Now, Maggie felt numb. She was grateful that her ordeal and the exhaustion that had followed left her senses dulled. It would make things more bearable over the next few days. Like remembering the regret in Zack’s eyes as he’d hugged Mel and promised to keep up with her via e-mail. And watching him drive away, heading back to his life and a career that left little room for anything else. Maggie felt the ache tug the fringes of her heart and dreaded that moment when everything became clear and she had to face the enormous loss.
Zack had made Mel and her laugh. He’d lifted them and comforted them and done all he could to make them safe. That he had personally given Maggie multiple orgasms was an added bonus.
Okay, so she was going to feel like shit for a while.
Maggie heard a car turn into her driveway, and she waited a breathless moment before pulling one drape aside and peering through the small slit. She did not recognize the man who climbed from the car and started up her front walk. She disarmed the alarm system and opened her door, but made certain the storm door was locked. She watched through the glass as the man hurried up the front walk and climbed her front steps. His yellowish-gray hair was mussed, and his navy suit looked as though he’d slept in it.
He gave a sad smile and shrugged helplessly when he saw her looking through the glass. “I know I’m too late, Dr. Davenport. I heard the news in the car on the way over.”
Maggie recognized his voice. “Dr. McKelvey?”
He nodded. “James.”
Zack tried Maggie’s number again, and it rang endlessly. “Dammit, Maggie, stop looking at your caller ID and pick up the phone!” He hung up and spouted a foul word. After driving around for more than an hour and missing her so bad his gut ached. Not only that, something was wrong. He felt it. It had begun as a nagging doubt when he’d slipped into Maggie’s bedroom with a brief note. He needed time to think, he’d written. He’d reached to put the note on her night table when he’d spied James McKelvey’s name and number. He wished now that he’d asked Maggie about it.
He was probably being paranoid, but McKelvey was a drunk who’d been accused of professional misconduct by one of his female patients. Instinct told Zack there was probably more to it or McKelvey would not have closed a lucrative practice or taken a job in a prison, a huge step down professionally. He punched in Max’s number. “It’s me, Zack,” he said, the minute Max answered. “Just how good is that damn computer of yours?”
Maggie unlatched the storm door and opened it. In all the commotion she had completely forgotten about the man. “Please come in.” She closed the door behind him.
“I’m so sorry, Dr. Davenport,” he said. “I won’t waste your time giving you the dismal details of what I went through to get here. I tried calling you several times on the drive from Savannah.”
“I unplugged the phone,” she said. “It was literally ringing off the hook, and my daughter and I were just too tired to deal with all the calls.” She smiled. “I’m Maggie, by the way.” She offered her hand, and they shook. Maggie guessed him to be about fifty years old. He had the ruddy red look and tiny broken veins on either side of his nose that suggested he might indeed be an alcoholic.
“I have reservations at a hotel in town, but I had to come by and make sure you and your little girl were okay. Did I wake you?”
Maggie realized her clothes were badly wrinkled, and she had no idea how her hair looked. She smoothed it back. “I was already awake when you pulled up,” she said. “My daughter and I pretty much zonked out once everybody left. Please sit down.”
He looked surprised as he took a seat on the sofa. “You’re alone?” he asked. “Wouldn’t you feel better having a friend or family member with you?”
“We’re fine,” she said. “Really.” She started to sit. “Could I get you a cup of coffee or soft drink?”
“No, thank you.”
He slid close to the edge of the sofa, leaned forward, and clasped his hands in front of him. “I heard your daughter was, um, taken hostage. How is she?”
“Shaken but better than most girls her age would be after that kind of experience. Carl Lee did not hurt her in any way,” she added. “I think by the time she wakes up, probably a couple of days from now, she’ll be even better.”
McKelvey studied her. “You’re a lot prettier than the grainy newspaper clipping Carl Lee and I have.”
Maggie wasn’t certain she’d heard him right. “Excuse me?”
He reached for his wallet. “Carl Lee asked me to get him a photo of you. All I was able to get was this newspaper clipping.” He pulled it out and unfolded it. “You’re much prettier in person.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why do you have a clipping of me?”
He looked at her. “I felt—” He paused. “I felt I knew you. You were all he talked about, Maggie. In session after session,” he added. “How you followed in your grandfather’s footsteps and became a doctor. I’ll bet you’re a good pediatrician. You have a very gentle and loving nature about you. No wonder Carl Lee couldn’t exorcise you from his thoughts,” he added. “I imagine it would be difficult for any man.”
Maggie heard the warning signs in her mind. “Dr. McKelvey, I’m very tired,” she said. “Perhaps we could visit tomorrow.” She stood.
He carefully slipped the clipping inside his wallet, which he tucked away. “Obsession is a scary thing, you know. A person can become so fixated with something or someone that he or she will go to any lengths to have it. To possess it,” he added, almost in a whisper. “It’s crippling, actually. Have you ever wanted anything that badly, Maggie?” He stood slowly.
“Thank you for coming, James.” She led him to the door. She did not see the knife until it was at her throat.
“Be very quiet, Maggie,” he whispered. “You do not want to wake your daughter. She has been through enough.”
Maggie waited for the stark fear to pass. “Why are you doing this? What do you want?”
“I want you, Maggie,” he said softly. “I’ve wanted you for a long time. To possess you. To be inside you. Carl Lee painted very vivid descriptions of what you were like.”
“I thought you came here to help me. I thought you were going to try to convince Carl Lee to turn himself in.”
“I made sure he was good and dead before I arrived, Maggie. I didn’t even like him, although I will be forever in his debt for his gifts. For giving me you,” he added, his voice at her ear.
“I can help you, James,” she said softly, wondering how his mind had become so twisted.
“Don’t talk. Show me to your bedroom. I want to consume you, Maggie.”
She took a deep calming breath as she considered her options, which were nil at the moment. Think, she told herself. “Okay,” she said her voice calm and even. “Toward the hall, turn left, last door on the left.”
They moved slowly and awkwardly in the dark toward her room. Maggie felt her stomach jump when she noted Mel’s door was partially open. She had closed it when she headed for bed, telling Maggie she didn’t want anybody to bother her for maybe a month.
Maggie’s gaze slid about frantically, but the light from the living room did not reach to the back of the hall. Had Mel gotten up to go to the bathroom and forgotten to close her bedroom door?
“This is my bedroom door,” she said.
“Turn the doorknob,” he whispered.
She hesitated. Felt a shift in the air. Sensed a presence.
“Do what I said, Maggie.”
Maggie reached for the doorknob. She barely had time to open the door before the guest bathroom light flashed on behind them. McKelvey jumped and turned just as the bat came down on his head. He stumbled but remained standing, his eyes fixed on the girl in the pajamas. “You little bitch,” he said, and reached for her. Fists clamped tightly into a ball, Maggie swung hard, aimed for the kidney area. He cried out and turned, his eyes dazed with pain but obviously determined to do harm. The bat came down a second time, and he slumped to the f
loor.
Zack cursed when he found the alarm system disarmed. He shoved the door open. “Maggie! Where are you?”
Leaning against the wall opposite her daughter, Maggie glanced up sharply. “Zack? We’re back here,” she called out.
“Who the hell disarmed the alarm system?” he shouted. “And whose car is that out front?” He stepped into the hall, blindly searching for the light switch. He flipped it on, his gaze sweeping the scene. “Is that McKelvey?”
Maggie nodded wearily.
“He was going to rape Mom,” Mel said, “so I hit him with my baseball bat. Twice.”
“Your grandfather lied,” Zack said. “You don’t swing like a girl.”
“Why are you here?” Maggie asked, dazed.
“I told you I needed to think. Didn’t you get my note?”
“What note?”
“The note that said I need to think about us and my job and how I really wanted to spend the rest of my life. And I decided I wanted to spend it with the two of you.”
“You figured all that out in two hours?” Maggie asked.
“I sort of already suspected.” He stepped across McKelvey’s prostrate body and pulled Maggie into his arms. “There are times, Maggie, when you just know it’s right. This is definitely right.”
McKelvey moaned but remained motionless. Zack turned to Mel. “You are one awesome young lady. Why don’t you pass me the bat and call 911 fo me?”
Mel saluted.
Zack waited until the girl walked away. “I want to marry you, Maggie,” Zack said, eyes darting to McKelvey. “I want to be a good husband to you and a great stepdad to Mel.”
She stared at him in shock. “Marry me? When?”
“Well, first I have to find a job.”
“You quit your job!” she said. “You left the bureau?”
“About five minues ago. I got to thinking about it, and I don’t want to go back to that kind of life. It doesn’t do for me what it did in the past, and I don’t want to worry about people breaking my arms and legs or shooting me in the kneecaps. I need to step back and give the younger men a chance at being a hero like me.”
“You guys could get married at Christmas,” Mel said, coming back down the hall. “Or Valentine’s Day,” she added.
“Come here, kid,” Zack said, pulling Mel against him and hugging them both. He grinned. “I can’t promise you a normal childhood.”
“I know.”
“But I can promise you one thing. This is going to be fun.”
Epilogue
Two Weeks Later
Zack walked into Maggie’s kitchen, his fingers fumbling with the knot on his tie. He paused. “Do you think we have enough time to, uh, you know, before Queenie arrives with Mel and Travis?”
She turned. She wore an apron over the new robin’s-egg-blue silk suit she had bought for the occasion. “After all the time I spent on my makeup and hair? Have you lost your mind?”
“You should have figured that out when I agreed to take Lamar Tevis’s place as police chief.” He yanked his tie in place. “How do I look?” he said. “I wish my arm weren’t in a cast so I could wear a nice suit.”
Maggie smiled and carried yet another plate of food to the kitchen table where a spread had already been laid out. “Paula Zahn is going to think you’re hot.”
“Yeah?” He looked delighted at the prospect. “Um, Maggie? When Paula gets here would you not mention that we’re, you know, engaged?”
Maggie crossed her arms and tried to look stern.
“And did you ask your mother to try and remember that my name is Zack and not Jack?”
“Give her time, Madden. She and my dad are still dealing with what happened while they were in Egypt.” Maggie had kept a few details from them, but they had still taken it hard.
Ben and Lydia, armed with food, knocked on the front door, and Maggie hurried to let them in. A weeklong stint in the hospital had pulled Ben through, and even though the two were smiling, Maggie knew it would take time before they were back to their old selves. “We brought a chocolate cake, and picked up your favorite ice cream at the Full Scoop,” Lydia said.
“Uh-oh,” Zack said, taking the cake and bag of ice cream and carrying it into the kitchen.
Maggie hugged them as Queenie pulled into the driveway, Everest beside her, Mel and Travis in the backseat. Mel had suffered a few nightmares after her ordeal, but she and Maggie had spent a lot of evenings sitting on Maggie’s bed eating Better than Sex chocolate ice cream and talking things out, including the secret Maggie had guarded so long. Mel had been hurt, although she seemed to be taking it in stride, and she had no desire to share the information with the world. She looked forward to having Zack as her stepdad, and she was thrilled to have her first real boyfriend.
Queenie came through the door first, holding up a Full Scoop bag. “I don’t guess I have to tell you what’s in here.”
Everest came in behind her. “Where’s Zack?” he said, not waiting for an answer. “I want to show him what two weeks at the gym can do to a man.” He held up his shirt. “Look at this washboard-stomach thing I’ve got going. And guess what? I take my FBI exam next month. If I get accepted I’ll have to teach you how to do Mel’s hair.” He glanced around. “Have to find my main man, Zack.” He hurried away.
Maggie greeted Travis and hugged her daughter as Max and Jamie pulled up, followed by Vera and Abby Bradley, the Gazette’s new gossip columnist. The column was called “Gab from Abby” and Vera took great pleasure in helping her get the latest scoop.
“Is that a maternity dress?” Maggie asked Jamie, who blushed.
“I know I’m not far along, but I wanted to practice.”
Zack came up beside them and shook Max’s hand. “How is your new goat?” he said grinning. Max and Jamie had taken Butterbean and put her in the pasture behind the house that was being renovated.
“She and Fleas are enjoying the small barn I had built for them,” Max said. “It’s a good thing he moved out because no way is Jamie going to share the butter pecan ice cream.” He grinned at Zack. “You’re looking good, buddy. What time will Paula be here?”
Zack checked his wristwatch. “Any minute now. Notice my new haircut?” he said, showing off his now trimmer hair.
Maggie laughed. “He’s waiting with bated breath.”
Abby came through the door holding a bag from her ice cream shop. She handed it to Maggie. “Your favorite,” she said.
Maggie and Zack stepped back as the house began to fill with guests: Mike Henderson with the cute nurse he’d met at the pharmacy while buying more itch cream for his chicken pox; Lamar Tevis sans wading boots; and finally Destiny and Freddy, who’d flown in to pack up her apartment. It was hard to say what stunned the guests most—Freddy’s new look or Destiny’s gigantic engagement ring.
Once Vera stopped gaping at the groom-to-be, she studied the ring. Finally, she gave a grunt and looked at Destiny. “Won’t this be husband number six for you?”
“Like they say, Vera. Sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your prince.”
“I wish you hadn’t said that,” Vera told her. “I was just getting my sanity back.”
Maggie’s parents arrived, her father bearing something tall wrapped in aluminum foil.
“Jack!” the woman said, giving Zack a hug. “You look so handsome. You and Maggie are going to give us beautiful grandchildren.”
“Oh, gross,” Mel said, giving Travis an eye roll as Maggie kissed her father on the cheek.
“It’s okay,” Travis said. “My family embarrasses me too.” They linked hands and walked out onto the front porch while Maggie’s mother proudly displayed the chocolate fudge cake she’d baked in the shape of a pyramid.
Mel rushed through the front door a few minutes later. “Everybody quiet!” she said. “A limo just pulled up out front. Let’s try to act natural so Miss Zahn doesn’t think we’re a bunch of nutcases.”
“Paula Zahn!” Queenie
cried, and raced through the door as the house emptied out behind her, women reaching into their purses for pads of paper to get Paula’s autograph.
“Oh, gur-reat,” Mel said. “We’re going to look like a bunch of idiots.”
“Well?” Maggie asked Zack, straightening his tie. “Aren’t you going to greet our new guest?”
“Okay, but don’t get jealous if she can’t take her eyes off me,” he said.
The group parted as Zack made his way toward the limo. The chauffeur opened the door, and a middle-aged woman with frizzy blond hair, an enormous nose, and clunky glasses stepped out. A man bearing a camera joined her.
Abby nudged Vera. “Get a load of that, would you? That Paula Zahn doesn’t look a bit like she does on TV. Goes to show you what make up artists and good lighting can do for a person.”
Zack gaped at the woman. “Who are you?” he said. “Where is Miss Zahn?”
“Paula couldn’t make it,” the woman said. “She’s interviewing Oprah today.”
“Oprah,” Queenie said with a heartfelt sigh.
“I’m her assistant, Pam, and you must be Jack. I don’t have a lot of time so if we could just get started. You’ll need some sort of disguise, since you worked undercover. Maybe a hat and sunglasses,” she added.
“I’ve got just the hat,” Zack said.
In the background, Mel moaned aloud.
Zack saw the last of the guests off, including Queenie, who was driving Mel and Travis to the putt-putt course. “Maggie?” he called out.
He walked down the hall, tapped on her door and opened it. He arched both brows at the sight of his fiancée lying on her side, naked, across the bed. One arm was curled around a half gallon of Better than Sex chocolate ice cream.
Zack looked long and hard at her slim body as she spooned a large scoop of ice cream into her mouth and closed her eyes. “I should have guessed,” he said.
She smiled and held up a second spoon.
“Oh, babe.” Zack grinned and joined her on the bed.
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