Once Upon A Half-Time: A Secret Baby Romance (67 page)

“I will.”

“Seriously. You’re sleeping for two.”

I frowned. “I don’t…think that’s how it works.”

“Do you have
any
idea how a baby works?”

Good question. “I knew how to make one?”

“I don’t need the details.” She grabbed her purse and pointed me to the bedroom. “Go. Now. Seriously. And call Sean and tell him you need another day off. You should go to a doctor tomorrow and get checked out.”

“I will.”

She smiled and let herself out. “Night-night, Momma.”

Oh Lord. I wasn’t used to that nickname. I didn’t mind it though. I just wished Maddox was the one to hear the news first.

I peeled myself from the couch and avoided the containers of leftover Chinese. The smell wasn’t doing anything for my appetite. I battled my wavering tummy and stole the files Delta brought for me. I made it to bed without throwing up. A minor victory.

The papers from the insurance company weren’t new, just copies of the original documents filed after the adjustor walked with the fire marshal.

Except for a few.

Some of the pages were stamped
VOID
. I wasn’t sure why they were kept, or why they were stapled to the official paperwork. No one ever said Delta wasn’t organized—even if most of Saint Christie politely referred to her as
dedicated
instead of
OCD
, just like her mother.

But something was weird with the pages. Both the voided copy and official were signed by the adjustor. The official paper detailed the police findings—citing
ARSON
in bolded letters as the cause of the fire. I checked the second. That was the same. And they both detailed the same method—electrical tampering.

Except the voided copy included two additional words.

INSURANCE FRAUD
.

“What in the world…” I stared at the page. It didn’t make any sense. I flipped to the official copy. Those words were missing, and the paper was signed and stamped a day later.

Weird.

I reached for my phone to call Delta and ask about the discrepancy, but a violent knocking rattled my door once more.

I leapt from the bed, clutching the reports. I couldn’t catch my breath, and the hope surged through me, mending a heart that shattered like peanut brittle and the guilt that poisoned me in bitter regret.

Maddox
.

I had stripped to my tiny tank top and boy cut panties for bed, but I didn’t bother dressing. I raced to the door. The pounding hadn’t stopped.

Maybe Delta called him. God bless her meddling. She wouldn’t let me be alone and pregnant, even if she didn’t trust Maddox.

My fingers trembled over the chain. Maybe he came back on his own? Maybe he
knew
? Realized I needed him? That…
we
needed him?

The door burst open, shattering the old lock. I leapt back, but the intruder grabbed me before I had time to react. The handkerchief was stuffed over my mouth. It smelled horrible, and I struggled against the cloth. I ran, but the man caught me, wrapping me in his arms from behind. I reared back, head butting his nose.

He swore.

It wasn’t Maddox’s voice, but I recognized it.

His words crashed around me as I dropped in his arms and fell into a dark and terrible nightmare.

I
meant to forget her
.

I thought I’d get over her.

I hoped I could live without her.

Fucking bullshit.

How the hell was I supposed to breathe without her sugared, honey scent? I couldn’t sleep without dreaming of her. Couldn’t eat without imagining the desserts she used to stuff in me. Couldn’t dress without remembering the heat of her hands.

Couldn’t speak without feeling an imaginary brush of her lips.

Couldn’t exist without understanding
why
she would betray me, destroy me,
damn
me.

Why she thought that was the only way to protect me?

Fourteen nights on the road hit me harder than the year in prison. At least then iron bars and guards and the law kept me from Josie’s bed.

Now?

For two weeks, I’d lived out of a cheap motel with a pre-paid cell phone and the last hundred dollars in my wallet. I gave the chief two grand before I left. It wasn’t enough to buy Chelsea’s freedom, but it convinced him to leave her in peace until I could find some money.

Wherever that would come from.

When I got to the city, Ironfield welcomed me home with a piercing rain shower and an attempted mugging. I blackened the eye of the asshole who tried to knife me, and then I chased him to steal the blade. Some instincts died hard, but the streets had once been my old job. I did whatever I could to survive, and I wasn’t proud of any of it. Josie only ever knew what she had to know. I vowed I wouldn’t corrupt that cupcake any more than necessary.

Though the lies had corrupted her all the same.

The world wasn’t made of chocolate; it reeked of shit. Except that I hated teaching her that lesson. If anyone needed rose-tinted glasses, it was my little sugar plum fairy with the piping bag of pink icing.

I’d asked around for the usual jobs. Shady, immoral bullshit that would never come with a 401k or healthcare. Once, I protected as many whores as I shook down pimps, and I dealt in as many drugs as I muled. As long as it paid, I’d do it.

But something stopped me. Running guns and kicking the shit out of debtors worked for earning the money I needed to pay off the chief, but it wouldn’t rebuild the walls of Sweet Nibbles.

If I ever went back.

Why the fuck did I leave?

So I stole a paper from a diner and hunted through the pages for a decent job. I circled the electrical work, but I never thought I’d get a call.

Doubted more that they’d take me on.

First time for everything.

Some prick named Sam hired me. He didn’t give a shit about my record, just wanted a certified electrical subcontractor who’d keep his mouth shut and get paid under the table. It sounded great, except the job was in some little pet shop in the middle of Ironfield. One of the districts that hadn’t been updated in thirty years.

I took one look at the shop and considered taking up dealing again. Sam hoisted his pants over a beer belly and rubbed a mustache that was missing a leather cut and motorcycle.

“You gotta be kidding.” I pointed to the mess of a breaker box. “I can’t rewire this.”

“Don’t want you to,” Sam said. “Just change the covers on the outlets.”

Gut instinct was a bitch. This job was more crooked than drugs. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. In and out, and you get your money.”

“This whole system is a fire hazard. The connectors are probably worn to shit. I’ve seen it before. Give it time and the whole box will short out and burn. Bust up a couple connectors, and she could collect her insurance money.”

“Just replace the goddamned plates,” Sam said. “Now.”

And risk my fucking certification? Hell no. “Screw you. You set your own death trap.”

“No one’s asking you to play fire marshal.”

“You’re lucky I don’t call him in here.”

I flipped him off as I stormed out. My record was ruined already. If I got pinned to a job with another electrical fire?

Fuck it
. Once was enough.

Hell, I still couldn’t believe Josie’s shop burned the way it did. She never had an issue with the building or health codes. All her equipment was top of the line, too new for fraying cords. How the hell did the arsonist even set it on fire? Not like Matthias left him a detailed instruction manual on the store’s outdated circuits.

My chest seized.

I nearly walked into traffic and got my ass kicked by a bus.

In that moment, I knew exactly what had happened that night.

I knew how the arsonist did it and why I was framed.

Revelation felt a hell of a lot like a screwdriver touching a live wire. What the hell was I supposed to do? I had to get back to Josie. She deserved closure. I needed…

Anything.

Just an excuse to see her again. She held my heart, and the aching pit in my chest festered and ached without it. I couldn’t think straight when I was separated from her.

How the hell was I going to tell her the truth?

She hurt me, betrayed me, but I couldn’t protect her anymore. She had a right to know what had happened—even if it killed her.

It was late when I made it to her apartment, later by the time I worked up the courage to approach her steps. Like a ball-less asshole, I twisted with cowardice and shame.

How had we fucked this up so badly? She forgave me when I offered my
services
to Nolan, even when she knew I was in danger every second I let that bastard near.

She had been scared. Helpless. And she understood me better than I knew myself. No matter what I said, no matter how much I swore, nothing would have stopped me from murdering Nolan a year ago.

She didn’t put me in jail to stop Nolan. She did it to
protect
him, to save me from myself because I was too consumed with rage and now too consumed with revenge to see clearly.

I lost her because of it.

No. It ended now. I let time and prison and people separate us for too long. I wasn’t letting her get away. I promised to marry her before. I’d make good on it now.

I took the steps to her porch two at a time, but my fist stilled before I pounded on the door. Saint Christie was a quiet town, and not everyone locked their doors.

But even Josie knew better than to leave it wide open.

I stepped inside. Her lights were on. Chinese food containers cluttered her kitchen—usually pristine and orderly. Papers and plans littered every available surface—anything and everything pertaining to her shop.

Josie wasn’t in her bed. She wasn’t home, but her purse hung by the door. I searched her bedroom and found her phone tossed under the nightstand. I scanned through it, reading texts I never answered. Plenty from Delta. Some from Willowbend.

One text from Nolan.

Something was wrong. Her reply was hostile and accompanied with a sound clip. I listened to it, my stomach churning as I realized she threatened a man who would murder to protect his reputation.

This wasn’t about revenge anymore. Anger and rage no longer consumed me.

A new terror threaded my veins. Nolan Rhys had taken Josie.

And if I didn’t kill him first, Josie would die.

“
W
e need to talk
.”

The voice blurred in my ears. Could a voice blur? He didn’t slur it. The words just sludged together in my head. Wavering. Bouncing.

Leeching into my thoughts.

I knew that voice. It was one that required the restraints on my hands and legs.

Mayor Nolan Rhys bound me to a chair with ropes, and hid me in a dusty, flickering cabin.

No, barn?

And he wanted to
talk
?

“I never should have baked cookies for you,” I said.

My tongue felt fat, like someone made bananas foster in my mouth. I didn’t let him see me tremble, and I didn’t dare get enraged. I needed a clear head for this. Needed to stay calm. God only knew what he used to knock me out, but it wasn’t confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder.

Would it hurt the baby?

Nolan knelt before my chair. His three piece suit was as impractical in the streets of Saint Christie as it was kneeling in his barn—even if he refused to let his pinstriped slacks touch the weathered floorboards. Not like he ever did a day of hard work here.

Except when he torched his campaign signs and framed Maddox for the crime.

“Josie? Are you awake?”

I was now. I didn’t want to imagine what he did while I was out. I still wore my tank top and panties, but that was it. Not my most modest moment or anything I trusted around Nolan. His gaze lowered one too many times. The shivers slithered over me, one wave after another.

“You kidnapped me,” I whispered.

“I hope you’ll forgive me once we’re done.”

“Done doing
what
?”

“Negotiating.”

I tested the ropes on my wrists. They strained. Too tight. “Negotiating my freedom?”

He didn’t smile. “Negotiating mine, if you please.”

I never thought I’d be in a position of power over Nolan. “You don’t like the recording I have of you threatening Maddox.”

“It’s not admissible in court. We live in a two-party consent recording state.”

“Says the man who kidnapped me and tied me up.” Adrenaline helped to push the drugs out of my system. “I don’t care about the court. The media though…”

“This sound clip won’t help my election campaign.”

“I thought so,” I said. “You have an image problem, Mayor Rhys.”

“Not yet.”

Liar. “Your image is dishonest. You act like you’re perfect. The best name, the most money, the greatest education, the spotless record. You’re a mayor of a wholesome, small American town, and you think you deserve something bigger.” I stared at him, at his playboy hair and dazzling blue eyes. “Only I know the real you.”

“No. You bring out something in me, Josie.” He stared at my chest. “I don’t know if it’s something natural or just what you do to me.”

“Don’t blame me for your perversions.”

He tensed, almost angry. “I offered you everything.”

“And I wanted
nothing
from you.”

“Are you so sure?”

“You can’t give me what I want.” I didn’t trust him as he started to pace. “I hoped you’d go to jail.”

“I told you. I didn’t burn down your shop.”

“I know.”

“But I can get it back for you…”

I kicked my ankles. The ropes were looser around my feet, but I couldn’t get free. Nolan straightened his tie and tried to hide the frustration in his voice. He was willing to bargain even though he hated the offer.

“You have a sound clip in your possession that will damage my career,” he said. “Something that will end my campaign before it begins.”

I wished I had some water. My mouth dried, but that wasn’t as bad as my twisting stomach. It wasn’t a good time for morning sickness.

I faked confidence. “I thought we had an agreement. You stay away from Maddox, and I wouldn’t reveal to every media outlet in the state that you threatened to kill him.”

“Right.” Nolan sneered. “Because you
love
him.”

“More than anything.”

“I could have given you more than him.” He snickered. “You think my little threat is bad? Do you even know the type of man Maddox is? If you knew the things he’s done, you’d regret denying me.”

“But he’s never
kidnapped
me,” I said. “Never threatened anyone I love. Never hurt me when I refused him. Never presumed to know what was best for me.”

“I’m in love with you, Josie.”

“Then untie me. Let me go.”

Nolan swore. The hair on my neck rose. I didn’t like this side of him. He was bad enough in public, forcing me into meetings and conversations, but at least there we had a reputation to maintain.

Here? Isolated? Alone? The drugs he used to knock me out were potent, and my head still ached. I had to get away from him before he did something worse than kidnap me.

Before his
love
turned into lust.

“I want the recording you made of me. Delete it.” Nolan ran a thick tongue over his lip. “And maybe I can offer you something that will put all this unpleasantness behind us.”

“What deal?”

“I’ll help you rebuild your shop.”

“Will you bring a hammer and nails?”

He unfolded a paper from his pocket and held it up so I can see. “This is the original property deed and survey to your land. Bob Ragen was right. The land was subdivided improperly, and the county never recorded it. Technically…” He smiled. “You own
both
lots. Bob has no case against you.”

I leaned away in the chair. Nolan only stepped closer. “You kidnapped me to show me a
clerical
error
from fifty years ago?”

“I thought you’d be happier.”

“I’d clap, but I can’t move my hands.”

Nolan liked that. “You’ll need money to rebuild. It’s yours.”

“Are you bribing me, or am I blackmailing you?”

“Call it a loan, no interest for the first ten years,” he said. “I’ll become the primary investor in your property and refuse my share of the profits. You get your shop back, your customers, your livelihood. Perhaps that would give you reason to forgive past indiscretions.”

“Nothing will forgive what you’ve done.”

“That’s your part of this arrangement, Josie.” Nolan brushed my cheek. His touch chilled me, rotten and vile. “I need you to control Maddox. Can you do that?”

No. “That’ll be hard to do. You
kidnapped
me.”

“He doesn’t have to know that.”

“You want me to pretend you didn’t force me from my home in the middle of the night, drugged up and half-naked?”

His hand drifted lower, teasing the hem line of my shirt. He tugged it up, up, up, revealing a sliver of dark skin just over my navel. I hoped he didn’t see me tremble.

“I could have done worse.”

“No doubt.”

“You would have liked it.”

“You’re disgusting.”

His slap was hard, fierce against my cheek. “We still have an opportunity to
try
, Josie. Don’t tempt me?”

“Pity I don’t have my phone here to record
that
.”

His second slap struck harsher than the first. The chair teetered, and I fell on my side.

My stomach heaved. Nothing came up but only because I had nothing left in me. I hadn’t eaten. My head throbbed. I was naked, cold, and Nolan’s compromise was looking less and less like something that would benefit me.

Nolan hauled me up from the floor, slicing through the ropes binding me to the chair with a knife I didn’t know he concealed in his pocket. He kicked the chair away and held me up for his inspection. I danced on my tippy-toes while he leered at me.

Whatever defiance I showed before, whatever challenge I issued only pissed him off. I had to rein it back, take some sort of control.

If not for me then for the baby I carried.

“Okay,” I said. “You give me a loan to rebuild my shop, and I won’t release the recording of you. I’ll delete it. No one has to know it happened.”

“Maddox will know.”

I swallowed. My toes barely scraped the ground, and the ropes tugged too hard. “In case you haven’t noticed, you are the reason he left me. I haven’t seen or heard from him in two weeks.”

Nolan’s smile widened, an opportunistic slide of his jaw. “I noticed, Josie.”

“So you don’t have to worry about him.”

“Are you worried about him?”

No need to lie. “Yes.”

“Are you worried about
you
?”

No hesitation. “Yes.”

“
Why
?” Nolan gentled, and a strange and unsettling tone shadowed him with mania. “Just once, Josie. Let me prove how much I love you.”

I squirmed. He liked that. “We made our agreement. I trust you. Isn’t that enough?”

“No.”

The ropes bound my arms and legs, but he only needed one hand to hold me still. His other tickled low, cupping my behind and forcing me close to his waist.

Something hard struck my thigh.

This time, I wasn’t so sure he’d give me a chance to argue.

I kept my voice soft, as non-confrontational as I could manage. “Nolan, I’m pregnant.”

His grip released. I dropped to my feet again. He stepped away.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Josie.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You let that brute—”

“I’ll take the deal. I’ll get my shop. You can do your campaign. I agree, okay?”

He grunted, forcing me against one of the barn’s load bearing pillars. The wood scraped my hand. He forced a new rope over my waist that strapped me to the beam. I wiggled as his phone buzzed. It distracted him before he tied the knot as tightly as the others.

He glanced at his cellphone’s screen before flashing it at me. It wasn’t a call or message. Just a blip from an app I didn’t recognize.

“This place looks like an abandoned old barn, but the security on it…” He pocketed the phone. “Top notch.”

“Nolan?”

He walked away to inspect the equipment on an old work bench. “I know you think little of me. It confuses me. I’ve never had to prove myself or earn anyone’s respect. You? You’re a challenge.”

It didn’t sound like such a compliment now.

Nolan continued, talking mostly to himself. “My grandfather worked this land and made his own fortune. My father was the best damn lawyer in the state and raised his family here. I took that money and name and reputation and thought it would impress you. What else can I do to make you look at me the way you look at
him
?”

My mouth dried. “It’s just…how I feel. You can’t control that.”

“You don’t want this deal any more than I do,” he said. “Sure, it’s good publicity.
Local hero offers help to restore community landmark
. I’d work it into my campaign. But here’s the problem.” He picked up a heavy tool from the bench and tested its weight against his hand. “I know you. I know the kind of person you are.”

“What kind of person?”

He smiled. “You won’t blackmail someone…even if you hate them. Sooner or later, the guilt would eat at you. All those sweet little candies would taste like ash in your mouth. You’d have to come clean…and you’d ruin me by clearing your conscience.”

“I won’t.” My words stuck in my throat. “I just want my shop back. I won’t talk. I promise.”

“A promise is worth nothing from an honest person doing wrong. No matter what I do, you’ll become a liability.” Nolan stalked to the door, edging into the shadows. “Just like Maddox.”

The door burst open, splintering under a shattering kick. I shouted as Maddox crashed inside, his gaze too focused on me to recognize the danger lurking in the dark.

I shouted his name. Nolan swung the tool in his hand. It struck Maddox by the ear.

He dropped, hard.

My heart stopped. Maddox moved, but not quickly. Dazed. He was hurt. He needed help.

And Nolan replaced the wrench only to approach me with duct tape. He ripped a piece and slammed it over my lips.

“Sorry, Josie,” he said. “I really hoped this would end differently.”

I twisted in the ropes, but Nolan moved away, cell phone in hand. He dialed a number and taunted me with a finger pressed to his lips. I screamed into the tape anyway.

“Chief Craig?” Nolan kicked Maddox’s ribs as he tried to stand. “Look, I got a problem. Josie Davis and I were spending the night together, and her ex showed. Yeah, Maddox. He came after me.”

Nolan shouldered the phone and reached for his knife. He grimaced and slashed his own palm.

“Chief, he’s got Josie, and I don’t know what he’s gonna do. You gotta send someone up here before it’s too late.”

He ended the call. What the hell was he doing? His wound splattered blood everywhere, and he made sure to bleed over Maddox.

“Know that I do love you, Josie.” Nolan studied me, as if for the last time. “But I need to protect myself and move on from this obsession.”

A lighter flashed in his hand. I stiffened, searching the barn. Old wood. Barrels of oil and gasoline. Boxes and crates. The place was a
tinderbox
.

And we were trapped inside.

Nolan lit the edges of an old newspaper. He tossed the crumpled sheet onto a bundle of straw in the far corner. Flames immediately danced along the dried bale.

He was going to burn the barn to the ground.

Nolan pulled and antique lamp from the wall and pitched it into the fire. The glass shattered, and the fire eagerly lapped at the leaking oil. It billowed into a ferocious curtain of flame that seized the barn and everything inside.

He dropped the lighter into Maddox’s coat pocket. Maddox gripped his arm, but Nolan’s punch dropped him again. Nolan turned before he opened the barn door.

“Goodbye, Josie.”

Oh god. I screamed as Nolan slipped into the night, and screamed again as the door slammed shut, feeding the fire a burst of oxygen before trapping us within.

The ropes sliced my hands.

Maddox stopped moving.

I shouted his name, but the tape muffled everything the fire hadn’t obscured in its roar.

I never thought I’d be surrounded in fire again, but the smoke roiled over the barn. I twisted the rope enough to loosen it, but I could only drop to the ground.

The flames ruptured through the floor, aiming for Maddox.

I could do nothing to stop it.

We were going to die.