“Kristen.”
“Don’t talk. Save your strength.”
“Have to tell you.” He forced his eyes open so the last thing he saw was her beautiful blue eyes. “I love you.”
* * *
Kristen walked into her mother’s hospital room to find her father sitting at her bedside holding her hand. Never in her life had Kristen seen her parents show affection to one another.
At her entrance, her father stood and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against him. A tremble ran through him, and he released a shuddering breath. “I nearly lost both my ladies and I would only have myself to blame.”
“Not at all.” Kristen drew back and rested her palm against his cheek. “It was Kirkpatrick who was at fault.”
“But you came too close to dying. Your mother—” His voice broke and he turned to draw a chair forward for Kristen. “Sit down. We have something to tell you.”
“I was going to tell you on our way home Monday,” her mother began.
“Tell me what?” Kristen clasped her hands together on her knees, but not too hard. She had several cuts she had gained while cutting the ropes from her wrists.
“I went on a retreat in Switzerland,” her father continued the explanation, “because your mother and I had decided to—to end our marriage. We’ve barely seen or spoken to one another for the past fifteen years.”
“I see.” Kristen blinked against the tears in her eyes. She didn’t know what to say, how her family could get any more distant from one another.
“But this whole experience this week has shown us how much we still love one another,” Mom said with a soft smile for her husband.
“I thought I lost her and you because I wasn’t here,” he said. “I kept thinking if Julia died, something in me would, and we didn’t need to split up to make our lives better. We need to spend more time together.”
“And with you too,” Mom added. “You’re quite a remarkable young woman.”
“Even if you did take some foolish risks.” Her father’s smile took the sting from his words.
Kristen thought the only thing that would make her happier at that moment was to learn that Nick was going to survive the bullet wound to his side. By the time the sheriff and paramedics had reached the cabin, Nick was unconscious, his last words still ringing in Kristen’s ears.
I love you.
Surely he hadn’t meant it. And yet...
She hugged her arms over her middle. “I look forward to spending more time with both of you. Maybe picnics or boating excursions on the lake? I’ve gotten kind of fond of the outdoors.”
Mom shuddered but nodded. “Whatever you like as long as we get a few art galleries thrown in now and then.”
“We’ll make good with the time we have,” Dad said. “The ones we love are too easily snatched away.”
“Speaking of loved ones,” Mom said, “how is Nick doing?”
Kristen’s cheeks grew warm. “I—I don’t—Why do you ask?”
“Why don’t you go find out how he’s doing?” Dad suggested.
Kristen started to rise. “His family is here. I don’t want to intrude.”
“Intrude,” Mom and Dad said together.
The first time she ever knew them to do anything together.
Kristen hugged them both, Mom with care because she had a torn rotator cuff from having her hands tied too harshly behind her, and she was far too thin from lack of food and water. But she would be all right in the end. Better than all right, Kristen realized.
With more confidence than she had known for perhaps her entire life, she returned to the surgical floor to see if anyone would tell her how Nick was doing. At the end of the hall, the waiting room sounded like a party was taking place. She reached the doorway and stood staring at three generations of Sandovals, from probably midsixties to six, all talking at once.
Then Gina spotted her and rushed across the room to hug her. “The hero of the hour.”
“I think that’s Nick’s honor.” Kristen pulled back. “All I did was pack his wound with towels.”
“And kick Kirkpatrick until he called uncle.” Gina grasped her hand. “Let me introduce you to everyone. The folks are dying to meet you.”
“Wait.” Kristen held back. “Is Nick... Will he be...all right?”
“He hasn’t come out of the anesthesia yet, but the surgeon is confident he’ll be mostly all right.”
Kristen stiffened. “Mostly?”
“The bullet missed any vital organs, but it damaged his hip bone some. He’s got a long recovery before him and lots of physical therapy. That’s going to make him grumpy. Can you put up with that?”
“After what he put up with from me, I am sure I can.”
If he wanted her around and those last words weren’t just because he thought he was dying.
“But what about his job? Will he lose it?” she asked. “I mean because he went off the grid with me and all.”
“And exposed a crooked marshal.” The older man’s voice boomed through the room. “They’ll give him a medal. It’s been all over the news.”
“Callahan was arrested a few minutes ago,” Gina explained.
“Good. He—” Kristen wasn’t able to express her opinion of Callahan. In seconds, everyone surrounded her, asking questions—about her expedition with Nick, about how he brought Kirkpatrick and his men down. Telling the story was easy, as she had already given it to the sheriff and then an FBI agent. She elaborated as much as she could, knowing she was likely to have to give it again to reporters. Just as she finished, a nurse appeared in the doorway.
“Is there a Kristen here?”
The room grew silent, all eyes on her.
“I’m Kristen,” she said, heart beginning to race.
“Mr. Sandoval is awake and would like to see you,” the nurse said.
Kristen floated to the door, the clan surging behind her.
“Just Kristen right now,” the nurse said.
“But I’m his mother,” Mrs. Sandoval protested.
“Girlfriends come first, Nancy,” her husband reminded her.
“But I’m not—”
Her protest ignored, Kristen was swept down the corridor to a dimly lit room where Nick lay beneath a sheet, his face as pale as the linen. But his lips and eyes smiled at her, and he reached one hand toward her. “Kristen.”
She took his hand in both of hers. “Hey, Nick. You look terrible.”
“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
They fell silent, their eyes locked until Kristen drew the courage to ask, “Do you remember what you said before you passed out?”
“Of course I do. I asked for a pizza.”
She laughed. “That’s right. With pepperoni.”
“I was delirious. I prefer sausage.” He raised her hand to his cheek. “I’ll have to be careful how much pizza I eat, especially nice thick Chicago-style, if I’m going to be laid up for weeks. Can you put up with me?”
“Yes.”
“Will you?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll probably end up with a boring desk job, you know.”
“You could never be boring, no matter what your job.”
“Wow, you talk like you might like me a little.”
“I like you a lot.” She leaned down and kissed him. “In fact, I love you.”
“And I love you,” he said.
And they kissed again, to seal a future of love and laughter and their two families.
EPILOGUE
No wonder brides still insisted on long gowns. The skirts hid knocking knees. Her father’s hand over hers in the crook of his elbow masked how Kristen’s fingers shook. No one could see the migration of butterflies swarming through her middle, but she knew they were there—butterfl
ies that managed to feel like half horses, wings fluttering and hooves galloping around and around as though they were butterfly ponies on a carousel.
Butterponies? Horseflies? No, horseflies were already a large, biting insect. Maybe flutterhorses.
Kristen giggled at her own nonsense thoughts. Her father smiled down at her and squeezed her hand. In the back row of the church, eight of Nick’s male cousins, ages between fifteen and twenty, glanced her way and grinned.
Kristen winked at the youngest and cutest one. He blushed and ducked his head, his hair falling over his forehead.
Nick must have looked that way in his teens—unruly hair, gangly body and a grin that would have ladies following him around.
If she and Nick were blessed enough to have a son, he would look like that—she hoped. She wanted all their sons to resemble their father, and their daughters to favor Kristen or the women in Nick’s family. At least two sons and two daughters. A big family like Nick’s.
Thoughts of bearing Nick’s children made Kristen’s ears and cheeks turn so hot they must resemble the red roses in her bouquet. Red for warmth. Red for joy. Red for love. On this frosty November afternoon, the attendants wore red velvet dresses and carried white roses.
The last of those attendants, the matron of honor, Nick’s sister Gina, approached the front of the church. The music changed, began to modulate, to swell into the bride’s processional, and Kristen’s flutterhorses returned, beating double time to the throb of the organ. Gina reached the line of bridesmaids, six to accommodate the women her mother insisted she must ask, six more than Kristen and Nick wanted.
My daughter just gets married once, Mother had insisted. You’ll do it right.
“Right” seemed to involve inviting everyone in both extended families as well as everyone who worked in the courthouse, or so it seemed. As Nick moved to the head of the aisle and the sanctuary suddenly appeared a mile long, her beloved, the man who could banish her flutterhorses and melt her heart with the mere touch of his hand on hers, waited for her too far away. He would change his mind before she got there. She would trip over the scalloped lace hem of her dress and fall, thus never reaching him. A siren would scream past on the highway and wake her up to realize the past six months had been the best dream of her life.
Tears filled her eyes. She raised her lids, conscious she must not blink and send the drops running through her carefully applied makeup.
Yes, she wore makeup—mascara heavy on her lashes, foundation, powder, blush, bronzer and who knew what else on her nose and cheeks. It was so stiff she feared she would crack the mask if she smiled too much.
It was so stiff she knew everything was not a dream—makeup, gown, a church full of people. This was her day. Hers and Nick’s. Who cared if she smiled and flawed the layers of cosmetics? She was smiling at Nick waiting for her at the altar.
Kristen took a step forward.
“Wait for your father to go first.” The wedding planner slipped behind Kristen and fluffed out her train. “Remember how I showed you to walk.”
She didn’t remember. She didn’t care if she remembered. She wasn’t there to impress anyone with the gracefulness she knew she didn’t possess. Her only purpose in that room at that moment was to get to Nick as fast as she could and become his wife.
Only the wedding planner’s grip on her elbow stopped Kristen from releasing her father’s arm and racing down the aisle and into Nick’s arms.
The music reached its crescendo. Everyone in the audience rose and turned toward the aisle, turned to stare at Kristen.
She was going to be sick. She was going to crumple into a heap on the white vinyl crash lining the walkway and begin to blubber like a baby.
The crash. A good name for what was going to happen to her.
A sharp movement at the front of the sanctuary caught Kristen’s attention. Nick had raised one hand as though beckoning her forward. Beckoning her to his side.
Kristen took a deep breath and stepped forward. The guests faded into a blur no more significant than houses on an unfamiliar street. With her gaze on the man awaiting her at the altar, Kristen found her footsteps steady, even, purposeful. The endless-seeming aisle slipped away, and she was suddenly at Nick’s side, his hand gripping hers, so warm, so firm.
“Dearly beloved,” the pastor said.
And the most important part of the ceremony began. Words of wisdom from the pastor, Nick’s voice full of conviction speaking his vows, her own far clearer than she thought she could manage in front of five hundred people. Then Nick kissed her, his “I love you,” nearly drowned out in the round of applause.
Nick and Kristen led the way back down the aisle to receive congratulations and hugs from dozens of relatives. Most important of those were Kristen’s own parents, who were heading off on a monthlong cruise for a second honeymoon, their marriage renewed. Nick’s parents and siblings welcomed her like another daughter and sister, more love than she ever thought she would have. Kristen knew life wouldn’t always be smooth, but with Nick at her side and the two of them surrounded by family, certainty ran to her core that she would never have to face the bumps and mountains along life’s journey alone.
* * *
If you enjoyed Lethal Ransom, look for this other Love Inspired Suspense title by Laurie Alice Eakes.
Perilous Christmas Reunion
Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com
Keep reading for an excerpt from Undercover Jeopardy by Kathleen Tailer.
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Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading Lethal Ransom. This idea has been in my head a long time, and I am grateful to be able to write it and share it with you all.
Kristen is the kind of heroine I can relate to—caring about others, smart and courageous. Yet she doesn’t think she has strengths and abilities to survive. Nick is haunted by events in his past that rattled his self-confidence. As they fight for their very lives, they learn they work better together than separately, bringing out the best in themselves and one another.
Once again, I have made my beloved Midwest the setting. Crowded city streets and vast woods create so many lovely opportunities for danger and intrigue.
I love to hear from my readers. You can contact me through my website www.lauriealiceeakes.com or find me on Twitter @laurieaeakes or Facebook.com/authorlauriealiceeakes/.
Laurie Alice Eakes
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Undercover Jeopardy
by Kathleen Tailer
ONE
Detective Daniel Morley wrote the date on
his deposit slip, then double-checked it against the large calendar the bank had posted on one of the columns near the customer service desk among the green pine trim and the red-and-white candy cane decorations. December 14. It had been one year since Bethany Walker had disappeared from his life. An entire year of searching and coming up empty. He was a detective—one of the best in the business, but he’d utterly failed to find her, despite his herculean efforts. She had been his fiancée but now, instead of celebrating their wedding anniversary, he was solemnly remembering the last time he’d seen her and the hurtful words he’d spoken during their argument right before she’d driven away. He should have gone after her. Now, he didn’t know if he’d ever even see her again, and the calendar before him was just one more reminder of how long she had been missing from his life.
People didn’t just disappear, and yet, Bethany seemed to have done just that. Her apartment lease had been paid in advance, but despite several evenings of surveillance, he had not seen a single person enter or leave. He’d even used his law enforcement credentials to complete a welfare check. Daniel and the landlord walked through the rooms together, but there was no sign of Bethany, or any clues as to her whereabouts. Her refrigerator was bare, and there were only a few staples left in the pantry. It was obvious that she wasn’t living there. But then where was she staying? And if she’d moved and left the Chattanooga area completely, why had she kept the lease? It was a mystery.
“Excuse me, can I please have one of those?” An older lady smiled at him as her voice brought him out of his reverie. She motioned toward the stack of deposit slips sitting in front of him, and he smiled back at her as he pushed them in her direction so they were within her reach.
“Of course. Here you go.”
The bullets from a semi-automatic machine gun slammed into the ceiling, quickly covering Daniel with dust and debris from the tiles overhead as the noise shattered the peaceful Friday morning. He instinctively crouched, taking the older woman with him and pushing her under the desk for safety. He pulled out his service 9 mm pistol, his eyes darting around the room as he assessed the situation.
Lethal Ransom Page 18