With tears streaming down her cheeks, she sprinted toward home.
To Zach.
* * *
Zach’s lungs burned, his calves ached, his ribs throbbed, but he kept on into the forest, trudging forward. He’d followed the trail to the river. They’d taken Meghan by boat. A raft, he suspected. The rapids were too rough for a small boat in this part of the river.
They were long gone by the time he reached the water’s edge, but he wasn’t giving up.
Pushing his body to the limit, forcing himself to continue on even after the burn of overworked muscles clenched his legs, he kept on. And on. And on. For miles. Following the edge of the river. Appreciative of his Marine training years ago, and thankful that he was a runner and had kept his body in shape, Zach didn’t allow himself time to rest. Not once.
He was a warrior. A Marine.
He was on the hunt for the enemy.
Most of the bleeding from his wounds had stopped, but sweat trickled down his brow, beneath his arms, gathered between his shoulder blades. His T-shirt was drenched with blood and sweat, sticking uncomfortably to his skin. When he could stand it no more, he yanked the shirt free and tossed it aside. Freeing himself from the sticky shirt seemed to give him new energy.
Bare chested, he continued on, his muscles clenching and straining with each step, his senses alert to any movement, any sound, any smell up ahead. He was getting closer. He sensed it.
Then he saw a flash of movement up ahead. Heading straight toward him. He halted, breathing heavily. A slim figure came into view.
Meghan!
His heart gave an erratic stutter. The breath whooshed out of his lungs. Relief nearly crippled him. He forced his legs back into action and jogged the last few yards to her.
She dived straight into his arms.
Zach caught her against him. His legs gave out and he fell to his knees, pulling her with him, cuddling her close, burying his face in her hair. She sobbed against his chest, her hands clutching at him, squeezing him tight. Thank God she was safe.
“I k-killed Larry,” she whispered between sobs. “He’s dead. He tried to drown me, but I got away. I smacked him in the face with my cast. His head hit a rock. The river sucked him away.” She hitched in a breath. “His men left him lying on the bank.”
“It’s all right,” he murmured, cuddling her close. “I’ve got you.”
“I think I re-broke my arm.”
“We’ll get it taken care of,” he whispered. “Everything’s going to be okay now.”
Zach’s leg muscles began to cramp and spasm from overuse. He fell back on his ass, taking Meghan with him, and stretched his legs out, trying to ease the pain.
His injured ribs throbbed, but he ignored the pain. He just wanted to hold her.
Zach found a comfortable spot to sit and leaned back against a tree trunk. His body began to throb everywhere, the pain from his various injuries screaming to life now that he wasn’t pushing himself through a grueling mind-over-matter endurance to find and save Meghan.
Finally her sobs ceased. She glanced up at him, wiping at her tears. “I’m a murderer,” she whispered. “I killed Evan and Curtis.”
Zach gently cupped her face in his hand. He stared into her eyes. “No, you’re not. You didn’t kill them. They chose to help you. They knew what they were getting into. They wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t love you.”
Her eyes filled with fresh tears. “It’s still my fault. If I hadn’t been so hell-bent on revenge, they would both be alive today.”
Zach tightened his arms around her. “You’ll be okay,” he said softly. “You’re a strong woman. I’ll help you get through it.”
She drew in a deep breath, slowly exhaled. “Thank you.” Her gaze dropped. She gasped. “I forgot you’re hurt!” She leaned back. Her hands went to his bare chest, gently running over his aching ribs. He flinched when she touched a particularly sensitive spot.
“I’m okay,” he insisted. “Just stay with me for a while.”
She hesitated, then snuggled closer, gently laying her head on his chest. “You still want me?” she asked hesitantly. “After what I did?”
He gently brushed her hair away from her face, pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Always.” She relaxed against him with a soft sigh. He combed his fingers through her hair, over and over, loving the feel of it between his fingers.
His heartbeat gradually slowed, his aching muscles relaxed. He hurt everywhere. His ribs throbbed, his legs burned, his sore shoulder convulsed, his arms ached, a screaming pain shot through his head with each beat of his heart, his back and chest muscles began to spasm from the bruising of repeated blows. He was definitely going to be sore for a while.
But he was holding the woman who meant everything to him.
The woman he loved with every fiber of his being.
And that was truly a wonderful thing.
Meghan leaned back. Her gaze traveled over his body. “You really are hurt,” she said softly. “You’re covered in blood. We need to get you to a doctor.”
“Not yet.” He tightened his arms around her when she tried to get up. “It hurts too much to move. Just sit with me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she protested when he tried to pull her back into his lap.
“Not touching you hurts more,” he whispered. “Please. I need to hold you. Feel your heartbeat next to mine.”
Her gaze locked on his. She sighed, a dreamy expression crossing her face. She sank into him, her mouth hovering above his, but not quite touching. Her breath tickled his lips.
“Just kiss me, Meghan,” he rasped. “Stop teasing me. I’m too weak and sore to do anything but sit here.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. She brushed her lips against his, then leaned back.
Zach moaned. “Do that again,” he panted. “It makes me forget the pain.”
Her mouth curled into a seductive smile. She lowered her head and closed her eyes, kissing him again. Zach groaned when her lips touched his. His heartrate kicked up, his breathing quickened. He tightened his arms around her and deepened the kiss, urging her lips to part, his tongue dancing with hers, and lost himself in her touch. In her heat. In her. Desire blazed through him, hot and all consuming. This was what he’d been missing the past thirty-eight years.
Finally she drew back and gazed down at him, her face flushed.
“Someone’s coming,” she whispered.
Zach glanced up just as Agent Miller careened through the trees and halted in front of them. Six other men were with him. Zach recognized two of his deputies. The others were FBI.
Zach motioned toward the river. “You’ll find Cummings’s body on the bank a few miles down the river. Meghan said the other four ran off into the trees. They’re probably long gone by now.”
Agent Miller nodded. He came forward while the other men raced into the trees after Larry’s thugs. Zach doubted they’d catch them.
“Nice job, Sheriff.” Agent Miller nodded at Meghan. “Meg. You doing all right?”
“Yeah,” she said, her blush deepening. “But Zach’s hurt. They beat him up pretty bad.”
“I’m fine,” Zach grumbled, though he couldn’t deny he ached everywhere.
Agent Miller spoke into his cellphone, calling for paramedics to look at Zach. “Bring a stretcher,” Zach heard him say. “I’m not sure if he can stand.”
Zach wanted to protest, but Meghan placed a finger against his lips. “Shh. Just cooperate, okay? You’re hurt bad, Zach.”
He was? He knew he hurt everywhere, but he hadn’t thought it was that bad. Meghan’s kiss had soothed him temporarily. Now the pain rushed back and he flinched as numerous aches throbbed throughout his body.
“How many fellow Marines did you help carry out of Iraq?” Her voice was gentle, her gaze kind and full of love as she looked into his eyes.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t count.”
She nodded. “That’s what I thought.” Sh
e sank next to him on the ground. “Saving others is as natural to you as breathing. You’re special, Zach. A true hero. That’s one of the things I love about you.”
Agent Miller hung up his phone and turned back to them. “Paramedics are on the way.” He eyed Zach up and down. “You look like you’re in a lot of pain, Zach. They roughed you up pretty good.”
Zach shrugged. Pain spliced through his ribs. He hissed in a breath. Okay, so it did hurt like hell. Maybe a stretcher wouldn’t be so bad.
Agent Miller’s gaze slid from Meghan to Zach. He smiled. “I’ll…go see if I can help round up the bad guys.”
He lifted his hand in a salute and disappeared back into the trees.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
When Meg and Zach arrived back at Meg’s house—Zach on a stretcher courtesy of the county’s paramedics—Meg was surprised to see Deputy Bailey sitting in the back of a police cruiser.
Though Zach was injured, he was still in cop mode, and Meg listened as he asked Agent Miller about Bailey. Agent Miller told them he’d found Bailey lurking out by the road when he first arrived and that he planned to take him in for questioning.
“Let me talk to him,” Zach ordered. The paramedics paused next to the police car and set the stretcher on the ground. Agent Miller opened the car door and waited while Zach stared his deputy down. After a long moment of stony silence, Bailey’s face crumpled and tears streamed down his cheeks. He jerked his gaze to Meg.
“She ruined everything. Evan would still be alive if it weren’t for her.”
Zach scowled at the smaller man. “What are you doing here Bailey? What do you want with Meghan?”
And as Meg stared at the young man, the answer became clear to her. “Because he was hoping Evan would take him back,” she whispered. “Weren’t you?”
The deputy reddened. “I thought what we had was special, but he said he’d fallen in love with someone else.”
“Robert,” Meg murmured.
Ted Bailey nodded. “Yeah. But that’s not why I came back here. I needed the money from the bounty so I could leave. I hate this town. I thought Evan was dead. I didn’t know he was still alive until I saw him that night.” He sobbed. “But now he’s dead, because of her.”
“So you were hoping to collect on the bounty and leave?” Zach asked.
Bailey nodded and bowed his head. “Yeah.”
Meg shook her head sadly. Agent Miller closed the car door. The paramedics lifted the stretcher and carried Zach to a waiting ambulance.
Agent Miller had removed Curtis’s body before Meg and Zach arrived back at her cabin so she wouldn’t have to see Curtis that way. Her heart pinched at the man’s kindness. She didn’t think she would have been able to see Curtis like that. She had two funerals to plan now and didn’t want to think about it yet. If she did, she feared she’d crumble and never get back up.
Meg went with Zach to the hospital, staying by his side while hospital staff examined his injuries. They’d also removed her cast and X-rayed her wrist. The screw was still intact, but the pressure from slamming the cast at Larry’s head had shattered a small bone next to the screw. Meg had undergone a second surgery where the screw had been removed and a new one inserted through the broken bone. A new cast had been applied.
Zach had suffered multiple contusions and cuts all over his body from the beating Larry’s thugs had inflicted on him, plus three broken ribs, a cracked rib, a nasty concussion, ringing and probable long term partial deafness in one ear, and temporary blurred vision in his left eye. The doctor said the blurred vision was probably due to the swelling around his eye and that it would likely clear once the swelling went down. His face looked horrendous. Multiple shades of black and blue and purple and yellow…swollen and red and scratched and scraped...Meg cringed every time she looked at his poor, beaten face. It was a harsh reminder that it had been her fault Larry had almost killed him.
That had all been two days ago. Agent Miller had informed Meg and Zach just that morning that the FBI had captured two of Larry’s thugs at an old warehouse the day before. The men had told the FBI where the other girls had been hidden, and the FBI had gone in and rescued the remaining girls later that evening.
Meg was saddened by what those girls had gone through. If everyone had just believed her fifteen years ago, none of those girls would have had to suffer. But at least Larry was dead now. He couldn’t harm anyone else.
Meg paused outside Zach’s bedroom door with a lunch tray. The past two days Zach had been too sore to do more than lay in bed drugged up with the pain meds the doctor had prescribed for him. Meg and Kristen had been taking turns bringing him meals and helping him get up to use the restroom. Meg knew he hated being weak and helpless, but she sensed he enjoyed the attention she and Kristen lavished on him. He had to know how much they loved him.
Meg knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
She pushed the door open and stepped into the room, setting the tray on the nightstand.
She and Zach hadn’t had a moment alone since they’d gotten back. But now things were settling down.
Today was Kristen’s last day of school. The bus would be dropping her off in a few hours. Kristen had changed since that day she’d escaped the man in the woods. She’d grown softer, less sarcastic, and more respectful. Meg had noticed the change in her. Kristen’s attitude toward Zach was much more loving. Meg had witnessed Zach and Kristen growing closer just in the past few days, their relationship more trusting than before. She was happy for them. Zach was a good man. And he was becoming a great dad to Kristen.
Meg cleared her throat. “I brought some lunch. Turkey sandwich, Fritos, Oreo cookies, and milk.”
Zach gingerly pushed himself up into a sitting position, his face contorting with pain as he finally got situated. Meg piled pillows behind him to help him get comfortable.
“Thanks,” he murmured. “You know you don’t have to wait on me like this.”
“I know.” She lowered her gaze. “I want to.”
She felt his gaze perusing her. “If it’s guilt causing you to do this, then don’t.”
She pulled her gaze back to his. “What? Of course not. I’m doing it because I want to.” She still hadn’t told him she loved him. Fear kept her from expressing her feelings. Fear and the fact that she hadn’t had a moment alone with him yet. Now she did. Now was her chance.
Her throat clogged with emotion. She’d never told a man she loved him before. She didn’t know quite how to say it. What words could explain the way she felt about him? She wasn’t sure if there were such words.
A tear slipped down her cheek. Embarrassed, she hitched in a breath and turned away from him. She wasn’t a crier, dammit! What was wrong with her?
Zach reached for her. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“No.” She held up a hand. “I need a moment. Please.”
He waited patiently, then snagged her around the waist and pulled her onto the bed with him.
“No,” she protested weakly. “I’ll hurt you.”
Ignoring her, Zach gently wiped the tear from her cheek.
Worried about his injuries and that she might hurt him more, she tried to draw back. “I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered.
“I’m fine,” he murmured. He cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?”
She took a deep breath and leaned back. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
His gaze searched hers, then went completely blank. He’d closed himself off.
Her breath caught. Was he afraid of what she was about to say?
She squeezed her eyes shut. Did he not love her? Did he not feel the same way about her that she felt about him? Overwhelmed by insecurities, she tried to get up from the bed.
Zach’s arms tightened around her, keeping her in place. “Whatever you want to say, Meghan, I can handle it. I’m a big boy.”
“It’s not that easy,” she whispered.
“I’ve never told a man I l-loved him before.”
He blinked. The blankness disappeared from his eyes, quickly replaced by what could only be described as pure joy. He grinned. He kissed her full on the mouth. “I was afraid you were going to dump me.”
A laugh bubbled forth. “Dump you? We aren’t even officially dating. Are we? I mean…” She trailed off, her face heating. What exactly were they doing?
He kissed her again, then leaned back, his eyes bright with happiness. “We are now. Meghan Elizabeth Gardner, will you be my girlfriend?”
Meg giggled. “We’re not sixteen.”
He chuckled. “No, but I sure feel like it when I’m with you. You make me feel twenty years younger.”
They smiled at each other. Meg lowered her gaze. “I was wondering…do you ever get over killing someone?”
Zach cleared his throat. “I can only speak for myself, and I can tell you that it does get better with time, but you never get over it.”
She nodded. She’d figured as much. While she was glad Larry was dead, her heart still ached for Curtis and Evan. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to forgive herself for getting them killed.
Zach dragged her into his arms. He kissed her forehead. Meg snuggled close. She decided it was time to tell him about all the feelings that had been brewing inside her since she’d met him. “I’ve been thinking about everything the past few days and I’ve come to realize how much you mean to me.” She stared at his chest, unable to meet his gaze. This was hard, admitting how she felt, when she’d never told anyone this before. She swallowed, then lifted her gaze to his. “One thing I’ve learned from all this is that I would be willing to die for you. I realized that I’d do anything, make any sacrifice, to make sure you were safe. That’s how much I love you.”
His gaze softened. “Meg—”
“Just a minute. I’m not done yet.” She sucked in another breath. “Before you, I believed sex was something filthy and disgusting and that only men found it pleasurable, that they hurt and abused and punished women with sex.” Heat washed up her neck and into her cheeks. “That’s why I was so afraid of it. I was so wrong. You taught me that it’s special.”
Deceived (Unlikely Heroes Book 3) Page 33
