Love Inspired Suspense December 2015, Box Set 2 of 2

by Margaret Daley

  Wade’s chest tightened and his hands dampened with perspiration. “Don’t go there, okay? Let’s just get off this thing and get out of here.” He looked down and his grip slipped. The bars released right from his hands.

  In a split second they were free-falling. Wade frantically reached for another bar going by but missed.

  Lacey screamed in his ear as they plummeted straight down, the air whooshing by them.

  Wade made more quick-action grabs for the rungs flying by him. One hand made contact, but his sweaty grasp made it hard to hold on. He ground his teeth and pulled every ounce of body strength to stabilize his grasp even with only one hand.

  They dangled in the air for long, heavy seconds. He focused on Lacey’s hold around his neck. “Don’t let go, Lacey.”

  “Wade?” she screeched in his ear. He didn’t care. It meant she was still holding on.

  He hadn’t left her behind.

  He swung his body back and forth until the momentum pushed him up to grab the bar with his free hanging hand. “No more talk of the past. We need to focus only on our current circumstances.”

  “But you can’t if your past is still hurting you. And don’t tell me it’s not. I felt your pain in your kiss.”

  “Leave it be.” Wade began the descent again.

  Her arms tightened around his neck a little too much. “I can’t leave it. God won’t let me. He loves you and will never leave you.”

  The next rung came and went with his controlled and deliberate silence.

  “You’re not the only one with a plan, you know. God has one, too, and you can’t stop His plan, no matter how much you strategize. He’s pursuing you because He wants you to belong to Him.”

  “You’re choking me,” Wade said.

  “Choking you? I’m telling you the truth. You have nothing to fear from Him. He wants to show you that you’re worth His love. Believe it, and it will help you with your pain and healing.”

  “Not if you kill me first,” he struggled to say. “You’re choking me.” With his feet secure on a rung, he risked letting one hand loose to tap her arms where they were so tight around his neck he could no longer breathe.

  “Oh! I’m so sorry. I thought you meant…well, you know what I thought.” She released the pressure, but her talk of God and love still had a way of stanching the flow of air to his lungs. His foot touched ground and not a moment too soon.

  “Get to the car. I’m driving!” he commanded as he bent his legs to allow Lacey to lower herself from his back. He saw his dog already waited for him at the bottom. “To the car, Promise.”

  The dog took off ahead of them. Lacey ran ahead as well, around the old delivery truck and through the snow. They reached the car and jumped in at the same time. Promise took up her post on the passenger-side floor, watching both of them with her familiar curiosity. Her eyebrows bounced up and down as she made her assessment of the situation, or at least of him.

  “I’m okay, Promise,” he said as the car roared to life. He spun it out of the parking lot in a quick squealing turn.

  Wade checked his mirrors and found darkness around him.

  Lacey craned her neck to see behind her. “We can’t go to the house. We’ll only lead more danger to Roni.”

  “You’re right. We’ll go to Clay’s. He’s right in town, with lots of neighbors and a security gate. He’ll know what the best course of action is. I trust him completely.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Clay’s sprawling pristine Victorian sat eminently on top of Norcastle’s highest hill as though it were Camelot itself. Wade pulled up to a black iron gate and punched a code to slide the bars open—bars that had the initials C.S. at the gate’s center. A little pretentious, Lacey thought. Even if the crime rate warranted such security measures for a gate, she had to think the initials were a little much.

  “Are there a lot of breakins around here?” she asked when Wade paused for the gate to close behind them.

  “I’m not here enough to know, but if Clay feels safer, I won’t judge. And if the breakin at the speedway is a regular event, then your answer would be yes.”

  Wade had told her about the ransacked office at the track. There was definitely crime to contend with in this still struggling town, racetrack or no. Plus, Lacey wouldn’t deny the fact that she felt safer already being on the inside of those gates, however pompous the initials were.

  Wade took the long, curved driveway, lined with ornate black lantern posts, up and around the hill until the car pulled into a wide parking area with a six-bay garage.

  She felt her lips curve uncontrollably. “Something tells me there are some powerful horses behind those doors. And I don’t mean of the equine variety.”

  “Do you ever think of anything else besides cars?” Wade asked.

  “Do you ever think about anything else besides plans?”

  “I’d say my plans have kept you alive so far.”

  Lacey conceded. “You’re right. Your plans really worked when those bullets have flown at me this week. Thank you.”

  “A good military plan is one that stays together after the bullets fly. So let’s try to avoid another go-round, shall we?” Wade’s lips broke into a small smile. “Stay with me.”

  They opened the doors and climbed out, heading to the stone steps at the back entrance.

  The house was a real showplace. Clay hadn’t spared any expense in making it magazine worthy. Lacey could picture the man who liked a good party, as he had told her, hosting many of them here. But Lacey supposed the owner of a prosperous business would need a place like this for hosting hospitality events.

  Except he wasn’t really the owner of the business, was he?

  Lacey knew he was filling in until Wade was ready to take over his responsibilities. She also knew Clay wasn’t rushing Wade to step up the way Roni was, and Roni didn’t like Clay for it.

  Was there anything else she didn’t like him for?

  Wade paused to look down the driveway. Did a noise catch his ear? Or was it someone?

  Had they been tracked down again? So soon? How had they gotten inside the gate?

  Lacey’s heart jumped into her throat as she awaited word from him. She breathed easier when he began walking again.

  Promise whined from where she trotted along at their feet.

  Lacey rubbed her fingers through the dog’s fur to soothe her. “It’s all right, Promise. Don’t you worry.” Lacey looked over at Wade. “Right?”

  Wade whispered, “I don’t know how long we can stay here. It doesn’t look as if Clay’s home.”

  “So why can’t we stay? Would it upset him that we’re in his home?”

  “Negative.”

  “Negative? You’re always so formal when you’re in your army mode. You sound like an instructional manual. And, yes, before you say it, I have read instructional manuals before. I don’t always wing it.” She turned to see him not even listening to her, his face etched like stone as he concentrated on something unknown to her. She followed the direction of his gaze into the thick dark trees at the rear of the property. “Wade, you’re scaring me. What is it?”

  He didn’t answer but ushered her up the walkway and steps a little faster. At the back door, Wade found the spare key and opened the house with ease. He guided her in and said, “Get down.”

  Having been shot at so much this week, Lacey didn’t argue. She found herself facedown on a thick Oriental rug of red-and-purple paisley. Gold flecks burst from the print as well as a myriad of other colors she wouldn’t have picked up if she’d stayed on her feet like Wade.

  He walked from window to window pulling curtains and drawing shades, moving on to the next room.

  Lacey elbow crawled to a place she could see him traverse to the next room after that, then disappear around another corner.

  Minutes went by from her prostrate position. “Wade?” she called with uncertainty in her voice. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

  “I’d like to know that,
too,” a male’s voice spoke from behind her, extracting the air straight from her lungs.

  Lacey spun around and pushed up to a sitting position, crab crawling back a few feet from two men towering over her.

  Recognition filtered in when one of them spoke. “We meet again, Lacey.”

  It was Wade’s Uncle Clay. He didn’t look as good as he had when she first met him. His hair seemed a bit disheveled. His fancy clothes had been replaced by jeans with dirt on the knees. Being so low to the floor, she couldn’t miss them. The dirt didn’t compute with the owner of this opulent house.

  Even so, she sighed and her shoulders sagged. “It’s just you. You scared me. Wade, your uncle’s home! He’s got company with him!”

  Clay stepped by her and peered through to the next room. “This is my friend Chuck Teigen. Chuck, this is the girl I told you about. Her brother was the one who just passed.”

  Lacey looked up to find a hand offered to her. The man behind it was tall with white hair, but a bit younger than Clay. She accepted his handshake. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise. I’m sorry about the loss of your brother.”

  “Thank you.” Lacey felt the familiar lump in her throat threatening to take hold when Jeff’s face appeared in her mind.

  “May I ask why you’re on the floor?” the man asked.

  The present circumstances snapped her back to reality. “Wade wanted me to stay down until he secured the house. The bullets haven’t stopped flying at me since Christmas Eve.”

  Clay took a seat against the side wall. His hands curled around the armrests of a Queen Anne chair. His eyes that had been so cheerful at Christmas now sharpened on her. “I’m glad to see you’re all right. We’ve been beside ourselves with worry. Especially when we didn’t hear from either of you after the thugs obliterated the garage.”

  “I’m sorry we couldn’t call. We had to lose any device we might be tracked by, including the phones and Wade’s GPS watch.”

  “That’s what we figured. I told Roni to stop worrying.”

  “Roni! She most likely will have some visitors tonight. We have to get a message to her to stay inside.”

  “She’s not home. I’ve been out there cleaning up the place, but she and Cora have been staying with Cora’s sister since you two left. Roni’s still really shaken up.”

  Lacey knew firsthand what it felt like not to know if your brother was alive or dead. “Not knowing where Wade is must be killing her.”

  “Both of us,” Clay said. “But I have some friends at the government level who have been looking into the attack on Christmas Eve and trying to track you guys down.”

  “One of your lawyers, politicians or PIs you told me about?” She remembered his words to her on Christmas when he’d offered to help her uncover the truth of her brother’s death.

  Clay nodded to the other man still standing. “Chuck is one of them. Or, as the public knows him, Senator Charles Teigen.”

  “Senator?” Lacey frowned and mumbled as she raised her head higher to the man still towering over her. “Now I feel really silly for sitting on the floor.”

  Senator Teigen smiled down at her. His hazel eyes shined. “Don’t feel silly. Wade’s a smart tactical military man. If he says it’s safer for you, then you would be wise to follow his orders.”

  Guilt niggled in. “I’m sorry to say I haven’t exactly been a good follower. I know I’ve made things a lot harder for him because of it.”

  “I can’t believe my ears,” a familiar voice spoke from behind. “Are you finally understanding the error of your ways?”

  Instantly, the air in the room charged with a bolt of electricity as Wade walked in with a laptop tucked under one arm and a duffel bag over his shoulder.

  Lacey jumped to her feet. “Exactly what error are you talking about?”

  Wade frowned and pointed at the window. “That error. You just jumped up in front of a window. Granted, the curtain’s closed, but you didn’t even look before you stood. Your split-second decisions are going to get you killed.”

  “All right, Wade, go easy on her.” Clay stood and offered Lacey his chair out of the line of the many windows. “As much as I should teach my nephew a few lessons in decorum, right now I just want to hug him.”

  Clay walked over to Wade and reached for him. Wade dropped the bag to the floor to return the half embrace, the laptop still under his other arm. Lacey could only see Clay’s back when he asked, “Are you okay, son?” but something in the way he asked this simple question spoke volumes. Wade’s small family understood his pain. They worried about his state of mind, but most important, they loved him.

  And by staying away from them, Wade rejected their love, too.

  Lacey averted her gaze through the doorway into the dining room behind the men. The senator was on his cell phone letting someone know she and Wade were safe. This was one of the men Clay mentioned to her who might be able to help her figure out what had happened to Jeff.

  Lacey left Wade and his uncle to approach the senator. “Sir? Do you have a moment?”

  “The police are on their way.” The man pocketed his phone and offered a warm smile. “How can I help you?”

  “Clay mentioned you might be able to look into my brother’s death.” She knew she’d blurted it out, but there was no other way to say it.

  The man slowly nodded. “Yes, he did ask me to put some people on it. Especially after the shooting. We can only assume the incidents are related.”

  “And?” Did she dare hope Senator Teigen would help her find the truth when so many had given her the same excuse for Jeff’s death? That it was an accident?

  “And, Miss Phillips, I think we need to talk. I believe your reservations are well founded, and I’m of the mind that there’s more to this case than what has been documented.”

  Lacey’s knees wobbled as hope blossomed. She reached for his hand. “Thank you, sir.”

  “You’re quite welcome, but honestly, if something is amiss in the military, I would want to find out, regardless if you asked me to or not.”

  Lacey smiled at the man, feeling as if her path had led her to this place tonight, no matter how dangerous it had been.

  Senator Teigen reached into his inside coat pocket and removed a business card. “Let’s get through tonight, and we’ll chat in the morning. My private number is on there.”

  Lacey looked at the card, excitement rushing through her. She wished it was already morning.

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me my parents were divorced?” Wade’s angry voice broke her bubble. She placed the card in Wade’s combat jacket’s bottom pocket and followed Senator Teigen to the other room.

  “Is there a problem, gentlemen?” he asked.

  Wade waved a hand to the laptop on the mahogany sideboard, now open and running. The divorce document appeared on the screen.

  Clay’s blanched face was filled with sorrow. He cast a glance Lacey’s way before returning to Wade with a disappointed sigh. “I never saw the need to cause you more pain. Besides, the divorce never went through. They were still married when they died, and as far as I was concerned, things looked as if they would stay that way even before the accident. Whatever it was that set the proceeding in motion rectified itself. One day, my brother was distraught and brokenhearted. The next, he was overjoyed, and the divorce was off. A week later, they both died in the accident, and I’m presented with two orphaned children to raise.” Clay blinked his eyes, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, I did what I thought was best for you and Veronica. I never saw any reason to ruin your memory of your parents. Please tell me you understand. I don’t think I could take you hating me, too. Veronica’s feelings toward me have been painful enough.”

  Wade’s anger transferred onto Roni. “I’m sorry about her. All I can think is she’s angry at me for leaving, and she’s taking it out on you. She doesn’t understand that you’re helping me more than her guilt trips to come home do.”

  “I know, and
that’s what I’ve said to her, but… Oh, well, she’s Roni. There’s no one like her in this world. She has her ideas of what’s important and nothing you can say will change her mind. Her drum is already beating to a rhythm none of us can ever march correctly to, in her opinion. As far as I’m concerned, she’ll end up alone because men are afraid to ask her to dance. They know they won’t be the one leading.”

  Lacey cleared her throat to tell them she was still in the room. “Can we look at the pictures? I want to see them again.”

  “What pictures?” Clay asked.

  Wade clicked on the file with the newspaper clippings. He scrolled through one by one.

  Clay stepped closer. “My, oh, my, don’t these bring back memories. Yes, that one there was from the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Spencer Speedway. The whole town was there. Well, practically anyway. Not everyone was excited about a racetrack opening in their quiet mountain town.”

  Lacey queued into the conversation. “Like who?”

  “Oh, just a few people who I think didn’t want a lot of strangers in town. One of them used to live in this house, actually. Eventually put the house up for sale and moved out. Worked out well for me.” Clay flashed a smile and a wink. “He realized he could try to make a lot of noise, but those cars made a lot more. And so did the people who hadn’t had work for many years.”

  Lacey zeroed in on the button pinned to the man in the background. “Is that what that button is about? It says, Vote for Jobs.”

  “Exactly. There had to be a town vote to allow the track to open. It won by a landslide. That’s Meredith’s father, Gary Shelton, in the picture. He really pushed for the vote to pass. Chuck helped out, too, at the state level. Right, Chuck?”

  “Sure did. The track has been good for the whole state’s economy.”

  Lacey smiled at the man. Knowing a senator didn’t hurt. She looked back at the picture. “Where is Meredith’s father now?”

  Wade cut in to answer, “My grandfather died of a heart attack shortly after my parents. I didn’t know him well. Obviously couldn’t even recognize him in the photo, even if it wasn’t grainy. He seemed to show up only when another baby was born. The last time I saw him was when Luke was born, eighteen months prior.”