For a woman who thought of herself as less than bright, Amanda was one smart cookie. At great risk to herself, she had stolen one of Mark’s SD cards and taken these photos while he was gone. Jesus. What if she’d slipped up—just once—and left one of these images on the bastard’s camera storage? Mark might have killed her.
Jeb nearly jumped out of his skin when Amanda’s voice cut through the room. He hadn’t heard her approach, yet she stood in the doorway, her hands knotted at her sides, her face blanched with anger.
“How dare you!” she cried, her voice throbbing with outrage. “Those are mine. You had no right to look at them.”
Jeb opened his mouth to frame a response but he didn’t get a chance. Amanda stomped toward him. Her whole attitude radiated fury. “They’re for the eyes of only a judge!”
Jeb noted that even in anger, Amanda kept her voice pitched low so as not to awaken Chloe. Unlike Mark, even in a rage, she was mindful of her daughter’s well-being.
Jeb sank back in the chair, keeping his body limp so he wouldn’t appear aggressive, and let her rant at him until she finally ran out of steam. He got it now. Oh, sweet Jesus, do I ever get it. What pierced his heart most was when she cried, “I was starting to trust you! What in God’s name was I thinking?”
Keeping his own voice low, he said, “I didn’t intend to invade your privacy. You didn’t shut down my system, and I always turn it off when I’m not using it. I only came in to close it down. Then Chandelier asked what to do with your files. I figured they might be important, so I didn’t want to close without saving them. I created a file in My Pictures, named it Amanda, and meant to shut down afterward. But the pictures popped back up on the screen.”
She covered her face with shaking hands. “When you saw me naked, you should have shut down! Instead you kept looking! I saw Chloe! Her photos are at the bottom!”
Jeb had no defense. Maybe he should have closed down after seeing the first photo. He could blame it on shock or half a dozen other things, but all he really wanted to do was stand and draw her into his arms. “I’m glad it happened.” Not the most brilliant comeback. “Otherwise I would never have known what that animal did to you and your child.”
She dropped her arms. “Well, I hope you enjoyed your little porn session!”
Jeb didn’t take that jab into his heart because he understood how vulnerable she felt.
“I took those pictures for a very good reason!” she cried. “They weren’t for you to ogle.”
“I know why you took them, Amanda, and it was a very smart move. You must have been scared to death he’d catch you every time you used his camera.”
She stopped breathing. In the overhead light, he saw her eyes bulge and her face go red. Then, with a whoosh of released air, she started to sob. Horrible, tearing sobs that racked her entire body. Having two sisters and a mom he loved, Jeb knew this was his cue. She’d completely lost it, and a hug from him now, if not welcomed, would at least hold her up. He rose from the chair and gathered her close, resisting the urge to squeeze her tight.
Leaning against him, she pressed her face to his chest. Her body still jerked with sobs as she mumbled, “If you think—my accepting your—charity gives you the right to invade my privacy—you can take your damned charity—and shove it up your ass.”
Jeb couldn’t recall ever having heard Amanda use a cussword. Her language told him how very upset she was. And he didn’t blame her. But he was still glad he’d seen the photos. Amanda, and by extension Chloe, might be in more trouble than Amanda imagined.
“Come with me to the kitchen.”
“We’ll wake up Chloe,” she objected.
“No,” he insisted. “We’ll keep our voices down and just talk. We need to discuss this, honey. Sometimes, when we’re in the thick of a mess, it isn’t always easy to stand back and look at the whole picture.” Bad choice of words. “The whole situation,” he amended. Jeb knew she needed to calm down to absorb what he needed to tell her. “If you love Chloe and want to keep her safe, you’ll come with me to the kitchen. We’ll have another snifter of brandy, and we’ll just talk. Okay?”
Halfway down the hall, he kept an arm around her waist, afraid she might collapse. Then, when he felt that she’d regained her composure, if only just a little, he released her to lead the way.
* * *
Despite her outrage, Amanda sat at the table and didn’t object when he poured each of them some brandy. Right then, she needed a stiff one. She wanted out of this house so fast it would make his head spin, but she couldn’t drag her daughter out of bed in the middle of the night, out into these frigid temperatures. Besides, where would they go? There probably wasn’t a vacant motel room for miles around. Maybe a drink would take the edge off her fury. Maybe.
Jeb, seated across from her, wasted no time in trying to excuse his behavior or regain her goodwill. Instead he said, “From this moment forward, you have to trust me, Amanda—not only a little, not only halfway, but with your whole heart. No secrets, no more holding back.”
“You just broke my trust. Don’t you dare ask for it back.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “I went in to shut down my system. When the pictures popped up, what should I have done, cover my eyes? And after seeing—” He lifted his palms. “I was horrified. No, stupefied. And I couldn’t figure out why you had kept such horrible reminders until I recalled your saying that you had to make sure Mark was never alone with Chloe. Then it dawned on me. I was still groggy, but my brain finally started to work.”
“And that’s your explanation for looking at pictures that are so very private?”
He made no effort to improve his apology. “Has it occurred to you that Mark may have already filed for divorce and been granted one? And what if he was also granted visitation with, or sole custody of, Chloe?”
The blood drained from Amanda’s face. In fact, she felt as if all the blood in her body might be leaking out the bottoms of her feet. “He can’t do that! I never did a thing to give him reason to divorce me.”
Jeb shrugged. “Take a sip of brandy, honey.”
She wondered fleetingly when he’d decided that he had any right to address her with terms of endearment. Needing a gulp of brandy to calm down, she did as he said.
“I’m not an attorney,” he went on, “and the laws vary from state to state. I do know, however, that it’s pretty easy to get a divorce almost anywhere. People decide they want out, and in no time, they’re free of the marriage. I had a buddy whose wife divorced him online.” He waved his hand. “A lot of my friends have gone through divorces. It’s a piece of cake, except for the division of marital assets or a quarrel over custody of the kids.”
Amanda wanted to scream that his friends’ divorces had nothing to do with her.
“It’s also possible to get a divorce by claiming desertion. In most states a judgment of desertion requires that the spouse at fault must be gone for a certain period of time, and I have no idea what time frame we’re looking at. In what state did you reside with Mark?”
“California,” she whispered. “Eureka, California.”
“I’m not familiar with California law, but in most states, the abandoning spouse is considered to be at fault unless he or she appears in court to give valid reasons for leaving. Most of the time, notices to inform you that you must appear in court are served to you at your last known address. If the court can’t locate you—and in this case, you’ve made every attempt to ensure that you can’t be found—the divorce proceedings can continue without you. You would be considered a ‘no-show.’ And, to add another layer of trouble, you left with Mark’s child. You’ve been in Mystic Creek since early August, if I remember right.”
Amanda’s anger vanished like a fire doused with a five-gallon bucket of water, and was replaced by fear. She knew where Jeb was going with this, and her heart went out of rhythm, making he
r afraid she might faint.
“So you’ve been gone for months.” He cradled the snifter in his palms. “I’m not sure how courts work, but looking at the facts, you’ve left Mark, taken his child, and kept her hidden from him.”
“I had to leave him,” Amanda cried, even as the logic of his words slithered into her brain. “You must know that!”
“I do know that. But no Eureka judge has seen those pictures or heard your side of the story. With only Mark present to testify, how do you think he handled it? With the truth or with a passel of lies?”
It went without saying that Mark would lie. Amanda felt terror stretch the muscles of her face tight. “So you think there’s a possibility that Mark has already filed for divorce and gotten one?”
Jeb made a slow figure eight with his glass. “Yes, I think it’s possible, and considering his desire to hurt you in any way he can, I think he would request sole custody of Chloe as well.” He lifted a hand. “There is another possibility, so try not to panic. Judging by what I’ve read, men like Mark are insanely possessive of their wives and kids, so he may see filing for divorce as a last resort. To him, that may be admitting defeat.”
“He’s said a hundred times that he’ll never let me leave him.”
“And that’s in your favor. A divorce may be the last thing on his mind. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t one of his options, and you can’t just hide on the tracks, waiting for the train to hit you.”
Amanda closed her eyes. “What should I do?”
“We’re going to hire the best family law attorney that we can find. You are going to file for divorce and make every attempt to deny Mark visitation of any kind.”
“I can’t afford that yet.”
“I can.”
She lifted her lashes to stare at him. “A really good attorney costs thousands.”
“Yes. I’ve never hired anyone in family law, but I did hire a lawyer to litigate a job injury case once. It was expensive, but in the end, I didn’t lose everything I owned because some drunk dipshit failed to tie off his safety gear to a roof truss.”
Amanda could hardly breathe. But she had to breathe. Passing out on the floor wouldn’t save her daughter. “It’s not your responsibility to protect Chloe.”
“It became my responsibility the moment I walked into that rattrap rental and met you. Don’t you get that?”
“You barely know us.”
He held her gaze, offering no quarter. “Fine. Hide on the track. Wait for the train. Let him get his hands on your child. He may kill her, you know.”
Amanda wobbled on the chair. Black spots danced before her eyes. Jeb leaped up, circled the table, and locked her against him with an arm around her shoulders. “Amanda, please, let me help you. I’ve had no family to support. I make damned good money. My savings can take a huge hit, and I’ll never feel it.”
She had no choice but to lean against him. It was that or fall off the chair. “It’ll be a lot of money. I may never be able to pay you back.”
“If you can’t, I’m fine with it. Money isn’t that important to me. It’s a bank statement, and half the time, I throw them into a file, unopened until I do tax preparation. If I don’t step in and help you protect Chloe, I won’t be able to live with myself.”
He jerked a chair around to sit beside her, maintaining a firm hold on her arm to keep her upright. “I’m sorry for dumping all this on you tonight. I knew you’d left Mark. I knew you were saving for a divorce. But I never dreamed the abuse was so bad, so I didn’t focus on the legal ramifications until I saw those pictures. You can’t remain in hiding. You need to see a lawyer and start building an ironclad case against Mark, a case that will blow his arguments clear out of the water. If he’s already obtained a dissolution of the marriage with custody or visitation privileges, you’ll throw a huge wrench in his fan blades with those pictures.”
“I need to pay you back,” she whispered.
“Then we’ll figure something out.”
“Like what, sex on demand for the next ten years of my life?”
He ran his hand up her arm, igniting her skin. “I’m not that kind of man. If you don’t know that by now, both our boats are sunk.”
Amanda couldn’t allow her boat to sink; Chloe was in it with her. “I do know—or at least hope—that you aren’t that kind of man. But after Mark, it’s hard to trust again.”
“We’ll figure that out, too. But going with the worst-case scenario, what if I did demand sex as a way for you to pay me back? Are you willing to go that far?”
Amanda’s vision had cleared. She pictured Chloe’s sweet face, and love for her child welled up within her until her chest ached. “I’ll do anything, even die, to keep Mark from getting his hands on her.”
Jeb pecked her on the cheek, his warm, silken lips leaving a tingling spot on her skin. She found herself wishing he’d kiss her on the lips and suspected that he was thinking the same thing. Madness. She had to think only of Chloe.
“Then we’re good to go,” he said. “I’ll call around in the morning. Through my brother Ben, who raises rodeo stock, I know some people with deep pockets. Maybe they can steer me toward a phenomenal lawyer. We have to get all our ducks in a row.”
Amanda nodded.
“You feeling better? For a minute, I thought you might faint on me.”
“I’m still shaky, but the dizziness is gone.”
“Good.” He let go of her arm and stood. “Maybe now we can both get some sleep.”
Amanda gave him a pleading look. “Just like that?”
“Finish your brandy while I shut down my computer. Then we can talk some more, if you like.”
She watched him walk away, too frightened and nauseated to appreciate the loose yet powerful swing of his stride as he returned a moment later.
“I saved your photos on my hard drive and to a USB flash drive.” He sat down across from her and shoved the device toward her. “And, no, I didn’t ogle your body again. Keep that in a safe place. If we lose those photos, we’re in trouble.”
Amanda curled her fingers around the slender piece of plastic. “What if Mark has custody, he finds us, and demands that I hand Chloe over?”
Jeb’s jaw muscle started to tic. “Then I’ll run with her. I probably can’t get her out of the country, but I can keep her in hiding until your attorney gets this mess turned around.”
Incredulous, Amanda said, “You could be charged with kidnapping. Serve prison time. Why would you risk that for a child you barely know?”
“Because I love that little girl, and I’m thinking like you. I’ll die before I let Mark touch her again.”
Chapter Nine
Lying in bed later, Jeb felt as uncertain about this situation as Amanda probably did. He had no idea why he felt so compelled to help this woman. She had nailed it when she said that she and her daughter weren’t his responsibility. Any sane man would boot them out the door and wish them luck. But Jeb couldn’t do that. He’d felt drawn to Amanda from the start. Maybe, if he were honest with himself, she was also right about his motives. Way down deep, was he hoping that if he helped her, she would reward him with her love and all the physical privileges that came with it?
When he searched his heart, he knew his motives were selfless. If Amanda came to love him, he would count himself a lucky man, but he would never try to force her into it.
He could only pray that he didn’t awaken in the morning to find Amanda and Chloe gone. Though he felt he’d done a good job of reassuring Amanda, he had to be realistic. Asking her to accept that much money from him, and believe there would be no strings attached, was expecting a lot.
* * *
Amanda entertained the same line of thinking as she slipped into bed and gathered Chloe close in her arms. Jeb was, after all, a man, and she’d caught him looking at her body a few times—in Chloe’s words
, as if Amanda were a bowl of chocolate ice cream and he didn’t have a spoon. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he was physically attracted to her. Amanda had never considered herself particularly desirable to the opposite sex, and before meeting Jeb, she would have bet her whole car fund that a guy so handsome and virile would never give her a second look. Yet he had. That bewildered her. How many times had Mark told her that she was ugly? He’d called her Fat Butt or Tiny Tits far more often than he’d used her actual name.
Maybe a woman didn’t need to be pretty in order for a man to want her. Mark had certainly helped himself to the goods plenty of times, ejaculating even as he told her how ugly she was.
Pressing her face to Chloe’s hair, Amanda breathed deep and wondered if trusting Jeb, even in small measure, wasn’t one of the worst mistakes of her life. Oh, well. As long as Chloe remained safe, Amanda didn’t care what Jeb might do to her. He’d have to get very inventive to outclass Mark. Chloe was all that mattered.
Just then, almost as if he sensed her distress, Bozo licked the back of her wrist. Amanda turned her hand, intending to pet the animal, but before she could make contact, he began to bathe her palm. She recalled Chloe saying that Bozo talked to her about what a nice man Jeb was. Maybe, Amanda decided, Chloe had it right about the mastiff’s sentiments. She smiled and evaded the canine’s tongue to give him a loving scratch behind the ears.
In a whisper, she said, “So you give him a high recommendation, do you?”
Bozo grumbled in response. Amanda imagined that the dog said, “He’s the best.”
On that thought, she plunged into an exhausted sleep.
* * *
While drinking his third cup of coffee the next morning, Jeb dialed the numbers of a few friends, in search of help in finding a good attorney. Frank Harrigan, a pal of his brother Ben’s in Crystal Falls who raised world-class quarter horses, came through with pay dirt. Frank had hired a divorce attorney years ago to free his daughter, Samantha, from an abusive marriage, and he said Jeb couldn’t go wrong with this guy. Jeb promptly called the lawyer to make an appointment. It was only eight o’clock, but a receptionist answered. At first, she insisted that the first opening for a consultation was more than two weeks away, but when Jeb explained the urgency of the situation, the woman said she could juggle the schedule to get Amanda in that afternoon. Score.