The Warrior (40 page)

“Thanks, Sandy.”

“Who shot you? Do you need the police, too?”

“Might as well send someone on out, although you could warn him ahead of time that the FBI is already on the way.”

“Sakes alive,” the dispatcher said. “Hang on, honey. Help's coming.”

John leaned back against the tree trunk, then looked down at Alicia. Bruises were already beginning to appear on her face, but her eyelids were fluttering. When he heard her moan, the relief within him was so overwhelming he could hardly move. Then something happened—something so fleeting that he almost missed it. As he was looking at her, her features seemed to fade, and just for a moment he saw the fleeting image of darker skin, a wider nose and a mouth always curved in laughter.

“I see you,” he said softly, then tightened his hold on Alicia and closed his eyes.

 

Alicia came to with a pain in her jaw and a scream on her lips, only to find herself lying safe and sound in John's arms. When she saw the blood on his shoulder and the ashen cast of his skin, she quickly forgot her own pain as she crawled out of his lap.

“John? John!”

When he didn't answer, she panicked. She pulled his shirt aside, expecting to see a healed wound. To her horror, it was still open and freely bleeding.

“Help me, God,” she whispered as she pulled her shirt over her head, folded it up into a thick pad and slid it underneath his shirt, arranging it over his shoulder so that it was over both the entry and exit wounds. When she began to apply pressure, he groaned.

“John…Oh God…sweetheart, it's Alicia. John, are you okay?”

He groaned again, then opened his eyes and gave her a half smile. “No, I'm not okay. I have a bullet hole in my shoulder.”

“But why didn't it heal? You always heal yourself when you're hurt. Do it again. Hurry. You're losing too much blood.”

“I never healed myself. It always happened before because I couldn't die. Now I can. You should be happy.” He grunted as he shifted to a more comfortable position.

It was then that she remembered. Her father. Dieter. They were here! Still on her hands and knees, she looked over her shoulder, checking to see if they were alone. When she saw the bodies down the beach, a few yards apart, she felt an odd sense of relief. Her father was dead, and she was glad. What kind of a world had this turned out to be?

She turned to John. Her eyes were welling, her voice was starting to shake as the horror of what she'd seen and what she'd endured finally hit.

“John…you were right all along. My father wasn't dead. He tried to kill me. He really tried to kill me.”

Then she started to cry, huge, quiet tears that hurt his heart, tears made more poignant by the silence with which they fell. John pulled her close, then lifted her hand to his lips. He kissed the cuts and the bruises that her father had put there, making promises between each kiss.

“It won't happen again. No one's ever going to touch you like that again. I made sure of that.” Then he moaned beneath his breath and shifted again as the sun began to bounce before his eyes. That couldn't be good. He hoped to hell the ambulance got here soon.

Alicia felt shame for what John had gone through
on her behalf. “Who shot you, sweetheart? Was it Dad or Dieter?”

John frowned. Didn't she remember what had happened? How could she forget Dieter dropping dead at her feet? Then he let it slide. The more of this hell she forgot, the better.

“Your father shot me, but I'll heal eventually.”

Then they both heard the sounds of sirens.

“Finally,” John muttered as Alicia looked up to the top of the bluff. Within a few moments they saw a police cruiser pull up, and then an ambulance. She got to her feet and began waving to show them their location. Once they saw her, she knelt back at John's side.

“Help is coming, sweetheart. It's going to be all right.”

John took her hand. “Help me up, baby.”

“I think you should wait for the EMTs,” she said, then steadied him as he ignored her and pulled himself up.

“I've been waiting too long as it is,” he said. “No more waiting for us. We already made a baby. It's time we make a new life.”

A
tiny squeal, then a shriek of little-girl laughter, spilled through the doorway as John got out of the car. His heart leaped with joy, as it always did when he saw his family, no matter how long he'd been gone, which today had amounted to a little less than two hours running errands and picking up the mail at the post office in Justice.

“Daddy! Daddy!”

He grinned at his daughter, Annie, noticing that she'd already shed all but her pink Cinderella panties again. No matter how many times they dressed her during the day, if they turned their backs, she was naked, running with her little brown legs pumping and a small black ponytail flying out behind.

He quickly put the mail beneath his arm as Annie came leaping off the front steps.

“Hey, baby girl,” he said as he caught her on the run. He kissed the side of her cheek, then gave her ponytail a quick tug. “Were you good for Mama?”

“Yes, Daddy…I good. Did you bwing me sumpin?”

“Look in my pocket,” he said, laughing as she thrust a tiny hand in his shirt pocket and pulled out a little pack of gummy bears.

“Gummies! Gummies! I loves gummies.”

She wiggled to be put down, and he reluctantly did so. He was still smiling when he saw Alicia coming out the door. Four years ago she had walked into his life and he'd never been the same. There were no words for how much he loved her and the babies she kept giving him. His gaze moved to the fat little boy perched on her hip. His eyes were black as coal, his copper skin an echo of his daddy's. His baby hair was the color of a raven's wings, and no amount of water and combing could make it lie flat. It stood straight up on his head like grass. A drop of drool hung at the corner of his mouth, and as he spied his father, he clapped his hands and then laughed aloud.

“And was the little man good for Mama, too?” he asked as he gave them both a hug.

“No,” Alicia said, and rolled her eyes.

John laughed, then scrubbed the funny hair on his son's head in a gentle, playful way.

“Way to go, buddy,” he said, then leaned forward and kissed Alicia square on the mouth.

She groaned beneath his lips, then pulled back far enough for him to see the twinkle in her eye.

“So…Nightwalker…did you bring
me
something, too?”

Passion surged, and he knew he would never get enough of the woman who held his heart.

“Oh yes, ma'am. I brought you something I know
you'll enjoy…if you don't mind waiting until nighttime to get it.”

Alicia sighed. Four years, and he could still make her toes curl.

“I feel like I've waited forever for you to show up in my life. I think I can wait a couple hours longer,” she said, then took her daughter's hand. “Come on, Annie. Let's go open those gummy bears and let Daddy put his things in the office.”

She gave him a wink and a smile before they walked away.

He was so full of emotion that, for a few quiet seconds, he couldn't breathe. Suddenly, anxious to be with them, he took off his coat, hung it in the closet and followed the sound of their laughter.