Then she jerked as a loud bang cut through the cursing and the black haze beginning to fog her eyes. As Dobs’s grip went slack, she gulped in a lungful of delicious air and reached again for the desk to hold herself up.
“You shot me,” Dobs said in a tone of disbelief.
“Move and I’ll shoot you again, except this time I’ll aim for a more essential body part.” Tully’s voice was closer. Natalie lifted her head to see him pulling something out of his back pocket with his left hand while his right held the pistol steady.
“Nat, are you okay?” he asked, his voice tight.
She opened her mouth but nothing came out. She nodded as she worked some saliva into her mouth. “Yes,” she croaked.
“Would you tie Van Houten’s hands behind his back with these?” He held up something that looked like large zip ties.
“You can’t tie me up. I’m bleeding,” Van Houten whined.
Natalie pushed off the desk and started toward Tully. He shook his head. “I’ll toss them to you.”
“Okay.” She held out her hands, not entirely sure she would be able to catch anything at this point, but Tully threw them right into her palms so all she had to do was close her fingers around them.
Natalie turned to find Dobs slouched in a chair, his hand pressed to his upper arm with blood seeping through his fingers, his shirtsleeve stained red. His eyes were wide and his mouth slack as though he couldn’t believe what was happening. Still, she found herself reluctant to get near him again.
“Stand up, Van Houten!” Tully barked. “Step away from the chair and put your hands behind your back.”
Dobs stayed in the chair. “I’ll bleed to death, you fucking asshole,” he said.
“We should be so lucky,” Tully ground out, his gun never wavering. “Get up!”
“I’ll stand up after she calls an ambulance.” Dobs jerked his head toward Natalie.
Natalie looked at Tully and flinched. His lips were drawn back from his teeth in a snarl like a wolf’s. “You have one more chance to do as I say, or I will pistol-whip you unconscious without a qualm.” His voice made granite seem soft.
Dobs stared at Tully for a few seconds before he clambered to his feet. “I’m going to sue you for assault with a deadly weapon.”
“Your hands behind your back,” Tully said. “And if you make a single movement that even hints at threatening Natalie, I will shoot you in the other arm.”
Dobs slowly bent his arms behind his back. Natalie grimaced as she wound the restraint around his bloodstained wrists. Then she cringed away from him, sliding behind the desk.
“Good job, Nat,” Tully said. “Okay, Van Houten, back in the chair.”
Dobs sat down gingerly, his face screwed up in pain as he jarred his injured arm. “If you’re going to make me sit down, at least tie my hands in front of me.”
“Shut up!” Tully snapped. “Nat, you should sit down too. You look pale.” Tully’s voice had a hitch of anguish in it.
“Are we waiting for someone?” Natalie asked, sitting down in the desk chair when Tully still didn’t move.
“Backup’s on the way,” Tully said tersely.
Dobs stared at Tully, hatred blazing in his pale eyes as the red stain on his shirtsleeve grew.
“Shouldn’t we put pressure on his wound?” Natalie couldn’t stop herself from asking, even though she didn’t want to go near him.
“He won’t die of it, which is a damn shame,” Tully said.
Natalie began to tremble now that she had no reason to hold herself together. Tears pooled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks uncontrolled. She brushed them away with the back of her hands, but Tully saw them and his mouth twisted. “Nat, it’s okay. I just need to make sure the outside guards are under control before we walk out of here. But we will walk out of here. I promise you that.”
“Tully.” Leland’s voice sounded like it was coming from Tully’s vest. “The police are here. They’re rounding up the outer guards. I’m on my way to you with Chief Borland.”
“You coming in the front?”
“Yup, right now,” Leland said.
“Take a right under the grand staircase. Down the hall, third door on the left,” Tully directed.
Natalie heard the thuds of running footsteps before Leland and the police chief burst through the door, both with guns drawn.
Tully lowered his pistol as though it weighed a ton. “Van Houten’s got a flesh wound in the arm. His hands are tied. I’m taking Natalie out of here.”
“I have to get your state—” the chief began.
Tully held up his hand. “Leland’s got it all on video. I need to take care of Nat. Then we’ll talk.”
The police chief and Leland both turned toward Natalie, who still couldn’t stop the tears running down her cheeks. “Right,” Chief Borland said. “I’ll handle things here.”
Tully holstered his gun and came around the desk to kneel in front of Natalie’s chair. “Are you hurt anywhere but your face?” he asked gently but urgently.
“No, I already threw up everything in my stomach,” she said, not mentioning that it felt like a mule had kicked her in the abdomen.
He closed his eyes for a brief moment and whispered, “Thank God!” Then he stood and scooped her up out of the chair, holding her against his warm, solid chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against the softness of his shirt, breathing in the strength and decency that was so distinctively his.
She felt him turn sideways to get through the door and then he was striding along somewhere, far enough away that the voices faded behind them.
“Oh, God, Nat! I’m so sorry,” he said over her head, his voice breaking on the last word. “It’s my fault that you had to go through this.”
That made her lift her gaze, but she couldn’t see enough of his face to understand his emotions. “What are you talking about? It’s Dobs Van Houten’s fault that I had to go through this.”
“If I hadn’t been sulk—” He cut off the rest. “I didn’t do my job.”
He pivoted sideways again and walked into a room lit only by the moonlight streaming in through the windows. It seemed to be a library with books lining the walls all the way to the high ceiling. Tully strode to an overstuffed sofa and laid her gently on it. “Let me get the lights,” he said.
He flicked on a switch, bringing to life a huge brass chandelier that threw a golden glow over the spines of the books, picking up glints of gilt lettering on the leather. But Natalie only wanted to watch Tully as he strode toward her across the jewel-toned Persian rug, his face set in an anguished mask of guilt. Stripping out of his black bulletproof vest, he tossed it into a nearby chair.
She sat up and curled her legs under her as he eased onto the couch beside her. He touched her cheek with fingertips as light as butterfly wings. “Did Dobs do this?”
Natalie had almost forgotten the slap that Dobs had administered, the throbbing in her cheek minor compared to everything else that had happened. “That’s how he woke me up. Does it look bad?”
Tully shook his head. “It’s just red and swollen but I know what that kind of injury means. He hit you. Hard.”
She didn’t tell him about the cut inside her mouth. That would only add to his guilt. “At least I got to hit him back with the rock. Thank you for shooting him. I hope he’s in a lot of pain.”
Tully made a sound like a strangled groan. “When I saw him with his filthy hands around your neck, I nearly aimed for his head. I might have done it except I didn’t want you to have to see the mess it would make.”
“He’ll suffer more in prison,” Natalie said, wishing Tully would put his arms around her. “He will go to prison, won’t he?”
“Oh yeah. We’ve got a boatload of witnesses as well as video.” Conviction rang in his voice.
“Oh, God, is Regina all right?” Natalie felt terrible that she hadn’t asked about her first.
“She’s fine. I took out her two guards after
they left the office and stashed her in the kitchen. Dobs wasn’t going to hurt her since she’s carrying his child. He transferred all his hatred to you.” Tully was practically vibrating with restrained rage.
“Could—could you put your arms around me, please?” Natalie flat-out begged as Dobs’s contorted face rose up in her mind’s eye.
He tilted his head to gaze at the floor as though debating something. Then he shifted on the sofa so their thighs touched and put one arm around her shoulders in a gesture so tentative she couldn’t believe it was Tully.
The careful touch was better than nothing, so she snuggled up against his side, tucking her head against his neck.
“Oh, hell!” he muttered and wrapped both arms around her to pull her onto his lap while she felt his lips against her hair. “I was terrified of what might happen to you, Nat. I could barely think through my strategy because fear kept distracting me. I’ve never had that problem before.”
It felt so good to be enclosed in the steely circle of his arms, protected from the world. “I knew you’d come.”
That’s how she’d had the courage to provoke Dobs, to look into his mad eyes and keep defying him.
“I let you down.”
Natalie pulled away to look at him, seeing the guilt dragging at his eyes and mouth. “Why do you keep saying that? You saved me and Regina.”
He shook his head. “I should have checked out Sarah Lacey in person. My intuition would have told me she was faking it. Instead, I . . .” He stopped.
“I’m the one who should have figured out Sarah Lacey was lying,” Natalie said. “Every time I tried to start a conversation about her husband, she got vague and avoided the subject. Most women can’t wait to tell me what their husbands have done. It’s a relief to have someone who believes them and understands.” Natalie hissed in a breath as she remembered Dobs’s confession. “She was genuinely terrified because Dobs kidnapped her daughter. You have to make sure the little girl is all right!”
“Shit!” Tully said and grabbed his vest, toggling a switch. “Leland, Van Houten took Sarah Lacey’s little girl as leverage on the mother. Make sure you find her.”
When Leland’s confirmation came through, Tully hit the switch again and tossed the vest aside.
“Relax, sweetheart,” Tully said, stroking her hair in a way that made her lean into his hand. “The police will follow up on Sarah Lacey’s involvement right away.”
The sudden worry that had stiffened her shoulders drained away and she sagged against him once more, his arms tightening around her.
They sat that way in silence for several seconds before Tully spoke. “I’ve been thinking about what you said this morning. And what I felt tonight when I knew Van Houten had you.”
Natalie tensed, a strange anticipation licking through her as she waited for his next words.
He spoke again. “Maybe we both went into our relationship thinking it was one of those wedding hookups that wouldn’t last for long. Maybe that’s even why we started it. But it changed—well, I changed.”
He shifted as though uncomfortable but he kept his arms around her. “The reason I didn’t come check out Sarah Lacey was because I was afraid to see you. I was hurting way more than I should have been. I didn’t have the courage to face you when I knew it would rip my heart out.”
Natalie hadn’t thought his pain would make her happy, but little sparks of joy danced through her. She wanted to lift her head to see his face as he talked but she was afraid he would stop if she moved.
“Somehow you’ve gotten past all the crap I’ve been telling myself for years.” His chest pushed at her cheek as he took a deep breath. “I think we should give this a real shot. Hell, what I’m trying to find the courage to say is that I love you, Nat. I bone-deep, head-spinning, gut-wrenching love you. I don’t want to let you go. Ever. Again.”
Natalie waited for doubt or dismay or reluctance to smother the happiness fluttering in her chest. She’d been so afraid of Tully and his big, protective personality crushing her hard-won independence. But she’d gotten it backward. She had faced Dobs because she trusted Tully to be there when she needed him. In fact, she could always trust him to use his strength to support her, not stomp on her. That’s who Tully was.
“Nat?” His prod was soft and tentative. “I understand if this is the wrong time. You don’t have to answer me now but I just needed to . . .”
She lifted her head and leaned back in his arms to smile into his worried face. “We’re both stressed, exhausted, and feeling the aftereffects of adrenaline overload.”
His eyes clouded with resignation. “Yeah, that’s what I figured. Bad idea.”
“Good idea,” she contradicted. “All our barriers are down. We’ve got nothing but honesty to offer each other.”
“I’ve been as honest as I know how,” he said, but hope lit the strained angles of his face.
“My turn then,” she said. “I was afraid of you.”
Horror twisted his expression. “Nat, I would never hurt—”
She laid her palm over his lips. “Let me finish. You’re so larger than life, so insanely protective, so overwhelming. I thought you would smother me back into my old role of nodding and smiling and forgetting who I was.”
He looked shocked. “Why would I want you to be anything but what you are? That’s why I love you.”
“Matt said he loved me but what he really loved was winding me into a pretzel that would suit his needs. I was afraid that would happen again. Neither of us would have meant it to, but I didn’t trust myself to stand up to someone as powerful as you are.”
“But you’re the strongest person I know,” Tully said. “You got yourself out of a bad situation and made a whole new life for yourself.”
“A new life alone. It was so much easier that way.” She cupped his cheek with one hand. “Then you strode in with your cowboy boots and made alone look not so good. But I fought it, fought you. I used what you told me about yourself on Friday night as an excuse to run. I told myself I was doing it because you’d shown me how vulnerable you were and I didn’t want to hurt you. But I was lying.”
“What were you lying about?” Tully asked, his gaze as intense as a laser beam.
“I didn’t want to admit that I’m in love with you.” She smiled as she said the words out loud. It felt amazing.
“Can you say that again?”
“I love you.” She slid one hand around his neck, trying to pull him down for a kiss.
But he stayed rock still, closing his eyes for a long moment. “That sounds so good.” Then he opened them, and his face softened with relief. “I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was just now, waiting to hear what you would say. Because if you’d said no, I would have had a hell of a time figuring out how to change your mind.”
“I have no doubt you would have come up with a plan,” Natalie said. “Are you going to kiss me or not?”
He frowned as his gaze skimmed over her face. “I’ll kiss you after we’ve gotten some ice on your cheek. I don’t want to hurt you.”
But she saw the heat in his eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with my lips.” She gave a little tug on the back of his neck.
“You make a valid point,” he said and lowered his mouth to hers. What began as an achingly gentle touch grew avid when Natalie traced his lips with her tongue. He threaded his fingers into her hair and pulled her head back so he could press searing kisses against her throat and collarbone. He ran his mouth back up to her ear and spoke beside it so his breath tickled her skin. “If I wasn’t worried that Leland and Chief Borland were going to walk through that door at any minute, I would peel your clothes off one piece at a time and make love to you right here on this couch.”
“Maybe if we skipped the striptease, we could manage it,” Natalie said, hunger coiling in her belly.
He huffed out a laugh. “You are my soul mate, but I was thinking about that nice big bathtub of yours. We could scrub the stink of this place off e
ach other real slow with lots of slippery soap. Then I’d float you up over my lap and we could do an encore of the piano bench.”
Natalie’s inner muscles rippled at the memory of Tully thrusting up inside her. “I know exactly which part of you I’m going to wash first.”
Epilogue
Ten months later
The pastor sprinkled water over little Kirk Olson’s head, making the baby’s mouth open in a perfect circle of surprise. Regina smiled proudly when her son didn’t burst into wails of complaint. Natalie was the one who had to blink back tears as the pastor pronounced a blessing on the beaming mother and her white-gowned baby.
She looked at the circle of people around the baptismal font and more tears welled up. Everyone here had pitched in to help Regina and her baby. Alastair had done battle with Dobs Van Houten’s army of lawyers to win Regina sole custody of Kirk and bar Dobs from ever approaching his son without Regina’s permission. It seemed unlikely that Dobs would get out of prison for several decades anyway, despite the reams of paperwork his lawyers continued to generate. Tully had made sure the case against Dobs was airtight.
Derek had set up a special sort of trust for the substantial settlement Regina had received in the divorce. He’d fixed it so she could draw on the income for Kirk’s benefit but never have to touch what she called the dirty money.
Dawn and Leland had opened their home to Regina until she’d felt comfortable living on her own. Alice, Dawn, and Natalie had thrown a baby shower for the first-time mother at Natalie’s house.
It truly took a village.
After the ceremony was over, everyone strolled to the back of the church to congratulate Regina and wait for the limousines Tully had arranged to take them to the restaurant for a celebratory dinner.
“That is one good baby,” Tully said as they stood in a circle. “Not a peep out of him, even when he got wet.”
“He’s pretty calm,” Regina said modestly before she turned to Natalie. “Since you’re the godmother, would you hold him for a minute? I need to talk with the pastor about something.”
The Agent Page 26