Yesterday's Lies
Page 24
Neva raced into his small arms and lifted him off the portable bed. “Oh, Nicholas,” she cried, her tears streaming down her face. “My baby. Are you all right?”
“I’m not a baby,” the boy insisted.
Neva laughed at Nicholas’s pout. “You’ll always be my baby, whether you like it or not.”
It was then that Tory noticed Trask. He was seated on a gurney, his legs dangling over the side. His hair was messed and there was a slight bruise on his chin, but other than that he appeared healthy.
Tory’s heart leaped at the sight of him and tears of relief pooled in her eyes. Without hesitation, Tory walked up to him and stared into the intense blue of his eyes. She placed a hand lovingly against his face. “Thank God you’re alive,” she whispered, her voice husky with emotion.
“You thought my constituents might miss me?” he asked, trying to sound self-assured. The sight of her in the noisy emergency room had made his stomach knot with the need of her.
“It wasn’t your constituents I was concerned about, senator. It was me. I’d miss you...more than you could ever imagine,” she admitted.
He cracked a small smile. “How did you know I was here?”
“I came looking for you.” She wrapped both of her arms around his neck.
His eyebrows shot up, encouraging her to continue. “Because you were going to beg me to marry you?”
“Not quite. I was going to give you hell about cosigning on my loan.”
“Oh.” He let out a long groan. “I thought maybe you’d finally come to your senses and realized what a catch I am.”
Her smile broadened and the love she had tried to deny for many weeks lighted her eyes. “Now that you mention it, senator,” she said, pressing her nose to his and gently touching the bruise on his jaw, “I think you’re right. You need me around—just to make sure that you stay in one piece. Consider this a proposal of marriage.”
“You’re not serious?”
“Dead serious,” she conceded. “I love you, Trask, and though I hate to admit it, I suppose I always have. If you can see your way clear to forgive me for being bull-headed, I’d like to start over.”
His arms wrapped around her slender waist and he held her as if he was afraid she would leave him again. “What about Keith?” he asked softly.
“That’s difficult,” she admitted. “But he made his own mistakes and he’s willing to pay for them. I only hope that he doesn’t get a long sentence. I can’t say that I feel the same about Linn Benton.”
“I’ve already taken care of that. There are enough charges filed against him including blackmail and kidnapping to keep him in the penitentiary for the rest of his life.
“As for Keith, I talked to the judge. He’s a fair man and I think he realizes that Keith was manipulated. After all, he was only sixteen when the Quarter Horse swindle was in full swing. That he finally turned himself in and confessed speaks well for him and he was absolved in the murder. My guess is that he’ll get an extremely light sentence, or, if he’s lucky, probation.”
“That would be wonderful,” Tory said with a sigh.
Trask slid off the bed and looked longingly into her eyes.
“Are you supposed to do that? Don’t you have to be examined or something?”
“Already done. Now, what do you say if I find a way to get released from the hospital and you and I drive to Reno tonight and get married?”
“Tonight?” She eyed him teasingly. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”
“A few cracked ribs won’t slow me down.” He nuzzled her neck. “Besides I’m not taking a chance that you might change your mind.”
“Never,” she vowed, placing her lips on his. “You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life, senator.”
“What about the Lazy W?”
“I guess I can bear to be away from it for a little while,” she said. “Just as long as I know that we’ll come back home after you’ve finished terrorizing Capitol Hill.”
“That might be sooner than you know. I’m up for reelection pretty soon.”
“And if I get lucky, you’ll lose, right?”
Trask laughed and held her close. “If you get lucky, we’ll be in Reno by morning,” he whispered against her ear.
“Trask!” Neva, holding a tired Nicholas in her arms, ran up to her brother-in-law. “Thank you,” she said, her joy and thanks in her eyes. Her smile trembled slightly. “Thank you for finding Nicholas.”
Trask grinned at Nicholas and rumpled his hair. “Anytime,” he said. “We good guys have to stick together, don’t we?”
“Right, Uncle Trask. Come on, Mom, you promised me an ice-cream cone.”
“That I did,” Neva said, shaking her head. “Now all I have to do is find an all-night drive-in. Want to come along?”
“Please, Uncle Trask?” Nicholas’s eyes were bright with anticipation.
Trask shook his head. “Another time, Nick.” Trask looked meaningfully at Tory. “Tonight I’ve got other plans. Something that can’t be put off any longer.”
Neva’s smile widened and she winked at Tory. “I’ll see you later,” she said. “Good luck.” With her final remark, she packed her son out of the hospital.
“So now it’s just you and me,” Trask said. “The way it should have been five years ago.”
“Senator McFadden?” A nurse called to him. “If you just sign here, you’re free to go.”
Trask signed the necessary forms with a flourish. “Let’s get out of here,” he whispered to Tory, gently pulling on her hand and leading her out of the building.
“You’re sure about this, aren’t you?” he asked, once they had crossed the parking lot and were seated in his Blazer.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” she vowed. “I’ve had a lot of time alone to think. And even though I tried to tell myself otherwise, even as late as this afternoon, I discovered that I loved you. There was a minute when I thought you were dead...and...I can’t tell you how devastated I was. Thank God you’re alive and we can be together.”
He lifted his hands and held her face in both palms. “This is for life, you know. I won’t ever let you go.”
“And I won’t be running, senator.”
When his lips closed over hers. Tory gave herself up to the warmth of his caress, secure in the knowledge that she would never again be without the one man she loved with all her heart.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781459296428
YESTERDAY’S LIES
Copyright © 1986 by Lisa Jackson
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