Husband by Choice Read online

  Love runs free

  Meredith Bennet lives for two people—her husband, Max, and their young son, Caleb. She also lives in fear of her abusive ex-husband, Steve, a man she’s been running from for years. She thought she’d finally eluded him. But when it becomes apparent that he’s found her, she makes a drastic decision. She goes on the run again—by herself—to protect the two people she loves most.

  Meredith finds solace and safety in a new identity at The Lemonade Stand, a unique women’s shelter. With Steve on the hunt for her and Max desperate to get his wife back, she will discover if love really is stronger than evil.

  “Meredith’s ex-husband was a fiend,” Max said softly.

  He spoke as though two-year-old Caleb might hear and understand what Max was saying.

  “He brutalized her,” Max went on. “And got away with it because of the power his position gave him. I gather he had a pretty impressive record with the Las Vegas police. I know he was older than her. Her family—both parents and a brother—were killed in a car accident when Meri was a kid. She was alone in the world. She married him at eighteen, and the first time he hit her was less than a year later. She stayed with him nine years.”

  He would’ve felt disloyal telling Meri’s secrets if Chantel had been just a friend. But she was a cop. And would help him find Meri.

  “It took Steve less than three months to track her down the first time she left. He was still a Las Vegas detective back then. She got away almost immediately and managed to elude him for about a year that second time.”

  “This guy’s determined.” Chantel sounded serious. All cop. And Max took his first easy breath in more than twenty-four hours.

  Hold on, Meri.

  Help is on the way.

  Dear Reader,

  Sometimes circumstances trap us in situations that defy logical solutions. The “right” things have all been tried. They’ve all failed. And the human spirit—hope—suffers.

  But, always, there is a force that’s stronger than logic. Stronger than anything the human mind can conjure up. That force resides in the human spirit; it’s there, waiting to spring into action. All it needs is for us to let it go—to set it free to work.

  And, always, one of the hardest things to do is give in to the intangible, the often illogical something inside us—to trust it and follow its dictates. Sometimes we lose hope and settle for a situation that isn’t ideal.

  Sometimes, though, trusting that far-too-quiet inner voice is the only way we’ll survive.

  Husband by Choice is the story of one such situation. And the woman who thought herself weak, but who’s actually strong enough to listen to her heart, to act on the instinct inside her even though it drives her straight into danger. This story is fiction. I don’t recommend that any woman face violence on her own. I do, however, fully embrace every woman’s right to live by her heart. To fight for that right. And to know ultimate joy.

  May we all be a part of the sisterhood shared by the special women who come and go at The Lemonade Stand!

  I love to hear from my readers. Please connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, visit me at www.tarataylorquinn.com or write to [email protected].

  Tara Taylor Quinn

  TARA TAYLOR

  QUINN

  Husband by Choice

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  With sixty-eight original novels, published in more than twenty languages, Tara Taylor Quinn is a USA TODAY bestselling author. She is a winner of the 2008 National Reader’s Choice Award, four-time finalist for an RWA RITA® Award, a finalist for the Reviewer’s Choice Award, the Bookseller’s Best Award and the Holt Medallion, and appears regularly on Amazon bestseller lists. Tara Taylor Quinn is a past president of Romance Writers of America and served for eight years on its board of directors. She is in demand as a public speaker and has appeared on television and radio shows across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning. Tara is a spokesperson for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and she and her husband, Tim, sponsor an annual in-line skating race in Phoenix to benefit the fight against domestic violence.

  When she’s not at home in Arizona with Tim and their canine owners, Jerry Lee and Taylor Marie, or fulfilling speaking engagements, Tara spends her time traveling and in-line skating.

  Books by Tara Taylor Quinn

  HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE

  1309—THE PROMISE OF CHRISTMAS

  1350—A CHILD’S WISH

  1381—MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABIES

  1428—SARA’S SON

  1446—THE BABY GAMBLE

  1465—THE VALENTINE GIFT

  “Valentine’s Daughters”

  1500—TRUSTING RYAN

  1527—THE HOLIDAY VISITOR

  1550—SOPHIE’S SECRET*

  1584—A DAUGHTER’S TRUST

  1656—THE FIRST WIFE‡

  1726—FULL CONTACT*

  1793—A SON’S TALE^

  1811—A DAUGHTER’S STORY^

  1829—THE TRUTH ABOUT COMFORT COVE^

  1853—IT’S NEVER TOO LATE*

  1877—SECOND TIME’S THE CHARM*

  1889—THE MOMENT OF TRUTH*

  1906—WIFE BY DESIGN+

  1930—ONCE A FAMILY+

  SINGLE TITLE

  SHELTERED IN HIS ARMS

  EVERLASTING LOVE

  THE NIGHT WE MET

  HARLEQUIN MIRA

  WHERE THE ROAD ENDS

  STREET SMART

  HIDDEN

  IN PLAIN SIGHT

  BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

  AT CLOSE RANGE

  THE SECOND LIE‡

  THE THIRD SECRET‡

  THE FOURTH VICTIM‡

  THE FRIENDSHIP PACT

  *Shelter Valley Stories

  ‡Chapman Files

  ^It Happened in

  Comfort Cove

  +Where Secrets are Safe

  Other titles by this author available in ebook format.

  For Adam. I pray that you are, now and forever, my daughter’s “Max.”

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  EXCERPT

  CHAPTER ONE

  “SHA SHA, MAMA. Sha sha! Geen, Go! Geen, Go!”

  Easing her foot slowly off the brake as the traffic signal turned from red to green, Meredith Smith Bennet tuned out Caleb’s chatter because she had to.

  And took comfort from it at the same time. The blond-haired toddler, strapped into his car seat behind her, kicked his feet repeatedly
with glee. Sha sha—French fries. That was all it took for him to be happy. The anticipation of a French fry.

  With a glance in the rearview mirror, keeping the small green car four vehicles back in the other lane in sight, she turned left at the familiar Santa Raquel corner.

  “Sha sha, Mama! Sha sha!”

  She’d promised Caleb French fries at his favorite fast food place—a treat on the one day a week he had to spend an afternoon at day care—and he’d had his eye on the Golden Arches where they’d been heading before she’d been forced to turn off the main drag.

  “Sha shaaaaa!”

  Instead of excitement, she heard the beginning of tears in his voice as the arches disappeared from view. The green car had made an illegal right turn, cutting off another vehicle to cross over two lanes.

  “I know, Caleb,” she said. Her son was not going to suffer. Or know fear. Not by her hand. “In a minute,” she said, keeping her voice light and cheerful—her husband’s description of her “mommy” voice. A voice he was certain he’d never tire of hearing.

  But he’d also been certain that Steve was in the past.

  “Mama’s going a different way,” she continued, changing lanes without a signal and making a quick left turn the second she saw the chance.

  As luck would have it, she was able to cross three lanes and make a right and then another left turn before the not new, not old, not big and not particularly small green car with the black-haired man behind the wheel could follow.

  She’d lost him.

  For now.

  * * *

  PEDIATRICIAN MAX BENNET was finishing up his afternoon’s charting, listening to the chatter of the front office staff in the clinic he shared with several other family physicians. His private cell phone buzzed at his hip.

  Last he’d spoken to his wife, she’d been leaving to take Caleb for French fries on his way to day care. But Meri knew his last patient, a four-year-old needing a well-check, had been at three. She probably needed him to stop for milk on the way home. Or vanilla wafers. Caleb was addicted to them. And since they were the only sweets the little guy was allowed....

  The caller wasn’t his wife of three years. It was Caleb’s day care.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, Dr. Bennet, but Mrs. Bennet isn’t here yet and Caleb’s not happy. He’s been upset since she dropped him off, but it’s gotten steadily worse. He’s crying so hard he just threw up.”

  He and Meredith had disagreed on the whole day care thing. He’d thought it was important that Max be integrated. She’d wanted to keep the toddler with her or a private sitter.

  She was paranoid about safety. With good reason.

  But Caleb had grown too attached to them—the separation anxiety he was experiencing was, in part, their fault.

  They couldn’t let Meri’s fears paralyze their son.

  “It’s three-forty-five,” he said, glancing at the clock on his wall—a Seth Thomas he and Meri had purchased together at a little shop in Carmel. “What time did she say she’d be back?”

  “Technically she’s not due until four but when he was so upset at her leaving, she said she’d be back by three.”

  It got earlier every week. “What time did she drop him off?”

  “One.”

  They’d gone from one full day a week to one half day. And now it was down to two hours?

  Still, it wasn’t like Meri to be late collecting their son. Ever.

  “Mrs. Bennet had a client this afternoon,” he told the woman on the phone. “I suspect she ran over. I’ll be done here in another fifteen minutes or so and will stop by there on my way home. If she shows up in the meantime, have her wait for me, will you?”

  They’d have to talk about increasing Caleb’s time at day care again. Later. Maybe over a glass of wine. When Meri was relaxed.

  “Yes, sir. What do you want me to do with him in the meantime?”

  “Tell him to go play,” Max said. He supposed he sounded harsh. But his son had to learn to cope away from his mother’s watchful eye.

  At two years of age, Caleb was showing no signs of asserting his own independence.

  Clicking to end his call, Max dropped his phone to his desk. And closed the file on his laptop. He wasn’t going to get any more work done. Might as well pack up and get Caleb.

  But first, he put in a call to his wife. She wouldn’t answer if she was still in session with the little boy who had Down syndrome. His parents had hired her for private therapy one day a week in addition to the speech pathology work she did with him at the elementary school where she worked part-time.

  Not surprised when she didn’t pick up—if she was out of session, she’d be getting Caleb—he put his cell phone in the breast pocket of his lab coat and headed out to the minivan he’d purchased when they’d found out they were expecting Caleb.

  He pretended that he was as relaxed as he knew he should be. Meri was fine. There was nothing to worry about.

  Trouble was he’d told himself that once before—in another lifetime. About another woman. His first wife.

  And he’d been wrong.

  She hadn’t been fine at all.

  She’d been dead.

  * * *

  WAVING GOODBYE TO DEVON, who stood with his mother in the doorway to their home, Meredith hurried to her white minivan, a much less posh version of the one Max drove—her choice because she didn’t like to stand out or attract attention. With the remote entry device in the palm of her hand, her finger poised over the panic button, she waited until she was in front of the car, with a view of both sides of the vehicle, ensuring there was no one there waiting to jump in one door as she climbed in the other, and then, pushed the unlock button.

  Ten seconds later she was safely inside with the doors locked. Mrs. Wright, Devon’s mother, was just closing their front door.

  Adjusting her rearview mirror, she stole a panoramic glance of the road behind her. No green vehicles. No vehicles in the street at all.

  And no one sitting in a car in a driveway that she could see.

  No one loitering in the yards or on the sidewalks or the street.

  Nothing suspicious looking at all.

  Unless the absence of human life outside was suspicious....

  Starting the van, she slowly pulled away from the curb. She was late. She’d told the day care she’d be there to pick Caleb up at three. But technically, based on the agreement she’d made with Max, she was supposed to leave Caleb at Let’s Pal Around until four.

  She’d told her husband she’d try to leave him that long but hadn’t expected to succeed. Today, thanks to the new at-home client and the many questions his mother had asked, she just might make it. She just might manage to leave Caleb at day care for the full three hours.

  The important thing to do right then was act as if everything was normal. Get Caleb. Go home. Have a normal evening.

  And find a way to disappear. Before Max figured out that something was wrong and called in his cop friends to save the day and put himself and Caleb in danger in the process. Before Steve got tired of the little cat-and-mouse game he was playing—had possibly been playing for days if he was the one who’d left that note on her van three days before.

  A note with no signature and no number, only a demand to call. She’d tried to convince herself it was a mistake, that it had been meant for some other vehicle. She’d heard Max’s calm voice in her mind, telling her that the past was just that, the past. That Steve hadn’t been around in years and she was letting him win by living in fear.

  Keeping a watch behind her as she entered the main thoroughfare on the outskirts of Santa Raquel, Meredith made a mental plan of the route she would take back to her son. A route that wove in and out of various neighborhoods, seemingly going nowhere fast, until she could be certain
that no one was following her.

  Her rendition of Max’s voice in her head had been telling her to calm down. To stop worrying. To smile.

  She’d tried to smile.

  And had seen that car following her that afternoon. She couldn’t pretend any longer. The note, this car—they added up to only one thing. Steve knew where she lived. He knew her routine.

  Caleb had had a particularly hard time being left at day care. Her sweet little man had probably picked up on her tension. It had gone against every maternal instinct she had to leave him there today.

  And yet, she had been grateful to turn him over and walk out that door. He’d be safe there.

  Safer than he’d be anywhere with her?

  There was a green car behind her. Two cars back. It had been behind her since she’d turned out of Devon’s neighborhood. Staying back in traffic. Not always in the same lane. But there.

  The same green car that had been following her earlier. It was a message to say that he was on to her. That if she was driving he knew. That she belonged to him. Was a part of him. Would always be a part of him. They were both parts of the same body. The same soul.

  She knew the words. Could hear his voice in her head, too. Louder than Max’s.

  Just as she heard her own—telling her to get as far from Caleb’s day care as she could. As quickly as she could.

  Her plan wasn’t fully formed yet. She wasn’t ready.

  But her time was up.

  * * *

  HIS JOB WAS not to panic. When he’d married Meredith Smith, alias Cassandra White, alias Lori Wade, alias Pamela Casey, he’d promised not only to love and to cherish, to be faithful and kind until death did them part, but he’d promised to be the keeper of their calm. The one in charge of making certain that fear didn’t rule their lives.

  He’d promised her he could live with a woman whose life could possibly someday be in danger.

  And in the three years since they’d made those vows, he’d been able to keep every single one of them.

  But unlike Jill, the cop who’d made him a widower four years after they’d married, and who’d driven him crazy with worry countless days and nights before that, Meredith’s entire life revolved around keeping herself and her loved ones safe. Not putting herself in danger to keep the world safe.