A Perfect Fit

by Heather Tullis

  Sage’s mantra continued.

  “She doesn’t seem hurt. We’ll take care of her,” Vince said.

  “I’ll be out to check when the cops get here.”

  Vince and Cami pulled Sage toward the door as police officers began pouring into the room. He grabbed Jonquil as they passed, dragging her out as well. Cami glanced back to see a dark red patch on Trent’s shoulder, but didn’t catch more before Vince led them outside, talking, “Someone is going to come speak to you. They’ll probably want to talk to you individually, so don’t discuss what happened while you’re outside, okay?”

  He deposited them both around the corner of the house, out of view of the living room windows and driveway, which was full of police and sheriff’s department vehicles. Sirens announced more emergency personnel were on the way. “Stay here and I’ll go grab the rest of your sisters.” Before he turned away, Vince gave Cami a quick, hard kiss, as if to reassure himself that she was really all right.

  A minute later he returned with the rest of the sisters and two officers followed behind them.

  “Hi, I’m Deputy Peacock. Did anyone get hurt in there? Any injuries?”

  Cami studied her sisters, but though they appeared upset, they all shook their heads. “It looks like we got away with no more than a bruise or two and enough nightmares to hijack our dreams for the next decade.” She had her arm around Sage still, who cried into her knees. She looked around and found Jonquil shaking slightly, but she didn’t look nearly as upset as Sage—which was confusing, since Jonquil was the one at gunpoint. Her skin, however, looked kind of gray. “Then again, maybe you ought to check her for shock,” she gestured to the youngest sister.

  Vince pulled Cami close and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Luckily, you’re gutsy women and we got here in good time.”

  It hadn’t seemed like good time. It had seemed like forever, but Cami didn’t mention it.

  The EMTs brought out a blanket, laid Jonquil down and elevated her legs after they took her blood pressure, but after a few minutes she claimed she was feeling better. She refused to go to the hospital, though the rest of them encouraged it.

  The officers sat all of them down, separated, with a pen and paper to write their statements in as much detail as they could remember. Sage stopped crying and Joel came out while the rest of them were writing and went to her, kneeling beside her and speaking in low tones. She leaned into him and answered back, her voice soft and shaky, but she seemed to calm faster with him nearby. After a few minutes they each wrote their own version of the events.

  Chapter 39

  “So much for the romantic dinner I had planned,” Vince said as he and Cami sat cross-legged on his living room carpet that evening, feasting on fried chicken and potato wedges. Vince had finally gotten a chance to drive her car, taking it out to the police station to meet her, then driving the two of them to the grocery store deli to pick up dinner.

  “Did you have a romantic evening planned? You’re just full of those, aren’t you?” After she’d finished with the police, Cami had taken a long, hot shower and changed into fresh clothes. Though she felt better than before, she was still all knotted up from the day’s events. It was just as well Vince changed his mind. Hanging out at his place was exactly her speed right now.

  “Well, I had other expectations for Friday night, but then we had a little too much of the wrong kind of excitement. And today—again—things didn’t exactly go as I’d hoped.” He’d barely let her out of his sight since bursting into her place—he even waited in her room while she showered. “I nearly had a heart attack when Joel snagged me on his way to the car saying Trent was holding Jonquil hostage at gunpoint.” He used his knuckle to lift Cami’s chin so he could kiss her, then used a napkin to wipe away the chicken grease he’d just smeared on her lips.

  Cami had never been so shaken over anything. When she thought of him bursting into the house, his gun raised and ready to protect her, of how easy it would have been for Trent to turn and shoot Vince, it made her chest ache. “No reason tonight can’t still be romantic. The dogs are outside; we’re in here, eating by candlelight.” In his house—which felt more like home with every visit.

  “That’s true.” He changed the subject to something neutral, and the topics wandered while they finished their meal, then topped it off with the Twinkies Cami had grabbed for dessert.

  “Don’t tell Rosemary I picked out Twinkies. She’d have a fit if she knew I defiled myself with substandard pastries.” Cami took a big bite and reveled in the over-processed goodness.

  Vince chuckled and dabbed her nose with some of the cream filling from his snack cake. “You got it.” He leaned in and kissed the cream away, then moved to her mouth. “You know I’d do anything for you,” he whispered against her lips.

  “Even come in guns a blazing to save me.” She was trying to put it all in perspective.

  “Even move to Chicago next year if that’s what you want.”

  Cami froze, then shifted back to look in his eyes. “Why would I want to move back to Chicago?”

  Vince paused and blinked as his brows lowered over his eyes. “Don’t you? I mean, you know so many people there—and all of the social opportunities you’re used to. We don’t have that here.”

  She let out a full belly laugh, tipping her head back so she could let it out. “Are you crazy? I hate parties! I hate playing the social game and having to remember all of the connections between people so I can work the room and give the right image. Haven’t you noticed how little I eat when we’ve been in things like that? They make my stomach turn. Sometimes I’ve actually ended up puking in the bathroom when the pressure is high. If I had my way, I’d never go back.”

  He leaned against the chair behind him, his eyes still narrowed in disbelief. “But you’re the one they always send to work the crowd—you’re really fantastic at it.”

  His expression was so comical, filled with total confusion. She could hardly hold back the laughter that bubbled inside her. “So it follows that it has to be the most important thing in my life?”

  “But you hate it here.” His brow furrowed. “Or rather, you seemed to when you first arrived. You talked like you were mad at your dad for making you come here and leave everything behind. You were mad about it, right?”

  “Yeah, I was. I didn’t like being manipulated. He’d been pushing me for months to take this job, and I hadn’t wanted to be the boss, to start over in a new place. I liked the status quo despite the social obligations. But being here, meeting you—it’s been the best thing that happened to me in years—maybe ever.”

  Vince cocked his head. “I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you?”

  “Yes, you idiot. Can’t you tell how much I love you?”

  He grinned and pulled her close for a kiss, muttering against her mouth. “Tell me. How much, exactly?”

  She slid her arms around his neck. “More than anything. More than anyone. Damn I hate it when my father’s right.”

  He laughed. “I love you, too. I thought for sure you wouldn’t accept me, that you didn’t want to stay here. If I’d known, I would have done something sooner.” His lips covered hers.

  Cami kissed him back, her heart threatening to explode with happiness. “It’s not like you didn’t make yourself clear about your feelings already,” she said when his kisses trailed down her neck to her collarbone. She shivered as his lips teased her skin.

  One of his arms fished in his jacket behind them while he made his way back up her neck to her ear. “So this shouldn’t come as a surprise, I’ve waited because I had to know you loved me. I’d hoped tonight…”

  Then a blue ring box appeared in his hand between them and he opened it to show off the sparkle of diamonds. “I picked this up when we were in Chicago. I knew this was the one the moment I laid eyes on it.”

  Cami’s breath caught in her throat and she had to swallow to clear her airway. “Oh my.” It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever se
en. The square-cut diamond was over two carats with side stones in an antique white gold setting. If she hadn’t already been ready to say yes, this would have done it.

  “Marry me, Camellia DiCarlo? Stay here with me in our little Colorado town? Or let me come with you if you decide you need the city after all. I can’t stand the thought of being without you. I love you so much.”

  The dogs whined from the back porch where he’d banished them before they’d gotten out the food. “See,” he said with a chuckle, “even my dogs love you.”

  Tears streaked down her cheeks for the second time that day and she slid a hand behind his neck, pulling him close for a kiss. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you, and your little town—and the two monsters you call dogs.”

  As they kissed, she felt him slide the ring onto her ring finger—it was a perfect fit, just like him.

  Next in the DiCarlo Brides series

  SEALed with Love

  Coming February 2013

  It isn't Sage Parker's fault that she mistakes former Navy SEAL Joel Watts as the stalker who had been sending her disturbing letters--he showed up every time she turned around. Then she learns her father hired him to protect her, and she starts to see him in a new light. When the stalker tracks Sage from LA to her new job in Colorado, she's glad to have Joel on her side. But she hadn’t counted on falling in love with him--or the fact that he refused to see her as more than a client.

  Joel takes his job as head of hotel security seriously, but Sage is his number one priority. He isn't sure if he buys into her precognition, but he soon finds he can't live without her. As the stalker ups the ante, Joel works to find the perp, before someone ends up dead.

  Except follows:

  Sealed with Love

  Chapter 1

  Sage threaded through the streaming LA crowd and wished she’d didn’t have to leave for work at peak commute time. She liked people, but fighting through them wasn’t exactly her idea of a party. And it was all too easy to hide in a crowd—which would be more of an advantage if she knew who she should be hiding from. He didn’t have that problem.

  She scanned the mass of people, looking for a familiar face, anyone she might have seen before, then checked her watch again. If she missed this train, she would be late. Reading her father’s email had distracted her. It had been chatty and full of news about the resort he was preparing to open that fall. He put on a good front of all-is-well, but over the past few months she had been able to tell—even from their phone calls—that something was wrong. The fact that he hadn’t come for his regular visit reiterated that. She’d have to check his star charts and see if she could figure it out, since he wasn’t giving anything away and her unpredictable precognition hadn’t been giving her any details.

  A small boy weaved through the jungle of legs; a man chased him, calling out to stop. Sage shifted to the side so the boy ran into her, then she reached out and stopped him from falling backward as he bounced off of her. She glanced up into the face of a frazzled man. “I believe this one belongs to you.”

  He hefted the tow-headed toddler into his arms. “Yes, sorry about that. He’s as slippery as an eel sometimes.”

  Sage smiled in relief when she saw the child giggle as if it had been a good game. The boy was comfortable with the man. “No problem.”

  The man turned to the right, heading toward a store.

  Feeling someone watching her, Sage adjusted her hemp macramé bag over one shoulder and glanced around again. Her eyes stopped on a tall man with a shaved head, mirrored sunglasses, and a light brown goatee. He oozed dark alertness, an aura of control and he was looking her direction. Her heart sped up, her breath caught, and she turned back toward the subway.

  It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him, or even the third or fourth. He seemed to pop up behind her all over town. There was no explanation for his repeated presence except that he was following her. Sage’s hands grew sweaty as she darted farther into the crowd. If he was the one who had been stalking her, she had to get away. There was a tough wariness about him, a hardened edge that said he went after whatever he wanted, and he never gave up.

  If he was the one, there may be no safe place to hide in LA safe.

  She managed to slide through the train doors just before it pulled out and find a corner to stand in before her panic attack completely took over. Standing on the far end of the car, she grasped a handle until her knuckles turned white. She put her back to the wall so she could see everyone and checked for the man several times, making sure no one else was paying attention to her while she dealt with the light-headedness and nausea that often accompanied her racing heart and difficulty breathing during these attacks.

  Maybe she should take up her father on the offer of a job in the Colorado resort. She couldn’t keep living like this.

  ~*~

  While she provided reflexology treatments to the day spa’s elite clientele, Sage fought the implacable image of the man in her mind. She had been at work for nearly two hours and was finally starting to feel the inner peace her job usually provided when she opened the door to leave her treatment room. Standing on the other side of the door, his fist raised to knock, was the Goliath of a man she’d seen in the street.

  Her breathing stopped as terror filled her all over again. She tried to shut the door, but his hand shot out, blocking it open. “Go away.” She’d meant the words to be calm and forceful, but they’d come out tight and whispery as her panic grew. What would she do? What could she do against someone his size?

  “Hey, I’m sorry I scared you.” His voice was a low rumble. He pulled off his mirrored sunglasses and hung them by one stem in the neck of his tight white T-shirt revealing his brown eyes. He lifted his free hand as if to reassure her that he didn’t have a gun or a knife, but she seriously doubted someone that buff needed a weapon to maim or kill. “My name is Joel Watts,” he said, “and your dad sent me.” He handed her a business card with a private security firm’s name on it.

  Though she wouldn’t take the card at face value, her throat unclogged a little so she could suck in some air. “My dad?” No one knew who her dad was—or almost no one. Her father had been surprisingly adept at keeping their relationship a secret despite his high profile and his hundreds of phone calls and visits through the years.

  “George DiCarlo,” he confirmed. “He’s concerned about a little trouble you’ve been having. Look, I’m sorry I scared you earlier today. I didn’t mean to. Call him if you need to verify my story.”

  “Why have you been following me?” Her voice was returning to normal, though her senses were still on alert. This man was a killer; she knew it down to her core. Why would her dad send him to follow her without warning her first?

  “For your protection. He’s worried about your stalker.” Despite the otherwise intimidating exterior, when Joel said this, his jaw softened slightly, making him seem not quite as scary.

  How did her father always know what was going on in her life, even when she didn’t tell him? She decided to take this hulk of a man up on his offer to check his identity. “Give me a minute, then.” When he removed his hand from the door, she shut and locked it, then fished her cell phone from her capacious shoulder bag.

  On the first try, the call rang several times, then went to voice mail. She hung up and called again—their agreed-upon signal that the conversation was urgent. If there was any possible way he could answer the second call, he would.

  After three rings he picked up the phone. “Hey, honey, is everything all right?”

  “There’s a man standing outside my door. Joel Watts.” Enormous, imposing, dark. “He said you paid him to follow me.”

  There was the sound of movement in the background, like her father was standing and moving away from a desk or table. “I’m sorry, sweetie. He was supposed to stay in the background for now. I didn’t want him to interfere or worry you.”

  Sage felt her pulse begin to slow more and the terror gripping her softened, though she kn
ew from experience that it would take several more minutes to entirely dissipate. “Dad, you didn’t have to hire someone.”

  “Yes, I did. I was worried about you when I got a report about what was going on, and you never told me about it. You can trust Joel with anything, I promise. Look, I’m sorry, I’m in a meeting right now, but I don’t want to brush you off.”

  She smiled, knowing he’d make everyone wait for her if she needed it. “No, that was the only urgent issue. I get off at five; call me this evening when you get a chance.”

  “I will, and you’re in good hands. I promise.”

  “I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you too, sweetheart.”

  Sage closed her flip phone and held it in her hand. So Joel really was working for her father. She turned to the door, unlocked and opened it. “Come in.” She gestured for him to take a seat and stepped out to verify the time of her next appointment before shutting herself in the room with him.

  “How tall are you, exactly?” Sage asked as she leaned back against the door, studying him.

  “Six-four.”

  Making her feel even shorter than she had before at only five-three. “And you’re a body builder?”

  “Former Navy SEAL, actually.” A unhurried smile spread on his face, transforming it completely. “Staying in shape is part of the job.”

  “Of course.” Her dad would never settle for less than the best. Taking a deep breath, she offered him her hand. “Maybe we should start over again. I’m Sage Parker.”

  His hand dwarfed hers, surrounding it in hard warmth. “Joel Watts, I’m here to keep you safe.”

  For the first time in months, she thought she might be able to relax again.

  Chapter 2

  Joel was relieved when Sage seemed smart enough to check in with her father, and then relaxed with him—at least a little. He glanced at the comfortable-looking treatment chair and then back at Sage. “Aren’t you supposed to be like a masseur or something? Can you do massage on one of those?” It seemed like an odd configuration for massage.