Agent Undercover

by Lynette Eason

  His hand shot out and grasped her wrist. “We need to talk.”

  “I know,” she whispered. Then she gently twisted out of his grasp, spun on her heel and walked away.

  NINETEEN

  Paige looked up to see Dylan enter the police station. Her heart shifted in her chest, and she realized she wanted to jump up and throw herself in his arms.

  But fear gnawed at her gut.

  When Will had said he loved her, her heart had felt like he’d grabbed it in both hands and given it a squeeze. When Dylan had said he loved her, she’d just flat-out panicked. No one other than Mama Ida and Papa Stu had ever said those words to her. Twice in one day was almost more than she could process.

  So, what was Dylan doing here? The determined look on his face made her push aside her notes.

  “Where’s Will?”

  “He went home with Fiona. She said he could stay with her until I could get him. He knows Fiona, loves her like another aunt. I told him I’d be back soon—with you.”

  She swallowed hard. “I see.” No sense in getting into that now. She knew they had to talk; now just wasn’t the time. “So, what are you doing here?”

  His jaw jutted. “I want to hear what Sam has to say. Have you questioned him yet?”

  “Not yet, but—”

  He held up a hand. “Don’t even try to keep me out of it.”

  She glanced over at Eli who’d been studiously ignoring the two of them. “Paperwork that interesting, Eli?” she asked.

  Without looking up, he said, “Yep.”

  “So, what do you think? Can Dylan watch from behind the mirror?”

  Eli shrugged. “Why not?”

  Satisfaction crossed Dylan’s face. As well as relief. He was worried she’d flat-out refuse. As well she probably should, but he and his nephew had been the targets. She figured he probably deserved to observe if he wanted to.

  She nodded to Dylan. “You can go ahead and have a seat in the observation room. We’ll get started in a few minutes. They had to patch him up at the hospital, but they’re en route now.”

  Dylan’s eyes studied her for a brief pause, then he nodded and headed in the direction she pointed.

  “When are you going to put that man out of his misery?” Eli spoke the words to his paperwork.

  “Excuse me?” she asked.

  Now his eyes met hers. “He’s as in love with you as you are with him. When are you going to quit denying it?”

  Paige felt heat suffuse her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Eli leaned forward. “Look, I’ve been in his shoes. Crazy about a woman who’s crazy about me but too scared to do anything about it. Don’t let your fear rule your life.”

  She gaped. “How—”

  “Don’t ask how. Just ask yourself if you really want to be alone the rest of your life. And if it’s worth letting fear be your guide rather than the Lord.” He stood and winked.

  “Now, I’m done with the paperwork—and the lecture. See you in the room in a few.”

  Paige stared as he disappeared around the corner, then gathered her scattered wits and prepared to confront a killer.

  Dylan watched her enter the interrogation room and wondered how their story would end. God, You know how I feel about her. She knows how I feel about her. I think You want us together, I’m just not sure she gets it. Tell me how to help her get past the fear she has.

  The short prayer was all he had time for before Cal turned up the volume. Dylan was grateful for his friend’s presence.

  Paige leaned against the table, silent but watchful. She didn’t speak, just stared at Sam Hobbs.

  The man stared back. Began to fidget.

  And still she stared.

  “What?” Sam finally blurted. “Quit staring at me! If you’ve got questions, ask them.”

  “Your partner squealed on you,” she finally said.

  The man jerked like she’d slapped him. “Wh-what?”

  “Yeah, gave you up. Told us how you were in charge of the drug ring. All of it.”

  “No way. I don’t believe you.” But the sweat popping out on his forehead said he considered it a real possibility.

  “Doesn’t really matter if you believe it or not. Doesn’t make it any less true. So—” she looped her fingers together in front her as though she didn’t have a care in the world “—are you going to take the fall by yourself or try to cut a better deal than your partner?”

  Rivulets of water ran from his brow. He wiped his cheek on his sleeve. “You don’t have anything.”

  “I don’t know, Sam, I think we have quite a bit.” Sarcasm bit. “Dylan will testify that you admitted to wanting to get rid of Will. Now, to keep this all legal and everything, you were offered a lawyer when you were arrested. You refused. I think now might be a good time to call one.”

  His face went slack. “You want me to call a lawyer?”

  “Is this guy for real?” Dylan asked Cal. “Does he think that by denying everything, it’ll just be forgotten?”

  “You’d be surprised what some criminals think,” Cal answered.

  “Oh, yeah,” Paige was grinning at Sam in a way Dylan hoped she never did with him. An I-gotcha-where-I-want-you-and-now-you’re-toast smile. “I want to make sure this is all legal and everything. You’re not getting off on a technicality on my watch.”

  Sam narrowed his eyes in an effort to look like he didn’t care. His shaking hands gave him away. “I don’t want a lawyer,” he mumbled. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “Except enter a school with a gun.”

  “It was an accident. I thought my life was in danger.”

  Paige burst out laughing. “Okay. You go with that one.”

  “You don’t have anything on me!” The shaking hands slapped the table.

  Cal said to Dylan, “He’s crazy. I can’t believe he hasn’t lawyered up.” Cal pointed to the recorder on the table. “Anything she manages to get out of him is admissible in a court of law.”

  Paige leaned forward and got nose-to-nose with the man. “We’ve got you on an attempted murder several times over. You came into a classroom with drugs in your hand. Then you pulled a gun.” She gave a laugh that said she couldn’t believe how stupid the man in front of her was.

  Then she backed off and shrugged. “I guess your partner’s going to enjoy all the money y’all made while you’re sitting behind bars.” She smirked, then sobered. “Personally, I don’t care what you do. We’ll give the deal to your flunky, and you can do the hard time.” Paige headed for the door, her stride confident, her attitude stating she didn’t have time for Sam’s nonsense and she was done dealing with him.

  “Wait!” Sam called just as her fingers twisted the knob.

  She waited, her back to him. “Give me something.”

  “What did she say?” Sam blurted.

  From where he sat, Dylan watched the satisfied smile spread across her lips before she wiped it off and turned back to lift a brow at Sam.

  “Man, she’s good,” Cal whispered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “She never used a pronoun the whole time she referred to his accomplice. She didn’t know whether the person was male or female so she worked around it.”

  Dylan had more questions—like how she knew there was someone else involved—but didn’t want to ask. She was talking again.

  Paige rubbed her palms together as she walked back to lean against the table again. “She said a lot. Said it was all your idea to funnel the drugs through the school. Said you came up with the idea of how to get them past the drug dogs.” She gave a ferocious frown and pulled an envelope from her pocket. Slapping it down in front of Sam, she snarled, “Sending drugs home in kids’ backpacks? That’s low. Killing a kid’s mom and boyfriend? That’s life in prison.”

  Red fury erupted on his face. Fists slammed down on the table in front of him. “That stupid, big-mouthed—”

  Paige interrupted him. “Yeah, she had a lot
of nice things to say about you, too.”

  Sam fumed. Dylan thought if the man grew any redder, he’d blow a vessel.

  Paige pulled out the chair across from Sam and flopped into it. “So, you ready to start talking or not?”

  “What kind of deal are we talking?”

  “Well, I can’t make the deal. I’ll have to get the A.D.A. in here.”

  “Then get him in here.”

  Paige turned to the door when Sam spoke again. “You don’t have her, do you? That was a bluff. How did you know?”

  “About your partner?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It was only a guess, but I knew for a fact you couldn’t be in two places at the same time.”

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Paige shrugged. “The night I went to the school to snoop around, someone was there in the hall. Was that you?”

  Sam nodded.

  “Then your partner was at Dylan’s house looking through the window, scaring Will.”

  Sam scowled. “She was just supposed to be getting the layout of the house.”

  “Like where Will’s room was so you could set off a bomb under his window in an attempt to kill him?”

  The man’s eyes never wavered, but the nervous tic in his cheek said she’d hit the nail on the head. “I’d be interested in hearing what the D.A. has to offer now.”

  Paige wanted to wipe the smarmy look off the man’s face. A man who’d just admitted to killing Sandra Price and Larry Bolin. And a man who had threatened to kill Dylan if Will told what he saw that night.

  Which actually turned out to be nothing.

  But who was his partner? All she knew was that it was a woman. She didn’t want Sam to turn his partner in to cut a deal. She wanted him fully punished.

  Eli opened the door and waved her out. “What is it?”

  “We’ve been through his apartment and found the evidence that we needed. We know who his partner is.”

  “Who?”

  “Jessica Stanton. She thinks Sam ratted her out and is singing like a songbird trying to make sure she gets as little time in jail as possible.”

  Paige let herself into her house for the last time. Her heart felt heavy—and yet numbness spread through her. The doctor had called her this morning.

  Her mother had died this morning on her couch shortly after placing a call to 911. When EMTs arrived, the woman was gone.

  She’d died alone. No family gathered around her. No one to mourn her passing.

  Paige blinked back tears. Was she destined to follow right in her mother’s footsteps after spending her life doing her best to make sure she was nothing like her mother?

  The thought made her stomach cramp.

  Pulling in a deep breath, she focused on another depressing thought.

  She was done here in Rose Mountain. The good thing was that she’d completed her job, done what she came here to do. Sam Hobbs and Jessica Stanton had turned on each other like rabid dogs, trying to pin as much of their operation on each other as possible.

  Jessica had made up the whole thing about Sandra saying someone was blackmailing her. And it was Sandra confiding to the woman she thought was a friend about how she was going to have a new life with her new boyfriend that had gotten her and Larry killed. Sam had been spooked that Sandra knew too much and had gotten rid of her. He’d gotten lucky as Larry had been there, too. The pipe bomb he’d tossed through the window had been quick and deadly.

  Sandra and Larry hadn’t stood a chance.

  But Paige had done her job, and now Larry’s family and Dylan could have closure.

  And she could go back to Atlanta and get on with her life.

  Without Dylan and Will.

  The thought sent a shaft of pain through her. She didn’t want to leave Rose Mountain. It had become her home. She’d found love here. The love of God and a family.

  It had become her refuge.

  “God,” she whispered to the empty room, “how am I going to leave here?”

  And deep down she knew she didn’t have to. All she had to do was pick up the phone and tell Dylan she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him and Will.

  But could she do it? Could she make that commitment? What happened if she was a lousy mother? Will was better off with no mother than a bad one, that was for sure. What if she repeated her mother’s mistakes? She had done it once before. But you were only eight. Could she forgive herself?

  She grabbed her suitcase and walked to the front door. One last, lingering glance, and she relived each moment with Dylan and Will. Then packed away the memories for the lonely days ahead.

  Opening the door, she stepped outside.

  To find Dylan and Will sitting on the hood of his car.

  She gaped, her heart tumbling wildly in her chest.

  “Paige!” Will was the first to move. He hopped down from the car with Dylan’s help and hurled himself toward her like a bullet.

  Her throat clogged as she gathered him in a hug. “Hey, guy, how are you doing?”

  “I’m doing great! Look! I lost a tooth!”

  She grinned at his enthusiasm. “My goodness, how much money did you get for it?”

  “Ten whole dollars!”

  “Ten? Wow, that’s a lot more than I ever got.”

  She lifted her gaze to Dylan who waited patiently. He now leaned against the car, watching them, the expression on his face hopeful, longing.

  And sad.

  As though he knew he wasn’t going to change her mind.

  But, oh, how she wanted to. To just shove aside the fear and let herself believe Dylan when he said she’d be a great mom. To believe in herself. To believe God when He said He works all things together for good for those who love Him.

  “We couldn’t let you go without saying goodbye.”

  “I … Thanks.”

  Will jumped up and down. “We got you a present, too.”

  “You did?”

  “Uh-huh. Don’t you want to know what it is? ‘Cuz I’ll tell you if you want. You don’t hafta guess.”

  Paige felt the laugh well up, and her eyes collided with Dylan’s. “Why don’t you show me?”

  Will ran around to the back of the car. “Open the trunk, Uncle Dylan.”

  Dylan pressed a button on his remote, and the lid popped up.

  She walked around and looked in. And gasped. Her heart melted. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.” Dylan reached in and pulled the bicycle out. “What do you think?”

  Tears blurred her vision, and she sniffed. “Oh, you guys. It’s just perfect. Thank you.”

  “So, you really like it?” Will’s eyes were brighter than any child’s on Christmas morning.

  “I really do.”

  “We don’t want you to leave, Paige. We want you to stay. With us.” Dylan’s voice softened. She could see his heart in his eyes as they bored into hers.

  She pointed to the swing in her neighbor’s yard. “Hey, Will, why don’t you go swing a bit while I talk to your uncle, okay?”

  “Will you push me?”

  “In a few minutes.”

  He bounded off, and Paige took a deep breath. She walked over to Dylan, who opened his arms.

  As though it was the most natural thing in the world, she slipped into them, felt them close around her.

  Breathing in his clean scent, the smell of his cologne once again surrounding her, she lay her head on his chest. “My mom died this morning.”

  His sharp, indrawn breath echoed in her ear as he pushed her back to look in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

  He placed a kiss on her forehead, and she felt a tear trickle down her cheek.

  “I’m sorry, too. Sorry I couldn’t do anything for her.”

  He pulled her back into a tight squeeze. “It’s not your fault.” Dylan’s sympathetic rumble almost made her smile. Almost.

  “I don’t want to be like her. All alone. Afraid to love anyone after the way she was treated by most of the
men in her life. I don’t want to be like that.” She paused. “I don’t want to leave, but I’m afraid I don’t know how to be a mother.” Softly she told him about Ben and how guilty she felt for not saving him.

  The arms around her tightened. “Have faith, Paige. God brought you here for that very reason. So that you could see that your maternal instincts are good. Will loves you.”

  His husky plea sent her heart spiraling, pounding. “I’m scared,” she whispered. “Scared I’m not good enough. Scared I can’t get over my past.”

  “I know. But if you run from us, from your future, you’ll always be scared. Stay and fight for us. Face your fears, and you’ll find you had nothing to fear in the first place.”

  She shuddered, then gave a shaky smile. “The way you made Will stay at that restaurant and eat even after he’d almost been snatched?”

  Dylan nodded. “As much as I wanted to pick him up and run out of there, never to return. But that would be silly because that’s being scared of something that can’t hurt you.”

  “But failing you and Will can hurt me,” she whispered. “And not just me, it can hurt two people I’ve come to … care about very much.”

  He placed a finger under her chin to bring her eyes up to meet his.

  The love there sucked the air from her lungs.

  “You know, God doesn’t want us to be afraid. He actually wants to give us the desires of our heart, keeping His will for us in sight.” He placed a light kiss on her lips. “I believe God sent you into our lives for a reason. Not just to get the bad guy tormenting us, but because God had a more permanent arrangement in mind.”

  “You think?” She wanted to believe it.

  “I think. You’re amazing with Will. I know you doubt your parenting, but all parents do. You have nothing to worry about.”

  “But I—”

  “That’s not to say you’ll be perfect. Any more than I’ll be the perfect dad. We’re human. We’re going to mess up. But we’ll be leaning on God, trusting Him to guide us—and probably asking for forgiveness and more guidance. A lot.”

  “Dylan, I—”

  “And—” he placed a finger on her lips “—one of the things I know about you is that you’ll protect that child with your life. Before you knew him, you could have died trying to save him. You put his life before yours. What other qualifications for motherhood does one need?”