Taker - A Single Dad's New Baby Romance (Criminal Passions Book 4) Read online

  Then she disappeared into the car and drove off.

  It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. Then it hit me that she had assumed that I was Tate’s date for the night.

  The idea made me feel weird. I mean, sure, he was a really, really good-looking guy. But for all I knew, he was still planning on selling me out to Marshall. And on top of that, he was an ex-criminal.

  Not exactly “boyfriend” material.

  Tate stepped out and nodded for me to come in. I did, and he dropped down onto the couch as I shut the front door behind me.

  “I’ll sleep out here,” I said.

  “Like hell you will. You’ll take my bed.”

  I was ready to argue, but something told me he wasn’t the type to relent on a subject like that.

  “Where’s your boy?” I asked.

  “He’s sleeping. Looks like you’re going to meet him in the morning.”

  He rose and went over to the fridge, taking out a couple of beers and handing one over to me.

  “I think I might have a plan,” I said.

  “What’s that?”

  I went into it, telling him about Jamie’s place in the Black Hills, how we could hide out there for as long as we needed.

  “And you can trust her?” Tate asked.

  “I’ve known her for years—she’s got my back.”

  He cracked open the beer can and took a sip. “Fucking crazy idea. But it’s the only one we’ve got.”

  “And what about your son?”

  “He’s been having trouble in school. I think a little time away from it might do him some good. Went and got himself suspended anyway.”

  I sipped my beer, fatigue from the day behind me taking hold. I needed sleep.

  Evidently, Tate could tell.

  “Go ahead and get some rest,” he said. “If you want to take a shower, there’s fresh towels under the sink.”

  “There’s something else you should know,” I said.

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m…kinda broke.”

  He laughed, as if it were the last thing on his mind. “Well, I’m not. I’m not rich, but I’ve got some money squirreled away. And as far as I can tell, we’re in this together. So don’t you worry about that. I’ll be getting up bright and early tomorrow, and you do the same. By the time Marshall realizes what’s going on, I want to be as far away from here as possible. Got it?”

  “Got it. I think I’m going to get to bed.”

  He nodded before laying back on the couch and kicking off his heavy work boots. “Go for it. Mi casa es su casa.” He closed his eyes.

  I went into his bedroom and laid down, the musky, manly scent of Tate’s sheets wrapping around me as surely as the blankets.

  For a moment I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep a wink. But I was out before I knew what hit me.

  Chapter 7

  Tate

  I’d set my alarm, but that wasn’t what I woke up to.

  Instead, it was the sound of laughter. More specifically, Connor’s laughter.

  “All right,” I heard Abbie say, “you ever make pancakes before?”

  “No. My dad does it. He says he doesn’t like me using the stove.”

  “Well, that’s pretty smart. It gets super hot. So watch me do it.”

  I opened my eyes, my vision still bleary from sleep. The two figures in the kitchen took shape, and sure enough, it was Connor and Abbie. They were at the counter, the two of them making breakfast.

  I said nothing at first, instead watching them.

  “Pancakes are really easy. You just have to add the mix. Go ahead and dump that into the bowl,” Abbie said.

  “Okay!”

  Connor was standing on a kitchen table chair, still not as tall as Abbie. He picked up a box from the counter and poured it into the bowl near him.

  Abbie grinned. “Okay, that was like, half in the bowl half on the counter.”

  “Is that bad?”

  “Not unless you want to scoop it up and eat it like that.”

  “That’d be gross.”

  Abbie chuckled. “Right. We have to mix in the eggs and this stuff first.”

  “What stuff?”

  “It’s called vanilla extract.”

  “Oh, like vanilla ice cream!”

  “Yeah, kind of. It’s the same stuff in there, but really, really, concentrated.”

  “Like thinking too hard?”

  She laughed. In spite of everything, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful of a laugh it was.

  “No, not that kind of concentrating. It’s more like, if you take something and make it super strong.”

  “Oh.” He didn’t sound like he was getting it.

  I was awake at this point, but the scene had totally captured my attention. I was happy just to lie there and watch.

  “Here, let me show you.” Abbie took the small bottle of vanilla extract and opened it up. “Smell’s good, right?”

  Connor inhaled. “Really good!”

  Then Abbie lifted a spoon and poured a tiny amount of the bottle’s contents into it. “Now taste it.”

  Connor did, and I knew what was coming. His eyes went wide as soon as his mouth touched the spoon.

  “Gross!” he spit it out, and Abbie laughed.

  And by that point, I was laughing too. Connor and Abbie both turned to see I was up.

  “Morning,” said Abbie, right away looking serious at the sight of me.

  “Hey, Dad!” said Connor. “We’re making pancakes.”

  I leaned over and checked my phone, seeing it was still a little before I’d set my alarm. With a couple of swipes, I turned it off.

  “Pancakes, huh?” I asked, heaving myself off the couch.

  “I was up anyway,” said Abbie, “so I decided to make some breakfast. Guess I made a little too much noise, because this dude was right there behind me.”

  “Pancakes are Dad’s favorite,” said Connor.

  “That’s right, they are,” I said as I came over to the both of them. “Connor, why don’t you go and wash up before we eat. I got some stuff I need to talk to Ms. Abbie about.”

  “Aw, she’s going to show me how to make them.”

  “We’ll have another chance for that. Now go on.”

  With a disappointed look on his face, Connor headed off to the bathroom.

  Once he was gone, Abbie turned her attention to me.

  “Sorry,” she said. “You probably wanted to introduce us yourself.”

  I stepped over to the coffee maker and started a pot. “No worries. You tell him about the trip?”

  “Not yet. I figured it was your place to do that.”

  “Yeah. And it goes without saying, but he doesn’t need to know about any danger we’re in.”

  “Of course.”

  The coffee maker started percolating, the scent of fresh coffee filling the room.

  “I don’t want to put too much pressure on you or anything,” Abbie said, “but what happens when we get to the cabin? We need to be thinking two steps ahead, right?”

  She had a point. It wouldn’t be too long before Marshall found out that I’d betrayed him and started looking for me—for us. The cabin sounded like a good place to hide out, but we could only hide for so long.

  “In my experience, it’s not a good idea to get too far ahead of yourself. Let’s get there first, then we can figure out what we’re going to do next.”

  She nodded. “Okay. It’s just…I’m nervous with him being a cop.”

  I put my hand on her shoulder, feeling how small and slender it was under her shirt. “It’s okay. We’ll be fine.”

  Another nod, but I could sense she wasn’t entirely convinced.

  “I’ll be keeping you and Connor safe,” I said. “Don’t you worry about that.”

  But it wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, it might well be the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life.

  Was it worth it? Marshall had given me a way out, a chance t
o really start fresh. And here I was, throwing it all away for a woman I’d never met before.

  My doubts only lasted for a moment. Giving her to Marshall would mean her death, and I wasn’t about to let that happen. No one was going to die because of me.

  Connor stepped out of the bathroom, and I knew it was time to tell him what was going on.

  “Connor, sit down.”

  He did as I asked.

  “You like Ms. Abbie here?”

  She smiled. “He can call me Abbie.”

  “I do!” said Connor. “She’s nice.”

  “Well, the three of us are going to go on a little trip together. How does that sound?”

  He looked confused. “Where to?”

  “You know Mount Rushmore?” asked Abbie. “The mountain with all the presidents’ faces on it?”

  “Yeah!” he said, the confusion giving way to excitement. “We learned about it in school.”

  “Well, that’s where we’re going,” I said. “Or nearabouts, anyway. Abbie’s friend was nice enough to lend us a cabin.”

  “A cabin? Cool!”

  I smiled, happy to see that one of us was able to be thrilled about the trip. But damn, was I nervous about bringing him along. Sure, it was safer than leaving him here—not like I had a place for him to stay—but things were going to be tough.

  “Should I start packing?” asked Connor.

  “Yeah, go throw some clothes in your suitcase. I’ll be in to check on you in a little bit.”

  “And does this mean I don’t have to go to school?”

  “Well, you’re suspended at the moment.”

  Abbie jumped in. “If we have to stay longer than a week, well, I’ve done tutoring before. We could ask the school to email us the lessons, and I could help him out with them.”

  “You feel comfortable with that?” I asked.

  “Least I could do,” she said with a small smile.

  “All right. Well, there you go, kiddo. Now, go on and get ready.”

  He happily headed off and disappeared into his bedroom.

  Abbie turned back to the counter, finishing up mixing the pancake batter while I poured some coffee for the two of us.

  “We might be out there a while,” I said. “You ready for this?”

  “About as ready as I’m going to be.”

  “You need to let anyone know you’re about to be gone for a while? Family?”

  She shook her head. “Don’t really have family.”

  “That right?”

  She nodded as she flipped a few pancakes. “My mom died when I was little—cancer. And my dad…he didn’t take it well, fell into drinking and never recovered. I left home as soon as I could and haven’t heard from him since.”

  “Holy hell,” I said. “That’s rough.”

  “It’s in the past.”

  It occurred to me that she had something in common with Connor, both of them having lost their mother at a young age. But the way Connor had lost her was far different than that.

  “No brothers or sisters?” I asked.

  “Nope, only child.”

  Another thing in common with my son.

  She finished up with the pancakes, setting them down on the table as I set the places. I checked my watch, seeing that it was nearly eight.

  “We need to get moving soon,” I said.

  Before Abbie could respond, a text lit up my screen.

  It was Marshall. The number was blocked, of course, but the message made it clear it was him.

  “Can I expect you and her at noon?”

  I fired back a quick reply, knowing it was best not to keep him waiting.

  “Yeah. See you then.”

  His reply came a few seconds later.

  “Good! Can’t wait to put this all behind us. You made the right call, Tate.”

  Yeah. We’d see about that.

  “Ready!” said Connor, bounding out of his bedroom.

  “You got underwear and socks and all that?” I asked.

  “I sure do.” He didn’t waste any time spearing a few pancakes and putting them on his plate.

  “I’ll check to make sure he has everything after breakfast,” said Abbie. “If you want to get ready.”

  I had to admit, she was really pulling her weight so far.

  “Sure,” I said. “And we’ll get you taken care of once we get there, buy you some clothes and whatever else you need.”

  She gave a tight-lipped smile and nodded. Easy to see she was still worried about what was about to go down.

  With that, we set into breakfast. The three of us ate, me and Abbie sipping our coffee as we worked on the pancakes.

  And I had a pretty good feeling it was going to be the closest thing to a normal breakfast in a long, long time.

  Chapter 8

  Abbie

  Once breakfast was over, we cleaned up and loaded up the truck for the eight-hour trip ahead.

  It was still all so surreal. This wasn’t some fun vacation we were going on; we were fleeing for our lives. If Tate hadn’t been exaggerating about Marshall and what kind of man he was, then nothing less was at stake.

  “We ready?” asked Tate as he loaded his and Connor’s bags into the back of the truck.

  “I think so,” I said. “Better get a move on before too long.”

  Tate nodded. “Then let’s do it.”

  We climbed into the truck. The cab was big enough for a front seat and a back, and Connor happily got comfortable in the back. Soon we were out on the road, making our way to the highway.

  “You’re sure about this cabin?” asked Tate. “I don’t want to show up and find out we’re crashing a vacation.”

  “My friend would know. We’ll be fine.”

  Connor busied himself with his dad’s tablet in the back, only poking his head up to speak when we got onto the highway.

  “When can we go to Mount Rushmore?” he asked. “Can we go tonight?”

  “Kiddo, we’re getting in late,” said Tate. “If you’re still up for a trip out into the woods, I’ll be surprised.”

  “I will be,” said Connor.

  Tate laughed. “He’s got his dad’s confidence.”

  “I can see that,” I said with a smile.

  The situation was strange as hell, but despite only knowing Tate for a little while, I felt…good about being around him. He was kind and even-tempered, and not the sort of hothead I imagined for a criminal.

  But a criminal he was. Or had been.

  I decided to chat a little with Connor, help pass the time and take his mind off the weirdness of having some woman he’d just met going on vacation with him.

  “So, Connor,” I said. “You ever stayed in the woods before?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. I always tell Dad I want to go camping. But he always says he’s too busy.”

  “Well, someone’s got to put pancakes on the table,” Tate cut in. “But you’re going to get your chance now, buddy. You’re going to have so much woods around you’ll be sick of them.”

  “No way,” said Connor, with more of that confidence. “The woods has all sorts of cool animals.” His eyes lit up. “You think we’ll see some bears?”

  Tate laughed. “I tell you what, if you see a bear, don’t go anywhere near it.”

  “I’ll make friends with it and we can keep him as a pet.”

  That got me laughing. Hey, a guard bear might go a long way in keeping us safe.

  “Bears aren’t dogs, champ. They’ll chase you down and eat you for lunch.”

  “Not if I beat him up first!” To make his point, Connor punched the air over and over a few times before sitting back.

  I watched him at it, and behind him the mountains I’d grown so used to faded in the distance. My old life, everything I’d known, everything I’d built, was being left behind.

  And I had no idea if I’d ever get it back again.

  I tore my eyes away from the disappearing mountains and back to the road. Up ahead, I could see th
e landscape growing flatter and flatter by the second. We were only an hour out of Denver, but I was already getting a sense of the prairies that would lead us toward our destination.

  Connor was a chatterbox, and I loved it. The two of us went back and forth for the next hour or so, him telling me all about the animals that he hoped to see on our trip. Despite the circumstances, it was nice to see one of us excited about what lay ahead.

  Because for Tate and me, the two adults, it was nothing but uncertainty.

  We grabbed a quick fast-food lunch of burgers and fries, not wanting to stop for too long. Connor went out like a light once we got back on the road, sleeping curled up in the back among the other bags we’d brought with us.

  And then it was just me and Tate.

  I felt tense with only the two of us. I had a keen sense that I really didn’t know this man.

  “Tell me what you did.” The words came blurting out of my mouth.

  “Huh?” he asked, glancing over at me through his aviator sunglasses. “What do you mean?”

  “Your past. You were a—” I glanced back to make sure Connor was still asleep. “You were a criminal, right?”

  “He sleeping back there?” Tate asked.

  I nodded.

  Tate turned his eyes to the road, gripping the steering wheel tight. I could tell he was debating whether or not to tell me, to share something he obviously wasn’t open about with many people—if any.

  “You’re not the only one who lost parents,” he said. “Mine died when I was a kid—drunk-driving accident. Some kid got wasted and got behind the wheel of a truck bigger than this one, hit my parents’ car when they were coming home from dinner.” He shook his head, as if in disbelief about it still.

  “I’m so sorry, Tate.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not looking for sympathy. Like you said, it’s in the past. After that, I got sent to live with my uncle Charles. Real piece of work, that one. When he wasn’t out at bars wasting the little money he made, he was running odd jobs for some local gang. Nothing big, mostly dropping off packages of illegal weapons or ammo.”

  “Is that how you met Marshall?”

  “Yep. One day ol’ Charlie decided to get liquored up before a job, ended up losing his package. Luckily for him, his boss knew what kind of a shithead he was and hadn’t trusted him with much. But he still had to pay it off. So, his boss, Marshall, came by and told him that if he didn’t have money, he’d take me.”