by Camy Tang
“Are you sure he doesn’t know where Gloria is?”
Horatio shook his head. “I have an all-points bulletin out on her, and Randy has given us information on how to find and capture Lee.”
The detective turned to Rachel. “Until we have her and Lee, you need to stay low. Neither of them knows you survived Lee’s last attempt on your life, so let’s keep it that way.”
“Who doesn’t know you survived?” Naomi asked as she rushed into Edward’s hospital room. “I can’t believe you started without me. Aunt Becca said there was something urgent?”
“Gloria Reynolds is the person trying to kill Rachel,” Becca told her.
Naomi’s mouth dropped open. “Our spa client? Gloria was the one talking to Rachel’s kidnapper on the phone?”
“She’s apparently been missing for days, ever since Randy was captured—”
“But she walked into the spa this morning,” Naomi burst out.
“I saw her,” Becca said excitedly. “Did you talk to her?”
Naomi nodded, her eyes unfocused, her face white. “Oh, no.”
Edward had a sinking feeling in his gut.
“Gloria sought me out and said she hadn’t seen Rachel recently, asked if she was okay.” Naomi’s brow wrinkled in dismay. “I said you were fine. Because by then, I knew you were.”
Horatio frowned. “She’d probably been hoping you’d give away if you were lying and still worried about Rachel.”
“And I would have. If Rachel were still missing, there’s no way I could have hidden that from anyone.”
“What was her reaction?”
“I don’t know,” Naomi said, chewing her bottom lip. “I didn’t pay much attention to her. I was giving instructions to two massage therapists and only took a second to answer her.” She gave a frustrated huff. “I should have been paying attention. Gloria never asks about any of the family when she comes to the spa.”
“Do you remember anything else she said?”
“She didn’t say anything else to me,” Naomi replied. “But maybe she spoke to one of the other staff….”
“I’ll get on it.” Horatio pulled out his cell phone.
“I should have known,” Naomi whispered hoarsely. “Gloria looked less…made-up than normal. A little antsy. And I didn’t even suspect anything was wrong.”
“I didn’t even notice her appearance, and I saw her enter and leave,” Becca said. “I just let her walk right out of the spa.”
“Even if you had suspected her, she’d have been able to leave faster than you could call a security guard or the police,” said Rachel.
“But, Rach, now she knows.” Naomi gripped her sister’s shoulders. “Gloria Reynolds knows you’re still alive.”
NINETEEN
With everything she had endured, it somehow felt wrong that her life was still in danger. When would all this end?
Rachel grabbed her house keys and found Naomi in the kitchen. “Can I borrow your winter coat?”
“Where’s yours?”
“Alex found a GPS tracker shoved in the lining. That’s how Gloria’s goons found me at their mother’s farm.” It had made her sick to her stomach to remember that night and how she’d put Edward, Carmella and Alex in danger.
“But Alex took the tracker out, right? So why don’t you want to use your coat?”
“I’m being paranoid. That’s the new definition of ‘cautious’ these days.”
Naomi’s mouth twisted in a wry half smile at her quip, but Rachel knew she understood her tension. The entire Grant household had been stressed since Rachel had escaped the near-drowning two days ago.
“Let me get it for you.” Naomi headed upstairs to her room and Rachel followed. “Where are you going?”
“To the hospital.”
“Why? Isn’t Edward being discharged today?”
“I want to be there. Thanks.” She took Naomi’s coat from her. “Where’s Dad? Alex is going to pick me up soon.”
“Out in the garden, I think.”
“It’s kind of cold for him, isn’t it?”
Naomi sent her a sidelong look. “He’s been spending more time out there since you and he…fought and made up. And since the attempts on your life.”
She hadn’t talked to Dad much. She’d been too busy trying to play it safe, to see if there was anything else she could do to help Detective Carter find Lee or Gloria.
She supposed the good news was that her product launch was safe, now that Gloria was on the run. But the launch might still be delayed if she couldn’t spend as much time at the lab as she needed to in order to get the clinical data analyzed and to start production.
Oh, and she had to hire a new research assistant, and this time, try not to pick someone who would stab her in the back.
And Edward was going home today, feeling good—according to him—and ready to take up his post as Rachel’s personal bodyguard.
After all this was over, Rachel had hopes he’d continue to stick around.
She had reached the foot of the stairs and was about to turn toward the back of the house when her cell phone rang. It was Detective Carter. “Hello?”
“Hi, Rachel. We caught Lee.”
“Thank God!” She sank onto the stairs, dropping the coat beside her, and rested her head in her hand. She could almost feel the acid in her stomach start to neutralize, relaxing her gut muscles from the stress of the past few days. “He’s locked away? He won’t get loose?”
“No. He won’t get out on bail, and he seemed open to a full confession. It turns out Mr. Reynolds knew what his wife was doing, but didn’t actively participate. However, he didn’t try to stop her, either. We’re pressing charges against him, too.”
“And Gloria?”
“Still in the wind, but don’t worry, Rachel, we’ll get her. We also captured your lab assistant, Stephanie. She’d been holed up in one of the Sonoma farms.”
Rachel had been worrying about that last thread. She didn’t think Stephanie would try to harm her, but it hadn’t made her feel very safe to know that she was out there, free.
“Everything will get back to normal soon,” Detective Carter assured her.
Except Rachel didn’t know if she really wanted everything exactly back to what her life had been like. Her eyes were more open to God, to her relationship with her father. And her heart was more open to a different type of relationship with Edward.
No, the way things used to be was gone. In this case, new would be a good thing.
A great thing.
“Thanks, Detective.”
“Say hello to Edward for me today.”
“I will.” She said goodbye and closed her phone, just sitting on the stairs for a moment to let it sink in. Lee was in custody. He couldn’t get to her. He was going to confess to everything.
She heard a footfall to her left, from the kitchen area. She peered through the open doorway. “Dad?”
No, that wouldn’t be her father’s wheelchair. But Naomi was upstairs. Monica and Aunt Becca had gone into Sonoma with Evita to pick up some supplies.
Her father’s wheelchair came into view.
“Oh, there you are, Dad. I was just about to go looking—”
He was followed by Gloria Reynolds, holding a gun to his head.
Every nerve in Rachel’s body zapped to life. She shot to her feet. “Gloria! Let him go.”
The once-elegant spa client regarded her with smoldering eyes, full of wildfire, with dark bags under them. “You.” She almost growled the word, her tone rich with loathing.
Her father’s white face held a mixture of intense worry and also frustration that this crazed woman could so easily overtake him, that he couldn’t fight her. “I’m sorry, Rachel. She made me undo the security alarm.”
“Shut up.” Gloria’s normally prim hair was a halo about her head, and she tossed aside a heavy lock of it that had fallen in front of her eyes.
Rachel thought she caught a glimpse of movement behind Gloria, th
rough the glass panels of the front door, but before she could look, Naomi’s voice rang out in surprise from the landing on the second floor. “Gloria!”
“Stay back!” Gloria punctuated her words by jabbing the gun farther into her father’s neck. He winced and swallowed.
“Let him go,” Rachel said.
“It’s all your fault,” Gloria hissed, pushing her father into the foyer and taking a limping step forward on a broken pump heel.
“If you let him go, I’ll come with you,” Rachel said.
“Rach!” Naomi protested at the same time Dad shouted, “No!”
“You’re not in a position to bargain,” Gloria said.
“If you shoot me, or shoot him, Naomi can still call the police.” She gestured to Naomi, looking over them all on the second-floor landing. “Alex is coming in a few minutes, too.”
“You’re just bluffing.”
“I’m not. I’m offering you a way out. If I go with you right now, we can leave before Alex gets here. You’ll have more time to kill me, hide my body, run away.”
“Rachel, what are you saying?” her father demanded.
“Just let my father go, and I’ll come with you.” Rachel held her hands out in front of her.
Gloria’s lips were tight, but her face looked gaunt, with her eyes dark and huge. She shook her head, her hair falling in her eyes again. “I’ve lost everything, and it’s all your fault. I just want you dead.” She raised her gun at Rachel.
Edward yanked Alex to one side of the front door, out of sight. “Keep quiet,” he whispered. Thank God he had decided to surprise Rachel by having Alex pick him up from the hospital early and then drive him to her house.
“What is it?” Alex whispered.
“I saw Gloria Reynolds in there with a gun.” Pointed at Augustus Grant, with Rachel only a few yards away. It was the night in the parking lot all over again, and him unable to do anything.
Not this time.
He whipped out his cell phone. “Mama?”
“Edward, what—?” Her face stared at him from the truck window where it was parked in the Grants’ driveway.
“Mama, just listen to me. Call Detective Carter right now. Gloria Reynolds is inside the Grant home. And stay in the truck!”
He shut his phone and motioned to Alex. “Follow me. We can enter through the back door.” They darted around the corner of the house.
“What about the alarm?”
“They must have disarmed it or Gloria wouldn’t be in side.”
“Let’s hope they didn’t rearm it once she got in.” Alex crouched down as they scuttled under the edge of a kitchen window. “And here we thought it would be safer to bring you to Rachel rather than driving her to the hospital.”
“Horatio had just arrested Lee. Our plan was safer.” Edward opened the wooden gate to the backyard slowly, praying the hinges wouldn’t squeak. He slipped inside, followed by Alex, and then carefully closed the gate without a sound.
They crept along the side of the house and around the corner toward the back sliding glass door, which opened into the kitchen. If they were quiet enough, they could sneak up behind Gloria and Augustus.
That was a long distance to cover inside the house without making a sound.
“Let me do this.” Alex nudged him aside and slowly slid open the glass door into the kitchen, just a mere inch.
No alarm.
Alex opened the door farther, trying to be both quick and quiet. If they didn’t get in and close the door fast enough, Gloria might hear the outside sounds from the backyard and know the door was open.
Alex slithered inside, but Edward had to crack the door open a little more to be able to get his body through. As soon as his legs cleared the door, Alex again worked the sliding door in quiet inches until it was closed again.
Alex removed his shoes, and Edward followed suit. In their socks, they slid across the linoleum floor of the kitchen, able to see into the L-shaped breakfast area. The section closest to them was clear. They took slow steps inside, then peeked around the corner toward the open doorway into the foyer.
Gloria had already taken a few steps out of the breakfast area and stood within the foyer, her back to them. Edward couldn’t see Rachel, but Gloria faced the base of the stairs, where he’d last seen her.
Gloria shook her head, her tangled hair falling in front of her eyes. “I’ve lost everything, and it’s all your fault.” Her voice was hoarse and trembling with rage. “I just want you dead.”
She raised the gun.
For Edward, it was déjà vu, watching someone point a gun at Rachel, with him several feet away.
No. He’d just found her. He wouldn’t lose her.
“Gloria!” he roared.
She swung the gun around toward him.
He didn’t care—just as long as it wasn’t pointing at Rachel.
Gloria reached up a hand to clear the hair that had fallen into her eyes.
Edward rushed her.
“No!” Augustus twisted in the chair and pushed at Gloria.
A flash of light. The explosion of the gun discharging.
A cannonball hit Edward in the left shoulder. He stumbled, but kept moving forward, his other hand swinging at the gun.
He collided with both her and Augustus in a cloud of acrid gunpowder. They all went down, the wheelchair clanking as it hit the foyer tiles.
Edward scrambled to grab Gloria, managing to pin one of her arms while she was still stunned by the fall.
A split second later she started to thrash violently, kicking at him. Augustus’s face suddenly appeared across her body from him—he must have crawled from where he and his wheelchair fell. Augustus used his weight to pin her other arm, but the stroke had stolen the strength from his limbs, and he struggled to keep hold of Gloria.
She was crazed, and her mania gave her extraordinary strength. Alex tried to fall on her legs, but she kneed him in the chest, and he grunted as he fell back.
Then Naomi appeared, grabbing one leg while Alex grabbed the other, both of them bucking under Gloria’s kicks.
“Rachel!” Augustus shouted. “Zip ties! Garage work-bench—second drawer from the right!” Running footsteps.
Gloria’s back arched off the floor as she freed her arm from Augustus’s weaker grip and whipped at Edward’s head. The blow made him see stars for a moment, but he fought to keep his weight on her other wriggling arm.
He began to feel how the poison and the hospital stay had weakened him as his muscles trembled with fatigue. Where was Rachel with the zip ties?
Then Rachel was on her knees beside him, handing thin, stiff plastic ties to both him and Alex. His brother secured Gloria’s legs first, then helped him flip her onto her stomach so they could tie her wrists.
Gloria screamed as she twisted and kicked against them. They forced her wrists together while Rachel strung a zip tie and pulled it tight.
Blood seamed where Gloria fought the bonds, but Naomi appeared with some kitchen twine, and she and Alex tied Gloria’s feet to her wrists behind her back in a hog-tie.
Edward sat back, suddenly aware of the explosion of pain in his shoulder.
Rachel had run to get some kitchen towels which she now pressed to his shoulder. “Edward, hold still.”
He grunted and squeezed his eyes shut as the pressure felt as if it would tear his arm out of the socket.
“We told Mama to call Horatio,” Alex told them above Gloria’s shrieking.
“Edward.”
He felt Rachel’s fingers on his cheek, his jaw, and he opened his eyes. Her face filled his vision, her bottom lip quivering.
“I’m fine,” he gasped. And he was, now that she was safe.
The pain in his shoulder had dulled to a throbbing ache as she continued to apply pressure to it. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush, or maybe it was loss of blood, but the room began to spin.
“You saved my life.” Her hand caressed his cheek.
He closed his eyes even as
he smiled at her. “Give me a kiss and you’ll save mine.”
And then blackness.
TWENTY
The first thing Rachel saw when she entered Edward’s hospital room was him about to bite into the largest chocolate-chip cookie she had ever seen. “Are you allowed to eat that? Is it even legal to have a cookie that big?”
Edward paused, the cookie inches from his mouth, and guilt painted his cheeks burgundy. Then he smiled at her, and the world tilted. “I wondered when you’d show up.”
“Are you kidding?” Naomi entered the room behind her. “Rachel can sniff out a chocolate-chip cookie from fifty yards away.”
“She’s only scolding you because she wants to make sure she gets some of that,” added her cousin Jane with a wink at Rachel as she wheeled Rachel’s father into the room, followed by Monica.
“There’s enough for everyone,” Edward’s mother said, breaking open a plastic container. “They’re six-ounce cookies, Rachel, a copycat recipe of a famous New York bakery.”
“Six ounces?” Her mouth watered.
“Save some for us,” Aunt Becca said, cramming into the room with Detective Carter on her arm.
Rachel sidled up to Edward’s hospital bed and took his hand. “How are you doing?”
His eyes crinkled at the corners. “As well as I was when you called an hour ago.”
“You can’t fault a girl for being worried when her man passes out in her arms.”
“I didn’t pass out,” he protested. “I was just resting my eyes.”
Her father wheeled to the side of the bed. “I’m glad you’re doing well, young man.”
Edward’s eyes sobered as he held out his hand to him. “You saved my life. Thank you.” The doctors had said that the bullet missed his heart by only a few inches.
Dad took Edward’s hand. “God saved your life. And I want to thank you for doing what you did to save all of us.”
“Don’t feel too sorry for him,” Alex said with a teasing grin. “He only got injured so he can leave me with all the work at the greenhouses.”
“Alex!” His mother smacked his arm. “No cookies for you.”