Military Grade Mistletoe

by Julie Miller

  “Liar!” He whipped her around, roughly clasping his face between her hands. She obliquely wondered what had happened to the cell phone and if losing track of it meant the bomb was going to go off any sooner. But she had a more immediate problem with the hands sliding down around her throat and the crazed anger in Eddie’s eyes. “You confided in me. It was only a matter of time before you turned to me for something more. I encouraged Angelo’s little crush on you because I knew it would bother you and you’d come looking for a man. For me. But then Soldier Boy came to town.”

  “Ed...die,” she gasped.

  His hands tightened around her throat. She didn’t think he was strangling her on purpose, but he was so angry. He was beyond listening to reason. He was impervious to the scratch of her fingernails on his hands, begging him to free her. “Suddenly he’s doing everything for you I’m supposed to. I was outside your house last night. I saw you go up to his room. You slept with him, didn’t you?” She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Incensed, he threw her away from him. “I knew it. You’re a traitor. But I forgive you.”

  For once, she relished the cold, hard concrete because it meant she was free. For the moment. Daisy coughed her bruised airways clear and scooted away from Eddie’s advance. “How did I betray you? I’ve always loved you as a friend.”

  “But you’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” Even if no one else ever heard it, she was going to state the truth. “I love Harry Lockhart.”

  “I’ve shown you real love.”

  Her fingers brushed against the bomb and she screeched and rolled away. “Do you think I want a man to treat me like all those pictures? They scared me to death.”

  “They’re love scenes.”

  “That isn’t love. That’s...a sickness.” The pile of fallen chairs blocked her escape.

  The anger left his tone, but the crazy remained. “That’s how I think about you—about us—every night. I’ve loved you from that first night we were together.”

  “Drinking coffee,” she reminded him, scrabbling to get to her feet. “Having a conversation. We have never been together.”

  “Stop fighting me on this. We are meant to be together. Always.” He glanced away to look at the numbers ticking away on the bomb. “In another eleven minutes, we will be.”

  She had eleven minutes left to live? She’d fought off Brock and his knife, how did she fight a bomb? “How does the bomb work? When it reaches zero, it’ll explode?”

  “A small charge will blow out the stopper between the tubes. Then the chemicals will mix. Very volatile.” He pulled her phone from the pocket of the jacket. “Or I can dial the number and detonate it sooner. Would you like that? It will be quick and painless, I promise.”

  “You’ve blown people up before?”

  He smiled. “Such a wonderful sense of humor.”

  “I don’t feel like laughing. Please, Eddie. Let me go. Let me get you some help.”

  “You’re not leaving me.”

  Daisy dreamed she heard scratching outside the door. Fate coming to get her this time, she supposed. “What if I promise to come back? After you shut off the bomb and I know everyone is safe, you and I will sit down and talk.”

  “Liar! You’ll go back to him.” He reached for her again. “You’re mine!”

  The door behind Eddie slid open with a mighty shove. “Caliban, Fass!”

  Attack.

  A blur of black and tan charged into the room and lunged at Eddie’s outstretched hand. Caliban clamped down on Eddie’s forearm and knocked him to the floor. His fist hit the concrete and the cell phone skittered out of his grip. Eddie screamed. “No!”

  Barely a step behind the attacking dog, Harry filled up the doorway, following the aim of the gun he held between his hands. “Down on the ground! Hands where I can see them!”

  There was no time to feel relief or love or even fear of the one-man attack force looming over Eddie and taking charge of the room.

  “Get the phone!” Her cell skittered away beneath a rack of chairs as Eddie and the dog struggled. She dove for the floor and stuck her arm beneath the rack, groping for the phone. “Don’t let him push any numbers!”

  “Damn it, Daisy. Stay back!”

  “He can set off the bomb if he calls the number.”

  Eddie shrieked at the fangs sinking into his forearm and shaking him. “She’s mine. You can’t have her. She loves me.”

  Her fingers closed around the phone. “I’ve got it.”

  “Get behind me!” Harry ordered, moving between her and the dog and man wrestling and growling and screaming on the floor. “I’m going to call off the dog and you stay down. Understand? Do you understand?”

  “Yes. Call him off.”

  “Caliban, Hier!”

  The three-legged dog released Eddie and trotted back to Harry’s side. Bloodied and dazed, Eddie reached into his pocket and pulled out his own cell phone. “She’s mine!”

  Harry knocked that phone to the concrete, crushed it beneath his boot. He smashed the butt of his gun across Eddie’s face and knocked him out.

  His big chest heaved with deep breaths as he grabbed her arm and pulled her close. His eyes were focused squarely on the bomb. “Are you hurt?”

  “Not much.”

  “Stay behind me. I want my armor between us and that explosive in case it goes off early. We’re backing out of this room.” Daisy willingly latched on to the back of his vest and moved away from Eddie and the bomb. Part of her wanted to ask Harry why he was here. How had he known she needed him? How had he found her? Was he okay? Was this whole scene triggering the worst of his nightmares again? But she didn’t ask any of those questions. The aim of his gun at the man on the floor never wavered. “Caliban!” As the dog loped out into the hallway with them, Harry turned his mouth to the radio on the front of his vest. “This is Lockhart. Hostages are secure. Move in! Move in!”

  “Albert!” Daisy hurried over to the young man who was sitting on the bottom step and hugged him in her arms. “Are you all right? I was so worried.”

  Harry was still talking into his radio, giving information. She heard an invasion of footfalls in the lobby above her, and suddenly two men in full battle gear were charging down the stairs. Another man and woman with rifles and SWAT armor came down the stairs at the opposite end of the hallway, converging on Harry’s position.

  “You’ve got just under eight minutes.” Only when the four uniformed officers entered the storage room did Harry move. He holstered his gun and cupped her elbow, urging her onto her feet. “We gotta go, honey. Clock’s ticking.” He pulled Albert to his feet and bent to lift the young man over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. “Up the stairs and out the front door. Don’t stop moving ’til I tell you.”

  She nodded and climbed the stairs, with Harry and Caliban following close on her heels. When they reached the lobby, she saw another officer helping Coach Riley out the door. There was blood matted in Bernie’s hair. Apparently, Eddie had knocked him out, too. He’d probably been faking the radio conversation with Bernie that she’d overheard. “Is he okay?”

  She felt Harry’s hand at the small of her back. “Keep movin’, honey. There’s still a bomb and we aren’t safe. Take a right.”

  As soon as she hit the cold air outside the door, another officer ran forward to guide her through a line of armed responders and emergency vehicles toward the group of ambulances that were waiting in the parking lot. Even carrying Albert on his shoulders, Harry stayed close enough that she could feel him blocking the winter wind at her back.

  A few minutes later, she was sitting in the back of an ambulance again while an EMT checked her vitals and crushed up an ice pack for her to hold against the knot on her head. She gasped when the back doors opened. Harry. Before she could say anything, he patted
the floor of the ambulance. “Hopp!”

  Her startled frown turned into a delighted smile when Caliban jumped up into the ambulance.

  “Sir, you can’t—”

  “Come here, good boy.” Daisy dropped the ice pack and welcomed her three-legged dog onto the gurney beside her, scratching all around his ears and kissing the top of his head as he rested his graying muzzle on her thigh. “I’m so glad you were there for Mama today. What a good, good boy.” Because of this dog, she was alive. She tilted her aching head up to Harry. Because of this man, she was alive. “Is it over?”

  His gray eyes reflected the bright morning light. “All except for the cleanup. The bomb was easy to defuse. A matter of disconnecting wires.” His battle-scarred face was lined with concern as he studied her. “A hazmat unit is going in now to deal with the chemicals. KCPD has taken Bosch into custody.”

  Tears stung the corners of her eyes. She hadn’t cried once when Eddie had touched her, hurt her, threatened her life. But she was about to bawl just looking at the man she loved so much.

  “Give us a minute, will you?” Harry asked.

  The EMT nodded and climbed out of the ambulance as Harry climbed in.

  Harry picked up the fallen ice pack and sat on the other side of Caliban, reaching over the dog to hold the pack in place at the crown of her head. “Are you really in one piece?”

  “Nothing a hot shower won’t cure.” She slipped her hand over Caliban’s back to grasp Harry’s thigh. “Thank you. Eddie was...” She couldn’t fathom how skewed that man’s brain must be to think that he loved her and that killing her was his idea of the two of them being committed to each other. A hot tear spilled over and trailed down her cheek. “I really attract the crazies, don’t I?”

  Harry wiped the tear away with the pad of his thumb. “I’m not going to be one of them.”

  A tiny knife of guilt stabbed her in the heart. She reached up to cup the side of his jaw. “I didn’t mean you.”

  “But you’re worried that me suiting up and coming after you may have triggered another episode. It didn’t.”

  “Are you really okay?”

  He shrugged and her hand dropped away. “Okay enough.”

  “What does that mean?” She turned to face him. “Harry, you have to know that I have feelings for you. As relieved as I was to see you coming through that door, I would never want to do anything to set back your recovery.”

  “You didn’t do a damn thing. Bosch and no one else is responsible for what happened to you and Albert and Coach Riley today.”

  “Albert!” She pushed Caliban’s head off her leg and tried to stand. “I need to find out if he’s okay.”

  Harry caught her as she tripped over his feet, and pulled her down onto his lap. “He’s fine. A concussion and some stitches. He and Coach Riley are in another ambulance, getting treatment. Angelo is with him and their grandmother is on her way. Right now, the only person you have to save is you.”

  “But if I can help...”

  Harry feathered his fingers into her hair and straightened her bent glasses. “Damn it, woman, if you won’t think about yourself, then think about me. I just saved your life. And I didn’t crack up doing it. You’re safe. It’s over. And I love you.” His stiff, handsome mouth crooked into a smile. “Don’t you want to hug me?”

  Daisy threw her arms around his neck as he pulled her to his chest. His hands fisted in the back of her coat and his nose nestled into the hair at her temple. She held on tight with all the love in her heart and wept happy tears.

  Epilogue

  After the last of the guests had left the party and the dogs had curled up on the couch, Harry reached beneath the Christmas tree and pulled out the present he’d wrapped for Daisy. The narrow, rectangular shape told her it couldn’t be anything other than his journal. “I want you to know exactly who this is from.”

  Tears stung her eyes as he pulled her into his lap on the recliner. “Are you sure you want me to read this?”

  “I wouldn’t share it with anybody else.” His arms settled around her waist and she detected a faint trembling in them. “I do a lot better telling you what I feel when I write it down.” He took the ribbon and paper from her and tossed them aside. His chest expanded with a deep, steadying breath, and she knew that Harry was the bravest man she’d ever known. “Start at the end.”

  She pressed a kiss to his mouth, thanking him for entrusting her with this gift before turning her attention to the spiral notebook, thumbing through the pages until she reached the last entry.

  Dear Daisy,

  I never thought I could be anything but a Marine. Nothing useful, anyway. The Corps gave me purpose and a home when I desperately needed those things. I love my job more than anything I’ve ever done. If they’ll still have me—if I pass the psych tests—I want to go on being a Marine until I’m ready to retire in another two years.

  These ten days I’ve spent with you, though, got me thinking about other things. I came to you with the idea that the Daisy from your letters could save me—that you were this magic angel who could reach inside my head, erase the nightmares and make me whole again. Turns out you weren’t anything like that angel. You’re bold and brave. You touch and you talk. You weren’t as much of a lady as I thought you’d be, and you frustrated the hell out of me more than once. There wasn’t any mystical glow about you. But you were are real. You’re heart and color and acceptance and hope and life and love. I’m a better man for knowing you and being a part of your crazy life. I’m healthier. Happier. I’m home when I’m with you. You weren’t the woman I imagined, but you turned out to be exactly the woman I needed.

  I’ve got some ideas now on what I could do when I leave the Corps, whether it’s in a month or two years. Training dogs. Working as a cop or search and rescue with the fire department. Maybe you can even help me get through college so I can be a teacher or social worker who works with kids like Albert and ’Lo.

  One thing I’m certain of, now and forever, is that I love you. If you can put up with a Marine who’s gone on and off for a couple of years, or with a washed-up master sergeant who isn’t sure what he’s going to do with the rest of his life, I want to marry you. I hope I can get my act together well enough that you would consider saying yes.

  Love,

  Harry

  Daisy’s heart swelled up and spilled over in a sob of hot, flowing tears. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight.

  His hands fisted in the back of her sweater, holding on to her just as tightly. “Is there anything I can write that won’t make you cry?”

  “A grocery list?”

  He laughed, and she scrambled off his lap and ran to the kitchen, pulling a red pen from her purse. Harry followed her, winding his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder while she scrawled a message at the end of the letter. “You’re going English teacher on me now? Checking my grammar?”

  She signed the short missive and held it up to show it to him. “Here’s my letter to you.”

  Dear Harry,

  I love you. With all my heart. I know we can get through anything together.

  When you ask, my answer is YES!

  Love,

  Daisy

  * * * * *

  Look for more books from USA TODAY

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  Sheriff Flint Cahill can and will endure elements far worse than the coming winter storm to hunt down Maggie Thompson and her abductor.

 
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  Cowboy’s Legacy

  by B.J. Daniels

  SHE WAS IN so fast that she didn’t have a chance to scream. The icy cold water stole her breath away. Her eyes flew open as she hit. Because of the way she fell, she had no sense of up or down for a few moments.

  Panicked, she flailed in the water until a light flickered above her. She tried to swim toward it, but something was holding her down. The harder she fought, the more it seemed to push her deeper and deeper, the light fading.