Marrying the Marshal Read online

  “I didn’t say she wasn’t,” Allie said. “Just that some of her ideas are a little…”

  “Insane?” Caleb finished her thought for her.

  “I was going to say unconventional. But I suppose your word works just fine.”

  “What’d she do now?” he asked, washing two tomatoes. “Please tell me she nixed the whole Cirque du Soleil ceremony theme? My ass was aching just thinking about what bizarre contortions I’d have to get into just to kiss my bride.”

  “Funny,” Allie said, bursting into a laugh. “And true, but watch your language.”

  “I hear worse than ass at school, Mom. You should hear the kinds of stuff Billy says out on the playground.”

  “Thanks,” Allie said. “But I think I’ll pass. And you watch your mouth, too.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Hey, Dad?” Cal asked.

  “Yep?”

  “Can we go see Power Force tonight? Billy said this is the last week ’cause his mom has to make room for all the new Christmas movies. His mom owns the movies. Wouldn’t that be awesome? That’d be like better than bein’ president or a millionaire.”

  “Things have been pretty calm around here,” Caleb said. “Sounds okay to me. How ’bout you, Al?”

  “I’d love to go to a movie, but Power Force?”

  “Billy says it’s very educational.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “But after hearing the sampling of foul language he’s already taught you, I don’t put great stock in young Billy’s teaching recommendations.”

  “Cool!” Cal said. “That mean we can go?”

  “WHY DID I LET YOU TWO talk me into that?” Allie said, shaking her head on the drive home. “That last scene. Ugh.” She shuddered.

  “High five, man.” Caleb held out his palm to the back seat. “Sounds like we did a great job disgusting your mom.”

  “Yeah!” Cal said, meeting Caleb’s hand with a solid thwack. “When that alien sliced Laird in half with his turbo sword, I thought he was dead for sure, but then….”

  Allie settled back in her seat with a contented sigh. Though she’d never admit it, the movie had actually been pretty good. Of course, it hadn’t hurt that Laird was hot! Plus, it felt wonderful getting back to normal life. How long had it been since she’d left the house at night without jumping through protocol hoops? Sure, their security detail was both in front and behind her sedan, but at least she was once again back in her own car, Caleb capably at the wheel, safely guiding them through a steady rain.

  Mmm…His hands looked so strong curved around the wheel. They’d looked good doing other tasks, too. Good thing for the dark night covering her naughty, blushing grin!

  How rare was it when life gave you a do-over?

  How rare, and how wonderful. Why, why had she ever been so naive as to for all practical purposes throw Caleb away?

  Rain drummed the roof while the back-and-forth swish of the wiper blades lulled her into a sleepy contentment the likes of which she hadn’t felt since nine years earlier. Back when the most stressful thing on her mind was acing her midterm or making that month’s rent.

  Caleb adjusted the rearview mirror, tightened his grip on the wheel.

  “Dad?” Cal asked. “Can you please turn on the radio?”

  “No can do, bud. Maybe in a little bit.”

  “Aw, man. How come?”

  “Now’s just not a good time, ’kay.”

  “But—”

  “Cal!” Caleb barked with uncharacteristic roughness.

  He was back to looking in the mirror, then increasing their speed.

  “Everything, all right?” Allie asked. “It’s pouring. Shouldn’t you slow down?”

  “Nope.”

  He sped up even more. Dodged his way around two slower cars, then ran a red light.

  “Caleb,” she said with a white-knuckle grip on her door handle. “You’re scaring me.”

  “Sorry,” Caleb said from between gritted teeth, taking the next curve a good forty miles an hour over the suggested speed limit. “We’ve got company. Not sure where Adam’s detail is.” He tried talking into his mic, but got nothing but static. Was his brother out of range? Or worse?

  “Cool!” Cal unbuckled his seat belt and hooked his arms over the front seat. “We being chased?”

  “Not cool,” Caleb said. “And I want both of you to get as far down as possible.”

  “Can I keep off my seat belt?” Cal asked.

  “No!” Caleb and Allie barked together.

  The car behind them—a large truck sporting even larger tires—sped up, coming still closer, revving the loud engine.

  In the side mirror, Allie saw a long-haired man stick his head out of the truck’s window, then his torso. In his arms, he held a rifle. “Oh my God, Caleb. He’s got a gun. H-he’s aiming right at us.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  A second after fire flashed from the gun, a sharp ping sounded near the passenger-side mirror. Another at the trunk.

  “Dammit,” Caleb said, pressing the car still faster.

  Allie couldn’t breathe.

  She seriously couldn’t breathe.

  Before, all of Francis’s threats had seemed somehow distant and removed. Not really aimed at her or Cal. He couldn’t really want to hurt her family. But now, with startling clarity, she saw differently—yes, the man not only wanted to hurt her and her son, but kill them.

  Kill them.

  As in dead.

  A sob caught in her throat as she unfastened her seat belt, then began a frenzied climb into the backseat.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Caleb cried. “Sit your ass down and buckle your safety belt!”

  Cal started to cry. Really wailing. “Mommy said not to cuss. That neither of us is supposed to cuss.”

  Caleb swerved around a semi, then a slow-moving minivan.

  Another shot was fired, this time shattering the rear window.

  “Hellfire, how could I have been so freakin’ stupid?” Caleb mumbled under his breath. “I’m a sitting duck. Got no radio. Got a piece, but how am I supposed to use it while weaving through this freakin’ traffic?”

  “Please God, let us be okay…” Allie chanted. “Please God, let us be okay….”

  Caleb shot a glance in the rearview at Allie, who was white-faced and terrified, crouched in her seat, facing Cal, gripping his hand.

  “We’re all going to be fine,” Caleb said to them both. “Hear that? Every damned one of us is going to be just fine. I’m going to make things right.”

  “Shut up!” Allie screeched through a teary, snot-filled, crazed laugh. “You said that once before. That you’d make things right, but—”

  The shooter struck again, hitting the passenger-side back window.

  “Cal,” Caleb said. “Staying as low as possible, I want you to climb into the front. Allie, you, too.”

  Thankfully, they both did as they were told.

  “We’re going to get through this,” Caleb said, sorry as hell for his earlier brusque tone. But it wasn’t every day he had his wife-to-be and kid in a bind like this. “Trust me. We’re going to be great.”

  Eyeing the town’s state police headquarters, Caleb veered through two lanes of on-coming traffic to shoot for the lot. Guns blazing, Francis’s dumb kin followed.

  Fortunately, state cops weren’t so different from other law enforcement types, in that they didn’t take kindly to having their house and cars shot up.

  In under a minute, Caleb doubled back to the relative safety of the station to off-load precious cargo before resuming the chase—only this time, he’d be the one doing the shooting.

  No one fired on his family and lived to tell about it.

  No one.

  “Y-you’re just going to leave us here?” Allie cried, clutching Cal.

  “Yes!” Caleb shouted. “You’ll be safe! Get inside!” Already, someone in uniform hustled out to usher Allie and Cal into the station.

  The second Caleb saw they were in good hand
s, he shouted “Love you!” out the car window, then took off in hot pursuit—not only to find the shooter, but Bear and his brother.

  If they were hurt….

  Teeth clenched, all Caleb could think was that they’d better not be hurt. Or anyone who’d ever even spoken to Francis was going down—hard.

  WAITING FOR CALEB, Allie paced, gnawed her nails. Cried. Paced some more. Above all, she couldn’t help but compare this night with another. The awful night her father had been gunned down in the line of duty.

  Closing her eyes, Allie went back roughly twenty years in time to the top of the stairs from where she’d watched the scene unfold.

  With her father already an eternity late getting home from his shift, Allie’s mom had sat ramrod straight, knitting at a furious pace.

  Her mother knit a lot, the speed indicating her mood. When she was content, her pace was leisurely. When sad, she slowed and made mistakes. And when she was mad, she worked even slower and made more mistakes, peppered with occasional grunts and cursing. Only one other time had Allie seen her mother knit as she was tonight—fast, with her rows perfectly straight—and that had been when Grandpa Ralph had been in the hospital having heart surgery. She’d been worried sick about him, as Allie presumed her mom was tonight about her father.

  Allie’s heart had seemed to beat in time with the needles’ faint, harried clicks.

  And then, at one-seventeen according to the grandfather clock in the hall, the doorbell rang.

  Allie had jumped, but her mother, almost as if she’d been expecting the ding-dong, calmly set her needles and half-finished pink and blue afghan intended for Gladys Ulmstead’s new grandbaby on the sofa beside her, smoothed her hair, took a deep breath, then answered the door.

  Allie wasn’t sure if her mother had sensed her at the top of the stairs, or if she’d made a noise, giving herself away. Regardless, her mother, lips pressed tight, had given her a funny half-smile, then walked outside, closing the door behind her.

  Cold January air floated to Allie’s hideout.

  Allie had wanted so badly to run down the stairs and fly out the door, but she’d been frozen—not by temperature, but fear. And so she’d waited, until one of her father’s friends, Officer Manny, had helped her mother back inside. Her usually strong mother had walked all hunched over, as if someone had socked her in the stomach. Another policeman Allie hadn’t recognized followed her mom and Manny inside.

  His expression grim, this stranger glanced at her, then shook his head before vanishing into the living room.

  Again, Allie wanted to move, to demand her mother—anyone—tell her what was going on. Why these men were at her house in the middle of the night. But inside, she knew. She’d seen enough cop shows to know nothing good happened this late.

  And so she’d pushed herself to her feet, and somehow gotten down the hall to the bathroom where she’d thrown up—twice—then sat on the cold tile floor in front of the toilet, leaning against the porcelain tub hugging her knees.

  Daddy. Please, Daddy, come home.

  Maybe he was just sick, and these men had come to take her and her mother to the hospital? But if that were the case, wouldn’t they be rushing to see him?

  No, she knew.

  He was dead and never coming home.

  Back in the present, the back door slammed shut.

  Heart pounding, Allie’s mouth went dry. Was Caleb home, or were strangers coming to tell her….

  Though when she saw her dear Caleb, her insides turned quivery with relief and tears stung her eyes, she somehow managed to keep from leaping from the sofa and throwing her arms around him.

  “You’re back,” Allie said to Caleb, never looking up from the living room fire. Outside, cold rain still fell.

  Inside, it was raining, too.

  It might sound corny, but when a girl cried as much as she had over the past few hours, surely it counted as its own storm!

  “Cal all right?” he asked.

  Swallowing hard, she nodded. “I let him sleep in my bed. Had to lay down with him for him to even try to sleep. He was worried about you.” So was I. “How are Adam and Bear and the rest of the crew?”

  “All good. Had their tires shot out. Guess because of the rain, we didn’t hear.”

  “Yeah. Well, anyway, I guess you did a good job of driving.”

  “Thanks,” he said, shrugging off his leather jacket, stepping into the fire’s glow. He held out his hands to warm them, but the flickering flames were more about atmosphere than heat. “First thing after the wedding,” he said, “I’m going to make this sucker into a real, wood-burning fireplace. It rains too much around here not to have a good spot to come home and warm yourself.”

  Allie started to cry again. She didn’t want to, but couldn’t help it, anymore than she could help what she now had to do.

  Caleb went to her, fell to his knees to cradle her face in his hands. “What’s wrong? You said Cal’s all right, so does that mean something’s off with you? You’re not physically hurt, are you? Just a little shook up?”

  A little shook up? They all could’ve died! Tonight made the horror she’d gone through over her dad look like a cake walk.

  She nodded.

  “Sweetie,” he said. “Sure, we had a little excitement, but—”

  “Caleb, we were almost killed! People were shooting at us!”

  He calmly reached for the box of tissue on the sofa’s side table, held one to her nose, then said, “Blow.”

  She did.

  “Better?”

  She nodded, then shook her head. “I—I love you, but we can’t get married. It’d never work.”

  “What?” He eased her back, smoothing stray hairs from her forehead. “You’re clearly upset about tonight, but—”

  “What did you do after you dropped us off?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s three a.m.,” she said. “The movie was over at nine-thirty. Where have you been?”

  He looked down.

  “This is why I left you nine years ago, Caleb. Because of future nights like this. Only for Cal and I, hopefully tonight is the last we’ll ever see of a world this out of control. For you, though,” she laughed, “for you, this is ordinary. You actually enjoy it.”

  He froze. “You think I actually liked having my wife and kid getting shot at?”

  “Of course not. You know what I mean. And I’m not your wife, Caleb. After tonight, I know I’m never meant to be your wife. My heart couldn’t take it. As much as I love you,” she said, crying all over again, “your job is just too dangerous.”

  “Oh, sweetie…” He pulled her back into his arms, smoothing her hair. Kissing her forehead, cheeks, nose and finally her lips. Just as seconds earlier she’d been drowning in tears, she was now drowning in love. In a kiss so savage sweet she couldn’t breathe or think—just feel.

  Heart pounding, she couldn’t even imagine life without Caleb in it. But she also couldn’t fathom a life strung with an endless succession of gun fights and wild chases. Never knowing if it’d be Caleb who came home, or some random marshal or police officers standing on the front porch, hats in hand, telling her, like they’d no doubt told her mother, they were sorry.

  “It ever occur to you,” Caleb said when they came up for air, “that at the moment, your job is the dangerous one? I mean, if it hadn’t been for you and Cal’s lives being threatened, I’d have never even come to Calumet City.” Tenderly brushing her tears with the pads of his thumbs, he drew her to her feet, hugging her until she couldn’t tell where she left off and he began.

  Making a family with Caleb was all she’d ever wanted. But what was the point of making that family if all they ever had was tonight?

  What would she tell Cal about why his daddy wasn’t coming home? She knew from experience losing a dad was a hellish kind of pain. One she never wanted to see her son go through.

  “I—I love you,” she said, “but I can’t marry you. It…” She looked down, toyed
with a button on his denim shirt. It was the one she’d sewn for him. “It would just be too hard. I’m not strong enough.”

  Allie knew the moment she’d well and truly lost the only man she’d ever love.

  Beneath her fingertips, his once warm, welcoming muscles turned to cold, unyielding stone.

  He sighed. Clenched his jaw before looking at the pathetic fire, then back to her. “I’ve worked my ass off for you. I’ve brought you gifts. Tried working around the house. Made love to you till I thought I’d die if I didn’t let go. But I held on, Allie. I held on for you. Because I always—always, put your needs—Cal’s—before my own. You seemed skittish about the whole marriage thing. So, okay, fine. I took it slow. You were worried my family wouldn’t like you. So okay, fine. I called in the cavalry so that even they bent over backward trying to please you. But know what I’ve only just now come to realize?”

  Holding in new tears, she shook her head.

  “With the benefit of hindsight, I see there is no such thing as pleasing you. The two of us could’ve been beyond great. We had it all. Only just like last time, you’re throwing it away.”

  “That’s not true,” she sobbed. “You’re twisting my words. I—”

  “Save it,” he said. “I’ve got a long night ahead of me to make it to Portland by morning.”

  “You can’t leave. Not tonight. It’s raining. It might be—”

  “Dangerous?” He laughed. “I’d rather deal with rain any day than the likes of you. Tell Cal I love him, and will see him soon. Oh, and make no mistake, whether you want me in his life or not, I’m there. For good.”

  “DAMN.” Caleb’s brother Beau whistled. He sat in front of Caleb’s Portland office desk while they went over the last of the history Beau needed to be caught up to speed on concerning Allie and Cal’s security status. He would now be the lead man on their team. “Sounds like your Allie’s one messed up broad.”

  “Don’t call her messed up,” Caleb bristled. “And she’s not a broad, but the mother of my child.”

  “Still have a thing for her, huh?”

  More like a blow torch. “No. I wouldn’t care if I never saw her again.”