“I know, baby.”
She opened blurry eyes and tried to focus on the clock. “Time is it?”
“Five o’clock. The doctor’s staying over to see you, so you have to hurry.”
She burrowed into the strength of Alex’s arms and the warmth of his body. He was like a furnace and she was so cold.
He tugged on her arm. The loss of his body heat caused her to start shivering again.
“Tess, get up. You can sleep when you get back, I promise. Damn, I wish I could take you myself, but I still can’t drive.” His husky voice floated around her and she smiled.
“’Kay.”
Twenty minutes later, she stood at the front door while Alex bent over her, attempting to button her coat. He swayed on his good leg.
Tess brushed him away. “I can do this myself.” Being up and about made her grumpy. Each ache and pain intensified.
Shannon pulled into the driveway and honked.
Alex tugged the collar of her coat tighter around her neck and kissed her nose. “Be a good girl and listen to what the doctor says.”
“Yes, Dad.”
He smiled and gave her a quick hug, then grabbed his cane and opened the door. “Now out.”
She made her way to Shannon’s minivan and climbed in. The lingering smell of old fast food and spoiled milk had her stomach churning.
“I hope this is quick,” Shannon said, looking in her rearview mirror. She backed out of the driveway and shifted gears, accelerating down the street. “I have to get home. Dinner’s in the oven and Roger wasn’t too happy I ran out on him.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to spoil your night.” Tess closed her eyes because the passing scenery nauseated her.
Shannon sighed. “That’s okay. Fact is, I’m glad to get out of that house. Screaming kids in the middle of winter, with Christmas just days away, gets on my nerves. Plus this baby’s sitting on my bladder and pressing against my diaphragm.”
Tess didn’t want to hear this.
Shannon sighed again, an exaggerated sound meant to elicit sympathy. “You’re so lucky to still have your figure, Tess.”
Shut up! Oh, please, just shut up.
“Kids are so draining—physically, mentally, spiritually.”
“Financially.”
Shannon laughed. “Financially. Roger’s constantly complaining about the cost of raising kids.”
“So why are you having another?”
“This one was an oops.”
According to Shannon, every one of her kids had been an oops. Tess shook her head and looked out the front windshield. She let the silence drag on, happy that Shannon had stopped complaining about things she longed for.
A sniff had her turning back to her sister. A single tear ran down Shannon’s cheek. Why, oh why, hadn’t Alex driven her? Of course the doctors had said he couldn’t drive, but they’d also said he couldn’t use a cane and he’d ignored that advice.
“Something’s wrong, Tess.”
Tess leaned her head against the headrest. Yeah, something was wrong all right. Her head felt like it was ready to split open, her ribs ached from coughing and her back hurt. Somehow, Tess didn’t think Shannon was referring to her illness, though.
“Something’s wrong with Roger. He hasn’t been acting right for a long time now.”
She and Shannon had never been close. They’d been complete opposites growing up, even down to their looks. Shannon had been a cool blonde with big blue eyes, a flirtatious manner and curves in all the right places, while Tess had been more the jock, just one of the guys.
With the death of their parents, months apart, the differences between them pulled them even further apart. Shannon settled down and started a family, pushing out a baby every other year. Tess had married but failed miserably at the marriage and baby parts.
“Maybe he’s worried about feeding another kid.”
Shannon shook her head. “Oh, no. He may complain about this pregnancy draining the funds, but he’s happy, I know he is. It’s something else. He’s worried about something and when I ask him what’s wrong, he just says it’s nothing. I’m afraid, Tess.”
Tess patted Shannon’s knee. She knew the fear Shannon spoke of, had felt it when her own marriage began to fail, and she couldn’t help but feel for her sister. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe work has him down.”
Shannon sniffed again. “You’re probably right. It’s just that he’s so jumpy lately. He snaps at the kids all the time and then disappears for hours in the evening. I don’t understand it.”
It sounded like Roger had a honey on the side. If that was the case, then Tess would kick his sorry butt all over the state. Shannon might be shallow and self-serving, but no one deserved a philandering husband, especially a woman so close to delivering her fourth child.
***
Two hours later Alex met Tess at the front door. He was leaning heavily on his cane, deep furrows bracketing the sides of his mouth and his eyes shadowed in pain.
“You’ve done too much, Alex. You need to sit down, take some weight off the knee.”
“Don’t baby me.” He helped her into the house. What a pair they made. It seemed he leaned more on her than she on him.
Shannon stood on the porch, holding a pharmacy bag. “What’d the doctor say?” he asked her.
“Pneumonia.” Shannon shoved the bag at him and backed up.
“
Pneumonia
.” He turned to Tess. “Shouldn’t you be in the hospital?”
Tess shrugged out of her coat. “The doctor said to take it easy, rest, take my medicine and drink plenty of fluids. You know—the usual advice.”
Just the thought of standing in the kitchen and mixing ingredients, then braving the cold and her temperamental van made her sick to her stomach.
“I’ll get you something to drink and then you can take your medicine and sleep.”
She shook her head, regretting the action when the room started to spin. “Wake me in an hour.”
Alex’s dark gaze touched various places on her body and a frown deepened the lines in his tired face.
“My business depends on it, Alex.” Her clients relied on her for their Christmas parties. If she didn’t complete these last important deliveries, her name would be mud in the catering industry.
Something must have convinced him she was serious because he held his hand out to her. A smile tilted one corner of his mouth. “Take a nap. Take your medicine. I’ll help.”
“You’ll help?”
“I’ll do whatever I can.”
“And you promise you’ll wake me?”
“I’ll do whatever needs to be done.”
Something didn’t seem quite right with that statement but damn if her foggy brain could figure out what.
Chapter Ten
Alex opened the bedroom door and peeked in on Tess for the third time in an hour. Her face was pale with bright splotches of color on her cheeks and her breath rattled in her chest. He eased the door closed and made his way into the living room, Othello following close at his heels. He understood she needed to finish the gift baskets and cookie trays. He understood about wanting to complete a job, yet, for the first time in days, she was sleeping without coughing.
He rubbed the stubble on his jaw and veered into the kitchen, eyeing the new cabinets and counters. The fax machine on the built-in desk beeped and spit out a few pages. Other pages littered the floor under the machine. For the most part, he’d ignored the fax when it rang. Now he gathered up the pages.
Othello padded out of the kitchen and scratched at the front door. Alex followed, feeling guilty for not waking her when she’d asked him to. Othello scratched at the door again and whined.
“Quit that, O. That’s a new door.”
The doorbell rang, O barked. Alex limped to the door as fast as he could, shushing O before he woke Tess.
In the pool of yellow made by the porch light, Tony was crouched down, looking at a small pile of blood and gore congealing on the Santa Claus doormat.
“O bring you home a gift?” Tony asked.
“What the hell?” Alex stared at the mess.
Othello poked his nose between Alex’s legs and sniffed. The dog’s hackles rose and he growled. Using his cane, Alex shoved him back in the house and shut the door.
Straightening his injured knee and bending his good one, Alex sank down to Tony’s level and inspected the mess. Tiny bones poked out from broken skin and fur, blood spreading over Santa’s hat and beard.
Tony found a stick and started poking through the mess. “Hamsters.” Tony tossed the stick into the yard and stood.
Alex had come to the same conclusion. A massacred family of hamsters. Or maybe gerbils. He leveraged himself up using the cane, grimacing at the twinges in his knee, and looked out over the quiet street. “I’ll give you one guess who did this.”
“You think the same person who ran through your backyard?”
“And painted my front door.”
“Why would a killer do shit like this? It doesn’t make sense. Why would he torment you like this? Why not hightail it out of here while he had the chance? Or better yet, kill you before you remember?”
“Maybe he likes toying with me.”
“Or maybe it’s not the same guy.” Tony raised an eyebrow as if challenging him.
“You don’t believe me.” Trusting each other’s gut instincts had saved their lives more than once, so for Tony to doubt him now smacked of betrayal.
Tony rubbed a hand across his bald head and sighed. “Hell, AJ, I just don’t know. It seems you’re seeing things you want to see without looking at the facts. That’s not like you.”
Alex gripped his cane until his knuckles hurt. “It’s never been personal before. None of the dirtbags I’ve dealt with have come to my home and threatened my—” He swallowed. Emotions he’d been living with for six months welled up inside him, one standing out over the others. Fear. If anything happened to Tess, it’d be his fault. He couldn’t live with that. “Threatened my family.”
“Yeah, that’d make me crazy too, but you gotta look at the facts, and the facts don’t indicate a person who’s organized enough to run a drug ring.” Tony pointed to the mess on the porch. “This suggests kids, or maybe some wacko with a vendetta.”
“No. It’s the same guy. My gut tells me that. Son-of-a-bitch!” He wanted to get his hands on the asshole and wrap his fingers around the guy’s neck.
“So what are you gonna do about this?”
“Call it in. Get a report.” He waved a hand at the mess. “We need to get this out of here before Tess wakes up. Damn, she’ll notice the missing doormat.”
Tony looked at him in surprise. “You’re not telling her about this?”
“Hell, no. She’s upset enough with the other stuff and besides, she’s sick.”
“Sick?” Concern creased Tony’s brows and his mouth turned down.
“Pneumonia. Which reminds me, what are your plans for tomorrow?”
“Why?”
“I need your help.” Alex looked around the neighborhood again and spied his truck parked on the street. “You brought my truck?”
“The landlord said it needed to be moved. Plus, I thought Tess could drive it now and then to keep it running. I’d hoped Tess could drive me back home.”
“No can do. She’s wiped out. Can you call someone?”
“I’ll just jump a ride with the patrolman who comes to take the report.”
***
Tess groaned and tried to roll over, but Othello had settled on her legs and she couldn’t move. She blinked before her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the nearly darkened room. Stifling a yawn, she glanced at the clock, but it wasn’t there. Somewhere in the back of her mind a faint thought whispered that she needed to do something, but her body ached and her eyes were so heavy she couldn’t keep them open. She snuggled into the covers and was almost asleep when it all came back.
Cookies.
Gift baskets.
Deliveries.
If lifting her arms took too much effort, how was she supposed to do all of that? She coughed then groaned as pain sliced through her ribs. Pulled muscles, the doctor said. Pulled muscles, broken ribs, they all felt the same to her.
Promising herself a few more minutes of rest, she burrowed under the covers and tried to kick Othello off her legs. He didn’t budge. She turned her head and went still. It wasn’t Othello pinning her to the bed. Alex lay beside her, one hand under his pillow, his leg thrown over hers.
He sighed and shifted, frowning in his sleep when he moved his bad knee. She wanted to touch his cheek, smooth the hair off his brow, kiss his lips. For a few moments, she let herself think what it might have been like if everything had worked out.
But a husband who hadn’t been there for her, a lonely marriage—
that
was her reality.
Tess closed her eyes to the steady cadence of Alex’s breathing.
She brushed a stray tear off her cheek. She wanted more than what she’d had. She wanted a husband who put their marriage before his career. A husband who would be there when she needed him and not just when he could fit her into his busy schedule.
His arm came around her, turning her until her back met his front and she decided that tonight she wouldn’t think about all the bad stuff. She fell asleep with his hand cupping her breast and her bottom brushing his erection.
***
Tess woke to sunlight pouring in the slats of the closed blinds and an incredible thirst for root beer. She rolled over, feeling better but still like she’d gone a round or two with her electric mixer.
Voices drifted through the closed bedroom door. She turned her head to find Alex’s side of the bed empty, his pillow indented where he had slept.
The sharp, unpleasant odor of burnt food seeped into the room and she wrinkled her nose. Pans clattered in the kitchen and a muffled curse was followed by a crash and Othello’s yelp.
Tess sat up. The room tilted and instead of the small of her back aching, her entire back ached. She had a vague recollection of searching for the clock in the middle of the night. Damn Alex! He’d hidden the alarm clock so she would sleep longer. Now she understood what he meant when he’d said, “I’ll do whatever needs to be done.”
She threw the covers off, groaning with each creak and moan of her muscles. When she coughed, her lungs rattled less but her ribs ached more.
Another muffled curse from the kitchen had her moving as best she could into the hallway where the stink of scorched cookies hung thick in the air.