“We’ll never know what her motive was,” Pete said. “If I were to speculate, I would suggest that perhaps she thought a family would change things.”
“Turn him into a doting father?”
“Something like that.”
“I think maybe she wanted to end it . . . let us get her instead of him.”
Pete nodded. “You could be right. What about Laurant?” he asked then.
“The doctors say she’ll be okay.”
“Are you going to be staying around?”
Nick knew what Pete was asking. “I’ll stay long enough to tell her how sorry I am I got her into all of this.”
“And then?”
“I’m leaving.” His mind was made up.
“I see.”
He glanced over at Pete. “Damn. I really hate it when you say that. You sound like a shrink.”
“You can’t shield your heart, Nick. Running away won’t solve your problem.”
“And you’re going to tell me what my problem is, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am,” he agreed smoothly. “Loving Laurant makes you human, and that’s what’s frightening you. It’s that simple.”
“I’m not running away. I’m going back to work. What kind of a life could I offer her? She deserves to be happy and safe, damn it, and I can’t guarantee that. Stark used her and Tommy to get to me. It could happen again. God knows, I’ve made enemies since I started working for you. What if another creep comes after her? No, I can’t let that happen. I won’t take that chance.”
“So, you’ll isolate yourself even more than you already have? Is that it?”
Nick shrugged.
“You’ve made your mind up?” Pete pressed.
“Damn right.”
Pete knew he wasn’t going to win this argument, but he felt compelled to interfere a little more. “Psychiatrists are trained to notice little things. We observe.”
“So?”
“When I walked into Laurant’s room, I noticed you were putting the engagement ring on her finger. I found that very curious.”
Nick couldn’t explain his actions. “I didn’t want her to wake up and think she’d lost it. She can take it back to the store and get a refund. That’s all there was to it. Now let it go.”
“Just one more comment, and then I’ll stop hounding you. I promise. Actually, it’s a question.”
“What?” he asked. He sounded miserable.
“Where are you going to find the strength to leave her?”
A
week had passed since Noah was shot. The agent was recuperating at the abbey, but he was getting very little rest, what with the anniversary celebration and the constant stream of visitors, most of whom were women bearing gifts. The abbot was thrilled. They had enough home-cooked food to last a month.
Tommy had just walked one of the parishioners to the door, thanked her for the casserole, and returned to the den where Noah was sprawled out on the sofa. Tommy dropped down in the easy chair and put his feet on the ottoman. He was catching Noah up on the latest developments, but he kept getting interrupted.
“Okay, where was I?”
“You were telling me what happened with Laurant at the hospital.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Neither Nick nor I knew Laurant had a bullet lodged in her leg. So, the doctor comes out and tells us she’s been shot. Nick goes crazy then.”
“Love will do that to a man.”
“I guess so,” Tommy agreed. “He was already acting nuts, but this news pushed him right over the edge.”
“Yeah?” Noah asked, smiling. “I wish I could have seen it. He’s always so cool and calm. What’d he do?”
“He starts shouting, ‘What the hell do you mean she was shot? What kind of a place are you running here?’”
Noah laughed. “Who was he yelling at?”
“Dr. Benchley. You met him, didn’t you?”
“Yes. He’s a real charmer.”
“He’s shouting back at Nick, ‘Hey, Buddy, I didn’t shoot her,’ but Nick’s out of his mind now, and I start to worry he’s going to shoot Benchley.”
“So, then what happened?”
“Nick wouldn’t leave her side. He stayed with her all night, but he told Pete and me that, as soon as she woke up, he was going to say good-bye. He did too. He shook her hand.”
Noah burst into laughter. “What’d she do?”
“She called him an idiot and went back to sleep.”
“I do love your sister, Tommy.”
“Nick was real determined. He had a lot of follow-up work to do, and that kept him in Nugent a few days. They found Lonnie holed up in a motel outside of Omaha. He’s been charged with arson.”
“What about Brenner? Did they find the bank account the sheriff told Laurant about?”
“Yeah, they did. Brenner was altering the books and stealing from Griffen, the developers. Steve’s going to be going away for a long time. Hey, did I tell you what Christopher did?”
“The groom?”
Tommy nodded. “While he and Michelle were in Hawaii on their honeymoon, he spent a lot of time on the phone putting together a deal. He convinced Griffen to buy another parcel of land the city owns and leave the town square alone. The way he worked it out, some of the profits will go to renovating the square and bringing in new businesses. Christopher’s done a very good thing for this town. As soon as he gets settled, he’s going to hang his shingle two doors down from Laurant’s store. When the store opens, Michelle’s going to manage it.”
“What will Laurant be doing?”
“Painting.”
Noah smiled. “That’s good.”
“It’s time for you to take another antibiotic.”
“I’ll wash it down with a beer.”
“It’s ten o’clock in the morning. You can’t have a beer.”
“You priests are too damned strict.”
Tommy got him a Pepsi and sat down again. “I heard that Wesson is thinking about resigning.”
The smile left Noah’s eyes. “He should be encouraged to quit.”
“You should cut the guy a little slack,” Tommy said. “Nick told me he made himself a target in the cabin, trying to divert Stark and help Nick get a clear shot.”
“It was too little, too late. I don’t want to talk about Wesson. Pete already filled me in on what went down. So, tell me,” he continued, “did Nick leave her or not?”
“She left him.”
“No kidding. Where’d she go?”
“To Paris.” Tommy was beaming when he added, “She won the lawsuit. She got every penny of Grandfather’s money back, plus a heck of a lot of interest. She had to fly over to sign some papers.”
“All’s well that ends well.”
“I didn’t tell Nick why she went.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “What did you tell him.”
Tommy shrugged. “That she went to Paris.”
“Implying it was permanent?”
“I might have.”
“There’s no way in hell he went after her. Getting on a transatlantic flight. He’d never do that, not in a million years.”
Tommy looked at his watch. “He should be landing in Paris any minute now.”
Noah laughed again. “He is nuts. It was okay for him to leave her, but he couldn’t stomach the notion of her leaving him?”
“Actually, he got to Des Moines before he turned around and drove back. Then I had to tell him she was gone.”
“Forever.”
Tommy nodded. “Tough love,” he explained. “I love Nick like a brother, but I had to get tough.”
“You mean you lied to him.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. I think you just committed a sin. Want me to hear your confession?”
Laurant was exhausted. She cried most of the way to Paris, and when she wasn’t weeping, she was fuming because she had fallen in love with an idiot. She didn’t get any sleep at all, and as soon as the plane landed, she had to go directly to the law firm’s offices to sign the papers.
They wanted to celebrate. She wanted to go to Boston and find Nick, but couldn’t make up her mind what she would do once she found him. One minute she thought she would kiss him, and the next she thought she would give him a piece of her mind, but then, she didn’t know her mind anymore. She used to be such a practical, down-to-earth sort of woman, but Nick had changed her. She couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t eat, she couldn’t do anything but cry.
She checked into the hotel and took a long, hot shower. She had packed a pretty nightgown, but she put on the red T-shirt with the open-mouthed bass on the front instead.
How could he leave her? The tears started flowing again, and that made her angry. She remembered his reaction when she’d told him she loved him. He’d looked horrified. She thought it was because she was complicating his life, but now she stopped fooling herself and accepted the truth. He didn’t love her. It was that simple.
Laurant grabbed a Kleenex, got into bed, and called Michelle to cry on her shoulder.
Michelle answered on the first ring. She sounded sleepy. “If you’re calling to tell me how sorry you are about the wedding, I forgive you, just like I did the last three times you called me in Hawaii. None of it was your fault. Okay? Mother forgives you, Daddy forgives you, and so do Christopher and I.”
“He left me, Michelle.”
Her friend was suddenly wide awake. “What do you mean, he left you? Nick? Where are you anyway?”
“Paris,” she answered, sniffling.
“You’re crying, aren’t you? You lost the lawsuit. Laurant, I’m so sorry.”
“I didn’t lose.”
“You mean you’re rich again?”
“I suppose so.”
“You don’t sound very happy about it.”
“Did you hear what I said? Nick left me. I didn’t tell you the last time I called, but he left me the day after the wedding. He shook my hand, Michelle, and then he left. He doesn’t love me.”
“He shook your hand?” Michelle burst into laughter.
“It isn’t funny. This phone call is costing money, so be sympathetic and be fast.”
“Okay,” Michelle said. “There, there. It will be all right.”
“Now you’re being sarcastic.”
“Sorry,” she said. “What are you going to do about him?”
“Nothing. He doesn’t love me.”
“I saw the way he was looking at you while you were dancing at the picnic. It’s the same way Christopher looks at me when he wants . . . you know.”
“That’s lust, not love. I scared him.”
“Oh, dear. You do have a knack for doing that. There’s only one thing left to do,” she advised. “You’re going to have to go after him. Hunt him down.”
Laurant sighed. “You aren’t helping. I’m feeling miserable. I hate being in love.”
“Go after him,” she repeated.
“And then what? I can’t make him love me. I hate feeling like this. If this is what love is all about, you can have it. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to get on with my life and forget him. Yes, that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Okay,” Michelle agreed, and Laurant could hear the smile in her voice. “Just one question. How are you going to forget him?”
“I fell in love with him almost overnight, so it probably isn’t the real thing. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, please. Do you hear yourself ? In your heart you know this isn’t an infatuation. I fell in love with Christopher after our first date. Sometimes it happens that way. I just knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Go after Nick, Laurant. Don’t let pride mess this up.”
“Pride doesn’t have anything to do with it. If he loved me, he wouldn’t have left me. It’s over, and I have to accept it.”
Laurant felt like her heart was shattering. Michelle was talking now, but she wasn’t listening. She interrupted her friend to say good-bye. She wanted to go home, but she didn’t know where that was anymore.
She called room service and ordered hot tea. Coping. That’s what Nick had told her she was doing when she fixed herself tea.
She was suddenly anxious to get out of Paris. She called the airline and moved her flight up. She could sleep on the plane, she thought. She got out of bed and started packing her bags again. She had just closed her overnight bag when there was a knock on her door. Tea had arrived. She grabbed a tissue on her way across the room and then opened the door.
“Just put—”
Nick was standing in the corridor, glaring at her. She was so stunned to see him, she couldn’t speak, couldn’t move.
He looked awful. His hair was down in his face, his clothes looked like he’d slept in them, and his eyes looked haggard. She thought he was beautiful.
“Did you even have the chain on? What were you thinking opening the door like that? I didn’t hear the dead bolt. Was the door locked?”
She didn’t answer him. She just stood there staring up at him with a stunned expression on her face. He could see she’d been crying.Her eyes were red and swollen. He had to nudge her back inside before he could shut the door.
“This is how you lock a door,” he said as he turned the bolt.
He had her now. He leaned against the door so she couldn’t get past him. He took a deep breath, and the panicky feeling he’d been carrying around vanished. She was just a foot away from him, and the world was suddenly making sense again.
“How did you find me?”
“I’m FBI. It’s what we do. We find people who try to run. Damn it, Laurant, how could you leave me like that? Without a word, you pack up and move to Paris? What the hell’s the matter with you? Don’t you know what you put me through? What were you thinking?” he railed. “You can’t tell someone you love him and then run away. That’s just damn cruel.”
Laurant was trying to follow along, but Nick was talking so fast and furiously, it was difficult. Why did he think she had moved to Paris? And what made him think she was running away from him?
She was going to demand he explain as soon as she got over the fact that he was there, acting like a complete, adorable idiot.
“I’ll quit,” he said. He nodded to let her know he meant it. “If that’s what it will take to get you to marry me, then by God, I’ll quit.”
He only then noticed she was wearing the T-shirt he’d bought her, and that conjured up all sorts of hot memories. He smiled that wonderful, melting smile of his, and then he pointed at her and said, “You love me.”
He tried to take her into his arms, but she backed away. “You can’t quit.”
“Yes, I can,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make you feel safe, but you’ve got to stop running. No matter where you go, I’ll follow you. Damn it, Laurant, I’m never going to let you leave me again.”
She put her hand out to fend him off when he tried to grab her. “I wasn’t running away. You left me, remember?”
“Yeah, well, I came back and you were gone. You sure didn’t waste any time pining away for me. Tommy didn’t even want to tell me where you’d gone, but I made him.”
She was starting to catch on. Her brother had become a matchmaker. “And what did he tell you?”
“That you moved to Paris. It made me crazy knowing you were so far away,” he admitted. “I have to have you in my life. I want to come home to you every night. I want to grow old with you. I need you, Laurant.”
She started crying again. He wouldn’t let her back away from him this time. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. He kissed her forehead as he whispered, “Will you marry me?”
“I won’t marry a man who can’t hold a job.”
“Then I’ll take the coordinator position they’ve offered me.”
“No, what you do is too important. You have to promise me you won’t stop.”