Runaway: The Sequel to Secrets, a sexy and dramatic western romance (Finding Love ~ THE OUTSIDER SERIES) (12 page)

“Yeah
, I ran into her downstairs. I thought you told me she was coming after lunch.” Andy slid his arm around Laura’s shoulders, and she did everything she could not to shrink away.

The doctor had set her bag
down, but she didn’t look up at Laura until she sat on the bed. “All right, are you ready to have a listen to these babies?”

Laura forced a smile to her face
, but it ached so much that it had to look phony, so she glanced at her fingers and had to blink back tears as she stared at the diamond wedding band glittering from her finger.

“Laura
, you don’t look all right. What’s going on?” Andy sat right beside her and slid both his hands on her arms, and she knew that unless she got him to move away, she’d start screaming.

“I’m just so tired
, Andy. I really just want to lie down and go to sleep.” She refused to look at him, and she could feel him studying her. He had coiled up like a snake, pulling away.

When she glanced up at the doctor
, she was watching her closely in a way that had Laura’s alarm bells going off. She was really screwing this up. The last thing she wanted was to tip anyone off to what she’d heard. At this point, the babies, her babies, were still inside her safely, and she needed to find a way to get Andy and the doctor to leave without suspecting her concerns, because she didn’t know what either of them had planned. She considered both of them capable of anything, so she slid up her shirt and scooted down, allowing the doctor to squirt jelly on her tummy. When the babies’ heartbeats echoed through the room, she shut her eyes and listened.

Chapter 1
7

She pretended to be asleep when Andy came in
. She had tucked the covers under her chin so he couldn’t see that she was dressed in the peach sweat suit. The last thing she wanted was him touching her or trying to take off her clothes. She knew he would have just put Gabriel to bed, and it took everything she had to keep her breathing even as he stood over her. He ran his hand over her shoulder and lifted strands of her hair, running his fingers through it. Then he pulled away, and the floor squeaked as he stepped back. Her breath caught, and he said, “I know you’re awake, and I don’t know what’s going on with you, Laura, but I thought we were past this.”

A tear slipped out
, and she squeezed her eyes shut, her face scrunching up as the power of the emotions she had struggled all day to bottle up broke away. Andy, being Andy, leaned over her, his strong arms boxing her in on her side, his face hovering just inches from hers. She couldn’t stop the hysterics as she started choking with her tears, and then he was beside her on the bed, pulling her up into his arms.

“Laura
, what’s wrong, honey?” He rested his chin on top of her head and wrapped his arms around her back, rubbing up and down as she buried her face against his chest, squeezing her fists into his dark shirt and shaking her head.

She didn’t know how long he held her
, and she mourned what was to come. The thought that she might never feel his arms around her again was killing her, but knowing it was all a lie even now gave her the strength to push away.

“Laura
, I’ve never seen you like this. Something has upset you. Why won’t you tell me what it is? Did my mother say something to you?”

She flinched
, and he slid his hand over her shoulder.

“So it was my mother. What did she do this time?”

She couldn’t look at him. “Andy, I’m tired. I just want to get some sleep. Please.” She waited, but the man didn’t move.

He reached
to caress her cheek, and she saw his hand come up and then stop as he squeezed it and pulled away. “Okay, get some sleep, but I want you to talk to me about this tomorrow.”

Laura went to scoot back down on her side under the covers.

“Laura, let me help you get undressed.”

“No
, Andy, please. I’m cold. Just let me rest like this,” she snapped, and she hoped he’d just leave and not push it as he usually did.

He let out
a sigh she knew well. He probably wanted to reach out and shake her, but he didn’t. He stood up and pulled the covers over her, leaned down to kiss her cheek, and paused for a second. He kissed her cheek again. “I’ll come back and check on you in a bit.”

“Is Gabriel asleep?” She didn’t look at Andy
when she asked and held her breath, waiting for his answer.

“He should
be. He was really tired. I took him riding again. He really loves it, Laura. You should see his face when I put him on Sugar today in the round ring, and he had her backing up all by himself today.”

She rolled over on her
back and was stunned by the hurt and love and something else in his eyes. Then she rolled on her side and gave him her back again. “Goodnight, Andy.”

S
he hated him now for pretending to care for Gabriel and plotting with his mother and the doctor to rip her babies away. She waited for the click of the door, and then she sat up and struggled to the edge of the bed, listening to Andy’s footsteps on the stairs. She hurried to the door and opened it quietly, peeking out. She could hear him in the foyer, speaking with someone, and then listened to his footsteps, imagining he’d gone into his library, as he did every night, for a drink, to make some calls and catch up on whatever big project he was working on. Whatever it was, she didn’t have a clue.

Laura shivered in her thin t-shirt and tiptoed to their huge walk
-in closet. She grabbed a dark sweater that still had its price tag dangling, ripped the tag off, and pulled it on. She grabbed the brand new pair of sneakers from the shoe rack and sat in the chair, struggling to pull them on and tie them as best she could. Then she slipped out of the bedroom, pulling the door closed behind her and walking as quietly as she could down the empty hall to Gabriel’s room, two doors down. She slipped inside, shutting the door behind her, and watched over her little boy, who was sound asleep. How was she going to get him out of the house without him making any noise? She slid open his closet and pulled out his sneakers and a hoodie and grabbed a pair of socks from the chest of drawers.

She slid back the covers and put his socks on
, and when he stirred and started whining, Laura sat him up and slid his coat on.

“No
, Mommy, tired.”

“I know
, Gabriel. I have a surprise for you, and I need you to be very quiet. We’re going on an adventure, and then you can go to sleep. Please, honey, I need you to be very quiet. We’re going to pretend we’re sneaking out of the castle of the wicked witch.”

Gabriel rubbed his eyes as Laura slipped his shoes on and tied the laces. “Andy come
?” he said.

“He’s going to meet us
, but we have to be very quiet.” She felt lower than a dung beetle for lying to her child. It was despicable. She hated herself and prayed that Gabriel would forgive her, but he didn’t see the monster that Andy was, and she despised Andy for that. A man who hurt women, who hurt children and used them for his own means, was truly a monster, and that was who they were running from.

“
Shh. Remember, quiet as a mouse. So, my little prince, is there a secret door out of this castle where we can sneak out so no one can see us? A magic door?” She knew there was a back door from the kitchen and one at the end of the hall by Caroline’s wing.

Gabriel rubbed his eyes and said nothing.

Laura held Gabriel’s hand as she opened the door just a crack and peeked out, listening for any footsteps. When she heard nothing, she glanced down at Gabriel and said, “Remember, quiet as a mouse.” Then she opened the door, stepping out and hurrying down the hall to the end, where the outside door led to the back steps. She turned the dead bolt and opened the door, praying that it wasn’t hooked up to an alarm, and then hurried down as fast as she could with Gabriel in the dark, unable to see any of the steps. At the bottom, they stepped onto the grass. The lights from inside the house cut through the shadows of the darkness as the sun set and night fell.

“Mommy
, I’m cold. I want see Andy.”

Oh
, crap. She knew he could get really loud. “Andy is going to meet us. We have to go to the trail in the woods first. Come on, let’s go.”

She hurried
, which was only a fast walk, and even then she felt cramps in her thighs and pulling in her groin. So she held her belly with one hand and kept a tight hold on Gabriel’s hand with the other. As they hit the trail, she wished she’d thought to find a flashlight, but they couldn’t turn back. She did know this darkened trail eventually led to the road, but it was surrounded by thick trees and bushes, and, even in the twilight, it was dark and almost impossible to make her way through. But she was determined, and she poked her way through with Gabriel, who started whining again.

“It’s okay
, honey. We’re almost there. Then they were through, and she could see the pavement of the dark highway. She pulled Gabriel as the pain in her back pinched again, and they started walking.

Chapter
18

“I really appreciate you stopping.” Laura shivered in the front seat of a red pickup truck. An older balding man who smelled as if he’d been around animals all day and had greasy hands drove. Gabriel was in between them and was leaning against Laura
, shivering, both of them cold and damp from the rain that had started shortly after they hit the highway. She had been glad when the man stopped, as Gabriel was crying and she didn’t think she could take one more step.

“So whereabouts was your car that broke down
? Don’t remember passing anything on the highway.”

“Oh
, I pulled off the road when it started sputtering. I know there were a lot of bushes around.”

The man grunted and kind of hunched over his steering wheel
some more. “A woman in your condition with a little one shouldn’t be on the side of the road hitchhiking this time of night.”

Laura saw the big sign that was just before the
dirt driveway to Diana and Jed’s. “Stop right here. There it is.”

The man braked and pulled to the side of the road. “This where your brother lives?”
he asked.

“Yeah
, right down there.” Laura gestured and smiled, but she couldn’t look the old guy in the eye, with all the lying she’d been doing that night. The man pressed the gas, and Laura glanced up. “What are you doing? You can just let us out here.”

“No can do
, honey. I knew you were running from something, but Jed Friessen is a good man, a good friend. I can’t rightly let no sister of his as pregnant as you off on the side of the road in the dark.” The man drove down the long dirt driveway and pulled up in front of Jed’s darkened house. The engine of the old truck rattled and was enough to wake anyone, so it was no surprise at all when the lights popped on and the front door opened. The old guy turned to Laura. “Whatever trouble you’re in, honey, Jed will help you.”

Laura unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned
over to unfasten Gabriel’s, as he’d fallen asleep against her. “Come on, Gabby, open your eyes. We’re at Jed and Diana’s. Come on.” Laura opened her door and slid out, and Gabriel scooted out after her. When she glanced back at the old, grizzled guy who smelled horrible, what she saw was an angel. “Thank you.”

He nodded
, and she shut the door as Jed stepped out of the house, barefoot in jeans.

“Laura, what are you doing here?”
he said.

S
he started crying, and so did Gabriel.

Chapter 1
9

“
Laura, start at the beginning.” Diana was wearing a bulky pink housecoat that barely covered her large, pregnant belly, and she was about to deliver any day.

Jed stepped out of the kitchen with a mug of hot water. “Laura
, here, drink this.” He handed another to Diana and stood behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders.

Laura sipped on the water
. She knew her face was a mess, but she hadn’t been able to stop crying since Jed grabbed her and Gabriel and brought them into the house. Diana had hurried from the bedroom, her hair all mussed, pulling a robe over her long night gown. Her expression, from what Laura remembered, had been frantic as she slid her arm around her. Jed had lifted Gabriel and taken him down the hall to their bedroom.

“It was all a game to take my babies. Andy planned it all
. As soon as I had them, he was going to take them from me. How could he pretend to care about me, touch me like he did? Gabriel loves him. He was with him every day, tucking him in. Gabriel worships him, and we mean nothing to him. I’m so stupid. How could I have trusted him again?”

“Laura
, I need you to back up, because none of this makes any sense. Are you telling me you snuck out with Gabriel and hitchhiked here in your condition?” Jed gestured toward the door and then rested both hands on the chair where Diana was sitting. “So Andy has no idea you left?” Jed’s tone was filled with concern, and he shook his head. She wasn’t sure whether he was annoyed with her, tired, frustrated, or maybe all three.