. Do you remember, Sandy?”

Sandy pondered that for a moment, then shrugged. “Seems to have slipped my mind, too. Dave?”

“Sorry. I don’t remember either.”

“Me either,” Brenda said, then turned to Alex with a pointed stare. “How about you, Alex?”

Alex’s mouth twisted with disgust. Brenda kicked him under the table.

“Can’t remember a thing,” he muttered.

Then Grandpa and Eddie voiced the same memory loss that, tragically, appeared to run in the DeMarco family. Only Grandma looked around the table with a perplexed expression.

“What’s the matter with you people?” she said. “She was a rotten little juvenile delinquent with a rap sheet so long you could measure it with a yardstick.”

The whole family froze, then turned their gazes to Renee. She knew she should be mortified, and a week ago she might have been. But now she just couldn’t help it. She smiled. Then Brenda smiled, too, and Sandy snickered a little. Then everybody else joined in, and before long the walls were shaking with laughter. Grandma looked at everyone as if
they
were nuts, and Renee realized it had been a very long time since she’d laughed so hard her sides hurt, and it felt
good.

When the laughter finally died down, Alex gave everyone a roundhouse glare. “So where’s everybody’s selective memory loss when I need it?”

“Renee left all that stuff behind her when she was a teenager,” Sandy said. “You, on the other hand, were a jerk just last week.”

Everyone nodded again, then resumed munching on Aunt Louisa’s fried chicken. They speculated about how well the Cowboys might hold up against the Steelers this afternoon, and soon a heated discussion erupted, with one person quoting quarterback statistics, another reciting injury lists. And Renee couldn’t believe how wonderful it felt to be part of the family rather than an outsider looking in.

“Renee,” Alex said.

She froze at the sound of Alex’s booming voice. The casual chatter at the table fell silent as he skewered her with a sharp stare. That evil eye again.

“Yes?”

“Are you still a beer drinker?”

“Uh...yeah. Sometimes.”

“Do you think you can keep it in the bottle, where it belongs?”

Renee smiled just a little bit. “I think maybe I can. I’m not nearly as clumsy as I was eight years ago.”

“Then I think we’re going to get along just fine. Now, will somebody pass the peas?”

Renee ducked her head, that tiny smile still playing across her lips. She picked up her fork and started to take a bite of potatoes. Then suddenly she had the strangest feeling, a tightness in her throat as if maybe she was going to cry. She set her fork down, tossed her napkin beside her plate, and went into the kitchen, where she grabbed a paper towel and dabbed her eyes. She heard footsteps behind her and turned around, and as soon as she saw John, the floodgates opened.

“Renee? What’s wrong?”

“I-I don’t know,” she said, falling into his arms and sobbing against his shoulder. “It’s so dumb to be crying, because I’m happy. I really am.”

“Is this about the beer, sweetheart? I’ll handcuff Alex to something and you can pour a whole bottle on his shoes if you want to.”

Renee burst into laughter. It felt so weird to be laughing and crying at the same time. “Oh, John, this is all just too much for me.”

“You’ll be fine. You just haven’t had a lifetime of experience dealing with them the way I have.” He smoothed her hair away from her cheeks. “I should tell you, though, that it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to spill all our secrets to them.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. They slapped me around a little for taking such a risk with my career. Then they got all huffy that I lied to them about your identity. And you should have seen the looks on their faces when they heard about your juvenile record.”

Renee slid her hand against her throat. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“Because it would have scared you to death before you even showed up today, and in the end it didn’t matter, anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Because I told them we were a package deal. I told them I loved you, and they’d better get used to it. You’ll notice they got used to it pretty fast.”

“John! Renee!” Dave shouted from the dining room. “Get in here! Brenda and Alex are going to arm wrestle!”

“And now you’re going to have to get used to them.”

Renee laughed and fell into John’s arms again, and as he hugged her close, she realized how lucky she’d been. She’d propositioned a dangerous-looking man in a backwoods diner to escape a bad situation and ended up with the best situation of all. She’d fallen in love with a man she could trust her heart to, and she intended to proposition him every night for the rest of their lives.

________

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I Got You, Babe
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