Love Inspired Suspense June 2014 Bundle 1 of 2: Undercover Marriage\Collateral Damage\Forgotten Past (52 page)

FIFTEEN

JT
wasn't sure how long he'd been sleeping when something awakened him. He'd fallen asleep in a chair in the study, his cell phone still clutched in his hand.

He sat up straight and listened. Nothing but silence. The house was dark. Then he heard it again. It sounded like footsteps. Impossible. The house was locked up tight. He'd made sure of it. The clock illuminated the time. Three-thirty in the morning.

Ollie came into the room and jumped onto his lap. Why wasn't the dog with Faith? He hadn't left her side all day. Ollie let out a low whimper. The poor little thing was shaking. Something had scared him.

“What is it, boy?” JT stroked the Pug's ears. The collar had worked its way up Ollie's neck. JT started to tighten it when he noticed something odd. There was an object stuck inside the dog's collar. It had a jagged edge and it had rubbed the dog's neck raw. JT took the collar off and examined it closely. What he found made his heart go ballistic. Someone had planted a tiny GPS tracking device inside the collar.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” JT set the dog down and then dropped the collar to the floor and smashed the device.

He started to dial his phone when he heard it. Heavy footsteps heading up the stairs. Toward Faith's room.

JT grabbed his weapon and slowly moved to the door. He'd left it open in case Faith needed him during the night.

His eyes adjusted to the surrounding darkness but still he saw no one. Then upstairs, a floorboard creaked.

He carefully moved into the hall and close to the stairs. He could see the door to Faith's room. It stood open wide. He'd partially closed it earlier when he'd checked on her.

JT took the stairs two at a time. Before he reached her room, someone slammed the door shut and engaged the lock. And at just that second, JT's cell phone shrilled to life.

* * *

“Wake up, Rachel. You and I have unfinished business.” At the familiar sound of his voice, she forced her eyes open. The room was dark, but she wasn't alone. He was there with her.

“Where are you?” It had been inevitable. She had been dreading this moment since that hot August night two years earlier.

“I'm here. I'm right here with you. For always.”

“No.” The word slipped out against her will. She didn't want to die. She'd lost so much. Fought too hard to live.

“No, Ben.”

His laugh held traces of the insanity her father had become aware of shortly before Ben ended his life.

“So, you finally figured it out. That's too bad. You should have kept taking your meds, Rachel. I went to a lot of trouble to manipulate Masters into keeping that prescription active. I wanted to protect you from those memories and you fouled it all up.” He stepped into a sliver of moonlight. This was not the Ben who'd been like a brother to her. This was her father's worst nightmare. She remembered their terrible argument. Her father pleading for her life. Faith's untimely arrival. Their deaths.

Someone yanked at her bedroom door. JT.
No. Please God, no.

Ben read all her fears. “You remember what I did to your father and that meddling friend of yours. She was going to report me to the police if your father didn't. She had no idea who she was messing with. I fixed it so she took the blame, but she wouldn't let it go. She squealed to your father.” Ben came closer. Terrified, she stumbled to the far side of the bed, but his fingers caught the edge of her gown.

JT continued to pound on the door.

“He's next, Rachel.” He laughed as she fought wildly to free herself from his grasp.

Ben slid across the bed and pulled her up against him. The cold blade of his knife nicked her throat. Only a tiny whimper escaped before she forced herself to relax.

“That's better. Don't worry. You'll be dead before he can help you,” he whispered against her ear.

“I'm sorry, love, but you have to die. You went to the police.” Ben's grip tightened on her. “It wasn't supposed to be like this, but you left me no choice. That's when I decided you had to die, and I'd already set up Phillip as the perfect patsy. He was so easy to control. I just had to dangle you in front of him and he'd do whatever I wanted.”

“Wha...what did you do?” she gasped, desperately stalling for time.

“I promised him he'd be with you and he jumped to fill the prescriptions. He even made those calls to you. He was already stalking you by that time, but when you left Austin after Carl and Faith died, he lost you. I told him where to find you. Thanks to Ollie's collar. I even told him what he should do to you each time.” His eyes gleamed with sadistic delight. “The candlelit dinner. The photo. He thought he was wooing you. Only I knew those things would send you running for your life.”

Ben laughed and it sounded maniacal. “I even made sure he wore the ski mask the night he broke into your house in Kansas. It was a nice touch, don't you think? I knew that even though you didn't remember him, you'd be able to recognize his height and build so that you could identify him one day.” He smiled smugly. “He had no idea I was setting him up to take the fall for the murders. It would have all worked perfectly if you hadn't botched it up by stopping the meds.”

Outside the door, it sounded as if JT put the full weight of his body against the door. It gave a little more and a tiny whimper escaped from deep inside her.

“You should have left things alone, Rachel. We could have been so happy if you had married me when I asked you. I loved you. We could have had it all. Your father's money. Our undying love.”

Her eyes darted to the door once more.

“Are you listening to me?” The knife nicked at her throat again. She could feel a trickle of blood slip from its edge and land on her arm. Ben's hand holding the knife was unsteady. He was almost completely gone now.

“I loved you, you spoiled little brat. We could have been so happy but you refused to move away from Daddy. Even when he threatened to have me arrested for stealing the money that should have been mine all along. The money
he
took from my mother. I should have killed you when I had the chance that night, but I couldn't because I loved you and I believed we could still make it work.” His voice trembled with rage. “It would have if only you'd kept taking your meds. In time, I knew I could convince you Phillip killed your father and Faith.”

The door shook underneath JT's weight and finally gave way. In a splinter of wood and metal, it shattered off its hinges and into dozens of pieces.

JT raced into the room. The knife tightened against her throat. From somewhere close by she heard the sharp repeated rap of gunfire. Saw the flash from the barrel.
Don't let it be too late.
Then the knife sliced across her throat. The world around her swirled into a familiar darkness.

The past repeated itself.

* * *

“I'm sorry, Faith. I'm so sorry you had to die,” Rachel whispered into the filmy darkness. Faith Davenport's life was cut short and Rachel's spared because of the affections of a madman.

She stopped fighting the pain. She'd been struggling to understand the past for so long and now she knew. She could stop fighting now.

The shrill of a siren blaring close by registered within her subconscious. Close by, someone spoke softly to her. Someone familiar. JT.

“Hold on, Faith.” He still called her Faith. Did he still believe she was Faith?

“No.” She tried to force the words out to explain.

“Open your eyes, Faith.”

“No.” Faith was dead and she wasn't who he thought her to be.

“I know it hurts, but the wound is only superficial. You're safe. It's over, Faith. It's really over.”

“No.” He didn't understand at all. It wasn't close to being over. It had only begun. She had only begun to remember who
she
really was.

Rachel opened her eyes. JT looked at her with so much love that she wanted to cry. It wasn't for her. He loved Faith. He didn't know who she was.

“Don't cry. I promise it will be okay.”

“No, it won't. It will never be okay again. I'm not Faith.” She spoke the truth aloud, yet his expression didn't change one little bit. It still radiated love.

“Faith...” Before he could finish what he wanted to say, the paramedics arrived to examine her.

“I'll be right here with you,” JT assured her.

She glanced away...because she didn't want him to see her cry.

“It doesn't appear to be serious. We'll bandage it. When we get to the hospital, the E.R. doctor will want to examine you further to make sure,” one of the paramedics told her.

“No.” She needed to be alone. The memories of her past had become like a tidal wave. She needed time to sort them out.

“Faith, they need to make sure you're all right. Let these people help you.”

“No. I don't want to go to the hospital.” Close by, Rachel could hear the blare of another siren growing faint as it disappeared in the distance. It was taking someone else to the hospital. Ben.

“Is he...?” Even though he'd caused her so much heartache, she still couldn't hate him. He was sick. Her father had known this. Carl wouldn't want his nephew to suffer no matter what.

“He'll live. The shot was clean.”

Will stopped next to JT and spoke in a low voice. “We're going to the hospital to wait for Ben Jennings to be released. Then we'll charge him with attempted murder to start with. With more charges certain to follow.”

“Good.” JT turned back to Rachel. “You're safe now. He's never going to hurt you again.”

“I just want to...” She wasn't sure what she wanted anymore.

“Let's get you inside. You should rest.” He brushed her hair away from her face, his fingers gentle against her skin. “Look at me.” The tenderness in his voice forced her to do as he asked. “I know you're scared. A lot has happened, but it's over. It's finally over.”

He waited a moment longer then lifted her into his arms and carried her back upstairs to her room.

“Rest now. You're exhausted. We can talk later. We have all the time in the world.” When she still didn't answer, he settled for a kiss before leaving her alone.

SIXTEEN

JT
couldn't believe no one had noticed it before. Ben Jennings had fooled everyone, including Rachel and Carl for a long time.

“Ben Jennings is one very disturbed individual.” Will called the second there was a break in the interview. “Now the mask is off and it's easy to see he's capable of murder. He admitted everything. He was right there on Hope Island all along, keeping track of Rachel's every move. He was the one who shot at you. He planted the truck at Rachel's house, hoping to get her to come outside. At that point, he'd made up his mind he had to kill her because she'd talked to you. He confessed he'd been watching her since she moved to Hope Island. He knew everything about you and what you did for a living and he panicked. He attacked you outside your house as well. He was calculating enough to use Phillip Masters's stalking of Rachel to his benefit. Unbelievable.” Will filled JT in on everything they'd uncovered so far.

As it turned out, Phillip had been struggling with schizophrenia for years. As long as he was on his meds he could function normally, but Ben had convinced him it was the medication that Rachel found repulsive, not him. It had been at Ben's suggestion that Phillip prescribed the drugs that helped to keep Rachel from remembering what really happened. Once JT came onboard, Ben got scared and realized he had to kill Rachel before she remembered what he did to her father and Faith. He planned to blame everything on Phillip. There was no evidence Phillip took part in any of the murders, but he had been stalking her for years and had continued to take part in her stalking along with Ben and at Ben's command. And Phillip did threaten Rachel with a knife so he would have to face attempted murder charges for what he did. The DA was hoping to gain his cooperation once he was back on his meds and more coherent. If he cooperated and testified against Ben, then he might get a lighter sentence.

“How's Faith—I mean Rachel—holding up? That's going to take some getting used to.”

“Yeah I know. She's confused.” JT couldn't imagine how hard it must be finding out you weren't who you thought you were for the past two years.

“Take care of her. She needs you, JT. We've briefed the Austin police. Once flights are able to land again, Detective Riley will come to Whaler's Point to interview Ben. We're holding him for the attempted murder of Rachel, but chances are the DA will approve his extradition back to Austin to face charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of Carl Jennings and Faith Davenport. Later on, the Hope Island DA will file murder charges against him for killing the two police officers.”

JT shook his head. He couldn't believe everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

“Oh, and get this, we found a pickup truck parked down the road from Mark's place registered to Ben Jennings. He had shoved the AK-47 under the front seat. We'll wait for the ballistics report, but I'm willing to bet it's a match for the one used on my officers as well as the attempt on you.” Will took a breath. “We were able to get his phone records as well. The calls he made to me all came through a tower in Maine. He's been here for a while. Tracking Rachel since she moved here. For that matter, since she left Austin, thanks to that handy tracking device he planted in Ollie's collar. That was pretty ingenious for a madman. Anyway, if we can match the weapon with the shell casings, we've got Ben Jennings on first-degree murder charges for the deaths of my two officers. He will be going away for a long time.”

JT pressed his lips into a grim line. “I still can't grasp what this lunatic was willing to do to keep Rachel quiet.”

“Yeah, I've never seen anything like this one. When you and I talked to Ben on the phone, I had no idea he was our suspect. He was certainly good at hiding his dark side. He changed the story to Faith being the one Phillip had kidnapped that night. If you hadn't had the forethought to get her fingerprints, we still might not know the truth.”

“It's amazing. He has all the makings of a serial killer. Who knows how far he might have gone to protect himself?”

“I'm just glad we caught him before he carried out his plan. I wish we could keep her out of it, considering what she's been through already, but we'll have to get Rachel's statement on the events of tonight and the Austin police will definitely want to talk to her now that she's remembered details from the Jennings and Davenport murders.”

JT had expected as much. “I know. Can you give her some time first? She's been through a lot tonight, not least discovering she's not the person she thought she was for the past two years.”

“I'll do my best. Take care of her.”

Outside, clear skies made it impossible to believe anything bad had taken place there that day. Upstairs, he could hear Rachel moving around. He knew what was bothering her. It would be almost impossible to convince her his feelings hadn't changed, no matter what name she bore.

He found her fully dressed, staring out the window in her bedroom.

“Is he going to be all right?” She didn't look at him when she asked the question.

“Yes.”

“He's sick. It wasn't his fault. My father knew something bad was going to happen. He tried to get Ben help, but by the time he reached out to him, it was too late.”

JT came and stood close to her. She still hadn't looked at him. He could see her reflection in the window. She looked so lost.

“It's over, Rachel. You won't ever have to be afraid again.” He tried to take her in his arms but she pulled away.

“It isn't. It isn't over, JT. It will never be over. Not fully.”

“I know this is hard for you. It must be terrifying to find out what you thought you knew about yourself isn't the truth. But you're not alone. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere.”

She shook her head. “You don't know what you're saying.”

“I'm saying I love you. I'm saying whatever happened in your past is just that. The past.”

“You don't love me.” She forced herself to face him at last. “You fell in love with Faith McKenzie. Not me. I'm not Faith. Nothing about her is who I am. I'm not the woman you think you fell in love with, JT.” She turned away.

“You're wrong,” he said quietly. “You
are
the woman I fell in love with, Rachel Jennings.” He turned her to face him once more and this time he didn't let her go.

“I fell in love with the woman who ran from me the first night we met. Who fought me every step of the way. The woman who taught me how to have faith again. And how to love again. The woman who changed my world for the better.” He cradled her face in his hands and gazed tenderly into her eyes. “I fell in love with your strength, your courage, your overwhelming desire to survive. I fell in love with
you
. Not Faith McKenzie. Not Rachel Jennings. The woman you are right now. And I'm willing to do anything, whatever you need me to do, to prove it to you.”

* * *

“JT.” She desperately wanted to believe him. She needed to believe she wasn't her past or the lies she'd been told. She was simply herself.

“I won't let you go, Rachel. I won't let you run away from the future I know we can build together. I won't let you do that.” The sincerity in his eyes melted away all her doubts. He drew her into his arms and there at last she stopped running.

“I don't want to anymore. I'm so tired of running. I want to stay with you.”

“Then do. God brought us together, Rachel. That in itself is something special. We'll go back to Austin if you like. We can discover the person you were there, or we can let that woman stay in the past and begin our life together from this moment on. We can do whatever you want to do as long as we do it together. And as long as you love me.”

Rachel pulled away a little so he could see the love she couldn't hold back any longer. “I do love you, JT. I love you, I love you, I love you—” His lips claimed hers, smothering her words. But it didn't matter. She planned to spend the rest of her life loving him, living the life she'd almost given up hope on having, and discovering who this new Rachel Jennings might be.