by Lyn Stone
“Stay here!” he ordered. “That’s final!”
Reluctantly Mary nodded and began wringing her hands, watching as Duvek bent over to dodge the blades and climb inside. The helicopter immediately lifted from the pasture beside Mr. Knoblett’s house and veered sharply toward the pine forest where Ford and Perry would be waiting.
She said a fervent prayer that they would both recover— Ford, because she loved him more than life, and Perry, because she couldn’t bear to be responsible for his death.
She tried not to think about Ford, strapped into a cabled basket and swinging like a pendulum beneath the hovering chopper.
Mr. Knobblet approached and laid his arm across her shoulders, turning her toward his house. “Come on, Marybud, let’s get you cleaned up a little.”
“Which hospital? Did he say which one?” she demanded frantically, kicking herself for forgetting to ask Agent Duvek.
“Didn’t say,” he admitted. “But we’ll sure call and find out. I’ll take you into town when we do.”
In the next few hours, they called every hospital in the area. And learned nothing.
Ford, Perry and the rescue squad had vanished without a trace that Monday morning. That afternoon, agents arrived, escorted her to her father’s house in Nashville. And stayed.
The following Thursday, just before noon, Mary finally had the house to herself. Two agents had held her there in what they officially called “protective custody.” She knew it was a ruse, and they knew she knew it. “House arrest” was more like it. Southern hospitality had worn exceedingly thin over the past few days.
Their endless questions about the past week’s events and the diamonds, repeated again and again, ran around in her head like a tuneless song she couldn’t banish. A very irritating song.
At least they hadn’t formally arrested her, but that wasn’t out of the realm of possibility even now.
She was exhausted, but more than that, she was worried. Where was Ford and how was he? The two agents—one of them female—who had arrived at Mr. Knoblett’s less than an hour after Duvek had left, had refused to tell her a thing. They had taken her straight to her father’s house and kept her there.
Every moment they were not firing questions that sounded like accusations, they spent searching the place. On Tuesday afternoon, all of her dolls disappeared. The whole precious collection—her childhood memories in solid form, already torn apart by the first invader who had ransacked her room last week—was now gone.
Mary grieved for them, but nothing like the way she suffered over not knowing the fate of the two men she had left in the hunting cabin. She had no idea whether Perry still lived or had died of the wound she’d inflicted. He was probably alive, since they hadn’t charged her with his death yet.
She didn’t believe Ford’s injury was life-threatening, but she kept waking from horrible nightmares about him missing his right arm. Had the doctors been forced to amputate because of her incompetence? God, she would never forgive herself—the man she loved beyond anything, handicapped because of her.
She had called the museum, found out his sister’s married name and tried to phone her at home. No answer. Information gave her the number of the Memphis FBI office. Michael Duvek either wasn’t there or refused to talk to her. She knew her phone was monitored. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been allowed to use it. But Mary didn’t care about that. She only wanted assurance from somebody that Ford was all right and Perry was alive.
That Thursday, just before lunch, the agents had informed her that they were leaving. They also warned her that they would probably be back with more questions.
Mary had tried every way she could think of to contact Ford. Surely he would have called her by now if he had been able. He must have gotten much worse after she’d left him. Or maybe he had decided it would be best if they never saw each other again.
The doorbell rang. Mary flew to the door, hoping against hope that it would be Ford, or somebody with word of him.
“Hey, Mary,” said Molly. “Want a ride to Memphis?”
Mary just stared, shocked by something going right for a change. Ford’s sister had come. Memphis. They had taken him to Memphis.
The tall, jeans-clad redhead shifted from one sneakered foot to the other, wearing the feminine version of Ford’s grin. “The bulldozer wants to see you. Rolled right over three nurses last night before a big old orderly stomped on his brakes. He was coming after you.”
“You’re taking me to Ford,” Mary said, her relief so great, she had to lean against the doorjamb.
“Who else? Unless you’ve got a new fix on that delicious Perry guy. He is a hunk, isn’t he? Um!”
“Is he all right?”
“Damn straight, he’s all right,” Molly said, waggling her brows. “A real looker. And so po-lite!” she said, dragging out the last word.
“Not him! Ford!”
Molly laughed out loud, sounding so like her brother, Mary couldn’t help but join in.
“I didn’t mean it that way. Ford’s handsome. And he is polite!” Mary declared.
Molly turned around as if to leave, glancing over her shoulder and grinning. “Well, you’re obviously talking about a Ford I never met.” She started down the steps.
“Wait for me,” Mary called. “I’ll get my bag and lock up.”
Ford was fine, just fine. He must be or Molly wouldn’t be so happy. And if Damien Perry was being a “polite hunk” and impressing the daylights out of Molly, he couldn’t very well be dead. Mary snatched up her purse and keys and ran. She had to see for herself.
Nurse Toney removed the blood-pressure cuff and patted Ford’s arm. “Lookin’ real good today, baby,” she said.
Ford grimaced and pushed himself higher up in the bed. “Get me my clothes, Mommy, or you’re gonna have a raving maniac on your hands.”
“Got plenty of straitjackets,” she warned with a twitch of her full red lips. “Better behave yourself.”
“Come on, Toney, I’ve got company coming. Be a sport, huh?”
She raised one jet-black brow and picked up his chart. “I do that and you’d be outta this place next time the elevator dinged.”
“I promise I won’t,” he pleaded. It galled him to beg, but he couldn’t greet Mary wearing this half-assed hospital gown. You could read a newspaper through the front of it and there was no back. “How am I supposed to get up and hug my lady with my butt hanging out the back of this getup?”
The nurse grunted her amusement. “Hey, you got a nice butt! She won’t mind. Besides, you got them cute little briefs your sister brought you.” With a deep-throated giggle, she spun around on her crepe soles and departed.
“Damn!” Ford knocked his head back against the pillow. Here he was, all ready to propose to Mary when she got here, and he looked like an escapee from the mental ward. Molly had promised to have her here by four o’clock. It was a quarter to.
He ran a hand through his hair, trying to smooth it down. He had shaved early that morning and he already had stubble. How was he going to convince an uptown lady like Mary that he could be slick when he wanted to be, when he looked as if he lived under a bridge?
“Where’d I put that comb?” he mumbled, sliding off the side of the mattress to his feet.
“Under the bed where you dropped it,” Perry said, drawing back the curtain between their beds and pointing.
“Thanks,” Ford replied, and crouched down. He saw it. Leaning over, he reached out with his good arm.
“Hey, bro! Showing out again, I see,” Molly chirped.
Ford glanced up and there she stood. Mary. Beautiful as ever, though she looked tired. She was also biting her lip to keep from laughing. He knew why. He looked ridiculous.
“You’re looking ... well,” she said finally, clearing her throat. Ford quickly rose to his feet and held out his arm.
She came to him smiling, those green eyes shining. Her arms slid around his neck where they belonged, and that sweet mouth lifted to his
. He acquired a new appreciation for thin hospital apparel when he felt her body nestle against his.
“Should we be taping this, Agent Perry?” Ford heard Molly ask the man in the other bed. “Duvek would love it.”
“We shouldn’t even be seeing this, Ms. Jensen. Shall we take a stroll down the hall?”
“Great I’ll buy you coffee.”
Perry grunted. “Don’t dissuade me before I get started.”
Ford continued kissing Mary, purposefully ignoring the rustle of Perry’s sheets and his slow progress to the door. The moment he heard it close, he broke the kiss with an exaggerated sigh. “I thought they’d never leave! Will you marry me?”
Mary backed up a step. She looked away from him. “An affair, maybe. And you can live with me at Gran’s since you like the place so much—”
“That’s a yes!” he declared, and kissed her again. “I am serious, Mary,” he said sincerely, grasping her chin in his hand and urging her to look into his eyes. She had to believe him this time. “I love you. I do. I want to marry you, have babies, get gray, the whole nine yards.”
“I love you, too, but—”
Oh, Lord, she was going to cry. He’d always hated it when women did that. But anything Mary did was fine by him. If anything made her cry, he would just change, destroy or fix it.
“A bad word, but. Mom used to spank me when I said it. Are those happy tears?” He wiped one away with his thumb.
“I wish,” she said, and pulled away from him completely. He watched her cross her arms over her chest, hugging herself. She shouldn’t have to do that when he wanted nothing more than to hold her for the rest of his life.
She leaned back against the side of Perry’s bed and held up a hand when he would have approached her. “Molly says your arm will be okay,” she said, distancing herself. But why?
This was not going well, Ford decided. “The arm’s fine. The doc said that bark tea might have helped. The fever, anyway.”
“Why didn’t you let me know something, Ford?” she asked. “I tried everything I could think of to find out how you were! How Perry was. Nobody would tell me anything. Those agents kept—”
“Duvek ordered me not to call you. He was checking our stories to see if they coincided, still trying to locate the diamonds, picking up your erstwhile fiancé, and generally making me miserable.”
“What about Perry?” she asked.
“He had a little surgery and was pretty much out of it until yesterday morning when they finally debriefed him. Soon as I got the green light for outside contact, I phoned Molly to get you here as fast as she could. I would have called you then, but—”
She looked up at him, not smiling now. “You were afraid I wouldn’t come.”
He nodded. Mary had just said she loved him and was willing to live with him. She might even marry him eventually, if he kept insisting, but she wasn’t all that happy with the idea.
Suddenly Ford realized what the problem must be. She had gotten an up-close-and-personal view of what his job was like. It hadn’t been a pretty picture, either. Nan had left him with less cause. She had only heard about the danger involved when he was a military intelligence agent, and even that had been a severely edited version. He couldn’t afford to change careers again. But he would, if that was what it took. “Mary, what’s the holdup? Is it my work?”
She sniffed. “No. I know every case isn’t like what we went through. It’s not that at all.”
Relieved by that, he stepped closer, brushed his hand down her arm and laced his fingers through hers. “Then tell me.”
“What if it doesn’t last? What if you only love me now because of what we went through together? We stayed so keyed up for that whole week!” She threw up her hands and shook her head. “What happens when it’s just day-today living? Buying groceries, shopping for towels, that sort of thing? Can we survive it?”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Ford said, tapping her nose with one finger. “You and I can make a happening out of just about anything.”
“That’s just it, Ford,” she told him, her voice growing bolder, louder. “Maybe I don’t always crave just thrills.”
“Couldn’t prove that from all I’ve heard,” said a deep voice from the doorway. Duvek.
Ford turned and stood tall. “Sir!”
Duvek strolled into the room and braced his fists against the footrail of Ford’s bed.
The man looked like a huge cat built for hunting, Ford thought. The laid-back attitude deceived some people. That lazy growl of his could jump to a roar in a heartbeat. But Duvek almost never lost his cool.
He had taken Ford’s report. Didn’t like it, but he hadn’t said much so far. It looked as though that was what he had come for now. Analysis was over. Time for the evaluation. As desperately as he’d wanted her here, Ford now wished Mary were somewhere else.
“The doctor says you can go home. I’ve authorized four weeks’ medical leave. After that, you’re on suspension for a month.”
Ford nodded once. He clenched his jaw and remained silent.
“And just why is that?” Mary demanded, irate, and on his behalf. Ford barely stifled his smile of satisfaction. A reprimand was nothing. This was worth getting fired.
“You, of all people, should know why!” Duvek accused, turning his glare on her. “You might not be familiar with the regulations governing our agents, Ms. Shaw, but I would bet my badge you knew that you two weren’t supposed to get...personally involved.”
Mary drew up to her full height. Not a great height. Ford admitted, but the effect was very impressive.
“That is none of your business!” She glanced at Ford and added a belated and pretty sarcastic, “Sir!”
Duvek straightened, fists clenched as he propped them on his hips. Then came his roar. “The fool broke every rule in the book! What do you expect me to do? Let my agents throw women over their shoulders and haul them out of their places of employment like...like sacks of meal? And then, to top it all off—”
“He was only doing his job!” Mary shouted. Boy, she could make a racket when she wanted to. Ford silently urged her on, looking back and forth between her and Duvek while he wore what he hoped was his “innocent” face. He wouldn’t jump in there and break this up if he never worked another day in his life. Go, Mary!
Duvek looked livid. “Well, he won’t be doing that job for the next two months! And you’re no better than he is. You both took chances that set my teeth on edge, just hearing about them! Yes, he told me. And Perry added his two cents’ worth, as well. Thought he was out cold, didn’t you? That man has sense. When he knew he couldn’t help, he stayed out of the way. That’s exactly what you should have done instead of playing Annie Oakley. Civilians should not—”
Mary marched forward and poked Duvek right in the chest with her finger. “You might be Ford’s supervisor, Mr. High-and-Mighty, but you’re definitely not mine! Whatever I decide to do is no—”
Ford quickly abandoned neutrality in favor of prudence. He grasped her around the waist and hauled her backward, surprising her into silence.
Duvek blew out a pained breath and rolled his eyes. “Will you just get dressed and get out of here, Devereaux?” He threw up one hand. “Take her to...Hawaii or someplace!”
“Hawaii, sir?” Ford relaxed his grip on Mary and stepped around her. “What in the world for?”
“Hell, I don’t know. It’s a good place for R&R,” Duvek said, making a dismissive motion with his hand as he turned to leave. “If you can’t stand to take it easy and get well there, then climb a damned volcano or something. I’m sure she’d love that!”
He reached into his inside pocket, retrieved an envelope and slapped it down on the bed. “Your bonus. Promotion’s effective in January.”
Then he inclined his head toward Mary while looking at Ford. “Somebody ought to marry that woman. She needs a keeper.”
“Yes, sir,” Ford agreed, staring down at the envelope. “Thank you.” But Duvek
had already gone.
Ford’s smile grew as he looked down at Mary. “You heard that. Orders from headquarters! Marriage, it is.”
Mary was holding her head between her hands as though she couldn’t believe what she had done. “He just said ‘somebody.’”
Ford shrugged. “Well, he meant me.”
“Okay.” She looked up at him, her eyes wide with anticipation. There was maybe a little fear there, too, but he’d fix that.
He reached out and pulled her close for a simple kiss that turned wild and left them both gasping. “Will you take a chance with me, then?”
She nodded, grinned and peeped over his shoulder. “Does that door have a lock?”
His eyebrows flew up. “Why, Mary, Mary, are we about to have us an adventure?”
“Right here in River City,” she said, reaching for the hem of his gown. “This can tide me over until we get to the volcano.”
Epilogue
“This has been the longest two weeks of my life,” Ford grumbled. “We could have been lying on a beach in Maui all this time, already married.” He waltzed her around the ballroom at Gran’s house in their first dance together as man and wife.
Mary tilted her head and smiled. He’d certainly appreciate her eagerness more if he knew how hard she had worked to plan a wedding in so short a time.
She wore her mother’s elaborate wedding gown that Gran had carefully packed away all those years ago. Thelma Knoblett had helped make the cake, Lucy was taking wedding photos with a borrowed camera, and Molly operated the stereo system. Mary figured she must have bought up every potted poinsettia within a hundred-mile radius. This wedding might not qualify as the event of the season by society’s standards, but at least their friends, family, and her students were sharing their joy.
“We still have Hawaii to look forward to,” she told Ford. “Surely you don’t begrudge me a little tradition?”
“I would never begrudge you anything,” he said, brushing a kiss on her cheek. “I’m just impatient, and I hate wearing a monkey suit. You look fantastic, by the way,” he added.