by Debbie Mason
“My office. I have to get—” There was a crash from the front of the shop and then the voices of men calling out.
“Arianna, leave it!” At the same time Jenna realized her sister was gone, a man charged through the smoke toward her. Logan. He took Serena from her, passing her back to his cousin, and then he lifted Jenna into his arms.
“Two more back here,” he called out.
“Three. Arianna went to her office. Put me down and go find her, Logan. I can make it.”
“Jenna Bell, I’m never leaving you on your own again.” A firefighter ran down the hall. It was Logan’s cousin Liam. “Arianna went back to her office.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
There was a smattering of applause when Logan carried Jenna out of Tie the Knot. Several people in the crowd across the street yelled out her name, while the majority cheered. Cameras flashed as people, including Poppy Harte, took photos of them leaving the burning building. The two businesses on either side had also caught fire. They’d be lucky if they didn’t lose the entire block.
Crowded with emergency vehicles, Main Street was lit up with red and blue lights. Logan crossed to the waiting ambulance where Aidan had just placed Serena. It wasn’t until he’d set Jenna beside her sister that he got a good look at her, and nearly passed out.
“What are you doing?” she asked when he quickly scooped her into his arms, searching for a vehicle he could take. He was surprised she was still conscious with the amount of blood she’d obviously lost.
“Getting you to the hospital right away. Aidan, tell one of your deputies to give me the keys—”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital. I need to know Arianna is okay.” She tried to get out of his arms.
He tightened his hold. “Stop fighting me. You’re not all right. You’ve…” He couldn’t tell her she was covered in blood. “You’re in shock right now, so you probably can’t feel your injuries—”
“Trust me, I can feel them. My head and chin hurt, and so do my feet from walking miles without shoes, but other than that, I’m honestly fine, Logan. Please, I can’t leave until I’ve seen with my own eyes that Arianna—” She broke off as firefighters came out of the building carrying Lorenzo and Gwyneth on stretchers. “They aren’t dead?”
“Apparently not.” A muscle jumped in his clenched jaw. What he wouldn’t give to have a few minutes alone in a room with Lorenzo Romano. Logan wanted to know what happened in that back room tonight, what Lorenzo had done or said to her, how badly he’d hurt her or made her suffer. Jenna didn’t appear to be traumatized or in shock. Obviously, she and her sisters had fought back and taken the control from their captors, which would go a long way in aiding their recovery from whatever had happened here tonight.
“Jenna,” Serena said from where she sat in the back of the ambulance. She nodded at the burning building.
People were cheering and clapping as Logan’s cousin Liam came through the doors with Arianna in his arms wearing an oxygen mask. From the grim expression on Liam’s face and the way he jogged to the waiting ambulance behind theirs, Arianna hadn’t escaped without injury.
“Logan, please let me down. I need to see her.”
He had a hard time letting Jenna go. He felt better with her in his arms. Still, he reluctantly did as she asked. She put her arm around Serena, and together they walked back to the ambulance behind theirs.
Aidan clapped him on the shoulder. “Relax. She’s fine, big guy. It’s obviously not her blood she’s wearing.” He handed him a set of keys. “Julia parked my pickup outside Books and Beans. You can take it. I’ll catch up with you at the hospital later. It’s going to be a long night.”
When Logan reached the ambulance, his cousin was doing his best to answer Jenna’s and Serena’s questions. “No, I’m sorry. Whatever it was Arianna was trying to save is gone. No, she didn’t tell me,” Liam said.
“Is she going to be okay?”
Logan turned to see his brother Connor coming up behind him. He was the one who asked the question.
“She’s suffering from smoke inhalation and has burns on her hand and arm. It’ll take some time, but I’m sure she’ll be fine.” He nodded at the paramedic. “We should let them get her to the hospital.”
Before the paramedic got the door closed, Connor climbed inside. Serena and Jenna looked surprised, but Logan wasn’t. Once the ambulance had pulled away with the lights flashing and siren wailing, Aidan helped Serena back to the waiting paramedic, and Logan carried a protesting Jenna to his cousin’s pickup.
“This is embarrassing. You can’t keep carrying me around like I’m some helpless woman.”
“I don’t think you’re helpless, far from it. But we’re in the middle of Main Street and your feet are bare.” Logan beeped the lock button on the keys and carefully lowered her to her feet beside the door. “Although that’s not the only reason I wanted you in my arms.” He raised his hand to her face, and the words came out rough. “I almost lost you tonight.”
Jenna wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest. “I was afraid I’d never see you again. It was hard enough thinking my sisters and I were going to die, but at least I had the chance to tell them I loved them.” She lifted her face to look up at him. “My biggest regret would’ve been not telling you how I feel. I love you, Logan. And it’s not because you keep playing my knight in shining armor or because I know you and I are meant to be. Okay, so maybe it’s a little of that, but it’s more because of the way you make me feel whenever I’m with you. And loving you is my only excuse for doing what I did. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you everything. I was trying to protect you.”
“Yeah, and I’m beginning to understand how my brother Michael feels.”
Her face lit up. “You think I’m like Shay?”
“I think you’re courageous and kind.”
“You remember what I said that night at the Salty Dog.” She frowned. “You got your memory back?”
He nodded. “Yeah, and I remember every minute of every day with you, Jenna.”
“Of course you do, because I’m your one true love.” Her eyes went wide. “I’m not just your one true love, am I? We got married today.”
“When I got my memory back, I figured out Mateo was the father of Isabella’s baby, so I wasn’t about to marry a woman I didn’t love and who didn’t love me. We’re not married, honey. Our priest was an actor.”
“Umm, Logan, you didn’t grow up in Harmony. I did. And that priest wasn’t an actor. It was Father O’Malley.”
“It can’t be. Jasper knew I was using the wedding as an opportunity to draw out the shooter. I told him to hire an actor to replace the priest.” He opened the door and helped Jenna into the truck as he pulled out his phone. “Hey, Jeeves, the guy that married me and Jenna was an actor, wasn’t he? Really? Is that right? I see. Okay, but we didn’t have a marriage license. We did? You did? So you’re telling me you knew Jenna was going to trade places with Isabella? Yes, Jeeves, I realize you know everything that goes on in the manor. What I’d like to know is why you chose not to explain it to me. Yeah, well, you have some explaining to do when I get back to the manor.” Logan looked at her as he disconnected. “So, apparently, you’ve rubbed off on Jasper, and he decided we were meant to be and pulled some strings to get us a valid marriage license. We’re married.”
She laughed. “Does that mean we get the bridal suite tonight?”
“Seriously, that’s all you have to say?”
“No, it’s not.” She framed his face with her hands and kissed him deeply, and then broke the kiss to smile up at him. “It seems silly to ruin a perfectly good wedding night.”
He pulled her to him and kissed her like he’d wanted to when he’d lifted her veil and saw the face that he’d never tire of, and for a minute, he forgot he was standing on Main Street and the cab light provided a clear view of what they were doing to the crowd on the street.
At the sounds of laughter and clapp
ing, he reluctantly pulled back. “I love you too. Maybe we’ll wait and get divorced next week.”
* * *
Three weeks later, Jenna and Logan were still man and wife. They wouldn’t be for long. They’d both agreed that while it made a great story, it wasn’t the way they wanted to start off their married life. Not that they planned to get married anytime soon. Unlike his cousin Aidan, who was getting married in two days.
To Jenna’s mind, the best thing about Aidan and Julia’s wedding was that Logan had gotten time off work to come home. Thanks to the video Princess Isabella had made, Logan had been cleared of all charges and reinstated to the president’s security detail. He’d been back in Washington for more than two weeks.
For Isabella and Mateo’s sake, it was a good thing Logan had contacts in high places. Because he did, the couple no longer had to live in fear that they’d be made to return to Merradien. However, they chose to remain in the small town where Shay had relocated them, and they also chose to keep their new identities. Pilar and Luis were making arrangements to join them soon.
Pippa sat in the sand beside Jenna, waiting for low tide. Well, Pippa was waiting for low tide. Jenna was waiting for Logan. He was stopping by the hospital to see his mother before coming to the manor. Ten days ago, Maura’s test results had come back. She had a benign ovarian tumor, not ovarian cancer. She’d had the tumor removed yesterday, and her prognosis was excellent.
Cheep, cheep. Pippa got up and hurried off. “You’re going the wrong way…” Jenna trailed off, smiling when she discovered the reason for Pippa’s excitement.
“At least someone’s happy to see me,” Logan teased as he bent to pick up Pippa and give her a cuddle.
“I’m beyond happy. I’m over the moon,” she said as he sat beside her in the sand, barely able to keep her hands off him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he slid his unoccupied arm around her, holding her close. She tipped her face up. “I missed you like crazy.”
“I missed you like crazy too, honey.” He kissed her, and she released a happy sigh at the feel of his mouth on hers.
At the sounds of sandpipers flocking to the mud flats, Pippa cheeped to be put down.
Logan seemed as reluctant to break the kiss as Jenna was, but he gave in to the little tyrant’s demands. Releasing Jenna, he bent down to set Pippa free. They laughed as she rushed headlong for her peeps. No veering off in the opposite direction, she joined the sandpipers along the shore.
“How was your mom tonight?”
“In a bit of pain, but otherwise doing really well. I hear you dropped in to see her yesterday.”
“I did. We had a nice visit.”
“Yeah, and I can tell by your voice she told you what she told me. I don’t get it. I thought she’d be going home once she left the hospital and not moving back here.”
She rubbed his arm. “I know. Maybe she just needs some time.”
“What she needs is Uncle Daniel to leave her alone.” He glanced at her. “You heard? I don’t know why I even asked. Of course you’d know he’s not leaving town.”
“He’s actually running for mayor. I think your mom’s agreed to be his campaign manager.”
“Things are starting to make sense now. There’s nothing she loves more than a political race.”
“She’ll find her way back to your dad eventually. They’re meant to be.”
He smiled and took her hand in his, bringing it to his lips. “Like us.”
“Yes, like us. And I’ve been thinking about what you said, about opening a matchmaking business in DC.”
“I didn’t mean to put pressure on you, Jenna. I’m fine with the long-distance thing. I mean, I’m not totally fine with it—I’d rather be with you—but if that’s what we have to do, we will.”
“You didn’t pressure me, Logan. I want to be with you as much as you want to be with me. So I hope I’m not rushing you, because instead of next summer like you suggested, I was thinking more like November.”
“Really? That’s the best news I’ve had all week,” he said when she nodded.
“We’ll have received the money from the estate by then. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to get my business up and running. And Arianna should be back on her feet in a few weeks, and I’ve finally got Shay to agree to a date.” She grinned. “They’re having a wedding at Halloween, and the guests are expected to come in costume.”
Logan laughed. “Let me guess, the bride and groom are going as Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, and we’re going as Cinderella and Prince Charming.”
“Very good guess, and I found you a pair of powder-blue tights.”
“Like that’s going to happen. Now, come on.” He lay back in the sand and pulled her down with him. “We haven’t stargazed in a while.”
“We haven’t done quite a few things in a while,” she murmured suggestively.
“You’re right. Why don’t we leave the stargazing till later?”
It wasn’t until they were hunting for their clothes in the sand much later that she realized Pippa wasn’t with them. “Where did she go?”
Logan sat up and looked around. “Over there.” He pointed to the rocks. “Your baby’s flown the nest, Mommy. She’s made a new family.” Jenna sniffed back tears, and Logan smiled and wrapped her in his arms. “You’ve got a new family too, honey.”
FBI agent Michael Gallagher never dreamed that his job would bring him back to his hometown of Harmony Harbor. Or that one of his best leads would be the woman he once loved.
Please turn the page for an excerpt from Driftwood Cove.
Chapter One
There’d been no foreboding signs to alert Shay Angel to the danger, no warning that this was the day her past caught up with her and her life might be on the line.
Her morning had started off the same as usual. The alarm on her bedside table went off at seven, and she hit the snooze button three times at ten-minute intervals just like she always did. She didn’t fall out of bed or trip over her boots on the way to the shower. Her one-bedroom apartment was sparsely furnished, and her boots were right where she’d left them—directly at the end of her bed, toes pointed toward the door in case she needed to make a quick exit.
Even the unreliable showerhead had cooperated today. Her five-minute shower had been exactly the way she liked it, hot and strong. Just like her coffee, which she drank from an oversized travel mug that read Do I look like I “Rise & Shine”? Her assistant at the security company she worked for had a sense of humor. Shay didn’t.
Nor, for the most part, did she do friends, which her assistant was desperately trying to change. Lately—okay, so in the past ten years—Shay didn’t do boyfriends either. Something else her assistant was desperately trying to change by signing Shay up on every matchmaking app known to mankind. Without Shay’s permission, of course.
Just one more reason Shay had been lulled into thinking the day, for the most part, would be pretty good. She’d had forty-five minutes of peace and quiet before she’d left for work. No pings or beeps and bells and whistles from texts or emails from the apps she was signed up for alerting her to a new and perfect match.
She’d met her match a long time ago. Only he turned out to be perfectly imperfect. And he was calling her at a perfectly imperfect time. She reached for the vibrating cell phone on her desk and hit Decline. She’d stopped taking his calls ten months before but couldn’t quite make it official by blocking him completely. He was one of the reasons she’d accepted the job in Vegas. The move put twenty-three hundred miles between her and her past, in which Michael Gallagher had played a starring role.
But she didn’t have time to think about him now, or ever, really. She had bigger worries to contend with. Like the cop who sat on the other side of Shay’s desk with a familiar, suspicious look in her eyes.
“In less than three months, four of the homes your company installed security for have been robbed of more than a million dollars in diamonds. I don’t believe it’s a coinciden
ce that your clients are the ones being targeted, Ms. Angel.” Detective Sims slapped a file onto Shay’s desk.
Working to keep any sign of worry from showing on her face, Shay drew the manila folder toward her. There was no way she’d give Detective Sims the satisfaction of seeing her sweat. Shay’s petty-criminal parents had imprinted her DNA with a deep dislike and distrust of law enforcement, but she didn’t have to like or trust Sims to know the woman wasn’t making up the evidence in the file.
Over the past five days, Shay had been trying to convince herself that no one at Sterling Security was involved in the break-ins. Then yesterday she’d overheard a conversation between her boss and an installer and could no longer deny the likelihood that they were in this up to their ears.
Which totally blew, because her suspicions put her bright and shiny dream for her future at risk. She’d left her job in New York to work for Ray Sterling, a man who was renowned in the security business. She’d planned to learn all that she could from him and then branch out on her own. Now…
Without saying a word, she closed the file and held the gaze of the woman sitting on the other side of her desk.
Shay’s uncle Charlie had taken up where her parents left off. He’d taught her how to not only run a con and make a cop with a single glance, but also how to elude and confuse them. Other than the summer she’d turned nineteen, his lessons had served her well.
Sims’s dark eyes narrowed beneath her frosted blond fringe.
Leaning back in the chair, Shay crossed her arms as she waited for the detective to show her hand. It didn’t take long.
“Do not try to intimidate me. I’ve heard all about your Superwoman act. How you saved your assistant and got Ace Rodriguez and his gang of thugs out of your neighborhood. But you don’t scare or impress me like you do the beat cops. I know who and what you really are.” Sims leaned forward and tapped the file with a hot-pink fingernail. “You were put away for grand theft auto at nineteen. Not much of a leap between stealing cars and stealing diamonds, now, is there? So tell me, Angel, where were you on the nights in question?”