Berry covered her face with her right hand.
“Daniel’s death wasn’t your fault,” Tyler repeated sternly. “This is Grady Craig’s fault, and don’t you forget it. Do you hear me, Berry Challoner? He wanted your great-aunt’s money, and he was willing to kill your entire family to get it.”
A loud, melodious beeping began.
Berry ignored it, lost in her own misery. Everything had gone wrong. She’d wasted Daniel’s insurance money on an investigation that actually had nothing to do with his death, and she’d alienated Tyler’s family. To top everything off, she’d fallen in love with Tyler and had almost gotten him killed. She was a jinx, that was all. Everyone around her either died or got killed.
“Berry, dear, stretch out your arm.” Celia gently pried Berry’s hand from her face. “You’ve twisted your IV line.”
Berry submitted to having her arm stretched out on the bed beside her. The beeping stopped.
“Now, dear, don’t cry,” Celia said briskly. She brushed Berry’s curls back from her forehead. “As Tyler says, none of this was your fault. Things will be a lot clearer tomorrow, when the anesthesia has worn off and you’ve had some rest. Say good night, everyone. This young woman has talked all she’s going to tonight.”
Berry wished the roof would fall on her. She didn’t deserve for everyone to be so nice to her when she’d almost gotten Tyler killed.
Tyler bent over her. “I gave all those printouts of yours to Nathaniel Corrigan.” He bent close and smiled into her eyes. “He actually drove all the way over here to get them, chortling like a fiend. It seems you managed to crack into Felix’s private version of the accounting files—before they’re doctored and released to the company accountants.”
“Topdog,” Berry whispered.
“Exactly.” He touched her face tenderly with his fingertips. “Felix wanted to entice the stockholders into voting him in as president. It’s giving Corrigan great pleasure to lower the boom on Felix. Walter Farley had hired him especially to investigate the goings-on in the accounts at the Westheimer number two store.”
Berry’s lips curved into a small smile. “Then there really was something illegal going on?”
“Your instincts were right on target.” Tyler stroked his finger carefully over her cheek. “It was a highly specialized fraud designed to make Felix’s stores outperform the others. He was fencing stolen auto parts through the Westheimer number two store and putting the profits back into the business. Corrigan suspected something of the sort when the inventory counts didn’t jibe. Then I happened to be there when the mag wheels off Daniel’s Mustang entered the stock room.”
Berry’s eyes went wide. “What? Do you mean they’re the ones who stole my wheels?”
“Not precisely, but they sure would have been glad to sell them back to you,” Tyler said, grinning. “Bernard Warren and Felix Farley were running a fencing operation. They bought stolen parts from professional thieves and resold them through an established business with a good reputation.”
Berry took a deep breath. “I knew something bad was going on at that place. Thank you, Tyler. If you hadn’t been clever enough to get that job, we might never have known what it was.” She tried to reach up and hug him, but a searing pain shot through her shoulder. She fell back, gasping. What was wrong with her? “You’re a real hero.”
“He’s a hero,” Kelley exclaimed. “What about you?”
“I didn’t do much.” Berry inched her right hand up carefully to test her left shoulder. “After everything I went through to get into that office, I never did find any real clues, not counting all the personal melodrama. It was all due to Tyler actually getting into Felix’s store that we solved the mystery.”
“You didn’t do a thing,” Debra agreed, leaning into Berry’s vision. “You just saved Tyler’s life, that’s all.”
Berry winced. Debra thought she was a gold-digger, so why was she being so sweet? “I didn’t save Tyler’s life.”
“Leave her alone, Deb,” Tyler commanded. “She probably doesn’t remember much about what happened today.”
Berry thought back. “I was coming out of the office with my printouts and hoping to avoid Cammy Osborne … Tyler, did she shoot me?”
“You have a hole in your left shoulder,” Tyler said tersely. “You’ve been in surgery to remove the bullet. You lost a lot of blood, but you’re going to be fine. Do you hurt anywhere?”
“They must have given me a lot of painkillers, because I don’t feel a thing.” That was true. Her body felt numb, unless she moved. It was her heart that ached. She touched the bandage on her left shoulder gingerly.
“We thought you never would wake up,” Kelley said. “Poor Tyler was going crazy, what with pacing the floor and talking to the police and all. What a night. But it was worth it to find out Tyler’s got himself a real woman at last.”
Berry looked blankly at Kelley and wondered what she was talking about.
“When you jumped in front of him, we knew you loved him, so that made everything all right,” Debra said. “But you don’t seem to realize that it isn’t Tyler who’s a hero. You are. You saved Tyler’s life.”
Berry thought dully that no one understood. If Tyler had died, she might as well have been dead, too. She studied Debra curiously. Every hair was in place, but Debra gave the impression she’d been standing in a stiff wind.
“You saved his life,” Debra repeated slowly, “and we love you for it.”
“I had to,” Berry said slowly. “Everyone I loved is dead because of me. I couldn’t let Tyler die just because I love him.”
“Oh, gosh,” Kelley said. “She really believes that.”
“That’s ridiculous, young lady,” Mason Reid said. He stood at the foot of Berry’s bed and looked sternly at her. “No one died because of you. And no one’s going to. You’re going to marry my son and live happily ever after. I refuse to worry any longer that one of those silly women he’s been dating is going to trap him into marriage.”
Berry regarded him in wondering silence.
Mason stared back. “I don’t want to hear another word on the subject.”
“Now, Dad, you can’t intimidate Berry that way,” Tyler said. “You’re talking to the woman who dumped a full plate of spaghetti over Daniel Challoner’s head and ran him out of the house.”
To Berry’s dismay, the Reid sisters regarded her with enormous respect.
“You don’t deserve her, Tyler Reid,” Debra said.
“I know I don’t,” Tyler said, “but all the same, I’m going to have her.”
Berry pondered this with a brain that had trouble taking in the simplest of concepts and decided she had no idea what they were discussing.
“You can’t keep her here in Houston right now,” Mason said, fixing Tyler with a ferocious frown. “Not with that Robinson psychopath running around.”
“You’re right, Dad.” He leaned over the bed and said gently, “Berry?” When she looked up at him, he said, “How would you like to go to Grand Cayman?”
She thought it over carefully with a brain that grew more sluggish by the moment. “Grand Cayman? Isn’t that an island?”
Tyler smiled. “As a matter of fact, it is. It’s a Caribbean paradise, or so I’m told. The perfect place to spend a honeymoon. But in order to have a honeymoon, we’ve got to have a wedding.”
“A wedding?” Berry studied his chin.
Tyler stroked his finger over her cheek and carefully traced her lips. “You have a terrible habit of breaking engagements. That’s why I’ve decided not to give you the chance to break another one.”
Berry considered this. In her current confused state, it made no sense. “I can’t get married unless I get engaged first.”
“You’re not listening, Challoner.” He slipped his hand behind her head and entangled his hand in her curls. “You have a bad habit of reneging on your promises when it comes to marriage. So I’m not asking you. I’m simply showing up tomorrow morning wit
h a preacher and a license.”
“Can you do that?” She had no idea what he meant.
“I sure can, considering one of my father’s best golfing buddies is a judge,” Tyler said. “He’ll get us a license fast under these circumstances.”
“Sheesh,” Debra muttered in the background. “What a romantic. No wonder he’s thirty years old and unmarried. If I were her, I’d dump a bowl of lasagna over his head.”
“Tyler is very romantic,” Berry defended. “He’s much more romantic than Daniel ever was.”
“It’s true love,” Kelley said. “Go get that preacher right now, Tyler. You can’t take the chance of letting her get away.”
“It’s four-thirty in the morning,” Tyler said. “I don’t think he’d be very happy with anyone wanting to be married at this hour. Besides, Dad needs some time to coax Judge Harlow into granting us a license. The judge will be much more amenable if Dad doesn’t wake him up.”
Berry yawned, still baffled and too tired to work things out. She knew only one thing at the moment. She had caused Tyler nothing but trouble, and had wound up almost getting him killed. That much was clear. Everything else remained hazy.
“Let the judge sleep,” she said. “He’s probably going to be mad because I almost got Tyler killed.” She yawned again. “If he doesn’t get any sleep, he’ll be twice as mad.”
“You didn’t almost get Tyler killed,” Debra said. “You saved his life when that crazy woman tried to kill him.”
Berry said nothing and closed her eyes. That “crazy woman” was her cousin, who wanted her great-aunt’s money. That meant she was responsible for this whole mess.
“Open your eyes, Berry,” Tyler commanded softly.
She opened her eyes reluctantly and focused on his face.
“We’re getting married. No engagements or rings. I don’t want you to have a chance to think you made a mistake and call it off. This is a case where once I put the ring on your finger during the ceremony, it stays on. Do you understand?”
She frowned. “Of course I understand. But that doesn’t change the fact that it was my cousin who tried to shoot you.”
“Second cousin, I believe,” Celia said. “She’s the daughter of your father’s cousin, or so I understand. It’s a much more distant relationship.”
Berry considered this and decided Celia was just trying to be nice. “A second cousin is still a cousin. That’s way too close.”
“Too close for what?” Tyler asked. “The fact that a distant relative of yours tried to kill you for money you don’t even have has nothing to do with our marriage—I’m not marrying her. I’m marrying you.”
“You can’t marry her,” Berry pointed out. “She’s already married. I think.” She struggled to remember what someone had said about Cammy’s marriage.
“I wouldn’t marry her anyway,” Tyler said. “I’m marrying you. Tomorrow, as soon as possible. Then we’re leaving on our honeymoon. You can bring along all those fancy office outfits you bought and give me a proper thrill.”
Berry thought this over and suddenly recalled what Tyler had said about having to look at auto parts all day while Felix got to look at her. She smiled.
“That would be perfect, Tyler,” she said. “I’ve got two or three outfits that I haven’t even worn yet. Somebody has got to appreciate them.”
“If they’re anything like that red suit you wore today, old Tyler will probably chase you all over Grand Cayman island,” Kelley said, snickering.
“Berry.” Tyler leaned over her and brought his face within inches of hers. “I need you. Will you marry me?”
Berry blinked, confused. Tyler was asking her to marry him? After she had almost gotten him killed?
“I’ve just said the magic words,” he said. “Now put out your left hand.”
He did want to marry her. In spite of her confusion, she suddenly understood that Tyler really did want to marry her.
“This isn’t fair. You’re using everything I’ve told you against me.” She lifted her left hand, which was strangely uncooperative, a few inches. “Are you sure you want to marry me?”
“Yes, I am, and I’m not giving you a ring until it’s too late for you to give it back.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her ring finger. “Besides, I haven’t had a chance to get one. It’s been a busy day.”
“Here, Tyler.” Celia tugged her diamond from her finger. “You can borrow mine. Who knows what might happen if you don’t do things properly.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Tyler slid Celia’s diamond solitaire on Berry’s finger. “You can have it back as soon as she falls asleep.”
Berry stared at her left hand through tears that suddenly rose in her eyes. “It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever had. Thank you, Tyler.”
“Now tell him you love him,” Debra said. “In these cases, it’s important to be very clear about expectations and emotions.”
“I am clear,” Berry said. “Tyler is the only man who was ever willing to go out of his way in order to help me. How could I not love him?”
“That’s the ticket,” Debra said approvingly. “Now you go back to sleep with a good conscience. You love Tyler, and Tyler loves you. Tomorrow you’re getting married. Everything is perfect.”
“Everything is perfect,” Berry repeated, finally believing it.
She drifted back into sleep and dreamed of diamonds and white dresses.
• • •
Tyler stepped off the hospital elevator and headed toward Berry’s room. He had the marriage license from Judge Harlow in his pocket, and Pastor Miller was due in half an hour. He also had his car packed with luggage, and a pair of plane tickets in his jacket pocket. He just hoped Berry was up to traveling so soon. Even the Houston police detective agreed with him about getting Berry out of Houston until Craig Robinson was apprehended.
Her doctor had assured him that she was fully able and would have her strength back in a few days. Tyler supposed it would be a while before he believed that. The memory of her injury, the image of the blood pouring from her shoulder and the long period of unconsciousness following would be with him a long time.
She loved him. The thought sent his mind flying into a paradise that had nothing to do with Grand Cayman or anything earthly. He’d never dreamed of all it meant to have a woman love him the way Berry loved him. His determination increased. This was one engagement she wasn’t getting out of.
He pushed open the door to her room. Berry was alone, sitting up in a chair beside the bed. Her hair had been brushed into a mass of shining curls, her face delicately made up, and her own gray eyes were clear. Her left arm reposed in a sling, and she wore a loosely fitting white pants outfit one of his sisters had bought for her.
She turned her head and saw him. Joy flooded her face, then confusion. She paled then flushed with color. Tyler was relieved to see the color, considering she’d lost so much blood.
“Good morning, darling,” he said and bent to kiss her. “Where’s Mom?”
“She went down to the lobby with Mr. Farley.” She slipped her right arm around his neck and clung. “Oh, Tyler, Walter Farley came to see me. And look.” She nodded at a grapefruit-sized chunk of rock on the bedside table. “He brought me Daniel’s paperweight and thanked me for helping Mr. Corrigan uncover Felix’s fraud. I hope he never finds out I was really there to prove Felix was a murderer.”
Tyler chuckled. “More rocks, Challoner?” He didn’t care if she filled his house with rocks, so long as she married him. “You’re beginning to make me nervous. I hope you aren’t planning on taking that rock with you to Grand Cayman.”
“Tyler, what’s happening? Why are you doing this?” She clutched his lapel.
“Reneging already?” He smiled at her. “I’ve got news for you. It’s too late. This is one wedding you’re going through with.”
“Yes, but—”
“You said you loved me,” he reminded her. “I have witnesses. My whole family heard you. Are you go
ing to try reneging on that, too?”
She withdrew her arm. “No, I am not. But you might want to think about this, Tyler. Grady Craig is still on the loose, you know.”
“I know, darling, but Cammy is now in custody. Without her, he’ll never touch a cent of your great-aunt’s money.” He knelt on the floor before her, clasping her good hand. “If you’re worried, maybe we can visit your great-aunt and ask her to leave her money to her church or some charity she likes.”
Berry stared at him, clearly struck by this suggestion. “That’s a great idea. I’d rather not have her money, and especially not since Daniel got killed because of it.” She paused and seemed to swallow hard. “Tyler, are you sure? I mean, we can still go to Grand Cayman, but we don’t have to get married.”
He laughed and shook his head. “My first—and only—engagement was to a woman who was using me to keep her father from finding out about her real lover because she was afraid he’d disinherit her. It was a humiliating experience all the way around.”
“That’s horrible,” Berry said. “At least, I never got engaged unless I thought I meant to go through with it.”
“I know.” Tyler laughed up at her. “This time, you aren’t going to think about it. You’re going to do it.”
“Oh, Tyler, do you mean it?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.” He produced the license and showed it to her.
“You aren’t marrying me just to protect me from Grady Craig, are you?” she asked, struck by horrible suspicion.
“No, Challoner, I’m marrying you because you’re an heiress.” Tyler saw the expression on her face and rose, lifting her to her feet with him. “Idiot. Can’t you see I’m in love with you? I have been ever since you showed up in my office and brought all the color back into my life.”
Berry looked into his eyes and saw it was true. “I’ve never put color into anyone’s life before.”
“It was those violet eyes of yours,” he said roughly. He held her gently, with all due respect for her injured shoulder. “Berry, I love you.”
“I—”
“Back away from her slowly.” The low, flat voice interrupted from the door. “Otherwise, I’ll kill you, too.”
Texas Temptation Page 18
