Love Inspired Suspense December 2015, Box Set 2 of 2 (44 page)

She smiled big and beautiful, and he let the sight clear away his doldrums.

“Why, thank you, Wade. And yours, too, by the way. You're a great shot. Are you sure you don't want to add sniper to your duties in the army? It couldn't have been all rappelling and reports.” She took the turn, looking at him eagerly for an answer. Her eyebrows arched to open vibrant, curious eyes.

Wade couldn't hold back his own smile. “I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.” She laughed, but he let his smile go while his hand roamed over Promise's silky fur. “War is hard, Lacey. I don't even want you imagining it.”

She drove in silence a mile down the road before she asked, “Where are we going?”

“To the track.”

She whipped a look at him. “But isn't it closed for the season?”

“I know the owners.”

“But why are we going there?”

I'm not ready to go back
. “I want to check something out.”

“But it's dark.”

“I'll put the lights on for you, scaredy-cat.”

“Who said I was scared?” She floored it, and Wade smiled in satisfaction. He would say she was predictable, but really the only thing he could count on where Lacey was concerned was her impulsivity. Hang a carrot in front of her, and she would go for it. Even hint that she had inadequacies, and she would set out to prove you wrong.

It went beyond her mother and the guys at the track. It was a constant battle she felt she needed to fight.

But then, who was he to talk? His battles raged constantly in him, too.

“What are we looking for?” Lacey asked at the parking lot of Spencer Speedway.

“It's something about those pictures your brother took when he was here in August. I noticed he only took one picture of the track. Most of his photos were of the grandstand and the beverage truck.”

“Did you tell him about how you spoke to that man under the grandstand?”

“Jeff knew all about that incident. I told him everything so he could help.”

“I'm sure that's why he took pictures of the grandstand then. Over it and under it.”

“But what about the beverage delivery truck? Why take so many shots of that? It's a 1961 Ford truck that's been there since it died there, long before the track opened. My parents thought it was neat and kept it as a novelty.”

“I guess I need to see the pictures again. I wasn't paying too much attention to the details of the photos. Just the divorce—Sorry. Never mind.”

“Don't be sorry. Jeff found out something I didn't know. Unfortunately, the divorce makes this whole scenario even more painful.”

There are some hurts that last a lifetime.

Lacey cut the engine as Wade remembered his words to her on divorce. It would be good to remind himself of them, especially when he got a penchant for bringing their relationship to another level. The idea of causing that kind of pain in her life made his head spin. He would definitely be the one to hurt her.

They sat in stillness with the back side of the grandstand rising up in front of them, a black structure of immense proportions jutting up into the sky. It blocked the view to the track like the undiscovered facts of his past.

The truth of what really happened the night they had gone over the ledge. A freak accident? An assassination of a Russian spy? Or now, in light of the divorce, an aggrieved spouse looking for restitution for their pain?

Wade's throat clenched, nearly causing him to gag aloud. The idea of one of his parents purposely causing that fiery descent off the edge of the world undid him. The crash had taken forever to come. He remembered careening down the slope into the ravine, the car bouncing up and down.

It had flipped twice.

Wade had sat behind his dad, who'd driven the car. He remembered calling for him to make it stop. But when the car finally had, his dad was slumped over the wheel, his mother's head tilted unnaturally to her left, broken. Before he could reach for her, the fire had burst from the engine into the car. In one whoosh, his parents had been ensconced. Instead of reaching for his mom, he'd grabbed Roni out from the line of shooting flames.

But he hadn't been fast enough.

The fire was so hot and fast.

So hot.

So...

Water doused his hands where he touched the flames on his sister, trying to put them out.

Only there hadn't been water that day. That day he had rolled with her on the ground, trying to do what Fireman Dan had said to do when he came to visit Wade's third-grade class during Fire Prevention Week.

So where was the water coming from?

A dog barked.

A woman yelled.

“Mom!” Wade screamed with his three-year-old sister in his arms.

“Wade! It's me, Lacey!” the woman yelled again.

Lacey?
Not Meredith? Not his mother.

No, of course not—his parents had been dead before the fire had even started.

Wetness covered his face, tearing Wade from his recurring memory. He opened his eyes to find Promise frantically licking him from his hands and arms to his cheeks and chin.

And behind Promise was a beautiful young woman with tears streaking down her face. She cried for him as she reached for the back of his neck. She came closer with shushing on her lips.

Lips that blinded all reason.

Wade didn't change course but zeroed in on the only thing he thought would make this all go away. He reached for the back of her messy ponytail and searched for the relief her kiss could offer him.

His kiss turned demanding when that solace never came.

And it never would come because he wasn't whole. Using Lacey felt like the dirtiest thing he'd ever done. Dirtier than any covert task he'd taken on in the military.

She was tired of proving her worth, and now he had to tell her she wouldn't heal him, either. But that wasn't her fault. She had to know this.

Wade pulled back and reached for the door handle. “I'm broken, Lacey. Dead, in fact. Deader than that beverage truck on the other side of that fence.” He climbed out. “Just stay away. It's best.”

Wade walked to the gate. The frigid temperature of the north restricted his chest from dragging in full breaths of painful air. He wished for the cold pain to cover his forever pain.

At the gate, he halted at what awaited him.

He thought he would have to break the lock but found it unlatched. Had it been broken into today? It could have been weeks ago. With the racing season over, Roni or Clay had no reason to be here every day.

It didn't matter. What mattered was that someone else had been here.

Someone who could still be inside.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

L
acey's hand trembled over her mouth where Wade had just kissed her. Somewhere beyond the myriad of questions spinning out of control in her mind like a rotating kaleidoscope, she could make out Promise whining. Lacey could hear the animal, and with a slow turn of her head, she could see the frenzied dog at the passenger door. Claws scratched on vinyl and carpet with growing urgency, pulling Lacey out of her stupor little by little until reality slammed into her as forcefully as Wade had slammed the passenger door when he left.

Right after he'd kissed her.

It had happened so fast, so unexpectedly. All she'd wanted to do was comfort him in what could only have been some sort of flashback. Some sort of memory that was so real to him and still held him so powerfully in its grip.

But he'd kissed her.

Had he thought she was eliciting that kind of response? Did he think she was leaning in to kiss him in what could have only been the most inappropriate moment she could have chosen?
If
she had chosen it, which she hadn't. She had only meant to reach out to touch him and pull his focus onto her. She'd meant to remind him he was in present day and he was safe with her. She would never take advantage of him in such a dire-straits situation. The man was in obvious pain. He needed comfort. He needed healing. He needed...

He kissed her.

He
kissed
her
.

Lacey let her hand fall from her lips. She could feel her lips swelling up from his hard touch. A touch that was desperate and fraught with need.

But what did he need?

Promise barked and whined and jumped back and forth from the floor to the seat. Her paws continued to scratch vigorously at the door.

He needed Promise. But not for her duties to him, as he always said.

“You want to go love him, don't you, Promise? I see that, but I'm sorry to say he doesn't. He's so hung up on duty that he can't recognize your unconditional love for him.”

Lacey leaned over and pulled the latch. “Don't give up on him, girl. Show him he's not so broken that he can't be loved. Go.” She pushed the door wide, and Promise bolted from the car. Snow swished into the air from the dog's golden-red hind legs as she raced to the gate and her handler.

But Promise didn't know Wade as her handler. She knew him as her best friend. She didn't love him out of duty or training or for anything he could do for her, but because loving him brought her joy.

“That is a Jesus kind of love,” Lacey said aloud, remembering her youth pastor's words to her back in high school. Lacey had always felt the need to prove she measured up in people's eyes. Her youth pastor recognized this in her and pulled her aside one Christmas Eve. He asked her if she understood what real love looked like. What a Jesus kind of love looked like. How God's gift of love on Christmas morning came with no strings attached, with nothing for her to prove or earn. In His eyes, she was loved beyond measure, and never had to measure up.

The idea had been so foreign to her, and yet, the comfort it gave her had her believing it wholeheartedly. She put her trust in God that night, and never became afraid to step out again, because she knew He was beside her, behind her and always guiding her. A Jesus kind of love, and it was for all.

All who accepted it, that was.

Would Wade accept God's gift of love if he couldn't even accept Promise's? It could be a turning point for him if he did. It would make all the difference in his life, as it had in hers.

But
he
kissed
her
.

What if he was looking for love from
her
? Lacey shook away the idea as absurd. He didn't even like her. He'd said so himself. She was too impulsive, a liability, even. Besides, she would never open her heart and life up to someone who rejected love from anyone, most especially his own dog. And let's not forget Wade was responsible for her brother's death, however indirectly and regardless that Jeff might have betrayed Wade by secretly writing a book. Perhaps Wade had figured that out and really did have a hand in Jeff's death as payback.

Lacey didn't believe that idea, but still, if Wade was looking for love from her, he could forget it. That was one road she said she would never go down.

But God's love was different. His love came freely to all who accepted it. Lacey couldn't withhold that from Wade as she could withhold her love.
If
she even felt love for him, which she didn't. “I don't,” she said with a slap on the steering wheel. Whatever stirred in her head when his lips were on hers wasn't love. It couldn't be. She wouldn't allow it. She'd made up her mind a long time ago to go solo. Except for God, of course. But that was different. His love would never hurt her.

Lacey sighed and dropped her head back on the headrest. “I'm assuming You want me to tell him that, God? Is that why You led me to his front door? To be Your messenger?”

Lacey took the quiet stillness as her answer and pulled the door latch to go. Deep fresh-fallen snow slowed her steps as she trudged forward in the direction Wade and Promise had gone. As she came around the corner of the ticket booth, she saw the gate had been pushed wide, but Wade and Promise were gone.

Lacey stepped into the speedway. A concession stand stood dark and off to her right. The vintage 1961 Ford beverage truck, topped with a foot of snow and words scrawled on the side that read Soda Pop Delivery in faded red letters, was parked in front of the grandstand. She remembered the photos Jeff had taken. Many were of the red letters on the truck.

But it was the towering black grandstand behind the truck that vied for her attention.

This was the grandstand that had started all of Wade's pain. It was where he'd found that capsule when he was eight years old. Where he'd told the stranger his mother had it. And just a few hours later his parents and brother had been dead.

Had Wade gone there now while his memory was so real from the flashback?

If so, this would be the perfect time to tell him he was loved beyond measure. Lacey took the first steps toward the stands. She had a message that would change everything for him. But first she had to find him, and with no lights on in this place, she was going blind.

* * *

Wade stepped out of the office, pieces of shattered glass from the window crunching beneath the treads of his boots. The place had been ransacked, but from what he could tell, it wasn't a fresh smash and grab.

He didn't know when the last employee had been here. He also didn't know what was missing. His absence from the speedway had never felt so disconcerting. As co-owner, these were things he should know. Come daylight, Roni and Clay would have to determine if the loss exceeded the computers ripped from the desks. His sister and uncle knew more about the present running of the business than he did.

The irony struck him to his core. His whole life was about duty, yet the one duty Roni needed him most for, he shirked.

Wade closed the door but didn't bother locking it. There was no point with the window gone.

The word
messy
came to mind. Either some amateur was looking for items to hawk, or the whole scene had been set up to look like it. If that was the case, what had someone been looking for? Was it the same people after him and Lacey?

Thinking of Lacey had him picking up his steps to get back to her. He hadn't meant to leave her this long. In fact, he had promised to not leave her again after the train. He could say the busted-up office building had thrown him for a few minutes, but that wouldn't be the truth. His flashback to the accident had messed with his mind again.

And she'd witnessed it firsthand.

He had a lot to explain and apologize for, including the kiss. He quickly pressed his lips tight. The feel of her lips on his still lingered, but it couldn't happen again.

Wade headed toward the exit, but a flash of lights from the thick trees on the other side of the track stopped him. He saw two lights that quickly died out. Two lights that could only be headlights.

They'd been found.

Wade didn't know how, and at the moment, didn't care. Lacey consumed every bit of his concern. Even the sound of a dog barking faded into the background of Wade's pounding feet in the hard-packed snow, but soon, sharp, high-pitched howls had him skidding to a stop.

Was that Promise barking? She never barked unless...unless she had to alert him to danger.

Wade searched the dark paddock where, come spring, cars and their trailers would be lined up as far as the eye could see. Finding a dog should be easy. But the space lay open and covered with untouched snow. No canine tracks could be seen. No tracks at all.

Wade spun around at another bark and spotted Promise up on the stairs to the grandstand.

“What are you doing, Promise?” Wade yelled then whistled. “Come!”

Promise looked away. Her disobedience was a first.

“I said, get—” Wade saw what Promise was looking at.

Lacey
.

She was on the top of the grandstand. He watched her slowly stand from her bench, and all Wade could do was shout, “Get down!” as he took off at full speed to reach her before flying bullets did.

Visions of sniper fire infiltrated his brain. Sand and snow mixed together. Heat and cold shocked the system the same. Both slowed him down. He'd never make it.

“Promise! Cover Lacey!”

Wade's adrenaline kicked in, but still it would be Promise who would reach Lacey first. He saw his dog leap from bench to bench, gaining ground with every jump. Wade also saw the confusion on Lacey's face as he ran nearer. She had no idea there was a car on the other side of the track.

“Get down!” he yelled again right at the moment gunshots echoed over the track. Right at the moment Promise took her final and highest leap directly over Lacey, pushing her down.

Wade heard Lacey scream out, then her scream muffled to nothing. Had she been shot again?

“Lacey!” Wade called out, but stopped at the stairs to the grandstand. Making himself a target wouldn't help her. He had to get to her from behind. But that meant climbing up the joists of the grandstand. The last time he'd done that, people died. This time, Lacey would if he didn't. “Hang on! I'm coming!”

No answer.

Wade lunged for the first bar of the enormous bleachers. He swung to the next one, then the next. Beads of sweat burst from his forehead as his arms trembled with growing fatigue with each pull up to the top. He swung a leg up to the next bar and used his lower-body strength to carry him the rest of the way up.

Golden-red fur rustled in the wind above him, but that was all he could see moving. “Lacey? Are you all right?” He had to know before he reached her.

“Wade?” a faint muffled cry drifted to his ears.

“I'm right here.” He reached out and touched the arm of his combat coat she wore. He'd made it to her side, but he still needed to get her down off the bleachers. “I'm going to pull you down through the back. Are you hurt?”

“I don't think so. Promise pushed me down. It happened so fast, but, Wade...”

“What is it, Lacey? What's wrong?” he asked as he stabilized his feet in the rungs before he lifted her.

“I think...I think Promise is hurt. She's not moving, and she's breathing heavy. Oh, Wade, I don't know what I'll do if she's hurt. If she—”

“Shh, sweetheart. Promise is fine. She's just doing what I asked her to do. Cover you until I could get to you.” Wade gave a low whistle. “Promise, stay low.”

The dog shimmied down Lacey, and Wade got his first glimpse of Lacey's distraught face. She hadn't been worried about her own life but of his dog's.

“You're crazy, you know that? You get shot at, and you're worried about Promise. You're crazy, and I love... I love your beautiful heart.” He dropped his forehead to hers as he put his arms under her.

Lacey reached for him with shaking arms. “How did they find us here?” Her voice trembled. “We made sure we weren't being followed.”

“I don't know. They've got to be tracking us somehow. Come on, we have to move.” Balancing on a rung, he tightened his hold on her. “It won't be long before they make it over here to see their handiwork. But, Lacey, we have to go down this way. We can't go down the stairs. We'll be seen and shot at again.”

Lacey pulled back and turned her face.

“Don't look down,” he said, but it was too late.

Her eyes widened in fright. “Oh, why did I have to pick the top bleacher to sit in?”

“Why did you get out of the car is what I want to know.” Wade hoisted her around to his back. “Wrap your arms around my neck but don't choke me, or we'll both go down.” Wade let his body acclimate to the extra weight on him, but she really didn't weigh much more than his gear.

“I left because God didn't tell me no.”

The muscles in Wade's arms twitched as he lowered down to the next rung. Her words pushed through the blood pulsing through his head from the exertion. “God didn't... Oh. We're back to that again? Do you see why your motto of going unless God tells you no might not be the best course of action? Once again, you put yourself in the line of fire.”

“I'm sorry, but I thought after what happened in the car, you might have come this way. Oh, Wade, we are so high up.”

Wade grunted as he brought them down to the next rung. “I told you not to look down.” A quick look himself showed they had a ways to go. He focused on one rung at a time while he talked to keep her calm. “Why did you think I would be in the bleachers?”

She pressed her cheek to his so close he could feel her quick, nervous breaths against him. “Because of what happened here when you were eight. This is where you found the capsule, right? The place that man shook you for answers?”

Wade's chest tightened and his hands dampened with perspiration. “Don't go there, okay? Let's just get off this thing and get out of here.” He looked down and his grip slipped. The bars released right from his hands.