Jo Leigh - One-Click Buy - September Harlequin Blaze

Michael. It had to be. Oh, thank God. He must be alive, too, and they’d been together. Finally the whole story would come out. Jerry Brody, the main suspect, had sworn the kidnapping had nothing to do with him, but now everyone would find out for sure.

She didn’t care. Tate was alive. For the first time in ten days Sara could breathe.

When Mr. Baxter hung up, he grabbed her in a hug that would leave bruises tomorrow. It was perfect.

“YOU’RE UP.”

Michael turned at the sound of Tate’s voice to find her sitting beside his bed. His hospital bed. “How’d I get here?”

“The cavalry showed up. Too late to be of much help to you, however.”

“Doesn’t matter. You’re here.”

She smiled, wishing now that she’d had a few more moments with a hairbrush and some makeup. She’d done little but cry since she’d been roused on the ambulance boat. Michael had still not gained consciousness at the time, and as she’d waved away the concerned medics, she’d asked them a hundred questions-all of them nonsense, really, because Michael was alive.

She’d ridden with him to the hospital, and while he’d had his wrist worked on she’d called her father. It had been so good to speak to him, to know that Sara was there and that she’d taken care of him. They would all be together in the morning, which was wonderful, but right now she needed to be with Michael. To make sure he was all right and that he wasn’t going to disappear.

“How long have I been out of it?”

“It’s ten. At night, just so we’re clear.”

He looked at his bandaged hand. “Is this all the damage?”

“To you, yes.”

“They found all the bodies?”

She nodded. “There’s going to be an inquest, but don’t worry. You’ll be cleared in a moment. Ed’s in jail and he’s not ever getting out.”

“Charlie?”

“He’ll live. He’s here in the hospital. He has a concussion, that’s all. But I’m afraid he won’t be getting off so easily.”

Michael looked away. “I’m glad he didn’t die.”

She scooted her chair closer to the bed and touched his arm. “I called my father. He and Sara are flying in first thing in the morning.”

“Good. Great.”

“You’ll be released by then. But I’m afraid you’ll be in police custody until the inquest. I was assured there would be no delay. When my father gets here-”

“I’ll hand in my resignation.”

“I was going to say he’ll make sure you’ll have everything you need. I’ve gotten us a room at the Ritz, so as soon as you’re free-”

“Tate…I appreciate all of this. I do. But let’s slow down a little. There’s a lot to deal with, and my head’s still too fuzzy to understand it all.”

“Of course,” she said, embarrassed at her own presumption. “I’ll call the nurse.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I’m probably going to be knocked out till morning. I’ll sleep better knowing you’re getting some rest.”

“I’m fine. That chair is really comfortable.”

He shook his head. “Go to the hotel,” he said too quietly. “Get a good night’s sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

His tone was gentle and concerned, but his message burned in her chest. He wanted her gone. What she didn’t know was if he meant for tonight or forever.

Frankly she wasn’t in any shape to ask the question. Better to leave it unanswered than to know for sure. “Okay. I’ll send the nurse.”

Michael nodded. His gorgeous face looked even more rugged with the dark bruises and his five-o’clock shadow. She hated that he’d been so badly hurt, but her prayers had been answered. He was alive. It shouldn’t matter that he was sending her away. It shouldn’t-but it did.

She stood, put the chair back, then headed for the door.

“Tate?”

She stopped.

“No kiss goodbye?”

She smiled as she went back to him. She bent over him and brushed her lips over his. He touched her arm with his left hand as he kissed her back.

When she pulled away, the look in his eyes told her everything. When he’d asked for a kiss goodbye, he’d meant it.

THE JET TOUCHED DOWN at seven-eighteen Caymans time. Tate had gotten to the airport forty minutes earlier and had too many cups of coffee as she’d waited.

The good night’s sleep she’d promised Michael hadn’t materialized. She’d lain awake in her very posh suite, thinking. The fact that she’d still felt as if she was rocking on the water didn’t help, either, but mostly she’d just thought.

She’d wanted a kidnapping to change her life and she’d gotten what she’d asked for. She hadn’t bargained on the close calls with death. But then, she hadn’t bargained on Michael, either.

Bottom line, however, was that she would never be the same.

She’d faced off with Ed, and despite his gun and his cell phone, she’d come out the victor. She’d kicked her kidnapper’s ass. That wasn’t opinion, it was fact.

Would she ever have another panic attack? Yeah, probably. There had been that whole passing-out business when she’d found out Michael was alive. But the good news was she wasn’t going to stop living. She wasn’t going to hole herself up in her luxurious prison of a penthouse. She was a free woman. Forever more, if she did have a panic attack, she could think of the satisfying crunch of Ed’s testicles against her kneecap. That would surely get her through.

The bigger question was what she was going to do about Michael.

There was no doubt in her mind that she loved him. That she wanted to be with him, and not just for a fling. But she also wasn’t naive enough to think that scenario wasn’t rife with problems. There was her father to deal with. And the money thing. Then there was his guilt about his brother. None of those issues was going to be worked out with a nice chat.

She was, however, not willing to let him go just because she wasn’t sure about how things would work. They’d just have to take it one step at a time.

Assuming, of course, he was willing to try.

The glass door between the tarmac and the terminal slid open, and there was her father.

She ran to him and gave him a hug he’d never forget. Fresh tears came from that never-ending supply, but these were joyous, so maybe they didn’t count.

He petted her head as he rocked her back and forth. She felt like a little girl again, safe in her daddy’s arms.

Finally she pulled back, kissed him on the cheek, then jumped into another fierce round of hugs with Sara.

It took a while, but they all finally finished crying and hugging and went off to the hotel.

She talked the entire way, and after they’d checked in, she continued the tale in her father’s suite. She emphasized that Michael had saved her life many times over, but her father could be the most stubborn man.

“Don’t get me wrong-I’m grateful he saved your life. But if it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.”

“Stop,” she said. “I know you want someone to blame, so here’s a really good solution. Blame Ed Martini. He’s the one who kidnapped me, who threatened me. He was going to kill me that first night, after he got the ransom. Then he was going to kill me as soon as he got the big money. He tried to kill me in the middle of the street in George Town. That’s who you can blame. And when you’re done with that, you can go to Michael Caulfield and you can thank him for your daughter’s life.”

Her father looked at her for a long time, and while a stranger would have thought he was completely unmoved by her speech, she knew he had listened. More importantly, he’d heard.

“You care about him,” Sara said.

She looked at her oldest friend. “I do.”