think we’re married,” she said finally.
“We are, technically.”
“Only because we haven’t done the paperwork for a divorce.”
“It’s been seven years, Shannon. If you really wanted a divorce, you would have made it happen.”
“I do want one, Jack.” Her mouth hinted at more to come, but she stayed quiet. He wanted to kiss her then, to press her lips to his and find out the truth. Mouths lied, but kisses didn’t.
He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. “For the time being, it looks like we’re gonna have to play at being nice married folks until we get Dina and her baby out of this jam.”
A glimmer, a flicker, a shadow, rippled across her face. Her mouth thinned into a grim line.
“Anyway,” Jack said, putting them back on safe ground, “it bought us some time so Dina can find her brother.”
“I’m not sure anymore...” She pressed a trembling hand to her mouth.
“I am. Pack up. We’ll get a cab to the airstrip in the morning. I’ll keep watch tonight. They may come back. Not that easily put off. You can tell Dina where we’re headed. You have her cell number.”
“And where exactly are we headed?” she said over her shoulder.
He looked into the luminous eyes of the woman who was still his wife—legally, anyway—wondering what he had just gotten himself into. “Home,” he said. “To Gold Bar.”
* * *
Emotions tumbled through Shannon’s insides as Jack landed the plane on the neglected airstrip on her uncle Oscar’s property. The sky was mellowing into a palette of lustrous sunset golds, set off by the brilliant green hills. After seven years, with as many visits as she could manage, Gold Bar was just as gorgeous as she remembered, and just as claustrophobic. It was a small town, where everybody knew everything, a place she would probably never return to if her mother and uncle were not still residents.
The pastures of Jack’s family’s Gold Bar Ranch were dotted with contented horses that meandered, tails swishing, over the thousand acres. She thought of Jack’s brothers. A new structure was visible, set apart from the main house. Jack’s brother Barrett and his new wife, Shelby, lived there. Jack’s twin, Owen, was engaged to Shannon’s best friend, Ella Cahill, a farrier who had narrowly escaped being framed for the murder of a local heiress’s nephew by a merciless con man. It pained her that she hadn’t even known about Ella’s dire situation until after it was resolved. Too busy to take calls, she’d told herself. Too busy to be a friend.
She eyed Jack. He had the same angular features and strong jaw, but there was something more pinched about his mouth, and his denim-blue eyes were harder. He wore his favorite cowboy boots, the ones he’d steadfastly refused to replace, instead having them resoled again and again. The fragrance of his barn jacket teased her, holding the faintest scent of a life far away, oiled leather, hay, the ranch. His life, not hers. You should ask about his brothers, make small talk. But the memory of a long-ago conversation with Jack robbed her of the words. Seven years ago, practically before the ink was dry on their marriage certificate, she’d told him their impulsive marriage was over.
It was a mistake, Jack.
As if she was critiquing a medical chart, instead of dooming a marriage.
I was scared, confused. I’m leaving for med school, and that’s all I can focus on.
I’m patient, he’d said.
I’m not coming back to Gold Bar, Jack. Not as your wife.
The marriage was an error in judgment. She’d been overwhelmed, and Jack had refused to admit that they’d outgrown each other. You did what you had to do. Now, if she could just get through this without losing everything she’d worked for. In typical Jack fashion, he had not pressed her for details about her current situation, allowing her to share as much as she knew. Jack was patient; he was completely her opposite.
The facts seemed clear enough. Dina was being abused by a man who lay in a coma for which the Scarlet Tide blamed her. The Los Angeles detective who had been investigating the case was on the take, and thanks to Jack, they could keep Annabell safe until Dina returned. John Larraby, an officer with the Gold Bar Police, was a high-school peer of theirs, and though she’d never liked him personally, maybe he could be trusted to help. It would be so much easier to tell him everything, but what would happen to Annabell? Whatever Dina had or hadn’t done, she did not deserve to lose her baby.
Shannon checked her phone messages. Her supervising physician was unhappy at her sudden departure, which she’d blamed on an emergency. It was the truth. What bigger emergency was there than a bunch of bikers ready to abduct a scared teen mom and her baby?
She’d had no choice but to run, but the potential professional consequences were terrifying. She’d labored for years to reach the final stages of her emergency-room internship. What if she lost it all? Then what would she be? Who would she be? She realized Jack was staring at her.
“Did you tell anyone we were coming to Gold Bar?” he asked, eyes flicking from his cell-phone screen to her.
“Only Dina. I texted her, like you said.”
“Work?”
“I phoned to tell them I had to take an emergency leave, but I didn’t mention where I was headed.”
He frowned, blue eyes darkening to the color of a restless sea.
“Why?”
“Because my brother just texted me that Larraby’s at the house, asking for you.”
Cold prickles erupted all over her skin. Had Mason alerted the local police somehow? But how would he know where they’d gone?
Her mind followed the trail. He might have found out from the hospital about her hastily arranged vacation, used his police connections to discover her hometown, checked flight plans and contacted local police. In other words, he’d made a guess that had paid off.
“We can’t trust the cops,” she said, holding the baby, as Jack helped her out of the plane and into a dusty SUV. “Detective Mason is in the Tide’s pocket. Larraby will believe what he says.”
“We may not have a choice.”
As they drove to the ranch, Shannon frantically tried to figure out what she would say to Larraby, or the Thorns, for that matter.
She knew her own cheeks were flushed red as they entered the Thorn home. Jack’s parents, Tom and Evie, had been kind and gracious to her, but she had not seen them since she left for med school.
“I’m not going to tell anyone about this,” Jack had said after their city-hall marriage in Southern California. “I want to tell my family properly, to present you as my bride.”
But that time had never arrived, and Jack had revealed during the flight that he’d never gotten around to telling them at all. So how were they going to explain it? It was ludicrous.
Her
