If Tomorrow Never Comes (34 page)

           
Sucking in a gasp of astonishment, lips quivering, heart
leaping through her chest, her mind did somersaults.
 
She’d collapse from the joy spilling over she
just knew she would from realizing that Jake knew her last name.
 
Certainly, he investigated her, knew what she
was, what she’d been.
 
When did he find
out?
 
How long did he know, probably
longer than she cared to acknowledge?
 
Regardless, he risked his life for her, told her he loved her.
 
He’d proven his love, kept all his
promises.
 
The idiot even asked her to
marry him.
 
What a fool, what a
wonderful, wonderful fool.

           
Jordan now knew it didn't matter to him who or what she’d
been, that it never mattered, never would.
 
That from this day forward she’d only see herself through his eyes.
 
Eyes that had lifted her from the gutter and
placed her on a pedestal so high no one could ever hurt her again.
 

           
Turning she saw, him on his knees, arms beseeching her,
his face, his eloquent tears, heard his heart hammering, and she wondered what
she'd ever done worthy enough for God to grant her such a miracle.
 
The Almighty didn't stop at just a part of
Jake; he'd granted her the entire arrogant, self-assured, impossible,
egotistical, beautiful man.
 

           
Planet Heaven had touched down and was waiting for her to
enter its arms.
 
Jordan's smile could
have convinced the whole world she was the woman in the moon and that Jake had
roped it.
 
She never thought it possible
that someone would say I love you to her of all people.
 

           
She was convinced her feet wouldn't move, her legs
wouldn't support her weight as she advanced toward him.
 
A crippling weakness she did not give into
until he scooped her up into arms that spun her around and around as fresh
tears washed her face.
 
Arms that
intended to hold her until they broke.

           
When their lips met to seal their promise of forever,
Margaret bear-hugged Mike, then kissed him on his mouth.
 
A gush of warmth soared through the normally
cold dismal terminal in the form of cheers, roars, and applause.
 

           
“Way to go, Jordan!”

           
“Way to go, Jake!”
   

           
People hugged strangers, men slapped five, women plucked
tissues, the pilot and co-pilot breathed a sigh of relief, teenagers extended
their fisted arms and yelled, “oof, oof, oof,” and bewildered youngsters
wondered what in the world was happening.
  

CHAPTER 31

           
Following
a hearing at which Jake and his fellow officers testified the judge cleared
Billy's mother of all charges.
  
Though
ballistic reports proved the bullet retrieved from Scorpios' skull came from
her gun, the judge based his verdict upon her brave attempt to save the lives
of DEA officer's and innocent bystanders.
 

           
Billy
could not have been prouder of the elegant woman sitting confidently erect
staring at him with love drilling his eyes.
 
Forever he'd remember her testimony; she had returned to claim her son.
           

           
During
a private inquisition, Jake commended Billy's bravery throughout the raid that
wiped out Scorpios' henchmen and saved his and Jordan's life.
 
Due to the lack of evidence proving he was in
anyway involved with Scorpios' dealings, the judge also exonerated Billy.
 
Reluctantly, McMaster's signed his transfer
to the West Coast where he relocated to be near his mother.
 
Later he met and married a beautiful young
attorney.
 
They came to Chicago often to
visit Jake, Jordan, and Margaret then later became God parents to Jake’s
children.
 

           
Thanks
to Jake's efforts, Butch's sentence was reduced from twenty-five years to ten,
with the possibility of parole in three years.
 
After his arrest, Butch summoned Jake to inform him that he'd replaced
the capsule in Marla's purse with a harmless one, and after destroying the
pictures and videos of Jordan refilled the envelope with those of another
woman.
 
Unable to inform Marla in time,
he'd forever blame himself for her death.

           
Jake
and Jordan married.
 
The ceremony a small
private one performed by a Judge at City Hall.
 
There was no way in hell Jake was going to allow the most intriguing
woman in the world to get away again, the reason he handcuffed their wrists
together before the ceremony in front of the horror struck Judge.
 
An act combined with the Judges' shocked
features that caused uproarious laughter, whistles, and shouts from spectators
managing to cram every inch available.
  
A joke that backfired when Jordan reached between her breasts to
retrieve the key she had swiped from Jake's pocket.
 
Dangling it proudly in front of his nose, her
mouth claimed the most colorful expletive known to humankind before tossing the
key out the third floor window.
         

           
Scooping
her into his arms, Jake never released Jordan's lips while carrying her to the
elevator, down the concrete steps and outside to an outrageously decorated
patrol car with its flashing lights and bellowing siren.
 

           
As
though it was snowing in the middle of summer, barrages of confetti, scraps of
paper, streamers and balloons, took flight from windows, litter that danced in
the breeze to the sound of the merriment below.
 
And while thousands of fans lining steps, sidewalks, and streets cheered
the newlyweds street lights flickered and sirens whined.
 
For one moment in time, all vestiges of
cruelty, crime, and death became irrelevant as the couple road off into the
sunset.

           
Dull, quiet,
far from Jake's life from that day forward.
 
Perpetually trying his patience Jordan kept him on his toes, that is,
when they weren't beneath the sheets.
 
His life service with the Drug Enforcement Agency was nothing compared
to the commotion faithfully meeting him at the door each night.
 
Kissing each forehead, he'd gaze into the
tiger-eyes of his two sons and two daughters.
 
Eyes matching their mothers that never ceased from the very instant they
collided with his to thrill him to the tips of his hair.

           
Margaret?
 
Well, though shocked, Mike never recovered
from her bear hug and kiss.
 
You can
still find his slippers beneath her bed.