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"Was anyone hurt?"
"It was Jerome. He's injured. They're taking him to the
hospital."
"You stayed with him?"
"Yeah. I didn't want to leave him alone. I couldn't call you
because I was on the phone with 911 the entire time."
Silence, then an exasperated sigh. "Oh, Heath. You're
something, aren't you?"
He smiled. "I don't know. I guess I am."
She laughed. "I was so scared. I thought about the night I
didn't hear from Rudy." She sucked in a breath. "And he
died."
Heath's heart seized. "Aw, sweetie. I'm sorry." He looked
up. The attendants had extricated Jerome and were wheeling
him to the ambulance door. "Listen. I'm going to see if he's
okay. I may go to the hospital with him. I'll let you know."
"Okay." She'd calmed now. "However long it takes, I'll be
waiting for you."
"See you soon."
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He closed the phone and slipped it in his pocket. He
grinned. He hated upsetting Nicolette, but he liked that she
cared enough to worry.
"Is he going to be okay?" Heath asked one of the
attendants, a young guy with a goatee flecked with white
snow.
"He's stable," the guy said as he slammed the door shut.
"We'll know more when we get him to the hospital. Were you
in the accident with him?"
"No. I was behind him. I saw the accident and stopped to
help."
The EMT nodded his approval. "I'm sure you saved his life.
We'll take care of him."
Heath thought of Nicolette at home and the injured
Jerome, then reluctantly said, "Should I go with him?"
The attendant made his way to the driver's door of the
ambulance, and Heath followed.
"I gave him morphine. He's kind of out of it," he told Heath
as he climbed into the driver's side. "Will he have someone at
the hospital?"
"His sister is a nurse there, but I guess he didn't have
anyone to call."
"Your choice, buddy."
The door closed and Heath stepped back. He trudged
through the snow, then climbed into the Tahoe and dialed
Nicolette.
When he explained that they'd taken Jerome to the
hospital, she said, "Are you going up there?"
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"I hadn't planned to. I'm pretty sure his sister will be
there."
"I'd like to know how he's doing, but I don't want you to
drive on these roads any more than you have to. Why don't
you come on home?"
"I will," he promised.
He smiled as he drove back onto the snow-covered streets
toward the house where Nicolette waited for him.
Heath stomped snow off his feet on Nicolette's porch and
reached out to knock. Before he could, the door swung open.
"Heath? Oh, God." She went into his arms while he was
still outside. "Are you okay?"
He held her tight against him. "Yeah. I'm fine."
"How's Jerome?" she asked, still clinging to him.
"He'll be okay. We'll call and check on him in a little while,
once they've had time to get him to the hospital and look him
over."
She nodded against his shoulder. "Thank you."
He pushed her gently from him. "Let's go inside, how
about it?"
She laughed and wiped at her cheeks. "Oh, yeah."
Heath took off his coat and hung it on the rack, then
Nicolette took his hand and led him to the fireplace.
"You need to warm up," she said.
He held his hands in front of the blaze. Nicolette wore
jeans and a soft pink sweater. Her hair was loose and her
hazel eyes glinted in the light of the fire.
"Ah, much better." Heath grinned down at her.
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"Thank you for helping Jerome. I know you don't even like
him."
"He's not my favorite person," Heath admitted.
"I mean, just last night you were about to kick his ass.
Today, you saved his life."
"Chalk it up to the Christmas spirit, I guess."
"Right. Or, the fact that you're just a really, really good
guy."
Heath grinned down at her. "Yeah, there is that."
She smiled and Heath thought of their lovemaking. Was
Nicolette thinking about it too? What had happened to the
easy, flirtation between them earlier?
Nicolette rubbed her hands up and down her arms and
looked at her feet.
"You think we should talk about it?" Heath asked.
Her head rose, and she looked at him. She pursed her lips
and smiled. "About what?"
"About what happened between us."
She stared at him steadily for a moment then slowly
moved toward him. He held his breath, watching her
approach. She reached up and took his face between her
hands. Her thumbs gently stroked his bottom lip. "I'd rather
do this."
She lifted her face and touched her lips to his. He groaned
and swept his arms around her, pulling her close. Her hands
moved to the back of his head. He pushed her sweater up and
slid his fingers over the silky skin of her back.
He wanted to strip her bare, take her to bed and slowly
explore her body...take his time like he hadn't last night. He'd
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been too excited. As her tongue moved over his, the pressure
against his zipper increased. Damn. If he wasn't careful, the
same thing would happen now.
His cell phone rang, and he swallowed back a curse.
Nicolette pulled away and looked up at him, her eyes
glazed with passion. "Guess you'd better get that," she
whispered.
"Do I have to?" He grinned and dug his cell out of his
pocket. Alex's number showed on the display. His baby
brother had lousy timing. "Hey, bro," Heath said into the
phone. "What's up?"
"It's the girls." Alex's voice was filled with uncharacteristic
panic. "They're missing."
"Missing? The triplets?"
"Yeah. They were in their room, and now they're gone.
Shit, Heath. I'm scared."
Heath's body tensed. He pictured the tiny girls out in this
snowstorm, lost, cold, afraid. Or worse. He wouldn't think
that. Wouldn't entertain the thought that some maniac had
taken them. "Where are you?"
"I'm near Zoe's shop. We're out looking for them, but I
could use your help."
"You got it. I'll call my buddy at the force. Have him get
searchers out. We'll meet you."
Nicolette looked at him worriedly, her teeth gnawing at the
pad of her thumb. When Heath hung up, she said, "What is it?
What's wrong?"
"Alex's daughters are missing."
"Oh, God. How?"
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"I don't know. They disappeared from their bedroom."
He dialed his friend, Peter McFarland. While he wa
ited for
him to answer, he told Nicolette, "I'm going over there. I'll be
back as soon as I can."
Nicolette grabbed her coat. "I'm going with you."
"No, you don't—" Peter answered the phone and Heath
quickly explained.
"I'll get some guys together," Peter said after Heath
finished. "Give me the address."
When Heath ended the call, he sighed and kissed Nic's
cheek. "You don't need to go. It's nasty out there. Stay here
where it's warm."
"No way." She shrugged into her coat. "I couldn't rest
here. I'd be a nervous wreck. I'm going."
"Nic, please. I need to concentrate on finding the girls, and
I couldn't do it with you there, having to worry about you."
She pressed her lips together in disapproval, but nodded.
Heath kissed her on the forehead and charged out into the
biting wind, a fear like none he'd ever felt taking hold of his
gut. Those tiny girls were out in this? Dear God, they were
too small, too vulnerable. No matter what the reason for their
disappearance, the longer it took to find them, the more likely
it was that something bad had happened. No. He wouldn't
think like that. He'd only just gotten to know his nieces. He'd
be damned if he'd let anything happen to them.
Nicolette had to do something to keep her mind off the lost
little girls and Heath out there in this storm looking for them.
First, she called the hospital to check on Jerome. She
managed to get his sister, who told her Jerome would be fine.
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Thanks to Heath. Warm affection filled her heart. Was there
no end to Heath's goodness?
After ending the call, Nicolette let herself into Heath's side
of the duplex to clean. For a guy, his side had remained
surprisingly neat. But then again, he hadn't been there all
that much. There were a few whiskers in the sink. She used
cleaner to scrub that, the bathtub, and the toilet.
In the bedroom, she found his Pez dispenser on the
nightstand. Heath apparently thought a lot of his friend's
child, and he'd been frantic about his missing nieces. He'd
had a look of pride in his eyes when he'd told her about them.
Children he'd only seen a few times, and though they were
his nieces, he hadn't known they existed until a few weeks
ago.
She bet he'd make a wonderful father. She'd thought that
about Rudy, too. They'd talked about having kids, but it never
seemed like the right time. Then the next thing she knew,
their 'time' for having kids was over. Rudy was dead. And
here she was, close to her mid thirties without a child and
without a prospective father in sight. Heath was great with
kids, but did he want them? Did it really even matter since
the two of them could never be together?
Although the bed was made, she pulled back the covers,
held Heath's pillow to her nose, and inhaled. His scent filled
her nostrils, and she smiled and hugged the pillow to her. You
are a pathetic, lovesick fool. What the hell was she doing?
Replacing the pillow, she smoothed the spread over it,
then quickly went back to her side of the duplex. She was
about one boiled rabbit away from being a stalker.
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Her side was fairly clean, but the drawers in her office
were messy with accumulated junk. When she'd been digging
out Rudy's papers, she'd noticed she'd let crap pile up. One
drawer at a time, she went through the junk, throwing away
what she didn't need and sorting and filing things she did.
In the bottom drawer, a black jewelry box caught her
attention, and she sighed, pain welling in her chest as she
withdrew it. Lifting the lid, she looked at the blue diamond
ring, a gift from Rudy, although one he'd never had a chance
to give her.
It had been found among the wreckage, wrapped in a
beautiful box with the words, To the love of my life, scrawled
on a white card taped to the package. Rudy wasn't normally
given to sentiment like that, but their tenth anniversary was
coming up; he must have been feeling particularly romantic.
Maybe he'd begun to think of how lucky they were to find
each other and to have made it that many years in a day and
age when over half of marriages ended in divorce.
Whatever the reason, when the police returned it to her,
she'd been at once thrilled and devastated. One short week
away, and Rudy would have given it to her himself. She
hadn't been able to bring herself to wear it. Not only was it a
little flashier than the jewelry she normally wore, it was just
too painful to look at every day.
She took it from the box and slipped it on the third finger
of her right hand. It fit perfectly now, but she'd lost weight in
the past year. At the time Rudy bought the ring, it would
have been too small. She smiled. Rudy most likely had no
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idea what ring size she wore and knew that once he'd given it
to her, it would be her responsibility to have it sized.
She slid the empty box into the drawer. The pain of loss
had dulled enough that now she could enjoy the ring's
beauty. Now, every time she looked at her finger, she'd think
of Rudy with a fond sadness rather than the gut-wrenching
agony she'd endured the first several months after his death.
Her phone rang just as she finished going through the last
drawer.
"Nicolette? It's Tonya."
Tonya was one of her tenants. She was a single mom with
an eight-year-old son. Her voice sounded panicked.
"Yeah, everything okay?"
"It's taking me forever to get home from work, and Josh is
there by himself. I wondered if you could maybe go sit with
him until I get there. I hate to ask you to get out in this
horrendous weather, but he's scared now that it's getting
close to dark."
Eight years old was too young to stay alone, even when it
was light, but Nicolette didn't want to criticize Tonya's
mothering skills. Sometimes, people didn't have much choice.
"Hey, no worries," Nicolette assured her. "I'll head down
there now."
"Thank you. You're a saint."
Heath called as soon as she hung up to let her know the
girls had been found, safe and sound.
Her legs went weak with relief. "Oh, Heath. I'm so glad.
Thanks for letting me know."
"I'll be there in a little while."
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How to tell him that although he'd told her not to come
with him, she was going out in the blizzard anyway? "I may
not be here, but I shouldn't be gone long."
"What do you mean? You're not going out, are you?"
"I have to."
She explained about Tonya and Josh.
"Nic, you don't need to be driving in this." His tone was
harsh and authoritative.
"She only lives at the end of the block, I'll walk."
"The snow is a foot and a half deep and piling up."
Beneath his irritation, she heard worry, and she
experienced a twinge of guilt. He'd dealt with enough of that
for one day, but she couldn't leave a little boy by himself in
this kind of weather.
"Heath, I have to help. He's all alone." As she spoke, she
bundled up in her coat and gloves.
"I tell you what, I'll drive to her house and wait with you
there."
"She'll probably be home by the time you get here."
Nicolette opened the front door, and a cold blast of wind
slapped her in the face. She couldn't stay on the phone and
tromp through the snowstorm. "I gotta go. I'll see you at
home in a bit."
[Back to Table of Contents]
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Chapter Fifteen
Heath cursed as he closed his phone. Damn her and her
stubbornness.
He headed to the duplex, his elation that his nieces had
been found now tempered by concern over Nic. He had no
idea which house the neighbor lived in, or he'd head over
there now, even though she'd told him not to. She'd hung up
without giving him the address, so he could either cruise her
neighborhood hoping to spot the right place, or go home and
wait like she'd asked him to.
Even if he drove through the neighborhood, Nicolette
would be inside whichever house it was, so he still wouldn't
know. He just had to trust that she'd be okay, although there
were people stuck all over town, and he'd heard a report on
the radio that an elderly man had frozen to death.
Damn. He didn't like Nic being out in this without him.
Sure enough, when he reached the duplex, she wasn't
there. He paced as he waited, casting frequent glances at the
clock. Had time ever moved this slowly? He started a fire to
knock the chill off the room, and to give him something to
occupy his mind, other than worry over Nicolette.
After a half hour of waiting, he tried her cell. No answer.
The worry turned to abject fear. If she'd planned on being
gone this long, she would have called him, or she'd damned
sure answer her phone, knowing how worried he would be.
She would answer it, that is, if she were able.
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