They locked gazes, and Abbie prayed that he’d step into the silence and tell her that his feelings had changed— that he’d changed his mind about everything—the business, commitment, maybe even children. She prayed he’d tell her he was wired and upset because he didn’t want her to leave.
Instead, he opened the front door.
“Fine,” she said, hiding her hurt as she stepped outside. “I’ll call you later when you’re ready to discuss this rationally.”
“Sorry, but I’ll be too busy to be rational later.” He carried her things to the top of the steps and set them down. “I’m going back to the mill tonight.”
“Is that supposed to hurt me?” she asked. Then she sighed. “Know what? You’re as stubborn and pigheaded as my father is, and one of you is more than enough for any woman to deal with. Goodbye, Jace.”
His gaze went wide, then slowly gentled, and for a moment she thought he’d reach for her, or apologize—do something. Then her father rolled the Lexus closer to the house, and he shut down again.
“Those who won’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” he said quietly. “Take care, Abbie.”
Danny’s heart raced as the Lexus crested the drive and Rogan slammed the front door. Scrambling from his nest inside the trees, he snatched up his candy wrappers, grabbed his Goodwill sleeping bag and crashed through the underbrush. When he got to the road the Lexus was already out of sight. But that was okay.
Running across the road, then into the tree line, he picked his way toward the dilapidated barn where he’d been living like a rat, watching her and Rogan and waiting for this day. Trying to figure a way to separate them.
Who would’ve thought they’d do it for him?
He was parallel with the rear of the barn now. Staying low, he crossed the open field, hopped inside his car and started the engine. Then, cautiously, he rolled out of the dusky seclusion to check for cars. Except for a few houses closer to town, only Rogan lived on this road, so traffic was minimal. Finally flicking on his headlights, Danny bounced onto the road and headed for the Winslows’ white-brick palace.
Twenty minutes later, after cursing a massive jam-up near the brightly lit high school, Danny crossed the bridge bearing his handiwork and slowly rolled past the Winslows’ gated driveway. Despite its length, he could see most of the house through the trees.
A blistering rage nearly lifted the top of his head off, and he slammed on the brakes. The lights in the house were the same timed lamps he’d seen when he was here before. Winslow had taken her somewhere else!
Balling his hands into fists, he pounded the sides of his head, his scream bouncing off the windows and doors. Where was she? Where? To everything there was a season! A time to live and a time to die! This was her time!
But then…he thought, slowly unclenching his hands and taking several long, deep breaths…if he couldn’t find her, maybe killing him would work until he could get to her. He’d watched them. No matter how they’d left things, from the way they’d slobbered all over each other, Danny somehow knew that losing Rogan would hurt her a lot.
Then he remembered what Rogan had said before she’d finally taken the hint and left.
He knew where he’d be tonight.
Bone tired, Abbie climbed the stairs to Miriam’s pretty blue-and-white French country guest room after another toe-to-toe argument with her father about Jace.
After dinner, as a courtesy, Chief Frasier had come by to share what information he had, and to assure them that they would continue to patrol Center Street and the Winslow home often. Then he and the part-time officer who’d accompanied him had left to handle the traffic pouring into town for the basketball semifinals.
Abbie swallowed. With so many strangers in town for the game, Danny would be able to come and go at will. If he was even in the vicinity. The uncertainty was wearing her down. She wanted her life back, and she wanted it on her own terms, without worrying that someone was waiting in the shadows. More than that, she wanted to talk to Jace, but once again, he wasn’t answering.
Taking her cell phone from her purse, Abbie called his cell again, then tried the RL&L office a second time. There was still no answer, but this time she waited through Ida’s recorded voice and spoke after the tone.
“Jace, it’s Abbie,” she said. “Please call me back on my cell. It’s a little after nine right now. You have the number.” Then, because she was half-afraid he’d forgotten it, she repeated the number and said goodbye.
She was dozing, fully clothed, on the queen-size bed’s puffy blue-and-white coverlet forty-five minutes later when her cell phone rang. Quickly, she checked the caller ID. Her heart leapt when she recognized Jace’s cell number. “Jace, hi,” she said, refusing to hide the relief in her voice. “I’m so glad you called.”
Static and the screeching din of saws on the assembly line muffled his voice and she had to stop him. “Jace, wait. I can barely hear you. Can you step outside for a minute?”
“I am outside,” he returned, his voice breaking up. “It’s noisy all over. What did you want?”
“We need to talk about this afternoon. You have to let me explain.”
“Not over the phone. Can you come out here? I can’t leave right now.”
That startled her. “You…want me to come to the mill?”
“Oh…right. Maybe you shouldn’t. I just wanted to get things straightened out. We can talk tomorrow or the next day.”
But Abbie was shaking her head before he finished. She couldn’t let another hour go by without seeing him, without laying her heart on the line and asking him how he honestly felt about her.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Dad and Miriam just came upstairs. I need to give them time to settle in before I leave. If not, he’ll either be in the car with me, or insist on a police escort.”
The saws and rumble of the assembly line filled the air space, almost seeming to grow louder—as if he’d moved even closer to the noise. “Be careful,” he said.
“I will. See you soon.”
Jace drove from the mill, feeling more unhinged than he had in years. Fourteen of them, to be precise. The scoreboard in his mind was flashing, and the numbers were nothing to cheer about. Morgan 2, Rogan 0.
Well, the score was about to change. Four hours of head-pounding tension and at least a week of denials and rationalizations were enough. He needed her in his life. Period. Needed her with every breath in his body. Without her…
He didn’t even want to think about the alternative.
Now, with some space and time to think, he knew she hadn’t been slamming the door on their relationship. She’d simply been between a rock and a hardhead, and trying to please everyone. And he’d gone off half-cocked like he always did when he felt defensive. Yell first, think later.
The lights of town appeared, but seeing a long string of traffic leaving the high school, he veered onto a side street to avoid it. Apparently the game was over.
He and Abbie should’ve been at that game tonight.
He reached for his cell phone—then scowled when he realized he still hadn’t picked it up. He’d wanted to call and tell her he was on his way, but no matter. Face-to-face was always better than a phone call.
The expression on Morgan’s face when he pushed aside the curtain on the door and saw him made Jace’s night.
“I want to see Abbie,” he said when Morgan opened the door. Behind him, Winslow’s new wife was descending the stairs in a pink robe and slippers.
“She’s asleep,” he replied coldly. “So were we.”
“Then wake her up.”
Morgan’s sunburned face brightened even more. “Go home.”
Sighing and tossing a look at her husband, Miriam turned around and started back up the steps. “Just a minute, Jace. I’ll get her.”
He and Morgan were still perfecting their glares when she rushed back downstairs, a sheet of tablet paper flapping in her hand.
“Abbie’s gone.” She handed Morg
an the note but spoke to Jace. “She said you called for her to come to the mill.”
The blood drained from Jace’s face and his legs went weak. “I didn’t phone her. I wouldn’t have asked her to go anywhere alone without knowing if—” The bottom fell out of his stomach. “Call Chief Frasier,” he ordered, already descending the steps. “Tell him I’m on my way to the mill.”
Abbie pulled into the parking lot, her brows knitting when she didn’t see Jace’s SUV parked with the four other vehicles in the lot. Noise still issued from the sawmill, though, and dim auxiliary lights were on inside the office. She started for the mill, then remembered her promise to steer clear of it.
As expected, the office door was unlocked. Walking inside, she pulled off her driving gloves and called Jace’s name. Called again.
She’d nearly reached the short hall leading to the restrooms and the private office when her cell phone rang.
Plucking it from her purse, she saw Jace’s number in the ID window again, then smiled as she unfolded it and brought it to her ear. “Hi. I’m here. Where are you?”
“Right behind you, counselor.”
It wasn’t Jace’s voice.
Abbie whirled as Danny Long stepped out of the shadows, a baseball bat at his side. His hair was longer— and black. But his eyes and expression held the same smug look she’d seen that day in the courtroom.
With a nonchalant smile, he flipped Jace’s cell phone to the floor.
Abbie bolted, her nerves on fire as she raced for the office. She slammed the door, reached for the lock—and gasped when she realized there was no lock. She heard Long’s pounding footfalls.
Adrenaline surging, she ran to the double-paned window—unlocked it and thrust it open, tried to work up the window screen.
The door banged open and in three long strides, Danny was on her. He swung the bat—caught her across the legs. Screaming in pain, Abbie hit the floor. She scrambled away, kicked out at him, got to her feet and lunged for the door.
Danny rammed into her, knocking her onto the desktop. Then suddenly, the bat clattered to the floor and something sharp and pointed pressed into the soft tissue under her chin. She stopped fighting. Sprawled on her side on the desktop, she glanced down at the long wood rasp Danny held to her throat.
She started to pray.
Breathing hard, Danny rolled her onto her back, then knocked everything off the desk and climbed on top of her. He sat on her thighs, the gagging odors of perspiration and neglect assaulting Abbie’s nostrils. Spotty patches of blond peach fuzz sprouted from his chin.
“That’s better,” he murmured, his leering smile making Abbie’s stomach heave. “Now we can have that talk you’ve been so eager to have.”
Filled with loathing, she stared up at him.
“Well?” he prodded. “What did you want to talk about?”
“How about prison and the death penalty?”
“Sorry. Double jeopardy. Can’t be tried twice for the same crime. By the way,” he added, wiggling the rasp. “This belongs to your boyfriend. Nice of him to leave his cell phone for me, too.”
“You were here when I called?”
He smiled. “Waiting for him, but then you called and plans changed.” He laughed, then let his voice slide into a mocking falsetto. “Jace! Oh, Jace, I’m so glad you called! Thanks for leaving your new cell number.”
His blue eyes turned to ice and he yanked down the zipper on her jacket. “No, I don’t want to talk about prison. I want to talk about justice. My justice. I want to talk about an eye for an eye.”
“Then you’ll be letting me go,” Abbie said, her mind racing—trying to remember how things were arranged in Jace’s desk drawer, trying to think of something that would stop him. “I gave you your freedom.”
Danny pulled the sides of her jacket open. “Not by choice.”
“Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord!” Abbie shouted.
“The Lord helps those who help themselves!” Danny shouted back. He popped the top button on her white blouse. Then he saw the gold cross at her throat and his eyes went wild and crazy. It was just the distraction she needed.
Abbie yanked open the desk drawer, grabbed the letter opener and punched it into his thigh. Screaming, Danny dropped the rasp and jerked onto his knees.
Abbie jammed her knee into his groin, shoved him off her. Another cry tore from his throat as he hit the floor. Scrambling from the desk, she rushed from the office— burst into the chill March night just as Jace’s black Explorer roared in.
“Where is he?” Jace shouted, leaping out.
“Inside!”
A crash and the splinter of breaking glass joined the vibrating noise from the mill. Jace tore into the building, reached his office just in time to see Long’s slim frame disappear through the smashed-out window.
Sidestepping the bat on the floor, he barreled out of the building and stopped to look around. In the distance, sirens wailed. Then Jace spotted Long, half running, half staggering toward the sawmill. Light glinted off the front fender of a car parked behind the building.
“Jace, no!” Abbie shouted as he took off after him. “Let the police handle it!”
“No! This ends tonight!”
Danny turned, saw him coming and ran harder, grunting with the pain and effort.
But with healthy legs, Jace took a diagonal route toward the car and like a rider turning cattle, sent Long off in another direction. He headed for the loading dock’s open doors.
Long scuttled up the rough wood steps, raced inside. Now Jace was only a dozen steps behind him. Without earplugs, the machinery and conveyors were nearly deafening.
Jace glanced around the mammoth room, dipped to look under the three-foot-high conveyors. Every operation was linked to the next, and raised walkways ran alongside the log-and lumber-moving belts.
The attack came from behind, swift and fierce.
Crying out, Jace buckled as something crashed across his shoulder blades. He whirled, pain splintering through him. Long swung again. Jace stepped into the arc and grabbed the angle iron. Wrenching it from Long’s hands, he threw it, ringing, across the concrete floor. Long bolted again.
Dead ahead was the resaw station. Danny rushed up the steps and knocked the startled operator aside—leapt over the oncoming logs and onto the raised track.
His wounded leg didn’t hold him.
Screaming, Danny fell into the shallow track moving lumber toward the band saw, and horrified, Jace bounded up the steps to the control panel. He slapped the red Emergency Stop button, then stared down and felt his stomach pitch. He’d stopped the saw blade and conveyor. But the steel rollers that moved the trimmed logs along had sensed a new log coming. Long lay pinned against the guide rail. But he was still alive.
Suddenly aware that all operations had ceased and his men were running toward him, Jace yelled for an ambulance.
Even as the words left his throat, Jace heard Chief Glenn Frasier shout, “They’re on the way.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Jace asked as they held each other near Ida’s well-stocked coffee station. The RL&L office was brightly lit now, and two untouched mugs of coffee sat on the table beside them.
Abbie nodded, the loss of adrenaline leaving her weak and making her aware of the throbbing in her right leg. “I’m okay.” She looked up and touched his face. His wonderful, handsome face. “You?”
His tired smile matched hers. “The same, I think. Haven’t had time to check.”
Thirty minutes ago, as Chief Frasier and Patrolman Harris were taking their statements, the paramedics had left in a silent ambulance. Danny was no longer a threat to anyone. Now the officers were interviewing the men who’d witnessed Long’s fall. Jace had tracked down Ty, and he was on his way. The grounds were like a three-ring circus with flashing lights and slamming car doors.
Her dad and Miriam had been there briefly, too, but after assuring them that she was fine and would see them tomorrow, she’d insisted they go hom
e. It was a shock when her dad walked over to Jace, who’d hung back while they talked, and asked to shake his hand.
“Can we end this here?” he’d asked, and grimly, Jace had nodded.
Now Abbie snuggled closer, loving his warmth, inhaling his scent and thanking God for second chances. “I hope Frasier finishes soon.”
Jace’s voice was a low rumble. “Me, too. I want to get out of here. I have things to do.”
“Like what?”
He stroked her hair. “Like buy an engagement ring and beg the woman I’m holding to marry me.”
Abbie jerked her head up to meet the tenderness in his eyes.
“She’ll probably tell me to take a long walk off a short pier. But then I’ll tell her that without her, I’m nothing, and hope she sees that I’m telling the truth.” He smiled. “Then I’ll tell her that I’m willing to move to California to be with her.” He drew a hesitant breath. “What do you think she’d say to that?”
Tears filled Abbie’s eyes and she was nearly overcome by emotion. “I think…I think she’d tell you that she’d already decided to leave her law practice and stay right where she is—with you—for as long as it took to make you love her. The way she loves you.”
Jace crushed her in his arms, and they clung to each other. “You’re sure?” he murmured against her temple. “You probably haven’t noticed, but I can be a complete ass sometimes.”
She kissed his neck, sighed against his ear. “I have noticed, and yes, you can be. But I’m sure. Oh, Jace, I’m sure. I need some time, though.”
“I know. We can take it slow. We’ve only been together again for a short time.”
“That’s not what I meant.” She eased back, everything she felt for him in her eyes, in her voice. “I’d marry you five minutes from now if it were possible. But before that happens, I need to go back to L.A. and own up to what I did.”
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