She had her eyes closed for the most part, blinking them open slowly, looking at him before they drifted closed again. She was just coming out of surgery, still sedated. And part of Bing was glad. He didn’t want her to be scared. He was going to find a way to save her.
“You killed Kristine in a crime of passion,” he told Taylor. “You didn’t mean it. Things got out of hand.”
Taylor gave a sour laugh and gripped the gun harder. “But I did mean it. She was having second thoughts. As it turned out, suburban housewives make lousy criminals.”
A confession wasn’t good. It could mean that he was giving up, that he was ready to end things the wrong way.
“So she threatened you. She wanted to turn you in. There was a heated argument. Things got out of hand. That’s a far cry from premeditation. That’s something you could use in your defense. But if you do anything here, it’ll be cold-blooded murder.”
Taylor curled his lip. “What’s one more on the list? Have you figured out Greg yet?” He switched to full-on bragging. “I took care of him too. No loose ends. He messed up. He couldn’t control his woman. She wanted out too. I told Greg he had to kill her. He couldn’t. He threw his gun at me, told me to do it my damned self. So I did. And then I took care of him. They died the same day, the lovebirds.” He laughed out loud at that. “You had no idea Stacy was screwing around on you, did you?” He tsked. “You should have kept a better eye on her.”
Bing kept his temper under control. Later he would think about this. Later he would analyze every word. Right now, nothing was as important as Sophie in that bed with the gun to her head. “Our wives were friends.”
“And now they’re both dead.” Taylor laughed again, his emotions shifting too rapidly. He’d gone from cocky to trapped to bragging within minutes. He was on the edge, dangerous and unpredictable.
The thought that it probably was Amanda in the grave behind the hunting cabin made Bing sick to his stomach. Ten million dollars. Taylor had big plans for his new life.
Except those plans had been ruined, and they both knew there was no good way out of this room.
Bing held his gun on the man. “Give yourself up. You’re a smart man.”
“Smart enough not to be manipulated.” His body stiffened as if he’d come to a difficult decision.
And Bing had a fair idea what it was. Suicide by cop.
By him specifically, because Bing had been the one to catch up with him here, the one to have ruined his grand plans for a life of luxury and beaches.
The only way out of here led to a jail, and Taylor had no intention of going there. His dreams had been too big, too elaborate, too long in the planning. He wasn’t going to trade in that fantasy for the reality of a cell.
What little power he had left was in this room. He had the power to torture Bing, the power to kill Sophie if he chose to do it. He had no regrets. He wasn’t looking for redemption. He wanted to go out on his own terms.
“Nobody has to die here today.” Bing willed the man to believe the words.
“You’re wrong about that.”
* * *
Sophie heard death in the man’s tone.
And she was sick and tired of always dancing on the edge.
Her body ached, her mind was foggy from anesthetics. She didn’t know much, but she knew that she wanted to live. She knew Bing would help, if he had half a chance. He’d just offered his life for hers. That had to mean something.
She didn’t have much strength. She had one shot at this, one move. Either it’d work or it wouldn’t. Wonderful things are on their way, she told herself and heaved, rolling off the bed, away from the madman, the tubes and sensors ripping off her and setting off the machines.
* * *
That split second of surprise was all Bing needed. As the machines madly beeped, he double-tapped Taylor without hesitation, then rushed forward to Sophie, not even waiting for the man’s body to hit the ground.
Joe and the others rushed in behind him, surrounding Taylor immediately, the gun clattering across the floor as they kicked it from his hand.
“Attacker is dead,” Harper called out the next second.
Bing only had eyes for Sophie, gathering her up into his arms, cradling her head, his heart going as if he’d run across town. He’d held his emotions at bay until now, but they rushed him all at once. His knees were going weak at the thought of what could have happened.
Thank God, it didn’t. He just needed to stay here, and just hold her for maybe like the next ten years. Just until his nerves settled. “Are you all right?”
She clutched her side and gasped as she looked up at him. “That hurt.”
“You probably ripped out your stitches.” He lifted her gently onto the bed, hating to let her go but wanting to make her more comfortable, then called toward the door. “Get a doctor in here!”
He pulled the green curtain that hung from the ceiling. His officers could deal with Taylor’s body on the other side.
He held Sophie’s hand as she was checked over by a nurse who reattached tubes and sensors. Then a resident came in and checked her over again for concussion and possible broken bones. She didn’t seem to have either. He redid her stitches so the nurse could put on a new bandage.
“Is she all right?” Bing asked, still numb inside; he wouldn’t have let go of her hand for anything.
“She’ll be closely monitored for internal bleeding. She needs to rest. I’m going to have her moved to another room so the officers can do what they need to do here.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Are you with her?”
“Yes.” Forever, if she’d have him. He’d work on that later. For now, for starters, he needed to get her to forgive him.
The intern turned to leave. “Make sure she stops leaping around.”
Bing promised.
“What are you going to do, sit on me?” Sophie groused from the bed.
Bing tightened his fingers around hers. “Maybe I will.” He wasn’t going anywhere. He held her gaze. “Listen, I’ve been stupid. About the heart. I’m sorry. I’m not going to be stupid like that again. I know what I want.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What is that?”
“Only you.” And as he said the words, he felt a tremendous weight lifting from his chest. “It’s always been only you. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to prove it and get you to trust me again. All I want is a chance.”
He was pretty much begging. And his officers on the other side of the divider were hearing it. He didn’t care. Nothing mattered beyond winning Sophie back.
“All right.” She narrowed her eyes. “But if you break my heart, I’m going to have Peaches have words with you.”
“That’s threatening a police officer. Technically.”
“What are you going to do?” She flashed him a teasing smile. “Arrest me?”
He bent his head to hers, all the way to her ear. “Stick with me and there might just be some handcuffs in your future,” he whispered.
She laughed out loud. “I’ll take that as an incentive to speedily recover.”
Chapter Seventeen
One month later
“Ready for the closing?” Sophie asked as they sat around her kitchen table. She felt content, happy, and somehow whole in a way she hadn’t before. Maybe love had done the trick. Love and Bing.
“I still can’t believe it sold so quickly,” he was saying as he finished his second serving of vegetarian lasagna.
She liked that he liked her cooking. She pretty much liked everything about him.
“I feel like I should pay you commission.” His lips stretched into a sexy smile. “According to the Realtor, the first thing every potential buyer commented on was the landscaping.”
“Are you looking forward to the cabin being finished so you can move in?”
His smile turned wicked. “I don’t mind hanging out here.”
He’d moved in the same day she’d come home from the hospital. He’d asked. She’d said yes.
“How are Luke and your father doing?”
“Amazingly, they’re good for each other.”
For some reason, Luke attached himself to the old man. And the kid looked at Bing as if he was some comic-book hero. He loved the horses. He hadn’t gotten into any trouble since he’d started working with them.
Bing shook his head. “Apparently, the old man decided he shouldn’t be drinking around Luke. So far, he’s been pretty good about it. Wish he thought about that when he was raising Hunter and me, but I guess it’s better late than never.”
He was wary about the sudden change, but pleased too, she could tell. And she was pleased for him. “How long before your house on the hill is finished?”
“A couple of months. When it’s ready, maybe you could come and stay with me for a while. Or forever.” He lifted a hand. “And I’m not suggesting that you’re not perfectly capable of living on your own. I like being with you. Okay?”
She grinned. “Okay.”
“Peaches would have room to run. He deserves the best.”
“Yes, he does. If he wasn’t here, Taylor would have gotten me that night he broke in.”
“I thought he had an alibi for that night.” Bing winced. “He faked the computer time stamps. I should have caught that earlier. The time stamp comes from the computer time, which can be adjusted by the user to anything.”
“Could have told you that.” She grinned.
“Maybe you can sign on at the PD as our IT consultant.”
Sounded interesting. “Maybe.”
“You wouldn’t even have to come in. I could bring things home to the farm. If you lived there.” His sexy lips stretched into a beguiling smile. “You could learn how to ride a horse. Cross a few more things off your IFIL list.”
“I already agreed.”
“But I had a whole very convincing speech rehearsed.” He gave a mock frown. “You giving in right at the beginning throws me off stride.”
“Oh yeah?” She played along. “What other enticements were in that speech?”
“I was going to point out that if we lived together permanently, you’d have unlimited access to this.” He gestured with a hand at his body like the hostess at the board on The Price is Right, while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
She laughed out loud. She definitely wanted full access. More than she wanted to learn horseback riding. “Ever thought about going into sales?”
He gave a look of mock shock. “Of this?” He gestured at his body again. “That’s completely against the law. I’m a police captain.”
She laughed again. Seeing him lighthearted and playful like this was wonderful. He’d been walking around like a wounded bear while she’d been recovering. He’d been worried about her. “This is it, right? We made it. The bad stuff’s behind us and the good times are here.”
“If there’s more bad stuff, we’ll handle it together.”
She liked the sound of that. “It’s good to let go of the past.”
“There’s one thing we’re not taking to the new house with us.” He glanced at the mug in front of her. It was the one with the crimson staircase.
She drank the last sip of her water, then chucked the mug into the garbage can from where she sat. How was that for problem solving? “So what was the whole investment-club thing?”
All she knew was that Jeremy had lost money. He’d complained about that bitterly when he’d come to see her at the hospital.
“At Shreff Financial, Taylor and two other brokers set up an investment fund on the side, invited some of their clients, and tried to make some money. One managed the clients, another the legalities and taxes. Taylor did the stock picking and investing. He ran the account. He was siphoning off funds after Shreff went down and he lost his big annual bonuses. Then some clients wanted their money out, but the money wasn’t there. Taylor was at the pharma company by then. At first, he might have devised the stock-option scheme so he could put the money back into the investment fund. But at one point he decided to grab the money and take out anyone who knew about his scam.”
She blinked. “Okay. That makes my head hurt.”
“I always say if people put half as much effort and thought into legitimate work as they put into crime, they’d do just fine. Obviously, Taylor wasn’t stupid. He just wanted more, faster.”
He reached across the table and took her hand, rubbing his thumb across the top of her fingers. “Even if it turned out that Greg Buckner killed Stacy…the heart—” He held her gaze. “It wouldn’t have mattered. No matter what, I love you and I want you, and that’s never going to change.”
Her heart melted. “I know. And I love you back.”
The luckiest day of her life had been when she’d walked up Bing’s walkway with that lost-dog poster. She’d found Bing and Peaches on the same day. And she wasn’t going to let go of either. She glanced at the plaque above her sink, the last three words crossed out and overwritten so now it said: WONDERFUL THINGS ARE ON THEIR WAY HERE.
Bing had done that.
Peaches stood by the back door, wanting to go out. Bing pushed his chair back. “I mowed the lawn; you do the dishes?” He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t think you’re gonna milk that measly bullet wound forever.”
“Another week?”
“Not a chance. Peaches and I have manly playtime coming to us out back.” He walked to the sliding glass doors, and Peaches ran around him in spasms of joy.
The dog practically radiated happiness in visible waves, like saints radiated light in the stained glass windows at her mother’s church. He had a way of filling the whole house with that sheer joy for life. It was hard to fathom now that she used to be scared of him.
Mango was lounging on the back of the sofa, casting a bored look after them. He wasn’t impressed, and he didn’t mind if everybody knew it. But for the most part, he got along with Peaches, and only got his back up if Peaches licked his face.
“Talking about good news,” Sophie called after Bing, “Dr. Pratt called back with the latest test results just before you got home. Looks like I’m all recovered from the gunshot. My heart is completely okay.” She smiled at him expectantly.
“And there you were trying to get out of dishes.”
She hinted a little harder. “I’m cleared for semi strenuous activity.”
Understanding dawned on his face, putting some heat into his eyes. “You mean like—”