by Jo Leigh
He fell on his shoulder and a white-hot knife of pain sliced through him. Biting his lip, he crawled forward, listening as footsteps grew nearer and nearer.
A second after he got his bad leg behind the desk, Nichols walked past him and went out the door. Jack didn’t breathe for another minute, just in case the guy came back for something.
He didn’t. But he would be back when he discovered his target had fled the Cadillac. There wasn’t much time. Where the hell was the fire department? How could he get to Dorran and make sure Hailey didn’t get shot in the process?
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE Jack’s friend,” Hailey said.
“I thought you cared about him.”
“I did,” Dorran said. “But he should have minded his own business.”
“Does Frank know? Or is he in this with you?”
“Frank? He doesn’t know squat. Especially now.”
Hailey shivered at his tone. At his appearance. He looked like a desperate man, with his hair plastered to his head with his own sweat, his stained polo shirt sticking to him in patches on his chest and arms. He’d forgotten to zip his fly all the way, although he’d remembered to wear underwear.
He’d clearly thrown his clothes on and raced here, intent on killing Jack. On killing her. But only after he got what he wanted.
“So where is it?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
He moved closer to her chair and she flinched. Her arms were killing her, and more than anything she wanted to lower them and rest. But her instructions had been clear. She wasn’t willing to die over sore arms.
“You think I don’t know about the kid? That Barry gave the book to her?”
“You’re wrong. She doesn’t have it. She’s completely innocent. For God’s sake, she’s only four.”
“Look at me,” he said. “Look at me!”
She forced herself to stare into his dark manic eyes.
“Do I seem like the kind of man who’d hesitate to kill a kid?”
Hailey had to look away, because the answer was no. A stunning awful no. He wouldn’t think twice about hurting Megan.
Oh, God. What had she done? She should have listened to Jack. He’d been right all along. She’d forced him into this terrible mess, without giving him any options, any leeway.
She was, in effect, killing them both. Killing the two people she loved most in the world. All because she was stubborn. Because she thought she could do anything. That she’d changed, that Jack’s love had made her strong, invulnerable.
Being wrong shouldn’t have these kinds of consequences. But they did.
The minute she told Dorran where the book was, she was dead. But if she delayed much longer, she’d be dead, too.
“I’m getting tired of this bull.” He lunged at her, lifting her from her chair by the front of her dress, hurting her, terrifying her. “You tell me or so help me God I’ll make you wish you were dead.”
She turned away from his horrible breath and his horrible words. She didn’t know what to do. Jack, Jack, please. Help me.
And then, because there was mercy and goodness left in the world, she saw him. She saw Jack creeping up to Bob Dorran. She saw the man she loved coming to rescue her, even when she didn’t deserve to be rescued.
He held his finger to his lips, then lifted his knee, mimicking a groin kick. Then he held up three fingers, telling her to wait for the count before acting. He moved closer, limping badly. Where was his cane?
Dorran must have seen her react to Jack. He tightened his grip on her and started to turn.
Jack wasn’t close enough.
Chapter Eighteen
Jack saw Dorran turn and for a moment he thought it was all over. That Dorran was going to pull the trigger and kill Hailey. But instead of keeping his weapon trained on her, he swung it at him.
Jack’s instincts kicked in. He signaled Hailey to use her knee at the exact time he charged Bob. As if making a football tackle, he used his shoulder to bash into Dorran’s side a split second after he heard a yell that could only mean Hailey had connected. “Get out of here!” he screamed, going for Dorran’s gun, which lay just to the right of the man’s outstretched arm.
Jack crawled desperately as Dorran lurched for the weapon, but Hailey must have gotten him good, because he didn’t move very quickly.
Just quickly enough to win.
As Jack tried to aim his own gun, he saw Hailey’s high heel come down hard on Dorran’s hand. Even Jack winced as Dorran screamed again. Then Hailey bent down, picked up the gun and held her other hand out for Jack.
Another time, another life, he would have been embarrassed to have her help him up. Humiliated to have her be the one to get the gun. But now, he put his hand in hers gratefully and, with her strength and his determination, stood up.
She smiled, although he could see she was still terrified. Then she handed him the gun. He kissed her on the forehead, and then he concentrated on Bob Dorran. One of his oldest friends. A guy he’d have taken a bullet for. Whom he’d trusted with his life. “Was it so much money?” he asked.
Dorran didn’t look at him. He curled his legs up to his chest and moaned over his limp and broken hand.
Hailey touched Jack’s free arm. “He said something about Frank. I think he’s in trouble.”
“You mean Frank’s not in on it?”
Hailey shook her head.
“Can you make a few phone calls?”
She nodded.
“Call 911 and tell them there’s an injury at Frank’s house.” He gave her the address, and she wrote it down with very shaky fingers. “Then call Sergeant Bittner at the police department. Tell him Nichols is by the car—that I said he needs to be taken in. And call the FBI and tell them to get out here.”
Just as she picked up the phone, the door behind them burst open, and Jack spun around, prepared to shoot Nichols on the spot. But it was the paramedics, who froze the instant they saw the gun.
He quickly held up his hand. “I’m Detective Jack McCabe,” he said. “HPD. This man is under arrest, and he’s wounded.”
The young paramedics, one with shocking red hair, looked at each other, then got to work. As they checked on Dorran’s wounds, Jack read him his rights. Dorran didn’t say boo. He just cried like a child. No. Megan would have had more dignity than that.
“I spoke to the sergeant. He’s going to help get Nichols and alert the FBI,” Hailey said. “And someone’s going to Frank’s house.”
For the first time since this night had begun, he let himself relax. Not much, but enough to pull her to his side and give her the kind of kiss she deserved. She felt so damn good in his arms. So right.
“Where’s your cane?” she asked after a moment.
“I couldn’t bring it,” he said. “Needed my hands free. Good thing we’ve been doing those exercises, huh?”
She shook her head, frowning. “You’ve probably hurt yourself all over again. Why don’t we have these nice men take a look at you?”
“No. Not tonight. I’ll go see the doc tomorrow if I need to.”
“You need to.”
“Yes, dear,” he said, amazed at her concern over him. Amazed that he’d cared more about her life than his own. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Fine, except for the adrenaline. I feel like I could run a two-minute mile.”
“That’ll pass. Eventually.”
The paramedics lifted Bob onto the gurney. “We’re taking him to Ben Taub Hospital,” the one with the red hair told him. “If he’s under arrest, we need an escort.”
Jack looked at Hailey, not wanting to leave her.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ll talk to the FBI. I know as much as you do.”
“Fine,” he said, “but we’re not leaving until Nichols is captured.”
She looked at him, then at the paramedics and the now silent Bob Dorran. “Can we wait in the other room?”
Jack turned to the redhead. “You got cuffs?”
Dorran didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at him.
“I’m gonna make sure you go down hard for this,” Jack said. “You and Faraday and everyone in the department who’s in on this.” Then he turned and limped over to Hailey. “Mind giving me a shoulder to lean on?” he asked.
She smiled up at him as she put his arm around her. “We’re a team, aren’t we?”
“Yeah,” he agreed. Together they made it into Faraday’s office, then to his desk, where Jack leaned against it so the pressure was off his leg.
He drew her close and kissed her again. She kissed him back, and for a long stretch that’s all they did.
But finally she pulled away just enough to talk to him.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I never should have forced you into this.”
“Are you kidding? I was the one who shouldn’t have let you go.”
“But it turned out all right, didn’t it? I mean, it was scary there for a while, but now Megan will be safe and we can go back to our lives.”
“I don’t want to go back,” he said.
“No?”
He shook his head slowly, keeping his gaze locked on hers. “I never did much care for that life. I’m thinking about starting a new one.”
“It’s a little late for you to run off and join the circus,” she said.
“Damn. I guess that means I only have one option left.”
“And what would that be?”
“Marrying you.”
She sighed happily. “It’s not just me, you know.”
He nodded. “Megan’s included in the deal.”
“What about all your concerns?”
“I’ve still got plenty. But now, see, I have a partner. And together we do okay. I’m thinking there are several options. Private-investigation work if it doesn’t work out with the department, but I think it will. Who knows, if we keep doing those damn exercises, I might just be able to get my old job back.”
“Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you mean it? What you said before?”
He kissed her on the nose. “Every word.”
“I’m glad,” she said. Then she leaned over to kiss him back, but she pressed too hard on his hip and he grimaced. “Are you okay?”
“Fine. Except for hurting like hell. But that doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me. Everything about you matters to me.”
“I know,” he said. “And that’s what makes it all right. That’s what makes it all worth it.”
A knock on the door startled them both. Hailey turned just as a man with an FBI badge walked into the room.
Jack didn’t see her again for more than twelve hours. He didn’t stop thinking about her for a minute.
Epilogue
Hailey looked deeply into Jack’s eyes as the judge said the words that made them husband and wife. What she saw there was more than love, although love would have been enough. She saw admiration, strength, courage and the humor that let her know that laughter would be part of their marriage.
They leaned in together, meeting in the middle for the kiss that sealed the deal. The beautiful kiss that represented the happiest moment of her life.
When they pulled apart, he caught her gaze. “Hey, Mrs. McCabe.”
She smiled. “Hey, Mr. McCabe.”
“What do you say we go make this family complete?”
She took his hand and they followed the judge out of the room reserved for weddings. Along the way, Jack, who walked with no cane and a hardly noticeable limp, picked up Megan, so pretty in her pink frilly dress. Of course, Tottie was there, too, but now the doll had a full head of brand-new hair and a dress to match Megan’s. Of course, the ink hadn’t disappeared, but when you love someone, ink doesn’t matter.
Then there was Frank, the best man, who looked great after a solid year of recuperation. He’d been wounded in the shoulder, but not too badly. It was just lucky that the paramedics got there when they did, or he might have bled to death. As it was, he was already back at work with his partner. The guys at the department called them the “bull’s-eye boys,” but it was affectionate respectful teasing.
The best man couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the maid of honor. Crystal, decked out in a red dress that meant business, had become a friend, and as her wedding gift, she’d given Jack his Cadillac.
The whole gang traipsed into the judge’s chambers. After Jack put Megan down, he and Hailey each took one of her hands.
The judge, a pleasant woman who had helped them confirm that Megan had no living relatives and that the uncle who’d lived in Oklahoma wasn’t blood kin but an ex-cellmate of her father’s, looked at Megan and smiled. “Do you know what we’re doing here, Megan?”
Megan nodded. “Making Jack my new daddy and Hailey my new mommy.”
“Is that what you want?”
Megan nodded again. “Tottie does, too.”
“I see.”
“And you know what?”
The judge’s right brow shot up. “What?”
“I’m going to have a little sister.”
“You are?”
She nodded. “Jack promised.”
“Well, I think that’s just wonderful.” The judge signed the papers in front of her, then turned them so Hailey and Jack could sign. Hailey’s fingers shook as she put down her new name. Hailey McCabe. It had such a nice ring to it.
Once that was done, Frank kissed her, Crystal hugged her, and Megan lifted her arms so Jack could pick her up.
Hailey turned to the two of them. Her family. Her loves. Her future. “Now what’s all this about having a little sister?”
Jack shrugged. “I suppose a little brother would be okay, too.”
“I see. And when did you two come up with this brilliant plan?”
“We’ve been talking about it for weeks,” he said.
“And you didn’t feel it was necessary to let me in on it?”
“Oh, I intended to,” Jack said. “As a matter of fact, I was going to bring it up tonight.”
Hailey felt her cheeks heat, but she smiled her pleasure.
Jack looked at her, at his new family. He could still hardly believe it. Faraday was in jail, as were the ex-police captain, Bob Dorran and Brett Nichols. The money-laundering scheme had involved hundreds more, as the notebook had revealed, and even now, a year later, the repercussions were still being felt.
But he didn’t pay much attention to that anymore. He was too busy. He still went to the gym five days a week to work out, but his hip was almost as good as new. And then there was all that time he needed to play with Megan. Not to mention, falling more and more deeply in love with his wife. His wife.
How a guy like him had lucked out like this was a mystery. One he’d never take for granted.
He’d been given a second chance to live. His kissed his bride, then whispered, “Thank you.”
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5024-9
LITTLE GIRL FOUND
Copyright © 2000 by Jolie Kramer
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