Leah Braemel - Deliberate Deceptions

“We’re guessing that he saw the article in the Post on the weekend and that made him want to check up on you.”

“From there,” Sam picked up where Rosie left off, “we’re not sure if it was seeing you two together again that set him off. Or if he’d planned to go after Chad all along.”

Lauren suppressed a smile. The duo were completing each other’s sentences as if they’d been married for years.

“Almost forgot. Hey, Rosebud, you got those photocopies?”

Rosie reached into a voluminous purse and pulled out a manila file folder. “The police found these when they went through Tom’s apartment. I got Andy to use his connections to make some copies since they have to keep the originals as evidence.”

Lauren took the folder and handed it to Chad who placed it on his lap and opened it. Her breath caught in her throat when she recognized her own handwriting. “My letters.”

After a glance at her, Sam nodded and returned his attention to Chad. “Looks like Tom had been going through your mail for years.”

“I’d asked him to pick it up for me whenever I was travelling. I had no idea he’d been holding things back.”

The room was silent except for the sound of rustling paper as Chad flipped through the letters. He stopped at the final one, written two years after she’d left. The one pleading with him to phone her, to give her some sign that he’d give her another chance.

He stared up at her, his heart in his eyes. “I’m sorry, babe. I would have replied if I’d known.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” She covered his hand with hers and squeezed it. “But we’ve got a second chance now.”

Sam stood, holding a hand out to help Rosie to her feet. “Well, Rosebud, I think that’s our cue to leave these two alone.”

Leaving Chad to rest on the couch, Lauren showed them to the front door. “Sam, I owe you an apology. I know I blamed you for Jill’s death all these years. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

He quirked his eyebrows up. “I know. I’d say we both owe each other some apologies. I’ve been blaming you for walkin’ out on Chad. I had no idea why you’d gone or what you were going through. If I’d known…” He nodded. “Yeah, we both had our demons to fight, didn’t we?”

“So…are we friends again?”

“Yup.” He grinned. “I heard you quit your other job. If you ever feel the itch to get back in the field, I know a good firm that’s lookin’ for people with your background.”

“I may just take you up on that offer.” Once she’d figured out the rest of her life.

“You do that.” His grin faded and his gaze drifted to the room behind her. “It damned near killed him when you left. He stopped going home, started sleeping in the office for months at a time. I was afraid I was going to come in one day and find he’d eaten his gun.”

“I didn’t know. I thought…I got some bad intel and thought he’d remarried within a year.”

“Mmm. Now I wonder where you heard that?” One dark eyebrow arched up, but when she didn’t answer, Sam sighed. “Don’t leave him again without telling him exactly why, you hear? Don’t disappear the way you did last time. Or I’ll come after you.”

Without waiting for a reply, he headed for his car. Lauren stood in the doorway, until the Jag disappeared from sight.

Once she’d shut the door and rearmed the security system, Lauren returned to find Chad with his head against the back of the couch, his eyes closed. “You should go upstairs and have a nap.”

He roused and smiled at her. The look he gave her was all heat. “You coming up with me?”

“Men! Even hurt and exhausted, all you can think about is sex.” She folded her arms over her chest and tried not to smile. And failed.

“The problem with that is…?”

“As tempting as your offer is, if I lie down with you, you’ll do anything but nap.” She helped him to his feet and followed him upstairs.

Once they got to the bedroom, he started to undo his shirt left-handed. “Damn it, I’m all thumbs.”

“Here, let me.” She flicked open the buttons of his shirt, loving the familiarity of the task. Her smile dimmed when she caught sight of the bandage over his shoulder. It was smaller than the one the doctors had originally placed there, but it still looked obscene.

Chad rested his forehead on hers. “Hey, it’ll heal, babe. I’ll be fine.”

“I could have lost you again,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have left my gun out in plain sight. I should have locked it up so he couldn’t get it.”

“And I should have remembered to re-arm the security system so we would have had a warning. Hell, I should have locked the front door, but I had other things on my mind and I let myself get distracted.” He stroked his thumb over her nipple until it beaded. “Stop blaming yourself. It’s over. Harris is dead, and Tom’s not a threat anymore either. We’ve got a second chance, babe. Let’s not waste it.”

“You’re right,” she decided.

“Of course I am. Now why don’t you get undressed and join me? I’ll let you be on top.”

She had to laugh at the exaggerated leer he gave her. “You’re incorrigible. All right, I’ll lie down with you, but we’re not going to do anything more than sleep.”

She hovered over him while he took his pain pills and lay on the bed with him. Within five minutes, he was asleep and she found herself staring at the ceiling. Two weeks ago she’d only dreamt that she’d be lying here beside Chad again, and now her dreams had come true.

Yet there were still so many things unsettled between them.

Chad rolled over, his arm instinctively seeking Lauren only to find…nothing. “Lauren?”

Had it all been a dream? He opened his eyes. The dent her head had left in the pillow was still there, the side of her bed messed. No, it hadn’t been a dream. So why wasn’t she still here?

Maybe she’d gone to the bathroom? Nope, the door was open and the light off. Where the hell had she gone?

His heart clogging his throat, he jogged downstairs, half afraid he’d find her bags missing. He pulled up short when he heard her talking in the kitchen.

“I meant what I said, Coop. I’m not coming back. I’m through with the Brigade.”

Cooper was here? What the hell else did that bastard want? He’d already visited Chad at the hospital and threatened him until he’d signed a secrecy agreement similar to the one that bound Lauren.

“No, I haven’t and I’m not going to either.” There was a pause which told him that Cooper wasn’t there in person, Lauren was talking to him on the phone. “No, you can’t talk to him. He’s sleeping…No, I am not waking him up so you can talk to him. He just got out of the hospital, damn it.”

He was half-tempted to go into the kitchen and tell Cooper to go stuff himself, but he enjoyed hearing Lauren defend him. Other than Sam, he’d had precious few people in his corner. Besides, if he showed her he was awake, she’d probably insist on making him lunch-dinner, he revised having a glance at the chiming clock on the wall. He’d slept longer than he thought. While he was hungry, he preferred for her to come upstairs to wake him so he could make a meal of her.

He headed back to the stairs then saw the file folder containing the photocopies of Lauren’s letters. Maybe he should read them before they made any long term decisions. He tucked the folder under his arm and headed back to the bedroom. Once he was stretched out on the bed, he steeled himself and opened the folder. From the looks of it, Sam had arranged the letters by the date they’d been sent.

April 26, 2002

Dear Chad,

I know you don’t understand why I left without talking to you, but I was afraid of what I might do if I didn’t get help right away. I’ve tried to be strong for you, but I just couldn’t get my head clear. I’ve checked myself into a private hospital under an assumed name so the reporters can’t attack you because of me…