Vendetta Page 25

  “It’s okay now, Bridget. It’s going to be okay.”

  She sobbed as Nikki knelt down beside her and pulled the gag out, using her coat to wipe her tear-streaked face before freeing her hands. A well of emotion balled in the pit of Nikki’s stomach. For a moment, it was Sarah’s face she saw. Ten years of waiting for her sister.

  “You’re going to be okay, sweetie. Everything’s okay now. I promise.” Nikki shook off the illusion and pulled Bridget into her arms. “I’m so, so sorry you had to go through this, but it’s over.”

  Bridget’s chest heaved as she began crying harder.

  “Bridget. Hey . . . you’re going to be okay. My name’s Nikki Boyd. I’m a special agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. We’re here to take you home.”

  Relief swept through her as the girl gave her a weak smile. Six other girls hadn’t been so lucky. But this one was.

  Thank you, Jesus. Thank you.

  Nikki brushed a strand of Bridget’s hair behind her shoulder. Forgetting the past couple of days was going to take a long time . . . for both of them. But for the moment, all she cared about was the fact that Bridget was alive.

  “Are you hurt anywhere? Do you think you can stand up?”

  Bridget nodded as Nikki helped her to her feet.

  “You’re safe now. We’re going to get you out of here.”

  Someone handed Nikki a blanket. She wrapped it around the girl’s shoulders. “Did anyone hurt you?”

  Bridget shook her head, still trembling. “He just . . . tied me up and left me here alone.”

  So Cooper had told her the truth. She’d never even gone into the park.

  The girl’s eyes darted across the room. “Where is he?”

  “He can’t hurt you anymore, sweetie. He’s . . . he’s dead.”

  Bridget’s body shook as she started crying again. “I was so stupid. He told me his name was Sean. Showed me pictures of him with his friends and sisters. We talked for hours. I thought . . . I thought he loved me. I just wanted to meet him in person. When I found out it had all been a lie, I thought . . . I thought I was going to die. I was so . . . so scared. He just left me here.”

  “It’s over now, Bridget. I promise. You’re safe now.”

  They helped her up the stairs and into the early morning sunlight. Someone handed her a water bottle.

  “We’re going to get you to the hospital, get you cleaned up, and make sure you’re okay. They’re calling your brother right now. He’ll meet you at the hospital. He’s worked hard to make sure you were found.”

  “He’s going to be so mad at me.” Tears were back again, flowing down her cheeks. “If he found out why I asked to come here this weekend . . .”

  “He loves you. And he’s not the only one. Your mother came as well.”

  “She came?”

  “I know there’s been a lot of hurt, Bridget, as well as a lot of loss, and this experience isn’t going to fix everything. I also know that life isn’t like it was when I was your age. But maybe this is a chance to start over.”

  “I was just so scared.”

  Nikki wrapped her arms around the girl. “I know, sweetie. I know.”

  Paramedics took Bridget to the waiting ambulance.

  “Do you think she’s going to be okay?” Tyler asked.

  “I hope so,” Nikki said. “She’s been through more than most people experience in a lifetime, but it could have ended so much worse.”

  “She’s not the only one.” He looked down at her with those deep brown eyes of his, stirring something—not for the first time—somewhere in the depths of her heart. “It’s time to get you home.”

  She nudged him with her shoulder, then winced. “Time for that breakfast you owe me.”

  “We can arrange that as well.”

  “Actually, all I really want right now is a long shower and my bed.” She watched the ambulance drive away. “I hope Bridget understands that there are people out there who love her. Her brother, her friends, her mother.”

  “I’m sorry in a way that Cooper didn’t end up being the Angel Abductor. I know you didn’t find the answers you’re looking for.”

  “I have a name. Maybe the Coyote will end up being the one clue that changes everything.”

  And give her and her family closure.

  Gwen walked up to them and handed Nikki her phone. “It’s your mom.”

  Nikki smiled as she took the phone. “Mom?”

  “Nikki? Are you okay? I’ve been worried. I haven’t been able to get ahold of you.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry. But everything’s okay now. Tell me about the baby. Is she going to be okay?”

  “She’s beautiful, Nikki. So beautiful. The last few hours have been touch and go, but she’s stabilizing. The doctors believe she’s going to be fine. And they named her Sarah. Sarah Ruth Boyd.”

  Nikki smiled. Sarah for her sister. Ruth for her mother.

  “What about Bridget? Did you find her?”

  “We found her, Mom. She’s going to be all right.”

  “I’m so glad to hear that. And what about you? Are you coming home?”

  Nikki glanced at Tyler and smiled. “As soon as we finish up here, I’ll be on my way home.”

  29

  Nikki sat on the edge of the grassy ridge, wind tugging her hair as she stared out across the valley framed by the majestic Smoky Mountains. The dark clouds from the storm had begun to dissipate, leaving rays of sunshine across the valley still holding a hint of mist.

  It was a place like this where they’d scattered Katie’s ashes—a hill with a stunning view. Twelve months ago, six days after the accident, she’d stood behind Tyler in the small ceremony that attempted to celebrate Katie’s life as much as accept her death. But at the time, the words of the minister had rung hollow. And she’d felt the aching pain that had seared through Tyler as she’d watched him try to explain to Liam why his mother wasn’t coming back. He’d lost his best friend, wife, and lover, and Liam had lost his mother.

  She’d watched the wind catch Katie’s ashes, wishing life wasn’t so fragile. Hating how in a matter of seconds, everything in life could change forever. Sarah had vanished. Katie had slipped into the water. Bridget had trusted the wrong person.

  One fatal moment.

  Everything changed.

  And life would never be the same again for any of them. She’d never be able to capture the sweet smile of her sixteen-year-old sister. Never laugh over coffee with Katie.

  She let the sun warm her face, knowing she should feel grateful, and really, she was. She’d managed to make it out alive, and Bridget was safe. Along with the bad, so much good had happened. Bridget was back with her brother. Her mother was getting the help she needed. Hopefully, they’d be able to start again as a family, though only time would tell if Loretta Ellison would be able to lay her demons aside and embrace her role as the mother she’d never been able to be.

  “Can I join you?” Tyler asked.

  She looked up at him and nodded.

  “I didn’t realize you’d slipped out of the command post,” he said as he sat down beside her.

  “I snuck out. I needed a few minutes to clear my head before we head back to Nashville.”

  “I just spoke to Gwen. They’ll be ready to leave in about ten minutes.”

  “I’m ready.”

  She caught the shadow of darkness that settled over his expression. One she’d seen before. When she arrived at the marina after Katie’s accident. Then again on the day they scattered Katie’s ashes.

  Lost. Alone.

  “Tyler?”

  “I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.”

  “What?”

  “Yesterday, when Cooper stood there, holding you with a grenade in his hand, threatening to kill you. Our flying away and leaving you there with him. If there was anything I could have done differently. Anything, Nikki. You know I would have. I thought I’d lost you.”

  “You did the only t
hing you could do. He was bent on destroying me, and I truly believe he would have killed all of us, himself included.”

  “Maybe. But I should have found a way to stop him—”

  “How? There was nothing you could have done. Nothing, Tyler.” She reached out and grasped his hands. “You can’t carry that guilt. Just like I can’t carry this guilt over Sarah anymore. And like you can’t carry your guilt from Katie’s death. You know what else I’ve learned?”

  “What?”

  “That sometimes there truly is nothing you can do to change your circumstances. Sometimes all you can do is hold on for dear life and pray that God will help you find a way through the storm. Sometimes he shows you a way to escape, and sometimes he walks through the fire with you. But I’m starting to realize that as much as I’ve battled with God, nothing that happens here on this earth changes who God is.”

  “Maybe there was some good that came out of this. A girl’s life was saved. A man won’t hurt anyone else. And you’re one step closer to finding what happened to your sister.”

  “I hope so.” She hoped he was right. She was afraid to grasp the glimmer of hope that they could find closure over her sister. “I thought I’d found her abductor, Tyler. Wanted so much for it to be him. And while I’m glad we found Bridget—truly I am—I thought I was going to find answers to Sarah’s disappearance as well.”

  She felt as if the last few days she’d been caught in the destructive path of a tornado. It was something she hated about her job. She arrived right when a family was being ripped apart. But finding just one person made it all worth it.

  “I can’t even imagine your frustration, but you helped save a girl’s life. Bridget’s family won’t have to go through what you all have gone through.”

  “I know.” She knew that should be enough. Wanted it to be enough. “Life still leaves me wondering why sometimes it’s so hard. Loss is so deep that there are times I’m not sure I’ll ever find my way out of the darkness.”

  “Katie once told me she planned to live to be a hundred, because there was so much she wanted to experience,” Tyler said. “She never got that chance, but she did manage to teach me to capture each day. Or at least try to. Which is what I keep trying to do.”

  Nikki ran her fingers across his knuckles, then traced the blue vein along the back of his hand. They’d both lost and loved, but maybe that’s what life was about. You couldn’t feel the pain of loss if you hadn’t already felt the joy of love.

  “Katie did love life to the fullest,” Nikki said. “That’s one of the things I remember most about her.”

  “And she loved this place. Do you remember the first time we came here? Katie and I. You and . . . what was his name? Brett?”

  “Ben. Now, there’s a guy I prefer to forget, though the setting was perfect.”

  Tyler laughed. “I remember how he bragged about how much he loved hiking, and I don’t think he made it half a mile before he was about to pass out. Blamed it on allergies.”

  “And whined like a baby,” Nikki said. “Katie had good intentions, but she never could butt out of my love life.”

  “I might have a confession.” He shot her a wide grin. “He was my idea.”

  “Yours? You were the one who suggested I go out with him?”

  “I’m sorry.” Tyler laughed as he pulled her against him. “I didn’t know you as well back then as I do now.”

  “And you apparently didn’t know Ben either.”

  “She wanted you to be happy. We both did.”

  “I’d rather live out my days in a nunnery.”

  They’d spent the day hiking, and despite not clicking with her date, they ended up having a good time. So much had changed since then. Tyler had gone off to war. She’d joined the police force. They’d lost Katie . . .

  He drew his arm tighter against her waist until she could smell the familiar scent of his aftershave as she looked up at him. “Did you know she was planning a trip to Africa?”

  Nikki’s eyes widened. “I knew she was wanting to travel as soon as the kids got a little older, but I don’t remember her mentioning Africa.”

  “She told me she wanted to go on a safari in Kenya and go shark cage diving in South Africa.”

  Nikki laughed. “I’m not surprised.” Her smile slowly faded as the memories surfaced. “I miss her, Tyler.”

  “So do I.” She heard the longing in his voice. He might have accepted the reality of her death on one level, but that acceptance didn’t erase the pain.

  She pulled back and caught his gaze. “Where are you now in all of this? With losing Katie?”

  Katie would have wanted her to ask him. Would have wanted her to help pull him out of the dark tunnel she knew he’d stumble into after her death. Nikki studied his face in the sunlight as she waited for him to continue. Studied the flecks of brown in his eyes.

  “It depends on the moment, to be honest. This morning I realized I’d made it through a year without her. A whole year. I can hardly believe it’s been that long in some ways. At other times, I feel like it’s been a lifetime.”

  He swallowed hard. “Sometimes I think I might be okay again, then something completely unexpected pushes me under until I’m left gasping for breath and unable to function. How can I be a father when I can’t even find the energy to fix a box of macaroni and cheese for dinner? But I have to. For Liam. He’s the one thing that seems to make everything okay. He’s the reason to get up in the morning, even after all this time.”

  “And God?” she asked.

  “I can feel him calling me back. Sometimes I still want to run like the prodigal son. At least my head knows. It’s my heart that’s having a harder time trying to let go.”

  “Give it time. There is no formula for grief. No timeframe that says where you need to be by a certain date. This is your journey.”

  He shrugged. “So maybe it’s okay to just keep getting out of bed every morning. Loving my son. Being determined to be the best dad I can be for him.”

  She nudged him with her shoulder. “Which is exactly what you are. An incredible father.”

  “I’m trying. As long as I can keep holding on to memories of Katie. Her laughing at my lame jokes. My hands against her stomach, feeling the baby kick for the first time. Watching Liam lick lime frosting off the beaters in the kitchen while they made cupcakes. And funny things like how she hated mayonnaise because it was too gooey, but loved running barefoot in the mud. Because I worry about the things I’m slowly forgetting. The moments I don’t think about her, I feel guilty. I can’t feel her presence like I used to.

  “But the memories I do have remind me that I’m alive. They help me celebrate the fact that Katie was once a part of my life. And no matter how bad I feel, I would never want to change that. She’ll always be a part of who I am.” He smiled down at her. “But enough of the past. You impressed me these past couple days with your incredible balance of empathy and professionalism. You know what it means to lose someone you love, and yet you can also get a handle on the details of what needs to be done.”

  “Thanks.” She felt a blush creep up her cheeks at the compliment. “I like to think that Sarah would be proud of me for helping bring back other girls.”

  “Do you still think she’s out there? Alive?”

  “If I quit looking, it means I’ve given up hope. If she is out there, I have to find her.” She glanced at her watch. They needed to leave. “You ready to go?”

  “Yeah. I guess we should.”

  He grabbed her hands to help her up, and once again she felt the intimacy of the moment with his nearness as she caught his expression. And an unanticipated longing coupled with it. This time she didn’t even try to fight her heart. Because somehow—at least for her—their relationship had changed. And she had no idea how to take it back to the point where it used to be. Where Tyler was simply the husband of her best friend.

  “Tyler?” She searched his face, at a complete loss for what to say.

  “
You okay?”

  “Yeah . . . I . . . I’m ready to go.” Because there was nothing she could say. Not yet.

  But the unexpected feelings were suddenly clear. She was falling in love with her best friend’s husband.

  Epilogue

  One week later

  Nikki watched Sarah Ruth Boyd sleep in her arms another minute before handing her back to Jamie. “She’s so beautiful.”

  “The doctor told me she’s perfect.” Jamie brushed the baby’s dark bangs across her forehead, then looked at Nikki. “You should have one.”

  “A baby?” Nikki sat back down on the round ottoman across from her sister-in-law and laughed.

  “Don’t you want one?”

  “Of course, maybe even two, but—”

  “But what? You’ve always known exactly what you wanted in life and gone after it. I’ve always admired you for that. Now you’ve got that hunky boyfriend in the wings who’s definitely marriage material. And I understand looking to get married.”

  Nikki squirmed at the comment. “I’m not sure I’d call him my boyfriend, and I’m certainly not ready to say I do.”

  Jamie fingered the tassel on Sarah’s pink bootie, then leaned forward. “If you want my advice, you better start claiming him as your own. Or someone else will. I’m just sayin’.”

  “Auntie Nikki!” Liam bounced across the living room floor of her parents’ downtown condo, formally dissolving the awkward conversation with her sister-in-law on love and marriage.

  “Liam . . .”

  He threw himself into her arms. When he was born, Tyler and Katie had officially made Nikki his godmother. At the time she never considered the possibility of losing either of them.

  “Daddy got me a new fish yesterday,” Liam said, his brown eyes wide with excitement.

  She pulled him onto her lap before tousling his hair. Liam was all boy, preferring a pile of dirt to watching TV. Katie had struggled to keep him out of mischief, but it was that angelic face of his that got her every time.

  Nikki moved his wiggly body away from the sleeping baby across from them. “What did you name it?”