“What does she think about this? She’s not exactly speaking to me at the moment.” Not that he cared what she thought. If he had to go to Boston and force her into his protection then that was exactly what he would do.
“You’re the only choice,” John Sr. barked. “Dammit it John, she cried for you in the hospital. She was beaten, bloody, bruised to hell and back, and out of her mind with fear. When I got there, she was begging for you. They called me because they couldn’t find you.”
His teeth clenched, his fingers wrapped so tight around the controls of the houseboat that he wondered he hadn’t broken the column. Pure, almost mindless fury surged through his brain at the knowledge that he hadn’t been there for her.
“I’m not asking what went on with you, Marlena, and Sierra,” his father sighed. “I never asked. I figured if you wanted to talk, you’d come to me or your mother. But whatever happened, whatever Sierra did, she did because she felt it was right.”
She had done it because she had believed herself to be in love with him. John knew the reasons why. He didn’t fault her for it now, but he had faulted her for it then.
“Does she know you’re asking me?” he repeated roughly.
“Not yet.” His father’s tone was filled with sudden weariness. “She’s terrified, John. She won’t leave the house, and your mother and I have to head to Europe next week. Sierra won’t let me hire a bodyguard, and she’s threatening to run. She’s my goddaughter. I can’t let anything happen to her.”
John stared around him, his jaw clenching at the thought that Sierra was threatening to run rather than coming to him. Damn her. She’d refused to see him after that night, wouldn’t talk to him. She’d went so far as to leave town for months. He’d taken the message and left her alone, hoping time would heal whatever he may have said to her.
That night was a little sketchy. He’d been pissed, he remembered that clearly. Just as he remembered kissing her. After that, things were a little hazy and mixed with fantasy more than reality.
“Do I need to drive in to pick her up?” he finally asked. And he would. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to allow her to face more danger without him at her side.
“As much as I want to see you, I advise against that,” his father stated. “I’ll have her brought to you. Candace and her husband and kids are taking the family jet to the West Coast tomorrow. An unscheduled stop will be made at the Hickley landing strip. It’s private and Raymond Hickley will make damned sure no one knows they landed there. I’ll call you back with the details.”
John rubbed at the bridge of his nose as he grimaced. “Yeah, I’ll be waiting.”
Waiting wasn’t what he did best. His preference would be to go after her, but he understood that having her slipped aboard the family jet and deposited secretly in Kentucky would be far better.
“John, your leaving destroyed her,” his father suddenly stated. “She cried for weeks. Whatever you did to her before you left, don’t do again. Please. I hate seeing your mother cry, and she made her cry.”
Then Sierra shouldn’t have run. And that was exactly what she had done. She wouldn’t answer his calls, she wouldn’t answer the door when he went to her apartment, and she was never where she was supposed to be.
She had run from him until he had stopped chasing her and chased what little chance he had of peace instead.
John shook his head. “Later, Dad.”
Disconnecting the call, he carefully maneuvered the huge houseboat around and back toward the marina. If he knew his father, it would only be a matter of hours before he called back, before he had the details worked out and Sierra prepared to leave.
If Candace was leaving early, as she normally did when she and her husband flew to California to spend time with his family, then he would be at the Hickley Dairy Farm before the sun rose, hours before his day normally began.
This was exactly what he didn’t need. Peace had been a long time coming, the serenity he’d found here was hard won, and now, that last niggling barrier to complete contentment was rearing its innocent, gorgeous head. And it had the potential of destroying his peace, just as the potential of completing it existed.
Sierra.
TWO
Sierra was silent as the jet landed, her heart racing, a sense of panic nearly overwhelming her at the realization that a year of running was over.
“I want to go home,” she whispered.
She’d made a mistake. It was the worst mistake she could have made.
Lifting her head, she stared back at Candace. She saw John’s eyes in the other woman’s gaze. That beautiful violet-blue, though the features were softer, feminine, and gentle with compassion.
“Do you want to die, Sierra?” It wasn’t the first time Candace had asked her that question.
It wasn’t the first time Sierra had mentioned going home.
“The pilot is preparing to land,” Thomas, Candace’s husband, said softly.
He’d opened his home to her, just as Candace’s father had. They had taken her in, watched over her, and provided the medical care she had needed.
Thomas was one of the senior attorneys at Walker, Delmar, and Farley Legal Associates. He was quiet, calm, a bastion of strength.
“Hickley radioed,” the pilot announced. “We have five minutes on the ground. Contact is waiting to accept delivery.”
She was the delivery.
Sierra wanted to cover her face and hide. She wanted to find a way to simply disappear and forget that any of this was happening. To convince herself that the last year was nothing more than a nightmare.
How had she let her life come to this?
By running from John. By being a coward. That was how it had come to this. There was a part of her that wondered if she hadn’t run, if she had faced John, if she would have even been in her apartment at the time? She’d moved from the more secure building the Walkers owned interest in months before to the apartment closer to her office.
She’d taken the apartment she had because it was in the same building as John’s penthouse suite. To be closer to him. What a mistake that had been.
She felt the jet dip, a smooth stroke of metal through air as it began to descend.
“He’s angry at me,” she whispered as she stared back at Candace. “He hates me, Candace. After what I did, I don’t blame him.”