Vance was quick to put two and two together. “So it was Ranger Thompson who unwittingly broke the news to you tonight that she had a daughter. I swear you turned into a different man just then.”
Chase nodded. “I phoned Mark a few minutes ago and found out my little girl is ten years old.”
“Did he tell you her name?”
“It’s Roberta.”
A low whistle escaped Vance’s lips. “That’s better proof than DNA,” he teased. “If Nicky were here he’d say whoa!”
His head reared. “What am I going to do?”
“What do you want to do?”
“That’s a hell of a question—”
“I was going to tell you the same thing,” Vance retorted.
“You don’t understand. Even though my heart’s still pumping, that piece of shrapnel could suddenly move and that would be it.”
“True, but it hasn’t happened in ten years. I’d say you’ve beaten the odds.”
“Maybe, but my CIA contact keeps me updated and the fact remains that Al-Qaeda operatives are still searching for me. We know their patience is legendary. Though being in the witness protection program has kept us all safe so far, I’ll always be a fugitive looking over my shoulder. Better for Annie and Roberta if I disappear into another world before she leaves the hospital.”
Vance shook his head. “Your particular war has been over for a long time. The chances of either of you being traced here is a million times less likely than her being involved in a helicopter crash over the park. What better place for you to protect her where she and Roberta can live in relative seclusion? No way are you leaving here! I won’t let you,” he vowed with satisfying ferocity.
Chase’s eyes smarted. “You have every right to despise me for pretending to be someone else all this time.”
“Don’t be an idiot. Would you despise me if the shoe were on the other foot?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
“Then we understand each other. Now that I’m back to being the Chief again, I’m giving you as much time off as you need to take care of unfinished business. I’d say ten years’ worth.” He headed for the door. “To think Rachel and I were talking the whole trip about how to find you the right woman…”
“Surely not the whole trip.”
He grinned. “No. I have to be honest about that. Good night, Robert, or should I say Dr. Myers.”
“Do you know how weird that sounds to me now?”
“Probably not as weird as the name ‘Chase’ will sound to Annie. She’s going to have to learn to call you that. Of course Roberta won’t have any problem. She’ll just call you Dad.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Annie knows I’m alive.” He sucked in his breath. “I have a gut feeling she’ll never forgive my long silence no matter the reason.”
“Then make her fall in love with you all over again. Rachel says you’re a real heartthrob. By the way, I don’t think I had a chance to tell you about my conversation with Chief Sam before I left on my honeymoon.”
The old Paiute chief was a visionary man. Whenever he spoke, he gave Chase gooseflesh.
“After he thanked me for fixing the photo of the Paiute lodge in the library, he said he saw a peregrine falcon flying faster than an arrow to her mate nesting in the cliffs overlooking the valley. You realize we haven’t seen any falcons nesting there in a decade or more. Kind of gives you chills, doesn’t it?”
Before he closed the door behind him he added, “Remind me to give the Superintendent a bear hug for opening up a slot for a new resident archaeologist to the park.”
After Vance left, there was no sleep for Chase. For the rest of the night he downed coffee and wrestled with a dozen ideas on how to approach Annie. By morning he’d come to the conclusion that the only thing to do was phone her before she was released from the hospital. It was a place to start. If she refused to take the call or shut him down flat, then he’d find another way to reach her.
At eight in the morning he couldn’t wait any longer and rang information for San Gabriel hospital in Stockton. Eventually he reached the hospital operator who told him she was in W423 and rang her room. Between caffeine and adrenaline, he was so jumpy he paced the living room floor while he waited for someone to pick up.
“Hello?” said a young female voice.
If he didn’t miss his guess, it was his daughter who’d answered. Unbelievable. “Hello,” he said back, breaking out in another cold sweat. “Is this Ms. Bower’s room?”
“Yes?”
“May I speak to her please?”
“She can’t come to the phone right now. Who’s calling?”
“Ranger Jarvis.”
After a brief silence she said, “Are you one of the men who rescued my mother?” Her sweet demeanor melted his heart.
“I am.” He cleared his throat. “How is she doing?”
“The doctor says she can go home this afternoon.”
He swallowed with difficulty. “That’s wonderful news. Who are you?”
“Her daughter, Roberta.”
His eyes closed tightly. Roberta…“That’s a beautiful name.”
“Thank you. I was named for my father whose name was Robert. He died before I was born.”
Chase covered his face with his hand. “I’m glad your mother is all right. Have you been staying with her the whole time?”
“Yes. My grandparents wanted me to stay at the hotel with them, but Mom needs me to do things for her.”
“She’s very lucky to have a daughter who loves her so much. Do you think she’ll be able to talk to me later?”
“If you’ll hold on, I’ll find out.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
What an amazingly polite, charming girl! He could tell she’d had the right training from her mother. To think she was blood of his blood, flesh of his flesh. Already, he was bursting with pride.
“Ranger Jarvis?” She’d come back to the phone.
“I’m still here.”
“Mom’s busy with the nurse. She says that if you’ll leave your number, she’ll call you back in ten minutes.”
Annie had guessed who it was.
It appeared she’d decided to face Chase head-on. That put the fear in him. She wasn’t twenty years old anymore. She was a thirty-one year old woman who’d been the head of her home for ten years and had carved out an enviable career for herself and Roberta.
“Do you have a pen to write it down?”
“Yes. Go ahead please.”
He smiled through the tears and gave it to her. She made the perfect secretary. Such a serious head on those young shoulders. Who could blame her after almost losing her mother? Chase shuddered because Annie had come so close to death. Visions of the twisted wreckage refused to leave his mind.
“I’ll read it back.” She’d gotten it right. “Don’t worry. She won’t forget to call you. She said her rescuers were angels.”
Except for one…“Thank you, Roberta. I’ll be waiting.”
“Okay. Goodbye. Thank you for helping my mom.” She hung up before he could say anything else.
Chase sank down in the nearest chair, shaken and humbled by the first conversation with his only offspring.
A RANGER JARVIS WANTED Annie to call him back?
Along with flowers sent from friends and staff at the CDF, she’d already received two gorgeous flower arrangements from the park superintendent and the chief ranger wishing her a full and speedy recovery.
So why this phone call from a ranger? Unless it was an official follow-up courtesy call on the part of the park service to anyone who’d been injured within its borders. She had no idea of park protocol and couldn’t say with any authority what they did one way or the other.
It led her to the conclusion that if it wasn’t their policy to call in these situations, then Robert had initiated it because he knew she knew he hadn’t died. Out of desperation he’d called on a fis
hing expedition to find out what she was going to do about it.
How she would have loved to be a fly on the wall when he discovered he was talking to his own daughter! A normal man might have come close to cardiac arrest. But considering Robert was capable of the worst cruelty, nothing short of liquid nitrogen could run through his veins.
Now that the anesthetic had left her body, rage began to take its place, along with aches and pains starting to come out in every part of her. She was infuriated to think it might have been Robert talking to her sweet, innocent girl just now. He didn’t deserve to have a conversation with her, let alone be anywhere near her!
Once out of the shower, the nurse had helped Annie dress in a loose-fitting top and skirt, then Roberta took over. She put toothpaste on Annie’s brush, then dried her wet hair with a towel.
“Thank you, honey. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Annie hugged her with her free arm before more or less shuffling into the other room. She sat down in a chair so her daughter could put her hair in a ponytail. It felt good for someone else to brush it. “Ah, this is sheer luxury.”
Roberta laughed gently while she did an expert job on her mom, taking care not to touch the area with the stitches. The two of them had always been close, but this experience had bonded them in a more profound way. Roberta fastened the elastic in place. “I’m all finished.”
“You did a perfect job. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She walked over to the table by the bed and brought her the cell phone and notepad. “Now you can call that ranger back.”
Annie would do it right in front of Roberta. Regardless of whoever answered on the other end, her daughter would never know anything was out of the ordinary. In light of the fact that her parents would be here soon to take her home, she hoped it was Robert so she could get this out of the way once and for all.
She pushed the digits and waited three rings before he picked up.
“This is Chase Jarvis.”
No matter how ready she thought she was to handle the call, she hadn’t counted on the way Robert’s deep voice resonated with her insides, calling up memories she was fighting with all her might to repress.
Her body went rigid. How did he have the gall to do this to her, to them! “I understand you asked me to return your call.”
“Annie?” He sounded haunted. No doubt he was. It had taken ten years, but he’d finally been snared in a trap of his own making. “Don’t hang up,” he begged. “We have to talk.”
“I agree,” she said. Roberta might be watching TV, but her tender ears picked up on everything. “It would be remiss of me not to express my gratitude to all of you brave men for rescuing me and the pilot. I’ll never be able to thank you enough.
“When I’m a little better I’ll send an official thank-you to each of you for your extraordinary courage. It took courage to fly up there and perform those rescues knowing what had just happened to the helicopter we were in.”
“Annie—” He said her name again, this time in a voice an octave lower and saturated in some indefinable emotion. She hardened herself against its insidious power to break through her defenses.
“If you’d be kind enough to tell the chief ranger I’ve decided not to take the job after all, I’d appreciate it. He sent a note with his flowers welcoming me to the park. Yesterday I spoke with my boss at the CDF and let him know I’ve changed my mind. I’m sure the word will be passed along, but since you work under Chief Rossiter he’ll probably hear it sooner if you tell him.
“Goodbye, Ranger Jarvis, and thanks again for your uncommon act of valor. It will never be forgotten by me or the pilot.” She clicked off, breathing in huge drafts of air to gain some semblance of control.
The moment Roberta could see that she’d hung up, she turned off the TV. “That ranger was nice.”
Oh Roberta…
“Yes he was.”
“Can we sleep at our house tonight? I want Debbie to come over.”
The girls had a lot to discuss. “We’ll probably stay there through the rest of the week and leave for San Francisco on Sunday.”
“Are Grandma and Grandpa going to stay with us till then?”
“Tonight certainly. Then they’ll probably drive back and forth. You know Grandpa. He has a hard time staying put for long.”
“Yeah. He always walks around and it drives Grandma crazy.”
Annie smiled at her observant daughter. “Now he’ll have you to take with him. What you and I should do is get organized and make sure we’ve packed what we need to stay at Grandma’s until our big move.”
“When will we do that?”
“We can’t move everything out until this cast comes off in six weeks. I don’t even want to try. What we’ll do when we get to Grandma’s is enroll you in school near their house and start looking for a place to live that’s close to them. Once that’s accomplished we’ll go from there. I don’t expect we’ll leave Santa Rosa for good for at least two months.”
The lease on their condo wouldn’t be up until the end of December. That gave her enough time to set up a new household in San Francisco without feeling rushed. Right now Annie was jobless, but she’d worry about that later. She had enough savings to take them into the first few months of next year.
“Can I invite Debbie to stay at Grandma’s on the weekends?”
“Debbie and maybe Penny.”
Penny was a girl who lived in the eightplex, but went to a private school. Annie and Roberta liked her a lot. “We’ll ask Julie to come too and sometimes you can stay with them.” Julie rented a house only a block away from the condo. In time Roberta would make new friends in San Francisco, but for now this would work.
She heard footsteps and saw her parents come in the room. Roberta ran to hug her grandma. Annie’s dad beamed when he saw her. “Looking at you, you’d never know you’ve been through such a horrendous ordeal. Do you feel as good as you look?”
“Better,” Annie lied, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Every bone in her body ached and the one-sided conversation with Robert had shaken her to the core. Though he’d only said a few words, they’d been enough to disturb her at her deepest level. “The doctor has discharged me. I’m ready to leave.”
Roberta gave him a hug. “I’ve got our suitcases ready.”
“Then let’s go.”
“What are we going to do with the flowers?”
Annie studied her daughter. “We can’t take them with us. Shall we ask the hospital to give them to some patients who could use cheering up?”
She nodded. “Here’s your purse.”
“Thank you.”
Her mother peeked out the door. “The nurse is coming with your wheelchair.”
“Can I push you, Mom?”
“We’ll ask the nurse, but I don’t see why not.”
FRIDAY MORNING Chase sat in his car in one of the guest parking stalls at Annie’s condo. Agent Sid Manning, his contact in the CIA, was parked around the corner waiting for Chase’s signal to join him.
The phone conversation with Annie on Wednesday had been a lesson in futility. He’d known it in his bones before he’d picked up the phone. In truth he didn’t have much faith in what he was about to do now, but it was necessary if he expected her to listen long enough to hear him out.
Since yesterday he’d been watching the activity at her condo. Last night he saw a man and woman leave her place in their luxury car. They had to be Annie’s parents. Both had attractive physical traits she’d inherited.
A few minutes ago he’d had his first glimpse of his daughter. At eight-thirty a woman driving a Toyota pulled into the parking area with a blond girl in the back seat. In another minute a brunette of medium height flew out the front door in a blue and green top and jeans, carrying a backpack. While her ponytail swished back and forth, she waved to her friend waiting in the car.
Chase’s hungry gaze took in her slender frame. She moved with nimble grace, like Annie. As she drew closer, he could s
ee her facial features. His heart jolted to realize she bore an almost uncanny resemblance to his family, to him. Tears welled in his eyes. Roberta—his little girl. She was adorable.
The moment the Toyota disappeared down the street, Chase phoned Sid. “I’m going to approach her now.”
“I’ll be right there.”
He’d decided to show up without warning. He realized it would be another strike against him. For all he knew Annie was still in bed, recuperating. But this was a life-and-death situation.
His life.
Knowing what he knew now, existence would have no meaning if he couldn’t take care of them and love them for as long as he was granted life.
After drawing in a deep breath, he levered himself from the car and walked toward her condo. Sid pulled his car around and met him at the front door. He rang the bell. To his surprise she answered it faster than he would have expected.
“Honey?” she cried. “Did you forget something?” But the minute she saw Chase, a gasp escaped her throat. She backed away from him. Beneath her mane of dark, glistening hair still in slight disarray from sleep, her features took on a chiseled cast.
“How dare you come here.”
She wore a simple pink sundress, no doubt easy to put on over her cast. At second glance he noticed she was barefoot and beautiful. More beautiful than she’d been ten years ago if that were possible.
“Ms. Bower?” Sid spoke up. He took out his ID and held it in front of her. “I’m Agent Manning from the CIA. I need to have a word with you. It’s for the safety of you and your daughter as well as Dr. Myers, who worked for us for a time.”
“Of course he did,” she mocked with a cruel laugh.
“May we step inside please?”
“No,” she responded without hesitation or hysteria. “You can say what you have to say right here.” She stared directly at them without the flicker of an eyelash to reveal any angst she might be hiding.
Chase wasn’t surprised. There were degrees of betrayal. His qualified at the bedrock level. You couldn’t go any lower.
Sid remained calm. “This will take some time.”
The curve of her normally provocative mouth thinned to an angry white line. “You said you had something to say, so say it, otherwise I’m shutting the door.”
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