by Paula Graves
Maggie was tempted to go for the gun, but she knew it was more important to keep Blevins immobilized. Jack was here. He knew what was happening. All she had to do was keep Blevins from getting up again until Jack found a way down to the warehouse floor. She kept up the pressure on Blevins' throat, not stopping even when he started to claw at her hands.
"You can let go now." Jack's voice broke through her concentration. She found him a few feet away, holding both guns. A series of small tears bisected his t-shirt, blood staining the ragged edges. A cut over his left eyebrow oozed blood down the side of his face.
She'd never seen anything more beautiful. Tears spilled down her cheeks. "I love you." She hadn't meant to say the words, but she didn't regret them.
If she wanted Jack, it was time to start telling the truth.
A slow smile curving his lips as he crossed to her side and crouched, gazing at her with eyes full of relief and something else. Something rich and pure and amazing.
Something that looked a lot like love.
Cooper and Laura had arrived at the warehouse with bolt-cutters, forewarned by Jack before his climb up the doomed ladder. They'd called in back-up from the F.B.I., not ready to trust the New Orleans Police Department yet. Not until all of Blevins' gang was rounded up.
"That won't take long," Laura told Jack later at the precinct station when she came to let him know he was free to go. "Blevins isn't going down alone. He's naming names, his files are a gold mine, and we've already identified the officers in those photos you took of your intruders in Fairhope."
"How deep does it go?"
"Deep enough. The good news is, the mayor doesn't seem to be directly implicated. But he's lucky this is his second term. He'd have be reelected after this." Laura settled in the chair across from him, cocking her head. "You look like crap."
He grinned. "I feel like crap."
She smiled slightly. "No, you don't. You feel like finding Marguerite and getting the hell out of here."
"Is she free to go?" They'd had to separate for their debriefings.
"Gone already. Her father took her home to her apartment." As Jack's stomach started to sink, Laura handed him a folded piece of paper. "She asked me to give this to you."
He unfolded the paper and read the two short sentences written in Maggie's sprawling script. "Meet me at my apartment as soon as they let you go. We have a lot to talk about."
Jack tucked the note in his pocket. "What about Remy?"
"His foster parents haven't been found yet, so he's gone to a group home 'til his status is sorted out. Nobody's inclined to press charges for the knife incident at the youth center."
"Can we see him?"
"I may be able to arrange something once he gets settled in. Maggie has all the information." Laura crossed to the door and opened it. "She loves you, you know."
The look he'd seen in Maggie's eyes back in the warehouse—God, he wanted to believe it was true. But he needed to see her again, see that look again. Hear the words. Just to be sure.
He joined Laura at the door. "I owe you an apology for claiming you were crazy all those years ago. I think maybe I've loved her the whole time and didn't know it."
"So go." Her smile was genuine. "You deserve to be happy. God help you, she seems to be the one who can make you happy."
Jack gave her arm a squeeze and headed off to find Maggie.
Maggie's apartment smelled musty. A layer of dust had settled over her furniture, disturbed here and there by the police and, later, Laura Sandoval and Travis Cooper. Laura had told Maggie how she'd found out about the ring. She'd also told her about her father's genuine concern. Otherwise, Maggie might have refused her father's offer of a ride home.
He stood at one of the front windows, gazing at the street below. Afternoon sunlight outlined the strong, even features that had stirred many female hearts over the years. "You could have come to me for help," he said, not looking at her.
Maggie didn't walk closer. "No, I couldn't."
He looked at her now, backlit by the window so that she couldn't read his expression. But hurt tinted his voice. "I've never been what you needed, have I?"
"I've always thought that was mutual between us."
He shook his head. "I'm good at politics. Shaking hands and telling people exactly what they want to hear. I'm just not good at being a father." He crossed closer, his expression genuinely regretful. "If your mother had lived, maybe my faults wouldn't have mattered as much. She loved you kids so much."
Tears slid down Maggie's cheek. She pushed them away with her fingertips. "Thank you for trying to find me."
"You didn't want to be found."
She shook her head. "You didn't know that."
He made a bitter sound that might have been a laugh. "Yes, I did." He touched her shoulder briefly and moved toward the door. "I'm glad you're home safely."
As he opened the door, she almost asked him to stay.
Almost.
Maybe someday she would. But today she let him walk out without stopping him. Sinking to her sofa, she let tears come.
A few moments later, someone knocked on her door. A quiver of alarm shot through her, a reminder that she still had things to fear. But when she saw Jack's face through the peephole, fear drained away.
Jack smiled when she opened the door. "Got your note."
"Good." She stepped aside to let him in.
He looked around her apartment, his expression hard to read. She tried to see the place through his eyes—the brightly colored folk art she'd collected over the years, the brick walls and the maple floors. It was important to her that he liked her place. She'd put so much of herself into it.
"Must have a hell of a trust fund." He eased the blunt remark with a grin.
She smiled. "Play your cards right, mister, and I can be your ticket to the good life."
His smile faded. "I'm not looking for a trust fund."
Her nerves jangled. "So what are you looking for?"
He touched her cheek. "The truth. Did you mean what you said in the warehouse?"
What—that she loved him? Did he really have doubts about that after all that had happened?
She took his hand and gazed up into his wary eyes. "Yes, I meant it. I love you more than I ever thought I could."
He searched her face. "But do you trust me?"
A fair question. As much as she wanted to get on with building a life with him, she couldn't skip this crucial step. She took tightened her grip on his hand and spoke the words she'd never thought she could. "I trust you. Completely. And I'm never letting you go."
He pressed his lips to her brow. "You won't regret it."
"Neither will you," she promised.
He threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her, hard and deep, branding her with his passion. She melted around him, answering his demands and staking a claim of her own, swept up in a flood of happiness and relief.
He drew back, gazing at her with eyes full of. "We're talking about forever, aren't we?"
She nodded, finally beginning to believe it.
He kissed her nose. "Rings and cakes and two-point-five little Bennetts running around this loft."
She quirked an eyebrow. "We're living here?"
"Wherever. Doesn't matter." He caught her hands and led her to the sofa, pulling her down into his lap. "I love you, Maggie. I think I've loved you all along."
She arched an eyebrow and flashed a sassy grin. "Could've saved us both a lot of trouble if you'd realized it before now."
"I thought those feelings you stirred up in me were anger and frustration." He shot her a wicked look. "Well, I was probably right about the frustration."
She kissed the tip of his nose. "So, this forever. Rings and cakes and kids—we're talking about marriage? Really?"
He nodded. "You probably want a nice wedding, and that's fine, but let's make it soon."
"Forget a big wedding—let's do this as soon as possible." She nestled against his chest, tu
cking her forehead into the curve of his neck. "Because I think we've already got a head start on the two-point-five Bennetts."
He went still. "Are you—? Can you know so soon?"
She grinned. "Remy, Jack. He needs a family. I thought maybe we could offer him a permanent one." She drew away, looking at him for his reaction.
A slow grin curved his mouth. "You think we could?"
"I don't know. We can at least try. You want to?"
"Yeah. It doesn't feel right necking with you without wondering when he's going to come busting through the door." Jack cradled her face between his palms. "He's family."
He pulled her down for a kiss, and she gave it willingly, wrapping his words around her like a soft, warm blanket.
Family, she thought.
She'd spent her life looking for a family—a father who loved her for who she was, a mother to replace the one she'd loved so dearly and lost too soon, a brother who wasn't so swallowed up by his own demons that he had nothing to give her. Strange, to have found it in the middle of such a nightmare.
But that's what they were, she, Jack and Remy. A family, forged in fire, strong enough to weather any storm the future held. She believed it in her heart. Knew it in her gut.
This was what family felt like.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Other books by the Author
dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17