Authors: Patricia; Potter

Tempting the Devil (46 page)

“Their whole wall of cards collapsed. Lou Belizeâa big drug lordâwas killed but not before he implicated James Kelley. Four of their shooters were killed. Two survived and they're talking. Ron Holland called Ames to warn him about the raid, and in his arrogance Ames called Kelley. Apparently thought he was immune from electronic surveillance. He's been arrested. They're all fighting to make deals.”

“The story?”

“All over the country.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. Her big story.

“I think there's still a lot of story untold,” he said softly, taking her hand.

“Have you been here long?”

“One day. Two nights,” he said. He looked out the window. “There's been a stream of visitors to see you.”

“I only want one,” she said, her fingers tightening around his. “And only one story I want to tell.”

He leaned down and kissed her, a touching of lips so light it was more like a soft breeze. “I'm kinda getting used to you,” he said. “I didn't realize how much until I thought I would lose you.”

“A reporter?”

“I suppose,” he said with that half smile that had always fascinated her. “If
you'll
have a cynical worn-out agent with hardly a penny to his name.”

She knew why now. Emotionally bankrupt? He was the richest man she knew. He had the biggest heart, even if he had tried to fence it with steel.

“Just try me,” she said. “As long as he kisses better than he did a second ago.”

And he did.

epilogue

A
YEAR LATER

The guest list kept growing, though all the intentions had been for a small wedding.

Small. Informal. Simple. That's what both Robin and Ben wanted.

Even then, Robin had three attendants, including Mrs. Jeffers, who served as her matron of honor. Being a matron of honor had been on her list. Another goal crossed off.

Considering what her neighbor had lost with good humor, Robin figured it was the least she could do. Her sisters, after hearing the story, had readily agreed.

Ben had only Mahoney as his best man. Carl Andrews, the former agent from Savannah, was among the invitees, though, and he sat with Dani Taylor, soon to be Mrs. Andrews. She had finished rehab nine months earlier and had remained free of drugs since.

Robin and Dani had become friends. After finishing rehab, Dani had moved to Atlanta, and Robin had helped her find a job with a recovery non-profit organization she'd featured in an article. Then Carl had started making frequent trips to Atlanta, and occasionally the four would go out to dinner together or have dinner at Robin's cottage.

“Ben doesn't give up on people,” Mahoney had said the night she was shot. Robin had realized in the past months that her quiet, intense, introverted FBI agent had a heart far bigger than he admitted.

It had taken nearly a year for him to propose, partly because he'd been so busy with the case. But he also insisted that she be sure of her feelings, that she wasn't feeling gratitude or simply the remnants of the intense adrenaline they'd shared. He still felt that the failure of his first marriage was his fault. “You have to know me,” he said. “I â¦ I have a hard time sharing feelings. It destroyed my first marriage. I want you to be sure.”

But he was wrong. He didn't have a hard time sharing, not once the barriers were broken. He protected. He gave. Not in superficial ways, but in the gut-deep meaningful ways. She'd known that in the beginning, and the next months only made her more sure. He was a caring man who'd created a hard shell to protect himself, and she saw more and more cracks as he helped Dani get a life back and helped Mrs. Jeffers build a new house and Michael Caldwell start again.

As for the Hydra case, they had been allies and opponents, she always wanting to know more than he could give her. She'd watched as one arrest had led to others. Lou Belize had been killed in the shoot-out at the safe house, but one of his companionsâto avoid a death sentenceâhad confessed, and the walls started crumbling.

Hydra had been moving a shipment of cocaine from a private plane owned by James Kelley to a van for distribution among smaller dealers in Altanta when the Meredith County officers accidently stumbled on them.

Unfortunately, one recognized Belize, who was a suspected, but never convicted, drug dealer, along with Meredith Chief Deputy Sheriff Paul Joyner. The sheriff, apparently, had not been involved with Hydra but was convicted of taking bribes over the past twenty years. He had initiatedâor continuedâthe systematic corruption that Hydra had exploited.

Those arrests led to others. James Kelley, largely due to Michael Caldwell's testimony, was recently convicted of numerous accounts of criminal conspiracy, tax evasion, and money laundering, and sentenced to forty years in prison. He turned on Joseph Ames to keep from spending his entire life in prison. Ames killed himself minutes before police arrived to arrest him.

Several Meredith County deputies were arrested as accomplices to a criminal conspiracy, and Sandy testified as to what he heard. He wouldn't be a coward again, he'd told her. He would always live with the regret he hadn't done more.

Because of his assistance in the case, Michael Caldwell received only a one-year sentence in a minimum security camp. He would leave this weekend. Carl had been in need of an accountant and, at Ben's suggestion, offered Michael a job in Savannah. A former crook to catch crooks.

As for herself, she'd won a year's worth of stories. A new headline every day. She'd won several regional awards for investigative reporting, and the paper had nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize.

Once that had been her dream. It still was a goal. But her dream now was a partner. A husband. A good and brave man to whom honor wasn't a word but a way of life.

“Time to go,” Star said.

She stepped out. Mrs. Jeffers started down the aisle, her legs a bit creaky but her head high and a huge smile on her lips. Robin's sisters followed, then she took slow steps to the strains of “Beloved.”

Ben looked grave. His eyes smiled, though, then his lips as she approached. Her heart swelled with love as he held his hand out to her and drew her close, to hell with the rehearsal instructions.

He leaned down. “I love you,” he whispered.

Her hand tightened around his. Those whispered wordsâthe smile in his eyes was the greatest award she could ever receive.

“Always,” she whispered back before turning to the minister.

About the Author

Patricia Potter is a
USA Today
âbestselling author of more than fifty romantic novels. A seven-time RITA Award finalist and three-time Maggie Award winner, she was named Storyteller of the Year by
Romantic Times
and received the magazine's Career Achievement Award for Western Romance. Potter is a past board member and president of Romance Writers of America. Prior to becoming a fiction author, she was a reporter for the
Atlanta Journal
and the president of a public relations firm in Atlanta. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

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

Cover design by Mimi Bark

ISBN: 978-1-4976-6296-4

This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com