Below the Bones (Widow's Island #5) - Kendra Elliot Page 0,28
Bruce were at the rock. Tessa attended to Emma, and Bruce handcuffed an unmoving Chris as Mike wrapped his belt around Chris’s arm.
“Go check Emma. And Chris,” she told Henry. “My ears are ringing, but I’m fine.” She exhaled forcefully. “Holy shit. Why did he make me do that?”
“You did the right thing.”
Cate shifted her gaze to Chris’s still form on the ground.
Did I?
She numbly followed Henry to the rock, where Tessa was talking to Emma. “It’s Tessa, Emma. You’re safe. Abby is safe too. Everything is going to be fine,” she repeated over and over.
Emma’s eyes barely focused. Her lips moved but formed no words.
Henry took over. “Her pupils are huge. Pulse and respiration’s okay. I’ll need to know what he gave her.”
“Chris is out,” said Mike. “He’s breathing, and his pulse is steady, but he’s bleeding from the shots—nothing heavy, just seepage.”
Cate bent over to see. Blood soaked Chris’s shoulder and left arm.
He’d lived.
“We need to get them both to the clinic,” said Henry.
“I’m more than happy to leave this place,” muttered Cate as her ears continued to ring. Chris’s blood dotted the rock and had sprayed over Emma’s shirt. The woman opened her eyes and looked directly at Cate.
She’ll be okay.
13
“I’m glad Emma is fine,” Cate said to Henry two days later as they sat on a bench at Widow’s Walk, enjoying the ocean view.
The woman had mostly regained consciousness by the time they’d gotten her out of the forest and had steadily improved on the way to the clinic. Henry had kept an eye on her overnight and had reunited her with Abby the next morning.
Chris Corbin had been picked up by two more FBI agents and taken to a hospital on the mainland. He would live. Cate suspected he’d lunged at Emma at the last second in an effort to draw fire. His quiet words about the urge never going away had repeated in her mind ever since then. Suicide by cop. He had known he was finished but hadn’t wanted to live with the consequences.
Too bad. Plenty of consequences were headed his way.
Investigators were taking another look at his mother’s murder now that they had a suspect in Jeff Lamb. Mike had gone with them, after giving Cate a tight hug and Henry a firm handshake.
“What did Mike say to you when you shook hands goodbye?” Cate asked. She’d noticed he’d leaned forward and spoken quietly, making Henry grin, but she had forgotten to ask about it until now.
Henry put his arm around Cate’s shoulders. “He said for me to keep you on the island.”
She frowned. “That wasn’t nice. Did he mean that I’m better off baking scones than returning to the FBI?” The comment stung more than she was willing to admit.
“I don’t think he meant that at all.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m done. I called Phillip this morning and told him to put through my final paperwork. This sabbatical nonsense has gone on long enough.”
He met her gaze. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. You saw what I went through when Tessa knocked on that front door. I was a wreck with anxiety. I could put someone at risk if that happened when I was on the job.”
Henry shifted forward and looked her full in the face. “You just saved Emma’s life. I watched you. You were cool and calm in a high-intensity situation. You haven’t lost your edge. And I saw how much you enjoyed working the case over the past few days. You welcomed the challenge.”
She had enjoyed it, but shooting Chris had haunted her dreams for the last two nights, and she knew it would continue. She never wanted to be in that situation again.
Cate sighed. “Why are you trying to get me to take that job back?”
“I’m not. I just want you to be absolutely positive that you’re where you want to be.”
Cate had no doubts. She smiled and lifted a hand to his cheek. “I am.” As she touched him, something tingled from her spine to her fingertips.
Henry blinked and covered her hand on his face with his. “What was that?”
A puff of icy air touched the back of Cate’s neck.
You approve, Ruby?
“I must have shocked you.”
“It didn’t feel like any shock I’ve ever experienced.” He visibly relaxed. “I’m glad you know what you want.”
“I do. I want to be right here on Widow’s with you. If I need something to solve, I’ll order a puzzle. One of those five-thousand-piece ones.”
His eyes lit up. “I love those.”
She laughed. “I didn’t know that. I’ve never seen you work on one.”
“I haven’t had time. I’ve been preoccupied with something,” he said with a grin, his eyes intent on her.
Preoccupied with me.
Cate was okay with that. “I’ve been distracted too,” she said softly. “I’ve been immersed in us . . . spending time with you, enjoying how well we mesh. I’ve loved every minute of it.”
“Me too.” He gave her a long kiss. As they parted, he held her gaze and took her hand, slipping a diamond solitaire on her finger.
Cate stared at the ring, speechless, her pulse pounding in her ears.
“Former FBI special agent Cate Wilde, would you do puzzles with me for the rest of your life?”
More electrical sparks flowed to the finger with the ring. “Yes,” she forced out. “Absolutely yes. There’s nothing I want more to do with my life than spend it with you.”
“Good. And this is what Mike meant when he told me to keep you on the island.” A satisfied gleam entered his eyes as he bent to kiss her. “But I’d already planned to.”
Icy air touched her neck.
Thanks, Ruby.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
After writing ten Rogue River novellas, Melinda and I were ready to write about new characters and a new location. A trip to the beautiful San Juan Islands convinced us a Pacific Northwest island would be a fabulous setting for more mystery and murder, and the concept of Widow’s Island was born. We carried over a couple of characters from Rogue River—we weren’t ready to leave it completely behind. Thank you to Montlake and our editor, Anh Schluep, for their enthusiasm about this project. Thank you to Charlotte Herscher for helping us sound like we know what we’re doing. Thank you to our readers who loved our first novella series and constantly begged for more. We hope you enjoy Widow’s Island as much as we do.
Kendra Elliot
Melinda Leigh
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2016 Rebekah Jule Photography
Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, as well as the Mercy Kilpatrick novels. She’s a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her family, but she looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops. Visit her at www.kendraelliot.com.