She closed the small space that separated them, and wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m so sorry, John.” She whispered into his chest. Guilt over the part she’d played in the pain this good man and his wife were going to suffer wrenched at her heart. “I wish I could have changed things.”
For several seconds he stood with his hands hanging at his sides. Annie was about to step back, when his big chest heaved, and his arms locked around her. He squeezed so hard that for a split second Annie feared she might suffer a broken rib or two. She squirmed a little and he loosened his hold a bit.
“Annie you have nothing to be sorry about. I wished we could have seen the signs. Hell,” He choked on the words, “maybe if I hadn’t pushed him so hard to follow in my footsteps this could have been avoided.”
“Oh, John,” She pushed back in his embrace so she could look him in the eye, “I don’t know how you could have foresaw anything like this. None of us did.” She flung an arm wide to include the rest of the crew present. “He always seemed to love what he was doing.”
He dropped his arms to his sides. “I’m not sure how I’m going to make this up to you, Annie,” He raised his gaze to the surrounding group. “Or to the rest of you for that matter, but I’m going to try like hell every day for the rest of my life.”
“John, I’m certain that no one expects you to make anything up to them. You didn’t do anything wrong. Mark made his own choices and though he made some bad ones, they were his and his alone to make.”
“John,” The deep boom of Chief Daniels voice broke into the conversation. “She’s right. No one holds you responsible, and I sure as hell hope that you aren’t thinking about leaving the department. You’re an important part of our family.” He clapped his hand over one of Johns big shoulders. “Take some time off. However long you need, but I’ll be expecting you to return to full duty when you’re ready.”
“Excuse me folks.” An authoritative feminine voice called from the doorway behind them. Once everyone had given her their undivided attention, the petite woman wearing the same pale blue hospital scrubs that most everyone else wore, continued. “Is there an Annie here?”
Annie’s heart pounded in her chest. The dour look on the woman’s face set alarm bells screaming in her head. Something had happened to Mason. She reached a hand back in search of John’s, and grasped it tightly in her own.
Please God, please. Let him be alright.
She swallowed hard in an attempt to form the question she knew she needed to ask, but wasn’t sure she wanted to have answered.
Annie gulped in a deep breath,and braced for the news she feared was coming.
“I’m Annie. Is this about Mason? Is he alright? Please tell me he’s alright.”
The diminutive woman closed the distance, and stopped before Annie.
“I’m Doctor Sullivan,” She extended a hand to Annie. “I’m sorry we have to meet under these circumstances. I was Mr. Ramsay’s surgeon.”
Was his surgeon? What did that mean? Annie’s mind whirled with the implications the other woman’s words made.
“Was his surgeon?” Annie heard Chief Daniels put voice to the words she couldn’t. “Is Mason going to make it?”
Annie winced at the bluntness of the question. She’d asked the same one many times of patients she’d transported and had thought nothing of how frank it might have seemed to others.
“The next twenty-four hours will be crucial for him. After that, we should have a fair idea of his prognosis. I don’t want to get your hopes up. Mr. Ramsay has suffered a great deal of blood loss as well as trauma to his abdomen and chest cavity. Besides the puncture that I’m sure you’re all aware of, he has four broken ribs, and a perforated lung.”
Annie wasn’t sure who held her up as her knees went weak beneath her for a split second.
You have to be strong. She chided silently. Passing out isn’t going to do Mason any good. She gathered her remaining strength.
“Can we see him?”
“I know that everyone here wants to see him but I’m afraid that I can only have one or two go back at the moment. And since you are the one he kept calling for when he came in, I think that you should be the first.” The sterility of the scrubs she wore belied the tenderness that Annie felt when the woman grasped Annie’s hand in her own. “I think hearing your voice will be just what the doctor ordered.”
Annie allowed herself to be led from the room by the woman whose head barely reached her chin. She admired the amount of authority the tiny woman carried. The way she carried it without conceit was unique also.
~&~
“I promise you, Cathy I’m alright.” Annie tried to reassure her friend for the hundredth time in the few weeks. “I’ve just been really busy trying to get the farm up in operational mode.”
The lie slid easily off her tongue with no surprise. It had been the mantra she’d recited to anyone who’d asked her since the warehouse fire.
“I’m not buying it, Annie.” Cathy stated matter-of-factly. “I think you’re forgetting that I know you better than most.”
Annie huffed out a breath. Her friend was right, but she’d be damned if she admitted the fact to her right now. Emotions were still too raw to explore. Yet she knew she’d have to appease Cathy’s concern a little or face an all-out intervention from her well-intentioned friend.
“Listen, it’s not that I don’t appreciate your concern. I do. I just need some time. Way too much went down.”
Between the fire, Mason’s injury, and his need to report to the Houston field office the day after he was released from the hospital, she’d experienced so many different emotions that she wasn’t sure which way was up.
“I know, Sweetie. I almost lost my husband in that mess out there. Every time I think about Mark’s plan to throw Joe to his death I get so mad. We thought of Mark as one of our family. Heck, I can’t count the number of times he’s been over for dinner in all the years he’s been on the department with Joe. Yet his demented mind didn’t see that. He saw Joe only as a pawn in his sick game.”
Annie let her friend voice her anger. They’d all been blindsided by Mark’s plan.
They’d later found out that he’d asked Joe to look at the vacant warehouse space with him under the guise of rent it for a start-up wood working business. Instead it had been his intention to frame Joe for the arson’s and stalking Annie.
A shiver ran through her. If she and Mason hadn’t been on alert Mark might have succeeded.
Joe and Mason were supposed to die that afternoon. Mark had arranged everything to point to Mason confronting Joe, and a fight ensuing that resulted in them both falling to their deaths.
A deeper investigation into the fire helped to determine that both floors Mason had fallen through showed signs of tampering. Evidence of charring on the underside of the floor joists was present. The head start that the first entry team had over the second, had been put to good use by Mark. He’d taken the opportunity to render his partner helpless and lure Annie and Mason further into the structure. Explosive charges were scattered around the building in locations sure to reduce the once towering building to rubble. It was evident that Mark Flynn hadn’t planned on leaving any witnesses to his crime.
Her stomach tumbled as she questioned for what had to be the thousandth time, how she could have been so blind to the twisted path Mark’s life had taken.
“Annie?” Cathy’s concerned voice brought her out of her reverie.
“I’m here.” She inhaled deep in an effort to quiet the tremors raking her body. “I’ve got a thousand things on my mind is all.”
“I understand. I’m very thankful that the two people I care most about in my life are safe and sound.” Annie heard the waver in her friend’s voice. “So have you heard anything from Mason?”
“Not since he left the hospital.” She made a point of clearing her throat. Cathy had been privy to how deep Annie had fallen for Mason. “He had a lot of things to take car
e of in Houston. He said it might be a few days before he could call.”
“Well he better not keep you waiting too long, Annie. At least without a good reason. And if the rat doesn’t do the right thing, he better pray I don’t run into him on a dark street somewhere.”
Annie couldn’t stifle the chuckle the image of Cathy pummeling Mason brought to mind.
“Thanks for having my back, Cathy.”
“Any time.” A second of silence hung over the phone line before Cathy continued. “You know that right? I’ll always be there for you, Annie.”
Tears burned the back of Annie’s eyes. “Yeah, I know that, and I love you for that.”
“I love you, too.” Cathy sniffled. “Now, when can Joe and I come over and help you whip this farm of yours into shape? I’m super excited for you. I can’t wait to see what you’ve done with the place.”
~&~
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“So this explains why I haven’t been able to get in touch with you.”
Annie whipped around. Heart pounding like a jackhammer against her ribs, she fought the temptation to run into his arms.
Mason Ramsay looked better than she remembered. Gone was the deathly pale skin she’d last witnessed. A golden hue graced every exposed inch of him.
Damn him! Why did he have to look so good? Couldn’t he at least look like it’d been a strain to be away from her?
She cleared her throat and busied her hands removing the telephoto lens from the body of the camera before tucking both into the bag. If she was lucky Mason wouldn’t notice how badly her hands were trembling.
“How are you, Mason?” Determined not to reveal her joy over seeing him again, she forced her emotions to settle down. “You’re looking good.”
Unable to meet his gaze she pivoted on her heel and headed for one of the small outbuildings she’d converted into a photography studio. She still had a long way to go, but her name was growing in the field.
She pushed open the door and stepped through. An instant zing of pride brought a smile to her face. A small seating area graced the front part of the building. It’d taken many hours and a lot of elbow grease to remove the decades of grime that had accumulated on the slat board walls. At the urging of her dad, Annie had let him and some others help her hang some insulation and drywall on the exterior walls of the building.
“This looks good.”
Her gaze shot to Mason’s face. The genuine admiration there made her heart swell with even more pride.
“Thanks.” She looked around the area trying to see the space through Mason’s eyes. “It’s still a work in progress, but the dark room’s functioning and that’s the most important element at the moment.”
“I’m proud of you, Annie.” Mason made his way around the room taking in each picture that graced the walls. “These are from the street fair right?” He pointed to a collage of pictures on one wall. “That was a fun time.”
“Yes it was. I’m sure you’ll be too busy in Houston to make it next year, though.” She bit down hard on her bottom lip instantly wishing she could take the words back.
Damn.
Mason crossed the small space separating them.
“Annie,” He crooked a finger beneath her chin and angled her head upward. The slight movement prevented her from looking away. “I understand why you’re mad, Sugar. Things took a little longer to wrap up than I originally thought they would.”
One thumb traced a dizzying path back and forth across her lower lip. She wanted to lash out and break the contact, but her limbs didn’t seem to agree.
“I’m not mad.” She almost choked on the lie. “I don’t have that right. We had an affair and nothing more. We were both adults.”
Anger flashed in his dark gaze.
“Just an affair, huh?”
Annie heard the challenge in his tone a split second too late. His large hands bracketed her face holding it gently as he dipped his head. His breath was warm against her mouth, and her heart raced in response.
The soft touch of his lips on hers sent a shock wave through her entire body. The emotions she’d worked hard to push down over the past three weeks, whirled and skidded through her.
His lips were more persuasive than she cared to admit. Vivid memories of the many nights they’d spent together flashed through Annie’s mind.
Mason’s hands skimmed down the length of her torso landing on her hips. He pulled her tight against his hard, hungry body.
Desire hammered through her veins. She tossed any shred of control she had left to the wind and rose up on tiptoe. A rush of pleasure shot through her.
She could give in one last time. It would hurt when he walked away again, but at least she’d know he wasn’t with her just because of a case.
Surprise shot through her when he raised his head, breaking the kiss and gazed into her eyes.
“Do you still think this is just an affair, Annie?”
She searched the dark brown gaze for any trace of humor. What she saw took her breath away. Could she trust that the emotion she witnessed there wasn’t a figment of her imagination?
“I love you, Annie.” He traced a hand along her jaw. “I love everything about you. You're stubborn, confident, funny, compassionate, and a thousand other things that I’d love nothing more than to take the next forty or sixty years regaling you with.”
Words escaped Annie. Her heart hammered a hundred mile an hour. She gave her head a gentle shake certain that she’d misheard him.
Had Mason Ramsay said he loved her? Her, Annette Andrews? She licked her parched lips in an attempt to buy some time.
“Annie?”
“Wha..” She cleared her throat and started again. “What did you say?”
“I said I love you, Annette.” He placed a light kiss on the tip of her nose. “And if you can find it in yourself to give a hardened, set in his ways, man a chance, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Here.”
She stared at him in amazement, unable to form the words she’d longed to say since she’d watched him disappear through the hole in that floor almost two months earlier. The day her life had almost ended in more ways than she cared to admit.
“You do feel the same way don’t you, Annie?”
A nervous laugh escaped him. The uncertainty in his eyes wrenched at her heart. Could he not see how wrong he was? The knowledge that he needed to hear the words as badly as she had shook Annie from her silence.
She raised a hand to his jaw and traced the familiar line. His dark eyes locked on her face, searching it intently. The stubble beneath her fingers sent desire racing to her core.
“Yes, Mason.” She broke the long silence.
“Thank God.” He pulled her roughly against his body. “You sure know how to keep a man in suspense, Sweetheart.”
She pulled back in his arms. “I wasn’t trying to make you sweat. I love you too, Mason Ramsay. I’ve loved you pretty much since the day you walked into my apparatus bay. I knew that day you would wreak havoc on my life, and damned if I wasn’t right.”
A bark of laughter rumbled from his chest. “That goes both ways, Sugar.” He placed a light kiss on each corner of her mouth. “But I’m not complaining. Are you?”
“No, I’m definitely not.” She laughed, but sobered quickly as her mind played back his earlier words. “Mason?”
“Yes, Darlin’?”
Her heart did a little flip with the endearment.
“Did you say that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me? Here?”
“That’s exactly what I said. If you’ll have me of course.”
“What about your job, Mason? You love that job.”
“You’re right, but I’ve been offered this great opportunity that I can’t pass up.”
She pulled back further, and searched his eyes for any clue.
“And what would that be Mr. Ramsay?”
“Well it seems the field office in Detroit has an opening. My transfer was approved as
of today.”
She threw her arms around his neck, and nestled into him. Tears burned her eyes and choked her throat.
“So I take it you approve.”
“Oh yes,” The heady sensation grew as she placed tiny kisses along his warm neck. “I definitely approve.”
His arms tightened around her waist. “Great. So how soon can we make it official?”
Annie’s heart soared. She was going to be Mrs. Mason Ramsay. She would be able to touch this beautiful specimen any time, any way, any place that she wanted to for the rest of her life. Starting right now.
“Soon enough, but first, let me show you the other improvements I’ve made to the house. We need to make sure you’re going to like where you live.”
She grabbed his hand and led him from the studio, across the small yard, and onto the porch.
“I’m sure I’ll love what you’ve done, Sugar.”
Annie pushed up the door and stepped through.
“How about we start in the master suite just to be certain?”
She turned, taking both hands in hers, and pulled him in the direction of the room in question. The lusty glint in the cinnamon gaze watching her promised of the pleasure she would enjoy for the rest of her days.
Autumn Nights
S.D.Bancroft
Available on Amazon in paperback and eBook
Turn the page for a preview of Autumn Nights…
Chapter One
“Hey, Luce. There’s a twenty-eight year old female coming in by ambulance. She took a hell of a beating according to the paramedics. I’m assigning you to go one-on-one with her. I’ll get your other rooms covered until things settle down.”
Lucy McAllister ground her fists against the tight muscles of her lower back. So much for a quick snack, she would be lucky if she managed to get lunch now. She closed her eyes for a brief second in an attempt to vanquish the weariness from her exhausted body and mind.
“Do we have any idea on the extent of injuries, or if the patient’s attacker’s in custody?”
Where There's Smoke: Page 19