One Final Breath

by Lynn H. Blackburn

  Anissa could only imagine how hard that word had been for Tonya to say. The grace upon grace that Anissa could sense was blowing her away. “She’s been napping. She’s very weak. But Leigh, my friend here, promised to wake her when you arrive. She wants to be with Liz. And I think Liz probably still wants to be called Liz, but I’m sure she’ll understand if you call her Jillian from time to time.”

  Anissa hoped she was saying the right thing. She looked to Liz, trying to communicate her questions. Liz nodded again. Little bursts of motion.

  “Okay. Oh, Anissa. I can’t. I just can’t. I’m so . . . I’ve dreamed of this for so long. And she’s right there with you and I . . . my heart . . .” Quiet sobs came through the line.

  Steve’s voice was the next one Anissa heard. “We’ll be there in about ten minutes, Anissa. Thank you for everything.”

  “Of course.”

  She disconnected the call. “They’ll be here in ten minutes. You should probably go wake your mom. Meet us in the living room whenever you’re ready. Okay?”

  An hour later, Anissa slipped outside to breathe.

  The emotions of the day, the week, the month were overwhelming.

  Gabe had been in the den with Ryan when Anissa had left the kitchen. He had nodded in her direction. Winked at Liz. Then went back to staring at his phone.

  Tonya and Steve Davidson had come in ten minutes later, quiet and somber. Tonya had been trembling. Steve had appeared calm, but he kept squeezing Tonya’s shoulder. They had brought their three younger children—all boys—with them and the boys had taken to Gabe like pineapple to coconut rice. Gabe and Ryan had whisked the boys downstairs to the game room. They—a bit in awe of being in the presence of real cops—had been hesitant, but within minutes the sounds of foosball and air hockey floated up the stairs.

  When Liz and Velma had come downstairs, Leigh and Anissa slipped away to the screened porch to give the families privacy. They couldn’t hear anything, but they hadn’t been able to resist watching the reunion. The way Tonya and Steve reached tentative hands toward Liz. The hugs. The tears.

  When Tonya embraced Velma, Anissa couldn’t hold back her own tears. Leigh slid an arm around her shoulders and they cried together.

  After a little while, Steve had called the little boys up the stairs and they had stood, shy and wondering, as they met their big sister for the first time.

  Leigh had a sixth sense for what people needed, and when she picked up on a lull, she’d gone inside and offered everyone coffee. The youngest had declared he was starving and Steve had given him that death glare parents were so good at. But Gabe had jumped in and made a big deal about how he was starving too and puppy dog–eyed Leigh for more spaghetti even though he had to have already eaten.

  Within ten minutes, all three boys were sitting at the kitchen counter happily eating warmed-up spaghetti and garlic bread—they had passed on the salad—and laughing at Gabe as he slurped noodles in a most undignified fashion.

  Tonya and Steve hadn’t been able to take their eyes off Liz. Liz had had a bit of a cornered-animal look, but the boys’ antics and shared laughter had eased the tension, so Anissa had taken the opportunity to escape.

  “I had a feeling I’d find you here.” Gabe’s deep voice set off butterflies.

  Was he mad?

  He should be.

  Was she still mad?

  She should be. Shouldn’t she?

  Gabe cleared his throat. “I know the timing is bad, but don’t you think we need to talk? At least a little?”

  Gabe waited for Anissa to answer. Waited to find out how angry she was.

  Anissa stood on the edge of the dock. There was a slight breeze, the night air finally starting to cool. A little. She brushed her hair behind her ear, and her shoulders moved up and down a couple of times. Then she sighed. A soft, somewhat exasperated sigh. “I should be mad at you.”

  Should? Should was good. He walked toward her, slow and steady, stopping a few feet away. “You should.”

  “I need to know why.”

  “I told you why.”

  “No. You said you were in love with me. That’s not a why. That was years ago. We didn’t even know each other.”

  “I wouldn’t have called it love then. But I think that’s what it was. I just didn’t realize it yet.”

  “Love doesn’t lie. Love doesn’t get someone kicked off an undercover assignment she’d been thrilled to get. Love doesn’t sabotage someone’s career like that.” Anissa sounded more confused than angry.

  “I didn’t see it that way.”

  She waited.

  “By the time you showed up that night, I’d been undercover for a while. I’d been working at that bar for six months. I knew how those guys were. How they treated women. Had you rolled up in there as a cop, I would have feared for you as a cop. But coming there that night in that dress and those shoes. And your hair. You looked like the kind of girl they would want, and the kind of girl they would mistreat. I couldn’t risk it.”

  He took one step closer. “You may not know this, but I told the captain not to send any women in ever again. Not just you. And not because I don’t like women or don’t think women should be cops. It wasn’t because I didn’t think you could do the job. But because it was not a risk worth taking. That op had no backup. No real safety net. But a guy could come in and be a buddy and leave and no harm would come to him. That’s not how it was for a girl coming in there. You didn’t hear what they said when you walked in. I had to act fast. I was a wreck all night, and I knew when you left that, as much as I had enjoyed seeing you and as good as you were at the part, I couldn’t let you come back. I would have broken my cover to protect you from them. Or you would have broken your cover to protect yourself and I wouldn’t have blamed you.”

  He took a half step closer. “I did what I did for the same reasons you kicked me off the team. Not because you couldn’t do the job. But because I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you. So, was I in love with you then? I guess not technically. But my heart was already yours. I was just waiting for the chance to get to know you. To find out that everything I suspected to be true was true.”

  Her arms were still crossed, but she didn’t fight him as he pulled first one hand away, then the other. They stood there, facing each other, hand in hand. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do enough to prove to you how I feel. To show you that I’m worth taking a chance on. To convince you that no one will ever be able to make you happier.”

  She shifted her feet but didn’t pull away. “You don’t get it, do you?”

  Uh-oh.

  “I’m not saying that the things you do don’t matter, but why do you think you constantly have to prove yourself? I’m not convinced by heroic acts of sacrifice.”

  She wasn’t convinced. Little pieces of his heart crumbled. He could picture them tumbling down like a rock slide.

  She stepped closer. “The things that convince me are the things you don’t even realize you’re doing. Because you aren’t thinking about them. You’re just being you.”

  Convinced? Past tense. The rock slide froze. What was she saying?

  “You’re a good man, Gabe. A good friend. You like the role of class clown, but when things are serious, your friends can count on you. You don’t back down from a fight. You don’t walk away when things get weird. Or tense. You make things better. You entertain confused little boys and you give their terrified older sister a way to relax. You’re the kind of person who fights for what you believe is right. Whether that’s hunting down a serial killer or . . .”

  She was killing him slowly. “Or what?”

  “Or fighting for me. For us.”

  Us?

  “If you were smart, you’d walk away, Gabe. Right now. Because if you think getting me to date you has been a challenge, it’s only going to get trickier from here. I have more quirks than you can possibly imagine.”

  “You mean beyond your pathological need for coffee
in the morning or your aversion to apples or the way you get twitchy if you haven’t been diving in a week or the way you like to wear your hair in a braid on the weekend but not during the week or how you wish you could live on the lake because water makes you calmer than anything else or maybe how you hate to run in a counterclockwise direct—”

  He had no idea how it had happened, but she was no longer holding his hands. Her hands were twisted in his shirt and she had pulled him closer. Her lips were on his and he lost track of where they were or what there had been to worry about ten seconds earlier. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

  When she broke the kiss, he couldn’t resist whispering in her ear, “So, does this mean I’m forgiven?”

  She whispered back, “It means I’m thinking about forgiving you.”

  If that kiss was only a thinking-about-it kiss, he couldn’t wait for her to decide to forgive him completely.

  “I should apologize too.” She tried to step away, but he held her close.

  “For what?”

  “For lying to the captain.”

  “Oh. Yes. That did hurt.” It had. No sense in pretending it hadn’t.

  “I am sorry.”

  He kissed her, soft and sweet. “I forgive you.”

  Anissa laughed. “He didn’t believe me though.”

  “No doubt about it. He’s on to us.” Gabe kissed her forehead. “I promise to be on my very best behavior. At work.”

  “I don’t want—”

  “Want what?”

  Anissa buried her face in his chest. “I don’t want to keep it a secret. Keep us a secret.”

  “I don’t think it’s much of a secret as it is. I think everyone else saw it even before we did. Well, before you did. I’ve been on board for a while now.”

  She stopped him with one finger pressed to his lips. “Shh.”

  He didn’t argue.

  He ran through the edge of the woods. How stupid could he have been? So busy setting up his new plan that he failed to follow through on the original plan. It had been only a matter of time before Anissa would be back on that dock. She loved that spot. He’d been watching for her, hoping for another chance. And tonight, he had it.

  He had no idea how long she’d been out there. Or how long she would stay.

  Although based on what he’d seen through the camera he had pointed directly at the dock, he had a feeling she wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

  Still, he couldn’t risk going to his primary firing location. It would take too long.

  While his secondary firing location wasn’t ideal, it could work. The distance was more than he wanted, but with the scope, he should have a perfect view.

  If she would stay out there a few more minutes, it would all be over.

  Anissa Bell.

  He would have his revenge.

  No one else needed to die.

  It was a shame about that kid. And about that guy in the cabin. And about the guy who would soon be holding a dead woman in his arms.

  But they’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It hadn’t been personal.

  But this was.

  24

  Anissa had no idea what had come over her and she didn’t care.

  Gabe Chavez loved her. Her!

  He knew about her past. Her mistakes. Her general weirdness. And it wasn’t that he didn’t care about those things, but rather he seemed to think those very things made her the person she was . . . the person he loved.

  She would have been content to spend all night standing on the dock, his arms around her, whispering and exploring this whole new idea of us and we.

  But reality would not stay away for long and soon intruded. He must have sensed it, because he paused in the act of tucking her hair behind her ear. “What is it?”

  “It’s all the drama going on inside. I think we should check in.”

  “Okay.” Gabe gave her a gentle squeeze and then relaxed his arms.

  She stepped away, already missing the warmth of him. He grabbed her hand and laced his fingers through hers. That was better. “Are you worried about what happens next?”

  “A little.”

  “With us, or with them?”

  She rested her head on his shoulder as they walked up the hill toward the house. “With them.”

  But everything inside was fine.

  Not normal. Definitely not normal. But fine.

  Tonya and Steve were sitting with Liz and Velma as Velma, pale but smiling, told them about Liz’s categorical refusal to play a mushroom in her kindergarten play because mushrooms were gross.

  The boys were back in the game room with Ryan.

  Leigh was in the kitchen.

  When Anissa and Gabe entered, she took one look and ran to them, wrapping them both in an embrace. “Yes! I knew it would work out. I told Ryan he was being a pessimist and that love would win. I knew it!”

  Anissa didn’t even bother to ask how Leigh knew. Leigh wouldn’t be able to explain it anyway.

  When Leigh stepped back, she was radiating joy. For such a tiny person, Leigh filled up the space with her emotions. “So, while you were gone, I was shamelessly eavesdropping.”

  “And?” Anissa and Gabe said the word at the same time.

  “I got the impression that Tonya and Steve are very sensitive to Liz and Velma’s relationship and are not expecting to take Liz home with them immediately. They were going to get a hotel, which is ridiculous because we have plenty of room. Velma and Liz are in the upstairs rooms already, so I’m putting them in the downstairs rooms. The boys are thrilled. I think Tonya is relieved. You can tell she doesn’t want to let Liz out of her sight. This lets everyone stay together while giving everyone a little bit of space. I haven’t heard any of the truly hard conversations—like where they go from here—but I think everyone’s tacitly agreed to take tonight for the joyous night it is and worry about the hard stuff tomorrow.”

  “Wonderful.” Anissa couldn’t think of a way this night could have gone any better. It wasn’t perfect, but at least it wasn’t a disaster.

  “But that means you need to go home and get some sleep. Because Ryan asked me to remind you, if you ever came back inside, that you still have murders to solve and all sorts of unpleasantness.”

  The evening ended with the guys helping Velma get back to her room and the boys getting settled in what they had named the bunk-bed room. As Anissa left, with Gabe hot on her heels, the last thing she saw was Tonya and Steve wrapping Liz into a hug.

  Carly was gone—separated until eternity would reunite them.

  But this—the Davidsons together again—was the miracle Anissa had hoped and prayed and begged God for.

  And on the same night that her heart found Gabe’s?

  How blessed could one girl get?

  Anissa’s protection crew, who had remained outside and unobtrusive while she was at Leigh’s, had passed the baton to a new unit. They were sitting at her house when she arrived, and their presence was the only reason she was able to convince Gabe to go home.

  She had expected to have difficulty falling asleep, but her body had had other ideas and she slept hard until her alarm woke her at seven.

  An hour later, she was sitting at her desk, staring at the photos of the storage unit she’d spread out around her and frustrated beyond belief that none of this made sense.

  They were missing something. A big something.

  Gabe and Ryan came in together, Ryan carrying what had better be some sort of treat from Leigh. Gabe was carrying three cups of coffee, one of which he set on her desk with a wink.

  No PDA in the office.

  Shame.

  Ryan set down the box, opened the lid, and revealed cinnamon rolls. “Leigh said if we’re all working on a Saturday, then we deserved a special treat.”

  Gabe took one and brought it to her, then took one for himself. “When did she have time to make these?” he asked around a mouthful.

  Ryan didn’t gri
n.

  “Did something happen last night after we left? Were the Davidsons okay? Liz—?”

  “They’re all fine. I think.” Ryan still had that look on his face. Like he wasn’t feeling well? Or—

  “Do we need to talk?” Anissa waved a hand between her and Gabe. “Is this going to be a problem?”

  Ryan gave her a confused look. “What? You and Gabe? I should hope not. I’ve made my opinion clear on this subject. I’m all for it as long as you don’t mess it up and don’t bring it to the office. If you start kissing over the coffee machine, I may puke.”

  Gabe’s obvious relief mirrored her own, but he pressed Ryan. “Then what is it?”

  “Leigh couldn’t sleep. That’s why she had time to make the cinnamon rolls. She was up at four, mixing and baking and letting the dough rise.”

  Anissa glanced at Gabe. He shrugged. Okay, so neither of them knew where this was going.

  “Leigh said she woke up around three and couldn’t go back to sleep. So she got up, prayed for a while, then decided to keep praying while she made breakfast. She had these rolls, bacon, eggs, fruit. When I left, the entire Davidson family, and I’m including Liz in that, was in the kitchen eating.”

  “That sounds . . . good.” Gabe took another bite.

  “It is, but I’ve learned to pay attention to Leigh’s middle-of-the-night prayer/baking episodes. It makes me think there’s still something unresolved. Something we’re missing.”

  Anissa couldn’t explain how Ryan’s words filled her with both comfort and concern. “I agree. I keep coming back to this storage unit. I’ve requested all the files from the management about when it was rented, more security camera footage, et cetera. But they’ve been less than cooperative. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s because they are being intentionally evasive but because they may not have what I’m asking for.”

  Gabe sat at his desk. “That wouldn’t be surprising.”

  “Not to us, but it would be to the people who have rented storage units there and expect better security.” Anissa shoved the last bite of cinnamon roll into her mouth.

  “Good point.” Gabe tipped his coffee cup in her direction.