She blacked out for one terrible second. And then there was air, sweet air and she was gasping, coughing, trying to suck it all into her lungs.
She thought she heard Warrick’s voice yelling, saying something about “agent down” and needing “immediate assistance.” There were more words. Garbled, they floated through her head, mixing with shooting lights. She heard him say “ambulance.”
Still gasping, her chest heaving, C.J. realized that her eyes were shut.
Prying the lids opened, she saw Warrick looking down at her. She was on the floor and he was cradling her against him.
She’d never seen him look so worried before, not even the night she gave birth to her baby.
He saw her eyes flutter. His heart echoed the movement. He’d just been to hell and back in the space of an eternal minute.
He hugged her to him. “Oh, God, C.J., are you all right?”
C.J. struggled to sit up. She ran her fingers tentatively over her throat. It ached something awful. She could still feel Harry’s fingers, pressing the life out of her.
Trying to swallow, she coughed, then nodded. “Yes.” The word came out in a gasp. She tried again after a beat. “But I think my concert-singing career is over.”
He rocked back on his heels. “Damn it, C.J., you scared the hell out of me.” Shouting at her, Warrick offered up a silent prayer of thanksgiving. “I thought you were dead.”
“That makes two of us.”
Shakily she tried to gain her feet and almost fell. Warrick rose quickly and helped her up. It was then she saw Harry on the floor, blood pooling beneath him. Her breath caught.
“Is he—”
“No, just knocked out.” He’d already checked for a pulse. “I hit him in the shoulder.” When he’d doubled back, he recognized Maxwell’s car parked several houses down. Approaching her house, he’d heard the man’s raised voice. He’d circled around to the back. Not wanting to waste time, he’d broken a window to get in. “What the hell was going on here?”
“Harry was about to make me ‘permanently his.”’ She took in another deep breath. It hurt her lungs. “He thought I was Claire.”
Warrick looked at her blankly. “Claire?”
She nodded. Pain shot up to the top of her head. This was going to take a while, she thought. “Claire Farrel. The first victim. Apparently, that was an accident.”
“How the hell do you accidentally strangle someone?” He laughed shortly. “And all the others?”
She put it together as she went along. “I guess he thought they were Claire coming back to him. I think he probably followed each one around and when he saw someone moving in on what he thought was his ‘territory,’ he made sure that he wouldn’t lose the girl.”
Warrick looked down at the unconscious killer. “By choking her to death.”
“Worked for him,” she said grimly. Maxwell looked like a harmless rag doll. Just went to show how deceiving appearances could be.
It still didn’t make sense to him. “But how did he get here?” They had cameras at all the exits. Were there more kills under this lunatic’s belt? “Did you call Culpepper and Rodriguez?”
“I talked to Culpepper before Maxwell’s little visit.” Her voice was beginning to return to normal. “He has a secret tunnel.”
Warrick stared at her, dumbfound. “You’re kidding me.”
She smiled. God, but he looked good to her. If he hadn’t come when he had, right now nothing would be looking good to her. “Hey, these old buildings in the county have lots of secrets. He said he used the connection that ran through the basement. Apparently he knew he was being watched.”
Warrick blew out a breath in wonder. “He’s not as dumb as he looks.”
She shrugged. “Survival instincts. Even the lowest creatures have them.” She took a step and her legs almost gave out from beneath her. Warrick was quick to grab her before she could fall.
“Why don’t you sit down?” He nodded toward the sofa behind her.
But she shook her head. Standing up made her feel more in control, and she was still somewhat spooked over what had almost happened.
And then she looked at Warrick. He’d left in a huff and she’d thought she’d never see him again outside of the job. “What are you doing here?”
He grinned. “Rescuing you.”
Was he just being cute, or was there something more? “You anticipated this?”
“No.” He blew out a breath. The excitement had knocked his original purpose out of his head. Time to get back to business. “I came back to apologize.” Something he didn’t do very often. Warrick shook his head, mystified. “I don’t know what the hell we’re arguing about.”
“I do,” she said. He looked at her in surprise. “We’re both scared.”
“Scared—” About to protest that that was absurd, he thought better of it and dropped his defensive tone. After all, he’d admitted as much to himself. “Yeah, maybe you’re on to something there.”
Before she could say anything in response, someone was banging on the door. She heard Rodriguez on the other side calling to her
She smiled, relieved. It was over. “Must be the rest of the cavalry. I’d better get that.”
He nodded. “Good idea.” He watched her as she went to the door. What the hell would he have done if he hadn’t decided to come back tonight? If Maxwell had succeeded in killing C.J.?
He wasn’t allowed to be with the thought long. The next moment her living room was filled with special agents all talking at once. Culpepper and Rodriguez had arrived at the same time as the backup team Warrick had called.
Storming in, Culpepper stopped short, looking at the floor as Maxwell began to stir and moan. “What the hell do we have here?” He turned to Rodriguez, confused. “I thought we were watching this clown.”
“He outsmarted you,” Warrick told him. “Maxwell knew he was being watched. C.J. said he used a tunnel that ran from the basement of his building to another one.
Rodriguez was closest to C.J. He took a closer look at her. “You look shaken up. You okay?” His eyes skimmed over her. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No.” She smiled as she nodded at Warrick. “Superhero here arrived just in the nick of time.”
“Just in the nick of time, huh?” Culpepper peered at her throat. “Then what are those marks I see on your throat?”
Her hand went to her throat. Warrick pushed it aside, examining the damage himself. He scowled, banking down an urge to strangle Maxwell himself. “Those look pretty nasty, C.J.”
She tried to sound cavalier. “I guess I’ll be wearing turtleneck sweaters for a while. Good thing the weather’s still cool.”
They heard the sound of an ambulance approaching in the distance. “One of you ride in with him,” Warrick said to Culpepper and Rodriguez. And then he glanced at C.J. “Wouldn’t hurt for you to go to the hospital, either.”
“I think Culpepper can handle—”
Warrick cut in. “As a patient.”
She shook her head, raising her face up to his. Whether he liked it or not, he was her hero. And always would be, no matter what. “I’m fine just where I am.”
Chapter 16
Warrick pulled his car up into C.J.’s driveway. Setting the parking brake, he turned off the engine and looked at her. They’d just spent the past two hours at the field office, filling in a groggy Alberdeen on the major salient points of recent events and explaining why their prime suspect had been wounded.
Then they had stopped at her parents’ house to get the baby. Shaken, C.J. needed to hold her child in her arms, needed to feel that everything was still normal and good. She had forbidden him to say anything to her parents about this evening, only that she had a sudden urge to be with her daughter. Warrick gave her no argument.
She was still pale, Warrick thought, even when he took the poor lighting into account. He resisted the temptation to take her into his arms and just hold her. Besides, it wasn’t too prudent with the
parking brake in the way. “You sure you’re all right?”
“No,” she admitted. It still hurt every time she took a breath. She slanted a look in his direction and smiled. It was official. He was her hero. “But I’ll get there.”
If she admitted that she wasn’t all right, it had to be bad. The woman never listened to reason. “Damn it, why won’t you let me take you to the hospital?”
She sighed before answering. It was her head that was the real problem, not her body. It was going to take her a while before she could forget how close she’d come to being victim number fifteen.
“Because nothing’s broken and I don’t want any sedatives. Besides, I have the best medicine in the world right there.” Turning her body rather than just her head, she looked at her sleeping daughter in the car seat.
He frowned. “You don’t have to tough out everything, you know.”
“I know.” C.J. paused, her hand on the door handle. “Would you like to come in?”
Warrick felt the ground suddenly turn to quicksand beneath his feet. “Do you want me to?”
C.J. rolled her eyes. She wasn’t about to get pulled into this nebulous, gray area. “Don’t start that. I don’t want to play a theme and variation of the Saturday night scene in Marty.”
Warrick stared at her, shaking his head. “You know, Jones, half the time I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She grinned for the first time since the blowup in her bedroom.
“Keeps the mystery alive, Warrick.” And then she looked at him for a long moment. “As I recall, you said something about coming back to apologize.”
It seemed like a century ago that he’d said those words. “Oh, you remember that, huh?”
“Yes.” Opening the door, she got out of the car. He followed suit, rounding the hood and taking the sleeping baby out, car seat and all. C.J. fished her keys out of her pocket. “I also think I heard you tell Maxwell you loved me. Was that just to distract him?”
He watched her unlock the door. “Yes and no.”
She walked inside ahead of him. Everything looked different to her. She wondered how long it would be before things got back to normal. “Which is it? You can’t have it both ways.”
“That’s just the problem—” he shut the door behind them “—I want it both ways.”
She took the baby from him. Joy stirred just a little, then went on sleeping. She resisted the temptation of taking her out of the seat and just holding her. Instead, giving in to the need to have the baby close by, she set the seat down beside the sofa and then looked at Warrick. “And you said I’m the one you don’t understand? What are you talking about?”
He felt like a man on a tightrope, crossing the Grand Canyon. One misstep and it was all over. “I want you as my partner. I don’t want to give that up.”
She tried to read his expression and got nowhere. The man always was a hell of a poker player. “But?”
His eyes held hers as he tried to gauge how she would take this. “But I don’t want to give up something else, either.”
She threw up her hands. “It’s like pulling teeth.” C.J. planted herself directly in front of him, her hands on her hips. “What, Warrick, what don’t you want to give up? Beer? Fish on Fridays? What?” she demanded. If he cared, if he loved her, why couldn’t he just come out and say it? Or had it really been just a ruse? Had everything they’d just shared been an interlude?
Bit by bit, she was forcing him to shed his protective armor. To leave himself exposed. It took more courage than he’d thought. “I don’t want to give you up. I don’t want to give this up.”
“‘This’?” She shook her head. “You’re going to have to get more specific than that, Warrick. I’m feeling a little dense tonight.” She ran her hand along her throat. “Must have been the lack of oxygen to my brain earlier. Spell it out for me.”
He didn’t want to be the only one out on this limb. “You’ve got to give me something to work with, too, you know.”
“Well…” C.J. blew out a breath, thinking. Stalling. He still hadn’t said anything, committed himself to anything, not really. She didn’t want to go first. “The next time a serial killer wants to kill you, I’ll tell them they can’t, because I love you.”
That wasn’t good enough. “And if a serial killer didn’t want to kill me?” he pressed. “If he just wanted to wound me, would you still say you loved me?”
She turned on her heel and headed to the kitchen. In all the excitement she’d left the light on. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“Answer the question, Jones.” He was right behind her. “Would you still say you loved me?”
She raised her shoulders in what she hoped was a careless shrug. “Maybe.”
He turned her around to face him. “C.J.—”
She caved. She knew she would. It would just have been nicer to have had him cave first. “Okay, yes, I’d still say I loved you, even if a serial killer was only threatening to wound you.”
Warrick grinned at her, triumphant. “Okay, next question—”
C.J. covered her face with her hands. “Oh, God,” she groaned.
He pulled her hands away from her face. A bit of sunshine was opening up within his chest around the vicinity of his heart. “Do you love me?”
She tried to pull away. When he wouldn’t release her hands, she nodded toward the counter. “I left the coffeemaker on. I could have burned down the house.”
Warrick looked at her intently. They were beyond petty distractions. “They’re programmed to shut off automatically, and don’t change the subject. Do you love me?”
She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, he was still looking at her. C.J. surrendered. “Yes. Yes, I love you. I’m crazy and I love you. Are you satisfied?” she demanded.
He moved his head slowly from side to side, his eyes never leaving her face, his smile never leaving his lips. “Not yet.”
She groaned again. She yanked her hands away from him and turned away, afraid that he would start gloating any minute. “What is it you want, blood?”
“No, I want you to marry me.” C.J. turned around slowly. She was too young for her hearing to be going. “What?”
He saw the disbelief in her eyes and tried to interpret it.
“I know, I know,” he said quickly before she could turn him down. “I’ve got a lousy track record, but, hey, that just means I’m due for a run of good luck. I figure it can start with you. And Joy.”
She was still staring at him. “You’re serious.”
The quicksand was back beneath his feet. “I never joke after wrapping up a serial killer case.”
“You want to marry me.” She enunciated each word as if she was testing it out first with her tongue.
“Yes.” He was still watching her eyes for some kind of sign, wondering if he’d just made a first-class jackass out of himself.
She didn’t believe him. He was having fun at her expense. “Why?”
What did she want from him? “Why does anyone want to get married?” He began to turn from her.
She stopped him before he could turn away. He’d started this and they were damn well going to finish it together. “I’m not asking about anyone, I’m asking about you.”
“Because I love you,” he shouted at her. “Because you’ve turned my whole world upside down and I can’t seem to think unless you’re somehow involved.” Realizing he was shouting, he lowered his voice. The confession was painful, but maybe if it was out in the open, she’d understand. She wouldn’t say no. “I always felt, because of what I saw as a kid and my own botched attempt at marriage, that I didn’t have a clue how to make a relationship work. But driving home tonight, I realized that the answer isn’t out there somewhere. It’s in here.” He tapped his chest. “And here.” He touched her chest where he deemed her heart to be. Warrick looked into her eyes. “And no matter what direction my heart takes, it just keeps coming back to you.”
C.J. stood looking at him
for a long time, then finally uttered one word, more like a sound, actually. “Huh.”
Warrick stared at her incredulously. “I’ve just crawled out on a limb and spilled my guts here. I was kind of hoping for something a little more substantial than ‘huh.”’ Was that a smile flirting with her lips? Or just his imagination? “You still haven’t answered me, you know.”
She looked at him innocently. “I know.”
Well, at least she hadn’t turned him down. “You want time to think it over?”
C.J. inclined her head. “That would be nice.”
This was going to be torture, he thought. “You going to take as long as you’re taking coming up with the baby’s middle name?”
And then she allowed herself a smile. A wide one. She glanced back at her daughter. Her small mouth was moving in her sleep. The baby would be waking soon. “Funny you should mention that. I’ve come up with one.”
He looked at her uncertainly. She hadn’t said anything about finding a name. “When?”
“Just now.” She turned her face up to his. “And it’s perfect.”
“What is it?”
“Hope.” The name floated between them. Her eyes crinkled. “Because that’s what I’m feeling right now. Because that’s what’s going to be part of my life from now on.”
He nodded his head. “I like it.” He eyed her. With C.J. nothing was ever certain until she said it was. “So your answer’s yes? I’m not taking anything for granted here.”
“You’d better not. Especially not me. And, yes—” she threaded her arms around his neck and leaned her body into his “—my answer’s yes.”
“Good,” he said just before he brought his mouth down on hers, “because I wasn’t about to take no.” The kiss was long and languid, melting any bones she had left. “Now let’s put our daughter to bed.” He grinned, stooping to pick up the car seat. “And then we’ll see about putting you to bed, too.”
She looked at Warrick holding Joy. Her heart had never felt this full. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6848-1
The Baby Mission Page 18