“My pocket,” Emily whispered. “Look in my pocket.”
Reaching into the large pocket of her raincoat, he pulled out a small tape recorder. It was still running. “What’s on this?”
“Governor Savoy’s confession. He claims he wasn’t directly responsible for shooting Bettina Gibson. He was just trying to stop her from shooting him.
Chris stopped the tape. “We’ll let the police handle this.” He pressed a kiss to her cool forehead. “Speaking of the police, Detective McGrady called me early this morning. He thought I should know what you were up to.”
“How did he know you and I…” Her words trailed off.
“A friend of mine had a chat with him.”
“What friend?”
“Someone I paid to keep an eye on you.”
“What!”
“I’ll tell you about it later.”
Emily struggled to free herself. “Oh, no. You’re going to tell me now.”
Chris shook his head. “Later, Emelia.”
“¡Ahora, Cristobal!” She gasped audibly when a contraction seized her, the pain radiating around to her back.
“Emily!”
Her eyes widened, filling with fear and pain. “Oh, Chris. I think the baby’s coming.”
He couldn’t remember retrieving the small phone clipped to his waist, or how calm his voice was when he spoke to the 911 operator. What he could remember was the wail of sirens when he sat beside his wife in the back of the ambulance, holding her hand.
The most memorable sight was when he saw his son born. The quiet, trembling little boy was three weeks early, but he was perfect—as perfect as the woman who’d carried him beneath her heart. He remained with Emily throughout the day until a night nurse told him he would have to leave.
He called a press conference the next day, telling the residents of New Mexico that he’d become a father. There was a chorus of loud gasps when he revealed that he’d married Emily Kirkland earlier in the year, and that they’d decided to keep their marriage a secret because of professional obligations.
“How’s your wife doing, Senator?”
“She’s doing well, thank you.”
Chris pointed to another reporter. “Yes?”
“Who does the baby look like?” the woman asked.
There was a smattering of laughter. Lowering his head, he smiled. “He happens to look like his grandfather.”
“Which grandfather?” asked another reporter.
“His maternal grandfather.”
Alejandro Delgado II looked nothing like his namesake. Somehow he’d inherited Joshua Kirkland’s pale hair and green eyes. Emily reassured him that his hair would probably darken as he grew older, but Chris doubted it. However, it didn’t matter who his son resembled as long as he was healthy. Besides, he and Emily had quite a few years to try it again.
Epilogue
January 10
Santa Fe
Emily sat down at the kitchen table, running a letter opener under the flap of an envelope. The earrings that Eve Sterling wore for more than three decades sparkled in her lobes. The letter had been addressed to her at the governor’s mansion. She was intrigued by the plain white envelope with no return address.
Her gaze raced over the page of single-spaced type:
Dear Mrs. Delgado:
Words cannot express my gratitude for your helping to solve my twin sister’s murder. Bettina Gibson was my sister. I know you believed that she was an only child, but she wasn’t. Our birth mother gave her up for adoption when she found herself single and pregnant with twins.
The Gibsons were looking to adopt, so they offered my mother enough money to take one of us. They took Bettina. It wasn’t until I turned twenty that my mother told me that I had a twin sister. Bettina and I met for the first time when we were twenty-two. She didn’t tell the Gibsons that she’d met me, so it became our secret. We bonded quickly, unable to believe that even though we weren’t identical twins, we still looked a lot alike.
Bettina told me that she’d met Governor Savoy, and after a few months they’d begun sleeping together. It wasn’t until she found out that she was pregnant that she disclosed his perversions. She said she didn’t want to be like our mother. She didn’t want to have a baby without a husband. She threatened Savoy that she would tell his wife if he didn’t leave her, but he refused. That’s when she decided to kill him.
Words will never convey my appreciation; you risked your life and that of your unborn child, and your career, to bring my family closure. I thank you, and our mother thanks you.
Pamela.
Emily handed the letter to her husband. She watched his impassive expression as his gaze moved slowly over the page.
Their lives were finally on track. Bruce Savoy had resigned as governor only months before his term was to expire. He was hospitalized, his doctors claiming a mental breakdown.
William Savoy surprised his supporters when he withdrew three weeks before the election to take care of his mother and father. Even though it was too late to remove his name from the ballot, he managed to get half a million votes—not enough to defeat Christopher Delgado.
And it wasn’t until she had come home with Alejandro that Chris explained to Emily how he came to be at the motel with Detective McGrady.
She’d listened, stunned, when he told her of Salem’s warning and his subsequent hiring of a former FBI agent to track her. The man met with McGrady after he’d observed her with him at a restaurant. The police officer agreed to inform him of any information she passed along to him.
Once McGrady received her message that she was to meet with Governor Savoy at the motel, the police department took action.
Chris placed the letter on the table, his dark gaze trained on his wife’s smiling face. “You did good, Emelia.”
She nodded. “I tried.”
Rising to his feet, he came around the table and kissed her. “I’m only going to work half a day. You and I have an anniversary to celebrate.”
It was their first wedding anniversary, and Vanessa and Joshua had volunteered to take care of their grandson. It would be the first time the little boy wouldn’t sleep under the same roof as his parents.
Chris had listed his loft with a Realtor. They were waiting for Matt and Eve Sterling to find a smaller house in Las Cruces before she and Alejandro moved to the expansive ranch house.
Newly elected Governor Christopher Delgado hadn’t spent one night in the governor’s mansion because he preferred living in his wife’s home. He planned to commute between Santa Fe and Las Cruces every weekend until his term expired.
He and Emily had not talked about what they would do in another four years. They had time…time to celebrate the gift of life and their love for each other. And this time it would be played out publicly.
Emily walked Chris to the door, watching as he slipped onto the rear seat of the dark sedan parked in their driveway. She waved to him, then closed the door.
Good things come to those who wait. She’d waited a long time for Christopher Delgado and she’d claimed him as lover, husband and father of her child. He’d waited a long time for her and to be governor. He, too, had gotten his wish.
Life was good, she mused, smiling. Very, very good.
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459225794
Copyright © 2012 by Rochelle Alers
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Private Passions Page 33
