Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Tessa tried to breathe. Edwards’ arm around her waist was cutting off her air. The gun pressed against the underside of her throat not helping her feel like she could breathe. Tears rolled down her face.
Caleb didn’t look at her. All through that conversation he hadn’t once even looked at her. She wanted him to, but maybe he needed to keep this professional. Focus on the threat and not the victim.
Tessa wanted to be someone she could be proud of. Not someone who cowered in fear. Too bad she couldn’t figure out how to do that. This situation felt like it happened between heartbeats, everything moving too fast. Too much. But it also seemed to stretch time.
Lord Jesus. She needed Him now more than ever, but it was the times when her life was “fine” and things were normal that those foundations were built.
Now that life and death could happen in a matter of seconds, she fell back on those ingrained basics.
Prayer. Memory verses she had learned. Drawing on the peace of God that ran through her like a river—of living water.
She knew, no matter what, that God had her in His hands.
“Figure it out?” Edwards scoffed. “You don’t get it.”
She stared at official Caleb, the fed. The man who wore a badge and gun and fought for justice. He wasn’t the boy next door right now, he was a man with a job to do.
And Edwards was going to kill him.
He was barely paying attention to her, and his arm around her waist had loosened a fraction. She whimpered, and it was real—no pretense.
She felt the shift in him.
Edwards moved the gun off her throat, catching the barrel on the underside of her chin.
She cried out and when he brought the gun up to point at Caleb, Tessa turned into him.
She pushed him with all her strength, turning with his arm still around her.
Moving, making him move with her. Rotating around where he stood.
The gun went off.
She winced and kept moving, going as fast as she could. Tessa didn’t give him any chance but to accommodate her. She got all the way around, just a step. He had to move his feet so he didn’t fall over, and she got him between her and Caleb.
Edwards had to move his feet so he didn’t fall over, and she took the chance to get him between her and Caleb.
Caleb fired.
She felt the bullet impact Edwards, and he fell toward her. She lurched forward and Edwards landed on her on the ground. Her hip hit something hard on the ground, and his weight pinned her to the dirt and gravel.
Tessa tried to move but couldn’t. She needed air!
Edwards rolled off her.
She looked at him, and he stared back at her with sightless eyes. Tessa screamed inside her head, but no sound came out of her mouth. She scrambled back, crying out when pain flashed through her body. She had to… She needed to…
“Whoa, whoa. Honey, it’s okay. He’s dead.” Caleb touched her shoulders, then her arms, stalling her backpedal across the dirt. His face swam into view and she realized he was holding her face.
Tessa tried to breathe. “He…”
“It’s okay. It’s over.”
Her breath hitched in her throat. “I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get away.”
“I know.” His voice was so soft. He tugged her to him and she buried her face against his shirtfront.
“He dragged me from your house. He was going to kill you and I knew that if you came here he would do it.”
Caleb shook his head, and she felt his chin against her hair. “That’s not what happened. God protected us both.”
She drew in a shuddering breath and clung to him. “He was going to kill you.”
“That might’ve been his plan, but it isn’t what happened.”
“I’m glad you’re okay.” She felt the rumble of laughter in his chest and looked up. “What?”
He shook his head, smiling. “I thought for sure that bullet would’ve gone through him and into you, but you barely have a scratch on you. It’s a miracle.”
“Sounds like God protected us both.”
He touched his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. “Amen to that.”
Tessa held on. “He hurt Pops.”
“It’s going to be okay. Everyone is all right.”
She didn’t know how much she’d needed to hear that until just then. “He called that guy you’re looking for and got orders. It sounded like Edwards was screwing up and this was all about saving face.”
“He spoke to Kessler?”
She nodded. “I heard the whole thing. He didn’t sound pleased with Edwards, and I think maybe he figured win or lose this would be when it was over.”
Caleb nodded. “That’s really helpful, Tessa. Thank you.”
He shifted and pulled out his phone, putting it to his ear.
A second later he said, “Yes, it is. How’s Pops?
Okay, good. I have a dead dirty FBI agent here if you wanna make a call.
Get the state police here, and the FBI. Someone will want to clean up this mess.
” After a second of pause, he said, “Thanks, Sheriff.”
Then he hung up the phone. “Are you okay for a minute if I let you go?”
She didn’t want to say yes, but she nodded anyway. Caleb kissed her forehead. “Someone is coming to pick us up. Or we can walk back to the house and drive from there. But I need a minute.”
She nodded.
He moved to Edwards and dug through the FBI agent’s phone. “He used this?”
She nodded because that was the cell Edwards had used to call Kessler. “I assume it was Kessler he was speaking to.”
“I’m going to find out. And then I’m going to take the rest of them down.”
She bit her lip and nodded.
“Just without the part where you have a gun to your head.”
She tried to smile but couldn’t quite make it happen. Tessa tucked her knees up and held on, trying to hold it together. Her gaze drifted to the dead man and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“Yeah, it’s me. Run this number.” Caleb paused. “She’s hanging in there. My Tessa is tough.”
She opened her eyes raising one brow at him. Feeling anything but that right now.
He winked at her, then said into the phone, “Just run the number. It’s Kessler.” Pause. “Got it. Bye.” He hung up. “That was Noah. He’s headed this way.”
Caleb shifted over to her. “He was actually bummed he wouldn’t be able to be here in time to help get you back from Edwards. But he’ll be here for Christmas.”
She wanted to tell him that was great. The words stuck in her throat and her eyes filled with tears—a delayed reaction.
“Okay, we’ve been here long enough.” Caleb gathered her up and lifted her to her feet.
All she had to do was hold on, lean into his strength and let him help her. “Thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me. It was my pleasure.” He kissed her forehead, holding onto her. “Let’s get out of here.”
Caleb started to walk her to the road.
“This is my house, I could just go inside.”
“You need to see a doctor, and this place needs to be cleared as a crime scene.” He walked her toward the road.
“I want to see Pops.”
“He’s going to want to see you,” Caleb said. “The woman who saved his grandson’s life.”
“I don’t want to ever do anything like that again.”
His hold on her tightened for a second. “I think that can be arranged. In fact, I’m thinking I might wrap up this case and come home permanently. Help Pops out with the ranch, since he’s getting older and he can’t do it all himself.”
“You can’t have my housekeeping job. It’s my fun money.”
Caleb chuckled. “I like the idea of you coming by and visiting. As long as you and I can have lunch after you’re done.”
“I think that can be arranged.”
“Good, because I’m hoping the girl next door can arrange it so that I can take her out for dinner, too.”
“She’d like that.”
“Yeah? Good to know.”
“She also likes hiking on her days off, sunset walks across the fields. One day she’d like to get chickens but doesn’t know how to construct a coop.”
“I can figure it out. Anything else?”
“She reads a lot. You’ll have to be okay with a line item in the budget just for books.”
“This is your deep dark secret?”
She turned her head so she could see the look on his face, and the humor there. He looked like he was delighted by the prospect of…her. She said, “Love me, love my book addiction.”
“You could stop if you wanted to?”
“My dad always nudges me when they mention the recovery group at church. It’s very inappropriate, but I make him pray for the group. I don’t have a problem.”
Caleb stopped in the middle of the drive.
Police cars with sirens going could be heard in the distance. She ignored it when he turned to her and slid his arms around her waist. She held onto his shoulders. “Is this an intervention?”
Caleb smiled wide. “I have something I need to take care of, but I’ll be back as soon as I can. After that we’ll go to the bookstore. What do you say?”
She tried to act all coy, which was of course an act. She had no idea how to do this. “I’ll think about it.”
“You do that.” He leaned close. “I’ll be thinking about it, too. The same way I thought about you over all the years since I left. Not often, but I also never forgot you. Never found anyone else that makes me feel the way I do when I look at you. I wanna give you the world, Tessa.”
“I want to be the best version of who I am so that you get to spend time with that person. Not that I have to struggle to be something I’m not just to meet a standard, but with you here… It’s like an invitation to be who I could be.”
“I know what you mean.” Caleb nodded. “If you’re on board, I’d like to see where this goes.”
“Merry Christmas to me.”
That same delight lit his eyes again.
Tessa slid her hands to the sides of his face and tugged him down so she could kiss him. Before she did, she said, “Thank you for coming for me. For being there to save me, and for giving me back a dream for what the future could be.”
She touched her lips to his. He groaned and tilted his head to the side, sweeping her up into his arms. Taking over the kiss.
Leading her where she was unsure and setting the pace.
It was all Caleb. Surrounding her, giving her that dream.
Showing her what was possible so that she could hope even more in what could be.
So that her faith grew with the evidence, strengthening her belief and her trust in Him because He had fulfilled his promise to her and given her the desires of her heart.
Just in time for Christmas.