by D L Lane
The bell tones of his cell phone started ringing, so Gage tapped the screen that was secure in its docking station to send the call over the speakers in his vehicle, answering with a blunt, “Harrison.”
“Gage, this is Cooper.”
“Coop, I’m dealing with some heavy stuff right now—”
“I know where your woman is,” he said, making every hair stand up on the back of Gage’s neck.
How does he know? “Where?”
“I came in tonight and started watching some old feed on my cameras, and I saw that person in black, only whoever it was, they weren’t alone. The figure was pushing a wheelbarrow, and Danica was in it—unconscious.”
“What?” Gage was gripping the steering wheel so tight, it felt like the skin over his knuckles was going to burst.
“By the time stamp, they have a good forty minutes on me, but I know where they were headed, so I’m going down there. I just wanted you to know.”
“Wait. I’m a few minutes from your place. I’m going with you.”
It was silent for a moment.
“Cooper?”
“Yeah?” he said. “I’m here. But, I’m locked and loaded, so no giving me hassle about my firearms.”
“I wouldn’t even think about it.”
Thank you, God, Gage thought and pressed the gas pedal down.
Chapter Seventy-Three
“Max,” Miranda said. “You got under Gage’s skin with that play. I’ll give you that one.”
“I wasn’t playing.”
“Yes, you were. You wanted to rub another guy in his face, and Max wanted to nail you. A win, win until you started liking Maxwell. That’s when I went after him. Why should you have yet another guy drooling over you?”
The woman shrugged. “He didn’t put up a fight, though. He was easy to seduce. Then you came storming in, and of course, Gage had to come running to your rescue after the prom.” She pursed her lips. “You ruined my fun. Well, that night anyway.”
“You’re completely insane,” Danica said.
“I know.” Miranda studied her fingernails as if she were bored. “But it gets so much better, Princess.”
“Better?”
Her eyes lifted as she dropped her hand, and one corner of her mouth quirked up. “Stealing Gage from me was bad enough. Whateva, I moved on. What’s the saying? On to bigger and better things?”
The whacky woman started skipping across the cabin, like a child without a care in the world. And it was an old cabin Danica had realized, one that hadn’t seen any TLC in years, judging by the rotting condition, the musty smell, and all the dirty debris around her.
“You know, he was mine first.”
Danica frowned. “Who was?”
Miranda spun around. “Marcus, silly.”
She tried not to gape, but Danica wasn’t sure she accomplished it. “You’re lying.”
“Nope! He was engaged! To me! Then he decided to help a friend of his for some weird reason. That’s when Marcus saw you dancing, and everything changed.” Miranda scowled. “‘I’m sorry’,” she said, lowering her voice in a horrible imitation of Marcus, “‘but I’ve met someone else’.” She huffed. “Isn’t that just great? He came home one night and told me that. Said our engagement was off!”
“I didn’t know,” Danica whispered, wondering what else she was clueless about when it came to the man she married.
“Yeah, well. It hurt—a lot. But I told myself I’d get over him and move on. Then I saw those photographs in his desk drawer.”
“Photographs?”
“Those photos were of you! Seeing them made up my mind.”
“Your mind?”
“To destroy you both, of course,” she sang cheerily. “Oh, it took a lot of patience and planning. But the moment Marcus followed through with marrying you? I started on my revenge.”
“Your revenge?”
“What are you? Polly parrot? Yes, Danny, my revenge. Let me tell you, graduating first of my class and becoming an RN wasn’t easy. Neither was getting a job where our lovely Marcus worked. But once I made it past those hurdles, the rest fell into place.”
Danica’s heart was beating so hard she wondered if she were visibly shaking. Then again, she was wet, and the temperature was dropping. “The rest of what?”
“Marcus was an addict, you know. He started using in med school, needing something to keep him awake, keep him sharp. Then it turned into more and more to keep him going. So sad.” She pouted. “But he decided to get clean for me, and he did it, but I guess, in the end, he got clean for you. I couldn’t have that. No, no, no. That wouldn’t do.”
~
Cooper was making his way through the uneven terrain of the woods that made up the back of his property with the speed and silence of a phantom, but Gage was keeping up with him, no matter if he was feeling the strain in his back, making pain shoot down his right leg.
A few feet in front of him, Coop held up his fist, so Gage slowed and came to a stop right behind the big guy. “There’s Danica’s Escalade.”
Gage saw it, parked next to a natural spring.
“There’s a lamplight in that cabin,” Coop whispered. “Go slow. Be quiet.”
Gage wanted to sprint toward it, but fighting against his need to get to Danica, he deferred to the former Navy Seal, who knew every nook and cranny of Land’s End.
He nodded.
~
“What do you mean?” Danica asked. She was going to keep on asking things, not only because she wanted to attempt to understand all of this insanity, but was also hoping the longer she kept Miranda talking, the better her chances were of Gage finding them. And he would—she’d silently asked God for him to come.
“There was no way you were going to get the best of Marcus when I didn’t! I was the one who was there during his struggles. The one who loved him even in the bad times. So I had to do something.”
“What did you do?”
The woman put her hands together and held them under her chin. “I got him hooked again. It was easier than I thought it would be. I started spiking his food and drinks. Then I told Marcus I had what he wanted. Oh, he resisted a bit at first.” She cocked her head. “It didn’t last long before he caved and came to me. But I had a price. On top of the money, I told him I wanted his body.”
Danica’s stomach churned.
“He fought it for a while. Even threw up after our first reunion between the sheets, but once he got mad and gave himself over to the inevitability of it, Marcus took me every which way—rough, hard, and dirty. Just how I like it.”
Danica glanced down. God, help me.
“Ah…I hit a nerve again! But, I haven’t made you twitch yet, have I?”
Miranda stomped her booted feet as she came to her, grabbed Danica by the head of the hair and yanked, making her scream.
~
That cry, Danny’s scream, pierced his heart and had Gage moving past Cooper until the man grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling him back. “Keep your head,” he whispered, so low Gage had a hard time hearing him.
~
Miranda produced a blade from…somewhere, and held it to Danica’s face where she could see it, silver glinting in the portable camping light. “I’ve dreamed of messing you up. Making it so no man will ever find you beautiful again!”
“Please,” Danica said in a soft lament. “Don’t do this.”
When the crazy woman let her go and backed away, she took a breath.
“I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were you. I’ll hold out on the real fun until you’ve heard it all.”
“Ther-there’s more?”
“Marcus was looking into rehabs again. He didn’t think I knew it, but I did. And when that happened, I had to intervene. So I made arrangements to meet him on his yacht, told him this was the last time I’d be selling to him. Told him I was getting out of the business. Too much heat. It wasn’t true of course. If you only knew how much money I rake in with my little side vent
ure, you’d be shocked. But, I digress.”
Miranda sighed. “I knew the hook of that last time would make Marcus come running. I also knew he’d tell me anything I wanted to know once he started flying.”
“How did you know?”
“He’d told me things before, like where he kept his money and his bank account numbers. You didn’t think he spent all that cash on drugs, did you?”
Danica blinked, trying to let what was said to sink in.
“What a stupid, stupid woman you are. Yeah, he spent a wad on his habit, but I took, and took, and took from him, and more than his body.” Miranda winked.
“You took our funds?”
“Yours? You didn’t contribute. No, not the Princess. It was all his money, and he owed me.”
“Because he broke things off with you?”
“Now, you’re getting the picture. Your life should have been my life. But, no!”
The woman raced over, hauled off and slapped Danica, making her head jerk to the right.
“Payback for after prom!” She spun on her heel, giggling. “That felt good,” Miranda said, going back to her position by the door, arms swinging. “I suppose we should finish our chat now.”
The coppery tang of blood trickled into Danica’s mouth.
“I went to meet him, let Marcus have a taste of what he was craving, then got him to tell me things like the security code to your house, and other stuff. Then, when he was tripping, I satisfied myself with your husband’s body, put a gun in his hand and helped him pull the trigger.”
Danica gasped, frantically jerking at the cuff around her wrist. “No-o-o!”
“Now, you’re twitching.”
Chapter Seventy-Four
Gage’s rage was palpable. It radiated from him so much he was sure Cooper could feel it as they witnessed some insane, out of control woman with red/brown hair storm over to Danny—who was cuffed to an old plumbing pipe—and punch her in the mouth.
With his Sig Sauer aimed in front of him, he kicked down the flimsy door, yelling, “Freeze! This is the police!”
Keeping his eyes trained on the nut job, and away from his Danica, he moved forward until ‘Looney Tunes’ pulled a knife and put the blade to Danny’s throat. “Put the weapon down.”
“Oh, please, Gage. Like I’m going to do that.”
She spoke as if she knew him, but then again, she was certifiable.
“Put-the-weapon-down,” he said once again, with a bite to every word.
“How about I cut this cow’s throat and put us both out of our misery?”
“I am not going to tell you again.”
“Sure, you are. You won’t pull that trigger. Not if there’s a chance your darling Danny can get hurt in the crossfire. You’ll do anything I want you to. See”—she drew the blade tighter, making a superficial cut into Danny’s perfect skin—“Danica Dawn here is your Achilles heel. Your glitch. Your one true flaw. You know it, and I know it.”
When a slight trickle of blood started to roll down the side of Danica’s neck, Gage faltered, lowering his gun a bit.
“See.” The woman smiled, toothy white. “You won’t shoot me.”
“But I will.” Cooper’s raspy voice came from the shadows, making the crazy woman jerk in the direction of the sound, knife lowering, giving Gage enough time to holster his weapon, rush her, and take her down—shoulder to the midsection.
She hit the floor with an oomph.
He’d rattled her momentarily, but she recovered and tried to stab him. Danica screamed bloody murder, though he couldn’t focus on her to put her at ease. Gage was too busy knocking the weapon out of the culprit’s hand.
Once the blade was gone, the female below him became a wildcat of hissing, cursing, and flailing. She might be going nuts, but she wasn’t a match for his strength. Quickly, Gage flipped the perp on her stomach and had her hands behind her back, putting his knee into her lower spine as he cuffed the woman who was cursing him to Hades.
Chapter Seventy-Five
“Danny!” Gage lunged for her the moment the woman was out of commission and started frantically inspecting her. He touched her face, her arms, her legs, then pulled out a set of keys from one of the many pockets of his tactical jacket, unlocked the cuff, taking it from her, then looking at the damage there. “Speak to me.” He framed Danica’s face between his hands. “Are you injured more than I can see?”
She’d been so terrified for his safety when Miranda tried to knife him, she’d lost her mind, although she could have gone astray earlier; it just took a few minutes to snap totally.
“Danica Dawn. Look at me.”
She couldn’t yank herself back together. She was unfocused, dazed, hearing Gage, yet pulling her hand up, trying to do something about the pain. Danica started rubbing her tender, bleeding wrist—the arch in her arm from being cuffed so long in a strange position made her shoulder throb too.
“Danny?”
Her eyes lifted. “Are you okay?”
Danica was aware her voice sounded far off. Flat. And on a strange level, she understood she functioned, but was detached.
“I’m fine. Not a scratch on me.” Gage locked his silver gaze on her. “Besides the obvious, are you hurt?”
It took her a second to consider. Am I? Danica attempted to take inventory, finding the task too difficult, so she just shook her head.
Gage looked over his shoulder and said to someone she couldn’t see, “Thanks,” then tapped the com in his ear, giving the location where to find them and said they would need two ambulances.
That bizarre feeling morphed into something more tangible, causing Danica’s teeth to chatter.
~
“Cooper,” Gage said, “she’s freezing. I need something to get Danny warm.”
A second later, something soft hit him in the back, so he reached and tugged it around. It was the man’s huge jacket.
Draping the coat over Danica, Gage willed himself to settle before sparing a glance for the crazy woman face-down on the dirty planked floor. Whoever she was, she would soon see what it was like to live behind bars—the knowledge of that sending satisfaction through him.
Danny was safe.
~
“I see no reason to keep you overnight, Mrs. Harding,” the E.R. doctor said. “You have a few scrapes, bumps and bruises, but nothing broken. Your vitals are good. The drug in your system could cause nausea, so I’ll prescribe something to combat that. While I wouldn’t go as far as to agree with you about being ‘fine,’ I do believe you are fit enough to head home.”
“Thank you”—Danica glanced at the name printed over the pocket of his white coat—“Doctor Wellington.”
“No need for thanks. I’ll get the nurse started on the discharge papers.”
She nodded.
“And if I may? I can’t say I knew your husband well, I came here only a few short months before he left Harborview, but I am truly sorry for your loss.”
“I appreciate your condolences.”
He bobbed his silver-head, then went out the door.
“Danny?”
Blinking, she looked over at Gage, who was seated beside her bed, his big, warm palm on her knee. “Hmm?”
“Are you really okay?”
“I’m…”
“Tell me.”
“I’m going to be physically all right, but the things Miranda told me might take a long time to process, if ever.”
“I get you’ve been through a lot; I do. But I will need to speak with you—on the record, officially.”
She nodded.
Gage cupped her cheek. “I love you, Danica.”
She loved him too, but she couldn’t muster up the strength to say it. She couldn’t do anything but let her head fall back on the pillow and close her eyes.
Chapter Seventy-Six
A month had passed since the whole Rosland Strickler/Miranda Burrell incident, and Gage had found out so much it was hard to process it all. But the bottom line was t
his. When Miranda left Cedar Point her Junior year in high school, it was because her mother married a man named Dean Strickler, who adopted her. After she graduated from a private school in Seattle, she legally changed her first name, got a job for Marcus’ father as a personal assistant, and then from there, it seemed she and Marcus entered into a romantic relationship. They were together for several years before he proposed to her, and soon after that, he checked himself into a rehab facility for the well to do—very Beverley Hills exclusive.
Once he completed their program, it wasn’t long until he went to WSU, saw Danny dancing up on stage (the same dance Gage had watched), and Marcus met her in the receiving line Gage had walked away from. It became even more of a tangled web from there, Marcus pursuing Danica pretty hard, then finally he paid Ryan Fielding a half a million dollars to dump her. Danny had been oblivious as to why Ryan called off their engagement. Yes, the idiot accepted the money and walked! Marcus took full advantage of the opening he’d made happen, swooped in, and then the rest is well, history as they say.
“Gawonii?”
Danny's voice put a smile on his face as he buttoned Ari’s pink coat. “Yeah?”
“My therapist called. She moved my appointment to Friday.”
He turned to look at her. “Why?”
“Personal emergency.”
Gage had talked Danica into seeing his therapist, the one who he still saw about his lingering issues surrounding what happened when he was in the FBI.
“Okay. Well, let’s go to Seattle anyway. Make a day of it. I’ve already got the babies’ coats on.”
“Coat!” Aaron said happily, jumping up and down.
Danny grinned. “All right. Just give me a minute to grab my purse and stuff, and then we will go.”