What did he mean?
“The accident was a set up,” Quinn admitted. Guilt made it hard for him to look her in the eye. She shook her head. He nodded and gently shoved the photo toward her. “This is Marnie, Dev’s sister. He always carried this photo to remind him why he needed to wipe out Ling.”
“I don’t believe making love was an act.” Her voice sounded raw as her nerves.
Quinn raised a brow.
“You were meant to see Dev as your savior and trust him.” She swallowed, amazed at how easily she’d viewed him as her guardian angel. Quinn added, “But you were just another innocent victim, just as innocent as Marnie.”
Kelsey wet her lips. “His sister chose drugs, I chose to run for senate. What’s the parallel?”
Quinn rubbed his temples. “Wes assigned Dev and me to gain your trust and infiltrate your family’s drug operation.”
“But as far as I know, we don’t have one.”
He sighed. “We know that, now, but at the time, we believed the rumors. Dev’s way to gain your trust was to romance you.”
She closed her eyes and tried to absorb what he’d said, but despite his obvious sincerity, she knew how Devlin had looked at her, how he’d freed her despite putting himself in danger. She looked at Quinn. “It may have started as an act, but it changed.” She swallowed. “He changed… I changed.”
“Believe whatever you need to.”
There wasn’t enough air in the van. “I know in my heart that he loves – loved - me as much as I loved him. And I will always love him.” She needed air. She lunged out the door and leaped over the hoist. As she landed on the grass, the rising sun blinded her, so she shielded her eyes with her hand and stalked toward the fire truck.
A firefighter’s soot-streaked face glared down at her, “You need to go on home. The show’s over.” She blinked.
Kelsey gulped. “Devlin Doran is still in there.” She pointed to the smoldering ruins.
The firefighter shook his head. “I’m sorry, ma’am no one could have survived that.” Behind her, the handicapped lift purred.
“He has to be alive,” she said.
A strong hand gripped her good one. She looked through a watery gaze and saw tears in Quinn’s eyes. “I told him he was going to get us both killed." A tear plummeted. “Instead, he just got himself.”
In a rush of understanding, she realized that Quinn loved him just as deeply as she did. Her tears flowed. Kelsey dropped to her knees and clutched Quinn’s fingers. “What he did was for the right reasons.” Even when he’d originally targeted her. If he hadn’t followed orders, she’d never have met Devlin Doran or understood what true love was.
“Maybe.”
“No, I mean it.” She knelt down and looked Quinn in the eye. “I think that the fact that I thought Marnie’s photo symbolized who I was running for must have been some sort of message.” She blinked away tears. Far across the lot behind him, past a mound of withered juniper a branch quivered. Kelsey wiped away her tears and blinked. It moved again. Kelsey gasped and clutched Quinn’s knee. “I saw something move.” She pointed. “There.”
“Probably a squirrel,” the fireman said. "You people need to pack up and leave."
The whole shrub shook. Surely a squirrel couldn’t shake that much of a bush and it certainly wouldn’t be in anything as thorny as a pyracantha. She held her breath and stared. A branch jerked. This time something round emerged.
“Please God, let it be Devlin.” She didn’t know she’s spoken aloud until she heard Quinn echo her plea.
It was a man; a man who was moving slowly. Kelsey lunged to her feet and sprinted around the fireman and Quinn. She dashed across the grass and asphalt, heading toward the apparition. The whirr of the wheelchair and pounding footfalls were hot on her heels. Please, God, let the charred figure be Devlin, not some wino.
Then the figure maneuvered out of the pyracantha and straightened, she was certain that the black apparition was him. “Devlin!” Briars scratched her as she ran straight into his outstretched arms.
“Damned if you aren’t the best thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.
The stench of smoke and soil mixed with his spicy smell. “You’re alive!” She kissed him with all the love she felt.
He faltered.
“You’re hurt.”
“Nothing that won’t heal.”
“You’d better, because I love you, Devlin Doran.”
“I love you, too, Kelsey MacLennan, but you may change your mind when you -”
She put her fingers to his lips. “I know about Marnie and your plan.” She inhaled. “I understand and I still love you.”
“Well,” said Quinn from behind her, “this is interesting.”
"I'll be damned,” said Trent.
ooo
After the firefighter cleaned Devlin’s wounds, and Trent helped him into D. Q.’s surveillance van, Quinn followed Trent's battered pickup to the hospital for x-rays.
Halfway there, Quinn pulled the van off the road and stared at a smashed section of guardrail, which protected vehicles from Dead Man’s Gulch. “You two might think each other is the greatest sight in the world, but I think that’s beautiful.” He pointed to paramedics struggling to maneuver a body bag into an ambulance.
Quinn looked like he’d won the lottery, but Kelsey’s face went white. Her sister-in-law and niece had died in that gully. She didn’t need any reminders of that. Doran wrapped a protective arm around her and tried to bury her face against his shoulder, but she jerked free of him and stared at the one car accident with a concentration to equal Quinn’s. While his partner smiled at the body bag, she gazed wide-eyed at the nondescript gray van.
Quinn gave her an odd look. "Recognize it?"
Doran’s arm tightened protectively around her. “Quinn,” he warned, “just drive.”
“Last time Kelsey and I saw that car," Quinn said, "Ling was driving it away after my bullet grazed his neck. Looks like he ran out of blood before he got to the hospital.”
"Sonofabitch!” Doran felt like he'd won the lottery. “You got him!"
"Looks like it,” Quinn agreed. “What’ll we do without a price on our head?”
Kelsey cleared her throat. “How would you feel about retiring and opening a real investigative firm in D.C.?”
“Sounds good to me,” Quinn said.
Doran narrowed his gaze on his partner. "Why?”
“You don’t find a woman worth dying for very often.”
Kelsey looked back and forth at them, simultaneously hopeful and terrified. Doran smiled and said, “Marry me and I will.”
Kelsey whooped with joy and hugged him.
Pain shot through his body and he winced. “Careful. I think Quinn is right about the cracked ribs.”
Kelsey dropped her arms and bit her lower lip.
He caressed her under the chin. “Don’t worry. I heal quick, you have the rest of our lives to hug the stuffings out of me.”
Abruptly, she stiffened. He looked back to see what had stunned her. Slowly, she reached for the night vision goggles. Expression tense, she studied them, then looked at him.
“Of course, I should have realized you were the alien boogie man”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Black clothes and skin, thick glasses, like he was either blind or a Star War’s bounty hunter.” Kelsey swallowed.
“I wanted to close the drug cartel down and save kids. I never intended for you to get hurt.” If they were to have a chance at a shared life, he couldn't leave lies in their past.
She held up her hand. “Quinn explained. It’s okay.” She bit her lower lip. “I have a couple questions: one, did you sabotage my brother’s car, too?”
“No.”
Quinn lightly touched Kelsey’s hand. “Wes came up with that plan. Dev only agreed to it after he made certain he would the one you rear-ended. He thought he'd be able to keep you safe.”
“Is that why you slowed down so early?"
"I thought you were the most timid driver.” Her brow furrowed.
Doran cleared his throat. “Botts did your brother’s car and my Suburban. Everyone was meant to die in the accidents he arranged. I never intended for you to get hurt in the accident or at any point after." He cleared his throat. "But I was using you as a lateral pawn to get Ling’s cartel shut down.” He waited for the slap that he deserved.
After a heart stopping moment, she inhaled deeply and gazed into the eyes. “I may never understand why my brake lines needed drilling, but the whole mess did result in getting rid of that drug lab and all the pollution that company made.” She gestured to Ling’s shrouded body. “Killing that odious man made it worth totaling my Mustang.”
He nodded. They were silent for several moments. “I thought you had more than one question,” Quinn said.
She nodded and cleared her throat. “When we thought you were dead, Quinn told me everything.” Doran raised a brow. “Is it me or are there too many coincidences?”
“What exactly do you mean?” Doran asked.
“Your controller relocated you here. He set this thing up. Your funding was approved by Marvin, so they probably knew each other.” She swallowed. “I’m trying to ask if you think there was a conspiracy to keep Marvin in office and cash in a reward.”
“I’d bet on it,” Quinn said.
“And you can also bet on us getting the evidence we need for court, if we’re right,” Doran added.
“Assuming I win, I’ll give you one-hundred-percent of my support.”
His heart swelled with love and warmth. Had there ever been such a wonderful woman? Of course, he owed her. More than she would ever know. And if she’d have him, he’d spend the rest of his life making it up to her. “Still want to marry me?”
She cupped his face between her palms and looked deep into his eyes. Then, with a slight incline of her neck, she kissed him lightly on his parched lips. “Yes.” He heard and felt the acceptance, then she deepened the kiss.
Quinn edged the van back into traffic. Kelsey carefully nestled against Devlin. Everything felt right with the world.
THE END
Deadly Rumors Page 29