Sloan took off down the hall while Razorback stared at the picture of the newlyweds in his hand, gently touching Jackie’s cheek. “Did he hurt you?” He clenched his jaw, his biceps going rigid with the need to defend. He barely even knew this woman, but he already liked her more than he should. She was good, and he didn’t often think anyone was good.
If she’d decided to hide herself in Mexico for years on end, she must have had a damn good reason. But what could possibly be that bad? His gut said the answer had something to do with Selena. She was the missing piece, the open-ended question.
He needed to find out who had fathered the girl. Maybe it would be a dead end, or maybe it was the key. He only hoped he could persuade Jackie to tell him.
10
Jackie put her suitcase on the floor in front of her dresser and sat beside it. She’d always found packing to be overwhelming. Where should she begin?
When her neighbor called this morning and asked if she wanted anything from town, Jackie had jumped at the chance to come along and see for herself if the roads were passable, and they were. There was nothing keeping her here any longer. Getting away from Razorback and the way he made her feel was simply a bonus, plus Selena would enjoy the ride.
Most of the trees had been removed from the road, and with four-wheel drive, they’d been able to navigate freely. Jackie didn’t have a Jeep like her neighbor, but she did have a truck, and felt confident she’d be able to get through.
She transferred clothing from drawers into the suitcase. What about Bill’s things? Could she just leave them behind? There was a limit to what she could bring with her, but emotionally it was beyond difficult to consider walking away without his belongings.
Neither was she looking forward to telling Selena. The idea of leaving the only home the girl had ever known was daunting to say the least—especially when Jackie couldn’t share the real reason they needed to move.
She started a bag for toiletries, then pushed into the hallway, heading for the bathroom closet, and nearly plowed straight into Razorback.
His hands went to her arms. “When did you get back?” He looked beyond her through her open bedroom door. “You’re packing?”
“Shh… don’t let Selena hear you.” She stepped back, waving him into the room and closing the door behind him. “She’s playing in her room. I haven’t told her yet.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. Away from here is a good enough destination at the moment.”
“Running away isn’t going to solve your problem.”
She rolled her eyes. “You don’t know anything about my problem—”
“I know you’re Douglas McGrath’s wife, presumed dead after a car accident eight years ago.”
Time slowed down. She’d lived in fear of discovery for so long, but she still wasn’t prepared for it. “How did you find out?”
“Photo album in the closet.”
Now she gaped. “You went through my things?”
“This morning while you were out. You weren’t being honest with us, and we needed more information to protect you.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
He took a step closer. She took a step back. “We’re on your side, Jackie.”
“Bullshit you are! You didn’t get the answers you wanted from me, so you just helped yourself to anything you could find, prying through my life without permission.”
He took another step closer. “We want to help. Why do you think Bill told you to call us? Because he knew he could trust our team. That we’d be there for you if he couldn’t be.”
She pointed at him. “Don’t you use Bill against me. Don’t you take my grief and throw it in my face to make a point.”
“And don’t you push me away because you honestly believe you have to handle everything yourself. I’m standing right here. Sloan is right downstairs. We are here for you, we can protect you, but we need to know everything.” He wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. “You have to let us understand why someone wants to hurt you. Why did you fake your own death?”
She opened her mouth to speak, her bottom lip trembling. “I didn’t plan it.” He was too close to her, too tall, too powerful. She scooted around him and crossed the room to get some space, reaching for a tissue and beginning to pace. She needed to get her thoughts together.
“We tried for years to get pregnant. Three rounds of in vitro before it finally worked, but at four months I lost the baby.” It was a memory she rarely allowed herself to unbox, the pain of losing a child too intense to describe. “I remember the nurse brought him to me to hold. He was so perfect, my sweet little boy, but his skin was dark. I thought there must have been some mixup at the fertility clinic like you see on TV, so I had them run my DNA and the baby’s to check. He was my son. That’s when Doug accused me of cheating on him.”
She was bawling outright now. “I’ve never told anybody this. I’m sorry.”
