Safe in Your Arms

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “Not from Leigh but it’s p-pretty rough out here. Beau, I don’t think I can…can pilot the boat alone. I can’t even find the GPS.”

  “Don’t try to go anywhere. Just stay put. You need to find and activate the EPIRB. You remember what that is?”

  “Yes. The…the emergency locator beacon you showed me on the Mari. I’m looking for it. Just a moment.”

  He waited through several moments of silence, fearing she might be washed overboard in the storm when she left the pilothouse to find the EPIRB unit. “There, I’ve found it. I pushed it. Now what?”

  “Good girl. Now we wait a few moments until the satellite has time to relay your location. Coast Guard Group Seattle, this is Mari. Are you monitoring?”

  “Yes, sir,” the male radio operator said. A few moments later he piped up again. “Coast Guard Group Seattle, Coast Guard Group Seattle to Minx. We have your location and are sending out a rescue team. Stand by, please.”

  “Please hurry.” She sounded breathless, at the edge of her control, and Beau wished more than anything that he could get to her.

  “Coast Guard, this is Mari,” he growled into the radio. “What are the coordinates of the Minx? Go ahead.”

  The radio operator gave him her latitude and longitude. Beau looked at his own GPS reading. He was at least ten miles south, and his fuel was running low. He wouldn’t make it there for at least a half hour and even if he did, he’d only be in the way of the rescue operation. But, damn, he wanted to be there.

  He picked up his cell phone and redialed the Coast Guard’s land line. “I need to know where the SAR team will be taking the Minx passengers,” he said abruptly to the lieutenant, who was all too eager to help him now.

  “Just a moment, sir. I’ll find out.”

  She returned a moment later. “The search and rescue team on the USCG cutter Osprey will be taking the rescued parties aboard the Minx to the rescue station at Edmonds. ETA twenty-two hundred hours.”

  If he pushed the Mari as hard as she would go in the rough waters, he could make it right after them. “Tell the SAR team I’ll be there shortly.”

  “I’ll relay that message, Detective.”

  He hung up then picked up the microphone. “Mari to the Minx. Mari to the Minx. Elizabeth, are you hanging in there? Go ahead.”

  It took her a minute or so to answer. “M-Minx to the Mari. Yes. I’m fine. Alex is a little seasick from all this tossing and turning. He just threw up all over the pilothouse.”

  Leigh wouldn’t be happy about that, but he couldn’t work up much of a sweat over it. She wouldn’t be enjoying too many cruises where she was going anyway and she’d probably have to sell the damn thing just to pay her legal expenses. “Elizabeth, I’m heading to the rescue station where the cutter is taking you, okay? I should be there right after you.”

  “R-Roger that,” she said and he smiled at her use of radio lingo. “There’s a boat approaching. I think it’s the rescue team. Yes, it is. They’re here. Oh, thank heaven.”

  “Mari to the Minx. You did good, Elizabeth. I’ll see you in a little bit.”

  He monitored Channel 16 all the way to the rescue station as he fought the approaching storm. The high winds and waves made docking a challenge, but he managed to do it without catastrophe.

  Rain whipped his face and soaked his clothes even through his rain gear as he rushed into the small building. The moment he walked in, Alex spotted him and jumped into his arms.

  “Beau. Beau. Beau,” the boy chanted.

  Hi. Beau signed through his stunned amazement at hearing the boy talk out loud. Are you okay?

  The kid signed something back quickly that he didn’t catch and rubbed his tummy like he was hungry. Beau looked around for Elizabeth to translate the signs.

  He found both her and Leigh on benches against one wall, both wrapped in green military-issue wool blankets. Leigh looked dazed and out of it, but Elizabeth was gazing at him with so much raw joy in her eyes that emotion clogged his throat and just about spilled out.

  Still carrying Alex, he hurried to her, thinking only about taking her in his arms. He stopped short when he reached her and realized why she hadn’t risen to greet him or rushed into his arms. She was cuffed to her chair!

  “What the hell is this? Get these handcuffs off her now!”

  A young burly ensign whose name badge read Wosniski raised a thick eyebrow. “Which one?”

  He pointed to Elizabeth. “This one!”

  “You sure about that, Detective? We found the redhead down below. She was unconscious, wrapped up with enough restraints to tie up the entire USCG Seattle group. When she came to, she said the blonde attacked her and tried to hijack the boat. Since we couldn’t get a clear story from either one of them about what was going on, we figured we’d better cuff them just to be safe.”

  “Why didn’t you bother asking me, damn it? This one! Let this one free.”

  “What about the other one?”

  “As soon as I can read her her rights, she’s going to be under arrest for murder and kidnapping.”

  He waited impatiently while the man opened the cuffs. The instant she was free, Elizabeth leaped to her feet and into his arms with the same eager relief Alex had done a few moments earlier. She promptly burst into shuddering tears.

  He held both her and Alex while she sniffled against him. This was all he wanted, he realized. Right here in his arms was his entire world, this woman and little boy he loved so fiercely.

  “Oh, Beau. I’m so glad you’re here. I was so f-frightened.”

  “Shh. I know. You’re safe now.”

  “She k-killed Tina, Beau. She told me she did. All for…for money. She didn’t want to share Andrew’s fortune with Alex. She was going to kill us, too.”

  “I figured it was something like that.”

  “Can we go home now?”

  “Not for a while. I’m sorry. You’re going to have to give statements about what happened so we can keep her in custody. I’ll try to expedite things as best I can so you and Alex can leave as soon as possible.”

  He wanted to tell her everything that was in his heart, but now wasn’t the time. Not with a whole search and rescue team looking on.

  * * *

  Midnight was just a memory before Elizabeth finished giving her statement at the police station.

  She was so tired her eyes were blurring with it. All she wanted to do was find a bed and collapse for a week. She was even willing to consider a cot in a cell somewhere, just as long as she could be horizontal.

  “Are we nearly finished?” she asked Beau’s young, friendly partner, Mr. Griffin, who had taken her statement.

  “I think that should do it. We seem to have covered all the bases.”

  “Would it be possible for me to leave now?”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he promised, then left her alone in what she had learned was the detective’s break room.

  She closed her eyes, wishing with all her heart that Beau was here. She hadn’t seen him since those moments at the Coast Guard rescue-station, when he had held her and Alex in his arms.

  Soon after, he had taken charge of placing Leigh into custody, and he’d been busy processing her arrest ever since.

  Even the best legal help Andrew could find wouldn’t be enough to keep Leigh out of prison. In her dazed state she’d confessed everything to Beau, probably hoping for a little sympathy.

  How had Leigh become so evil? she wondered. Andrew was a good, decent man. He had spoiled his daughter perhaps more than he should have, but she couldn’t understand how Leigh could have committed such terrible crimes.

  How did Beau deal with this day after day? She had only spent a few weeks brushing up against such ugliness and she could hardly bear it. He chose to make it his career.

  She had to talk to him. Her stomach quivered but she knew she couldn’t avoid it any longer. She had to tell him about her impairment. He deserved to know the truth, to know why she had run away that nig
ht.

  Elizabeth yawned, grateful at least that Alex didn’t have to endure this waiting. Luisa had come for him several hours ago and had taken him back to Harbor View with her. She hoped he was tucked into his bed, long asleep, and that he wouldn’t carry any deep scars from the abduction.

  He seemed to think the whole thing had been one big adventure. Ah, for the innocence of childhood. She was afraid she would have nightmares for months about what might have happened if she had failed.

  Exhaustion weighed down her shoulders, made her head feel as if it weighed a hundred pounds. She hadn’t slept well all week, not since the night she had spent in Beau’s arms.

  She would just rest here for a moment, until Mr. Griffin was able to find her a ride back to Harbor View….

  * * *

  Beau found her in the break room, her head resting on arms she’d folded on the dingy table. She was still wrapped in that Coast Guard blanket. Beneath it, the lines and angles of her slender body looked fragile, delicate.

  He loved her so much he could barely breathe around it. He felt as if she’d been in his life forever, as if she was the missing piece of his heart he’d never realized was gone.

  She looked so at peace he hated to disturb her but he didn’t think he could manage to carry her out to his truck and find a bed for her without waking her up.

  “Elizabeth? Princess? Let’s go home.”

  She lifted her head and blinked at him blearily. “Oh. I must have dozed off.”

  “Looks like.”

  “Detective Griffin was…was finding me a ride.”

  “You’re looking at it. Come on.”

  He helped her up and led her out into the rain to his pickup truck. She still seemed groggy so he picked her up and lifted her onto the seat so she didn’t have to try climbing in.

  “Where are we going?” she asked after he pulled away and headed east instead of west toward the Bainbridge ferry.

  “My place. It’s closer.”

  “I need to go home. Alex might need me.”

  “You need to sleep,” he countered. “Alex has his grandmother for tonight.”

  She opened her mouth to object but he cut her off. “It’s ten minutes to my house and at least an hour to Harbor View by the time we catch the ferry. Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I don’t think you’ll make it that long. You need a bed. Lucky for both of us, I have one.”

  She opened her mouth as if to object then closed it again. Too much of an effort, he figured. There was silence in the truck for several moments, until he thought she must have fallen asleep.

  As much as he wanted to talk to her, he couldn’t do it when she was wrung out with exhaustion. He would have to wait until the morning. Maybe by then he would have figured out what to say.

  “Beau, I’m…sorry,” she said suddenly into the silence.

  Since he was stopped at a red light, he was able to look over at her in surprise. “For what?”

  “Running away the other night. It was…cowardly. I see that now.”

  “You’re not a coward, Princess.”

  “Yes I am.”

  “Look at what you did tonight. Singlehandedly knocked out a murderer and rescued yourself and Alex from a terrible fate, then kept a strange yacht afloat until help arrived. That was pretty darn brave.”

  “I meant before. That…that night with you, I was a coward then. I should have told you.”

  “Told me what?”

  She was silent for several moments watching the bright parade of lights reflected on the wet streets as they cruised through the night. “I’ve been lying to you,” she said in a small voice.

  He glanced over and found her pale and still in the moonlight. She sounded so solemn. “About what?”

  “I’m not who you…who you think I am,” she said just as he pulled into his driveway.

  “You don’t have any idea who I think you are,” he replied, suddenly realizing where this was going. “But before you say anything else, I’ll tell you, just for the record. I think you’re smart and sweet and the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known in person. You’re amazingly brave, you’re fiercely loyal to those you love and you’re a wonderful, devoted caregiver to a little boy who needs you.”

  She lifted shocked eyes to him. He smiled at her tenderly and reached for her hand. “Oh, one more thing. I think you’re also the woman I’m crazy in love with. No, scratch that. I know you are.”

  She gazed at him, and the raw yearning in her eyes told him everything he needed to know about her feelings. He started to reach for her but stopped in midmotion when she caught her breath on a sob.

  “You can’t love me,” she whispered.

  “Wanna bet?”

  Her hand clenched in his, and she looked completely miserable. “Beau, I have to…to tell you something. I should have before but I was afraid. I’m not smart. I pretend but I’m not. I was born with an injury in one of the…the language areas of my b-brain. It makes me stutter and use wrong words, sometimes terribly.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “You…know?”

  “Not the details, maybe. But Leigh Sheffield told me how things were for you when you were a kid.”

  “Then…then surely you realize you can’t l-love me.”

  Beau gazed at her, completely stunned. She meant it! She actually thought she was unlovable because of a little speech difficulty.

  “Who did such a number on you, Princess?”

  “A n-number?”

  “Who convinced you we all have to be perfect before anyone can love us? You’re not being very fair to me. What kind of man do you think I’d be to care if you miss a few words here and there?”

  His words resonated deep in her heart. He was right! She had been terribly unfair to him—grossly unfair—comparing him to Stephen and to her father. Beau was nothing like them. She had known it since the moment she met him but she had been so afraid of rejection.

  He loved her. Somehow, unbelievably, this hard, abrupt, wonderful detective loved her, and she was sitting here trying to convince him he didn’t, that he couldn’t.

  She was stupid. She ought to be reaching for this miracle with both hands.

  “I love you, Elizabeth Quinn,” he said quietly into her silence.

  She drew a shaky breath, then she pushed away all her fears and moved across the seat and into his waiting arms. His mouth was gentle, as achingly sweet as that kiss on the Sheffield’s terrace, and her tears spilled free and trickled down her cheeks.

  “Once more for the record,” he murmured, kissing away the tears. “In case there’s ever any doubt in that brain of yours, Elizabeth, I love everything about you. Except maybe your fortune. I’d prefer it if you were in the poorhouse but I guess if you can forgive mine, I can forgive yours.”

  She drew back. “You have a…fortune?”

  “Not much of one compared to yours. I’ve been trying to get rid of it for years, but I can’t quite seem to shake the damn thing. Maybe you can help me with that. I understand you run the Quinn Charitable Foundation. Think you could find some good use for an extra twenty million or so?”

  Her tears forgotten, she laughed at his disgruntled tone and kissed him fiercely. Oh, she loved this man. “The only thing I enjoy more than giving my own money away is giving away someone else’s.”

  “Then my millstone and I should make you very happy.”

  “You do,” she whispered as joy burst inside her, filling all the lost, lonely little corners with sweet, healing peace. “Oh, Beau, you make me so happy. I love you! I wish I had words to tell you how much.”

  His smile promised a lifetime of laughter and love. “You don’t need any more than that, Princess. Those three little words are all I need.”

  * * * * *

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-6277-9

  THE QUIET STORM

  Copyright © 2003 by RaeAnne Thayne

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  USA TODAY bestselling author Allison Leigh introduces readers to a reluctant hero—and the woman who just might heal his wounded heart—in this newest addition to her popular miniseries, Return to the Double C!

  Small town deputy Sloan McCray was making amends for his past. They called him a hero but only he had to live with the difficult choices he’d made. And he certainly wasn’t prepared to fall in love again, not even with his beautiful—and innocent—new neighbor, whose very presence was a balm to his troubled soul.

  There was no doubt in Abby Marcum’s mind that Sloan was the guy for her. Though she’d moved to Weaver, Wyoming, to make a better life for her little brother, she saw her future with Sloan. Now she had to convince the man who felt unworthy of love that she and her heart were his for the asking….

  A Weaver Beginning

  Allison Leigh

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five