The Mommy Mystery (17 page)

“I love you,” Gabrielle heard someone say.

The voice seemed to come from far away, as if it were part of a dream. Or a nightmare.

She shook her head, trying to clear it of the jumble of sounds and images that were firing through her mind. Images of her brother trying to kill her.

Had Jay been the one to say “I love you”?

That didn’t seem right, especially since it wasn’t Jay’s voice. It was Houston’s.

She opened her eyes and saw his worried face…his
handsome,
worried face, she mentally corrected. He had his hand against her cheek and was staring at her as if he had expected the worst.

So had she. Gabrielle had thought that he might have been hurt, that Jay might have succeeded in whatever it was he had attempted to do in the kitchen.

She glanced around and realized she was no longer on the kitchen floor but in a bed. Houston’s bed.

“The doctor’s on the way,” Houston told her.

Gabrielle listened, and she did indeed hear the sounds of a siren. An ambulance, no doubt.

And then Houston kissed her. It wasn’t a soft, gentle
peck. It was filled with emotion, including some relief and more desperation.

Gabrielle didn’t think she needed a doctor. True, she had lost consciousness, but everything seemed to be working, including the pain around her throat where Jay had choked her until she passed out.

“Lucas?” she said, trying to get up from the bed.

Houston put her right back down on the bed and pointed to the door. There stood Lily Rose, and she had a sleeping Lucas cradled in her arms. The nanny hurried across the room toward Gabrielle.

“The baby’s fine,” Lily Rose promised. But the woman looked worried when she stared at Gabrielle. “You will be, too, right?”

“Of course. I already am,” Gabrielle told her. She caught on to Lily Rose’s arm and eased her closer so she could kiss Lucas. The baby shifted, arching his back, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile.

Gabrielle smiled, too. If her son and Houston were safe, then everything was indeed all right.

Well, maybe.

“My brother?” she questioned, looking at Houston.

He shook his head. “The sheriff has him downstairs. He’ll be arrested for attempted kidnapping and murder.”

“He did it for money,” she mumbled. That cut her to the bone.

“And because he was upset that you were here at the ranch.” Houston took a deep breath and glanced at Lily Rose.

Houston didn’t specifically ask the woman to leave,
but Lily Rose must have picked up on the nonverbal cue. “I should probably put Lucas to bed.”

“No,” Gabrielle insisted. “Leave him here with us. I don’t want him out of my sight right now.”

Lily Rose looked at Houston to make sure that was okay, and he nodded. The nanny gently placed the baby on the bed next to Gabrielle.

“I’ll be next door,” Lily Rose said, in a whisper. “Just call if you need me.”

Gabrielle hoped that wouldn’t be necessary. She was counting on a quiet, peaceful end to what had been a hellish night. First though, she needed to hear what Houston was apparently waiting to tell her.

“My brother?” Gabrielle prompted.

“I don’t know all the details just yet, but Mack called a few minutes ago. Jay had sent ransom notes to both Dale and my father before he broke into the house.”

That took a moment to sink it. “But how did he break in without tripping the perimeter alarms like Cordell did?”

“He literally walked up the driveway that leads from the road. There aren’t any security alarms to trip on the driveway.”

So Jay had taken the simplest approach, and at night there obviously hadn’t been anyone about to notice him. Plus, he would have known about the location of the alarms, since he used to work at the ranch.

“Jay used a jamming device,” Houston continued. “It wasn’t sophisticated. Something he could have bought from any one of a dozen stores in San Antonio. But it did the trick. It prevented us from making a nine-one-one call.”

It had, and it also showed premeditation. “So he didn’t plan to kill me?” Gabrielle tried to brace herself, in case she was wrong.

Houston glanced away and huffed. “The ransom was for Lucas. He’d planned to take the baby. But when he didn’t immediately find him, he took you instead. I think he was so angry with you that he snapped.”

Yes, he had. She’d stared into her attacker’s eyes, and she hadn’t recognized her brother in that monster who wanted her dead.

“It’s over now,” Houston promised. “Jay will be locked away for the rest of his life, and he won’t be able to hurt Lucas or you ever again.”

She nodded, and winced at the pain in her throat. Still, she didn’t want that pain to stop the conversation. Gabrielle had so many questions, including those first words she’d heard when she regained consciousness.

“I love you.”

Had she imagined those words?

“Jay shot himself in the arm before he came to the ranch earlier,” Houston went on. “He confessed to that. I didn’t listen to everything he was saying—I wanted to get you off the floor and onto the bed. But he said something about giving himself a superficial wound so he could try to lure you into going with him.” Because he wanted money. Or maybe his plan had been to kill her, even then.

“It doesn’t appear that my father and Dale had anything to do with this,” Houston continued. “We think Jay was acting alone.”

She thought back through all the horrible events of the past two days. “Even in the car crashes?”

“Yeah.” He paused, took a breath. “He could have just been trying to scare us.”

Or Jay could have been trying to kill them because he’d thought she had chosen Houston over him. Jay’s rage had ruled his senses, so he could have had murder on his mind. After all, if she were dead, Jay might have believed he could get the money from her life insurance.

“But just in case Jay had an accomplice or someone else was involved,” Houston explained, “the sheriff will investigate everything, including what went on at the Cryogen Clinic.”

That was good. An investigation would rid Houston of any lingering doubts and Dale and Mack’s guilt. But Gabrielle had no such doubts anymore. She knew Jay had acted alone. If the others had coerced him in some way, Jay would have given them up immediately. He would have tried to put the blame on anyone but himself. She knew that now.

Maybe she’d always known it, and it had taken this near tragedy to make her truly understand that she wasn’t her brother’s keeper.

“One of the deputies arrested Cordell for trespassing,” Houston continued. “I’ll make sure he understands he won’t be getting what Jay owes him from you. Also, the SAPD will take him into custody. They’ve already arrested his former henchman, and the guy is willing to take a deal to testify against Cordell for his part in the maternity hostage situation.”

Good. She didn’t want a man like Cordell resurfacing later. Gabrielle wanted her past behind her.

She reached up and touched Houston’s face to get his
attention. “I don’t want this to come between your father and you. Call him. Tell him that what’s past is past. And also tell him that he’d better not try to manipulate me again.”

Houston gave her a thin smile that didn’t make it to his eyes. “You’re generous.” He gave Lucas a gentle stroke on his arm when the baby squirmed.

“Reasonable,” she corrected. “He’s your father. Dale’s your friend and foreman. I think all of us could stand a fresh start, don’t you agree?”

Gabrielle thought maybe he did, because Houston kissed her again.

The sirens stopped, and the red, swirling lights from the ambulance pulsed through the bedroom window. It wouldn’t be long before the doctor arrived, and he would almost certainly want to take her to the hospital. She’d fight it. But in the end, Houston would win, and she would go to the hospital in the hopes of erasing some of that worry she still saw on his face.

Gabrielle wasn’t sure how to say this, so she just asked, “Did you tell me you loved me?”

Houston blinked, then shrugged. “Yeah. I just thought I’d go ahead and get it out of the way.”

Because her mind was still a little fuzzy, it took her a moment to work through that. “But you
do
love me?”

His gaze came to hers. “Absolutely. And it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the reasonable solution stuff I said earlier.”

Gabrielle nearly melted at the “absolutely” part. The rest was just icing.

She heard the footsteps on the stairs. Medics, no
doubt. But she grabbed Houston and pulled him to her for a kiss. “Good,” she said against his mouth. “Because I’m in love with you, too.”

When she pulled back from the kiss, they were both smiling.

The medics, three of them, stormed into the room, but Houston held up his hand. “Give us just one minute,” he said.

And much to her surprise, the medics stopped. What they didn’t do was leave. They stood there, gear in hands, waiting to whisk her away.

Houston leaned in, his mouth hovering over hers. He had his left hand cradled around Lucas, and his right hand was on her arm. Cradling her, too.

“Marry me,” Houston said. He didn’t speak it softly, either, and the medics must have heard him, because they started to whisper.

Lucas stirred, too, and his eyes opened. He looked at her, almost as if he were waiting for her answer. Houston was definitely waiting.

“No reasonable solution,” he repeated, perhaps because he thought he had to convince her. “I want the real thing. A marriage, a family, a home. And I want all those things with you, Gabrielle.”

But Gabrielle didn’t need convincing. There had been only three things in her life that she’d been absolutely positive about. One had been giving birth to Lucas. The other was the answer she wanted to give Houston.

“Yes,” she told him. “I’ll marry you.”

That time the smile made it to his eyes. And his kiss. It was the kiss of a newly engaged man who was ready to get on with his life.

Gabrielle was ready for that, too.

And the third thing she was absolutely positive about was that this was what she wanted forever.