At six minutes past three, Chris’s cell phone rang, and he closed his laptop. He answered his cell phone, listened for several seconds, then said, “Thanks, Matt. Tell Andy the same from me...No, I think we’ve got it covered, but just in case, have Andy double back and park about a quarter mile before the driveway leading to the house. You can’t see that part of the road from the house, so the McCays won’t know you’re there. If you don’t hear from me in...oh...fifteen minutes, assume the worst and come to our rescue. But be careful—”
He broke off sharply, and Holly knew he could hear the same thing she did—the sound of a car pulling up in front of the house. “They’re here. Gotta go.”
Holly scrambled to her feet and wiped her suddenly sweaty palms on the sides of her jeans. Annabel and Sam were already moving purposefully to their assigned places—Sam to the coat closet near the front door and Annabel secreted behind the door in the kitchen.
The doorbell rang a minute later. Chris grabbed Holly’s arm, pulling her back as she started to leave the office to answer the door. “We’re right here,” he reminded her.” But worry etched furrows in his face. “If there was any other way, I—”
She put her fingers on his lips to stop him from completing that sentence. “I know,” she said, her earlier calm returning. “But there isn’t another way. And I won’t let them get away with it this time.”
The doorbell rang again, sounding somehow impatient, and Holly looked Chris directly in the face. “I love you,” she said quietly. “If anything happens— I know you’ll do your best, but... Anyway, I wanted you to know.” She turned and walked out without waiting for a response, Wally at her heels.
* * *
Chris swore under his breath. Damn Holly for choosing that moment to tell him she loved him, when he couldn’t do a thing about it. And damn her for walking out before he could tell her he loved her, too. That he couldn’t imagine life without her. That there was no way—no way—she was dying on his watch.
Gun drawn, he double-checked the switches on the two hidden cameras in the living room, making sure the cameras were rolling—the different angles would ensure at least one would capture whatever the McCays tried to do. Then he did the same for the voice-activated recorder. The wireless microphones were already set up, just waiting to record every word the McCays said.
He pulled the door to the office nearly shut, listening intently. Time seemed to stretch out, and he could hear Holly clearly as she opened the door and exclaimed, “Angus! Evalinda! How did you find— I mean, how lovely to see you.”
Chris smiled grimly. Holly was playing it perfectly—acting surprised to see the McCays, but also acting as if she had no idea they were there to kill her. If the McCays were innocent, the first thing they’d ask was why Holly had run away with her sons six months ago. But they never asked...because they already knew the answer.
“Come into the living room,” Holly invited.
This was the most dangerous moment, Chris knew. He’d theorized earlier that the McCays wouldn’t just open fire the minute they saw Holly. That they’d make sure she was alone in the house before they started blasting. But theories were one thing. The woman he loved turning her back on her murderous in-laws as she led them into the living room was another thing entirely. He took comfort in the fact that Sam should be able to see everything from his vantage point in the closet, which was cracked open. And if one or both of the McCays reached for a gun...
“Where are the boys?” Angus asked.
Chris shifted slightly for a better viewing angle. Nice job! he told Holly in his mind as she seated the McCays on the living room sofa, directly in his line of sight—and right in the field of vision of each camera. She disappeared from his view, and he knew she was sitting in one of the armchairs across from her in-laws, exactly as planned.
“They’re not here right now,” Holly replied. “They have a playdate with friends—Susan and Bobby. Their mom and I take turns having playdates for the children.” She laughed easily, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “It gives both of us a little free time to ourselves. And you know how it is with small children, Evalinda. Much as you love your children, sometimes you just need to be alone.”
“So you’re alone in the house?” Evalinda McCay asked sharply. Chris saw Mrs. McCay’s hand reaching into her capacious purse, and he readied himself to launch.
“Yes, I’m alone. Except for Wally here.” Chris couldn’t see Holly, but he imagined she was patting the dog’s head. “Why do you ask?”
Even if Chris hadn’t seen the gun come out, Wally’s sudden growl would have warned him.
“You should never have opposed us,” Evalinda McCay said, as matter-of-factly as if she were discussing the weather.
“What are you— No, Wally,” Holly said when Wally’s growls deepened. “What do you think you’re doing, Evalinda? I’m your daughter-in-law. The mother of your grandchildren. Why are you—”
Regret was evident in Angus McCay’s voice when he explained, “I’m sorry, Holly. We didn’t want to do this, but you left us no choice.”
“Is it money? Do you need money?” Holly’s voice held just the right panicked note. “I have Grant’s insurance money. I’ll be happy to share it with you, if you—”
Evalinda McCay laughed, but it was an ugly sound. “That pittance?”
“Not a pittance,” Holly insisted. “Half a million dollars. If you had told me, I—”
“We want the money Grant put into a trust for Ian and Jamie,” Evalinda McCay stated viciously. “That damned unbreakable trust. The only way to get our hands on that money is to get custody of the twins. And the only way that’s going to happen is if you’re out of the picture.”
“You’d kill me for money?” Holly’s disbelief sounded like the real thing.
“You turned Grant against us. You convinced him to leave us out of his will.” Chris saw the evil smile that tugged at the corners of Mrs. McCay’s mouth. “So killing you will be a pleasure, not just a necessity.”
“I didn’t!” Holly insisted. “Grant did that all on his own, I swear!”
Wally’s growls were nearly ferocious now, and Chris imagined Holly was having difficulty holding the dog back. Good boy! he thought. Protect Holly!
“It doesn’t matter either way,” Evalinda McCay said. “But don’t worry. We’ll take good care of Ian and Jamie...for now. Everyone will be convinced—just as that stupid private investigator was convinced—that we’re loving grandparents who only have our grandsons’ best interests at heart.” She sighed with mock regret. “You’ll be the victim of a terrible home invasion. Thank goodness the twins weren’t here when it happened! We’ll play the grieving grandparents to the hilt, stepping in to care for our orphaned grandchildren.” Evalinda McCay was obviously already getting into the role.
She stood suddenly. “Now get up. Slowly. I can make this easy, or hard. If you try to run...I’ll have to shoot you quickly. The first bullet might not be fatal.” The evil smile was back. “But I’ll make sure you’re dead before I leave, Holly. Count on it.”
“Police! Freeze!” Annabel and Sam’s voices rang out almost simultaneously, using the exact same words.
Chris burst through the library door, his one thought to get to Holly before Evalinda McCay fired. But Wally was there before him. With one last growl the dog pulled away from Holly’s restraining hold and leaped for the hand holding the gun. His jaws closed on Evalinda McCay’s wrist and jerked, so the bullet went wide.
“On the ground!” Sam ordered, wrestling a shocked Angus McCay down, then cuffing him with his hands behind his back.
Annabel was doing the same to Evalinda McCay, who was moaning in agony. She’d already dropped the gun and was holding her bleeding wrist, where Wally’s teeth had broken the skin and nearly broken her bones.
“You’re under arrest for attempted murder,” Annabel intoned, then began reciting the Miranda warning to both McCays. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...”
She reached the end and said, “Do you wish to talk to us now?”
“Go to hell!” snapped Evalinda McCay. “This is entrapment! And police brutality. My wrist is broken, and these cuffs are making it worse.”
Annabel listened politely, then said, “We’ll stop off at the hospital to have your wrist x-rayed. But you’re still under arrest.”
Long before the McCays had been cuffed, Chris had enfolded Holly in his arms, his gun still drawn. She was trembling—aftereffect, he knew—and his arms tightened. “It’s okay,” he told her.
“She was really going to kill me,” Holly whispered as Annabel and Sam led the McCays away in handcuffs.
“Yeah, but you already knew that.” Chris pulled back just long enough to holster his weapon, then his arms closed around her again.
Wally was bounding around the room in excitement, following the prisoners and, when the front door closed behind them, snuffling enthusiastically around Holly’s and Chris’s legs.
Holly extricated herself from Chris’s arms and knelt to embrace the dog. “Good boy, Wally!” she praised. “I knew I could count on you.”
Chris crouched down to ruffle Wally’s fur in silent affirmation of the dog’s heroic actions. “What about me?” he asked Holly.
Her unexpected smile warmed his heart. “I knew I could count on you, too.”
He could have stayed like that forever, except he suddenly remembered something. “Oh, cra—crud,” he amended, rising to his feet and whipping out his cell phone. He clicked quickly between screens and hit the callback button. “Matt? We’re good here. Sam and Annabel put the McCays under arrest for attempted murder and are taking them to jail with a short detour to the hospital. You and Andy are done for the day, and there’ll be a special bonus in your next paycheck—you’ve earned it. I’ll talk to you both tomorrow.”
Holly was still kneeling beside Wally, and after Chris disconnected, he helped her to her feet. “You and I have some talking to do,” he told her.
“I still can’t believe she was really going to kill me herself. I mean...it’s one thing to want someone dead. Hiring someone to do it—that’s worse. But killing someone yourself...looking them in the face and pulling the trigger...” She shivered. “That’s so cold. I can’t imagine hating someone enough to do that.”
Chris drew Holly into his arms again, staring down into her face. “Forget that,” he told her dismissively. “I have a bone to pick with you, and I’m not deferring this conversation until you have time to come to terms with what Mrs. McCay was going to do to you.”
Holly shook her head, puzzled for a minute. Then her eyes widened in understanding. “You mean...?”
“Yes, I mean...” he replied. “You sure can pick your times, Miss Holly,” he teased. “Dropping a bombshell on me, then walking out cool as you please to face down murderers.”
Warm color rose in her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to tell you— Well, yes, I did, but not— And anyway... You see, the thing is...”
“The thing is you love me.”
It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway. “Yes.”
“If you’d waited half a second instead of rushing out, you’d have heard me say the same thing.”
If anything her eyes grew even bigger. “You mean it?” she whispered. She clutched his arms. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. Please don’t.”
He tightened his hold on her. “I never say what I don’t mean, Holly.” He drew a deep breath. “I don’t know how it happened, honest to God I don’t, because I was determined it wouldn’t. But it did happen. And now...”
A hint of a smile appeared in her eyes. “Is this where I say I love you and you say ‘ditto’?” she teased, referring to an incredibly romantic movie more than twenty-five years old she’d seen on cable. “Because if that’s the best you can do...” Her smile melted away, replaced by a touch of uncertainty. “I need the words, Chris—I think you understand why. So please...please...”
He tilted her face up to his with one hand and, with heartfelt conviction, said, “I love you. I need you. I can’t live without you.” He’d mocked Ethan—not once, but twice—with those same words the day Ethan and Lizzie’s baby was born. But he’d never been more serious in his life. “If any of those statements match how you feel, Holly...please tell me. Because I’m dying here.”
“I can’t believe you even need to ask.” She touched his lips. “I already told you in the office earlier.”
“Tell me again.”
She smiled tenderly. “I love you, Chris. I need you in my life. And I don’t think I can live without you anymore, either.”
He grinned as a weight lifted from his shoulders...and his heart. Even though he’d already figured it out on his own, even though she’d told him right before the McCays had arrived, he’d needed those words from her, too, and not uttered in the heat of the moment.
Then his grin faded and he said, “I don’t just want you, Holly. I want Ian and Jamie, too. I want to be their father. Not that I want to replace their real father. From everything you’ve told me about Grant, he was a decent man and the twins are his legacy—I would never want them to forget him. But I love your sons, and I want the chance to be the kind of father I never had.”
* * *
How was it possible to love Chris even more than she already loved him? Holly didn’t know, but when he said things like this, she didn’t have much choice. “The other day you said you were no role model. And I told you to think again. I knew then that I loved you. And I knew there couldn’t possibly be a better role model for Ian and Jamie than you. You want to be their father? You can’t want that more than I do—I would be honored to share them with you.”
They kissed then. Not a passionate kiss, but a sacred pledge for the future.
“You don’t read poetry, do you?” Holly asked when their lips finally parted.
“Not unless country-and-western lyrics count.”
She laughed softly. “That wasn’t exactly what I was referring to, but I’ll keep it in mind.” She cupped his cheek and said, “Robert Herrick wrote a sonnet hundreds of years ago that begins, ‘How Love came in, I do not know.’ That’s how I feel. I don’t know how it happened, just that it did. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
He chuckled. “Okay, so now’s the time I say ditto.”
“Chris...” she warned, but in teasing fashion so he’d know she wasn’t serious. Much.
He shook his head at her. “I already told you I have no idea how it happened for me, but I wouldn’t change it for anything, either.” He drew a deep breath. “So, Miss Holly. If I were to get down on one knee and ask you to marry me, what would you say?”
Her heart sped up, then slowed down, but not back to normal. Not by a long shot. “Ask me and see,” she murmured.
She thought he’d been joking, but when he gently pushed her into the armchair and knelt on one knee, she realized he was dead serious. Yes, yes, yes! her heart was already answering, but she waited.
“I know you loved Grant,” he began. “But I also know you love me. I don’t want to replace him in your heart, Holly. But I do want to build my own place there. Will you marry me?”
She was barely able to contain her gasp, because Chris was saying almost exactly the same thing she’d told herself yesterday. She didn’t want to replace Laura, she just wanted to be the woman he loved now. Now...and in the future.
“I would be honored,” she answered softly. She framed his face with her hands, the face that had become so incredibly dear to her in such a short time. “I would be honored to be your wife.”