Love Inspired Suspense April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Laura Scott (speed reading book .txt) 📖

to come in and make a statement at some point, but that can wait.”

“Thank you.”

“You put yourself in a great deal of danger.” The tone was reproving but not unkind. Maybe she and the detective were going to be friends after all.

“I know.”

“I’m glad you’re all right and that your man is going to be all right, too.” After a few questions, he took his leave, but Paige paid scant attention. She was too busy pondering his words. Your man.

Dark dreams chased him.

Liam tried to outrun them, to hide from their ruthless pursuit, but they caught up with him. Blackness swirled around him as he careened through unchartered territory, leaving him disoriented and confused as he searched. Even more disturbing was the idea that he didn’t know for whom or what he was looking.

Then it came to him. Paige was missing. He had to find her, had to rescue her from the cruel forces that had carried her away. She was in danger. How could he have forgotten? Guilt for his careless memory lashed his soul with stinging stripes.

He pushed his way through the shadows, seeking any hint of light to point the way. Why couldn’t he see the course that would take him to Paige? Why was he so lost? The path was there. All he had to do was find it.

But he wasn’t given the light he so desperately needed and so continued to wander in the darkness, a harsh wilderness where any moment a shadow could shift into an enemy.

Pain was a constant companion, a pitiless master that drained him of all energy and will. Had he been injured? He couldn’t remember. The pain was playing tricks on his mind, but the thought that Paige needed him pushed him forward. Jumbled memories with Jerry and Cal Jr. found their way into the nightmares.

At one point, he thought he called out Paige’s name.

“I’m here. Liam, I’m right here beside you.”

Did he imagine the words? He couldn’t tell. He tried to shake his head, to clear it of the fogginess that had taken up residence there. He wanted to ask her something but couldn’t put words to the question.

Apparently reading his mind, she said, “The police have Jerry and Cal Jr. in custody. They’ll be going away for a very long time.”

He tried to answer but couldn’t make his tongue work.

He couldn’t move. Something was holding him back. Ropes...no, tubes, he thought. He was in a hospital. When it came to him, he wondered why it had taken him so long to figure it out.

“Liam, it’s going to be all right.”

That voice again. He calmed. “Paige?”

“Yes.”

“’Kay?” His voice slurred the word into a single syllable.

“I’m okay. Go back to sleep.”

That sounded like a fine idea.

When he woke again, it was to find sun streaming through the windows and his parents at his side. Had they been there all night? No, Paige had been there. At least he thought she had.

His parents looked tired, and he read the worry in their eyes. “H-hey.”

The smile his mother gave him was the one he’d always thought of as her my-boy-is-okay-but-I-still-worry-about-him smile. He supposed it’d be the same for him and Jonah no matter how old his own boy grew to be.

“How are you feeling, son?” his father asked.

Liam did a quick inventory. “Like I got stabbed with a really big knife, but I’m going to live anyway.”

The deep rumble of laughter from his father reassured him that everything was going to be okay.

“Jonah?” he asked.

“Paige told us that she’d arranged for him to stay with her friend Shelley until we can pick him up.”

“We like Paige,” his mother said. “She’s very pretty. More, she’s kind and thoughtful. And smart. I can see why she’s special to you.”

“She’s not...” Liam broke off what he’d been about to say. Paige was special to him. There was no sense in denying it.

When he drifted off once more, he wondered if he was special to Paige, as well.

SIXTEEN

Boy and puppy sounds filled the room.

A trip to the animal shelter had resulted in bringing home a Heinz 57 mix whose bright eyes and inquisitive expression had immediately caught Jonah’s heart and melted Liam’s own. Jonah had inexplicably named him Ralph, so Ralph it was.

“Daddy, can Ralph and I play outside?” Jonah asked.

“In the backyard.”

The backyard was enclosed with what Liam hoped was puppy-proof fencing, a new installment and a must, the shelter director had explained, to keep Ralph from digging under an ordinary fence not meant to stand up to a puppy’s inquisitive nature.

Squeals and barks moved from indoors to out.

Liam had been home for two weeks. He could move without hurting and was almost back to normal. Life had also returned to normal. Only he didn’t know what normal was. Did it include Paige?

When his parents had returned to their home, she had come over nearly every day that first week to help with Jonah and, despite Liam’s protests, do some housework. He realized he wanted her in his life. Permanently.

The trick was to convince her that they belonged together. Forever.

With Jonah and Ralph in the backyard playing, the house was quiet. He had no doubt that would not last for long. At his desk, Liam could watch boy and dog and work on a new software design at the same time.

Within a few minutes, though, he pushed his laptop away and rolled his shoulders. Work held little appeal as thoughts of Paige occupied his mind. She filled the empty parts of him, the parts he hadn’t known needed filling. He worked to find the right word to describe how he felt with her and came up with whole.

Whole. Complete. Finished.

With Paige, he was the man he was meant to be. Up until her, Jonah had been his life. And would continue to be. No one would change that. But she brought a new level of meaning to his life, a new way of seeing what had once been unclear. With his faith restored,