Pamela Clare - Striking Distance

She felt Javier behind her.

“The car is here, bella. Our luggage is loaded. It’s time to go.”

Laura nodded, bent down, and pressed a kiss to Klara’s cheek.

Somehow, she managed to walk away from the crib without crying, something inside her screaming that Klara was hers. Her daughter. Her child. Taking one wooden step after another, she followed Erik and Heidi as they and their twins walked her and Javier to the waiting car.

“We will take care of her, Laura.” Heidi hugged her tightly, tears in her eyes. “Thank you for the beautiful gift you have given us.”

“We’ll be in touch every week.” Erik gave Laura a hug. “You are a very courageous woman. I promise you that Klara will learn the truth when she is ready, and she will be proud to be your daughter.”

“Thank you—for everything,” Laura said.

Javier helped her into the backseat, then sat beside her. And the car began to move—out the gate, down the street, around the corner.

And Laura broke.

With a cry, she sank against Javier, her grief spilling out in broken sobs.

* * *

FEELING HELPLESS, JAVIER held Laura tight all the way to the airport. He held her on the twelve-hour flight to New York. He held her on the connecting flight to Denver. He held her on the cab ride from Denver International Airport to her loft. He held her as she cried herself to sleep.

He held her because there was nothing else he could do—and because some part of his heart had broken, too.

LAURA AWOKE TO find herself still nestled in Javier’s arms, his head on her pillow. But she wasn’t ready to face the day—or the rawness of her own emotions. She snuggled against his chest and let herself doze, the steady beating of his heart against her cheek.

It was almost noon when her stomach woke her.

Javier brushed a strand of hair from her face. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Hungry?”

“Starving.”

They brushed their teeth, and Laura couldn’t help but laugh when she saw how puffy her eyes were. “I look terrible.”

He kissed her. “You look beautiful.”

They made breakfast together as they’d done during the weeks he’d stayed with her, Javier making the coffee, Laura putting together omelets and toast, the joy she felt at being with him helping her to keep her grief at bay. After two months of living by herself, it felt good to have him here again, something about his presence making the loft feel more like a home. Wanting fresh air and sunshine, they carried their plates outdoors and sat at the little table on Laura’s balcony, the streets of LoDo alive with lunch-hour traffic and busy pedestrians.

Laura sipped her coffee, the familiar taste almost making her sigh. “Mmm. I’ve missed this.”

He grinned at her over the rim of his coffee cup, his gaze warm. “So have I.”

She knew he wasn’t talking about coffee.

But it was time.

“Are you going to tell me what really happened?”

He set his cup down. “This can’t go beyond us. You can’t even tell your mother and grandmother.”

“I understand, and I promise.”

Laura listened as he told her the whole story. How he’d begun planning for the trip to Pakistan before he left Denver. How he’d contacted a few guys from his platoon he knew he could trust, putting together a volunteer black-ops team that included Tower.

“He feel he owes you—and he does. Turns out that he’s not just an asshole. He’s damned good at his job. He speaks as many languages as you do, has connections everywhere. He got quick intel on Klara for us, handled our supplies and transportation. The man blends in with the locals, just disappears in a crowd. He was a vital member of the team, that’s for damned sure.”

He told her what had happened once they’d gotten inside the house, what he’d said to Al-Nassar’s brother and Safiya. Perhaps his threats of violence against them should have shocked her, but they didn’t.

Instead, they felt like a tiny step toward justice.

“Once I was airborne with Klara, the others flew back to the States on separate flights. Tower took my combat gear with him so I didn’t have to hassle with that. When I got to Stockholm, I called Erik, told him who I was and who was with me. He sent a car to the airport.”

“How did you find him or know to go there?”

“You mentioned him—and I searched your e-mail in-box. I turned his name over to Tower, who did the rest.”

She stared at him. “You searched my e-mail?”

He shrugged. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it? You can’t argue with success.”

She glared at him. “Oh, I can argue all right. Don’t tempt me.”

“You’re not seriously ticked, are you?”

“No, not really. You could have asked, though.”

He shook his head, took her hand. “I didn’t want you to know anything about this. I didn’t want any of the blame to fall on you if the op went sideways—and I sure as hell didn’t want you to spend every day for the next two months worrying.”

“I don’t know how to feel about the fact that Derek Tower and a handful of your team buddies know about Klara now.”

“They all wanted to help, bella. They feel a kind of connection to you. They saw how it was there. They know what you went through. They didn’t want to leave your little girl there. And not one of them will breathe a word of it.”

“Will you or the others get in any trouble for this?”

Javier shook his head. “We pulled it off. No one was killed. If NSW hears about it, they’ll probably look the other way.”

The enormity of what Javier had done hit Laura.

“Do you realize that yours were the first caring hands to hold her?” She laced her fingers through his, brought his hand to her mouth, and kissed it. “I still can’t believe what you did for me, for her. You gave up your spot on the Teams. You risked your life, your freedom.”

His lips curved in a soft smile. “I guess I found something that matters more to me.”

“What you did—it was so incredibly selfless.”

He gave a slow shake of his head, his eyes looking into hers. “Nah, bella. What you did for that sweet baby girl—that was selfless. You love her so much that you gave her up, even though it tore you apart.”

And the grief Laura had been fighting so hard to keep at bay welled up inside her, the ache behind her breastbone growing sharp. “I was only her mother for a handful of days, but in that time, I was a pretty good mother, wasn’t I?”

“You were the best.” A muscle clenched in Javier’s jaw, and he gave her hand a squeeze, a fierce light in his eyes, his voice rough. “Hold on to that in your heart and never forget it.”

Laura fought tears. She didn’t want to cry again. “I only spent nine days with her, but, God, I miss her.”

“So do I.”

* * *

AFTER BREAKFAST, LAURA found an e-mail with photographs of Klara. In one, Erik was holding Klara up so that she could pet a pony at Anette and Stella’s riding lesson, a look of wonder and delight on her little face. In another, Klara sat in her booster chair in a pretty blue dress with cake all over her hands and face—part of an adoption party they’d thrown to celebrate with family and close friends.

Javier looked at the photos with Laura, happy just to see the smile on Klara’s face—and the relief on Laura’s. “She’s going to be fine, bella. See that?”

He gave Laura some privacy so that she could write a reply, taking time to check in with the men to tell them what had happened in Stockholm. Speaking in code, he told them that Laura hadn’t brought her daughter home—and that no one could ever hear about his little side trip to Sweden. To a man, they got choked up when they heard what Laura had done for her little girl, Tower most of all.

A half hour after Javier called him, he showed up at Laura’s door. “We need to set you up with VPN, Ms. Nilsson. If you’re going to be sending regular e-mails to Sweden, you’re going to want your communications to be secure.”

“Please, call me Laura.” She walked over to him, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for helping to save my daughter.”

“I’m glad I was there.” He smiled at Laura, the look in his eyes setting off Javier’s radar. “I just want to tell you that I respect you to the core. What you did must have been hard as hell.”

“Thank you. And yes—it was.”

“She’s an incredible woman,” Tower said to Javier later when they were alone. “If you ever decide to move on—”

“Not a chance, dawg. Don’t even go there, or it’s back to me thinking you’re just an asshole, got it?”

If Laura would have him, Javier was here to stay.

* * *

LAURA SPENT THE late afternoon unpacking and doing laundry—hers and Javier’s—while he and Derek set up her VPN. It felt good to do something mindless. The simple act of folding clothes and putting things in their place made her feel like she was restoring some kind of order to her world.

Tomorrow she would return to her daily routine. She would head to the paper, catch up with Sophie and the others, and pick up the investigation she’d dropped when Erik called. And everything would be the way it had been before.

No. No, that wasn’t true.

Everything was different now.

The realization dawned slowly, settling behind Laura’s breastbone, the truth of it sending ripples through her.

Two weeks ago, Klara had been a captive, living with terrorists. But now she was free and settled out of harm’s way. Two weeks ago, Laura hadn’t known when she would see Javier again. But now, he was here with her. What’s more, he had chosen to be here with her. And he loved her.