No Ordinary Romance (25 page)

Connie stood up and hugged Thomas. "Thank you
for contacting Samantha. How did you know?"

Thomas gave her a quick peck on the lips. "I
understand baby, sometimes a woman just needs her friends." Their
conversation was interrupted by Agent Constantine.

"Miss Jacobs we think we have located the
kidnappers."

"What?"

We followed up leads on Crystalline Jacobs's
known associates; she's taken up with ex-con Jimmy Lee Dixon. His
relatives are known felons and probably cooking up drugs in Carter
Lake. OPD is doing a follow up, if we catch a break maybe we can
find the kidnappers and hostages before someone gets hurt."

Thomas wrapped his arm around Constantina's
shoulders. "Baby, Chad and Beth will make it out unharmed. If what
Eric says is true, the FBI just gained the upper hand."

Was Samantha thinking about her own
kidnapping nearly seven months ago? "Connie don't give up hope. If
your mother is behind the kidnapping, maybe Chad can reach her,
stranger things have happened."

"Oh Sam I'm such an idiot, this must have
raised horrible memories for you."

"It did bring back memories Connie, I was
damn thankful that people loved me enough to come looking for
me."

***

Chad ran up the basement stairs and turned
right towards the back of the house he didn't stop until he reached
the last bedroom near the kitchen. The door was unlocked. He
entered the bedroom and found Beth tied up on the bed. He saw the
relief in her eyes as untied her ankles and wrists. He pealed the
duct from her mouth. "Quiet Beth." He whispered. "One of the
kidnappers got shot in the basement. We need to make a run for the
back door. Once you make it through the door I want you to keep
running no matter what you hear." Beth didn't talk she just nodded
her head in the affirmative.

Chad peeked out the door he heard voices in
front of the house. He pushed Beth ahead of him determine that she
would escape. "Run!"

Beth ran faster than she ever did in her
life. She didn't recognize the neighborhood, many of the houses and
buildings were boarded up. She heard sirens, and she ran towards
the sound. "Help! Help!"

Once Beth was clear from the house, Chad
hesitated; he went back towards the house he could feel the heat
radiating from the kitchen. "Crystalline! Crystalline where are
you?" He tried to get past the kitchen, but the flames were too
high. How in the hell had the fire started and how did it
progressed so fast? He backed out of the house and ran in the same
direction as Beth. He looked behind him, and the flames were
engulfing the house, the fire must have been set with an
accelerant.

He heard Beth yelling for help as several
police cars got closer to him, he hustled out of the yard and ran
straight into a police officer. "Oh shit!"

"Put your hands above you head and get on
your knees now!"

Chad immediately followed the police officers
orders. "Listen officer the house that my girlfriend and I just
escaped from is on fire; I haven't spent much time around drug
dealers, but I have a feeling they were cookers."

Chad and the police officer looked at the
burning house the fire had already spread to the attached garage.
"Run!"

Chad needed no second urging, he and the
police officer ran, and they actually got a half block away when
the explosion occurred. He landed on the ground flat on his face,
he figured by the time this was over he was going to stay in bed
for a week. When he came to, he was in the back of an ambulance
being administered to by an EMT. Beth was in the ambulance stroking
his face; her face was wet with tears, her eyes full of fear.

"Stop crying Beth. Are you sure you want to
be my girlfriend, it becomes anticlimactic after this. I couldn't
top the last 18 hours if I tried.

***

It was ten minutes to six o'clock, and
everyone was sitting around Connie's office waiting for the
kidnapper to call. Connie was nervous and scared that something
would go wrong. Samantha and Thomas never left her side, Thomas a
tower of strength and Samantha keeping her mind occupied with
amusing stories about her clients. When the phone rang
unexpectedly, the tension in the room could be cut with a
knife.

"Hello."

"This Captain Nichols with the OPD may I
please speak to the FBI agent in charge."

Connie put the phone on speaker. "Agent
Constantine an OPD police captain is on the line for you."

"This is Agent Constantine."

"Agent Constantine my name is Captain Nichols
with OPD per your request we sent a couple of squad cars us to
check out a possible tie to your kidnapping suspect. In the
process, we found Chad Roberts and Beth Marlin at the scene; both
victims were transported to University Hospital for observation. We
found a wounded possible suspect Jimmy Lee Dixon a couple of blocks
from the house."

"Captain Nichols were there any other
suspects at the scene?"

"From what we could
ascertain, Mr. Roberts stated that his mother, one of the suspects
shot another suspect in the basement and release him and Miss
Marlin. Evidently, a fired started at the house and spread to the
garage, which housed a meth lab. When my men
arrived at
the scene, an explosion ensued damn near taking
half the block. We can't recover any bodies until the blaze is
extinguished."

"Thank you for your cooperation Captain
Nichols, my team will question Mr. Roberts and Miss Marlin at the
hospital. Miss Jacobs I can see you're ready to see your brother
and Miss Marlin. Would you like to ride with my team?"

Thomas clasped arm, "That's okay Eric,
Constantina's riding with me."

Samantha hugged Connie as she prepared to
leave. "You're in good hands Con, I told you not to give up hope.
Check on Chad and Beth and call me with the details. You better
call Jenna too, I bet she hates being out of the loop."

"Thanks for coming
Sam;
I promise to call you and Jen later." She
grabbed her purse and walked hand in hand with Thomas to his car.
He opened the door for her and she gave him a soulful kiss before
entering the car. "Thomas I truly couldn't have gotten through this
without you, I've never known a man like you."

"I wouldn't be anywhere else but at your
side. Let me get you to the hospital so you can make sure that
Chris and Beth are okay, then I'm going to take you home and take
care of you."

Connie waited patiently as Thomas got in the
passenger seat of the car. "Thomas."

"Yeah baby."

"I love you."

Thomas gave her a sexy wink. "It's about damn
time Constantina. I had all about given up hope that you would
admit that you love me the way that I love you."

"You don't seem very surprised."

"I've known that you've been in love with me
for some time, believe me, it's been eating me up inside. I'm just
so damn grateful that you've come into my life."

***

Connie and Thomas waited outside the
observation room for hours as Agent Constantine, and his team
questioned Chad and Beth about the kidnapping. Connie couldn't keep
still she paced back and forth up and down the hallway. She knew
she wouldn't be content until she saw for her own eyes that Chad
and Beth were truly okay.

"Come on let's sit down before you fall."
Thomas grabbed her arm an escorted her to the waiting area. "You're
as taut as a guitar string. Chad and Beth are safe Constantina you
should be able to relax now."

"I can't relax Thomas until I actually see
them. Did you know that Jenna was attacked in her own home by the
same man who killed her sister?"

"No baby I didn't know that." He held her
hand trying to comfort her.

Try as she might, Connie couldn't stop
herself from rambling. "He tried to kill her, but she fought for
her life and ended up taking one of his eyes."

"Yeah didn't he end up
dying in
prison?
Jenna's fine now, she's
happily married and a new mother. She didn't let one horrible event
from her life keep her from moving forward."

"Samantha was terrorized by
an ex-boyfriend
. He had his
cousin ram her
vehicle from behind pushing her car into oncoming traffic. She
almost died on the operating table. When that didn't
work,
he had her kidnapped. He was pretending to save
her so that Samantha would take him back into her life."

"I remember that day, you
had a flat tire on I80 and I ended up driving you to the hospital
from Lincoln. You were so determine to see her; when we arrived at
the
hospital,
she and Allen had just gotten
engaged. Remember the relief you felt when you realized that she
was okay."

"Chad and Beth were kidnapped because my
mother wanted to punish me if anything had happened to them that
would have been my fault."

"Honey surely you can't blame yourself for
every incident that happens."

"I know I'm not being reasonable, but it
seems to me that the people I care about are always under
attack."

"Constantina you are in no
way responsible for the actions of the man who attacked Jenna, or
Samantha's ex-
boyfriend,
and you certainly
are not responsible for your deranged mother. You've been carrying
around a lot of guilt
for situations
well
beyond your control. You're not responsible for David's death nor
are you responsible for Chad and Beth's kidnapping.

"My heart broke in two the day that David
died. My mind tells me that I'm not responsible, but when things
happen to the ones I love the scared little seven year old in me
comes forward afraid that my heart will be broken again."

"Some childhood wounds never heal
Constantina, but you're not alone anymore, you're surrounded by
people who love you. As long as I live and breathe you'll never
have to deal with anything by yourself."

Finally, Agent Constantine and his men
vacated the room and Constantina practically knocked them over
getting into the room. Beth looked tired and dirty but no worse for
wear. "I'm so sorry." Tears wet Connie's face as she hugged
Beth.

"I'm okay Connie." Beth pushed her towards
Chad, "I'm just glad I had a real hero there to save me." She
winked at Chad as Connie fussed over him.

Chad endured Connie's hugs
and tears
; he'd never seen her so upset.
"Connie calm down, I got a couple of scratches and bruises when the
garage exploded, other than that I'm fine." Chad looked at Connie's
solemn face, her eyes still full of unshed tears. "I'm fine
Connie;
you're not going to lose me."

"I'm so
sorry;
Crystalline did this to get back at me
.
S
he must really hate me a lot."

Chad grabbed her hand looking into her eyes,
it was vital that Connie understand that none of this was her
fault. "Connie you've been blaming yourself for not being able to
save David. You were seven years old, you were lucky to survive
yourself. I had a chance to talk with Crystalline and told her the
truth that my father set that fire which ruined your lives. She's
been mad at herself all of these years, and somehow she transferred
that anger towards you. It was Crystalline who set me free so I
could save Beth."

"Do you think she survived the
explosion?"

"I don't know Connie, Agent Constantine said
they wouldn't know anything until the fire was out and the remains
were collected. Crystalline's boyfriend hasn't been cooperative
either. Crystalline shot one of the kidnappers in front of me, he
was trying to hinder our escape, she wounded him, but I got a
feeling he didn't make it out of the house."

"I hope she made it Chad, I would like to
face her as an adult and not a scared child."

"I hope so too Connie. She
told me to tell you that she was sorry." He reached inside his
pocket, pulling out the pendant and handed it to Connie.
Crystalline told me to give this to
you;
she said a little girl should have something from her mother.
Inside is a picture of Crystalline with her mother. I think that
was her way of saying good bye."

***

It was late in the evening when Thomas and
Connie made it to her house. They took Chad and Beth to Beth's
apartment and swung by Connie's office to pick up her car. The FBI
cleaned all evidence of the command center and her office was back
to normal. The whole day was like some surreal nightmare, but the
man beside her, he's real.

Thomas wrapped his arms around her waist
pulling her against the fullness of his body. "What are you
thinking about?" Her eyes were heavy laden with desire, and he was
a willing recipient of her lust.

Connie pushed her mound into his erection. "I
was thinking about you and all the things I want to do to you. When
everything fell apart for me today, you were there, strong, silent,
and supportive." She stepped out of his arms and began taking off
her clothes, she didn't stop until she was standing there in her
bra and panties. Thomas's green eyes were brimming with desire.

He took of his suit coat and draped it across
the sofa. "Don't stop now, I was enjoying the show. Are you sure
about this? After the day you had today, the last thing I expect is
a sexual romp."

Connie grabbed him by the tie dragging him
into her bedroom. "Thomas we don't have sexual romps we make love
as if we're the only two people on the planet." She stripped him of
his clothes, kissing him strategically all over his body. She
wanted to taste him right now. Connie got on her knees yanking down
his pants and underwear in one swoop.

Visions of her behavior in the hot tub
quickly came to mind. The events of the day stressed her to the
max, and the sexual tension inside her was coming to the surface.
"Baby take your time we've got all night."