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She promised if anything else happened she would, but she didn’t want to
disrupt Bonnie’s schedule any more than it already had been.
Later that night, with the baby in bed, Ivy checked and rechecked the
locks on the doors and windows. A month or two prior, Rafe had installed
security lights in the front and back of the home, but Ivy doubted that
flooding the area with light would deter Bobby if he really wanted to get
in. She’d already put Bonnie to bed but was so nervous she brought the
baby into the bed with her to sleep. Ivy made sure her phone was on the
charger on the bedside table. It was at that very moment that missing Rafe
was almost unbearable and she felt tears fill her eyes. Ivy took a deep
breath and told herself to be strong. Rafe didn’t marry a weakling. He
didn’t marry someone who would give in to fear. She would protect
Bonnie with her life if she had to.
Later that night, the sound of breaking glass made her sit up in bed.
Not that she had really been sleeping anyway. Ivy scrambled from the
bed, locked the bedroom door, and grabbed her phone and the sleeping
baby and went into the master bathroom and locked the door and jammed
the door security bar she had snagged from downstairs under the lock. She
pressed nine-one-one as she heard things being broken downstairs and
heavy footsteps on the stairs.
She heard the operator come on and spoke quickly. “This is Ivy Steele
at 4124 Strawberry Glen. Someone broke into my house. Two officers
were patrolling because of an incident that happened earlier and Detective
Reese Alvater took the statement. They’re trying to take my baby. They
want to kidnap her.”
“Who’s trying to take your baby, ma’am?” the operator asked.
“The baby’s biological mother and her boyfriend. My husband has
custody, and I’m in the process of adopting her,” Ivy said quickly.
“We’re coming to get you, bitch!” she heard Bobby yell.
“They’re coming upstairs. He’s yelling, saying he’s going to get me.
Please hurry, please!” Ivy felt fear clutch at her heart. Bonnie was being
amazing. She was not crying. Instead, just looking up at Ivy.
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“They are on their way, ma’am. You should hear the sirens very
soon,” the operator said. “Do you know what kind of car they’re driving?”
Loud bangs sounded on the bedroom door and that’s when Bonnie
began to scream. Ivy searched her mind for the answer. “An old beat up
green Cadillac with rust spots on the roof!” She screamed out to Bobby,
“Get out of here. Leave us alone! The cops are on the way!”
She gently laid the crying baby on a towel in the tub. She put the
phone on speaker and sat it on the closed lid of the toilet and opened the
vanity drawer to find something that would work as a weapon. If he got
in, she would protect Bonnie the best she could. “Shh, baby, shh. It’s
okay,” Ivy tried to croon through her tears. She found a pair of scissors in
the drawer and held them up. If he got in, she was going to take him
down. She stood there holding the scissors, waiting, when she realized
there was no more pounding, nothing, only silence. All she could hear was
Bonnie crying and her own harsh breathing. After a few more minutes,
she heard the sirens and the screeching of tires outside. She put the
scissors down and picked up the baby, hugging her close. She didn’t open
the door until she heard the police on the other side of the bedroom door.
Reese rushed in with four other officers, and they helped her to the bed to
sit with the baby.
“Are you two okay?” Reese asked urgently.
Ivy only nodded and held on to Bonnie all the more. The baby was the
only thing that was keeping her from falling apart at that point. They’d
caught Bobby and Juno trying to escape in their beat up car and both were
arrested. Ivy indentified them in the back of the police car. Bobby
glowered at her while Juno sobbed and shook.
It serves them right
, she
thought unsympathetically. Any sympathy she had for Juno was
completely erased after that. Ivy managed to call Rafe’s parents and while
the police were still there, they showed up. Donna and a lot of the
neighbors had come outside, and it was Donna who stood with her arm
around Ivy’s shoulder in comfort on the lawn. Frank took the baby and
Ivy helped Frieda pack up what they would need to go to the lake house.
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The sliding door and whatever else had been broken would be fixed
and/or replaced before Rafe came home, but right now they could not stay
there. Frank made sure that the sliding door was boarded up before they
left.
It was late when they got to the lake house and Frieda made sure Ivy
felt safe and comfortable in one of the guest rooms. It was when she was
in bed that Ivy let go all of the emotion and cried. Bonnie slept beside her
and she pushed her face into the pillow to muffle her sobs so as not to
wake the baby. The door opened silently and Frieda came in and sat on
the bed. She rubbed Ivy’s shoulders and in instinct, Ivy turned into her
mother-in-law’s arms to accept her comfort.
“You were very brave, Ivy. Now you just let it all go,” Frieda crooned.
Ivy couldn’t stop, even if she wanted to. She was crying not only from
fear but from missing Rafe. She just wanted him home.
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Chapter Nine
Rafe had been frantic to get back to his family. His father pulled in a
favor or two to get an emergency call through to him to let him know
what had happened. He was livid. Juno and Bobby were lucky he was in
the middle of the ocean because if he was on United States soil, he
probably would have been arrested for killing the bastard who broke into
his house and put Bonnie and Ivy in danger. That was four days ago and
since then Rafe had been antsy to get home. The mission was over, but of
course they had to wait for transport to get them back home. So by the
time the C-5 landed in Quantico, the tires had barely touched the tarmac
before he was rushing off the plane. He did the debriefing on the aircraft
carrier in the middle of the Persian Gulf. The brass liked a good outcome
and the mission was a success. Paperwork could be dealt with later. Right
now, he wanted to be home with his family.
Rafe pulled his SUV onto the dark street and rolled the window down
so the warm night air could hit his face. His fingers were clenched around
the steering wheel and he willed himself to loosen them. He’d already
called the police station where Reese worked and was going to stop by
there before going to the house. He recalled when he first met the man and
the scuffle they’d had on Ivy’s front lawn. Now, he owed the man for
taking care of the situation that arose while he was gone. He pulled into
the precinct parking lot and parked his car before walking up the steps of
the red brick building.
A female officer was at the front desk and she smiled. “What can I
help you with?”
“Sergeant Major Rafe Steele to see Detective Alvater,” Rafe said.
She picked up a phone and pressed a button and waited for a moment.
“Reese, you’ve got a soldier up here to see you. Okay, yeah.”
She hung up the phone and smiled at Rafe. “Head down the hall, turn
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left, and then take the stairs up to the second floor. That’s the detective
bullpen,” she explained.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Rafe said and followed her directions.
Reese was waiting for him and Rafe stuck out his hand as they stood
face to face.
“Thanks for looking after my girls. I know we got off on the wrong
foot, but I appreciate what you did more than you can know,” Rafe said.
Reese grinned. “You probably never thought you’d be saying anything
like this to me, huh?”
Rafe smiled in return. “No, but all the same, I’m grateful. Ivy and the
baby have been staying at my parents’ place. They just went home
yesterday after my dad got a security system installed.”
“That’s a good thing, but that scum won’t be back,” Reese said.
“I wish he were still here so I could have a few minutes alone with
him to show him my displeasure at what took place,” Rafe said grimly.
“I’d probably agree to that if it wouldn’t mean my job. The fucker was
asking for it,” Reese replied. “Both he and the chick had outstanding
warrants in Vegas along with these charges on top of that. Both of them
are going up on felonies.”
“That’s good. Are they going to go to trial here?” Rafe asked.
“Yeah, and then they will be extradited to Vegas for the charges there.
You’ll get to testify. Ivy too,” Reese answered.
“Juno is still here, in jail, right? Can I see her?” Rafe asked.
“You’ll have to talk to her through the bars. I don’t think I can trust
you to not throttle her,” Reese teased.
“I just want to see the woman who thought kidnapping Bonnie was a
good idea, even after she gave her up in the first place. She’s not a
mother, Ivy is,” he explained.
Reese nodded. “I’ll take you down. She’ll be transferred to the
women’s prison to await trial tomorrow. We didn’t have transport for the
last few days.”
They went downstairs to where the holding cells were located. The
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entire area was painted in a drab white that carried dirt and graffiti. The
walls wore the mess like a badge of all the years the building was in
service. Juno Corwin sat on a lone bunk, her hair lackluster and limp and
her face, without makeup, showed acne scars. Rafe barely recognized the
woman he had met in Vegas and it certainly was not how she looked
now—in less that two years she looked like a totally different person.
Back when Rafe had met her, she was a dancer and had a decent job in
one of the casino’s hotels. Now, she looked like a junkie and it only went
to prove that drugs could destroy a person inside and out. She stood when
he walked in front of her cell. She obviously recognized him.
She tried to smile. “Bonnie is a beautiful girl, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is,” Rafe answered. “Thank you for her. If you hadn’t left
her, I might never have known I had a daughter.”
“I think I deserve something for that, right?” Juno said. “Maybe you
could talk to the cops or something. Get me sprung?”
“That’s not going to happen. You and your deadbeat boyfriend tried to
kidnap Bonnie and hurt my wife,” Rafe said coldly. “You should be
grateful I wasn’t there, otherwise he’d be dead. Consider
that
a gift.”
“We’re just messed up…the drugs, you know.” She grabbed the bars
and implored, “Please, get me out—for what we had, for our daughter. I
can’t survive jail.”
“We had nothing. One night and that was it.” Rafe shook his head.
“Maybe if you’d come to me when you were pregnant I would’ve helped
you, but you left my child on a doorstep. Suppose I’d moved? You didn’t
even wait to find out if she would be safe or in the right hands, you just
left her. Jail is the best place for you. Maybe you’ll get cleaned up and fly
straight. But you don’t ever come back to my home. You lost Bonnie
twice—once when you left her and again when you let that scumbag try to
take her. I just wanted to see your face to see if you had any remorse.
Even now, you’re only thinking about yourself. Goodbye, Juno. I hope
you get the help that you need.”
He walked out and she called his name and it echoed off the dirty
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walls. He followed Reese back up the stairs and into the florescent lights
of the precinct.
“Thanks for that,” Rafe said and shook Reese’s hand again.
“Don’t worry about Ivy or the baby. Those two won’t be seeing
freedom for a few years and even then I doubt they would be stupid
enough to come back here,” Reese explained. “If they ever come up for
parole you and Ivy will be notified as the victim of the crime.”
“Okay, good. That’s good.” Rafe sighed. “I’m heading home.”
“Is Ivy’s place on the market?” Reese asked suddenly. “I only ask