Topaz Heat (Christian Romance) (The Jewel Series)

by Bridgeman, Hallee

  Within seconds, her vision grayed, and with a sickening roll of her stomach, she blacked out.

  ARAH fought against the headache that tried to keep her from opening her eyes. Something important – she had to wake up.

  Bright fluorescent lights sent pain straight to her brain and she held up a hand to shield them. Through blurred vision, she recognized her own emergency room.

  The nurse who came to her bedside was a friend – a floater who worked all the floors. Sarah had worked with her many times. “Stay calm, Sarah,” she said. “You have a nasty concussion.”

  “Derrick?” Sarah whispered.

  “He’s here.”

  “I’m right here.” It hurt to turn her head. It hurt a lot. But tears of relief at seeing him there, safe, stung her eyes. He gently touched her hairline.

  Sarah reached up and grabbed his wrist. “Listen,” she said, her stomach rolling with the effort it took to speak. “It was him.”

  Derrick shook his head. “Him who?”

  “Wilson.” As the dark look crossed his features, Sarah said, “He said to tell you that you were looking in bad places. He said I’d end up in a closet like James.”

  The anger in his eyes scared her. She didn’t want him to lose control. “Listen,” she said. “We might be able to do something with this.”

  “Did you see him?” Tony stepped closer from somewhere in the room.

  She tried to remember, but nothing was clear. “I don’t think so.”

  “Then there’s nothing we can do.”

  “Wanna bet?” Derrick said.

  “Calmi giù, il fratello,” Tony said. “Stay calm.”

  “Do not tell me to calm down. If that were Robin lying there, you wouldn’t be advising calm.”

  This time, Sarah heard Robin speak. “No, but you would be. Nothing good at all will come of you going off and confronting the officer in charge with your arrest.”

  Maxine came out of nowhere, too. Sarah closed her eyes. All the movements and words were making her dizzy. “It will all eventually be handled.”

  Sarah felt Derrick take her hand. She loved the fact that she already recognized his touch. “Fine,” he said. “I know you’re right, so I’ll listen. But Sarah needs someone to protect her right now.”

  “I don’t need protection,” Sarah said. But her tongue felt thick and the words sounded slurred. She kept her eyes closed as their voices sounded more like mechanical buzzing than her family.

  The next time she woke up, she was out of the emergency room and in a regular room. Her mother sat dozing in a chair in the corner. Derrick sat next to Sarah’s bed with his hand in hers, his head against her leg. He slept, his breath coming in and out in a steady rhythm. She wanted to reach over and touch his face, but she didn’t want to disturb him, so she just looked her fill. His dark eyelashes lay feathered against his cheekbones. A curl of black hair teased his forehead. In sleep he looked relaxed, content, untroubled. She put a hand to her heart to try to control the flood of emotion she felt. How had she wasted ten years that could have been spent with him?

  She closed her eyes again and the next time she opened them, only her mother was in the room. She came up to the bed and frowned down at her daughter. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Sarah raised a shaking hand to her forehead and probed around the tenderness she felt there. “I hope so.”

  “What happened?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I have no idea. Someone came out of nowhere and just slammed my head against the pillar.”

  Darlene patted her hand. “I’m so glad it wasn’t any worse than it is.” She looked at her watch. “The police officer will be back here any moment. He went to get a cup of coffee.”

  “Okay.” Sarah looked toward the door just as Detective Beaumont walked in. She felt her stomach clench into tight knots and her heart rate skipped then picked up speed.

  “Miss Thomas,” he said, coming fully into the room. “I’m glad to see you awake.”

  She cleared her throat. “I don’t understand. Why is a homicide detective here for a mugging?”

  He waved a hand at her. “Covering for a buddy. His wife is having a baby.”

  When she’d seen him in Derrick’s office, his face had been hard and unfriendly. But tonight, he seemed at ease, warm, trusting. She knew his countenance must be a purposeful projection depending on the circumstances, but it was amazing the difference.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  Sarah held a silent debate with herself for about a nanosecond. The book of Mark told her to have faith in God. And so she would.

  “Someone attacked me as I was about to approach my car.”

  “Did you see who it was?”

  She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “No. But he said something to me.”

  The detective pulled out a notebook. “Oh?”

  “He said that my boyfriend was looking in bad places and that if he didn’t stop, I’d end up a skeleton in a closet, too.”

  With a frown, Beaumont narrowed his eyes at her quizzically. “What does that mean?”

  Sarah took a deep breath, prayed for wisdom, then plunged forward. “My boyfriend is Derrick DiNunzio.”

  The detective had been writing, but his pen suddenly paused on his pad. “Really?” He said, pulling the word out to several syllables. “That is certainly interesting.”

  Sarah nodded. “I agree. I couldn’t figure out why you were here, then I figured God must have sent you to me.”

  “What exactly do you mean by that?”

  “Derrick remembered that one person knew he was leaving the old neighborhood that night all those years ago. His ex-girlfriend, Ginger Castolli.”

  Beaumont no longer looked confused, but he looked very interested. “Go on.”

  “So, Derrick went to visit her Monday. She said that she’d told someone else as well. Derrick asked her who, and she said that the father of her 10 year old child had known Derrick was leaving that night.”

  “Who was the father?”

  Sarah stopped. “I don’t know if I should tell you.”

  “Miss Thomas,” he leaned forward, “if you have information in a murder investigation, you need to give it to me.”

  “Detective, I don’t know if I can trust you.” Hot tears stung at her eyes. “Derrick’s life hangs in the balance, and telling you could ruin his chances.”

  “Listen to me.” He capped his pen and put it in his pocket with the notebook. “Off the record, I didn’t like the case against Derrick all the way. Things seemed too easy. To me, it was apparent that someone was setting him up, but the evidence against him was too great to ignore. If you know something that might change that, you need to tell me right now.”

  Sarah chewed on her lip and tugged at the blanket. She finally met Beaumont’s eyes, and felt his sincerity. “It was Nick Wilson.”

  Beaumont sat back down and stared at her. “Well,” he said, but he didn’t say more.

  “Well what?” Her voice sounded desperate even to her own ears.

  “Well, some things make a little bit more sense now.” He stood. “Please excuse me, Miss Thomas. Thank you for the information. I’ll be in touch.” He started out the door, but pulled a business card out of his pocket and came back to hand it to her “If anything else happens related to this, please call me directly.”

  CHAPTER 19

  “I’M still not convinced that letting Wilson’s partner know what we know was the best thing.” Derrick sat at the end of Sarah’s couch, her feet in his lap.

  Sarah shrugged. “It felt right. That’s really all I can say about it.”

  “You casually shrug as if my future doesn’t hang in the balance of what you did or didn’t do.” Sarah pulled her feet out of his lap as he stood. He paced the room and rounded on her. “I wish you’d had him call me or something else. Anything else.”

  Sarah closed her eyes and covered them with her arm. “I felt led to talk to him, Derrick.” />
  “He’s a cop who is used to playing people to get them to talk, Sarah. He played you.”

  Anger burned in her chest. She felt as if he was treating her like a child, and she really, really, resented it. “You don’t know that!”

  Derrick’s phone vibrated on the table. Sarah saw Clifford’s name flash across the screen before Derrick snatched it up. “Yeah?” he said as he engaged the call. Sarah watched his face darken and slowly sat up straighter, fighting the pounding in her head. “I see … how?” After a pause, Derrick’s face paled and he sat down. “Thanks, man. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He hit the button to disconnect the call and very carefully set his phone on the table in front of him. At the look on his face, her heart started to flutter nervously.

  “Ginger Castolli was found in a Dumpster outside of her apartment building.”

  Sarah’s stomach gave a sick roll. “What?”

  “The money I paid her for the information she gave me was shoved down her throat.”

  Sarah gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Exactly.” Derrick stood. “What did I tell you?”

  “You can’t know that what I told the detective had anything to do with tonight.”

  His mouth thinned and he looked at her with just bare tolerance. “Can’t I?”

  “How do you know someone else didn’t tell Beaumont that you’d been to her place? It could have been anything.”

  “Or it could have been you telling Wilson exactly everything by proxy.”

  “That’s not fair!” She clenched her fists but stopped short of stomping her foot on the floor.

  “Not fair? Not fair is you playing roulette with my life. You get a happy feeling in your little tummy about talking to a man who is trained to lower your defenses, and you think I shouldn’t be upset about it?” He grabbed his coat off the back of the chair and in one fluid movement had both of his arms into it. As he passed the table, he snatched his phone up and shoved it into the pocket. “I have to go.”

  Sarah ran to the door and blocked his exit. “It’s all fine and good for you to preach to me, to quote scripture, to assure and reassure. But the second I step out and make a move based on my faith instead of your faith, you stop trusting me.”

  Derrick narrowed his eyes. “Move.”

  She stepped aside and he wrenched the door open. A blast of icy air chilled her bare arms. She caught the door just as it started to slam behind him. “Derrick, wait.”

  “No.” He stopped by the door of his car and looked at her. The glow of the porch light barely illuminated his face – made his eyes shine. “I can’t be here right now with you. I’ll see you later.” He opened his car door and stopped again. “You shouldn’t be alone. You should call someone to be with you.”

  She crossed her arms and huffed, “Do you think I’m a target? Need a babysitter do I?”

  “No. Because of your concussion.”

  Sarah put a hand on her forehead and flinched at the tenderness. “I’ll be fine.”

  He narrowed his eyes and she shivered at the directness of his cold stare. Finally he shrugged. “Your call. See you later.”

  His car door wasn’t even shut before he gunned the powerful motor and started backing out.

  DERRICK drove his mighty Mustang through the nearly empty streets of downtown. Within minutes, he pulled up front in the loading zone of his apartment building. A valet attendant met him as he got out of his car. Instead of spending his normal time making small talk, he just nodded a greeting and went into the lobby. He didn’t stop at the guard’s desk. He waved hello and went straight to the elevator. The guard had activated it from his station, and the doors opened just as Derrick reached them.

  He shoved his hands in the pocket of his leather coat and leaned against the corner of the elevator while it shot up twenty floors. Knowing full well the position of the security cameras and that he could be seen, he didn’t pace, or punch a hole in the wall of the elevator, or throw his head back and scream in frustration. He just stared at the tips of his boots and waited for it to get him home.

  He straightened as the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened and he found himself outside of his apartment door. The door held a combination key instead of a key lock, and he punched in the code and stepped into the first sanctuary his life had ever offered.

  He walked inside the living room and expected to feel a sense of calm and security envelope him as it normally did. But, he felt nothing but anger burning a hole in his chest. Throwing his keys across the room did nothing at all to make him feel better. Kicking a chair over also made it worse. So he sat on the edge of the couch and put his face in his hands, struggling to control the anger, fighting back the wrath, knowing they could destroy him if he allowed them control.

  He took deep breaths, reasoned with himself, talked himself down. How he wished the ice and snow outside would go away so that he could get out there and drive spikes into rock, throw his body weight into a physical task that would occupy his thoughts and center his emotions.

  He looked at his watch. Nine-thirty. He wondered how long it would be before the police knocked at his door again and arrested him for the murder of another person he didn’t kill.

  Knowing he needed focus, he grabbed his worn Bible off the table next to his favorite chair and took it into the bedroom with him. He would read, focus on something else, until he couldn’t stay awake anymore.

  SARAH watched the sun rise over her back yard. She sat in her kitchen, knees pulled up to her chest, a cup of tea long cooled at her elbow, and watched through the kitchen window as the sun rose over the trees. Anxiety had settled like a fog over her whole body until she was nearly numb with it. She barely even felt the headache anymore.

  She wasn’t upset about talking to Detective Beaumont. She knew that the peace she felt inside when she spoke to him was real -- was God-given. No other explanation existed for her. But what twisted her stomach and her heart into little knots of fear and hurt was the way that Derrick didn’t trust that. Just like her sisters, when an adult moment presented itself, he treated her like a child – like a disruptive teenager. And he was very, very angry.

  Once Derrick’s car had gunned away, she felt the numbness settle over her. She went to her kitchen and made a cup of tea, then sat at her table.

  As she sat there the rest of the night, eventually watching the sky gradually lighten in the winter morning, she decided that as unreasonable as Derrick’s treatment of her was, she certainly wasn’t going to go to him and say she’d been wrong, when she had definitely not. All she could do was continue to be there for him, to be present, and to pray.

  The doorbell surprised her and made her stomach jump. As she got out of the chair, she stretched the muscles that protested at the first movement in hours. Rolling her head on her neck, she touched the edges of the bruise on her forehead and thought maybe some of the tenderness had gone away.

  When she opened the door, her eyes widened in surprise to see Derrick standing there, the collar of his leather coat drawn up over his neck against the cold. She widened the door. “Come in,” she said.

  He came in and put his hands to his lips, blowing against them. “Temperature’s dropped probably thirty degrees since last night,” he said.

  Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Okay.” She waited, but offered nothing else.

  Derrick shoved his hands into his pockets. “Listen,” he said. “I’m sorry I got so irrationally angry with you last night. I was temporarily overwhelmed.”

  With a nod, Sarah gestured at the couch. “Have a seat.”

  Derrick unzipped his jacket and shrugged out of it. “What you said was completely true. That was terribly unfair of me to doubt your faith. Please accept my apology.”

  Sarah sat down against the corner of the couch and drew her leg under her. “Thank you.” She expected Derrick to sit opposite her, and was surprised when he sat close. He picked up her hand. His fingers were cold.

  “I don’t kno
w what my future holds,” he said.

  Sarah surprised them both by sitting forward, one knee on the couch, one foot planted on the ground. “I do,” she said. She framed his face with her hands. Shadows under his eyes marked the fatigue on his face, but did nothing to take away from his handsome features. She stared into his eyes – eyes the color of the richest coffee. “Your future holds you and me together.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “I know that,” she said. “I know with absolute certainty. And I’m here for you no matter what.” She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his, gently to keep from irritating her bruise. His eyes looked deeply into hers, and she felt a tug in her heart like nothing she’d ever felt before. “No matter how long it takes,” she said.

  Derrick put a hand on the back of her neck. “I can’t ask that of you,” he whispered.

  “You haven’t.” She gently pressed her lips against his and felt the cool skin warm under hers. He sat immobile at first, but very quickly deepened the kiss, pulling her toward him. Sarah shifted so that her thigh pressed against his, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  Derrick moaned against her mouth. He moved, breaking the kiss as he stood. She looked up at him, dazed, and he laid his palm against her cheek. “I need to go,” he said.

  Sarah stood quickly and grabbed his wrist. “No, stay.”

  He gave a short laugh and hugged her to him. With his arms wrapped around her, Sarah felt wonderful, felt right. She laid her cheek against his chest and closed her eyes, breathing deeply in with a heavy sigh. “I have to go.” With the squeeze of his arms, he kissed the top of her head. “When do you work again?”

  “This afternoon.” Sarah stepped back and watched him put his jacket back on.

  “I’ll pick you up and drive you. What time?”

  “You don’t have to.”

  He smiled. “Yes, I do.”