Chapter Twenty-One

Why had he let her attempt to rescue the drowning Joe Spelding?

Ever since David had met Adaleigh, his heart had broken at her pain, trembled at the possibility of her leaving town, and frozen at the danger hemming her in. Guns, knives, fire, all wielded in the hands of angry men, all threatening to steal Adaleigh’s life from before his eyes. He knew from the moment Sean pointed his gun at her that he would do anything to keep her safe. And seeing her held hostage had showed how much she’d come to mean to him.

Now, in a moment, David’s worst fears were realized. Adaleigh went under, pushed down by Spelding’s frantic attempts to save himself. Fear propelled David over the water. He had seconds to keep Adaleigh from drowning.

Take a breath.

David pushed aside the prompting. Whether common sense or his Heavenly Father, he couldn’t bring himself to slow his strokes. He plowed ahead and slammed a fist into Spelding’s way-too-good-looking face. He tossed the unconscious man onto the raft and looked around for Adaleigh.

He spotted her, face-down on a swell that rose three feet away. The cold water slowed his reaction time, but he reached her in moments. He pressed shaking fingers to her neck, found a strong heartbeat. Tears stung his eyes. He blinked them away as he turned her onto her back and tilted her chin up to check her respiration. None.

He pushed emotion back as he leaned on his training. First, he made sure her mouth was empty of water, then turned her face toward him and closed his mouth over hers. Four quick breaths, then he turned her on her side to avoid letting her aspirate on lake water and vomit. Saving someone from drowning while still in the water was nearly impossible. Still, he pressed his forehead to the top of her head and he prayed like he never had before.

As if a cork popped, air burst out of her lungs. Adaleigh sucked in, half expecting water to fill her mouth, but no, it was air. Smokey, wet air, but air, nonetheless.

She coughed, choked, hacked, and gasped as much air as she could. A good, hard slap landed on her back, and she spit out a stream of whatever had been in her stomach. Arms pulled her away from the grossness. She tried to relax, but her body began shaking. Her lungs clenched. She wanted to cry but couldn’t force her lungs to let in any more air. She spluttered, panic giving way to any good sense.

Then two strong arms came around her own, pinning her against a solid body. Adaleigh tried to kick, images of Hitchens flashing through her head like an electrical current.

“You’re safe.”

The words fell like a heavy blanket, dousing the panic, and Adaleigh was back in her library back home. The sun poured in the windows. She’d just had a big fight with Ashley, fled to the library, and now Mom wrapped her in a fleece and left a cup of hot cocoa on the table next to her. Her muscles relaxed as she sank into her comfy chair. Peace washed over her like a cleansing rain. A mist of—

“Adaleigh?”

She opened her eyes to find David studying her from over her shoulder. A cold splash hit her face. They floated in the middle of Lake Michigan, their boat was on fire, and both Mark Hitchens and Joe Spelding had almost killed her.

“You okay?” David’s eyes told her how worried he was. Then she realized he held her against his chest. Propriety had flown away hours ago. She leaned against him. So solid, so safe, so close …

Her ankle cramped. “Where’s Spelding?”

David pointed his chin toward the bobbing raft a few feet away where the man lay. “I had to knock him out to get him off of you.” He cleared his throat. “Let’s finish the raft and get you out of the water.”

David helped Adaleigh on board beside the unconscious Spelding, whom she tied to the raft to keep from falling off of it, while David added more planks to make a surface large enough for all of them. As David climbed up beside her, a swell raised one end, knocking her flat. David wrapped an arm around her waist to set her upright.

“Ready to paddle?” He handed her a board and kept one for himself.

She nodded. Her ankle throbbed, and her body ached and shivered, but she matched David stroke for stroke. The worry lines on his face were deeper than they had been all day. Thankfully, the rain had stopped, but the swells threatened to tip them each time the raft rose and fell.

Adaleigh sagged, and without David’s quick reflex, a wave would have tipped her right into the water. As the raft swept down yet another swell, strong arms tucked her close. She wasn’t sure how long they sat like that, rising and falling amid the swells, but warmth finally began to circulate through her limbs again.

Every few minutes, David’s voice would wake her, or a hand would touch her cheek before she could drift off again. How many times he did that, Adaleigh don’t know, but as her teeth stopped chattering, her ankle began throbbing threefold. It gave her brain something to focus on, bringing her out of her fog.

“Hey there.” David smiled at her, relief soaking his features.

She tried to register how close he held her, but Spelding moaned at their feet, making her more aware of her surroundings. The raft still floated among the swells, but the clouds had lightened, and glimpses of sunlight peeked through.

“Any—” Adaleigh coughed, her throat incredibly dry. “Any sign of a rescue?”

“They should have noticed the boat was gone by now. And Grandma—”

Adaleigh smacked her head. “Your grandma took Samantha to the hospital.”

“What?” David adjusted to fully face her, and she missed his warmth.

“I’m sorry, I—”

“Why? What happened?”

“This tree branch came through the back door. Samantha got a shard of glass in her leg.”

His muttered words dripped with anger.

Adaleigh blinked against tears. “I’m sorry, David, I should have—”

“No, no, not you.” His voice softened, and he pulled her close again. “Mann. He was so bent on getting back at the Conglomerate, he insisted we go out before the storm. I shouldn’t have gone. I should have stood up to him sooner, no matter the ramifications.”

“You couldn’t have known—” This time, a particularly big swell caught her off guard, and they clutched the raft, Adaleigh praying they stayed upright.

“Tell me why you came to the wharf today,” David said as the raft settled flat again. “In the middle of a storm.”

“Your grandma sent me to find you and Patrick.”

“Okay. I guess I was just hoping it was your …” His turn to look away, only he did it with such a cute expression, Adaleigh couldn’t stop herself from giving a quick peck to his cheek.

She could barely feel his weathered skin with her frozen lips. Before she pulled back, David whipped his head around and caught her in a deep kiss full of longing hope and desperate gratefulness. Adaleigh sank into it, letting it warm her soul.

David broke off after a minute, lifting an ear. “Do you hear that? That’s a boat engine.” He knelt, hands shielding his eyes. “That’s the police boat!”

They were saved!

David propped his elbows on the boat railing and leaned back, soaking in the sun that poked through the clouds and trying not to let the kiss he’d shared with Adaleigh consume his thoughts. Wrapped in blankets, she and Spelding sat in separate corners of the police boat. They’d all suffered some degree of hypothermia, but they seemed none the worse for it. Even Spelding had fully woken.

One by one, Uncle Mike and Chief Sebastian managed to interpret their teeth chattering in order to record their official statements. The police boat captain made a pass around the smoldering wreckage of the Tuna Mann, but there was no evidence Hitchens had survived. David took a moment of silence for the boat that was his livelihood and for the father of two sweet children, even if he was a murderer.

The shore loomed as the police boat cut through the waves. Sunlight peeking through the clouds reflected off the wet surface of the boardwalk. The county ambulance stood ready. Only one person, wearing a trench coat, paced the north end of the boardwalk where the police boat was housed.

Spelding was carried off on a stretcher. Adaleigh refused, and David helped her limp down the dock. As she reached the wharf, the man in the trench coat threw open his arms and hauled her into a frail embrace. David recognized the older man from when they boarded the boat under duress.

“I thought you were dead.” The older man hugged Adaleigh even tighter. Emotions David didn’t want to decipher tensed his tired muscles.

Tears dripped down her cheeks as she leaned into the man’s thin body.

Uncle Mike appeared beside David and asked the very thing David wanted to know. “Who is he?”

A sniff and the man in the trench coat held Adaleigh at arm’s length. “You shouldn’t scare an old man like that, running away without asking for help. And then telling me you were about to meet your parents. God have mercy! I saw the gun that man was holding. What have you gotten yourself into?”

David shared a look with his uncle.

Adaleigh smiled despite brushing away tears. “You’re always trying to fix things, Mr. Binitari.”

“You girls will be the death of me.” He shook his finger at her. “Your father charged me to look after you, then you go disappearing.”

Father? Disappearing? Uncle Mike’s steadying hand rested on David’s shoulder. Tears ran down Adaleigh’s cheeks. If only he could comfort her as he did on the boat, but he didn’t dare intrude, especially after a medic took Adaleigh’s arm and Mr. Binitari yanked her back.

“Unhand her.” Mr. Binitari spoke with great authority. “I need to speak to her first.”

The medic backed away.

Mr. Binitari glanced around. “Your sister is here.”

David straightened. After all their efforts, it hadn’t been enough to keep Adaleigh hidden.

Adaleigh hung her head. “I know.”

She knew? Since when?

“I followed her,” said Mr. Binitari, “hoping I could get to you first. We need to talk, child.”

Pounding feet neared. Buck Wilson. Great. “Adaleigh, are you all right?” The man clasped her hands as if he was about to wrap her in a hug. Not on his life. David moved forward, only to have his uncle hold him back. Why not let him have a few choice words with the man who’d left them alone in the basement of the Conglomerate headquarters to face off with a murderer?

“Excuse me?” Mr. Binitari’s curiosity was evident in his voice. Inquisitiveness, not disdain. He ignored the rest of them.

Adaleigh pulled away from Buck, blushing. David didn’t like it one bit.

Buck held her shoulders. “I know this mix-up put you in harm’s way, so if there is anything—”

“Buck Wilson.” Uncle Mike finally entered the conversation, giving David leave to follow him into the circle. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m so glad you are all safe.” Buck extended a hand to David, but David crossed his arms, his jaw clenched.

“Went for help, did you?” David muttered.

Buck had the good grace to lower his head. “I returned too late for you, but not for Sean.”

“Sean’s okay?” Adaleigh asked.

“Maybe.” Buck included everyone in his reply. “He was significantly injured and lost a lot of blood, but I understand major organs were missed.”

Awkward silence followed.

“If you’ll excuse me, I must speak to Joe.” Buck shouldered past Uncle Mike. Spelding was being carried to a waiting ambulance, wrists cuffed.

Uncle Mike stayed in step. “We’re taking him into custody.”

“I need a word with him first.” Buck didn’t stop. “He’s my brother, detective. Step-brother, but my brother, nonetheless.”

Uncle Mike’s mustache bobbed. David had to consciously close his mouth.

“Who is he?” Mr. Binitari asked as Buck stepped up to the stretcher and gripped Spelding’s hand.

“Adaleigh.” Everything stopped as the female voice reached them. Adaleigh turned whiter than a sail. David didn’t need to guess that the black-haired woman who stood a mere ten feet away was her sister.

Panic clawed at Adaleigh’s throat. Ashley looked mesmerizing in her knee-length black skirt and fitted black top. Her perfectly straight ebony hair stood out starkly against her pale face.

“Been looking for you.” Ashley stood, a poised, stately woman, not three feet away.

Adaleigh suddenly grew conscious of her undressed state, despite the blankets that kept her modesty intact.

“Nice of you to arrange such a bothersome storm to welcome me.”

“Girls, this is neither the time nor the place.” Mr. Binitari stepped between them. “Remember, Sirlands do not make a scene.”

“Get out of the way, old man.” Ashley stepped forward until they were inches from each other. Adaleigh held up her hand to keep David or Detective O’Connor from intervening. This needed to end, and better it ended in front of witnesses than on a dark boardwalk like poor Amy.

“You left without leaving a forwarding address.” Ashley’s black gaze didn’t leave Adaleigh’s. “It was hard to track you down.”

“Maybe I wanted it that way.” Adaleigh matched her tone like only a sister could.

“You were always too good to be a part of our family.”

“Maybe you should have treated me more like a sister.”

“Girls!” Mr. Binitari attempted to raise his voice.

“You aren’t my sister.” Ashley spat the words, hatred flaming.

“Then why not let me go?”

“Because I read their will. They gave you everything. Everything! I was their blood. Me. Not you. And they left me nothing! Unless you die.” Ashley lunged.

Adaleigh tried to twist out of her way, but her injured leg buckled, and Ashley was on top of her before anyone could stop her. Adaleigh’s blanket fell aside, leaving her in only her bloomers and half a dress. She held her sister back by the shoulders, but Ashley pulled out a gun.

Instinct had her twisting away, only for the ground to drop out from under her. Ashley let out a terrified scream as the cold water shocked Adaleigh’s senses enough to jerk free of her sister’s claws. But her exhausted muscles refused to work. Tears burned her eyes as she sank. Not again.

“Grab this!” David shouted as he tossed a life saver ring directly in front of Adaleigh’s hands. Relief swept over him as she clutched it. From the end of the dock, David hauled her to safety. To their right, Uncle Mike did the same with Adaleigh’s sister.

Just like on her first day in Crow’s Nest, David grabbed the back of her clothes and helped Adaleigh crawl onto the dock, wrapping a blanket around her and holding her close.

“No more water.” She shivered in his arms. “Not today.”

David’s breath hitched as he ran a hand over her white cheek. He lowered his lips to her forehead, and his voice choked. “I’ll keep saving you.”

A medic approached, and while Adaleigh allowed him to check her over, she refused to go to the hospital. “Is my sister okay?”

“They took her to the hospital with Joe.” Buck Wilson appeared next to them. “She doesn’t look like your sister. Joe and I share a mother. Which parent do you two share?”

Irritation chaffed David at both the man’s words and his intrusion.

Adaleigh blanched even whiter, if possible. “What do you know about my sister?”

“It doesn’t take a genius to piece together the story.” Buck looked at her with compassion, fanning a jealous streak David hardly recognized in himself. “You shouldn’t have kept it all to yourself, Adaleigh. She had no business doing all that she did to you.”

David looked between them, unsure what to do, but he couldn’t hide his deepening scowl.

“He’s right, you know.” Mr. Binitari shuffled over. “Why didn’t you tell me the whole truth, my dear? Way back when your parents had me begin the investigation into your injuries as a child. I began to suspect then, but you denied everything. You know I could have helped.”

Adaleigh avoided David’s eyes. Was she embarrassed? She shouldn’t be. At least not with him. She’d already told him about her sister’s abuse.

Mr. Binitari patted Adaleigh’s arm. “As the family lawyer, I’m hoping to keep everything in-house. No newspaper attention, you know. I’ve already begun damage control here. That Greg Alistar is done asking questions. We need to make sure your image back home remains intact. Your parents have left you everything, except for a small allowance for Ashley. Now that you have inherited the money, house, business, everything, you’ll have to manage all of that, plus their charities and …”

Mr. Binitari’s words blurred together. Was this why Adaleigh couldn’t look at him? Because she was no longer the girl without a home, without money, without a future? Was he about to lose her, not because she ran away, but because she chose to return to her old life? Her real home?

Uncle Mike joined their group. “I think she’s had enough excitement for right now. Best get her home.”

“Yes,” Mr. Binitari said. “You gentlemen may visit her later. She and I obviously have much business to discuss with the will and all, which would be better—”

“You’re quite right.” Buck clapped David on the back, and David wanted to slap his hand away. Buck gave Adaleigh a smile that felt like a dagger to David’s heart. If anyone understood Adaleigh’s real world, it was Buck Wilson. Not a first mate like David, who likely didn’t have a job anymore.

“I’ll take—” Mr. Binitari started.

“No. Go with Ashley.” Adaleigh patted the older man’s hand. “I’m going back to Mrs. Martins’s house.”

If only her words brought the assurance David’s heart needed.

That evening, Adaleigh leaned on David as she half hopped into the Martins’s stuffy sitting room. A small space at the front of the house filled with furniture that looked untouched. With the kitchen still a mess, this was the only other place to go besides her room.

Mrs. Martins pointed her to a comfortable chair, and David settled her elevated ankle on a cushion. Such pampering felt all wrong in the Martins’s house, especially since Samantha insisted on following Kyle to the kitchen.

“How’s your leg?” Adaleigh asked before Samantha could leave the room.

“All sewn up.” Samantha gestured to her bandaged leg with a flourish. “I guess we’re twins now.”

Adaleigh smiled, but half-heartedly.

“We’re so glad you’re all right.” Mrs. Martins gave her a tight hug. “David told us all about it.”

“I was worried about you, too,” Adaleigh said into her shoulder.

“Oh, I drive fast when I need to.” Mrs. Martins laughed.

“Have you heard how my sister is doing?” Adaleigh settled back against the cushion.

“Michael went with that lawyer.” She sounded huffy.

“But she’s okay?” Adaleigh pressed.

“Physically, from what I hear, yes.” Mrs. Martins glanced between her and David, then speared David with a look. “Stay here with her while I get supper.”

“I’ll be fine, Mrs. Martins. David has had an even longer day than me.”

“Medic said I’m healthy as a bear.” David smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

Adaleigh chewed her lip, nervous for so many reasons. Front and center being David. “Buck was only partially right,” she finally said when she couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Ashley and I do not share any parents in common.”

“You don’t have to explain.” He still didn’t look at her.

Adaleigh adjusted her injured ankle on the cushion. “Our parents took me in as a baby, just before they discovered they were anticipating Ashley’s arrival.”

“So you’re adopted?”

Adaleigh should have expected the lack of judgment, but it still took her by surprise. “Yes.”

Finally, he glanced at her. “Do you know your original family?”

She shook her head, then told him something she had never told anyone else. “For years, I have felt like I wasn’t good enough to be a part of the Sirland family. It’s why I let Ashley walk all over me the way she did. I wasn’t really a Sirland, I told myself. I was an imposter, a stranger, an orphan, and their way of life wasn’t in my blood.”

David squatted beside her, rested his hand on hers. Comfort and warmth traveled up her arm all the way to her heart.

“So now I just keep thinking,” she continued, “why did they leave me everything? Did I even hear that right? I don’t understand why I received any money. It should all go to Ashley. Frankly, it’s probably the only thing we’ve ever agreed on.”

He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. “You don’t think your parents made the right decision?”

“I don’t think they figured on being gone so young.” Adaleigh sighed, then grasped her courage before it flitted away. “Do you see me differently now that everything has changed? Now that I’m not a runaway without a penny to my name?”

David sat back on his heels, studied her as if he could see into her soul. “The answer matters to you, doesn’t it?”

Adaleigh nodded.

His hand grasped hers tighter. “When I first saw you, you intrigued me. You were confident, yet mysterious. Not to mention incredibly beautiful.”

She flushed and lowered her lashes.

“Took me that whole dinner to work up enough courage to invite you out.”

“I hadn’t planned to stay.” She whispered the admission.

He smiled. “I figured. I had one night, or my chance was gone.” Silence stretched as David stared at the wall as if seeing a completely different scene in his mind’s eye. Finally, he resumed. “Do I see you differently? After you listened to my agony over my father being suspected of murder? After you offered to help clear my father’s name despite running from your own past?” A grin flashed. “Which we succeeded in doing, by the way. My uncle told me my father will be released in the morning.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“So, do I see you differently? After all you told me about yourself? After the panic and nightmares? After seeing you trapped in a collapsed building?” His voice faltered. “Or held at knife and gun point? After watching you nearly drown? Yes, Adaleigh Sirland, I see you differently from that first day. You are even more intriguing, more beautiful, and someone I no longer see as a stranger.”

“Money doesn’t change your opinion?”

He shook his head. “You always had money, whether you thought you deserved it or not. You grew up with it, and it made you into who you are. But that’s not what made me like you. Whether you have it or not doesn’t matter to me.”

“What do you …” Was it too forward to ask what he meant by liking her? Yes, he kissed her after her panic episode and then on the raft, but that was after multiple near-death experiences. She needed to know whether there was something between them worth exploring or whether to focus on the job her parents had left her—a job Adaleigh hadn’t wanted in the first place.

“What do I … what?” David cupped her cheek, his thumb running along the bone.

She sank into his touch. Who cared about money or forwardness when she found a treasure right here in Crow’s Nest? “When you say—”

The front door banged open. “Grandma!” Patrick shouted. “You won’t believe the afternoon I’ve had!”

Adaleigh met David’s gaze and joined in his laughter.