Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

T hey made love again in the guest bed where JT had spent the previous night. They took their time with the second round. Alexandra feeling the promise in JT’s touch that had been missing in the last year of their relationship. Afterward, when it came to deciding where to sleep, it was natural for her to invite him to share the large bed in the primary suite. Gemma was sound asleep in her crib, and she wouldn’t understand the significance of seeing a man in her mother’s bed.

Alexandra would be a fool not to accept JT’s offer to audition for the role of father figure, not when it meant she could actually have everything she’d ever wanted. It was hard to believe he’d already claimed Gemma by making her his heir, but she’d seen the paperwork. Signed and notarized.

Could he really be a daddy to Gemma?

She’d never imagined he’d want the role.

It was midnight when they moved to the primary bedroom, and for the first time in seven years, she slept in the arms of the man she loved. They woke up together on Christmas morning when her daughter started chattering to the stuffed panda and dinosaur that shared her crib.

“Huh,” JT whispered. “When she woke up in the hotel room with me, she was always grouchy and hungry.”

Alexandra snickered.

Gemma shot up in her crib, grasping the rail above her head, and said, “Hungy!”

JT laughed. “Ah. That’s my girl.”

His laugh rolled back the years. She remembered their first shared Christmas so many years ago and what it had been like to wake in his arms.

She brushed her lips over his. “Merry Christmas, Jay.”

His eyes lit at her use of the private name. “Merry Christmas, Lex.”

“Hungy!”

He rolled from the bed, circled around the foot, and lifted Gemma from the crib. Or rather, as JT called it, the baby jail. Then he climbed back into bed, depositing her daughter between them.

He kissed Gemma’s round cheek. “Merry Christmas, Gemmy.”

“Hungy!”

Alexandra laughed. “She doesn’t really have the concept of Christmas yet.”

He snickered. “I picked up on that.”

He moved to lift Gemma, but Alexandra stopped him with a touch. She wanted to enjoy this moment a little longer. It was unfathomable to wake up on Christmas morning with the two people she loved the most—and this might well be the only holiday she’d get to have with both of them.

She grabbed her girl and pressed a raspberry kiss to her belly. Gemma grabbed Alexandra’s hair and giggled. The girl then gave her a drooly kiss on the chin.

JT gave her the same raspberry kiss and received his own wet kiss in reply.

Gemma had more teeth coming in, and she was a drool monster. Thankfully, she had less teething pain this round, or she was better at self-soothing now that she was mobile and could talk.

“I was thinking I could make pancakes for Christmas breakfast. Is that something Gemmy can eat?”

“It’s a soft food we can soak in cream. I bet she’ll like it.”

“Hungy!”

Alexandra laughed. “But I should probably give her Cheerios while she waits.”

“Patience isn’t really her thing.” He winked at her. “Just like her mom.”

She laughed. “Food is important!”

“I wasn’t talking about food.”

“You made me wait days before you put out. I was a paragon of patience.”

He grinned. “Because I took care of your needs in other ways.”

She kissed his chin. “You did, and it was mind-blowing. Now, let’s head downstairs, because Gemma isn’t the only Vargas who’s hungry.”

“Can’t let my Vargas women go without.” He scooped up Gemma and climbed from the bed, and Alexandra practically melted into a puddle of confused but happy emotions.

T he text arrived just as JT poured a heavy stream of syrup over his short stack. Gemma, always hungry and impatient, was deep in her mess of scrambled eggs and milky pancakes that only had a touch of syrup.

Lee

Turn on the news. CBS local.

JT frowned at his phone. The text gave no hint as to whether the news was good or bad. But surely Lee would brace him for the worst?

It had to be big to interrupt Christmas morning. He met Lex’s gaze and showed her his phone. Her brow furrowed with a tension that matched his own.

Phone in hand, he rose from the breakfast nook and crossed the room to grab the TV remote. He hit the power button, then punched in the number for the Maryland CBS affiliate.

Inset on the screen was a grainy video from what was probably a doorbell-type camera. Below the video, the chyron read: brEAKING NEWS: Video of Maryland cop shooting obtained by Action News.

The video showed gray-shaded night-vision camera footage of a swath of roadway. The front tire and hood of a small SUV were cut off on the left edge of the video. The gap between SUV and police cruiser was to the left of center. A short stretch of gravel shoulder was visible behind the cruiser.

Lex had followed him into the living room and now stood beside him, jaw open, eyes wide.

“This video is legit?”

“Yes.” The word was breathy. He could only imagine the shock she must be feeling. “But the angle… That’s…that’s not his dashboard cam or body cam. I presume he’d turned both off.”

“Looks like you pulled over across from a private driveway camera.”

“There was a long driveway across the road. I pulled over there because the shoulder was wider to accommodate the mailbox. Afterward, I considered running up the driveway for help, but it was utterly dark. I couldn’t see the house at the end of the drive and couldn’t trust anyone there would help me. So I opted to run back to Kendall’s.”

On the screen, the gray night-vision video showed Officer Williams reach into Lex’s car, as the news anchor said, “Again, we must warn viewers about the violence you are about to see. This video was obtained from an anonymous source, but we have verified that it shows Officer Williams’s traffic stop of Dr. Alexandra Vargas, a theoretical physics professor at the University of Maryland. Dr. Vargas has been missing since being pulled over by Officer Williams Monday evening. She was initially suspected of shooting the officer at the end of this traffic stop, but this video tells a different story.”

Lex’s hand covered her mouth. JT slipped an arm around her waist and held her tight against him as he watched the officer smash her cell phone and yank her from the SUV.

His body twisted with rage at watching the man assault her. He could only imagine the fear she’d felt. That she was here by his side was a miracle.

The camera caught it all, and he gave an internal cheer as she landed the blow that allowed her to escape the officer’s hold.

“Good job, Muffin,” he said through a tight throat.

“You taught me that,” she whispered.

He nodded, remembering the hours they’d spent in the dojo he’d purchased after his sensei had passed. They’d made love after sparring more than once. He’d nearly proposed to her there before he caught himself and waited until they were someplace more romantic than a workout room with a rubber mat floor.

He was so thankful for all the terrible and wonderful moments that brought them together. If it hadn’t been for the threat Russ Spaulding posed, he never would have insisted on teaching her the self-defense moves that had saved her Monday night.

He was even grateful for the twisted, painful path that gave her Gemma, because if JT had married Lex at any point in their timeline, she would never have had a child. Gemma wouldn’t be here, demanding food, making jokes, and giving him drooly smiles.

JT would never know what it was like to fall in fierce love with a toddler.

On the screen, Lex dropped to her knees and touched the downed officer’s tool belt. She removed the Taser from the holster, then abruptly glanced up, looking down the road. She sprang to her feet, nothing in her hands but the hard disk and coat as she darted for the ditch and shrubs on the side of the road.

A moment after she left the frame, the scene lit up. Headlights bathed the unconscious cop in white light. Dark black fluid dripped from the side of his head where he’d been hit with the hard disk.

“At this point, Dr. Vargas has left the scene,” the newswoman said, “apparently because a car approached.”

The light cut out, returning the scene to the artificial light of night video. The car must have parked behind the cruiser, out of the frame, because it never crossed the screen.

A person walked along the road shoulder, on the other side of the cruiser, only visible as movement within the frame. When the person reached the gap between Lex’s car and the cruiser, they moved closer, revealing a head covered with a balaclava.

“Damn,” JT said. It appeared the new arrival was a man, but even that couldn’t be certain given the long coat that obscured their frame.

The person nudged Officer Williams with a boot. JT figured they didn’t bother to check for a pulse because that would require removing the dark gloves. The figure dropped to their knees, head bent over the officer’s face.

Looking for signs of breathing?

A gloved hand pulled Williams’s gun from the holster. The person stood and racked the slide, then pointed the barrel down toward the man on the pavement.

Without warning, the video ended.

The news anchor cleared her throat and said, “We will not air the rest of the video, but instead will state that the gun was fired at the unconscious officer. The shooter then searches the SUV and removes a box from the back. They then return to their vehicle and must’ve made a U-turn, as the third vehicle never passes before the camera. A few minutes later, Dr. Vargas returns, sees the dead officer, and leaves the scene on foot.”

On the screen, a still frame taken from the video fills the space next to the anchorwoman who had been narrating the video. Alexandra’s face is frozen with a shocked and terrified expression. “At this time, Maryland State Police have revised their APB for Dr. Vargas. She is wanted for questioning as a witness in the murder of Officer Williams. She remains a person of interest, but it is clear from the video that she did not fire the gun that killed him. If any of our viewers have information on the shooter, Dr. Vargas, or Officer Williams, please call or message this tip line.” She gave the number, which also appeared in the chyron, and added, “Messaging charges may apply.”

JT’s phone vibrated in his hand, and he glanced down to see a new text.

Lee

Merry Christmas, big brother.

JT’s throat squeezed. He had no doubt who’d leaked the video to the press. No way would the police have released it. He wouldn’t be surprised to learn Lee had tracked down the video before the cops knew it existed. In cities, cops were always looking at private security camera footage, but the odds had been so slim that cameras were on that rural road, they might not have even checked for it.

Lee’s specialty was finding signals in the air and isolating their source. Alexandra had called Erica the moment she was pulled over, so Lee had known exactly where and when to look.

JT

Thanks, Skippy.

Lee

Give Alexandra a hug from me.

Well shit, apparently, Lee knew exactly where Lex was now. But then, it was no longer an urgent secret. This video partially exonerated her.

Sure, the cops could believe she’d colluded in the officer’s murder with the shooter, but the evidence she was simply a victim was compelling.

Lex took his phone from his hand and typed a message, then handed the phone back. He smiled as he read her message.

JT

Lee, you beautiful giant. Thank you. xo A

Lee

Erica and I are so thankful you’re safe. That video is terrifying.

Instead of giving the phone back to Lex, JT replied.

Watching it took years off my life. Now enjoy your Christmas with your family. I need to call Raptor and see if they’ve lined up an attorney for Lex.

One more question. What did Alexandra hit the cop with? Looked like an old hard drive.

Yep. Kendall had Lex’s old computer from when they lived together. It has photos and other old files Kendall wanted her to have.

Any chance that’s what the shooter was after? He took a box from the trunk.

Could be. We think this relates to Spaulding and Forbes. The dead cop is one of the two who responded to Lex’s 911 call the day Spaulding was released on bond after he attempted to drug her.

Yeah. I caught that. Trying to get cell numbers for Spaulding and Forbes so I can track them. I haven’t broken down the video yet, but I think Spaulding is good for the shooter.

JT showed Lex the screen. It always came back to Russ Spaulding. She sucked in a deep breath as she read the string of texts.

Behind them, Gemma screamed to be released from her clip-on highchair, but in this moment, Lex looked too dazed to respond. He handed her the phone and went to get Gemma, pausing to grab a soft washcloth to wipe her down first.She was coated in pancake goo.

He saw Lex tap the screen.

“What did you tell Lee?”

“That we don’t have a SATA cord to look at the hard drive, and that if it is, in fact, what the shooter was after, then the minute he sees this video, he’ll know I still have it.”