eyebrows went up.
“I hardly know Christian. But my mother has been drowning in guilt for losing him in the custody battle. She’s been trying to make up for it since my dad died. My adopted father. He’s been gone eighteen months, and the only thing keeping my mom going is the chance to make amends to the boy she gave up.”
“I’m reasonably sure she has something else worth living for,” Annie said, the sudden gentleness in her voice making him swallow hard.
“But I’m not a mission,” he said. “She’s already got me in her corner.”
“I’m sorry your family’s screwed up. So is mine. But my mission is to keep Safe Haven safe. What are the chances these guys will find me here?”
“I don’t know. But any chance is one too many.”
“So why don’t you just go home? Leave here, don’t come back? What do you need me for?” She stared at him, her expression flat, her hands still.
He thought he saw confusion in her eyes, but he couldn’t be sure. Of anything. “I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you.”
“I’m not your responsibility.”
The hell with giving her space. He had to make her understand, so he leaned over far enough to take her hands in his. “Yes, I knew the minute I saw you that you were Leanna. But I also knew within the hour that you weren’t guilty. I didn’t understand any of the connections then. Only that no one would ever convince me that you had freely embezzled that money.
“I think I couldn’t exonerate you completely because I didn’t want to think Christian had committed the crime and blamed you. So I stayed to make sense of things. The longer I knew you, the more convinced I became that not only were you innocent, but that I had developed feelings for you. When I said I believed in you, I meant every word. I need you safe, Annie. I need you.”
He’d never looked at anyone so intently in his life. And when her eyes softened, he felt he could breathe again.
“I understand,” she said. “This has been painful for you. You would drop everything to save your brother, to be a hero for your mother. But it doesn’t always work out that way. You have to understand that I feel the same way toward this place. If there’s a chance the authorities or these bookies can find me, I have to leave. I can’t risk it.”
“I’ll help you—”
“By doing what? I’m not willing to run any longer. That leaves me turning myself over to the district attorney.”
“No, it doesn’t. At least, not yet.” He pulled his chair closer to her. “Let me get my attorney on this. He’s a very influential man, and he can help with the D.A. His firm is based in New York, and he’s got the kind of access we need. With the new information I can give him, there’s a chance we can make a difference in the case against the bookies. Can you call Shea and Jesse to come back? I have to go to the hotel and check out, get my things.”
Annie stared at him for a long moment, and he didn’t even try to hide his anxiety, how badly he wanted her to be safe. Without a word, she got up, went to the counter to fix a pot of coffee. After she’d turned the machine on, she said, “They don’t need to come back tonight. And neither do you.”
He went to the counter, needing to say this face-to-face. “I’d feel a lot better if you weren’t here alone while I’m gone. As for me, I know I don’t need to come back. But I’d like to.”
“For all I know, you’re lying about everything. You could come back with a police escort.”
“You don’t believe that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. She stared back without so much as blinking. “I’m not lying. I’m not hiding a thing. Not anymore. Not ever again.”
She continued to study him, but gave him no feedback. The past couple of years had probably taught her how to do that. To push everything down. Trouble was, he’d seen the true Annie, the joy of her, the passion.
Her gaze dropped, as did her shoulders. “I suppose I have to trust someone,” she said.
Tucker wanted to kiss her as badly as he’d ever wanted anything. For now, though, he made do with a simple, “Thank you.”
LESS THAN AN HOUR LATER, Annie explained the situation to Jesse and Shea as Tucker brewed a second pot of coffee. Before they’d arrived, he’d made sandwiches and ensured Annie ate by silently pushing food in front of her until she did something about it.
Despite the seriousness of the conversation and her own disquiet, she couldn’t help but find his actions thoughtful and sweet. Each kind or protective thing he did or said kept tipping her more toward his side. The lie rankled—of course it did—but it wasn’t easy to keep throwing stones from her own glass house.
“I’ll be just outside,” he said. “I need to make a couple of calls.”
“More secrets?” The words were out before she could think, but she was still hurting and she wasn’t sorry she said them.
“No, Annie.” He touched her shoulder, gave it a squeeze. She felt it all the way to her toes. His pull on her was stronger than she knew how to handle. It scared her as much as it comforted. “Want me to call from right here?”
She shook her head sadly. She’d agreed to trust him.
When he closed the door, she turned to her friends. Real friends. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Jesse asked.
“Involving you. If what Tucker believes is true, someone could come looking for me.”
He smiled at her with that slow McAllister grin. “They’d have to get past a whole lot of cowboys first.”
Was it foolish that her heart seemed to swell in her chest? Probably.
“You should listen to Tucker,” Shea said. “Let his attorney advise you.”
“I don’t want to be in his debt. I’ll have no way of repaying him.”
“You think he’d want you to worry about that?”
The way Shea looked at her made Annie pause. When her friend was being truly herself, she hid very little. The question she asked wasn’t nearly as telling as the surprise in her expression. “He’s not Prince Charming, Shea. We barely know each other. Whether he worries about it or not, I pay my debts.”
Shea turned to Jesse, then back to Annie. “If his lawyer didn’t have New York connections, I would have suggested mine. I still might. And I wouldn’t take a penny from you.”
Annie didn’t know what to do with herself. Friends weren’t this overwhelmingly wonderful. Not in her experience. Even before all of this, she’d had girlfriends. She missed her roommate from college, and Annie had been the maid of honor at her high school BFF’s wedding. This was in a different
