Wolfe knelt on his knees, reached down and grabbed her arms. "I've got you, sweetheart. Hang on. You're going to be all right."
She clasped his wrists. He dragged her up and onto her knees, then wrapped his arms around her and held her. She clung to him, her body trembling, as she sucked in deep breaths of air.
"You saved me," she murmured.
"You saved yourself," he told her.
He couldn't resist the urge to touch her, to reassure himself that she was alive and well. With shaky fingers, he caressed her face. She closed her eyes and sighed. He lifted her raw, bleeding hands and inspected them.
"Are you two all right?" Jack asked as he came running up to them.
Wolfe nodded. "Did you shoot Harper?"
"No, Ellison Penn shot him."
Jack inclined his head toward the open door that led to the stairwell. Ellison stood there, his pistol still in his hand.
"Miss Caroline, it's sure good to see that you're all right," Jack said. "We've got an FBI lady right over here. She's going to take care of you. She'll drive you to the hospital and stay with you." Jack motioned for the six-foot female agent, who then came forward and identified herself.
"Ms. McGuire, I'm Agent Lucie Evans."
Wolfe lifted Caroline to her feet, then released his comforting hold on her hands and gently shoved her toward Agent Evans. "Take good care of her."
He turned and walked away.
"Wolfe!" Caroline called out to him.
More than anything he wanted to go back to her. But that wasn't an option. As he passed Ellison, the two exchanged a knowing glance. This was the only way it could end. He had known from the beginning that his sojourn into Caroline's life would be brief and that once she was no longer in danger, he would have to leave her.
Wolfe took the steps two at a time on his way down the stairs, hurrying as fast as he could to escape. He had to leave now and put as much distance between Caroline and him as he possibly could. He'd been kidding himself to think he could ever explain to her, ever rationalize his past actions. The bottom line was that he had killed her stepfather and for that she would never be able to forgive him. Better to make a clean break now and not prolong the agony for either of them.
Caroline stayed at the church until the last minute. She threw handfuls of birdseed from the yellow net holders and waved goodbye to the bride and groom as they left for the D.C. airport in their white limousine. If ever two people deserved their happiness, Roz and Lyle did. Even the ladies of Lyle's church, who had so vehemently opposed the marriage in the beginning, had finally come around once they'd gotten to know Roz and saw beyond her flashy facade.
Today Roz had walked down the aisle on her uncle Henry's arm, wearing a pale yellow satin dress that hugged her slender curves. Her mile veil, attached to a yellow rose headband, puffed out away from her face like a halo. Wearing a canary-yellow dress almost identical to the bride's, Caroline had been
Roz's
only attendant. Fletcher had been Lyle's best man.
Poor Fletch. He'd been duped by Oliver the way everyone else had been. And feeling terribly guilty for being so gullible, he had taken more than his share of the blame for trusting Oliver. And he had lost the woman he loved. The day Oliver Harper died, Peacekeepers International had arranged for Eileen and Brooke to drop out of sight. They had left Alexandria without a trace five months ago.
As the limousine disappeared and the crowd dispersed, Fletch came up behind Caroline and slipped her coat around her shoulders. "It's good to see somebody happy, isn't it?"
Caroline sighed, then smiled at her stepbrother. "You miss Brooke, don't you? Do you still have no idea where she and Eileen are?"
"No idea whatsoever. It's as if they vanished off the face of the earth." Fletch walked Caroline to her car, then paused by the hood and took her hands into his.
"It's been five months," Caroline said. "I would have thought she might have contacted you by now."
Six months, two weeks and four days since Wolfe had walked out of her life.
"Has David Wolfe contacted you?"
Caroline shook her head. "I didn't expect him to."
"Did you want to see him again?"
"I honestly don't know," she admitted. "I suppose a part of me hoped that. . . I should hate him, but I don't. I still care about him. What sort of person does that make me?"
"It makes you human, kiddo." Fletch squeezed her hands, then released her. "We don't get to choose who we fall in love with, do we?"
Caroline unlocked her car, opened the door and slid behind the wheel. Fletch leaned inside, kissed her on the cheek and smiled. "If Brooke gets in touch with you. . ."
"I promise that I'll call you if I hear from her."
When Caroline turned the bend in the road, she saw a black limousine stationed in front of her house. Her heart skipped a beat. Was it possible that Wolfe. . .? She parked her Lincoln in the driveway, then got out just as Ellison Penn
emerged
from the limo. He came toward her hesitantly, as if
he
thought she might ask him to leave. She hadn't seen him since the night he shot Oliver Harper and helped save her life.
Gavin Robbins, who never owned up to the fact that his overzealous behavior at the Mt. Hope sanatorium had wreaked havoc with Wolfe and Ellison Perm's plans, had visited Caroline when she'd spent several days in the hospital after her nearly fatal ordeal at the hands of the Loyalists Coalition. Although he had made himself available to answer any and all questions regarding Preston Shaw's death and the Loyalists Coalition, he had also taken the opportunity to remind her that he was one of the good guys, a Peacekeepers agent dedicated to the cause of freedom. And he didn't hesitate to also remind her that David Wolfe, aka Aidan Colbert, had been her stepfather's executioner.
After learning the truth about Preston Shaw, Caroline had spent the past five months, as had Fletch, trying to reconcile her memories of a kind, good man with reality, with the fact that Preston had been a traitor to his country, an assassin and a member of the Loyalists Coalition.
"Ms. McGuire, may I speak to you?" Ellison asked.
She nodded. "Please, come inside. I'll fix coffee."
He followed her onto the porch and into her home, then waited in the living room. After tossing her coat onto a kitchen chair and kicking off her canary-yellow heels, Caroline prepared the coffeemaker. As she removed two cups and saucers from the cupboard, she allowed herself to consider the reasons why Ellison Penn might be paying her a visit An update on the trials of several prominent D.C. citizens that was sure to end in convictions? Word of another suicide attempt by Barry
Vanderpool
, who was awaiting his own trial? Perhaps news about Eileen and Brooke, something she could share with Fletch? Or would he actually share information about David Wolfe?
When she brought the cups out on a small serving tray, Ellison stood, took the tray from her and set it on the table in front of the sofa. She sat beside him, then lifted her coffee from the tray.
"Did Lyle and Roz have a nice wedding?" he asked.
"Lovely. A perfect November afternoon, with bright sunshine and clear skies. A church filled with friends, relatives and well-wishers. And a bride and groom deeply in love. Who could ask for more?"
"Indeed." Ellison inhaled deeply, then exhaled and looked directly at Caroline. "I suppose you wonder why I've come to see you."
"Yes, I am wondering what brought you to my doorstep."
"I'm retiring from Peacekeepers," he said. "Gavin will be taking my place, at least temporarily. I don't see him keeping the top job for long. He's not suited to it." Ellison cleared his throat. "I'm flying out tomorrow for London to join Eileen and Brooke. They've been living in my London town house for the past five months. Both Brooke and her mother have needed time to adjust and to recover from the shock they suffered when they found out what kind of man Oliver truly was. At first Brooke didn't want to see anyone, not even Fletcher. And of course, she had her hands full taking care of Eileen. But they're both recovering now. Slowly but surely."
"May I tell Fletch where he can find Brooke?" Caroline sipped her coffee, then set the cup and saucer down on the tray. "Do you think she's ready to see him, now?"
"In my telephone conversation with Brooke only this morning I asked her that very question." Ellison smiled. "I intend to speak to Fletcher tonight and see if he'd like to fly to London with me tomorrow."
Caroline smiled. "Two happy endings. I like that."
"Would you like to know where you can find David Wolfe?"
Caroline's heart skipped a beat. "Don't you mean Aidan Colbert?"
"He followed orders. He did his duty like any good soldier. Preston Shaw was an enemy, a rogue agent who had to be eliminated." Ellison reached out and laid his hand on Caroline's shoulder. "You weren't supposed to be there that night. We would never have sent in an agent to kill a man in front of his child."
Caroline pulled away from Ellison's grasp. "When
I
found the key and my life was threatened, why did you call in David Wolfe to guard me, knowing as you did who he really was?"
"There's something you have a right to know, need to know. Something more about David. You see, after that night when Preston was executed, Aidan Colbert had a difficult time dealing with the fact that you had found Preston's body and had seen his killer. He was a man with a soft spot in his heart for children. He cared very much what happened to you.
I
think in the beginning, you reminded him of his little brother."
"Brendan."
Ellison nodded.
"I
sent Aidan to London, to keep him out of the way until we were sure you couldn't identify him. And during the years he spent there,
I
sent him reports on you. Pictures, too. And it was while he was in London that he arranged, through a lawyer, to begin taking care of you financially. He was appalled that your mother had abandoned you.
I
believe he spoke to your aunt Dixie only once and all other transactions were taken care of by the lawyer
I
arranged for him. Money was provided to take care of your psychiatrist's bills, to pay for your medical and dental bills, as well as clothes and items for school. And of course, there were the birthday and Christmas presents.
"And later on college tuition and a bank loan so that you could open your own studio. Whatever you needed, he made sure you had. He took care of you, became your keeper, but always from afar. So, who else would care more about protecting you from the Loyalists Coalition, who else had a bigger stake in your life than Aidan Colbert, the man you only knew as David."
Caroline rose from the sofa, her heartbeat thundering inside her head, drowning out all other sounds.
"
Are you trying to tell me that Aidan Colbert was my benefactor? That David Wolfe and
my David
are one and the same?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you."
Caroline paced the floor as she tried to assimilate the information. A part of her wanted to deny the possibility, but in her heart she knew it was true. Hadn't she, on a subconscious level, always known? The moment she saw David Wolfe for the first time, her soul had recognized his. She had responded to him as she'd never responded to another man, been swept off her feet by her own unbridled passion for a man who was little more than a stranger. But he hadn't been a stranger. He had been her David. The man who had been her guardian angel for fifteen years.
But her beloved David was also Preston Shaw's killer!
"David lives in Tennessee, in a log cabin in the Smoky Mountains." Ellison reached inside his coat pocket and withdrew an envelope. "Here's the directions, along with his address and phone number. But I would suggest you surprise him, otherwise he might bolt and run."
"You seem awfully sure that I'll go to him," Caroline said.
"Not sure, just hopeful." Ellison rose to his feet. "If ever a man needed to be forgiven, your David does."
For hours after Ellison Penn departed, Caroline sat alone in her living room looking at the pictures she had taken of David Wolfe the night he'd made love to her for the first time. She had been so desperately in love with this man. And from studying the look on his face in the photographs, she saw the truth—he had been in love with her, too. The sun set and the moon came up and still she sat, as her heart and mind fought a battle. And in the end her soul triumphed.