“Hi, Steve.”
“For you to be out and about means you’re healing fast.”
“That’s what the doctor said. I asked Maggie to show me around.”
Her sister sorted through some files on her desk, eyeing the latest notations. “I thought you’d already left for Alta, Steve.”
“After talking to Jake, we decided you’d drive up with him and I’d take Kathryn with me. The Altima has more leg room in the front to accommodate her cast. If that’s all right with both of you.”
But he was asking Kathryn. Her heart did a little extra skip.
“Of course. That’s very thoughtful of you.”
“Good. Then let’s get going. Why don’t you two go out to the front of the plaza by the statue. I’ll bring the car around and meet you. Jake’s meeting you there as well, Maggie.”
“We’ll be waiting.”
His glance swerved to Kathryn. “I’ll see you in a minute. My car is metallic blue—you can’t miss it.”
After he left, she and Maggie walked through the office to the main doors. Maggie set the lock with her remote and they started across the plaza courtyard.
“I didn’t realize Steve was invited.”
Maggie eyed her speculatively. “Would you rather ride with Jake and me? All you have to do is say the word.”
“No. It’s not that. I’m just surprised.”
“I’m not. Last week he couldn’t take his eyes off you while you were telling everyone about your life on the farm. Is that what’s bothering you? The fact that he’s interested and you’re not? You can tell me the truth. We’re sisters.”
“We are! It’s so wonderful, I still feel like I’m dreaming.”
Maggie hugged her. “I’m floating off the ground myself these days. So?” she persisted.
Kathryn chuckled. “Steven Talbot’s one good-looking guy, but—I don’t know. I can’t explain it exactly. He’s just right there invading your space, you know?”
“Not exactly like the quiet-spoken Skwars/Buric men you grew up around?”
“You noticed that with one visit?” Maggie was amazing.
“I did, and Kit’s brother is nothing like them.”
“You can say that again.”
“Let me tell you something. There aren’t too many men like him period. Don’t forget he’s born and bred Southern Californian. He’s got it all. Kit’s mother confided to me he’s been a heartbreaker from the time he was in third grade. Girls have always flocked to him. But I can guarantee he’s never met a woman like you.”
“That’s because I’m the missing McFarland child. No doubt the fascination will wear off shortly.”
“His sister was the missing Talbot child. I don’t think that’s the reason he’s attracted. There’s his car coming around the corner.”
It upset Kathryn that her pulse started to quicken without her volition. She watched him pull up to the curb and jump out of the car. He went around to open the front passenger door and adjusted the seat for her.
Once he’d relieved her of her crutches and put them in the back seat, he steadied her while she got in. Then he hunkered down and carefully supported her cast before placing it on the floor.
He’d done what anyone would have done who was attempting to help her. But somehow with him, it seemed too intimate. “Thank you.”
His gaze was still on eye level with hers. “You’re welcome.”
Steve Talbot had a killer smile.
Just before he shut the door, she heard Maggie cry out Jake’s name. Apparently he’d driven up behind them. Theirs was the kind of love Kathryn wanted to have one day with the man she married.
“I’ll take care of Kathryn, Maggie. See you in Alta.” Steve got behind the wheel and they took off. “Are you nervous to drive in a car since your accident?”
“Not really.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you were.”
“My eagerness to be in the mountains is probably the reason why.” She told him about the plans she’d made to ski in Alta this winter.
“That sounds like more than a coincidence.”
“It did to me, too. To think that one of the places I’d dreamed of going would end up being Cord’s backyard.”
“What’s the other place?”
“The beach in Southern California. I’ve never seen the ocean.”
He glanced at her. “Now you’ve given me chills.”
“Why?”
“Our family has a place at Laguna Beach. In fact, my parents are going to be at the party tonight so you can meet them. They bought a beach house years ago. You walk out the glass doors right on to the sand. When you come down with Kit and Cord, I’ll teach you how to surf. It’s more exciting than snow skiing.”
Too exciting.
“That’ll have to be next summer, I’m afraid.”
“I’ll take you to a lot of beaches. They all have their own personality.”
“Can a law student take off that kind of time?”
He grinned. “This law student can, and will! What are you going to study at the U?”
“I have to get my undergraduate work done first. Before everything happened, I thought medicine. Now I’m not so sure.”
“Why?”
“The FBI agents who were working on my case were very kind to me. When I look back on my experience, I can see what a vital role they played in helping me to deal with a very difficult situation both before and after I found out I was kidnapped.
“Agent Simpson came to the house the other day. We had a long talk. I learned how instrumental she was in helping solve your sister’s case. I was very impressed with her knowledge and her dedication.”
“So you think you might like to become an agent?”
“I don’t know. It’s a thought. When I see how involved my family is helping other people, I marvel.”
“Maybe that instinct is in the McFarland genes, which would explain why you thought of becoming a doctor long before you knew who you were.”
“Maybe.”
They were almost to the top of the canyon now. She looked all around her in wonder. “It’s spectacular up here.”
“Just wait till you see Cord’s place. We’re almost there.”
Between the man sitting next to her and the scenery, she experienced an exhilaration she’d never felt before. They rounded a bend on the mountain road, then she saw the meadow filled with wildflowers, and the jutting peaks behind it. The last rays of the sun gilded everything.
She gasped. “Oh, Steve, this couldn’t be real—”
“That’s how I felt the first time I saw this place. There are bits of heaven on earth. This is one of them.”
NIGHT HAD COME to the Albion Basin. Jake stood behind Maggie on the deck of Cord’s home with his arms around her. They’d eaten and they’d opened gifts. The Talbots had offered the use of their beach house for the honeymoon. Jake was living for it.
Because the evening had been so magical, he’d held back vital information he’d learned over the past couple of days. But he couldn’t keep it to himself any longer.
Maggie turned in his arms and lifted concerned eyes to him. “What was that deep sigh for?”
She was so attuned to him, it was uncanny the way she could read him and his moods.
“I have a present to give both families. I’m just not sure if tonight’s the time to break the news.”
She let out a small cry. “You found Antonin!”
“Let’s just say I pursued a few ideas and the FBI did the rest. Agent Simpson knew our wedding was getting close so she left it up to me to decide when to tell everyone.”
“I don’t care how sobering it is. We all need closure to get on with our lives. Come on. Let’s not put this off another second.”
“If you’re sure.”
She held his face between her hands. “As long as Antonin was still on the loose after violating our family, I don’t think anyone has felt entirely safe. Oh yes, darling. This is the perfec
t time to put all our fears to rest.”
Jake knew it.
There was a part deep inside Maggie that had feared Antonin might come after them again. It was the supreme moment for Jake to know he could give her the one gift that would ensure their total happiness. He lowered his head and kissed the lips he would always hunger for, always crave.
Her response made him tremble. Though it was only a matter of days now, their honeymoon couldn’t come soon enough.
Reluctantly he broke off their kiss. Sliding his hand to her nape, he guided her back inside to the living room of the rustic home. It was as magnificent as the mountains towering over it.
“Ah. There they are,” Maggie’s mother said. At her comment, everyone’s heads lifted in their direction.
“Jake and I want to thank you for this fabulous party. I’ve never been so happy. Before we leave, he has something important he wants to tell all of you.”
He looked around the crowd of loved ones assembled. Kamila held Jared in her arms. She flashed him a quiet smile. His stepmother knew what he was about to reveal.
“Two days ago Antonin Buric was arrested in Alaska for kidnapping.”
An explosion of cries resounded in the room.
“Going on a hunch that he was always on the run and had worked on a ship before, I talked it over with Agent Kelly in California. Together we systematically phoned every port on the Pacific Coast from Mexico to Alaska to get names of all commercial shipping lines. Those companies gave us the lists of their crews. Sure enough, Tony Burk’s name came up as part of a salmon fishing boat outfit. The rest was easy, and the FBI picked him up.”
Reed shook his head. “That was an incredible piece of detective work, Jake.”
“The person who’s really incredible is Agent Kelly. He played a trick on Antonin by telling him they were arresting him for the kidnapping of Melissa Talbot and Kathryn McFarland.
“It worked because he spewed venom against his brother Franz for telling on him about the McFarland kidnapping. That was the proof Agent Kelly had been looking for, that Antonin had been directly involved.
“Once in custody, he went into a rage about how his younger brother had mental problems and had always copied him, how he’d ended up bungling the bank robbery because he’d decided to kidnap the baby of someone with no money. They’d already planned the kidnapping of the McFarland baby who would be worth millions once it was born.”
Both the Talbots and Maggie’s parents stared at each other in shock.
“So he got Franz to dump the Talbot baby on his girlfriend Rena Harris. Right before they left for Salt Lake he not only forced Franz to tell her it was the McFarland baby, he made him threaten her that if she and the baby didn’t want to die, she’d better shut up about it.
“If she didn’t, then Rena would be the one blamed for the McFarland kidnapping and she’d be given the death penalty for stealing the child of someone so wealthy and famous. Apparently the threat worked. Rena kept quiet, never knowing it was the Talbot baby she was raising.”
“Poor Rena,” Kit burst into tears before burying her face against Cord. “At least she didn’t have anything to do with the kidnapping.”
“She withheld evidence,’ Kit’s mother murmured, “but we have to be thankful that in the end she found the courage to tell you the truth. If it weren’t for Rena, none of us would be here tonight.”
Jake didn’t even want to think about that. It meant he would have never met Maggie. That was something he couldn’t comprehend.
“She was only eighteen and an orphan. Franz had to have terrified her into keeping quiet. It seems Antonin got Franz to drive to Salt Lake and together they planned the break-in of the mansion. They watched the grounds and noticed the milkman came every morning very early in his truck.”
“The milkman!” Ellen cried out.
“The police interrogated ours!” Reed exclaimed before shaking his head.
“You were up against professionals. Franz agreed to steal a milk truck parked at your dairy during the night when it wouldn’t be noticed. Antonin hid inside.
“They drove to the rear entrance where Antonin, masquerading as a milkman, hid on your porch. In the middle of the night he sneaked up the stairs to the nursery and stole Kathryn.”
Maggie’s sister had gone white. “This is unbelievable.” Reed put his arm around her.
“I agree, Kathryn. Then he went back to his hiding place on the porch. Franz drove up early in the morning, and Antonin got inside with the baby. When your milk came at the regular delivery time, no one was the wiser. They made it to a prearranged location where they’d parked their car. Antonin followed Franz back to the dairy where he put the truck back under the noses of everyone.
“Once that was accomplished, they began their trek across the country to New York where Antonin planned to tell his grandmother he needed a place for him and his wife and child to stay. From there he would write the ransom note.
“Franz got nervous and didn’t want to face his grandmother, so he ditched his brother. Antonin called on an old girlfriend to pose as his wife and help him take care of the baby. For cash she was willing. But she got nervous when she saw him writing the note.
“The McFarland kidnapping had been all over the news. She figured something screwy was going on so she took off. Antonin was afraid she’d go to the police. He decided to put off sending the note for a while and just cool his heels until the fervor died down.
“When he finally went back to his grandmother’s apartment, he found out she’d gone to her family in Wisconsin and taken the baby with her. That changed everything, so he gave up the idea of getting a ransom.
“At that point he turned to other types of crimes and subsisted until the feds picked him up.”
In the stunned quiet that followed, Maggie turned to him with an awed look in her eyes. “You are an angel. I never believed in them before.”
THE POUNDING OF THE SURF, the pounding of Maggie’s heart.
It was all one as she reached for her husband in the middle of the night and began kissing the scars that covered a portion of his shoulder and chest.
Until they’d made love on their first night as man and wife, over a week ago, she hadn’t realized the extent of his wounds caused by the explosion. He could have been killed. Unknowingly, she let out a little sob.
“Sweetheart?” he murmured, pulling her on top of him. “What’s the matter?”
“I love you so much, Jake. Every time I think of what my life would be like if you hadn’t come in to it, I can’t bear it.”
“I feel the same about you.” He kissed a certain favorite spot. “But we did meet. We’ve got each other forever, and right now there’s only one thing I want to do. Come closer,” he begged in an aching voice.
She moaned her need as their bodies entwined. His mouth and hands brought her such exquisite pleasure, she could hardly breathe. He started making love to her with a refined savagery. It went on until long after the sun had risen above the horizon.
When she opened her eyes, she discovered Jake’s head propped in his hand studying her. “How long have you been awake?”
“For a little while. You have no idea how beautiful you are,” he said in a husky voice. “I lusted after you the second we met. I still lust after you. I don’t ever want to leave this beach house or this bed.”
“I’m so glad you said that, because I’ve decided to keep you here all day and wait on you. Maybe I’ll let you go out on the beach for a walk with me this evening.”
She felt his low chuckle invade her bones.
“If Steve could see me now, he’d be totally shocked.”
His smile faded. “What about him?”
“On the night of Cord’s wedding, he asked if I’d like to come down here to the beach house for a few days’ vacation.”
“So I was right,” Jake muttered. “He did have a thing for you.”
“No, darling. It wasn’t like that between us. Anyway, I told him
I was too busy. He couldn’t believe I wouldn’t want to lie on the sand with nothing more to do than listen to the surf. My answer to him was that it would be pure torture.
“Little did I know then that one day I would be lying here with a man my dreams couldn’t even conjure.” Her eyes filled. “At the altar when the pastor asked me if I took you to be my lawfully wedded husband, I wanted to blurt that I’d already made those vows in my heart.”
Jake pulled her tightly against him. “When, Maggie?”
“That night in the mountains while you were thrashing about in your sleeping bag. It happened while I was trying to comfort you. I knew then, I would be there for you always, if you would have me.”
“If I would have you!” he cried out.
She kissed the tiny scar at the corner of his mouth. “I hoped.”
“Oh Maggie.” He crushed her against him. “I’m still haunted by that night and what I might have done to you without realizing it. Tell me the truth. Have I had any more nightmares?”
“Not one, darling.”
He looked down at her. “That’s because of you, my love.”
Maggie smiled up at him. “Isn’t love wonderful? I never knew how wonderful. I want to shout my happiness to the world. I want your babies. I’m hoping you’ve given me one already. It’s possible. I’ve even got a name picked out if it’s a boy.”
“Anything you want sweetheart except… Recompense.”
“Oh, but we have to!” she cried. “I thought Robert Recompense Halsey.”
Jake grinned. “He’ll never forgive us.”
“True.”
Suddenly she flung her arms around his neck, because a Jake who was grinning, laughing or chuckling, was more than her heart could resist.
“Let’s discuss more names, but let’s talk about them later. First there’s something I want to do. I have to do.” She drew his head down to her, leaving him in no doubt she was his for the taking.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7844-2
THE DAUGHTER’S RETURN
Copyright © 2005 by Rebecca Winters.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
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