by P. Creeden
Even though she’d put several yards of distance between her and him, his voice carried over the tops of the vines around the bend. She shook her head. That couldn’t be all he wanted. A gun wouldn’t be necessary if that was all he wanted. Why would he need to drag her all the way out here?
She took a step back toward the house, but her heart wrenched in her chest at the thought of leaving Jay. His soft brown eyes appeared in her mind, and she couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. Her feet stopped. There was no way that she could lose him.
“Let’s go.” His voice was closer, and when Felicity turned around, she could see him on the bend, holding Jay’s collar. Jay continued to smile and pant with his mouth open, completely unaware of the danger he was in.
The tears streamed down Felicity’s face, and a sob escaped her lips.
Heath pointed the gun at her. “No need for all that. Just walk with me.”
Her feet propelled her toward him even though she didn’t want to go. It was too late to run now; he had her in his sights and could shoot her if she ran. And he’d already promised to kill Jay, too.
Once she was in his reach, he backhanded her with his pistol hand. Pain shot through her face on the opposite side of where she’d already been punched. Stars exploded in her vision, and she fell to the ground, the back of her head slamming against the ground.
A growl, snarl, and a shout reached her ears.
She couldn’t open her right eye, but when she opened her left, she found Jay had grabbed hold of Heath’s arm and shook it like a guard dog. Her left eye opened wider in surprise. Jay had never shown aggressive behavior toward anyone.
Heath punched the Golden several times in the side before Jay finally let go. Then he pointed his pistol at the dog.
“No!” she screamed as the man pulled the trigger.
“So, you haven’t seen her anywhere?” Darren asked the lawyer on the porch again.
He shrugged. “I thought for sure she came back from her walk with the dog, but I might have been mistaken.”
Darren’s frown deepened. “Which way did she go?”
Lucian Wright scratched his chin a moment and then pointed in the direction of the vine fields. “That way.”
Then the pop of a gunshot made the hairs on the back of Darren’s neck stand on end. The sound had come from the direction the lawyer was pointing. Lucian’s eyes widened at the sound, and Darren’s hand went to the handle of his pistol. He dashed down the steps of the porch and called back toward the lawyer. “Call 9-1-1 and tell them an officer needs assistance.”
“Okay!” Mr. Wright called back, but Darren didn’t look over his shoulder to see; he was already running in the direction of gunfire as fast as his legs would take him.
Jay wouldn’t stop crying. Felicity had never heard him scream so much as he tried to stand and couldn’t. She wanted to go to him and comfort him. Red blossomed in the golden fur around his hind leg. But Heath Anderson already had a hold of her arm again and was dragging her with him. Her right eye still wouldn’t open, and she felt the swelling grow.
He yanked her harder and pushed her to the ground in front of him. He pointed his pistol at her. The sleeve of his blazer was torn, exposing the white shirt and a trace of blood red. “Do you want to die, Felicity. I can kill you now if you want.”
She shook her head, sobs racking her body so she couldn’t speak. “Please,” she said, but it sounded incomprehensible and blubbery to her own ears. She just wanted to get back to Jay and comfort him. His cries were subsiding, becoming less frequent. Was he dying?
“Then get up. Let’s go.”
She scrambled to her feet, felt the cold metal of the gun in her back as he shoved her forward again. They continued walking for a few minutes more when the cliffs came into sight. It could have been a beautiful view, but she could only see it through the veil of her tears, and through only one eye.
The breeze picked up off the water and blew harder around them. Heath shoved her closer to the rocks on the edge, and then caught her arm with his hand, dangling her over the cliff.
Finally, she was able to form words. “Why are you doing all this?”
“I just want what’s mine. Liz wouldn’t give it to me, so you are. Here.” He pulled a green piece of paper from his pocket and a pen and shoved them both her direction. “Sign that.”
Confused, she took the paper from him and opened it up. It was a check for forty-seven thousand dollars, made out to his name. She blinked at it and then back up at him.
“Sign it. Now.” He shoved her to the ground, so she was sitting on the rocks of the cliff.
The check fluttered in between her fingers in the breeze. And for a moment she had a crazy thought. What if she—
“Let that go and I will shoot you. I swear to God, I’ll shoot you,” he hissed.
She clenched her teeth and shook her head, tightening her fingers’ grip on the check. What did it matter? Was that what Liz’s life was worth? What Jay’s life was worth? Forty-seven thousand dollars? She’d gladly have written him the check if he would just leave her alone. Did he really need to go through all this for the money?
“Get on with it,” he shouted over the wind.
“Fine,” she yelled back and then pushed the check against the rocks and placed her signature on the bottom. Once finished, she offered him the check, and he snatched it from her fingers.
A sickening smile spread across his lips.
She glared up at him. “Are you happy now? Good. Can I go?”
He grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her up to her feet. The look in his eye became sinister. “I know I promised to let you go after you wrote the check, but I didn’t say how.”
Then he wrenched her body back by the arm, so she nearly lost her footing. He leaned her body over the cliff, and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn’t right herself.
Darren’s lungs burned. He’d been running for more than half a mile and hadn’t reached the source of the gunshot yet. What if he was going the wrong way? What if the gunshot had been two degrees to the left or the right when he’d heard it? He may have even passed Felicity already. The thought of her hurt and bleeding in one of the other vine rows made him sick to his stomach.
Then he heard whimpering.
After rounding the next bend, the Golden Retriever came into view. Though dragging his bloody hind end along the grass, he was heading away from the house and toward the cliffs. He was still trying to get to Felicity.
It wasn’t Felicity who was shot. It was JJ. Though Darren’s heart broke, knowing that the dog had been hurt, he couldn’t help but feel a moment of relief. He stopped next to JJ and knelt to pat him on the head. “You’re a good boy. It’s okay. I’ll get her. She’s going to be all right.”
The dog looked up at him, smiling, panting, pausing for a moment in his struggle to drag himself toward his owner. Darren wanted to help the poor thing but needed to get to Felicity. He stood, and before he could even take a step forward, the dog renewed his efforts. Darren shook his head. He didn’t know what to do. Should he end the dog’s suffering?
Then he heard the hum of an engine as an ATV rounded the corner between the rows of vines. Curtis Page. Darren smiled up at him. “Curtis! Can you take JJ back toward the house? He’s been shot and needs to see the vet.”
Mr. Page blinked several times. Then he answered, “Yes. Should I carry him? You want to take the ATV?”
Darren shook his head. Felicity would want JJ saved, and the Golden Retriever deserved it after taking a bullet. “Take the dog in the back of the ATV. I’ve got to go.”
After seeing Curtis nod his head, Darren darted in the direction of the cliffs with new energy. He now knew he was heading the right direction and that Felicity wasn’t the one who was shot. If he could make it in time to save her, that was all he needed.
Felicity screamed. “Why are you doing this?”
Heath frowned. “Stop sounding like a broken record. How many times have yo
u asked me that question? Three? Four?”
She had no answer—the sobs had closed her throat to words again.
“I’m out of here. I’m cashing in this check and leaving town, but I can’t have you telling everyone about what I did. If you’re dead, no one will know that I’ve taken the money out of the account until it’s too late. I can’t have you putting a stop to it at the bank.” His eyes had gone crazy.
The whole thing was crazy. How could anyone let themselves get this way? Hurt people hurt others. That’s what her mother always said. In what way had Heath Anderson been hurt that he put so much emphasis on money as if it was the only thing he needed to make his life better? She swallowed, and the sobs subsided enough for her to say something. “Liz loved you.”
He blinked at her, the brows over his forehead knitting. “What?”
“I read it in her journal. She didn’t care about what you’d done and wanted to take you back. I didn’t know what she was talking about at the time, but now I understand.”
His arm relaxed a bit and stopped her lean toward the open air below. Her feet regained footing, and she was nearly upright. His eyes searched hers. “What do you mean?”
“Liz was grateful to you and for you. She talked about it in her journal. She understood that you did so much for her and deserved to be a part of her life.”
“I asked her to marry me years ago, but she declined. She always declined.” His hand loosened on her arm.
She nodded. “She was getting ready to accept.”
That last part may have been an exaggeration. Liz’s journal said nothing about marrying Heath, but right now Felicity needed for Heath to believe it did. She needed him to believe that Liz would have been willing.
Heath’s hand released its hold on her entirely and went to his chest as though it ached. His gaze dropped to the rocks beneath their feet. “No. She couldn’t have. I didn’t just stop her from—” He staggered back a step.
His gaze trained up and met hers again, searching.
She kept her gaze steady on his but saw movement out of the corner of her one good eye. Her heart fluttered. Someone was coming their direction. She nodded her head. “It’s true.”
Tears filled the bottoms of Heath’s eyelids as he staggered back another step. And then Darren tackled him, forcing the gun from Heath’s hand as they wrestled on the ground together. Felicity bit her bottom lip and clenched her hands in worry. Please let Darren be okay in this. She needed him to be okay. She couldn’t lose him too.
After a few moments of struggle, Darren sat up on Heath’s back and wrenched the man’s hands around to slap cuffs on him. His deep baritone suddenly sounded deeper as he said, “Heath Anderson, you’re under arrest.”
Relief flooded Felicity, and she collapsed to her knees in the grass on the edge of the cliff. Then her thoughts went toward Jay and she scrambled to her feet. Tears filled her eyes as she ran back up the vine row she’d come.
Chapter Fifteen
Darren gripped Felicity’s hand in his lap as Dr. Keller, the veterinarian, came back into the waiting area. The older man smiled down at them. “Good news. The surgery was a success, as was the blood transfusion. He’s recovering now.”
Felicity collapsed in Darren’s arms and hugged him tightly; another sob escaped her. She’d been doing a lot of crying throughout the two hours of surgery, and he was glad this time it wasn’t tears of sadness or guilt but relief.
“Thank you, Doctor,” Darren whispered over Felicity’s head.
She pulled away and swiped her eyes, and then she drew to her feet. “Thank you so much, Dr. Keller. I really can’t thank you enough.”
He smiled. “JJ had lost a lot of blood, but luckily it was a small bullet, only a .22. It was also good that you all got him in here so quickly. I’d love to hear the story of how all this happened when you have the time. I love that JJ’s now a hero.”
Felicity smiled weakly. “He really is.”
Darren stood and nodded, pulling Felicity back into his arms. Georgia smiled up at them from her seat. When Curtis had gotten back to the house in the ATV, he helped carry the Golden Retriever to Felicity’s SUV. Georgia had the keys to the car, and she raced JJ to town and to the nearest vet. The bartender happened to navigate and now sat next to Georgia as well. Once he’d dropped off the dog with Georgia, Curtis Page returned to the cliff and found Felicity collapsed on the ground where the blood had pooled from JJ’s injury.
He told her what had happened, helped her into the passenger seat of the two-seater ATV, and then continued down to find Darren and Heath walking back toward the house. He helped them both into the bed of the ATV, but not before landing one good punch in Heath’s eye. “For Liz and her daughter,” he’d said and then spat at the man.
“JJ will be spending the next hour or so in recovery before he’s able to go home. There’s no need for you to stay here and wait if you’d rather go get something for dinner,” the veterinarian said, as though politely trying to get rid of the group that had been hanging out in his waiting area for the past few hours.
Darren got the hint and nodded to him. He pulled Felicity away from him. “Do you want to go get checked out at the hospital?”
Her eye was still swollen, and both sides of her face had taken on a purple hue. He wondered if the bone beneath the eye might be broken for the amount of swelling that sat underneath it.
But still, she shook her head stubbornly. “I’m fine. I’ll just take an anti-inflammatory.”
Dr. Keller cleared his throat. “Actually, I believe the detective is right. You should at least stop in at the emergency care clinic across the street. They may want to take an x-ray of your injury.”
Felicity frowned but then looked up at Darren and nodded. Georgia came over and took Felicity’s hand in both of hers. “Darling, I know you don’t like to admit when there’s something wrong with you, but right now you need to take care of yourself. JJ is okay. He’s recovering. He needed to see the doctor and so do you.”
A sigh escaped Felicity. “Fine.”
Darren smiled and took a step back from the roommates, but when Georgia released her grip on Felicity’s hands, Felicity immediately took hold of his arm again. He took comfort in it and let her pull him closer. The feeling of her warmth against him and the fact that she wanted him there were all that he needed to stay.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out to check his text message. The police lieutenant was inviting him out for drinks to celebrate the closing of the winery case—the third successful close in Darren’s first week as a detective. He texted back with one hand on the phone and the other wrapped around Felicity’s shoulders.
Busy now. Will take a raincheck.
The bone in Felicity’s cheek wasn’t broken, but her eyelid had a major hematoma that needed draining, so she waited while the doctor drew blood from her eyelids. Once he was finished, she could happily open her right eye once more. Although the vision was a little blurry in that eye, and she had darkness around the edges, the doctor felt that it would heal on its own in a few days and prescribed her anti-inflammatories.
She was happy to take the prescription from the doctor and gave the receptionist her insurance information as they started toward the parking lot. Georgia leaned in and gave her a hug. “Peter and I are going to run ahead and grab a couple pizzas. We’ll meet you back at the house after you pick up JJ.”
Felicity smiled, her heart swelling with gladness that she wasn’t mourning the loss of her beloved friend. Her eyes stung at the thought, but she felt as though the fountain of her tears had finally dried. She nodded to her roommate.
Darren squeezed her shoulders. As they passed his sedan and started toward the glass door of the vet’s office, she caught sight of her reflection and gasped. She covered her face with her hands and turned away from Darren.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay? Does it hurt?” Panic filled Darren’s words.
“I’m hideous,” she said into
her palms, her voice muffled.
Above her, silence lasted for several seconds. She feared for half a moment that he’d left. Then she turned toward him and peeked through her fingers. His soft eyes looked at her, filled with so much emotion that it took her breath away. They glistened with tears. His lips quivered as he said, “I’m so sorry.”
She frowned but didn’t move her hands away from her face.
“I should have been there sooner. He would never have hurt you or JJ if I had just been there.” One of the tears broke free and slipped down his cheek.
She pulled her hands away and shook her head. “It’s not your fault.”
“And you’re still beautiful.”
She gasped again as her heart skipped a beat.
“You’re still more beautiful than any girl I’ve ever seen. Even with your bruises and your swelling. I’m so glad you came back into my life.” Tears continued to stream down his face.
He felt the same way about her that she did about him. Her heart soared, and she jumped toward him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m happy that you came back into my life,” she said into his chest.
When she pulled back a bit to look into his maple brown eyes, he smiled down at her and then kissed her. Their lips met, and the warmth of their love intermingled with the salt of their tears. Nothing had ever tasted so sweet.
Sneak Peek
Read the first chapter of HELPING HANNA, book 6 of the Gold Coast Retrievers…
The clock on the church steeple towering above the town of Redwood Cove on the Gold Coast of California began its hourly song. Each chime matched Hanna’s racing footsteps. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.
She was late for work. Rushing wouldn’t change that fact but she pressed on anyway. With several minutes to go before she arrived at the Cup of Joe Diner, Hanna wondered if she could sugarcoat this disaster. Rounding the corner at the side of the diner, she secured Bella in a shady spot. Brushing stray golden dog hairs from her black pants, and then gathering her thick auburn tresses into a ponytail, she headed through the door of the diner, straight into the glare of her boss, Joe Craven.
