Page 45

The east gate was open as Hawthorne approached, pulling his sprint to an abrupt halt.

A rumbling sound filtered through the opening. Not loud enough to be thunder.

A dog?

Hope squeezed his chest. Flash and Jazz?

Not wanting to spook them or interfere with their effort to catch Cracklen, he walked to the gate as quietly as he could.

The falling rain broke around the outline of three women and their dogs. One of them stopped and faced him.

Phoenix, judging from the cap.

He held up a hand in a still wave, hoping she’d recognize him.

She must have because she rotated forward again and followed the other two women. One wore a red jacket, and the silhouette of her head shaped in a mass of what could only be Nevaeh’s curls.

His gaze hopped quickly to the third person. Tall, slim, and decidedly feminine. Jazz.

He walked through the gate, following them at a distance as he scanned the dark night.

They appeared to be going toward the hedges that bordered the small parking lot all the way to where it met the road.

“Freeze!” Jazz’s shout seemed louder than the lightning as it broke through the air.

A shadow—no, a person—moved in the corner where the hedge changed direction. The person stood. Ran.

Nevaeh took off with Alvarez, headed toward the road but angling to the left, probably to catch him if he tried to turn that direction.

Phoenix stopped and stood still, her dog mimicking her actions.

A shot fired from the shadow. Sounded like a suppressor on a Glock.

But Jazz didn’t return fire. She walked slowly to where the shadow had disappeared into the sheets of rain. Was she frozen because he was her uncle? Maybe she didn’t want to shoot him, despite what he’d done.

Hawthorne had no such compunction. And he wasn’t about to stand there and watch Jazz get hit. He pulled out his Glock and hurried forward.

Another pop split the air.

Hawthorne ducked, but Jazz kept walking.

Pretty sure Cracklen would be running, though stopping to shoot behind him was undoubtedly slowing him down. Hawthorne couldn’t be sure how much, since he couldn’t see the man through the pouring rain and darkness.

If he was still moving quickly, he’d get around the straight, long hedge that ran west and east, and he’d turn right or left at the road.

Nevaeh was covering the left. Hawthorne would get the right.

He climbed over the north-south, five-foot hedge that met with the longer one closer to Jazz. The branches scratched more than he’d expected, but he managed to leave the somewhat damaged hedge behind and moved through the thin stand of trees.

He scanned the long hedge leading to the road as he went, searching for any sign of Cracklen on the other side of it. Though if the man was crouched low, Hawthorne probably wouldn’t see him above the five-foot hedge.

“Flash, fass!” Jazz’s voice, strong and commanding, pierced through the night.

Movement above the hedge caught Hawthorne’s eye.

What—

A silhouette moved above the hedge, like something flying over it.

Lightning lit the sky, letting Hawthorne see clear as day.

But he couldn’t believe what he saw.

Flash flew, literally flew over the hedge, his feet stretched out in front of him and behind him. How he stayed suspended in the air for so long, Hawthorne couldn’t fathom.

But the Malinois kept soaring, all the way to the end of hedge that had to be at least twelve feet long. Then he dropped out of sight.

Loud snarls echoed.

Jazz sprinted past the hedge on the other side, and Hawthorne took off in the same direction, headed for the road.

He dashed out between trees, coming around the end of the hedge.

Jazz stood near Flash, the K-9 biting down on Cracklen’s left arm as he moaned. “You’re not taking my dog from me, too.”

Hawthorne’s gaze caught on the knife hilt sticking out of Cracklen’s right shoulder. Jazz must have thrown the knife to stop Cracklen from shooting Flash.

Jazz glanced at Hawthorne, her eyebrows raising before she glared down at Cracklen again. “Flash, in ordnung.”

The dog immediately let go and assumed a watchful position a couple feet from Cracklen.

“You’re right, it is ironic. It all ends for you at our Tri-City Fair.” The triumph in Jazz’s voice was weakened by the emotion Hawthorne saw glistening in her eyes.

The sight of those unshed tears cracked his heart.

And he suddenly knew. He loved this woman.

His fear of being trapped must have been powerful indeed to have stopped him from knowing it before. Because now his heart felt like it might explode with love for her, with the desire to go to her, hold her, and comfort her until a smile replaced those tears. To tell her he was sorry for rejecting her. To tell her how very wrong he’d been to push away the person he had the feeling could change his life forever in the best ways possible.

“We’ll take care of him for you.” Sofia and Bristol appeared seemingly from nowhere, and the petite raven-haired woman pulled Cracklen’s arms behind his back, none-too-carefully, to tie his wrists with a zip tie. She hauled him to his feet and pushed him in front of her. “March right back into the fair. Don’t try to get clever or my K-9 will eat you for a late supper.”

“Thanks, Sof.” Jazz gave Sofia a smile that looked much weaker than her usual one.

“We got your back. Not that you need it.” Sof gently punched Jazz’s arm with a grin, then herded Cracklen toward the fair, her German shepherd and Bristol staying with her.

Jazz stared at the concrete sidewalk where Cracklen had lain.

Rain mingled there with the blood from his wounds, washing it away.

Was she in shock? “Jazz?” He took a step toward her, not wanting to startle or crowd her.

Flash walked to Hawthorne and swished his tail as Hawthorne leaned down to give him a quick pet. At least Flash forgave him. That was a good sign.

“Jazz, are you all right?”

She finally looked at him, but the humor and vibrance in her eyes seemed dimmed. No wonder. She’d been through a lot, though he didn’t know all of it yet.

She nodded, but the way she crossed her arms over her open, soaked jacket said she was in need of comfort.

Would she let him give it to her?

He slowly took another step, then another.

Her eyes stayed on him, but she didn’t back away or speak.

So he closed the remaining distance between them, his arms outstretched.

She fell into them, fitting against his chest as perfectly as she had after the explosion on the trail.

She shivered against him, her hands gripping the front of his jacket next to her face.

He stretched his arms farther around her back, trying to give her all the warmth and solace he could. And he didn’t mind a bit the way the contact sent sparks of heat through him, too.

Questions about her uncle swirled in his mind. Why had he tried to kill Jazz and Rebekah? Why was Jazz even at the fair tonight?

But he tamped down his desire for answers and focused simply on holding her instead. On being there for her for as long as she’d let him.

The rain finally slowed and dwindled to a light sprinkle as they stood there.

Jazz pulled away and stepped out of his arms, sniffing as if she’d been crying. Her face, already wet from rain, didn’t prove it one way or the other. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t want…”

His heart constricted. Had she been about to quote him? When he’d said he didn’t want her? Oh, Lord. Please, help me make it up to her somehow.

“No.” He shook his head, slowly, adamantly. “I do want you, Jazz Lamont.”

Her eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline.

He breathed out a sigh. “I know what I said. I was wrong. So very, very wrong. I was afraid and didn’t realize I’d become such a selfish person, only caring about what I wanted to do. I was afraid I’d lose my freedom if I cared for you.”

“I would never want to make you feel trapped or like you weren’t free.”

“I know that. But the truth is, I haven’t been living in freedom at all. I’ve been trapped by my own selfishness, serving those desires instead of the Lord. And I avoided relationships because I wanted to put myself first above all else.”

He hooked his thumbs in his wet pockets to keep from touching her again, which everything in him yearned to do. “God showed me that tonight. I’m so sorry how stupid I was and for all the hurtful things I said to you. I don’t mean them, and I wish I could take them back.” He met Jazz’s searching gaze. “I hope you’ll forgive me, if you can.”

Jazz watched him closely, as if trying to read something in his face or eyes. “I do.”

Relief spread through Hawthorne. “Thank you.” He managed to push the words from his tightening throat.

Not sure what I should do now, Lord. Hawthorne knew he loved Jazz, but she wasn’t a Christian. He still couldn’t go anywhere with his feelings. How would he explain that without hurting her all over again?

“God showed me some things tonight, too.”

The gaze Hawthorne had dropped jumped back to Jazz. He’d never heard her talk about God like that before. Hope began to stir in his belly. “He did?”

She nodded. “All this time that I’d been looking to belong with someone, I already belonged to Him.”

A smile cracked Hawthorne’s face as the hope rushed through the rest of his body. He took a step toward her, his arms longing to hold her again. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“I’m a Christian now.”

A squeal pierced the air, making Jazz and Hawthorne jump and twist toward the sound.

Nevaeh dashed to Jazz, dropping her dog’s leash and throwing herself at the taller woman. “Praise the Lord, you’re saved!”

Jazz smiled as her excited friend pulled back from the quick hug and hopped up and down, prompting Flash to jog to her with an excited tail wag.

“We’re sisters for real and forever now!” Nevaeh’s shout echoed in the night air. “Hallelujah!”

A laugh—that beautiful, musical laugh—tumbled from Jazz’s lips as her friend came back and gripped her arms.

Jazz pulled Nevaeh into another hug. “Forever.”

When the hug ended, Nevaeh shot a glance at Hawthorne. “Didn’t mean to interrupt. Go for it.” She gave him a grin with a wink, then darted away and jogged toward the fairgrounds with her K-9.

Jazz turned to him with a smile that almost looked shy.

Hawthorne’s chest pinched. This beautiful, confident, smart woman with insane skills he didn’t know the half of was uncertain with him. Because he had hurt her? Or did it mean something else—that she loved him?

“You don’t have to say anything. Nev just likes to joke around.” Those emerald eyes locked on him, clouding with doubt. But maybe hope, too.

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He closed the gap between them and cradled her cheek in his hand. “I want to say something. Very badly.”

Her eyes widened, tempting him to do more than just say things. But that would have to wait until he’d communicated what she needed to hear.

“I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way, I fell in love with my heroine.”

Her lips parted in adorable surprise, distracting him even more.

He focused his mind on finishing what he had to say. “And now that we both belong to the same Lord, I guess we’re free to do something about it. That is, if you could see your way to caring for the author who’s putting you in his book.”

Her eyes narrowed.

Hawthorne lowered his hand. Had he said something wrong?

“I expected to be in three books at least.” A teasing glint lit her eyes.

He breathed again and wrapped both arms around her as he grinned. “I can promise you more than three, if you stick with me.”

“All right. I guess I will, on those terms.” A gorgeous smile curved her lips, ruining her attempt at a serious expression. She laid her palms against his chest. “But I have to make a confession.”

“Oh?”

“This heroine has fallen in love with the author, too.”

The thrill and joy that filled him was like nothing he’d ever felt. Wow, had he ever underestimated romance. Somehow, he managed to speak past his huge smile and the pounding of his heart. “Oh, really? What should we do about it?”

“Well, usually, if this were a romance novel, which I realize you don’t actually write...” Her gaze lowered slightly.

To his lips?

Heat zinged through his chest. “The heroine would be kissed by the hero.”

“Uh-huh.” She gave a barely perceptible nod. “Think you could pretend to be the hero instead of the author?”

He grinned. “Oh, yeah. Research is very important.”

A beaming smile lit her face.

Shifting to cradle her head with his hand, he leaned in for a kiss so full of love and passion that it could rival any romance novel.

Why had he been afraid of this? Of giving himself to Jazz?

He barely remembered. Because loving her like this, he’d never felt freer.