“No. Brady, don’t!” Eva tried to yell, but the words barely escaped. She clawed at the hands squeezing her throat, stealing her breath. There. Then gone. The scent of alcohol and rage lingering as her attacker pulled out a gun, aimed.
“No!” The words tore from her throat, cold rain falling onto slick grass, sliding down her frozen cheeks. She tried to grab the man’s legs, pull him off balance, but her body refused her brain’s commands.
A sharp quick report sliced through the darkness, and something warm and heavy landed on her chest and stomach. She wanted to scream, but she had nothing left. Wanted to shove the weight away, but she could only slide deeper into darkness.
“Eva!” Austin’s voice carried through the blackness, faint, but so insistent, she couldn’t ignore it.
“I’m okay,” she mumbled, forcing her eyes open, looking into his face. How had she not realized who he was the first time that she’d seen him? How had she not looked into his face then, and known that she was seeing forever?
She blinked, clearing her eyes and still seeing what he was. What he could be. If she allowed it. She wanted to tell him that, reached out to touch his cheek, but the words didn’t come and her hand seemed glued to the muddy ground.
“Brady?” she managed as he lifted her hand, squeezed gently.
“He’s safe.”
“Where...?”
“With another officer.” Austin looked over his shoulder, said something to whoever was behind him. Slade maybe, but Eva couldn’t see the details through the thick mist of pain.
“That man...Don Frist—”
“Alive, but he’s going to wish he weren’t.”
“Did—”
“No more talking, Eva.” He touched her lips, his fingers as cold as the pouring rain, but somehow warm, too.
“Ma’am?” An EMT shoved in next to Austin and leaned over Eva, his fingers probing her wrist.
“I’m okay,” she said, because it had to be true for Brady’s sake.
“You will be.” He pressed something to her shoulder and waves of pain rolled over her, chasing away every thought. Darkness again, and then she was moving, floating across golden fields and green grass, blue sky above. No. Lights above. Bright and yellow, Austin’s face so close she could feel his breath on her cheek, see flecks of silver in his eyes.
“Hang on, Eva. Brady needs you. I need you,” he growled, the fear in his voice matching the cold erratic thud of her heart.
I need you, too, she wanted to say, but he was gone before she could, the ambulance sirens screaming as she slipped away again.
Hours later. Days? Eva didn’t know, just heard the quiet beep of a machine, smelled the faint metallic scent of dried blood and antiseptic. She tried to sit up, but pain shot through her shoulder and down her arm, blinding her and stealing her breath.
“Brady,” she whispered, because he was her first thought.
“He’s fine. One of our K-9 officers is with him in the waiting room.” Austin stepped into view, his hair damp, his jaw dark with stubble. He had been her second thought, but not by much.
“How are you feeling?” He brushed hair from her cheek, his palm resting there.
Like she’d been run over by a truck, but she couldn’t get the words out. Just covered his hand with hers, pressing his palm more firmly to her cheek. She held on tight. Afraid that if she didn’t, she’d float away again.
“That good, huh?” he asked.
“I need to see Brady.”
“They won’t let him in the ICU.”
“I need to see him, anyway, and he needs to see me. He needs to know that I’m okay. Then I need to find someone to take care of him while I’m at the hospital. I need—”
“You were shot and the bullet came within an inch of your heart. What you need is to rest and recuperate. I’ll take care of everything else.”
“I think you’re too good to be true, Austin,” she whispered, and he smiled, his eyes soft.
“I’m sure you won’t be saying that in another year or two or ten.”
“Will you still be around in ten years?”
“Do you want me to be?” His hand slipped from her cheek, skimmed her shoulder, wrist and palm. Pressed close to hers, their fingers linked as if it had always been that way. The two of them facing the world together, a combined force working to protect Brady and provide the best for him.
Could it really be that easy?
Or would it all fall apart as quickly as it had happened?
She couldn’t know, but she had to try.
“I want you around for as long as you want to be here.”
“Good, because I’m thinking forever sounds like the right amount of time.” His lips brushed hers, light and gentle as a butterfly’s wings, and her eyes burned with a hundred dead dreams and a million new ones.
A tear slipped down her cheek, and Austin brushed it away. “Don’t cry, Eva. Everything is going to be okay.”
“I know,” she said, but everything she’d ever wanted was right there beside her, and he was so steady and wonderful and sure that the tears just kept coming.
Austin brushed more tears from her cheeks, looked deep into her eyes. “I’ll be right back.”
She wanted to tell him not to go, but he was gone before she could. Out the door and away, the soft beep of the machine and the quiet hiccup of her breath the only sounds in the room.
Minutes later he was back, Brady in his arms, a nurse running behind him. “Detective, you can’t bring him in there—”
“He’s her son, and she wants to see him.” Austin walked across the room, set Brady down beside the bed. “You’ll be careful, right, sport? Your mom is delicate, and we don’t want to hurt her.”
“I’m not delica—”
“I’ll be careful. Hi, Momma. Are you really okay?” Brady’s chin quivered, and she knew he was trying hard not to cry. She wanted to pull him onto the bed, hug him close, but pain shot through her chest as she reached for him. She touched his face instead, looked into his blue eyes. She’d almost lost him, but he was there, whole and healthy and safe.
“I am now that I know you are.”
“I was so scared, Momma. I thought the bad man was going to kill you.” Brady started crying in earnest, and Austin lifted him, patting his back and murmuring something she couldn’t hear. Eva watched them together, her eyes growing heavy, the nurse’s protests fading. She’d been on her own for so long. There’d been no one else that she trusted as much as she trusted herself to care for Brady. She hadn’t thought there would ever be anyone that cared about her son as much as she did. She’d been wrong. Austin could. Did. Would.
The mattress dipped as someone sat on the edge of the bed, and she opened her eyes, looked into Austin’s handsome face. Brady lay against his shoulder, eyes closed and body limp as if he’d given everything he had to those last tears and was ready to sleep for hours.
“He needs to be in bed,” she said.
“He needs to be with you more.”
“The nurse—”
“Agreed that this was best for both of you.”
“He’s going to get heavy.”
“He could never be that.” Austin took her hand, squeezing gently. “So how about you do what your son is doing and get some rest? We’ll both be here when you wake up.”
“I’m glad,” she responded, linking her fingers with his again, letting the warmth of his touch, the sweetness of his smile carry her into sleep.
EPILOGUE
Ten days later
“Are they going to be here soon, Momma?”
“He. Not they. You know that Austin can’t bring Justice into the hospital,” Eva responded as she dropped a pile of get-well cards into the flower-print overnight bag that Mrs. Daphne had lent her.
“Let me do that, dear. You’re still looking peaked, and I wouldn’t want you to wear yourself out before you even get home.” Mrs. Daphne took the bag from Eva’s hands, her blue-white curls bouncing as she scooped
up an oversize flower arrangement and tottered across the room. She placed both on a cart the nurse had wheeled in, setting them next to several other flower arrangements.
“It looks like you have everything,” she said. Mrs. Daphne had brought Brady to visit after school and had decided to stay when she’d heard that Eva could finally go home. A good thing, as something as easy as packing an overnight bag seemed too much for Eva’s convalescing.
She eased into a chair, wincing as the muscles in her shoulder and chest protested.
“Are you okay, Momma?” Brady hovered next to her, and she tried to smile. He’d been through a lot, and it had taken its toll. Nightmares, anxiety, fear. The counselor had assured Eva that those things would get better in time.
“I’m fine, sweetie. I’ll just be happy to get home.”
“When did your young man say he would be here?” Mrs. Daphne asked, patting an errant curl into place.
“Around two.”
“Well, then, he will be here at any moment. While we’re waiting, though, I thought I’d get Brady some juice from the cafeteria. He didn’t have his snack after school, you know.”
“That’s fine.”
“I’d rather stay with you, Momma,” Brady touched her hand, but he didn’t cling to it like he had in the first days after she’d been shot.
“If you want to stay, you can. But I’m feeling a little thirsty, too, and I was thinking that if you went, you could get me some juice.”
“You’re really thirsty?”
“I’d really like some juice.” Because the counselor had said the best way to help Brady was to offer him opportunities to prove to himself that he was safe, that Eva was safe, that everything was the way it had once been.
“Okay. Orange or apple?”
“Orange, of course.” She watched as Brady skipped from the room with Mrs. Daphne, then leaned her head back against the wall. Exhausted.
“I think I’m going to have to stick a little closer to your side.” Austin’s voice cut through the haze of the half sleep Eva had fallen into, and she opened her eyes, smiled.
“Why’s that?”
“I leave for a few hours and you wear yourself out.” He kissed her gently, the warmth of his lips filled with promise.
“I’m okay. Just resting for the ride home. Brady is a little chatterbox today.”
“He’s excited that you’re finally coming home. Where is the little guy?”
“He went to get juice with Mrs. Daphne. Why?”
“We’ve had some new developments in the case. I wanted to fill you in while he wasn’t around.”
“What developments?” She straightened, her heart beating a little faster as she looked into his midnight-blue eyes, saw the concern there.
“Frist is talking.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Yes, but some of the things he’s saying concern you.”
“He killed my parents, didn’t he?” She’d been hoping for a confession or at least some kind of proof that Frist was responsible. With the future stretching out in front of her, she wanted to close the door completely on the past. Finding her parents’ murderer was part of that.
“No, but he says he knows who did. He gave us a name. Charles Ritter.”
“I’ve never heard of him.”
“He’s a lawyer. A successful one. According to Frist, he is also affiliated with The Boss. Frist says he’s middle management. One of three people who may know who The Boss is. According to Frist, Ritter was asked to kill your father as a test of loyalty. Your mother just happened to be—”
“At the wrong place at the wrong time?”
“That’s what Frist says. Ritter isn’t talking at all. He’s lawyered up, but his prints matched some found at your parents’ place, and he had a handgun in a safety deposit box. It’s the same caliber as the murder weapon.”
“So, it’s finally over?”
“It is.” He brushed strands of hair from her cheek, his fingers gentle and light.
“What about Rio? Has Frist told you where he is?”
“He says he doesn’t know. He left him in a crate in an alley downtown. That’s the last he saw of him.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know. The way I see it, a guy who was desperate enough to use his niece to bait a police officer wouldn’t hesitate to tell a few lies to save his own skin.”
“Is the little girl finally back with her parents?” Eva could still see the child walking down the sidewalk, tiny and alone, the image etched so deeply in her mind that she didn’t think she would ever forget it.
“Not yet. CPS is investigating. Frist’s brother knew that Frist was wanted by the police and still let him take his daughter for the night. That’s something Child Protective Services is taking seriously.”
“Do you think she’ll ever be returned to her family?”
“I’m not sure, but I do know one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I love you, and I’m glad Frist didn’t take you from me.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
“You’re not kissing again, are you?” Brady asked as he and Mrs. Daphne walked back into the room.
“I wish,” Austin laughed. “You ready to take your mom home, sport?”
“Yep!”
“Then we’d better give her this.” He took a small jeweler’s box from his coat pocket, and Eva’s heart jumped.
She met his eyes. Saw everything she felt reflected there.
Hope.
Love.
Joy.
“I know what this is!” Brady shouted as he took the box from Austin’s hands. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes wide with joy.
“My goodness! What in the world?” Mrs. Daphne edged in close.
“It’s the ring Austin bought, Momma. He showed it to me last week, and I’ve been keeping the secret all this time. And it was really hard.” Brady opened the box, took out a beautiful diamond solitaire and handed it to Austin.
“Austin...”
Austin pressed a finger to her lips, cutting off her words. “Let us finish. We worked really hard on the presentation. Ready, sport?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Let’s do this thing.” Austin took Brady’s little hand in his big one, both of them dropping to one knee.
“You are my heart, Eva, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
“And adopt Justice? Because he wants to be part of the family, too,” Brady added, and Eva laughed, joy spilling out in tears that slid down her cheeks. She didn’t bother wiping them away as she reached for Austin, allowed him to help her to her feet. She looked into his eyes, felt the truth of his love and said the only thing she could.
“Yes!”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt of Betrayal on the Border by Jill Elizabeth Nelson!
Dear Reader,
Working on a continuity series is always fun. Working on the Texas K-9 Unit continuity was especially exciting. Not only did I get to work with a wonderful group of authors, but I got to incorporate many things that I love into my story—a cute little boy, an adorable and hardworking bloodhound, intrigue, suspense and, of course, romance. What could be better?
Tracking Justice is about more than those things, though. It’s about believing that God will work things out even when it is impossible to see how He will do it. It is about trust and faith and moving beyond the past and into a bright and wonderful future. In short, it is about what we all long for and what we all need—hope and second chances.
I hope you enjoy reading Tracking Justice as much as I enjoyed writing it! I love to hear from readers. If you have time, drop me a line at [email protected].
Many blessings!
Shirlee McCoy
Questions for Discussion
Eva Billows has had a tough life. What have her experiences taught her?
What impact does that have on her rel
ationship with God?
Growing up, Eva witnessed her mother’s painful marriage. She still tried to find happiness with Brady’s father. What decision did she make after that disastrous relationship?
Austin Black is dedicated to his job. Finding time for dating is tough. What is it about Eva that makes him question his decision to remain single?
How does Austin’s faith help him in his decision to pursue Eva?
What are Austin’s goals and dreams? What does he see in Eva that makes him wonder if she could be part of those things?
Eva doesn’t believe she can depend on anyone but herself. At what point does she begin to trust Austin?
Does her parents’ unsolved murder influence her opinion of Austin?
Brady is Eva’s first priority. What is she afraid might happen if she lets Austin into her life?
Do you think her fears are well-founded? Why or why not?
Falling in love with Brady’s father was a mistake that Eva regrets. Do you think she has forgiven herself for it? Explain.
Is Eva able to believe that God has forgiven her?
It is clear from scripture that when we repent, God forgives and forgets our transgressions. Why do you think it is difficult for us to do the same?
Eva wants to trust God completely. What stands in the way of her doing that?
Who do you think took Rio?
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense story.
You enjoy a dash of danger. Love Inspired Suspense stories feature strong heroes and heroines whose faith is central in solving mysteries and saving lives.
Visit Harlequin.com to find your next great read.
Tracking Justice (Texas K-9 Unit) Page 18
