Perilous waters, p.21
Perilous Waters, page 21
Jen rammed her shoulder against hers, slapped the window with her hand. “Let us out.” Jen knew that this was what Sam had feared. He’d never forgive himself if they didn’t escape.
“Let them go, Blake,” Aunt Martha pleaded.
Blake hit the gas and blew past the stop sign.
“You won’t get away.” Aunt Martha dived across his lap, jabbed at the locks. “I won’t let you.”
The car swerved across the middle line then veered back sharply, catapulting Cass into Jen.
“Get off me!” Blake flung his mother across the seat, sending her head bouncing off the passenger window.
“Aunt Martha!” Jen reached forward to help her.
Aunt Martha slumped back, looking dazed.
The thud of chopper blades pulled Jen’s attention to the window. She squinted at the logo emblazoned on the helicopter’s side—the news station’s. For the first time in her life, her heart danced at the sight. If the media could find them, the police wouldn’t be far behind.
In the distance, the swirl of emergency lights filled the road.
Blake slammed his brake, yanked the steering wheel a hard left and, muttering about Bellamy’s ineptitude, sped away from the waiting rescue vehicles.
Jen peered out the back window. Did they see them turn? Would they follow?
Blake cursed and whipped left on a side street they’d passed moments earlier.
A fire engine blocked both lanes.
“It’s Jake!” Cass pointed to a firefighter standing atop the engine, holding a hose aimed at the road.
Jen’s breath caught in her chest. Sam must have heard her directions over the button cam.
Blake pulled another U-turn, coming face-to-face with a massive helicopter hovering three feet above the highway, like in the movies. Was that Sam in the cockpit? Blake skirted his SUV around it, scraping its hood on the bird’s landing skids.
He gunned the gas, but two sheriff’s cars and an ambulance swerved around the corner and blocked the road. Blake ramped the ditch, flipped into four-wheel drive and rammed across the rocky field.
“You can’t do this!” Aunt Martha grabbed the wheel.
Together, Jen and Cass lunged for Blake’s arms, restraining him from stopping her.
Martha kicked at his leg, and he suddenly stomped the brake.
Jen scarcely stopped herself from pitching over the front seat.
The driver’s door burst open and Sam’s gaze slammed into hers. A million messages—relief, apologies, gratitude and so much more—zinged between them in the split second before he hauled Blake from the front seat, slammed him chest-first against the hood of the car and cuffed him.
Jake jogged over in full turnout gear. “You could have let him try to run, you know. I would’ve loved to turn the hose on him.” He opened the back door. “You ladies okay?” At their nods, he offered Cass his hand. “Let’s get you out then. This vehicle’s taken so many bumps we don’t want anything exploding on us.”
Sam handed Blake over to another officer and swept Jen into his arms. “It’s over. I got you.” His heart thundered against her own. “I was so afraid I’d lost you.”
Closing her eyes, she savored his words. Savored the protective circle of his arms.
“Let me check her over,” ordered a female voice.
Jen blinked at the petite brunette. “You look familiar.”
Sam chuckled. “Meet my spitfire cousin, Sherri. The one who saved the baby.”
Jake ushered Cass and Aunt Martha to the waiting ambulance. “Practically the whole family’s here. We’ve got a couple more cousins on the fire truck.”
Sam’s dad joined them and slapped Sam’s shoulder. “We have a couple in the police department, too. A family who’s there for you, no matter what.”
“Thank you,” Sam said, his voice hushed.
A tall man in firefighter’s gear shook Sam’s hand. “Glad we could help save your girl.”
Jen’s heart fluttered at the reference. Did everyone think their dating act was real?
Sam’s Adam’s apple bobbed as the man clutched his shoulder and added, “Don’t be a stranger.” The man turned and swallowed her hand in his massive one. “And you must be the special lady his mother can’t stop talking about?”
Sam’s father beamed from ear to ear.
Oh, boy, they had a lot of explaining to do. The thought sucked the joy out of Sam’s rescue. She didn’t want to explain. She liked being Sam’s girl. Being a part of a family that would call in the cavalry to rescue her.
“Okay, okay, Uncle Art.” Sherri shooed him away. “Let me finish checking her before the whole family bowls her over.” Sherri sat Jen on the ambulance’s bumper and wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm.
Sam’s gaze clung to hers, his throat still working overtime. “That was Jimmy’s dad.”
Knowing how healing his uncle’s words must be to him, how healing the support of his entire extended family must be, Jen’s eyes teared up.
Sherri ripped off the blood pressure cuff. “You’re sending her pulse through the roof, Cuz. Do you mind?”
A mischievous grin curled Sam’s lips. “Good to know.”
A stern-looking, silver-haired guy in a gray suit approached. “Sam, we’re transporting Blake Michaels. Johnson will bring you and the women in to give their statements. The mother will have to face obstruction charges.” The man glanced Jen’s way. “I guess your resignation still stands?”
Sam unclipped his FBI badge and slapped it into the man’s palm. “Yeah.”
“You resigned?” Jen gulped panic. “Because of the sniper? We cost you your job?”
“No, I chose to resign. My priorities have been screwed up for too long.”
“Uh.” Sherri hitched her thumb over her shoulder. “I’ll just be over here counting bandages...or something.”
Sam hunkered down beside Jen. “Can you ever forgive me?” He cradled her hands. “I never meant to hurt you.”
Distracted by his tender touch, the catch in his voice, she struggled to remember what she needed to forgive him for.
“I nearly died when word came that Blake had you. Nothing else mattered.”
Jen pressed her hand to her thundering heart. “What are you saying?”
“Remember on the ship, when you shared your dream for your future?”
Her throat dried. “Yes.”
“I saw myself in your dream. I saw our children. It was so real I could taste it.”
Her heart soared. Could God really be giving her Sam to love after all?
“And it terrified me.”
Her heart plummeted. “Oh.”
“You were still a suspect and I had a job to do and I let you get inside my head, my heart. But fighting my feelings was like fighting a tidal wave and I soon lost the will to fight it.”
The sincerity in his voice, in his eyes, spread warmth through every trembling inch of her body. “But I don’t want you to give up your job for me. I—” She glanced at Cass talking with Jake and his dad and a few others who looked like they might be related. She already felt like part of Sam’s family. And as wonderful as it would be to live nearby...God had shown her a better way. “I can go wherever you need to be, Sam.”
He dipped his head and pressed his lips to her hands. “I need to be here.”
The sweet touch of his lips, the sweeter sound of his words, flowed over her like a refreshing summer’s breeze.
“This past week with you, with my family, made me question much of what my job requires. I hated hiding things from you. You accepted me at face value, even when past experience had taught you that you shouldn’t. You can’t imagine how much I cherished that trust, and I hated myself for not being worthy of it.”
“You are the most honorable man I know.”
“I haven’t been all that honorable.” He drew her hands to his chest. “But I do love you. With all of my heart.”
“Oh, Sam—” The words clogged in her throat.
“The sheriff said there’s a job here for me, if I’m interested. And I can’t think of another place I’d rather be. What do you think?” He motioned to the surrounding countryside and then to his family, who were all watching them now. “Could you see yourself living here?”
“The family’s kind of a package deal,” Sherri warned from the side of the ambulance.
“Don’t you have a baby to deliver?” Sam growled.
“Sounds like you could use my help more. You’re supposed to be on one knee.”
Jennifer laughed at their arguing—the kind of good-natured ribbing she experienced growing up and yearned for again.
Sherri waggled a bandage at Sam. “And where’s that gorgeous ring your mom’s been raving about?”
Jen gasped. “You bought me a ring?”
He dug into his front pocket, dropped to one knee and presented the very ring she’d admired in the jewelry store in Ketchikan.
“Oh, Sam.” Her throat turned thick and prickly at the memory of what she’d put him through since that day.
He ducked his head, looking a little worried. “Jen, I don’t want this ring to remind you of the secrets I kept, but the day I told you the truth.”
Remembering his admonishment that day to cling to God, she traced his jaw with her fingertips. “More truth than you realize.” Her heart swelled in wonder that God had given her Sam, too. “I love you.”
He folded her in his arms and kissed her gently, sweetly. He tasted like sunshine and joy and forever. He rested his forehead against hers, and the love pouring from his gaze left her breathless.
Behind them, someone cleared his throat. “Was that a yes?”
“He didn’t actually ask her,” Sherri said in a stage whisper.
Sam’s lips curled into a heart-stopping smile. “Will you marry me?”
Jen flung her arms around his neck and tumbled into his arms.
“Looks like a ‘yes’ to me,” Jake bellowed, and the next second, Cass and Sam’s brother and dad and cousins and uncle swarmed them in a giant hug. “Welcome to the family.”
EPILOGUE
Two months later, Sam joined Jen and Cass for a farewell tour of their family’s gallery. After learning her parents’ true fate, Cass had decided she wanted out, too. And despite the spate of bad publicity, David Willis stuck by his offer to buy the place. More surprising, he opted to keep the name, probably thinking its newfound notoriety might bring in more customers.
“I am going to miss working here.” Cass whisked her fingers along the counter, blinking back tears. “But it wouldn’t have been the same without Uncle Reggie. I still can’t believe Blake hired Bellamy to kill Mom and Dad, and you, Jen.”
Sam clasped Jen’s hand and brought it to his lips, his heart clenching at the reminder of how close he’d come to losing her. “Thanks to Bellamy’s confession, at least Blake will finally get the punishment he deserves.”
“I’m glad the DA agreed to light sentences for Aunt Martha and Reggie,” Jen whispered. “The thought of turning in his own son had to have torn him apart as much as losing Mom and Dad had.”
“Perhaps, but Blake clearly didn’t feel the same about his father,” Sam said. “After slipping him a couple of roofies in Ketchikan, he stole Reggie’s phone and arranged that meeting with the two of you in order to frame him.”
Heaving a sigh, Cass strolled along the gallery walls and stopped in front of one of their mother’s prints. “What about that sweet man who bought mom’s painting at the auction? Was he really in on Blake’s operation, too?”
“Blake claims that smuggling the stolen painting was the old man’s idea and that he merely provided the means by convincing your uncle to contribute a couple of pieces to the ship’s auction. Your uncle’s purchase of the pen-and-ink drawing from the same gallery had apparently been a fluke. If we, I mean the FBI,” Sam corrected himself, lovingly tracing his thumb over Jen’s engagement ring, “can unravel his mob connections and convince Blake to testify against the guy, they may be able to close a few more art theft cases.”
Jen curled her arm around Sam’s waist and snuggled close, her warmth suffusing every corner of his heart.
He breathed a contented sigh, relishing the thought of holding her this way, every day, for the rest of their lives.
She tilted back her head, her soft gaze searching his. “Are you sure you’re ready to give up the FBI? Traveling the world? Taking down big-time—?”
He silenced her silly questions with a kiss—a deep, thorough, promise-sealing kiss. “The only travel plans I’m interested in making are for our honeymoon.”
He swept his fingers through her hair and cradled the back of her head, letting the love that filled him beam from his eyes. He grinned at the blush that bloomed on her cheeks. He probably shouldn’t be surprised that after dating men who were only interested in what she could give them, she’d worry he’d regret giving up his FBI career for her.
“Do you know how beautiful you are?” He let his hands drift to her neck, caressing the pulse point at her throat. “You showed me the way home. Being with you here, close to our families, maybe starting one of our own, soon—” he waggled his brows “—I can’t imagine any place I’d rather be.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from LANCASTER COUNTY TARGET by Kit Wilkinson.
Dear Reader,
Writing this story was a fun way to revisit the Alaskan cruise my husband and I took to celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Of course, we didn’t run into any bad guys, although my questions to the captain and crew members did raise a few eyebrows that suggested they might have been a tad concerned about me. If you’ve never been on a cruise, I hope the story has given you a pleasant taste of how delightful they can be. This trip was our first, but I hope not our last. Like both families in the story, we love to celebrate important milestones in special ways.
How about you? I’d love to hear about your special celebrations. You can reach me via email at: SandraOrchard@ymail.com or at Facebook.com/SandraOrchard.
To learn about upcoming books and to read interesting bonus features—including location pics—please visit me online at www.SandraOrchard.com and sign up for my newsletter for exclusive subscriber giveaways.
Sincerely,
Sandra Orchard
Questions for Discussion
Jennifer yearns for a man who will love her for herself, not her money or connections, but she has a poor track record of discerning her suitors’ true motives. If you were in her shoes, how might you assess whether a person’s overtures of friendship were genuine?
On the flipside, Jennifer fears being misjudged herself. After her parents’ deaths, rumors had made her life uncomfortable, and the press is always anxious for a juicy story about a wealthy heiress. But her fears compel her to remain mute about the theft she’s uncovered rather than risk damage to her family’s name. Have you ever been in a situation where the choice “to do the right thing” might hurt? How did you handle it? In retrospect, would you respond differently today?
Sam is tormented by his part in his young cousin’s death and out of a twisted sense of loyalty moves far away from his family rather than be a constant reminder of their loss. Do you struggle to forgive yourself, or others, for your, or their, role in a tragedy? What steps might you take to help restore the relationship and find healing?
Both the Steele and the Robbins families booked their Alaskan cruises to celebrate milestones in their lives. Do you do something special to celebrate such milestones? Why or why not?
Jennifer’s faith is strong, yet she grows to realize that she’s been looking to other people—a husband, a family—to give her a sense of completeness and to make her happy. Have you struggled with looking to others, rather than God, to satisfy and fulfill you?
Sam’s job sometimes requires him to be deceptive in order to catch criminals. Do you think deception in such cases is justified? Why or why not?
In trying to uncover who attacked Jennifer, Sam makes use of various tracking methods such as the cruise cards, surveillance cameras and credit card purchases ashore. Individual privacy is becoming increasingly encroached upon by such means. How do you feel about that? Do they make you feel safer?
After Jennifer spends time playing games with Sam’s family, happy memories of such times with her own family replace more recent, bitter memories of how the art gallery overshadowed their family life. What kind of memories are you creating with your loved ones?
Despite the evidence against her sister, Jennifer wants to believe the best about Cass. Do you tend to believe the best or the worst of others? Has your tendency left you burned or for the better?
Having one’s drink drugged is one of many dangers women may face when out in public. What steps do you take to protect yourself from opportunists?
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense story.
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