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While he comforted Rita, Jared watched Drake drop down beside the other woman, who was in decidedly worse shape. Very gently, he checked her over. When he touched her, the woman jerked and whined. “You’re okay,” the detective murmured. “Are you Gretchen Hawkins?” The woman nodded slowly, and Jared imagined that she was in an incredible amount of pain. “Your parents have been looking for you,” Drake told her. “They’re going to be so happy to see you.”
At that, Greta dropped her head and started crying. The sound was broken and hoarse, and it reminded Jared exactly what could have—wouldhave—happened to Rita if they hadn’t have found her so quickly. “Why don’t we get these two upstairs?” Jared suggested and helped Rita to stand.
The men carefully guided the two women and the dog upstairs, leaving Tucker alone down below. He was staring at nothing—it was like he had just shut down. Jared and Drake led the women to the couch, and Drake went in search of drinking water. Coming back with several bottles, he opened two and handed them to the women, who drank greedily. Jared hugged Rita and did his best to fend off the advances of a worried Casey as the dog pushed impatiently against him to get closer to her. Rita stuck a hand out from under the blanket, smiling slightly when Casey licked it.
Thirty minutes later, the Coast Guard found them. The officers went downstairs and grabbed Tucker, who didn’t fight at all as they took him into custody. The medic that was onboard the Coast Guard’s ship came for Greta Hawkins. “We need to look Ms. Tucker over too,” the medic said to Jared.
Rita shook her head and buried her face into Jared’s side. “Please, no,” she mumbled.
“Sir, I have to insist—”
Jared fixed the young medic with a stare that dried up his words. Then he looked down at Rita. “They really should look at you,” he said, but Rita shook her head again.
“I don’t want anyone to touch me,” she said. Her words made his stomach dip sickeningly.
“Okay,” he assured her. “You’re not bleeding anywhere that I can’t see, though, right? He didn’t kick you in the stomach or back?”
She looked at him. “Just my face,” she said. Her beautiful face was swelling now, and there was a line of bruises around her throat from the choke collar. She had to be in pain, but he bit his lip against ordering her to go with the medic. After what she’d gone through, pulling some alpha male macho stuff on her now would be the cruelest thing he could do. “Do I look that bad?” she asked.
Jared let out a wet chuckle and pressed a gentle kiss to her hair. “You look absolutely beautiful, Rita,” he assured her.
Her expression said she didn’t believe him. “Can we go home?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
“The defendant, John Tucker, has been found guilty on all counts,” the judge read. For a split second the courtroom was silent, but then it exploded into cheers. Rita sat beside Jared, their hands entwined, and took a deep breath. The weight that had been on her chest since the moment she and Greta went into the police station in San Diego to give their statements finally disappeared.
“He’s going to prison,” she murmured, and Jared squeezed her hand.
“He’s going away for a long time,” he whispered back. “You did it, baby.”
Greta Hawkins had signed an affidavit and recorded a video statement that was used as evidence in court, but she chose not to go through the whole ordeal in person, on the advice of her psychiatrist. The ten days that she spent on Tuck’s yacht had left permanent damage in more ways than one. In addition to the mental scars, the woman had suffered multiple dislocated bones and cracked ribs; she had several fingers and toes broken; and the number of deep cuts and welts to her body would serve as a constant reminder any time she touched or looked at them. Rita didn’t begrudge her wanting to move forward.
But Rita couldn’t sit by and “let the system work,” as her lawyer had suggested. Instead, with Jared’s unwavering support, she’d gone and testified about what she’d been subjected to during her time on the yachtandthroughout her ten-year marriage to Tuck. Her family, who had been so angry that she’d just disappeared, came out in force to support her. She’d sobbed when she got to hug her mom and sister again for the first time in two years.
Court was adjourned, but they hung around long enough to watch Tuck being led away. Throughout this whole trial, he stayed just as blank as the day Jared came to the rescue. Rita had learned about the death of her mother-in-law and believed he had suffered some kind of psychotic break, but even if there was a medical explanation for his behavior, that still didn’t excuse it. She wasn’t at all sad that he would be going to prison for a long time. It would make her sleep easier at night. “Ready to go?” Jared asked.
She nodded, and they exited the courtroom together, hand-in-hand. “Are you sure about leaving?” Rita asked as they stepped into the San Diego sunshine.
“Me?” Jared scoffed. “I’m used to hightailing it to places unknown. What about you?”
Rita smiled. “I’m ready for an adventure that isn’t fueled by fear.” Jared’s smile dimmed a little, and Rita leaned up and kissed him. “Brian said we were welcome back anytime, and Keanie and Chad are going to join us for a few days while we’re in New Orleans. I’m excited for this; I’m ready.”
Jared nodded, and they headed back to the house to finish up preparations on the RV that they’d bought. Casey was excited to see them. “Take her out,” Jared said. “I’ll get the last of the bags loaded, and we can get this show on the road.” Rita nodded, and Jared kissed her on the nose. “Quick as a flash, Mrs. Michaels.”
Rita grinned. “I can’t wait, Mr. Michaels.”
They’d been married two months after her abduction, not long after the courts sped through her divorce from Tuck. The ceremony had been small, just them and Keanie and Chad as their witnesses. Jared had offered to wait so that she could do the big family thing—they were already planning their road trip across country, and her parents’ house was on their list of stops—but Rita couldn’t wait to be Jared’s wife. She didn’t need the white dress and big party. She’d had that already, and as close to a dream wedding as that had been, the marriage that had followed had been a nightmare. She wasn’t pinning her future happiness on a “perfect” wedding day.
An hour later, Rita walked Casey to the RV and got her settled before she climbed into the passenger seat. She watched through the window as Jared locked the door for the final time. They weren’t selling the house just yet, but Rita had a feeling that they wouldn’t be coming back here for a while, if ever. Neither of them personally disliked San Diego, but it was time to move on and have new adventures. They were leaving the keys with Keanie for the time being; they told her that she and Chad could live there or let it sit or turn it into an Airbnb. Keanie had promised to do something “appropriate for the space.” Neither she nor Jared knew what that meant, but they figured that it didn’t really matter.
Jared crossed the driveway and opened the driver’s side door to climb into the rig. He settled into “the cockpit” as the RV salesman had called it again and again. “Ready to go?”
She smiled and reached across the way to take his hand. “Absolutely.”
