Against The Wall (28 page)

“So you worked fast.”

“Real fast,” Tanner agreed.

“When did you call the police?” she asked.

“I didn’t. I wasn’t sure they were going to show up. I called your friend Troy Mills, but he didn’t answer. I left a message. I wasn’t sure he’d help me or not. When I saw the cruisers, I wasn’t sure if they were the good guys. Facinetti could’ve been setting me up, by having his cops arrest me. When they went after the guys with the guns, I realized they were reinforcements.” He spotted two officers talking and pointing in their direction. If he wanted to save Jess, she had to play along. Tanner pulled her close again, looked right into her eyes. “When the cops start asking questions, we tell them that I killed Maurice.”

Her brows pulled together in a soft pucker and she shook her head. “No…no.” She backed up a step. “We’ll tell them the truth. I did it.”

Tanner stood, loomed over her. “Let me do this, Jess. I don’t want you to take the fall. The guy is dead. Let me handle it.”

“You’re nuts! You’ve already served seven years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit. Why the hell would you go through that again?”

“Because…” Tanner stroked her soft cheek with his thumb. “Because I don’t want you to have go through it. I’ve been there. I can handle it.”

“Well handle this, tough guy.” Jess put her hands on her hips. “We’re telling the truth.”

To hell with that. The truth had never gotten him anywhere. “My word against yours. I’ll tell them you’re protecting me.”

Jess shot a look to the ambulances surrounding the truck. “My whole family heard you say that I killed him.”

“I’ll tell them I was lying. Just like I lied to Facinetti about killing them. It was just a plan to get them out. I wiped down my gun. Only my prints are on it.”

“No.” Jess shook her head. “Get it out of your mind right now. I killed Maurice and I’ll face the music. It was an accident. You’ve done nothing wrong.” She smacked his arm hard. “Do you really think I could live with myself knowing you were in prison for something I did? Especially after everything you’ve already gone through?” Her eyes darkened, stormy and bright at the same time. “Let me answer that for you.” She barely took a breath. “No! Not for a second. I think you’re an honorable man. A man who deserves a break. You deserve a family and a life and all the things that were taken away from you seven years ago.”

Tanner felt an ache in his heart. He couldn’t remember a time when someone had stood up for him so fiercely. Jess had been there for him since the night at Juneau’s house. She’d saved his life more than once and the way she stood looking up at him with fire in her eyes made him want to hold onto her forever.

Yeah, he could see forever with this girl. She was that kind of girl. Dependable, smart and sexy as hell.

Do I deserve you?
The question was on his tongue, but he didn’t ask. He knew better.

She deserved a guy who didn’t have a record. A guy who could get a well-paying job and keep her in a safe, comfortable environment. He didn’t have a college education and was seriously behind the curve when it came to finding a decent job. In short, he couldn’t give her what she deserved. Even if he managed to pull his life together and make something of himself, it would take years of struggle.

His thoughts took a different route when two men in suits approached with another man behind s="p9" aid="MS

Chapter Twenty-Three

So much had happened in the three months since Tanner had rescued her family that Jess felt as if she’d fallen into a Robert Altman film. Most of the time, she’d been so busy that the weeks had flown by but other times, like now, the seconds ticked along so slowly they almost hurt.

Tanner and she had both been arrested and released on bail posted by her father. She’d nursed her family back to health, which had given her something to do since she no longer had a job.

Only as she spoke to the dozens of crew members from past films and some of Maurice’s investors who’d called after the news went public did she realize that she was much more than just his assistant. Maurice had done such a good job of keeping her down that it hadn’t dawned on her she was practically doing his job.

Jess toed the skin under the ankle monitor that had become her mandatory jewelry the last several months. Despite the comfort of house arrest on manslaughter charges, she still hated the implication of the monitor. She’d never run. Especially since her dad had put the house up as collateral for her bond.

Alone, sitting at the large round table in the new solarium of her parent’s home, Jess stared unseeing at the flashing icon on her computer screen and took a deep breath. There was no more to add. She’d gone over it multiple times and she was officially done. Typing
the end
should’ve given her a sense of pride or fulfillment, but it hadn’t. Because finishing the screenplay was only a fraction of her battle. The screenplay wouldn’t mean anything if she went to prison. Her cell phone rang, but she didn’t recognize the number so she let it roll over to voice mail. It felt as if everyone who’d ever done business with Maurice had learned of his death. Rumors and conjecture ran rampant, and the publicity surrounding the trial was nearly harder to bear than the actual crime.

She’d come to grips with what she’d done. The fact remained that she hadn’t killed Maurice on purpose and it didn’t matter how many times she replayed the scene in her head because the outcome would never change. For the thousandth time, the question r,” she whisperedsedayvian through her brain, “Would I have shot Maurice if he’d fired at Tanner?” Although she thought the answer would be yes, she wasn’t a hundred percent sure that she’d have been in the state of mind to pull the trigger. Knowing the way she froze in panic situations, Maurice might have just as easily gunned her down after Tanner. Of course none of it mattered. What mattered was that she had three months before the trial. Thanks to her father’s reputation—and a few pulled strings, she didn’t have to wait a year or longer to know her fate. She’d had twelve weeks to enjoy home cooked meals or take out from her favorite restaurants. Ninety days to soak up the love from her family. She swallowed back the knot in her throat and shook out of her stupor.

The house was quiet for the first time that Jess could remember since her house arrest began. She looked around the new room that had been added on to the back of the house. Her parents had been talking about an addition for years, and after the whole Facinetti incident they’d decided to go for it. “Life was too short to put off living,” they’d said. The side and back walls were made of tinted glass that kept out the California summer sun, but gave the room a feeling of being outside. A comfortable sofa and two extra wide chairs filled the main space. Though the room had only been finished for two days, Jess had moved her computer and files in here and made it her unofficial office.

She should’ve been happy to have the place to herself, but the silence was unnerving after the all the noise she’d lived with for the past two months while the room was being built. Up until now, it was as if her family had made a point of someone being home with her. Not because they were afraid of her running, but because they were afraid of her being alone. Alone with her thoughts? Or alone to consider what being in a cell might be like? Either way, there’d always been someone at the house with her.

The kitchen door squeaked. “’Lo?”
Tanner.
Her parents had given him a key a few weeks ago.

Her heartbeat picked up the way it usually did when she heard his voice. He’d become a regular fixture in the house, part of the family. At first she didn’t think he’d stick around once her dad managed to get the charges dropped against him. Why hang around a town that had only caused him misery? But Tanner had promised to testify on her behalf and do whatever they needed. Still, the trial was another three months away and he could’ve moved somewhere else. He hadn’t. He’d chosen to stay. Jess wasn’t sure if it made her happy or sad. Happy, because she got to spend time with him and sad because she worried that her life was a dead end and he was simply wasting time being around her.

“In here,” she called. Jess saved the final draft on her laptop and closed the lid as Tanner entered. He looked gorgeous in a ribbed, black, long sleeved shirt that couldn’t hide the definition of his muscled chest. Dark jeans and black boots completed the picture. He was the ultimate male. Strong, confident and full of sex appeal.

“Where is everybody?” he asked, looking around the room.

“Out.” Avoiding eye contact, she methodically stuffed her notes into a file. She had a ton of calls to make tomorrow regarding a location, but it was too late to do any more work tonight.

It was hard to look at him and no every cell alive and scream, .t him t want him. Despite the intense physical relationship they shared months ago, they’d hardly touched since. When they did, the contact was electric. At least it was on her part. Maybe he didn’t feel the same. Granted they hadn’t been alone together, but he’d shown very little interest other than friendship.

“Out?” The surprise in his voice made her smile.

“Yep. Dad’s buried under paper work at the office. Mom volunteered to serve dinner at the local women’s shelter, but they had some kind of power outage so she’s waiting there. Eric and Danny are unpacking the last of the boxes in their new place. Mom can’t believe they really moved out—she’s not taking it too well.” Jess grinned sympathetically. “And the twins went to a Seger Hughes concert in Anaheim. Aside from some leftovers in the fridge, you’re stuck with me. But don’t feel obligated to stay.” She got the feeling he sided with her family when it came to her being alone. Everyone worried about her. It should’ve made her mad, but it only made her realize how much her family loved her.

“I know you worked your butt off today. You can take off. Have a night to yourself,” she prodded. He’d started working for her father almost since the day Jay had bailed them both out of jail because Tanner insisted on repaying his bond. Then he’d joined the construction crew that built this new room. She understood his need for money and loved her dad for giving Tanner the chance, but now the room was done and Tanner had no reason to hang around. He’d have to find a job, which he could do in another city since he didn’t have to be back until the trial. Of course that meant finally giving up her apartment since she’d sublet to him when the house arrest began. That would mark the beginning of her actual loss of freedom and the thought made her stomach cramp.

“Today wasn’t so bad,” he said, moving farther into the room. “Just returned some of the materials.”

“Yeah, but they weighed a ton.”

He shrugged it off then turned and faced her. Working outside had given him a healthy tan and he looked better than ever. His hair had grown out and she itched to run her fingers through its thick softness. It was hard to believe they hadn’t touched each other in three months. The first month, the whole family had focused on recovering from the trauma. Then the construction on the house had started and what was supposed to be a four week job had doubled because of one thing or another. In all that time, Tanner had melded into the family. He’d stayed for meals and her family had treated him like gold.

“How’s the screenplay going?” he asked, gesturing to her computer as she zipped her files in a case. She’d been working on it since the room construction started. Two months of intensive hours at her computer, trying to come up with a screenplay good enough to make Bobby McBride want to invest his money with her. It was surreal to think that Maurice’s potential partner, the oilman from Texas, considered doing business with her. Bobby told her he’d noticed her problem solving abilities and her attention to detail. It was his appointment she’d canceled the morning she’d abducted and shot her boss.

Like several of Maurice’s other investors, Jess had called to tell him there would be no meeting. That Maurice had been killed in a freak,” she whisperedation atay b accident and if he still wanted to invest in a Hollywood film, then he needed to find a producer looking for money. In the course of a half dozen calls, he’d asked tons of questions about show business and movies, and he’d decided that she was the producer he wanted to work with. Bobby had told her if she brought him a project he liked, he’d fund it. She’d been upfront with him during their phone calls. Told him she’d never produced a movie before, but he hadn’t seemed bothered by the fact. He insisted he was prepared to write her a check whenever she was ready.

Instead of involving a scriptwriter, instead of unnecessarily getting someone else’s hopes up, Jess had another idea. It was Tanner who convinced her to run with it. So in the span of two months, she’d written a screenplay. It hadn’t been hard. The story was fresh in her head. She called it Payback. It was certainly the kind of thing that moviegoers wanted. Action, intrigue, romance. It had a little of everything. Including violence, which Jess had hated writing.

The pride she hadn’t felt at typing the end suddenly washed through her, but only because she knew how Tanner would react.

“It’s done. For real.”

His eyes widened and a giant smile lit his face. “Finally!” In two strides, he reached her and pulled her out of her chair, crushing his arms around her in a massive bear hug. “That’s great! God! That’s so great!”

Jess closed her eyes and focused on the warmth of his body, the strength of his big arms wrapped around her. She hugged him tight, reveling in the moment before it ended. In all these months, Tanner hadn’t made a move on her. Hadn’t given any sign that he wanted her, and even though her conscience argued that the guy hadn’t had a chance to do anything with a houseful of people and considering that he’d worked from sun up to sun down most days—she still didn’t know what to make of it.