by Natalie Dean
He smiled and pressed his nose into my hair. “We did.”
We both knew he didn’t do much when it came to carrying and birthing our daughter, but that wasn’t the point. We had fought so long and so hard for this and now we finally had everything we’d wanted. We were a family, and we were safe and happy. This was the start of something beautiful for us, and I was happier than I could possibly put into words. I felt I should say something, but I was afraid words might ruin the beauty of the moment.
The midwife excused herself to warm some water, and I was glad to be alone with Liam and our child. I looked down at the blue-eyed baby and smiled, watching as she smacked her lips together and blinked her big eyes.
“What should we name her?” Liam murmured, stroking a wisp of hair out of my face.
“I think we should name her Hope.”
“Hope?”
“It’s fitting, don’t you think?” I asked with a tired smile. “She’s our hope for the future. Our little gift from God.”
“I think that’s perfect.”
He leaned over me and offered me a tender kiss. At that moment, I knew that everything was going to be alright.
Epilogue
Life was perfect. Little Hope was five years old now and growing like a weed. She had big, bright blue eyes that could have lit up a room and soft golden curls. She was the light of our lives and completed us. I never knew that having a family could be so fulfilling. When I married Reynold, I assumed that I would have children and watch them get yanked from my arms so that the governess could raise them. I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to be a proper mother.
The wind blew through the trees outside, making the branches sing and I watched as Hope leaned against the wood, her little button nose squished against the glass. Her eyes were wide, darting back and forth as she searched the darkness outside.
“Angel, what are you looking for?” I asked, tucking my dress under my knees as I stirred the stew that was bubbling over the fire.
“I’m looking for Daddy!”
I rose from the hearth and collected a thick blanket and draped it around Hope’s shoulders. I leaned down and kissed the top of her head, closing my eyes to remember that sweet, powdery smell that clung to her after birth. I missed that smell.
“He will be home soon. Come away from the window. You’re going to catch your death.”
She sighed but stood, her long, linen nightgown unfolding and brushing the floor. It was a bit too big for her, but she’d grow into it. She followed me to the fireplace, sitting beside the pine tree that nearly touched our ceiling. She’d helped her father drag it from the forest a few days before and was still quite proud of it.
Just as we’d settled in, I heard the tell-tale sound of rocks shifting under boots.The door creaked open, and Liam walked inside the cabin, removing his hat and scarf, setting them aside. Hope was on her feet within moments and ran over to him, throwing her arms around him and holding him tight.
“Daddy!”
Liam held a red box under one arm but used his free one to lift Hope in the air, swinging her around and kissing her cheek. “Hello there, my little love!”
“Where were you, Daddy?” she asked, looking up at him as he set her on the ground.
“I had to go into town, so I could get you and Mama an early Christmas present.”
Hope’s eyes lit up, and I chuckled as Liam walked over and kissed me on the cheek. “A present?”
“Yes. I thought our tree was looking a little bear.” He offered me the silk wrapped box, and I stared at it for a moment before finally opening it.
When I saw what was inside I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth. “Liam!”
Inside the box were several beautiful ornaments with gold details and colorful paintings. They were just like the one we’d hung on the Christmas tree the night we fled the city. “Oh my goodness.”
“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” he asked, lifting one from the box so that Hope could see it.
He placed it in her hand gently and smiled. “Be very careful, Hope.”
“Daddy! They’re beautiful!” she sang.
I felt tears come to my eyes and I smiled at him, stepping closer to press my lips to his, holding the kiss for a long moment. “They’re perfect, Liam.”
“Merry Christmas, darlin’.”
Hope tugged on my skirt and pointed to the tree. “Let’s put them on the tree, Mama!”
I followed her and together, the three of us decorated the tree, laughing and singing carols. The world was perfect, and everything was in its place. I never thought I’d have a life like this, but I was thankful for every moment I had with my family. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
THE END
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE COLLECTION
Written by Joli Torres
The Innocent Fighter
Book Description
THE INNOCENT FIGHTER
Book 1 of the Innocent & Missing Series
A Romantic Suspense Novella
From the moment she sensed him, she knew he was innocent...
Adrianna Whetmore is a star agent for the FBI. Her sixth sense helps her track down fugitives and bring them in without a hitch.
Until she meets David "The Celtic" O'Brien. He was definitely not someone she should be falling for. He is an MMA fighter covered with tattoos, and known for his skill at knocking fighters out cold. Worse, he's a wanted fugitive.
Her plan is to turn him in. She refuses to get attached to him. Yet, there is just something about him. He draws her in. Makes her want to prove his innocence. But proving his innocence could come at the cost of losing her job, or worse, her life. Will she risk it all for a man she just met?
© Copyright 2016 by Kenzo Publishing - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
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Chapter 1
Adrianna always found it weird to go through a wanted man’s belongings.
When she had first gone into the force, she figured that all wanted men would have… something illegal. Drugs maybe. Guns? Guns seemed pretty likely. Usually she was right. Usually their apartments showed what kind of human beings she was dealing with: scared, dangerous people, forever looking back over their shoulders and wondering how close she was behind them, like a train slowly picking up speed and catching a man on horseback.
These people were usually men. She didn’t know why. Maybe crime was sexist. But these men, they were usually bigger than her. Stronger. Faster. That wasn’t a problem. Adrianna had fought lots of boys bigger and stronger than her back in kindergarten. She had been put in the time out corner more than a couple times, and had Mrs. White give her parents a lecture about how they were rearing too much of a tomboy.
Even as a child, Adrianna could remember looking up at her father standing over her, listening to her crimes that day. Hitting a boy for taking her toy. Roughing around too much. Telling a liar that he was a “liar, liar, pants on fire.” She couldn’t remember him too much, but she had a memory of him looking down at her and messing up her hair affectionately.
“Aren’t you listening to me?” Mrs. White demanded. “I’m trying to tell you how much she’s misbehaving.”
He smiled at her. It was that moment that Adrianna would remember him by, grinning, with big, purple letters suspended from the ceiling behind him in that kindergarten classroom. “I heard you,” Adrianna remembered him saying. “That’s my girl.”
Mrs. White demanded that Adrianna be punished, but Dad hadn’t seen things her way. He sat her down in the car and asked her what had happened. She explained that she had been right, that the big jerk had
tried to take her limited-edition Woodie from Toy Story. When she’d kindly told him that he could see it in a second and that she wasn’t done using it yet, he had tried to take it.
Big mistake.
“And so I reared back a fist, just like you taught me.” Even as Adrianna walked around The Celtic’s apartment, her lips turned up in just the faintest smile. “And socked him right in the kisser!”
Her father hadn’t been mad. Rather the opposite. He had taken her out to ice cream and told her to never, ever, ever give in to the bullies. He told her that she would face bullies and bad people her whole life, and that she couldn’t back down. That she had to defend herself.
He was the reason that she’d gone into the FBI. Back in the apartment, her smile faltered. She missed him. He was everything to her. He was gone too early.
Now she had to get back to focusing on the apartment. David “The Celtic” O’Brien didn’t have any guns or drugs in his quaint, little apartment. For an MMA fighter, he lived like a gentleman. His apartment—no, his home—was obviously well cared for. She almost felt a little out of place, like she was treading on a friend’s home. Perhaps in another world, they even would have been friends.
She liked the way the apartment was set up. She found her stylish side kicking into gear in a way that it normally didn’t. He obviously had some style. It was minimalistic and simple: white walls, recessed lights, all that good stuff. It looked like it was modeled after a Japanese apartment, the kind that has bamboo furniture that gets featured in a modern home magazine, except for the walls, where The Celtic’s 3-year-old daughter had taken to creating her own artwork on the white surfaces with crayons.
She pulled herself together. No, the Celtic wasn’t a man. He was a fugitive, a dangerous one, who had killed. He wasn’t a father. He was just a target. At least that was what her teachings had taught her, but somehow, looking at his daughter’s crooked writing on the walls with a big pink heart around what she could only assume was a picture of The Celtic and her together, it was hard to see him as such a dangerous fugitive.
She focused and put her mind into the room. It was hard to explain, but she simply jumped from her own body and transplanted her consciousness into the ceiling, the walls, the vents, the couches, the dining table, everything.
She saw a whisper of a ghost emerge from the bedroom from days ago. She recognized The Celtic immediately with that swirling tattoo design on his shoulder and his brawny, strong build. He was panicked. Understandable. He was on the run for killing a man. She had no idea where he had gone, but like most criminals, his weakness was his loved ones.
Her powers came in handy. She could touch objects and feel them. Understand them. See what had happened. She usually just caught snippets of conversation, and The Celtic’s face was just a little hard to see, but she could see all she needed.
He kissed his daughter, Ellie, on the forehead as he slung the backpack over his shoulder. “Daddy’s gonna have to go away for a while, sweetie.”
“Where are you going?” Ellie asked in toddler speak, playing with the magnets on the fridge.
“Away,” he said. “People will be coming to care for you, okay? Do whatever they say.” Just a moment of remorse flashed across his eyes. “They’re going to tell you that I’m a bad man. Don’t believe them, okay? And whatever happens to me, remember…” he crouched down and looked her in the eyes. “You’re the most beautiful girl in the world. You can do anything. I love you. Never forget that.”
He brought her into a hug. His arms, so well-known for breaking bones and knocking people into a bloody pulp, cradled her ever so gently… and then he pulled away. The look in his eyes was that of a parent losing a child, hoping that they would remember them in life.
Adrianna pulled out. She had enough of a sense of his soul to track him using her powers. She was back to standing in the apartment with a general feeling of where he had gone. She could feel him. Not much—just a general sense of which direction he went. He was somewhere in the north part of the city.
She blinked, trying to wash off the emotion. She was a soldier. She didn’t get caught up in the lives of murderers. Her job was to bring them in, dead or alive, to receive justice.
But something about that crayon drawing on the wall made her look twice before she left the apartment. She finally left, closing the door with a resounding thud.
Chapter 2
Adrianna followed The Celtic’s aura out of the apartment. He couldn’t hide from her. Nobody could. All that she had known as an innocent little kid was that she was the absolute master of hide and seek. The adult world had weaponized her skill.
He was moving fast, which was pretty common. Wanted men rarely stuck around to wait for someone to catch them. Adrianna had a feeling that he was going to be a tough one to bring in. She had read his bio, like she did with every other criminal.
It hadn’t looked good.
First of all, he was a fighter. As a professional MMA fighter, and as some fans would insist, the best MMA fighter, he could handle himself. She wasn’t eager to get into a tussle with him. Sure, a gun could beat out any fighting style, but she wasn’t eager to try it.
Secondly, he was smart. He’d dabbled in being a cop for a while before becoming a fighter. He wasn’t likely to leave too many trails behind like most runners. That’s why the agency had chosen Adrianna. She had a record of bagging runners most folks would struggle to catch.
She had never told them about her ability. Nah, she’d always just said she had a gut feeling, or simply had a hunch. She didn’t want them to know about her powers. Sure, they valued her as one of their top agents now, but if they figured out what she was capable of…. She just didn’t want that.
The first place she sensed that The Celtic had went was to his motorcycle. Not good. Motorcycles were a lot easier to get rid of, to hide in an abandoned building somewhere than a full-fledged car. She could sense that he had dallied around somewhat—maybe he was having second thoughts?—before leaving.
Luckily for Adrianna, she could still sense him. It was faint, but she could still just barely read it. Funny. It didn’t look like most trails. Some men that she tracked emitted different feelings, different auras than he did. Usually she could tell immediately whether a man had done something purposefully or not. She couldn’t use it in court, of course, but she always knew what kind of person she was looking for. It was handy, really; knowing if she was chasing a madman who wouldn’t hesitate to kill her or someone who was just trying to get out of the country without committing any other crimes, was a cool party trick.
Strangely, though, she couldn’t detect guilt in The Celtic’s aura. Sure, he was guilty about something. That much was immediately clear. He wasn’t a regular church-going kind of man, but at the same time, she didn’t pick up any immediate signs of guilt. Murder tended to stain an aura, but all she got from him was a vaguely… troubled feel.
Weird.
She went back to her own vehicle and followed his trail. As she was driving, her mind flying a million miles faster than the car, she turned on the radio. Music had always soothed her. She just thought better with it playing in the background.
Her thigh vibrated. A phone call. Not too many people had her number. That was the problem with working with the FBI like she did—no relations. No family. No friends. Just work.
Just like she expected, it was headquarters. Agent Stone’s image appeared on the screen, sternly looking down at her as always. She wasn’t too partial towards him. She couldn’t argue with his good results, but she had a strong case against the methods he used.
“Hello?” she answered. “Agent Whetmore speaking.”
Stone’s gruff voice emerged from the other side. His voice was as rough as his name. It sounded like granite, if granite had a sound. “Report.”
“I looked around his apartment.” Adrianna shifted lanes, following the trail of his aura. She waved to the person behind her for letting her in. “I’m tracking him now
.”
Stone’s laugh was even gruffer than his voice, like instead of a piece of granite grumbling along, it was two full grown stones smashing up against themselves. Sometimes, when Stone got into his irritating and all-too-famous lectures, she came up with ways to describe his voice. Not that she’d ever say it to his face, or even aloud. She liked her job, and didn’t want to lose it.
Stone had no idea that Adrianna was coming up with even more creative analogies to describe him, so he kept talking. “How do you do it?”
“Just a gut feeling, sir.”
Stone didn’t really believe her. Nobody did, but nobody was willing to call her out on it because they wanted her to keep doing her job. They didn’t necessarily care how she got her guy, just so long as she didn’t break the law doing it. “Whatever,” he muttered. “Keep me updated.”
“Yes, sir.” And with that, Stone killed the call.
Adrianna cruised along after the aura. She always felt somewhat ridiculous chasing a suspect, like she should be wearing sunglasses with the radio blaring “Bad Boys!” over the speaker system. But she didn’t. She looked like any other gal driving along the interstate. That was part of the training. You didn’t get to be an FBI agent by standing out. You learned to fly beneath the radar. You learned that you were much better off if nobody knew you were coming.
The aura was starting to really trouble her. It didn’t feel like a guilty man. It just felt like the times she’d chased around businesspeople for fun. Guilty of something, sure, but not murder. But then again, everyone’s a little weird inside.
No.
Get over it, Adrianna told herself. He’s just a suspect. It’s not my problem whether he’s guilty or not. I’m supposed to bring him in to the courts and some judge decides. I don’t declare anyone innocent or guilty.
