Read Hearts Aflame Collection IV: 4-Book Bundle Online
Authors: Melissa F. Hart
Hearts Aflame Collection IV: 4-Book Bundle (11 page)
Again, Erin watched Sean
leave the room but then another, more urgent thought exploded in to her mind.
How would she explain the wolf carcass? She cast a desperate look at the bed
and wondered why Sean hadn’t thought to at least hide it. If the paramedics saw
it, they would ask questions, questions Erin couldn’t possibly hope to even
attempt to answer without ending up in some sort of mental institution.
Her body was all but
completely drained, but Erin forced herself to stand up. Seeing Sean had
empowered her somehow. A part of her knew that what was on the bed had become
not only his secret, but hers too. Perhaps it was the baby growing inside her
that propelled her forwards, the baby that was tied to Sean, tied to his curse,
but Erin managed to stand up and precariously made her way out of the bedroom
and to the top of the stairs.
The paramedics were
already halfway up the staircase and immediately took her by both arms and
helped guide her down to the waiting ambulance. As Erin stumbled out of her
home, she saw Sean by the doorway and spotted the look of relief, followed by
admiration in his eyes. He knew that her quick thinking had potentially saved
them both.
***
The ambulance ride to the
hospital was a blur. Paramedics frantically hooked Erin up to various IV drips
and monitored the vital signs of her and her baby.
“Baby is almost here,” a
blond paramedic yelled to his colleagues who were driving.
“It’s okay,” they told him
calmly, “we’re pulling to St. Jude’s now.”
Erin was wheeled away from
the ambulance on a gurney and taken straight to the maternity ward, where she
had no time to catch her breath; the time had come to push.
Sean had accompanied her
in the ambulance and beneath the fluorescent glow of the strip lights above her
he held on to Erin’s hand, delivering words of encouragement.
“You can do this,” he told
her certainly.
“I’m so tired,” Erin
gasped, feeling defeated.
“You can do this, Erin. I
know you can.”
“Just listen to your
boyfriend.” The nurse who was with them smiled in a friendly manner. Normally
Erin would be quick to correct her, stating that Sean was not her boyfriend,
but suddenly it didn’t seem to matter. If anything, she was quite happy to
exist beneath the façade that they were actually a legitimate couple.
To anyone looking in, they
seemed the picture of happiness. Sean was holding her hand, his handsome
features twisted with concern as Erin gasped and panted, trying to deliver
their child in to the world. No one would guess what had transpired before
their journey to the hospital. They appeared perfectly normal.
***
Just before dawn came
creeping over the horizon, Erin gave birth to a baby boy. Sean was on hand to
cut the umbilical cord and both he and Erin openly wept upon the arrival of
their new son.
“He’s perfect,” the nurse
proudly told the new parents as she handed the small bundle to Erin.
“Ten fingers and ten toes.”
“He’s so tiny.” Erin
smiled. Her entire body sobbed with exhaustion but she ignored it. Meeting her
little boy made her feel renewed.
“He’s amazing,” Sean
cooed, wiping a stray tear from his cheek. Erin looked up at him and smiled
fondly. In her most desperate moments, when she’d truly needed him, he’d been
there for her. She still couldn’t explain how that happened, but he’d done more
than just saved her life, he’d saved their son’s too.
“I’m just glad he’s here,
that everything is alright,” Erin breathed, her shoulders finally lowering in
relaxation.
Sean’s body language remained
stiff and rigid, even in the face of the euphoria he felt over meeting his
newborn son.
“We can’t discuss
anything, not here,” Sean told Erin, his voice low.
“Why
not?”
“It’s not safe,” Sean
disclosed, moving to the door and glancing nervously along the hospital
corridor.
“It’s a hospital,” Erin
objected. “Of course it’s safe.”
“Trust me, it’s not. They
can get anywhere.”
“Who can?” Erin asked as
she felt her heart sink like a dead weight within her chest. Sean might have
been back, but so were his paranoid delusions.
Erin was still struggling
to make sense of what happened back at her house, the last thing she needed was
Sean fearing some ominous ‘they’.
“What shall we call him?”
Sean came back over to Erin, wearing a large, proud smile, his paranoia
suddenly gone.
The question caught Erin
off guard and made her forget her previous anger toward him. Looking down at
her little baby boy, she tried to think of the perfect name for him.
He already had his
father’s dark, intense eyes and a generous covering of dark hair upon his head,
courtesy of his mother. He looked to be the perfect symmetry of their best
features.
“He’ll grow up to be
strong and bold,” Sean whispered, looking down on the small baby who looked
back at him with confused yet curious eyes.
“He’ll be handsome,” Erin
cooed. “Just like his father.” She surprised herself with the compliment, which
Sean seemed to like as he placed an arm around Erin. Even though she was still
angry with him, it felt good to feel him so close to her. She’d missed his
scent, how his body felt against hers.
“Why don’t we call him
Jack?” Sean suggested. “That was my grandfather’s name,” he added as
explanation.
“Jack.” Erin said the name
aloud and looked down at her baby and he gurgled contentedly upon hearing it.
“He seems to like it.” She
smiled.
“I think it suits him,”
Sean agreed, drawing closer to mother and baby.
“Well hello then, Jack,
welcome to the big wide world,” Erin whispered to the gurgling baby. “I’m your
mommy and this is your
saddy
.”
It felt good to say the
words aloud, to be able to let Jack meet his father. For so long, Erin doubted
she would ever see Sean again yet here he was.
“I’m surprised you came
back,” Erin admitted.
“Came back?” Sean echoed
in confusion.
“For so long I thought you’d
never return, that you were gone for good.” Erin thought of the countless
nights she’d wept out of loneliness, the sense of abandonment cutting through
her like a knife.
“Gone? What do you mean?”
“Sean, you left. You told
me all that…stuff.” She kept her description vague only to avoid agitating
Sean, not out of a belief that there was some evil ‘they’ out to get them and
possibly even at the hospital.
“And I sent you away. I
thought you’d never return. But you did, you came back, right when I needed you
most.” Erin looked up at Sean and smiled gratefully. He leant down and kissed
her softly one the cheek.
“So you think I left?” he
asked her, smiling slightly as though enjoying a secret that only he knew.
“Yes.” Erin nodded.
“Erin, I never left you,”
Sean told her. “I was there all along, watching over you.”
“You were?” Erin couldn’t
hide her disbelief.
“I never left,” Sean
confirmed. “How could I?”
Erin had so many questions
dancing through her head, so many things she needed to know but sleep finally
caught up on her and, as Sean carefully lifted Jack from her arms, she let her
eyes fall shut and fell in to a much needed deep and dreamless sleep.
Do you like this book? Be sure to check other books in
this series
Phases of Passion II (Trilogy Bundle)
Be
sure to check the first part of this series
In
Cry Wolf
,
the ‘wolf problem’ in Broken Wheel, Wyoming takes a very personal turn for
Sheriff’s Deputy, Jade Lundgren.
When
beloved local rancher Duke Minton turns up dead from an apparent wolf attack,
Jade desperately wants to find the real killer in order to protect
Conall
O’Faolán
.
Not only is
Conall
being blamed for the increase in wolves in the area, Jade realizes that she
can’t ignore the profound connection she feels to the sexy Irishman, or the
fact he’s trusted her to keep his true nature a secret.
To make difficult matters more confusing,
handsome bomb tech ‘Boomer’
Harkness
makes his
romantic interest in Jade known, and the beautiful Irish
shapeshifter
Aoife
has her own plans for
Conall
.
“Jade!
Did you
hear anything that I just said?”
Shaking herself, Jade tried to demonstrate that she
had been paying attention to Nicolette and the stack of bridal magazines
arrayed on the table in front of them. “Empire waistline, ivory lace…” she
stumbled a little, “
Uhh
, full sleeve.”
She smiled sheepishly at her best friend,
the bride-to-be.
“Okay!
I’m distracted, but I’ve got a good reason.”
Nicolette gathered up the magazines into a neat
stack.
“You know what?
I’ve
been distracted with the wedding plans, and I haven’t been paying enough
attention to what’s going on with you.
How about a little glass of sherry by the fireplace, and you can tell me
about what’s going on with you?”
Jade rolled her eyes.
“I might need a
big
glass of
sherry.”
“Then I’ll bring the bottle.”
Nicolette smiled impishly. “If you drink it
from tiny cordial glasses, it doesn’t really count.”
A few minutes later, Jade and Nicolette were settled
onto Nicolette’s cozy, overstuffed sofa.
Between the crackling fire and the sherry, the two friends soon had a
rosy glow.
“So what’s going on?” Nicolette probed.
“You know that bomb tech, Gil
Harkness
?
The one everyone calls Boomer?
He asked me to go out with him, and I’m
trying to figure out what to say.”
Jade
stared into the flames licking upward from the stack of logs in the hearth.
“What do you want to say?
He’s a nice guy, right?
And nice looking too…tall and strapping,
chiseled jaw?
Sort of looks like a
Chippendale from what I remember.”
Nicolette took a sip from the delicate etched glass in her hand.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s just it.
I can’t really figure out a reason to say
no.”
“But?”
“But I’ve…I’ve got it bad for
Conall
O’Faolán
.”
Nicolette tried to mimic an Irish accent, “Aye, the
lovely Irishman.”
Jade started laughing. “You sound like some kind of
demented elf.”
She demonstrated a much
better version of an Irish accent, “He’s a wee bit
more sexy
than that.”
Switching back to her normal voice, Nicolette
continued with a sympathetic smile, “Sexy yes, accessible…not so much.”
Sighing, Jade held out her glass for a refill.
“I don’t get it.
We have this incredible night
together—romantic, passionate, intimate—and then he…completely
disappears
.
He didn’t
seem like the type to kiss and run.”
“Intimacy scares a lot of men.”
Nicolette splashed some more sherry into
Jade’s glass,
then
refilled her own.
“They want it, but real commitment means they
might have to change their lifestyle.”
Jade swirled her glass a little.
“He did mention that the woman he thought he
was going to spend his life with died.
He didn’t say how, but I could tell by the look on his face that it was
something terrible and tragic.”
“Oh honey, he’s probably still carrying a torch for
her.
Don’t try to compete with the
dead.
Besides, you haven’t even seen him
since the ‘big night.’
Go out with
Boomer.
There’s something to be said for
a man who asks you out on a proper date.”
Arching an eyebrow,
Jade
looked at Nicolette. “It’s not like you and Harlan figured out you were in love
with each other through normal channels.
Let’s see, as I recall, it took you being kidnapped for everyone to get
real.”
She poked Nicolette in the arm to
emphasize her point.
“Touché.
Still, what’s the harm with trying normal
channels?
Lots of people fall in love
without it ever involving methamphetamines, explosives, or psychotic
ex-bosses.”
She wiggled her eyebrows
at Jade. “You know what they say about the correlation between a man’s shoe
size and his…” she cleared her throat a little, “I mean, Boomer has got be at
least a size 13, maybe bigger.”
Jade started giggling.
Men could come and go, but nothing could
substitute for hanging out with your BFF.
“Okay, I’ll call Boomer back tomorrow.
You’re absolutely right, there’s no harm in going out on a date.”
Nicolette
clinked
her glass
against Jade’s in a little toast. “Who knows, you might actually have fun!”
Jade thought about Boomer’s warm smile, his gentle
concern for others, and the fact that he was a
very
good-looking man. “You’re absolutely right.
I could do with a little fun in my life.”
***
“You’ve been to Mr. Pink’s!”
Tim and the rest of the Broken Wheel Sheriff’s
Department—Sheriff Wilson, Deputy
Dougie
, and their
dispatcher, Rosie—circled around the box of hot donuts in Jade’s hands like
sharks coming to chum.
“Yes, I have!”
Jade opened the lid of the box a little, letting the sugary aroma of the
warm donuts waft out, giving her colleagues a tantalizing peek at the array of
instant gratification contained inside—glazed, chocolate, iced with
sprinkles—before slamming the lid down and holding the box out of reach as Tim
did his best to snatch one out.
She gave
them her best “bad cop” face. “There are conditions.”
Wilson pretended to get stern with her. “I refuse to
accept conditions from any of my deputies.
Now hand over the damn donuts before we have to put you in cuffs.”
Jade danced away with the box. “I’m not going to
surrender the donuts until you agree to my conditions.”
Dougie
spread his arms and made the others step back. “We don’t want to spook her—she
might do something rash.
I’m the one who
went to Cheyenne for special hostage negotiation training.”
He turned back and with the calmest possible
voice said, “Jade, if you don’t hand over the damn donuts, I
will
take them by force.”
“No, you won’t!” Jade hooted, as she ran behind the
copy machine, lifting the lid and threatening to squash the entire box of
pastry.
Rosie rolled her eyes as she went to her desk and
flipped through her scheduling book.
“Why look! Tim just agreed to trade his Thursday night shift for Jade’s
on Friday night.”
The dispatcher winked
knowingly. “You got a lemon crème filled in there?”
“But of course!”
Jade extended the box to Rosie and stuck her tongue out at the others,
before placing the box next to the coffeemaker.
Fifteen minutes later, the artery-clogging
orgy was over.
“So what’s so important you had to use Mr. Pink’s
Donuts as leverage to get off Friday night?”
Dougie
asked, licking powdered sugar off of
his stubby fingers.
“None of your business,” Jade said sweetly, pecking
at her computer.
“Don’t you have a
report to write or something?”
“Yeah, one-car accident last night
on County Road 19.
Some teenagers hit Mrs. Dean’s mailbox, but that smart old biddy had
someone sink the post in sixty pounds of concrete.”
“No one was hurt, were they?”
Jade wondered if she should confess the truth
about the mailbox to
Dougie
.
“Nah, the airbags went off, but Ricky Black is in
deep crap with his dad, George, for taking their Lexus SUV without permission.”
Jade nodded to indicate that parental wrath was
probably a worse punishment than a trip to the hospital.
“It’s been an exceptionally quiet week in
Broken Wheel.”
Dougie
looked pointedly at Jade. “Now you’ve jinxed us.”
As if to fulfill
Dougie’s
prediction, a few minutes later, the phone rang.
They both watched Rosie’s face as the
dispatcher’s expression slowly morphed from her usual pleasant neutrality to
clear distress.
Her hand was shaking as
she hung up the phone.
“That was Duke
Jr. at the Bar Double Star,” she said, as if she was on autopilot.
“There’s another dead wolf, and—and…” Rosie’s
throat caught as a sob tried to force its way up, “Duke Minton’s dead.”
Jade sucked in a breath.
Duke’s wife, Evelyn, was Rosie’s best friend,
and Rosie had been planning a fortieth wedding anniversary party for the
couple.
Wilson shuffled out of his office, his hands in his
pockets, as the playful atmosphere in the department deflated like a forgotten
balloon.
“Douglas, you and Jade get out
there straightaway and see what’s going on.
Take Rosie so she can be with Evelyn.
Tim, you cover dispatch.
I’ll
deal with anything else that comes up, but call as soon as you have a handle on
the situation.
Let’s not jump to any
conclusions.”
The last murder in Broken Wheel had been in 1992 when
a gambling debt had gotten out of hand.
Broken Wheel had its share of dumbass crime, but not much in the
category of murder and mayhem.
Everyone nodded robotically as the departing trio
went for their coats.
It was bad enough
to have to officially sign off when an elderly person died at home, but this
was a healthy, happy, sixty-two year old man, a Sunday school teacher from a
well-loved family in the community.
This
was the kind of call the department truly dreaded.
Dougie
, Jade
and Rosie said little on the drive out to the Bar Double Star Ranch.
Rosie periodically dabbed at the corners of
her eyes with a tissue, and Jade stared out the passenger window at the snowy
landscape.
Off in the distance, she
could see a few elk on the move, their shaggy winter coats making them look
like ragged stuffed animals on a white quilt dotted with green cones.
She thought about the dead wolf at the
Minton’s ranch and wondered if animals mourned the departed the way that humans
did.
Then she thought of
Conall
, who had transformed from man to animal in front of
her eyes and wondered if all animals, or maybe just all wolves, hid such
secrets.
Then she made the connection
between the Irishman and the dead wolf, and for a moment it seemed her heart
had stopped beating.
If the dead wolf
was a huge one with amber eyes, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold herself
together.
She recognized Harlan Winter’s truck in front of the
Minton’s house.
As the Minton’s nearest
neighbors, it would make sense that Duke Jr. would reach out to Harlan and his
dad Carson.
And Nicolette’s sensible
sedan was there; it also made sense that Harlan would reach out to his fiancée
to make sure the news got to the community in a way that respected the family’s
wishes.
As editor of the Broken Wheel
Gazette, Nicolette would keep a lid on any sensationalism and do her best to
protect the family from out-of-town tabloid vultures.
Dougie
gave
Rosie a hand down from the rear seat of his departmental SUV; Jade envied the
comfort and reliability of his eighteen-month-old vehicle.
Her Bronco was next in line to be replaced as
budget allowed, but it wasn’t looking like it was going to be happening any
time soon.
She mentally kicked herself;
it wasn’t exactly the time to be pondering rides.
As they stepped into the warmth of the Minton’s
kitchen, Jade quickly understood that Harlan and Carson were trying to sooth an
outraged Duke Jr.
Nicolette and Duke
Jr.’s
wife, Lori, were in the living room, trying to
console Evelyn.
Rosie sighed and tried to stand a little straighter.
“I’ll look in on Evelyn.”
The group of men turned at the sound of voices, and
Harlan looked relieved to see Jade and
Dougie
.
Dougie
shook Duke
Jr.’s
hand, and Jade quietly offered condolences by saying
the official words, “We’re very sorry for your loss,” but with the emotion of
someone who truly meant it.
Duke Jr.
acknowledged Jade with a little sideways hug, as he wiped at the corner of his eye
with the back of his other hand.
Then,
everyone tried to deal with the situation at hand as professionally and
unemotionally as they could.