Nic swayed. She backed up and braced her hips against Griff’s desk.
“When Yvette became pregnant, York threatened to abort the child, but being the evil son of a bitch that he was, he decided to allow her to have the baby. And then when the infant was only a few hours old, he took it away from Yvette.”
Nic couldn’t imagine the agony Yvette must have experienced. “And all these years, what did she think happened to her child?”
“She didn’t know,” Griff said. “After we left Amara and managed to claim some of York’s fortune for Yvette, we started searching for the child. We’ve been looking for nearly sixteen years.”
“What about the child’s father?”
“Yvette doesn’t know who fathered her child. It could have been one of several men she was forced to have sex with during the specific time in which she became pregnant.”
And then Nic asked the only question that really mattered to her. “Were you one of those men?”
“Yes.”
That single word upended Nicole’s entire world, everything she believed in, every emotion, every thought, sending her into a tailspin of confusion and rage.
“Damn you, Griffin Powell. You swore to me that you and Yvette were never lovers!”
“We weren’t lovers. Not ever.” He grabbed Nic’s shoulders and shook her gently. “What Yvette and I did was not making love. God, Nic, it wasn’t even having sex, not really. We were forced to perform in front of York.”
Nic jerked away from Griff, rushed behind his desk, doubled over and threw up in his wastebasket.
When Griff reached her, she stood up straight and backed away from him. “Please, don’t touch me. Not now. I—I can’t think straight. You have to give me time to think, time to sort through what I’m feeling . . . about you and me and about Yvette. And . . . and about her child.” She looked Griff square in the eye. “She . . . Suzette could be your daughter.”
“Yes.”
Nic walked across the study, opened the door and without turning back to look at Griff, said, “I’m going upstairs to pack a suitcase and then I’m going to Gatlinburg to our . . . to my cabin.” Knowing how she loved the mountains, Griff had given her the cabin as a Christmas present.
Stay strong. You can do this without crying, without screaming, without hysterics, without falling apart.
“I don’t want you to follow me or contact me in any way,” she told him. “When I’ve had time to think about everything, I’ll come home. I’ll come back to Griffin’s Rest and—”
“You can’t go off by yourself,” Griff told her, his voice pleading. “It’s too dangerous for you to be alone. If you have to do this, then I’ll send Shaughnessy or one of the other agents with you.”
“I want to be alone, Griff. I have to be alone. Try to understand.”
I need to think. And cry and scream and rant and rave and go slowly out of my mind.
“How about a compromise?” he asked. “Ask Maleah to go with you.”
“I won’t do that. She and Derek . . .” Nic swallowed her tears. “No, not Maleah. Not now. If you insist on my not going alone, then send someone to follow me on the drive to Gatlinburg. And you can post guards at the cabin twenty-four/seven. But I want to drive there by myself and I do not want a bodyguard in the house with me.”
“I don’t want you to leave, Nic. Stay here. I’ll give you all the time and space you need. Just don’t leave me.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t bear to look at you right now.” She walked out of the study, her head held high, her shoulders straight, and her heart breaking into a million pieces.
Maleah didn’t know all the details, only that Nic had left Griffin’s Rest after Griff told her that Yvette had a child, a nearly seventeen-year-old daughter that she hadn’t seen since the day of her birth.
“Griff may be the girl’s father,” Nic had explained. “I can’t stay here at Griffin’s Rest. I need to get away. I don’t want to look at Griff and see the pain in his eyes every time he looks at me.”
“I’ll go with you,” Maleah had told Nic.
“No, no. You and Derek, you two need to be together now. I want you to enjoy being in love. Those first few days and weeks are so incredible. I don’t want you to miss them.”
When Nic made up her mind, there was no arguing with her.
Maleah stood in the open doorway and watched Nic drive away from Griffin’s Rest. When her Escalade was barely out of sight, Griff motioned to the man behind the wheel of the black Hummer. He pulled out and followed Nic.
At that precise moment, Maleah knew what she had to do. She turned to Derek, who stood beside her, his arm draped around her waist, and said, “She shouldn’t be alone. Will you understand if I—?”
Derek clasped her hand. “Come on, Blondie, I’ll help you pack a bag. But not until after I give you a proper send-off.”
“I’m going to miss you terribly.”
“Call me every hour on the hour,” he teased.
“I’ll call you every morning and every night and think about you every hour in between. How’s that?”
He pulled her into his arms as they reached the top of the stairs. “When this crisis with Nic and Griff is over, you and I, Ms. Perdue, have a future to plan. A future that includes a wedding and a honeymoon.”
“Yes, we do.” Maleah stood on tiptoe and kissed him.
Loving and being loved gave her the strength to believe in the possibility of a happily-ever-after.
Epilogue
From time to time, Nic caught a glimpse, in her rearview mirror, of the black Hummer that had followed her from Griffin’s Rest. When she stopped at a gas station just outside Pigeon Forge, Cully Redmond pulled into the parking area and waited for her.
Now, for the past few miles on her drive up the mountain to the beautiful, secluded cabin Griff had given her as a Christmas gift, she hadn’t seen Cully’s Hummer. Apparently, he had dropped back out of sight to allow her time to arrive at the cabin and get settled in before he parked outside to keep watch over her. No doubt, Griff would send another agent to relieve him in the morning and the two would change shifts every eight hours.
She parked the Escalade in the circular drive, got out, grabbed her suitcase from the back, and walked up to the front door. She drew in a deep breath of crisp, fresh mountain air. She unlocked the door and walked into the foyer. The cabin was so quiet, so peaceful, unlike the daily chaotic noise that had plagued Griffin’s Rest recently.
After shoving her suitcase into the master bedroom closet, Nic walked through the living room and opened the door leading out onto the back deck. She went over to the edge of the wooden deck, clasped the top of the carved guardrail, and looked out at the breathtaking view below, the lush green hills and valleys.
Griff lied to me about his relationship with Yvette. He did have sex with her.
But they were never lovers. Griff said that what happened between them wasn’t really even sex.
Maybe it wasn’t, but I know one thing for sure—Griff loves Yvette.
He loves her because of the hell they shared, because of the torture they endured together.
He loves her because he may be the father of her child.
Nic laid her hand protectively over her belly.
She heard the sound of a car door slamming. Cully Redmond must have arrived. He probably needed to stretch his legs.
With her hand still resting over the tiny life just beginning to grow inside her, Nic jerked around when she heard a noise. Sound echoed in the empty stillness of her mountain retreat, so she wasn’t surprised that she could hear footsteps on the front porch.
Damn it, she had told Griff specifically that she wanted to be left alone.
Don’t bite Cully’s head off. Just tell him you’re fine and for him to report to Griff that you arrived here safely.
Nic went back into the cabin and made it halfway across the living room when the front door opened. Great! Cully would be sure to tell Griff that she’d left the door unlocked. How could she have been so careless?
With “get out and leave me alone” on the tip of her tongue, Nic stopped dead still when a man she didn’t know walked into her cabin. This was definitely not Cully Redmond. And he wasn’t another Powell agent.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
When he simply stared at her, Nic stood her ground.
Show no fear.
“I’m expecting someone any minute now,” she told him. “I didn’t travel alone.”
“If you’re expecting the man driving the black Hummer, then you’re going to be disappointed. I’m afraid he’s been delayed. Permanently delayed.”
Fear clutched Nic’s gut. Had this man killed Cully?
“I don’t know what you want, Mr.—?”
“Where are my manners,” the man said, a bonechilling smile curving his lips. “Let me introduce myself, Mrs. Powell. I’m Anthony Linden.”
“That’s not possible. Anthony Linden is dead.”
“Yes, I know. And so is Malcolm York. And yet here I am, in the flesh, come to take you to see another dead man. Mr. York is eager to meet you.”
Dear Reader
,
Dead by Morning
was the second book in my
Dead by
trilogy and leads directly into the third and final novel,
Dead by Nightfall
, set for a December 2011 release. The cliffhanger ending I presented in the epilogue of
Dead by Morning
prepares you for what is to come in the next book, which begins where this book leaves off—with Nicole Baxter Powell in grave danger. When Griffin Powell discovers that his wife is missing and soon thereafter learns that she is in the hands of a “ghost” from his past, he moves heaven and earth to rescue her. Griff, Sanders and Yvette, the Amara triad, who suffered unbearable torture during their years as Malcolm York’s captives, must come to terms with their past lives. Secrets long buried in the depths of their tortured souls resurface and are revealed in the cold, hard light of their present realities. You will learn more about the elusive and deadly Raphael Byrne, another of York’s victims.
For those of you who love the Powell Agency books, you will be pleased to know that I hope to write more novels featuring Powell agents and others associated with the agency. If while reading
Dead by Morning
you found Luke Sentell and Rafe Byrne interesting alpha males, then you will probably agree that both of these hardedged, dangerous men deserve books of their own.
After I complete
Dead by Nightfall
, I’ll be writing the sequel to my September 2010 novel
Don’t Cry
, bringing back TBI agent J.D. Cass and mental health therapist Audrey Sherrod. You’ll be seeing more of several secondary characters, including J.D.’s daughter Zoe, Audrey’s best friend Tamara and Tamara’s parents, as well as J.D.’s sister Julia. Many of you contacted me asking if Tamara and Marcus will reunite and if J.D. and Audrey will get married, and wondering if J.D. and Zoe will finally bond as father and daughter. I’ll give you all the answers in
Don’t Say a Word
, set for release in 2012.
I always love hearing from readers. You may contact me through my Web site at
www.beverlybarton.com
or by writing to me in care of Kensington Publishing. While visiting my Web site, you can enter contests, sign up for my e-mail newsletter, and check out a list of all my books. You can also find information about my upcoming book signings, speaking engagements, and conferences. And be sure to take a look at the videos about me and my books. Also, go to Facebook and sign up as a friend on my Beverly Barton Official Fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/beverlybartonfanpage
.
Warmest regards,
Beverly Barton
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ISBN: 978-1-4201-1035-7