by Alice Sharpe
The unbearable pressure seemed to last an eternity and then she heard Trip’s voice. “No, you don’t,” he yelled, and he must have pulled Eddie off her, because suddenly she could breathe.
Eddie started punching, the gun went off again, and then Eddie was running away, swallowed by the dark. “Stop him,” Faith croaked as Trip reached down for her. “Trip, stop him, he’s going for Noelle.”
Trip immediately turned and gave chase.
After an eternity, she heard more gunfire, two or three shots, maybe more. When it was quiet, she found herself standing, listening. No matter who had or hadn’t survived, she had to get back to the house, back to Noelle and Colin. She took a step and then he erupted from the dark, gripping her around the waist, pulling her against him.
“Oh, Trip.”
“Are you okay? Can you walk? Oh, God, I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I knew you would come if you could,” she said, as he kissed her face a dozen times. “I knew it.”
“You’re freezing to death,” he murmured, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around her. “Where are the children? Faith, where are they?”
“At his house. He drugged us. And Marnie, she’s in the barn. I don’t think she has much longer. Is Eddie—”
“Dead.”
Supporting each other, they limped through the trees toward the access road where the snowmobile, headlight still glowing, sat abandoned. It wasn’t until Trip walked in front of the machine that she saw the bright red blood staining the bandage around his leg.
“You were shot.”
“I’m okay.” He looked around and added, “The gunfire must have scared off Buttercup.”
“You rode to the rescue on Buttercup? A big, manly stud like you?”
“Don’t tell anyone,” he said. “Can you bear one more ride on the snowmobile?”
She never wanted to see it again. “Yes, if it’s with you,” she mumbled.
They climbed on and rode back to the house in time to see two deputy vehicles pull into the driveway. The deputies spied them at once and came forward.
“In the barn, near the workbench at the back, a woman, under a tarp,” Faith said. “She needs an ambulance fast.”
One deputy immediately took off to the barn, radio in hand, making the necessary calls. The other said, “Ma’am, sir, you both look as though you could use an ambulance, too.”
“We’re okay, but there are children inside who’ve been drugged.”
“And there’s a body out in the trees,” Trip said. He grabbed Faith’s hand. She acted as his crutch as he haltingly, but with determination, made his way up the front steps and across the porch.
The house was as quiet and still as a time capsule. Under the lights, she finally got a good look at Trip and he at her, and they both smiled in recognition of their sorry states.
“Over here,” Faith said, her numb feet tingling as she walked. When she caught sight of the children sleeping exactly as she’d left them, she expelled a breath she hadn’t even known she was holding.
How could she ever have abandoned two small children alone in this house? She vaguely recalled her own confusion, but it was like trying to remember the details of a dream. At the time, going to find Eddie had seemed the logical thing to do, but in retrospect…
She was closest to Colin, so she picked him up gently, relieved when he made little faces and sounds. As Trip hefted Noelle in his strong arms, the small doll Eddie had given her fell from her hand. They both stared at it for a minute before Trip kicked it under the sofa.
“I think the best thing for us to do is keep them inside where it’s warm until the ambulance arrives,” Trip said, kissing Noelle’s forehead.
“I agree.”
He gazed at both children with such tenderness Faith’s throat closed. “There’s a lot I’m just beginning to understand.”
Did he know Eddie killed his mother and sister? Had he figured out that he himself was at the center of the violence, that as nonsensical as it was, Eddie had blamed Trip for his mother’s death?
Eventually he would have to know all this, but not now. “Me, too,” she said.
“You were remarkable out there,” he added as he sat down, still cradling Noelle, groaning when her limp body pressed against his leg.
Faith sat down next to him, pulling a blanket free and covering the children—and him. He looked as though he needed a hospital bed far worse than the kids, but she knew he wouldn’t taken care of himself until they were taken care of first. That’s the kind of man he was.
As for herself? The truth was, she might be banged up and exhausted, but she also felt alive in a way she hadn’t for a long time. “You were the remarkable one,” she told Trip.
He kissed her gently. “You must be psychic,” he whispered, his gaze caressing her.
“Me?”
“You told me I would fall in love someday with a fearless woman. You predicted it. And I have.”
She started to protest. Her, fearless? That was crazy talk—and yet, that’s exactly how she’d felt when she’d gotten to her feet and engaged Eddie in conversation, when she’d tackled him to give Trip the time he needed. She’d been too angry to be afraid, too worried about the people she loved to stay hidden.
Fearless.
As the distant sound of sirens reached her ears, she leaned against his muscular shoulder and stared up into his eyes.
“Luke Tripper, will you marry me?”
The look in his eyes was all the answer she needed.
Epilogue
“They’re here!”
Noelle came rushing inside, almost knocking over Colin.
Faith caught Colin before he landed on his head and followed Noelle outside. The July day was warm, with just a touch of a breeze—a perfect day for an outdoor wedding.
Colin wiggled free when he spied the four little girls tottering toward him. Faith’s nieces, Brianna, Antoinette, Jillian and Juliet, were fourteen months old now. They all had identical brown curls and pink cheeks, were all dressed in fluttery yellow dresses, and all adored Noelle, who, also dressed in yellow with her brown hair curled for the event, looked enough like them to be their older sister.
Colin, chubby and blond, a dead ringer for his deceased father, laughed and clapped his hands as he charged into their midst. He loved girls.
Faith stopped and kissed each wiggly little girl before making it to her best friend and sister-in-law, Olivia. “I’m so glad you came,” Faith said.
“We wouldn’t miss this day for the world,” Olivia whispered.
“Where’s the groom?” Zac asked as he folded her in a brotherly hug.
“Sheriff Torrence called him about a robbery—he’ll be out in a minute. How about Juliet and Dad? Are they far behind you?”
“No. They’ll be here in a half hour or so.”
At that moment, Trip opened the front door and came outside. The white shirt he wore with his jeans set off his tan, making him so handsome Faith felt weak in the knees. He’d taken over for Chief Novak after the chief botched the murder investigation back at Christmas. Trip’s contentment with being back in law enforcement, even at a local level, glowed in his eyes.
When he got close enough, he opened both arms and whistled at Faith, who was wearing a white shirt and jeans, too, as she planned on riding Buttercup to the altar. “My God, woman, you look good enough to marry,” he said.
She laughed as she threw herself into his arms.
“Ms. Faith?”
This came from George Plum who had been around back with some of the ranch hands getting the barbecue ready to go. “You get around to signing those invoices yet?”
“Give the boss a day off, George, she’s getting married!” Trip said with a laugh.
That’s what Faith was. The boss. She’d taken formal leave of teaching after the last term and signed aboard as the new boss at the Triple T. She had found over the past few months that ranching might not be in Trip’s blood, but som
ehow it was in hers; and besides, she wanted to be at home with the children. With her children.
“I signed them this morning,” she said. “Listen, did Hal get down to look over the fences we talked about?”
“Not yet. I figured I’d send him tomorrow while you guys are off on your honeymoon….”
“George, go away,” Trip interrupted with a laugh. “And you, young lady, don’t you know brides are supposed to forget about work on their wedding day?” With this, he swept her into his arms. She threw back her head and laughed.
Her wedding day.
The rattle of the cattle guard announced another vehicle. Trip put her back on her feet as a van appeared around the bend.
“Your first guest?” Olivia asked.
“Yes and no,” Faith said, smiling up at Trip. Arm and arm, they walked to the van as Nate and Marnie Pincer got out. “Where do we set up?” Marnie asked.
“This is so nice of you guys to cater our reception,” Faith said, taking the waitress-turned-caterer’s hands.
“Nice?” Nate scoffed. “If it weren’t for you two, I wouldn’t have a wife, our boy wouldn’t have a mother.”
“Don’t mind Nate, he gets mushy at weddings,” Marnie said, but she cast him a warm look as she said it.
“George, come help the Pincers,” Trip said, putting an arm around Faith.
As children and adults chattered around them, they looked at each other, building an island of peace in a sea of commotion. Later, when they were truly alone, she would give him the news there was going to be another baby at the Triple T.
But not yet.
There was plenty of time.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4140-8
AGENT DADDY
Copyright © 2009 by Alice Sharpe
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.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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