A Bid for Love (27 page)

Cassi’s jaw dropped. This was her favorite daydream turned real, and for once in her life she was speechless.

“I’ll give you all the time you want to consider it, and as long an engagement as you need to be sure. I’ll wait as long as it takes.” He stopped talking and simply looked up at her, waiting for an answer.

Tears formed in Cassi’s eyes. He had given her his most precious material possession, as well as himself! “Yes,” she said softly.

“Yes? Just yes?” he said with a grin. “No exclamation of undying love?” Then he added hurriedly, “That’s okay, I’ll take yes. But is it yes you’ll think about it, or yes you’ll marry me?”

Pulling him to his feet, she practically threw herself against his uninjured shoulder. “Yes . . . I’ll marry . . . you,” she said between kisses. Softly she added, “I love you, too.”

Jared threw back his head and laughed. He hugged her again and again, as if afraid to let go. “I hoped so. I brought my collection to use as a bribe, just in case you wouldn’t marry me, but—” He shrugged, smiling.

Cassi pushed herself closer, loving the way his good arm tightened possessively around her. “It’s perfect.”

“Oh, I’m going to get you a ring, too. Make no mistake. I want the world to know you’re mine. Until we go to pick it out, this will have to do.” He motioned to the boxes.

Cassi chuckled.
Life
was worth well over forty thousand dollars, much more than any ring she would choose. She lifted her lips to Jared’s.

After a long moment, he sighed. “Much as I don’t want to, we have to stop. You’ve got a porch full of boxes that we should really bring in.”

Cassi laughed and walked with him to the door. As promised, lined up along her porch was the rest of his
Life
collection. But something beyond that caught her attention even more. In front of her house sat a large moving van. She blinked in surprise.

“You don’t think I’m going to risk a long-distance relationship with the most beautiful woman in the world, do you?” Jared said.

“You’re moving?”

He nodded. “To be near you until we’re married and decide where to have our gallery. Actually, it was Carl’s idea. He called me from Mexico five days ago, while I was still in the hospital. I was worrying about what to do, and he suggested packing it all up and appearing on your doorstep. It sounded like a good idea, so I put the apartment up for sale, Meela helped me pack, and here I am.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! You mean to tell me you got out of the hospital, packed up your things, and drove across America all by yourself, just to be with me?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t see any point in hanging on to New York when my life was with you.”

“And you were in the hospital until five days ago?”

Jared nodded. “I lost more blood than the doctors thought, and then I made it worse by going to look for you.”

“You looked for me?”

“Of course, I did.” His hand came up to caress her face.

“What about Laranda?” Cassi held her breath as she waited for the answer. She didn’t like the woman, but she didn’t want her death hanging over them, either.

“I hear she’s all right, or at least she’s out of critical condition. I haven’t seen her myself, and I don’t plan to. But the doctors do think she’ll be paralyzed from the waist down, though she’s not getting much sympathy, as you can imagine.” His voice lowered. “What she did was awful, but I would live through it a hundred times over if it brought me you.”

Relief flooded Cassi. His words made it clear that Laranda belonged to the past.

“Uh, you don’t know a place where I can store some of this stuff, do you?” Jared eyed Cassi’s garage. “That looks about the right size.”

“It’s all yours.”

Jared grinned. “Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you. Carl wanted you to know that he married Maria the day after he flew to Mexico. They’re still there, waiting for her visa to come through so he can bring her here.”

Cassi laughed. “Good for him.” Everything had worked out. Everything except—

“We’ll have to have a play area in one room of our gallery,” she said. “That way our kids can be near us while we work. And we’ll have to hire someone to manage the gallery while we go on buying trips, plus a guard so you don’t have to carry a gun, and—”

“Only if you’ll promise to let me teach you how to cook,” Jared said, rubbing his stomach. “We can start right now. I’m starving.”

“You look way too exhausted to cook. I’m sure I have some frozen dinners I can pop in the microwave for you.”

He groaned.

She laughed. “Honestly, Jared. There’s no use in my learning. We’ll have seven kids, and you can teach them how to cook.”

“And vacuum?”

“That, too. Then they’ll work while we go jogging every day.”

Jared groaned again, but his expression was happy. He stroked Cassi’s hair, his arm sliding down her back to tighten around her waist.

Their lips met once more, and Cassi knew it would be a little while longer before they brought in the rest of the collection from the porch that evening. For, as exceptional as
Life
was, they were discovering for themselves how wonderful their lives could be.

THE END

We hope you enjoyed
A Bid For Love,
the first novel in the
Love
series. For your enjoyment, we have included a sample chapter of
Framed For Love,
beginning on the next page. A list of all books by Rachel Ann Nunes can be found in the About the Author section following the sample chapter.

FRAMED FOR LOVE

by Rachel Ann Nunes

CHAPTER ONE

The phone rang at Jared’s apartment, but for the ninth time that day there was no answer. Cassi Mason slammed the receiver onto the cradle and returned to the main part of the gallery where her boss, Linden Johansen, was carefully hanging a painting. He paused in his work, and Cassi could feel him staring at her flushed face. She willed herself to be calm.

“He’s not home,” she said. “I don’t get it. Four days before we get married. Three if you don’t count that Saturday morning—less than seventy-two hours! And he disappears. Where could he be? I know he didn’t have any auctions or appointments.”

“I’m sure he’s just out getting last-minute things done,” Linden threw his hammer onto the supply cart and touched her arm. “Don’t fret so.”

Cassi forced a laugh at his choice of words. “Linden, I’m not fretting. It’s just that he missed his final fitting for the tux, and there’s not much time left.”

“Your cogency leaves a lot to be desired.”

“Cogency? Linden! I don’t know if I like this extend-your-vocabulary class you’re taking. What does that even mean?”

“Something about compelling or convincing—I’m not sure exactly, but whatever it means, you aren’t doing it. What you are doing is fretting. And you have to stop. If Jared needs some pants, I can lend him some. I bought a tux last year for my step-cousin’s daughter’s wedding. Jared’s about my size.”

Cassi hugged her friend and mentor, bringing a flush to his face. “Oh, Linden, it has to match with everything else. But thanks anyway. You’re the best.” In fact, with her own parents living several states away, he was becoming like a father to her.

“Humph! Just for that, I’m not going to show you that secret tunnel in my new mansion after all. And it’s magnificent.”

“So you’ve told me. But I still don’t see why you need such a big house and a secret tunnel.”

“It might come in handy with all the spy work I’ve been doing.” Linden gave her a grin. “Besides, a lot of these older mansions have them. It’s normal.”

“Forget about your tunnel,” she said lightly. “Just be glad I’m finally getting married. I’m getting old.”

Linden snorted. “Twenty-nine isn’t old. When you get to be sixty like me, then we’ll talk—if I’m still around.”

Cassi laughed as he intended, but her mind was on Jared. Where was he? She had waited so many years for him to come into her life. She had almost lost him once, and now this. Had he changed his mind? Self-doubt ate at her.

“Will you listen to me?” Linden said, his narrow face tightening in concern. “I told you, he’ll show up. He’d be crazy not to.”

“You’re right.” Cassi kissed his cheek. “Thanks. I think I’ll just go home and work on my last-minute list. I promised Jared I’d clean out the closets so he’d have some room when he moved in.”

As she left the gallery, a tingle formed in her stomach and worked its way into her throat. Today was Wednesday, and on Saturday she and Jared would be married! Could it really be true? If he felt half as nervous as she did, it was no wonder he was keeping busy.

He hasn’t disappeared,
she thought.
He’s just plain scared.

She drove to her small home in the suburbs of San Diego, mentally deciding what items from her closets would end up in the pile for charity and what she would simply throw away. There had never been any need before to conserve space, but with Jared moving in . . . and perhaps later they would have a child. Cassi smiled at her thoughts.

Once at the house, she couldn’t park in the garage because it was filled with boxes from Jared’s apartment in New York. For nearly three months they had sat there, growing dusty, but tomorrow Jared planned to start moving them inside.

Cassi slid from the car, adjusting her gray skirt and retrieving her matching fitted jacket from the passenger seat. She glanced up and down the street to make sure Jared’s new red Camry was nowhere in sight. He had a key to the house, so it was possible he had come over to make her dinner—he knew she hated to cook.

The car was nowhere in sight. “Looks like it’s microwave dinner time,” she said.

The instant Cassi walked through the door, she felt something wasn’t right. What was it? Her heart began an all-too-familiar pounding. This was how she had felt three months ago when she and Jared had captured would-be thieves and exposed Jared’s boss, Laranda Garrettson, as a smuggler.

“Jared?” she called.

There was no answer.

“This isn’t funny! Jared?”

Silence.

She walked into the living room and scanned its contents. Nothing was where it had been when she left this morning. The couches had been moved. Vases and knickknacks had traded places. Even the books had been taken from the shelves and lined up on the floor. The disarray wasn’t messy, but deliberate, methodical.

Cassi’s breath came more quickly. Who had been here? Jared? Was he moving his things in now?

Her gaze landed on the answering machine on its stand next to the tall flowered vase by the arched doorway. A red light flashed at her, signaling a new message. Mechanically, Cassi punched the button and waited. Was it Jared?
Be Jared,
she pleaded silently.

She heard a series of beeps and then, “Cassi, this is Renae. Please, please, call me when you get a minute. I really need to talk to you.”

Cassi hardy heard the words through her disappointment. She tossed her suit jacket onto the sofa and with a shaky hand picked up the flowered vase from its stand, holding it in front of her to use as a weapon if necessary. The long bunches of dried flowers inside the vase fell to the carpet.

In the kitchen she found the same disorder, but this time damage had been done, as though someone had grown careless. The cupboards and drawers gaped open, piles of broken dishes lay on the counter top, silverware spread across the table, and her clean linens were strewn across the ceramic tile.

Jared didn’t do this.

She knew exactly what she should do: run and get help. But a feeling of defilement urged her deeper into the house. How dare someone violate her privacy! How dare they touch and ruin her things!

Still clutching the vase, she quietly crept through the rest of the house. The living room, the bathroom, the spare bedroom, the library—everywhere she met the same terrible disorder. In the master bedroom, the devastation was the worst. Everything in the closets and drawers had been scattered around the room as though by children in unsupervised play. Sheets had been ripped, blankets thrown onto the floor. Her bra hung from a hook that had once supported the curtains. The horrific focal point of the room was the waterbed, with her long kitchen knife stabbed into the middle. A white piece of paper floated in the leaking water.

Cassi peeked into the master bathroom to make sure she was alone. She was too scared to cry and too weak to run. Feeling compelled, she approached the bed, keeping an eye on the door to the hall. What did the note say?

The vase in her hands became suddenly heavy, and she set it gently on top of the wrinkled curtains by the bed. As she retrieved the white paper, it tore in her hands, and she had to lay it, piece by soggy piece, on the dresser to read what it said:

We know you have it, Landine. We want it now.

Landine. Jared? This note was meant for Jared!

Cassi’s knees buckled, but she caught herself by leaning on the dresser for support.

Questions assaulted her. What did Jared have? Why were they looking for it here? What was going on? And most importantly, where was Jared?

There were no answers on the paper or in the horrible mess of her house. With a hand to her mouth, Cassi darted out of the bedroom, through the house, and out the door. She was in the car and driving before she even realized she had picked up her car keys.

Where should I go?

Jared’s. She had to find and warn him.

Of what? What has Jared stumbled onto now?

Cassi felt angry and afraid. Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, but she scarcely noticed.

And why didn’t he tell me!
her heart screamed in angry protest.

By the time she reached Jared’s studio apartment, three blocks away, her anger had calmed. She remembered Jared’s face, his sandy blond hair, the look in his blue eyes when he held her.
He loves me, she thought, and I have to trust him.