“Foley?”
But Foley didn’t answer. He swung his fist at Jake.
Then Jake punched him in the face, pinning him with his legs. The asshole tried to buck him off, but rage that Foley’d tried to kill Sadie filled Jake with adrenaline, and he punched him again.
“Why come after her?” Jake asked. “My father’s been arrested.”
“I had my orders,” Foley hissed. “And no one called off the hit.”
Jake frowned. Had Foley been one of the subjects, or did he work for the CIA?
Then Foley tried to shove him backward, and Jake’s rage exploded. He punched Foley so hard that this time the man’s eyes rolled back in his head.
Jake would have to wait till he regained consciousness for the answers, but for now, he had to get to Sadie.
She was struggling to get up, her ragged breathing choppy as he flipped her attacker over, removed the handcuffs from inside his jacket, and slapped them around the man’s wrists. Jake checked to make sure he was unconscious and had no other weapon on him, then rushed to Sadie.
Sadie heaved for air as Jake dragged her into his arms. She couldn’t believe that he was here, that he’d saved her again.
That that man had tried to kill her.
Jake stroked her back, then kissed her hair. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Who is that?”
“The man who pushed Grace down the stairs.”
“So he was helping with the cover-up?”
“Looks that way.”
She clung to his arms. “What are you doing here?”
Jake rubbed slow circles around her back. “I came to see you.”
Sadie relaxed against him. She had missed him so much, had wanted him with her so badly.
But she hadn’t allowed herself to dream...
She realized then that Jake was trembling, and lifted her head to look up at him.
“Is your father out of jail?”
Jake’s jaw hardened, his eyes slashes of black coal in his chiseled face. “No, he’ll never be free again.” He glanced at the unconscious man on the floor. “Foley is going away for a long time too.”
Sadie gazed into Jake’s tormented eyes, and all the love she’d had for him for so many years filled her. “I’m so sorry, Jake. I...know that he hurt you, that I did—”
“Shh,” he whispered. “None of that matters. All that matters is that I love you.”
Sadie’s breath caught. “I love you too, Jake.” Sadie cradled his face in her hands. “I always have, and I always will.”
Jake’s heart raced as Sadie fell into his arms. He closed his mouth over hers, then kissed her with all the love he had denied himself for so long.
Finally they broke apart, and he called the local police. Ten minutes later, they arrived, and Jake explained the situation, then watched as the police dragged Foley up and carted him off.
Nick was going to work this case, and Jake would help him. He also wouldn’t leave Sadie alone again. Not until everyone associated with that damn project was behind bars.
Or dead.
Preferably the latter.
“Sadie,” he said as he took her hands in his. “I don’t want us to be apart anymore.”
Emotions softened her eyes as she smiled. “I don’t want that either.”
“Come back to Slaughter Creek—or I’ll move out here, if it’s too hard for you back there.”
“No, I’ll come home. I want to be nearer Amelia too.” A question tinged her eyes. “But what about your daughter?”
Jake’s heart swelled as he thought about having the two people he loved most in his house together. “She’ll love you just as I do.”
Then he removed the flint necklace from his pocket and held it out to her. “I know this is crude, that it’s not a ring, but—”
“I loved it then, and I love it now,” Sadie whispered.
He tied it around her neck, where it belonged, then stripped her clothes and made love to her all through the night.
Jake woke early in the morning to find Sadie at her easel. She had painted over Alcatraz with a beautiful landscape of the mountains and wildflowers, and the two of them together. His sweet, beautiful little girl Ayla was walking between them, holding both their hands.
They were finally going to be together. Just as the flint had weathered storms and abuse over the years, so had their love.
That love was only stronger now; it would bind them together forever.
Sadie turned to him with a smile as she laid the paintbrush on the easel. She looked happy, at peace now, and so beautiful he had to have her again. He would never get enough.
He cradled her face between his hands and kissed her. Then her tongue flicked out to tease him, and heat flared between them. A heat so strong and intense that he slipped off her robe and made love to her again, with the sunlight pouring through the window and the colors of the flint necklace twinkling in the light.