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She should have saved her breath. With a sense of unreality, she listened as Odell read her her rights. When he finished, Cal stared down at her, his gaze hard-eyed and condemning. "Jane liked you from the beginning," he said bitterly. "And you'd just about won over Ethan. He was starting to believe you really cared about Gabe. But all you've ever cared about was his bank account."
Her temper flared. "I could have his bank account if I wanted it, you idiot! He asked me to marry him."
"Liar." He ground out the words through clenched teeth. "So that's why you did it. Marriage is what you've had in mind from the beginning. You knew he was vulnerable right now, and you—"
"He's not half as vulnerable as you think!" she cried. "Damn you, Cal Bonner, you're—"
She gave a gasp of pain as Jake Armstrong grabbed her arms and wrenched them behind her. Before she could react, he'd snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists, securing them behind her in the same way dangerous criminals were restrained.
Cal frowned. For a moment she thought he was going to say something, but then Odell slapped his back. "I've got to hand it to you, Cal. I wouldn't have thought to look in her car."
She was going to cry. She blinked back her tears and stared at Cal. "I'll never forgive you for this."
For the first time he looked uncertain, then his expression hardened. "You deserve everything you get. I tried to make it easy for you with that check, but you got too greedy. By the way, I'll be stopping payment on it first thing Monday morning."
Jake Armstrong put his hand on top of her head and pushed her toward the backseat of the squad car more roughly than necessary. Her shackled wrists made the movement awkward, and she stumbled.
"Watch it." Cal caught her before she could fall and guided her into the backseat.
She jerked away from his touch. "I don't need your help!"
He ignored her and turned to Jake. "You be careful with her. I want her locked up, but I don't want anybody playing fast and loose. You got me?"
"I'll keep my eye on her," Odell said.
Cal began to move away.
Edward! What was going to happen to him? Kristy was gone and the sitter wasn't even sixteen.
"Cal!" Once again she had to swallow her pride because of her son. She drew a shaky breath and tried to speak calmly. "Edward is at Kristy's condo. He's with a sitter, but she's too young to take care of him for long, and Kristy's gone." Something inside her gave way, and her eyes brimmed with tears. "Please… He's going to be so scared."
He stared at her for a long moment, and then gave a brusque nod. "Jane and I'll take care of him."
Jake slammed the door and settled in the front seat next to Odell. As the squad car moved forward, she tried to absorb the fact that she was on her way to jail.
Chapter Twenty-Three
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It was starting to get dark, so Cal tucked Chip under his arm and hauled him like a sack of potatoes up the steps onto the deck. "You're getting too good with that football, buddy. You wore me out."
Chip giggled as Cal gave him a couple of extra bounces. Cal had hoped playing with the boy would take his own mind off what had happened a few hours earlier with his mother, but it wasn't working.
He looked up and saw Jane standing inside the French doors with Rosie in her arms, and he felt a jolt right in the middle of his chest. Sometimes it hit him that way—hard—the sight of these two females he loved more than anything in the world. There had been a time in his life when he hadn't wanted either one of them, and he never let himself forget that. The memory kept him humble.
Rosie was clutching that god-awful stuffed rabbit, and she started to kick and squeal as she caught sight of Chip. As soon as they were inside the French doors, Cal let the boy down, brushed Jane's lips with a quick kiss, and took Rosie from her.
The baby gave him a big grin, then blew a noisy raspberry, her newest trick. He smiled and wiped his face on her already damp T-shirt. Only then did he notice that Jane looked harried.
He lifted an inquisitive eyebrow. "I haven't been outside more than fifteen minutes."
She sighed. "Wait till you see our bathroom."
"The toilet paper again?"
"And the toothpaste. You didn't put the cap back on, and I wasn't fast enough."
As if she knew they were talking about her, Rosie gave him another drooly grin and clapped her hands in delight. For the first time he noticed that she smelled like Crest Tartar Control.
