Love Inspired Suspense June 2014 Bundle 1 of 2: Undercover Marriage\Collateral Damage\Forgotten Past (30 page)

Sarah hadn't considered any of this; what if they spent a summer in Jolly Mill getting to know one another better, and because of the gentleman he was, Nick asked her to marry him despite a lack of true love? He didn't know her anymore. The only thing worse than never having Nick in her life was having him there when she didn't know for sure he wanted to be.

“Will you stay?” Nick asked again.

It would be the hardest thing in the world to turn Nick away, but she refused to use Emma to lure him into a trap.

“We'll get him,” Nick said. “We'll get the killer.”

“But until then—”

“Until then we'll keep you and Emma as safe as if you were my own family. Because you are.”

“I can only deal with one life-changing situation at a time. If Emma and I stayed for the summer, I know how hard it would be for you to let her go.”

“Then don't leave,” he said softly.

“First things first,” she said. “I want to make sure no killer gets to Emma.”

“What about after we catch him?” He caressed her cheek, leaning so close she thought he might try to kiss her.

“As I said, first things first.” She forced herself to turn around and walk away. It was one of the hardest things she'd ever done.

TWELVE

N
ick was seated comfortably between his chattering daughter and her serene mother and staring into the soulful, love-filled eyes of Nina, who hadn't left Emma's side since being introduced to her. The Doberman had even followed Emma to the bathroom and waited outside until her new best friend came out. According to Edward, Carmen had bragged for months that she had the smartest dog on the planet. Tonight Nick believed it.

Sarah's nearness, the grassy-floral scent of her perfume—or maybe that was from the shampoo she'd just used when bathing in the guest suite—intoxicated him. He was exactly where he wanted to be, and he'd never expected to experience such overwhelming joy combined with such a bittersweet ache. Sarah was withdrawing.

And now the very child to whom he'd been introduced last night was in harm's way. But he couldn't imagine a place where she would be more protected than here in Carmen's fortified home with an attack dog trying to crawl up into Emma's lap for a cuddle—she'd done it once already—and with alarms at every door. And with men from the town circling the house.

Across from the sofa where Nick enjoyed the company of two beautiful young women, he faced Dad and Carmen, who sat together on a pretty yellow love seat. Carmen and Emma chattered nonstop, sharing, as they did, the same gregarious gene.

Was there a single person in this room besides Emma who couldn't see the way her eyes and her chin matched Dad's? Carmen had recently decorated using a picture on the wall of herself and several friends, including Mom, teasing and acting goofy for the camera. Had Emma not studied that picture closely? Or the photos of Nick with Mom and Dad on their own walls at home?

Of course, why would she be looking for similarities? She'd been raised to believe she was a Russell daughter.

Lynley Marshal—an old classmate of Nick's and Sarah's—sat with her mother, Kirstie, at the kitchen table with Nora, the three of them talking softly among themselves. Every so often they glanced toward Emma. Every so often, Carmen would catch Nick's gaze and wink, then nod toward Sarah.

Obviously, Carmen had somehow guessed.

He caught his father's gaze when he could distract him long enough from Emma. Dad smiled, nodded, and the smile remained, grew tender, as his attention once again shifted to his granddaughter.

A flash of light swept across the front windows, and Emma stiffened next to Nick.

“Don't worry. Alec's outside with Chapman,” Nick said.

Emma nodded. “Edward's fishing buddy.”

“Yep. He owns a lot of the land around here, and he's got a couple of cousins with him. I'm getting ready to take my shift in a few—”

Headlights swung into the driveway and the quiet purr of an engine died. All grew silent for a moment.

Sarah stood up. “I recognize that sound. John's here. Finally.”

Nick stood with her. “We'd better get out there and warn everyone before he gets attacked by friendly fire.”

She rushed to the front door, then into the arms of a man as tall as Nick, with short, auburn hair and a relieved smile. Nick suppressed a surprising twinge of jealousy. Cousins. They were cousins. John Fred Russell, the police officer from Sikeston, wore old tennis shoes, cut-off denims and a ragged T-shirt that didn't conceal the breadth of his shoulders or his movie-star looks. No wonder Emma wanted him to meet Lynley Marshal. Every woman in this room would want him to meet Lynley.

“Did you bring the albums?” Sarah asked her cousin as she released him and ushered him inside.

“In the car. Wanted to see Emma and whup the stuffing out of her first.” He said it loudly enough for Emma to hear. Nick couldn't miss the affection in the man's eyes.

“Hey, you're not the police here.” Emma jumped up, obviously too fast, and wobbled.

John rushed forward to catch her as Nick grabbed her from behind.

“I'm fine.” She giggled. “But that proves you can't whup up on me. Nick says if I hit my head again I could die.”

John sobered. He slowly released her and met Nick's gaze. “So this is Dr. Tyler.” He held out a hand and Nick shook with him while they sized one another up in gentlemanly fashion. John nodded, as if satisfied, and glanced at Emma with a smile.

No missing the meaning in that expression. Officer John Russell, Sarah's cousin and confidante, knew everything. Nick could only hope Sarah had warned him not to tell Emma yet.

Emma took control of her cousin and introduced him to Dad and Carmen. Without a word being said, Nora, Kirstie and Lynley joined the group in the living room and surrounded John like a pack of hungry—

No. They were simply showing their southern Missouri hospitality. Watching from the sidelines, Nick was struck by a shock wave of memories as old friends met new. John had a heavier accent than the others—he could have been born and raised in the Deep South—but he had a serious, kind demeanor, and didn't seem to notice that everyone in the house was urging Lynley toward him until Nora blatantly explained that Lynley had just earned her doctorate in nursing and had been so busy she hadn't had time to get married. And then Emma explained, just as blatantly, that John's beloved wife had passed away six years ago in a drunk driving accident, which was what made him decide to become a policeman.

Then, of course, Carmen and Kirstie moved in for the kill—John didn't know they already had him married with children in their minds—and Nick couldn't resist a smile. Old habits. Some things never changed. He took comfort in that and thought about Alec's request for him to consider working at the clinic. What if he did? Sure, he loved the serenity of lawn care, but a guy couldn't just blow off a dozen years of hard work and study to risk melanoma and mow lawns for a living. Besides, when he was in a healthy frame of mind—unlike the past couple of years—he loved working with patients.

He'd always known he would return to the medical field, but not in the city, and not on an assembly line of patients. He wasn't a greedy man, didn't want to become wealthy. He just wanted a quiet life, time to treat patients thoroughly and a family to come home to at night.

He glanced at Sarah, who stood watching their daughter with such unreserved love in her eyes that he imagined he felt a hard thump in the region of his chest.

But he couldn't act on impulse. They needed time. Lots of time. After sixteen years of zero direct communication—except for the constant reminders about her from his parents—one day of reacquainting himself with her was enough for him to know he wanted to be in her life again, but what he wanted and what would happen could be completely different.

Sarah stepped over to him and took his arm. “Come with me. I want to show you and Edward and Carmen...” She glanced toward Emma, then leaned up and whispered into his ear. “And everyone else what you should have been able to share with us for the past sixteen years.” She looked over at John, who was surrounded by admirers. “Hey, cuz,” she called. “Your car door unlocked?”

John nodded and waved her away as Nora, Kirstie and Carmen all tried to talk to him at once, and Lynley, for once, stood far from the middle of the group, shyly observing.

With a chuckle, Sarah led Nick outside where Alec stood watch. Gerard pulled up, parked in front of the house and got out.

“Any news from the Collinses?” Nick asked Gerard.

“Just spoke with the judge. His wife was afraid to tell me earlier, but Cindy told Chaz she discovered holes poked in the gas line that fed into the building. He was doing some follow-up after the second explosion when he started getting calls. That was when he stopped telling his mother anything. The sheriff couldn't get anything out of him, and neither could the rural fire chief, but when Mrs. Collins took it upon herself to go looking for the pipes leading into the conference center, they'd been removed. I checked for myself, and any footprints had been wiped clean in the cellar.”

“What about the scent?” Nick asked. “Did you catch anything like that?”

“I did indeed.” Gerard leaned his elbow against John's red Chevy sedan. “I take it your cousin got here, Sarah?”

“He's inside being married off to Lynley as we speak,” Sarah said. “What scent?”

“Cinnamon, as we'd suspected, but that wasn't all. Seems the building was constructed over a sinkhole. Some of the boards were loose, and I caught a strong scent of cooking smells, so I lifted a few of the boards. Doesn't appear that I was the only one doing that recently.”

Sarah tapped Nick's arm. “The cave.”

Nick nodded. “I'd forgotten.”

“What're you two talking about?” Alec inched closer to them.

“Remember when we got into trouble for exploring the cave?” Sarah asked.

“You and Nick were always climbing around down there until you found some old skeletons that some forensics guy dated back to about the mid-eighteen-hundreds.”

“You're kidding me,” Gerard said. “You two made history?”

“Just discovered it,” Sarah said. “The cavern had some dangerous drops, so the powers that be had concreted the main entrance—”

“Those powers being Chapman and my mother,” Alec said.

Sarah shrugged. “So we found another way in.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Gerard chuckled. “You two seemed to be something of a legend in these parts.”

“We found one passage that led down beneath the creek,” Nick said. “It was wet going, but we found a grate over the basement of my uncle's restaurant.”

“That was the day we got caught,” Sarah said. “Nick pushed the grate out, and his uncle Will just happened to be working down there. We never followed the passage to the other end. What if it comes out in the conference room cellar?”

“I didn't follow the cavern far,” Gerard said, “but it looks well-used. You might want to ask your cousin about it.”

Nick nodded to Alec. “What do you think?”

“He and his crew catered that retreat, didn't they? That would've placed him in the right place at the right time.”

“I'm not talking about what you want to believe.” There was a suspicious edge to Gerard's voice.

Nick felt a tightening in his stomach.

Alec scowled at Gerard. “I'm surprised you haven't dug into my past.”

“Who says I haven't? I found a man who wouldn't risk his family businesses for restitution against a small-town church pastor he believed failed him.”

“Oh, he failed my mother and me, all right, and she suffered dearly for it.”

Sarah gasped as if she'd been punched in the stomach. Nick's arm circled her shoulders, and she leaned into the comfort they offered.

“Alec,” Nick said, “I don't believe Nora would have raised you to speak ill of the dead, especially now, in front of Mark's daughter.”

Alec rubbed his eyes, head bowed. “Sarah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean—”

“I remember you quit attending church a few months before we moved to St. Louis,” she said. “Nora was obviously upset about it, but neither of you ever said why.”

“Mom didn't know why. Your father did, though.” The barest thread of sadness filtered through Alec's voice. “Now she'll always be a suspect in the eyes of the town.” He looked at Gerard. “Thanks to you.”

“I didn't reveal your family secrets,” Gerard said. “And I don't think the town discovered anything new about Nora that they didn't already know. She's a strong woman who will fight to the death for her own life or the life of a friend.”

Alec shook his head. “You wanted what you wanted, and that was the rehab center on the hill. You got it. My mother paid the price.”

Nick's arms tightened more firmly around Sarah's shoulders. “You two are getting off the subject. Alec, you're still angry with Gerard because he outsmarted Nora when she tried to block the zoning change for his rehab center. We all know you wouldn't have killed his nurse to get even.”

“You know me better than that.”

Sarah gently shrugged from Nick's embrace. “Is someone going to tell me what you're talking about?”

Alec closed his eyes and shook his head, then turned his back to everyone. “I saw my father shoving my mother during one of his drinking sprees. I'd seen bruises on her arms before, and once, when I accidentally walked in on her dressing, there was a bruise on her back. I did what any Christian kid my age would do—I went to my pastor for help.” He spat the words as if he'd tasted poison.

Sarah swallowed. She knew there'd been times in her father's life when church members seemed to think of him as God Himself. But Mark Russell was just a man who did the best he could and tried hard to help as many as possible. “He wasn't able to help you?”

“Oh, he tried.” Alec's voice broke. “He spoke to my father, tried to run interference, and got a black eye for his trouble. My father? He just got meaner. That's when I lost faith in Mark Russell, and I thought I lost faith in God. I never had a chance to reconcile with Mark.” He looked back at Sarah. “I'll always be sorry about that. My mother and I were both devastated by the deaths.”

“What about God?” Sarah asked. “Have you reconciled with Him?”

“We're working on it, okay?”

“Well, you're off the hook with me, anyway,” Gerard said. “A man newly in love isn't likely to go around hurting people in a grudge match.”

“But the Russells and the Tylers were loved in town,” Alec said. “I don't know of a soul around here who would've held a grudge against them.”

His words seemed to echo what others believed. But they were all missing something.

“You know what?” Alec said. “No one's going to try anything tonight with so many others here. I think I'll head out and surprise my girl.” He chuckled, but it sounded forced to Sarah. “She tends to be the jealous type, and the thought of me hanging around here with all these beautiful females is about to drive her nuts. I'll check back in later.”