by Rebecca York
He seemed torn, and she waited with her heart pounding, afraid that he was going to herd her toward the helicopter. But she wasn’t going to surrender. He’d have to drag her away. Or shoot her.
Centuries slid by as she waited for his answer. Finally, to her vast relief, he gave her a tight nod.
“Thank you.” She might have thrown her arms around him and hugged him tight, if she’d thought he would accept that from her.
“What do you want me to do?” Decorah asked.
“We have to take him to the vortex.”
“Which is what exactly”
“A place of power out here in the desert. Where psychic energy is multiplied and prayer is more effective.”
He shook his head. “If you say so. Come on. Before I decide I’ve gone insane.”
Tears of relief welled in her eyes, and she fought to hold them back. She pointed toward the outcropping of rocks. “I think over there is the best place for him.”
Decorah and the driver helped her get Matthew onto the wheeled stretcher. Then she and the security man half pulled, half carried the stretcher to the rocks.
“In there.” Isabella pointed to the sheltered place inside a group of rocks.
Decorah did as she asked, then took a step back, moving awkwardly.
“You hurt your leg?” she asked.
“A long time ago. Don’t worry about it,” he snapped.
She wanted to send him away from the ranch, but she was sure he wouldn’t leave.
He looked at Matthew, lying still and pale on the stretcher.
“How long is this going to take?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“You have an hour.”
Was that long enough? She had no way of knowing, but she suspected pleading for more time would be a waste of breath.
When Decorah had stepped out of sight around the rocks, she breathed out a small sigh and turned to Matthew.
“He’s gone, but he didn’t give us much time.”
Panic seized her, but she fought to keep it from overwhelming her.
Instead, she opened herself to the vortex, calling on its power, letting herself feel the vibrations in the air around her.
At the same time, she spoke to the unconscious man she had brought here.
“Matt, we’re at the ranch. Your body was at Garrison Care in Los Angeles, but your soul came here. You have to bring the two parts back together.”
He didn’t answer, but she kept talking to him, touching him.
“You recognized me when I came here to hide out. Come back to me now. We were so close out here. Please, I want that again. For both of us.”
When he didn’t respond she had to hold back a sob. “Don’t you feel the power of this place? Feel it all around you. It’s like a vibration in the air. A healing vibration.”
Again when he didn’t move or speak, she looked back over her shoulder to make sure Decorah couldn’t see them.
Fear and uncertainty clawed at her. If her plan didn’t work, her heart would fracture.
With a little sob, she climbed onto the stretcher, lying on top of the unconscious man, holding him, kissing his face, stroking his arms, trying in every way she could to make him aware of his physical body.
“You came to me here. You recognized me. Matthew, you know me. And you want to come back to your body. Please do it now. For me. And for yourself. Don’t throw your life away. Please don’t do that.”
For long moments, nothing happened. Then she sensed him stirring.
“Isabella?”
“Yes. Matthew, thank God. Matthew.”
He shuddered. He had been like a man who knew nothing, sensed nothing. Now she felt the real Matthew Houseman coming back to his body.
But the words he spoke were not the ones she wanted to hear.
“After all this time, I’m finally free,” he whispered. “I should have left long ago.”
“No! Dios, no.”
As his voice faded, she felt his soul seeping out of him, rising toward the heavens.
“No!” Isabella cried out again. “Dios, what have I done?”
But even as she protested, she felt the essence of Matthew Houseman rising upward, departing to a place where no living person could follow.
With that terrible knowledge, she felt her own spirit start to die. It was the worst agony she had ever felt in her life.
Maybe that was what made her able to stay with him.
Or perhaps it was her resolve. She would not let him leave her. Not now. Not when she had found him again after all these years. Not when she knew how he felt about her.
She was going to bring him back.
Or die trying.
Tears streamed down her face as she clung to him with her arms, her hands, her legs, and her spirit, pressing herself to him.
And as his soul drifted upward, she traveled with him.
She closed her eyes, feeling the two of them hovering somewhere above the earth. Even with her eyes closed, in the distance she could see a bright light. He was going there. To a warm, sweet place where he would be at peace.
She felt the strong, seductive pull. But she had to stop him. He didn’t understand what had happened. His body and soul were united, but it wasn’t his time to depart. Not now.
“Matthew, you have to stay with me.”
“Go back.”
“Not without you.”
“I’m not supposed to be on earth.”
“Of course you are.” She gulped. “You’re confused.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. Your body and your soul came back together so you can be yourself again. Not leave.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes! You have to stay here. For me. For yourself. For us.”
A long, empty silence followed. It might have lasted for seconds or minutes or hours.
She didn’t know precisely where she and Matthew were. She could no longer feel his body or her own, but she knew that she must be suspended somewhere between life and death. With Matthew. And if she couldn’t pull him back to the world, she didn’t want to go back, either.
Physical sensation was beyond her now, but somehow she still clung to him with her spirit, calling on the power of the vortex and on the power of her love for him.
She couldn’t even form words with her lips now. But she called to him in her mind
Matthew. Stay with me Matthew. You have to do that, for both of us. If you die, I will too.
No. It’s not your time.
And not your time, either. Matthew, I love you. And I think you love me. That’s why you have to let us be together. It’s up to you. You’re the only one who can make it happen. Let yourself come back to where you’re supposed to be. But whatever happens, I’m staying with you.
CHAPTER TEN
I can’t let you die, he whispered in her head. You have your whole life ahead of you.
We both do.
She sensed the balance shifting. For both of them. Gradually she felt her own body, felt her arms wrapped around Matthew, felt her breasts pressed to his chest as he lay on the stretcher on which they had wheeled him into the desert
Because she had been so sure it was the right thing to do.
“Matthew! You’re here. I know you’re here.”
“Isabella?” he asked, as though he couldn’t believe she was really with him.
“Yes. Oh, yes.”
She felt his arms come up and clasp her. Not tightly, but it made her heart race and moisture sting her eyes.
She lifted her head and stared down at him through a film of tears, seeing confusion and wonder on his face.
“Isabella?”
“Gracias a Dios.”
“I was . . . I should be . . . gone.”
“Of course not.”
He turned his head to the side, staring at the red rocks. “Where am I?”
“At the ranch.”
“In Sedona?”
“Yes. Do you remember? I
came here to hide out from El Jefe’s men. You were here first in the wind. Then you came to my bedroom. We met in the grove. You saved me from falling off a stool. And you saved me from one of the hombres.”
He blinked. “That’s like a dream. Was that real?”
“Yes.”
He raised his hand, looking at it. “But I wasn’t . . . myself.”
“You were shot during a raid at a militia compound. Powder Keg it was called. You told me that.”
“Did I?”
“Yes. You were badly wounded. You were in a coma. Your body was in Los Angeles, but your spirit was here. Waiting for me.”
As she clung to him, more tears welled in her eyes, and she struggled to hold them back.
She had won. They had won. She might have given in to sobs of joy, but the sound of a man clearing his throat made her head whip around.
Frank Decorah was standing beside one of the red rocks, staring at them with an astonished expression on his face.
“Matthew?”
“Frank? What are you doing here?”
“Taking a crazy chance.” He stepped forward. “Matthew, you’re awake.”
“Looks like it.”
Embarrassed beyond anything she could imagine, Isabella scrambled off the stretcher, but she kept her hand on Matthew’s arm, unwilling to break the contact with him.
Shifting away from the other man, she asked Matthew, “How do you feel?”
“Shaky. But good,” he answered, taking a deep breath of the desert air and letting it out slowly. “Lord, this place smells clean and fresh.”
“Yes.” She looked toward Frank Decorah. “I hope you’re not going to have me arrested.”
“For what?” Matthew demanded.
“For dragging you out of the extended care facility where you’ve been since Powder Keg. I thought that stunt of hers was going to kill you,” Decorah answered.
“It seems you were wrong.”
Frank’s expression turned regretful. “I’ve built Decorah Security by being innovative. By recruiting agents with out of the ordinary talents and taking on cases others ran away from. Cases with a touch of the weird. But when it came to trusting your life to Isabella’s plan, I was terrified. Then I realized that if I didn’t give her a chance, I might regret it for the rest of my life.”
Isabella didn’t tell him how close a call it had been.
When Matthew pushed himself to a sitting position, she tensed, ready to catch him if he tumbled to the side. But he sat for a moment, testing his balance, then swung his legs over the side.
She looked at the uneven ground. “Not the best place for your first walk in five years.”
“That long?”
“Yes.”
He turned to Decorah. “Give us a minute, would you?”
The other man ducked back behind the rocks, and Matthew faced her.
“When I was guarding you and your father, I couldn’t tell you I loved you. But I can tell you now.”
“Oh, Matthew. Matthew. I love you so much.”
“And you had the faith and the courage to bring me back.”
He lowered his head to hers for a kiss that was full of passion and gratitude.
When they broke apart, she whispered. “Let’s get you back to L.A. Gloria wants to see you.”
“Gloria?”
“One of the nurses who’s been taking care of you. At a facility called Garrison Care.”
“I don’t remember her. Or being there.”
“Pretend you know her, or she’ll be devastated. I think she had a crush on you. I mean, she’s old enough to be your mom, but she was very protective of you. And she helped me sneak you out of there.”
The ambulance driver took the vehicle back to L.A., and they rode in the helicopter, with the doctor who had accompanied Decorah. He checked Matthew out and pronounced him in astonishingly good health. From the heliport, Frank drove them to Garrison Care, where Gloria was indeed waiting.
When she saw Matthew walk in the door, Isabella was afraid the nurse was going to faint. Instead she rushed to her former patient.
“Matthew. Oh Lord, Matthew. I prayed for you to come back like this.”
He reached for her, and they hugged. As he held her, he told her how much he appreciated what she’d done for him.
“And I understand you helped Isabella spring me from this place.”
Gloria nodded.
“That took guts.”
“At first, I wasn’t sure what to do. But then I realized I had to take a chance—for you.”
“I’m so glad you did.”
Next Dr. Berman examined Matthew and looked like he’d witnessed a miracle.
“It’s nothing I did,” the doctor muttered as he stared at the man who had been unresponsive for five years.
“It was Isabella,” Matthew said. “She figured out what she needed to do.”
While he had some further tests, Isabella took the opportunity to call her father and tell him she’d be coming to see him tomorrow. With Matthew Houseman.
“Verdad?” her father asked.
“Si.”
“How is that possible? I thought he was killed in a raid on a militia compound.”
“So did I. What really happened is a long story. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
“Don’t get off before you tell me—is he all right?”
“Yes.”
“What a blessing.”
Next she reserved a suite for herself and Matthew at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. And finally, she rushed to a nearby department store and bought him a couple of sports shirts, slacks, and underwear.
Hours after they’d left the ranch, they pulled up in the driveway between the two wings of the Beverly Wilshire.
The suite was overlooking the pool and had a comfortable living room, a bedroom and two bathrooms.
As soon as the bellman had left, Matthew reached for her, and she came into his arms.
He held her tightly. “I’ve been aching to get you alone.”
“Oh yes.”
“It’s just sinking in what you did for me.”
“For us.”
“Because you had the guts to try something radical—then keep me from leaving the earth when I thought that’s what I was supposed to do.”
“I had to.”
“You could have died.”
“I wanted to if I couldn’t have you back. But it worked out.”
“Thank the Lord. I think nobody else could have done it. Only you.”
“Because I love you.”
“And because you have courage.”
He took her mouth in a long, hungry kiss.
When they finally came up for air, she ran her hands up and down his arms. “You’re sure you’re all right?”
He grinned. “I will be.”
He led her into the bedroom, then wrapped her close again.
“Things are coming back to me. I remember being with you at the ranch a few days ago. Holding you. Kissing you. But it’s like a dream. It won’t be real until we make it real.”
She might have argued that he needed to take it easy, but she knew he needed something more urgent, to affirm that he’d gotten his life back.
“I’m a little out of practice,” he whispered as he began opening the buttons down the front of her blouse.
She shook her head. “At the ranch, you seemed to know what you were doing.”
She helped him get the blouse off before he reached for the hook at the back of her bra, sending it to the floor with the blouse.
His eyes seemed to shine as he looked at her.
“I pictured you like this, querida. But you’re even more beautiful than I imagined.”
Her hands were shaking as she reached for the buttons of his shirt, opening them as quickly as she could, then pushing the garment off his shoulders.
He shrugged out of it, and she ran her hand across his broad chest, ruffling the crinkly hair she found there.
“I always wanted to touch you like this.”
“Oh yeah.”
He pulled her close, swaying her breasts against his chest, wringing a glad cry from her.
He ran his fingers through her hair as he brought his mouth back to hers, silently asking her to open for him. She did, closing her eyes as he explored the line of her teeth and stroked the sensitive insides of her lips. He eased far enough away to cup her breasts in his hands and slide his fingers over the taut peaks.
She heard herself make a sound of approval deep in her throat, telling him how much she liked what he was doing.
She had imagined this alone at night, but the reality was a hundred times better than anything she had dreamed up.
She was free to be with him now in a way that thrilled her.
When his tongue dipped farther into her mouth, she felt hot, needy sensations curling through her body.
He unbuttoned her slacks and lowered the zipper, pushing the pants down her legs, along with her panties, caressing her hips and bottom, sending heat rushing through her.
Then his fingers slipped into the warm folds of her sex, driving her higher still.
He had touched her like that at the ranch. Brought her to climax. Now she needed more. So much more. But she suspected that he wasn’t going to rush.
“This is our first time together,” he whispered as he nibbled at her ear. “When I was guarding you, I used to lie in bed, wanting you.”
“I wanted you, too. But I knew I’d get us both into trouble. After we left the ranch, I kept thinking I’d find you again—until I heard that you’d been killed. I was devastated.”
“But you made a life for yourself.”
“Yes, but it was always missing something important. You.”
“I’m here now. For always.”
She pulled back the covers and climbed onto the bed. As she stared up at him, he removed his jeans and shoes.
It was like a dream come true. But she knew that it was finally reality. That knowledge made her heart squeeze.
As he came down beside her, she clasped his shoulders, pulling him close, her naked body pressed to his, sending her blood pounding hotly through her veins.
She was dizzy with desire for him.
When he gathered her closer, words of gratitude rose in his throat. “Thank you for loving me. For saving me. For giving me this.”
“It was for you, for me, for us.”