Darsh.
Did he know how much she loved him? How could he? She’d only just figured it out herself.
A voice came over the loud speaker. “Drop the weapon and put your hands in the air.”
She turned back to Rick who stood at the edge of the ice, half-hidden behind a young oak. “He’s a former US Marine Corps Scout Sniper, Rick,” she shouted. She was getting stronger by the second. “Unless you want to die, I suggest you drop the gun.”
His features twisted in rage. “You think he’s your hero, don’t you? You think he’s going to save you?”
Erin swallowed down all the regret she felt for pushing a good man away. “I don’t expect anyone to save me. But he is my hero.”
Rick raised the gun, finger wrapped tightly around the trigger as he aimed at Erin.
The sound of a shot ringing out was deafening. Blood burst from a wound in Rick’s shoulder. He dropped to his knees and looked at her. The chopper shifted position, and Rick took the opportunity to raise the gun and aim it at her again.
She should have reacted. Should have run and dodged, but it was like watching Graham all over again—slow motion horror, capturing her attention and making her unable to do anything but watch events play out.
Rick squeezed off a round, then another. Finally, her brain caught up with the danger, and she forced herself to get the hell out of there. He fired one more shot, and her feet dropped from under her, and she crashed into water so cold her heart stopped. The bastard had shot out the ice, and the weight of her wet clothes made it feel like her bones were made of iron. She tried to move her limbs through the frigid murk. She fought, but she didn’t go anywhere. The car accident, the ketamine, the stunning effect of the cold water had her opening her mouth and taking a breath. The sensation of her lungs filling with water was so alien and so wrong and so inescapable she panicked even more. Her chest felt heavy and frozen, and her veins seemed to contract as the world started to dim.
Today was the day, she realized with frightening clarity. Today was the day she was going to die.
* * *
“Get over the spot where she went in!” Darsh couldn’t believe the little shit had tried to kill Erin with his final act on Earth. The ice had shattered into large pieces that floated on the surface. Where the hell was she? Why wasn’t she coming up for air? Was she hit?
He handed his rifle off to the co-pilot. Unbuckled his harness, stripped off his hat, jacket, and boots and dove in after her.
The arctic shock of cold made his heart stutter. He’d done this sort of drill several times in the Marines and was well aware the temperature plunge alone could kill a person. Forcing himself into a calmness he didn’t feel, he summoned his training and searched for the zone.
The pond was murky and muddy, and he couldn’t see a damn thing. He came up for air and spat out a mouthful of rancid sludge. He took a couple of deep breaths. If he panicked, Erin would die. He swung around three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, looking for telltale bubbles, for anything that showed where Erin was. But the ice was keeping its secrets. He took a big breath and duck-dived again, sweeping out on both sides with his hands, deeper, deeper, deeper. Something pale caught his eye among the gloom, and he lurched toward it, the air in his lungs almost gone now. He desperately held on for just a few more seconds. Something brushed his left hand, and he swung in that direction. His fingers curled around material—a coat. Erin! He kicked toward her until he could wrap his arm around her waist and pushed them both toward the surface. She was deadweight. He spluttered when he came up for air, but Erin didn’t make a sound.
“Don’t you die on me, Erin Donovan.” He dragged her to the edge of the pond, staggered over downed tree branches and hidden rocks. He pulled her out only a few feet from where Rick Lachlan lay bleeding in the snow. Darsh laid Erin on the ground, quickly pocketing the guy’s weapon.
“Help me,” Lachlan begged.
Darsh ignored him and checked Erin’s pulse. Nothing. He blew into her mouth, started CPR.
“She’s dead. Under too long. Loved her. Help me.” The sonofabitch begged.
Thirty fast compressions. The cold would have slowed down her system. Two deep breaths.
“Only thing I’m going to help you do is die, cocksucker.” Darsh straddled Erin’s chest to get a better angle on her heart. Her lips were blue. Fuck.
Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty. He pinched her nose and tipped her chin. Breathed deep enough to watch her chest move. And again.
“Imagine what the BAU could learn from studying me.”
One. Two. Three. Four. Five… “We’ll find out plenty when we dissect your brain. Come on, Erin!” He slammed his fist hard into her chest.
“Are you even listening to me? We could change the whole legal system. Find a way to make it foolproof.”
Dear God, if she died… Darsh slammed his fist into her heart again. “Breathe, damn you!”
She finally spluttered and rolled onto her side, spitting up water. Relief made him lightheaded. Or maybe that was the cold. He wasn’t sure. “Thank God.”
He pulled off her heavy coat, which was doing nothing to warm her now.
“I tried to make things better.” Lachlan coughed up blood.
“You played games with people’s lives like you had the right, and indulged your evil appetites. So your childhood sucked. Welcome to the fucking club, asshole.”
“Help me,” Lachlan demanded, though his voice was getting weaker and weaker.
“I’m not going to help you, Rick. The only way I would help you is by putting another bullet in you. Frankly, I’m kinda happy I didn’t kill you outright. The helicopter was buffeted by the wind as I was taking the shot. But this way at least you get a few minutes to know you’re gonna die out here in the snow, and no one will give a damn.”
Smoky blue eyes blinked up at him.
“Whereas Erin is going to live a long and happy life married to me, making babies and generally having a fucking great time. Something you will never get to experience and never get to enjoy. And I’m going to make sure you are never part of our thoughts or our lives again, asswipe.” He scooped Erin up in his arms and started moving, realizing his clothes were stiff with frost. They needed to get warm ASAP. The co-pilot was running down the path toward them.
“Cuff the bastard. I’ve got to get Erin to the hospital.” The cop nodded, and Darsh ran through the uneven snow. The chopper had landed in a nearby field.
“I requested a medical evac—” the pilot began.
“No time.” Darsh hugged Erin to him as he hauled them both into the back seat. He strapped her in and put on the harness designed to let him move around without falling out of the bird. “Blast the heaters, and let’s go.” He covered her in his jacket and began praying. “Hurry or she’s not going to make it.” But the pilot was already in the air.
* * *
Erin woke to the feeling of heat suffusing her body when she’d thought she’d never be warm again. Struggling to recall what had happened, she cracked open her eyelids.
Darsh leaned forward in a chair, grinning at her. “Hello, beautiful.”
“Now I know you’re crazy.” She raised her hand to touch her brow, but stopped when she realized she was hooked up to an IV. “What happened? Last thing I remember…” It came back to her in a flash. “Last thing I remember is going into that pond and taking in a lungful of water.”
He clasped her fingers. “I told you I’d dive in and save you.”
“You did, didn’t you?” She bit her lip to stop herself from crying.
Darsh looked up as someone came in the room.
“She awake?”
“Who’s ‘she’?” Erin croaked. “The cat’s mother?” It had been her grandmother’s favorite saying.
Ully laughed. “Oh yeah, she’s awake.” He leaned over her and kissed her on the mouth. Then grimaced and wiped his lips. “Pond water. Yuk. There goes my fantasy.”
“Good.” She rolle
d her eyes at him. “Idiot.” But the taste in her mouth was scummy. She’d be on antibiotics for months. “What about Lachlan?”
“Dead,” Darsh said without inflection.
She held his dark gaze. “Thank you for saving my life.”
“Hey,” Ully interrupted. “What about me?”
It hurt to laugh. “What did you do?”
Ully tilted his head to one side. “I set up roadblocks. Coordinated the search.” His eyes twinkled. “Anyway, we’re all glad you’re back. Unhurt.” He winced a little looking at all the tubes she was hooked up to. “Or maybe just alive. Strassen’s making like he never fired you and it was all a big misunderstanding. Professor Huxley has been let out of jail, although the university isn’t very happy he was screwing that student.”
“What student?” she asked.
“He lied about being at the soup kitchen Monday night because he was shagging an undergraduate named Monica Ripley.” Darsh filled her in. “Another female student who claimed to be Lachlan’s girlfriend found Monica tied up in Lachlan’s bedroom. He hadn’t hurt her beyond scaring the shit out of her, probably because Rachel woke up, and he had to scramble and change his plans.”
Erin tried to take it all in.
Ully stole a piece of fruit off her side table. “I just got word Stinky Pete—”
“Peter Zimmerman,” Darsh growled.
Ully laughed, unrepentant. “Good ol’ Peter was extradited to Texas this morning and seems to have found a judge who’s willing to overlook him going AWOL on the DUI warrant as long as he agrees to treatment. Miraculously, the guy agreed.”
Darsh nodded. “Good.”
“You set that up?” Erin asked him.
“I spoke to my former commander. He did the rest.”
“Anyway, I’ve got paperwork coming out of the wazoo so I better get back to it.” Ully turned around to leave. “Harry will be in for your statements soon.”
“I don’t want to talk to Harry.” Erin groaned, but it felt good to be alive.
Darsh held her hand, and she squeezed him tight. “When do you have to leave?” she asked.
“You want me to go?” The joy in those dark eyes dimmed.
“No.” She swallowed around her raw throat. “But I’m not going to be good at this.”
“This?” A spark of hope returned.
“Us.”
One side of his mouth curved into a smug smile. “Us?”
“After three years of being alone even trying for a relationship is a big deal.” But she hung onto his hand like it was a lifeline, and maybe it was.
“You think it’s easy for me? Loving someone like you?”
She knew it wasn’t easy. “Broken?” she asked.
Frustration tightened his features. “Someone so strong she doesn’t need me for anything. Not changing a flat, not drywalling, not even shoveling snow.”
Her throat was almost swollen shut. “How about needing you for happiness?”
He gave a soft laugh. “I make you happy?”
She could barely see him through her tears. She nodded.
“I can live with that.” He kissed her hand. “I thought you were dead, Erin. I thought that bastard had won.”
She touched his cheek. “I love you.”
His eyes flashed in surprise.
“You didn’t know?”
He shook his head.
“I’m sorry I bailed on you.”
“You were scared. I get it.” One side of his lips twisted. “I’m scared too. I already almost lost you once.”
She frowned. “I had this dream where you told someone we were getting married and having babies and lots of great sex.” She quirked a brow. “It seemed so real.”
“No idea what you’re talking about.” A hint of red hit his cheeks. “But how would you feel about the idea as a possible long-term option?”
She smiled and tried to move. Ended up coughing like an old hag. When she could speak again, he eased her back against the pillows.
“Considering you’ve seen me at my worst, then you might actually like the person I am on a normal day. How about we take it slow and see how it goes?”
His fingers grasped her so tight she almost winced. He kissed her lips. They both had pond breath.
“You really did jump in and save me.” She touched his lips in wonder.
“Always.”
She stretched out her legs. Even though she felt weak she hated being an invalid. “I need to get out of here.”
Darsh stood and stretched out his back. “You got your job back.”
Erin found herself admiring his body in those doctor’s scrubs. “If your father could see you now,” she teased.
“Hell, no.”
She got serious. “The thing is, when Strassen fired me, I kind of had this other idea of something I might like to do.”
Darsh’s brows rose. “FBI?”
She shook her head. “I realized I got most satisfaction from trying to help people. People like Rachel.”
“You want to be a counselor?’
“I was thinking more victims’ advocate with the police service.”
His eyes widened. “You’d be great at that.” He leaned down to kiss her again. “You know what else I think?”
“No.” She held onto him and kissed him longer and deeper. “What?”
“You’d be great at that in Virginia.”
“Maybe,” she said tentatively. “But what about Drew Hawke?” Guilt crashed down on her. She’d ruined the guy’s life. He’d been locked up; Cassie had been murdered.
“DOJ is calling a special hearing to lodge an appeal based on new evidence. Kid might get out in time to finish the spring offseason.”
She closed her eyes. “I feel terrible that I screwed up so badly.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “Rick Lachlan did this, not you. The bastard set Drew up because he’d hazed him at a party. Was Hawke guilty of being a jerk? Damn right. But that didn’t give Lachlan the right to hurt all those girls, or Hawke or Blackcombe or you.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive myself.”
Darsh brushed her hair off her forehead. “It’s done. You need to figure out a way to move past it. He fooled me by setting up the professor, which I fell for the same way you fell for him framing Hawke. Holding on to the guilt doesn’t help anyone.”
Erin smiled, knowing she was on the verge of tears. “You’d make a pretty good victims’ advocate yourself.”
He nodded. “Damn straight.” He leaned closer. “Did I tell you I loved you yet?”
She nodded and laughed at his shocked expression. “When you dove out of that helicopter and rescued me from a frozen pond.”
He smiled and kissed her again.
Erin recognized a voice in the hallway outside. A loud voice joined by another loud voice.
Her eyes shot to Darsh. “You called my parents?”
He shook his head. “Strassen did ’cause they’re listed as next of kin. He was trying to pretend he was a good boss and knew what he was doing.”
She grunted and then the door burst open and there was her mom, dad, sister and two of her four brothers. Darsh introduced himself and shook all their hands, and never once left her side. She didn’t miss the pointed looks between her mom and her sister or between Darsh and her brothers as they wondered who the hell he was.
She tensed, but after a few minutes, she found the tension easing.
“I guess we need to finish the drywall now we’re up here,” her youngest brother complained.
“I’m selling it,” she said quietly. “If you could help me get it ready for that, I’d be grateful.”
A shocked silence followed, but her brothers looked gleeful. Her mom touched her free hand. “Are you coming home, love?”
Erin looked into Darsh’s deep dark eyes. “Yes. A new home with this man. In Virginia.”
“But you guys have only just met…” her dad argued.
Darsh smiled.
“Look, I know you guys are worried. I know what she went through with her dickhead ex, and that is never going to happen again. You guys can come and stay with us whenever you want.”
“You’re going to live together?” Her mother sounded horrified.
“Mom,” she complained. “I’m thirty-two!”
“What religion are you?” Her mother prodded Darsh.
“Mom!” Erin didn’t even know what religion he was, because it didn’t matter.
Darsh raised a brow. “What religion would you like me to be?”
Her mother’s lips twitched at that.
Her other brother muttered, “Good answer.”
“You know the first wedding didn’t count?” her mother continued while Erin wished she could just pretend to fall through a big hole in the floor. “They got married in the courthouse without us.”
Erin cut in. “We’re not getting married—”
“Yet,” Darsh added.
Erin grabbed his hand. “Don’t encourage her. She’s incorrigible.”
“I’m your mother.”
“God help me.”
“Don’t blaspheme, Erin Mairead Donovan,” her mother admonished.
Erin rolled her eyes and turned to the man who had saved her life in more ways than one. “So, this is a small part of my crazy family,” she said brightly. “Still game?”
“Always.” He bent down and kissed her softly on the lips despite her family watching. “And forever.”
Epilogue
Darsh walked into the church and searched the aisles for a familiar head of blonde hair. He’d had to go back to work in Quantico earlier in the week, but he’d returned to Forbes Pines for this. Erin was recuperating and had refused to do that in Virginia. Stubborn didn’t begin to cover it. Thankfully, her parents had stayed with her so he hadn’t worried too much. Her house was already up for sale, and he’d cleaned out most of his walk-in closet and half of the drawers, ready for her belongings.
Cold Hearted (Cold Justice Book 6) Page 32
