12 Stocking Stuffers

by Beverly Barton

  “You’re right,” Jody agreed. “The best place for her is with George and Lindsey.”

  The doorbell rang. A collective gasp filled the bedroom, then utter silence.

  “You two stay here,” Worth said, then left the bedroom and headed for the front door.

  He peered through the viewfinder and saw a teenage boy carrying two boxed pizzas. A relieved sigh swept from his lungs to his lips.

  After paying the delivery boy, he carried the pizza into the kitchen, then called out, “Pizza’s here. Let’s eat.”

  Worth ate. Jody and Faith nibbled. They tried to engage in idle chitchat, but it took more effort than it was worth to keep up the pretense of a normal evening. At eight, Jody hugged Faith and said good-night. At eight-thirty Faith and Worth gave Hope her bath, then Worth gave her a bottle and rocked her to sleep while Faith showered and got ready for bed.

  By nine-thirty Worth was sacked out on the sofa bed in the living room. The latest David Baldacci bestseller he was trying to read wasn’t doing much to help take his mind off the reality of Faith’s situation. He wasn’t Faith’s husband, but did that mean he didn’t have a right to be part of the decision making? He cared about Faith and the thought of her dying scared the hell out of him. Hope needed her mother. Faith’s friends needed her. The whole world needed a kind, caring person like Faith.

  And you need her, an inner voice told him. Faith has become very important to you, as vital to you as the air you breathe.

  Worth slammed the book shut and tossed it aside, then slid down until his head hit the pillows. After turning out the lamp on the end table, he pulled the covers to his neck and stared up at the dark ceiling. He lay there listening to the quiet sounds of night. Solitude. Loneliness. He felt both, despite being a part of Faith’s life. He had lived with solitude and loneliness since he’d been a kid. When his mother died and his father remarried, he’d been alone. He might have lived with his father and stepmother, but he’d never been a part of their family. The only family he’d ever had was his half sister and he’d lost her years ago. A drug overdose at a wild college party. He hadn’t loved anyone since he lost Norma.

  He hadn’t meant to care so much about Faith, but little by little he’d fallen under her spell. And she had turned to him these past couple of weeks for protection and emotional support, just as she’d done when he’d rescued her in Subria. She’d called her feelings love then and she believed herself in love with him now. But Worth had his doubts. Somewhere in that gentle heart of hers she had confused hero-worship with love. Faith needed him; but did she really love him?

  And then there was Hope. His daughter. He’d never thought about fathering a child and had been careful to always practice safe sex—except that one time with Faith. Maybe he should regret the fact that he’d gotten Faith pregnant, but how could he? That tiny baby girl had wrapped him around her little finger. Whenever he looked at her, his heart swelled with love. He was glad to be Hope’s father. He loved her and wanted to be a part of her life from now on.

  But what about Faith? Admit the truth, he told himself. You want to be a part of Faith’s life, too.

  An earsplitting scream surged from the bedroom and reverberated through the house. Worth bounded out of bed and raced toward the bedroom, his only thought was to reach Faith and Hope. Hope’s whimpers burst into gulping cries. With his heart racing like mad, he skidded to a halt when he saw Faith sitting straight up in bed, a look of sheer terror on her face. He rushed to her, grabbed her shoulders and shook her gently.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  She flung her arms around him. “A nightmare. A terrifying nightmare.”

  Worth soothed her, stroking her back and whispering reassurances. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

  The phone rang. Hope cried louder and louder.

  “You get Hope,” Faith said. “I’ll answer the phone.”

  When Faith picked up the phone, Worth headed toward Hope’s crib in the corner of the bedroom. As he lifted his daughter into his arms and placed her on his shoulder, he heard Faith reassuring Jody that everything was all right, telling her that she’d simply had a nightmare. Worth walked the floor with Hope, humming to her as he patted her back. His big hand covered her upper torso. She was tiny and helpless—and his. Did every father feel this way—loving, possessive and protective?

  In his peripheral vision he noticed Faith get out of bed and head for the bathroom. He laid Hope in her crib and rocked her back and forth until her droopy eyelids closed.

  “Go back to sleep, sweetheart. Daddy’s here and everything is all right.” He bent over the crib and kissed his daughter’s forehead. “I need to take care of your mama now.”

  He met Faith as she came out of the bathroom, her face moist and her hair slightly damp. “Are you really okay?”

  She nodded. “A splash of cold water in my face helped.”

  “You should go back to bed and try to rest.”

  She crawled into bed, then held out her hand to him. “Stay with me. Please.”

  “Faith, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea.”

  She smiled faintly. “I seem to remember your saying something like that once before, or is my memory wrong?”

  Worth sat down on the edge of the bed. “Do you remember that night?”

  “Most of it. I remember how dark the cave was and how cold I felt…until I curled up to your back. Then I got hot pretty fast.”

  “You were a regular hussy.” He reached out and pushed several loose strands of her hair away from her face. “Want to tell me about the dream?”

  “He killed me. In my dream, he killed me.”

  “Faith…” Worth scooted over in the bed and pulled Faith into his arms. “He’s not going to kill you. Whatever happens, I’ll be there to take care of you.”

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled close, burrowing her nose against his neck. “How could you have ever thought I would be better off without you?”

  “We shouldn’t let this happen again,” he told her, but made no move to release her. “You were afraid of dying that night, when I made love to you for the first time. And now, tonight, you—”

  “Hush.” Lifting her head from his shoulder, she placed her index finger over his lips. “I seem to recall that we made love several times after we were rescued. We couldn’t get enough of each other. Those memories are coming back to me now and I know how much I loved you then…and how much I love you now.”

  “But Faith…”

  She tapped her finger on his lips. “It’s all right. You don’t have to say you love me. For some reason, you find it difficult to say the words. But I know how you feel. Your actions—in the past and in the present—have proven to me how much I mean to you.”

  She brought her arms up and around his neck, then pressed her body to his. He couldn’t deny that he cared about her because he did. And he couldn’t turn away from the need he saw in her eyes. She wanted him the same way he wanted her.

  He spread kisses in her hair, over her face, down her neck. “I’ll try to be gentle. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  She sought his mouth, then whispered against his lips. “Don’t hold back. Make love to me the way you did before. I know you won’t hurt me.”

  He laid her back into the mattress and came down over her, bracing himself with his knees as he kissed her. The kiss grew hotter, wilder and more intense. They devoured each other, hunger urging them to take everything, to enjoy every millisecond of their passion. Faith’s fingers skimmed his chest with inquisitive touches, acquainting herself with every inch of flesh, every muscle. With unsteady hands, he reached between them and unbuttoned her pajama top, then spread it apart to reveal her small, high breasts. When his lips suckled one tight nipple, she moaned; when he licked and stroked the other nipple, her hips rose off the bed. With her mound pressed against his erection, she wriggled and squirmed, rubbing herself up and down in an enticing manner.

  “Keep doing that and I�
��m going to lose it before I’m inside you,” Worth murmured against her ear, then grasped the waistband of her pajama bottoms and tugged.

  She lifted her hips enough for him to easily maneuver the pajamas down her legs and over her feet. As he tossed the pajamas to the foot of the bed, he kissed her again. Deeply. Savagely. And when she gasped for air, he painted a trail from mouth to breasts. She whimpered and writhed beneath him. His tongue slid over her rib cage, down her belly to her navel. She held her breath. He moved southward, pausing at the edge of her triangle of dark hair. When his mouth captured her tenderness, his hands covered her breasts and kneaded, then tweaked her nipples.

  Faith keened deep in her throat when his tongue delved and retreated, then delved deeper. He found her most sensitive spot and stroked her, harder and harder, until she clutched his head and held him in place while he finished the job. He felt her body tighten; he worked harder and faster. Faith cried out as her climax splintered through her. While she was in the throes of fulfillment, Worth rose up and over her, took her slender hips in his hands, lifted her and thrust his sex to the hilt within her.

  As he hammered into her, seeking his own satisfaction, she clung to him and within minutes began undulating to the rhythm he’d set. When the moment came, his ears rang and his body trembled from the force of his release. But before the pleasure subsided, Faith reached the pinnacle a second time. As the aftershocks rippled through them, Worth fell exhausted into the bed beside Faith, pulled her into his arms and lifted the sheet and comforter to cover them. She snuggled against him.

  “I love you,” she whispered a moment before she fell asleep in his arms.

  Chapter 7

  They dropped Hope by Lindsey and George Dawson’s before heading out to the police station. Worth had done everything in his power to dissuade Faith from offering herself as bait in the police’s trap, but she’d been unmovable in her conviction that it was the only way to regain control over her life. He understood how much that meant to Faith, especially since her captivity in Subria last year. Nothing made a person want to exert control over their life as much as having all power taken from them.

  Detective Rollins met them at the door to his office and welcomed them, then ordered coffee.

  “Detective MacMillan from Sparkman, Detective Roberts from Greenville and Agent Colter from the state bureau will be working with us on this plan,” Rollins said. “I’m expecting all of them here by ten this morning. I’d rather wait until they arrive before we discuss the details.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Faith said. “I—” She glanced at Worth. “We don’t mind waiting.”

  “None of us like the idea of using you to lure this guy into our trap,” Rollins said, “but we admit that the law enforcement of three towns and the state of South Carolina are no closer to nabbing the Greenville Slayer now than we were right after the first murder.”

  “I intend to play a vital role in any scenario that requires Faith to risk her life.” Worth reached across from his chair to Faith’s and grabbed her hand.

  “You’ll have to humor him.” Faith squeezed Worth’s hand. “It’s the only way I could get him to stop fighting me about my decision. If Worth isn’t involved, then neither am I.”

  “Your assistance isn’t needed and won’t be appreciated.” Rollins’s gaze met Worth’s. “But I’ve given you my word. I’ll explain to the others that your involvement isn’t debatable.”

  “I’m not exactly a civilian,” Worth said. “I know how to conduct myself under dangerous conditions.”

  “I had you checked out, Cordell. I know your background.”

  One of the police officers brought a tray laden with coffee cups into Rollins’s office and offered a cup first to Faith and then to Worth.

  Rollins glanced through the open doorway as he lifted his cup from the tray. “I see our team has arrived a little early.”

  Worth and Faith followed Rollins’s line of vision. Three men in plainclothes stood outside the office. Rollins motioned to them.

  “Come on in. Ms. Sheridan is already here.”

  The threesome entered, Rollins made introductions and once they were seated, Agent Carter laid out a simple yet potentially dangerous plan.

  “There’s a good chance this guy is already keeping tabs on Ms. Sheridan,” Carter said. “If he is, he’s aware she’s never alone, that you’re with her at all times and a police car is stationed in front of her apartment.”

  “Lois Helton’s husband was with her when she was killed,” Worth reminded them.

  “Lois Helton’s husband was sixty-five years old,” Detective MacMillan said. “If this guy’s gotten a good look at you, Cordell, he’s probably been intimidated by your size alone.”

  “Bottom line is we have to make it appear that Faith is alone,” Agent Carter said. “It’s probably the only way to bring him out into the open. And we believe if she goes alone to Toddle Town on some pretense, he’ll be less suspicious than he would if it appeared you’d left her alone at her apartment.”

  The minute Worth heard the details, his survival instincts kicked in. He didn’t like the sound of it. It wasn’t a bad plan and the odds were they’d catch their guy; but there was a downside—they couldn’t give Worth a hundred percent guarantee they could keep Faith safe.

  “You want me to go to Toddle Town alone?” Faith asked.

  “We’ll send a policewoman with you,” Detective Roberts said. “She’ll wear street clothes and you two can act like a couple of old friends. We’ll have Toddle Town under surveillance and our men will already be in place when this guy follows you there.”

  “What makes you think he’s watching me? And if he is, why do you think he’ll follow me?” Faith looked around the room at each lawman.

  “We don’t know for sure, and it might take more than one try for this plan to work,” Rollins explained. “If you’ll go to Toddle Town every day at the same time, stay for say two hours and then go home, it will set up a routine and make our killer less suspicious. If he’s watching you—and the odds are that he is—he might keep tabs on your activities for several days or even a week or so before he strikes. And by setting the trap at Toddle Town, we know it’s a place he’s familiar with. It’s where he abducted you the first time.”

  Faith turned to Worth. “What do you think?”

  “It’s too dangerous. I don’t like it.”

  “Other than that, what do you think? It’s a good plan, isn’t it?”

  “If we don’t factor in the possibility that you could get killed, yeah, it’s a good plan.”

  Faith looked at Rollins. “When do we start?”

  “How about late this afternoon?”

  “That soon?” Faith sucked in a deep breath. “All right. Let’s do it.”

  Six days until Christmas. On day one, Faith and policewoman Dale Carruthers drove up in Faith’s SUV, parked and headed straight to Toddle Town’s front entrance. They carried on a conversation, both appearing perfectly natural; Faith even managed a realistic-sounding laugh. Once inside, they set about taking down Christmas decorations and straightening up the individual rooms. They spent two hours trying to act as if they weren’t waiting for a killer to strike. Since the high temperature for the day was supposed to be thirty-four, it had been easy enough to hide the bulletproof vests they wore beneath bulky sweaters. SWAT team members were stationed across the street in the upstairs of a dry cleaners and various police officers joined the downtown Christmas crowds on Hickory Avenue. Disguised as a city work crew repairing a broken pipe line, Worth, Rollins and Macmillan stood around in coveralls and thick jackets, their bulletproof vests and their 9 mm weapons well out of sight.

  After two hours, Faith and Dale locked the front door and walked to the SUV. No sign of their guy. Five minutes later, the fake work crew got in a city truck and drove away. Worth didn’t like the fact that there would be a good fifteen minute interval when he wouldn’t be with Faith. He knew that Officer Carruthers was well train
ed to defend Faith, but his gut instincts warned him that no one, not even the entire SWAT team, could protect Faith the way he could. Hell, it wasn’t personal to anyone else.

  And the fact that it was personal for him was as much a disadvantage as an advantage. The minute he saw Faith in imminent danger, not only would his trained instincts kick in, but so would his natural emotional instincts. It was as basic as the fact he would be protecting his woman and not a client.

  Day two came and went in pretty much the same manner as day one, without even a hint of their killer being in Whitewood, let alone him following Faith.

  Day three. Saturday. Another no-show. Tensions mounted for everyone involved. Worth could see how nervous Faith was and how valiantly she tried to hide it. They took a day off on Sunday. Worth attended church with Faith and Hope, which was a strange event for him. He hadn’t been inside a church since his mother died when he was six. After church they ate lunch at the Dawsons’, joined by Margaret and Mr. Tippins, as well as Jody and Jody’s on-again/off-again boyfriend, Tommy Kenyon. Old Horace, the Dawsons’ beagle, slept soundly in front of the fire the entire time.

  Later on at home, while Hope took a late afternoon nap, Worth made slow, sweet love to Faith. Although Hope had stayed with Lindsey for the past few days, Worth and Faith decided to bring her home with them today. Each moment they shared together as a family became more precious with each passing day. Tomorrow afternoon, they would return Hope to the Dawsons. Three days of nerve-racking waiting had taken a toll on both Faith and Worth. He wasn’t sure how much longer either of them could endure the uncertainty.

  In the aftermath of lovemaking, they lay in bed together, naked and sated. Worth idly stroked Faith’s slender hip.

  “I remember so much about my life,” Faith said. “Almost everything.”