“Better that way where I can control some of it, than sitting ducks somewhere else with Tim around,” she answered back.
Luke sighed. “Maybe she has a point. They have to do something. Either leave, or stay here and try to end it. Leary is going to find them. I think she’s right, much as I hate to have to let her do this. I don’t see any other way. And Tim would be safe with me. And it goes without saying Kelly goes back home.”
“No, I’m going with Tim. Having me around will make him feel safer. He’ll be calmer with his aunt there to reassure him that his mom is going to be fine.”
Cassie hugged her sister. “That would mean the world to me.”
“Fine,” John snapped. “The three of you leave tonight. Pack and get Tim out of here. Go stay with Shelly’s aunt. She’ll be discreet, and there would be no reasonable way you’d be found.”
Cassie’s mouth dropped open.
Luke rose from his chair. “Well it makes sense. Let’s get going.”
“What do you mean we will stay here?” Cassie asked.
“Me. You chose Luke to protect Tim. That leaves me with you.” Then he turned and left the room.
“Hmm I don’t envy you,” Kelly said quietly. “I think Sarah is right, John’s getting his life back under his control.”
****
Marcus peeked around the heavy drapes covering the windows of the neighbor’s empty living room, across the street from the three story house he had tracked Cassie to.
Finally after all these miles, there she was, walking up the front steps and through the front door, directly in front of him. His fists clenched, his breathing came in jagged pants.
Cassie.
In the flesh. After all this time, this long hunt, he was within sight of her. He pushed the drapes back farther, growing reckless as his excitement built. He could see his son and Kelly through the windows. Kelly had probably tipped off Cassie that he was close. Damn her. This wasn’t going to be as easy as he had planned. And it was Kelly’s fault that Cassie originally had enough money to ever get away from him. Kelly would have to pay for that. And pay dearly.
Chapter Fourteen
Cassie sat on Tim’s bed explaining as best she could what was going on, without making it sound like what it was. Tim was shaken. He clung to Cassie, and she felt like she was handing her heart to Luke when he appeared in the doorway, ready to leave. Luke’s gaze softened, and he smiled at Cassie with sincere sympathy.
“It’ll be all right,” Luke said.
Tim reluctantly got to his feet. He clung to Ted. That too tugged at Cassie’s heart. Damn Marcus Leary for bringing this kind of fear and chaos into her little boy’s life.
Kelly waited by the front door. Cassie and Kelly embraced, making promises to keep safe. Tim’s tears fell big and wet over his cheeks. Cassie’s eyes ached from keeping her own tears in. She smiled at Tim, the fakeness of the gesture made her cheeks hurt. She kissed and hugged him. Kelly finally took his hand and led him down the sidewalk. Cassie thought she might get sick as Tim kept looking back, tears streaming into his mouth. Kelly ended up carrying him to Luke’s truck. Cassie hiccupped as tears finally fell free of her eyes. Oh God, could she do this? Send her scared son away from her? What if this was the wrong move? How would he sleep at night? What if he had a nightmare? How could she stand to be away from him? She should stay with him. Only she could really keep him safe. What if—
“It’s the right thing to do.” John’s voice interrupted her escalating panic.
She leaned her head against the closed door. She shook her head. “You can’t know that.”
“I know your first instinct is to protect him, and this was your first instinct.”
“I miss him already.”
John nodded, arms crossed over his chest. “I know.”
“I have never been the best person in the world, but I am a really good mom.”
“I know that too.”
She pushed off the door. She swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “I guess all we can do is wait.”
“We’re not just waiting. We’re moving forward. It’s better Tim isn’t here. You can’t do this if he’s here, and you need to do this if you ever plan to have a life again.”
“’This’ being catch a known felon in the act of trying to do something to me?”
John nodded. “Yeah, unfortunately that’s where we’re at.”
****
Cassie woke up. Someone was watching her. She opened her eyes without so much as twitching a toe. Her heartbeats felt like they were exploding inside of her ears. The dark was suffocating around her. What the hell had woken her?
Slowly her muscles started to unclench as she laid there, unmoving and listening. Nothing. No unfamiliar sounds came from the house. But it was creepy, knowing that Marcus could at any moment find her whereabouts. Cassie tried to relax and close her eyes. But her eyelids kept popping open. She was more scared than usual. Fear was a heavy object that was sitting on her lungs making her breathing heavy and tight.
And now that Luke wasn’t downstairs, how did she know someone wouldn’t get in? She was the first one they’d come to in the house. And for her it wasn’t the unknown, but an actual man looking for her.
That did it.
She flipped off the covers and slid off the bed. She tip-toed across the room and opened her door. It was dark in the hallway. She usually kept the hall light on for Tim. John must have flipped it off. The house was completely dark. She ran down the hall and to the stairs leading to the third floor, the whole time feeling like an imaginary hand was about to grab her from behind.
She hit the top of the stairs, glad the door was open and a light was shining under the closed bathroom door. Only then when she was safely in John’s room did she pause and consider what to do next. He was sound asleep in the center of the bed. She steeled herself for his inevitable wrath tomorrow when he discovered her there. But she simply was not staying in this monstrous house, downstairs, by herself. It was as cut and dried as that.
Cassie gingerly walked across the carpet and stood at the edge of the bed. As unobtrusively as possible she lifted the sheet and comforter in one hand and slid under, being sure to shift her weight around so as not to alert John. She stayed as close to the edge as possible. She then lay there for a moment. John didn’t move. He seemed oblivious to her presence. She then tucked the covers around her so she wouldn’t accidently touch or lay against him. Satisfied, and infinitely more at ease, she slowly started to relax. It was a while before she shut her eyes, but finally she fell asleep.
****
John woke up when a hand slapped against his cheek, landing on his pillow. His left side was exposed to air. He turned his head and found himself sharing a bed with, not his girlfriend, but Cassie. From the slim light in the bathroom he could see she was sprawled out in middle of the bed. He was pushed all the way to the edge of the mattress and covered only partially with one blanket. Cassie had the sheets and comforter wrapped all around her, tangled and twisted. Her short hair was messed up, and a chunk of it covered her face. The hand that had slapped him lay horizontal from her body, stretched out as far as her arm could reach.
He turned toward the clock and made out it was 3:46. When he’d come to bed he’d been so sick of Cassie, and all she brought along with her, he’d flicked off the lights in the house, glad she’d gone to bed and he’d been left to eat dinner in peace. He’d checked on her and found her in a solid sleep. He’d been pissed. Sarah had essentially broken up with him, and he didn’t know yet how he felt about that. And his emotions, which he tried at all times to avoid tapping too deeply into, had been overloaded to the point that he would have been happy to wash his hands of all the women in his life.
Discovering Cassie in bed next to him, John felt a burst of anger flash through him. What was she doing? Picking up on old habits? And according to her that included frequent bed hopping.
When had she gotten into bed with him? She hadn’t tried to wake him, and by the state of the covers he’d say she’d been asleep for a while to cause that much havoc. Then he looked at what she had on. She was in a full sweat suit, white sweats and pink sweatshirt, definitely not something a woman wears if she’s trying to seduce a man. She must have gotten scared, being now just the two of them, and knowing what she did of Leary.
And now here she slept with him. He hated her, and let her know it. He’d been shocked to learn the facts of her life over the last few weeks, especially her bluntness about what had happened between them. But he’d also seen parts of her personality trickle out that reminded him so much of whom he’d thought he’d been in love with all those years ago. And new things about her that he grudgingly admitted he liked.
Cassie and Tim were something together. She was good with him, and good to him. All her energy went into Tim and Tim’s well-being. And damn her, there was something he liked about being around her, something he had always liked. He couldn’t seem to shake this morbid fascination he had with her. He hated what she’d done to him and nothing she said had changed that. There was no gray area in his eyes on that. Cassie had betrayed him unlike any other person in his life. And yet here he’d let her into his house, and into his life in a way he’d not even come close to letting Sarah. And now she’d even invaded his bed.
And to his surprise, instead of waking her and demanding she leave, he left her there. He didn’t see any reason to explain any of this to her. He gently put his hands on her lower back and scooted her over some so he didn’t end up falling out of bed. Then he went about untangling the knot of covers and snapping them full of air so they landed softly and equally over both of them. She wiggled about some under his ministrations but stayed asleep. Then she suddenly flopped over, taking the blankets with her. He sighed, Cassie couldn’t even sleep unobtrusively.
****
John glanced at the clock, it was already past eight. He sat up. Cassie had snuck out sometime, he’d bet in the daylight hours. She probably thought he’d had no idea she’d been up here, as if he didn’t know the moment the woman came into a room.
John entered the kitchen. Cassie sat at the table drinking coffee wearing just what she’d slept in. He poured coffee into a cup.
It was weirder than usual. The house was silent except for the little bits of movements they made. There was no Tim bouncing around or his voice echoing off from somewhere in the house. Now, however it was Cassie and John sharing coffee in the morning.
“So how did you sleep?” he asked, once he found a donut to munch on and snared a chair, setting his coffee down.
“Fine,” she said, pretending to be scanning the paper.
“That’s good. Cassie?”
“Hmm.”
“I thought you were done with the sweat pants.”
She looked up surprised. “What? Oh well, I didn’t have time to buy a whole new wardrobe, seeing as how I’m being stalked by a maniac and all. Sorry, if I don’t look dressed right for a day sitting around here wanting to tear my hair out with boredom and terror.”
He grinned at her. She blinked, then furrowed her brow in confusion.
“Well at least there isn’t a chance of you putting that damn bun in anymore.”
“You used to like my hair long.”
“So what? You cut it all off just because I liked it? I did like it long, but this,” he said, waving his hand in the general direction of her messed up morning hair, “suits you.”
“Well your being friendly suits you.”
“So you really quit caring about your looks because of Marcus?”
“Partially. Mostly I didn’t want to attract any male attention. No temptation to fall back into my old ways I guess.”
“You really think you would have?”
“I’m terrified of my own past, and repeating it.”
“Well I’m glad we can trust you enough to let go of the bun,” he said, lightening the mood before she got too melancholy.
“What are we going to do?”
“Whatever you want that’s inside this house. I mean it, no going out to even get the mail. I’ll be wherever you are.”
“Great,” she grumbled.
He spread his hands out as if in surrender. “Hey I didn’t bring this on you.”
“Yeah, I know as usual I did this to myself.”
“Any idea what Marcus will try to do to you?”
She ran a hand through her hair, feathering her bangs off her face. They landed back soft and fluffy. “The worst thing I think about is ways he can get Tim. That maybe he’s just going to vanish with him. And if that happened—”
“Yeah I get what you’re saying. That’s not an option. Tim is safe with Luke and Kelly. They’re all under police protection. I’m worried about you.”
“I’m surprised after yesterday you don’t just leave me on the porch with a big red bow on me,” she said.
He wasn’t sure exactly what he felt toward Cassie today. She’d revealed their entire history to everyone, which had driven Sarah to leave mad as hell. So why was he being nice to her today of all days? He couldn’t answer that even for himself. She’d stirred up a lot of nasty thoughts yesterday, yet today, he couldn’t get his hostility toward her back into place.
“Hmm there’s an idea. But after all I took an oath when I became a doctor, so I guess I won’t be letting the crazy ex get you today.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Seriously you’ve been angry at me since you first set eyes on me. Now when the shit has hit the fan, and you should be even more furious, you’re almost pleasant and joking with me. I don’t get it.”
John shrugged. “Can we shelve all of it until we find out where Leary is at and what he’s planning on. I think we can agree there’s enough to worry about there. You and I are house bound together and I don’t think you need me being mean to you to add to your stress. Fair enough?”
“More than fair. Thank you.”
“So what do you think Leary wants?”
“I know he blames me for his going to prison, and thinks I kidnapped his son from him. So in his mind he’d be well justified to take Tim and take revenge on me. The violence, however, I really didn’t know lurked in him until he was totally backed into a corner.”
“He won’t get to you.”
“Yeah that’s what I’m planning on. I hope it works out.”