Out of Uniform

Jacob rattled off the information then asked, “Why? We thought that was Chase causing more trouble.”



Keagan snagged a gulp from his bottled water before returning to the keyboard. “Maybe, maybe not. I’ll check around and see if Lambert’s crossing back and forth over the border. So far, though, there’s not even a peep from him. He’s not at work. No credit card activity.”



Dee started shaking again. “They’re not dead. They can’t be.”



Keagan patted the air in a calm-down motion. “I’m not saying they are. There are plenty of ways to pay for things without credit cards. Until I have definitive proof to the contrary, we’re going to keep looking for your boy. My wife and I have a son, too.” His gaze fell briefly to the photo of a newborn in blue grinning as he held a toy dolphin. “I’ll search for your child as if he were my own.”



Her hand shook as she reached to stroke a finger along the edge of the gold frame on the agent’s desk. “Thank you.”



Jacob hoped like hell that Dee was right about her ex driving off. “Would he really risk coming back here just to torment her? Why not make a clean run with Evan?”



“That would be the logical choice, but…” Keagan trailed off.



Dee’s face turned paler. “He’s not logical anymore. Or rather, he’s even more unbalanced than before, especially if he somehow found out I didn’t die that night.”



Jacob leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees. “Maybe he’s buying time while he sets up a new identity. He wouldn’t have had much warning that Dee was on to him.”



Dee’s eyes widened before blinking faster, darting from side to side. He couldn’t imagine what it must be costing her to climb inside the mind of her crooked, cruel ex-husband.



Basically all the options here stunk.



Her ex and son could be dead. Or the criminal was on the road somewhere far away with her child.



Or Lambert was close by, determined to succeed in killing Dee this time.



Dee fidgeted with her seat belt as she watched Jacob charge up the steps back into the Lodge. He was closing the place—indefinitely. He planned to hide out with Dee in visitor’s quarters on base, while sending Emily and Madison to stay with Grace and her family. Grace was already inside Emily’s room helping her pack for the baby before they would leave together.



Meanwhile, Special Agent Keagan was still working his secret ops magic to pick up her ex-husband’s trail.



She refused to consider the body in the river was Blane’s. He’d simply ditched the vehicle. He was trying to cover his tracks.



And the dead body? She said a prayer for whoever had died, because she had to believe dental records would prove it wasn’t Blane.



Everything was happening so fast. She’d known Jacob to be a man of action, yet his lightning-fast preparations left her head spinning. In his typical Jacob manner, he never seemed to hurry, yet arrangements had been made before she could blink.



Dee tucked her toes under the dash and soaked up the heater’s blast, anything to keep her occupied. She’d already packed her meager gear earlier and brought it with her to the police station so she could be mobile if they found Evan. Now Jacob insisted she wait here for him while he finished a couple of last-minute details.



Damn, she was restless. After waiting so long, a few more hours shouldn’t matter. But they did.



Her life had changed too much, too fast. She and Jacob had slept together, a new memory that needed to be analyzed, pondered, savored. Except fear for Evan left her nearly breathless.



As Jacob posted a Closed sign on the front entrance of the hotel, a room door swung wide. Emily stepped out, saw Jacob and stopped. He opened his mouth, and his sister shoved her hands deeper into her pockets. Emily’s shoulders rose as her eyes turned sulky. Jacob’s mouth closed. He nodded and turned away, disappearing inside.



Dee could hardly believe what she’d just seen. Emily couldn’t actually be angry with Jacob. Chase had been the one in the wrong.



Except logic didn’t always come into play with adolescent emotions.



Dee wanted to leap from the truck and shake Emily by her two layers of oversize sweaters. Instead Dee rolled down the window. The teacher in her wouldn’t let the teen skulk away. “Emily? Over here.”



Emily jerked and nearly slipped on a patch of ice, her heavy eye makeup smeared from tears. She glanced over her shoulder before turning back. Her feet skated along the ice as she warily approached.



The moody teen scratched her boot heel through the sludge, the baby monitor in hand as she hugged herself. “You doing okay?”



“Much better than last night.” Of course, that didn’t say much since she’d been mighty damn low.



“Good.” She kicked a chunk of ice. “I’m sorry about your kid.”



The ache with Evan’s name on it threatened to overwhelm her, but she wouldn’t let herself fall into a hole of forgetfulness again. She was stronger now. “Thank you, Emily. It’s a scary time for me.”



Emily swiped at the sludge with her boot again before backing away. “Guess I should go.”



Dee reached through the window to grab Emily’s elbow. Helping her would help Jacob, and he offered so few opportunities for anyone to give back to him. “No school today?”



Emily eased her arm free. “It’s Saturday.”



“Oh, right.” Her life was such a mess she couldn’t keep the days of the week straight. Some candidate for straightening out a sullen teen. “Where’s Chase?”



Emily studied a snowdrift. “Home, released to his parents who’ve locked him in his room for the rest of his life.”



So much for pointing out Chase’s brush with the police. Maybe a direct approach might be best. “I know it seems like your brother was rough on Chase last night, but Jacob would have been within his rights to do a lot worse.”



What a mixed blessing to have regained her memory at such a horrible cost to Jacob and his sister.



Emily twirled the nursery monitor by the flexible antennae. “You wouldn’t understand.”



“Just think about seeing it from your brother’s side. Jacob made the hard choice, even if it’s tough to admit it.” Dee gripped Emily’s arm before she could bolt away. “I do understand how much it hurts when the man you love lets you down.”



The teen blinked back tears and seemed ready to thaw…Then she backed away. “I gotta go help Grace pack Madison’s stuff.”



Part of Dee screamed Emily just needed time to reason through the crazy shift in their world. But she’d seen how a day of unresolved anger could stretch into years of alienation. Heaven knew she’d learned that lesson the hard way with her parents, a mistake she planned to fix as soon as she found Evan.



It was past time he met his grandparents. If only she hadn’t waited too long. The regret would be unbearable.



She stepped out of the truck and charged after Emily. “Your brother loves you. I’ve seen that. He wants to help you but doesn’t know how.”



Emily spun on her heels, anger as bright as her unshed tears. “Sure he loves me. He just doesn’t want a screw-up like me or Chase in his life. We’re not all perfect like him, you know. Wait till you mess up, then you’ll see. He’ll dump you just like he’s dumping me onto Grace.”



The barb hit home and stuck like a prickly bur. Kids didn’t fight fair. She should have remembered that from her teaching days.



Dee understood well enough how it felt to have a family member’s disapproval, but Jacob was different. “He’s not like your father.” Or mine. “He’s here for you.”



He’d said Emily wanted to stay in Rockfish, the reason he wasn’t taking her and the baby with him. Jacob took care of everyone.



But he never let anyone get too close to him.



Emily backed away. “I don’t need this psychobabble crud from you. I’m outta here.”



Intellectually Dee understood Emily was transferring her anger from Chase over to Jacob. Yet as Dee watched Jacob lope down the steps with a Thermos of coffee in hand, she couldn’t help but remember Emily’s words.



Such a perfectionist himself, how would Jacob accept failures from others? She had her fair share of flaws. Her perfectionist parents had frozen her out for years because of one mistake.



Climbing back inside the truck, Dee shook off her own emotional baggage and focused on Jacob. While in many ways a loner, he never turned his back on anyone in need. He took care of lost souls like herself—like his sister—on a regular basis. Yet how close did he allow himself to become in return? How much of himself did he share?



A woman could lean on those broad shoulders forever.



Would he ever lean on her?



She couldn’t settle for less than everything from a man ever again. If she and Jacob didn’t learn how to share control, find some balance between them, she feared she would lose Jacob as well as Evan. The chill inside her spread, and she couldn’t seem to jam her feet under that heater enough to warm herself.



Jacob opened the driver’s-side door, a blast of cold air gusting inside. Dee suddenly realized they would be alone together for the night.



When they arrived at the base’s visitor’s quarters, would they be staying in one room or two?



Chapter 15



T ossing aside his duffel bag next to the tiny microwave, Jacob wondered if Dee had expected him to get two rooms rather than one.



A moot point since he was lucky to have snagged even this last available visitor’s quarter. She had been antsy and distant since he closed the door on the small space with a bed, a blue sofa and corner mini-kitchen. She would likely wear a hole in the carpet if she kept walking around.



Worries for her son, he could understand. He’d felt that radiating from her every pore when he’d held her while they’d watched the sun come up. This was different.



She’d been so certain the Suburban hadn’t gone into the river. Could she be doubting now? He didn’t even want to think of what it would do to her if that body turned out to be her ex-husband.



He needed to calm her, if he only knew where to start. Right now, she’d taken to staring out the window as if she might find answers there.



Parents always wanted to talk about their children. He’d learned that from his friends and a woman he’d once dated who had a kid from a prior relationship.



He sat on the sofa and hoped that would encourage her to join him. “Tell me about Evan.”



Dee’s head swiveled away from the window toward Jacob. Pain glinted in her eyes like icicles on the bare oaks outside, then melted with her tender smile. “Evan loves chocolate ice cream and anything that flies. He has this plastic plane, a tub toy, that he’s carried around forever, like his blanket.” She sniffled and scrubbed the back of her wrist under her nose as she leaned against the wall. “I promised him a toy aircraft carrier for his birthday.”



Her ache lanced at him with surprising force. He’d felt empathy before, but this was something more. Her pain was his. His investment in finding Evan became all the more personal. “We’ll have another birthday for him with a huge cake and a trip to one of those places with goofy people in costumes, where kids can play video games.”



How easily the word we slid from his mouth, bringing images of creating a normal family life.



“He would like that…. His birthday.” Her hand fluttered to rest on her stomach. “He was an emergency C-section delivery. The placenta began to separate, and the doctor had to go in—” She blushed, staring at her crossed feet. “Oops, TMI.”



“TMI?”



“Too much information.” She tugged the hem of her sweater, molding cashmere to the gentle swell of her breasts. “You don’t need to hear all the details.”



Jacob waited for her to continue. He wouldn’t let her shut down now that he finally had her talking.