Ultimate Fear (Book 2 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series) (54 page)

“Detective, can I ask you something before you leave?” Chloe asked.

Jessica stopped, and looked over her shoulder. “Sure.”

“Do you believe God has a plan?”

She turned and took a step forward. “I don’t know.”

“Heather did. She told me that God leading her to me was all His design.” She shrugged. “She might be a crazy bitch, but she also might be right.”

“How’s that?”

“When I was alone in the storage unit, I kept thinking how someone had to stop Heather. That she could do this again to another woman. When I woke up today and realized I was okay and so was my baby, I wondered if Heather might be right and that maybe I
was
part of God’s design. That He put me in her path because He knew my son would stop her from ever hurting anyone else.” She half-laughed. “Now I sound crazy.”

Heather and Wayne’s actions had touched so many lives. But if Sophia hadn’t been abducted, she wouldn’t have been combing through Rachel’s program or missing children websites. She wouldn’t have known about Quinn Joyce, the last boy they’d kidnapped. She wouldn’t have had Dante working with her on the investigation, which had forced them to face their problems and ultimately led to their reconciliation. And if they hadn’t been working on the investigation, and hadn’t been in Lamoni, Iowa, the night Missy Schneider had been murdered, they wouldn’t have connected Chloe back to Heather and Wayne. Chloe was right, though. In the end, her son had stopped Heather and Wayne.

“Actually, you don’t sound crazy at all.” She walked over, then knelt in front of Chloe. “I don’t know the answers to why we come in contact with certain people, or why bad things happen to some of us, and good things to others.” The watercolor of Sophia and Dante filled her mind. “I’ve never subscribed to the idea that everything happens for a reason.” She blinked back the tears stinging her eyes. “But maybe sometimes we have to lose something to find what it is we’ve been really looking for.”

She gave the girl’s hand a squeeze, then, after saying goodbye, she left. Dante should be home by now and she desperately needed to see him. Because of the way she’d handled Sophia’s abduction, she’d almost lost him once.

And she refused to risk losing him again.

*

Dante sat on the concrete basement floor, staring at the open bins. The day he’d brought them to Sophia’s room had been one he hadn’t been looking forward to, but it had been necessary for his mental health. He’d grown tired of looking at the closed bedroom door and how it had embodied the loss of his child and his wife. When Jessica had left him, he’d worked hard to rid himself and the house of the negative energy that had been hovering over it like a thick black cloud. Six months before Sophia’s seventh birthday, he’d made up his mind to do something about the room. With a small cooler filled with ice and a six-pack of Budweiser, he’d opened the bedroom door, looked at the crib, at all the things that screamed baby, then realized what had to be done.

Sophia wasn’t a baby anymore. She needed a big girl’s room.

Only Jessica hadn’t agreed. He shook his head and smoothed his hand along a pair of his daughter’s pajamas. Yeah, he’d fucked up big time. He should have consulted Jessica first. He should have at least warned her. He’d planned to tell her about the room change, but things between them had been going so well, he’d wanted to wait.

Now his wife was pissed off at him—again. On top of that, he had an equally pissed off boss.

Thanks to him, Lola could have been killed last night.

Footsteps from above had him looking to the rafters. He should close the bins and go upstairs and try to apologize to Jessica again. While a part of him wanted to, the other part said, to hell with it. He’d made it perfectly clear he hadn’t meant to hurt her. Instead of giving him a chance to explain, she’d made her mind up that he was the bad guy. She’d acted like she was the only one who hurt, and that was where she was dead wrong. He remembered painting Sophia’s room, hanging up the curtains and putting together the crib. Like Jessica, he cherished those memories, the anticipation, the nervous excitement, picturing what his daughter would look like lying in her crib all bundled up in one of her baby blankets. He loved those memories, but changing the room hadn’t made them disappear. They were still in his head and heart, just like Sophia and Jessica were. His two girls. The people he loved the most.

The basement door creaked, then light spilled down the staircase and hit the cinderblock wall. Not wanting to hurt Jessica any more than he already had, he quickly closed the bins, then stacked them.

“Dante?” she called.

He picked up a small toolbox. “Down here,” he said, walking toward the bottom of the steps.

“What are you doing?” she asked, and stopped a couple of steps before reaching him.

He held up the toolbox. “Just grabbing this.”

“Really?” She moved past him, then walked to where he’d stacked the bins. After removing the lid off the top bin, she looked over her shoulder at him. “Are you sure you weren’t looking at Sophia’s clothes? Because when I closed these up and put them away yesterday, this bin was on the bottom.”

“I might’ve.” He set the toolbox on the concrete. “Did you sleep with her pink dress?”

She replaced the lid. “I might’ve,” she echoed, and moved toward him. “I wish you could have been there today when I interviewed Chloe and Heather. Everything okay at work?”

“Yeah,” he lied. “Everything’s fine.”

She stopped in front of him and took his hand. “You don’t look fine.”

He glanced away. “How’d the interviews go?”

“Good. I’ll tell you about them after you tell me what’s wrong.”

He shrugged. “My wife hates me, Lola’s in the hospital and my boss is ready to can my ass. Oh, and I got to see a dead body this morning. So it’s been an all-around great—”

“Lola’s in the hospital?” She squeezed his hand tight. “What happened? Is she okay?”

“Because of me, she has a concussion and two broken ribs.”

“What do you mean
because of you
?”

“I left my trainee alone. I let her go checking into the storage companies by herself. Thanks to me, she had zero back up. And thanks to the five guys who jumped her, she had no time to call for help.”

“Five— Oh, my God. Were they the guys you two have been looking for?”

“Yep. The owner of the last storage company she stopped at had pulled her aside and told her he thought something shady was going on in one of his units. She went to check it out, started questioning the guys at the unit, nosed around and that’s when they went after her.”

“Thank God she walked away with only a concussion and a couple of broken ribs. That could’ve been a lot worse. Why didn’t she call for back up
before
going to the unit?”

“According to Ian, she’d planned to, but the owner was in on the robberies and set her up. He went after her, too.” Guilt twisted his stomach. He shook his hand free from hers. “I should’ve never let her go alone. And Ian made it crystal clear he’s pissed that I was more focused on running a side investigation with you than my job with CORE.”

“But did you explain that—”

“I explained everything. Doesn’t matter. He’s pissed about everything right now. Rachel went into labor last night, and he doesn’t have anyone to cover for her while she’s on maternity leave. Even if Lola wasn’t hurt, he would’ve still gone off on me.”

“What about the men who attacked her?”

“Three of them are in the same hospital she is, and the other two are being held for robbery and assault.”

“Holy crap.” She grinned. “Did Lola do that all by herself?”

“She kicked their asses.” Pride lessened the guilt, but not by much. Although Lola had proven she could handle herself in the field, bottom line was, he’d fucked up and should have been there with her. He wasn’t the one who decided whether or not she was qualified or ready to work on her own, Ian was. Just because he’d been Ian’s first recruit, and his boss trusted him to run things when he was gone, didn’t mean he could do what he wanted. Like run a side investigation that took time away from his job.

“She shot one in the leg,” he continued, “the other in the arm, broke one guy’s knee cap and managed to knock the other two unconscious long enough that they were still out by the time the police got there.”

“Remind me not to get on her bad side,” she said with a chuckle.

“It’s not funny, Jess. The situation could have been a lot worse.”

“But it wasn’t.” Her smile fell. “Or…did Ian let you go?”

“No. But I don’t think he’ll have me training any other new recruits for a while.” Which wasn’t a bad thing. He hadn’t minded working with Jake, and then Lola, but he’d been missing running his own investigations. “As for Lola—after yesterday’s performance, she’s earned her stripes and is officially finished with her training. Once she’s back to work, Ian plans to give her cases of her own.”

“That’s great. And Rachel, did she have her baby?”

He nodded. “Around two in the morning. Ian saw her and the baby, and said they’re doing great. I guess Owen’s all over Rachel and their baby girl. Ian said he couldn’t get within a few inches of either of them without Owen shoving hand sanitizer at him.”

“He’s a proud papa. I can remember someone else who was like that.” Her eyes brightened with amusement. “So what did they name the baby?”

“Emily Grace. And I wasn’t that bad,” he said, trying to remember if he was or not.

“Yes, you were.” She twined her arms around his waist. “I’ll never forget the pride and love in your eyes when you first saw her. Or how you kissed me and told me how much you loved me.”

Now
that
he remembered. He cupped her face. “I’ll always love you. Jess, I’m sorry about Sophia’s room. Let me make it right. Let me—”

“You
did
make it right. Sophia’s not a ten-month-old baby anymore. She’s a seven-year-old little girl. Her room should reflect that. I yelled at you for taking away my memories, but you didn’t. I still have them, and I plan to cherish them for the rest of my life.”

He searched her eyes and, for the first time in years, found hope in them. “And us?”

“Just try to get rid of me.”

“Not a chance,” he said, and hugged her close. “I tried to live without you, and it was like stumbling around in the dark. I need you.” He brushed his lips against hers.

“I love you,” she said with a catch in her breath, then kissed him.

As their kiss deepened, the love and relief swelling his heart washed away all of his concerns. The only thing he cared about right now was the woman in his arms. She was his light. She represented hope.

She was the love of his life.

POSTPARTUM

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.

—A.A. Milne from Winnie the Pooh

Five months later…

WHEN JESSICA SAW Dante’s car in the driveway, she quickly parked. After killing the engine, she grabbed the color swatches she’d picked up on her way home from Court, then rushed into the house. She hadn’t expected Dante to be home from his latest assignment. Since Ian was using the CORE jet, and there’d been terrible storms plaguing the South, Dante hadn’t been sure if he would be able to catch a flight out of Jackson, Mississippi, today. She was thrilled he had and couldn’t wait to tell him the good news.

“Hi,” she said, when she found him in the kitchen, then gave him a kiss and hug. She set her purse and the color swatches on the table. “I’m glad you’re home.”

He looked to the paint samples. “So you can give me another project?” he asked with a sigh. “There goes the weekend.”

“Oh, stop. You like projects.” Actually, he was the one who usually initiated any of their home improvement plans. “And that’s not the
only
reason I’m glad you’re home, and you know it.”

He snagged her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I know. It’s because I’m irresistible.”

She gave him a quick kiss. “True, but try again.”

He chuckled. “Could it have anything to do with the sentencing?”

“You’re a brilliant investigator,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “I wish you could have been there.” Ian hadn’t hired any new agents since Lola, who’d been off on her various CORE assignments, so Dante had been extremely busy working his own investigations. While he hadn’t minded training new recruits, he’d expressed many times that he was definitely happier being out in the field alone.

“Me, too.” After taking a seat at the kitchen table, he pulled her into his lap. “I’ve been anxious to hear how things went today. Good news?”

“Great news. Heather Cooke was given the death penalty.” Since Heather had confessed to her crimes and had pled guilty to the charges against her, there had been no need for a trial.

“That
is
great news.”

Jessica grinned. “Yeah, and get this. After her sentencing, she addressed the Court and said that she’s made peace with God and Wayne, and is anxious to enter His Kingdom and be reunited with her husband and son. Against the advice of counsel, she waived her right to an automatic appeal.”

His eyes widened. “Seriously? Since she waived her rights, she could be executed within the next year, maybe sooner.”