Shiver (44 page)

“I’m sorry about Abramowitz,” she said, and he nodded in acknowledgment.

“He was a good man.” He glanced around, lowered his voice. “Goddamn FBI. Glad this mess is their screw-up and not ours, though.”

“You know that you weren’t guarding the real Rick Marco, right? His name is Danny Panterro. He’s an FBI agent.”

“We just got filled in.” Sanders’s tone was sour. “Not saying I’m happy with your boyfriend, mind you. I don’t like that we were duped one bit. But at least he’s a cut above the real dirtbag.”

“Is Trey your boyfriend now, Mom?” Tyler piped up, looking at her with interest and hope and a whole host of other things in his eyes. Sam was once again reminded of how true the saying was about little pitchers and big ears.

She sighed, admitted to it, and told him who Danny really was, along with a highly edited version of what he had been up to since he’d entered their lives.

When Danny joined them, in a guarded hotel suite hours later, Tyler had walked into Danny’s arms right along with Sam.

“I brought you something, buddy,” Danny had said when he let them go, and reached into his pocket to pull something out: Tyler’s teddy bear. It had been in her pocket, Sam remembered, and realized that she’d lost it in the crash. Danny must have found it up there on the mountain and brought it back for her son.

“Ted!” Tyler grabbed the bear and hugged it, beaming at Danny. Sam smiled at him. Bringing the bear back was a small
gesture, but it told her that he knew what it meant to Tyler—and cared.

“I love you.” She mouthed the words at him over Tyler’s head.

“I love you, too,” he responded, and didn’t bother to mouth the words.

Later, when Tyler and Sam had arrived back in East St. Louis to find that their duplex was still a crime scene, Kendra had invited them to stay with her. Which had worked for Sam: no way was she going to be able to face living in that place for even one more night, she had discovered as soon as she saw it again. The memories were still too fresh, and still too horrific. Anyway, they had other interesting options, and she had decided to explore them.

Because you only live once, right?

So here it was, 6:00 p.m. on a Saturday, and Tyler was expecting someone special. Sam was, too, and she had dressed accordingly: in a deep blue silk dress she had borrowed from Kendra. They were the same size, same height, same age. The only difference was that Kendra had hazel eyes and blond hair that she wore straight to her shoulders. But as for swapping clothes, well, they did that all the time.

When the car pulled up at the curb across the street, Tyler, still hanging out the window, let out a yell.

“Trey!” he shrieked, waving wildly.

Sam and Kendra, both of whom had also been waiting, although they hoped not as obviously as Tyler, looked out the window, too.

Dressed in a dark suit and tie because they were going to dinner in some fancy place he’d booked across the river in the big-time St. Louis, looking so handsome he took Sam’s breath, Danny was crossing the street. He was waving at Tyler, and as he saw Sam and Kendra looking out at him he grinned.

“Oh, my,” Kendra said, impressed.

“Told ya,” Sam said smugly.

Tyler was already tearing out of the apartment. Really, the dignified thing to do would be to wait, but Sam found she couldn’t. She headed for the door, too, and ran down the stairs in Tyler’s wake.

Danny already had an arm around Tyler as she met him at the downstairs entrance. As she approached them he gave her a classic male once-over, and grinned.

“You look gorgeous.”

He held out his other arm to her, and when she walked into it pulled her close for a kiss. The quick kiss hello she’d meant it to be was turning into something a whole lot hotter when she recollected Tyler, and Kendra, and broke it off.

But from the way Danny grinned down at her, she knew her cheeks were pink.

“So you guys all packed?” Danny asked as he escorted them inside.

See, they were moving to the D.C. area next week. To live with him. Because he said he loved them both, and because they loved him, and because Tyler was over the moon at the prospect, and Sam wanted to give it a try. She was going to sell Big Red, and use the money to finish up her EMT classes fast. That, plus
a scholarship Danny’s friend Mayhew had hooked her up with as, in his words, a
thank you
for her service to the FBI, meant she didn’t have to be financially dependent on Danny, and he didn’t have to feel responsible for Tyler and her.

She had been excited and a little scared when she had realized that the only thing that was left to bind them together was love. He’d asked her to marry him, and she was thinking about it.

Maybe she would, one of these days.

Because hard as it was to get her head around, maybe she was starting to believe in happy endings after all.

THE BANNING SISTERS TRILOGY

Shameless

Irresistible

Scandalous

OTHER TITLES BY KAREN ROBARDS

The Last Victim

Sleepwalker

Justice

Shattered

Pursuit

Guilty

Obsession

Vanished

Superstition

Bait

Beachcomber

Whispers at Midnight

To Trust a Stranger

Paradise County

Ghost Moon

The Midnight Hour

The Senator’s Wife

Heartbreaker

Hunter’s Moon

Walking After Midnight

Maggy’s Child

One Summer

Nobody’s Angel

This Side of Heaven

Green Eyes

Morning Song

Tiger’s Eye

Desire in the Sun

Dark of the Moon

Night Magic

Loving Julia

Wild Orchids

Dark Torment

To Love a Man

Amanda Rose

Forbidden Love

Sea Fire

Island Flame

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Karen Robards

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