“Good!”
Jennifer stepped to the side and started to scuttle away.
Samantha stepped forward, stopping her at the point of a gun. “Not so fast. The police will have plenty to say to you, too.”
Several other squad cars arrived on the scene, and Laura hopped out of one.
She ran forward. “Are you two okay?”
“I’m fine,” Samantha replied, “but I can’t say the same for my hero. How bad is that arm, Jake?”
“It’s just a scratch.” He shrugged.
A patrolman came up. “Paramedics will take care of that, sir.”
Jake let them wrap his arm, then walked over to hug Samantha. “How about you? Are you all right, Sunshine?”
She nestled against him. The warmth of his embrace seeped strength back into her bones. “I’m fine now that you’re here. Thank you for rescuing me.”
“You’re most welcome.” He bent to give her a thorough kiss.
A black Lincoln tore onto the tarmac. Tad and Samuel jumped out just as the squad car containing Grayson and Jennifer pulled away.
Samuel rushed over to them. “What happened?”
Samantha stepped away from Jake’s embrace and into her father’s. “I’m fine. Jake came to the rescue, as usual. Grayson wanted to kidnap me and force me to marry him. He wanted to gain control of my trust fund stocks. He and Delbert planned to oust you from the board and take over the company.”
“We have Delbert in custody. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
She inhaled the mingled scents of tobacco and leather as her father hugged her. She gazed at the new lines on his face, knowing she’d put quite a few of them there during this crisis. Despite their many differences, they had found common ground. If he could change, then so could she. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she stepped away.
“Everything’s under control, sir,” Jake confirmed. “The authorities have Grayson and Jennifer.”
“That’s fine.” Samuel cleared his throat uncomfortably.
She smiled at her father, knowing he wasn’t used to such public displays of affection from her. Then she glanced at Tad, who hovered a bit tensely in the background.
“Jennifer was in on the whole thing, Tad. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, sis. I’m well over her.”
Laura stepped up and put her hand on Tad’s shoulder in a gesture of comfort.
Maybe Cupid would strike twice for their families. Although Jake hadn’t said the three little words, she was sure he did love her.
Two weeks later, Samantha sat alone in her apartment, eating dinner. Jake had made himself scarce since Grayson’s arrest, and she consoled herself with the excuse he was busy helping the prosecutor build a case against Grayson and Jennifer.
There was a long line of warrants against the two. They had tried something like this before. Even worse, DNA tests proved Grayson wasn’t Delbert’s son. It had been a con from the wordGo. Once he’d told the truth, Delbert had collapsed with guilt and was helping the police wrap up the case.
Tad and Laura were an item, and Samantha was living the life of a nun, eating dinner alone.
Sometimes life wasn’t fair.
Her doorbell rang.
She went to answer it. She punched in the code, thinking wryly that at least she’d gotten an alarm system out of the deal.
A delivery person stood on her doorstep. He held out a clipboard for her to sign. “Special delivery for a Samantha Logan.”
