by Joanna Wayne
“Next time,” she said. “Next time.”
He’d never been so thankful in his life that there could be a next time.
BART HURRIED down the hotel corridor. It had been a harrowing two nights. Carrie had come close to losing her life twice. Once he’d saved her. Harlan Grant had never seen him coming and never had a chance against him.
Tonight Carrie’s new partner had been the one to step up to the plate. He guessed that was fitting. It was time for Bart to let go, and it was nice to know he was leaving her in good hands.
Carrie would do just fine. She was on her way to becoming one hell of a deputy. She was already one hell of a woman.
The ballroom was dark and deserted when Bart pushed through the door. It seemed the party was over and the dancers had all gone home. He was ready to go himself, but first he had to find Katrina.
He stood in the middle of the empty dance floor, thinking of the night he’d first looked into her mesmerizing eyes. He’d fallen in love with her then and there. He just hadn’t known it.
He knew it now. Finally he understood a lot of things he’d never grasped before. The taskmaster had handed it to him straight. Apparently it was her job to assist those who were too hardheaded to accept things as they were.
Bart was a lot smarter now about life and death, but mostly about love.
The clock struck the bewitching hour. On the last tone, Katrina walked through the door, dressed the same as she’d been the first night he’d seen her, except that the necklace was no longer around her neck.
He walked over and took her hands in his. “May I have this dance?”
“I can’t.” Her voice shook and she kept her eyes cast downward. “I’ve come to say goodbye, Bart.”
He backed away, hurt and bewildered. “What are you saying?”
“We can’t stay together.”
“Of course, we can. I understand everything now. I know you have to go, but I’m going with you.”
Finally, she gave him one quick glance. “Oh, Bart. Please don’t make this so hard. We were never meant to be together. If we try, it will be all wrong.”
“Wrong? How can you say that? We’re perfect together, and you know it. Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t want to be with me forever.”
She met his gaze. Her eyes were wet with tears.
“I love you, Bart. I never knew what love was when I was alive and never dreamed it was possible to find it now.”
“And I love you, so quit talking crazy.”
“I’m talking the truth—that’s all. You belong with Carrie. She’s your destiny, not me. I can’t change that, and I won’t.”
“Carrie Fransen?”
“Yes. I didn’t know about the two of you at first, but now that I do, I can’t come between you.”
“Whoa. You’ve lost me totally. How do you even know Carrie?”
“She’s my great-granddaughter.”
Damn! He’d only thought he had this straight. “Do you mean that Carrie Fransen is the person who was supposed to inherit the necklace?”
“Yes. I failed her, but I won’t betray her.”
“If Carrie is the one you were trying to get the necklace to, then you didn’t fail her. She found it tonight, apparently where you’d lost it.”
“Don’t humor me, Bart.”
“I’m not. I was there, too late to help, but I was there. I know this sounds unbelievable, but Carrie accidentally fell on the necklace near the ravine. She used it to fight off the man who killed Elora Nicholas and who shot me. I followed Sheriff Powell to the scene of the crime and stayed around until I’d heard it all.”
Finally, she smiled. “Oh, Bart. Do you know what that means?”
“Probably not. I still seem to be missing the mark a lot.”
“The necklace hasn’t lost its powers. It fell in Carrie’s hands miraculously in spite of my ineptitude. She’ll be empowered, and the necklace will stay in our family to touch women’s lives for generations to come.”
“Right now, that necklace is the least of my concerns.” He wrapped his hands around her forearms and held on tightly so that she couldn’t run away or disappear on him. “I don’t know what you heard about me and Carrie, but you’ve got it wrong. We were close, close as partners could get. She was even infatuated with me for a while, but she got over it.”
“No. She misses you so much.”
“And I miss her. We were a team, but we were never in love, and we never made love.”
“But in her notes…”
Bart let go of her arms and cradled her sweet face in his hands. “Look at me, Katrina. I’ve spent my whole life moving toward this moment, moving toward you. I’ll accept whatever comes next. All I ask is that I step into eternity with you. Only you.”
She smiled through her tears and lay her head on his shoulder. “In that case, Bart Finnegan, you may have this dance.”
Epilogue
Three weeks later
Rich watched as Carrie knelt at Bart’s tombstone and lay the handful of daisies on his grave.
“We got him, Bart. It took us awhile, but we got the man who killed you, just like I promised we’d do.”
Rich gave her a few minutes alone, then walked over and joined her. He lay a hand on her shoulder. “You still miss him, don’t you?”
“I’ll always miss him, but I’m still thankful I had the opportunity to know him and to work with him.” She stood and ran her hand along the smooth marble of his tombstone. “I’ve tried a million times to think of what it must have been like for him, dying all alone in the woods that night.”
“The good thing was he had to have died instantly from Owen’s bullet, so he didn’t have time to do a lot of thinking.”
“If he lived even a second, he’d have been furi ous with himself for not stopping the suspect and saving Elora. He was that kind of deputy, true to his cause all the way.”
“That’s the mark of a real police officer.”
She wrapped her arms about her chest. “I’m glad the case is finally over,” she said, “and especially relieved Selma wasn’t pregnant. She’ll have a much better chance of recovering from all this without that. Not to mention that she was in no condition to become a mother.”
“No, she’s in the right place now,” Rich agreed. “Hospital care is what she needs. Woman had to be sick to bruise herself that way and then claim to be pregnant.”
“She never admitted to putting those bruises on herself,” Carrie reminded him. “She still claims that she made love to one of the undead in the mountains and that he left his mark on her.”
“The symbol that drove Owen to kill Elora and to come damn close to killing you. That’s what I hate about these mountain superstitions. They get in people’s heads and just don’t let go.”
“Things have calmed down at Fernhaven,” Carrie said. “Chuck says the complaints of ghostly noises and happenings have all but stopped.”
“After the hotel’s been opened for another year or so, they’ll probably stop completely. It’s just the history of the place and the abduction that had people imagining things.”
“Maybe. I’m still not as convinced as you are that supernatural events didn’t have a bearing on the crime and our investigation.”
“And who knows, maybe you’re right. I never claimed to know it all.”
She looked at him and raised her eyebrows.
He grinned. “Not all—just almost all.”
She punched him lightly on the arm, then fingered the silver chain around her neck. The pendant itself was hidden beneath her uniform shirt, but Rich was sure it was there. It always was. “Did you get a final word on the necklace?”
“Yes. The hotel researched their records. If claims on the necklace were ever filed, they’ve long since been lost. It officially belongs to me, my good luck piece to pass down to posterity. I may not have roots, but I’ll make some.”
“That’s fitting since the pendant saved your life.”
“You saved my life, Rich. The pendant merely slowed Owen down when the edge of the setting tore out his eye.”
“What can I say? I’m a hell of a cop.”
“Then we should make a terrific team.”
He nodded and smiled in spite of himself. “We’re getting there, Fransen. We are definitely getting there.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2870-2
THE AMULET
Copyright © 2005 by Jo Ann Vest
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.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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* Randolph Family Ties
† Hidden Passions
** Hidden Passions: Full Moon Madness
Table of Contents
About the Author
Books by Joanna Wayne
Cast of Characters
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Copyright
