The Rookie's Assignment

by Valerie Hansen

  Carlton didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything except Nick’s lower legs, apparently expecting to see a second holster or knife sheath.

  From his bent-over position, Nick saw both of Keira’s bare feet lift off the catwalk at the same time. She was going to do it. The crazy, brave, impossible woman was going to try to unbalance her captor. Didn’t she realize that a trained officer would be expecting a move like that?

  Nick had two choices. He could wait for a possible opening later or try to take advantage of Keira’s efforts right now. Even if she wasn’t totally successful she might distract Carlton. Maybe that would be enough.

  Her feet came down. Her upper body arched. Although the heavyset man did shift to a wider stance he didn’t fly over her head the way the self-defense manuals illustrated.

  Nevertheless, his attention was momentarily diverted. That was all Nick needed. Already crouching, he dived for Carlton’s knees and tackled him like a football player.

  Everyone went down.

  Keira screamed.

  Nick shouted.

  A shot went wild as Carlton hit the catwalk and Nick began to grapple with him.

  Staccato thudding began in the distance. It sounded as if a herd of cattle was stampeding up the stairs.

  Nick briefly caught sight of Keira. She was moving, crawling, hopefully taking herself out of the fray.

  Then, to his horror she got to her feet and threw herself on top of their attacker!

  Numb from the cold, Keira didn’t stop to wonder where she was getting the strength to act. She only knew she must do something, anything, to help Nick. Carlton had him pinned to the metal catwalk grid and was beating him silly. She didn’t know how much more punishment he could take without passing out. If that happened, he was sure to be thrown to his death on the rocks below.

  In the back of her mind, she did realize that she faced the same possible fate. That didn’t stop her. She hit Carlton with a full body slam and wound both arms around his neck in a choke hold.

  He began to swing his hands behind him as if trying to swat a pesky fly.

  Keira hung tight. She heard someone screaming like a banshee. It was her!

  The shoulders on which she lay rose up. Her world tilted. As Carlton rolled off Nick, she felt her back being pressed hard against the icy, slippery, metal flooring grate.

  Kicking, she tried to land a blow, any blow, anywhere on her opponent’s body as he turned to face her. It was no use. His much greater bulk had her pinned. Helpless.

  What about Nick? Was he free now? Was he okay? Had she at least succeeded in helping him?

  Tossing her head from side to side as she struggled to escape, she caught a glimpse of Nick. He was stirring. Barely. And still lying beside them.

  Keira smelled her attacker’s breath, fetid and warm in her face. She snapped up her head as hard and as fast as she could. Her forehead caught him in the nose. She heard a sickening crack.

  An instant later Carlton began to bellow unintelligibly.

  She didn’t care that her own head was throbbing. At least she’d finally landed a useful blow.

  The hefty man levered himself off her. He was cupping his face while blood poured from the space between his fingers. “You little…”

  Stunned herself, Keira flipped over and tried to crawl away.

  He grabbed for her bare ankle. His hand was slick. She jerked free for an instant before he clamped her more tightly.

  Reaching for Nick, she saw his look of horror. He fisted a handful of her sweatshirt as she was being dragged away from him.

  Keira screamed, loud and long.

  She kicked as if swimming against a deadly riptide, hoping and praying she’d land at least a few useful blows and wishing for the hundredth time that she’d thought to wear shoes.

  There was no time to reason. No time to pray. No time to do anything but live or die.

  Nick’s vision wasn’t clear enough to make out a lot of details. That didn’t matter. He was lucid enough to tell precisely what was happening. The tableau unfolded as if in slow motion.

  Carlton rose up. Keira kept kicking at him. He staggered. Started to slip.

  Maybe Carlton lost his footing because of the blood from his broken nose, maybe because of the wetness and icy coating the fog had left behind. Nick didn’t know. All he was sure of was that the man was teetering on the brink of a fall and he still had hold of Keira. They both did.

  “Grab the edge!” Nick shouted to her. “Don’t let him pull you over!”

  A shorter man might have been able to lean against the narrow railing and save himself. Carlton was too top-heavy and too off-balance for that. The instant he released his hold on Keira’s ankle to reach for a more solid handhold, he fell.

  The scream was short-lived, ending with a thud that was punctuated by a sickening cracking sound.

  For a heartbeat Nick thought Keira had fallen, too. Then he saw her fingers curled around the slippery metal edge of the flooring grid.

  He lunged. Grabbed her wrist and held on as tightly as he could.

  “Niiiiick!” she screeched.

  “I’ve got you. Hang on.”

  “My fingers. They’re so cold. I can’t feel them.”

  Lying prone he found her other wrist and clamped on to it, too. He knew if he tried to stand and gain the leverage to lift her, there was a chance he’d lose his tenuous hold.

  Yet if he lay there for too much longer, his grip might fail. So might hers. The result would be the same.

  Please, God, help us, Nick prayed, meaning every word, believing beyond anything he’d ever experienced before. He didn’t see how they were going to get out of this alive but for once he realized he didn’t have to know. He simply had to trust. One thing was certain. He’d go over the edge with her before he’d let go.

  Shouts behind them caught his attention. So did Keira’s whimpering call of, “Daddy?”

  Nick felt strong hands covering his, helping him hoist his treasure.

  Three men drew Keira back onto the catwalk, then assisted Nick. The moment he was seated in safety, she threw herself into his arms.

  Nobody had to urge Nick to embrace her. He simply held her close while they both trembled. He knew Keira was weeping. He just hoped no one noticed that his eyes were moist, too.

  The parking lot was aglow with the lights of emergency vehicles and patrol cars by the time Keira and Nick were guided to the base of the tower.

  When someone draped a blanket around her shoulders, she wished she were sharing it with Nick. Ryan and Owen had led him off while she was taken to be checked over by EMTs and her doctor brother.

  “Except for some hypothermia, they say you’re in pretty good shape,” Charles pronounced as the ambulance crew completed a cursory examination.

  She touched his hand. “Then where’s Nick? I want to see Nick.”

  “He’ll be back as soon as Dad questions him.”

  “Not with his nightstick, I hope. Nick saved my life up there.” She made a face. “He’s IA. I discovered it when I was doing a computer search.”

  Her brother gifted her with a smile. “We know.”

  “Is everybody in on it but me?” Standing in spite of orders to the contrary, Keira gathered the blanket around her and started off across the parking lot. Her feet were still numb and painful beneath the booties the EMTs had given her, as was most of her body, but that didn’t matter. She was on a mission. All she cared about was getting back to Nick.

  She found him easily by locating the cluster of men surrounding the chief and pushing her way in until she was standing directly in front of her former partner and staring him in the face.

  “My turn,” she announced with conviction.

  Instead of arguing, Aiden opened the rear door of the nearest patrol car and gestured. “If you want to talk, do it where it’s warmer. We’ll wait right here in case you need us.”

  Nobody had to invite Keira twice. She slid inside, blanket and all.

&nb
sp; Nick followed. “Are you all right?”

  She wanted to throw herself into his arms and beg for a thousand kisses. In place of doing that, she convinced herself to answer, “I’m fine. How about you?”

  “Hardly a scratch. They tell me Carlton died instantly.” His voice wavered. “That could have been you.”

  “But it wasn’t.”

  “No. I…”

  “You did all you could to end a hostage situation, Nick. It’s not your fault someone died. That’s up to God.”

  “I like to think so in this case at least. There are times when things like that seem so unfair.”

  “I know. I felt that way when my mother died. I suppose if we could see into the future, we’d argue with the Lord all the time.”

  “I suppose so.”

  His ensuing silence was hard to tolerate, especially since the future was exactly what Keira wanted to discuss. Finally, she tried to draw him out with a softly spoken, “I suppose I have every right to be furious, but I forgive you, Nick.”

  “For what?”

  She had to smile. “Your choice. We could start with your IA assignment and go on from there.”

  “It’s a long list.”

  “I know. That’s okay. I know you had a job to do.”

  When he reached for her hand, she let him hold it. The warmth of his touch traveled all the way to her heart.

  “This is probably a bad time to tell you that I love you,” he said.

  “The worst.” In contradiction to her declaration she was beginning to grin.

  “Then I suppose kissing you is out, too.”

  The fondness in his gaze would have been enough to melt away the last of her anger if she hadn’t already put it aside. “Oh, I don’t know. You did save my life.”

  “No, Keira,” he whispered, caressing her cheek and leaning closer. “You saved mine. In more ways than I can ever count.”

  “Then I guess I do deserve a kiss, huh?”

  “You certainly do.”

  Nick’s lips claimed hers, gently at first, then with deepening ardor.

  Just before she closed her eyes, she saw an intensity in his gaze that rivaled the way he had looked at her when they’d pulled her up from her death grip and she’d crawled into his arms.

  Leaning away ever-so-slightly, she pressed her palm to his chest. “I forgot something.”

  “What?”

  There was so much apprehension in his tone, in his expression, she quickly put his mind at ease. “I forgot to tell you that I love you, too.”

  “Are you sure? We haven’t known each other very long.”

  “No, and I suppose you have all kinds of deep, dark secrets still to tell, but I’ll take my chances and stick around to hear them all.”

  “I’ll see that your father gets my real personnel file ASAP.”

  Cuddling closer, Keira laid her cheek on Nick’s chest and listened to the rapid beating of his heart. “I don’t need to see any files. I always knew you had to be one of the good guys.”

  “I am, you know. Even if some of the men in Boston do refer to IA as the Rat Squad.”

  “That is so wrong. If I were you, I wouldn’t want to go back to work there for anything.”

  Raising her face to look into his eyes, she knew the moment he realized what she was suggesting.

  “Your father would never hire me. Not after what’s happened.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” She giggled. “Why don’t you shut up and kiss me again before Dad decides we’ve talked enough and breaks us up?”

  That made Nick laugh. “Honey, if a homicidal maniac couldn’t break us up, I doubt anybody can.”

  Satisfied, Keira reached up, slipped her fingers into the short hair at the nape of his neck, pulled him closer and kissed him until she wondered if she was going to swoon for the second time in her life.

  EPILOGUE

  Dressed in his Fitzgerald Bay Police Department uniform and seated at the desk he still shared with Keira, Nick slapped a sheet of paper onto an existing stack. “There. That’s the last form. We’re done with Anthony Carlton.” He shaped his fingers into a make-believe claw. “Writer’s cramp.”

  She laughed. “From using a keyboard and printer? Sure, Delfino.”

  “I had to sign them all, didn’t I? And speaking of paperwork, are you sure you don’t want to read the IA report I submitted?”

  “Dad told me the gist of it. You really stuck your neck out when you came to the defense of this department. Thanks.”

  “I didn’t do it because I happen to be in love with you, you know. I really don’t think anyone is protecting Charles. I just wish I’d been able to solve the Henry murder and actually clear him before my assignment here was complete.”

  “You mean before the State Police decided you were too biased to be of any more use to them?”

  “Yeah. Something like that. I really did think I could continue my undercover work and do a good job somewhere else but my bosses disagreed.”

  “Their loss is Fitzgerald Bay’s gain,” Keira told him. “At least Dad didn’t hesitate to hire you.”

  “That shocked me, too, particularly since he knows how you and I feel about each other.”

  Hesitating, Nick decided this was a good opportunity to tell her about his recent spiritual enlightenment. Even if she laughed, he figured it was high time he stood up for his beliefs.

  “Something strange happened to me the night you were kidnapped,” Nick said. “I started to believe in God. I mean really believe. I even think He answered my prayers when we were at the top of the lighthouse. Does that sound nuts?”

  “No,” Keira said with tears in her eyes. “It sounds like the answer to my prayers for you.”

  “Because you didn’t like me the way I was?”

  She circled the desk and embraced him. “No,” she whispered, “because I love you so very, very much.”

  * * * * *

  Dear Reader,

  Here we are, once again, in the midst of an ongoing series. This time, my fellow authors and I have brought you to a small coastal town in Massachusetts. The scenery may vary from my usual Arkansas stories but the people aren’t really that different at heart. They love each other and many of them love God.

  They’re also very human, as are we all. Although we may call ourselves Christians, we’re nevertheless far from perfect. At least, I know I am. And, by the grace of God, I also know I’m forgiven because I’m His child.

  If you aren’t sure about your own salvation, just ask in sincere prayer and God will answer.

  You can write to me at P.O. Box 13, Glencoe, AR 72539, contact me via my website, www.ValerieHansen.com, or send an email to Val@ValerieHansen.com.

  Blessings,

  Valerie Hansen

  Questions for Discussion

  In this story, Nick has to actually lie to be honest. Do you understand that concept or does it seem wrong no matter what the extenuating circumstances?

  When Keira was assigned to be Nick’s partner, did you see it as being for her good or not? Might you have thought differently if this was not a romance book?

  Like many small towns, Fitzgerald Bay has an accepted hierarchy. Does this system seem to help or hinder the official operations? What might work better? Why do you think so?

  When Olivia Henry was murdered, there was a lot more to the crime than is commonly known. It must have taken tremendous faith and courage for her to leave Ireland and come to a foreign country. Do you think you could ever do something like that? (My own father did!)

  As Keira starts to have affection for Nick, she doesn’t question her feelings even though she hardly knows him. Is that wise? Wouldn’t it be smarter for her to keep her distance for a while?

  It is normally against the rules for relatives to work on the same police department. Can you see why? What problems could have been avoided if Aiden had not hired his sons and daughter?

  When Keira makes up her mind to become a cop, she faces family opposition. As a
n obedient daughter, should she have listened to her father or was she right to follow her heart—and her brothers?

  Speaking of Keira’s brothers, does it seem fair that the family supported them in their careers, yet kept insisting that Keira wasn’t suited to the job? That attitude sounds archaic. Is it common these days?

  Fitzgerald Bay has typical New England charm coupled with bouts of terrible weather. Do you think it would be fun to live in a place like that in spite of the storms? Would the feelings of “home” be worth any sacrifice or not? Why?

  At the Valentine’s party, Nick finally sees Keira dressed up and discovers an attractive woman. She was always pretty. Do you think she was using her uniform to hide behind, like a disguise, to keep herself from romantic entanglements? Or do you think Nick was just dense?

  With all the modern methods of communication, do you think Fitzgerald Bay is rather backward, or are they simply clinging to a simpler life for the sake of peace and quiet? If there was more open land available so new businesses could be built, would that spoil the whole picture? Why or why not?

  Nick’s job with the Internal Affairs Division makes him unpopular with the officers he busts for crimes. Why aren’t others more supportive? Does it make sense that innocent men shun him, too? For what reason?

  Keira is able to defend herself even when she’s freezing and in pain. Have you ever had the kind of experience where you looked back and wondered how you got through it? Was prayer a help?

  After Nick makes his report to the State Police and exonerates the Fitzgerald Bay Police Department regarding Charles, is it logical that his former bosses would fire him outright? Might it be smarter for them to simply reassign him? Or is he ruined in regard to that kind of job?

  When Keira finally hears that Nick has had an epiphany and is learning to trust God, why doesn’t she say, “I told you so”? Why would that be unwise? Do you understand her relief and joy? Do you think she needs to do or say anything else at that moment?