by Cindy Dees
Joe! He was in there, somewhere! She had to find him. Get him out of there!
Gunter pulled at her, trying to drag her away from the fire as she struggled toward it. “Cari, you can’t do anything for him now,” Gunter yelled over the roar of the blaze. “Nobody could have survived that. He’s gone.”
She stumbled backward over the mangled remains of the iron fence. Fell to her knees in the sand. And knelt there, too horrified to stand, watching her entire life go up in smoke.
A man ran down the beach toward them. Gunter spun around and dropped to one knee in the sand, reaching for his ankle. Cari looked listlessly over her shoulder and roused herself enough to call out, “That’s Colonel Folly from Charlie Squad.”
At the last second, before the two men shot each other, Gunter yanked his weapon up out of the way and pointed it at the sky. Folly did the same. Gunter laid his weapon in the sand and knelt, clasping his hands behind his head.
“Are you all right?” the colonel asked her briefly as he slapped plastic handcuffs on the German.
She nodded miserably.
“I’m sorry,” Folly muttered at her, his voice sounding nearly as choked up as she felt. “There’s no way they made it out of that.”
She closed her eyes as grief tore through her for the second time in one evening. She’d thought losing Julia was going to kill her, but that had been a pale shadow compared to this. Her heart had been ripped out this time. Her lungs, liver and stomach had been torn out of her as well. Her very soul had been destroyed.
Another man jogged down the beach and stopped in front of Colonel Folly. “The survivors have surrendered, sir. The Gavronese Army has them under armed guard.”
Folly gave a short nod. And then the black-haired, blue-eyed man turned beside his boss to stare morosely into the inferno.
A few minutes later, a third man came running down the beach from the other direction. He, too, stopped in front of the colonel. They spoke briefly, but Cari didn’t pay any attention to their short conversation.
Joe was gone. Everything she was and ever would be was gone with him.
A small explosion sent another round of flaming debris sailing up into the black night. How could a sky so beautiful look down on a scene of such utter devastation? Surely, the moon and stars should be hiding their faces and weeping in grief, as well.
And then something caught her attention over by the swimming pool. Something big and black had just floated up to the edge. It rolled out onto the concrete. Stood up. Dragged something large and heavy out of the pool.
She took a step forward.
Could it be?
She took several more steps toward the blazing heat. And then took off running. A man had just climbed out of the swimming pool. And he was tall. Lean. Built not like her father, but like…
Joe!
He stumbled toward her and she flung herself against him, nearly knocking him over in her frantic exultation.
“Easy, baby,” he mumbled.
“I thought I’d lost you. Oh, God, Joe. I love you. I don’t ever want to lose you. Please, just tell me you’ll give our marriage a real shot,” she babbled.
He laughed painfully. “Hello to you, too, princess.”
The other men were running toward them and Joe tensed in her arms. “It’s Charlie Squad,” she told him. “Everything’s under control. The rest of my father’s men have surrendered.”
Joe’s body went slack, but his arms stayed wrapped fiercely tight around her. “I love you, too,” he breathed. “I never want to lose you, either. Your sister’s alive—” he started.
She cut him off. “I know. I’ve already spoken with her on the phone.”
Joe’s arms tightened around her. “About your father—”
She frowned up at him, belatedly remembering that he’d been in the doorway with Joe when the house blew.
“He was between me and the house. Took the brunt of the blast. Shielded me from the heat—”
“What are you saying?” She already knew, but she needed to hear the words aloud.
“Your father didn’t make it, sweetheart. He was thrown into the pool with me by the blast, and I pulled him out. He’s dead.”
A huge hollow opened up in her gut. Whether it was relief or grief or both she couldn’t tell. But then she looked up at Joe and let her love for him flow into her, filling the empty space.
“Are you all right?” she asked softly.
Joe nodded. After a moment he murmured, “About our marriage…”
She held her breath.
“I’m game if you are.”
She laughed and squeezed him until he groaned. She loosened her grip hastily. “Oh, I’m game, all right,” she retorted. “You’re never going to get rid of me.”
He smiled down at her. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, princess. I figure we’ve both earned happily ever after out of this.”
And as the sparks and ashes of her past drifted up into the night sky, they kissed. A single thought consumed her. Happily ever after, indeed.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6312-7
HER ENEMY PROTECTOR
Copyright © 2006 by Cynthia Dees
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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*Charlie Squad
*Charlie Squad
*Charlie Squad
*Charlie Squad
*Charlie Squad
†The Medusa Project
†The Medusa Project
†The Medusa Project
