She looked at Hawk, a question in her eyes.
“Sounds like footsteps to me,” he acknowledged. “Lots of footsteps.” He let out the breath he’d been holding. “I think we’ve arrived, Columbus. Have to admit I had my doubts there for a while.”
The man was nothing if not honest. And she hadn’t been when she sent him away, she thought as the guilt flared inside her.
“You weren’t the only one,” she murmured more to herself than to him.
Light was seeping in up ahead, coming in where the storage room door didn’t quite meet its frame. She was about to open it when he put his hand up, silently cautioning her to stay where she was. He might not be able to talk her out of coming, but at the very least, if for some reason they wound up walking into a trap, then he wanted to be the first one to go down, not her. It would buy her enough time to get away.
Not that he was about to say any of this to her, because it would only result in yet another argument. The woman just didn’t know the meaning of the words staying safe. But he intended to teach her—if it was the last thing he ever did.
Reaching the door, he turned the doorknob ever so slowly and eased the door open. They were in a storage room all right. It appeared to be a catchall for discarded items that had lived out their usefulness from the various rooms and offices. Apparently someone didn’t seem to have the heart to throw them out just yet.
That was how pack rats got started, he thought. As for him, he was a minimalist. The less he owned, the less those things owned him. Turning, he beckoned for Carly to follow him—not that he actually had to. She’d seemed practically one step ahead of him all morning.
The hallway looked clear, so they advanced, making their way to the room where the ceremony was about to take place.
As they turned a corner, they surprised one of Grayson’s henchmen—obviously playing the part of a groomsman/guard. Momentarily getting the drop on the man, Hawk acted swiftly, grabbing him by the head and twisting it—hard. Fresh pain shot through his bandaged shoulder.
There was a sickening snap.
Carly didn’t ask if the man was dead. She knew. When Hawk released him, the guard fell bonelessly to the floor.
Carly waited a second, thinking that a surge of remorse would overcome her at any moment but it didn’t materialize. These were the people who had come in and stripped her friends and neighbors—her sister—of not just their worldly possessions and their integrity but their very souls. She felt nothing about eliminating them before they had a chance to do the same to people she cared about. Death here was the great equalizer, not unlike the weapon she still carried with her.
“You okay?” Hawk asked, his eyes sweeping over her face.
“Don’t worry about me,” she told him, waving him on. “We’ve got a wedding to stop.”
It seemed almost like poetic justice that the words, “If anyone knows why these two should not wed, speak now—” were the ones being said just as Hawk pushed open the doors, causing everything to come to a stunned, crashing halt.
“Everybody freeze,” Hawk ordered. “I’m a federal agent!”
“I do,” Carly cried, addressing Grayson who, under the guise of “minister,” was performing the ceremony. “I object.”
She noted the angry look on her sister’s face a second before she heard Grayson whisper something to the best man. Color drained from Mia’s face. She’d heard what was being said.
The next moment, as if in slow motion, Carly saw Charlie Rhodes pull a gun from beneath his tuxedo jacket—he’d apparently tucked it into the back of his waistband, she realized—and fire in her direction.
She heard Mia scream her name just as she slammed against the floor. Not because she’d been hit but because Hawk had thrown himself over her, protecting her with his own body as he pushed her out of the line of fire.
“Told you to say behind!” he bit off as he rolled forward to return fire. Charlie hadn’t been the only one who had brought a gun to the ceremony.
It still might have gone very badly for them, Hawk reflected later, had he not thought to “invite” his own “guests” to the wedding.
Just as the gunfire began being exchanged, the doors on the other side of the room burst open and Rosenbloom, Patterson and Jeffers, along with several other FBI agents, all wearing Kevlar vests, took over the room.
“Nobody move!” Hawk ordered again, getting up from the floor. This time, caught between two lines of fire, everyone obeyed. Hawk paused, his eyes and weapon trained on Grayson as he extended his hand to Carly.
Wrapping her fingers around his hand, Carly rose to her feet.
“You all right?” he asked.
She was bruised where she’d hit the floor, but she wasn’t complaining. All things considered, she’d gotten off lucky. “Never better.”
“Carly! Carly, did he—did Charlie—did Charlie shoot you?” Mia cried almost hysterically. Her arms filled with taffeta and organza, her sister came rushing over to her as fast as she could. Her face was still as pale as her wedding dress. “He tried to kill you,” she said, stunned and clearly very shaken by what she’d just been forced to witness.
“Not exactly a quality one wants in their best man,” Carly quipped. She wrapped one arm around Mia and hugged her. That was when she realized that Mia was trembling. “Are you all right?” she asked, even as more agents kept coming in, surrounding the wedding guests and ordering everyone over to a corner of the banquet room.
“I don’t know,” Mia answered honestly. She seemed dazed and confused as she looked up to meet her sister’s eyes. “I thought everything here was finally so perfect. That my life was going to be so perfect.” A bottomless sadness became evident in her voice. “He was going to kill you,” she repeated numbly.
It was unclear if she meant Charlie or Grayson, but now wasn’t the time to ask. It was enough that Mia finally understood that there was a viciousness here that threatened her very existence.
“I know,” Carly replied quietly, keeping her voice at a calm, soothing level.
Mia appeared to sink further into her confusion and feelings of remorse and depression. “You came to save me, didn’t you?”
“I told Mom I’d take care of you,” she reminded her younger sister. “This was part of that promise.”
She looked at Mia, trying to get a handle on what was going on in the younger girl’s mind. Mia looked as if she was very close to a breakdown. And why not? Paradise had just blown up in her face.
Her sister would need help processing all this and coping with it, Carly thought. Grayson had done a number on Mia’s head. It would take someone professional, versed in deprogramming, to bring her sister around with a minimum of consequences, she decided with regret.
But at least they’d gotten her out of Grayson’s clutches. And Mia hadn’t married Carrington. All in all, this was a very good day, Carly silently congratulated herself.
“Why don’t we get you out of that dress and into something a little more comfortable?” she suggested to her sister.
Mia stared down as if she wasn’t sure what she was wearing. “There’s blood on it,” she murmured, noticing the thin line of red across the bodice. “Is it Charlie’s?” she asked.
Acting quickly, Hawk had brought the baby-faced man down with a single shot. Carly pressed her lips together and nodded. “Yes.”
“Good,” Mia said with feeling, then quickly raised her eyes to Carly’s before lowering them again.
Maybe more than a little help, Carly thought. Her sister appeared as if she was retreating into a shell.
Looking around, Carly saw the agent Hawk had introduced to her as Tom Jeffers nearby, and she called him over now. When he crossed to her, asking if he could do something for her, she turned Mia over to him.
“Could you please take my sister back to her room?” she requested. “She needs to get out of those clothes.”
About to protest that this wasn’t part of what he was doing right now, Jeffers took one look at the distraught young face and changed his mind.
“Sure.” Jeffers put his elbow out in an exaggerated fashion, indicating that Mia should take it for support. She looked as if she needed it. “Why don’t you show me where it is?” he coaxed.
Mia nodded. “It’s upstairs,” she told him. The agent very gently led her away.
With Mia taken care of for the moment, Carly searched for Hawk. She finally saw him talking with several other agents. He was clearly the one in charge, and she felt a sense of pride watching him. Her initial instinct to make the supreme sacrifice and send him away had been the right move to make after all. Hawk was very much in his element here. This was where he belonged, leading people who ultimately made a difference and took pride in doing it.
Hawk was born to be what he was, a special agent with the FBI.
Drawing closer, she immediately recognized one of the men.
Ford McCall wasn’t one of Hawk’s people, he was from around here. A local deputy. One who, she now realized after she’d heard him making several arrests, was not corrupt the way that the police chief, Fargo, clearly was. The latter belonged to Grayson. Ford was obviously his own man. Thank God.
Nodding at Ford now, she turned toward Hawk. “How’s your arm?” she wanted to know.
“Aches, but I’m still standing.” And after what had just taken place in the past half hour, that was definitely an accomplishment.
As she looked around, it occurred to Carly that Grayson was nowhere in sight. Had he left? Or better yet, had he gone down in the cross fire? “Are you arresting Grayson?” she asked.
A frustrated expression came into his eyes as he did his best not to change his expression. “Right now, we don’t have anything that’ll stick.”
She looked at him, stunned. “But he’s behind all this,” she cried. “Behind the murders. Maybe he’s even had Susannah killed,” she said, thinking about the conversation she’d had with Samuel the other day.
“Believe me, I’m not part of the man’s fan club, either. I’d take him down in a heartbeat, if I could,” Hawk told her. “He probably had his own brother killed. It wouldn’t be the first time one twin murdered the other,” he added grimly.
There’d still been no word from Micah. As soon as he got finished here, he would personally hire a private investigator to try to locate the missing would-be informant. He still firmly believed that Micah wouldn’t have called him, then just vanished without a word.
Hawk surprised her by changing his tone of voice and looking directly at her as he said, “Looks like I’ve got a lot to keep me here in Cold Plains.”
Was he saying more than she thought he was saying? “For how long?” she asked.
He spread his hands wide. “Right now, it’s open-ended. I’m still trying to find out who killed those women and why. Jane Doe’s identity is still a mystery, Grayson’s brother is still missing—”
“Don’t forget Susannah Paul and her baby. They couldn’t have just disappeared like that,” she reminded him.
“Right, there’s that, too,” he agreed. Drawing her over to an empty corner, Hawk lowered his voice as he continued talking. “Samuel Grayson is the key to all of this, and I’m not going anywhere until I find out just how he’s connected. And when I find out, I intend to take him down.”
She liked the sound of that. But she liked something else more. “So I guess I’ll be seeing you for a while.”
“I guess so.”
Looking away for a second, Hawk blew out a breath. He was playing it safe again. Damn it, he was tired of playing it safe. He hadn’t played it safe earlier when he’d put himself between Carly and the bullet meant for her. Somewhere, on some invisible tally, he was certain that he was running out of second chances, so he had better take advantage of this one before his luck ran out completely.
“Especially if you marry me,” Hawk said to her out of the blue.
It was a minor accomplishment that she’d kept her jaw from dropping like a brick. It took her a good, long second to collect herself. When she did, she stared at him.
“Did you just say—”
“Yes,” he answered, cutting her off.
No, not this time. This time, the Is were going to be dotted and the Ts were going to be crossed. Just this once, their abilities to end each other’s sentences wouldn’t cut it.
She needed this spelled out.
“Let me finish,” she insisted. “Did you—” She stopped abruptly as she pressed her lips together. Her mouth had suddenly gone dry mid-word. Regrouping, she tried again. “I think my hearing’s going, because I thought I just heard you ask me to marry you.”
He grinned at her, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Well, if your hearing’s going, maybe I’d better reconsider my question. But for the record, yes, I did ask you to marry me.”
“Why?”
“Why did I ask?”
“Yes.” She nodded for emphasis. “Why did you ask?”
He thought a moment. “Because dragging you by the hair to my cave isn’t the way it’s done anymore.” Before she could comment on his Neanderthal reference, he took her hand in his and became very serious. “I got a second chance when I wound up coming back here. And another second chance when you saved my life the other night. The way I see it, whoever’s in charge of handing out second chances is going to think they’re being wasted on me, and I’ll be left out in the cold. I don’t want to be in the cold anymore,” he told her sincerely. “I want to be with you. If that means spending the rest of my life as a farmer in this two-bit town, I’ll adjust.”
“No way,” she told him adamantly. “I like the idea of my husband being an FBI special agent.” She smiled and succeeded in lighting up his entire life. “It has a nice ring to it.”
“Your husband,” he repeated, savoring the way that sounded.
She watched his face, trying to get a handle on what he was thinking as she answered, “That’s what I said.”
He raised his eyebrows hopefully. “Then your answer is yes?”
For once in her life, she wasn’t going to be straightforward. For once, just once, she was going to be cagey. “Depends on the question.”
Now he really didn’t understand. “But I just asked you—”
“No, you didn’t,” she pointed out. “You mentioned it. In passing. You didn’t ask.” She turned her face up to his. “A woman likes to be asked. Formally.”
He could understand that. “All right.” He took her hand. “Carly Finn, I’m tired of feeling as if something’s missing. I’m tired of missing you,” he said with feeling. “Will you marry me and make me whole again?”
She slid her arms up around his neck, and he held her to him with his one good arm. Her eyes danced. This was fun, and she savored her moment. “What do you think?”
“I’ve learned not to second-guess anything,” he answered honestly.
“Okay,” she said. Tilting her head up, she told him, “Then read my lips.” Before he could pretend to look at them closer, she rose up on her toes and pressed her mouth against his.
Hawk had his answer.
He made the most of it.
EPILOGUE
“You’re so much more of a beautiful bride than I was—or almost was,” Mia amended as she fussed over Carly’s train. She wanted to make sure that when her sister walked out onto the newly constructed patio that Hawk’s FBI friends had just finished working on three days ago, the appliqué on the material wouldn’t bunch up or accidentally snag.
“What are you talking about?” Carly cried loyall
y. “You were a gorgeous bride—despite the horrible circumstances.”
Determined to make her point, Mia angled the tri-winged mirror on the wall over the bureau so that her older sister could get an actual good look at herself. Satisfied that the lighting was just right, she gestured toward the mirror while standing behind her sister.
“Look,” she ordered. “You’re positively glowing. I didn’t have that really happy glow. I just had a hazy look on my face,” she recalled. There was no remorse, no regret. It was an episode in her past, and it was over. She was moving forward. That was the lesson she’d taken away from her weeks in the deprogramming center. “I can’t believe what I almost did,” she admitted, shaking her head. The only remorse she felt was for what Carly had had to put up with.
“I’m sorry for what I put you through,” she said honestly. Then her apology broadened. “And I’m really sorry I didn’t have enough time to get you a wedding present.”
Carly turned away from the mirror and looked at her sister, her eyes brimming with love—and a few tears. “Having you back, just being you, is the best present I could possibly ask for,” she assured Mia.
Mia had just arrived very early this morning, having completed her stint at the deprogramming facility that Hawk had found for her. It had been an intense, accelerated program, done at Hawk’s behest because he knew how important it was for Carly to have Mia there for the wedding—and he wanted to get married as quickly as possible.
He’d gone to the facility and brought Mia back the minute the program was over. She was his wedding-day surprise for Carly. He’d kept it a secret, pretending that Mia wasn’t going to be able to make it because of a last-minute delay, then sprung his surprise that morning.
Carly doubted that she had ever loved Hawk more than she did right this minute. He really was one of a kind. And he was hers.
Mia inspected Carly one last time. The ceremony was almost ready to begin. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and broached a delicate subject. It was now or never.
Perfect Wyoming Complete Collection: Special Agent's Perfect Cover ; Rancher's Perfect Baby Rescue ; A Daughter's Perfect Secret ; Lawman's Perfect Surrender ; The Perfect Outsider ; Mercenary's Perfect Mission Page 16