Tiffany Snow - Point of No Return

It took a couple of hours for Chance to call it in, the ME to come collect the body, and for Kade and me to give our statements. Chance looked grim as he took my statement, giving me a long hug when I was through.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said roughly, his eyes wet.

“Me too.”

Mona and Gerard came to see what the fuss was about, alarmed that the police had come to the house in the middle of the night. I kept things vague. No need for Mona to know the details of what had transpired in Blane’s bedroom. She made me a cup of tea, which helped warm me up.

I refused to go to the hospital. I was all right. Nothing damaged that wouldn’t heal. I just wanted to be alone with Kade. I kept looking at him as he handled the police and the questions and the paramedics.

James could so easily have killed Kade. I knew that if he had, I wouldn’t have been able to fight James off. I’d have made him keep pulling that trigger until both of us had a hole in our heads.

Finally, Kade was bundling me into his car. I think we both knew we didn’t want to stay at the house tonight. He drove us to a hotel, and not one that rented rooms by the hour.

The guy at the desk didn’t bat an eye at the robe I was wearing, and soon Kade had whisked me up the elevator. I wanted another shower—I still felt like James’s blood was on me. Kade set me gently on the bed in the suite before running a bath. He helped me into the steaming water, then sank to his knees on the floor next to the tub. His hands dipped into the water as he tenderly washed me, his touch so careful, as though he thought I would break apart.

Afterward, he lifted me from the tub, the water soaking his shirt, then patted my skin dry with a towel and wrapped a hotel robe around me. He carried me to the bed and tucked me against him as he sat with his back to the headboard. I noticed that his free hand, resting on the mattress, held a gun.

“Put that away,” I said quietly. “Rest with me.”

“I let down my guard once and look what happened,” Kade rasped. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I swear it.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said, twisting to look up at him. He glanced down at me and the pain and guilt I saw in his eyes made my heart hurt. “You couldn’t have known what James was going to do,” I continued. “He had a crazy fixation on me. You can’t predict crazy.”

“If he hadn’t emptied the gun of five bullets, you’d be dead right now.”

I sat up and took Kade’s face in my hands. “I refuse to let what happened tonight poison our lives,” I said. “James has taken away my peace of mind before, has hurt me before. None of it was your fault or your responsibility to prevent. He’s dead now. It’s over. Now I just want to forget.

“Only you can help me do that,” I said. “So stop blaming yourself. Put away the gun and hold me. I love you. You’re safe. I’m safe. The baby’s safe. That’s all I want to think about.”

To my relief, Kade reluctantly set aside the gun and wrapped both arms around me. It seemed we couldn’t get close enough, and even though I knew Kade would probably lie awake all night, I heaved a sigh of contentment and drifted to sleep almost immediately.

Morning had sunshine streaming in through the windows and I woke with a stretch. Amazingly enough, I wasn’t very sore. My ankles and wrists hurt, but other than that my body was okay. Surprisingly, I hadn’t had any nightmares. Maybe that had been because my subconscious knew James was dead and therefore no longer presented a threat, or maybe it was because I’d been with Kade, or maybe both, but my sleep had been peaceful.

I heard the low rumble of Kade’s voice and got out of bed. He’d nearly closed the French doors dividing the sitting room from the bedroom, leaving them open a scant inch. I realized he was talking to someone on the phone.

I brushed my teeth and used the bathroom, using my fingers to try and tame my hair, before I emerged from the bedroom. Kade glanced up from where he sat in an armchair, but kept talking.

“Yeah. It was close,” he said. “Too close. And you’re going to want to burn that bed. I never want to lay eyes on it again.”

I grimaced, then spotted the pot of coffee Kade must have ordered from room service. I poured myself a cup and listened to him talk.

“Chance took care of it,” Kade said. “And Gerard’s planning on fixing the door today.” He paused, listening. “Yeah, she’s right here. Hold on.” He held his cell phone out to me. “Blane wants to talk to you.”

I was suddenly nervous as I took the phone from him. Did Blane know everything that had happened the past few weeks? Had Kade told him we were married now?

“Hey,” I said softly.

“Kat,” Blane said, releasing a sigh, “Kade told me what happened. Jesus. I’m so sorry, Kat.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said. “Just like I told Kade. No one could have predicted he’d go so far off the deep end. I just want to forget it and move on.”

Blane was quiet for a moment. “Then I won’t mention it again, okay?”

“I’d appreciate that,” I replied. James was part of the past now.

Blane cleared his throat. “I hear congratulations are in order,” he said. “Kade told me you two made it official. Mrs. Kade Dennon.”

Hello, awkward. My stomach felt like I’d swallowed a ten-pound rock. “Um, yeah,” I said. “I . . . yeah, we did.”

“I’m really happy for you, Kat,” Blane said, and if I hadn’t known him so well, he might’ve fooled me.

“It’s okay not to be. You don’t have to lie,” I said, drifting to look out the window. “I understand.” After all, if things had worked out differently, I’d be Mrs. Blane Kirk instead. It was unspoken, but I could hear his thought as though he’d said it aloud.

We were both quiet for a moment.

“I, um, I hear you’ll probably replace the senator,” I said, changing the subject. “That’s really something. Congratulations.”

“Yes. Unexpected, but I think if it happens, I’ll accept the appointment.”

I wondered if he would have accepted it if he and I had still been together. “So you’ll be in Washington from now on,” I said, my heart sinking. “Not Indy.”

“For a while,” Blane said. “The session’s already begun, so it’ll probably be a few months before I make it home.”

“So by Christmas, you think?” I asked.

“Maybe,” he hedged. I didn’t push.

More silence, but I was loath to say goodbye. Finally, Blane spoke again.

“I love you,” he said, his voice roughened, “and I’m glad you’re okay, all three of you.”

“Me too,” I replied, my own voice hardly above a whisper.

Blane cleared his throat again. “Okay, well, tell Kade I’ll talk to him later.”

“Okay.”

“Take care of yourself. Take care of Kade.”

“I will. I promise.”

“Goodbye, Kat.”

“Bye, Blane.”

Then he was gone, the call ended. I stared blindly out the window and blinked back the tears.

I don’t even want to know how much you paid for these tickets,” I said.

Kade just winked at me. “It’s the least I could do. Especially since I’m the reason you missed your pop princess in Indy.”

We were in the front row of the Sprint Center in Kansas City, waiting for Britney to come onstage. The tickets and backstage passes Blane had given me last Christmas had been for her show in Indy, but Kade had gotten shot and I’d been at the hospital constantly, thus missing the concert. I hadn’t said anything at the time—as much as I loved Britney, Kade nearly dying had consumed all my thoughts and attention—but Kade had eventually figured it out.

So now, two months later, we were in Kansas City for her show and somehow Kade had scored front row center seats. He’d begged me to wear my Britney costume from last Halloween, but I’d put my foot down. Skimpy Catholic schoolgirl outfit would normally be sexy; pregnant Catholic schoolgirl was just not, no matter what Kade insisted to the contrary.

I was too excited to sit, so I stood, leaning against the tall fence that separated the front row from the stage. The show should start any minute now. The opening act had finished and the stage looked nearly set up for Britney.

The past couple of months had been a whirlwind. Kade and I had bought a house and begun, again, to decorate a room for the baby. I didn’t want to sell the house I’d bought in Rushville, though. That house had been something I’d done on my own when I’d realized I was strong enough to do what needed to be done to raise our child by myself. We still went there occasionally for the weekend.

Charlie hadn’t seemed to mind that I’d had to quit my job so quickly after I’d started, citing how I was pregnant and married and lived in Indy, but then again, it was hard to tell with him. I thought I’d seen him crack a tiny smile before he turned away.

Kade didn’t exactly love visiting Rushville, but he humored my desire to keep ties to my hometown. Though people were slow to warm up to him, eventually they seemed to accept his presence by my side.

My lease was up on my old apartment and I’d been a little sad to move out. So much had happened there, good and bad. The afterimage of Blane and our time together seemed to be burned into the place and that made my chest hurt if I thought about it, so I didn’t.

Lewis had proposed, and he and Alisha were getting married at Christmas. I was thrilled for her. As a gift, and an apology, I’d made Kade buy them tickets to Hawaii and he was also footing the bill for their honeymoon there. I felt it was the least he could do after shooting Lewis. But the wound had healed and there was no lasting damage, thank goodness, so I thought all was okay between the four of us. Though I didn’t think either of them would probably ever look at Kade the same way again.