When She Wasn't Looking

by HelenKay Dimon

  “I’ll put out an APB and see if his office can tell me where he is,” Rich said.

  They had to find him another way. The man was close, so close Jonas felt as if he could smell him. “They’ll say he’s somewhere else. The guy came here to cover his tracks on a mass murder. No one knows he’s here. The evidence likely points to him being somewhere else.”

  Rich nodded. “So where do we find him?”

  “On my cell.” Cade stared at his phone as if he didn’t know how it landed in his hand. “It’s an address.”

  That nerve in Jonas’s cheek that warned him about danger started ticking. “Why would Kurt lead us to him?”

  “He’s leading me. He doesn’t know I’m with you.” Cade smiled.

  Satisfaction soared through Jonas. “And why would you be? He’d never count on a decade-long feud being in a cease-fire.”

  “Let’s see where he is so we can plan a strategy.” Rich took the phone. His mouth flattened as he glanced up at Jonas. “Can’t be.”

  “What?” Jonas asked.

  Rich turned the display around so Jonas could read it. “It’s Walt’s house.”

  “Isn’t that the guy who gave you the hospital video?” Cade clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Interesting.”

  Jonas wanted to strangle Cade and choke off that sound. “There’s no way.”

  Rich cleared his throat. “Jonas—”

  Icy fear spread through every inch of Jonas’s body. His chest tightened until it was hard to breathe. “He has Courtney.” Anxiety poured through him as he looked at Rich for help. “I gave her to him.”

  Cade took over. “Then we need to get her out.”

  “You have a plan?” Jonas asked.

  “Always. I go through the back—”

  Jonas’s brain rebooted. “No, you’ll go right through the front door.”

  * * *

  THE KNOCK CAME twenty minutes later.

  Kurt smiled as he motioned for Walt to get the door. “Showtime.”

  Courtney prayed she wasn’t wrong, that the look she saw on Cade’s face in that parking lot and again at the bookstore had been a dawning realization that they both wanted the same thing. If he still carried the same anger he brought with him to town, she was a dead woman.

  Kurt would kill Cade, too, but she didn’t stand a chance. She now knew too much. Her heart ached at the thought of not seeing Jonas again, but some peace came in knowing he wouldn’t be in the middle of this when it happened. He was safe back in Aberdeen.

  And Walt remained a wild card. She stared at his back, waiting for him to turn around and shoot Kurt, but it didn’t happen. He opened the door.

  Cade walked in.

  Alone.

  The last flicker of hope inside her blew out. He didn’t have Jonas behind him or backup ready to go. He’d actually answered Kurt’s call to come and get her.

  “Cade.” Kurt nodded for the younger man to take the seat next to her. “I promised you I’d lead you to her.”

  “I didn’t expect you to be here.” Cade’s face didn’t give anything away.

  She didn’t see his gun but she expected he had one on him. If he was like Jonas, he had more than one weapon within reaching distance. She just didn’t understand why Kurt didn’t disarm Cade.

  “I told you I wanted closure.” Kurt nodded. “This does it.”

  This was what she was now? “For you,” she spit out.

  “You never learn.” Hate roared out of Kurt when he talked. “Your mouth continues to get you in trouble.”

  She wondered why she never saw it before. Kurt looked at her and his eyes filled with venom. She spoke and he snarled. Either he’d controlled his reactions until now or she hadn’t noticed because she hadn’t wanted to see it. She’d been too focused on Tad Willis.

  Cade sat up straight with his hands steepled in front of him. “What’s the plan here?”

  “There’s only one way for her to stop pinning the blame on your father.” Kurt made a tsk-tsking sound. “You know, she demanded more information and the police gave it to her. It’s only a matter of time before she concocts a new story and your father’s memory is further diminished.”

  The tension exploded in her gut. She blurted out the first thing to pop into her head. “He’s going to kill you.”

  Immediately, Kurt turned his gun back on her again. “I told you once to shut up. Don’t make me tell you again.”

  Cade didn’t even blink as he looked at Walt. “What’s your role here?”

  Kurt answered for the older man. “I needed some local talent to make security tapes disappear and plant the seeds so Courtney knew she was about to be found out.”

  “Why give her the heads-up?” Cade asked.

  “The point was to flush her out and make her slip up.”

  She snorted. “When did that happen?”

  “My first guy messed up. I admit that,” Kurt said. “Who knew a small-town deputy would step in and cause so much trouble?”

  Cade nodded. “Jonas Porter.”

  Kurt threw his head back and laughed. “I may kill him just for fun.”

  Walt let out a battle cry and he launched his body at Kurt. Walt got halfway across the room before his body jerked back. He grabbed for his chest as blood spurted through his fingers.

  The gun in his hand fell to the carpet with a soft thud. A small O formed on his lips as he dropped to his knees.

  “Walt!” She tried to stand up but Cade pulled her back down.

  Glass shattered all around her. The windows blew in as a rush of cold air filled the room.

  Her brain struggled to make sense of what happened as Cade pushed her to the floor and folded his body over hers. He’d tucked her half under him and half under the coffee table. The weight shoved her into the carpet while his gun dug into her leg.

  She heard shouts and gunfire. She looked up in time to see Jonas run through the door to the kitchen and hit Kurt in the side. The men went flying, smashing into the brick fireplace before they rolled to the floor.

  Jonas got off one punch, then a second. Blood rushed from Kurt’s nose and he screamed for help. Jonas kept hitting until Rich grabbed him from behind.

  She could hear heavy breathing and crashing sounds as glass and drywall fell to the floor. Cade swore in her ear but didn’t move, no matter how hard she shoved and how loudly she yelled for him to let go.

  Rich’s voice broke into the chaos, ordering people to move here and there and calling for a medic. Shouts of “Officer down” filled the room. Sirens wailed around them, and uniformed officers poured in from every direction.

  One second she moved her head to keep her jaw from squishing into the carpet, the next the weight lifted off her back. A hand picked her off the floor and arms gathered her against a strong chest.

  Jonas. She recognized his scent and the hard planes of his body.

  “You came.” She whispered the words over and over against his chest.

  “I’ll always be here.” He kissed her forehead then her eyelids.

  “Walt?”

  She felt a tremor run under her hands. “The crew is working on him.”

  She buried her head in his neck. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Not your fault.” A breath shuddered in his chest. “My fault.”

  “This is not over.” Kurt issued his threat as Rich wrestled him into cuffs and forced him to stand up.

  Cade walked right up to the other man. “Yeah, it is. I wanted the person who ruined my father, and now I have him. You.”

  “Do you know who I am?” Disdain dripped from Kurt’s mouth and hung on his words.

  Courtney couldn’t look at him. The hatred she felt threatened to spill over and ruin everything.

  “I will ruin you, Jonas Porter.”

  Before she could say anything, Jonas moved. He grabbed Kurt around the neck. “You are nothing more than a killer and I will tell everyone—prosecutor, reporter, your kids—whoever will listen. You destroye
d a family for greed and now you will lose everything. I will make sure of it.”

  Kurt tried to weasel out of the hold. “You can’t do this.”

  Jonas nodded to Rich. “Get him out of here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jonas paced the floor of the hospital. Walt had been in surgery for hours. The doctors talked about internal injuries and loss of blood. A few minutes before, a nurse had come out and said everything was fine and that the surgeon would be out soon.

  Courtney still couldn’t process it all. So much destruction and uncertainty, all over money. The strain of being furious and sad at the same time sapped all of her reserves.

  But when Jonas sat down next to her and grabbed for her hand, the world righted again. Staring at their linked fingers on his lap, she wondered what was going on in his head.

  For her, the questions had been answered. She had the pieces from her past. Healing would come later. Now her life focused on her future. And she wanted Jonas in it.

  She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I think I could sleep for a week.”

  “Longer.”

  The idea of running off with him and enjoying the sunshine and the water brought a smile to her face. “Any chance you have vacation time coming?”

  He flinched at her words.

  She lifted her head. “What is it?”

  “I almost got you killed.”

  Here it was, the guilt she knew was pinging around inside him. Until they moved past this, until he dealt with his past and agreed to put it behind him, they were stuck treading water.

  “No, you saved me. Kurt tried to kill me. And more than once, which is something I still can’t believe.” The words tasted foul in her mouth.

  She’d grieved with him and his family, spent holidays at his house. The whole time he hated her and wanted her dead. She had no idea how to deal with that information. She could write him off as crazy, but he wasn’t. The answers were just not that simple.

  “Cade made sure you didn’t get injured while you were in that room.” Jonas had filled her in on the whole plan but repeated it now.

  Cade went in so the other men could get set. When he said Jonas’s full name, that was the signal to start moving. Falling on her was Cade’s way of protecting her when everything went nuts.

  “I didn’t know what side he was on when he walked into that room. But I knew Walt’s pretending not to know that you and Cade were working together was a good sign.”

  “I’m not sure what to say about the Walt piece.” Jonas rubbed his chest with his free hand. “But Cade insisted on being there and protecting you. I think it was his penance.”

  “He didn’t have to do it, but I sure appreciate it. Before he leaves town I have to figure out a way to apologize for what I did to his father.”

  “His father made his own choice. That wasn’t your fault.”

  “Think Cade will see it that way?”

  “I think he will now.” Jonas lifted their hands to his mouth and kissed her wrist. “We all owe you.”

  “For what?”

  “I made you go with Walt—”

  It was all too much. She pulled her hand away and stood up. “Stop.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not doing this.”

  Jonas frowned, which was all that he’d done since he watched the workers load Walt into the ambulance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  She’d lived so many days in the dark. Now she wanted to walk in the light. She wanted to be healthy and have a future. She wanted all of that with Jonas, but he had to meet her partway.

  “I know it’s ridiculous and I don’t understand it myself, but I love you.” There, she’d said it. The words came out and she had no regrets either for what she felt or for saying them.

  “Courtney—”

  “But I’m done living with what could have been. It’s time to restore what I can and move on from the rest. I need to forgive myself for being the survivor.” She choked back a sob that rushed up on her and threatened to overtake her voice. “And you need to let yourself off the hook for all the horrors of the world.”

  She waved him off when he reached for her. If he touched her, her resolve would crumble. She had to say it all first. “You didn’t kill Henry. You didn’t make Walt turn or take Kurt’s money offer. You didn’t hurt me.”

  Jonas’s head dropped. “It’s not that simple.”

  “Yeah, it actually is.” She picked her purse off the floor.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Home. Come and get me when you’re ready to move on.” She took the hardest steps of her life. The ones that took her away from him.

  * * *

  TWO HOURS LATER Jonas slammed his car door and headed for his front steps. He’d been all over the county. He waited at Courtney’s house. Actually broke her back window to get in when no one answered. He’d called Ellie and even checked in with Cade to see if he knew—

  “About time you got here. I was beginning to think you were going to be thick about this.” Courtney’s voice floated down to him from above.

  Jonas looked up, convinced he was dreaming.

  She was on his porch. Sitting on the big lawn chair shivering as the wind whipped across the porch.

  She pointed at the door. “I’m going to need a key.”

  “Done.” He’d give her the deed to the place if she wanted it.

  She smiled and laid her head against the back of the chair. “That was easy.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Ellie said you were looking for me.”

  “Where were you?”

  “Here the whole time.” Courtney exhaled, giving him her best you-are-so-clueless look. “Technically I know this is your home, but I think of it as mine now.”

  The words erased the anxiety that had been humming through him since she walked out. “I can live with that.”

  “It’s comfortable. You’re comfortable.”

  “Never thought I’d be so happy to have a woman call me that.” He jogged up the steps.

  Crossing the threshold to the porch was like breaking through a barrier. Once he got close to her, he saw the shy mix of a smile and wariness on her face. She actually thought he might push her away.

  Not going to happen.

  “How’s Walt?” she asked.

  Jonas wasn’t ready to talk about that topic. Not yet. But he knew with her help the pain would ease. Everything else pulsed and grew brighter around her. It was only right that the hurt would dim.

  “He’ll pull through. Rich is getting his statement. Cade is answering questions from his superiors, but I don’t care about any of that.”

  “What do you care about?”

  He lifted her out of the chair and sat back down with her curled on his lap. “You.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Good answer.”

  “I want what you want.”

  Her fingers slipped into his hair. “What is that?”

  He put a hand on her legs to keep her from squirming. Much more of that and he wouldn’t say what he needed to say. “A real life.”

  “With me.”

  “Yeah, since I love you, it makes sense it would be with you.”

  Her mouth dropped open and her eyes filled with tears. “Love?”

  “I’m pretty sure I started falling when you ran from me and climbed over that fence.”

  “That was pretty sexy, huh?”

  “The combination of strong and smart and beautiful felled me.” From the beginning he didn’t have any shield against her. She rushed through life and around his rules, and he found her irresistible.

  “What happens now?”

  He brushed his lips over her mouth and marveled at how quickly the heat built between them. “First, we go upstairs and spend a little time in our bed.”

  “It’s a good mattress.”

  He put his hand over hers to stop her from unbuttoning his shirt to his waist. Though
it was tempting to sit out there naked, the good people of Aberdeen needed a better example from the deputy police chief. There would be enough problems with whispering thanks to Walt’s poor decisions.

  “After the bed, which I’m thinking will take four or five days, we’ll talk about the big things.” He nibbled on her neck.

  Her head tilted to the side to give him more room. “Like?”

  “Living arrangements, our future, marriage and possibly expanding the family.”

  She stared at him, her big eyes wet. “Family.”

  He put her hand over his heart and made the most important vow he’d ever said. “I can’t replace them, but I can be your new family.”

  Her tears fell then. “My parents would have loved you.”

  He kissed the wetness away. “And I love you.”

  She stood up and held a hand out to him. “Let’s go upstairs and start that new life.”

  And they did.

  * * * * *

  ISBN: 9781459227644

  Copyright © 2012 by HelenKay Dimon

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  www.Harlequin.com