Her Dangerous Promise - Part 3: (Romantic Suspense Serial)

by Ashley Stryker

  “You had as much to do with that as I did.”

  “You’ve kept me safe,” Mary said. “You’ve done more than that. You make me feel alive.” She couldn’t remember the last time she felt sexy but he always made her feel beautiful and wanted. When he looked at her with desire, her nerves sizzled. More than anything, she wanted to unleash that passion.

  “Mary,” Thom hesitated. His hands drifted up to her mid-thigh and sent a wild tremble through her core. The green of his eyes darkened to the color of emeralds displayed on black velvet. “I have not been the man I want to be, when it comes to you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s no secret that I have feelings for you. More than I have ever felt for anyone else.” He reached up and disentangled her fingers from his hair. Thom folded her hands between his and kissed her knuckles before continuing. As he spoke, he focused on the patterns his thumbs drew over the soft backs of her hands, not meeting her eyes. “After Tammy Jo, I promised myself never to fall in love again. I told myself it was because I wanted to honor her. I told myself she’d been my one true love and when I lost her that was it. I’d lost my one chance for happiness. My one chance for a family of my own. Game over, you know?”

  Thom pressed his fingers into Mary’s soft palms, sending new percolations of sensation into her blood stream. “I became a cop and threw myself into the job. I told myself it was penance for failing Tammy Jo. I told myself these things but I was lying, Mary.”

  Rising to his feet, Thom let Mary slip from his grasp. He paced several steps away from her. “I never knew I could hurt so much. I thought I would die. I never wanted to fall in love again, because I didn’t think I could survive another loss like that. I definitely didn’t want to fall in love with another woman whose life was in danger and who depended on me to save it.”

  Thom hesitated, and then turned to face Mary. “Since the moment I met you, I’ve been fighting not to fall in love with you.”

  “Thom,” Mary rose, “if you don’t feel for me the way I feel for you…”

  “That’s not what I’m saying.” He cupped her face in his hands. “I realized today how close I came to never knowing you. If you hadn’t escaped…” Thom hugged her tightly to him. “If I’d missed out on a single precious moment…” He kissed the top of her head. “I know this is fast but God, Mary. I don’t know how to say this but just to say that I want to give us a chance.”

  Mary snuggled deeper into his chest, loving the strength of his arms around her, the unyielding wall of his chest against her cheek and breasts, the way he rocked her gently.

  “Inspector,” a woman’s voice interrupted the rare moment of contentment.

  Mary stepped back but Thom wrapped an arm around her waist and held her close. She glanced up at him. For the first time, Thom hadn’t retreated from her after a moment of intimacy.

  The nametag on the doctor’s coat identified her as Dr. Westin, developmental psychologist. From her white hair and wrinkles, Mary guessed the doctor’s age ranged between the high fifties to mid-sixties but her strong posture lent her a youthful vitality. “I’m sorry to interrupt Inspector, but I only have a few minutes. I received the warrant for Adam Fielding’s medical records.” She handed him the thick file. “I also read your assessment of the situation and I feel I must express my concern.”

  Finally, Thom released Mary in order to accept the file Dr. Westin handed him. He flipped through the pages, skimming the remarks. “What concerns you doctor?”

  “Considering Adam’s dependency on his mother and her untimely passing, I suspect he is in a very conflicted state. From your account, he had transferred these feelings to a substitute mother figure.”

  “Correct.”

  “You realize he transferred both emotions, don’t you? Both the dependency and the anger over the abandonment.”

  Icy claws spread across Mary’s skin, chilling her to the bone. The ghost of the choking memory constricted her throat, forcing her to gulp for air.

  “Making him extremely dangerous.” Thom pointed to an entry. “What’s this about the kitten?”

  “That illustrates my point. Adam found a kitten on the grounds during one of his stays with us. When the orderly tried to take the animal, Adam gripped it so tightly, he killed it.”

  Mary covered her mouth, feeling sickness rise from her stomach and she struggled to keep it down. Unwittingly, she’d tapped into the residual emotions from that incident when she’d lied to Adam about her own cat. He’d meant to keep her locked up forever, as a replacement for his deceased mother. After his failure to find a second suitable substitute, he would look back to her. He’d been longing to reclaim her, just like Thom said, watching her from afar, and never getting his chance. He’d squeeze her neck like he did before, like he did the kitten, crushing the thing he desperately wanted. And in his eyes, she’d betrayed him. His mother betrayed him by dying. Mary betrayed him to the police.

  “As brutal as that sounds, that’s not the worst of it.” The doctor continued, “Adam later attacked the orderly. Adam blamed him for the cat’s death. He beat the man so severely he broke four ribs, his clavicle and his jaw before we could tranquilize him.” The doctor shook her head regretfully. “We recommended Adam be placed in an institution but his mother would not allow it.”

  “What do you think he’ll do next?”

  “Adam tends to fixate on one thing at a time. If he’s tried twice to find a mother substitute, he’ll try again.”

  “He won’t stop, even knowing the police are looking for him?”

  “I think that will only make him more desperate. He’ll strike again very soon.”

  Thom speared his fingers through his hair. “He probably knows we’ve been to his house. He won’t go back there. If he abducts someone else, we won’t know where to begin looking for them.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t offer you anymore insight than that.” Dr. Westin said, glancing at her watch. “I have to go now but page me if I can be of any more assistance.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  Without a word, Mary crossed to the window. She sucked long draughts of air, struggling to breathe despite the squeezing sensation around her neck.

  Thom rested a hand on her shoulder. “You handled yourself really well today. I know I asked a lot of you but you overcame it.”

  Mary said, “You have to use me for bait.”

  “We still have every available man out looking for Adam and his van. They will pick him up before he even shows up at your house.”

  “They might not. He could grab someone else, just like you said and you won’t have a clue where to look for him next time.”

  “Mary,” Thom massaged her shoulders. Let someone collect your cat and you both can stay at my house until we catch Adam.”

  Up until now, it had been easier to blame herself than to accept that she wasn’t in control. Talking with Nancy gave Mary a completely new perspective. When faced with the same situation, Nancy had fought back. She didn’t blame Mary, or even herself, for provoking the attack. That blame she placed squarely on Adam Fielding.

  Even though Nancy’s ordeal had lasted longer than Mary’s, she hadn’t let the experience destroy her. In the same situation, Mary had crumbled almost immediately. Since her escape, Mary hadn’t found a way to reconstruct her sense of self. Maybe that was why she had been so willing to sacrifice herself, so he could finish the job. The old saying about cowards dying a thousand deaths drifted through her mind. It hadn’t been that way with her. She felt she’d died when she’d made that dreadful promise and that she’d been one of the walking dead ever since.

  But she hadn’t really died, just been in sort of an emotional cocoon, leaving her numb. Thom had cracked that cocoon and made her feel again. Seeing Nancy’s fortitude just now completely str
ipped it away. No matter what had happened to her, she had the right to live. No one, least of all herself, could blame her for what Adam had done to her.

  More than anything, she wanted to put the whole mess behind her and start to live again. She wanted to wake up without fear. She wanted to love Thom without remembering why they met. She wanted to throw off the mantle of self-loathing and guilt and get back to doing the things she loved with the people she cared about the most. But one obstacle still remained.

  Adam Fielding.

  Until he was locked up, either in jail or in an institution, neither she nor anyone around her would be safe.

  Thom’s hands circling her waist brought Mary back to the moment. Outside she could see normal people walking to and from their cars in the parking lot a few stories below and going about their business as if nothing awful could ever happen to them. She wanted that kind of faith again. She wanted to know that nothing bad could happen and that there was not some disturbed and violent man stalking her.

  “My captain would never approve it.”

  “I’m going to do this Thom, even if I have to do it alone. I’ll just wait until he shows up, and then dial 9-1-1.”

  “I won’t let you face him alone. If we are going to do this, we have to do it my way.” He hugged her.

  Mary glanced at their entwined reflection in the window. Together they could make it. “Tell me your plan.”

  ###

  Thank you for reading Episode 3 of Her Dangerous Promise!

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  ~A taste of~

  Episode 4 of

  Her Dangerous Promise

  Thom jumped the fences across the backyards back toward Mary’s house. This was Brad’s first stake out and forgetting to make sure his radio was on and turned to the correct frequency was a rookie mistake. He hadn’t been the first on the force to commit that faux pas but he hadn’t expected it of Brad. That’s why he’d tapped him to help—that and the fact he didn’t mind the unofficial nature of the assignment.

  Over the wire, Thom heard Mary chatting away. She was doing the dishes, he guessed, from the clatter of the plates. From what he remembered, she hadn’t had any dirty dishes in the sink. She must have pulled them down from the cabinet to give herself something to do. Going stir-crazy in there, he thought, shaking his head.

  Thom maneuvered along the back fence of each yard until he reached Mary’s. The detached garage at the back of her yard opened on an alley. Brad was supposed to be holed up in the narrow passageway between the chain link fence along the side of the yard and the garage.

  As he jumped over the last fence, Thom whispered Brad’s name.

  He could see him lying on his stomach, facing the back of Mary’s house. The deeply shadowed spot offered an excellent hiding place.

  “Brad,” he said louder as he crouched down beside his ankles, unable to move further without stepping over him. He shook Brad’s foot but still received no reply. “Oh no.”

  Staying down, Thom crept over him as best he could in the narrow space. He was sprawled face down on the dried mat of leaves that had accumulated there. Thom pulled out his flashlight and shone it on his face. A red welt burned on his temple with a thin trickle of blood still dribbling down his face.

  He slipped his fingers inside the collar of Brad’s shirt and felt his neck for a pulse. It was there, strong and steady.

  Over the headset he heard Mary talking about how badly the litter box needed cleaning. She was still safe, for the moment.

  Thom pulled out his cell phone and started dialing. Brad needed an ambulance and he needed back up. Adam was in the area.

  A crunching sound drew his attention. Thom raised the beam of his flashlight in time to see Adam Fielding coming down on him with a broken broom handle. Without room enough to maneuver, Thom’s attempt to dodge backward failed.

  The blow caught him across the side of his face, knocking him back, leaving him dazed. The sparkles dancing in front of his eyes hadn’t completely cleared when the second strike found its mark.

  Thom slumped down on top of Brad. His last thought, to shout a warning to Mary, faded before it could reach his lips.

  ###

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