Part 26 (1/2)
Looking quickly from side to side, Jake unholstered his sidearm. ”Are you sure you're okay? They didn't hurt you?”
”I'm fine. I'm just...really glad you got here when you did.”
As if he wasn't quite sure he believed her, he ran his hands over her shoulders, down her arms. Abby could feel his hands trembling against her.
”I'm okay. Do you think you could get these cuffs off me?”
The whine of a police siren filled the air as a sheriff's vehicle sped into the clearing and ground to a sliding halt a few yards away. Jake watched two deputies disembark, then turned back to Abby. Vaguely, she was aware of him reaching into his pocket, of using a knife to cut through the nylon bands around her wrists.
”I'm sorry you had to go through this,” he said.
”They were going to kill me.”
”I know, honey.” He took her hands in his and rubbed the feeling back into her wrists. ”You're cut.”
She looked down at where the nylon had cut into the flesh of her wrists. ”It's okay.”
”It's not. I'm so d.a.m.n sorry.”
She glanced through the broken winds.h.i.+eld at the flas.h.i.+ng strobes beyond. In the distance, the rat-tat-tat of a chopper's rotors sliced through the night air.
Jake's radio crackled as two deputies located Reed and his two goons hiding in an outhouse by the pumping station. He smiled at Abby. ”Talk about appropriate setting.”
”What's going to happen to him?” she asked.
”He's going to prison for a long, long time.” Jake listened to the deputies' voices crackle over the radio for a moment, then glanced at Abby. ”I got a full confession from Donna Sullivan.”
The meaning behind the words jolted her. ”Donna knew?”
”Reed had threatened her children. She's held this inside her for more than a year because she was afraid he'd murder her two little girls.”
”What a terrible thing to live with.”
”I offered her police protection and promised her immunity if she testifies against him.” He looked beyond the truck where several deputies were tussling on the ground with one of Reed's thugs. ”That will exonerate you.”
The meaning was almost too overwhelming to contemplate. She would have her freedom back. Her career. Her life. The emotion that followed made it difficult to speak. ”Oh, Jake...”
”Abby, I'm sorry I wasn't here for you. I shouldn't have turned you over to D.O.C.”
”You're here now. That's what matters.”
Leaning close, he kissed her once, hard on the mouth. It was a powerful kiss, full of tangled emotions and urgency and the jagged remnants of fear. ”I've been wanting to do that since I left you,” he said.
”I didn't know if you'd come. I didn't even know if you-”
His arms tightened around her, silencing her. Abby looked at him, surprised to see the glimmer of tears in his eyes. She thought he would look away, shamed by the display of emotion, but he met her gaze head-on and let the tears fall unnoticed. ”I'm sorry I didn't believe in you, that I wasn't there for you. I'm sorry I let you down.”
”I know this isn't what you want to hear,” she said. ”But I need to say it-”
He silenced her with another kiss. It wasn't a s.e.xual kiss, but one filled with high emotion and unspoken promises. A kiss flavored by the salt of their mingled tears and the burden of all the things they'd left unsaid. ”I almost lost you.”
”You didn't. I'm here. Jake, we're together.”
”I love you,” he said roughly. ”I do. I love you more than the air I breathe, more than my next breath.”
”Oh, well...”
He didn't pause and the words kept tumbling out of him. ”I'm sorry I didn't have the guts to admit it sooner.”
”You were in a tough position.”
”You were the one in a tough position. I knew you were innocent. I knew it. I just...couldn't put my past aside. That thing with Elaine and Richie. G.o.d, Abby, I almost got you killed.”