Jacob jerked the throw from the back of the couch and put it around Sallie as Rancor sat a glass of water on the table beside her.
Crouching in front of her, Jacob framed her face with his hands, forcing her to meet his gaze.
“You okay, baby?” he whispered, her tearstained face breaking his heart. “Sheriff’s almost here. I’ll have to talk to him. Take care of this.”
She nodded, obviously fighting to stop crying as she took several hard breaths.
“I’m okay.” She nodded, those tears roughening her voice. “I promise. I’m not hurt.”
“If you need me, send Rancor,” he told her, leaning forward to kiss her gently before he pulled back and rose slowly to his feet.
He hated leaving her now. He wanted to rush her home, wrap her in his arms, shelter her, allow the tears and the cries to run their course before he filled her with all the love he felt for her.
“Rancor, stay with her,” he ordered the youngest Culpepper before he turned to Rance. “You can come with me and explain what the fuck you’re doing here.”
Rance merely nodded, still watching Sallie with that heavy regret and grief before he turned and preceded Jacob to where the sheriff rushed through the front door.
Just a little longer, he assured himself. A few more hours, then he could take her home, love her, and make damned sure nothing or no one ever threatened her again.
chapter nineteen
It was almost over. The threat to Jacob and herself was eliminated, but dealing with her stepfather came with complications, she knew. The next morning, he arrived not long after breakfast, his demeanor quiet, introspective, as she and Jacob sat in the living room facing him, waiting for him to speak.
“Sallie, I never agreed with your mother’s decision to send you to boarding school so young. Hell, I didn’t like the thought of it at any age.” Rance pushed his fingers through his hair, his expression heavy with regret. “Your mother and I disagreed heavily over that.”
Sallie watched him doubtfully. She’d been a child at the time, admittedly, but she couldn’t remember a single time Rance and her mother had disagreed over anything. At least not in front of her.
“It doesn’t matter, Rance…”
“Sister Rebecca was a close friend of mine while we were growing up,” he cut in. “I convinced your mother to send you to her school. Rebecca loved you, Sallie, more than she ever thought she would but I knew she would. You were a baby and so damned alone it gave me nightmares.”
“Yet you still let her send Sallie away,” Jacob pointed out, his tone hard.
Rance watched Sallie rather than Jacob, his expression growing heavier as weariness seemed to settle over his features.
“Megan liked to remind me often that Sallie wasn’t my child and she brooked no interference in the decisions she made regarding her.” Rance shook his head, rubbed at his neck, then sat forward on the couch and clasped his hands between his spread knees.
Sallie had never had a chance to really get to know her stepfather, but he’d never been cruel to her, and she’d always been thankful for everything he’d done for her.
“I chose to pick my battles with her,” he continued, his voice resigned. “She was determined to send Sallie to boarding school, but I demanded she be sent to a school of my choice.”
“I was happier with Sister Rebecca than I would have been with you and Mother anyway.” She shrugged, but still, she could feel the regret that she hadn’t had a family, or a home really. “I wasn’t unhappy. I had what I needed.”
Rance shook his head at the statement but apparently decided to let it go. “I’ve driven myself and the investigators crazy attempting to learn why you’ve been attacked.” He glanced at Jacob. “At first, I thought John was the reason. Until Langley asked me to consult on an old case and the name Jake Rossiter came up. When I went to the director and called in a favor, he wouldn’t give me the agent’s identity, but he did help me to change my stepdaughter’s name and instructed me to see Dillerman about placing her within one of his stores. And he made me swear not to reveal any of it to my investigators or anyone else. How Masser found out, I don’t know.”
“And Dillerman sent me here.” Sallie turned to Jacob where he stood against the bar. “Why would he do that?”
“Because the case isn’t closed. The agency would have someone watching you. And me,” he stated thoughtfully.
“For three years?” She couldn’t make sense of that. “Why would he do that? Why not just contact you?”
“After I lost my memories and came back to the States, I lost my security clearance as well due to the loss of memory. They couldn’t be certain I hadn’t somehow given away the operation. Our intel at the time identified that there was a high-ranking American releasing information on targets of interest to Forefront,” Jacob revealed. “That’s why I was at the warehouse that morning. John learned within hours of the meeting that the traitor would be at that meeting, turning over information involving our investigation of the group. Forefront’s top generals as well as the head of the group were supposed to be there. From what the agency pieced together at the time, they learned I was there and a firefight ensued. Several containers of explosive chemicals detonated, killing everyone but myself, and according to John, two members of the meeting that showed up last survived as well. Unfortunately, they were unable to identify who it was, but it’s speculated that I saw them.”
“And according to the information I was given, there were no suspects,” Rance stated. “That’s why I was asked in to consult. My security clearance and the fact I was there at the time gave the director reason to believe I might be able to provide some information. According to the director, in the past few years Forefront had begun reforming.”
“And to be taken seriously, killing the agent or agents involved in killing their generals would be their first order of business, suggesting one of the their leading members or even a general, survived the explosion,” Jacob injected, his expression hardening, a flash of predatory calculation crossing his face.
“That’s the director’s belief.” Rance nodded. “Somehow, he believes they identified John and when they came for him, they found Sallie instead. My own investigators believe somehow John was the target as well and they demanded Megan and I stay distant from Sallie and maintain the belief we were estranged from her. That impression Megan began when she and Sallie argued over the annulment John filed and served on Sallie. Megan blamed Sallie for the fact the marriage had been unconsummated. She knew Sallie had met and fallen in love with someone else and believed Sallie merely needed to assume her place as John’s wife to get over it.”
Sallie stared at the floor now and refused to look up as she silently cursed her stepfather. Heat rushed over her face and though she lifted her head moments later, she avoided Jacob’s as well as Rance’s gazes.
“Sallie.” Jacob’s voice was harder now, demanding. “Would you like to look at me and tell me what the fuck he’s talking about?”
Surprised flashed over Rance’s face when she turned back to him accusingly.
“Sallie,” he reproved gently. “Surely you told Jacob the truth of your marriage.”