Authors: Lois Richer
He moved toward her, unaware that she stood in the shadows. The only weapon she had was herself and the element of
surprise. An idea flickered to life. Chloe drew in a calming breath.
When the interuder came through the door she struck him with her best karate move. He fell, rolled to his feet and whirled to face her. Brendan’s moan distracted him and Chloe struck again, this time to the midsection. He rose again, but this time a gun flashed in his hand.
Brendan grabbed his leg from behind and pulled him down. The gun clanked on the floor and slid into the open pantry and under a shelf. As they wrestled, Chloe backed into the darkness, knowing she had to think of something. She needed a weapon. She returned to the living room.
What now, God?
From the corner of her eye she saw Ziggy’s cage where Kyle had put it in a corner so his pet wouldn’t be left out of the holiday season. Chloe lifted off the screen, picked up the reptile. “I need your help, Zig. Try to look very fierce. Poisonous, too.”
“Praying? You can’t escape. Don’t bother to try.” A hand touched her shoulder. “You should never have interfered in
El Jefe’s
business.”
“And you should have stayed out of my home,” she told him, stepping a little to one side so his hand fell away. “I don’t like being threatened, shot at, having my kids put in danger. I especially don’t like traffic accidents.”
“I had my orders. It was nothing personal.”
“Nothing personal?” Fury raced through her and she twisted to face him, shoving the snake in his face. “Neither is this!”
Ziggy was upset at her rough treatment and sent out a loud persistent hiss which scared her attacker so badly he stepped backward away from the animal. “I hate snakes. Get him away from me!”
Chloe shook her head, lunged closer. “No way. You want to know what it’s like to die from snake venom? I’m a nurse. I can tell you. It’s horrible. Your throat swells until you can’t breathe.” She pressed Ziggy closer. “Your chest feels like it’s going to explode. You literally choke to death.”
She saw Brendan in the doorway, waiting for his opportunity. She thrust Ziggy forward one more time and the attacker fell back. At that moment Brendan brought his fists down on the gunman’s wrist. The sound of bone cracking echoed loudly. Chloe lifted her heel and slammed it into his chest, finishing his fall.
“Don’t come near my home again,” she said fiercely.
“He won’t, Chloe. I promise.” Brendan kneeled atop the man’s back, holding his hands together so the spider tattoo was clearly visible. “Can you get me something to tie him up with? Then I’ll call for help. And put Ziggy away. I guess I owe him.” He grinned at her, his eyes brimming with laughter and something else she didn’t want to think about—not right now. “Chloe?”
“Yes.” She set Ziggy in his cage. “Good boy, Zig. Way to go.” After replacing the lid she searched the room for something to tie up the attacker.
“Chloe?”
“Coming.” She pulled out the extension cord from the Christmas tree, carried it to Brendan. “Is this any good?”
As he stared at the small green cord a smile lifted the edges of his mouth and zipped straight to her heart. “It’ll do,” he told her.
“I’ll call the men outside,” she said, hurrying toward the door.
“Wait.” Brendan pulled out his cell phone, dialed. “We don’t know who else is out there.” A moment later the wail of sirens filled the night and police came bursting into her home just as the power came back on.
Brendan handed over the gun he’d retrieved once the man was in custody. “So you’re Redding,” he said, his eyes hard. “It is so not a pleasure to meet you.” He looked at Chloe. “Is this the man you saw before?”
“Yes.” She studied his features for several minutes before nodding and pointing to his wrist. “There’s the tattoo. It’s the same man. I’m certain.”
“Why go after Mrs. Tanner?” Brendan asked him.
“I do what I’m told.” The blank face stared right back.
“What were you told to do?”
“Hit the mayor. She got mixed in and I was told to get rid of her.”
“Told by whom?” Brendan demanded but got no answer. Redding simply shook his head and refused to say more.
“He said I shouldn’t have interfered in
El Jefe’s
business,” Chloe told them, her eyes on the man who’d made her life a misery for months as her heart sang “thank you” over and over.
“Seems to me we have some talking to do, Mr. Redding.”
“I have nothing to say. Once bail is posted, I will be gone.” He smiled but refused to say any more and was finally led away.
There were a host of questions after that. Both the local police department and the FBI wanted every detail and it didn’t seem to matter how many times she went over the night’s events, they kept asking. In the living room, Chloe could see Brendan answering even more questions.
She tried to concentrate but found herself wishing they were alone and she could have a second chance to explain why she couldn’t get involved with him. Her heart mocked her feeble excuses. Her heart was already involved—deeply.
“It’s been a rough evening and you’re obviously tired. Why don’t we study what we’ve got and if we need to, we’ll get back to you?” Duncan Dorne smiled sympathetically. “We need a chance to peruse what we’ve learned but I think we can tell you that Redding claims you’ll be safe now. He doesn’t believe anyone else will come after you.”
“You don’t think he’s just saying that?” she asked, but in her heart she knew something had changed. She didn’t feel that panicked sense of unease she’d carried before. Suddenly she felt free—from more than Redding.
“He was pretty certain. I think he’s looking for a way to bargain with us without giving away his boss.” Dorne shut off his recorder, motioned for the others to leave. “I’ll have someone
stick around for a few days just to be sure, but I believe you’ll be safe, Mrs. Tanner.”
“Thank you. For everything.”
“You’re welcome. I must say Brendan seemed to enjoy the job.” He glanced into the other room, raised a hand. “He’s going to have to come with us. We need his statement and there are a few loose ends he’ll need to tie up.”
“I understand.” So she wouldn’t get a chance to explain tonight. Chloe bit her lip. It seemed some things never changed. She was going to spend New Year’s Eve alone. Again.
“You’re a nurse.” Dorne buttoned his jacket as he spoke.
“Yes, I am. Does that make a difference?”
“Not to your testimony. I was thinking more in terms of helping out. There was a big pileup on the interstate thanks to a drunk driver. The hospital is swamped.”
“I’ll go if you can give me a lift,” she told him immediately. “Give me a minute to change then I’ll be ready.”
“Sure.”
Chloe hurried upstairs, grabbed a uniform and peeled off her glamorous clothes before slipping into it. She dragged her tumble of curls into the beautiful clip Brendan had given her for Christmas, slipped on her comfortable work shoes. A moment later she went downstairs. Brendan was waiting for her.
“You’re going to work?” he asked, then spoke again before she could answer. “Me, too. I have to go in, Chloe. I have this hunch that this
El Jefe
Redding spoke of somehow ties into the same group Escalante ran. I’ve got an idea about Escalante’s death, too. I’ve got to follow a couple of leads, try and stop him before things escalate.”
“Of course you do. You’ve hung around here so long, it must be a relief to get back to your regular life.” She didn’t look at him, afraid she’d see that truth on his face. “Go. Do your job, Brendan.”
“I will. But, Chloe, I need to talk to you.”
She glanced up and knew she couldn’t let it end like this.
“I’ll never be able to thank you enough for what you’ve done for us. I know it went far beyond your job description and I truly appreciate it.”
“I’m not leaving town, Chloe.” One hand grasped her arm when she would have turned away. “This is not the end. You and I have a lot of things to discuss and we’re going to hash it all out. Soon. I’m not giving up on what we shared in there. But right now I’ve got a job to do. Can we meet tomorrow? At the Stagecoach Café?”
She tried to hide her expression as she thought of Fiona listening in.
“Mom and Dad are away, remember? And we can’t talk here because I don’t want the kids to overhear. So how about the café?”
“All right.” She couldn’t look away from the glint she saw in his eyes. A tickle of warmth slid straight through her heart. “You can call me at the hospital with a time.”
“I will.” He studied her for several charged moments. His hand moved from her arm to her hair. One curling tendril circled itself around his index finger. He smiled. “So much beauty to be so tightly confined.” He leaned forward, brushed his lips against hers. “It’s not goodbye, Chloe. I’ll be back.”
“Of course,” she whispered as the doubts formed a tidal wave that swamped her hopes. “Take care,” she managed to whisper.
“Oh, Chloe.” He shook his head, trailed his knuckle against her neck. “After all this time, after everything we’ve shared—can’t you summon even a little faith in me?” He kissed her again, then turned and left.
Several moments later an officer stepped through the door. “I’ve been ordered to drive you to the hospital,” he explained.
“Yes.” She followed him out of the house, rode silently to the hospital and forced herself to bury all the questions and what-ifs in the back of her mind. There would be plenty of long lonely nights to go over it all again.
Brendan sat in the booth, wondering if she’d come. He was three days late meeting her and he could only imagine what she’d been thinking. Work had consumed every moment. In between he’d prayed.
“Sorry I’m late. It took me a few minutes longer than I’d expected.” She let him take her coat then slid in across from him. “Isn’t it cold out?”
He did not want to talk about the weather.
“I apologize that it took me so long to get here. I wanted to call you but—”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve been busy, too. A lot of the staff is out with colds and flu. Of course this is the season for it.” She accepted the cup of coffee a waitress brought. “The ski trip got canceled but we had Kyle’s party yesterday.”
“How did that go?”
She laughed. “He’s in love.”
Kyle wasn’t the only one. Brendan studied her face and felt the same old rush he’d been feeling for the past two months.
“We got some stuff out of Harry Redding. I was ordered to follow up on it.” He wasn’t interested in discussing business but it had to be done and he wanted it out of the way.
“What did you learn?”
“
El Jefe
is obviously the main man in this new setup, but how and why still isn’t clear. Redding is scared stiff to talk about him. Beyond that, I still have a lot of questions about Escalante’s death. Something seems off to me.”
“Oh.” She sipped her coffee, pretended interest. But Brendan could feel the tension emanating from her. Was she still afraid?
“Kyle and Madison are all right?”
“We’re all fine.”
“Ziggy didn’t suffer any complications?”
Her head lifted. “Ziggy’s fine, Brendan. But you didn’t ask me to meet you to talk about my son’s pet snake.” She lifted one eyebrow in a question. “Did you?”
“No, I didn’t.” He took a deep breath, reached across the table to grasp her hands. “Nothing’s changed, Chloe. I still care about you and the kids. I still want a chance to convince you that there could be something between us.”
She wouldn’t look at him so he switched tactics.
“My official job as protector might be over but I still want the right to watch over you, to be there, to share your life, and the kids. I love you, Chloe. That’s not going to change.”
She did look at him then, fat tears welling in those beautiful eyes. They dangled on the end of her thick lashes before tumbling down her cheeks.
“It’s not that easy, Brendan. I have strings, responsibilities I can’t duck. Which I wouldn’t, even if I could.”
“I’m not asking you to duck anything. I want to share them.”
“What if it didn’t work out? What if you found out that we aren’t the great deal you thought and you needed to leave? How could the kids deal with that?” She shook her head. “I can’t make them that vulnerable.”
“I’m not leaving. That isn’t going to happen. You’re just going to have to trust me on that.” He searched for a way to make her understand. “Loving you—that’s not some accident that happened to me.”
“But maybe—”
“There are no maybes in love, Chloe. Caring for someone means you decide you’ll be there, always, through good and bad. It’s a commitment you make to each other, a choice to stick with each other through everything that comes along. I’ve made my decision. I choose you. And Kyle. And Madison. And even Ziggy. No matter what.”
“What if you’re transferred? Or have to leave on a case and can’t get back for a birthday or something? What if you didn’t come back?” She swallowed hard, her voice wobbly. “Maybe it sounds silly to you but to me that’s very important. I have to be prepared for everything.”
“You can’t be, sweetheart. No one can.” He caught her tear
on his fingertip, kissed it away. “There are no guarantees in life, Chloe. Except one. God is always here, always with us, helping us get through whatever happens.” He lifted her chin until he could see past the shadows in her eyes.
“I love you. I’d like to plan a future with you and your kids, but if that’s too much for you to handle right now, I’ll settle for dating.”
“Dating?” She frowned at him.
“Yes. You know—go out together. You can get to know me better, and I can fall even more deeply in love with you.” He studied her beautiful face, felt his heart give that bump of confirmation. She was the one. “Maybe once we’ve gone out for a while you’ll be able to let your spirit go free from the fear and see what God has in store for you. Maybe then you’ll be able to trust me.”
“I do trust you, Brendan.”
“Then what—” He read the truth on her face. “I can guarantee that I’ll be late sometimes, Chloe. And that I’ll have to leave unexpectedly. That’s the way my life is. But it doesn’t mean that I’m dumping you or that I want out of loving you.”