by Joya Fields
“You’re right for me.” She squeezed his hand and her brows knit together. “You love me?”
“Yeah?” He grinned. “Guess you’re stuck with me, now.”
“What about Texas?”
“Not going.”
“But the job…”
“Turns out I like taking down bad guys. It’s who I am.”
She winced as she moved her head.
“No, don’t move.” He glanced up. Relief poured through him as the boat pulled up to the pier. EMTs waited with a gurney.
Keely licked her lips and gave him a shaky smile. “When you tell a girl you love her,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, “you really should kiss her.”
Chapter Nineteen
Keely grinned at Logan as he walked through the door to her hospital room, carrying a huge teddy bear, followed by her dad. This was the first time she’d seen Logan since being rushed by the ambulance to the hospital after she’d been shot. The bullet had been a through-and-through—Dave’s shot had missed her lung by a quarter of an inch—but she’d still needed surgery to repair torn muscles.
She straightened in her hospital bed, ignoring the pain that shot through her muscles. “Nothing against the staff, but I can’t wait to get out of here tomorrow.”
Logan settled the giant teddy bear in a chair and patted it, as if telling it to stay put, then gave her a long, slow grin that told her everything.
Ben stood next to Keely’s bed and faced Logan. “Son,” he said, his eyes tearing up as he glanced at her and then back at Logan. “I can’t thank you enough for saving Keely’s life.”
“Sir, it was—” Logan wasn’t able to finish his sentence, because Ben pulled him in for a giant hug.
Her men. Her two favorite men. She couldn’t suppress her smile. Her father squeezed Logan so hard a whoosh of air escaped his lips. Nice to know her dad was so fully recovered from his injuries that he could hug the air out of Logan.
Ben finally released him and laid his hand on Logan’s shoulder in a fatherly way before turning to face her, wearing a smile. “I have some news you’ll be happy to hear. Su Lin’s been found. An interpreter for her mother called Loving Arms an hour ago.”
Hope swelled in her chest. “She’s okay?”
Her father nodded. “She’d decided she wanted to keep the baby and had run away. But her mother decided to stand up to Su Lin’s father. The mother checked around at local homeless shelters and found Su Lin. We don’t know if she’ll keep the baby or not, but at least she has a place to stay. A home where she’s welcome.”
“Thank God she’s been found.”
“Yes, and thank God you’re safe. And so is Margaret,” Ben said, a warm sheen in his eyes.
“Did she go home already?” Keely asked.
“She was released from the hospital, but she didn’t go back home. She’s staying at my house.”
Keely raised her eyebrows.
“In your old room,” her father hastily added, but kept smiling.
“Hope you didn’t allow her to bring that shotgun into your house,” Logan said.
Keely squared her shoulders, then winced in pain. “Margaret is the whole reason you nabbed this human trafficking ring, Logan. You wouldn’t even have been watching Craig Bittinger if it wasn’t for Margaret’s lead, and for the attack on my dad. That led you to Dave.”
Logan didn’t respond. Instead, he traced a finger over her face, then bent close for a kiss.
“I have a feeling you’re going to have a shadow the entire day, sweetie,” her dad interrupted, then picked up his coat from the arm of a chair. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I think I’ll head home now.”
“Yeah. Get home to your girlfriend.” Keely teased, happy when her dad grinned in response.
After her father left, the room felt strangely small with Logan standing so close. And she felt more than a little underdressed in her flimsy hospital gown. She wanted her own clothes, her own bed, and her own stuff around her.
“So Melita wasn’t a runaway,” she said. “I knew it.”
Logan shook his head in disgust. “Her father sold her. We found Lettie, the missing girl from the crack house, too. Amy Bittinger confessed to everything in hopes of a lighter sentence.”
“I’ll never understand how people connected with my father’s church would want money so much they’d trade in human beings. But what I do want to know is how they orchestrated everything. ”
“Local street kids, like Chayce and Lenny, were the middlemen, finding their victims. Dave would recruit them under the guise of his community involvement. He coached youth sports leagues and organized events for teens, all under the ruse of helping underprivileged kids. Instead, they were his street minions. Finding addicts who would do anything for a fix. When people offered to sell their kid for drugs, Craig would arrange the sale with various dealers. Drug dealers got money, human traffickers got their workers.”
“Which means any young girl who’s listed as a runaway could in reality have been sold for drugs?” The pit of her stomach tightened.
“We’re combing through Dave’s files, too. We’ve got some leads. Thankfully, Dave kept meticulous records.”
“How about a little girl named Ava? She was one of my kids from work. Her dad reported her as a runaway. Was she onboard?”
Logan shook his head. “No, sorry.”
Pain radiated through her body, landing in her heart. They’d stopped the human trafficking ring. This one, anyway. But that was just one battle of many. There was still a war to be fought against the depraved people who thought a human being could be sold. For now, all she could do was pray someone found Ava safe.
She couldn’t erase the ache caused by the little girl’s disappearance, but she could be grateful Melita and Lettie had been found. Together, she and Logan had saved them.
Logan. Her hero. The man who fought to make things right, one case, one person, one night at a time.
He bent his head close, gazed down into her eyes, and let it drift to her lips. Like a virtual kiss, she could almost feel his mouth. A gentle yearning awakened in the pit of her stomach.
“I love you, Logan,” she whispered. She’d said it last night, after his poignant declaration of love, but it bore repeating. A lifetime of repeating.
“I love you, too, baby.” He brushed his curved lips against hers so lightly, like a whisper, and swept the hair from her forehead with his hand. Trickles of pleasure shot through her body, doing more good than any medicines. His lips were gentle, as if he were afraid to hurt her, but his breathing increased. She wanted to sink her hands in his dark hair and pull him on top of her, but she knew she couldn’t. At least not until she finished healing.
And there, she thought, was the very best reason to speed her healing.
…
Two days later, Keely stood on her dad’s front stoop and grinned at the white fairy lights criss-crossed above the street. The scent of burgers and hot dogs from the grill lingered in the air. Logan eased his arm around her, warming her in the cool night breeze, and kissed her temple.
The cheery rhythm of a steel band made her want to twirl and dance. The old neighborhood had come alive again. Community.
She glanced down the street to see her dad pushing Margaret’s wheelchair as the cheerful woman greeted everyone with hugs and waves like the grand marshal of a parade. How good it was to see her father so happy and in love.
Jalissa rolled by on her skateboard, wearing a helmet and knee pads, and in perfect control of her balance. April jogged behind her, then stopped to stand next to Keely.
“She’s doing pretty well,” Keely said.
April glanced at Jalissa, who halted to get a cookie from a table set up by the curb, flipping her skateboard up to her side like a pro. “I’m sorry I didn’t see more on the day of Ben’s attack. I…well, I try to lie low. Stay out of trouble. I have to be around for Jalissa.”
“Jalissa’s lucky to have you, April. You’re a
good mom.”
“Thanks. You’ll make a great mom one day, too.” April gave Logan a pointed look and a smile and then took off for the cookie table.
Logan slanted a half-grin at her then leaned in to brush his lips against hers. “I agree. You will make a great mom one day.”
Her heart hiccupped. She glanced up slowly, as if any sudden movement would make his words disappear. “What?”
He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “You know, I’m hoping all our babies turn out to look like you. Freckles and all.”
“Wait…what?” She’d repeated herself, but her brain wouldn’t formulate any other word.
“Of course, we should probably start off with just one, I guess. Add more as we go along.”
“Logan North. What are you saying?” Keely’s mouth and brain finally worked as a unit. She leaned closer, ignoring a burning sensation in her shoulder, and stared at him.
He ran a hand through his hair, then scrubbed his face with both hands. Nervous gestures from Logan North?
He grinned, leaned forward. “Keely, will you marry me?”
Tears formed. Instead of tightening her jaw to keep the tears away, she let them flow down her cheeks. “Do you know how long I’ve dreamed of doing just that?” She reached out her arms, wanting him close.
He pulled her close and buried his nose in her hair. “I was hoping you’d say yes.”
“Yes! Oh, yes.” She pulled him close for a long, wonderful kiss. The rest of the party fell away and it was just the two of them in the whole universe.
“Mmm. I could get used to that,” he whispered hoarsely.
“I’m counting on it,” she murmured into the warmth of his neck. This was the man she’d hold close the rest of her life. The guy she’d been afraid to wish for a forever with, but the only one for her. She’d known it when she was eighteen, and finally, finally, she could let herself believe they’d be together.
“I love you, Keely.” His hot breath swept against her shoulder like a warm fall breeze.
She held tighter, wanting this moment to last forever, but relishing the fact that they’d be able to hold each other like this as much as they wanted now.
As twilight settled around them, Keely stood in peaceful silence, savoring Logan’s touch and realizing how their relationship had started with close to nothing…but now it had everything. Everything she’d ever wanted, and so much more.
Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to all of the wonderful people who helped with this book, especially MRW Scribblers, Lethal Ladies, Christi Barth, Catherine Gaines, Sharon Buchbinder, Kristen Weber, and Tamara Hoffa for their awesome critiques and Beta reads. Special thanks to Joan Dolina for helping me understand what a Child Protective Services employee does, and thanks to Margie Hall for all of her law enforcement help. Special thanks, too, to the Baltimore Police Department for answering my questions so politely and efficiently and to CPS of Baltimore for their patience and understanding as they explained procedures and scenarios. Thanks to Amy Villalba for helping with the Spanish translations. Special thanks to Rochelle French, my editor, who fell in love with these characters and this story from the beginning, and helped make this book so much better than it was when I submitted it. And to Nina Bruhns whose eagle eye made the storyline stronger. Lastly, special thanks to my agent, Pam Ahearn, who has been a cheerleader and steadying force throughout this process.
About the Author
Joya Fields has had over 100 stories and articles published in local and national magazines. Her debut novel was a NJRW GOLDEN LEAF WINNER FOR BEST FIRST BOOK OF 2012 and is nominated for RT Book Reviews 2012 Indie Press/Self-Published Contemporary Romance award.
Joya has taught arts and crafts, worked in public relations, helped her children raise prize-winning 4-H livestock, competed in three marathons, and even spent a year as a Baltimore Colts cheerleader. She loves hanging with her high school sweetheart/husband of over twenty years, two very supportive children, and a pug who follows her everywhere.
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