"Well, what's it going to be?" Her hand hovered over the IV machine.
"Go ahead and kill me," Keith grunted through his teeth. He laid back his head and closed his eyes. An image of Jeri smiling filled his mind.
"Fine. Have it your way Sargent." Karen turned towards the IV machine and pressed some buttons. She turned back to him and her finger traced his muscular chest. "It's such a shame. You're one of my better looking test subjects."
A loud bang erupted and Karen crouched down under Keith. Her head swiveled to the IV machine. A bullet hole was in the middle of it and sparks flew everywhere. Karen peered towards the door.
Jeri stood by the doorway, her eyes cold, with her smoking gun aimed at Karen's head. Daniel stood by her side, his gun angled at her, as well. Elle was behind them with George, who guarded the hallway behind them.
"Let him go." Jeri's voice was laced with an edge that almost made Keith not recognize her.
Karen laughed as she slowly stood up. "You're not going to shoot me." She brought the vial up in front of her and rocked it. "Not when I have your and your boyfriend's precious baby."
Jeri's eyes widened. "What?"
"Yes, your failed attempts at the fertility clinic? Well, they really weren't attempts, because those vials were all empty," she said with a psychotic laugh.
The gun started to shake in Jeri's hand.
"Don't listen to her, Jeri." Elle whispered as she leered at Karen. "She lies."
Karen shrugged. "Occasionally, like when I told Tiny he was the best lover I ever had. Completely lied."
Elle's eyes widened and her nostrils flared.
Karen caught her reaction. "Oh, someone's got a crush on Tiny." She started swinging the vial like a pendulum. "Well, here's some advice for you, honey. He was just awful in bed."
"Stop talking. Move away from Keith," Daniel instructed her, his gun pointed at her head.
Karen ignored him and taunted Elle as she swung the vial. "There is a reason they call him Tiny."
A guttural yell erupted from Elle and she smashed through Jeri and Daniel to tackle Karen on top of Keith. Karen let go of the vial, which rolled down the table between Keith's restrained legs.
Jeri leapt towards them and frantically tried to grab the vial, but it rolled between her fingers and shattered into a million pieces when it hit the floor. Her heart started to race as she looked at the tiny amount of frozen liquid that started to thaw. Her head spun around the room, looking for anything to scoop it into. A box of syringes caught her eye and she grabbed one sealed one, opened it and raced back to the floor. Pulling the plunger out she scooped as much as she could into it.
"It's already contaminated." Keith's strained voice told her. She stood up and saw Daniel had unstrapped him. George tied up Karen in a chair. Elle had a deadly look on her face as she held a gun at Karen.
Jeri looked at Keith, her bottom lip began to quiver. "I need to save our baby."
Keith's sweat drenched face looked grim. "Jeri, it's too late."
She turned around, but Keith grabbed her arm and pulled her in close to him. "We can try again. I'll do anything I can because..." She looked into those eyes that always captivated her. "I love you."
Jeri felt her heart skip a beat. He loved her. He actually loved her. She caressed his cheek. "I love you, too, Keith. It feels like I have loved you forever."
He leaned in and captured her lips for a moment before letting her go. "We have to get out of here."
Jeri nodded and looked over at Karen, who sat on a chair, dazed and disoriented. "What about her?"
"She won't say anything," Elle told her coldly. "Not for about a year or so."
Jeri looked over at Elle and she nodded. Her hand went to her pocket where the seeds were. She could let the poison ivy seeds loose and have them twist around Karen and crush her. She looked back at Keith, who was being moved off the table with Daniel's help. He was going to be okay. She was going to be okay. Her fingers let go of the seeds and she took a small bag from the counter and put the syringe in it.
"Where are Tiny and Dean?" Keith asked as he leaned against Daniel.
"We got both of them. They're pretty banged up, so we have to get them some medical attention," George told him. He walked over to Keith’s other side and grabbed his other arm.
They all quickly exited the lab and left Karen there for everyone to find her the next morning.
Chapter 22
"And then, Dean turned around and realized the hole in the towel!" Tiny yelled as he sat by the campfire and tried to act out the scene, metal skewer dabbed with a marshmallow in his hand.
The group erupted in laughter. It was the first time in weeks that all of them had a good laugh. These past few days since the rescue were tense, so the laughter was a welcome change.
When Daniel uncovered more evidence at how widely spread the Agency was Keith, Dean, George and Kenneth agreed all of them, including Missy and Evan, needed to disappear temporarily until they learned more about this Agency and what their plans were.
Everyone left at different days and times, each giving a different excuse. Stan Whitman promised Kenneth and Jeri that he would look after their homes while they were gone. It was a bit of relief to Jeri, but she still took some cuttings from all of her grandmother's roses to take with her. They reminded her of her grandmother and now her child, since she buried the contents of the syringe in her rose garden.
Keith called the other members of his former team and gave them all the info. Some of them headed to their own secret hideaways, while others decided to take a chance and not run and hide.
Keith's mother and Rose also refused to hide. As they’d told him, they had a life in New York, so they weren't going to head to the hills. He told her he wasn't surprised that they didn't want to leave, but he was surprised at his mother's reaction when he told her that he and Jeri were a couple. She broke down over the phone and told him that she knew they were both in love and it was the same kind of love that she had with his father.
"Then why did you try to stop us from being together?" Jeri heard him ask.
"Because when I lost your father it nearly killed me. I thought it would be better for you to be with someone you don't really love, because if they leave or are taken away it won't hurt as much," Her voice broke as she told him over the phone.
Jeri heard the anguish in her words and could not imagine what she went through after losing Keith's father. They all reconciled their differences, and Keith promised Jeri that he would take her to New York after he was certain the danger of the Agency had passed.
Elle brought her knees up and hugged them as she wrapped a blanket around herself. Her hair was wrapped in a ponytail. Tiny sat by her, flirting with her like a horny teenager.
Jeri was happy to see Tiny making jokes. He was in the worst shape since Karen drained his blood and caused him to fall into a coma. They were able to find two pints of his blood in the lab, but it wasn't enough. Evan's healing powers helped, but the whole ordeal still left Tiny weak and very irritable. Only Elle was able to make him smile and motivate him to get up every morning.
"Hey, you could have told me ahead of time!" Dean roared at him as he tightened his arm around Anne, who was sitting next to him on a bench. Both were wrapped under a blanket.
The fire helped keep all of them warm, since their winter jackets weren't enough.
Dean fortunately was able to recovered fairly quickly after the attack.
"And miss the reaction of the whole team?" Tiny jabbed back as he sat closer to Elle "It was so priceless!"
"I still have nightmares about your ass." Keith chimed in as he held Jeri in his lap, a blanket wrapped around the two of them. Max lay beside them on a special blanket pad that Jeri made for him. Jeri looked over at Keith as the light from the fire danced around his face.
When they rescued Keith, Karen had dosed him with the lowest dosage of poison, so they were able to get it out of his sys
tem. Any more and he would have been in a coma just like before. Keith never left her side after they left Karen's lab. It didn't matter whether it was day or night. He was always there with her.
Her heart swelled. Tingles ran through her body as he rubbed her hand.
"I don't see how, since my sister has the same genes, my friend," Dean fired back.
"Yeah, but I have hips." Jeri smirked at her brother.
Keith grinned at her. "Mmmm, that you do, sweetheart." He leaned in and kissed her. The fire they sat next to didn't burn as bright as the one inside her heart for him. Her hand caressed the stubble on his cheek and he deepened the kiss. His evident desire for her pressed against her ass, she ground herself against him.
"Oh, get a room like Missy and Evan did!" Dean spat back and threw a marshmallow at them.
Keith released her and give his friend a dirty look.
Christina snorted from the rocking chair that she was in. She picked out the charred portions of her marshmallow. "I did not need that image."
"Don't worry, you'll find someone, Christina," Anne told her friend.
"Ha! The only thing I'll find out here is a Sashquash!" Christina spat back in irritation.
"Hey, be glad Kenneth was able to get his friend to let us stay in this resort during the off season." Dean got up and grabbed a marshmallow and put it on a skewer.
Kenneth and George had called an old Army buddy, Jim Leigh, who owned with his children a massive resort in South Dakota. Their friend was supportive and offered them the use of the resort, since it was usually closed in the winter. It held one massive building, along with small cabins that circled it, and was surrounded by mountains.
They sat outside the main building's fire pit area, which was basically a big hole that was surrounded by very old crumbling bricks.
"It's so beautiful in these mountains." Elle looked around the mountains that surrounded them.
"Yeah, I never imagined South Dakota was so beautiful." Anne wrapped the blanket around Dean when he came back to sit next to her. He handed her the skewer and she held it over the fire.
"Think we can stay until summer?" Tiny asked as he put another marshmallow on his skewer and roasted it.
"If we still need to hide out I can always pay Mr. Leigh to rent out the whole resort through the summer," Anne told him.
After they arrived Anne and Missy had noticed that the resort needed some TLC and convinced Jim and his children to let them remodel it since he was letting them stay through the winter. Fortunately, with Anne's wealth from her movie career she was able to buy all the materials they needed to help bring the resort back to the beauty it once was. It was a great way to get the team back into shape while Daniel kept digging for more clues as to who was after them. Anne was also able to get out of the movie contracts with a doctor’s order that she needed bedrest. Being hidden away from the public also would solidify the pretext.
Jeri felt Keith's hand go under her shirt and grab her breast. Her skin flushed and her legs instinctively parted. His hot breath whispered in her ear. "Time to go to bed."
It wasn't a request, as she had learned over the past few weeks. He was insatiable. He wanted her every moment that he could get her alone. If he were a frequent flyer program she'd have enough miles to travel to and from Australia a couple times.
She slowly stood up, her knees weak. "We're going to bed."
Her instinct wanted to help Keith up, but she knew that it would hurt his pride, so she just stepped aside.
"Right. I doubt the two of you are going to be sleeping!" Tiny grinned.
"Glad to know you're feeling better," Keith mocked him as he wrapped his arm and the blanket around Jeri.
"I have a great nurse." He leaned over to Elle and smiled.
"You have my permission to smack him if he gets too annoying," Keith told her as he looked at Max.
"Max, heel."
The shepherd obeyed and walked to his left side. Jeri bent down and rolled up the dog bed and snuggled back under the blanket Keith wrapped around her.
"Good night, everyone!"
Everyone replied back. She and Keith headed back to one of the cabins at the resort.
There were patches of snow, and the air was chilly.
"Tiny seems to be back to normal," Jeri commented as she kept pace with Keith.
"Yeah, but that's how he is. He's going to need time. I just hope Elle can hold him back. He's been doing nothing but hitting on her left and right. I would have cracked him across the head a dozen times already."
They turned right and headed out to the gravel road. Max kept up with them, never leaving Keith's side.
"Both Elle and Christina are nurses. They have had their fair share of patients who have hit on them. They know how to handle them."
Keith squeezed her. "I hope you're right. I'd hate for a woman like Elle to fall for Tiny and then end up hurt."
Jeri wrapped her arm around his waist and leaned against him. "Elle knows Tiny's past. She can make her own decisions."
Jeri could see the light of the log cabins in the distance and her heart started to race in anticipation. She loved having a cabin to themselves. It was small but very cozy, and it was even more enjoyable that Keith was with her. Their nights were always filled with passion. Sometimes it was gentle, but other times more carnal. She still wasn’t sure which she liked best.
When they stopped at the door Keith pulled out the key and turned the lock to open it. The door swung open and Jeri sucked in her breath.
There were lit candles everywhere. Tulle hung from the ceiling and held white strings of lights. Red rose petals were scattered around the bed and a bottle of champagne with two glasses were on the side table.
She walked inside the room and tears filled her eyes. Was he going to…? She twisted around and her mouth dropped.
Keith was on his knee, a little blue box in his hand was open and a ring with a huge round diamond with pear shaped side diamonds sparkled in the dim light.
“Jerilind Haley Miller, will you marry me?”
She nodded and squeaked out. “Yes.” The tears in her eyes rolled down her face.
He pulled the ring from the box, took her hand and slid the ring on her shaking finger. Jeri stared at the ring. It was bigger than the one she found. She looked back at Keith, who’d stood up and was smiling.
“I love you, Jeri.” He took her into his arms. “I loved you the day I met you, and it’s just grown over the years. I can’t imagine my life without you.”
She caressed his stubbled face and stared into his ice blue eyes, sparkling with love. “I’ve loved you forever, too.”
His lips crashed down on hers and she captured and kissed him in a fiery passion.
For the first time in many years Jeri's heart didn't ache anymore, because it was healed by Keith's love.
Thank you for reading Growth of Love!
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Will Tiny finally find the love he needs with Elle? Or will the Agency rip them apart forever?
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Growth 0f Love (The Heirs 0f Orion Series Book 2) Page 14