Legend (Arizona Vengeance #3)(69)

Pepper’s eyes are round and awestruck. She smiles. “I’ve been in love with you for a while and I shouldn’t have held back in telling you. There was a moment…and I just knew.”

I tilt my head. “What was the moment?”

“When you wanted to know how I felt about not having children. You wanted to know me on such an intensely personal level, I just knew.”

I nod my head because I remember that conversation well. Her words were important to me and the fact she so willingly shared something so personal humbled me.

Turning slightly, I look back to the closed curtain figuring I have a bit more time alone with Pepper. I let her hand go and release the latch on the bed rail so I can lower it out of the way. I scoot my chair closer to the bed, turning it sideways so I can get as close to her as possible.

    I hold out both hands to her and she places hers in mine. We both squeeze at the same time and I lean in a bit closer to her. “Because I love you, I trust you.”

She smiles and nods. “The same here.”

I open my mouth but my voice cracks. I hold her gaze, refusing to look away in shame as my eyes start getting wet. My voice stammers as I forge on. “I trust you to see me break down. I haven’t been able to yet because I had to do the press conference and I had to wait here with your parents to come out of surgery, but now…here alone with you and knowing you love me…I have to tell you, Pepper…I’m fucking scared out of my mind.”

“Oh, baby,” she murmurs and I drop my head until it’s resting against our clasped hands. I don’t hold back and let the tears flow freely.

“I was so afraid you’d die, and I’m terrified I’ll never see Charlie again, and you’re the only person in the world that I can admit my fears to.” The tears keep coming and they wet our hands. She manages to pull one free and it comes to the back of my head where she strokes my hair as I weep on her.

Because even though Pepper just came out of surgery for a bullet to her gut, I trust she has the strength to let me do this right now. I trust that she can let me be vulnerable and there will be no shame in it at all.

I don’t know how long I stay that way but Pepper continually pets me in reassurance. Finally, I raise my head and blink away the last of the wetness so I can see her clearly. Her eyes aren’t filled with pity but rather solidarity to my pain. She uses her fingertips to dry my cheeks.

“We’ll find her,” she tells me with confidence.

    “Of course, we will,” I agree and ignore that dark piece inside of me that acknowledges this could have a bad ending.

The curtain to the room opens, and I expect her family but instead it’s one of the plainclothes detectives.

Nordstrom I think was his last name.

“Mr. Bay,” he says cutting his gaze from me to Pepper and back again. “We have a lead on Ms. Martin. Several people have called into the tip line. I need you to come with me.”

I look back at Pepper and she beams at me. “See…it’s all going to be okay.”

Bending over, I brush my lips against her forehead. “I’ll call your mom as soon as I know something.”

Pepper nods and I follow Detective Nordstrom out with a renewed hope that I’ll have my daughter back safe and sound again.





Chapter 31


    Legend


Detective Nordstrom leads the way with long purposeful strides. I wish he’d break into a run because time’s a wasting but I follow him right out the front of the hospital to an unmarked patrol car.

He points at the passenger door. “Get in.”

We’re not even out of the hospital parking lot when he says, “Lida’s stolen a car.”

I turn to look at him. “Okay.”

“She took it while the owner was using an ATM machine and he’d left it running. He said she had a baby with her.”

I exhale loudly. “Thank fuck.”

“A squad car spotted her up about fifteen minutes ago headed west,” he continues on and it’s at this point that I notice his voice has become more grave. “They’re in pursuit.”

“Wait…what does ‘pursuit’ mean?” I ask as I turn more in my seat to face him. “Like high-speed chase? Because she has Charlie in that car without a car seat. You cannot do anything that would make her wreck.”

“We’re not,” he assures me hastily. “They’re staying back so she doesn’t feel threatened.”

“So they’re just following her?” I ask.

“It’s all we can do at this point,” he points out. “If she didn’t have Charlie in the car, we’d do something to physically disable her car or run her off the road, but that’s not an option, obviously.”

    “Jesus,” I mutter.

Nordstrom’s cell phone rings and he pulls it out of his front suit pocket. When he puts it up to his ear, he says, “Nordstrom.”

He listens for a few moments to whoever is on the other line and merely says, “On our way.”

When he hangs up, he flips a switch on the dashboard and a siren comes on. I look back and lights mounted under the back glass are flashing. I assume he’s got lights on the front grill too. I know something for sure has happened when he guns it and the sedan leaps forward.