"Like what?" he asked.

"Like when she locked me in the closet," Sheldon snapped. "She left me there for two days. And the time she got pissed off at Peter and me and took us out to the dunes and left us there. She left us there, all alone, with no food or water. It was over a hundred fucking degrees."

"What did you do?" Trey asked, sidling a little farther along the counter.

Sheldon again was silent and his hand had dropped away from Marli's head. At that moment, the front door of the store opened and a uniformed cop appeared. Sheldon's gaze swung sharply to the door and instinctively he shifted the gun, aiming toward the cop who'd stepped in.

Trey launched himself at Sheldon. Marli cried out. The gun blasted.

Chapter 20

Trey and Sheldon crashed to the floor, knocking over a rack loaded with bags of potato chips. Trey grabbed for Sheldon's right hand holding the gun. He shoved Marli hard and she went down, too, behind them, but she was free. Adrenaline rushed through Trey's blood, fueling his muscles, and he used every fiber of his being to wrestle with Sheldon. The guy was big and strong, though. Panting and determined, Trey fought, finally managing to grab the bastard's right wrist and twist it sharply, forcing the gun to drop. His vision focused only on the man in front of him, but at the edge of his sight, he saw a slim, booted foot kick the gun away. It skittered across the worn linoleum floor.

"Freeze!" called the cop, gun drawn and leveled right at them.

Trey drew back his arm with one last desperate move and drove it into Sheldon's nose, blood spraying, his head bouncing back hard on the floor. Then Trey wearily sat back on the floor, while two other cops ran over to Sheldon.

Then Marli was on her knees beside him, tears running down her face, tension and fear etched in her beautiful features. She was touching him all over, crying, saying his name over and over.

He turned to her in a daze, adrenaline still pulsing through him.

"Are you okay, honey?"

She laughed through her tears, shakily. "No," she said. "No, I am definitely not okay."

With concern, he turned to her, framing her face with his big hands. "I'm not hurt," she told him, still touching him compulsively. "I'm just...just...a little stressed."

He groaned at her egregious understatement and grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her, tucking her head under his chin.

"Are you okay?" she mumbled into his chest. "God, Trey." She picked up his right hand to examine his knuckles, but they were just a bit red and scraped.

"I may have a few sore muscles later, but right now I don't feel a thing," he said truthfully.

They watched in bemusement as the cops cuffed Sheldon Barnes and led him out to the police car.

Trey stood up, pulling Marli with him, and went over to make sure the gas station attendant and customer were okay. They were both in shock, barely able to speak. And they didn't even know who Sheldon was. They just thought he'd been robbing the store.

They talked to the cops. "How'd you guys know he was here?" Trey asked them, flexing his hand.

"Teresa Fisher called in this morning to tell us he'd been there yesterday looking for money, wanting to meet his sons. She told them they were at school and gave him thirty bucks. Told him to come back after."

Trey nodded. They knew that much.

"Her husband called her and told her you were looking for him, and she realized she had to do something. She gave us a description of what he was driving and we spotted his car as we were patrolling."

"Jesus, that was lucky."

"Trey, you'd have got him anyway," Marli said softly. "You were awesome." She paused. "That was some football tackle."

Trey identified himself to the cops. "Hostage rescue training kicked in," he said. Thank God, Sheldon had still had that faint hope of meeting his kids. Otherwise, negotiating with him would have been next to impossible. He swallowed hard and tightened his grip on Marli's waist.

Much later, when they'd finished with the police and all the news media, they sat in Trey's car, both of them staring a bit blankly out the window.

"Is it really over?" Marli asked wonderingly.

"Yeah, honey, it's over. What do you want to do? Start driving back tonight? Or we could get a room here and leave in the morning."

"I want to go home," she said. "I want my life back. I want to go to work, have lunch with my friends, go shopping." She wiped a tear off her cheek, glancing at him.

"We can start driving," he said. "See how far we get and then we'll stop for the night."

"Okay."


Nearly seven hours of driving later, Trey exited the highway and drove into the parking lot of a Hilton resort near Phoenix.

"We're staying here?" Marli looked at the huge, luxurious resort.

Trey nodded.

"This is beautiful," she said, "but we don't need to spend all this money just for a place to sleep."

"We're not going to just be sleeping," he told her, and a little thrill of excitement ran through her. "Besides, we're celebrating."

"Oh. Okay."

They checked in and went to their room. It was even nicer than Trey's room at the Rocky Harbor Inn, beautifully decorated with a soft plaid blanket draped over the fluffy white duvet on the king-size bed. French doors led to a balcony overlooking the huge pool area, complete with a waterfall flowing over elaborate boulders. A bouquet of fresh sunflowers sat on the gleaming wood dresser.

"We can go down and have dinner in the restaurant," Trey said.

"It looked pretty swank. Can I at least change?" Not that she'd brought much to change into. She did have one skirt, a denim one that ended at mid-thigh. She put it on with a black camisole top and the little cardigan, and, with her sparkly flip-flops, it didn't look too bad. She wished she had her whole closet to choose from, wished she could dress up in something pretty to impress Trey.

Trey was looking at her legs when she turned to face him, and warmth pooled low in her belly at the heat in his eyes. Since the face-off at the gas station, he'd been jolted out of his cool detachment, and the heat had been building again between them with every mile they'd traveled.

They walked into the elegant restaurant and the hostess showed them to a table for two in the corner. A candle flickered on the table, real flowers sat in the vase, and the waiter whipped her linen napkin out of the stemmed goblet and handed it to her. She smiled up at him and looked at Trey across the table.

"After all that's happened, this is surreal," she said. "It's like we're on a date. We've never done that."

"No."

He met her eyes and the air became charged with sexual electricity.

"Maybe we should've just had room service," she said, her voice thick.

His eyes warmed. "You look gorgeous. As usual. Supermodel gorgeous."

"Supermodel!" She gave a little laugh. "Hardly. Remember, I work on the other side of the camera?"

"It's those long legs of yours," he said. "They turn me on."

"Oh. Well, good." She took a sip of the water the waiter had poured into her glass, then opened the thick, leather-bound menu.

She looked it over and snapped it closed.

"That was quick."

"I'm not very hungry."

He lifted a brow, but kept reading his own menu. Finally, she opened hers again and quickly made a decision.

He ordered a bottle of wine for them, also something they'd never done, and they drank wine and talked, mostly about what had happened that day.

"I can't believe I never realized the bartender was him," Marli said, shaking her head. "He was right there in front of us the whole time."

"Sort of. And, hey, I was just as stupid. I should've recognized him, too. He never spent a lot of time with us, though. Most bartenders are pretty friendly types, but I remember noticing one time that when I wanted to order a drink, he practically ignored us. He must've been nervous about you recognizing him."

"But the tattoo..." Marli said. "That's what clued me in that it was him today. I should've noticed that."

"I didn't really pay much attention to him," Trey said thoughtfully. "But I'm guessing he was wearing long sleeves while he was working."

"And how did he get a job there anyway?" Marli demanded.

"Probably used a different name and fake ID. He's done it before."

She shook her head. "I never would have thought that." She sighed. "God, Trey, when it all clicked into place, I just about died."

"Ha. I just about died when I saw him holding you like that. Christ." He shook his head, eyes full of remorse. "I will never forgive myself for putting you in that position." He cursed. "I shouldn't have brought you into such a dangerous situation."

"Oh, Trey." She sighed and smiled. "You beat yourself up over everything. I didn't exactly give you much choice about bringing me. And I'm fine. Everything is fine now."

He didn't look convinced.

"You really were amazing," she told him again. At the time, she hadn't recognized what he was doing, but now, in retrospect, the way he'd stayed so calm, talked to Sheldon, got his guard down was so impressive. "How did you know what to say to him?"

"Hostage rescue training," he said. "Part of my education. I did some work as a crisis negotiator for a while, too. I like getting inside the heads of criminals."

"That's scary." She shuddered.