Where Tomorrow Leads (13 page)

Jesse opened the driver’s side door and got out. He held out his hand and Maggie reached over the console and let him pull her out. Her hand shook as she crawled over the seat to go out the same door. She needed to stay right near him so she could slip under the car he told her.

“It’s okay, stay calm,” he said again.

“Easy for you to say. I’ll bet you’ve done this stuff a million times.”

“No, not a million. This is the first bust I’ll be involved in.”

Maggie’s eyes widened. She twisted her head to look at this man who reassured her everything would go smooth. She was about to get all indignant when he gave her a push. “Move, now!”

Maggie dropped to the ground in a flash, then flattened herself out and rolled under the car. It happened to be easier than she realized. Jesse’s booted foot nudged her body.

She heard someone yell from the boat. Then it started. she heard a helicopter in the distance as feet shuffled all around her and the lone shot that started a hailstorm of gunshot fire. Maggie trembled. This would not end well, she felt it in her whole being.

She also was not going to lie here and be a target for some gun toting criminal to shoot up! Maggie scooted on her belly towards the side of the car. She wanted to look out to see if she could get a clear view and make a run for it. There were buildings and store fronts all around the docks and she contemplated making a run for one of them. She couldn’t see Jesse anywhere close by.

Then what she saw caused her to bite down on her bottom lip so hard she drew blood. Beside the yacht was another ship close to the same size. Out of nowhere, two men, side by side, dropped to the ground from the boat’s deck and began to walk into the battle. Jake and his twin brother Jon stormed the ground, a long rifle in front of them, their hands at the ready in case they needed to shoot.

It was like a scene from a movie and in her mind she played the song in the background, the one where they sing, “Here comes my hero!” Jake looked so hot and she wanted to scoot out from under the car and run to him but knew there were still bullets flying around.

He could get hurt or killed. She shoved a fist in her mouth so she didn’t bite on her lip again. She needed to save them for when she kissed him so hard. The closer the men got, the harder it was to stay put. When the sound of bullets ceased, she rolled out from under the car and ran into his arms.

Jake shoved the rifle towards his brother and lifted her up in to his arms. Voices began to shout around them but all they cared about was each other. Tears of relief and joy streamed down her face and when she looked into his beautiful eyes she saw the same reflected there.

“Oh Jake. I love you. I’m so glad to see you.”

“Baby.” He choked on his own voice. Maggie could hear the tenderness and emotion rock him. Her love, the man of her dreams. The realization of what they went through in the last twenty four hours began to take its toll on her physical and mental status. She began to weep in his arms.

Jake picked her up and held her close. She wrapped her legs around him. They stood there in the middle of all the commotion, like two long lost lovers who discovered each other for the first time. His face nuzzled her neck and then he lifted his mouth to hers, so close she could feel his breath. She nodded her head and began to shower him with kisses and felt the rumble in his chest as he kissed her back, hard. Maggie couldn’t get enough of him. His strength began to seep into her own body. The strong arms that held her tossed those wrecked emotions aside.

He dropped soft kisses on her neck as she titled her head back. “I’ll kill the man who put these marks on you.” She almost forgot how that creep choked her at one point. Now the reminder began to fill her up inside with emotional turmoil. Her tears dried up as the anger began to take over. Her whole body stiffened. Jake set her back down and titled his head, a questionable look on his face.

“Where is the little drug dealing creep?” Maggie twisted her head around, to find the bad guys lined up in a row, their arms tied behind their backs. Shackles held their legs together so all they could do was walk in a slow shuffle towards the van that would take them to prison.

Armed agents stood beside the criminals. Maggie knew Jake was behind her as she walked towards Jerry but he didn’t try to stop her. She was glad, she needed to have her say.

Her steps stilled when she saw Jerry. Jesse was right behind him, his feet shackled and his hands tightened with a plastic strap they used for hand cuffs behind his back. Why was Jesse going to jail? He was undercover, he wouldn’t need to go there, unless he was trying to protect his cover. He turned out not to be too bad of a guy and he did protect her from Jerk.

She faced the two. “I’m not sure why I got to be so lucky to be kidnapped by the two of you but thank you Jesse, for keeping me as safe as you did. Now you Jerk, yes, that’s what you are, can rot in prison for all I care. You’re a brute and you deserve to have the living daylights kicked out of you.”

She heard Jerk growl and then his spit came flying towards her. Jake stepped in front of her and his muscular arm flew through the air and a fist landed in the center of Jerry’s face. The line of criminals teetered. The shuffle of feet closed in as some of the agents, armed with guns, crowded around Jake.

Josh stepped up. “Back off,” he ordered to his men. The older man nodded to the guards as they shuffled the men in to the van as quick as they could before Jake blew up again. Josh seemed to know his temper, Maggie thought, her love for him growing stronger each moment they stood there.

“That’s a little taste of what you’ll get if you ever get out of prison and get near my soon to be wife!” Jake told him, his voice low and yet it reverberated through the chaos. Maggie could feel his muscles clench and gyrate with anger.

Maggie beamed. “You’re soon to be wife?” she asked. “What makes you think so?” She curled her arms around his back and snuggled her face into his shirt. He turned and cupped her face in his hands.

“Oh no, Maggie McCoy. You don’t get away with any refusal this time. I heard you when you were in the car. I heard you loud and clear tell him you couldn’t wait to and I quote, Let’s get this over with, there’s someone I want to kiss!”

She grinned. “I did say those words, didn’t I?”

“Yes.” His soft kiss took her breath away. They stood in the middle of the chaos again as the van began to drive off and the agents disappeared on the yacht to look for the drugs.

“It feels so glorious to be back in your arms, Jake Hatfield.”

Jake looked at her, long and hard, his emotions on his sleeve. He was such a man’s man, big and strong with muscles that could hurt someone and yet could wrap her in an embrace that was so gentle. “When I found out you were with those men, I wasn’t sure if I could go on. But I knew I would move every mountain on this earth to find you baby.”

She smiled and rubbed her hands over his muscles. “With these arms, I can believe it.”

Jake didn’t smile or grin or laugh at her joke. His face was so serious it scared Maggie. “Jake?” Concern for him began to creep up. “Are you all right?”

He slid his arms from around her and took a step back. What in the world, she wondered. What was wrong with him? They were together and all she wanted was to be wrapped in his arms. Why did he back off now?

Jake took her hand in his, then dropped to one knee. He squeezed his eye closed for a moment and when he opened them, the love and emotions were there for her to see as clear as the brightness of the daylight. “Maggie, I’ve been so afraid to take this next step.”

Maggie wanted to touch him, to place her hand over his mouth to still the emotions that rocked his soul. But she stood there, quiet, because he needed this.

His chest rose. “I can give you any material possession you ever dreamed of. I’m not sure if you realize how large my company is or how much money I have. Somehow I doubt you even care. I know that isn’t what you want from me. I’ve held back so long because of my fears of losing you.”

She reached up and touched his face. “I love you Jake. It doesn’t matter. We can go on like we were. I’m happy. After what happened today, all I want is your love.”

“But it’s not all I want any more. I realized how much I would lose if you didn’t return to me. I was a fool all along, afraid if I married you then you would die like my Mother did. It doesn’t even make sense now that I say it aloud. I’m sorry and ashamed and I’m not going to ever let you go. I’ve talked myself in to believing we would see what tomorrow brings. That’s fools talk. All I want from you now is to show you where tomorrow leads, with your hand in mine, as your husband and protector.”

Tears flowed down Maggie’s cheeks. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

“Yes. Will you, Maggie? Will you marry me and do the honor of becoming my wife?”

Maggie dropped to her knees and touched his lips with her own. She wrapped her arms around his in the middle of the parking lot as the chaos continued around them. Agents walked by, shaking their heads but Maggie didn’t care, she didn’t see them. All she saw was her Jake, the man who made all her dreams come true spill his soul to her in the middle of a drug bust.

It would be funny if it weren’t for the tears that glistened on her cheeks.

“Where do we go from here, Maggie McCoy, soon to be Maggie Hatfield?” Jake helped her up from her knees.

“Home,” she told him. “Let’s go home. I have a wedding to plan.”

The End

At least it’s the end of this chapter of their lives.

A Message From The Author

Now available, the next exploits of Jake and Maggie in Tomorrow Never Ends. Will they get married and live happily ever after? It happens in Maggie’s world, she’s a best selling romance writer. But what about the real world? Enjoy the first chapter of Tomorrow Never Ends....

Tomorrow Never Ends

“You did it again,” Maggie told him.

“I’m sorry baby. It’s this project that keeps me here until late.” She heard the frustration in his voice and pictured him raking his hand through the dark hair she loved to run her fingers through.

Maggie sighed. This was the third time in the last week he cancelled dinner plans. “It’s good I didn’t cook anything or make reservations.” Even though she cooked a meal that was no longer fresh, she wasn’t about to tell him so.

Jake laughed. “Come on, Maggie. When do we make reservations? Everything we do is fly by the seat of our pants the way our schedules run.”

Maggie grinned because he was right. Her long hours at her computer, writing stories and his longer hours in board meetings and on the job didn’t leave much time for dinner, let alone going out much. They would grab something when hungry and keep going.

Except Maggie turned on the cooking channel the other week and to her surprise began to experiment with different recipes. She didn’t think she liked to cook because she worked with her nose to the grindstone for the last few years on her best sellers, who had time for anything else?

Maggie had a sudden desire to throw together some exotic dishes for him and she found herself in the kitchen more than she wrote. She wanted to learn something different and what better way to entice her man than with some great food.

Maggie sighed. She loved Jake with all her heart. He was the one to drop her to her knees with one look. “It’s all good, love. I won’t bother you any more tonight because I want you to come home soon and forget about work so all you have to think about is me.”

“Sounds nice, baby. What are you wearing?”

Maggie giggled in to the phone. “Who said I was wearing anything?” Then made it a point to hang up without another word. He would finish up and be home soon, she hoped. Jake was a hands on guy, he had to be there day and night with his crews and even in the boardroom to run his company. Now she hoped he’d come home with those hands and show her what they could do.

She missed his touch, it had been days since he held her in his arms.

J.H. RED Inc. was the second largest real estate developer along Florida’s coast. Jake worked at a frantic pace because he wanted to out rank his rival, Foster Corp, the number one company in the area. It was an older, more established firm but Jake didn’t care. Maggie knew he’d do it someday.

Except there were nights when she hungered for him to come home so she could fall in his arms. She wrote best sellers and her contract with the publishing house ended two weeks ago. Maggie was no longer obligated to put out a certain number of books. She wanted to celebrate her new found freedom and the next step in her career with the man of her life. Maggie had some extra time on her hands and she wanted to be with him before she got busy with her next project, self-publishing.

She began to clear off the kitchen table. The pan-seared scallops on linguine with tomato-cream sauce didn’t appeal to her at all now that she would eat them alone. The creamy texture looked as if it were drying out because it sat for so long. She set the dishes on the counter and shrugged as she grabbed the bottle of wine instead. As she kicked off her heels, Maggie straddled a kitchen chair, her legs spread and her arm in the air and tilted the bottle back. She sat there in the same spot for a long time and sipped on the wine until there was less than a third of the bottle left.

A dribble of wine ran down her mouth. She swiped it off and caught a reflection of herself in the glass door. How pitiful was she? Sitting alone wearing a sexy strapless short dress now yanked up high on her thigh. She wore it so it would be easy to remove. Except Jake wasn’t here, he was building the biggest company ever.