A Stranger Is Watching

by Linda Randall Wisdom

  “I kept my promise, Smitty. I wasn’t going to make you cry unless it was for a good reason.”

  Riley worked tirelessly all afternoon. Thanks to a knack with electronics, he was able to set up a few surprises for any unwanted visitors. He emptied Benedict’s gun safe and hid a gun in every room he could, and a few outside. He used pots and pans to booby-trap the kitchen, and he kept all the lights off so he would be accustomed to the dark once night fell.

  When he finished that, he went upstairs and threw on a pair of black jeans and a black sweatshirt.

  He had a feeling his enemy would prefer to swoop down on him in the middle of the night. He intended to be ready.

  Hours passed as he sat in the middle of the bed. Here he was surrounded by Jenna’s scent. His ears pricked up when he heard the faint roar of an outboard engine. Then it abruptly cut off. He rose from his position and stuck his handgun in the back of his jeans.

  Stealthily he made his way down the stairs and waited near the front door. The slight crunch of hard-packed snow breaking under heavy feet was enough warning to keep him on alert. He couldn’t see anything because there was no moon, but he figured there was only one person out there. If he was lucky, it was the man who was behind the terrorism. He remained in a dark corner, waiting.

  It only took long enough for the front door to explode into splintered wood for Riley to realize he’d underestimated his opponent.

  The smoke and flying wood made a distraction that could have killed him if he hadn’t been fast on his feet.

  “Dammit, who said he could have a nightscope,” he muttered, running for the rear of the house. Several shots rang over his head and another hit a wall just a second before he did.

  Riley ran for the kitchen hoping to gain some time as he headed for the rear door. The sound of metal hitting the floor and a man’s fluent curses told him he had the advantage. For now.

  As he raced outside, he knew his dark clothing would stand out against the light snow on the ground, so he could only hope to be faster.

  He slipped and slid on the icy ground, falling to his hands several times. Each time he immediately pushed himself up and continued running.

  “You can’t go far, Cooper,” a man’s voice rang out. “Come on back before you turn into a Popsicle.”

  He didn’t answer, and he didn’t stop. After all, he wanted his attacker to follow him down a path he’d already charted.

  Riley wasn’t worried when he reached a pile of rocks. He knew there were two weapons close at hand along with the one he still carried. He stood back among the rocks to frustrate his opponent, more than anything.

  Riley’s enemy appeared in the clearing. The rifle he held with familiarity had a nightscope, and Riley already knew the ammunition he used in it was illegal.

  “You’ve run an excellent game, Cooper,” he called out, turning his head right and left, scanning the area for anything that moved. “I congratulate you on evading my man so easily. But the game is over. And once I finish here, you will have died with the knowledge I will be leaving here so I can dispense with your woman.” He laughed. “I told you before all you need is enough money and anything can be accomplished.”

  Riley stepped out of the shadows. He wasn’t afraid of the man shooting him point-blank. Now he knew for sure who his adversary was. This man wanted Riley dead. But first he meant to toy with him the way a cat toys with a mouse before pouncing.

  “I don’t know, Carter,” he said, displaying a nonchalance he knew would irritate the man. “You paid that other guy some big bucks, I’m sure, and all he ended up with was a bullet for his trouble.”

  Even in the dark, Riley could see the other man’s chilling smile.

  “Which is why I’m here to finish the job.” He started to lift the rifle. “I only wish I could make you suffer the way my uncle suffered. I promised my family I would do whatever was necessary to escort you out of this lifetime. Don’t bother praying, Cooper. There’s no one to hear you.”

  Riley didn’t waste any time making his move. The moment the rifle was swung upward, he dove down and slid across the hard ground, tackling him at the knees. As the man lost his balance, the rifle went flying. Carter tried to reach for the weapon tucked against Riley’s back, but Riley rolled over just in time. It didn’t stop him from knotting his fists together and bringing them down hard on Riley’s head.

  Riley fell back, but quickly regained his balance. He swore his ears were ringing, but it didn’t stop him from going after the man as Carter frantically searched for his rifle. Before he reached it, he first tried to hit Riley. Instead of hitting him square in the face, Riley veered away and received the blow along his cheek. He blinked and shook his head to clear it and dove again for the man.

  Riley knew his only chance was to reach one of the guns before Carter grabbed his rifle. He grunted as a tree branch connected with his midsection but he still had enough power to hit the man in the face hard enough to force him to step back.

  Riley then reached for the rifle and was ready to make a run for it when Carter reached for it, too. It looked as if Carter would reach it first when a shot rang out.

  Carter spun around, surprise written on his face as he staggered past Riley. The smile on his face wasn’t pleasant. Neither was the red blossom staining his shoulder.

  “You won’t win!” Jenna shouted from the cover of trees.

  “Yes, I will,” Carter declared as he reached for his rifle.

  Riley leaped for it at the same time. His fingers scrambled for the trigger just as Carter’s did. The shot seemed to boom in the silence. He spun around and stared at Riley for long seconds.

  “My family will be very disappointed,” he said just before dropping to the ground.

  Riley fell back as every ounce of adrenaline left his body. He looked through his one good eye at the woman standing about six feet from him. She held a handgun that was now pointed at the ground.

  “I do hope you were aiming at him and not me,” he said just before the darkness took him.

  “You are such a fool. I swear, Riley, if you die, I will never forgive you.”

  Riley felt as if he was wrapped in black cotton batting that was better than any bed, but the voice wouldn’t leave him alone. He heard words of love and prayers. A distant part of his brain told him it was time to open his eyes.

  The minute he did, he wished he hadn’t because that’s when the pain made itself known with a wallop.

  Jenna was curled up asleep in a hard chair, her head cradled on her crossed arms resting on the chair arm.

  “Hey, Smitty,” he croaked.

  Her eyes flew open, and she swiftly moved over to his bedside. “It’s about time you woke up, you faker,” she whispered.

  He looked past her at the chair. “Wouldn’t they let you curl up here with me?”

  Jenna gestured to the medical equipment and the many lines, most of them attached to him. “Not unless you wanted me to set off a variety of alarms.”

  He licked his lips, finding them dry and cracked. “How long have I been out?”

  “Three days. You have a concussion, a broken cheekbone, two broken ribs, a black eye and a variety of cuts and scrapes.” She picked up the hand that didn’t have an IV tube hooked into it and placed it against her cheek. “You sent me away because you knew he’d come, didn’t you?”

  He tried to laugh only to groan when pain shot through his chest. He reminded himself not to do that again.

  “Yeah, I knew.”

  “And what if he had killed you?”

  That was something he didn’t want to think about.

  “Dave knew what to do. Speaking of Dave, how did you get back there?”

  Jenna smiled. “After we landed, he escorted me to a hotel where he’d booked a suite. As soon as I could, I locked him in the extra room and took off. I found someone to take me across the lake. When I saw the boat at the dock, I knew you were in trouble and I snuck into the house first. Luckily I found a gun, and I
followed the sounds.” She shook her head, trying to erase the picture that had haunted her since that night. “If he had killed you, I wouldn’t want him to live.”

  “You wouldn’t have wanted his death on your conscience, love. Don’t worry. You slowed him down. I finished the job.” He tried to smile and found out that hurt, too. “You did fine, love. You did fine.”

  “Fine? You weren’t the one locked up.” Dave strolled in carrying a balloon bouquet. More than one sported a risqué saying. “What can I say? You know how twisted the office is.” He looked Riley over. “You look like a steamroller went over you a few times.”

  “Which is just the way I feel.” Riley tried to sit up and discovered that was another bad idea. “What about Carter?”

  Jenna and Dave exchanged looks.

  “Your bullet found its way into his black heart. A couple of marshals went out to talk to his family. They had wanted vengeance because they thought Leonard Randolph had always been innocent. After he escaped and killed a few more, they realized there was no hope for him, but they kept it quiet. Only the nephew wanted you dead. They figured all the bad publicity wouldn’t help the family holdings, so they were more than willing to write the guy off.”

  Riley looked at Jenna then gave Dave a pointed look.

  He threw up his hands. “I’m outta here.” He headed for the door. “So, you planning to return to us? Benedict would like nothing more than to have you back under his thumb for a while. You know, I never knew the man could cry until he toured his house. It was one pitiful sight, let me tell you. He kept muttering something about finding you the dirtiest duty he could.”

  “Tell him he won’t have to worry about seeing me in this lifetime,” Riley vowed. He turned back to Jenna. “I’ve got this shack on the beach,” he said slowly. “It’s not much and may take more than a little fixing up. But it’s got the best view for sunsets that need to be painted.”

  She looked pensive. “We still don’t know if I’ll be able to paint again,” she said.

  “I told you you’d never be able to play the violin. I never said you’d never be able to paint.” It took some painful effort, but he held his arms out to her. “It’s a great place for kids,” he said quietly.

  Jenna choked back a sob as she tried to hug him without hurting him further. She laughed and cried at the same time as Riley cursed at all the wires and IV lines trapping him in the bed.

  “I wasn’t pushing you away before,” he told her as she peppered his face with kisses. “I just wanted to make sure you were safe.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t you know it yet, Riley? As long as I’m with you, I’m always safe.”

  Epilogue

  One year later

  Riley knew he was fighting a losing battle with the surf.

  Every time he took his board out, he didn’t concentrate as he should and fell off. It shouldn’t be anything new to him. He’d been doing it since Jenna left the house that morning. She refused to let him go with her, and now he was trying to work off his frustration with the ocean. So far the ocean won.

  After a few hours of failure, he was tired, cranky and ready to quit. He walked up the beach with his board tucked under one arm. He stopped when he saw a figure standing above him. With the sun in his eyes, he couldn’t see more than a dark blur. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked up again.

  The figure was decidedly feminine wearing a short sundress that displayed a great pair of bare legs. A straw hat was perched on top of her head.

  “You used to be pretty good at that,” Jenna called out with a mocking lilt. “You must be getting old.”

  “Old? Hell, I’ll show you old,” he shot back. She stood there waiting for him as he climbed up the beach. He jammed the end of his surfboard into the sand and turned to face her. “You told me you were going grocery shopping.”

  She smiled at his gritty accusation. “And I did go grocery shopping.”

  “And?” He waited, his breath seeming like a solid lump in his chest.

  Jenna still smiled. “What would you think of asking Sasha to be our baby’s godfather?”

  Riley felt an impact that felt roughly like a rocket missile. He was positive he couldn’t breathe.

  Jenna kept on smiling. There was no doubt her big, bad husband was in a state of shock. She had no doubt that their child would wrap him around its tiny little hand.

  At that moment the shock loosened its hold on him and he started to laugh.

  “Yes! I’m going to be a father!” he shouted. He grabbed hold of Jenna and danced her in a circle. “Hey, world! I’m going to be a dad!”

  He stopped and kept hold of Jenna’s shoulders.

  “Everything’s okay?” he asked, now feeling a tiny niggle of fear. “When?”

  She nodded. “Everything is beautiful and in about six and a half months.”

  Riley kept shaking his head, still unable to believe everything was coming true.

  Then he started to laugh.

  “There is no way we’re telling our kid he or she was conceived the night you persuaded me to pose naked for you,” he told her.

  She smiled, remembering that afternoon with more than a little fondness.

  Riley felt as if he was flying. He picked Jenna up and draped her over his shoulder. He began walking up the beach ignoring her shrieks for him to put her down. He kept on walking until he reached the lanai and entered the house.

  The walls were covered with canvases of fairy-tale sunsets and volcanoes showering the earth with red-hot showers of lava. All bore Jenna’s initials in the lower left-hand corner.

  He kept on walking until they reached their bedroom.

  He set her on the bed and followed her down. Jenna gasped as Riley thrust into her. She was more than ready and rose up to meet him, wrapping her legs around his hips to keep him deep inside. When she felt the waves crash over her, she cried out his name and sensed him following her.

  They rested awhile, wrapped in each other’s arms and Jenna fell into a drowsy sleep. When she awoke and could dredge up enough energy to open her eyes, she glimpsed a flash of rainbow color moving around the room, bouncing off the walls. Her eyes widened when she noticed fluctuating waves of color against the large window.

  “Oh, Riley,” she breathed his name as she sat up. She reached out as if she could touch the rainbow sun catcher hanging at the window. “It’s beautiful.”

  He chuckled as he stood over her. He reached for a brown paper bag and held it in front of him.

  “You know what you can find at the end of a rainbow?” he asked.

  Her lips trembled with laughter. “A pot of gold?”

  “Exactly!” He reached into the bag and tossed gold-foil-wrapped chocolate coins across her naked body. “And you,” he said, reclining next to her, picking up the coins and allowing them to trickle down between his fingers, “are my end of the rainbow.”

  Jenna laughed with pure delight as Riley shook his head, sending water droplets everywhere. She reached up and pulled him down. His mouth trailed down her throat.

  “And now we both have our pot of gold.”

  Jenna was again a shivering mass of desire. But deep inside her soul she knew something special had happened between them.

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-6578-3

  A STRANGER IS WATCHING

  Copyright © 1998 by Words by Wisdom

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.

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