Harlequin Romantic Suspense April 2021 Karen Whiddon (best fiction books to read TXT) 📖

He shrugged out of his jacket and helped her into it. Good thing, as she was shaking all over. A combination of cold, shock and relief. It was impossible to pinpoint any one emotion. Except the one singular feeling she had for Stanton.

“Stanton, I tried to text you.” Maybe he hadn’t seen it. She had to tell him.

He held up his hand. “Don’t. You’ve been through so much. You’re a hero, Dominique. You helped bring down someone who’s been Grave Gulch’s scourge. And you rescued yourself.”

“Now wait one minute, Stanton Colton. I wouldn’t have known how to do any of those defensive moves without the training you gave me. And if I hadn’t had you to fight for, to come back to, I don’t know...” She couldn’t finish as sobs broke through again, tears spilled, whipped away by the lake wind.

Flashing lights caught her glance and she saw two EMT units arriving, along with several police cruisers. “Holy cannoli, I had no idea so many LEA were here.” She looked at him. “Did you know?”

“No. They weren’t part of the original plan, but Troy and the DEA agent called them in two hours ago when intel revealed Jimenez might be here. But no one has a recent photo of him and didn’t know who to look for.”

“Wait—so Troy knew Jimenez was here? Did he tell you?”

“No. He couldn’t.”

“So I didn’t have to throw my back out? There were snipers all around?”

“No sharpshooter was going to risk the shot while Jimenez had both the gun and knife on you.” His face contorted in pain and she knew it wasn’t physical. Her heart, their heart—because it was one, she didn’t doubt it any longer—hurt.

“Stanton, I’m okay, we’re okay. Look.” She held up her arms, turned around, her one leg bare where Jimenez’s knife had cut through the skirt. But he wasn’t looking, he was letting go of her hands, making way for the EMTs jogging up to them. “Stanton, wait!” Desperation clawed through her shock, through the adrenaline coursing into her body. “We are not ending it this way.”

Stanton stepped one foot closer, held a hand up to halt the EMT. “Give us a minute, will you?”

“Ah, sir, we’ve got to tend to her.”

He turned back to her. “You made it out okay, and that’s all I was assigned to do.”

“But—but we aren’t done, Stanton. Your job may be over, sure. Hasn’t this taught us about what’s most important?”

“What’s most important is that you’re safe and alive. And my job here is finished.”

Pain wracked her and it wasn’t from the assault by Jimenez. This was one-hundred percent heartbreak. “Is there nothing I can say to change your mind?”

He didn’t answer, instead stepping back and nodding to the EMTs to move in. Tears streamed down her cheeks, their warmth zero comfort as she was forced to see reality. Nothing had changed between her and Stanton. Not as far as he was concerned.

“Ma’am, come with us. Are you able to walk?” The young woman in an EMT uniform placed a space blanket around her and Dominique realized how very, very cold she was. Her heart felt as if it was freezing inside her chest, which seemed empty as the one thing that had kept her going walked away, toward the blue flashing lights. It shouldn’t have surprised her. He’d said that when the assignment was over, he’d walk away. For once she wished Stanton wasn’t a man of his word, so damn stoic. That he’d have realized he, too, was still in love with her. Which clearly he wasn’t, because a man in love fought for his soul mate.

“Ma’am, you okay?” Dominique blinked, looked at the EMT, whose face was stamped with concern. “It’s warm in the truck.”

“Okay.” She let the EMT walk her to the emergency vehicle, too numb to do anything but comply. She’d used up her defiance against Jimenez, and it had saved her life. But she’d lost her heart, the one man she’d ever loved.

As the EMTs took her vitals and hooked her up to a saline drip “as a precaution against shock,” she watched Jimenez as he was wheeled by on a stretcher, his shoulder and arms wrapped in bandages and an oxygen mask on his ugly face. Her mind tried to connect the dots; she’d gotten him to confess, had proven Charlie Hamm’s innocence. He’d go away for life with the almost certain conviction the DA would obtain with the evidence she’d been instrumental in uncovering. The Gazette might get that Pulitzer after all. But no matter what her thoughts revealed, nothing mattered to her heart. Broken, shattered, hollow, lost.

Without Stanton at her side, her joy was extinguished.

CHAPTER 16

Two weeks passed with no word from Stanton. After the shock at all that had happened wore off, Dominique had thrown herself into the story. The initial overview had made headlines but now she was writing the deeper parts, including how she’d gone undercover to sneak into the resort. Of course that hadn’t gone so well, but at least it had worked out in the end. She’d been interviewed by several television news outlets, and her reporting skills had garnered accolades she’d only ever dreamed of.

Just as stubborn was her belief, deep down, that somehow, someday, Stanton would get over his pride over how the takedown hadn’t gone quite the way he’d planned. She acknowledged that it had to have been difficult to see her in such a vulnerable position, but she’d survived. They’d survived. Why couldn’t he see that?

“I’m so impressed with all you’ve accomplished here, Dominique.” Melissa sat back in her desk chair. They’d spent the last two hours going over statements and checking facts. “And I appreciate that you agree we’re on the same team.”

“Of course we are. Have you had any luck figuring out if there are more corrupt people at GGPD?”

Melissa shook her head. “I have my suspicions but it’s slow going. Nothing worse than a corrupt cop, I’ll tell you.”

“I’m sorry you’re dealing