Dying to Tell (47 page)

Just as she had so many times, though, she sensed that someone was watching her.

No...she was paranoid. Arthur Blackwood might have been watching her for years, but he was in jail now. Thank God.

She and Amelia were both safe.

Still, old habits die hard, and she kept her eyes peeled for anyone suspicious as she jogged up the sidewalk to her apartment and let herself in.

The air felt thick as she entered, and she glanced around, disturbed by the faint scent of a man’s aftershave permeating the air.

Was she imagining it, or had someone been in her apartment?

Grabbing her pepper spray from her purse, she scanned the living room, but she didn’t see anyone. Then the whisper of a sound echoed from her bedroom.

Pulse racing, she inched toward it, angling the pepper spray in case she needed it. Darkness bathed the room, and just as she reached for the light switch, a shadow moved. Then someone grabbed her.

She tried to scream, to pelt him with the pepper spray, but he knocked the canister from her hand and threw her into a chokehold.

Jake was sweating. He had nearly changed his mind at the airport, then on the cab ride over.

But he’d spotted Sadie walking. As he watched her staring out at Alcatraz, he thought of Amelia’s disturbing painting of the two little girls, locked up in the darkness.

Had Sadie felt imprisoned by her own dark memories?

Even now, he’d seen the sadness in her eyes. The haunting loneliness that emanated from her wrenched his heart.

Because he loved her.

But he had let her go; he hadn’t told her. He’d allowed his pride, guilt, and shame over his father’s actions to stand between him.

It didn’t have to be that way, did it?

Could she forgive him for the anguish his father had caused her?

Dammit, he had to try. He couldn’t leave without telling her how he felt.

Even if she told him to go away.

As he raised his fist to knock on her door, though, he froze; he heard a noise inside. One hand automatically went for his gun, but he’d left it at home because of the hassle of dealing with airline security.

Something crashed to the floor, then Sadie’s scream punctured the air.

His heart thundered. Gun or not, he tried the door. It was locked, so he slammed his weight into it and busted it open. The entryway was pitch dark. As he paused to get his bearings, another scream echoed from a back room.

He raced toward the sound. Through a door, he saw Sadie struggling with a man.

The bastard had pinned her to the bed. The shiny glint of a knife blade shimmered in the moonlight streaming through the window.

Jake lunged toward the man and dragged him off Sadie. The man twisted and tried to stab Jake, but he knocked the knife from his hand with a karate chop, and it skittered across the floor. Then he saw the tattoo on his arm. He fit the description Mazie had given them.

“Foley?”

But Foley didn’t answer. He swung his fist at Jake.

Then Jake punched him in the face, pinning him with his legs. The asshole tried to buck him off, but rage that Foley’d tried to kill Sadie filled Jake with adrenaline, and he punched him again.

“Why come after her?” Jake asked. “My father’s been arrested.”

“I had my orders,” Foley hissed. “And no one called off the hit.”

Jake frowned. Had Foley been one of the subjects, or did he work for the CIA?

Then Foley tried to shove him backward, and Jake’s rage exploded. He punched Foley so hard that this time the man’s eyes rolled back in his head.

Jake would have to wait till he regained consciousness for the answers, but for now, he had to get to Sadie.

She was struggling to get up, her ragged breathing choppy as he flipped her attacker over, removed the handcuffs from inside his jacket, and slapped them around the man’s wrists. Jake checked to make sure he was unconscious and had no other weapon on him, then rushed to Sadie.

Sadie heaved for air as Jake dragged her into his arms. She couldn’t believe that he was here, that he’d saved her again.

That that man had tried to kill her.

Jake stroked her back, then kissed her hair. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. Who is that?”

“The man who pushed Grace down the stairs.”

“So he was helping with the cover-up?”

“Looks that way.”

She clung to his arms. “What are you doing here?”

Jake rubbed slow circles around her back. “I came to see you.”

Sadie relaxed against him. She had missed him so much, had wanted him with her so badly.

But she hadn’t allowed herself to dream...

She realized then that Jake was trembling, and lifted her head to look up at him.

“Is your father out of jail?”

Jake’s jaw hardened, his eyes slashes of black coal in his chiseled face. “No, he’ll never be free again.” He glanced at the
unconscious man on the floor. “Foley is going away for a long time too.”

Sadie gazed into Jake’s tormented eyes, and all the love she’d had for him for so many years filled her. “I’m so sorry, Jake. I...know that he hurt you, that I did—”

“Shh,” he whispered. “None of that matters. All that matters is that I love you.”

Sadie’s breath caught. “I love you too, Jake.” Sadie cradled his face in her hands. “I always have, and I always will.”

Jake’s heart raced as Sadie fell into his arms. He closed his mouth over hers, then kissed her with all the love he had denied himself for so long.

Finally they broke apart, and he called the local police. Ten minutes later, they arrived, and Jake explained the situation, then watched as the police dragged Foley up and carted him off.

Nick was going to work this case, and Jake would help him. He also wouldn’t leave Sadie alone again. Not until everyone associated with that damn project was behind bars.

Or dead.

Preferably the latter.

“Sadie,” he said as he took her hands in his. “I don’t want us to be apart anymore.”

Emotions softened her eyes as she smiled. “I don’t want that either.”

“Come back to Slaughter Creek—or I’ll move out here, if it’s too hard for you back there.”

“No, I’ll come home. I want to be nearer Amelia too.” A question tinged her eyes. “But what about your daughter?”

Jake’s heart swelled as he thought about having the two people he loved most in his house together. “She’ll love you just as I do.”

Then he removed the flint necklace from his pocket and held it out to her. “I know this is crude, that it’s not a ring, but—”

“I loved it then, and I love it now,” Sadie whispered.

He tied it around her neck, where it belonged, then stripped her clothes and made love to her all through the night.

Jake woke early in the morning to find Sadie at her easel. She had painted over Alcatraz with a beautiful landscape of the mountains and wildflowers, and the two of them together. His sweet, beautiful little girl Ayla was walking between them, holding both their hands.

They were finally going to be together. Just as the flint had weathered storms and abuse over the years, so had their love.

That love was only stronger now; it would bind them together forever.

Sadie turned to him with a smile as she laid the paintbrush on the easel. She looked happy, at peace now, and so beautiful he had to have her again. He would never get enough.

He cradled her face between his hands and kissed her. Then her tongue flicked out to tease him, and heat flared between them. A heat so strong and intense that he slipped off her robe and made love to her again, with the sunlight pouring through the window and the colors of the flint necklace twinkling in the light.

I
want to thank my agent, Jenny Bent, for believing in this project, and my fabulous editor Lindsay Guzzardo for liking my
dark
, creepy voice!

Also special thanks to my editor Charlotte Herscher, who pushed me to make this book the best it could be, and Miranda Ottowell for catching the little stuff.

For questions and technical details, a special thank you goes to my sister, Reba Bales, a licensed counselor in a psychiatric hospital, who gave me invaluable insight into the mind of the mentally ill.

And to my new friend and fabulous writer Kendra Elliot, author of the Bone Secrets series, who also answered questions regarding forensics!