Page 84 of Entranced
“I’m aware of all that.”
“Oh, well, I wasn’t sure.” She stuck her hands in her pockets. “It’s going to take some time to locate all the children, and get them back where they belong, but … It worked, damn it,” she blurted out. “I don’t know what the hell you’re so bent out of shape about.”
His voice was deceptively mild. “Don’t you?”
“I did what I thought was best.” She kicked at the ground, then strode over to the fence. “They’d already made plans to snatch another kid. It was right in the book.”
“The book you went in and found. On your own.”
“If I’d told you what I was going to do, you’d have tried to stop me.”
“Wrong. I would have stopped you.”
She frowned back at him. “See? By doing it my way, we saved a lot of heartache.”
“And risked more.” The anger he’d been struggling to hold back flared. “There was a bruise on your cheek.”
“A qualified job risk,” she shot back. “And it’s my cheek.”
“Good God, Sutherland. She had a gun on you.”
“Only for a minute. Hell, Donovan, the day I can’t handle a sap like Linda Glass is the day I retire. I’m telling you I just couldn’t take the idea of them snatching another baby, so I went with the gut.” Her eyes were so eloquent, some of his anger died. “I know what I’m doing, and I also know it seems like I was cutting you out. But I wasn’t. I called you.”
He took a calming breath, but it failed to work. “And if I’d been too late?”
“Well, you weren’t, so what’s the point?”
“The point is, you didn’t trust me.”
“The hell I didn’t. Who else was I trusting when I stood in that closet and tried to use the ring or whatever connection we had to get you and the feds up there? If I hadn’t trusted you, I would’ve slipped right out the doorwith the book.” She grabbed at his shirt and shook him. “It was because I trusted you that I played it out that way. Staying there, letting them catch me—because I knew I could trust you to back me up. I tried to explain it all to you before. I knew they’d tell me things Devereaux could use, and with the book as a backup, we’d have them cold.”
Steadying himself, he turned away. As angry as he was, he saw the truth in that. Perhaps it wasn’t the kind of trust he’d wanted, but it was trust. “You could have been hurt.”
“Sure. I could be hurt every time I take a case. That’s what I do. That’s what I am.” She swallowed, struggling to clear an obstruction in her throat. “I had to accept you, and what you are. And believe me, it was no snap. If we’re going to be … friends, the same goes.”
“You may have a point. But I still don’t like your style.”
“Fine,” she snapped back, blinking her vision clear. “Same goes.”
At the kitchen window, Camilla shook her head. “He always was stubborn.”
“Ten pounds she wears him down.” Padrick pinched his wife’s bottom affectionately. “Ten pounds and no tricks.”
Ana shushed him. “We won’t be able to hear.”
Mel let out a shaky breath. “Well, we know where we stand anyway. And I’m sorry.”
“Excuse me?” He turned and was astonished by the tears he saw on her face. “Mary Ellen—”
“Don’t. I’m going to get this out.” She wiped furiously at the tears. “I have to do what I think is right. And I still think what I did was right, but I’m sorry you’re so angry with me, because I … Oh, I hate this.” She scrubbed her hands over her face, evading him when he reached for her. “Don’t. I don’t want you to. I don’t need to be patted or soothed, even if I am acting like a baby. You were mad, and I guess I can’t blame you for it, or for dropping me cold.”
“Dropping you cold?” He nearly laughed. “I left you alone, and well out of harm’s way, until I could be certain I could restrain myself from throttling you or present you with an ultimatum you might have tossed back in my face.”
“Whatever.” She sniffed and regained some control. “I guess what I did hurt you, and I didn’t mean it to.”
He smiled a little. “Same goes.”
“Okay.” There had to be some way to finish this with a little dignity intact. “Anyway, I wanted to clear the air, and to tell you I think we did a good job. Now that it’s done, I figured I’d better return this.” It was hard, one of the hardest things she’d ever done, to pull his ring from her finger. “Looks like the Ryans are getting a divorce.”
