A whine started low and desperate in her gut. Judy angled her face to the right to avoid him, but he jerked her back until she was nose to nose again.
“Chunks,” he hissed, “so small that a man might think the roasted snacks on his kitchen counter were tasty before he realized what he had in his mouth. If he ever figured it out.”
No, no, no! This nightmare cannot be happening. Not to me!
Growling, he slid her body up until her feet lifted off the floor. She reached her fingernails toward his eyeballs, but he clenched his fist tighter around her neck the second she lifted her hands. Judy gasped. The room spun in a lazy circle. She’d lost. He’d won. And now she was going to die. She clenched his forearms and pushed with all her might.
“Let me assure you, Judy O’Brien,” he whispered. “Size really does matter.”
She sagged, not an ounce of strength left. Harley’s sweet handsome smile drifted through her mind. The kitchen phone rang in the distance. Holman turned toward it.
Suddenly, the door shuddered behind her. Her head banged against the wood. It burst open with force, pushing her nearly deadweight into Holman. He couldn’t get a good grip fast enough before her face hit his shoulder and then the floor.
“Judy!” Harley roared from somewhere very far away. “Who? Why you sonofa—!”
BLAM!
A cannon’s roar filled the entryway. She curled her body into the smallest possible size. The floor shook, but there was nowhere to hide.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Someone screamed and cried. Panic crawled up her spine. Holman was coming for her. He had a cleaver. Deafened, she ducked her head into her shoulders and covered her ears. The most horrible smell of blood and body fluids filled her nose. A strong hand pulled her off the floor. With her eyes squeezed tightly shut, she struggled to get away.
“Damn it, Judy. Stop screaming. I’ve got you now.”
She drew in a deep breath, fighting out of control hysteria. Harley wrapped his arms around her. “It’s me. I’m here. I’m home.”
“He... He…” The world stopped spinning, but words would not come. She clung to him as all out panic stormed through her.
“Shhhhh. You’re safe. It’s okay, Judy. I’m here now.” Lifting her in his arms, he carried her into the hall and shut the door behind them.
Terror would not let her go. Her heart pounded through every vein and artery. The images. The thoughts. She pressed her face into Harley’s shirt to block the nightmare.
“Settle down. You’re safe. God, you’re safe.” Warm moist lips brushed across her forehead even as he barked at her. “Damn it to hell, woman. Answer your damned phone next time I call, will you?”
“I, I, I b-broke it.”
They sank to the floor together. Nothing felt better than his arms and legs around her when he settled her into his lap. Nothing smelled better than his shirt. His sweat. She took a deep breath and let it fill her; so thankful he was there. Adrenaline burned through her in shuddering waves she couldn’t control.
“Good hell. That guy just would not drop. He kept coming at me with that cleaver. Did you see it? Who was he?”
She nodded, needing to explain, but not wanting to talk about that guy. Whatever Holman had ingested, he’d seemed to have had the strength of a dozen men. She knew the scenario from drug addicts she’d treated in the ER. The crap people chose to put into their bodies could turn them into the most lethal killing machines.
Harley was scared too. He trembled, but he compensated quickly by holding her tighter, and she needed him to do just that. His heart thudded as loudly as hers. Maybe louder. Certainly stronger. Judy calmed to the rhythmic beat of her man. Her world.
She lifted her eyes to look at him as her trembling fingertips skimmed the clean-shaven jaw she loved so well. “Harley?”
“Yes, darlin’,” he answered without a hint of hesitation.
“You know me?”
He rolled his eyes. “Hell yes. In every sense of the word, I know you, Judy O’Brien soon to be Judy Mortimer. Good gosh damn, woman, I’ve been trying to reach you all afternoon. You want to explain to me why you took time off? I got news for you. You are not moving back to Wisconsin.”
“But you know me.” She cupped his face between her hands. Her heart swelled with love. Her man had finally come home.
He smiled, his hand to the back of her head as he pulled her forehead to his. “Damned right I know you. I gave you that chocolate diamond in the middle of the airport in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I didn’t even have a change of clothes that day, just showed up. The only thing I had was that stone in my hand. Hell, I didn’t even know if you liked chocolate. All I wanted was you.” His lips caressed the center spot of her forehead with warmth and tenderness. “Do you remember that crazy day?”
“I do,” she said quietly, soaking in the love radiating from his entire body.
“I’ll tell you what else I know. You are the best damned RN in the Washington Central emergency room, maybe the whole world. Your father runs the hardware store in your hometown, and you have an older brother named Josh, only you call him Joshie. The day he got tore up by a chain saw was the day you decided to become Wonder Woman. You wish I’d drive something besides a Jeep, because... because....” He choked. “Because you love me, Judy. I know you do. You want me to stop driving fast so we can live to be one hundred together. And you weren’t wearing a stitch the morning I took that selfie of us off the Florida Keys. And another thing, you are totally smitten by my good looks. Always have been. Always will be. Now do you believe me?”
Tears got in the way. Harley’s mouth enveloped her lips in the sweetest crush of longing. It stole her breath and her heart all over again. How could a man pour so much love into one fervent kiss? He literally melted the last of her fear away.
Still holding her tight, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his cell. “Hang on a sec. I’ve got to call the police, and let ’em know what I’ve done before someone else does.” He quickly dialed 911. “I made enough noise to wake the dead.”
Judy listened while he gave the dispatcher his address and explained the circumstances. Just hearing his address roll confidently off his tongue instilled a greater calm. He also placed a quick call to Alex. There was a day that would have irked her, but no more. Alex was big brother, and that made Kelsey sister. Judy understood. She got it now.
“You’re what?” Harley asked his boss. “Where? Oh yeah? Why?”
Despite her harrowing experience, a small smile tugged at the corner of Judy’s lips. Alex was no doubt telling Harley where he was and why. Well good. She was ready to meet Sergeant Knicks now. The sooner the better.
When he finished the call, Harley pulled her to her feet and ushered her to the elevator. “Come on. We’ll wait in the lobby. Alex is on his way. So are the cops.”
Judy let Harley lead, but in leading, she remained in the crook of his arm with his long lean body ramrod straight beside hers. Snuggled against his ribs, she basked in the knowledge that of all the women in Harley Mortimer’s world, she was the most loved and the most rare.
A woman couldn’t ask for more.
Thirty-One
Damn, God was good. Zack wasn’t so bad either.
The sheer dumb luck of the afternoon amazed Harley. Thank God Zack hadn’t driven his Porsche to work. And an extra high-five to the man upstairs that Zack kept his .357 Magnum right where Harley would have, in a specially designed holster built into the driver’s door.
They’d already given their statements when the coroner’s van pulled to the curb, Alex right behind it. That big old black GMC nightmare he insisted on driving never looked so good.
“Did she make it okay?” Judy asked Alex the moment he stepped inside the apartment building lobby.
“Kelsey took her over to our place. Come over when you’re done here.”
“That might take awhile,” Harley said. He didn’t know what they were talking about. He had enough on his mind.
“Understood.” Alex nodded at the police officers. “Call if you need a lawyer.”
“No need.” One of the newly arrived detectives motioned to Harley. “You need to see this Mr. Mortimer.” But then he turned to Judy. “Please stay here with Mr. Stewart and the officers, ma’am. Your boyfriend will be right back.”
Harley accompanied the detective back up to his apartment where he was instructed to don paper booties before he entered. The smell of blood and gore struck his nostrils the moment the door swung open. Crime scene tags littered the kitchen counter and floor. Hell, they pretty much littered the whole place.
“Back this way.” The detective directed Harley down the hall and into his bathroom. Wordlessly, he nodded to the gray-tiled shower stall. Larger than the traditional glassed-in version, the stall was surrounded on three sides by solid walls to support a tiled-bench and the plumbing of several showerheads. The fourth wall was glass and chrome. Judy and Harley had spent plenty of quality time there. Never again.
“Holy shit.” Harley was instantly mad enough to put a couple more shots into Holman’s dead carcass.
Standing in the middle of the shower over the drain was a heavy-duty metal tripod. Judging by the hook and pulley system in place, Holman had meant every word of his threat. An array of ceramic butcher knives lay on the tiled-bench along with a roll of black plastic sheeting and a silver duct tape. Beneath the bench stood a jug of household bleach. A black rubber apron hung off one of the shower nozzles.
Harley’s heart thudded with what could have happened. “Holy shit,” he repeated.
“We’ve seen this MO before with mob killings,” the detective said somberly. “Maybe Agent Holman thought he was above the law. Maybe it was the drugs in his system. Who knows? His prints are all over the bathroom, the cleaver, too. Based on what you and Miss O’Brien told us, the chief’s called this case closed. You two are free to go.”
“We’re not coming back here. We’re moving.” Harley declared, not sure why he felt the need to share that instant decision with the detective.
“I would,” he replied, extending his hand. “You have my number. Call if you have any questions. We’re here to help.”
Returning the handshake, Harley nodded. “Understood.”
Shaken to his core, he strode out of his apartment with a new future taking shape in his mind. Judy would never re-enter this place, not even to pack. No way. His friends would help him move. Back downstairs, he pulled her into his arms as soon as he could. “From now on, the dead-bolt stays latched no matter what time of day it is.”
Her eyes widened at the no-nonsense tone to his voice.
“And we’re moving. You are not to re-enter that apartment to get anything, not even your toothbrush. Do you hear me?”
“You’re shaking.”
Hell yes, he was shaken to the core. He’d nearly lost his reason for living the same day he remembered it. All he could do was hang onto her for dear life. Finally, the thunder in his chest stilled. He drew her close and kissed her lips with an intensity he could not control. She was everything that made his pitiful life worth living. He shuddered as he broke the kiss, crushing her to his chest with the need to squeeze her back into his soul again.
“God, Judy,” he muttered into her neck. “I would die for you.”
She melted against him. “No, Harley. Live for me. Please. Let’s live for each other.”
He couldn’t speak. Judy did have a way with words.
“Let’s go you guys,” Alex said.
Harley looked up to piercing blue eyes. He’d forgotten all about his boss.
The ride to Alexandria was fast in Zack’s powerhouse of a car, but Harley was glad to leave it at the curb and get his hands on Judy again. She still wouldn’t tell him what Alex was talking about or why he’d been at the airport. Whatever surprise Alex and she had planned, the events of the afternoon had stolen their thunder.
With her fingers tucked into the waist of his pants, she leaned into him every step up the Stewarts’ front walk. He did not waste time knocking, just opened their door and ushered her into his home away from home.
“Judy!” Kelsey shrieked the moment she saw Judy. In two seconds flat, the women were hugging and crying all over each other, and Harley had to look out the window or lose his grip. Women. God, he loved ’em and especially these two. They’d both been through hell and still needed to comfort each other. What was not to love?
“Are you gals going to cry all day?” Alex teased from the kitchen doorway. “Come on. Let’s get this show on the road.”
Judy wiped her eyes. “I don’t know if I’m ready for this. I’m a mess.”
“You look fine.” Kelsey smoothed a hand over her tangled tresses and gave her a final squeeze. “You’re a survivor, sweetheart. Just like the rest of us.”
And that’s all it took to send the women into another crying, hugging spree. Harley caught the tender look in Alex’s eye at the feminine goings on. His love for Kelsey seemed to reach out and enfold her even though he stood feet away. The stuff of legends....
“Coming?” Harley asked, his hand outstretched to take Judy’s.
She pulled away from Kelsey with a tearful smile, and just like that, he couldn’t breathe. There she was, the woman of his heart. His goddess. His universe. The urge to take her by storm rolled over him. This visit had better be short. He had a woman to make mad passionate love with and no place to do it. Yet.
Alex beckoned everyone into the backyard. Judy grumbled to him in passing, “You still haven’t told me her first name.”
“You’ll see,” Alex replied with a funny smirk and a nod to get out. He walked to the gate when they were finally assembled on the patio. “I’ll be right back.”
The Stewarts’ backyard was as tidy as ever. Whisper and Smoke sat alert in their kennel as if they knew something was up. Kelsey had taken her place on a nearby lawn chair while Harley gathered Judy onto the porch swing to sit with him. “When you gonna tell me what’s going on?”
Just then, the back gate opened and—
It couldn’t be. No way. Harley choked.
“What’s going on?” Judy asked in alarm. “Are you okay?”
He dropped to his knees. Tears filled his sorry eyes. “My girl. My baby girl....” He couldn’t finish, his throat closed tight with emotion. “Nyx.”
“Knicks?” Judy asked, now totally bewildered. “Sergeant Knicks? Where? I don’t see—. Do you mean to tell me—? Alex!”
Harley patted his thighs, his heart literally stuck in his throat as he coaxed the wary animal toward him. “Come here, girl. Don’t you remember me?”
The black Labrador with a crooked white lightning bolt on her chest slunk to her belly and crept toward him inch by inch. Once her nose made contact with the tips of his fingers, she broke loose with a strangled whine and climbed onto his lap, licking his face and wiggling to get closer. Burying his nose in the wiry fur at her neck, he wrapped his arms around her and breathed in the second best smell in the world—his dog.
“Nyx,” he cried. “You’re here.”
The frantic beast lifted her muzzle and let forth a long happy howl mixed with excited barks that would not quit. Whisper and Smoke joined in until the Stewarts’ backyard sounded like a pack of wolves lived there—happy, howling wolves.
Harley coughed as bittersweet joy roared over of him. Holding Judy in his arms was nothing short of perfect, but now Nyx too? The best damned EOD dog in the entire US Army, and she was alive? He could not believe his blurry eyes. For a man who had nothing just this morning, it sure felt like he owned the world now.
“Sergeant Knicks is a dog?” Judy’s hands were on her hips and her very direct question aimed at Alex. “You let me believe I was meeting a female soldier these last two weeks? And she’s a dog?”
Alex shrugged, his face lit with mischief.
“You lied to me.”
“No, I didn’t. Unofficially, she’s an Army K-9 Sergeant.”
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She smacked Alex full force on his bicep. “I dressed up for a dog. You’re an ass. Damn you.”
“Ouch.” He chuckled as he staggered back a step in mock pain.
Kelsey hooked her arm through Alex’s. “He’s been just like a little boy at Christmas, dying for this day to get here.”
Harley knew he was witnessing a rare event. Alex was playing. He looked relaxed, and Judy, for all her pretended anger and the disaster she’d just survived, looked amazing. The woman seemed to glow from the inside out with an inner strength and peace. Yes, Kelsey was happy too, dabbing her teary brown eyes and smiling at the crazy antics, but Judy?
She was nothing short of breathtaking. The universe ceased breathing right along with Harley. There she stood with Alex pulling her into a hug, and Harley couldn’t love her more. She’d never given up on him even though he’d left her. She’d never stopped loving—him.
Tears filled his eyes. When a pink washcloth kind of a tongue swiped his cheek again, he wrangled his dog’s head into the crook of his arm and pointed at the only woman in the world. “You see that pretty lady up there, Nyx?”
Judy smiled from the one-armed hug of the man she’d just belted.
“That’s who we get to spend the rest of our lives with, girl. She’s our sun, Nyx. You and me are just dark little planets orbiting the most beautiful star in the universe.”
Pushing away from Alex, Judy knelt with Harley, her hand on his knee and the other making friends with Nyx.
“You found my dog.”
“Alex helped.” Judy cast another sharp look of irritation toward the underhanded and still grinning man in question. “She wasn’t there that day, Harley. You left her behind.”
“I remember now.” The day stormed over him again. Shit. Did it never stop hurting? But now he had a solid grip with one hand on Judy, the other on Nyx. Kent’s smiling face came back to him. Garth’s. Carlton’s. Even Raymond showed up for head count.
Harley (In the Company of Snipers Book 4) Page 27
