Walker Defense Read online

  "Where?" Gerald asked.

  "A bus stop in Athens. They're getting more information now. She doesn't seem harmed, only scared. We'll see what comes to light when she gives her statement. Her parents are headed to Athens now."

  Gerald took a moment to take in the news. "I'm glad she was found. Do you still need my statement?"

  Phillip nodded. "Yeah. We don't have the guy in the truck yet."

  "Okay, I'm ready."

  Phillip turned and walked down the hall, and Gerald and Ella followed.

  The emotions that stirred in him had him sick. There was worry, anger, and joy that she'd been found. It was too much for a man who liked his solitude and his country surroundings.

  Ella walked beside him, her small five-foot-two shadowed by his six-foot-two, yet he feared her as much as he loved her. And that revelation shook him even more.

  As if she'd known what he was thinking, she looked up at him, her eyes dry now but red. She gave him a soft smile, and slid her hand into his, squeezing it.

  Things were different again. Where could this possibly lead?

  Chapter 12

  The afternoon dragged on as Phillip asked Gerald questions about his whereabouts when Abby McCarrey had been abducted. He also added to the video that he was with Gerald when he'd received the phone call and that he'd been given permission to go into Gerald's house.

  Ella had seen Gerald's face turn red when Phillip added that bit of information, but he didn't argue it. Under the surface, they were friends, and this would pan out, Ella thought as she took her notes.

  When they'd been released, she thought Gerald looked as though he'd been through an emotional ringer, and why? Because he had a beat-up red pickup? Or because he'd slept on Lydia's couch?

  Either way, he'd done the right thing, and maybe any harassment of him would stop.

  As they walked out to the parking lot, she remembered he'd abruptly picked her up at her office. But looking at him, she didn't think he should be left alone just yet.

  "Could I interest you in an early dinner?"

  Gerald scrubbed his hand over his face as he pulled open her door. "I need to get these tires to my Dad. This trip wasn't supposed to take all day."

  Slowly she nodded as she climbed into the truck and he shut the door.

  When they were on the road, she turned in her seat. "You're sure the tires can't wait? There's a new German place in town I've been dying to try."

  A smile formed on his lips, but he shook his head. "Nah. I'm just not up for crowds."

  She couldn't blame him. In one day he'd been targeted and accused—and she'd done some of the accusing. But deep in her heart, she'd known he'd never done anything wrong—and she knew nothing had happened with Lydia too.

  She might have left the man and broken his heart, but she'd never stopped caring for him. People made mistakes, and she'd made a doozy. So, the fact that he wanted his peace and quiet, which was always his way, she respected that.

  Gerald pulled up next to her car in the lot, which was mostly empty now.

  "Thanks for being there for me," he said looking out the front window. "I didn't know if I could keep my cool with Phillip or not."

  "I'm glad you trusted me enough to take me. And you're sure about dinner?" she asked again.

  He nodded. "I'm sure."

  She wanted to lean over and kiss him, but she refrained. "I'll talk to you soon," she said, and Gerald smiled as she exited the truck.

  Once she had climbed into her car and driven away, then Gerald drove the other direction. A gentleman, she thought. He'd never leave until she was safe. A man like that wouldn't hurt a child. A man like that wouldn't hurt anyone.

  A man like that would take a drunk friend home and sleep on the couch she told herself as she drove to the pizzeria down the street from the Bridal Mecca.

  He might not have wanted to be in public with her, but Ella wasn't done spending time with Gerald yet.

  She went inside and ordered a double pepperoni pizza and then went down the street for his favorite beer. The pizza would be cold long before she made the drive out to his house, but it would be worth it.

  Gerald figured the next thing that would happen to him would be a speeding ticket because he couldn't get home fast enough.

  He'd taken the tires to the barn out by Eric's house and texted his father that they were there. The quicker he could get in and out of places the better. That rundown trailer was a sight for sore eyes.

  There were fresh tracks in the dirt he noticed as he'd pulled up. No doubt Phillip had someone out there snooping around while Gerald was in town. No need to get worked up over it, he thought as he put the truck in park and killed the engine. They'd found Abby McCarrey, and they'd done so by looking. At least by searching around, they knew he was on the up and up.

  As he climbed from his truck, he heard the sound of tires on gravel coming up the road. That anger that had been boiling in him all day rose to his chest. If Phillip had sent one of his brothers out to talk to him, he'd punch whichever one showed up. He wasn't in the mood for people.

  Gerald stepped to the back of his truck and watched as the familiar BMW wound around the corner and into sight. He certainly hadn't expected that.

  Ella parked next to his truck and stepped out of her car. "You got set up on your part of the land, huh?"

  "How did you know where this was?"

  Ella smiled. "I didn't. I stopped by the main house, and your mother told me. She said I could come right out. I brought pizza and beer, but the pizza might need a warm up."

  "I thought I said I didn't want to go to dinner."

  "We're not. We're having dinner here," she offered, but her smile twitched now. "I thought you looked like you might need company after today."

  "Maybe I needed to be alone."

  Her eyes went sad, but the smile remained. "Okay. Well, here," she said as she leaned into the car and took out the pizza box and the beer. "You might as well enjoy these."

  He couldn't stand to see her standing there like that. Something had to be done.

  Gerald moved to her, and she backed against the car. Her eyes had gone wide, and perhaps he'd startled her a bit.

  "What are you really doing out here?"

  Ella swallowed hard and shifted a glance between the pizza box and the beer. "I just thought you could use some dinner."

  Gerald moved in even closer, resting his hand on the top of the car over her shoulder and pinning her there with the proximity of his body.

  "What are you doing here?"

  "Gerald, step back."

  "Ella…" He could see her mouth tremble now. "Why did you come out here?"

  She hesitated for a moment, collecting her thoughts, he assumed. With a flush coloring her cheeks, she lifted her eyes to meet his. "To be with you."

  "You don't like me," he teased as he kept his eyes on hers. "Tell me why you're here."

  "You're being an ass."

  "Always. Tell me."

  "Gerald, I'll go. Just…"

  He took one more step closer, closing the distance completely. "Tell me."

  "I want to be with you," she said, and her voice was airy and sexy, and it hit him in the chest.

  He took the pizza and beer from her hands and turned. He walked toward the trailer and smiled when he heard her car door slam.

  "Seriously? That's how you're doing this? You are an ass."

  "I didn't say I wasn't," he called back over his shoulder and caught sight of her running to him, her hands balled into fists.

  He turned in time to put the pizza and beer on the hood of his truck, just as she came at him with all that fury.

  He caught her hand before it hit, and then the other. Directing her around, he had her back against his truck, and he dove in to take her mouth with his because he couldn't stand not to one second longer.

  Chapter 13

  Ella managed a breath before his mouth came back down on hers and Gerald's tongue slipped through to dance with her o
wn.

  With her hands still fisted against his chest, and her body rigid beneath his.

  When Gerald's fingers moved into her hair, just as they had once before—a long time ago—her body eased, and her fists opened and gripped hold of his shirt.

  She pulled him even closer, forcing him to deepen the kiss that had already sucked her in.

  Was this what she'd wanted? Was this the reason she'd driven out there uninvited?

  She'd missed him—every part of him. Regret for what she'd done to him sunk into her belly. This could have been hers the whole time. She could have been his, but she'd given that up—and why? What had made his offer to marry her seem so unimportant?

  Ella pushed back and took a breath.

  "I'm sorry."

  Gerald's breath was thick on her cheek. "Sorry? God, for what?"

  Ella moved out from under him and paced a small circle. "How can you ever forgive me enough to welcome me into your home—or your life?" She pressed her fingers to her temples. "Why don't you hate me?"

  Gerald's mouth had dropped open as he stared at her. "I've never hated you."

  "But why? You should have thrown me off your land by now, but you didn't. I came back to town single—which meant everything I did failed, but you didn't treat me unkindly. None of you did. Instead, when your family needed help, you came to me."

  "I'm not getting what you're trying to say. Do you want me to hate you?"

  "It would make more sense than you kissing me."

  Gerald rubbed his fingers over his chin and leaned up against his truck. "We were kissing, right? I mean you were part of that, right?"

  "Don't make fun of me."

  "I'm not," he snorted as he moved from the truck and walked toward her. "I wasn't brought up to hate. You know that. I was brought up to forgive and move on. I forgave you for dumping my ass a long time ago. I moved on. You moved back."

  "And now we're kissing. Where does that lead?"

  "I don't know, Ella. All I know is that when my family needed you, you were there. When I busted into your office and said follow me, you did. You didn't know what I needed, but you were there to help. And here you are, pizza and beer in hand. It looks like we’ve put our differences aside, doesn't it?"

  "I hate me," she admitted. "I hate what I did to you."

  "Hating what you did to me, and hating yourself are two different things."

  God, why did he always make sense? Was that a Walker thing? They were born with insightfulness, she decided.

  "You're right. I hate what I did."

  "Then don't do it again," he finished before he swiftly moved to her and scooped her legs out from under her, carrying her up the stairs and into his trailer.

  No, she thought as he kicked open the door, she would never do it again.

  The television flickered light against the walls of the trailer in the dark where Ella rested against him, wrapped only in a blanket and eating a reheated piece of pizza. How had the day come to her in his arms, naked, and utterly content with being there? Had they fallen back into what they'd lost years ago? Or were they both so desperate to feel something that they were using each other? It killed him that he didn't have an answer for that. He wasn't sure of his feelings, how could he even pretend to guess hers.

  "Are you going to live in this trailer forever?" she pondered as she put her plate on the folding table next to the couch.

  Gerald shrugged. "It was a good buy for now. Ben had one of those prefabricated houses put up on his land, and I'm considering that too. Eric built his house after it burned down."

  "I heard about that fire. About all of it—the crazy cop and how he was obsessed with Bethany. How traumatic."

  She'd heard. She hadn't reached out, but she kept her ear to the ground.

  "That's all behind us. It's been a crazy few years. I suppose that's why I like the trailer. It's just simple and peaceful. It doesn't make any flashy statement. It just sits out here and waits for me to sleep."

  Ella moved against him, her hand coming to his bare chest. "And I'm the first girl you've had here?"

  This was the start of a slippery slope, and he knew it. She was fishing for answers in her lawyerly way.

  "I've had exactly two visitors who weren't family," he began and thought about the tracks he'd seen when he arrived. Perhaps he'd had more visitors—uninvited. "You and Phillip. And though Phillip took a moment to come inside and look around, I can't say he was invited."

  "I wasn't invited either."

  "Well, let's just say there is an open door policy for you," he offered as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'd like to see you in my house a whole lot more."

  "I'd like that."

  "Would you?"

  Ella shifted so that she was eye to eye with him. "I never stopped feeling for you. I think it made everything harder."

  He'd felt the same, but he thought he'd hold on to that information just a bit longer.

  Ella tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "I wanted to call you a million times before I moved back, but I panicked. Even when I did move back, if I saw you or anyone from your family, I hid. Once, I saw Russell and his son walking down the street, and I hid in a hardware store. I couldn't have imagined that your entire family would have been nice to me."

  "Then you didn't know us at all."

  "But I did. I was hiding from myself." She lifted her hand to his stubbled cheek. "I couldn't have imagined this was where I would land."

  "Invitation holds. Anytime. You can guarantee there will be no one else out here wrapped in my comforter."

  Seductively, she licked her lips. "No one?"

  "No one."

  "Lydia?"

  "Don't start that again."

  A smile formed on her lips as she inched closer. "I think you made your point on that. I'll stop asking."

  "Thank you."

  "I'm kinda tired. You up for an overnight guest?"

  He studied her in the light of the television. There wasn't a part of her that he hadn't committed to memory and dreamed of every night. "I'm up for it. You in need of getting any sleep?"

  Ella bit down on her bottom lip and shimmied off the couch, letting the comforter drop to the floor. Brushing her hair over her shoulder, she walked toward the back of the trailer, and he watched every graceful moment until she disappeared.

  God, he hoped they'd mended fences and were on their way to becoming one again. If not, it was going to hurt like hell—even more so than the first time.

  Chapter 14

  Sunlight—was that really sunlight?

  Gerald rubbed his eyes with his free hand and chuckled when he realized his other hand was tucked under Ella and tingled with sleep.

  He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept in long enough that the sun made it up before he had. No doubt he'd catch hell over it from his brothers. In fact, he was surprised his phone hadn't been ringing like crazy. Then he remembered, he'd left it in his truck. As he kissed Ella on the forehead, he was thankful that his evening hadn't gone the way he'd wanted it to. He had planned to lock himself in his little mobile house and drink himself to sleep. He had to admit, having Ella in his arms all night had certainly shifted his attitude.

  Gerald realized his dreamy morning was over when he heard the tires on the gravel. Which brother was arriving to bust his chops? When Ella sat straight up in bed, pulling the bedsheet up around her, he realized she, too, had heard the vehicle pull up outside.

  "Someone is here," she fretted, kicking her legs over the side of the bed. "Where are my clothes? Someone is going to see my ass."

  He didn't mean to laugh, but he couldn't help it.

  "The door is locked. No one is going to see your ass, but it's a nice sight."

  Not amused, he thought, as she found pieces of her clothing scattered around the room.

  Gerald swung his legs over the side of the bed and pulled on his jeans just as the pounding started at the door.

  "Walker! I know you're in there!" Phillip Smyth
e's voice rattled through the trailer. "Get out here."

  "Crap. What the hell does he want?"

  Gerald walked through the trailer and forcefully pushed open the door.

  Phillip stood at the bottom of the steps. His hat low over his brow and his hand on the butt of his gun.

  "You thinking about using that on me?" Gerald snapped.

  "I might. Get out here."

  "I thought we finished our business yesterday."

  Phillip's lips pursed. "I thought so too."

  Gerald stepped out of the trailer, closing the door behind him. The coolness of the morning nipped at his bare chest.

  "Sleeping in?" Phillip scoffed.

  "What does it matter?"

  "I see you had a guest."

  "Maybe I did."

  "We have another witness saying they saw a truck with your description, and we have another girl missing."

  Gerald felt the sickness stirring in his stomach as he had the day before. "Phillip, you know I didn't do that."

  He watched as Phillip's expression eased. "In my gut, I know that. One witness gave us a few digits of the plate. Same digits on yours too."

  "There are only so many combinations of letters and numbers."

  Gerald didn't turn when he heard the door open behind him. He watched as Phillip eased his hand off the butt of his gun, pulled off his hat, and held it in his hands.

  "Ella."

  "Phillip," her voice floated from behind Gerald.

  Gerald tucked his hands into his front pockets. "I have an alibi. You can question her if you'd like."

  Phillip put his hat back on and lifted his head to look at Ella. "You were here all night?"

  "All night."

  "When did you get here?"

  "I left the station, got a pizza and some beer, and came straight out."

  Phillip nodded. "You two patched things up, huh?"

  Gerald clucked his tongue. "It looks like we have. Listen, I don't know why someone turned in my truck. It's been sitting here since I drove it home. But who is missing?"

  "Sara Crow."