Bombshell: A BWWM Billionaire Amnesia Romance Suspense Novel (19 page)

Chapter Thirty One

Jana spent every minute at the hospital during Merrick’s recovery. She also got to meet and become good friends with all of Merrick’s relatives, which consisted of a huge extended fourth generation Italian family, all from his Merrick’s stepfather’s side. She moved out of the hotel’s penthouse suite and into Mama G’s spare bedroom. Holly had moved in as well, and the two of them dealt with the odd events that had brought them to Atlantic City.

Jana saw Doctor Garcia every day until the doctor returned to her practice in Florida during the sessions, she went through some hypnosis, where she’d been forced to relive some of the most horrifying moments.

Merrick needed to stay in the hospital, but that didn’t stop him from putting down his foot, when the FBI tried to get Jana to fly to Misty Falls with them to help them identify the location of the house where she’d witness the snuff film production.

Instead, Merrick use his own money to hire a plane to fly over the likely areas and produce aerial shots. The video and still shots from the pilot were forwarded to Merrick and with Tony and a nurse present, as well as Special Agent Carson and one of her tech wizards, they wheeled Merrick into a conference room and they stared at hundreds of images hoping something would pop out for Jana. After several hours, they were starting to lose hope. Jana was beginning to doubt herself as well. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she’d imagined the whole thing. Maybe she hadn’t murdered a murderer.

“Are you alright?” Merrick said from his wheelchair.

“I just need some fresh air.”

Merrick wheeled himself next to Jana as she went to an atrium.

“What is it, honey?” he asked, concerned.

Jana was feeling guilty. She hadn’t told anyone that she’d murdered the sheriff in cold blood. Tony knew it. But, somehow, she doubted that he’d told Merrick. Merrick said he loved her, but how could he, if he knew? It didn’t matter; keeping that secret from him was eating her up inside.

“I killed him,” she said, more to herself than to him.

“What?”

“He was injured and he couldn’t hurt me anymore, and the police were coming—I didn’t have to kill him, but I did. I murdered him in cold blood. I’m a killer. How can you love me?”

Merrick got out of his wheelchair. Jana could see the pain of his face and tried to stop him, but he struggled to his feet.

“Come here, you,” he said and pulled her close. She made sure not to let her body touch his injured side. “You’re not a murderer; don’t say that. He deserved to die. You had no choice. You did what you had to do.”

For the first time since it had happened, Jana actually believed what he was saying. It wasn’t like she had had a choice, not really.

She cried in his arms until the tears stopped.

“I love you, Jana,” he said.

“I love you too.”

Jana insisted that Merrick return to this wheelchair, and they went back to the conference room. Two more rolls of video to look at, then they could go back to their lives.

As she looked at the footage, something caught her eye. “Stop, go back!” she said. The FBI technician reversed the footage a few frames. “There, see that yellow? That’s a school bus. I remember walking by a house with old school busses.”

The technician used the zoom and the image got bigger. Sure enough, the outlines of a yellow school bus peeked through the pine trees.

“Get the address,” Special Agent Carson ordered her technician, “Then get a team out there right away, and take the cadaver dogs.”

Chapter Thirty Two

Two days later, Merrick was scheduled to be released. He’d been out of the wheelchair and walking around the floor, antsy to leave the hospital and be with his girl.

Jana had been anxious about Merrick’s homecoming, and Tony had moved out of the beach house, so Merrick and Bombshell could have a place to themselves.

Per hospital rules, Merrick reluctantly got back into the wheelchair for the trip down to the front entrance. At Tony’s suggestion, Holly brought over a second wheelchair, and Jana amiably agreed to sit in it.

When they arrived on the bottom floor, Tony and Holly pushed Merrick and Jana, not to the front doors where she expected, but down a hallway.

“Where are we going?” Jana wanted to know. She looked at Merrick, who didn’t seem surprised at all. In fact, he was avoiding her gaze.
What’s going on?

At the end of the hall, Mama G. was standing in front of a large door. She pushed it open and waved the wheelchair caravan inside.

The room, a plain conference room, had been decked out with plants and bird cages, a table covered in white linen in the center. Jana’s heart flipped in her chest. It looked just like the garden room at the hotel, where she’d been with Merrick the morning Holly had shown up. There were no chairs, so Holly and Merrick were pushed so that they faced each other over the candlelit table.

Linda walked into the room, a huge smile on her face. She carried a tray and set it down in front of them. The largest, freshest, sweetest-looking strawberries Jana had ever seen swirled in white chocolate. Her mouth watered and her heart thumped in her chest.

Around her, the room began to fill up. She recognized everyone—people from the Hotel, all of Merrick’s cousins, everyone.

“Merrick?” Jana asked. “What’s going on?”

Merrick pushed himself out of his wheelchair and came around to her side. Holly turned Jana’s chair so she was facing Merrick. Tony and Holly both moved to the edge of the room as Merrick got down on one knee. From his pocket, he pulled out a small velvet-covered box. Jana’s throat went dry as her body went numb, her chest expanding to large she could hardly breathe.

“Jana Peters, Mona Lisa Van Dyke, Bombshell, and love of my heart, will you marry me, please?” he said. She stared at him, his sapphire eyes moist and round, pleading, wanting, needing her.

Any doubts Jana had about whether he could possibly love her considering her sins, flew out of her mind. She got up, pushing the wheelchair out of her way, and with a loud, “Yes,” she threw herself into Merrick’s waiting embrace, taking him by surprise and the two of them fell over and rolled onto the floor, laughing, kissing and loving each other as the room erupted into joyous applause.

Epilogue

Merrick and Bombshell, as he insisted on calling her, were married six months later in a tasteful but very expensive ceremony. Her name was legally changed to Jana Bombshell Flynn, and Holly was of course her maid of honor. Charlie and Joann flew out for the ceremony, and Merrick gave them the deed to their house as a thank-you for their help, and also because he didn’t need their services anymore.

The performance center he’d designed, which had once been his primary obsession, no longer mattered to him. He sold it to a rival casino owner for a very good price and let the man worry about finding the opening performer. Bombshell, it turned out, had no desire to be a star. Despite her amazing talent, she was more like him and had no desire to be in the limelight. When she told him that she’d only performed that strongly the night he’d seen her at the talent show because it was the only way she could think of to leave Misty Falls, he realized that the place was somewhere she never wanted to go back to again. Knowing that his cabin would only bring bad memories to his beloved wife, he put the place on the market and used the proceeds to buy a stunning waterfront home on St. Bart’s, a place Bombshell fell in love with after they went there for their honeymoon.

They lived together in the beach house and Tony got a permanent room at the hotel. Jana suspected, it was because Holly had taken a position at the casino, developing a Vegas style dance show, for their small theatre. But, Holly didn’t acknowledge that she and Tony were a thing. And Tony still acted like he was the playboy, but Jana had her doubts.

Six months after the wedding, Merrick and Jana invited Mama G, Holly and Tony over for a special dinner at the beach house.

“That was wonderful, Jana,” Mama G. said after they had eaten. Jana was so proud. Mama G was the best cook in the world, and Jana had tried so hard to make the linguine in clam sauce as perfect as it could be.

“Mom,” Merrick said in a somber and serious voice. “We have an announcement.”

He got up and stood behind Jana, who looked up at her gorgeous husband with love in her eyes.

“You’re going to be a grandmother, Mama G,” they both said together.

Holly squealed and Mama G grabbed her heart.

Everyone hugged everyone else. “Way to go, bro,” Tony said, slapping Merrick hard on the back.

Holly grabbed Tony’s hand. “We should go,” she said.

Jana saw the look of lust in her friend’s eyes. She could relate.

It had been days since she and Merrick had slept together, and Jana was horny as hell.

She ran upstairs as Merrick walked their guests outside. She dug out that negligee and threw it on the counter. She started the bath and dumped a whole bottle of bubble bath in it.

“Hurry up,” she said, trying to will the water to come out quicker.

She stripped out of her clothes and climbed into the tub, excitement and lust ripping through her entire body as the water and suds climbed up her skin. Tonight she was going to have all of him again, like that first time. They’d made love plenty since getting married, but he wouldn’t go all the way inside her. He held back, afraid to hurt her. But she wasn’t a fragile piece of glass. She was a grown-ass woman, and she could handle him, all of him—her body was made for him.

She wouldn’t take no for an answer, not tonight.

“Bombshell?” he asked as he entered the room.

“I’m in the bathtub, Merrick. Can I borrow your razor?”

He came into the bathroom, his eyes heavy lidded with desire. He started to hand it to her, but before she could take it he drop it, and it splashed into the suds.”

“Whoopsies,” he said, emulating her feminine voice.

Bombshell burst out laughing.

It was clear he knew exactly what she wanted.

And when he gave himself to her, he didn’t hold back. Filling her completely, making her his. As she screamed with the ecstasy that only he could give her, she felt the stir of the life inside her, and knew that all was right with the world.

The End.

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Mia Caldwell has been fantasizing about stories of "Happily-Ever-After" since she was a little girl, and now that she's all grown up her "Happily-Ever-After" stories have taken a steamier turn! After graduating from college, Mia still wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do with her life. Bored with her day job as an Administrative Assistant for a non-profit, she started writing stories on the side and sharing them with her friends. They gave her the push she needed to share them with you! She lives in New York with two rascally cats named Link and Zelda, eats too much chocolate and Chinese take-out, and goes on way too many blind dates. She's still waiting for Mr. Right, but in the meantime she'll keep dreaming up the perfect man!
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