Finding Peace (Love's Compass #1) (13 page)

Without taking his eyes off the book, Gideon walked past her and into the hall.

“Alright! Come on, big guy.” Laurie winked at Serenity. “Come on, mama.”

She watched as Serenity sat in the rocking chair and patted her lap. Gideon immediately complied, curling up on her lap and leaning into the crook of his mother’s arm, as she began to read the story.

They looked peaceful and perfect. Moving to get different angles and different distances, she took at least two dozen photos. She moved to go to the kitchen to let mother and son finish their book in peace when she saw everyone was standing in the doorway, watching.

“I’m officially impressed,” Patty said, pulling Laurie into a hug. “That you got Serenity to agree to be in a photo with Gideon is amazing. She will treasure this picture forever.”

“I told you she had mad skills, Mom,” Tuck said, throwing a wink in Laurie’s direction. He took a big bite out of a cookie. “Though you may have missed your true calling as a baker with these cookies.” He held the partially eaten treat out and for emphasis and popped the rest of it into his mouth with a flourish.

Ducking her head, Laurie chuckled. “I’m glad you like them.” Laurie motioned to the living room. “I’m happy to do this for them.” She went to the back door and looked outside. There was no snow yet and there was only a slight breeze. Even though she could tell it was cold, she thought the weather conditions were about as good as they could be given the time of year. And with the amount of grass in the backyard – even if it was dead – there wasn’t as much mud to contend with as there could be. “Do you have anything to eat that Gideon loves? A little treat or something like that?”

Grams went to the cupboard and pulled out a box of animal cookies.

Laurie remembered Lexi telling her that the boy was addicted to them. “Perfect!” She jerked a thumb towards the door. “I want to get a couple pictures outside quick but I know it’s cold. I was thinking we could send him outside to swing for a few minutes, get a few shots, and then tell him there were animal cookies inside to have him come back in before he gets too cold. Do you think that will work?”

“Oh yes, he’ll do almost anything for one.” Tuck’s eyes twinkled. “And I do mean anything.”

Laurie chuckled as Serenity and Gideon entered the kitchen. “How about a quick swing outside? Does that sound good?” She didn’t think he was going to agree, but then he pulled the door open and dashed outside, Rogue following on his heels. “That’s my queue!” She stopped in front of the swings, adjusted her settings, and managed to catch a couple of photos of the boy draping himself over the swing and using his feet to push himself up and fall back down again. Several pictures later, he started to look cold. She suggested the cookies. He didn’t hesitate to head back inside.

Rogue, however, was in less of a hurry. He was lounging on the brown grass, a stick between his paws. Completely unaware of the cold weather, he gnawed on the stick, content. Unable to help herself, Laurie lowered herself to the ground. Adjusting the settings on her camera for a shallow depth of field, she took several pictures of Rogue, including one where the dog was staring off to the side. Smiling, Laurie stood and headed back inside.

For the last set of pictures, Laurie focused on Gideon as he ate his cookies, lining the animals up like they were marching in a circus. Satisfied, she turned her camera off, replaced the lens cap, and leaned back in the chair. The whole process had taken an hour and a half and had gone much smoother than she had planned for. She caught Tuck’s nod and smile and felt the warmth radiate with his approval.

“I can’t wait to see the pictures,” Serenity said quietly. “Thank you. You are patient and considerate. Not at all what I expected when Tuck suggested a photographer.” The moisture in her eyes was unmistakable.

“It’s truly my pleasure,” Laurie said. “Photo shoots like this are the highlights of my job. All kids are great. But when a child like Gideon gives me a smile, there is something genuine about that because it’s not something he does for anyone. It has been a privilege to be a part of this today.” Serenity wiped tears from her cheeks and Laurie stood, giving the woman a hug. “You have an amazing son,” she whispered. “And he has an amazing mom. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.” Serenity nodded into her shoulder and hugged her back.

Tuck watched his little sister and Laurie exchange a hug and stared in wonder. Wow, God sure knew how to work miracles.
He had been worried about Serenity for a while now, and seeing her let go a little like this was a good thing. That Laurie was a part of it awed him even more. He prayed that God would let His will be done in the relationship between him and Laurie. Because, heaven knew, he was already crazy about her.

The ladies stepped back and then Patty and Grams went in to hug Serenity. Wiping her hands on her slacks, Laurie moved to give them room.

Placing a hand on each of her shoulders, Tuck leaned down to whisper in her ear, “You are incredible. You know that, right?”

He felt Laurie shrug and he responded by kissing the top of her head.

“Okay, everyone. Enough of this lovey stuff.” Grams clapped her hands together to get attention, answered by several laughs. “This old woman is hungry and I say it’s time to eat.” She looked around the room. “Is Lexi going to make it tonight?”

“No,” Patty replied. “She texted me a while ago and she’s got another double shift tonight. She won’t be here.”

“We’ll save her some food,” Grams decided. “And we better set it aside first because I have a feeling the rest is going to disappear fast.” Her comment was in general, but she pierced Tuck with a knowing look.

“Does he usually eat a lot?” Laurie asked, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

Serenity gave her brother a good-natured nudge with her shoulder. “Have you seen the guy? He’s part giant. He eats more than the rest of us put together.”

“Ha ha, everyone. I only eat more than two or three of you combined. Let’s not exaggerate, Sis.” Tuck easily picked Serenity up and rubbed his knuckles on her head.

Laurie gave him a wink. “As long as you save me a piece of apple pie, we’re good.”

Tuck grinned down at her. “Are you kidding, say the word and the whole thing’s yours. I would fight off all three of these other women so that you could have it.” He looked around with embellished caution. “Besides, everyone can have that pie – I’ll take the cookies you made. Seriously, I may have to request some more of those. They are amazing.”

Letting Laurie’s giggles wash over him, Tuck knew there was no place he would rather be.

When the evening was over, Tuck drove Laurie home. He wanted to make sure she was comfortable with her new gun. After helping her carry all of her things into the studio, she went upstairs and came back with the box.

She took out the Smith & Wesson and laid it on the table. “I opened it last night and looked at it. I even got the magazine loaded.”

“Nice,” he said. “How did you feel handling it?”

“I kept second guessing myself. I’ll be glad when I can take it and go shooting.”

“We’ll go sometime this week.” He went over everything again with Laurie and she seemed much more confident when they were done than when they started. “I have a surprise for you,” he said. When she tried to get him to say what it was, he shook his head. “You stay here. It’s in my truck – I’ll be right back.”

He returned with a bag in one hand. “I obviously spent a great deal of time wrapping this up and making it presentable.”

Laughing, she took the bright yellow store bag. “Wow, this is heavy!”

He nodded at it. “Check it out.”

She opened the bag and pulled the box, reading the description. “A gun safe?”

“This makes it possible for you to move the gun wherever you need it to be. You can bring it down here in the studio and not have to worry about someone gaining access to it. Here, let me show you.”

Together, they opened the box and pulled the small safe out. It was the perfect size for her new firearm and it sat inside nicely, with enough room for two magazines to lie beside it.

“And you can program a code that only you will know. But it’s a fast, four-digit code. You can get the safe opened quickly if you need to.”

Laurie beamed at him. “Thank you. This was thoughtful of you.” She picked up the instruction booklet, figuring out how to set a password. “You’re right, I wasn’t planning on bringing the gun down here. I have many people coming in and out with sessions – especially children. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with that.”

“And now?”

“Whether I’m down here or in my apartment, my gun will be in the same room.”

~

Laurie had been in a hurry to download all of the digital files from the photo shoot the night before. But then she had made herself go to bed once she had saved a copy of them onto her external hard drive.

Now that it was the next day, she had been crazy busy with two more shoots and a meeting with another special needs family. It was nearly five and she was finally sitting in front of her laptop in the studio. As she went through the images of Gideon, she couldn’t keep from smiling. There were a lot of photos that she deleted because they weren’t quite in focus, or for a number of other reasons.

Typically, she liked to present anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five images. She couldn’t wait to finish processing these and show Serenity.

Sitting on her chair, her left leg tucked under her, she browsed through the images. Two things struck her. The first was that Gideon was truly a happy child and he had a smile that was incredibly contagious. Second, Serenity was a dedicated single mom who was clearly struggling with something in her life.

“God, please help her. I don’t know her well, but I get the sense there is something going on in her life and she could use some help. If there’s anything I can do to help, please show me that as well.”

Laurie sat in silence for a few moments before turning back to her laptop. The first thing she did was connect her external hard drive and back up the chosen files one more time. She had learned it was always better to be safe than sorry.

She placed the hard drive back in her bag and took a sip of water.

The studio door opened and she jumped. Why hadn’t she locked it earlier? She’d been so focused on processing that she hadn’t even thought about it. She turned, half expecting to see Tuck.

A man, all in black, was standing there instead.

She leapt to her feet.

He must have waited until he entered her place to pull the ski mask on, because he was rolling it down over his face. She could barely see a cleft in the man’s chin before it was covered up. Her movement seemed to spur him on and he suddenly had a knife in his hand.

Laurie’s heart raced as she glanced at the small gun safe on her desk. Could she open it and get a shot off before the intruder reached her?

The man moved to stand halfway between her and the door to her apartment, effectively blocking her in.

“What do you want?”

“I need a list of your customers with all of their contact information.”

Laurie consciously made herself note his eye color and height. She couldn’t tell much else other than the fact that the guy was incredibly jumpy. He wanted to know about her customers? Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

“I can’t help you.”

“I need that information. Now!”

He hedged closer, the knife swaying in the air.

“I pressed a panic button. The police are probably on their way right now.” It was a lie, and it looked like the intruder wasn’t convinced. Laurie held her breath, desperately trying to think.

“If you think I won’t hurt you, then you’re wrong.”

He stepped closer and Laurie could see his hand flexing around the knife.

She shoved her chair at him and grasped it as she dashed around the desk. Come on! Come on! She punched in the four digit code and pulled the gun out. Adrenaline made it easy to pull the slide back and she flipped the safety off.

With a furious yell, the man kicked the chair aside, his feet nearly skidding out from beneath him as he attempted to intercept her.

She managed to squeeze the trigger and get one shot off before she felt a hot pain in her side and fell forwards under the intruder’s weight. Her head collided with the edge of her desk and everything went black.

~

Tuck had worked like a crazy man all day. By the time five-thirty rolled around, he was starving and more than ready to be off duty for the night. Bad weather had managed to hold off, and now he hoped he could go home and get some rest before he was called back in again. He got into his truck and dialed Laurie’s phone number, smiling in anticipation of hearing her voice.

She didn’t pick up, but then he knew she was having a pretty busy day herself. He decided to stop by the studio and see if he could bring her something to eat.

The closer he got to her place, the more he had a feeling of dread settle in the pit of his stomach. By the time he was pulling up in front of Capturing the Moment, he had dialed her phone one more time and was getting concerned.

Tuck went through the studio door, and the first thing he saw was her desk chair dumped on its side. His eyes went from that to her body slumped on the floor. “Laurie!” He ran to her, kneeling down as he felt for a heartbeat. Relief flooded him as he detected that precious pulse of life in her neck. He pulled his gun out and scanned the room. He wasn’t going to get caught off guard if her attacker was still in the building.

His eyes were drawn to a purple bruise on her temple, but it was the red seeping into her pale green sweater what alarmed him. “God, please help her.” He took his jacket off and pressed it against the wound. He holstered his weapon and dialed the station to have both officers and an ambulance dispatched to their location.

Waiting was the hardest thing that Tuck had ever done. “You’re going to be okay, Laurie. Hang in there.” Pressing the jacket with one hand, he used the other to sweep hair out of her face and stroked her cheek. “I need you. You have to be okay.”

Lance burst through the door along with two other officers a moment before he could hear the ambulance sirens in the distance. “What happened?”

“She was attacked. I found her like this - it looks like a stabbing.” Tuck groaned, frustrated. “I shouldn’t have left her here alone. We should have known better.”

“You certainly couldn’t have anticipated this was going to happen.” Lance gave him a stern look.

Tuck knew that was true, but he still wished he would have been there for her. He would give anything to have been able to protect her from this.

“I’ve got something over here,” Lance said, bending to examine something on the floor near the cabinet. “It’s a gun.”

“Is it a Smith & Wesson?” Lance nodded. “It’s Laurie’s. She kept it in a safe.”

“That’s back here behind the desk as well.” Lance used a handkerchief to eject the magazine and examined the chamber. “It’s been fired.”

Tuck noticed some drops of blood leading to the front door. “We need to find out if that’s Laurie’s blood or if she managed to hit our intruder.”

“We’ll get right on it.”

EMS arrived and it took all his strength to step back and let them work on her. Tuck watched as they bent to examine her and stabilize her condition in order to transport her to the hospital.

“I’m going with them.” He followed them out of the building. “Keep me updated.”

“I will. Let me know how she is when you can.

With a decisive nod, Tuck’s view of Lance disappeared when the ambulance doors were closed. He called Lexi to let her know they were on their way and then called his mom, who said she would keep Laurie in her prayers.

He’d only known her for a few weeks, but already he felt as though she had been a part of his life for much longer. He held tight to her hand as the ambulance sped through the streets.

She was going to be okay. She had to be.