by Pamela Clare
“How did you find him or know to go there?”
“You mentioned him—and I searched your e-mail in-box. I turned his name over to Tower, who did the rest.”
She stared at him. “You searched my e-mail?”
He shrugged. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it? You can’t argue with success.”
She glared at him. “Oh, I can argue all right. Don’t tempt me.”
“You’re not seriously ticked, are you?”
“No, not really. You could have asked, though.”
He shook his head, took her hand. “I didn’t want you to know anything about this. I didn’t want any of the blame to fall on you if the op went sideways—and I sure as hell didn’t want you to spend every day for the next two months worrying.”
“I don’t know how to feel about the fact that Derek Tower and a handful of your team buddies know about Klara now.”
“They all wanted to help, bella. They feel a kind of connection to you. They saw how it was there. They know what you went through. They didn’t want to leave your little girl there. And not one of them will breathe a word of it.”
“Will you or the others get in any trouble for this?”
Javier shook his head. “We pulled it off. No one was killed. If NSW hears about it, they’ll probably look the other way.”
The enormity of what Javier had done hit Laura.
“Do you realize that yours were the first caring hands to hold her?” She laced her fingers through his, brought his hand to her mouth, and kissed it. “I still can’t believe what you did for me, for her. You gave up your spot on the Teams. You risked your life, your freedom.”
His lips curved in a soft smile. “I guess I found something that matters more to me.”
“What you did—it was so incredibly selfless.”
He gave a slow shake of his head, his eyes looking into hers. “Nah, bella. What you did for that sweet baby girl—that was selfless. You love her so much that you gave her up, even though it tore you apart.”
And the grief Laura had been fighting so hard to keep at bay welled up inside her, the ache behind her breastbone growing sharp. “I was only her mother for a handful of days, but in that time, I was a pretty good mother, wasn’t I?”
“You were the best.” A muscle clenched in Javier’s jaw, and he gave her hand a squeeze, a fierce light in his eyes, his voice rough. “Hold on to that in your heart and never forget it.”
Laura fought tears. She didn’t want to cry again. “I only spent nine days with her, but, God, I miss her.”
“So do I.”
* * *
AFTER BREAKFAST, LAURA found an e-mail with photographs of Klara. In one, Erik was holding Klara up so that she could pet a pony at Anette and Stella’s riding lesson, a look of wonder and delight on her little face. In another, Klara sat in her booster chair in a pretty blue dress with cake all over her hands and face—part of an adoption party they’d thrown to celebrate with family and close friends.
Javier looked at the photos with Laura, happy just to see the smile on Klara’s face—and the relief on Laura’s. “She’s going to be fine, bella. See that?”
He gave Laura some privacy so that she could write a reply, taking time to check in with the men to tell them what had happened in Stockholm. Speaking in code, he told them that Laura hadn’t brought her daughter home—and that no one could ever hear about his little side trip to Sweden. To a man, they got choked up when they heard what Laura had done for her little girl, Tower most of all.
A half hour after Javier called him, he showed up at Laura’s door. “We need to set you up with VPN, Ms. Nilsson. If you’re going to be sending regular e-mails to Sweden, you’re going to want your communications to be secure.”
“Please, call me Laura.” She walked over to him, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for helping to save my daughter.”
“I’m glad I was there.” He smiled at Laura, the look in his eyes setting off Javier’s radar. “I just want to tell you that I respect you to the core. What you did must have been hard as hell.”
“Thank you. And yes—it was.”
“She’s an incredible woman,” Tower said to Javier later when they were alone. “If you ever decide to move on—”
“Not a chance, dawg. Don’t even go there, or it’s back to me thinking you’re just an asshole, got it?”
If Laura would have him, Javier was here to stay.
* * *
LAURA SPENT THE late afternoon unpacking and doing laundry—hers and Javier’s—while he and Derek set up her VPN. It felt good to do something mindless. The simple act of folding clothes and putting things in their place made her feel like she was restoring some kind of order to her world.
Tomorrow she would return to her daily routine. She would head to the paper, catch up with Sophie and the others, and pick up the investigation she’d dropped when Erik called. And everything would be the way it had been before.
No. No, that wasn’t true.
Everything was different now.
The realization dawned slowly, settling behind Laura’s breastbone, the truth of it sending ripples through her.
Two weeks ago, Klara had been a captive, living with terrorists. But now she was free and settled out of harm’s way. Two weeks ago, Laura hadn’t known when she would see Javier again. But now, he was here with her. What’s more, he had chosen to be here with her. And he loved her.
Her world had changed so quickly that she hadn’t fully comprehended it, hadn’t yet come to appreciate it, her grief over Klara making it hard to see anything else. No, things hadn’t turned out exactly the way she’d hoped they would. Still, the pieces of her life were finally falling into place, so many of her fears swept away.
Klara was seeing and doing things she’d never done before. She had a mother and father who loved her, who would give her a safe home, and two big sisters who adored her. She would go to school, learn to read, and grow up to make her own choices about how to dress, how to live, whom to marry. It was everything Laura had ever wanted for her and more.
And Javier.
He’d left the Teams and was free to start a new life for himself. He hadn’t said much about what he wanted to do next or how long he planned to stay in Denver. But she knew he loved her. Whatever he wanted to do, wherever he wanted to live, she would make it work for both of them.
She’d had a lot of time to think during those long weeks after he’d left, and she knew what mattered most to her. Yes, her career was important, but life was too short and uncertain to spend focused on a job. When Kimball had held that knife to her throat, she hadn’t been sorry about time she wouldn’t spend in the newsroom and articles she wouldn’t get to write. She’d regretted not having had more time with Javier.
Her gaze fell on the laundry basket, his socks and boxer briefs mixed with her panties, their jeans tangled. She hadn’t been looking for a man, hadn’t been looking to fall in love. But somehow, in the midst of her pain and fear and grief, life had seen fit to give her this precious gift.
And from far away she heard her grandmother’s words.
Allt kommer att bli bättre med tiden.
Everything will get better with time.
* * *
AFTER SUPPER, THEY went for a walk along the river to help work off the jet lag, the evening air cool and fresh, golden light spilling over the mountains. The Platte was running high and fast, swallows dipping down for water, cottonwood trees standing on the far bank, their leaves shivering in the breeze.
Javier held Laura’s hand, savoring the moment as they talked about everything and nothing in particular. It felt good just to be with her like this—nothing to do, nowhere to be. Then she asked a question that caught him by surprise.
“If you went back to Coronado and told NSW you’d made a mistake, do you think they’d take you back?”
Did she want him to go?
“Probably.” He’d had more than one friend who’d turned in
his Trident only to show up a few months later in uniform again. “Why do you ask?”
“You loved being a SEAL. I hate to see you walk away from something that means so much to you. I don’t want you to regret that later.”
So she was still feeling guilty that he’d left his career behind.
“Come on.” He led her off the path and walked toward the riverbank, where they could talk without cyclists whizzing by. He sat on a rounded boulder and drew her down beside him, her hand still in his.
“I didn’t resign just because I was about to go off and break international law, bella. I gave the Teams fourteen good years, and I realized it was time for me to go.”
“But three months ago you were so determined to get back to active duty.”
Yeah, he had been. But that had changed.
“You were right about me—you and Nate. Part of the reason I joined the Teams was to prove to myself and my family that I wasn’t a loser. I guess I thought I could somehow make up for what happened with Yadiel if I was just good enough. I realized that nothing I did—no amount of medals or successful missions—could bring him back or change who I am. I realized that if I wanted to build a life for myself outside the navy, I needed to start now. I’m thirty-eight and not getting any younger.”
“What are you thinking of doing?”
He was glad she asked. He’d been meaning to bring this up. “Not sure yet. McBride said he might have a place for me on his team as a deputy U.S. Marshal on the state’s fugitive task force. Tower wants the two of us to form our own security company now that Tower Global is gone. I need to think about it.”
“So . . . would that mean staying in Denver?” She spoke the words with a deliberate casualness that made him smile.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I walked away from you in Dubai, bella. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“Is that your not-so-subtle way of suggesting we drop the ‘no strings attached’ clause from our relationship?”
“I want strings, Laura.”
She arched a blond eyebrow. “What kind of strings?”
“Nothing too crazy. I was thinking maybe I could have a couple of drawers for socks and underwear, maybe a rack in your closet, some space in the bathroom, my own parking place. Maybe I could even be your steady guy.”
She was smiling now. “You want to move into the loft and go steady with me?”
He raised his hands to her face, cupped her cheeks, told her what was really in his heart. “Or you could marry me instead.”
Her eyes went wide, her pupils dilating.
Adrenaline?
“I know it’s a big step from no strings to rings, bella, but I fell in love with you that first night in Dubai. It just took me a while to realize it. I thought there’d be time. I thought I’d find you, but then you were gone. This love we feel for each other, it’s special, and I want to take hold of it with both hands.”
Laura looked into Javier’s eyes, the intensity she saw there making her pulse race. He’d just asked her to marry him. She hadn’t expected this. Not yet, anyway.
She had to swallow the lump in her throat before she could speak. “Are . . . are you sure? I’m on a terrorist kill list. Do you really want to live your whole life—”
“Looking over my shoulder?” His gaze traveled over her face. “Yeah, I do. In case you haven’t noticed, bad guys don’t scare me. What scares me is the idea of not being here when you need me.”
There was one other thing.
“You come from a big family with lots of brothers and sisters. Are you sure you won’t regret not being a father?”
He looked as if he might laugh. “I want to marry you, not your uterus. If I want to spend time with kids, I’ve got a dozen nieces and nephews. But there’s also a sweet little girl in Stockholm who means a lot to me. I didn’t have a thing to do with bringing her into this world, and I won’t raise her. But I held her life in my hands for a few priceless hours, and there’s a part of me that considers her ours. I want us to watch her grow up together.”
Tears blurred Laura’s vision, his words touching the most tender part of her, the tightness in her throat making it hard to speak.
He frowned and wiped a tear from her cheek, apparently misunderstanding. “If it’s too soon, I understand. I didn’t mean—”
“Yes.” She answered without the slightest hesitation or the tiniest shred of doubt.
“Yes?” He seemed confused. “You said yes.”
She laughed. “What did you think I was going to say?”
“Well, I . . .”
And she understood. “You didn’t plan this, did you?”
Like everything about him, it was spontaneous, sincere, straight from his heart.
“I wanted to ask you one day when the time seemed right, but we started talking and . . . Hell, I don’t even have a ring.” He looked into her eyes, his knuckles caressing her cheek. “I’m naked here, bella, just laying myself out for you, telling you how I feel.”
Something inside Laura melted to see this big, strong man so completely vulnerable. “What you’ve done for me . . . I never thought I’d feel this whole again. You helped me put the pieces of myself back together. But if my whole world fell apart again tomorrow, the piece I couldn’t live without is you. Your love has been my salvation, and I don’t want to live an hour of my life without you.”
He ducked down, kissed her slow and deep, then drew back, a look of astonishment on his handsome face. “¡Anda pal carajo! I’m going to marry you. Who’d have thought that a woman as classy and beautiful as you would end up with a Boricua kid from the South Bronx?”
Before Laura could say a word, he scooped her up in his arms and swung her in a circle, shouting for the world to hear. “¡Wepa!”
She shrieked, laughed, then found herself on her feet again, held tight in his arms.
“You won’t regret this, bella.”
She smiled, kissed him. “I know.”
They turned toward home, walking hand in hand.
For someone who’d never wanted to get married, Laura suddenly couldn’t wait. “We could get a license tomorrow and get married on Saturday.”
“Nah, that won’t do. Mamá Andreína would kick my ass. If my abuelita is not at the wedding, we’re not married.”
“So what you’re telling me is that this is going to be a case of ‘My Big Fat Puerto Rican Wedding’?”
He chuckled. “See what you got yourself into?”
But Laura wouldn’t change it for the world.
EPILOGUE
Seven months later
Private island of El Conquistador Resort
Off the eastern tip of Puerto Rico
LAURA WALKED HAND in hand with Javier toward a pair of waiting beach chairs, the sea breeze catching her hair, sand warm against the soles of her bare feet. She looked up and down the beach for Erik, Heidi, and the girls. “Do you see them?”
“They’re probably eating lunch.”
She’d forgotten it was almost noon. “I guess we slept late.”
“Sleep had nothing to do with it.” Javier grinned.
Grandma Inga and Mamá Andreína sat side by side beneath a beach umbrella of palm fronds. Javier’s two sisters, Ana and Nayelis, were having an animated conversation while sunning themselves on beach towels. Sophie, Megan, Kat, Tessa, and Kara sat in the sunshine closer to the water, talking and watching their kids play together in the sand. Marc, Nate, Julian, and Kara’s husband, Reece, had taken on some of Javier’s former Team buddies in a game of beach volleyball—John LeBlanc, Brian Desprez, Chris Ross, and Steve Zimmerman.
“If you’re going to call it, Hunter, at least hit the damned ball.”
“If your foot hadn’t tripped me, Dickangelo, I would have.”
“You guys do know how to play this game, right?” Reece asked.
“They probably learned the rules by watching women in bikinis play,” Nate said.
John ended the bickering
. “You ladies going to talk or play volleyball?”
Meanwhile, Holly sat in her bikini in the shade near the bar holding court with three of Javier’s male cousins—while sneaking covert glances at the shirtless SEALs in the volleyball pitch.
Natalie and Zach were nowhere to be seen. She had a good idea where they were. Having been married for almost two years now, they wanted a baby.
Laura glanced out over the waves, saw someone dangling a hundred feet in the air from a parasail that was being towed by a boat. “Oh, God! Is that Gabe up there?”
Javier glanced up. “Looks fun, doesn’t it?”
“Suicidal is more the word I was looking for.”
They settled into their beach chairs. Laura peeled off the short dress she’d worn as a cover-up, the sun warm on her skin, her body feeling languid from a morning of sleeping in, room service, and sex. She pulled a tube of sunscreen out of her beach tote, rubbed it into her exposed skin.
“Sure you don’t need help?” Javier watched her, his eyes hidden by sunglasses. “You’ve got a lot of skin, and I’ve got two big hands.”
“Can you put it on my back?” She turned away from him, drew her hair aside.
“You got it.” He took the tube from her, planting a kiss on her neck before he began to rub the cream into her shoulders.
They had arrived in Puerto Rico three days ago amid a whirlwind of nightlong parties and wedding preparations, men from Cobra International Solutions, Javier and Derek’s security company, having come to the island two days earlier to make certain the place was secure. Laura had left most of the planning to the resort—one of the best decisions she’d made in this entire process. She’d been able to join in the parties and get to know Javier’s parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews, rather than worrying about arrangements. And she’d been able to spend a little bit of each day with Klara, who had just turned three in December.
Many of their friends had flown in for the ceremony, and although some had already returned home, most saw this as their chance to have an all-expenses-paid vacation. True, Laura and Javier had spent a fortune, but it had been important to them to have the ceremony they wanted, one that brought together their far-flung families and friends for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration. They didn’t face the future expense of children—no strollers, no braces, no prom, no cars, no college to pay for—so why not make the most of their special day?
