“I’d like that,” she said as he kissed her.
“I love you, Gemma. I will love you forever.”
“And I love you,” she said, then laughed when he insisted on carrying her to the car.
28
OKAY?” COLIN ASKED Gemma for the thousandth time. It was the morning after Jean’s uncle had been arrested, and Gemma was on the couch in the guesthouse, a quilt over her legs.
All she could do was smile at the way Mr. and Mrs. Frazier and even Shamus were hovering over her. Mrs. Frazier had wanted Gemma put to bed in their best guest suite, but Colin had said their house—his and Gemma’s—was better for her.
“I’m not ill, I’m just pregnant,” Gemma had said.
Those words had made Mrs. Frazier burst into tears—again.
In the end, they’d compromised. Gemma was to spend the next three days in the Frazier house, looked after by Mrs. Frazier, then she’d move into Colin’s house for good.
“You’re sure you’re all right?” Colin asked as he looked down at her with a mixture of pride and wonder.
“Yes,” Gemma said. “Please go and take care of the case. And find out about Tristan. I want to know how he is and what happened to him.”
Roy stepped into the room, her phone in her hand. “I can answer that. Dr. Tris was halfway to the airport when he realized he didn’t have his phone, so he went back to get it. He surprised Jean’s uncle as he was searching Tris’s house.”
Gemma looked at Colin, and he took her hand as he nodded. She was right; Adrian had been looking for the Heartwishes Stone.
“Tris said the man escaped out a window and Tris went after him,” Roy said.
“He should have stayed where he was and called me,” Colin said.
Roy continued. “Tris knows that, but he was afraid the man would go to Mrs. Wingate’s house, so that’s why he chased him. The creep
hid in the bushes and hit Tris with something. We don’t know what it was, but we think it was a golf club. Dr. Tris said he thought the man was aiming at his head but Tris heard him and turned. The blow hit his left arm.”
“How bad is it?” Gemma asked.
“Broken but not too badly. He’ll be in a cast for a few weeks. His parents flew in from Sarasota, and his dad will take over Tris’s practice for a while.”
“What about Jean?” Mrs. Frazier asked. “How is she dealing with all this?”
Gemma couldn’t help holding her breath. Had they found out that it was Jean who committed the robberies in Edilean? Gemma looked up at Colin. She knew that he’d spent the night questioning Jean, but there hadn’t been a chance for him to tell her what he’d found out.
Colin spoke first. “She heard that Tris was going out of town, so she thought maybe her uncle would try to search the house. Seems the man had been spying on Tris for a while. He was hiding in the bushes when Gemma first threw up.”
Colin looked at her, his hand squeezing hers in a renewal of his promises. Never again would she have to keep secrets from him.
He looked back at the others. “When Jean got there, she didn’t see Tristan. By that time, he was unconscious and halfway down a hill and the uncle was back in the house. Jean didn’t know that her uncle had already texted Gemma on Tris’s phone to go there. Jean had a gun and she caught him off guard. She used surgical tape to tie him up.”
Colin paused. “Jean tried to call me, but Tris’s Internet service had been knocked out by the storm. If Gemma had shown up, thinking Tris needed her, the man probably would have made her give him the Stone, then killed her.”
He had to take a few breaths before going on. “But Gemma very wisely didn’t pull into the driveway but came around the side. By that time, Jean had arrived and taped her uncle to a chair. Unfortunately, the man was good at escaping any bondage. If Gemma hadn’t attacked—which she shouldn’t have done, by the way—he would have murdered his niece.”
“All for a Stone that grants wishes,” Mrs. Frazier said in disgust.
Everyone in the room looked at her. Now that her deepest wish had been granted, she could afford to be disdainful.
“Where is the thing, anyway?” Mr. Frazier asked. “I’d like to see it.”
Gemma started to speak, but Colin interrupted her.