by Jodie Bailey
“Anthony.” She tried to sit up but Sam eased her back down. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. Dana’s been in contact with him and our people in El Paso have moved him into hiding until we’re certain we’ve tied up all of the loose ends with Burgaw and her new organization.”
Amy sank against the pillows, her energy flagging. It sounded as though everyone was safe and she could move on to her new life without leaving anyone behind her in danger. But the thought of leaving Sam was growing harder by the second. It couldn’t be stopped, but she needed to know he wouldn’t beat himself up forever over letting Layla get to her. “Don’t blame yourself.”
“About that...” Sam smiled, squeezed her hand, then let go to relax in the chair. “I had a lot of time to think while you were playing Sleeping Beauty just now. And you’re right. Well, what I said to you was right, so I guess that means I’m right. Right?” He shot her a wink that nearly weakened her muscles more than the ordeal of the past few hours. “No one saw this Layla/Sienna person coming. Nobody. Same with the wasps. Same with...” His voice faded, and he stared at the wall behind her for a moment before he cleared his throat. “Someone was killed on my watch, but I couldn’t have seen it coming either. I tried my best, just like I’ve tried my best with you. And beating myself up repeatedly for things outside of my control when I know I’ve done my best is wrong. It’s a sin. It negates what Jesus did on the cross. So you’re right. I’m right. It’s time to let go and accept some grace as well as giving some to myself.” This time when he smiled, it seemed freer, easier than she’d ever seen it before. “It’s time to learn from my mistakes instead of living in them.”
Amy smiled. He’d learned the same thing she had. And while she might never be free to be Amy Brady again, never free to be with the man she now realized she loved, she was free in every way that mattered even more than that.
Sam’s smile shifted from joy into one that looked to be slightly mysterious. “There’s something else we need to talk about.”
Amy raised an eyebrow. “Okay...”
“Grant Meyer and Logan Cutter are dead. Sienna Burgaw is in custody and is talking already, probably hoping for a reduced sentence. She’s not the strong crime boss she wants to pretend she is. Once we know the whole of her organization is shut down...”
As he trailed the thought off, the implications of his words were slow to sink in, but as they registered, they brought an entirely different kind of muscle weakness. “I might be free?” This time, the scratch in her voice was more the product of unshed tears than the beating her body had taken through the day.
“I can’t make you any promises, but it’s looking like a greater possibility every moment.” This time, when he took her hand, he gripped it as though he never wanted to let go. “It would be your choice, of course. No one knows what Sienna Burgaw will try or if she will be as vengeful as Grant Meyer was and that’s a chance you’d be taking, but with the way she’s behaving now... She might have been one seeking a ruthless climb to the top, but she certainly doesn’t want to pay the piper in full. I’d imagine her criminal days are done once she’s behind bars.”
Amy nodded and gripped his hand. “I could see my sister?” Her twin might not forgive her, but at least Amy had to try. She prayed that blood and their history together as close sisters would cover the multitude of her sins.
“You sure?”
“Grace. I’m going to rely on grace. Same way you should.”
“I’m working on it, and on that note, maybe there’s something else we should talk about.” This time, when his expression shifted, it held something like a veiled fire. “When you’re a free woman, I think we should—”
A knock on the door stopped whatever he’d planned to say, and Isaiah peered inside. His gaze landed on Amy first, and he gave her a slight smile as he stepped into the room. “Nice to see you looking healthy.”
“Nice to be healthy.” She glanced at Sam, silently begging him to look at her again the way he had been before they were interrupted. “Your team’s here?”
Sam nodded, but he was watching Isaiah. “Is it time?”
“A couple of minutes. Everything is in place.” He gave a quick nod, then disappeared again as the door slipped closed behind him.
“Wait.” Amy’s eyebrows furrowed, bringing the dull ache in her head into clearer focus. “What’s happening?”
“We still have to get you to a safe place until we know for certain the threat to your life is over. We’re moving you to a secure ward in the hospital where we can control who comes and goes until you’re well enough to travel, and then you’ll be moved to DC.” Sam turned toward her again, his gaze full force on hers, holding her into place and sending her mind and heart whirling to places she wasn’t certain she was ready to handle. “Before we move you and there are people watching you around the clock, I want to—”
Another knock, and a nurse stepped in pushing a wheelchair.
Everything was happening so fast. Amy was free but she wasn’t. She had Sam but she didn’t. She was safe but she was in danger. Her head throbbed too much to make sense of anything happening other than one thing... Sam had something to say and no one was letting him say it. She needed to know what it was, craved the knowledge that his feelings for her mirrored hers for him.
But he slipped away from her with a look of defeat, not meeting her eye again as he helped the nurse ease her into the wheelchair. When she was settled, he led the way to the door with the nurse pushing the chair.
Every inch closer to the door crushed the air from her chest even harder. If they made it to the hallway, Sam might morph back into a government agent and never again take the risk of saying the words she’d seen behind his eyes. “Wait. Stop.”
The nurse hesitated, but Sam was all motion, stopping in front of the chair and preventing any further motion toward the door.
He knelt in front of Amy and searched her eyes before he glanced at the nurse. “Can you give us a second?” The other woman hesitated, but when Sam shot her a look that said he meant business, she hurried from the room and shut the door behind her.
* * *
The nurse’s exit hardly registered with Sam as Amy lifted her free hand and ran her fingers down his cheek. The gesture was the only confirmation he needed. Letting his cheek rest against her palm, he reached up, slid her palm to his mouth and planted a kiss in the center. “If I don’t get you upstairs in about two minutes, a bunch of deputy marshals are going to show up to escort you to a safe place. While I’m almost certain that’s going to be temporary, I can’t let it happen before I say what needs to be said. And if I don’t say it quick, we’re probably going to be interrupted again so...” Sam slid his hand up her arm and across her shoulder to tangle his fingers in the hair at the base of her neck. He drew her closer until their foreheads nearly touched and whispered, “I will come for you no matter where WITSEC sends you next. And I will never leave.”
Amy leaned into him, her expression seeming to melt at his touch.
“I might have yelled at you the first time I found you, when you were brash enough to duck out of WITSEC, but I think I also started falling in love with you in that moment. It’s why I stayed close to you and partnered with Edgecombe.”
“I thought they ordered you.”
“I asked.”
“I’m glad.” She tipped her head and brushed her lips against his, then backed away slightly. “I love you.”
“I was supposed to say that first.” He was dying to kiss her, to seal this moment with a kiss neither of them would ever forget, but he had one more thing to say, one more thing he had to know before he could let go and fully give his heart to her forever in a way he’d never imagined he’d be free to do. “I have an idea for your new name.”
Confusion flitted across her features and she stiffened. “I thought you said I was about to be free of all of this.”
“I’m thinking Amy Maldonado has a nice ring to it.”
As the realization of what he was asking dawned, a smile tipped the corners of her mouth. “It’s perfect.” Without waiting for him to make the move, she closed the small space between them, kissing him in a way that no one else ever had, pouring herself into him and healing the last of his broken places.
She started a new clock in his heart, one that counted up to a lifetime with her.
EPILOGUE
She could do this. She could do this. She could do this.
Amy pressed her back against the sun-warmed brick beside the window of The Color Café in the tiny downtown of Mountain Springs, North Carolina. Her heart threatened to beat a path up her throat, choking off her oxygen. Could she do this? Could she walk the five feet to the door, pull it open and face her twin sister for the first time in too many years?
Leaning against the wall beside her, Sam laced his fingers through hers and squeezed, the pressure of the ring he’d presented to her when she left the hospital the day before still new—and glorious—on her finger. “Jenna’s about to come out of her skin waiting for you to show up. You have nothing to be afraid of. It was all we could do to keep her from coming to the hospital, even though we told her over and over that you didn’t want a reunion in a sterile room.” He slipped his fingers from hers, then placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her gently toward the door. “Rich is probably having to call up all of his high school football moves to keep her from barreling out the door and searching for you.”
Amy stiffened her neck and lifted her chin. Sam was probably right, and her sister was probably as excited for this reunion as Amy was herself. But still, that nagging fear that Eve—now Jenna—would turn her away was almost too much to overcome. Sam’s fingers tightened on her shoulders and he leaned closer, his chest brushing her back and his whisper tickling her ear. “You can do this. I’m praying for you.”
There it was. Truth. The tension eased and Amy pulled in her first deep breath since...since ever. This wasn’t in her hands; it was in God’s. He’d already seen how this would turn out. He already knew how her sister would greet her. Sam was right. There really was nothing to fear...
Even if everything inside of her was jumping and humming.
With a final quick prayer of her own, she made the last steps to the door and pulled it open, stepping into the warmth of a bright, cheerful room filled with blank canvases and a range of artwork. The scent of paint and coffee mingled into a blend that was oddly comforting and somehow familiar.
She’d barely taken it in when a motion to the left caught her attention. She was half turned when her sister nearly tackled her, pulling her into a tight hug that Amy immediately and instinctively reciprocated. The tears came for them both, shaking their shoulders.
Relief and that final sense of home washed over Amy as she clung to the sister she’d been certain she’d never see again, embracing a life God had restored to her in ways she’d never imagined. A new town, a new love, a new beginning...but her family restored and her heart made whole.
Amy Brady was alive once again.
* * *
If you enjoyed this story, look for Jenna’s story, Mistaken Twin.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Perilous Pursuit by Kathleen Tailer.
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Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for being a part of this three-book journey in the town of Mountain Springs...and in Jenna and Amy’s reunion. I’ve had the best time weaving together Erin and Jenna and Amy’s stories.
The common thread for them is fear. Isn’t it amazing how often God has told us in the Bible not to fear? He knew from Creation that we would be afraid. There is so much to fear in this world. But here’s the thing... Fear comes when we forget the One Who created us is the One Who is in control. That’s true for me. When I begin to doubt, I pull a Peter, put my eyes on the waves and sink. The beauty happens when I, like Peter, cry out, “Lord, save me!” He always stretches out His hand and lifts me up.
I pray you know Jesus in that way. That those things you fear are things you can lay at His feet. As one who battled debilitating fear for a decade, I know it is not easy, but when I look back on those years, I see Jesus more than I see fear. Lift your head and seek Him. I promise He is there.
I’d love to hear from you!
Pop over to www.jodiebailey.com or send an email to [email protected]. Hearing from you all always makes the day a bit brighter!
Jodie Bailey
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Perilous Pursuit
by Kathleen Tailer
ONE
“Really?” Mackenzie Weaver groaned and shuffled the groceries in her hands, trying to get the right key in the lock so she could get into her apartment. She’d been out all day and was bone-tired after spending hours meeting with the executives involved in her latest project for the local US Marshals office. They’d finally hammered out a deal and had approved her action plan, but it had been a long and arduous process. She shifted again, still not able to get the right key in her hand. Her purse slipped from her shoulder to her elbow, and the weight made her movements even more awkward. She juggled a bit more, and two oranges fell from her grocery bag. She let out an exasperated sigh. If she wasn’t careful, the deli container of salsa she had purchased would open up and make a truly nasty mess.
Dear God, please help me make it through this day.
Her prayer was short but heartfelt. Just as she bent down to pick up the oranges, the first bullet ripped into the door frame. The sound was deafening. Splinters and paint chips spit at her as a second bullet hit just below the first. For Mackenzie, the noise from the gun was just as shocking as the sight of the bullets tearing into the wood.
She dropped her bags and hit the floor, her heart beating so hard it felt like it was about to come out of her chest. Her breath came in gasps. She scooted against the wall and then fumbled for her phone so she could call 911. She never had an opportunity. Suddenly, two rough hands pulled her to her feet and dragged her into her apartment. Another man closed the apartment door behind them.
“You idiot!” The man at the door spoke gruffly as he approached. “Why did you shoot at her? We don’t want her dead! Not yet anyway, and now the noise is going to bring us company we don’t need.” His words sent a chill down her spine, and she started shaking.
Mackenzie tried to scream, but her captor quickly put his hand over her mouth and squeezed. His other arm was around her waist, and he pulled her roughly against him. She was sure his tight grip would leave a bruis
e, and his pungent body odor made the situation even worse. “Shut up, sweetheart, or you’ll never speak again.”
She stopped screaming but didn’t stop struggling until he used the hand still clasped over her mouth to pull her head at such an awkward angle that it hurt to even move. The man was much larger than her, and even though she couldn’t see his face, she could feel his polluted breath prickling the skin on her neck. When he spoke, his voice was gravelly and cruel. “Now you’re learning.” He pulled her head again, and she whimpered in pain. “Don’t try anything stupid. Got it?”
The second man took a step forward so he was clearly in Mackenzie’s line of sight. He was a large, burly man with a shock of dark hair and thick, beefy forearms. His hands were the biggest ones she’d ever seen. Even his eyebrows were bushy and accented the fierce expression on his face. He was truly formidable. “Your name is Weaver, right?” His voice was deep and menacing.
Her captor removed his hand from her face, but she didn’t answer until he jerked her head once again by yanking her hair.
She whimpered in pain. “Yes.”
“You make movies, right?”
“Yes.”
“Where do you keep the copies?”
“Copies of what?”
The hairy man shook his head as if he was reasoning with a small child and took a step closer. “Are you trying to make me mad?” He pulled a pistol from his belt and put it under her chin. She could feel the cold metal biting against her skin. “I don’t play games. Got it? Answer my question.”
“I’m not trying to be difficult,” she said softly, hoping to calm him down so she could figure out what he wanted. She was so scared it was hard to think, but she kept talking anyway. “I just don’t understand what you want. I’ve made lots of movies, and I have all sorts of copies and edited versions of various scenes. If you tell me more about what you’re looking for, I might be able to help.” She glanced at her desk, which was behind the man, and he followed her eyes. He instantly turned and started searching through the drawers and filing cabinet. Papers were soon strewn about, and books and other items were thrown into disarray throughout her home office space. What were they looking for? Which of her projects had garnered their attention? None of this made any sense to her, but her confusion did little to ameliorate her fear.