He couldn't stand it any longer. He had to touch her in some way. He reached for her hand, and she took it and squeezed as if she never wanted to let it go.
"I think Mom's goal with wanting me to do the bucket list was really a ruse to make me stop and take stock of the life I was leading when she died. She worried about me having nothing but work in my life, worried that I was getting closer and closer to thirty and didn't have any hint of a meaningful relationship with anyone. I know now exactly what Mom wanted for me, and it wasn't singing on a corner in Times Square. It's you, Daniel."
"That's nice, but I need to hear what you want, what you need," he replied. He'd waited for what felt like a lifetime for the words to come from her, the words he'd longed to hear.
The light that shone from her eyes was near-
blinding and he fell into the flames, loving her so much he wondered how he'd lived a day of his life without her.
"I love you, Daniel, and I'm not afraid anymore. I trust in our love. I need you. I want to share your life with you, fill that house with babies and be with you to watch our grandchildren play in the yard."
For a moment he couldn't speak. His chest was so filled with his heart it held the air in his lungs captive. He released her hand and stood and then pulled her up and into his arms, and their lips met in a kiss that tasted of cinnamon and apples, of passion and laughter and, most of all, love.
The people in the café cheered, and as the kiss finally ended Lizzy looked up at Daniel and smiled. "I'm home, Daniel. I'm finally truly home."
Epilogue
Mary Mathis gasped for air and sat up, her heart pounding a thousand beats a minute. Anxiety pressed tight in her chest, a familiar but unwanted enemy.
Telling herself to relax, to breathe in and out in slow, measured breaths, she felt her heart slowing to a more normal pace, the sickening anxiety beginning to fade.
When would these episodes fade? When would the dreams of the past finally leave her alone? Allow her to sleep and stop worrying?
She got out of bed and as always went to the doorway of Matt's bedroom, comforted by the sight of him sleeping soundly. She returned to the living room, turned on the end table lamp and curled up on the sofa.
It had been almost a month since Candy's death and still nobody was in jail for the crime, and Mary couldn't stop the faint niggling feeling that something else bad was coming.
She'd dismiss it as nothing more than a foolish woman's intuition, but at one time years ago Mary had been quite adept at forecasting danger. She'd been able to feel it in the air, taste it in the terror that welled up in the back of her throat.
She felt that now, but this time the terror didn't have a name, it didn't have a face, and that scared her as much as anything.
Think about something positive, she commanded herself as she pulled an afghan from the back of the sofa and covered her bare legs.
She'd managed to hire a new waitress, a young woman named Lynette Shiver, who was taking Lizzy's place and had the same kind of bright, cheerful personality.
A smile curved Mary's lips as she thought of Lizzy. Although she missed her working in the café, it had been wonderful watching Daniel and Lizzy's love grow stronger every day. They came into the café twice a week for dinner, and it was obvious a wedding was in the near future.
A wave of loneliness struck Mary. Most of the time she stayed too busy to miss the presence of a male in her life. She had her work at the café and Matt to keep her busy, but there were moments when she longed for something she could never have, for somebody to wrap her in his strong arms and talk to her of love.
But, the actions she'd taken years ago, the decisions she'd made for herself and for Matt, made it impossible for her to invite a man in, especially the man who looked at her with desire.
Sheriff Cameron Evans had made it clear in a million ways that he was interested in her. But, even though the sight of him created a warm pool of desire inside her, even though she admired him more than anyone else she'd ever met in her life, he was off-limits now and forever.
A shiver whispered through her, and it had nothing to do with her thoughts of Cameron Evans. Rather, it was the feeling that evil had come to Grady Gulch, and it wasn't about to move on any time soon.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt of Mercenary's Perfect Mission by Carla Cassidy!
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Romantic Suspense title.
You want sparks to fly! Harlequin Romantic Suspense stories deliver, with strong and adventurous women, brave and powerful men and the life-and-death situations that bring them together.
Visit Harlequin.com to find your next great read.
We like you-why not like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
Read our blog for all the latest news on our authors and books: HarlequinBlog.com
Subscribe to our newsletter for special offers, new releases, and more!
Harlequin.com/newsletters
Chapter 1
The Wyoming woods atop the tall mountains that cradled the town of Cold Plains were just beginning to take on a fall cast of color. This worked perfectly with the camouflage long-sleeved T-shirt and pants that Micah Grayson wore as he made his way through the thick brush and trees.
Although a gun holster rode his shoulder, he held his gun tight in his hand. Despite the fact that he had only been hiding out in the mountainous woods for two days and nights, he'd quickly learned that danger could come in the blink of an eye, a danger that might require the quick tic of his index finger on the trigger.
Twilight had long ago fallen but a near-full moon overhead worked as an additional enemy when it came to using the shield of darkness for cover.
As an ex-mercenary, Micah knew how to learn the terrain and use the weather to his advantage. He knew how to keep the reflection of the moonlight off his skin so as not to alert anyone to his presence. He could move through a bed of dry leaves and not make a sound. He could be wearing a black suit in a snowstorm and still figure out a way to become invisible.
The first twenty-four hours that he'd been in the woods he'd learned natural landmarks, studied pitfalls and figured out places he thought would make good hidey-holes if needed. He'd also come face-to-face with a moose, heard the distant call of a wolf and seen several elk and deer.
He now moved with the stealth of a big cat toward the rocky cliff he'd discovered the night before. As he crept low and light on his feet, he kept alert, his ears open for any alien sound that might not belong to the forest.
Despite the relative coolness of the night, a trickle of sweat trekked down the center of his back. During his thirty-eight years of life, Micah had faced a thousand life-threatening situations, the latest of which had been a bullet to his head that had sent him into a coma for months.
When he finally reached the rocky bluff he looked down at the lights dotting the little valley, the lights of the small town of Cold Plains, Wyoming. His brother Samuel's town. Micah reached up and touched the scar, now barely discernible through his thick dark hair on the left side of his head, the place where Samuel's henchman, Dax Roberts, had shot him while Micah had sat in his car. Dax had left him for dead.
Fortunately for Micah he hadn't died, but had come out of a three-month coma with the fierce, driving need for revenge against the fraternal twin he'd always somehow known was a dangerous, narcissistic sociopath.
Unfortunately, Samuel was also charming and slick and powerful, making him a natural leader that people wanted to follow.
Five months ago Micah had been sitting in a small-town Kansas coffee shop where he'd landed after his last mission for a little downtime when he'd seen a face almost identical to his own flash across the television mounted to the wall.
Stunned, he'd watched a news story unfold that told him his brother Samuel was being questioned by the FBI and local police in connection with the murders of five women found all across Wyoming. All the women had one thing in common: Cold Plains, the town where his wealthy, motivational-speaker brother wielded unbelievable influence and power.
Micah had immediately contacted the FBI and been put in touch with an agent named Hawk Bledsoe. The two had made arrangements to meet the next day but, before Micah could make that meeting, he'd caught the bullet to his head.