A Hero in Her Eyes Read online

  “Give her to me, give her to me! I can’t lose her twice. I can’t! Please, give me my baby!” Shrieking, wailing, Janie fell to her knees as Buddy slipped handcuffs on her.

  “You have the right to remain silent—and I really wish you would,” Buddy interjected before continuing with the familiar words. “If you wave this right…”

  “Got an extra pair of those things?” Walker asked, standing guard over Allen. The other man was out cold on the floor, but they all knew he could wake up at any moment.

  Reaching into the back pocket of his jeans, Buddy threw the handcuffs to Walker. “I had a hunch we might need them.”

  Quickly cuffing Allen, Walker rose. He looked at his daughter. Eliza was holding the little girl in her arms. He crossed to them on shaky legs.

  He’d waited so long for this moment…

  Emotions flooded him, and he was almost afraid that this was all a dream. A wonderful, impossible dream that couldn’t possibly be real.

  His throat dry, his eyes moist, he drank in the sight of her. Bonnie. His little girl. He’d finally found her.

  Hand trembling, he reached out and stroked the silken hair. It’d grown so long, so straight. Where were the soft little curls he remembered? The words were barely audible when he finally spoke. “Oh, Bonnie, Bonnie, do you know who I am?”

  “You’re my daddy.” Tears flowed down the small face as she reached out her arms to him. Eliza transferred her to Walker. Bonnie wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, burying her face against his shoulder. “I thought I dreamed you, Daddy,” she sobbed.

  He stroked her hair, trying very hard not to break down. His heart shattered into a million pieces, only to be resurrected again. He had her. She was here and he had her. And he was never letting go.

  For the first time in his life, he finally understood what tears of joy meant. “I’m real, baby. I’m real and I’m here and I’m taking you home.”

  Her heart full, Eliza stepped back and watched them. It was enough.

  Eliza moved around her apartment, straightening things that didn’t require straightening. She’d been doing this for quite a while, she thought ruefully.

  The restlessness wouldn’t leave.

  She supposed it had to do with the feeling that her job was done and there was nothing to turn to. For once, there was no new case waiting.

  She glanced toward the bookcase against the far wall. There were books there she’d been meaning to get to, but nothing enticed her. She’d already tried several times. The television remained dark, and the music from the radio she’d turned on in desperation fell on deaf ears.

  She didn’t know what to do with herself.

  After the police had taken Allen and his wife away, she and Walker had flown back to Bedford with Bonnie. Jason was there to meet them, along with a squadron of other people he’d notified. News of the happy resolution to the two-year-old kidnapping case had leaked to the press. The airport terminal was filled to overflowing with reporters, all wanting to share the upbeat feeling of the child’s homecoming.

  Jason, Walker’s sister, Patrice, and a host of people Eliza didn’t know, all surrounded him, shouting congratulations and questions.

  That was when she’d quietly slipped away.

  Her job done, she didn’t want to hang around so that the news media could play up her so-called gift. She’d had enough of that. Eliza knew she was on the outside again, and tried to make her peace with it.

  Except that this time, it wasn’t as easy as it had become. Now being on the outside felt as lonely, as isolating as it had in the early years. The layers she’d wrapped around herself over time were all gone. Walker had made them dissolve.

  So she dusted and cleaned and scrubbed and prayed for the feeling to leave.

  It didn’t.

  There was nothing else for her to do. She was just going to have to wait this feeling out, she decided. And hope that something came up soon at the agency to keep her occupied.

  The knock on the door surprised her. She wasn’t expecting anyone.

  The person on the other side surprised her more.

  Walker crossed her threshold.

  God, but he had missed her, he thought with wonder. He hadn’t thought he could miss a woman as much as he had missed Eliza these past couple of days. It was all he could do not to sweep her into his arms and kiss her.

  “You looked surprised to see me.”

  She lifted her shoulder in a half shrug, feeling almost self-conscious. What was he doing here? “I didn’t expect you. How’s Bonnie?”

  “She’s fine. She’s with my sister right now. It’ll take a while for her to get used to things and feel safe again, to understand why her mother isn’t around. But I think we’ll manage. With some help,” he added, looking at her.

  “You mean like a therapist? That might not be a bad idea.”

  “No, more like someone kind and understanding. Who could relate to her. Who felt her pain.”

  “You mean me.”

  “I mean you.” He took her hands in his. “Maybe this is a lot to ask… Maybe all of it is.”

  “All?”

  Frustrated, he blew out a breath. It wasn’t supposed to come out like this, like a tangled skein of words. “I’m getting ahead of myself.” He looked at her ruefully. “Maybe I should have written this down and practiced it. But how do you practice laying your heart bare?”

  “Your heart?” she echoed, afraid to think, afraid to hope.

  This was getting worse and worse. He retreated for a second, to gather his thoughts. To make this come out right. “Where did you disappear to at the airport?”

  She shrugged, looking away. “I just stepped back. I didn’t want to get in the way.”

  “In the way?” He stared at her incredulously. “You’re the reason everything happened.”

  Why was he making this so difficult for her? Why couldn’t he just go and move on with his life the way she knew he was going to? “Yes, but it happened, so I wasn’t necessary any longer.”

  What was she talking about? Walker caught her hand, making her look at him. “You make yourself sound like some kind of inanimate object, a tool.”

  Eliza sighed. He wasn’t that far off, she supposed. “Well, in a way—”

  He cut her off. “In no way.” Realizing his voice had become sharp, he softened it. “Eliza, you’re not a tool, you’re a person. Not an ordinary person—” he began.

  “Don’t meet many clairvoyants these days,” she quipped.

  He wasn’t going to allow her to make light of this. “It’s not your clairvoyance that makes you extraordinary—” Stopping, Walker looked at her closely. “And right now, that seems to be on the fritz, I’d say.”

  She’d had no idea he was coming here, he realized. No idea that he’d seek her out. And apparently, from the uncertain look in her eyes, she didn’t know what he was about to say now, either.

  That made him feel a whole lot better, as if the ground beneath him had suddenly turned solid. He’d given them both two days to try to sort things out, to let everything calm down. For the dust to settle, so to speak. All it had done for him was make him miss her more. And pray that it had done the same for her.

  “You really can’t tell your own future, can you? That is, your future if you agree,” he clarified.

  Uncertainty gave way to complete confusion. Eliza cocked her head. “Agree?”

  Damn, but he wished he were more eloquent. “I know I’m saying this as if it were some merger acquisition, but—” he took her hand in his “—in my own clumsy way, I’m asking you to marry me.” He laughed shortly. “I guess you can take the man away from business, but you can’t take the business out of the man.”

  The pieces were beginning to come together, but she was afraid that she was seeing what she wanted to see. What she was praying to see.

  “Does that mean that you mean business?” Eliza’s voice was hardly above a whisper.

  He grinned. “Never meant it
more in my life, Princess Moonflower.” He got a kick out of that, out of trying to imagine what she’d been like as a little girl, slipping into imaginary places in her mind.

  And then the grin faded as he became serious. “You’ve already connected with my daughter and you’ve made me realize that you’re the other half of my soul, Eliza. You’re what’s been missing all these years. Now that I’ve found you, I don’t want to let you go. Bonnie is going to need someone like you in her life, to help her get over the hurdles. And so am I. A lifetime of hurdles. I love you, Eliza. I want you in my life on whatever terms you want to lay down. The last two days have been hell without you and I don’t want to relive that again. Ever.”

  Tears came to her eyes. “You just said exactly what I was thinking about you.”

  “See? We belong together.” He brought each of her hands to his lips, kissing them one at a time. “Say yes, Eliza, say yes.”

  “You read my mind again.”

  And then she kissed him, because she had read his.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-6841-2

  A HERO IN HER EYES

  Copyright © 2001 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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