Chapter 35
“He screamed louder than you did, hit in the same place.”
Hetty laughed, as much at the happy expression on Spence’s face as the words themselves. She was still feeling a little weak, only now it was with relief. The nightmare was over.
They were on the front porch today. She wanted some time to put the memories out of her head.
Although she thought she just might hang on to the one of the man who had shot her tumbling down that hillside, and the realization that Spence had done exactly that, shot the hired killer in almost exactly the same place that he had shot her.
“Talked to Officer Reynolds this morning,” Spence went on.
“He says the guy calling himself Strauss—George Merrick is his real name, by the way, if you want to cross him off your Christmas card list—is singing like the proverbial canary. Reynolds has been on the phone to Portland, and they already have a warrant out for his employer. And our clients are so grateful about how it worked out, they’ve already rebooked. ”
“You mean now that you captured the guy who would have killed them?”
Spence didn’t speak for a moment. When he did, his voice was very quiet. “I never thought of him like that. To me, he was always the guy who hurt you. That’s all I needed to know.”
Hetty couldn’t even describe the feelings that welled up inside her when he said things like that. It was as if he’d had all this bottled up inside him all these years, and now that they’d popped the cork, as one of her brothers jokingly said, it just all came bubbling out.
She thought something of those feelings must have showed in her face—in fact, she figured she was probably glowing with them—because he suddenly took on what she’d taken to calling his Serious Spence Look.
“You’re walking a lot better…” he began.
“Yes. I still need the cane now and then, but Liz says I’m good to go. Keeping up the exercises and stretching, of course.”
“Which you do anyway,” Spence pointed out.
“Yes, but I need to focus on it a bit more then I was.”
“But…you could do the stairs at the apartment now.”
She noticed he’d said “the” and not “your.” She thought about all the times when he’d gone there to get something for her, back when the stairs would have been out of the question. Times that had ended with a large portion of her belongings now being here.
Hetty’s brain did some figuring and she hoped she was right about where this was going. “I could, if I had to.” She met and held his gaze. “Am I going to have to?”
She saw his jaw tense for just a moment and wondered if she was wrong, if she’d misinterpreted where they were in this strangely born relationship.
Then he said, fervently enough that that glow she’d felt earlier came rushing back, “I hope not. I hope you’ll stay. Here. With me. You like the place, don’t you?”
She let out a relieved breath. “I like it a lot. I like the setting—minus hired killers tumbling into the backyard, mind you—the view from all sides. I like the way it’s laid out.
I like the wood, the line of the roof…all of it.
” She couldn’t help herself, she gave him an impish smile before adding, “And I happen to love the owner.”
“So…does that mean yes? You’ll stay, permanently?”
She wanted to giggle. She hadn’t giggled since she was twelve. To cover the silly urge, she put on her most serious expression.
“Well…there would have to be a big change first.”
He blinked and she saw that jaw muscle twitch again.
She wasn’t normally a tease, but it did her heart good to see how nervous he was about this.
Because she knew him well enough to know he only got nervous when genuine emotion was involved.
Being angry and determined when hunting a killer was one thing, but laying himself open like this was something new to her.
And she had to admit, she liked it. And liked even more that it appeared new to him, too.
“What? Tell me, and I’ll get it done.” His mouth twisted. “Unless the change you want is me moving out.”
“Well, that would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?” she said with a laugh. And decided to quit teasing him. “No, the big change I want is…a bathtub.”
He blinked. “A…bathtub?”
“Not that that big shower of yours isn’t nice,” she said, remembering a certain close encounter that had ended with them both on the tiled floor, wet, slippery and breathless. “But sometimes I like to have a long soak after a rough day.”
He was smiling now. “I think we can arrange that,” he said. “Under one condition.”
She arched a brow at him. “You’re putting conditions on my one request?”
“Yeah. That tub needs to be big enough for two.”
Hetty laughed, letting the delight she was feeling spill over. “Oh, yes, it must be.”
Luscious images rolled through her mind. What she was thinking must have showed in her face because his expression changed. He wasn’t smiling now. He was looking at her as if she were that sunrise over the mountains he loved to watch.
As if he were…awestruck.
She couldn’t even find words for how that made her feel.
And when he moved toward her, her pulse kicked up, her body went taut, waiting, anticipating, longing for the kiss she knew was coming.
She would have thought that by now her physical response might have ebbed a little—they’d certainly been indulging enough—but she was beginning to realize that with Spence it never would.
His lips were just starting to brush hers when a firm knock on the door blew up the mood. She heard Spence swear under his breath, and for some reason—maybe the undercurrent of happiness she was carrying around these days—it made her laugh.
“Could have been worse,” she said teasingly. “It could have come ten minutes later and you’d have had to get dressed to go answer.”
She’d never heard anyone growl and laugh at the same time, but Spence managed it. Then, clearly reluctantly, he got up and headed for the door.
“Your timing sucks, cuz,” he said.
She couldn’t see from where she was on the couch, but there was no mistaking the voice that answered, laughing. “Sorry, but I’m not used to having to think about that yet.”
She was on her feet, much more easily now although the cane was still close by, before Eli Colton got in the door. He spotted her and crossed the room quickly. He gave her a quick hug.
“It’s good to see you back on your feet again. You look great.”
“I’m feeling much better.”
“And she’ll feel perfect when she gets back in the air,” Spence said, coming to stand beside her and slip his arm around her.
“The plane’s repaired?” Eli asked.
“Ready to go.” Spence tightened his arm around Hetty for a moment. “And a good thing, I think she’s ready to take off even without a plane.”
She laughed at him, but couldn’t deny what he’d said. How could she when she was so wound up it really did feel like she would spin out of control if she didn’t get back in the air soon?
“Good job taking out the shooter,” Eli said, nodding at Spence.
“It had to be done.”
And that, Hetty realized, was the distillation of the man she loved in a simple five words. It had to be done. And therefore Spence would do it. She knew deep down that that would apply to anything, that she would always be able to count on him to do what had to be done.
“Would you like some coffee?” she asked, still not quite used to playing hostess here in this house, even though she felt so at home. Because it was home, with Spence here.
“No, thanks,” Eli said. “I just stopped by to let you know we got an ID on the woman you found.”
Hetty tensed, and Spence immediately held her tighter again.
“Who is she?”
For some reason she liked that he’d used the present tense. It felt like he thought that poor woman was still here, still important. Which was how she’d felt from the moment she’d found her.
“We got a DNA match on an old missing person report. Her name’s Phoebe Smith. Her family is over in Cordova, near Orca Inlet. Fishermen, mostly.”
“Copper River salmon,” Spence said. Hetty knew the species well, and that it was the backbone of the economy over there, the incredible-tasting fish selling in limited batches for very high prices.
“Probably,” Eli agreed.
“How did she end up here?” Spence asked. “Cordova is an eighty-mile, twelve-hour ferry ride with that stop in Whittier, even though it’s only forty miles away as the eagle—” he glanced at Hetty “—or floatplane flies.”
That got him a small smile, despite the subject.
“Came for a job,” Eli said. “And rented a room near Roaster’s. But when she vanished after a couple of weeks, they assumed she hadn’t liked the work there and quit without notice.”
“But how did it happen? Who here would do such an awful thing?”
“That’s the big question, isn’t it?” Eli said. “And, of course, that’s assuming it was someone from here and not some sick-headed tourist who happened to be here. And don’t even ask me about motive, because right now we don’t have a clue.”
“Except that she was set up with that ring,” Spence said.
She saw his cousin give Spence an appreciative look and a nod. “Yes. Except for that.”
Hetty hated to think that there were people like that in the world, let alone here in little Shelby. She loved this town and the idea of some killer roaming around loose made her queasy. She hoped they caught him before her mother came back home; she was already worried enough about her.
Eli promised to keep them updated—he felt they’d earned that, having found the body. But before he left, he gave Hetty a steady, clearly approving look.
“Welcome aboard,” he said.
When he’d gone, she looked at Spence. “Welcome aboard?”
“Yeah,” Spence said but didn’t explain. She was about to push when he derailed her. “Why don’t we go take a look at your baby? Maybe a little test run, if it’s ready?”
Her heart leapt at the idea of getting airborne again, so she filed Eli’s comment away for future questioning. She was so excited at the chance to get back in the sky, she barely noticed the slight ache in her leg.
But that Spence knew and understood was the biggest thrill of all.