Kiss of death

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

ADAM WAS READING the note on the front door when he heard a scream. Gathering all his strength, he charged into the door, shoulder first. It hadn’t been properly closed and burst open. He crashed into the entry, off balance, and stumbled sideways. He regained his footing, then raced through the crypt-dark house. He rounded the corner into a large room. Beyond it he saw a pool area.

Another muffled shout echoed through the dark night. He charged out the open sliding glass door and saw Whitney sprawled beside the pool. He sprinted to where Ashley Fordham was standing over Ryan, a gun in her hand.

What in hell was going on here?

“I’ve killed him. I’ve killed him.” Like a robot, Ashley jerkily turned to Adam and offered him the gun.

Adam tugged his shirt out of his pants. Careful not to leave fingerprints, he used the cloth to glove his hand and grabbed the gun. He dropped it on a nearby table. Had Ashley shot both Ryan and Whitney? He yanked off his belt and grabbed Ashley, binding both her wrists.

“No. Stop,” she cried. “I was trying to save Whitney. Honest.”

“Yeah, right.” He shoved her aside. “You expect me to believe that? You stole her dog.” He had a thousand questions for her, but right now all that mattered was Whitney.

She lay crumpled on the pool deck, bleeding. In Iraq his closest friends’ blood had been splattered all over him, and Adam had nearly died. That was nothing compared to the way his gut twisted at the sight of Whitney’s blood.

Next to her, Ryan Fordham lay flat on his back, blood gushing from a wound in his chest. His flat, unseeing eyes told Adam the man was dead.

“Whitney, Whitney.” He dropped to his knees and felt for a pulse. By some miracle she was still alive, but blood was seeping from a shot just above her waist. He prayed it hadn’t hit any vital organs.

“Ryan shot her,” cried Ashley. “I had to stop him before he fired again.”

With trembling fingers, Adam pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed 911. Somehow he managed to give them the address and order an ambulance on the double.

“Hang in there, sweetheart,” he told Whitney as he examined the wound. He was afraid to move her in case it caused more bleeding. He applied pressure above the wound.

Jasper and Lexi circled the two bodies. One look told him the dogs had no clue how serious this was. “Get out of the way!” he yelled at them. Both dogs cowered. “Sit. Sit. Stay,” he said in a calmer voice.

He barely heard Ashley babbling about what happened. The gambling debt. The supposedly toxic land that was so valuable. Something about her long-lost father and money.

Adam didn’t give a rat’s ass. All that mattered was saving Whitney. He heard the wails of an ambulance and police cars coming closer and closer.

“Hurry, hurry,” he heard himself plead. He tried to think over the pulse thrumming in his temples, but there was nothing he could do except wait and pray. Her body was pathetically still, nearly lifeless, all color leached from her beautiful face.

“Aaah, aaahhh,” Whitney moaned, her eyes still closed.

“I love you, Whitney,” he said even though now was not the time to say it. He might never have another chance.

“A-a-ah-adam.” Whitney’s eyelids fluttered, then opened so slightly that he doubted she could see him.

“Shh. Don’t try to talk.”

“Ja-ja-jasper…ch-chip…neck.” Suddenly her eyes snapped shut.

“WE HEARD ABOUT IT ON television,” Holly told Adam. “We came right away. We knew you’d need us.”

All Adam could do was nod at Tyler and Holly. He wouldn’t need anybody or anything if Whitney didn’t survive.

They were sitting in the surgery waiting room. It had been more than two hours since the ambulance had sped away with Whitney. She’d been rushed immediately into surgery. A nurse had come out with one update: Whitney was still alive. The seconds had ticked by like days.

“I’m here. I’m here,” announced Trish Bowrather as she rushed into the waiting room with Rod Babcock. “Is she-”

“We don’t know anything yet,” Tyler told them when Adam couldn’t speak.

“What happened?” asked the attorney.

There was a long silence, then Adam heard himself begin to talk. “According to Ashley Fordham, Ryan tried to kill Whitney.”

“Lord have mercy. I warned her,” cried Trish, turning to Rod. The lawyer put his arm around her and pulled Trish close. “I warned Whitney, but she wouldn’t listen.”

“On TV they said Ryan Fordham had been shot and killed,” Tyler told everyone. “The police have arrested Ashley Fordham.”

Adam slowly nodded. “I guess Ashley killed him. There was a scuffle or something. I don’t know the details.”

“Whitney wasn’t able to tell you anything?” asked Holly.

“No. She only rallied for a moment.” He turned to Trish. “All she could think about was the dogs. She was worried about Jasper.”

“Just like Whitney,” Trish replied, then hesitated a moment. “She didn’t mention Lexi? That’s strange.”

“She could barely utter a syllable,” Adam told her. He lovingly recalled her last words. Jasper, chip, neck.

Holy shit!

She’d been trying to tell him something.

WHITNEY STRAINED TO LIFT HEAVY eyelids crusted with sand. Light. She finally glimpsed a single ray of light, but she seemed to be looking at the world through gauze.

“Whitney,” someone called to her from very far away.

Adam hovered over her with his arm around…Miranda. Whitney tried to speak but her parched tongue could barely move. A white-hot bolt of pain lanced up her side, as if someone were twisting a shard of glass.

Where was she? What had happened? She struggled to remember. She saw the bank of frightening-looking machines with tubes attached to her body.

“Can you hear me, sweetheart?” Adam asked, his hand on her shoulder.

She parted her lips to respond. In a flash the room morphed into darkness and she was scrambling out of the pool again. Ryan was going to shoot Ashley if she didn’t do something-fast. In freeze-frames her brain replayed the struggle over the gun.

“A-ash…ley?” she managed to say through a miasma of pain and confusion.

“She’s all right,” Adam assured her. “She got the gun away from Ryan and shot him.” There was a change in the pressure of his hand on her shoulder. “He’s dead.”

Ryan-dead? Her muddled brain was too traumatized to process the information. The light slowly seeped away until she was all alone in the dark again.

“Whitney…Whitney.”

The myriad machines twisted and garbled her name. She thought she heard it again but couldn’t be sure. She seemed to be floating high above the earth on clouds like feather beds. She willed her eyes to open and they reluctantly obeyed. She sensed time had passed. It could have been minutes, hours or even days.

The room was dark now, the only light glowing from the armada of machines that gurgled and beeped. In the next breath, she realized the drip-drip-drip she heard was an IV pumping life-giving fluids into her body. Woozy, she struggled to remember what had happened to her.

A face emerged from the shadows. “Hey, are you awake?”

“Adam?” She realized her left side ached so much she could barely speak. “Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t.” He brushed his lips to her forehead. “I love you. I haven’t left your side.”

“You love me?” she found the strength to whisper.

“You bet I love you.” He bent over and gently kissed her cheek. “I should have told you before-before I came damn close to losing you.”

Those all important words-I love you-made her giddily happy despite the pain. The knowledge made her aware of the fracture deep in her soul. This man had touched her in a way no one else ever had. He made her accept how much she longed for love and trust.

When she’d been in the pool and realized Ryan had gone berserk, she’d fervently wished she’d told Adam how she felt. Now she had a second chance.

“I love you, too.”

“You had me scared to death. I thought I was going to lose you.”

She mustered the strength to give him a little smile. Memories eclipsed by drugs and pain slowly floated to the surface as the blurry watercolor softness of drugs lifted a little. “Ashley’s all right? Did you tell me that or did I dream it?”

His warm hand cradled hers. “You didn’t dream it. Ashley went home with her father to Bakersfield. At first, the police arrested her, thinking she’d shot both of you in some lovers’ triangle.”

“Oh, no. She-”

“I know, I know. She was trying to help you. The police corroborated Ashley’s story very quickly. Forensics confirmed Ryan had fired the gun. After he shot you, Ashley grabbed the gun and killed him. The police know it was self-defense.”

“Ryan was a very sick man. I never realized.”

“Neither did Ashley.”

“I…feel bad for her. She could have run away or something but she returned and tried to save me.”

“Don’t worry about her. I’m sure she’ll be upset for a while but she’s reunited with her father. And Preston Block cares about her-a lot. She won’t be alone. I’m positive she’s going to be fine.”

“I hope so.” Whitney tried to capture an elusive memory, but the drugs slowed her thought process. She stared at a framed travel poster of Venice on the wall. Adam offered her some water, and she took it. The thought resurfaced as she swallowed. “Ryan’s friends threw the pipe bomb. The car-”

“We know. Ashley gave us Domenic Coriz’s name. He’s stonewalling but one of his men admits throwing the pipe bomb and driving the car. It was all about the land you and Ryan owned.”

She listened, ignoring the persistent ache in her side. Another thought exploded in her brain. How could she have forgotten? “Jasper! His chip.”

“I know. You told me.”

“I did?” She couldn’t recall telling him about her discovery.

“Yes. You came to for just long enough to tell me before the ambulance arrived.” He kissed her cheek, and she looked into those blue-blue eyes she loved so much. “I thought it might be the last thing you ever said. You’ve really had me worried.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“You couldn’t help it. You’ve been very sick.”

“What’s wrong with me?”

“The gunshot ruptured your spleen. You had massive internal bleeding that was hard to control. You’ve been here eight days.”

“Eight days? How could I have lost track of so much time?” Another thought niggled at her brain. This one surfaced more easily. “What about those men and the disc?”

“Quinten Foley arranged to transfer the info from Jasper’s chip and put enough of it on a disc to fool the terrorists.”

“Miranda?” She had a muddled impression of seeing Miranda hovering over her with Adam. How many days ago had that been?

“I called Miranda while you were in surgery. She flew here immediately. She’s just stepped out to get coffee. Your cousin is as brave as you are. Wearing a wire, she took the disc and met the terrorists. The wire caught enough on tape to keep them in prison for years.”

“Is Miranda in trouble or anything for her part in the arms deals?”

Adam shook his head. “She cooperated fully with the authorities and has given them access to the offshore accounts. They waived any charges.”

Whitney closed her eyes for a moment, trying to absorb it all.

“Get some rest,” Adam told her.

She snapped open her eyes. “No way. I’ve been out too long. You solved the case without me.”

“Be serious. If you hadn’t discovered the chip, the terrorists would never have believed Miranda had the real deal.”

“Then it’s over, really over. I can begin a new life.”

He lovingly studied her face for a moment. “Yes. It’s time for act two. You’re the star. I know you want to become a vet. I’m with you all the way.”

“What about you? I might have to move up north.”

“Don’t worry about it. I love you. We’ll work it out,” he told her with a reassuring smile. “I’ve arranged to let Tyler buy me out over time. I’m not really interested in the business he’s developed. I’ve always thought computer security is the wave of the future. After this chip thing, I’m sure I’m right.”

All that truly registered in Whitney’s brain was I love you. That was what really mattered to her. She’d taken a wrong turn, but now she was finally on the right path. “Adam, I couldn’t love you more.”

He squeezed her hand. “I think we should take some time for ourselves. To really get to know each other, Let’s drive up North with the dogs and-”

“Oh my gosh. Is Lexi all right? How’s Jasper?”

He kissed her cheek, his lips warm against her skin. “They’re fine. Lexi sleeps curled around Jasper. They’ve taken over the bed. We’re going to play hell getting any space for ourselves.”

Whitney giggled, then smiled up at Adam. “It’s okay. We’ll figure something out.” What really counted, she knew, was that they were together.

ISBN: 978-1-55254-777-9