Anissa.
The day of the murder, he’d followed Anissa’s car. Then, as she was getting out of the car, he’d grabbed her from behind and broken her neck.
His plan had been to leave Jillian alone in the park, but someone pulled into the parking area as he was sliding Carly’s body into the car. Jillian was screaming her head off and he feared the newcomers would chase him down if he left her. Then he’d be caught with a dead girl in his car. So he’d tossed Jillian into the car with Carly. Only after he’d gotten to the Dumpster did he realize he’d killed the wrong girl.
Carly had been driving Anissa’s car. She was the same size. Same hair color. She’d put on a ball cap and a sweater that Anissa had left in her car.
Now he had the wrong dead girl and a screaming kid. Despite the fact that he’d just killed Carly in cold blood, he couldn’t bring himself to kill Jillian. He called his attorney—a man who would be in jail now if he hadn’t committed suicide ten years earlier—who said he’d take care of it and could make Harvey a tidy sum.
After selling Jillian, he’d sold three other children before getting caught and going back to jail for attempted kidnapping with intent to sell.
He’d waited, biding his time, until he found Anissa again after he got out of prison. He’d cleaned himself up, gained access to money he’d successfully hidden while in prison, and rented a place on the lake near Ryan and Leigh’s. He’d passed himself off as a retiree and landed a part-time job installing, of all things, security cameras for the same company from which he’d bought the cameras he’d installed at his lake house. He’d even willingly shared the footage from those cameras with the sheriff’s office.
Dixon had conceived multiple plans to kill Anissa.
None of them had worked.
The real start of the end was the night he had decided to shoot her from across the cove. The lightning had blinded him. Startled him. And his shot hit Jeremy.
It had been a fluke.
An accident.
But the fact that the bullet had been meant for Anissa, that Carly’s death had been meant for Anissa, that Jillian’s abduction hadn’t been about Jillian but about Anissa . . . the burden of it all had lain heavy on Anissa in the days and weeks that followed the revelations.
Her parents had arrived in Carrington and their presence had calmed her, but it had terrified Gabe. Not that he was afraid to meet them, although Jack Bell did have a way about him that would make any potential suitor be very careful with his daughter.
Gabe had been afraid that when they left, she would go with them. It had been obvious, seeing her with her family, how close they were. How deep the bond. How much she had missed them.
How much they had missed her.
When they reached the buoy, Gabe and Anissa paused. He reached for her BCD and held on. She did the same as they bobbed in the surf.
“It’s beautiful here,” Gabe said. “Are you sure you don’t want to move back?”
Anissa splashed water in his face. “No. I know where I’m supposed to be.”
He really hoped she meant that.
Gabe’s smile sent Anissa’s heart into overdrive.
It was a smile reserved for her. And her alone. It wasn’t his usual quick smile, the flirty smile she’d seen a million times. This was a smile that said “you’re the one,” and when he smiled that way . . . she pulled him closer and kissed him. He tasted like saltwater and sunshine. Her favorite combination.
“I love you.” He whispered the words against her lips.
“I love you too.” One more quick peck and then she asked, “Ready?”
“After you.”
They resettled their masks and this time shoved their snorkels to the side in favor of their regulators. No fancy equipment. No way to speak. Nothing but a full tank of air and crystal-clear water.
Diving in Yap was like diving nowhere else.
For forty minutes they explored. She led him to some of her favorite spots and they watched schools of fish, sharks, and stingrays. She could stay down there forever, but a peek at her dive computer warned her it was time to head to the surface. They would need to take their time on the ascent, and she didn’t want to risk running out of air during a safety stop. After her experiences this summer, she’d lost all desire to hold her breath.
Liz was doing better than anyone could have ever dreamed or hoped. She’d gotten horribly sick after their dip in the lake. Her body was simply unable to fight off the crypto in the water. The Davidsons and Velma Brown had kept a vigil, united by their mutual love for their sweet girl. Brooke Ashcroft had stayed close as well. And a collective sigh of relief could have been heard from central North Carolina to southwestern Virginia when Liz turned the corner.
When it all had been said and done, the Davidsons did something that still left everyone in a state of awe when they heard about it. They opened their home to Velma Brown, asking her to please live with them and Liz. Velma, still fighting the ravages of cancer, had been overwhelmed and had accepted. Liz was able to stay with her mother while getting to know and growing to love the family that had loved her from birth.
Anissa’s beloved Lake Porter had survived the hit of contamination from the lake at the camp with minimal impact. The environmental teams had been on high alert and had spent the next several months doing extra testing, but the lake remained safe for recreational use. Engineers had determined that the pipe had caved in on itself in the explosion and most of the water from the camp never reached Lake Porter.
Paisley, Sam, and Vic had received commendations from the sheriff’s office for their assistance, and the Davidsons had given Paisley an exclusive interview that had aired all over the country.
Brooke had gotten back in the pool and was well on her way to that college scholarship. She was planning to major in criminal justice.
Anissa’s dive computer chirped at her and she paused her ascent. Gabe paused with her.
She couldn’t get over how much she loved him. He could still make her completely crazy, of course. She suspected he always would.
And if she wanted to be honest, she knew that’s what she needed. Someone to bump up against her sometimes hard edges and soften them up a bit.
Bringing Gabe home, to Yap, had filled a little piece of her heart in a way she hadn’t expected. He loved it here. He got along great with her parents and her siblings. And she suspected that her grandmother had a crush on him.
She would always love Yap and part of her heart would always roam these shores, but her life was in Carrington. It was the life God had given her, and it was good.
They ascended again, slow and steady, until they reached a point fifteen feet beneath the surface. Last safety stop. Three to five minutes of breathing in and out and waiting. Some divers hated this part, but she’d never minded it.
Gabe put his arms in an x cross across his chest. Then pointed to her.
She laughed around the regulator in her mouth, bubbles blowing around everywhere, and held her hand up in the sign for I Love You.
Gabe reached into a pocket on his BCD and then reached for her hand. He pulled her close and then held something toward her face.
She blinked twice before she could believe what she was seeing.
A ring.
She couldn’t say yes fast enough. Well, she couldn’t technically say yes at all, but she said it around the regulator and nodded and flashed the okay sign, all at once. Gabe was laughing as she scrambled to pull the diving glove off her left hand.
Gabe slid the ring on to her finger.
A perfect fit.
When her dive computer indicated that it was safe to return to the surface, they ascended the remaining fifteen feet.
Together.
Lynn H. Blackburn is the author of In Too Deep, Beneath the Surface, Hidden Legacy, and Covert Justice, winner of the 2016 Selah Award for Mystery and Suspense and the 2016 Carol Award for Short Novel. Blackburn believes in the power of stories, especially those that remind u
s that true love exists, a gift from the Truest Love. She’s passionate about CrossFit, coffee, and chocolate (don’t make her choose) and experimenting with recipes that feed both body and soul. She lives in Simpsonville, South Carolina, with her true love, Brian, and their three children.
www.LynnHBlackburn.com
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Table of Contents
Cover
Endorsements
Half Title Page
Books by Lynn H. Blackburn
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Epigraph
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About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
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One Final Breath Page 29
