The Hideaway
Page 37
The sounds of shouting and people running toward the shed distracted them. In seconds, the shed was filled with people drawn from the bar by the gunfire. Minutes later the wail of an ambulance could be heard as well as a siren.
Bam was still unconscious, but one of the men found the key to the lock on the chain in Bam’s pocket and freed Zach. Claire never let go of Zach. Even when they loaded him onto a gurney and carried him out to the ambulance, she went along, holding his hand.
At the hospital, she had to let him go for the doctor to examine him. She waited outside with Lucy, and was joined by Brad Yeager, then Paul and Angela. Tohono came in a few minutes later. They were all there when the doctor came out.
“The sheriff is one tough guy,” said the doctor. “Broken ribs, deep tissue bruises seems to be the worst of it except for a ruptured spleen. We’re going to have to operate immediately.”
Caire barely heard the doctor explain the surgery wasn’t serious and Zach could lead a normal life without his spleen. Why did he have to suffer even more? she wondered.
“He wants to see you,” the doctor told her.
She found him in a room and he was already prepped for surgery.
“Have you seen Lobo?” he asked as she walked in.
“He’s at the vet’s recovering. He’s one smart dog.” She walked up to the bed and took Zach’s hand, noticing the ugly red welts at his wrists where the chain had been as she told him about Lobo coming all the way into the gallery to get her. “That’s how I knew to go for help. You have Lobo to thank.”
“No, you took on Bam.” Zach’s voice was husky. “The minute he tied me up with that chain, I thought I was a dead man. You saved me.”
“I didn’t do anything special,” Claire told him, fighting tears. “I love you. I want you to know that after the first night we made love, I told my father I was seeing you. I was never ashamed of you. I wanted to walk down the street with you at my side.”
He tried to smile; obviously it hurt to move. “Really? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to put pressure on you to make any kind of commitment before you were ready. When I was in jail, I called my father for help. He said he would … if I never saw you again. I refused.” She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “I’d rather rot in jail than give you up.”
“Really? I’ll be damned.” He shook his head, then winced. “I love you. Don’t you know that? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I should have.”
“Let’s put the past behind us,” she said. “What counts is we love each other.”
Two orderlies interrupted them to take Zach into surgery.
“I’ll be right here when you come out,” she told him.
“Aromatherapy,” he said with a half-smile. “Try it while I’m under the knife. You’re beginning to remind me of a bear.”
She laughed at his joke, but she wasn’t laughing when she walked into the rest room. Her hair looked as wild as a West Texas tumbleweed. Her cheek was smeared with dirt and blood.
She went home and quickly showered, shampooing her hair twice. She was waiting for Zach when they wheeled him in from the recovery room.
“I love you so,” she told him even though he couldn’t hear her. She sat in the chair beside him, holding his hand.
Slanting bars of sunlight through the shades woke her the following morning. Claire quickly sat up, looking around, disoriented for a moment. Zach was awake, his head propped up by two pillows, studying her.
“This is how I want to wake up every morning,” he told her. “With you. Will you marry me?”
“Of course, do you even have to ask?”
“I love you,” the both said, the words overlapping just slightly.
They shared a smile as sweet and tender as a kiss. At last they were together. This time—forever.
Epilogue
One Year Later: The Taos Rodeo and Art Festival
Claire stood near the entrance to The Rising Sun Gallery, pride and happiness making her smile as guests arrived to view her husband’s work, The Zachary P. Coulter Collection. She didn’t bother to check to see how many sold stickers had been placed on the pieces. She already knew Zach was one of the most talented artists in the country.
And he loved her.
She gazed across the gallery and caught his eye. Zach winked as he showed Tohono the new pieces he had made for this showing. The older man was carefully inspecting the bronze of Lobo guarding Lucy, who was nursing four young pups.
“Life imitates art,” said Brad Yeager.
The agent had been standing nearby talking with the new chief of police when Claire had last seen him. He’d moved up beside her and had followed her gaze across the room. Claire smiled at Brad, happy that he hadn’t returned to Washington after the Morrell case had been solved. Instead, he’d taken over the FBI field office in Santa Fe, and he spent many weekends with them.
“When am I going to be able to take home my puppy?” Brad asked.
“You’re positive you want a part shepherd, part timber wolf, part golden retriever—bundle of trouble?” she joked, saddened by the thought of giving up the puppies who had been born that spring.
“Sure,” he said. “They’re a bit funny looking, but smarter than hell. Without them, Bam Stegner wouldn’t be in prison.”
“True,” she said, yet the thought of Bam and Vanessa behind bars did little to comfort her. Something seized up in her chest every time she thought of how close she’d come to having Zach die.
As if he telepathically picked up her distress, Zach looked at her. Are you okay? his eyes asked. She smiled to reassure him, but he quickly shouldered his way through the crowd and came up to her. He slid his arm around her shoulders as he greeted his friend.
“Something wrong?” he whispered when Brad walked over to the bar.
“No. Everything is just fine.” She smiled up at the blue eyes she loved so much and wondered how she ever could have doubted that this was the only man for her.
“Then why are you standing by the door?”
“I’m waiting for a friend.”
He cocked his head toward the corner where Paul and Angela were standing near a bronze of a bald eagle that already had a red sticker on it. They had fallen in love with the piece even before Zach had completed it. “The Winfreys are over there.”
“I know,” she said, still thrilled that Angela and Paul had married at Christmas and permanently settled in Taos. “I didn’t mean them.”
Zach pulled her closer and kissed her despite the crowd around them. She returned the kiss, still not quite able to adjust to Zach’s affectionate side. He was never shy about letting her know how much he cared about her. She wouldn’t have suspected he would be that type of man, but she loved it.
Zach’s brows drew together. “Honey, you’re not hoping your father will show, are you? I don’t want you to be disappointed.”
“I’m not upset,” she responded with total honesty. Her father had chosen to ignore their marriage; he went about his business at the bank, acting as if they did not exist. She had learned to accept it. “I’m expecting a friend.”
“Really? Why so mysterious?”
“I’m surprising a friend.” She turned her head and saw the person she’d been waiting for. “Maude, I’m so glad you flew in.”
“Sheriff, how are you?” Maude greeted Zach and smiled to Claire.
“We’re fine,” Zach replied. “Tell us how you’ve been. Postcards now and then aren’t enough.”
“I’m doing a little traveling, playing a little golf at my place in Florida. I’m very happy.” Maude looked down and spotted Claire’s surprise. “Oh, my! You’re—you’re going to have a baby!”
“Three months to go,” Claire said. “The baby won’t have a grandmother. We’d like it very much if you would do us the honor.”
“Me?” Tears filled Maude’s eyes. “I’d love it.”
Suzi signaled to Claire, and she left Zach with Maude to
see what the clerk needed. By the time she finished helping with the transaction, Zach had drifted across the gallery to talk to Brad, and Maude was standing with Paul and Angela. Claire glanced around the room, not surprised to find red dots on every piece.
Claire ambled into the back room, her hand on the small of her aching back. Having Zach’s baby was going to be much more fun than being pregnant, she decided. Already she was waddling like a hippo in cowboy boots.
She dropped into the chair beside her desk. Wild Horse the bronze her mother had left her was on the desk. Since she began to represent Zach, she no longer had the bronze up front, but she kept it on her desk to remind herself of how much her mother had loved her.
She placed one hand on her mounded tummy and was rewarded with a hearty kick. Rising to her feet, the baby kicked again, harder this time. From inside the gallery came the deep, masculine sound of Zach’s laugh.
“Your world will be filled with love and laughter,” she whispered to her baby.
She opened the back door, feeling happiness welling up inside her the way it did so often these days. For the first time in years, the aching sense of loss wasn’t her primary emotion. Her world was a happy place now, full of promise and discovery.
The cool breeze washed over her face, bringing with it the scent of chiles roasting in the plaza. High above stood the noble silhouette of Taos Mountain surrounded by stars like chips of diamonds. One star twinkled at her, and Claire smiled. When she’d been younger, she pretended winking stars were her mother, watching after her.
“I found him, Mama, just the way you did. The love of a lifetime.”
About the Author
Meryl Sawyer is the New York Times–bestselling author of more than twenty-five romantic suspense novels. Among her accolades are the Romantic Times Career Achievement Awards for Contemporary Romantic Suspense and Contemporary Romance, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Romantic Suspense, and the Georgia Romance Writers’ Maggie Award for Contemporary Romance. Sawyer grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and lives in Newport Beach, California, with her golden retriever.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1997 by M. Sawyer-Unickel
Cover design by Mimi Bark
ISBN: 978-1-5040-2723-6
This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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