“We both want a child so very much.” Nic swiped the teardrops from beneath her eyes. “But dear God, what bad timing.”
Maleah hugged Nic again. “Maybe it was simply meant to be. We could all use a little good news about now.”
“I feel as if I’ve been given a miracle.”
When they pulled apart, Maleah said, “You should take a nice, long bubble bath, put on your sexiest lingerie, and call downstairs to tell your husband that he’s needed upstairs immediately.”
“I like your suggestion.”
“I’ll bet Griff will like it, too. And, Nic, just for tonight, forget about everything else and concentrate on you and Griff and your baby.”
Maleah kissed Nic’s cheek. “I think I’ll go back to my room, grab a shower, and see if I can find something sexy to slip into before Derek stops by to say goodnight.”
Nic laughed. “Can you believe it? In the midst of all this chaos, you fall in love and I find out I’m pregnant.”
Maleah waved at Shaughnessy Hood, who stood guard outside Nic’s bedroom. The big bear of a man smiled and nodded. She took her time meandering along to the other side of the house where the guest rooms were located. It seemed wrong somehow to be so happy. But Nic was pregnant. Her best friend, who had been trying to get pregnant for several years, was at long last going to have a baby. And Maleah having fallen head over heels in love was as much of a miracle as Nic being pregnant.
She was in love with Derek Lawrence of all people.
Laughing softly to herself, savoring Nic’s secret and thinking about the night ahead with Derek, Maleah opened her bedroom door and flipped on the light switch to turn on the bedside lamp. The low-watt bulb gave off a dim radiance, creating a romantic glow similar to candlelight. She took off her jacket, tossed it onto a nearby chair, and then removed her holster and slipped it into the right-side nightstand drawer. She kicked off her shoes and waltzed barefoot across the floor to the bathroom. After turning on the shower, she adjusted the water to a toasty warm. Then she stripped off her clothes, tossed them into the laundry hamper and grabbed a washcloth from the stack on the vanity. After lathering her hair with the floral scented shampoo and following with a silky conditioner, she shaved her legs and under her arms.
If only she had something really sexy to slip into after her shower. Although she owned several nice sets of lacy panties and bras, she didn’t have any sexy sleepwear. Considering the fact that her sex life had been pretty much non-existent for a number of years, she hadn’t needed anything other than cotton sleep shirts for summer and wintertime flannel pajamas.
After she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her wet hair, she ran a second towel over her arms and legs.
Suddenly Maleah heard a noise outside in her bedroom. “Derek?”
No response.
“Derek, is that you?”
Silence.
Odd, she could have sworn she heard something that sounded like a door opening and closing.
“Cully says that Michelle has been staying in her room a lot since her stomach virus, which we now know she faked,” Griff told them. “Them” being Sanders, BJ, and Derek. “But she’s not in her room now and when he checked, Cully found her window wide open.”
“She’s going to kill someone else tonight,” BJ said. “But who? Her target could be any one of the other students or one of the agents or a guard or . . . or even one of us.”
Sanders clamped his broad hand down on BJ’s shoulder. She glanced up at him and they exchanged looks of care and concern.
“I’ve filled Cully in on the situation,” Griff said. “Sanders, please contact the guards and tell them to be on the lookout for Michelle. Derek, you speak to Brendan and I’ll let Shaughnessy know what’s happened when I go upstairs to check on Nic. I’ll alert Nic. You—” he looked at Derek “—let Maleah know what’s going on and ask her to join us. I want an all-out manhunt underway immediately. We have to find Michelle before she kills again.”
Maleah yanked her knee-length cotton robe off the hanger on the back of the bathroom door, slipped into it, and took a tentative step over the threshold, one foot in the bedroom and one still in the bathroom.
“Derek?”
Maleah heard only an eerie silence in the semidark bedroom.
She didn’t like this one little bit. Her stomach churned with uneasiness. A sense of foreboding spread through her as she took another step into the bedroom. Something was wrong. She felt it in her bones.
Damn it, she had put her holstered pistol inside the nightstand drawer.
“Derek, if you’re trying to surprise me, please don’t. I’m warning you that if you grab me, I’m going to clobber you. I’m pretty sure I can adequately kick your butt.”
With her breath caught in her throat, Maleah took another step before halting and scanning the room. Her gaze paused on the sitting room, where she noticed a slender silhouette near the windows.
“Who’s there?” Maleah asked.
Not Derek.
The silhouette moved out of the shadows and revealed herself.
“Michelle? What’s wrong? Has something happened?”
For a few seconds, Maleah felt a huge sense of relief, thinking perhaps Griff had sent Michelle. But when Michelle didn’t respond, only stood there staring at Maleah, her eyes wide and glazed as if she were in a trance, Maleah knew something wasn’t right.
“What are you doing in my room? Did Griff send you?”
As Michelle walked toward Maleah, she brought the hand she held behind her back to her side. She lifted the gun she was tightly clutching. And then she pointed the 9mm at Maleah.
“I’m sorry, Maleah,” Michelle said. “I’m so very sorry, but I have no other choice. I have to kill you.”
Derek explained the situation to Brendan Richter and then headed upstairs only minutes behind Griff. He hated having to tell Maleah that Michelle Allen was the one who had killed Shiloh, that she had been forced to kill in order to save her seven-year-old niece’s life. Apparently Anthony Linden had kidnapped Jaelyn Allen and held her hostage in order to force Michelle into killing for his employer. Derek didn’t know all the particulars of course, but he couldn’t understand why Michelle hadn’t come to Griff and Nic and explained what had happened. He felt certain that Griff could have figured out a way to help her convince Linden that she was following his instructions without her actually having had to kill anyone. But it was impossible to truly put himself in Michelle’s shoes. No two people reacted the same way to similar events. He and Michelle were two very different people who had come from vastly different backgrounds and had different life experiences. Not that he thought a man would have handled the situation differently or better than a woman or that a privileged background made him superior in any way. All he meant was that he knew he shouldn’t judge another person’s reasoning simply because they chose a different solution than he would have chosen.
As Derek approached Maleah’s bedroom, he stopped and thought about what he was going to say to her. Maleah and Michelle weren’t close friends, but they were friends nevertheless. Michelle had been Maleah’s martial arts instructor and had been the one who had encouraged Maleah to work toward perfecting her skills.
He knew his Blondie. She presented a hard-as-nails façade to the world, but inside, she had a marshmallow center. She would take the news about Michelle hard.
If only they could find Michelle quickly—before she killed again.
Maleah stared at Michelle—her friend Michelle—who held a gun on her and obviously intended to kill her.
“Why?” Maleah asked. “I don’t understand.”
“He has my niece, Jaelyn.”
“Who has your niece?” Maleah took a hesitant step toward Michelle. If she could get close enough, she had a reasonable chance of overpowering her.
“Stop right there. Don’t come any closer.”
Maleah stopped. “Michelle, we can work this out. Whatever you need—”
“I need for you to shut up.” Tears glistened in Michelle’s eyes.
Keep her talking. Find a way to move in closer.
“I knew I would have to shoot you,” Michelle said. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to overpower and subdue you the way I did Shiloh.”
“Please, talk to me. Let me help you. I know you don’t want to do this.”
“Can’t you see that I don’t have any other choice? If I don’t kill you, he will kill Jaelyn.”
As Derek reached for the doorknob, he heard voices inside Maleah’s room. Two female voices. Maleah and—?
He pressed his ear to the door and listened.
“I’ll make it quick and painless, I promise,” Michelle Allen said.
Derek’s heart stopped.
Michelle was in Maleah’s room.
His first instinct was to draw his gun and burst into the room. He had been wearing his holster at Griffin’s Rest since Shiloh’s murder last night. But if he burst into the room, he might spook Michelle and she might fire her weapon instantly. On the other hand, if he didn’t act immediately, she would shoot Maleah anyway.
He reached under his jacket, flipped open the holster, and removed his 45 Colt XSE. Praying with every breath he took, Derek turned the handle and eased open the door, inch by inch. He stepped inside the bedroom, gun in hand, and as soon as he saw both women, he aimed his weapon directly at Michelle.
“Drop your gun,” he told Michelle in a deceptively calm voice. He was anything but calm.
In that split second when Derek’s command distracted Michelle, Maleah made her move. Before either Derek or Michelle realized what was happening, Maleah sent her arms and legs into deadly motion, ironically enough, using the skilled maneuvers Michelle had taught her. The student against the teacher. Maleah’s foot struck Michelle’s hand and sent the gun she held flying. Realizing her weapon of choice was no longer an option, Michelle instinctively retaliated.
With his pistol aimed and ready to fire, Derek held back and watched while Maleah and Michelle engaged in hand-to-hand combat. This was Maleah’s fight. She wouldn’t appreciate him interfering unless it was to save her life.
Back and forth, Michelle attacked and Maleah counterattacked. Both women were skilled warriors, pretty much evenly matched, every move each made a combination of reflex and training. Repeated force-against-force blocks took a toll on both of them. With each kick, each painful blow, each woman weakened, but neither gave an inch. Maleah punched harder and faster, using the front two knuckles of her fist to strike at her opponent, and then successfully blocking each blow Michelle aimed at her.
By the time Maleah pinned Michelle to the floor, both women were bloody and breathless. Sweat glistened on their skin.
“Oh, God, please,” Michelle whimpered. “Jaelyn . . .”
Griff, Nic, and Shaughnessy rushed into the room and halted abruptly behind Derek. They looked past him to where Maleah straddled a defeated Michelle.
Derek holstered his weapon and with the others at his back, he rushed over to Maleah, yanked down her robe that had hiked up to the edge of her buttocks, and then pulled her off Michelle and into his arms. Breathing heavily, she put one arm around him as she looked down at her opponent.
Griff and Shaughnessy lifted a bruised and battered Michelle to her feet. Shaughnessy quickly yanked her arms behind her, shoved her in front of him and held her securely.
“She kept saying that Linden had her niece and he would kill her if she didn’t do what he told her to do,” Maleah explained. “She admitted that she killed Shiloh.”
“Luke called. He found Linden,” Griff said. “Apparently Linden had been ordered to abduct Jaelyn Allen and hold her captive as a way to control Michelle and force her to kill for him.”
“Jaelyn?” Michelle asked pleadingly. “Is she all right?”
“Your niece is fine,” Griff told her. “Luke and Meredith are bringing her back to the U.S. as soon as possible. They’ll take her home to your brother and his wife.”
Moments after hearing the good news about Jaelyn, Michelle fell apart emotionally, weeping, shaking her head, and muttering incoherently. Shaughnessy gently led her from the room.
Nic grabbed Maleah out of Derek’s arms and hugged her. Then she stepped back and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Thank God you’re all right.”
Griff put his arm around Nic’s shoulders.
Maleah looked at Derek. He reached out and swiped away the smear of blood from her mouth. “Blondie, don’t you ever scare me like that again. When I saw Michelle holding a gun on you . . . Maleah Perdue, if anything had happened to you . . .”
She offered him a fragile smile. “You’re my hero, you know.”
“Who, me?” He pointed to his chest.
“Yes, you. If you hadn’t startled Michelle, I might not have gotten the opportunity to catch her off guard the way I did.” She lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck. “And you’re my hero because once you saw I could handle the situation without your help, you let me fight my own battle.”