To Take Up the Sword Read online

He reacted with fear, lashing out with his feet to kick Mac’s chair out from under him. Mac fell backward, sending his shot wild, hitting Gabe in the upper shoulder. Gabe watched as Mac rolled over and got to his feet, ready to do damage. He heard another click and boom! this time from the doorway. Mac dropped to his knees and over on his face, dead. Lea stood in the open doorway, his pistol in her hands.

  “Drop the gun, Ms. O’Neil.”

  Gabe heard Lea scream as Smythe wrapped his hands around her throat, and then darkness took him.

  * * * *

  “Let me go. You don’t want to do this. Please. Don’t.” Lea fought against the duct tape Smythe had used to bind her to the chair.

  “Careful now. Wouldn’t want rope burns on that lovely neck of yours, would you? If you move the chair one inch either way, it will fall off the beams through the insulation and into the bedroom. The rope around your neck will hang you before anyone could get to you.”

  She cried silently. The rope felt tighter around her throat, but at this point she didn’t care. Her future, her love was dead. “Mac betrayed us. Why?”

  “Why else? Money. The one true loyalty. We go back a few years, and for added insurance, I’m holding his pregnant sister hostage.”

  “You are the worst kind of evil. Where is she?” Lea raised her chin.

  “Ah ah ahh.” Smythe trailed the tip of his knife along the delicate flesh at her neck, nicking her to bring blood.

  Lea cried out with the pain and fear.

  “It’s not a good idea to make me angry. Stay put and I might let you and her live.” Smythe sliced the knife across her forearm, cutting a deep gash in her flesh. Lea screamed. “I’m very good with a knife, Leannan. I can keep this up for hours without killing you. How long can you last? Another minute? An hour perhaps?”

  “Stop. Please. Tell me.”

  “Could you die in peace if I told you? Where are the diamonds?”

  “Gabe has them.”

  “She’s in the bathroom of an abandoned gas station about a mile down the road. It won’t do you any good to know, she’ll be dead in ten minutes.”

  * * * *

  Lea’s screams carried down to Gabe from the attic stairwell to the kitchen where he lay under the table. Mac hadn’t moved since Lea had shot him, another life taken because of a madman. I have to get to Lea.

  He reached behind his back with his good arm, retrieved his pistol from the waistband of his jeans and clicked its clip into place. Taking the stairs two at a time, Gabe reached the attic door in time to see Smythe slice Lea’s thigh, barely missing the main artery in her leg.

  “I have the diamonds, Smythe. Choke on them.” Gabe emptied the clip into the man.

  Smythe grabbed his chest and fell through the insulation to the first floor below.

  Gabe ran to Lea and carefully removed the duct tape that held her arms and legs bound to the chair.

  “He has Mac’s sister. She’s in an abandoned gas station a mile down the road. He said she’d be dead in ten minutes.”

  “Another bomb. Damn. It’s okay. We’ll find her.” Gabe checked the leg wound, which was more serious than the others. It would need stitches.

  “Find her. Serena said Mac’s sister has gone into labor.”

  With that, Lea slumped, unconscious.

  * * * *

  Her eyes fluttered open and took in her surroundings. The walls weren’t the white of a hospital, so she must be in a hotel. Dark blue drapes blocked out the light, making it hard to tell if it was day or night. She groped in the dimness and found a lamp on the bedside table and then the switch. Her leg burned like hellfire where Smythe had almost sliced into the femoral artery. Lea ran her fingers along the line of stitches.

  “You’ll have a nasty scar, but it will give you a story to tell. How do you feel?”

  Gabe sat in a chair beside the bed. His shoulder remained wrapped in a sling to allow the gunshot wound to heal. What had she told him before she blacked out?

  “Like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck. Where am I?”

  “A hotel in Lawrenceburg. We found Mac’s sister. She’s alive, thanks to you.”

  “I’m glad. She and the baby will be okay?”

  “Yes. She’s healthy. The doctors think she’ll be fine.” She heard the coolness in his voice, and wondered what she’d done to upset him.

  “You have to arrest me, right? That’s why you’re acting like this.”

  “No. You acted within your rights.”

  “You’re leaving.” Lea could tell by the tone of his voice the separation was coming. He was already letting her go. “It’s because of what I said. About Serena. I don’t know why it happened, but I keep hearing her voice. Just before we get in trouble.”

  “I have some things that have to be taken care of in Washington. In person. Whatever gifts you possess have nothing to do with it.”

  “I see. There’s no need to explain it to me. To let me down easy. ‘It was a wild ride, but now it’s over, Lea.’ I get it. See you around.”

  Gabe sat beside her on the bed and pulled her into his arms. “It’s not like that at all, Lea.” He kissed her.

  She couldn’t stop the tears that fell. He was saying goodbye.

  “It’s exactly like that. Don’t make it any worse for me, Gabe. Just go.” She couldn’t watch him go, but held her tears until the door clicked, leaving her alone in the room.

  Chapter 9

  Lea glanced at the round metal clock over the blackboard. Only nine. Nine o’clock on her first day back at school since she’d run. She had no house to come back to but Amabel had welcomed her into her home until she could set up elsewhere. She loved this town. It was small, but filled with great people. People who’d back her up, even if it meant their life. For every friend she had here, there was one she missed. One who left an aching hole in her heart. Gabe. She caught herself choking up. He’d be back in Washington, DC by now, probably being assigned to another case. She imagined the woman he was trying to protect would fall for him. Would he seduce her, turn that white-hot heat toward someone else? Pretend to love them and say all the right words? Who wouldn’t fall hard for a man like Gabe? He was all strength, cunning and gilt brilliance. Okay, so she was biased. So what? What did it hurt to love him from afar? It hurt no one but her. The heart is an idiot. She was an idiot.

  One of her students raised a hand to ask for the bathroom pass. She knew Jane would spend the last five minutes of class in the bathroom primping for second period and her crush Derek Simon. Normally, Lea would have asked her to wait, but today she didn’t care. Let Jane’s twelve-year-old heart twitter and primp. She handed Jane the pass.

  “Okay class, for homework, do exercise A on pages twenty-six and twenty-seven in your textbook.” Lea’s announcement elicited the accompanying groans of Saturday plans flying away. Still, she knew her students had missed her, thanks to the small basket of treasures she’d collected off her desk before the bell rang that morning.

  “Ms. O’Neil!” Jane called to her.

  “Yes?”

  “You have a visitor.” The preteen cupped her hand around her mouth in a conspiratorial whisper. Heaven save her from hormones. The new math teacher must need a word with her. He was twenty-two, scholar hot and all the schoolgirls secretly lusted their adolescent hearts out for him

  “He’s cute, too. Looks like a Christmas angel.”

  Her heart gave one quick jerk in her chest. “Thank you.” Lea looked up and was lost all over again. Damn him.

  “Hello, Leannan.” God, the things his voice could do to her. The flavor of her name on his lips always seemed to conjure visions of heated kisses in the dark.

  “Gabe.” A thousand questions ran through her mind. “What are you doing here?” Lea heard a couple of the girls sigh, reminding her where she was.

  “I need to talk to you in private. Ms. Potter said you might have a minute between classes?”

  The bell rang, and her students began fighting to get out of the cl
assroom.

  “Have a nice weekend, everyone! Jaden, stop pushing Susan.” When the last student was gone, she turned back to him.

  “I had to see you.”

  “Why? I thought you were going back to DC. It’s been two weeks since I heard from you. You left me.”

  “I needed to get some things in order. I didn’t expect this to happen any more than you did, but you changed me.”

  “What things?”

  “Mac’s death. I had to put my apartment up for sale, turn in my resignation.”

  “I don’t understand. You quit the FBI? Can you do that? Why would you do that?” Tears slid down her cheeks as he slid his arms around her and pulled her close. Lea welcomed the heat of him, but was still mindful of their surroundings.

  “I love you, Leannan O’Neil. I’m crazy in love with you.”

  “I love you too, so very much. I missed you.”

  “I missed us. Marry me, Leannan. Make a life with me. I don’t care where. Just say yes. You’re my heart.”

  She leaned in, kissed him and let go of her doubts. “Yes. To everything.” A chorus of hoots, shouts and laughter from her students rang up from the hall outside.

  Lea laughed, happy and at peace.

  Brynna Curry

  When I started writing Earth Enchanted I knew I would never be satisfied with telling just one of the Corrigan’s stories. Originally there were three. One for each sibling. Then my crit partners compelled me to give Gabe his own tale. In the first draft of Earth Enchanted Gabriel Spiller died in the fight with Gueraldi and saved Liv, but it just didn’t sit well with me. I wanted him to find happiness and closure just as Jack did. To Take Up the Sword was born. Devin McLoch has also become a fan favorite and I just can’t resist the challenge of changing his wicked ways. Look for his story in Fire’s Ice. The Elemental Magic Series begins with Liv’s story and continues with Ryan, Skye, and yes even Devin’s fall into love. I hope you enjoy your journey with the Corrigan family.

  Be blessed.

  Brynna

  Also by Brynna Curry

  Elemental Magic Series

  Earth Enchanted

  To Take Up the Sword

  Wait For the Wind

  Sea’s Sorceress

  Fire’s Ice

  Triple Star Ranch Series

  Claiming Ana

  Lyrical Press books are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2010 Brynna Curry

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Lyrical Press and the L logo are trademarks of Kensington Publishing Corp.

  First Electronic Edition: September 2010

  ISBN-13: 978-1-61650-190-7