Pride of a Hunter
Page 20
“She’d be an asset.” Dom glanced at the mouth of the corridor. Pieces of hair stuck out of Luci’s braid at all angles. Dried blood stained her apple-green sweater. She walked boldly, a new confidence glowing from her. She’d never looked more beautiful. Warmth radiated from his solar plexus, mellowed him faster than any eighteen-year-old scotch. “I’ve got to go.”
“Where to?”
Dom shoved his hands in his jean pockets, a certain trepidation dancing in his gut. After what had happened, would Luci want him anywhere near her? This time, he wasn’t going to let her go without telling her what was in his heart. Filled with hope, he said, “Home.”
LUCI STOOD AWAY from the crowd of family gathered around Jill’s hospital bed, unsure what her reception would be. Jeff had his arms wound around Jill’s neck as if he would never let go. Her father restrained Brendan’s eager curiosity about Jill’s bandage. Her mother glanced back at Luci and came to stand beside her.
“Thank you for saving your sister,” Barbara said, her voice warbling with emotion.
“It’s my fault she got hurt in the first place. I should have shown her the evidence Dom had against Warren earlier.”
“No, Lucinda.” Barbara grabbed Luci’s upper arms and shook her gently. “Dom explained everything. You were building a solid case against Warren so he would never hurt another woman this way. Dom told me how you helped uncover critical pieces of evidence. If you hadn’t shot Warren, Jill may have bled to death. You kept Warren from hurting Brendan. I never understood what drove you to join the Hostage Rescue Team, Luci. But I see now that you helped people. You shouldn’t be tending goats and farming. You should be using your talent, my darling daughter.”
Tears wavered in Luci’s eyes. She’d waited a lifetime for her mother’s approval and it had come when she’d least expected it. “Thanks, Mom. I needed to hear that.” Especially now.
A cloud of Guerlain enveloped Luci as her mother hugged her. Keeping Luci in her embrace, Barbara returned to Jill’s bedside. “Come on, Jeff. We need to let your mother rest. Brendan’s going to spend the night with us, too. We’ll have a sleepover.”
At Jill’s urging, Jeff reluctantly crept out of his mother’s arms.
“I want to go home, too,” Jill said, pushing herself off the pillow. “Jeff needs me.”
“You will do no such thing, young lady,” Barbara said, letting go of Luci and wrapping an arm around each boy. “Rest. Doctor’s orders. Jeff will be safe with your father and I. And he’ll have Brendan for company.”
“But I—”
“No arguments.” Barbara shepherded the boys toward the door. “We’ll come back for you in the morning when you’re released.”
After several rounds of saying good-night, Luci closed the hospital room door behind the boys and her parents. They had needed to see that Jill was all right. Jill had put up a brave front to reassure Jeff, but pain and fatigue were taking their toll and she now sank into the pillows.
Luci and Dom had given their statements. She’d arranged for someone to clean Jill’s house as soon as the scene was released. Jill didn’t need to go home to blood and broken glass. She had enough heartbreak to deal with as it was.
Luci hung on to the door handle, not quite sure what to say. “I’ll let you rest. Do you need anything before I go?”
“I’m fine.” Jill slanted Luci a weak smile and tapped the bandage gracing her temple. “Good thing I have a hard head.”
When the adrenaline died down, Jill would hate her. After she got home to her son and her house, would she ever want to see Luci again? Her sister’s friendship was what had made the last six years bearable. “I’m so sorry, Jill. I never—”
“I don’t want to talk about him,” Jill said in one breath. Then with the other, “How could I have fallen for his act?”
“How could you not? He and Amber studied you for months before they swept in for their scam.” Her job had shown Luci the dark side of humanity, and Cole’s death had made her hypervigilant to violence. That wariness had kept her an outsider. “You have a big heart, Jill. You see the good in everyone. It’s a quality I’ve always envied.”
Jill swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I was such a fool. It’s going to take me a long time to get over what he did to me.”
Luci rushed to her sister’s side, sat on the edge of the bed and took Jill’s hand in hers. “You’re alive, Jill. It could’ve been worse. He’s killed two women.”
Jill gulped. “He was right, though. I’m never going to let another man that close.”
“You will because if you don’t, then Warren wins.” Luci squeezed Jill’s hand. “There are a few good men out there, Jill. And there’s one for you. You’re smart. You’re beautiful. And you’re too full of life to give up on love.”
The door opened and Dom hesitated at the entrance.
Jill leaned her head against Luci’s shoulder and whispered, “You’re right. There are good men out there. You’d better hang on to this one, Lucinda.”
A good man. Dom was that and more. Choked up, all Luci could do was nod.
“Thank you,” Jill said, looking past Luci at Dom. “I almost made the worst mistake of my life.”
“I’m glad it all turned out right.”
Luci looked up at Dom. She hadn’t known until she heard Dom’s slow Texas drawl that she’d been listening for the sound of his voice. “You rest,” she told Jill. “I’ll come back in the morning.”
After a prolonged goodbye, Luci and Dom managed to get away. They stopped at her parents’ to check on the boys, then drove in silence to the farm. In the dark yard, Dom cut the engine. Quiet filled the night.
As she came around the van, she couldn’t help it. Her gaze strayed to the empty place that had once been her barn.
“I’m sorry about all this,” Dom said, coming to stand next to her and staring straight ahead into the starry night. “I never meant to put you or your family in danger.”
She shivered at the memory of Warren’s gun pressed under Brendan’s chin. “Everybody’s safe.”
Dom turned to look at her, a pained expression crimping the skin around his eyes. “I love you, Luci. If anything had happened to you or Brendan, I—” He swallowed hard.
She palmed his cheek, rubbing at the prickly soft stubble of his beard. “We’re all fine, and Warren and Amber will pay for their crimes.”
“I love you, Luci,” he insisted, leaning into her palm. “I’ve loved you from the second you walked into that training room twelve years ago.”
His admission sent her heart into a tumble. “You never said anything.”
His shoulders jerked up and his frown deepened. “You wanted Cole. He made you happy. I wanted you to be happy.”
Moonlight reflected off the pale blue of his eyes. In the wide pupils, she glimpsed something deep and earnest.
“I don’t want to let you go,” he said, and the tight hold of fear that had chased her since Cole’s death started to loosen its grip.
She didn’t have to handle life alone. She could be with this man who shared her memories of Cole, who could help make a picture of the man he had been for Brendan, who understood her pain, her love and her loss. Trusting her heart, she opened herself to the greatest risk of all—loving without reservation. “Tell me what you want.”
His throat worked as if speaking his needs was going to somehow reveal a weakness. “I want you and Brendan and Maggie and the chickens and the goats and anything else you can throw at me.” The words came out in a rush, but his gaze remained steady and true.
She slanted her head and studied his beautiful face. A face full of contradictions—sharp cheekbones, sad eyes, an easy smile. He was there for her. Had always been there for her. All she had to do was reach out and she could wake up next to him every morning, share meals with him every day, share her life with him. Pure joy lightened her heart. And she couldn’t help the smile that ran away with her lips. He had no idea what he was asking for. She hooked both hands
around his nape and pulled his face toward hers until their foreheads met. “This may be the most dangerous assignment you’ll ever undertake, cowboy.”
His big hands reached for her and molded themselves to her back like protective wings as he pressed her as close as he could. “Well, ma’am, I am trained to handle high-risk situations.”
“That you are.” With her kiss, she showed him the love filling her heart to overflowing. Then she slid her hands down his arms, twined her fingers with his and said, “I love you. Come inside with me. Stay for a while.”
“How long?” he asked.
“How does forever sound?”
A wash of peace softened his features. “I can live with that.”
So could she.
Epilogue
Three weeks later
Church bells pealed, echoing with joy in Wintergreen’s picturesque town square. Indian summer was in full bloom, bringing a warm breeze and a piercing blue sky. Even the trees got into the celebration of Grayson Reed’s and Abrielle Holbrook’s wedding with their explosion of gold and red.
Sabriel Mercer stood at the church’s thick arched doorway, greeting each arriving guest with a nod, wishing he was anywhere but here. He rolled his shoulder against the stiffness of the rented tux and tugged at the too-tight collar with a finger. Only for a fellow Seeker would he endure such torture.
“Cell phone,” Sabriel said and shoved forward the basket with the big cranberry bow that Liv had given him for the purpose. He wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve the humiliation of this public emasculation.
“It’s off,” Harper said, holding the device up so Sabriel could verify his claim.
“Orders from the boss. Hand it over.”
Harper glowered. “Falconer?”
“Liv.”
Without another word, Harper dropped his cell phone with the dozen already in the basket. There was no point arguing with Liv. Even the newest Seeker understood that Falconer’s wife always got her way.
Standing in the shadows of the entry, Sabriel scanned the crowd seated in the wooden pews. Most were strangers, people from Reed’s and Abbie’s hometown.
The organ overhead in the loft stopped its nasal whine, then burst with “The Wedding March.” On the arm of her former WITSEC inspector, Abbie walked down the aisle. She looked beautiful in champagne silk that made her skin glow. His own wife, Anna, had done that, too, chosen an off-white dress because she’d said the pure white made her look dead and she wanted to shine on her wedding day. Reed looked as if he’d swallowed the sun as he watched his bride make her way up the crimson carpet. Kingsley, Seeker’s computer wiz, was at his side, red suspenders visible under the black tux jacket. Falconer and Liv stood arm in arm, beaming at the bride.
The newly engaged Skyralov held hands, fingers twined, with Luci. His other arm was looped around her son Brendan’s shoulders. The cowboy had come into his own since he’d found them. There was a settled, peaceful air about Dom that had been missing before. Luci, a former Hostage Rescue Team sniper, had turned down an offer to work for Seekers, Inc. She’d decided to apply at the Marston Police Department instead. Watching Skyralov play Mr. Mom when Luci started the next round of police academy was going to be a kick.
Had he ever been that happy? Sabriel couldn’t re member. He’d thought so once. But his marriage to Anna sometimes seemed like only a dream, eclipsed by the nightmare that had followed. As a Ranger, he’d trained hard and hot for insertions against terrorist targets, but nothing had prepared him for the utter destruction a father’s grief could wreak. Sabriel almost hadn’t survived.
A phone warbled a tinny melody. He frowned at his pocket. His? Other than the Seekers gathered in this church, only his mother and Tommy had this number.
And neither would dial it unless it was a matter of life or death.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2857-3
PRIDE OF A HUNTER
Copyright © 2005 by Sylvie Kurtz
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*Flesh and Blood
†The Seekers
Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgment
About the Author
Books by Sylvie Kurtz
Cast of Characters
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Copyright