When he started to raise his hand to shield his eyes Gerr snapped, “Don’t move.”
“All right,” he said as evenly as he could. “But what do you want?”
“Take off, Bud,” Gerr ordered, ignoring the question. “And make sure you lock the door behind you. I’ll be going out the other end.”
“Bud?” Talia whispered, her voice so terror-filled it tore at Cade’s heart. “Bud, why did you do this? Why on earth would you help him?”
“Everyone’s got their price,” Gerr said before Bud could utter a word. “Including your court officer here. His was enjoying his retirement years a lot more than he’d hoped, right Bud?”
“Right,” he mumbled.
“And you’ve earned every penny I paid you. Did you two like the way he avoided you all morning to give me time? And I’ll bet you never dreamed it was him shooting at us last night, did you, Talia.”
“But…you mean it wasn’t Roger?”
“That’s right. He was only out for a walk, just like he said. I set up the shooting with Bud. Figured I’d get as big a kick out of scaring you that way as I did in the hall the other night.”
“What about Roger’s jacket?” Cade demanded— anything to buy time.
“You mean my jacket,” Gerr said. “Roger had his jacket all along. See, I didn’t really go to Talia’s room to show her any jacket this morning.”
“You went there to kill her,” Cade muttered, wondering how he could have been so damn stupid.
“Right,” Gerr admitted. “But when you were there, I had to come up with a cover. And saying I’d found Roger’s jacket was it. That’s enough of this talk, though. Bud, I already told you to get out of here.”
Without another word Bud started away, the soft thud of his footsteps rapidly fading into nothingness.
“So here we are,” Gerr said quietly. “Just the three of us. Step out from behind Cade, Talia. Out where I can see you.”
As she slowly moved to his side Cade tried to come up with a plan. He had to do something. He couldn’t just let the woman he loved die. But his brain refused to cooperate, and all he could think to do was wrap his arm around her trembling shoulders.
“Now isn’t that touching,” Gerr sneered.
“Why are you doing this?” Talia asked. “You’re obviously an intelligent man. Why kill people for a living? Why work for Joey Carpaccio?”
Gerr chuckled. “I don’t kill people for a living, Talia. I really am a lawyer, although the writer part wasn’t true. And I don’t have a thing to do with Joey Carpaccio. As far as I know he’s never had anyone trying to kill you. I’m doing this strictly for myself, just for the pure pleasure of revenge.”
“Revenge? But I don’t even know you.”
“Oh, but you do. At least, you know of me. Not as Gerald Asimov, but how about as Trent McNally?”
When she didn’t answer Gerr finally lowered the flashlight a little. Cade blinked, trying to eliminate the glare that still danced in front of his eyes. Gradually his vision cleared enough to let him see the semiautomatic in Gerr’s other hand. It was a little .38, but plenty big enough. And he had it aimed straight at Talia.
“The name Trent McNally doesn’t ring any bells, Talia?” Gerr said at last. “You don’t remember Linda McNally talking about her husband?”
“You’re Linda’s husband?” she whispered.
“What’s the story?” Cade said, casually taking his arm from around her shoulders and edging away an inch. If he could get some distance between them, things might be just a bit tougher for old Gerr.
“I…Cade, I don’t know what the story is,” Talia replied. “I counseled Linda McNally at the women’s shelter, but—”
“You counseled her,” Gerr interjected. “You call telling her I was an abusive husband counseling her?”
“I hardly had to tell her,” Talia said quietly.
“Dammit, I never laid a finger on her unless she deserved it. But you got hold of her and the next thing I knew she was out the door.”
“Leaving you was her decision, not mine.”
“Like hell. You convinced her to take off. And where did that leave me, huh? Did you even give a thought to that?”
Cade kept his eyes glued on Gerr. The guy so obviously wanted to make sure Talia knew why she was going to die that maybe he’d get careless about keeping the gun aimed at her. But the longer he talked the less it looked as if that was going to happen.
“Did it even occur to you,” he went on, his face dark with anger, “what being labeled a wife beater does to a family lawyer’s reputation? To his practice? Well, I’ll tell you, Ms. Counselor. Thanks to you, I had to leave Charleston. I’m living up in Greenville now, having to build a whole new practice.”
“Killing Talia isn’t going to make your new practice grow any faster”, Cade said evenly. “And it’s not going to get your wife back, either.”
“Maybe not,” Gerr snapped, “but it’s going to make me feel one helluva lot better.”
“Only until you get caught.”
“But I won’t. I had everything planned perfectly weeks ago. Then all I had to do was wait till the trial ended and book myself into the right hotel. Hell, when they reached the final arguments I made reservations at every place they could possibly send you.”
“You’ll still get caught,” Cade said calmly, trying to sound more confident than he felt.
“Yeah? Well, I really doubt that. Who’s the obvious one to blame when Talia turns up dead? Some lawyer from New York who went home before her body was even discovered? People won’t even think about me, because they’ll automatically blame Carpaccio. Figure he wanted rid of the only woman juror—and that you just happened to be with her at the time.”
“Except that Harlan knows we came down here to meet Bud,” Talia said, her voice quavery a little. “And Bud can’t keep quiet to save his life. So when they question him he’ll tell them everything.”
“Wishful thinking,” Gerr said. A flicker of doubt crossed his face, though, and Cade seized the moment.
He dove forward, slashing at Gerr’s gun hand. The gun went off, its blast exploding and reverberating. Before Gerr could regain his balance Cade drove his fist deep into Gerr’s stomach. The lawyer doubled over with an anguished cry, and Cade swiped at the gun again, this time knocking it free.
A moment later he had his own gun out. But the excruciating pain in his hand told him he’d broken something. As he tried to aim, Gerr’s leg swung in a wide kick that didn’t stop until his foot connected with the Browning.
The gun went flying, sending a fresh surge of pain from Cade’s hand right up to his shoulder. He did his best to ignore it and stared at Gerr, the sound of their ragged breathing filling the tunnel. “No guns now,” he said.
“Maybe not,” Gerr said. Then his hand flashed down to his boot and came back up holding a knife. “But that doesn’t mean things are even.”
Cade’s throat went dry. With a broken hand he didn’t have a chance.
Then Talia said quietly, “You’re right, Gerr. Things aren’t even.”
Cade glanced at her. “Nice work,” he said, positive that he was going to love her forever. She’d gotten the Browning and had it trained on Gerr.
“You don’t have the guts,” Gerr snarled.
“Try me,” she said.
TALIA AND CADE, along with the Judge and Liz Jermain, walked the detectives and their prisoners down to the hotel marina. The other jurors had left on the evening ferry, but Boscoe and Rebuzo hadn’t been quite finished with Talia and Cade by seven o’clock, so a private boat was waiting to take them back to Charleston.
As the Harbor Police cruiser pulled away into the gathering twilight, Frank Boscoe turned and raised his hand in farewell. Arnie Rebuzo had already gone below to keep an eye on Bud and Gerr—or Bud and Trent McNally, to be accurate. Talia waved goodbye to Boscoe, then looked up at Cade and smiled. He hadn’t waved. His left arm was wrapped tightly around her shoulders. And his
right hand, pending X rays on the mainland, was temporarily immobilized by splints, courtesy of a doctor who lived in the estates.
“We haven’t seen the last of Bud and Gerr, you know,” he said above the peaceful lapping of the water. “We’re going to be star witnesses at their trials. And at Myron’s, too.”
She nodded. As they’d hoped, the Harbor Police had intercepted their jury foreman when he’d reached Charleston. Myron had been in custody for hours.
“I thought those detectives were never going to stop asking questions,” the Judge complained to Liz. Then he turned to Talia and Cade, shaking his head ruefully.
“I just don’t know how we can apologize to you two. Believe me, nobody in the history of the Bride’s Bay Resort has ever had an experience like yours.”
“We lived through it,” Talia told him. “That’s the main thing.”
“But would you ever feel brave enough to come back?” Liz asked. “After we’ve hired a new security chief, I mean.”
Talia smiled again. She was with Cade and she was safe. And the terror she’d felt mere hours ago had faded. “I think,” she said at last, “I might make a point of coming back someday. It would be nice to stay here under different circumstances.”
“Well,” Liz said, “if you’re serious about that we’d be delighted to have you. Both of you—on the house of course. We’ve got a suite you’d absolutely love.”
“She doesn’t mean you’d have to come together and share the suite,” the Judge put in quickly. “She just means she’d like you to have our best accommodations.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I meant,” Liz agreed, shooting Talia a smile that said she suspected they wouldn’t mind coming together and sharing. “The suite I’ve got in mind is booked for the president in a couple of months, but anytime before or after, it’s yours for the asking.”
“Thanks,” Cade said. “We’ll keep that in mind. But right now, I guess we’d better get going.”
They all started along the dock, Liz and the Judge in the lead. When the two of them paused to talk to the skipper of the boat that would be taking Cade and Talia to the mainland, Cade stopped and turned to face her.
“Tell me something,” he said quietly.
“What?”
“Back there in the tunnel would you really have shot Gerr?”
“Absolutely. If he’d made a move I’d have shot him in a second. I certainly wouldn’t have let him stick a knife in you.”
Cade grinned. “You know, I’ve spent my entire adult life wishing I had a woman who wouldn’t let someone stick a knife in me. It’s a terrific quality.”
“I have a lot of terrific qualities,” she teased.
“I know. And I also know,” he added, turning serious, “that once those three trials are under way things could be awfully hectic for us.”
She nodded.
“So I was thinking…if there’s anything important we want to do it would make sense to do it soon, before that happens. Before things get hectic, I mean.”
“Anything important like what?” she murmured.
Instead of answering, he leaned forward and kissed her—a long loving kiss that gave her a pretty fair idea of what he had in mind.
“Anything important like getting married,” he finally whispered. “And getting away on a honeymoon. Talia, I realize it’s fast, and we haven’t even met each other’s families. But does that matter when I love you like crazy?”
“You can meet my parents tomorrow,” she replied, certain nothing mattered except that he loved her and she loved him.
“Good, because I don’t want to spend another minute of my life without you. I want to marry you soon, okay?”
She nodded again, happy tears filling her eyes. The worst experience in her entire life had just turned into the best.
“So the wedding,” she said, trying to blink back those tears. “Just how soon did you have in mind?”
“The sooner the better.”
The way he was gazing at her, as if he wished it could be tonight, made her certain she was the luckiest woman alive.
“And the honeymoon?” she asked. “Did you have any particular place in mind?”
“Judge? Liz?” he called, not taking his eyes from her. “About that presidential suite…”
Epilogue
Bride’s Bay Resort offered the perfect setting for an outdoor wedding, and the day had dawned bright and sunny.
Since Cade and Talia’s first visit to Jermain Island, the centuries-old live oaks had deepened from the succulent green of spring to the verdant green of summer. The sunlight that filtered softly through the leaves dappled the grass below and breathed warmth into the grayish green of the Spanish moss hanging from the huge branches.
“Nervous?” Cade’s brother, Mike, asked him as they stood waiting with the minister.
“No, maybe it’s unusual, but I’m completely relaxed.” There was no reason not to be, though. He and Talia hadn’t even had the stress of planning their wedding. When they’d told Liz Jermain they’d like to spend their honeymoon at Bride’s Bay she’d insisted that the wedding be held here, too, and that the hotel staff would take care of everything.
And Liz had outdone herself making the day perfect—from the private boat to bring the wedding guests to the island, to the champagne reception planned for after the ceremony.
But the main reason he wasn’t nervous, of course, was that he was so sure about marrying Talia. His love for her had only grown during the weeks since the jury deliberations.
“I still can’t get over this,” Mike said.
Cade laughed quietly. “Over what? That your brother’s getting married in such a classy place?”
“Partly. And partly that you’re getting married again at all. For a guy who said he never would, you changed your mind awfully fast when you met Talia.”
“You can see why, can’t you?”
“Yeah. She’s great. The whole family thinks so.”
Cade turned to look at his parents. Rows of chairs had been set up on the lawn, and they were sitting in the front row.
As he watched, his mother leaned across his father to say something to Talia’s mother. The two women had been busily forming family ties from the moment they’d met.
In the rows behind sat relatives from both sides and close friends, as well as most of the other members of the jury. Somehow it had seemed fitting to invite them.
Myron Beyers wasn’t here of course. The judge at his hearing had denied him bail, saying that since he’d already tried to run once he didn’t seem like a good risk.
Roger Podonyi hadn’t come, either. He’d claimed a previous engagement, but it was more likely he hadn’t forgiven Talia and Cade for suspecting him.
All the others were there, though, and the unmarried ones had brought dates. All except Harlan, who’d brought his mother.
Cade eyed him for a minute, glad that he and Talia had made a point of getting together with him in Charleston and apologizing for having ever thought he’d been one of the bad guys. After all, if it hadn’t been for Harlan’s computer sleuthing, there was no way of knowing how things would have turned out.
The string quartet that was set up under one of the trees stopped playing for a moment. Then it broke into the strains of Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.”
“There she is,” Mike whispered.
When Cade looked toward the doorway of the old plantation house, his throat grew tight. Talia’s best friend, Carol, and Mike’s wife, Darlene—the bridesmaid and matron of honor, respectively—had started down from the porch. He only had eyes for Talia, though.
She walked slowly on her father’s arm, wearing her mother’s wedding dress and carrying yellow daisies. He was certain she had to be the most beautiful bride in the history of the world—about to make him the happiest man in the history of the world.
Talia glanced at her father.
He smiled wistfully back, whispering, “Happy, baby?”
&n
bsp; “The happiest,” she murmured, giving his arm a little squeeze.
Then she looked past the seated guests to where Cade was standing. Seeing him waiting there for her made her feel like a princess in a fairy tale. She’d fallen in love with the man of her dreams, and he’d fallen in love with her. And she truly believed in happily-everafters.
Ahead, her attendants stopped and moved to one side. A moment later she was standing in front of Cade. The look of love in his eyes brought tears of happiness to hers.
Her father gently kissed her cheek, then stepped aside as Cade took her hand.
“Dearly beloved…” the minister began.
“I’ll love you forever, Talia,” Cade whispered so quietly only she could hear.
“Me, too…” she whispered back. Their happilyever-after had begun.
eISBN 978-14592-7563-8
LOVE AND UES
Copyright© 1996 by Harlequin Books S.A..
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