Most Wanted Woman
Page 24
Her lips parted. “Didn’t it bother you to listen to that?”
“More than you’ll ever know.” He would always remember the desperation in her voice while she pleaded with Creath, not for her own welfare but for his. “But it was worth listening to when I heard what you said toward the end of the recording.”
“The end?” She gave him a blank look. “I was a little preoccupied. I don’t remember anything I said.”
“You told me you weren’t going to let me die. Then you said you loved me.” Josh angled his chin. “Why is it you waited until I was unconscious to tell me?”
She blinked. “I was afraid if I told you, Creath would somehow know. And come after you.”
“You kept your feelings to yourself and he came after me anyway. Now that we’ve got that out of the way and I’m conscious, what’s holding you back?”
“I wasn’t sure you wanted to hear how I felt. That day at the store, when you caught up with me, you were so angry that I’d run. So hurt.”
“I was plenty of both,” he agreed. “Knowing you took off because you thought Creath would be too busy tracking you to come after me made me want to throttle you. I still want to throttle you for that.”
Increasing the pressure on her wrist, he drew her closer, his voice raspy. “Do you know what it did to me to have to lie there in the dirt and watch Creath smash you against the side of that building? To use his body to trap you there while you begged him to let you help me? I watched that, waiting for you to get clear so I could get a shot off, knowing at any minute he might decide to kill you instead of hauling you to jail.” Lifting her chin with his fingers, he gazed into her dark eyes that had held so many secrets. “I knew before then I was in love with you. I just didn’t know how much.”
Regan’s heart fluttered into her throat. “And I didn’t know how much I loved you until you were bleeding under my hands and I thought I might lose you.” She pressed her palm to his cheek. “I love you, Josh McCall. Wildly. Completely.”
He went very still, and the fingers on her chin tightened. Emotions poured through him, sweet and potent as wine. “Took you long enough to get that out,” he said softly.
“I know.” Her pulse was hammering now in a hundred places. “And even if you don’t want to hear it, I’ll tell you again how much I regret putting your job at risk, not to mention your life.”
“Speaking of my job, we need to talk about that.” He shifted his hand from her chin, slid his palm down her dark, glossy hair. “I turned in my badge.”
“Josh, no.” Alarm streaked across her face. “Did it get out that you knew I was wanted for murder and didn’t turn me in?”
“No, I skated on that. I got offered a job that suits me better.”
“But you’re a cop. That’s who you are.” She shook her head. “What job could suit you better?”
“I should have said a job in a place that suits me better. Sundown’s mayor came to see me yesterday. Turns out, Decker’s got the county sheriff’s job on a permanent basis now. After I recuperate, I pin on his former badge.”
“You’ll be Sundown’s police chief?” Regan stared at him while it all sunk in. “You’re staying in Sundown? For good?”
“That’s right. I have the family house here. Etta. Sundown’s always been my second home.” He gave Regan a slow head-to-toe study. “Plus, I’ve got this thing for the hot bartender who works the night shift at Truelove’s Tavern.”
Regan linked her fingers with his. “I happen to know she’s got a thing for Sundown’s hot police chief.” She studied his face, the rugged lines and angles. “Nearly everyone in your family is an OCPD cop. How are they going to take your giving that up?”
“Don’t forget, I’m the rebel. They’re used to me pushing the envelope. Testing rules to see just how bendable they are.” He lifted a brow. “Falling in love with a woman wanted for murder.”
“You do that often?”
“I plan to do that only once.” Emotion thudded into his chest, flooded into his heart. “You changed things for me, Regan. Made me see things, feel things I never have before.” He traced his fingertips along her jawline. “The timing’s good, since the entire McCall clan is in Sundown.”
“Timing for what?”
“A wedding.” He lifted her hand to his mouth, pressed his lips to her knuckles and felt everything in his life snap into place. “I want it all with you. Marriage, family, everything.”
“Josh…” Rocked by emotion, she could only stare at him while he gazed at her over her hand, flashing that grin she’d known was trouble the first night he walked into Truelove’s Tavern.
“Come on, Regan, take a risk,” he urged with soft irony in his voice and a tantalizing sparkle in his eyes. “Live dangerously for once in your life.”
She brushed a fingertip along the scar that ran the length of his throat while her heart did a lovely bounding leap. “Well, that will be a new experience for me,” she murmured.
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes, Josh, that’s a yes. A huge yes.” A wave of love swamped her. They would make a home together. A present. A future. “You know, Chief McCall, when I walked out of jail this evening, I thought I was free and clear of the law.”
Josh’s grin turned smug. “Think again, sweetheart. You’re always going to be wanted by the law.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6741-5
MOST WANTED WOMAN
Copyright © 2005 by Margaret Price
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