Wanting (35 page)

“
Dan has been hurting for
so long. And he loves Carrie. Who are we to question what he did?”
The doctor was an odd one; Kevin had no difficulty seeing that. She
was calm and cool and after telling him that Carrie was safe with
his daughter Melody, she’d insisted he stay put and help her. The
other man, Dennis, was taking charge of the scene, ordering the
cops and first responders around like commands were second nature
for him. They probably were.

“
Is he going to make
it?”

“
I hope so. I really hope
so. Let’s move him! Now!” The woman stood and let the paramedics
strap Reynolds into a brace. They’d carry him down the fire escape
and to the waiting ambulance below.

Kevin wasn’t a religious
person—they took the kids to church when they were little, but
Kevin wasn’t a real praying man. He prayed now. Prayed he’d have a
chance to thank this man.

Kevin followed the doctor
and the paramedics down the escape. The fire responders were
ushering everyone off the roof. The fire was starting to spread to
the runaway shelter. They’d been fortunate, apparently. Whatever
Rush had set had been slow burning and a heavy smoker. Designed to
distract, not destroy completely. To buy him time to find Carrie
and get her out of the building unnoticed.

Now if Reynolds was just as
fortunate.

Within four minutes the
responders had the roof clear and Reynolds was being carried away
in an ambulance.

Melody and Brynna met him
on street level. Kevin grabbed each of his daughters by the arm and
pulled them away from the commotion. Hugged them. “Where’s your
sister?”

“
Agent Lorcan is taking
her to the hospital to be with her friend. I guess he’s a mentor of
Carrie’s. A close friend.” Brynna was shivering, the excitement of
the scene too much for her. She was used to staying in the
precinct. Forensics, especially computer crimes were where she was
comfortable. This kind of world would be hard for her.

“
Which hospital?” Kevin
ushered the girls toward his vehicle, still parked two blocks away
where he’d left it.

“
Memorial.” Jarrod,
Melody’s partner, said. Kevin was thankful the cool and efficient
detective had come with the girls.

“
Let’s go.”

“
Dad? What happened up
there?” Melody asked.

Kevin shook his head. He
wouldn’t talk about it now. He had to find his oldest daughter
first.

Chapter 84

******

Carrie paced the waiting
room, counting the one-two-three-four out in her head. Would she
ever forget the origination of the beats? Ode to Joy? Somehow she
doubted it.

Sebastian was beside her,
his eyes watching every move she made. She couldn’t look at him. If
she did, she was afraid she’d break down.

Dan was dying.

Dying. Protecting
her.

Just like her mother had.
Madeline had pushed her into the closet, with the tiny doll Carrie
had been forbidden to touch before that day. Had told Carrie to
never make a sound. So she didn’t. She’d done what her mother had
told her to do.

She looked at everyone
gathered around her. Alessandra had stayed behind at the scene to
help there with Agent Len. Edward Dennis was pacing the waiting
room, opposite of Carrie. He and Dan were such close friends. This
had to hurt him, too. Dan had other friends. Had anyone thought of
them? “Did anyone call Josh? Hell and Georgia?”

Dennis nodded. “They’re all
on their way. So is the rest of your team.”

Because Dan might die. And
everyone needed to be there for him. For each other. In case. “When
will we know something?”

Dr. Jules stood and
approached Carrie. “Carrie, sweetie. It’s going to take a while.
Dan…Dan was hit five times. They’re going to repair the damage.
Then he’ll be in recovery. Why don’t you sit down? Take a breather.
You’ve had a pretty rough day.”

Carrie nodded. Dr. Jules
had always pointed out reason to her. She sank into the chair
beside Sebastian. She still couldn’t look at him. If she did, she
knew she’d lose control completely.

And that was something she
just couldn’t afford to do.

***

Why wouldn’t she look at
him? Had she looked at anyone besides Dr. Bellows since they’d
arrived at the hospital? Why?

No one had touched her
except Dr. Bellows. Not since the fire escape. He had tried. But
she’d pulled away. Why? Was it just her way of coping? Her shoulder
bumped his and he put his arm around her. She trembled against him,
twisted her fingers in the material of his sleeve. She still didn’t
look at him. Her foot tapped and tapped, faster than he’d ever
noticed before. But she was holding herself together. She was. He
pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. He was so damned proud
of the way she’d handled herself tonight.

He never would have
expected her to do what she did. But she’d saved herself tonight by
quick thinking and a willingness to act. “Sweetheart, let’s go.
We’ll walk around for a bit.”

Get her away from the
prying eyes and see what she needed him to do in order for them
both to get through this.

“
I don’t
know…Dan…”

“
We won’t leave the
hospital. And I have my phone still.”

“
Mine’s inside the shelter.
I tried to answer when you called, but the keys jammed. I’ll need a
new phone.” Carrie stood when he prompted her. He nodded at Dennis,
knowing the older man knew what he was doing. Dennis would call if
there was any news on Dan. Or on Paige and Calista.

Calista had been brought by
ambulance twenty minutes before Dan. Paige had only gotten checked
out because Dennis himself had insisted.

And Carrie had asked her
to.

Unfortunately for Paige,
they’d admitted her.

He wrapped his hand around
Carrie’s smaller one, not allowing her to protest. He needed to
touch her. He led her outside the hospital and they walked for
close to fifteen minutes, just circling the building. She never
spoke, but she never let go of his hand, either.

He led her to a stone bench
in the hospital courtyard. She settled on it and stared out at the
street in front of the hospital. “I shouldn’t have gone over the
roof. I should have stayed where I was.”

She was blaming herself. He
knew she would eventually. “What happened wasn’t your
fault.”

“
What did
happen?”

Sebastian closed his eyes,
knowing he would never forget. “You went over the edge and Rush
aimed at Detective Beck. Beck…Beck was focused on getting to the
side of the wall. To you. Dan was moving. He was between Rush and
Beck as Rush fired. Dan went down, Dennis, Alessandra and I all
fired after Dan hit the ground.”

“
I saw Rush go over the
edge of the rail. He almost hit that girl. The one you said was my
sister.”

“
He’s dead. He was dead
before he went off the roof.”

“
Yes. I know. He killed my
mother. And I guess my step-father. He would have killed me, but
she hid me. With the necklace. It was a key to the music box in a
Houston evidence lockup. It was never really about me. Just about
the key. That’s what he was looking for in my
apartment.”

“
Alessandra recovered the
necklace you threw. It hit Dr. Bellows. Or she caught it. I’m not
sure which. But we have it.”

“
I don’t want to see it
again.”

“
It was your mother’s. Are
you sure?” She’d told him how much it meant to her when they were
driving between Missouri and Kentucky days ago.

“
Positive. I thought she
gave me the doll and necklace because she loved me and wanted me to
have them. Because she knew the bad man was coming. But she was
just trying to hide the evidence from Rush. She was a criminal. He
said so. And that other man. Him. Kevin. He confirmed it. Said she
got mixed up in things. That’s why she was killed. Why I was
alone.”

“
What was she like before
that night, baby? Did she love you?”

Chapter 85

*****

Carrie remembered her
mother’s hands as they rocked her in the middle of the night.
Remembered the soft brush of a kiss against her childish forehead
when she had a fever. Remembered her mother singing. Laughing.
Holding her so close, telling her stories about princes coming to
rescue her. Loving her. That had her straightening. Had what Rush
said becoming slightly less important? Less devastating? “She loved
me.”

“
Isn’t that all that
matters now? That she loved you? All the rest of the bullshit Rush
was spouting. None of it is important. Just that you are alive, and
Rush isn’t. A murderer is dead, and won’t hurt anyone else. Officer
Thompson—Rush killed him two weeks ago. Who knows who else he would
have hurt if we hadn’t have stopped him tonight.”

“
But at what cost? Dan? He
didn’t deserve this.” She stood, then paced around the small grassy
area.

“
No one did.” He stepped
in front of her. “You definitely didn’t. Beck’s daughters didn’t. I
heard what he had planned. If he hadn’t taken you, he was going to
take one of the younger two. They’re nineteen and sixteen. Youngest
is still in high school, baby. He would have taken her and used her
as leverage to get the older ones to cooperate in getting that
music box.”

“
I know.” A little girl. A
teenager. Her sister, if Beck was to be believed. And Rush would
have taken her, hurt her, to get a damned music box that meant
practically nothing to anyone but him. How was she supposed to
understand that? Sebastian was directly in front of her. Carrie
just wanted to grab him and burrow herself into his chest. Where
she knew she would be safe. Where he could block out the world and
all the bad things in it. She stared at him as the tears she’d been
holding back since they’d entered the hospital started to fall. She
wiped at them. “And we stopped him.”

“
You did. We did.”
Sebastian’s phone beeped and he grabbed it. Read the display. “And
Dan did. And as soon as he’s back on his feet, we’ll stop others
just like him.”

Carrie stared at him for
the longest moment. “What is it?”

“
That was Bellows. Dan’s
pulled through surgery and is in recovery. It looks like he’s going
to make it, baby.”

Carrie felt a sob
escape.

Then she was in Sebastian’s
arms and holding on to him tighter than she’d ever held anyone
before. His hands were hot and hard on her, but she didn’t care. He
held her, and held her.

It took her a few moments
to hear the words he was saying into her hair over and over again.
I love you. It’s ok. I love you.

No man had ever told her
that before. No man had ever even acted like he loved
her.

Yet Sebastian Lorcan was
telling her that he did.

And God help her, she
believed him.

Carrie pulled away and
looked up into the green eyes that had reminded her of her cat the
first time she met him. “You mean that.”

“
Yes. I do.”

“
How do you
know?”

He laughed. “What do you
mean how do I know? I’ve suspected for a few days. But knew for
sure when I realized you were up there with that bastard. When I
realized that I may never get the chance to tell you how I felt. So
here it is, I love you, Carrie Sparks. And I always
will.”

Carrie kissed him, hard,
then pulled back slightly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and
looked up at him. “How do you know?”

“
I just do. Look, I know
it’s quick. God knows a few weeks aren’t really long enough to
know, but…we’ve got plenty of time now to figure out the rest. If
you’re willing.” His hands were around her waist and he lifted
until they were eye to eye.

“
I am. I am. More than
willing. Once Dan’s better, and we figure everything else
out.”

“
We’ll work out the
details later. For now… For now, let’s go wait on Reynolds. I think
this is news he’d love to have, don’t you think? Hell, who knows,
maybe I’ll ask him to be my best man…”

Epilogue

*****

Carrie took a few deep
breaths, counting softly. Today was the day. Within a few hours she
would officially belong to someone. And he would belong to
her.

Paige was on her left side,
Alessandra on her right. Her friends, forever. They’d helped her
plan this whole thing and they’d had a great time doing
it.

Today. Today…

“
Are you ready?” Alessandra
asked. “This is your last chance to head for the hills.”

“
Only if he can come,
too.”

Her mother’s words ran
through her head. Only marry the man you truly love, my sweetheart.
Wait for him. Only then can you be happy.

Carrie’s waiting was over.
Today, she’d be married.

“
You’re not nervous.” Paige
shook her head. Her green silk gown made her look elegant and
beautiful. It matched the one Alessandra wore. “I’d be freaking out
about now.”