“Familiar!” The cat was his only hope.
As soon as the cat got into the gate area, he zeroed in on a young man hustling along and deliberately tripped him, sending him facedown in front of one of the would-be abductors.
Familiar never slowed. He darted out in front of a fast-moving tram, causing the driver to swerve and run into a coffee-shop area jammed with waiting passengers.
In less than thirty seconds, the gate area and concourse were in total pandemonium.
Hurrying down the hall, Lucas spotted Lorry running hard. Michelle was right behind her, checking left and right to make certain no one was following Lorry.
Familiar was a blur as he streaked out of the coffee-shop fiasco and leaped onto the tables of a small eatery. Customers fell backward out of their chairs, food went flying. A hot coffee went directly into the face of Lorry’s second pursuer. He grabbed his eyes and began yelling.
Lucas had to hand it to the cat. When Familiar agreed to create chaos, he did it with a flare that couldn’t be matched. The cat was a tornado of destruction in the airport. Lucas hurried past a shrieking café manager with a broom and followed Lorry and Michelle.
When he glanced back, Familiar had eluded the manager and was hot on his heels. He stopped, bent down and scooped the cat into his arms. “Good work,” he whispered.
Familiar’s answer was a swipe of his sandpapery tongue across Lucas’s jaw.
He caught up with the two women at the main door.
Instead of arranging the limo to pick them up at the baggage claim, he had the car pick them up at the front of the airline terminal.
Lucas stepped into the night and flicked a cigarette lighter three times. A long black limo answered by hitting its bright lights.
“There’s the car.” With Familiar still in his arms and a woman on either side, he ran across the line of vehicles putting out passengers. They dove into the limo amidst a shrill of whistles from the airport authorities.
“Floor it,” Lucas ordered the driver.
The man complied, and they shot into traffic and away from the airport. At last, Lucas exhaled. He felt as if he’d been holding his breath for an hour. As they merged into the flow of traffic in the town that never slept, he glanced at Michelle and Lorry. The strain was evident in their faces, but so was the pride. They’d gotten out of the airport without injury or a tail.
“Cancel the trip to the hotel,” Lucas said to the driver. “Take us straight to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.”
“It’s closed,” the driver said, looking over his shoulder at them as if they were nuts.
“A refuge from evil is never closed,” Lucas answered.
“Me-ow,” Familiar chimed in.
MICHELLE INHALED SHARPLY when she saw Lucas wearing the robes of a Catholic priest. Tall, slender, his gray eyes blazing and serious, he looked the part. And in the early morning light, Lorry, in the garb of a nun, looked equally perfect.
“Thank you, Father,” Lucas said to the priest.
“Bring the habit and the robes back without any holes in them.” The priest’s tone was serious, but he backed it up with a smile.
“We’ll do our best,” replied Lucas.
The priest patted Lorry’s arm. “The Maxims have destroyed the lives of hundreds of young girls. Sometimes we get a few of the lucky ones, those who haven’t surrendered to the drugs. We help them heal, give them funds to start a new life. But they can never recover what was stolen from them. Their youth, their innocence, their trust in a dream. That’s gone forever. The Maxims are evil men. I hope you send both of them to prison for a long, long time.”
“I hope so, too, Father,” Lucas said. “Thank you for your help with this.” He glanced at his watch. “Now it’s time to go.”
Outside, the streets were busy with the workday bustle of a large city. Michelle picked up Familiar and put him on the sofa in the large anteroom. Lucas had ordered her to remain in the church, with Familiar, where they were both safe. She swallowed the bitter lump of disappointment. He was putting her safety first, but still, it felt as if she’d come on a long journey just to be shut out at the end.
“We’re going to get to the courthouse early,” Lucas said. “Once we’re inside, I think we’ll be safe.”
“Be careful,” she whispered. His arms encircled her, and he kissed her long and hard and with such passion that she forgot everything except the love she felt for him.
When he broke the kiss, he turned and left. Lorry was waiting at the door. They stepped outside, and the heavy door closed with a booming echo.
Lucas had been gone barely a minute when she felt Familiar brushing her legs. He hooked her pants with his sharp claws and began urging her toward the door.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I gave Lucas my word.”
“Me-ow!” Familiar insisted. He tugged at her pants leg with this claws.
“If we show up, he’ll only have to worry about protecting us as well as Lorry.” Even as she said the words, she knew Familiar wasn’t going to listen. “And Lucas thinks I’m hardheaded,” she said out loud.
The cat hopped up in a window and pushed at a small crack. In a matter of moments, he’d made an exit large enough to slip through.
“Familiar!” She ran after him. “I’ll be back, Father,” she called out as she grabbed a shawl from the coatrack beside the door. “Thank you!” And then she was out the door. The cat had somehow managed to flag a taxi. He was leaping into a window when she grabbed the door handle and managed to get inside.
“Take us to the courthouse,” she said. One impulsive, high-handed act had gotten her into a mess that had nearly cost several people their lives. She could only hope that she wasn’t making the same mistake twice.
Chapter Twenty-One
Michelle draped the shawl over her red hair and joined the men and women headed into the courthouse. Familiar was hidden in the folds of the shawl. She’d never been inside this building. Never anticipated that one day she’d be there, except maybe for jury duty.
She put Familiar down before she went through the security check. The cat was smart enough to figure a way inside on his own. He’d probably beat her to the courtroom.
She stopped and asked a deputy where to find the Maxim appeal, and she was following his directions when she saw Lorry and Lucas. They were moving silently along the hallway toward the courtroom.
She took a deep breath. Lucas was going to be furious, and justifiably so. She dropped back, easing behind several men. Familiar was out of sight, but she had no doubt the cat was fine.
Lucas and Lorry had stopped at the courtroom doors. She fell back behind another man, hoping they’d enter so she could slip in the rear.
The man in front of her reached into his coat. The movement was so smooth, so practiced. Michelle didn’t register what it meant until she saw the gun. The man brought the weapon out and aimed it at Lorry’s head.
Before she could even scream, Familiar came out of nowhere. He landed on the gunman’s arm just as he squeezed off the bullet. There was the sound of a gunshot echoing off the marble walls as people shrieked and began to panic.
Lucas and Lorry turned, seemingly in slow motion. They were twenty feet away, and as Michelle watched in horror, the gunman lifted the gun again.
Lucas dove in front of Lorry, and Michelle kicked the gunman’s arm. Everything seemed to take forever. She felt her toe connect with his elbow, and she saw him begin to fall. She heard the shot, she saw the gun fly from his hand, she turned to see blood spatter the wall behind Lucas, and she saw him begin to crumble. He fought to keep his feet, but he couldn’t.
Lucas slumped to the floor, in Lorry’s arms.
Before the gunman could struggle to his feet, Michelle kicked him in the ribs. Familiar jumped on his face, sharp claws tearing into the tender flesh.
The gunman began to scream, and a man in jeans and a sweatshirt flashed a U.S. marshal’s badge and knelt on the gunman’s chest. “I’m Frank Holcomb, Lucas’s fo
rmer partner. See how bad he’s hurt.”
Michelle ran to Lucas. Her hearing had blurred, so that everything sounded like an echo. She saw terrified people running, but her focus was on Lucas and the pool of blood that was seeping around Lorry.
She tore the shawl free and pressed it into the wound in Lucas’s shoulder. “Pressure,” she told Lorry. “We have to keep pressure on it.”
Frank appeared and pressed his hands on top of hers. “He’s going to be okay. He has to.”
Until the paramedics came to pull her away, she fought to staunch the flow of blood from Lucas’s wound. As the paramedics began to load Lucas onto a gurney, he grasped Michelle’s hand. “Stay with Lorry,” he said. “You and Familiar.”
THE COURTROOM WAS HUSHED as Lorry took the stand. In a matter of minutes, the prosecutor walked her through her testimony. She pointed at Antonio Maxim, identifying him as the gunman who shot and killed Harry West. There was no hesitation. And none when the judge denied Antonio’s appeal and returned him to a life in prison without parole.
LUCAS SHIFTED IN THE hospital bed. It was ridiculous for them to keep him, but the doctor had refused to let him go. The bullet had gone through his shoulder, but there was no permanent damage.
“Hey, cowboy,” Frank said. “You need to relax and heal.”
“Easy for you to say,” Lucas said.
Frank stood at the side of the bed. “Before your fan club arrives, I have to tell you something. NYPD found the mole, an officer the Maxims were squeezing hard to make him cooperate. They had his daughter. He’s the one who betrayed Harry.”
Lucas sighed. “I wish I felt vindication, but I don’t. The Maxims have ruined countless lives.”
“And now they’ll be punished,” Frank said. “It won’t undo the past, but now they’ve been stopped.”
The hospital door opened, and Michelle entered, carrying a large bag. Behind her, Lorry had a container that smelled suspiciously like hot pizza. Lucas felt a rush of relief, followed by unreasonable anger. Michelle could have been killed.
“You are the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met,” he said.
“And thank goodness for that,” Lorry said evenly. “She saved our lives, Lucas.”
“Not really,” Michelle said. She put the bag on the bed and opened it. Familiar eased out, arching his back and walking up to Lucas so that he could rub his whiskers against Lucas’s face. “It was Familiar. He jumped on the gunman’s arm.”
“Maybe we should swear in Familiar and Michelle as marshals,” Frank said. “They’ve got the grit.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Lucas warned.
Michelle leaned over the bed and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. “I thought you were dying,” she said. Tears filled her eyes.
That was more than Lucas could take. He wrapped his uninjured arm around her and pulled her close. “Thank god you weren’t hurt.”
“We’re all fine,” Lorry said. “And Antonio is behind bars, where he belongs. For life.”
“What about Robert?” Lucas asked. He felt as if he’d been shut out of the main action. Everything had happened, and he’d been in an ambulance or in the emergency room.
“Greg turned him over to the Baldwin County sheriff,” said Frank. “They’re transporting him back to Dallas to face a long list of charges.”
Michelle laughed. “Greg said Robert did his best to convince the sheriff that he’d been kidnapped, held hostage and tortured by a black cat. No one believed a word of it. They had a doctor check him over, and there were these teensy tiny little marks that might have been made by a cat’s claws, but everyone laughed at the idea that those were marks of torture.”
Lucas watched light play across Michelle’s face as she spoke. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And the smartest. And she was brave beyond reason.
Frank leaned a little closer so he could whisper. “Lucas, you’re looking a little like a moonstruck calf.”
At first Lucas almost denied it, but then he reached up to brush a strand of hair from Michelle’s face. “Maybe so, partner, but if you were in my shoes, you’d be the luckiest man alive.”
“When’s the wedding?” Lorry asked. “This time I get to return the favor, and I’ll take the photographs.”
“I’ll never live that down,” Michelle said, but she put her arm around Lorry and hugged her.
“I’m not even sure this woman will have me for a husband,” Lucas said. He couldn’t look away from Michelle. He saw so many things in her eyes, including his future.
“You haven’t really asked,” Michelle said.
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t go down on bended knee. Or that I don’t have a ring. Or that this setting isn’t a high hill on my ranch, with the moon shining down and coyotes singing in the background. That’s where I thought I might propose.”
“None of that matters,” Michelle said. Her eyes were bright with tears, but Lucas knew these were tears of happiness.
“Michelle Sieck, will you marry me?” he asked.
“I will, Lucas West.” She leaned down and kissed him.
“What about your photography?” Lorry asked.
Michelle put her hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “It’s strange, but I’ve developed this yearning to capture the Hill Country of Texas on film. Somehow, I don’t think I can get in trouble photographing cows.”
Lucas joined in the laughter, but his thoughts were serious. He would make her happy. And he would spend the rest of his days making sure that she was safe.
AH, ANOTHER WEDDING LOOMS. Hopefully, this one will be simpler and without the drama of Lorry’s. But Lucas and Michelle would never have found each other without all the events, both good and tragic, that came from Lorry’s wedding. Now that’s all behind them. Lucas should be out of the hospital by tomorrow, and he and Michelle will head to Texas. Lorry will return to Spanish Fort with Charles, and I’ll go home to Washington and my splendid Clotilde.
Eleanor and Peter will be glad to see me, though I understand they’re planning some sort of trip to South Dakota. Geez, I’m not sure I’m up for another vacation. Somehow, those things always end up with a beautiful woman, a puzzle and danger.
For the moment, I’ll think only about my homecoming. My pillow in the window beside the garden; Clotilde coming through the daffodils to pay me a visit; Eleanor in the kitchen, whipping up something sumptuous and tantalizing just for me. I wonder what she’ll serve. Every time I come home from an adventure, Eleanor creates the most exotic and wonderful dishes. Something with fish, of course. Perhaps some of that grilled salmon that I adore.
Goodness, I’m drooling on the hospital sheets. And the bipeds are laughing at me. Well, let them have their pleasure. Familiar, black cat detective, was on the spot when he was needed. Another chapter for my memoirs.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-2677-1
FAMILIAR VOWS
Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Haines
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.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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