The Secret Doctor (13 page)

Toby saw it too, and his whole body was on alert now, poised, and ready for action. His ears were back, his tail
was straight out, and his lip curled, baring his teeth and showing his intent.

‘You're the one who should keep back,' she told the man. It amazed her that she was even able to speak. Her heart was beating so fast it took her breath away, and all the while her mind was whirling, trying to find a way out of this situation. ‘You're trespassing on my property and I've already called the police. If you know what's good for you you'll get out of here, now.'

His mouth twisted in a mocking, derisive sneer. ‘Do you think I've waited two years to give up now? Oh, no…that's my fortune you've made off with. It belongs to me. Do you think I'm gonna let you stop me? Think again, lady.'

‘I
think
you're making a big mistake,' she said softly. ‘You won't get away with this. The police know you've been hanging around the place, and they'll be looking for you.'

He laughed, a contemptuous, dismissive sound that chilled her to the bone. He had no fear of the police, or of the dog. What on earth was she going to do?

‘Enough of this,' he said through gritted teeth. ‘You're wasting my time. Where have you put the bag?'

‘I already told you. I've no idea what you're talking about.'

‘Then I'll have to knock some sense into your head, won't I?' Suddenly he lunged forward, grabbing her arm, his hand closing like a vise around her. As his other arm clamped around her neck, yanking her back against him, she made the only move left to her—she
jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow, a move that brought a soft explosion of breath from him. He cursed and tried to tighten his grip on her.

At the same time Toby flew at him, all teeth and jaws, ready to do as much damage as possible. He buried his teeth into her attacker's leg, so deep and hard that the man dropped the club and yelled out in pain.

Lacey jabbed her elbow once more into his rib cage, astonished with herself that she could find such strength, but the point of her elbow hit home, and she heard the crunch of a rib as it cracked under pressure. Then she swung her leg in front of his, made a backwards kick and sent him off balance.

Harassed, his hold on her weakened, and he stumbled backwards. Toby found another part of his body to cling on to, this time an arm, and the man aimed a blow at him. It should have hurt but, instead of backing off, Toby tightened his grip on the man until he howled with pain.

And then, just as Lacey stooped to pick up the baseball bat and readied herself to lash out, Jake erupted into the room. Without stopping for a second, his hand bunched into a fist and he aimed a blow at the man's face, a cracking, well-aimed blow that knocked him backwards and took him off his feet. Sprawled on the floor, the man must have wondered what had hit him. Dazedly, he stared up at the ceiling.

‘Guard him, Toby,' Jake commanded, and Toby obliged with enthusiasm, placing his substantial front paws on the man's chest, leaning his body weight over him and lowering his head to snarl directly into his face,
inches away from his cheek, teeth bared, a low, menacing growl that dared him to move.

Jake flipped open his phone and dialled the emergency services. ‘We need someone here, now,' he said, his deep voice commanding, authoritative, brooking no nonsense.

He cut the call after a moment or two and looked at Lacey. ‘He said they're already on their way…something about an emergency call you made.' He studied her pale face. ‘Are you all right?'

She nodded. Just at that moment she couldn't get any words out. The trauma of the incident was beginning to crowd in on her, and even as her fingers made to tighten on the baseball bat to stop it slipping from her grasp, she began to tremble.

‘Here, you'd better give me that,' Jake said. ‘It'll come in handy if he's stupid enough to make a move.' He gave the man a meaningful look, but it was clear he was going nowhere.

Jake took the bat from her, laying it down on the table, and she stared at him, wide-eyed, the strength draining from her body. ‘What are you doing here?' she asked. ‘I thought…'

‘I came as soon as I sensed you were in danger,' he told her. ‘I must have broken the world speed record to get here…it's a wonder the police didn't pick me up along the way.'

She tried a weak laugh, but failed. Her body slumped a little and he caught her, steadying her with a strong arm around her waist. ‘I couldn't bear to think that you were in any kind of danger,' he said. ‘For the
life of me, I can't imagine why you didn't tell me what was happening before this. If I'd known, I would never have left you alone without putting safety measures in place first of all.'

‘But it's not up to you, is it? I mean, I have to take care of myself… I have to sort myself out.'

‘No, you don't.' He drew her close and kissed her on the forehead, his lips brushing away the tension that was gathering there. ‘I'll always be here for you, Lacey. You don't ever have to worry that you're on your own.'

She gazed up at him, wondering what he could possibly mean by that, but her thoughts fragmented when she heard the sound of sirens and of police cars churning up the gravel on the drive outside.

‘At last,' Jake said. His gaze travelled slowly over her. ‘You should sit down,' he said. ‘You're in shock. Leave me to handle all this.' He frowned. ‘Just one thing…where did you put the stuff?'

‘It's in the safe, in the living room.'

‘Okay. Let me help you into a chair.' He pulled out a chair by the table and eased her down into it. Lacey was more than glad of his help because now the danger was all over, her legs felt like cotton wool.

He looked at her and smiled. ‘I'll never forget the sight of you ramming your elbow into his rib cage…and getting ready to swing at him with the bat. Way to go, Lacey.'

She tried a smile, but she wasn't really up to humour right then. She was simply glad he was going to deal with the police and take the weight off her shoulders. All the fight had gone out of her and realisation of the enormity
of the danger she had been in was beginning to make itself known in shock waves through her entire body.

A police officer pulled her assailant to his feet and handcuffed him. ‘Looks like you need to see a medic,' he murmured. ‘Two nasty dog bites there, from the looks of things…a painful jaw and maybe a cracked rib. Not your day, is it?' With the help of a colleague, he marched him out to the waiting police car.

Toby watched him go, and then settled down on the floor beside Lacey to watch what was going on. ‘You did a great job, Toby,' she said quietly, stroking his soft fur. She checked him over for any sign of injury, but he seemed fine.

The officer in charge inspected the bag of artefacts. ‘I guess he picked these up from some illicit salvage operation,' he said. ‘We know who he is. He's been locked up in the state prison for some two years. He must have stashed this lot away before he was caught, and decided to come back for it once he was released. Bad move on his part, because from the look of things he's bought himself another long stretch now.'

‘I suppose he must have brought a boat along the waterway, looking for a convenient, out-of-the-way place to hide the stuff.' Jake made a wry smile. ‘Of course, he reckoned without Lacey and Toby. That should teach him not to mess with feisty women.' He glanced across the room at Lacey. ‘I just want to know where she learned her ju-jitsu moves.'

‘Chilterns Academy,' she said. ‘Year of the millennium. I can't say I was great at it, but I managed to get by.'

He chuckled. ‘You did more than that. You were absolutely brilliant.'

She smiled, basking in his praise for the moment, but she knew full well that without his knockout blow and Toby's ferocious protection she would have been in dire straits. The whole episode left her feeling incredibly weepy…not at all the spirited, never-back-down-kind of woman he had tagged her.

The officers left after some half an hour, and peace finally descended. Lacey stood up, testing her feet on the floor to see whether or not things had returned to normal. She felt reasonably sure that she was back on form once more.

Jake rummaged in the cupboards to find an extra-special treat for Toby, and then he came over to Lacey and gathered her up in his arms. ‘It's hard to believe what you've just been through, and all without telling me anything about it. I want you to promise me that you'll always tell me everything that troubles you from now on.'

She sent him a puzzled look. ‘I would…but you gave me the impression that you'd have me move out of here. How does that fit in with wanting to take care of me?'

‘I wasn't suggesting that you go very far,' he murmured, his head bending close to hers, his lips nuzzling the softness of her cheek. ‘Better still, you could move in with me. Now, that would be perfect.'

Her eyes widened. ‘Move in with you?' Her heart began to race all over again. ‘That idea's turned up out of the blue, hasn't it?'

‘Not so much.' He dropped a kiss onto her soft lips.
‘I've been thinking about it for a long time…' He laughed. ‘Well, ever since you moved here, if the truth be known. I just felt I had to have you near…only you weren't at all keen on me and my way of life, were you, so I was on the back foot from the first.'

‘I didn't understand…about the medicine, I mean, but I can see now why you would give it all up. You went through a terrible time, and it was bound to make you think hard about the way you live your life.'

Slowly, gently, he drew her out of the kitchen and into the living room. ‘Sit with me, here on the settee,' he said softly. ‘I can feel you trembling in my arms. You're still not over what just happened, are you?'

‘I'm fine,' she said, but she did as he suggested all the same. It wasn't the events of the evening that were causing her any problem, but the fact that he was holding her, and she wanted so much for him to kiss her, and tell her that she meant everything in the world to him.

‘I didn't know where to find you,' she said. ‘I wanted you to be here with me, but you'd gone away, and I felt as though I was completely alone.' She frowned. ‘I
was
alone. I didn't know how I was going to cope. I didn't expect you to come back.'

‘I had to,' he said. ‘I couldn't leave you, knowing that you were afraid and that you might be in danger.'

He sat down beside her, drawing her into the circle of his arms. ‘I didn't want to go away, but I've been in town looking for a building that I can use for business premises. It had to be just right, with plenty of rooms, open floor spaces and offices to one side. I finally found
what I was looking for a couple of days ago, and I was trying to set up the facility so that we can open up as soon as possible.'

She sent him a quick, puzzled glance. ‘Are you setting up more offices to deal with the salvage operations? I thought you already had a base in town?'

‘I do, but this is something completely different. This is for a new medical facility…a welfare clinic, where people can come for medical care when they don't have insurance or any other means of payment. I've been thinking about it for a long time. I have the money to fund it, and I've set things in motion to make sure that it goes on being a viable proposition. It's mostly trust-fund income that will keep it going, but there will be charitable donations as well. I'm planning to work there myself alongside a team of doctors. It's something that's really necessary out here…a lot of people on low incomes worry about how they'll cope if they or anyone in their family becomes ill.'

‘Oh, Jake…' She lifted her hands to his face and gently cupped his cheeks with her fingers. ‘I should have known that you would do something like that. You were never really the loose-living, laid-back, live-for-the-moment man that you appeared to be, were you? I could see it in the way you looked after the woman who was brought out of the sea, and the diver who nearly died. You cared so much.'

‘At least they're both up and about and living their lives again—perhaps with a bit more care, having experienced such close calls.' He smiled into her eyes. ‘I
want you to know that I'm getting myself back on track. I'd do anything to have you love me and care for me, and want to be with me.'

She made a soft gasp. ‘Did you not know? How could you not know how I feel?' She kissed him tenderly, rewarded when his arms crushed her to him, and his kiss told her everything she needed to know. He wanted her, he needed her…and most of all he craved her love.

‘I couldn't help but love you, Jake,' she said huskily. ‘No matter how carefree and unconcerned you seemed to be, no matter that you didn't want children, or that you wanted me off this property, I still fell for you. I couldn't help myself.'

‘Is that really how you feel?' His gaze meshed with hers, his eyes gleaming with a desire that warmed her through and through. ‘I loved you almost from the first…but there was your ex, who kept getting in the way, and Rob, who hankers after you and winds you round his little finger. I didn't know how to deal with that. I just knew that you were the girl for me.'

He kissed her again, his hands gliding slowly over the softness of her curves, and Lacey could think of nothing but this wonderful moment, of being in his arms and having him love her.

‘I've been having a rethink about children,' he said, at last, reluctantly dragging his mouth from hers. ‘I mean, perhaps they're not so bad after all. And between us we should be able to figure out how to handle them, shouldn't we?'

She sent him a startled look. ‘Children?' she echoed.
She couldn't stop her mouth from smiling. ‘I'm thrilled to bits to hear you say that, but isn't that a huge leap from having me move in with you?'