“I should have gotten help for us. I should have-” She ended on a little noise of frustration, just as she always did when she thought about the past, about the mistakes she’d made. “I should have done something.”
“You did. You took care of your brothers and sisters when nobody else did.”
“I didn’t protect them from the one thing I should have,” she whispered. “I didn’t protect them from her.”
Sam took her hand in his, squeezing her fingers gently. “Whenever someone you love dies unexpectedly, you wonder what you could have done differently.”
She shook her head, frustrated. “It’s not the same-”
“Isn’t it? My sister-in-law died eight years ago. Murdered. J.D. was in the navy at the time, away at sea. I know he wonders if being here instead would have changed things. My brother Gabe was late going to check on her when she called him with car trouble. He got there a few minutes after she was killed, just in time to find her body. He’s still working through his guilt about that.”
“They didn’t know someone was going to kill her. But I knew my mother was insane.”
“Insanity and murder are two different things, Kristen.” He cupped her chin, his touch gentle but firm. “Your mother didn’t abuse you physically, did she?”
She shook her head. Until the day she snapped, Molly Tandy’s crimes against her children had been emotional rather than physical.
“Then how could you have known?”
“I just should have.” She pulled away from his touch, not ready to be comforted. She’d spent too many years going over and over that day in her mind to be easily mollified by Sam’s reasonable words. She stood up, rubbing her tired eyes. “It’s late, Sam, and we’ve had a long day. Can’t we table this for later?”
Sam looked inclined to argue, but she didn’t give him a chance, heading down the hall toward the bedroom before he could speak. She closed herself inside the darkened room, pressing her ear to the door until she heard Sam’s footsteps in the hall.
For a moment, the urge to fling the door open and invite him inside for the night was so tempting that she dropped her hand to the doorknob, making it rattle softly. Outside, Sam’s footsteps halted, and she wondered if he’d heard the noise.
She heard the faintest sound, as if Sam had placed his hand on the other side of the door. She leaned her head closer and imagined she could hear him breathing.
Was he leaning against the door the way she was? Did he want to come in as much as she wanted him to?
After a moment, she heard his footsteps move down the hall. His door opened and closed, and she slumped against the door, releasing a pent-up breath.
The one thing she couldn’t afford was false hope for a life forever out of her grasp. Hot, sweaty sex with Sam Cooper might take her mind off her problems for a couple of hours, but nothing-and no one-could make her past disappear for good. Not even Sam and his beautiful little daughter.
The sooner she brought this case to an end, the better.
Chapter Fourteen
Kristen was dressed and on the phone when Sam walked into the guesthouse living room around 6:00 a.m. the next morning. She waved at the coffeepot on the counter and continued her conversation. “No, I agree. The evidence is pretty solid.”
Sam poured a cup of coffee and leaned against the breakfast bar, taking advantage of a rare opportunity to watch Kristen without her paying attention. Though it was early Saturday morning, she was already dressed for work in a pair of charcoal trousers and a pale blue tailored blouse that did nothing to hide her sleek curves. As she turned to reach for a bowl in the cabinet by the sink, he caught sight of her waistband holster with her Ruger tucked inside.
The combination of feminine beauty and deadly firepower was unspeakably sexy, he thought with a grin.
Kristen tossed a glance over her shoulder, gesturing to the bowls in the cabinet. He nodded, and she pulled another one down for him.
“I’ll be in the office around seven-thirty. See you then.” Kristen closed her phone and dropped it in her trousers pocket.
“Foley?” Sam asked.
She nodded, handing him one of the bowls. “We’re going to hand Darryl Morris over to the Birmingham Police this morning. A detective should be here around eight to transport him back to the city.”
“Then I guess that means Maddy can go back to preschool Monday morning,” he said, his relief palpable.
Kristen’s brow furrowed. “I suppose that would be okay.”
Her frown gave him an uneasy feeling. “You’re not having doubts about Darryl Morris’s guilt, are you?”
“No. He took the photos. He delivered them to your office. He’s admitted that.”
“And what about the man he claims paid him to do it?”
“There’s no evidence such a man even exists,” she answered firmly. “Morris has a grudge against you, and the things he’s admitted to are pretty damning.”
She was right. He knew she was. He was just leery about taking any chances with Maddy’s safety.
But they had to start living a normal life again sooner or later. Putting Maddy back into preschool was a good first step. She’d be happy to see her friends again, he knew; she talked about them all the time.
He opened the cabinet under the cutlery drawer and peered at the cereal choices. His mother had stocked the pantry with entirely too many sugary choices, but he supposed that’s what grandparents did with their grandchildren. In the back, he found a box of toasted wheat flakes. Reasonably nutritious.
He poured himself a bowl and flashed a questioning look at Kristen. She nodded and he poured a bowl for her, as well, before getting the milk out of the refrigerator.
“So now that you’re about to go off bodyguard duty, what comes next for you?” he asked.
He heard a slight hesitation before she answered. “Foley will be continuing with follow-up on this case. He’ll want to keep trying to tie Morris to the attack on Cissy. Maybe when she wakes up, she’ll have more information.”
“Foley? What about you?”
Kristen looked away, licking her lips. “Actually, I’m thinking about asking Carl to assign me to a different case.”
A hot ache settled in the pit of Sam’s gut. Even though he’d known she’d be going back to her own place sooner rather than later, he hadn’t realized she was thinking about handing over the investigation to someone else.
“Why?” he asked.
She darted a quick look at him. “It’s time to move on.”
He didn’t miss her meaning. “From Maddy and me, you mean.”
A queasy expression darted across her face. “Don’t you think that’s for the best?”
“This is about the kiss, isn’t it?”
She slanted another look at him. “You’re fixated on the kiss, Sam. It was nothing. Hormones and stress.”
“What about the rest of it?”
She pushed aside her untouched bowl of cereal with a growl of frustration. “The rest of what? What exactly do you think has been going on between us? We’ve known each other-what? Three days?”
“Sometimes that’s all it takes,” he said quietly, realizing how crazy he sounded. Why was he even arguing with her about this? Hadn’t he already proved his judgment about women was pretty damned suspect? He’d been certain he and Norah were meant to be together, and look how well that had turned out.
“People like me don’t get happily ever afters,” Kristen said just as quietly, pain darkening her blue eyes.
It wasn’t the response he’d expected. He’d figured she’d stick with how short a time they’d been acquainted, maybe toss in the fact that high-stress situations sometimes magnified emotions that wouldn’t otherwise make a blip on a person’s radar. They were good, sound arguments.
But she’d gone straight to the heart of the problem. She didn’t believe they had a chance together because of
