by Gayle Wilson
Without turning away from the black opening before him, Jake held out his hand to the deputy. He heard Blake move behind him, and then felt the solid weight of the light from the deputy’s utility belt hit his palm. He fumbled a moment with the switch, and then taking a step forward, directed the beam into the low interior.
It was exactly as it had been in his flashback. Dank and dark and malodorous. And in the farthermost corner, against the block wall, was a huddled shape.
The child appeared no larger than the doll he’d removed from Eden’s bed. Her head rested on her chest, matted blond hair falling forward onto the front of her dirty nightgown.
Jake could detect no movement. Not even the rise and fall of the small arms that were crossed over her stomach. “Major?”
Again, Blake’s question drove him to take the next step. He walked across the dirt floor and squatted in front of the girl. “Raine?”
There was no response.
Jake didn’t want to frighten her if she was simply asleep, but he knew he didn’t have a choice about what he had to do next. He slipped two fingers under her hair and placed them on the side of her neck.
Before he could locate the pulse he sought, she cringed, pressing her spine against the wall behind her. As her head came up, she blinked against the light he held and then raised one hand to shield her eyes.
“It’s okay,” Jake said softly. “We’ve come to take you home. You want to go home to your mommy?”
The blue eyes clung to his face as her arm slowly lowered. He couldn’t tell if the dark spot on her cheek was dirt or a bruise. The thought that it might be the latter made him wish once more that Porter hadn’t caved so quickly.
“You want to go home?” he asked again.
“I thought you were coming to get me before.”
The words were so soft Jake figured he must have mistaken them. “You thought I was coming?”
She nodded. With that movement he could see the paler tracks of tears through the dirt on her face.
“I was,” he said, laying the flashlight on the ground beside his boot. “I was coming to find you all along. And now I’m here.”
She nodded again, and then the small arms reached up to him. Whatever additional reassurances he’d planned to offer about taking her to her mother were blocked by the thickness of the knot in his throat.
“Is she in there?” Blake called. “Is she—”
“She’s here. She’s okay.” As Jake scooped her up, Raine’s arms fastened around his neck. She buried her face against his shoulder. Her filthy hair still smelled faintly of strawberries.
He ducked his head as they emerged from the low doorway. Blake’s face reflected the same joy and relief Jake had felt, but his weapon was still trained on the man who’d brought them here.
“I can’t believe it,” the deputy breathed. “Damn, I can’t believe she’s alive.”
“Let’s get her out of here.”
“They’re on their way with a boat. It’ll be quicker.”
“That’s good.” The sooner they got her away from this place, the sooner someone could begin work to erase the memories of what had happened to her. And seeing Porter, he realized, wouldn’t be helpful in that regard.
He put his hand on the back of Raine’s head, hoping that would encourage her to keep her face against his shoulder. He moved past the kidnapper, resisting the urge to shoot the bastard again. This time, just for the sheer pleasure of it.
“You did good work tonight,” Blake said. “Whatever it took… It was worth it.”
Jake nodded as he kept walking, but the lump was back in his throat.
EDEN HAD REFUSED the entreaties of the paramedics to lie down on the cot in back of their van. Only when they’d promised to let her know as soon as the rescue party returned, had she agreed to rest in the reclining passenger seat up front.
After an eternity, the EMT who’d been treating her stuck his head in the open window. “They’re back. You feel up to getting out?”
She nodded, aware for the first time that whatever he’d given her for the pain must have some narcotic properties, as well. As she began to climb down from the high seat, he, too, took her arm to steady her. “Raine?”
“They got her. My partner’s going to check her out more thoroughly as soon as they get here.” They walked toward the lights the department had set up in the clearing around Porter’s house, his hand still supporting her. “But I understand from the deputies that your guy thinks she’s going to be okay.”
Your guy. It took a couple of seconds before she realized he was referring to Marty Blake rather than Jake. And another few before the import of what he’d just said caused her eyes to sting with tears.
“You all right?”
“Just emotional,” she confessed.
“I think everybody is.”
“It’s the best outcome we could have hoped for.” One she would not have dreamed possible twenty-four hours ago.
For some reason, she lifted her gaze across the clearing. Jake was coming toward them, Raine Nolan held securely in the crook of his elbow. The child had one arm around his shoulders. The other rested across his broad chest.
The tears Eden had blinked away would no longer be denied. There was something incredible about the absolute trust this little girl, who had been through such a terrible ordeal, was able to give to a complete stranger.
A stranger who had been relentless from the first in his determination to find her and bring her home. No matter the cost.
Margo Nolan stepped out of the crowd to move toward Jake, who was trailed by the deputies who had brought them here. Halfway there, she broke into a run.
As soon as Raine saw her, she reached out, almost diving into Margo’s arms. Eden knew she wasn’t the only one in the crowd whose vision blurred again as they watched that reunion.
When Ray joined them, he took a moment to say something to the man who had carried his daughter. Jake shook his head, squeezing Nolan’s shoulder before he used that same hand to turn him toward his wife and child.
Then he walked past them, his eyes searching the crowd. When they found her, it was as if Eden could literally feel the intensity of his gaze. Unlike Margo, he didn’t increase his speed as he came toward her, his limp more pronounced than it had ever been before.
Eden began to move across the clearing, uncaring who might witness their meeting. As if by mutual agreement, they stopped with a scant yard between them. Jake’s eyes continued to search her face, before he reached out to gently caress her temple with his thumb.
With the ongoing agony at the back of her skull, Eden had forgotten Porter had struck her there. Apparently, even in this light, Jake could see the bruise his blow had caused.
She caught his hand, aware again of the tensile strength of his fingers. “It’s okay.”
“Are you?”
“I am now.”
She didn’t elaborate on whether that was a reference to Raine’s recovery, to Porter’s capture or to the fact that they were again together, both having survived a situation in which others had not. She simply stepped into his arms, exactly as she had earlier tonight.
They closed around her as they had then. Her cheek against his chest, she could feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.
After a moment she raised her head to look up into his eyes. At what she saw in them, her lips parted, anticipating the feel of his mouth over hers.
“Chief?”
Dean. Duty.
Reluctantly, she began to straighten away from Jake’s embrace. Without a word, he released her, stepping back to put more distance between them.
“What is it?” Her voice sounded strained to her own ears.
“WXZO is here. They want to do an interview with the Nolans, and then they want to talk to you. To get a rundown on the rescue.”
She looked back at Jake, whose face reflected nothing of what she was feeling. “It’s you they’ll want to talk to.”
He shook his
head. “I’m not law enforcement.”
“But you are Raine’s rescuer.”
“No more than you. Or Blake.”
“I don’t even know how you found Porter. Or convinced him to take you to her. Law enforcement or not, you’re the one who can give them those kinds of details.”
He held her eyes for a moment. “Somebody else needs to handle the press. I’m not going to speak for the department.” His lips tightened before he added, “And maybe it’s better you don’t have those details.”
“What does that mean?” Dean asked.
Jake ignored the question. “You can tell them that after Porter was taken into custody, he revealed the girl’s location to Deputy Blake.”
“You think Marty ought to talk to them?” There was some undercurrent in his voice she couldn’t read. “You’re the chief of police.” He nodded at Dean and then walked on past them.
Eden waited until Jake was out of earshot before she asked, “You think I offended him? I know he’s not the kind to seek the limelight, but…”
“I don’t think he was offended.”
“Something’s going on. I’m just not sure what.”
“I think maybe you ought to do what the man told you to. Exactly what he told you. They’re waiting.” Dean inclined his head.
Eden looked in the direction he’d indicated to see the woman who anchored the nightly news interviewing Margo, who was holding Raine as if she would never let go. Ray was nowhere in sight.
There were only a few people in this world that Eden respected enough to obey without question. And two of them had just told her the same thing.
With that in mind, she started toward the portable klieg lights the local station had set up for their reporter. She couldn’t do anything about the torn uniform or the bruises on her face, but as she walked, Eden finger-combed her hair away from her face, trying to restore some sense of order, even if only in her own mind.
Margo smiled at her. Seeing the mother’s expression, the anchor seemed to realize that her audience would probably enjoy watching the first meeting between the two of them and beckoned Eden into the frame.
“Chief Reddick, can you tell us what led you to suspect David Porter? How did your department zero in on him as the kidnapper?”
“We had some preliminary evidence that Porter might be implicated in other child abductions that had occurred in nearby states. When we came out to question him about those and about a pending assault charge, he opened fire, killing one of my deputies.”
“I understand that he also took you hostage for a period.”
“It’s possible he thought he could use me as some kind of bargaining chip. Or as a shield. We aren’t sure of his motivations at this time.”
“You escaped, and some of your deputies were later able to capture the kidnapper. Is that right?”
“That’s correct. And once Porter was in custody, he revealed Raine’s location to a deputy.” As she repeated Jake’s words, she again tried to put her finger on what bothered her about them.
“I know you and your men have worked day and night on this case. And I’m sure no one, other than Raine’s family of course, could be happier with its outcome. Mrs. Nolan, is there anything you’d like to say to Chief Reddick and her department?”
Margo leaned her cheek against her daughter’s head. “I want to say thank-you to everyone who helped search for Raine. The people of Waverly, the police department, the agents from the Bureau. And especially to Major Underwood,” she added. “After all, he’s the one who brought Raine home and put her back in my arms.”
The reporter turned toward Eden, her well-shaped brows lifted in question. “Major Underwood?”
“One of the many people in Waverly who devoted their time to finding Raine.” Eden reached out and touched the child’s grubby fingers. “And we’re all very glad she’s home safe and sound, and with her family tonight.”
She turned and moved away from the lights and the camera. Behind her she could hear the reporter pose a question to Raine and the child’s treble voice as she answered it.
Whatever the little girl had suffered, given the resiliency of childhood and the love of her family, she would eventually recover. Margo’s initial surety about her daughter’s response to being kidnapped had apparently been correct.
Even that comforting thought didn’t erase the troubling feeling that Jake, and even Dean, were keeping something from her. And right now, she didn’t see either of them among the crowd.
As her eyes surveyed the area, she saw that Marty Blake was being treated by the same paramedic who’d tended her earlier. She walked over to them, putting that worrisome question aside for now. The deputy looked up to smile at her.
“Porter told us you’d gotten away. I wasn’t sure he was telling the truth until I saw you out there.” He nodded toward the reporter and Margo, who had finally been joined by her husband.
“Considering what he did to your chief,” the paramedic said, “she’s lucky to be able to do that.”
“What did he do?”
Blake’s concern had been immediate as well as genuine. Maybe, she comforted herself, not all of her men would rather have Dean at the helm.
“I’ve been accused on more than one occasion of having a hard head. I guess those folks were right. How about you?” She looked to the EMT, rather than the deputy, to supply that information.
“He seems about as lucky as you.”
“Good.” She touched Blake’s arm. “You did fine work tonight.”
He ducked his head, embarrassed by the compliment. “Everybody did. I’m just sorry about Billy.”
She nodded, again thinking that she should have been the one to take the lead in the search of Porter’s house. “At least Raine’s safe. How’d you all convince him to give up her location? I figured he’d use that as a bargaining chip to avoid the chair. You make him any promises about that? Not that I’d blame you if you did.”
Blake glanced up at the paramedic, who pretended not to be listening. “No promises,” the deputy said. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
He hadn’t really emphasized the last word. And maybe she was reading too much into Jake’s behavior. The reporter hadn’t questioned the story. Maybe no one would.
Despite that, she was certain something was going on. Something Marty and Jake knew, and Dean had figured out.
Something she needed to find out before she publicly answered any more questions about Raine Nolan’s rescue.
Chapter Twenty
Jake had watched from the patrol car as Eden systematically completed all the tasks she needed to do before she could go home. The interview with the locals. Talking to her wounded deputy. Conferring with Dean about where they went from here. And because he had respect for her intelligence, he knew that the whole time she’d been doing those things, she’d been thinking about what he hadn’t told her.
As she approached the cruiser where he was waiting, he tried, as he had for the last hour, to prepare himself for her reaction. He had even considered telling her nothing in response to the questions he expected her to ask.
All he wanted to do—had wanted to do since she had melted against him outside her house tonight—was to hold her. Actually, that was about as far removed from what he wanted to do as the story he’d given her for the press was from the truth.
When Eden opened the car door, the dome light overhead came on. With its illumination, her eyes considered his face, seeming to ask the questions she hadn’t yet put into words.
He refused to look away. He had done what the situation called for. He might regret that he’d had to do it, but he didn’t regret its outcome. For most of his professional life, that had been all that mattered to him.
He wasn’t sure that was true anymore. Not if it destroyed what had been developing between him and Eden.
“Get in,” he said.
“The EMT told me not to get behind the wheel for the next twenty-four hours.”
>
“We can trade places later. Or somebody else can drive you home,” he added, watching for her reaction.
After a moment she dropped her eyes and crawled in beside him. When she closed the door, the resulting darkness provided both privacy and a strange sense of intimacy.
She turned to look at him, her disordered hair framing the pale oval of her face. Her eyes widened as he leaned across the console. Despite her surprise, her lips parted, just as they had before, inviting his kiss.
His conscience argued that he owed her an explanation before he took this any further. He ignored all the good reasons for doing that.
This might be the last opportunity he’d have to tell her something that, to him at least, was far more important than what he’d done to Porter. He put his hand at the back of her neck, gently drawing her to him.
Their lips met, hers soft and trembling. Her tongue touched his, her response to his kiss more than he’d dared to hope it might be.
The restraint he’d been determined to show evaporated at his first taste of her mouth. Sweet, hot and clearly hungry for this. Just as he was.
His hand moved down her spine, urging a closer contact between them. Her arms came around his neck as she deepened the kiss. Lost in the feel of her body against his, he didn’t want to let her go, afraid this would never happen again.
She was the one who ended it, finally leaning back to look up into his eyes again. “That’s been a long time coming.”
“I wasn’t sure how welcome it would be.”
Her brows lifted. “Because…?”
He laughed, thinking of all the very good reasons not to let her know how he felt. “I carry a lot of baggage.”
“Everybody does.”
She meant her sister’s kidnapping, he supposed. Her mother’s suicide, perhaps. All of which had impacted her life. And had made her who she was. On the other hand…
“Maybe. But…” He hesitated.
“What is it?”
“You’ve heard the things people here have said about me.”
“So?”
“Most of them are true.”