Fully Engaged Page 16

  The bottom dropped out of his gut, his whole world sinking, sliding out from under him faster than the ground had given way beneath his feet the day his legs had gone to hell.

  He knew. Nola’s stalker had made his move after all. He had outthought them in a way they should have foreseen. Rick never should have let Lauren fly alone. Damn it. Why hadn’t the attendants stayed with her as they were supposed to? He’d paid the extra fee to have her watched over and hand escorted to her next flight.

  All a moot point now.

  “We’ll find her,” he insisted to Lindsay, even as he feared all sorts of nightmares.

  Nola’s eyes met his while he continued to talk, her hand closing over his with comfort.

  “She could be anywhere.” Lindsay’s thoughts echoed his own, the first time they’d agreed on anything in years.

  “I realize that. But is there anything else you can tell me?”

  “No,” she wailed. “The police are investigating. The cops here will be contacting the authorities there and I didn’t want you to be surprised by that visit.”

  “Thank you.” And please, Lord, they still wouldn’t have a visit from cops with far worse news. He refused to accept that could happen.

  Nola swayed on her feet. Rick reached for her but she collapsed into a chair. Already he could see the guilt building to irrational proportions in her eyes.

  “Lindsay, is Ben with you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Okay. Hang tough and I’ll let you know if we hear anything.”

  “Us, too.”

  They disconnected. He met Nola’s gaze and held, injecting as much steadiness as he could under the circumstances. “It’s not your fault.”

  “We don’t have time to waste discussing this. Let’s get the search moving.”

  Odd how she knew as well as he did Lauren wouldn’t be in Atlanta long. The bastard who had been stalking Nola would bring Lauren back here to taunt them.

  He reached for his cell phone again to recall Bronco, Crusty and Mako from their posts in the woods and up the road.

  Within seconds they were in Nola’s living room, too, pacing, while Rick hung up from calling the police. He dropped into a chair, his brain racing.

  Crusty plowed his hand through his mess of hair. “I’ll head over to check in with the OSI. We’ve already got things rolling with David Reis so here’s a good place to start. He got a lead on the Internet crimes and traced the server to a local hotel. We’ll see if there’s more to follow up on that.”

  Bronco’s eyes lit with a parental concern, obviously a father himself. “Mako and I will make an end run to the airport. It’s a long shot that we can catch him there, but you never know.”

  Rick clenched his cell phone. “We’ll stay here and wait for the police. I don’t want to leave in case she shows up here again. Let’s hope she’s just run off.”

  As her squadron comrades drove out onto the street, Nola slid her arm around Rick’s waist in comfort. She sat on the arm of the chair beside him. “I am so sorry. I can only imagine what kind of hell you’re going through right now.”

  Hell didn’t even come close to describing this. Hoping at best Lauren was alone on the run. Fearing at the worst she was in the hands of a maniac who blew up cars and planted scorpions. He lost track of how long they sat there letting everything sink in, but they both needed a moment to gather their thoughts before…doing what?

  “Rick! The window.” She nudged him. “Your gun. Get your gun.”

  He looked up from the rug and saw…hell come to life in front of his eyes. An older man stood in the middle of her front yard, framed by the curtains—

  Holding a gun to Lauren’s head.

  Chapter 16

  Nola blinked, hard. And still the unbelievable nightmare stayed in front of her eyes.

  The man outside the window was supposed to be long dead, smothered in a collapsed tunnel in South America. But her vision didn’t lie. Ramon Chavez, the drug lord who’d taken her hostage a year ago, had somehow survived and now had a gun to Lauren’s head.

  The teen appeared dazed, as if she’d been drugged with a mild sedative. Apparently the bastard wasn’t underestimating women this time. Suddenly the scorpion sting made sense, too. He’d taken time to import the deadly critters from his part of the world, a message she hadn’t understood, damn it.

  Guilt sliced deeper than any poisonous sting. How could she have brought this hell to Rick’s daughter? Every tear streak down the girl’s face made Nola’s heart squeeze tighter. And a coat. The child needed a coat to cover her in those little tank tops she favored.

  What a silly thought as the teen shivered in fear with a gun pressed to her head, but the maternal instinct flowered to life so fiercely, it was all Nola could do to keep from launching across the lawn to rip out Chavez’s throat.

  Nola couldn’t imagine why in hell the man would come here for her, but then he hadn’t been sane in those days she’d spent with him before. Time for musing would come later. Only Lauren counted now.

  “Rick,” she whispered under her breath, trying not to move her mouth in case it upset the man outside. Slowly, she moved toward the door with him. “His name is Ramon Chavez. It’s the South American drug lord who held me captive a year ago. We all thought he died. He’s wily and he’s strong. Don’t underestimate him because of his age.”

  “Got it.” Rick tucked his weapon out of sight in the small of his back. “We can’t go out with it showing. He’ll only make me throw it down.”

  Somewhere in his fifties, the man looked as if he stayed in shape. She’d fought hard to escape Ramon Chavez, a narrow thing a year ago when she’d been in top condition, and now she could barely walk after the scorpion sting. Rick had an amazing amount of upper body strength, but one swipe to his legs…

  She couldn’t afford these negative thoughts.

  Her hand closed over the doorknob.

  Rick’s hand rested on her waist. “Stay on the other side of me, away from him. I can’t worry about you and Lauren. I love you.”

  He opened the door.

  Good God. He dropped the “love bomb” like that and expected her to keep her cool? Nola scrambled for her scattered wits and—what do you know?—Rick used her hesitation to put himself between her and the gunman.

  Rick braced a hand on the porch post.

  Nola pulled up alongside him. “So you’ve finally decided to show your face.”

  “I decided the time had come.” He caressed the gun along Lauren’s forehead in a sadistic show of force. “My timing. My control. You may have gotten the better of me once, but I will be the victor this time.”

  Nola sifted through his words and could hardly believe how the pieces fit together. The man had come after her because of a wounded ego?

  She stepped onto the porch, staying behind Rick, not because she felt she needed his shielding but because she didn’t want him distracted with worry. “How did you survive the tunnel collapse?”

  “I am a strong man, stronger than anyone gave me credit for.” He hitched his arm harder against the terrified teen’s gut. “I clawed my way to freedom. Revenge can give you more strength than you could imagine.”

  She hoped he was right because the need for a slice of vengeance for herself gnawed deep.

  At the show of force against Lauren, a vein popped along Rick’s temple. “How did you get to my daughter?”

  Chavez tut-tutted. “You two are so predictable. I knew you would send the child away. I am an Internet genius. When you booked her flight, I booked my own on her flight. It was no problem to overtake her in Atlanta when she went to the restroom on her own. I simply waylaid Lauren and told her that her father had been in an accident. Your daughter is truly too trusting.”

  Nola rested her hand on Rick’s back in reassurance.

  “I do not want to hurt this pretty young child. She has done nothing to me, but you know as well as I that there are casualties in war. It is up to you as to whether she w
ill be one of them. Will you come quietly with me now? Or will you make this a fight?”

  Their first order of business had to be securing the safety of Rick’s daughter. Nola knew that. She had beaten this man once before, she could do it again. She refused to think about what the scorpion’s poison had done to her system. Of course that would have been the man’s plan, to weaken her this time. Now it all made sense.

  She came level, shoulder to shoulder with Rick, then moved down to the first step.

  “I love you, too,” she whispered as she passed, and ohmigod what a time to make this realization.

  They should have had more time… She had to think positively. Put one foot in front of the other.

  Chavez eased his hold on the girl. Nola wondered if she could trust his word. What if he took them both hostage? But this man had always entertained a twisted sense of frontier justice. Somehow she believed he would let Lauren go. He meant what he said about his vendetta being with her alone. His reasons for killing her were bizarre to say the least, but his obsession was with her alone.

  She also knew Rick’s code of honor was unbending. He would not leave with her still held hostage. He would die first. Without question.

  Her feet faltered. How could she guarantee both the father’s and daughter’s safety? She couldn’t.

  Her heart squeezed.

  Lauren walked past her, tears streaking mascara down the young girl’s no-longer-jaded-face. Their hands brushed. Then Lauren ran for her father.

  Nola closed the last few steps between herself and the man who’d held her hostage a year ago. Helplessness threatened to swallow her. Her worst fears came to life again. Battling free of him before had been so liberating. Why did she have to go through this again?

  She couldn’t let the negativity show through or it would distract Rick.

  Chavez gripped her upper arm, his fingers a steely, unforgiving band. “You won’t get away this time.” He jabbed the gun deeper into her waist. “Major DeMassi, I’m sure you have a gun tucked somewhere. Toss it aside. Now please, or I will start shooting.”

  Nola watched Rick calculating until finally, he reached behind him and took the weapon from the small of his back and placed it on the porch banister, carefully. She made note of it, hoping one of them could use it later.

  Soon, hopefully. She shivered against the stench of Chavez’s breath and the sheer evil and hatred radiating from him. She wanted to fight him again. She assessed the strength of his hold on her. He obviously still worked out. He’d been strong before—and seemed more so now. Getting away from him before had been a near thing with her at full speed. She had to be honest with herself. The scorpion sting had drained her. Even now, lethargy stole over her.

  Could Rick hold his own against the man? Would his legs support him? She saw the determination in his eyes as he wordlessly shoved Lauren behind him. She saw the implicit instruction there. He had a plan. He wanted her to see to Lauren and he would take care of Chavez.

  Then it hit her. Rick trusted her with his child. Something fluttered to life inside her that she hadn’t even realized was dead. Her ex-husband had refused so many times to have children with her, only to start a family right away with his new wife. That had hurt in a way she’d never fully acknowledged. And now Rick trusted her with his child.

  A small moment. A big step. One she would savor later, because yes, she intended to have a later with this man and his child, and her own second chance at life.

  Nola looked him in the eyes and let him read her implicit message, her joining in his plan. The communication flowed freely between them in a way she’d never felt with her ex-husband. She hadn’t even known what she was missing.

  Chavez yanked her arm. “We’re going to leave now. I am a man of honor and I meant what I said about only wanting Nola.” He nodded to Rick. “However, if I were you, I wouldn’t try starting that car of yours anytime soon.”

  Time to put this plan into action. She let her eyelids grow heavy, her body sag ever so increasingly in Chavez’s grip.

  “Stop that!” he ordered.

  “What? Huh?” She shook herself a little as if trying to shore herself up, then drooped again.

  “Damn it, woman.”

  Rick frowned, taking a step forward. “It must be the scorpion bite you inflicted on her. You wanted her weakened. You did this to her.”

  “No closer,” Chavez warned. “She and I are going to leave now.”

  Like hell.

  Her eyes snapped open and made direct contact with Rick’s.

  Now! her unspoken message shouted.

  Rick shoved Lauren to the right as Nola chopped Chavez’s gun hand down. The gunshot split the air, sending rock and dirt flying as Rick launched forward. Chavez’s weapon skittered away and into the water.

  Nola dropped and rolled out of the way, toward Lauren. She covered the child’s body with hers. Watching. Praying.

  Rick and Chavez exchanged punches and ohmigod, the older man seemed to be gaining ground. Blood poured from a cut above Rick’s eye. Another punch landed in his gut. Grunting, Rick stumbled backward a good five steps…

  Backward?

  Toward the watery drop-off.

  Realization dawned. Rick wasn’t losing the fight at all. He was taking it to his playing field where he knew he stood better odds of winning. Two more punches put Rick’s heels on the edge of the water while Lauren screamed in fear as she tried to run for her father. Nola pinned the hysterical teen to the ground even as she, too, longed to run and offer help.

  In a flash, his fist shot out and gripped Chavez’s shirt and they both went over backward. The splash swallowed both men, the water deep from the recent swell of rain.

  She held her breath as if in sympathy. The murky waters churned with action. Bubbles roiled with no signs of a victor or loser. What if she was wrong and Rick couldn’t pull this off? His injuries had been extensive. How long could they stay under? How long had passed? The cooler temperatures would play havoc with their bodies.

  Lauren whimpered under her.

  Nola sat up and hugged her close. “It’s okay, sweetie, your daddy’s an expert at this. He’s trained for these kinds of waters. This is exactly where he wanted the fight to be.”

  “He’s a hero.”

  “Absolutely.”

  A hero. But also a man who had entrusted his child to her. Keeping a hand firmly locked around Lauren’s wrist, Nola jerked her up to run to the porch and retrieve Rick’s gun, because as much as she prayed that he would come out of those waters alive, she knew that life wasn’t fair and predictable. She’d made him a promise to keep his daughter safe.

  Nola pulled her cell phone from her pocket and passed it to Lauren. “Call the police again and update them.”

  Then she wrapped an arm around the teen’s shoulder and gripped the gun in her other hand. Waiting for the man she loved. The power of it didn’t come over her in some gentle breeze or pretty flowering. It smashed her over the head then squeezed tight, a strong emotion as big and powerful as the man who’d brought it.

  In a gush upward, Rick exploded from the water, alive. Thank God, alive.

  Vital.

  Hers.

  Emotions swirled inside her, bubbling higher and higher until tears flowed down her face and the gun shook in her hand. His angular features wet, his hair streaming and jet-black. In his fist, he held the limp body of her captor.

  “Unconscious, not dead,” Rick gasped, then grinned. “God, you look hot holding that gun, all fired up and protecting my kid. Wanna get hitched?”

  Choking back the tears of relief, Nola launched forward with Lauren while Rick tossed the unconscious Chavez onto the bank. Rick took the gun from her shaking hand and trained it on the bastard sprawled on the sandy shore, gathering up Nola and Lauren with his other arm.

  Nola let the tears of relief flow and hugged Rick back, Lauren, too, this unexpected child who had come into her life. A stepdaughter. Wow. Mind-blowing. Exciting.


  Sirens whined in the distance, but Nola barely noticed with her cheek pressed to Rick’s wet chest, his heart thudding in her ear. A heart she would listen to for the rest of her life.

  Leaning against a tree by the marsh, Rick wondered at the hitch in his throat that lingered long after the cops had cleared out with Chavez in handcuffs. Lauren and Nola were inside cleaning up.

  He’d already called Lindsay and told her he would send Lauren home tomorrow. His ex-wife had gone a little hysterical after hearing what happened, but her husband-to-be had taken the phone and offered an awkward thank-you. Something that meant a lot coming from the guy who would be spending so much time with Lauren over the next few years.

  Rick figured he would use the time-out near the water to gather his thoughts. The water had served him well in the end, always his friend. Always home.

  Except that wasn’t quite true anymore. He’d found a new home.

  With Nola.

  “Dad?”

  He pivoted to find Lauren waiting at the bottom porch step, her long hair wet from her shower. She wore her standard sleep pants and a raggedy T-shirt… Wait. Wasn’t that…? It was. An old T-shirt of his from an air show they’d attended together.

  And she still wore it.

  He had two choices right now. He could stand here and feel guilty. Or he could move forward on his battered legs and fix things with his daughter.

  Rick took a step, not bothering to grab for a tree to hide the limp. He just let it show, the reality of his injuries, and walked to his daughter. He also looked into her eyes with the new way of seeing that he’d learned from Nola and saw…

  The same hero worship he’d found when he’d swept her up at five years old. It had been there all along.

  He held open his arms.

  Lauren ran into them without hesitation and sobbed against his chest. “I’m sorry, Daddy, I’m so sorry.”

  “I know, kiddo, I know.”

  “I didn’t mean to make things worse here, I just wanted to see you, I just…” She babbled on and on and he let her, stroking her hair the way he had when she was little and scraped her knee.