I should have felt some remorse.
I didn’t.
I would likely be haunted with more nightmares, more sleepless nights, but in that moment, I didn’t care. I didn’t feel a thing. The bullet in my side didn’t register. The glass in my feet didn’t hurt. I didn’t think about the cuts on my arms as I reached down and yanked away the hat pulled low over his face.
It wasn’t Lex. It was someone I’d never seen before.
I stared down at the man, who began to laugh.
“Sucker,” he wheezed.
I slammed the butt of the pistol into his temple and cut off his laugh. My heart hammered as I spun around, fear and worry for Honor filling my veins with ice.
I listened through the darkness for the sound of the Jeep’s engine. For proof that she listened and made it to the car.
There was no sound of a rumbling engine.
There was no sound at all.
The night was unnaturally quiet.
“Honor!” I roared, increasing my speed and pressing a hand to the wound in my side. Fuck, bullet wounds hurt.
From somewhere in the house, I heard the sound of Lucy’s bark.
And then a gun went off.
33
Honor
Nathan was shot.
I saw the blood gushing out of his side and running down his bare skin to pool at the waistband of his jeans.
Where the hell were the cops?
“Nathan!” I shouted when he pushed off the wall and ran after Lex. He was an idiot! He was shot!
If he died, I was going to make the paramedics revive him so I could kill him all over again. Forgetting all about my orders from Nathan, I rushed back up the stairs and shut Lucy in the bathroom. She whined as I moved back down the hall, but I didn’t know what else to do with her. At least in there she would be safe.
I gripped the gun as I rush-limped down the stairs. I wasn’t about to let Nathan fight my battles for me. He already took some glass to his arm and back and a bullet. But this was my battle. That man out there was my kidnapper. I wasn’t going to let him control me. I wasn’t going to let him make me cower in fear.
When my foot hit the very last step, a dark figure stepped around the corner. I gasped.
It was Lex.
I’d know that handsome yet sadistic face anywhere.
I glanced behind him into my destroyed office and looked for Nathan. Where was he? Did he pass out? Was he dead?
“He’s not too bright, is he?” Lex said. Just the sound of his voice made my insides curdle like spoiled milk.
“What did you do to him!” I demanded.
Lex smiled. “Not a thing. I’m saving all my punishment for you.”
I looked at my kidnapper again. He wasn’t wearing all black like the man Nathan was fighting. Lex was dressed in jeans, running shoes, and a black NorthFace jacket. He wasn’t wearing a hat at all.
He looked like he came from the grocery store or something.
My eyes widened when I realized what happened. He tricked us.
“How did you find someone sick enough to help you?” I asked, glancing behind him once more. Where was Nathan?
“I’m offended you think I’m sick,” he mocked.
“Even if you kill me, you won’t get away with this. The police have Mary’s locket. They already know what you did to me.”
His eyes narrowed. “Yes. I saw the news. Not to worry,” he said, taking a step forward as I took one back. “By the time the cops get here, you’ll be dead and I’ll be long gone.”
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” I said, remembering the gun clutched in my hand.
“Who says I need a reason? Maybe I just do it because I like it.”
For some reason, I glanced down. His crotch was hard. Talk about a guy with sick fantasies. I swung up the gun and aimed it at his head. He lashed out, smacking the glass in my leg and making me cry out and stumble.
Lex took advantage of my momentary rush of pain and slapped my wrist and yanked the gun out of my hand. I kicked him and then scrambled up the steps away from him.
(Yes, I am aware I now joined the ranks of stupid idiots who run UP the stairs when a killer is after them.)
He grabbed my ankle and my chin slammed into the step. I felt my lip split open, and the pungent taste of blood flooded my mouth. I groaned, rolling onto my back and kicking with my free leg. My foot connected with his face. He let go, and I scrambled across the landing and up the second set of stairs.
Lex was hot on my heels as I raced into the living room, desperately looking for something I could use to defend myself.
The contents of my purse were still spilled everywhere, and the cell phone was still lit up and open on the table. “Help me!” I screamed in the direction of the phone. “He has a gun!”
Lex jumped me from behind, and I fell under him, onto my stomach and crying out as the glass in my thigh was shoved even deeper into my leg. Pain screamed through my body and tears filled my eyes.
I couldn’t seem to think past the pain.
Lex flipped me over and straddled me. I forgot about the pain as my hand closed over something lying on the floor and I brought it up and jammed it down into the top of his thigh.
Lex shouted as the pen buried itself into his leg. Then I picked up a pack of Tic Tacs and threw it at his head. (What? I had to use what was available.)
He knocked the mints away and then reached for the pen sticking out of his leg. I twisted beneath him and he fell sideways. We went rolling across the floor as I reached up and gouged my thumb into his eye socket.
He jerked away and I followed him, ripping my gun out of his hand.
“Please stop!” I cried. I knew he wouldn’t, but I admit, I yelled it for the benefit of the operator on the other end of the phone line.
I wanted absolutely no doubt that what I was about to do was self-defense.
Lex grabbed onto my ankle and grinned up at me. I kicked him in the face and blood bloomed around his teeth. He looked like some funhouse clown that had gone mad.
With a single jerk, he sent me falling backward, landing on my back.
Inside the bathroom, Lucy barked and I could hear her clawing at the door, trying to get out.
“After you’re dead,” Lex said, crawling up my body. “I’m gonna screw your body before it turns cold.”
I shot him.
The bullet slammed into his shoulder and he recoiled. I scrambled out from under him and stood.
“Honor!” Nathan screamed from downstairs, and my knees went weak with relief.
“I’m up here!” I yelled, my voice sounding more like a squeak.
Feet pounded on the stairs, and I moved to rush toward him. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted to see that he was okay.
A hand closed around my ankle and jerked me back.
I screamed.
Lex laughed.
Twisting quickly, without hesitation, I shot him in the head.
Nathan skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs, his wide eyes going between Lex and me. I could only imagine what he saw. Me covered in blood with a busted lip and a heaving chest, holding a gun, while standing over a man with a bullet in his head.
Reality crashed over me.
The gun fell from my hand and bounced off the carpet.
I shot someone.
I killed him.
My kidnapper was dead.
“Honor,” Nathan said breathlessly and rushed across the room to wrap me in his arms. My body shook violently, so hard that my teeth chattered and my skin felt icy.
“I killed him,” I said, shoving my face into his bare, blood-smeared chest.
“You protected yourself, baby,” he murmured. “You did real good.”
Police sirens drew closer and soon, the flashing blue-and-red lights filled the windows and the driveway.
I felt lightheaded and I knew I lost a lot of blood. I pulled back from Nathan and looked at his side where the bullet entered his body.<
br />
“It’s not so bad,” he murmured, tipping my chin up so I couldn’t look.
“He was crazy,” I said, my voice hollow.
“Hell yes, he was.” Nathan agreed, swiping the pad of his thumb across my chin. My lower lip was swollen again.
The cops burst in the front door with weapons drawn. I weaved a little on my feet. Standing up was growing harder and harder.
Nathan scooped me up in his arms and turned toward the cops. “I need a medic!” he roared.
Then he glanced down into my face. “Just hang on, Honor.” He got this pinched look in his eyes. “Don’t you die on me.”
I smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of dying. I have way too much to live for.”
As my house filled with emergency workers and medical personnel, Nathan and I held each other’s gaze.
“Me too,” he murmured, pressing his lips to my forehead. “Me too.”
EPILOGUE
Honor
One Year Later…
Flashbulbs exploded everywhere around us, blinding me, and I tried not to recoil. This night had been everything that dreams are made of, but all the attention, the crowds, and the noise was starting to wear on me.
Nathan wrapped a solid hand around mine and pulled me through the crowd toward the waiting limo. He held the door while I slid across the black leather seats, and he followed me in, shutting the door behind us.
“Holy cow,” I gasped. “That was awesome and insane all at the same time!”
“Better get used to it. You’re a celebrity now.”
“I think you’re more popular than I am.” I smiled coyly from my side of the very long seat.
Nathan grinned and pushed off the door, slipping right up alongside me so we were pressed together, hip to ankle. “It’s only because this author I know wrote this book about me that made me look like a real hero.”
I climbed into his lap. The red gown I was wearing made it hard to move so I bunched it up around my thighs. “All I did was tell our story.”
“You did more than that,” he said, pride filling his voice. “You gave a voice to every single victim out there.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I did pray that I gave hope to some. Once the questioning, the media frenzy, and the funeral of Mary (her body was found weeks later, disposed in a crude shallow grave on the mountain) was over, Nathan and I settled into life together.
Being with him was more than I could have ever asked for. He made me so incredibly happy that I couldn’t begin to regret being kidnapped.
But it wasn’t something I was able to get over so quickly either. Nightmares, visions of Lex with a bullet wound in his head, and anxiety were all side effects of what happened.
Through it all, Nathan was there. He understood better than most people could. He never pushed, but his quiet strength was always there. He never complained when my screaming woke him in the night, and he put all his guns out of sight until I could look at one without feeling panic claw at my lungs.
I might have been the one to write a book about what happened to me, a book that debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and remained there to this day. I might have been the one whose name flashed in the credits on the big screen after the movie that was based on my book—based on us—premiered tonight. But Nathan was the one who encouraged me to write it.
After watching me go through various stages of anger and guilt, he suggested I write it all down. That I sit and type out how I was kidnapped, what it was like to be in that hole. He told me that even if the book never saw the light of day, it could be a means of healing for me, a way to move on.
And so I did.
I wrote about everything. I wrote about Lex and the things he did to me. I wrote about the fear and loneliness that threatened to drag me down as I sat in that hole and stared up at the faraway sky. I told Mary’s story, and I gave a voice to the family that would forever mourn her. But the book wasn’t just about that. It was also a romance. It was the story of Nathan and me. It was the story of how love bloomed from a terrible thing and how it prevailed to this day.
The war veteran and the writer, both survivors, both getting the happy ending they deserved.
“I love you, Mrs. Reed,” Nathan murmured, kissing my lips.
“I love you, too.”
His palm slid up between us and covered my breast. I groaned and arched into his touch. We had made love about a thousand times in the past year, and I would never get tired of his touch, his feel, his scent.
“Can we skip the premiere party and go back to the hotel?” he said against my lips as his fingers rubbed over my hardened nipple.
I moaned. “I wish.”
He pulled his lips away and leaned his head against the seat. “A bestselling book, a movie deal, a press tour…” he listed. “What’s next?”
“Well,” I said, fingering the ornate buttons on the Dress Blues he wore. “I was thinking we could buy a little place on the beach.”
“Near Jacksonville?” he asked, his eyes lighting with interest.
“Your hometown.” I smiled. “Think Lucy will like the beach?”
He chuckled. “What will your mother say?”
“Oh, I’m sure she’ll call and bug us twenty times a day.”
“Patton called me the other day. He’s getting out of the Corps. I told him my idea about opening up a security firm.”
“What did he say?” I said, excitement for Nathan unfurling in my belly.
“He said he wanted in.” Nathan grinned like the cat that ate the canary.
“Of course he did,” I replied, sliding my hands up his shoulders. “New house, new place, new business.”
“I kind of always thought I’d do my twenty in the Corps and then spend my life alone. Yeah, I have my family in Jacksonville, but I didn’t think I’d have a family of my own.”
I folded his hand in mine. “Do you regret getting out of the Marines?”
He turned thoughtful and then he smiled. “No. That wasn’t the kind of life I wanted. Not anymore. Not for me. Not for you.”
“Life’s too short to not get what you want,” I told him, remembering when he said those words to me as he gave me Lucy.
“Exactly,” he murmured, cupping my face in his palms. “It’s a good thing I have everything I could ever ask for sitting right here in my lap.”
One text is what started it all.
A single text led us to forever.
One text can change everything.
The End
Nathan’s Apple Pie
Ingredients
You can use store-bought crust or you can make your own.
To make a double pie crust:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
½ cup shortening
6 tablespoons ice-cold water
Apple Pie Filling:
4-8 Granny Smith apples (depends on size)
4 tablespoons cut-up butter
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon (Nathan likes lots of cinnamon. This can easily be cut down to taste.)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (This helps the sauce in the pie thicken.)
Nathan’s Apple Pie (cont.)
Directions
To make crust:
Cut together the flour, salt, butter, and shortening with a pastry fork until blended. Add water one Tbsp at a time and mix with fork until it firms into a ball. Separate the ball into two smaller balls. Roll each out onto a heavily floured surface, flipping over frequently. Place one crust in the bottom of a pie pan and reserve the other crust for topping the pie once it is full.
To make filling:
Peel and slice all the apples. Add all slices into a bowl. Mix the apples with the sugar, cinnamon, and flour until well coated. Dump apples into pie crust. Place the 4 tablespoons of cut-up butter around on top of the apples.
Cover the pie with the remaining crust. Crimp the edges to
gether. With a sharp knife, cut a few slits in the top crust (to allow steam to escape while baking), and then you can brush the top of the pie with an egg wash (egg wash = a beaten raw egg). This will give the crust its golden-brown appearance. Also, sprinkle granulated sugar over the top of the crust—which will give the pie a nice flavor and sweetness.
Bake the pie in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes, depending on oven.
Let cool and enjoy!
Note: Nathan suggests serving your warm apple pie with a generous helping of French vanilla ice cream.
Cambria recommends enjoying with ice cream AND coffee.
TIPSY
Sneak Peek
by Cambria Hebert
Julie
How they met…
Morning from hell. I was not a morning person. I never was, and I never would be. Getting up in the morning is pretty much the worst part of my day. Trying to drag myself out of a way comfortable bed where I am surrounded by fluffy pillows and soft bedding is pretty much the epitome of torture.
Add an alarm that never shuts up and cold tile in the bathroom that feels like tiny needles being jammed into my skin and you have the makings for a very bitchy Julie.
Thank goodness I lived alone. There was no way in hell any man could go up against the morning sunshine I projected.
To make matters worse, I was running late. I hated being late. If I was late to work, it would throw off every appointment I had that day, and I would spend every single hour trying to play catch-up.
I rushed around trying to get ready, pulling on a cotton dress because it was a hell of a lot harder to try and match clothes together when I was stumbling around like a living zombie (Wait. Zombies didn’t live. They were dead.) and then buckled a red patent leather belt around my waist on the way down the stairs. I would have to do my eye makeup at work and I would also have to touch up my hair.
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